Alright. Apologies up the wazoo for the delay. I've been sitting on idea's for this story for a while. Unfortunately I have a tendancy to forget stories and loose muses for them just as things start to get good. I'm determined not to have that be the case this time.

So yea this chap didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, but I can't change it. I don't quite know how to get it where I want it to so I'm just gonna wing it. It tends to go best that way anyway.

&

Az walked into Evie's hospital room, seeing for once her friend had her eyes open. Smiling slightly Az sat next to the bed, placing her hand on her friend's.

"I thought they sedated you…" Az said in a quiet voice. The hospital felt like a library to her, she had to whisper in fear of disturbing someone.

Evie shrugged. "I guess they decided to take me off. My fingers are still purple, no matter what they try… How are you?"

It was Az's turn to shrug. "Alright I guess. I'm worried about you. I had to go to classes today though, I'm falling really behind. I stopped by your classes and got you makeup work, and I only brought the easy stuff to do."

Evie smiled. "Thanks… now I have to do the work."

Both females couldn't help but laugh. Things quickly fell silent as Az took her hand back and placed both in her lap. She heaved a heavy sigh.

"The doctors suspect that you were poisoned… by the advil that I gave you…"

Evie looked at Az, worry etched into her features. "Az…"

"Evie you're my best friend… I would never hurt you. Never… you know that right?"

Evie nodded, her eyes welling up with tears. "I do know that Azrael, and if they insist that you did, you tell them. I know you don't take any bullshit, arrogant doctors included."

Az smiled a small smile, looking up at Evie with tears in her eyes as well. She quickly blinked them away. It calmed her slightly to know that her friend held no ill will towards her.

"The doctors still don't know what's wrong with me do they?" Evie asked, her eyes falling downcast. "They've sedated me, took test after test and still can't figure out why my fingers turned p…"

Az lifted her gaze and looked at Evie. The girl's face was red, and suddenly the monitors she was hooked up to began to beep erratically.

"Evie?" Az cried out worriedly. She jumped to her feet, a hand on Evie's. "Evelyn?!"

She heard the door open behind her and a female voice called out. "She's crashing. I need a cart in here!"

Az looked to the owner of the voice and saw it was a female in a white lab coat, obviously a doctor. She remembered Dr. Chase saying something about being one of three, and she met Dr. Foreman already. Was this the third musketeer?

A nurse gently grabbed Az's arms and pulled her away from Evie's bedside. Immediately she fought. "No! No! What's going on? Why isn't she breathing? What's happening?"

A stronger pair of arms wrapped around her, gentle yet firm, and geared her out of the hospital room to the hallway. She abruptly turned to see it was Chase.

"What's going on?" she cried out, tears forming behind her eyes again. "What's happening?"

Chase heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his blonde hair. "She's not breathing, causing her heart to stop."

&

Evelyn's breathing was stabilized, along with her heart rate. Unfortunately she fell into a sort of coma, eyes closed and responses, minimal. House's team sat in their designated chairs in the conference room, staring at the whiteboard as House wrote in the latest symptom.

"Alright, tachicardia, a new ball to play with. What does it mean?" House asked, looking at his ducklings expectantly.

" Lupus. Her body is allergic to itself, causing lung function to fail." Cameron insisted.

"I think she was poisoned. Whatever it was is attacking her respiratory system now."

Things fell silent, all opinions being heard apparently. "Chase what do you think?" House asked, limping over to the blonde Australian and throwing the oversized tennis ball at him.

"I-I think we don't know enough about her environment to rule out poison, and we don't have a well enough documented history to rule out lupus."

"Excellent Chase. Way to have an original thought. Chase, Cameron, go to the dorm room and check for poisons, environmental causes, whatever you can find. Just get the information."

&

Breaking into dorm rooms was surprisingly easy. The handle took very little coaxing to wield to Chase's will.

"It's clean for a college dorm," Cameron marveled, looking inside.

"They're girls. Unless you're admitting that your dorm in college was a mess." Chase snickered, turning on a flashlight and casting the beam across the room.

"Well no, I was neat. But kids these days…"

"They're not that much younger than us. Ten years isn't a lot of time, really."

Things fell silent as Cameron moved to Evie's side of the room. "Two beds, two dressers, two desks, how can we tell who's side is who's?"

Again Chase snickered, angling his beam to fall on the Jack Skellington poster, and then moved it to the Bullet for My Valentine poster beside it. "I think this side is Az's."

Cameron hesitated before answering. "If it's poison, chances are Az hid it in her things. Check her stuff too."

Chase nodded, lowering his flashlight to the nightside table. With gloved hands he carefully sifted through the notebooks, novels, cough drops and, oh god, condoms, before his hands fell still.

"Foreman was right," he mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Foreman said that something serious was going on with Az. Said she was very careful with her left arm… winced every time she moved it. And this…" he paused to hold up the blood stained razor he found in the flash light's ray. "This is why."

Cameron paused, looking at the razor curiously. "She's a cutter."

"Obviously. How many people who aren't cutters have bloodied razor blade's in their night table drawers?"

Cameron sighed, taking the razor from Chase and placing it in a bag. "So she cuts, and by the look of the dried blood I'd say a lot. What does this have to do with Evelyn's diagnostic?"

"Nothing, really. But Evelyn isn't our only patient. We have to look out for Az too."

&

"So she cuts," House said bluntly, looking at the razor Cameron dropped on his desk. Chase glanced over at Foreman who couldn't help but smirk in a very smug manner. "So what?"

"So it's not poison, or Lupus," Cameron interjected. "It's stress. If your best of all best friends is hurting herself on purpose, you'd be stressed out. Oxygen levels are low from erratic breathing, causing fingers to turn purple."

The team fell silent. "It sounds likely," House said after a moment. "Confront the roommate."

"I'll do it," Cameron said, jumping to her feet. "You wouldn't know what to do with a distraught female," she joked lightly to her colleagues.

Foreman cracked a smile and surprisingly so did House, but Chase remained somber.

Cameron left the room and Foreman turned to Chase. "Dude, that was a good joke. What is up with you today?"

"Az is such an individual. She's probably gotten so much crap for how she dresses, for her music, her lifestyle. It's…." he paused, glancing at House before deciding to continue. "It's almost beautiful."

&

Ack. Reviews make me happy and a happy author is an author that updates more frequently!