Tales Told Part 6
Title: Tales Told Out of Turn Part 6/?
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing/Grouping: House/Wilson/Chase
Disclaimer: Don't own them, as we all know.
Crossover w/Stargate: Atlantis (you don't need to know much about Stargate to get this fic.)
Summary: House spent way too much time moving around the world as a child and some places had more interesting people than others. How much trouble can a childhood friend cause?
Warnings: Hurt!Chase makes an appearance, although the harm is done prior to this fic. Mentions are made, but no graphic discriptitions. (And I fix him, so it's really about the healing not the hurt.)
Beta:
saara_zaara
(Part 5)
****
Wilson looked up from checking Chase’s hand for any injuries from having punched the NID man as the door to Diagnostics opened. An Air Force officer stepped inside and closed the door.
"Excuse me, but I’m looking for a Dr. House."
"Oh, uh, he’s with a patient." Wilson stopped and blinked. "Okay, that was just weird to say." Wilson refocused on the officer whose eyebrows were climbing his forehead. "Sorry, um, who are you?"
The officer half-smiled. "I’m General Jack O’Neill. I spoke to Dr. House earlier about my men that were admitted to his care."
Wilson came around the corner of the table. "Could I see your ID, please?"
"Sure."
Wilson looked over the ID that O’Neill handed him as the other man looked over Chase from his position by the door.
"Your hand okay, Doc?"
Chase cocked his head. "It’s fine."
O’Neill smiled. "I wish I could have seen you deck the guy. Don’t much like the NID, myself."
Wilson handed the ID back. "I’ll page House, if you’d like to take a seat."
"I can stand."
Chase shook his head. "House might take a while, you might as well sit."
O’Neill nodded and sank into a seat across the table from Chase with a slight grimace. "You have a specialty?"
Chase watched Wilson in House’s office as he sent the page. "I’m an intensevist. That’s…"
"I know what that is." O’Neill interrupted. "Just don’t let anyone I work with hear I actually know something." O’Neill winked.
Chase frowned. "Okay. Why shouldn’t they know?"
"I like to keep people guessing. By the way, you might want to change the fake room number to something other than the morgue. Even the thugs at the NID won’t go for ICU being underground."
Chase nodded. "House thought that would probably annoy them." Chase pointed at O’Neill’s knees. "You have trouble with your knees?"
O’Neill leaned back in his chair. "Some. I’ve been hard on them over the years."
"How much pain do they give you?"
O’Neill shrugged. "Depends."
Chase nodded. "Do they cause anything else to hurt more?"
"Huh. You know only one other doctor has ever asked me that type of question. She actually paid attention to the fact that things are interconnected." O’Neill cocked his head. "My back can get pretty bad."
"You take anything for the pain, then?"
O’Neill’s eyebrows rose. "Not much. Mostly over the counter stuff. I don’t like the side-effects of most things that get prescribed."
"That’s understandable."
Wilson came back from House’s office. "He said to ask you what he asked you about during your phone call."
O’Neill smirked. "The merits of calling my office something he better not have repeated to you."
Wilson cocked his head. "Yes…Why exactly shouldn’t he repeat it?"
O’Neill stood up. "Actually I don’t care, but national security and all that crap."
Chase rose as Wilson motioned to him to stand. "He heard something he shouldn’t have?"
O’Neill shrugged. "Depends on who you ask. I say not enough people would believe it to matter, but you know how bigwigs can get about these things."
Chase and Wilson exchanged glances.
"Ah, not really." Wilson led the way down the hall. "How much do you know about House and Rodney?"
O’Neill blinked. "What about them?"
Chase stuck his hands in his pockets. "You know about models of bombs, then?"
"I know about one Rodney made in grade school." O’Neill stopped in his tracks. "Oh." O’Neill smiled. "Sweet."
Wilson looked at Chase who shrugged before turning to O’Neill. "What’s sweet, General?"
"Call me Jack." O’Neill smiled brightly as they continued on down the hallway. "Models, as in more than one, as in two, right?"
Chase’s eyebrows drew in. "Yes."
"Yeah, that’s what I thought you meant." O’Neill smirked as he nodded. "McKay is dangerous. House has quite the reputation as well, I hear. Put them together, even as children, …especially as children, and I can just imagine the carnage."
****
House sat watching Rodney doze as he listened to Sheppard’s breathing. He turned his head to look at Sheppard as the man’s breathing hitched. John blinked a few times before starting to carefully reach for the paper cup on his bedside table.
House quietly moved to sit beside Sheppard and handed him the cup.
Sheppard gave a wan smile. "Thanks."
House nodded and watched him sip water. "How much did you hear?"
Sheppard handed the cup back and snorted softly. "All of it. I didn’t know he cared like that. For all his babble he doesn’t talk about certain things, you know?"
"I know." House turned in his seat enough to watch Rodney with one eye. "He goes on missions with you?"
