Tic-Tac Residue
Chapter 1
A woman jumps out of a car hurriedly and jogs into a building marked Marshall Elementary School. Jogging down the halls, she fell into stride with another dark-haired woman, slowing down to keep pace.
"You're late," the dark-haired woman reprimands.
"My car was out of gas, and I had to borrow a friends', Mom." Her friend teased, readjusting her bag on her shoulder.
"I'll bet. Brad's house is pretty out of the way of yours, and you always forget to get gas on the way." Natalie rolled her eyes.
"I wasn't at Brad's, I told you; I was just tired last night and forgot to fill up the tank after…" Rebecca, Natalie's friend, clucked her tongue.
"Who are you convincing, me or yourself?"
Natalie sighed and prepared to answer, but she glances at the clock.
"We gotta go."
Rebecca gives her friend a look but spies the time and agrees, speeding up their pace. "You can run but you can't hide. I know you're lying."
Natalie turned her head as she walked into a classroom. "Would I lie to you?" She grins, ignoring her friends' last look and turns to face a class of 5-year-olds.
"'Morning, guys!"
"Good morning, Miss Natalie!" They chorused back at her. Natalie smiled, winking at them. "And you're all in your seats?"
Another chorus of "Yes" rang out, and Natalie laughed. "Great!" She turned to a little girl with pigtails. "Sydney, why don't you tell us what you did this weekend?"
Sydney giggled, and makes a face. "Come on, Sydney, we know you're not shy." Sydney leaned on the desk and giggled again.
"How come…we always have to tell you what we did…and you never tell us what you did?" This time the entire class giggled and tittered.
Natalie smiles at her class. "Okay, I had a great weekend. But don't tell Miss Rebecca, okay?" A girl across the room raised her hand. "What did you do?"
"I, uh, made a new friend. It's fun to make new friends, right? Like when all of you came here?" The class broke out in a chorus of "Yes, Yeas, etc".
Sydney raised her hand. "Did you tell your mom and dad about your new friend?" Natalie smiled again and bobbed her head.
"Absolutely! You should never keep anything from your parents. And I told them…" Suddenly, Natalie broke off in gibberish. The class giggled, thinking it was a joke.
Natalie started to panic, still spouting off gibberish. The class was in pre-hysterics, innocently unaware of their teachers' distress. An idea grows in her head and she goes to the board, starting to write.
"C, A, L, L, T, H,…" they read as the letters appeared.
"The!" Sydney shouted.
"We know that word!" A boy yelps, more voices buzzing over the words. Natalie collapses, having a seizure. The children flock around her and the board where the words CALL THE NURSE are printed.
Rebecca comes rushing in after seeing Natalie collapse, and panics as Natalie's body seizes uncontrollably.
--
House pushed open his office door, eyeing his team already assembled at the table, with Cameron at the wipe board. He arched an eyebrow, hobbling over to stand by Chase's chair and meeting their gazes.
"Ah, another day, another patient one step closer to their impending doom."
Cameron handed him a cup filled with coffee, smiling quietly and returning to her place next to Foreman. House nodded his thanks and dumped his bag into a vacant chair, striding up to the board.
"29 year old female, first seizure one month ago, lost the ability to speak. Babbled like a baby. Present deterioration of mental status." Wilson rattled off, looking up from a folder and raised an eyebrow at House.
"Hello to you too, darling. Did last night meant nothing to you?" House quipped. Wilson rolled his eyes and dropped the folder on the table, leaning against the coffee counter.
"She can't talk? I may just like this patient." House picked up a marker, twirling it between his fingers.
"She's my cousin."
"And your cousin doesn't like the diagnosis." House watched as Wilson placed the MRI scans on the screen. "I wouldn't either. Brain tumor, she's going to die. Boring."
"No wonder you're such a renowned diagnostician. You don't need to actually know anything to figure out what's wrong." Wilson shook his head at House, walking back to lean on the counter.
"Clearly, you're the oncologist. I'm just a lowly, infectious, disease guy."
"Oh yes, just a simple country doctor. Brain tumors at her age are highly likely."
"She's 29. Whatever she's got is highly unlikely," Chase jumped in, ending the banter and trying to push the case along. House and Wilson's gazes swiveled to him. Wilson nodded at him.
"Protein markers for the three most prevalent brain cancers came up negative. No family history."
House had been studying Chase, who shifted under the gaze, but jumped in hearing the last sentence. "I thought your uncle died of cancer." He returned his stare to Wilson, much to Chase's relief.
Wilson shook his head. "Other side. No environmental factors."
"That you know of," House added.
"She's also not responding to radiation treatment."
Foreman sighed. "It's a lesion."
"And the big green thing in the middle of the bigger blue thing on a map is an island." House retorted, leaning back against the board. "I was hoping for something a bit more creative."
"Shouldn't we be speaking to the patient before we start diagnosing?" Foreman asked, shifting to look at his boss instead of the MRI scans.
House raised an eyebrow. "Is she a doctor?"
"No, but…"
"Everybody lies." House ignored Cameron's murmuring to him about "not dealing with patients". Foreman rocked back on his heels. "Isn't treating patients why we became doctors?"
House shoved off his perch and began hobbling over to the table. "No, treating illnesses is why we became doctors. Treating patients is what makes most doctors miserable."
"So you're trying to eliminate the humanity from the practice of medicine." Chase stood in front of the scans, studying House.
"If you don't talk to them, they can't lie to us, and we can't lie to them. Humanity is overrated." House swiveled his head to stare at the scans, as well as watch Chase out of the corner of his eyes. "I don't think it's a tumor."
Foreman scoffed, giving House a look. "First year of medical school if you hear hoof beets you think "horses" not "zebras"."
"Are you in first year of medical school? No. First of all, there's nothing on the CAT scan. Second of all, if this is a horse then the kindly family doctor in Trenton makes the obvious diagnosis and it never gets near this office. Differential diagnosis, people: if it's not a tumor what are the suspects? Why couldn't she talk?"
Chase shook himself from his thoughts, jumping into the conversation. "Aneurysm, stroke, or some other ischemic syndrome."
House turned his head slightly to stare at him. "Get her a contrast MRI."
"Creutzfeld-Jakob disease." Cameron piped in.
"Mad cow?"
"Mad zebra."
"Wernickie's encephalopathy?"
"No, blood thiamine level was normal."
"Lab in Trenton could have screwed up the blood test. I assume it's a corollary if people lie, that people screw up."
"Re-draw the blood tests. And get her scheduled for that contrast MRI ASAP." House hobbled over to the scans.
"Let's find out what kind of zebra we're dealing with here."
The team disassembled. Chase lingered a moment behind, staring at House before following Cameron and Foreman. House stared out of the glass before hobbling toward the door.
--
A/N: Not really eventful, sorry. It's not really my thing to change a show's episode for a story, but what the hell. I had an inspiration. Hope people will like this? I got some pretty good feedback on my other House fic, and since people seemed excited or at least somewhat interested in seeing my other House works, I figured, what've I got to loose? I can always take it down if it seems shitty.
Um, please ignore the fact that this is the first episode and then I go on about stuff happening in a later on episode... It's not that important, really, haha...
I think I'll post chapter 2 as well, since this chapter is rather uneventful...then again, the juicy stuff starts in chapter 2, so maybe I'll wait...