House MD Fanfiction

Stairwell

Hilson, smut, 4,264 words
By: l57371

House started and looked up sharply as the lights in his office flickered once, twice, and then went dark once and for all. He glared at his blank computer screen which was no longer showing the case he had been writing up.

Fuck.

He got slowly out of his chair and limped toward the hallway door, looking left and right down the corridors awash in the yellow tinge of the emergency lights. Deserted at this hour, of course. An alarm bell sounded shrilly from the direction of the elevators.

Carefully House hobbled down to the end of the hall, pulling up short when he reached the elevator doors. The lights on the call buttons and the floor indicators flashed ominously while a horrible grinding noise emanated from below. Suddenly a clang, clang, CRASH sounded and House started to smell smoke.

Oh, shit, he thought faintly as he stepped back. Not good. Now what?

He made his way back toward his office, stopping first at Wilson's door. He opened it and poked his head in, quickly taking in the empty office. He closed the door and moved on to the glass-walled conference room, but it was empty as well, the fellows having already left for the day. He pushed through the doors and back into this office just as his pager buzzed and danced across his desk. He grabbed for it and read the message, angling the little screen toward the hall to catch the dim light there.

Where R U-JW, he read. Office, he tapped out and sent back. Stay, B right there, Wilson sent back almost immediately.

''Where exactly does he think I'm going to go? Rappelling down the building off of balcony?'' House growled. He sat back down behind his desk and looked around, feeling useless and somewhat helpless, and hating it. The elevators were his only practical escape route from this floor and all evidence pointed to those not being any use any time soon. The only other option was the stairs. And he was on the fourth floor. Suddenly rappelling down the side of the building was looking like an attractive option. He snorted softly to himself.

The bang of the stairwell doors roused him from his reverie and he looked up expectantly. Right on cue the tall, lean figure of his best friend Wilson jogged into view, pushing quickly through the glass door and striding into the room. House's breath hitched briefly at the sight and an unexpected wave of attraction washed over him.Dammit, not now! House yelled at his brain. He filed the image of his best friend, flushed and out of breath from the run up the stairs, hair disheveled, cheeks red, panting slightly, tie askew, away for later use. Later. Like when he was alone and undisturbed. Later, damn it all!

''Hey, you okay?'' Wilson asked, running one hand through his hair and placing the other on his hips.

''Yeah, fine. What's going on?'' House waved him off and leaned back in his chair, attempting nonchalance while surreptitiously sliding it a little further under the desk as he did.

''I'm not sure. All I know is that the elevators in this wing are completely out of order and the power is out on all the floors. Apparently a transformer blew and it overloaded something in the elevator machinery which then...'' here Wilson waved his hands around his head, ''...blew up.''

''I smelled the smoke while I was over there.''

''Yeah. So. Cuddy said that the repair guys are coming to get the people out of the elevator but she doesn't think they're going to be working again any time soon.''

''Oh, great.'' House glanced down and tapped his cane absently against his chair. ''So, any contingency plan for the cripple?'' He flicked his eyes up to Wilson's face briefly and then back down to the desk.