“Your talent is God's gift to you.
What you do with it is your gift back to God.”
- Leo Buscaglia
You would say you need to be in the middle of the fight between good or evil, to be a hero or a villain, to know what it means the excitement, the adrenaline, the tension and desperation. Most people would tell you that that is the only way to know the real faces of life and death.
But exceptions exist, in every possible way. One man would tell you that even that kind of person may not know a shit about that, and that same person would prove that you don’t need to be on those leagues to know how to live and how to die.
And THAT person was now arriving to his workplace, to have one of the most dangerous yet exciting days of his life, and that was saying something.
Dr. Drakken was walking across the corridors of the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, knees and elbows curved showing how annoyed he was and making him archive more sights of the people around there than what his blue skin and reputation had already earned.
‘I don’t get it. What the hell is wrong with her!?’
Much his dismay, he had been given an order -and order!- by his sidekick, and as much as he wished to disobey, he knew he would regret it if he did. He was just near the exit when something, a cane, suddenly hit his knee making him misstep and almost fall to the floor.
“Still short-tempered, Drew?” He heard his attacker saying.
Some encounters were just meant to occur, not by destiny, but by mere irony. This was the case.
“Who the-!?” He started when he suddenly saw the person standing right beside him. It took him a second to recognize him, but when he did, indeed he was surprised “Greg!?”
Gregory House, a person whom Drakken, much like Chen, James and Ramesh, had never expected to see again, yet… it seemed like fate liked to disagree with him.
“Wow! Look at you, feeling blue?”
“Oh, how funny!”
“So… it’s true what I heard? You finally became a mad scientist? Or are you still making sexy robots?”
“Seem like you haven’t changed since college!”
“Nor do you”
The quick conversation because of the reunion of two old “friends” was suddenly interrupted by one thing one doctor was used to and the other had no idea about: A green blast that passed right between them and smashed against the first wall that was on it’s way, leaving a irregular black stain and some burning smell.
If it wasn’t because there was no one here appropriated to listen the comment, House would have said something about Cuddy going to get really mad because of someone ruining the decoration.
“DRAKKEN!” A female voice screamed though the area, strong enough to make a child cry “WHAT-the-HELL-are-YOU-losing-TIME-with!?”
Now, that’s a woman. Greg though while whistling
“I-I-I was… uh-uh…”
“Go and get that if you don’t want me to kill you right here!!” She said, her hand, much to House’s surprise, starting to glow with a green fire-like aura surrounding them.
“On my way!”
“See ya around!” House managed to say before his old college’s companion disappeared from his sight.
Back in the abandoned factory where a fight was held and an incident had occurred, the only human remaining there was finally getting up to his feet.
“K-Kim…” Ron managed to say, looking around but finding no trace of her “Rufus, where did they go?”
“Josptal!”
“What? But why would they… ?”
As well as the pain still present between his legs allowed him, Ron got up and started walking.
Few things could catch Dr. House attention like, according to that weird horoscope he once heard about, a blue fox could catch a yellow trout. Sometimes it was a very particular case, or, like the last time, a particular case of that he could make a running gag about, like her boss going to be a mother.
This time… it was a woman, and not a normal one. Only a fool could think of her as normal, or maybe a blind person, considering her skin color, not to mention what she had just done. Now, what could this girl have with someone as Drew?
Well, he might have to find out, or rather… he wouldn’t lose the chance to. Hurrying up his crippled walking, he was just about to catch her with a introductive question already in mind about colored skin becoming a new fashion, but, as much as he had just started a day of good luck, someone just HAD to prove otherwise.
“Need you, now” Cuddy said grabbing him dragging him with her.
No matter how much would wish for it, some question can’t just NOT pop out in your head: ‘Why does she always have to be in the middle?’. Or was it that she expected him to call him Mistress like the last time?
“What? Now I’m popular?” Maybe he could get away…
“Shut up! Keep walking!” …or maybe not
Now, that was sounding serious, even for Cuddy, and for the way she grabbed him when he was just about to make contact with the attractive black-haired green-skinned lady, he was already betting that she had something to do with her boss’ behavior.
As always, he was damn right…
There are things -bad things- you can get used to. Other says that there are thing you’d never get used to. Robert Chase believed that humanity could accustom to anything, even hell if it existed. That’s how he had learned to live along the stress of his hard work, even though he once wanted to get away -escape- from it.
