I'm sorry! I was suffering major writers block.
"There's nothing wrong with her eyes."
Chase faced them in the diagnostics office, arms crossed over his chest. House was bouncing a ball on the ground, the continuous thudding making Chase's teeth stand on edge in irritation.
House caught the ball and snorted. "Right, of course. She's just pretending to be blind so you can make an idiot of yourself." Chase caught the insult in the last few words, and felt colour rise on his cheeks. But he stood resolute.
They had been forced away from the ward by Cuddy.She had stuck her head in and told them if they wanted to stay singing in bass clef they should get the hell out beforeVogler discovered what they had done.
Cameron was alone now, staring blankly in bewildered shock. Chase's eyes fell on her chair, sadly empty. It was strange how even though they were only missing one, the room seemed so much emptier.
"I'm just saying it's nothing to do with her eyes. The problem goes deeper."
"Right. It's something in her brain." Foreman agreed quietly. House put the ball on the table, heart heavy.
At Foreman's words, Chase had gone pale. "You mean brain cancer?" House smiled a little sadly. Figured Chase would refuse to see the obvious.
Foreman shook his head. "Not necessarily.More likelyan infection of the brain stem."
"Encephalitis." House nodded slowly. It was the most likely option.
Unfortunately, it caused a whole hoard of problems.
Encephalitis wasn't a disease itself, but a collection of viral and bacterial infections that attacked the fatty tissue around the brain stem. All together there were probably a thousand different strains that could be attacking Cameron's brainstem, anything from Herpes to hepatitis.
The most common way to diagnose the right strain was to take a sample directly from the brainstem.
Which could only be reached through surgery.
"Actually, I think it might be cancer." Wilson spoke up. He had been silent throughout the entire conference.
"You would think that. You're an oncologist." Chase pointed out, with a tone that boarded on snide. He had sided with Foreman, and the option that left Cameron with most of her frontal lobe.
Wilson shook his head, seemingly reluctant to speak. "Its not that," he said, hesitant. "Encephalitis doesn't cause loss of sight unless its a strain of infection that affects the eyes, and Chase said there was nothing wrong with them. Cancer explains all her symptoms." he didn't look happy with his logic.
Diagnosing cancer for someone who he liked as a friend was more painful than he realised.
Foremanwas stubborn. "Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis then. ADE has a sudden onset, and can cause loss of sight in rare cases."
"Yeah, one in a million." Wilson's voice was flat. House stood up, and they fell silent. Emotionless blue eyes stared at the white board, dark with thought. They flicked over each of her symptoms as the brain behind them clicked into movement.
The otherswaited, tense.
"Take a lumber puncture, and test the spinal fluid for any bacterial or viral infections. Run blood tests of cancerous cells, and an MRI."
"MRI's can't tell the difference between cancer and infection." Foreman pointed out.
"No, but they can tell us where it is. Unless you want to go cutting randomly through her skull on the off chance you hit something?"
"And what if it's an infection?" Chase demanded.
House remained still, though the lines around his eyes seemed to deepen.
"Schedule surgery."
Wilson's eyes widened in shock. Chase gaped at House, lost for words.
"Brain surgery." Foreman repeated, with a little to shake of his head as though he was sure he'd heard wrong.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what I said..."
"You want us to just open her up?" Chase said hotly, glaring at House. House shot him a look that Wilson was stunned to see looked like amusement.
Oh God. He had been hoping House wouldn't react like this...
"There are other ways." Foreman argued, looking mortified. "MRS scanners-"
"We don't have one at the hospital." said House calmly.
"There's one across at Royal Prince George Hospital. If we transfer her there-"
"In which time she could die." House looked irritated at the delay. "We don't have time for this. Infections don't just wait around, you know."
Foreman looked ready to argue, but a warning glance from Wilson made him sigh and leave the office. He hoped Wilson could talk House out of this lunacy. Chase followed, throwing back an unhappy glance.
"Greg..."
House collapsed into a chair and grabbed his Vicodin.
"What?" he eyed Wilson and sighed. "Oh great. You've got your therapy face on." he tossed back his head and swallowed.
"You don't have to do surgery."
"If I don't want to dicharge a patient with the IQ of a watermelon I do."
"There you are, you're doing it again!" House pretended to look confused. Wilson clenched his teeth in aggravation.
