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"I'm certainly not missing out on the chance to diagnose my boss," House said, hanging his cane up over the whiteboard and then erased the contents. He took a black expo marker and wrote Cuddy's name up on the top and Maggie Flannigan's beside it. "If she lives, I want her kissing my ass instead of me having to kiss her ass all the time."
"It's not if she lives, House," Cameron said, flipping open Cuddy's chart on the table. "It's when she lives, and I don't think she'll be kissing your ass."
House chuckled. "No, right, sorry, my bad, she'll be kissing your ass. You two have been so cozy together, I figure the first thing that'll happen when she recovers is a romp in the sack between you two."
"House." Cameron's voice was low and strong. It almost sounded like a warning. To complete it was the narrowing of her eyes.
"Is he serious?" Foreman asked from the head of the table. Evidently, he was the only one who wasn't clued in.
"Of course he is. You remember how she was in the OR," Chase said. "I've never seen her so hot on a patient, especially a patient that fired her."
"Okay, seriously, is this necessary?" Cameron threw her hands in the air to shut everyone up. "Take your focus off me and put it towards Cuddy's condition. Do you think that's possible?" she asked sarcastically and swiped a folder down to Chase so fast that it nearly bounced off his stomach and into his lap.
"Wish I had a camera," House said before turning to the whiteboard and writing heart attack on the left hand side.
"How do you expect to diagnose Cuddy when you couldn't diagnose Maggie?" Chase asked.
"How could they both have the same thing wrong with them? I don't get it," Cameron added.
"Maggie had surgery, just as Cuddy did, and afterwards, Maggie had a heart attack after three hours," House enlightened.
"Just like Cuddy. Why didn't we put these clues together before?"
Cameron glanced to Chase. "Because all of you were too busy laughing at me for taking an interest in Cuddy," she said, trying to sound as less spiteful as possible.
"What were they given after surgery?" House asked, interrupting an argument before it started.
"Maggie didn't have surgery," Foreman spoke up. "She was admitted because she was puking up blood and bleeding everywhere."
"Fine, but she did have the heart attack and then went into anaphylactic shock right afterwards," House recalled. "What was she given to ensure smooth diffusion of the blood?"
"Pyridoxine," Chase said, going along with it.
"Only Cuddy got bromelain, but for different reasons," Cameron added. "I don't really see how these cases are related."
House scribbled them on the board. "What other patients do you know that have heart attacks and then anaphylactic shock following it? Both had blood transfusions."
"So you think it's in the blood?" Foreman agreed with Cameron on not seeing a relationship between the two cases.
"Exactly. Why administer bromelain?"
"It was to prevent inflammation," Chase followed up.
"I know what it's supposed to do, Chase, but my question is why."
"Why what?" he asked.
"Why give it to her unless you were worried about inflammation."
"She just had a kidney removed for god sakes. I wanted to be on the safe side. And it wasn't just for inflammation. It can speed up wound healings and stop clotting."
"What else did you give her either before or after the surgery?"
"That's it," Foreman said.
"How do you know? You weren't even there." House scribbled on his whiteboard.
"Doesn't mean I don't know what happened."
Cameron slammed both hands down on the table. Everyone was getting off subject again.
"We need to do an MRI. Maybe it's a tumor," she suggested.
"Tumors don't cause heart attacks, Cameron," Chase said dryly.
"Maybe she has a tumor growing on the ventricles, brachial vein, or hell, even the aorta wall, I don't know." Cameron was getting frustrated. "All I know is that something caused her to have a heart attack and that something isn't something we did. The heart attack caused her to go into anaphylactic shock. Is it possible we can try to figure this out and be serious about it?"
"What do you mean we? This whole time, it's been all about you," Foreman said. "You wanted to be Cuddy's hero. Why do you suddenly need the rest of us to work with you?"
"Because there are some things I can't do alone." Cameron's voice was surprisingly calm.
"And because it's your job," House stressed, getting the team's attention. "Can we focus now? You can fight later when Cuddy's here to stop you. Me, particularly, I miss the funbags."
"House." Cameron gave her warning voice again.
House wanted to say more, but he bit his tongue and turned to the whiteboard again. "So, anaphylactic shock, give me Cuddy's symptoms, Cameron."