Today’s work… was unusual. It’s always unusual, ‘cause it’s almost always something new. But today it was unusual in another way. He still was confused about how should he feel about that.
The fact that his patient was a living legend made it even more unusual, but that was not the point. If any, that the patient was a heroine would mean that she was a strong patient, probably making this case easier.
Luckily enough, the case seemed to be easy enough by itself.
Kim Possible. Age, seventeen. Red hair, athletic body. Arrived at the hospital in the arms of her arch-enemies. Unconscious, but her bringers declared that she had been screaming in pain just minutes ago. The main problem? A severe burn in the right side of her abdomen, apparently different to normal ones according to what he had heard. The green woman, “Shego” if he was right, had said that the burn could be radioactive or plasmatic or, whatever, she obviously wasn’t sure, but she promised to bring him all the possible information about it.
Right, the case didn’t do much sense respecting to the girls case. Weren’t they arch-enemies? Well, if he could manage to solve this girl’s case soon, all the melodrama would be avoided. It was strange, though. When they met, Shego was carrying Kim in her arms acting more like an overprotective mother than an “enemy”, obviously exaggerating the case.
Rather than doing it before the information arrived, Chase wanted to finish the case before House arrived. The last thing he wanted was to have his mocking because of dealing with such an easy case.
The girl got burn, big deal. She screamed, right, who doesn’t? And the fever could easily be explained with an infection. Everything else seemed normal in the girl. Blood pressure, respiration, stimuli reaction, reflexes. Giving her some ointments and antibiotics should solve the case and the girl should be fine in a short time.
And to think he got scared when Shego threatened them.
“Threatened?” House asked, now he was in Cuddy’s office with said Dean of medicine and her work companion Eric Foreman.
“That’s right” Cuddy replied “Shego brought Kim Possible here and ordered, by harsh means, the best doctors and diagnostic team, or someone else would get hurt”
“Wow” He replied “Now I think I like her even more”
“House… she’s a criminal! A thief, a mercenary, sidekick of the evil scientist known as Dr. Drakken and-”
“The point is…” Foreman interrupted “…we were assigned to Miss Possible’s case, but then she swore that, if the girl died, we died”
“Now how ironic. Makes me feel flattered and hated at the same time.”
“Look!” Cuddy exclaimed “Just go and take care of the girl and make sure she is fine. I didn’t put you guys in charge only because of Shego’s demand, but because of how important this girl is”
“Important?” House questioned.
“We’re are talking about Kim Possible here! THE Kim Possible!!”
“Doesn’t ring any bell”
“What?!”
“You’re serious!?”
“What’s so big about her? As far as I’m aware, the president’s surname is not Possible”
“House!” The Dean exclaimed “She’s a hero! A justice’s warrior, crime-fighter, teenage hero!”
“I’m not really into Marvel Comics, you know?” He replied, making the boss slap her own forehead. This guy may possible be the best doctor around, but he could be SO frustrating sometimes.
“House” Foreman called “She’s for REAL, honest”
“And you’re telling me that a CRIMINAL brought an injured HERO to the hospital? How much sense does that make to you?”
Awkward and utter silence.
“…not really much?” Foreman spoke.
House sighed, and here he though this day had stared well. Better check the case.
“What the situation with our superhero?”
“Several burns on right side of her abdomen, product of Shego’s power” Foreman started.
“Great, super-hero and super-villain!” This was turning just more and more ridiculous.
“Fever. Fainted before arriving here” Continued “Shego reported that she was screaming like mad.”
“Is her name really “Shego”?” House asked, somehow trying to make this a bit more interesting.
“Does it matter?” Cuddy replied.
“Probably bacterial infection” Foreman added.
Greg was just now holding back the impulse of hitting someone with his cane. This was just so…
“Can’t you bring me something even more diagnostically boring? Any burn can have infection, infections cause fever, high fever and pain can cause fainting, and don’t even question about the screaming. They teach this in school!”
“But it could also be radioactive, plasmatic or have been exposed to electromagnetic reaction. We’re not sure exactly what did Shego’s power did to her.”
Ok, maybe it was worth the case, as ridiculous and exasperating as it sounded.
“Look” Cuddy said “Chase and Cameron are already on the work. Just take care of the girl and maybe we’ll have this solved for midday. I’m just about to contact Global Justice and then we’ll have one problem less”
“Wait a minute!” House exclaimed, no way he was going to lose the interesting part of this case “Calling for the big ones?”