"It's not just a patient, its Cameron.You haven't called her by her name once." he sat back, almost despairing. House said nothing.
"If this was any other patient you would be thinking of another way to do this. You know how risky brain surgery is."
"And if this was any other patient we wouldn't be having this argument." House shot back, brows drawn together in a glower.
"You're trying to distance yourself, to decrease the risk of making a stupid decision."Wilson said forcefully. "And normally that would be fine. But not so much that you can just make a choice and not think about the consequences it could have!"
"So you're saying that I'm trying to save her by killing her." House said slowly, cocking his head to the side and pretending to think about it. "Well, that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one."
"Right, and you're the moron."
House cocked an eyebrow.
Wilson bit his lip, ashamed atthe outburst. He attempted to take a calming breath as House popped another Vicodin.
"Well, tell her what you're planning on doing." he said at last, voice quiet. "You owe her that at least."
House met his gaze, then looked away.
Wilson knew he had finally got through, a little at least.
"Fine." House muttered, heaving himself to his feet. Then he raised his chin and looked Wilson in the eye.
"But I'm not changing the surgery."
He left diagnostics office without a word.
Foreman watched as House limped down the corridor with a face of thunder. He caught Wilson as he came out the door.
"Well?" Wilson shook his head.
"Still wants the surgery." he found it difficult to keep his voice level. Foreman clenched his jaw tightly as he stared at his boss's retreating back.
"He'd better know what he's doing." he muttered darkly.
Heat was prickling on her arms. Nervously Cameron scratched at it with her nails like it was an itch, coughing.
But nothing had changed. She couldn't see a thing.
She was surprised at how much it affected her. She heard things but couldn't tell what they were; She didn't know what time it was, or even if it was still daytime. It was just blackness, total and absolute.
It scared her.
She wshed somone would come, even just a nurse. Anything than being alone in the darkness. Her chest was tight; it felt like someone was leaning on her ribs, slowly increasing the pressure. Each breath was a short, painful gasp.
Someone came into the room. Her heart squeezed painfully tight as she recognised the strange, three legged scuffle of House. She had not spoken to him since her seizure; even when he had been in the room before, he had been silent.
"House?" she said hesitantly
There was silence. It stretched so long she half thought she'd imagined the noise.
"Yep. It's me." He voice sounded strange,cold and halting. She wished she could see his face.
Again silence stretched.
"...what...do you know what I have?"
"Not yet. The preliminary blood tests were clean. Though it's probably something in your brain. Cancer, or infection."
She nodded jerkily. She'd expected as much, though hearing it from House made it terrifyingly real. A bitter chill made her shiver harder, though she tried to keep it hidden.
"We're going to take a lumber puncture, and run blood tests for cancerous cells as well as an MRI." he paused, and Cameron felt suddenly wary. He was hiding something.
"And?"
"If it's an infection, we might need to perform surgery to work out what type it is."
He watched her take in a deep, shuddering breath. Then another.
House wasn't made for comforting people. He was more interested in solving the puzzles then helping the people involved. Wilson had always teased him, saying he had the bedside manner of an undertaker.
It had never bothered him until now.
"I'm sorry." he said, though it was terribly inadequate.
She looked up and smiled a rather shaky smile. "You're doing the right thing." she said softly."I have faith in you."
He felt the knuckled on his left hand clench as he tightened the grip on his cane. There was a tight pain in his chest, though he didn't quite know where. Any reply he could have made was halted by Chase and Foreman. They'd come in to do the lumber puncture.
House retreated to the corner as they got the needle ready.
Cameron rolled onto her side. Instantly the weight on her chest felt like a ton of bricks. She closed her eyes, fighting to breathe as there was a tiny prick on her back.
"Try not to move." Foreman said. I know, I've done this before she wanted to say, but an iron hand was tightening around her throat.
"I can't breathe." the words cracked and snapped. Chase shot Foreman an alarmed look.
"Nearly done." he said quickly, trying to draw out the fluid as quick as possible.
"Oh sh..." pain shot down her spine, but that wasn't what made her heart stop. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe!
"Sit her up." House voice snapped, echoing from far away. Her heart was thumping loudly in her ears with panicky beats.
"But-"
"She's turned blue you morons! Get her up!"
Cameron's mouth gaped as she struggled for breathe, lips tinged with blue.
She was choking.