Here's the Edited version of Chapter 4. Here we see the start of Vlad's plot, and the Doctors discover something interesting in Danny's medical history. Hope you enjoy it!
::IMPORTANT:: The reviewer responses have all been moved to a separate chapter at the end, following the Medical Reference Guide.
Disclaimer – House isn't mine. Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman. You know the drill.
Chapter 4 – Half the Battle -
"I can't go ghost!" Danny said worriedly, trying to remain clam despite the situation. He normally would have been shouting by now, but he didn't want to draw attention from any of the doctors to his current predicament.
"Maybe it's because you're sick right now," Sam tried to think of an explanation. "You just might not have the energy to become Phantom at all," she stated confidently, though not sure herself of the true explanation.
"It doesn't take that much- ahh!" Danny yelled when he realized that he was falling through the hospital bed. He managed to become solid again before he fell through the room floor, thankfully.
"Danny!" Sam exclaimed. "Are you okay?" she asked, looking under the bed and seeing that he was fine. He had just gone through the bed frame, and hadn't been injured at all.
"I'm fine," Danny said, slowly getting out from underneath the hospital bed and standing up with a bit of help from Sam. "I just don't get it though…" He started to say, but trailed off.
"You don't get what?" Sam asked, seriously confused.
"It's just that…I haven't had this many issues with using my powers ever since I first got them, and that was because I didn't know how to control them. What if it starts getting worse? Remember when those ghost bugs were around and all of Casper High had ghost powers that they couldn't control? Dash was shooting ecto-blasts through the wall, and Kwan was split into eight people!" he said anxiously, "Some abilities of mine are pretty dangerous if I loose control over them. The ghostly wail. Ice powers. Ecto-blasts. Think about if I lost control of those. Sam, there are hundreds of people here who are sick…" He paled as he realized how dangerous the situation was.
Sam now knew why loosing control of his powers concerned him so much. He didn't care about himself, only that those around him didn't get hurt. "Danny," she started out, "I know for a fact that those attacks take tons of energy to pull of, and you know that too. With you being sick right now…I doubt you could even use the ghostly wail or your ice powers even if you wanted to. It would drain you too much. I don't think you have to worry," She tried to reassure him.
Danny nodded, feeling slightly better. "I just hope I don't go invisible or intangible when there are doctors around to see. I might be able to pull one over on my parents…well, most of the time anyway, but I doubt I'll be able to explain to a doctor why I just disappeared." Danny sighed, "This is going to be impossible."
"At least it can't get any worse," Sam said. patting Danny on the shoulder in a reassuring manner.
A knock on the door got the attention of both of the teens, and they turned to see who it was. Standing there outside of the room was none other than Danny's worst enemy, Vlad Masters.
"Sam," Danny said, turning toward his best friend.
"Yeah?" she asked, though she had a feeling she knew what he was going to say.
"Never, ever say that things can't get worse." He said, not wanting to look back at Vlad.
Before they could do anything to stop him, the door was already opened, and Vlad walked in as if he was doing nothing wrong by being there.
"Now Daniel, why would you go and say a thing like that? What about me visiting you could possibly make things worse?" he asked with a smirk. Anyone else would have though he was honest, but Sam and Danny knew better.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Room," Danny growled, his eyes flashing a bright green color.
"Now why would I leave the son of my dearest Maddie all by himself when he's in the hospital? It would be rude of me, don't you agree?" He chuckled darkly. "Besides, who am I to refuse the opportunity to visit when you idiot father invited me here himself?"
"Just tell us why you came here, Plasmius? I'm assuming it wasn't simply to annoy us," Sam sighed, knowing that if Danny had been the one speaking to Vlad it would have been a lot worse.
"Oh, I just wanted to see if the rumor floating about the ghost zone is true. Everyone is talking about how the little halfa is weaker than usual. I found the information quite interesting. I know that a lot of your enemies might find that bit of information valuable," Vlad said.
Danny paled notably. He hadn't realized any of the ghosts knew he was here. "The ghost zone? The entire ghost zone knows?" He asked, a fearful tone edging into his voice. He knew the implications that that knowledge could have. Forget the harm done by losing control of his powers, who knows how much damage the ghosts could do if they decided to attack the hospital.
"Of course I could always keep any vengeful ghosts away while you're too weak to fend them off yourself, giving you a chance to recover. That is, if you wanted me to," Vlad said, knowing that Danny was almost completely defenseless at the moment, and couldn't defend against any other ghosts attacking.
"And what do you want in return for keeping other ghosts away from here?" Danny spat back, knowing that making a deal with Vlad was like cutting a deal with the devil himself.
"You know the answer to that!" Vlad shouted harshly, before coughing and resuming his normal tone of voice. It wouldn't do to loose his cool. "Of course if you're to stubborn and prideful to agree to have some help, I'll have no choice but to respect you wishes. It's a shame though. You know your parents won't be able to hold off the ghosts forever. When they fall, guess whose fault that will be? You'll always know that you could have saved them, but chose not to. That you were too stubborn to see the right decision. Are you sure you'll be able to live with that guilt?"
Danny glared at the elder halfa. "My parents are more than capable of fighting off any ghosts that come their way. They won't get hurt." He then realized something, "And even if I don't agree, I know that you wouldn't dream of letting my mom get hurt," he stated, knowing that what he said was true.