“Of course! We can’t just have a criminal running around here and doing what she wants! Global Justice has been after her and Drakken for years!”
“If our super-hero is infected by the super-villain, we’ll need to check them both”
“So what are you suggesting? Not calling GJ?”
Great, she was making this easier.
“Not even the police yet. This girl could be the like Kryptonite for our superwoman. Besides, Drew just left, went to search something for his sidekick”
“Drew? You mean Drakken?”
“Right, so I think that, if you want them in prison, you’ll have to wait for his return”
“How can you be so sure that he’ll comeback?” Foreman wondered.
“If I know him well, he will.”
“You know him!?” Now Cuddy was stunned.
“Old companion from college, the guy was intelligent but immature. Doesn’t seem to have changed much from that time, though I still wonder how the hell he got blue. Is tainted skin turning into a fashion or what?”
“So you want me to keep the criminals around? Have you lost sense?”
“Like this case ever made sense, right?”
“House, I can’t…”
CAN’T. That word was always her excuse. Unfortunately, it was usually useful. Though, then again, break that defense and Cuddy would be weak, very weak.
“Yeah, sure. Call the cops and bring them here. That will surely change our boring routine. Now this is gonna be exiting: Cops VS the most wanted female criminal, there’ll probably some shooting, let’s just hope that our dear hero won’t get caught in the crossfire”
How? Cuddy wondered. How was it that he’d always find a way to seem to be right? Even if -maybe- he wasn’t. At some point, she was sure that House had some hidden intentions in his demands, but with the situation being so delicate around here, maybe it was better to wait, think and then act, even if it meant to give House some of the time he wanted.
“Fine, just save Miss Possible and make sure that Shego won’t run away just yet”
Now, this was easier than what he thought it would be! So easy that it was suspicious.
“Great, now let’s get to work. We gotta be the hero’s heroes”
Said that, House turned around leaving the office. Foreman gave a last sight to his boss and then followed him, closing the door behind him.
She had a bad feeling about this… a very bad one.
In the intensive care unit, Allison Cameron finished applying the ointments and the Lidocaine around the patient’s injure. The redheaded girl reacted to the touch, clearly feeling pain, which disturbed the immunology specialist a bit.
“What anesthetic is she under?” She asked to Chase, who was writing the records of the treatment in the corner of the room.
“Morphine in low doses. Shego said that she’s been screaming in pain before fainting”
“Are you sure it is working?”
He turned around looking at her from the chair and was about to answer when their attention was dragged by the sound of the door opening and a certain person coming through it. The same one that had brought Kim Possible in her arms. Green and black being her trademark colors, from toes to hair, and that jumpsuit that denoted her sexy figure, as much as Cameron didn’t like to admit it. She looked serious, calm and imposing. Her eyes were enough to threat them and warn them to be careful with her words.
“How is she?” She asked, or rather demanded.
Cameron, who was meeting Shego for the first time, stepped backward. Chase looked at her partner for a moment and, without moving from his chair, replied in a calm voice:
“She’s stable so far”
“Haven’t you found anything wrong?”
“Nothing particularly wrong yet. I think she’ll be fine soon”
Shego closed her eyes giving a long sight. “Good” She murmured.
Chase felt that having met Shego before, when she arrived to the hospital, had somehow prepared him for dealing with her. Cameron, on the other hand, was totally lost and preferred to stay quite in her presence. She didn’t even want to think about the consequences of enraging a criminal, not to mention the one that had just defeated Kim Possible.
“Have you checked her arm?”
“Her arm?” Chase repeated.
“I’m not sure, but I think she might have got her left arm injured during the…” She gulped “during the battle, maybe it was the shoulder”
“We’ll check on it” He replied
Well, it seemed that, as long as they’d keep Kim’s condition as the only topic of conversation, there wouldn’t be any risks.
“…thanks”
He blinked, “You’re welcome”
Cameron stared at his partner for a moment, wondering about this weird kind of way of dealing with certain kind of people like this… Shego. Were they really supposed to treat her like any other person? No, it couldn’t really be as easy as that.
