After hours clinic duty

~~~He suddenly felt extremely exhausted they had after all been up all night, and with all the pain, sleep seemed nice. He looked down at Chase who had seemed to have already passed out, before laying his head on top of the blonde one on his shoulder and drifting off.~~~

"House....House...." He heard blearily, somewhere far away. He was warm and comfortable, a hazy heaviness filling his body. But the voice came again and again and as much as he tried to ignore it, the pain was coming back quickly chasing his sleep away. He slowly opened one eye and saw a hazy face coming into focus. "House," it repeated, "You have to wake up."

Blinking both his eyes open, he winced at the onslaught of pain, then chuckled and addressed the person before him. "Have I died and gone to heaven? There is no way I can find that much cleavage on earth."

Cuddy looked shocked that he had finally woken up and then smiled at his comments. "Thank God, I was worried you wouldn't wake up and that you would get some kind of brain damage that would actually turn you nice. But I would watch it with the comments, our cell phones handily come with cameras nowadays." She smirked.

'Huh?' House thought bewildered, then looked down at the heavy warmth on his chest. 'Oh.'

"I haven't been awake five minutes and you are already blackmailing little old cripple me. What has the world come to?"

Cuddy shook her head and continued talking, "stretchers are on their way, and so is Wilson- the rest of your team don't know yet but I'm sure you'll enjoy telling them all about your angry or I'm assuming that's what this was about patients. House's eyes darkened slightly at these words, and she wondered what else had happened. House would have shrugged off just the gunshots and almost any other pain, she would have to find out. Before she had to much time to continue this train of thought she heard House's voice.

"Yeah, I'm sure Cameron will want to kiss away the pain and Foreman will probably ask if either of them were part of his family." The woman in front of him sighed disapprovingly. Good; annoying Cuddy was fun and he really needed a distraction from the throbbing pain in both his knees and his shoulders. As he became more awake he noted that someone had cut his hands loose, and he successfully managed to wriggle his hand out from behind his back. Though this meant it had no where else to go but around Chase's shoulders.

House looked down and decided the Australian looked even more innocent in sleep then he did when he was awake. "Has he woken up yet?"

"For about a minute or so but then he fell back to sleep, looks like you've both had a long night. But you did look so cute asleep on each other." She grinned at House's scowl.

"Yea well I always look cute so nothing new there." House carefully shook Chase slightly, "Chase, wakey wakey!" He called annoyingly right into the blonde's ear. Chase blinked a few times then opened his eyes. "Good morning sleeping beauty!" House said cheerfully. "Our hotter fairy godmother has arrived; shes going to magically fix us all up."

Chase stretched his arms and then shook the hair out of his eyes. "Oh" was all he responded before the hospital staff came in with stretchers and wheeled them off to a different part of the hospital...

...House was bored already. He had been taken to the ER, where his bullet wound was checked and stitched up, and now he was in the ICU and bored as hell. He idly wondered when the rest of his fellows would figure out what had occurred and come rushing down demanding explanations. House wasn't quite sure he felt like dealing with them right now. Cameron tended to get overemotional whenever he was dying; what a bother.

The door swung open and he looked up to see Cuddy walk in. "You need to tell me everything that happened." She demanded as soon as she got through the door. "I have to know everything relevant. This isn't one of your joking matters."

House looked up at her and smirked, "what no 'hello, how are you? Glad your alive!'?"

"House I'm being serious."

"What's to tell?" He said calmly but wouldn't meet her eyes. "I told some people the truth in the clinic, and they didn't like it; so they came waved a gun around shot at us and then left" He finished in a dry voice.

"Really?" Cuddy asked sternly.

"Really really." House answered her.

"So then explain to me the bite marks on Chase's lips and neck, and the fingernails down his back and oh I don't know the fact he wasn't wearing a shirt."

"We were having really hot gay sex right before the two men came in, duh" He smiled at Cuddy who seemed unamused.

"House," She said threateningly, "tell me what happened or I'll go get Cameron to come wheedle it out of you right now."

"You wouldn't," House gasped feigning shock, Cuddy rolled her eyes at him. "Fine fine, you are my boss," he conceded, "better not make you look stupid in front of the police."

"Thank you," Cuddy replied and sat down at the edge of his bed.

"So they came in after hours; I left my GameBoy under a chair at the clinic... had to go get it. Then they start waving the gun around and genius Chase has to come looking for me. He doesn't manage to get away fast enough and gets pulled into the mess. They decide he's much more fun to toy with then I am, or that toying with him will get to me, or something. I don't know, I'm not an insane psyco." Cuddy nodded motioning for him to continue. "Anyway, one guy held the gun and the other guy decides he liked Chase, rips his shirt off starts making out, some... more.. making out happens. The other guy shoots me, then the first guy starts choking Chase."

At that Cuddy gave him a bewildered stare, "Choking?" she asked, "there were no restraining marks or bruises on his neck, nothing to suggest damage to his throat or larynx."

House looked at her for a moment then answered, "wasn't choking him with hands."

"Then what.. oh," Cuddy gasped and her hands flew to her mouth.

"Yea, oh" House answered monotonously, "and eventually I brilliantly come up with and execute my escape plan, they beat us to a bloody pulp, shoot some more, and run away. The End." Cuddy still looked horrified, but House wasn't done yet. "Now I told you because you needed to know, but under no circumstances do you repeat this to anyone else."

Cuddy nodded dazedly, She got up and then on impulse kissed House's cheek, "I'm sorry this happened. It won't again..." With that she turned to walk away but not before House called after her.

"Your damn right it won't, because I am never doing clinic duty again ever and you can't make me!"

She stopped at the doorway, shook her head and smiled back sweetly, "We'll talk about it later." House stuck his tongue out at her retreating form and went back to twiddling his thumbs. Slowly he felt himself drifting off again, when he woke up he saw a blonde head asleep in the bed across from his.

As he looked at his fellow covered with white bandages and black bruises, he wondered how their relationship would play out from now on. Things could not possibly be the same, and as much has House loved to ignore everything that made him uncomfortable there were somethings even to big for him to wish away. Chase moaned slightly in his sleep and tossed and turned rapidly, kicking and punching out at invisible attackers. House sighed, and gingerly got out of his bed and padded across the room. He gently laid a hand on Chase's side and the man relaxed a little comforted by the non threatening touch. Chase if possible looked even smaller in the hospital bed, House decided. Just as House started to debate whether or not to go back to his own bed, a blue-green eye cracked open. Chase yawned and opened both his eyes, looking up at House

"Hey," He muttered, "We got out."

"Yep," House said, "I told you we would, good thing you know I'm always right..."

Chase smiled sleepily up at House, "of course you are," he answered.

House shook his head a few times to make sure it was still attached properly. Why in the world was he thinking Chase was cute? where did that thought even come from. Then his eyes fell on Chase, with his hair all rumpled and out of place, barely awake, and smiling and remembered. Maybe he should ask Cuddy to check his brain after all, one could never be to careful when it came to brain problems.

He turned to walk back to his own bed but before he did a hand reached out and caught his wrist. "Yes...?" He said expectantly.

"Thanks for getting us out of there..." Chase replied, "I would probably have just lost my head... so thanks."

"Welcome..." House shrugged, somewhat uncomfortable and headed back for his own bed, where he started to busily work on something.

Chase sighed, wondering what exactly House was up to now, suddenly a paper airplane hit his head, and House was looking away whistling.

Chase picked it up and opened it, inside House had written, "I'm bored entertain me." Chase laughed slightly and thought, this was going to be one interestring recovery time.