Stairway to Heaven (Open)

[Dr. Gregory House]

Giving Cuddy a look of sympathetic support, House made his way from the elevator into the ER. He slapped his cane on the reception desk, startling a nurse manning it. She shot him an icy look. House ignored it.

"What did dispatch say about the car accident coming in?" House ordered.

With a glare, the nurse looked over her computer notes. She had been operating the calls of emergency incoming from the dispatch officer on duty. "Cherry Hill Road," she reported, "male, three one, alert on arrival, severe injuries, head involvement. Female, two nine, altered at the scene, superficial injuries, head involvement. Paramedics reported vitals stable and ready for transport. ETA ten minutes."

"That's all you know?" House rounded on the hapless, yet glaring nurse.

"Doctor House," the nurse said icily back, "Doctor Fraser called dispatch and ordered an ambulance at three seventeen this afternoon. She reported that she and her friend had been in an accident, striking a tree. My contact in the Fire Department told me they had to use the Jaws of Life to pry the two out of the car. The male does not appear that he'll survive his injuries, but miraculously at the last report from the paramedics, he is still holding on.

"I have a team of nurses standing by in trauma rooms one and two, and in the ambulance bay awaiting their arrival. Unfortunately, Doctor House, I do not control how fast that ambulance gets here." The nurse bit herself off. "I'm sorry. We're doing all we can. I can call Dr. Cameron in. She's not working today."

House picked up his cane and nodded, grudgingly. Nurse Cutler was top notch. "That's fine," he finally said. Nothing to do but wait.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Cuddy followed House out of the elevator, and practically jumped when he took charge. As she stood back, listening to the conversation, she could feel her heart pounding harder. She'd been right about the head trauma. She stayed back until they were done, then stepped up next to House.

"She was with someone when it happened?" she asked. Angel hadn't said anything over the phone about anyone else being hurt. She forced back the wave of concern that washed over her at the revelation. She could worry all she wanted when she saw the extent of the damage. "I can go wait in the ambulance bay for them," she offered. Or maybe she just shouldn't get involved. It was always harder when it was someone you knew...someone you cared for.

[Dr Angel Fraser]

There's such a sad love
Deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel
Open and closed within your eyes
I'll place the sky within your eyes

Angel found herself sitting in her office, not completely sure how she got there. Looking over, she saw her father sitting on the couch, smiling at her. "Daddy?" She said, standing up and crossing the room to where he sat. "Am I dead?"
"No my sweet, sweet Angel." He replied, motioning for her to sit. "Just unconscious."
"I miss you." She said, sitting down next to him. "I really do."
"I know," He said, resting his hand on her shoulder. "But the world needs you right now. I'm just here to tell you how proud I am of you, and that I'm always there, watching over you."
"I love you Daddy." She sniffled, feeling the world fade around her. She leaned in a hugged him one last time.
"I love you too." Were the last words she heard from him.

As the pain sweeps through
Makes no sense for you
Every thrill has gone
Wasn't too much fun at all
But I'll be there for you
As the world falls down

Angel could hear the paramedics around her, as they raced towards the hospital. In and out of consciousness, she could hear them shouting orders as they arrived at, where she was hoping was Princeton-Plainsboro. "Jackson?" She mumbled, trying to move her neck. She couldn't, and she realized she was probably neck braced. "Where's Jackson?" She inquired, this time a little louder. She couldn't remember why she wanted to know where Jackson was, she just did. She didn't know why she was braced, being rushed to emergency, couldn't remember the accident at all.

As the world falls down

[Jackson]

The firefighters operated the Jaws of Life to pry the doors open, then the paramedics flowed in. Jackson tried to get them to focus on Angel, "save her, help her first," he said limply, trying to get them to help her through the power of his will. It didn't seem to be working. He didn't know they were doing triage, doing their jobs. They both got treated, however, intravenous lines set up. He tried not to argue or be combative, but the neck brace seemed stupid. He could move his neck just fine.

"Sir," one of the paramedics spoke to him, "could you tell me your name?"

"Jackson," he slurred back. "That's Angel. Help her, please."