"Blotchy skin, swelling of the throat—"
"Puffiness of the eyes? Anxiety?" House tossed out.
Cameron shook her head. "No puffiness that I saw and she did seem a little anxious when she woke up. She didn't know where she was and tried to get out of bed to leave, but I didn't think of that as a symptom."
"Guys, we're wasting our time here. We already know she went into anaphylactic shock. Aren't we trying to find out why and what caused it? I thought we were leaning towards bad blood or something."
House turned his head towards Chase and mocked him with a squeak-like voice.
Cameron sighed and threw her hands over her face. In all the times she wanted House to be professional about something, she wanted it more than ever now. Any other time, she could tolerate his behavior. Today, she was so tempted to take him by the collar of his shirt and physically knock some sense into him.
"She was scared. Maybe it wasn't a heart attack. Maybe her being so scared had an affect on her heart and caused it to feel overworked. Acute heart failure."
"Again, we're going back to blood clots. Acute heart failure doesn't happen because Cuddy doesn't know where she is," House said. "The main cause of acute heart failure is a clot in the coronary artery and it takes a while for it to build up. It doesn't happen overnight."
"But not always, House. Fluid buildup in the lungs can also cause it."
"But there's nothing wrong with her lungs, duh!" he said, scratching out acute heart failure on the whiteboard. "Anyone else have a better idea that doesn't involve something with the heart?"
"But that's where the focus is," Chase said, frowning a bit.
"No kidding, but I'm tired of hearing about it. Go do the MRI. Check for tumors and blood clots. Do a heart biopsy, too."
"No way!" Cameron was the first to speak up. She was appalled at the suggestion. "I'm not doing that unless it's absolutely necessary. That could kill her in this condition!"
House rolled his eyes and groaned. "For god sakes, Cameron, don't be such a drama queen. You'd educate the idea if you weren't sleeping with her. Besides, it's only a teeny tiny smidgen of the wall," he added in a sarcastic tone, dramatizing the image by holding his thumb and forefinger so that they almost connected.
"I don't care if it was microscopic. I'm still not doing it." Cameron folded her arms and stood her ground.
"Okay…how about this…do it or you're fired." House suddenly looked in thought. "Oh wait, you're already fired. Go home. We can do this without your whining and bitching. Foreman, Chase, go get me the biopsy."
To his surprise, neither of them moved.
"Did I stutter?"
"It's too dangerous," Foreman said. "We'll do the full body scan to check for tumors and clotting, but the biopsy won't happen. After a heart attack, the muscles are still constricted. We won't get the results we're looking for. And Cameron isn't going anywhere. She's the only one of us who seems to give a damn about what happens to Cuddy. Cuddy didn't try to save my life when I was dying. I'll be damned if I owe her anything."
He stood up and left without another word. House sighed dramatically heavily. "Well…one down, two to go. Chase…any regrets or can you actually do what I tell you without something getting in the way?"
Chase's shoulders went into a shrug. "I have nothing against Cuddy, except for the fact that Cameron likes her more than she likes me."
Cameron let out a groan that almost sounded more like a frustrated yell. "Oh my god! Enough! Who cares if I like Cuddy?! That shouldn't sway whether or not you want to save her life! Foreman's already gone because of some stupid reason and it's not fair! Cuddy's never done anything wrong and if something's not done, she could die!" Tears shot from Cameron's eyes. Her fists came into contact with the table out of frustration.
"And this is coming from someone who wanted to pump her up on epinephrine, knowing it could kill her!" House yelled back.
"I tried to save her! I wasn't thinking!"
Chase was surprised by her actions. His face showed it. She had never become this open and passionate about something. House, on the other hand, wasn't moved. In fact, he was disgusted.
"Wipe your tears and go home, Cameron. Go sob over a cup of hot tea and a naked picture of Cuddy," he said rancorously. "Chase, go find Foreman and get me that MRI."
House wasn't being a jerk to be a jerk. He meant what he said and that angered Cameron.
"You son of a bitch." Now that she didn't work for him anymore, it was easy to tell him off. This time, however, he really deserved it.
Chase, afraid of what was about to play out, took Cameron by the arm and attempted to get her out of the room. "He's only messing with you. Come on. Let's go do that MRI."
