This is a short chapter, working on chapter three.

Cameron had dismissed the nurse after she had finished suturing all of Ace’s wounds. She felt like she should be the one to finish cleaning Emrys off. Even though the young woman hadn’t been working at the hospital long, Cameron had formed a kind of bond with her. She almost felt like a big sister figure to Ace, at least she had. Cameron felt like not only had the hospital just lost a great doctor, but that a lot of the staff here had just lost a great person and friend.

As Cameron took one of Emrys’ arms to wipe it down, Emrys’ chest moved. Cameron jumped at first, and then the doctor part of her brain kicked in.

“It’s just post mortem muscle movement. The air remaining in the lungs is just escaping.” she thought.

She continued to wipe of Emrys’ arm and moved her hand down to Emrys’ wrist. Emrys’ hand twitched and Cameron jumped again and dropped her arm. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, telling herself again that this was normal.

Cameron shook her head and picked up Emrys’ arm once again. This time Cameron’s palm was right over Emrys’ radius bone in her wrist. As she was slowly wiping her arm, Cameron noticed that now Emrys’ chest was actually moving up and down. It was barely visible, but when Cameron began to feel a slight flutter under her palm holding Emrys’ wrist, she nearly screamed.

She quickly turned Emrys’ hand over and felt for a pulse, not feeling one. She thought for a moment and then slowly reached up to Emrys’ neck. She placed her fingers gently on the side of Emrys’ throat and felt for a carotid pulse. Cameron found a very slow, but steady beat. Suddenly the hand that Cameron was holding tightly wrapped around hers and at this she did scream.

As Cuddy sat in House’s office, tears in her eyes and trying to take in what he had just told her, both of their pagers went off. Looking at them, they both had the same page. It was a 911 page to the room where Emrys had been.

“I can’t.” Cuddy said, tearfully.

“It’s fine, I’ll go.” said House.

He planted his cane on the floor and stood up, not looking back at Cuddy. He hated to see her like this. He would probably never admit it to anyone, but when ever she cried, he just wanted to hold her. He wanted to kiss her and tell her everything would be alright as long as she stayed in his arms. His thoughts trailed off as he walked to the room that the page had been for. He nearly fell over when he saw what was going on.

Cuddy was sitting at House’s desk, thinking about everything that had just happened and everything that was going to happen. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard from House’s mouth. She now knew why she was feeling the way she was about Emrys, and now that she knew it was worse. Yet, it was also strangely better somehow, she felt better and worse all at once. She was pulled out of her thoughts when House’s phone rang. She instinctively answered it with a hello.

“Cuddy, you need to get down here.” said House, sounding almost as dazed as she was.

“House, I just can’t. It’s too hard right now.” said Cuddy.

“Cuddy, you need to see this.” said House.

“House, I’m sure you can take care of it.” said Cuddy.

“Fine, I just thought you’d like to know that Ace is back.” said House, hanging up.

“What?” asked Cuddy, hearing the click.

Cuddy hung the phone in it’s cradle and made a b-line straight for the emergency room. When she got there she found Emrys surrounded again by doctors and nurses. She was hooked back up to the monitors and IVs. Only now the monitors displayed a slow, but steadily rising heart beat.

“What?” asked Cuddy, saying the only word that came to mind as she stepped into the room.

“I was just finishing up when I noticed her chest moving. I felt for a pulse and found one, then she grabbed my hand.” said Cameron.

“How?” asked Cuddy.

“I don’t know.” said House, looking up at Cuddy from Emrys’ chart.

“What are her stats?” asked Cuddy, regaining control of her brain.

“Her temperature was at 94 degrees, but it keeps dropping. Still, her heart rate and BP are increasing with the transfusions. She had a starting heart rate of 35 bpm with a BP of 70 over 30. Now her rate is 50 bpm with a BP of 90 over 70. We think her stats are still low because of the sedatives we gave her. She was in an enormous amount of pain and she needs surgery to repair the damage to her vocal chords and other tissues.” said Cameron.

“How is this possible?” asked Cuddy.

“I don’t know.” said House, still looking over her chart.

“Chase is taking her into the first surgery in a few minutes.” said Cameron, hanging another bag of blood.

“I heard that the victim is alive, I thought she was dead?” asked a police man, now standing in the doorway.

“She was.” said Cuddy.

“But you got her back.” said the officer.

“Nope.” said House.

“But she’s alive now?” asked the officer.

“Yep.” said House.

“How?” asked the officer.

“We don’t know.” said Cuddy, echoing House’s sentiments.

“Whatever, when do you think we’ll be able to question her?” asked the officer.

“Not for a while, she’s had her vocal chords ripped out. She’s going to be kept in a coma from the pain of the surgeries for a few weeks. We’ll call you when she’s all better and ready to be violated again, thanks.” said House, limping over and closing the door in the officer’s face.

“House!” said Cuddy and Cameron together.

“What? He was annoying.” said House as the door opened and Chase walked in, no sign of the officer behind him.