Author's Note: I have no medical experience whatsoever. Everything here is based on very, very – I repeat – very, loose research that may not make any sense when put together. So let me deeply apologize for my lack of knowledge in the medical field.

Disclaimer: Don't own the characters of House MD.

Otherwise... Here goes!

Chapter 1

"Forty-year-old with high fever and headaches, showing symptoms of pneumonia but not responding to prescriptions for the past two weeks–"

"Not interested," House replied in a distracted tone, without even giving his boss a glance. He was very much occupied with throwing 'bally' up and down with the handle of his cane as he stood in the middle of the Diagnostics office. His team was scattered about, quietly reading medical journals and falling asleep in their seats.

"House, this is someone important!" Cuddy tried to catch his attention again. Taub, who had been taking a nap, suddenly stirred at the older woman's voice. The other three doctors looked up as well.

"What's the patient's name?" House asked distractedly, trying to do a couple of neat tricks. He threw the ball behind his back and managed to catch it again as it fell.

"Mr. James Martin."

"Don' know him."

"He's one of today's leading gay rights activists, and I need you to stop fooling around–" She grabbed the toy as it was in mid-air and chucked it aside, nearly hitting Taub in the face. "– and find out what is wrong with him."

The man pouted at the loss of his source of entertainment. But in a moment of improvisation, he decided to just practice balancing his cane at the tip of his fingers. Throwing the ball up and down was beginning to get boring anyway.

"Have you checked for AIDS yet?" House's voice dripped with sarcasm, knowing fully well that the question itself would rile her up.

"No traces of HIV in his blood," she deadpanned, watching with irritation as the diagnostician began twirling his cane like a baton.

"Are you really sure it's not pneumonia?"

His tone however, failed to amuse her. "House, in case you haven't noticed, Mr. Martin is a very important and influential man. He traveled here from New York for a meeting with the governor for heaven's sake! Do you not watch the news at all?"

"Hmm... I'm not gay so he doesn't matter much to me." He turned to look at Thirteen. "Do you know him?" Remy was going to nod, but was promptly interrupted by Cuddy.

"Just find out what is wrong with him," she snapped sharply. "Every test, every treatment must run by me before any action is taken." She slammed the file on the glass table, fuming to the point that all four of her employees found themselves sinking back into their seats.

"Jeez, you don't have to be so–"

House was momentarily interrupted by the sound of someone entering the office. Six pairs of eyes snapped up to see the blonde ER head walk in. "What the hell is she doing here?"

"I paged Cameron. She's going to be helping out with this case." House scrunched up his face a little in disapproval, knowing that she was also beckoned to keep him in check.

Cuddy, however, had no time to listen to his whining. As she headed for the door, she addressed the entire Diagnostics team, "Make sure he doesn't do anything idiotic and please cure the patient in time. If he doesn't cooperate, let me know and I'll hold back on his salary for the next six months. And maybe take away his parking space."

"Hey!"

He was going to protest more but his boss had already left the room. Sighing heavily, he plopped down on a chair at the end of the table, but made no motion to read the patient's file. Cameron went ahead and took the seat next to Taub and opposite of the other woman on the team. Chase eyed her cautiously, but then quickly looked away.

"So you know who this Martin guy is?" House asked Thirteen again.

The brunette nodded. "I've been to one of his talks. He's actually done a lot for the LGBT community."

Taking the initiative, since no one else seemed to be doing so, Cameron reached for the file and began reading. "Fever, headaches, chills. But not responding to azithromycin or gemifloxacin."

"It's obviously not pneumonia," said Foreman definitively.

"Fungal infection?" Taub threw in a guess.

"Could be. Then we'll have to ask for his travel history and go search his home." The Australian doc mentally prepared himself for breaking into someone's private property once again.

"Wait, has he ever been given any form of tetracycline?" Thirteen asked.

Cameron scanned the pages in the file critically. "Doesn't seem to say so."

"Treat him with doxycycline while we question him and search his home?" Thirteen directed the question at House. The entire table of doctors waited on him as he his eyes darted about the table, obviously with something on his mind that was distracting him. Then he finally nodded. "Foreman, Chase, drive up to New York and search his place. Thirty-One and Taub, get more information out of Mr. Gay Bigshot. Cameron, prepare the doxycycline treatment."

The team broke and left House alone with his thoughts.

"Leptospirosis."

That was what the patient turned out to have, as proved by the second onset of symptoms, including jaundiced eyes, abdominal pain, and a rash under his arm. Apparently, a group of homophobes broke into his apartment in New York and left a bag of dead, infected rats under his kitchen sink. The NYPD currently have a number of suspects under investigation, one of them being a powerbroker who often bitterly denounced Mr. Martin and his gay rights campaign. Fortunately, the team managed to figure out the correct diagnosis before Mr. Martin's condition became any worse than it already was.

"Shoot him up with antibiotics and have him under dialysis," House gave the final call, without even a glance up from his PSP.

After two weeks of dialysis, the patient showed great signs of improvement. One day, when Thirteen entered the his room to check on his vitals, she saw that he was up and awake, reading a newspaper.

"Good afternoon Mr. Martin. How are you feeling?"

Despite feeling weary, he put slowly away his paper and smiled. "Much better, that's for sure."

"Good." Remy walked over to examine the machine at his bedside. "I'm just checking to see if everything is alright. You should be good to go by tomorrow morning."