"Do you mind if I call you Jack?" The paramedic asked, checking his eyes with a penlight. Jackson winced as the light flashed. The paramedic nodded, "we got you pretty well stable."

"You have but face." Jackson prodded. He blushed, and stammered, amazed that he still had enough blood in him to turn his face red, "I mean, you look like you want to say, "but..." 'cause that sounded like the good news before the bad news."

The paramedic nodded, "but, the engine is sitting on your legs."

"Don't remind me," Jackson muttered. "I can't feel them anyway," the shock was probably talking at that point.

The firefighters had pried Angel free from the wreckage and taken her away, but not before Jackson had a chance to say good bye. He knew he was a goner, so he stroked her cheek, staring at her lovely, bruised face. "Goodbye, babe. I'll watch over you, I promise."

In the end they had to do a lot of packing him up. Jackson wasn't sure of the details. Wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. The neck brace prevented him from looking down at what they were doing anyway, so he was thankful for small favors. "Just, make it fast, man," he muttered.

When they finally pulled him free, the pain was enough to make the blackness smother him with their blessed tendrils of peace. Jackson couldn't help but hope he never woke up again.

[Dr. Gregory House]

With Cuddy by his side, House felt himself growing calmer. He looked at her and nodded, "seems like. Some thirty one year old guy in the car with her. Friend of hers apparently." He looked around, started walking. "It's cold out there, Cuddy," he said, referring to the ambulance bay, and looking at her, what she was wearing. She'd freeze.

He grabbed some scrubs and took off his blazer and put the top on. He looked at his jeans, and shrugged, no big loss if he got blood on them. He gave his blazer to Cuddy, wordlessly. He looked into her eyes and nodded. Then he was grabbing some latex gloves and making his way to the hallway where the gurney would come in with Angel.

Finally, the double doors opened, and the paramedics were passing off Angel to the nurses and the doctors. "Trauma one," he snapped, pointing with his cane. He followed them in, hearing the words being tossed around.

"BP's one twenty five over eighty," a nurse called out as she read from the attached sphygmomanometer. Hypertension, then. Adrenaline making the heart pump faster. Spying her left foot, he made his way over to it. It was black and blue with bruises. He pressed his finger to the pulse point. Still strong. Her veins were intact. She would just have a wicked time of walking on it for the next several weeks.

He looked up, "run a CT, clear the neck. Then I want a MRI on her head. Check for bleeds." All in all, she seemed stable, but until he got those results back, he would hold his optimism back on its leash.

House leaned over to see into Angel's eyes.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked her, "and do you know what happened?" He could see her pupils were sluggish, indicating a concussion.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Silently, she took the blazer. Sliding it on, she followed him out to the bay area just in time to watch the ambulance back into the bay. She watched with mounting tension as Angel was handed down, looking away at the sight of the injuries. There was no way she could do this...not when it was Angel. "How could this have happened?" she whispered, focusing on the second gurney as House took care of Angel.

"Doctor Fraser's friend, I assume?" Cuddy asked the other paramedics as they lowered the second gurney. His injuries were worse than Angel's.

"Yeah...name's Jackson," the medic answered. "He was driving. Several broken ribs, massive head trauma, possibly broken neck. Engine trapped his legs. If he makes it through, he'll never walk again." Cuddy looked down at Jackson. He wasn't moving.

"Let's get him to trauma room two," she ordered, helping to move him down the hall. "His vitals are dropping....." she called, bringing a nurse immediately to her side. She didn't think he'd make it; didn't think a crash cart would help. Not with the obvious damage to his chest. Heart and lung damage was more than a possibility at this point...the paddles would only make it worse. It was hard to hear herself think through the beeping and wailing of the machines hooked up to Jackson, so she stepped back.

"Get a crash cart," she told the nurse after only a slight hesitation. "Bag him...and don't stop until he's under the knife." The nurse nodded and sped off to follow the order. Cuddy didn't think it was necessary to add that she didn't think he'd make it that far.

[Dr Angel Fraser]

Angel looked up at the lights passing over head. Her eyes kept closing but she was forcing herself to keep them open. She heard a voice asking her if she knew where she was and she tried to focus on who was talking to her.

