Shout out to KitanaRaven, AnimeWolf524, and Laura for the reviews of encouragement. I really appreciate it!

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~~Chapter 8~~

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"Fifteen minutes until the final night check comes around. You ready?"

"Ready steady like the crazy killer Freddy…"

"Yeah yeah, I got it. Now go."

House walked down the hallway later that night with a content smirk. As planned, Alvie proved to be the perfect distraction while he sabotaged the door to Freedom Master's room from locking as well as his own.

Alvie was right beside him walking in a semi-crouched position hands up miming as if he had a gun.

They reached their destination with no one being the wiser. House slipped into the room with Alvie staying outside keeping watch.

The room was bathed in darkness except for a faint sliver of light from the doorway. Once his eyes adjusted, House moved toward the sleeping kid who had not stirred what so ever.

It would be the perfect time to ask questions since any drugs given to him that afternoon would be at their least effective.

House placed a hand on the kid's shoulder and gave him a shake.

"Hey...wake up."

There was still no movement.

He shook him again but more forcefully.

"Come on. Get up."

The reaction this time wasn't much better; eyelids only opening half way.

Tilting the kid's head to the faint light, House leaned in to peer closer. A couple of muttered curses escaped his lips knowing that further questioning would be useless.

Pupils were dilated and unresponsive. A sign that drugs were recently entered into the body.

He returned Freedom Master back to the same position as before and saw him fall asleep within seconds.

Time being limited; House began to search through the room for other clues. The nightstand, closet, bathroom, and underneath the bed were all normal much to his disappointment.

Dragging himself off the floor, his foot bumped into the trash bin and heard something solid roll around. Reaching in, he quickly made contact with what felt like a small glass bottle. Bringing his hand up, House saw the unmistakable outline of an empty medicine injection vial with one word clearly standing out on the label.

Ropinirole.

The gears in his mind accelerated trying to recall everything he knew about this drug. In a medical journal, there was a study about its uses to treat Parkinson's disease. It was shown to improve mobility while decreasing tremors. An area of the brain was essentially rewired with this drug.

Some of the side effects themselves also proved to be rather serious. The top two most concerning were drowsiness and hallucinations.

To make matters worse, these reactions were only amplified by the standard medications that were given to most of the patients.

**BANG**

House whipped around when the door was slammed shut, enveloping the room in complete darkness. As a result, the vial slipped from his loose grip and tumbled back into the trash.

'Shit.'

"Hey you! Stop right there! How did you get out of your room?"

"You'll never take me alive coppers!"

Alvie's footsteps could be heard running away and the orderlies' approaching.

"Mike, check this room he came from. I'll go find him."

'Double shit.'

House quickly headed in the direction he believed the closet to be with his arms out in front. He hit a wall after three steps and frantically started feeling around for the frame of the sliding door. He froze though when a thin stream of light poured in to his left.

"Mike! I need your help picking this guy up!"

"Alright! I'm coming!"

House let go of the breath he was holding in when the light was gone again and went to the bedroom door. Frustratingly, his evidence would have to wait until tomorrow. There was only a matter of seconds now to get back without getting caught.

Opening the door slightly, he peaked out to make sure the coast was clear. Not forgetting to cover his tracks, he made sure both doors were un-sabotaged before returning back to his bed. The timing was perfect as the orderlies then came in with his unconscious roommate.

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House was out of his room the first thing that morning after all the doors unlocked.

Without pausing, he headed straight for Freedom Master's room again. The kid was sitting there zoned out as per usual. He made his way over to wastebasket as before to recover his proof.

However, he stopped short at the sight of the small bin minus the plastic liner. Although he knew it would do no good, House picked it up and inspected it closely. A frantic urge compelled him to still keep rooting around as well as under the bed.

The search was over in less than a minute. The proof was gone. A flash of fear slithered down his spine and had him thinking for a second whether or not the hallucinations had come back.

There were no indicators in the room to make him believe anything was false. His confidence still waivered though since every room practically looked the same. The only difference to this one was the kid curled up on the bed.

"What are you doing in here?"

Panic slowly started to build under his skin as he turned to see Alvie rush into the room. Words felt as if they were stuck in his throat. Alvie didn't wait for him to reply.

"What's taking you so long? Did you get it? Has the package been secured? Is the mission accomplished?"

Instantly, House felt his lungs regain functionality and contract to let out the breath he'd been holding.

"No. Someone else managed to get to it first."

"This is awesome. It's like we're going head to head with an evil genius. Like one of those Bond villains!"

"Except this time Dr. Evil is a shrink."

"So who's our top suspect? Think Nolan had something to do with it?"

House thought back to all the sessions for an indicator of suspicion. He wouldn't deny that it would've been great to kill two birds with one stone but knew that Nolan wasn't a part of the scheme. This meant that the real culprit was actually pretty obvious.

"No. Nolan is in the clear on this but that doesn't matter. I know who the real mad scientist is."

"Uh oh. You got kinda funny look like you're about to do something crazy…no pun intended."

"Damn right."

"Woah, you might wanna slow your roll there. In case you forgot, the proof that you need is gone…way gone…like Houdini gone."

"Then I'll have to get it straight from the horse's mouth."

House could hear Alvie sputtering behind him trying to get him to stop but gave no attention. He was determined to get some answers.

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"Did you really think you could get away with it?"

Medina simply stared at him with an unreadable gaze before speaking.

"Good afternoon to you too Greg. How are you feeling today?"

With his cane tightly gripped in his hand, it took all of House's patience to not take a swing at his head.