"That's great. Thank you very much Doctor Hadley!"

Over the course of his stay, they had gotten to talk briefly during the intervals of Remy coming in and out of his room. The doctor had shown much appreciation for his efforts, and mentioned that she attended one of his talks a while back. Mr. Martin was as amiable as he was articulate with his beliefs, and undoubtedly an admirable figure.

As Thirteen was studying his heart beat with her stethoscope, Cameron entered the room and greeted him with a bright smile. "Hi Mr. Martin. I hope you're feeling better today."

"Why, as a matter of fact, I am. Thank you, Doctor Cameron." Thirteen glanced up at the blonde and smiled subtly, before turning back to examine the patient.

"I'm just going to make a couple of notes here..." the ER attending informed him as she took the chart at the foot of his bed.

When she was done giving Mr. Martin his check-up, Remy hung her stethoscope around her neck and watched with slight amusement as Cameron began searching around for a pen. The brunette reached for one in her pocket and held it out. "Here."

At the sound of her colleague's voice, Allison looked up and smiled. "Thanks."

"Heart rate of seventy-six bpm. One-twenty, eighty mmHg," Thirteen answered her before she even got the chance to ask the question.

Cameron jotted the information down. "And...how long–"

"This is his second treatment for the day." Remy looked at her watch. "It'll be done in about an hour or so." She gave Mr. Martin a reassuring smile.

"Then you'll be ready to go by tomorrow," Cameron said optimistically.

"We're going to send you off with several prescriptions of antibiotics and medication to help ease any headaches or nausea," Thirteen noted.

"I've already sent the list to the pharmacy," Cameron told her colleague. "I'm sure they'll have it all prepared by tonight."

"Then I can bring them up here before heading out." The brunette turned to their patient. "And you won't have to wait around all morning when you check out tomorrow."

Despite still feeling frail and a tad bit sickly, Mr. Martin felt at ease at the presence of such wonderful, attentive doctors. "Thank you so much Doctor Hadley, Doctor Cameron." He couldn't be more grateful.

"No problem," Cameron spoke for the both of them.

Remy's gaze lingered on the blonde momentarily, before a swift glance through the glass walls reminded her of one more thing she had to do. "Excuse me for a moment. I'll be right back."

Cameron looked up from her writing, curious to see where her colleague was heading to so urgently, but soon understood that she was probably going to talk to Cuddy, who just happened to pass by. Thirteen quietly slid out of the room and walked briskly to catch the Dean of Medicine before she left the vicinity. The other guys on the team didn't seem to care too much about reporting back to their boss about their patient, but Thirteen knew better and decided that it was important to keep her updated, especially when the person they were treating was someone with such a big name.

"Doctor Cuddy."

The older woman halted in her tracks and turned around. "Doctor Hadley," she greeted with a little unease. She never knew what to expect when one of House's lackeys wanted to speak with her, and out of habit she often mentally prepared herself for the worst. But noting the slightly amused smile on Thirteen's face, she presumed that this was not going to be bad news.

"Mr. Martin's condition has improved significantly with the dialysis treatment. He should be well enough to check out of the hospital by tomorrow morning," she informed. Cuddy felt a wave of relief wash over her. She let out a sigh and her shoulders relaxed noticeably.

"Good. That's good to hear." The dean turned and began heading towards Mr. Martin's room, prompting Thirteen to follow. As they approached, they looked through the glass and saw Cameron chatting with him. "I seriously don't know what I'd do if I don't have you two to keep House in line. The other three would let him do whatever he wanted."

Remy let out a chuckle. "I'm sure."

Inside, Cameron had just finished taking down any necessary notes on the patient's chart. "Are you doing alright? Anything else I can do for you?" she asked.

Mr. Martin shook his head lightly. "Thank you Doctor Cameron. I think I'll be fine." He smiled. "I think my stay at the hospital has spoiled me. I've never received so much attention in my life!" he joked.

"I doubt that's true, especially with all of your supporters out there," the blonde pointed out amusedly. Mr. Martin only smiled in response. "I think you're doing such a great thing."

"Oh, now, now. Don't flatter me with compliments, doctor. A gay man's gotta do what a gay man's gotta do!" He was grinning now. Many times, even just the thought of his work managed to make him happy. His naturally cheerful character did not seem to falter even when he was bedridden. Cameron found that his warm smile was contagious.

As the blonde was setting the chart back at the end of the patient's bed, she took a glance out through the glass walls and saw that Thirteen had managed to catch Cuddy, and was now engaged in a conversation with her. She wondered for a brief moment what they were talking about, and guessed that it must be one of two things: House, or their patient.

"So how long have you two been together?"

Allison immediately snapped her head up at the question, confusion written all over her face. 'What?' "Uh... Excuse me...?" She stared at Mr. Martin long and hard, but he only chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I know this is really nosy of me. But I really can't help it when I see such an adorable couple. You just look so cute together!" If Cameron wasn't mistaken, he sounded like he was on the verge of gushing. But about what? "If you don't mind me asking though... How long have you been together?"

Cameron was completely caught off guard. "I..." What in the world was this man talking about? She wondered briefly if the medication they had given him had temporarily made him delusional. "Who?" she asked, a slender brow slightly raised.

"Why, you and Doctor Hadley of course!"

- end chapter -

Should've known that I couldn't stay away from Camteen for so long.
Let me know what you think.