"House?" She croaked, finally focusing on the person staring down at her. "I think I'm at the hospital. It looks like it..." She answered, trying to lift her arm. "Why am I at the hospital, why am I laying here?" She started to panic, not knowing why she was there. Flashes of the night before flashed in front of her, but nothing solid. The last image was of Jackson. "Oh god, Jackson!" She cried out, moving to sit up.

[Jackson]

It was dark here. Comforting. Jackson's idea of heaven was lying in his bed, cocooned by his comforter and pillow, just sleeping in that edge between dream and wakefulness. It was like hovering, flying, only not. A suspension of everything, of thought, of dream, of knowledge. Just being, and letting it be.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be...

Pain was the first thing Jackson noticed as he was thrown back into consciousness. An undeniable, unbelievable solid wall of pain. He was cold, so cold. He wanted to shiver, wanted to cry. He did none of these things. He only looked up at the doctor standing above him with defibrillation paddles, staring at a monitor.

"We have sinus," a voice on Jackson's left said.

He could hear someone shouting, Angel. God, Angel.

"Angel!" he shouted back, choking back fear and blood that filled his mouth. "Angel!" He wanted to cough, couldn't get the air in.

"Decreased breath sounds, I need number twelve french, stat!" Something cold was put on the side of his ribs.

"You're gonna feel pressure, but no pain," a sympathetic nurse told him, rubbing his shoulder briefly. "The doctor is putting in a chest tube to drain the blood and help you breathe."

Jackson's eyes were scared as he stared up at the nurse. He wanted Angel, he wanted Angel.

He wasn't done yet. He wanted Angel.

"Angel!"

[Dr. Gregory House]

Angel's long term memory seemed intact, she knew where she was, that was spatial recognition. When she started to panic, though, House grimly had to shove down his empathy to help her. "Angel, listen to me, you've been in a car accident."

He put his hand on her shoulder, which was all he needed to hold her down. Her system had been through a shock and she was limper than a cooked noodle. He knew that she could surprise him, though. Patients had surprised him before, when the strength of their resolve was greater than the mere medical limitations of their bodies.

He heard the man next door shouting for Angel, which wasn't helping matters any. "Angel, you have to co-operate. You've been injured, your brain is swelling up. You don't look like you've vomited, which is good."

He tried to keep her focus on him. "Angel, I'm going to tell you three words, I want you to remember them, okay? Horse. Key. Pub. Got it?"

"Angel!" that last cry was primal, and drove the sharp edges of atavistic fear down his belly. He shivered.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

They'd managed to get Jackson fairly stable again. Although, he wasn't exactly helping matters by screaming for Angel. Knowing that if she couldn't keep him calm, the nurses wouldn't be able to help him, and House wouldn't be able to help Angel.

"Calm down, Jackson...Angel's going to be fine," Cuddy said, trying to keep him from moving too much. She almost didn't want to sedate him, but his yelling and screaming were not helping. Not to mention she wasn't entirely certain it wouldn't kill him. "If you keep screaming,we won't be able to help and you could keep bleeding into your lungs, and you don't want that." She tried reasoning with him, but it didn't seem to be working. Her head was starting to hurt from the sound of his voice echoing off the walls.

Standing back, she gestured to the closest nurse. "This isn't working. We need to get him calm before we do anything else." She wasn't sure what, though. Until he calmed down enough to examine, they couldn't be sure what would help him or make him worse. "The way he's going, he's going to wear himself out before we can fix him up."

The sounds of the doctors and nurses running around, talking, passing things between them was pushing her stress level higher than she would have liked. Leaving them to their work, she backed out of the trauma room, finding a quiet place to calm down. Her head and heart were pounding. There was nothing more she could have done there; if she'd stayed, she'd have killed both Jackson and the baby.

Would it be like this for her every time they had an emergency?

[Dr Angel Fraser]

"Car accident?" She mumbled, feeling House holding her down. Panic raced through her as she heard Jackson's voice. "Jackson?" She said, trying to look around. "Jackson?!" She shouted, then looked at House.