House feigned fear. He covered his gaped mouth and his eyes went wide. "Ooh no…is she going to hit me? Should I run and hide?"
Cameron gave into Chase tugging at her arm to leave the room, but not before she narrowed her eyes at House and told him to fuck off. How in the world could she have had a crush on this insensitive jerk? He's like this with every case, but on the case that so happened to be Cuddy, maybe he'd see it differently and not be such a bastard about his boss nearly dying. Back at the window, for a moment, it appeared as if he actually gave a damn. Guess that took a lot of energy, because he was right back to being himself.
"What went on in there?" Chase asked as the two walked to the ICU. "If you weren't fired, you would be now!"
"I'm not going to jump every time House says boo, fired or not." The both of them entered the elevator. "I'm also not leaving until I know Cuddy's going to be okay."
Chase opened his mouth to talk, but Cameron cut him off, "And I know what you're going to say," she said, holding up her hand. "I don't care if you agree or disagree with my motives, because the end result will be the same. Cuddy will be better and free to run everyone's lives here."
"Yeah…but do you really…you know…like her?" he asked timidly, as if he were a schoolboy telling his crush that he liked her.
Cameron sighed. This subject was getting annoying. "If I tell you the truth, will you shut up about it?"
Chase nodded. "Promise."
The intent look on his face told Cameron that the suspense was killing him.
"Yes, I like her, okay? But it doesn't matter because she'll never feel the same way about me."
"How long have you liked her?" There were definite sounds of jealousy in his voice.
"Chase, you promised," Cameron said, sounding defeated. "I don't want to talk about it anymore!"
But Chase still wouldn't let it go. Even when they were doing Cuddy's MRI moments later, he was persistent.
"Have you ever had thoughts about—"
"Chase!" Cameron yelled in a voice just above indoor.
"I was only going to ask you if you still thought about me," he defended.
Cameron typed a few keys at the keyboard and stared at the screen in front of her. "That's not what you were asking," she said, clicking on an image close to Cuddy's heart.
"But it could've been."
Cameron enlarged the two ventricles and the main arteries responsible for the pumping of the blood. She couldn't find anything physical that would cause her to have a heart attack. Everything looked normal.
"No, I don't still think about you, okay?" She almost forgot that he said anything, for she was too immersed in searching every corner of Cuddy's heart and even lungs for an explanation. Not finding anything, she zoomed the scan out with a sigh. "There's nothing here."
"So maybe it wasn't a heart attack," Chase said.
"It was." Cameron already knew it was.
"We should check for clots. That's the main cause of a heart attack, right?"
Suddenly, Cuddy's heart machine went crazy and she could be heard coughing. Cameron was the first to fly out of the enclosed glass cubicle and run to her. She slid her out of the machine and called for help.
"She's seizing!" Cameron yelled out and pressed down hard on both Cuddy's arms to stabilize her. Her body shook violently, scaring Cameron to death.
Cuddy's eyes were wide open in horror. She was also coughing up blood. It wasn't just speckles, either. It looked like she was vomiting up blood, just like Maggie Flannigan was. The front of Cameron's lab coat wore most of it. That was the least of Cameron's concern. Cuddy wouldn't stop seizing. Cameron supported her head when help finally arrived. When Cuddy stopped seizing and fell into a deep sleep, Cameron was relieved. She also noticed something she hadn't seen before. Her eyes widened and fixated on Cuddy's forearm.
"Chase!" she called out and then told the ICU team to wait to lift her.
Chase was shocked to see what she found.
"How long has her arm been like that?" he asked, questioning about the dark bruising Cameron found.
"I just noticed. Look, it's on her leg, too." Cameron and Chase studied the non-patterned amorphous shaped bruise on their boss's right upper leg. That couldn't be good.
"Seizures, bruising…what more could happen to her? Do you think the concussion caused the seizure?"
Cameron's shoulders slowly went into a shrug. "I don't know. Her concussion wasn't that severe. We need to tell House. This is the same thing that happened to Maggie Flannigan." Cameron felt almost saddened she had to say those words. Maybe House will care a little more now that Cuddy had new symptoms for him to try to diagnose.