"Help Me" a Hilson fic

part 1

House takes one of Hanna's arms, the fire chief takes the other. He's desperate to try to save her, desperate like he's never been before. This isn't all about the patient of course, he's trying to prove something. To himself, to Cuddy, and especially to Wilson. He doesn't know what he's trying to prove, but against all logic he convinced this poor girl not to let them amputate her leg to prove it. As he feels the floor rumble beneath them, he reminds himself that it was a stupid idea to try to convince her to keep her leg. He's a miserable bastard even with both of his legs. Realistically, Hanna's best outcome would be ending up like him. He wouldn't wish that on anybody.

Instead of trying to change, which he's convinced people can't do, he finds himself trapped under a building, trying to free a young woman named Hanna. Her leg is trapped under a beam, and Cuddy begged her to amputate it. He just had to negate it.

Her screams are practically drowned out by the inflating of the bags. His nails scrape across her skin as he fights with the support beam. Captain McCreary is practically tearing her arm off. House digs his fingers into her, putting his other arm under her abdomen to try to dig her out. Dust falls into his eyes, and a horrible cracking sound reverberates through the tiny space they've squeezed themselves into. Hanna's screams get louder as the pressure is relieved, her leg hurts. It's a good sign as far as House is concerned. They begin to move her. His field of vision is clouded, his words are practically dust. Through the dust her dark eyes stare at him, looking for a reason to hope. For once, House gives her what he hopes is a comforting look. He scatters backwards and moves his arms to her pelvic area to help lift her. The building rumbles above him and he turns to look at it.

"HOUSE!" Cuddy's voice breaks from outside the small cavern. Everybody can hear the impending doom.

The sound of breaking is an incredible and equally horrifying thing. There's no stealth attack, it's brutally honest. You're about to have hellfire rained on top of you. House knows this. He also knows that he can do nothing to get any of them out in time. He tries to twist his body to see Hanna. She doesn't know what's happening. It's been 16 seconds since he heard the first crack, which means they have ten seconds at the most.

"HANNA COVER YOUR FACE!" His voice is filled with more emotion than the patient has ever heard from him. Fear.

House is scared.

He barely has time to cover his own face before the breath is knocked out of him. He gasps and bites into the leather of his motorcycle jacket. The bitterness mixes with the dust, but he doesn't scream like he should. He can't, he realizes with horror. There's something crushing his chest. His mind races with possibilities of how he can get himself out. He can't hear Hanna or McCreary, he wonders if either of them were only minorly crushed.

"Fuck." He rasps. Blinding hot pain consumes him with another rumble. He desperately rips his mouth away from the leather sleeve. He can't help but try to diagnose himself as a cold, fuzzy darkness overtakes his mind.

He can't think, he can hardly breathe. His mind is racing, but it isn't with a productive thought. All he can think about is a call he declined 15 minutes ago, a call he wishes more than anything he would have taken. Wilson's obnoxious face and name burns itself into his mind, and even now he can practically hear his ringtone. He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to clear his mind, only to receive a terrible pain in the back of his skull, and for all sounds to be replaced by a terrible buzzing noise.

The last thing he hears is another loud crack.

Cuddy screams as she watches rubble give a heave, then crumble on top of House, McCreary, and their patient. She could physically see the collapse, sending fear needling its way into her heart. She tries desperately to peer into what had previously been a cavern
with a light, met instead by an expanse of gray. Tears prick at her eyes as she stumbles backwards. The collapse likely killed them. She's seen what happens when a damn building falls onto you, turning your insides into their own ground beef from trauma, burying you and all your hope beneath an impossibly deep mountain of rubble.