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Title: Thirty Days of Solitary 14/30
Characters: House with small bits of various others
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: For everything up to and including Twenty Vicodins
Summary: House was sentenced to thirty days of solitary confinement for his actions in Twenty Vicodins. This is the story of his time in solitary, and what was happening back at PPTH while he was there. Story will mainly focus on House, but there are segments featuring the rest of the cast. Starts just before the end of Twenty Vicodins.

A/N : Many, many thanks to [livejournal.com profile] damigella_314. Without her constant help and encouragement this story would be called 'Five Days of Solitary'.



Click for previous part

Day 14 Thursday 20th October 2011

He's having a lazy day, well, every day is lazy, it's not like there’s anything he’s supposed to be doing, but this day he's decided he's not even getting out of bed except to pick his food up off the floor and go for exercise. So he's lying in bed with just his shorts on, drifting in and out of sleep, thinking about random things, trying his best not to think about anything at all.

He decides he might as well have some fun while he's here, in bed, not doing anything, and his hand drifts down to his cock. It's totally limp of course, there's not much in here that would make little Greg stand up and take notice, so he spits on his hand a bit and gets to work.

It's not the first time he's done it in prison of course, but he's bothered less than you would think. This prison doesn't have a rule against it, he's been told by other prisoners than in some states prisoners are forbidden from masturbating, not that the rule stops anyone of course. In this prison there's no rule except you can't do it in public. Or in a fashion that is designed to 'intimidate a prison officer or inmate' whatever the hell that means.

Well, he's not in public here and there's no prison officer in sight so there's nothing stopping him. Little Greg is having some trouble getting interested in proceedings though. Some visual stimuli is called for but the random book deliveries have yet to include copies of Playboy. He closes his eyes and does a mental shuffle through the ladies of his acquaintance. Cuddy, well no, maybe not. He immediately moves on to the next one, Stacy, no, not her either. There's Cameron of course, but she's staring at him all uptight and judgey so he dismisses that image. Thirteen's not bad, in a skinny sort of way, but she doesn't do anything to help the situation. Amber briefly floats before his eyes, but besides the fact that she's Wilson's and therefore completely off limits, she's also dead and buried, and he wants her to stay that way this time, thanks very much. He briefly imagines Wilson, that's done the trick a couple of times in the past, but this time it's a complete turnoff, he doesn't know where he stands with the man but using him in this way seems no more appropriate than Cuddy would be, and he really doesn’t want to think about that whole mess while he’s trying to beat one out.

In the end he pictures one of the hookers he'd had during his post-Cuddy binge. Nice and safe image there, with no emotional baggage attached to it. It takes some doing but finally there's movement and he works hard at it and is eventually rewarded with a climax that leaves him physically drained but is more empty and hollow than satisfying.

His shorts take care of the cleanup and then he strips them off and throws them into a corner of the cell, laundry pickup is tomorrow if last week is any guide so they won't be there long.

He decides he can't be bothered getting up and putting on a clean pair of shorts so he lies under the covers naked and tries to keep a glow going. It doesn't last long and then he's just lying on a bed in solitary feeling faintly pathetic and a lot depressed. It's not his own hand that he wants. He tries to bring back the feeling of Cuddy lying with him after they'd done the deed, that feeling of being with someone who wants you. Except, he'd never really been secure with Cuddy, he'd always had the feeling that he was one wrong move away from breaking them up, he'd been desperate to preserve what they had to the extent that when he thought she might be dying, that he was going to lose her forever, he'd been unable to face that. He'd lost her anyway, they had failed as he had always known they would.

He doesn't want to think about Cuddy now, not on this, his 'day off'. He laughs at the concept, every day in here is his day off. Never, in all his life, had he had such an extended stint of time where he had absolutely no responsibilities. Childhood had been driven by study, and chores, and various extra curricular activities as prescribed by his father. Then there had been college, and med school, then the treadmill of internship, residency and then getting Board certified in two specialties.
The extended hospital and rehab stay after the infarction had been full of activity - tests, rehab, medication, various specialists coming to see him. Even in Mayfield his time had been closely scheduled, with counselling, group, and various other activities.

His father had a saying, which he had trotted out to young Greg whenever he saw him unoccupied, the devil finds work for idle hands . This was usually quickly followed by his father finding him some work to do. Greg had once, and only once, pointed out that logically this meant that his father was the devil.

Now he lies idly upon a bed in a solitary cell in New Jersey State Prison, free to do absolutely nothing for as long as he wants. He wonders what Dad would have thought of this.

"You know what your problem is? You don't know how lucky you are."

"Yeah Dad," he says out loud, rolling over to face the wall, "I'm real lucky."




Vanessa sits with her sister, Theresa, in Doctor Wilson's office, listening to him tell them the latest bad news. It's a familiar setting for them. Doctor Wilson has been Vanessa's doctor since the day she got diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. She thanks her lucky stars every day for finding a doctor like Wilson. He's been attentive, empathetic, everything that so many doctors aren't. She feels that he's been in her corner since the beginning, fighting the cancer with her. He was there for her struggle with alcoholism, her ups and downs with the now-absent Bobby, he's been there for everything. Through the operations, the treatments that made her sick, the nights when she didn't think she'd make it through. Now she's here again, the cancer is back with a vengeance, and she needs a lung transplant. A double lung transplant.

She should be terrified but she's not. Doctor Wilson is smiling at her with that gorgeous smile of his, exuding confidence and optimism. She looks at Theresa who is staring at Doctor Wilson with a slightly dreamy smile on her face. She knows Theresa fancies him, although they've both heard the nurses talk about how he's a bit of a ladies man, a 'love them and leave them' type of guy. It's hard to believe, the way he's been with her, she can’t see him as someone who would routinely break someone’s heart.