"Cut the crap. I know. Don't waste my time denying it, even though you've already been sneaking around trying to cover up your tracks."

As if on cue, Medina's face changed to a clearly rehearsed look of concern.

"Listen, I understand as a doctor it can be hard to let go of that control…"

The fuse to his temper finally reached its end at the condescending tone.

"OH WILL YOU SHUT UP! You wouldn't know the difference between a tongue depressor and the stick lodged up your ass! What I do know is that your stupidity is sending that kid right into neuro failure!"

During his rant, House had backed Medina against the hallway by grabbing the lapels of his coat in his free hand. Slight fear did register on the smaller man's face; however, a glint of satisfaction also appeared.

"Code gray!"

The orderlies were on him before he could move an inch. Two seconds later, he now found himself turned and pinned against the same wall.

An internal warning rang out immediately as he realized that he was not being lowered to the ground like he was during his "fight" with Alvie. Instead, his shirt sleeve was being lifted by an orderly.

Fear spread like ice through his veins as he saw Medina approaching him with a syringe.

"What is that?"

Not waiting for an answer, House started struggling with all his might.

"Get the fuck off of me! Let me go now!"

Of course, yelling was pointless as each of the men holding him had a good 20 pounds of muscle on him.

"Just relax Greg. Hold him still."

Still he continued to struggle even as he felt the needle puncture his skin and the world faded into darkness.

"No…"

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Chase was anticipating an awkward visit this time around considering how he'd left things with House. Not surprising, he wasn't able to spot House in the main room of the wing and headed for his assigned room. However, the sight of an empty room was all that he found.

Deciding to try his luck outside, Chase turned around and started walking to the back entrance.

"Psst…psst…"

He abruptly stopped and looked around trying to identify where the noise was coming from. The hallway appeared to be empty as well. Again, he started walking.

"Psst…yo….psst…over here"

This time Chase was able to find the source of the noise was coming from a room on the opposite side. The door was only slightly ajar, making it hard to see the owner of the voice. He approached the door slowly until suddenly a head popped out clearly impatient.

"Hurry up! Come on. We don't have a lot of time!"

Chase groaned internally when he recognized the head belonged to House's roommate. Just as he was going to give the hyper man an excuse so that he could leave, hands grabbed and yanked him into the room.

At the sudden action, he felt uneasy at what Alvie wanted. That was until he saw concerned eyes staring back at him.

"Alvie, what's wrong?"

"I told him…I told him not to think but he didn't listen…"

"Who didn't listen? House? Are you talking about House?"

"…didn't listen…should've listened and now they got him…"

The uneasiness that had left now returned for a completely different reason. The look of concern facing him had now morphed into one of distress.

"Alvie...I need you to focus on me for a second. Look at me. Good. Now I need you to tell me what this is about. Did something happen to House?"

Chase stood there for about 10 minutes listening to the jittery man recount what had taken place a few hours earlier.

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Chase could only seem to feel the pounding of his heart by the time he finished speaking with Alvie. Concern for House's safety had never been as dominant in his mind as right then. He frantically tried to think of how to help him.

Confronting Medina would clearly not do him any good. If anything, the man might potentially cause further damage to House in an effort to cover up the evidence. He debated next on going to Nolan but knew he really didn't want to because he was still wary of the man's intentions about House.

Wilson's name of course was floating through his mind but honestly, didn't know what pull an oncologist could have at a psychiatric facility.

'No, not an oncologist but a dean of medicine maybe…'

Cell phone in hand without thought, Chase started looking for Cuddy's number. He was about to connect the call when a voice in front of him called his name.

"Dr. Chase?"

His current idea quickly evaporated as he gazed at Dr. Beasley. A new thought took its place as he noticed the concern being directed at him.

"Dr. Chase, are you alright?"

"No, actually I'm not. I need to see House. I know he's locked up in isolation but it's very important that I see him."

She sighed and now looked at him with sympathy.

"I'm sorry but that's not…"

"This is serious. I need to see him right now."

"Dr. Chase, I know that you care for Greg but…"

"Please! Hear me out. I know that House is a lot to handle and he always wants to have his way. Believe me, in all the years I've known him, it was a rare occurrence to not see him try to manipulate someone."

"I hope you're about to make an excellent point next Dr. Chase."

"My point is that, more often than you would think, those same manipulations have been used for the well being of a patient. And it's my belief that this is the case right now. Please let me see him."

Desperation obvious in his plea, she sighed and paused clearly trying to decide what to do.

"I'm sorry. I can't let you see him. Only authorized staff has access to the isolation area and it's strictly monitored."

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Blurs of shapes and muffled sounds were the first thing to hit House's consciousness. It was as if his whole brain was packed with cotton, slowing down the mental gears from forming complete thoughts. With arms and legs feeling equally lethargic, he started concentrating on vision and hearing.

The sound was becoming closer and very insistent. As if emerging from a pool, he was slowly able to recognize that the sound was someone calling his name.

"Greg…Greg, can you hear me?"

A flash of yellow crossed his eyes. Only one thought came to mind from that.

"Ch…ase…"

"Greg, its Dr. Beasley. I need you to focus. Can you hear me?"

Somewhere deep in his brain, House knew what was being asked of him but it was as if someone scrambled around all the sensors to his basic functions.

A groan slowly escaped his mouth with what felt like took an enormous amount of effort on his part.

"I need some help in here now!"

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Cliffhanger? :( I know.

I'm aware that the medical diagnosis probably isn't accurate. I tried doing some research and this was the closest logical premise I came up with.

Please keep the feedback coming! Let me know you guys think!