"Where is he? I want to see him. Damnit House, let me see him." She growled. She wouldn't struggle against him. She heard him ask her to repeat the words he had just said. "Horse?" That was the only word she could remember. She just wanted to disappear back into the nothingness that was her mind. "House," She said, grabbing his arm. "Save Jackson. Forget about me, just save him."

[Jackson]

Jackson panted, looking around at the nurses and doctors surrounding him. "Okay, okay. I'm calm, I'm good. I'm zen, even." He just breathed, which was easier, now that the pressure in his chest wasn't so bad. Watching the lady doctor back away, he felt sorry that he was so difficult for her, but then he had other things on his mind.

"C-spine's clear," a doctor said, holding the black and clear film up to a light, and in response a nurse took the neck brace around his neck off. That felt more comfortable. He could move his head more freely, though he wished he hadn't the ability.

He saw his legs, or rather, what was left of them. The nurses were packing them, but he wasn't sure they could be saved. If he even would survive this. He could see avulsed muscle, could see clear through to bone in some parts. His skin was barely holding the muscles in place.

He felt a sick fascination, like he was just barely skimming the edges of the nausea. The pain was going away.

"Doctor! Blood pressure is bottoming out!"

"Hang another unit of O Neg! We gotta get his pressure back up! Where's my blood typing!?"

"It's on it's way, Doctor," a nurse reassured him. Jackson was fading, in and out of consciousness. Nothing seemed to stick, he couldn't keep himself awake. He wanted Angel. Wanted to see her one last time. Wanted to say goodbye.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House frowned when Angel was barely co-operating with his testing. He decided to table the neuro-exam until he could get another doctor to do it. Foreman, or that Japanese woman, Tuskino? Tsukiki? Something.

"X-rays," a nurse said breathlessly. House grabbed it, holding it up to the light.

"C-spine is clear," he nodded. This went against his training, but Angel wasn't going to co-operate until she could see Jackson for herself. Besides, House wasn't a conventional doctor, and Angel was stable. He took the neck brace off himself, looking down at Angel. Damn, he needed to call Wilson. Angel was going to need him.

"Angel," House said, "I'm putting you in a wheelchair and taking you next door for two minutes. You're going to see Jackson for yourself, and then you're going to co-operate. This hospital really is big enough for the both of you and we can both treat your injuries, but only if you co-operate. Got it?"

"Doctor..." a nurse ventured, with trepidation. House speared her with a look, and she subsided, even going so far as to pick up a wheelchair and draw it close to the gurney.

House leaned on the wheelchair, laying his cane across the handles so he wouldn't be stranded at any point. He could see through the glass doors that Jackson was being stabilized with a blood transfusion. As a doctor, he could clearly see he wasn't going to make it.

[Dr. Lisa Cuddy]

Sitting just outside the doors, Cuddy could hear everything going on inside. It was painfully obvious they were losing him, but she wasn't ready to go back into the room. She knew she should, but she couldn't. Hearing someone coming, she stood up, leaning back against the wall.

"House," she started, then she noticed Angel. "Are you sure she's stable enough to see him?" she asked with no small amount of concern. "He's not going to make it out of here." She wasn't sure if she was telling House or Angel, but it didn't seem to matter at this point.

"Nothing's working!" came an angry sounding voice from inside the room as Cuddy stepped forward and opened it slightly. "There's too much blood loss, and internal damage."

"If you still want to see him," Cuddy said, directing her words to Angel, even as she looked through the door, "I can't stop you."

[Dr Angel Fraser]

Angel listened as House explained what he was going to do. "Two minutes" She gulped, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. "I promise, I promise to do whatever you say House." She murmured, watching him remove the brace around her neck.

She heard Cuddy speak beside him and looked at her with tear filled eyes. "I need to say goodbye. If he's not going to make, he needs to go with a clear mind." She said, getting up slowly. Her head started to spin, but she managed to drag herself into the wheelchair. "As a doctor, I realize that he probably won't make it," She said in a moment of clarity. "I can hear the things they're saying...Please, just two minutes."