"Ah, but your not considering all the factors. As a team, they're only one capable fighter plus a complete buffoon. Even if they stop every ghost where they are and don't get a scratch on them, there is no way that they can defend the hundreds of people in this hospital. What happens when a wave of ghosts attack and all those poor sick people don't make it?" he asked, his voice laced with an obviously false regretful tone as he walked to the door. Turning around one last time the multi-billionaire looked Danny in the eyes and said, "You have until tomorrow to make you choice. Then the ghosts start attacking."
Diagnostics Lab
"How can all the tests be negative!?" Foreman shouted as he looked at the papers in front of him. His two colleagues looked up from their testing stations. "All the tests say that his brain in is perfect condition. I mean come on! He claims to have seen ghosts! His brain can't be normal!" Foreman continued his rant, clearly frustrated at the results.
"Looks like someone owes me a hundred bucks," Chase said in a sing-song voice, swiveling around on the stool and holding out his hand. Foreman scowled and handed over the cash.
"I can't believe you bet on a patient's health," Cameron frowned. "All the viral tests were negative, as were all the tests for degenerative diseases," Cameron reported, having gone back to look at her own test results after chastising the two.
"I think I've got something," Chase announced, pulling out a test result and scanning it over quickly, his statement getting the attention of the other two.
"Well, what is it?" Cameron and Foreman asked at the same time, the dispute forgotten about.
"The spinal tap for Guillian Barre came back positive," Chase told them, handing the chart to his colleagues.
"Awesome. I'll go get House," Cameron said, heading out the door to inform her boss of their discovery.
"He's going to think your wrong. You know that, right, Chase?" Foreman informed him as they watched Cameron leave.
"He's not completely irrational. It's an accurate test," Chase defended.
They both stood up and followed Cameron to House's office. One there, they found House taking an afternoon nap in his chair. No doubt skipping clinic duty again, or neglecting paperwork.
"Come on House, wake up!" Cameron shouted at him, sounding angry. How could he sleep when he had patients to take care of, she'd never know.
"Cameron, unless you're here to tell me that Cuddy sent me an early birthday present, I don't want to hear anything you have to say," House grumbled, not even bothering to open his eyes.
"I came to tell you that we've got a diagnosis. We know what's wrong with him," Chase reported. He wasn't about to stand by while house ignored all the work they'd done.
"Good for you. Go tell the patient, and stop bothering me with the information," House retorted.
"It's guillian barre," Chase continued, ignoring House's commentary.
House finally opened his eyes and sat up straight in his chair. "You're wrong," he said suddenly, standing up and heading over to the white board. An arrogant smirk formed on Foreman's face at Chase's shocked expression.
"Excuse me?" Chase said, getting over his shock quickly. He was still confused as to how the diagnosis could be wrong. House wasn't one to write off an accurate test unless he had some proof to back it up.
"Guillian Barre doesn't fit the symptoms. It can't be the only thing that's wrong with this kid," House replied, taking the test results from Chase. He crossed off Muscle weakness, fatigue and diminished reflexes from the board
Chase, however, didn't seem to see this. "Why not?" Chase said, challenging House. "Because I said it, it can't be right? Or maybe it's because you have some complex where you want everything to be complicated," Chase said angrily.
"Why can't it be both?" House replied with a smirk. "Plus, Guillian Barre doesn't explain the heart problems he has."
"You said it yourself. Pericarditis can be caused by an autoimmune disease. This fit-" Cameron began, but was cut off by House.
"Well in this case, it can't. The Guillian Barre hasn't even caused him to loose movement in the extremities yet, and It's been two days since he was admitted. The Guillian Barre is moving very slowly. Do you really expect me to believe that it's already weakened his heart? If it were that far along, he'd have stopped breathing on his own as well," House pointed out. The others knew he was right.
"Then what's your explanation?" Foreman asked.
"It has to be Guillian Barre along with something else. Start him on IVIG for the Guillian Barre, and we'll try and diagnose what else is causing him to be here," House suggested.
"What about plasmapherisis?" Foreman asked.
"Too risky, I don't want to go that route yet," House said.
"Alright, I'll go start him on IVIG," Chase said.
"But what caused it?" House asked suddenly, before Chase had the chance to leave the room. "He didn't have any real reason to lie about being sick, so I doubt he was. What, besides a virus, could cause his immune system to go into overdrive and start attacking healthy cells?" House mused out loud. It was a mystery, and he loved those.
"It's rare, but the pericarditis could be idiopathic. No cause." Chase suggested.
"Have you ever wondered why 'idiopathic' starts with the same four letters as 'idiot'?" House snapped at him. "There's always a reason for why people get sick. Doctors only call something idiopathic when they don't know what that reason is. It's a cop-out."
"Maybe it was a virus," Cameron suggested, "A simple, but resistant virus that he either didn't feel or just went away on its own. There are tons of viruses we haven't tested for yet. It caused both the pericarditis and the guillian barre." She picked up his medical file to see if there was any record of him being sick in the last few months.
"A virus with no symptoms?" Foreman scoffed, "Come on. Everyone knows that every single virus shows symptoms, even if it's just a fever."
"Wait!" Cameron said, looking at the chart she was holding. "He did...still does have a fever. Look at his medical records from the school nurse. His normal body temperature is 95 degrees!" Cameron declared.
"That can't be right," House said, walking over to her and grabbing the chart from her hands. "Even a simple school Nurse should know that a person's body can't stay at or below 95 degrees for a long period of time without serious implications. That's the temperature at which you get hypothermia."
"So…" Chase started out.
"Either the Nurse did the test wrong, or this kid should be six feet under," House finished.