Sheppard frowned. "I can’t talk about that."
House nodded. "I’m not asking for details, just want to know how close he’ll let you get to sleep."
Sheppard blinked. "We usually sleep back to back, why?"
House’s eyebrows shoot up. "Touching, really? Huh."
Sheppard cocked his head. "Why are you curious about this?"
House fidgeted with his cane. "He’s loud, not touchy-feely. The first time I patted him on the shoulder he about jumped out of his skin. Letting you into his personal space without too much bitching means a lot for him."
Sheppard gazed at Rodney. "He’s gotten quieter. It’s good on missions, but it worries me too."
House nodded. "Has he refused food at all?"
"He started to once, but I sort of guilted him into eating."
"Hmm." House turned his head towards the door. "As long as you can get him to eat, you’re good." House turned back towards Sheppard. "Hurt him and I’ll dismember you."
"Fair enough." Sheppard blinked. "What makes you think anything will happen?"
House smiled as he stood up. "Oh, please, you let him have an inch and he’ll take the whole planet. It’ll happen as soon as he gets his head around the idea." House turned towards the door. "Sounds like higher ups have decided to grace us." House turned his head towards Rodney. "Hey, lazy ass! Wake up!"
Rodney jerked upright, blinked and breathed heavily for a moment before glaring at House. "Asshole."
The door to the room slid open to admit Wilson, Chase, and O’Neill.
Wilson motioned at House. "General O’Neill, this is Dr. House."
O’Neill stuck out his hand to shake. "Call me Jack."
House looked at the extended hand for a moment before Rodney’s voice was heard.
"He’s a good guy, House, play nice."
House turned his head and stuck out his tongue at Rodney before turning back, shifting the cane to his other hand, and shaking hands with O’Neill.
"Care to tell me if one of my fellows is going to get attacked again?"
O’Neill raised his chin slightly. "I wouldn’t know, Dr. House, but I would expect the NID to be stupid enough to try again."
House shifted his cane back to the proper hand. "Uh huh. Might as well call me House." Quick as lighting he turned and glared at Rodney, who had just started to grin. "Shut up."
Rodney smiled and raised his hands, palms out. "I didn’t say a word."
"You were going to."
Rodney smirked. "Well, yeah. Mostly how much you two are alike when it comes to your people, but, hey, I’m not saying a thing." Rodney crossed his arms and smiled at them.
House rolled his eyes. "Whatever." House moved towards the door. "Chase is going to stay. Wilson and I need to check on Foreman, one of my other fellows. He’s the one that got drugged because your men have big targets painted on their backs."
Chase and Wilson exchanged a look before the door slid shut.
O’Neill chuckled as he sat down beside Sheppard. "He’s almost as blunt as McKay."
Sheppard smiled. "They’re quite the pair."
Chase moved slowly to sit beside Rodney. O’Neill watched out of the corner of his eye as he kept most of his attention on Sheppard.
"He gave my secretary hell on the phone."
"Yeah, what idiot told him to answer the phone with the actual name of the office?"
O’Neill shrugged as he turned more towards Rodney. "Wasn’t his fault. He’d just gotten off the phone from dealing with one of our allies."
"Oh." Rodney blinked. "Which one?"
O’Neill cocked his head. "I thought Sheppard got drugged, not you."
Rodney frowned. "Oh, please, like we won’t be calling House or his people at some point for help. And considering who runs the NID we should be happy they don’t know already."
O’Neill sighed. "Could we please try to keep them out of it unless we have to tell them, okay, McKay?"
"Fine." Rodney glanced around the room. "Why did you come? Why not send someone else?"
O’Neill cocked his eyebrow. "Contrary to popular belief I kind of like you, McKay. I don’t like it when two of my people get hurt about 600 miles from where they said they were going to be." O’Neill smiled. "I don’t suppose I need to get you two a gift, do I?"
Rodney’s eyes went wide. "Wha…"
Sheppard coughed. "Sir, that wasn’t nice."
"I’ve told you before, call me Jack. And, of course it wasn’t nice. I didn’t get invited to the wedding…union, whatever they’re calling it nowadays."
Rodney’s eyes got wider. Sheppard curled forward as he tried to laugh and groan at the same time.
Chase looked back and forth between the three men. "You’re kidding, right?"
Jack shifted his chair to lean back on two legs. "Nope. I’m highly pissed one of my best officers went on leave and didn’t give his boss or me a change of itinerary before he goes gallivanting across country with one of my best scientists."
Sheppard abruptly stopped laughing. "Sir?"
O’Neill sighed. "Jack, get it right." O’Neill waved his hand at Rodney. "Between him and Carter universal laws ask ‘how high’ when told to jump." O’Neill turned to Sheppard. "And as for you, I let you fly me somewhere I could easily have flown myself. Think about it."
The very corners of Sheppard’s mouth curled upwards. "Thank you, si…Jack."