Once again, their attention was dragged to one thing in particular. This time a moan, Kim’s moan. The redheaded teenager was waking up…
“Don’t tell her I’m here!” Shego whispered to the doctors, quickly hiding behind a wardrobe, where only Kim wouldn’t notice her.
Chase stood up and approached the bed in which the girl, already changed into an light-blue hospital gown. The girl opened her eyes slowly, closing them tightly for a moment and then finally looking around, but her sight wasn’t totally clear when she moaned again, and this time, it was because of pain.
Kim arched herself giving a gasp of pain and placed his right hand on her injured abdomen, instantly retiring it when she felt the pain burning even stronger. Cameron graved Kim’s hand, firmly but gently, and Chase held her by the shoulders. They couldn’t allow her to take a sitting position with that injure on her abdomen.
“Stay still!” He commanded “Don’t worry, you’re safe here”
She obeyed and rested on her back again, breathing heavily due to the pain. Once she was ‘stable enough’, she looked at the two persons around her, clearly doctors.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital” The female doctor replied “Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital”
“What happened? Where’s Ron?”
Both doctors looked at each other for a moment, then back at the redhead.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Cameron asked.
“I was… I was trying to stop Shego and Drakken from stealing the planes of Outer Haven Corporation’s secret weapon” She explained, making gestures with her right hand while talking “I remember Shego attacking me and then…” She paused “…then what?”
The doctors looked between them once again, this time only by the corners of the eyes, and Cameron replied.
“Then you’re here. Something clearly didn’t went well back there”
“Did Ron bring me here? What happened with Shego and Drak-? OW!”
Growing and pressing teeth, her hand approached to the injured zone once again, carefully not touching it.
“We don’t know what happened back there” Chase replied “But we know that you’re injured and in need of treatment”
“How are you feeling?” Cameron asked
“My stomach burns and it’s killing me” She replied, not sounding very pleased.
“Hold on, I’ll increase the morphine” Chase replied, operating one of the machines.
“Who brought me here?”
Now that’s a question they couldn’t just answer so easily.
“How is your left arm?” Cameron asked, trying to change the subject.
Kim looked at her for a moment, blinked, as if remembering something, and then she raised her right arm and placed her hand on her left shoulder, pressed it and instantly grumbled, “Not good!”, closing her eyes tightly.
Clearly it was not the arm but the shoulder. Cameron approached and moved the gown around her left shoulder revealing…
“Oh, my”
…a severe dark purple bruise on it, and it seemed to be inflamed.
“Do you think you’re feeling all of it or…?” Chase started.
“No, I know it was worse before” Kim interrupted
“Which means the anesthetics are working” Cameron contested.
“I still feel my belly on fire!” She complained, but remained in control, returning to her business “Did Ron brought me here?”
Another moment of silence.
“No” Cameron finally replied “We don’t know who you’re talking about”
“Then WHO brought me here?”
“I… don’t think we should talk about that just yet” Chase replied.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing” He said quickly “You’re our priority know, Kim, so please-”
“If I was defeated back there then that means that Ron was all alone against Shego and Drakken! He could be-!”
“Calm down!” Cameron ordered “Don’t be imprudent! You can’t go anywhere being in such condition!”
“But…!”
How could she? Ron could be in danger! He could have been captured by Drakken, or maybe worse, maybe he was…
She didn’t even want to think about it.
But… if Drakken and Shego escaped and Ron was defeated like she was, then how was it that she was here? She thought for a moment that Ron might have brought her to the hospital, but the doctors didn’t even know who she was talking about. Then again, clearly they were hiding something, weren’t they?
“I can’t just stay quiet like this! Tell me the truth!” She demanded “WHO brought me here!?”
“I did!”
Kim Possible looked to where the very familiar voice had came from, confirming with her eyes what she though was a lie from her ears.
“Shego!?”
Author Notes:
Well, this is the first chapter (after the prologue) of this challenging crossover I proudly accepted to write, even though of the headaches that came with it. I’m not a doctor, not related in any ways with medicine, so it’s kind of hard for me to write such thing as a script for a chapter of House MD, but I’m doing my best researching as much as I can about diseases and medical treatments. I can only hope to manage to make it believable enough.
This is the first time I write about both House MD and Kim Possible, not to mention the first “long” fanfic I write in English (Not my first language. Other than this, I’ve only wrote drabbles in English), so please be as sincere as possible in reviews, and if you catch any mistake, please mention.
‘Til next chapter!