Chapter Four: Reasoning

House sat hidden in the shadowed corner of Grace's room. She'd had to be sedated to stop her seizures and was now being kept medically unconscious. House had ordered another CT scan to check her brain for a tumor and was waiting on results. He watched her from his seat; twirling his cane back and forth in his fingers. She looked like a child again; so small and fragile – two things Grace definitely was not.

"I've been looking for you." Wilson said quietly as he came into Grace's room. He held an x-ray out to House. "Grace's scan; it's clear. No tumor."

House took the x-ray and heaved himself to his feet. "We should biopsy her brain; tumor could be hidden in a vein…"

"We're not going to cut into the brain of teenage girl for no reason." Wilson told him firmly. "There are a million causes of seizure; don't jump the gun."

House checked the scan himself on the x-ray machine in Grace's room; he didn't see a sign of any damage at all let alone a tumor. He sighed under his breath. "Did you run a blood tox?" he asked.

Wilson furrowed his brow. "Grace would never do drugs." He told him. "You know that. She rips into you every day about your Vicodin. Hell; she rips into me when I write the prescription."

House thought for a moment. He didn't think Grace would do amphetamines; she was smart. Having said that; she was also smart enough to know how to hide it. House didn't see Grace as much as he knew he should. She pretty much just took care of herself, and House, without help. She was often asleep by the time he got home from work. She wasn't silly enough to keep drugs at their home; if she was doing drugs she'd do them in a place House would never know about. "Check her blood." He said stiffly. "Marijuana can cause seizures-"

"Yeah; but they wouldn't cause her collapse." Wilson countered. "She's-"

"Check her blood!" House snapped as he yanked the x-ray off the machine and thrust it at Wilson. "Page me when you get the results."

Wilson sighed and watched his friend limp out of the room. He then glanced over at Grace; whom he'd been speaking to only hours before. Even as drowsy as she'd been then; she'd still seemed like Grace. The frail body that lay in the bed before Wilson appeared to be more like a ghostly shell of his young friend; hollow.

xxx

Cameron peered through her microscope at a sample of Grace's blood. "I'm finding nothing even remotely suspicious in her blood." She muttered to Chase. "I don't think what she has is blood related."

"Well; you can't go to House and say you don't think it's her blood." Chase told her. "He wants something concrete." He linked his hands together and held them behind his head. "Maybe it's something simple…like meningitis?"

"No fever." Cameron countered.

"Encephalitis." Chase offered before both he and Cameron repeated in the same breath. "No fever."

"I have a theory." Foreman announced as he came into the lab. "What if Grace's first collapse wasn't just fainting? What if it was a miror seizure? And her second – I checked her brain waves; it wasn't strong."

"You're thinking syncope's?" Cameron assumed; remembering back to an medical journal she'd read on the subject. Syncope's were another name given for fainting, loss of consciousness or minor seizures.

Foreman nodded and held up a file. "Just checked her heart rate for the past two hours; it's lower than normal. Could be Bradycardia."

"The medication we gave her to keep her unconscious could also slow her heart rate." Cameron noted.

Foreman nodded in agreement. "But if it is Bradycardia her heart rate could just keep slowing and cut off oxygen to her brain."

"Keep an eye on her blood gases." Chase spoke up. "If they slow as well then you might be right."

"Well, you can't go to House and tell him we might be right." Cameron teased Chase.

Foreman sighed. "I think we need to wake her up. If her heart rate goes up then it's not Bradycardia."

"I'll tell House." Cameron said as she got to her feet.

"You'll tell House nothing." Cuddy said as she came into the lab. "You come to me when it concerns Grace from now on; I'm her primary physician."

"But he-" Cameron started.

"Is a father watching his daughter get sicker and sicker." Cuddy finished for her. "He can't be objective. Not with Grace." She turned to Foreman. "Your prelim diagnosis is Bradycardia?"

Foreman nodded.