O’Neill smiled. "Better." O’Neill turned back to the still gapping Rodney. "Want to tell me what you two were really up to?"
Rodney snapped his mouth closed. "No."
O’Neill narrowed his eyes. "I wasn’t asking, McKay."
"Oh. Uhm, well, I sort of wanted to visit someone I haven’t talked to since I walked out of his town years ago."
O’Neill cocked his head. "You’ve scrubbed your own file at some point, haven’t you? I didn’t find anything about House that connected him to you prior to hearing about a couple of model bombs."
Rodney plucked at the blanket under his fingers. "I was having trouble with a company that is partly NID funded. They couldn’t get it through their heads that I wasn’t going to sit in their little community and play with their stupid little toys."
"Too controlling?"
Rodney shrugged. "Sort of. There were people in charge that I couldn’t stand."
"Uh huh."
Rodney frowned and waved at Sheppard. "How much trouble have I gotten him into?"
"Well, considering he is an adult, but he’s dealing with you… I’d say…none."
"Oh. That’s…good." Rodney frowned. "Okay, how bad is it?"
"How bad is what?"
"Whatever is ending the world this time. How bad, do we need to help?" Rodney started to move to the edge of the bed.
"No, no. McKay. Rodney, settle down. Nothing’s falling apart, I promise."
Rodney flopped back against his pillows. "Then why aren’t you more upset." Rodney blinked and then grinned. "We got you out of a budget meeting, didn’t we?"
O’Neill beamed. "Three of them actually. I had to inform a few people of a special mission I had sent you two on. Which you’d better think up before someone decides to ask me for details."
Rodney snorted. "I can’t believe you bluffed."
"It was either that or admit I’d lost track of two of my people. Which, by the way, you scared one of our oldest allies, you know."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, for some reason I’m told that even my little buddy cares about what you manage to do to yourself."
Rodney’s eyes grew large again. "Oh, wow. I didn’t think he liked me at all."
Chase frowned. "How do you know who you are talking about?" Chase gestured at the door. "I could wait outside."
O’Neill shook his head. "Nah, Doc, you don’t have to go anywhere. There’s only one…person I call ‘little buddy’ so Rodney knows who I mean."
"Oh."
Rodney snapped his fingers. "Oh, I just thought of something." Rodney absentmindedly waved a hand around. "Chase, out of the room, please. Now."
Chase stepped out of the room and slid the door closed with a click.
O’Neill turned from watching Chase leave to face Rodney. "Are you possessed? Do I need to feel your neck?"
"What? No. I’m fine."
"Uh huh. You were just polite, McKay. That’s the fourth sign of the end of life as we know it."
"Oh, ha ha. Do you think Thor could take a look at House’s leg?"
O’Neill’s eyebrows rose sharply. "That’s your thought? Did you hit your head? I had to explain why he couldn’t speak to you two about Atlantis which meant explaining why you’d crash a car voluntarily."
"It could be part of our ‘special mission’ if makes a difference."
"Okay, explain."
Rodney straightened up and waved his hands around as he spoke, "Okay, this is how I see it. House is one of the best doctors on the planet. He’s blunt and can be an ass, but he’s a genius. We need someone out in the general population that knows the truth, General. Think about it, most things we go up against would take out nearly everyone that knows anything in the first wave if it came down to it. That kind of fucks us over. If we had people like House as back up, the world stands a slightly better chance."
O’Neill sighed. "No one is going to accept that reasoning, sorry."
Rodney made a rude noise. "He got misdiagnosed. He shouldn’t have lost the leg muscle. We could help."
O’Neill stood up and paced by the window. "I’d like to help, but…"
"He’s like you are to Daniel." O’Neill spun around to stare at Rodney as he continued talking, "House taught me what fun was. Just like you’ve pushed Dr. Jackson to have fun." Rodney took a deep breath. "I’m asking for you to think about it, that’s all."
"Okay, I’ll…" O’Neill disappeared in a bright flash of light.
"Well, shit." Sheppard looked towards the door. "That bled around the blinds."
Rodney rubbed his temple. "I’ve no idea how to explain it."
Chase slipped into the room and closed the door slightly harder than before. He turned to face the room. "You might have mentioned you talk to the Ancestors."
"What?"
Chase plopped to sit beside Rodney. "They use names from Norse myths. Most of the Aborigines ignore the names in favor of just calling them Ancestors. I met an annoying one once. If you’re friends with Loki I’m going to leave, quickly."
Rodney tilted his head to one side. "Ah, no?"
Chase smiled. "That’s good. Next time warn me before the light show. I could have cleared the hallway."
Sheppard looked torn between amusement at Rodney and dismay towards Chase. "How bad was it?"
Chase shrugged. "Not that bad. A nurse paged House though."
"Oh. Shit."
Chase nodded. "Oh, you could put it that way."
****
(Part 7)