At least he has the cast off now. She's not sure what happened there, she'd had a routine appointment with him a year ago and he'd been distracted, pale, his wrist broken. A car accident he'd explained, but there had been something else there. Something that was making him sad, she'd thought. She hadn't enquired further, after all it was no concern of hers, and she had enough problems of her own.

She focuses again on his words, a double lung transplant, long waiting list, has to be ready at any minute to proceed. More treatments in the meantime, more procedures, and more pain. She feels a hand grasping hers, her sister, here to support her. She squeezes back, it will be okay, Doctor Wilson says there's a good chance of her getting the lungs and he’s going to do everything he can for her.

Yes, she is very lucky indeed that she has Doctor Wilson.






Date: 2012-07-10 01:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sassyjumper.livejournal.com
I've just caught up on the last few chapters, and I'm really loving all the glimpses you're providing of not only what's running through House's head, but also his past, and how the world is currently going on without him. Everything is quiet, realistic and not overdone, but completely absorbing at the same time.

I like your use of Vanessa here -- how she sees the change in Wilson even though she only knows him fairly superficially. It's always interesting to have an outsider's view of House and/or Wilson. And love the play between the last line in House's scene and the last line in Vanessa's. :)

Date: 2012-07-10 02:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] menolly-au.livejournal.com
Thanks - glad you're still enjoying it :) Glad you liked the use of Vanessa here, I love the outsider view myself - and I figure Wilson's patients have to absolutely love him. House's patients view of him might be slightly different :)

Thanks for reading!

Date: 2012-07-10 05:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yarroway.livejournal.com
I love your use of the potw and her sister from Transplant. House's 'day off' is very well crafted. I found it interesting to listen as he runs through the images of those he knew. I also loved the contrast between House, who still doesn't feel lucky, and the dying woman, who does.

Date: 2012-07-11 06:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] menolly-au.livejournal.com
Thanks - glad you liked the use of the POTW - as she is the catalyst for House ultimately getting out of prison I thought it would be interesting to see that develop. Thanks for reading and reviewing :)

Date: 2012-07-10 05:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barefootpuddles.livejournal.com
You did a great job of showing how Vanessa realizes how lucky she has to have Wilson on her side, helping her through all the very difficult times - physically and emotionally. Just like he did with House. Yet as you clearly show House never could quite see it that way. Even now, in solitary, I am still not sure he realizes it.

I do like the way you have him deciding to "take the day off'. It seems like a very house thing to do.

Date: 2012-07-11 06:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] menolly-au.livejournal.com
That's an interesting point comparing what Wilson does for his patients and what he did, or would be willing to do, for House. You're right in that I don't think House quite sees it that way.

Thanks for reading and reviewing :)

Date: 2012-07-10 01:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] readingrat.livejournal.com
Hmm, this might be the one occasion where John House would not consider his son to be 'lucky', although he'd probably still posit that House was getting no worse than he deserved. One can imagine what happened when Greg compared his father to the devil.

House shuffling through his acquaintances for an image to wank off to, rather like a player through a deck of cards, was spot on. Did I miss something or did you withhold the information on whom he wanked off to? His relationship with Cuddy was a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one - anticipating the outcome, he took exactly the right steps to precipitate it. If he'd been less worried, he'd have done a lot better.

Even on his day off House doesn't exactly dwell on things in his life that went well, does he, like getting a medical degree or saving patients' lives?

(Dumb question: why would have prisons have rules about masturbation that they can't possibly enforce? That's just asking to lose face.)

Vanessa, who's on the verge of dying, is a lot more positive than House ever was, although one really can't say that she's had a better deal. So, although I can't say that House deserves what he's getting now, there's no doubt that he has always been miserable and has never appreciated the simple things that Vanessa still takes pleasure in: a friendly doctor, her sister's support. In that sense, maybe House's father isn't all that wrong, even if he says what he does for all the wrong reasons.

Date: 2012-07-11 07:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] menolly-au.livejournal.com
I think John might say that House is lucky he didn't get longer, or that no-one was hurt. I dont' think he would be impressed to see where his son has ended up.

ANd you're right - a line got dropped in there somewhere when I was editing it, that makes it sound rather like he did use Wilson in the end. It's supposed to say In the end he pictures one of the hookers he'd had during his post-Cuddy binge. Thanks for pointing that out, it makes little sense without it.

Masturbation rules in prison - blame this mention on Dami, she sent me a link to it (which of course I can't find now) but some prisons do indeed have this rule, which of course gets ignored. I think the theory was that it would lead to less prison sexual assault or something - it makes no sense really.

Oh yeah, I think that John was being sincere in what he said that time, House is certainly better off than many others, though I suppose knowing that doesn't really help if you're the one feeling miserable.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. :)

Edited Date: 2012-07-11 07:08 am (UTC)

Date: 2012-07-10 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cuddyclothes.livejournal.com
I've caught up on the last few chapters--wow! The picture of life in solitary is so vivid I can see it. And you paint a great picture of what House's mind is doing during these endless "days" and "nights." Inspired touch to bring Vanessa into the story, and her comparing the Wilson she saw a year ago and the Wilson she sees now.

This is an amazing series, really.

Date: 2012-07-11 07:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] menolly-au.livejournal.com
Thanks, glad you're still enjoying it :) Endless is I think the right word for what House is going through now, it would seem like that. Thanks for reading and commenting :)

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