I don't own House or The O.C.
This takes place after the House episode with the mirror guy and after House fired Cutthroat Bitch. Marissa didn't die during the OC. Takes place five or six years after season 2 of the O.C. and during the current season of House.
"Hello Kiddies," House walked into the conference room, "Last night a cab driver dropped off a young woman who passed out in the back of his car." He walked over to the white board, "High fever, seizures, intense sweating, muscle pain, hallucinations, trouble breathing, and abdominal pain."
"We don't know who she is?" Taub asked, "Where she's from?"
Foreman shook his head, "The cab driver dumped her here. She didn't have any identification. No cell phone. Just a purse left that had a hotel key in it and some cash."
"Brucellosis," Taub suggested.
"She's had a constant fever and no lymph node inflammation," Kutner said looking at the chart, "Could be a drug overdose or withdrawal."
Thirteen shook her head, "Tox screen was clean."
"Thirteen," he said, "Take Kutner and get her purse from the nurse's station. Search her hotel room. The other two of you come with me. I hear the patient's hot and they weren't talking about her temperature."
Thirteen grabbed the purse and looked through it. There was hotel key, some makeup, and some cash.
When they got to the hotel, Thirteen walked past the front desk with Kutner on her tail and took the elevator up to the room. When they got there, she knocked on the door, "Housekeeping!"
Kutner raised an eyebrow.
"I don't want to walk in on some half naked guy she left here," Thirteen replied.
When there was no answer, Thirteen opened the door with the key and looked around.
It was pretty tidy inside. There were a few articles of clothing laying around and an open suitcase. "I'll go check the bathroom." Kutner offered.
Thirteen nodded and started to look through the suitcase. It was all very expensive high end clothes.
"I found a wallet," Kutner called, "Her name is Marissa Cooper. House was right. She's hot."
Thirteen's breath caught in her throat. She took a deep breath and picked up a familiar looking black shirt that said "CBGB"
Kutner walked out and saw Thirteen staring at the shirt. "We can get her medical records now. You can stop going through her clothes."
Thirteen dropped the shirt and grabbed the cell phone off of the bed. "Let's go."
All the way back to the hospital Thirteen's heart was racing. Why was Marissa here? Did Marissa know she lived here? Thirteen settled down her thoughts and her mind raced through all her years of Med school trying desperately to figure out what was wrong with Marissa, the was the only person she was sure she'd ever been in love with. Marissa was one of the few people that didn't see Alex Kelly as a delinquent drop-out, but as the smart, sweet, beautiful person she really was.
Thirteen had tried to wipe away her past. Alex Kelly was gone, but now her past was back. Alex Kelly was back. The girl with a bravado had hid her anger and fear. According to the mirror guy they'd treated a few days ago she was still scared, but of completely different things. And now she was scared for Marissa's life.
When they got back to the hospital, Thirteen went to the office and sat at the empty table. She picked up the phone and dialed the number for the Newport Beach Hospital.
"Yes this is Dr. Kelly from the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. I need the medical records of Marissa Cooper," Thirteen sat back in her chair.
After the medical records were coming out of the fax machine, Thirteen picked up Marissa's cell phone. She scrolled down the to the familiar names. She took a deep breath and pressed send.
"Where have you been?" Julie Cooper's voice came over the line, "We waited for you all night."
"Ms. Cooper," Thirteen took a deep breath then went on, "I'm Dr. Thirteen from the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Marissa Cooper is here with an unusual illness."
"Oh my god," Julie breathed, "Is she okay?"
"We're not sure," Thirteen said, "We're doing everything we can."
"I'll be there in a few hours," Julie stated and hung up.
Thirteen called someone else in the phonebook.
"Atwood," Ryan answered.
"Marissa's at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey," Thirteen told him, "She's really sick. Call Summer or whoever she's friends with and get down there." Thirteen hung up.
Thirteen put her head in her hands and sighed. Soon people from her past will be there and will be easy pickings for House to find out every detail they knew about her. It wasn't going to be traumatic or detrimental to her career, but sometimes it's nice to have no one know who you are, where you came from. Just to be the you that's right there in the present and nothing else.
But the bigger thing weighting on her mind was Marissa. They still had no idea what was slowly, but surely killing her.
Her pager went off. She grabbed the medical records off of the fax machine and she ran to Marissa's room, where Kutner, Taub, and House were already watching her. "What happened?"
"Her fever went up," Kutner told her, "Again."
Thirteen checked the monitors.
"Medical records?" House asked.
Thirteen handed them to House, "Apart from the sporadic cold, flu, or soar throat, she's pretty healthy."
"Not anymore," House stated and flipped through the chart. He snapped it shut and tossed it to Kutner. "Diagnosis?"
"Tularemia?" Kutner asked.
"That doesn't explain her shredded liver," Taub told him.
"Excessive drinking does," Thirteen stated.
"Good one," House told her, "Run the tests for Tularemia."
A few hours had gone by and they all anxiously waited for the test results. Thirteen's pager went off. She furrowed her eyebrows. She picked up the phone and dialed. "This is Thirteen. You paged me? Oh…okay, I'll be right there."
She hung up. "I'll be back. Page me when you get the lab results." She walked out of the room.
When Thirteen got to the nurse's desk that paged her, a nurse walked up to her, "There's a group of people demanding to know what's going on with Marissa Cooper. One of them asked for you."
Thirteen put her hands in her pockets, "Okay. They're in her room?"
The nurse nodded.
"Okay. I'll take care of it," Thirteen told her and walked to Marissa's room quickly. She thought maybe if she got there fast enough that she wouldn't have time to think of the consequences. She rounded the corner and opened the door.
Julie was the first one up and looking at her, "What's wrong with her?"
"We're not sure yet," Thirteen told them, "We're waiting for test results."
Summer slowly stood from a seat by the window, "What are you doing here?"
"I work here," Thirteen stated.
"A doctor?" Seth asked from his seat at the window.
Thirteen nodded.
"Is she going to be alright?" Ryan asked standing next to a pregnant woman Thirteen didn't recognize.
"We're doing everything we can," Thirteen assured them.
"How did you get into medical school?" Julie asked.
Thirteen raised an eyebrow, "You care more about how I got into Med school than how your daughter is doing?"
"I just want to make sure the doctor treating her is qualified," Julie narrowed her eyes.
"I'm perfectly qualified. I graduated second in my class at Harvard and beat out thirty six other applicants for this position," Thirteen stated.
Julie was dumbfounded and more importantly, speechless.
Thirteen picked up Marissa's chart and started comparing it to the monitors.
"So you don't know what's wrong?" Summer asked timidly.
Thirteen sighed, "We're just waiting for lab results. This is the best diagnostic hospital in the country. We'll figure it out." Thirteen looked puzzled. Then she put the chart down and put her stethoscope in her ears. She checked Marissa's heartbeat and then picked up her hand and looked it over.
"What's wrong?" Julie looked at her.
"Has she been unusually confused lately?" Thirteen asked.
"Now that you mention it," Summer spoke up, "She has been kinda spacey. You know, more than usual."
"I'll be right back," Thirteen looked at them and walked out.
She skidded to a halt in the office.
"Hey you're just in time," Kutner said, "It's not Tularemia."
"I know," Thirteen stated, "It's TTP. She has an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, irregular confusion and I found a clot in her finger."
"Find out her platelet count," House told her, "We don't want to give her someone else's plasma unless we're sure it's TTP."
Thirteen took off out the door with Kutner on her heals.
