Glad you guys like this story. Now, it may feel like this is coming to an end, but I'll let you know that even though the mystery is almost solved…in fact, it's solved in the next chapter, this story has a ways to go. We still got the treatment for this disease and some other fun stuff that will include our favorite doctor and his fellow ducklings.

Chapter 6

If you were to see Chase now, you wouldn't recognize him. He looked like shit. Another day had passed with a sleepless night. He was deteriorating. Bags were forming under his eyes, his skin was paler, and his hair was falling into his face. To go along with this, Chase had rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie. His shirt was unpressed and wrinkled. Not to mention that he stunk. The first thing he was going to do when he got out was he to take a bath and sleep. As he was getting ready to test her blood for pneumonia, he began to wonder. All of her symptoms were caused by pneumonia. It was perfect. Maybe it was time for treatment. He put his supplies to the side and began banging on the door, which didn't help his headache in any way. The port hole opened and the man's voice asked angrily, "What do you want?"

"I need intravenous antibiotics."

"Intravenous antibiotics are for pneumonia. You think she has pneumonia?"

"I can't say for sure, but the test takes some time, time she may not have. If I start treatment, it might give me time to test her or it might cure her."

"What if it isn't pneumonia?"

"It's very likely that it is pneumonia. All of her symptoms fit it. If the intravenous antibiotics don't work, then I continue testing."

The man stared at Chase and replied, "Wait right here."

The port hole shut and Chase could hear his heavy footsteps fade away. Supporting his weight against the wall, Chase waited. Another coughing fit overcame him and with it came more blood. Once he stopped coughing, his breathing became labored. Each breath of air was painful. Chase remained calm and made a mental note to find an oxygen tube for himself. The footsteps got louder, warning him of the man coming back to the door. Chase lifted himself from the wall as the port hole opened and the man's hand appeared with a vial of the intravenous antibiotics. "Where did…?" began Chase.

"Don't ask questions. Treat her."

The port hole slammed shut and Chase was left to wonder. It was then that he remembered he was having a hard time breathing and quickly went to find an oxygen tube. It would be easier to move around with just a simple line than an actual mask. Looking around, he found a spare oxygen tank and an oxygen line. He quickly hooked it up and put the line around his face. After turning on the oxygen, he breathed in and felt much more relaxed. The breathing became less labored and for once, he actually felt better. The oxygen line was incredibly long, like most were, allowing him to move freely around the room. Once he wheeled the tank over to Carrie's bedside, he began to hook up the line. Slowly, she woke and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I could give you the entire medical explanation, but I'll skip the speech and give you the dummy version. I'm treating you for pneumonia."

"Pneumonia?"

Chase finished hooking up the line and replied, "Yeah, now if you're going to repeat everything I say, I'm going to inject you with Haldol again so I can get some piece and quiet while I run a few more tests."

"But, if you're treating me for pneumonia, doesn't that mean you don't have to run any more tests?"

"That would be the logical way of looking at it, but I'm not so sure it is pneumonia. I need to do a blood culture to be sure, but I wanted to get you started on this before I began the tests on you."

"But, if it is pneumonia and you're testing for it, doesn't that mean you shouldn't have put the medication in me just yet?"

Chase thought about it for a minute and realized his mistake. "SHIT!"

Chase quickly removed the medical tube from her IV line and set it on the table next to her. "Damn it, what the hell was I thinking? Now I can't run the bloody test because the antibiotics got into your system. I'm going to have to wait until the drugs clear out of your system before I run ANY bloody tests."

Chase swore under his breath as he turned and kicked a rolling table to the side with anger. This disease, whatever it was, was disrupting his thought process. If he couldn't think of a way to treat someone, how was he going to be able to save his own damn life? Slowly, Carrie sat up and said, "It's not your fault."

"Yeah, it is."

"No it isn't. Whatever this is, it's affecting your judgment. I'm sure that if you were better, you wouldn't have made that mistake."

"Tell that to my father…oh wait, you can't. My father is dead."

Why was he so emotional? He had never been this way before. Sure, when a patient died on his watch, but not because he made a stupid mistake. Carrie huffed at him and replied, "Hey, I was just trying to be nice. So sue me if I was trying to make you feel better."

Chase turned to continue the argument when he noticed a thin trail of red coming down from her nose. His anger in his eyes disappeared and a look a shock took it's place. "What?" she asked.

"You're bleeding."

"No I'm not."

Chase grabbed a towel from her bedside table and held it up to her nose. She tried to swat him away, causing a pain in his arm. "What the hell do you think…?"

Chase pulled his arm away in pain as the towel dropped, the blood showing on the top. Her eyes were wide when she saw the blood. "Is that from…?"

"It's not pneumonia," he replied without looking at her.

"How can you say…?" she began, but stopped when Chase pulled his hand away from the spot where she had hit him to reveal discoloration. "Wh…what does it mean?" she asked.

Chase looked up at her and replied, "It's not good."

"What is it?"

TBC…

Oh, what is it indeed? Well, if you can guess it correctly…you get the next chapter dedicated to you! The symptoms are; Coughing blood, fever, feeling of being cold, headaches, nausea, muscle pain, rapid heart beat, hard time breathing, seizures, nose bleeds and discoloration of the skin. However, I'll tell you that the feeling of being cold is caused by the fever, the rapid heart beat is not medically related and two of these symptoms classify under something else. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, please review!