"Differential diagnosis people!" House said, already pacing the floor in the conference room. A very exhausted looking Foreman sat at the table while Chase made the coffee.
"Who's the patient?" The oh-so-curious wombat asked as he prepared the brew. "It must be someone good if you've gotten out of bed for—"
"Did I ask you to ask me for the patient's life story?" House snapped, giving Chase a withering look.
"Symptoms?" Foreman asked, figuring if they were ever going to get anywhere, he might as well calm the snide remarks.
"Better question. 28 year old female presents with stroke. She'd taken crystal meth, but—"
"So it's a junkie whose drugs caused the stroke. Meth causes increased risk of stroke and apparently this woman had one trip too many," Foreman explained with bored ease. He stood and headed towards the door. "I'm going home. Treat her for the stroke and get her to rehab."
"Sit down," House ordered him in a tone that caused both employees to stare at him with mouths agape. "Or else I tell Cameron that you two have been calling her names."
It took Chase a moment to register what House had just said, and when he finally did, he dropped the coffee filter he'd been putting in. "You mean Cameron's the patient?! You can't honestly expect us to believe that Cameron got high!" Chase protested.
"She did tell me that she got busted once for pot when she was a kid," Foreman realized, gaining looks from both House and Chase.
"In any event," House said, bringing the conversation back to the task at hand, "One of my employees – your colleague – had a stroke. Hmm…Let's think about that for a minute… A stroke! My that sounds like one of those doctor things! Do you think we'd be good at any of that?" He asked in his usual sarcastic tone. He was hiding the fact that he was truly shaken by the fact that Cameron, sweet innocent Cameron was currently downstairs suffering from the after effects of a stroke. He knew he should accept the fact that the stroke's most likely cause was the meth, but he needed to clear all the possibilities before just writing off the stroke.
"Okay, okay…We get it. We need to make sure that the stroke was caused by the meth and not some outside source," Foreman relented. "I'll start the blood workup and get a brain scan."
"Wait…" Chase said, still trying to figure this whole thing out. "How did she get the meth to begin with?"
House rolled his eyes at the kangaroo's stupidity. "The patient… the other patient – the one that coughed blood on her," House explained, feeling as though they were wasting precious time by still simply talking about it. "Now, go and test her for everything you could think of that would cause this
besides the meth," He ordered his underlings, hoping to be rid of them so he could mull over what had occurred.
Both Chase and Foreman headed towards the door with Foreman leading the way out.
"Just one more thing…" Chase started, gaining a not-so-appreciative look from both House and Foreman. "How did you find out about her condition so fast?"
House didn't look off-guard for a second. "Apparently I'm on her 'In case of emergency, contact…' list," He said without missing a beat. "I guess being her boss and her object of lust finally have paid off," He snarked, as Chase shook his head disgustedly as he walked out, leaving House alone.