"But she doesnt have any of the other Bradycardia symptoms." Chase brought up. "Her thyroid function is normal; she doesn't have any gastro intestinal issues and no jaundice."

"Wilson just told me that House wants her tested for anphetamines." Cuddy told the three of them. "Bradycardia can stem from abuse of certain drugs. It also explains her seizures and waking her up won't cause her any damage – so do it. I'll deal with House."

xxx

As Grace awoke; she recognized the two blurry faces staring down at her as Chase and Cameron. Her chest felt heavy and her head still hurt. She had no idea what time it was or even if it was still Wednesday.

"Hey, Grace." Cameron smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired." Grace mumbled as they raised her bed so she was sitting up. "What happened?"

"You had a minor seizure so we gave you something to help you sleep." Chase informed her. "But you're going to be ok."

"Where's my Dad?" She asked as she blinked a few times to clear her vision.

"I'll go find him for you." Cameron offered with a smile before leaving the room.

"Gave us quite a scare, Grace." Chase told her with a smirk.

"Well; had to give you something to do." Grace quipped back tiredly as she rubbed her eyes.

"Are your eyes alright?" Chase asked with a furrowed brow as he removed his penlight from his pocket.

"Yeah; yeah." Grace assured him. "Just blurry."

Chase flicked his torch in each of Grace's eyes and pursed his lips together in a firm line. "Hang tight." He told her. "I'll be back soon."

"What?" Grace asked as she watched his blurred shape leave her room. "What's wrong with me?" She was starting to panic. "Am I going blind?"

"I just need to confirm your results." Chase assured her in a calm voice. "No need to worry." He smiled and exited the room.

Grace blinked repeatedly; forcing her vision to clear – but nothing happened. She looked around her empty room and suddenly felt completely alone.

xxx

House was leaning back against his desk chair watching as the snow fell delicately from the sky. His thoughts consisted only of Grace; what the hell was wrong with her? He couldn't put his finger on it. His own words were swimming around his head; the ones he spat at his 'trainees' when a family member wanted more to be done for their sick loved one. "Their judgment is clouded. All they want is to save their mother/father/sister/brother/daughter or son. That's their priority. It's our job to be objective; looks for what's there – not what we want to be there." Now he was the one who couldn't be objective.

"House." Cuddy called to him as she came into his office. "Results came back on Grace's blood; only drug they found was aspirin." She shrugged. "It's not Bradycardia."

House said as he spun around in his chair to face her. "You know as well as I do how quickly drugs can get out of the system. Test her hair; there'll still be traces there."

"House; you would know if your own daughter was on drugs!" Cuddy snapped aggressively. "You knew when a guy walked into a clinic with the sniffles that it was because he was coming down off an acid trip; you'd know if Grace was on something."

"Test her hair!" House shouted louder than he meant to. He flexed his knuckles together. "Just do it." He added in a calmer; yet equally firm voice.

"And when it comes back negative; what do you want us to do?" Cuddy folded her arms and looked at him expectantly. "Test her bone marot? Pump her stomach?" she dropped her arms down at her sides. "What is it gonna take to prove to you that it's not drugs?"

"It's not Bradycardia." Chase said as he came into the room with Cameron at his heels.

"What are you talking about?" Cuddy asked him.

"Grace just woke up; she's experiencing vision changes – blurry; to be exact." Chase informed them.

House got to his feet and limped over to his cane. "She woke up with it?"

Chase nodded.

"She's been unconscious for almost five hours," Cuddy said to House. "Everyone would experience blurred-"

"It's not Bradycardia." House said with a shrug.

"What?!" Cuddy yelped. "You just said that-"

"Blurred vision has nothing to do with Bradycardia." House reminded her. "It's something else," he looked to Chase and Cameron. "Figure out what." He limped out of his office.

"And where are you going?" Cuddy inquired.

"I'm going to see the patient." House told her with a sarcastic smirk. "Isn't that what doctors are s'posed to do?"

xxx