Author: Erik-in-CT

Title: Beyond the Boundaries of Time

Disclaimer: The characters in this work of fanfiction do not belong to me. They belong to their original creators (David Shore & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, respectively).

House looked over his three juniors, who were busy looking through the files that had been sent over to them with their newest patient, Joseph or John or Jerry, or whatever his name was. Then he turned back to the whiteboard he was standing next to, glancing over the list of symptoms he had written on it. 'Tightness in chest – pupil constriction - trouble breathing'. All in all, the symptoms were very simply on their own, but none of the usual suspects had shown on the initial test results.

"Alright kids," he said, drawing the attention of the other doctors to himself. "Let's hear your thoughts."

"Drugs," came Foreman's very predictable response, causing House to grin to himself. Seriously, he could right down all of their responses before they even said them. "If the guy has been snorting cocaine for an extended period, it would explain all his symptoms."

"He tested clean on the intake tests," Cameron replied, flipping through the file she was holding. "No drugs or alcohol at all in his system." Again, expected. Cameron rarely agreed with Foreman, especially if it meant that the patient might have done something bad. She liked to think everyone was good. After three years with him, she should know better. House turned his eyes to her. No doubt the immunologist was about to suggest allergies.

"Doesn't mean he hasn't been using." Foreman said, his fingers drumming against the glass top of the table in irritation. "Just that he wasn't when he was admitted."

"It could be an allergy of some kind," Cameron said, ignoring Foreman's remark. House could have laughed. "Maybe from a medication he was on, or even most common indoor allergens can cause these type of symptoms."

"If it was a drug allergy he would most likely have a reaction on the skin, hives, or blisters, or a rash." Chase replied. "And just about any other common allergen would be a chronic problem, and Justin's (Justin, he knew it was something like that, House mused) symptoms developed almost overnight, with no known history." Chase glanced back down to the file. "It could be just an ordinary virus. A bad cold."

"A cold? That would hardly land him here," Foreman scoffed at the Australian. "I still say drugs are the most likely answer. The guy is only 19. Probably spent the first week of college break partying and made himself sick."

House watched this back and forth between them with a mild interest. Foreman's theory was the best, though of course he would never actually say that. Don't want the guy's ego getting any bigger. There was only room for one big ego in this office after all.

"Rerun all the tests," he said as he scribbled down the different ideas the kids were coming up with on the board next to the list of symptoms. "Drug tests, blood tests, do an MRI to look for lung infiltrates that might explain his breathing problems. Oh alright," he added, seeing Cameron's protest about to come on. "Do a scratch test for common allergens." Dropping the dry erase marker in its tray, he made a shooing motion with his hands. "Go forth and test. Shoo."

He watched as the other doctors filed out of the room to go attend to their different tests. Then he glanced back at the white board, frowning slightly. There was something off, but he couldn't quite see what it was. But there was something bothering him about the file. Shrugging it off, he grabbed his cane and headed out of the office, turning towards the elevators down the hall.

He made his way downstairs to the hospital cafeteria, spotting his best friend, James Wilson, moving through the line and grabbing his lunch. Wilson was very strict with his schedule, barring emergencies in the oncology department where he worked. Moving towards the line, he snagged a sandwich from the shelf, coming up behind Wilson and dropping it on his tray as he was paying.

"Lunch is on you today," he said as Wilson turned to glare at him.

"And this is different from any other day how?" Wilson asked, though he made no argument, just added a few dollars more to what he had already pulled out, handing it over to the girl running the register.

"Wouldn't want to mess up routine for you," House replied, following Wilson to a table near the door.

"Of course not," Wilson simply replied, resigned to the fact that his best friend would never change. "You are the epitome of graciousness."

"That's me. Always thinking of others." House said as he unwrapped his Reuben and began eating, enjoying the banter with Wilson. He could always count on the oncologist to give as good as he got. And it worked for them in a slightly twisted way.

"I heard you finally found a new case. Anything interesting?" Wilson asked as he dug into his lunch, every once in awhile having to fend off a strategic assault upon his bag of chips.

"Maybe. Looks simple enough on the outside, but something's not right about it. I don't know what it is though." House finally managed to snag a handful of chips, grinning triumphantly. "Foreman thinks it's drugs, Cameron thinks it's allergies, Chase doesn't know what to think, so just doesn't agree with anyone."

"Sounds pretty typical."

"Got them all running around doing their tests now. Don't think it'll do any good though." He stopped for a moment, slowly chewing a bite of his sandwich as thoughts ran through his head. "The symptoms are all too simple, but the original lab results don't show what would be expected. But who can trust the lab at Princeton General. Let's see what our lab come up with." Shrugging he turned his attention elsewhere. "Movie night tonight, you in? Cheap take out and cheesy movies?"

"Yeah, sure," Wilson replied with a hint of a grin on his face. "Eight?"

"Sounds good," House said as he crumbled up the wrapper from his sandwich and stood, limping off without another word. Wilson just shook his head and turned his attention back to his lunch.

"…were clean for drugs, again," Chase was saying as House opened the door to the lab where two-thirds of his team were working.

"Clean right now," Foreman said, stubbornly sticking to his idea. "We should check out the guy's apartment. See what he's stashing."

"Where's Cameron," House asked, breaking into their argument.

"She's doing the MRI," Chase replied without glancing up from the microscope he was looking through. "Then she's going to do the scratch test."

Waste of time, House thought to himself as he glanced over the reports sitting on the table.

"I wanna go check the patient's apartment," Foreman said. "It's only fifteen minutes from the hospital."

House waved him off. "Yeah sure, go." His attention had been drawn to the blood test results that had started to print out. He didn't even notice when Foreman left. There was…nothing. White blood cell counts were all within range, so it wasn't an infection. No signs of the usual viruses. No drugs, no alcohol. Nothing that might give them any clue. Dropping the sheet, he turned and left the lab, deciding to go and bother Cameron, and see what the MRI was showing.

Author's Note: The game is afoot! Don't worry, we'll get to the Sherlock portions of the story soon.

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