Hi everyone.

Sorry it's been a while but thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing this so far. I appreciate it.

Jenny :)

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 6.

"You see the problem with these things is that they always make sense in retrospect." House's eyes stayed glued to the board as he addressed Wilson, Chase and Vikki.

"Problem? That's not a good thing?" Vikki sounded confused and more than a little bit tired.

"Not always and not in this case. Sometimes retrospect is bad. Retrospect means it's over. It means you've lost." House sighed and rubbed the hand not holding his cane over his forehead.

"We're not losing House." Wilson, taking up his role as the perpetual comforter with relish, chimed in. If he thought it would be a wise idea he would have stood up and put his hand on House's shoulder. As it was, given House's exceptionally dark mood, he thought it would be better to stay put.

"We're always losing. Everyone's losing until they win."

"Well that makes sense. Thanks for that little nugget of wisdom. Is optimism one of the qualities Cameron likes in you?" Chase's worry and frustration was making him edgy and sarcastic and House threw him a withering look.

"And you? What did she see in you? Except, of course, pretty hair products she could borrow."

Chase fixed him with an angry glare, missing the way Vikki's eyes had moved to the top of his head and were closely perusing his head apparently trying to discern what kind of things he used on his hair. Chase opened his mouth to respond, most likely with a scathing comment intended to match House's but which would not quite meet House's standards, but did not get a chance to say anything as he was cut off before he had even started.

"This isn't helping!" Wilson all but yelled, injecting his voice with as much authority as possible before the argument escalated into dangerous territory not conducive to helping Cameron and everyone else in the ER.

Chase turned his face away instantly, breathing deeply while House held his eyes position a bit longer, staring at Chase's pale cheek for a few seconds before carrying on as if there were no interlude.

"So what do we have?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the board and rattling off a few of the many things listed. "TB, influenza, SARS, Pertussis..."

"Please tell me you're not going to read them all out." Chase said tiredly. "We can read and we've been over and over all of them."

House ignored him. "Pulmonary Fibrosis-"

"Unlikely. It's not contagious and they'd have to all be genetically predisposed to it. An environmental trigger would've been involved and it's too much of a co-incidence for it to hit Holly Byrne, Stephen Myers and Cameron almost simultaneously." Chase spoke again.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's unlikely but not impossible. Especially with the vents being broken the air is still and dust could trigger it. It'd take time but it could be building up for years and the symptoms just showing up now."

"Come on, House. At almost exactly the same time, three people who have never met each other before reach the stage at which pulmonary fibrosis starts to show reacting to an unknown environmental stimulus?"

"...It's possible."

Chase just raised an eyebrow.

"You worked here long enough to know that it's possible."

Still no reply.

"Well, I say we're not discounting it. I'm not taking any chances and as my decision is the only one that matters you can all stop looking at me like that."

The others seemed to accept that there was no point in arguing and were silent for a few seconds, just looking intently at the crowded board before Wilson sighed theatrically.

"We haven't narrowed it down enough yet. It could be something as serious as TB or as mild as the flu, in which case we just have to wait."

"If you suggest waiting for Allison to get sicker one more time..."

"She could get better." Wilson pointed out. "If it's the flu it'll pass."

"She could get worse. If it's TB it might not."

Wilson nodded, accepting this. "Sorry. I'm just trying to think of the best case scenario."

"I know. But, unpleasant as it is, the worst case scenario is the one we should to be concentrating on. We all know how the world likes to bite people in the ass."

Wilson, Chase and Vikki remained silent. Vikki's eyes were moving rapidly over the board, apparently impervious to the brief argument between Chase and House and Wilson's subsequent peace-keeping.

"So what do we need?" She asked suddenly, not leaving any room for responses before answering her own question. "Mantoux test for TB, though the results won't be back for 48 hours so it's probably better to rule out everything else first..."

"We can't get into the ER, but they have the equipment in there to do that, so we could ask Cameron..." Chase started before being cut off.

"No. Cameron's ill so she's not doing anything that could be classed as even vaguely stressful or difficult."

"Okay, so we'll get another doctor in the ER to do it. Don't make difficulties. So if we get someone in the ER to do the injection for the Mantoux test. What else... well, if it's the flu we'll see some improvement very soon so we can ignore that..."

House took control. "Right, TB test sorted out, we'll start with the most likely. I'll go down to the ER and get a history from the girl who first showed symptoms... Molly? No, Holly Byrne wasn't it?"

Wilson nodded, smiling slightly to himself as he knew perfectly well that House wouldn't be half as keen to take a patient's history were that patient not in the same vicinity as Cameron. He also knew that this case had a very personal importance to House, for obvious reasons, and that House had committed every detail of the case so far to memory, so was wholly aware of Holly Byrne's name. "That's right."

"Okay. Chase, you go to the lab and test the blood taken from taken from Stephen Meyers and Holly Byrne this morning for antibodies against pertussis." He pointed towards Chase, who nodded along with his ex-boss' words, with the bottom end of his cane as he spoke before making the smooth transition to pointing at Vikki.

"Doctor Tatum, you go with him and do as many tests as you can with the remaining blood. Cover the most likely of these-" he tapped his cane on the board before continuing, "-first and then do whatever you can think of with the rest. Don't waste it though; we can't get any more out. One test per disease." Vikki, writing these instructions down on the paper in front of her, head bowed, made a soft noise in the back of her throat to indicate she had listened and understood. Turning to Wilson, hooking the end of his cane over the top of the board as he did so, he proceeded to give Wilson his instructions.

"Wilson, go with them too and I want you to test for pulmonary fibrosis. According to his notes, Stephen Meyers had an X- Ray for suspected pneumonia last year so have a look at that. Look for any problems at all but especially for the early signs of pulmonary fibrosis, the doctors last year could have missed it if they weren't looking."

Even before House had finished speaking the three other occupants of the room were gathering themselves together in a flurry of movement, jotting down their individual tasks and pushing their chair out from the table, picking up their papers as they did so. House, inwardly grateful at their haste, picked his cane up from where it was hanging from the top of the whiteboard and started walking towards the door, closely followed by the other three.



House tapped impatiently on the glass with the handle of his cane, a steady, rhythmic beat that attracted more than a few irritated stares from the restless patients on the other side of the glass. He ignored them and carried on tapping until the nurse he spoke to before, Naomi according to her name badge, hurried over to him.

"Hello Doctor House. Could you stop that?" She gestured to the spot where the wooden stick was hitting the glass. "It's not helping." House narrowed his eyes slightly and was gratified when she leant backwards a bit. He suspected she wouldn't be half as brave without the pane of glass separating them.

"Allison?" His one word question was met with a softened expression and he almost growled in irritation. He didn't want this woman's sympathy, he wanted his Allison to be alright and every second Naomi wasted feeling sorry for him was a valuable second he could spend working on the case.

"How is she?"

"Her cough's gotten worse and her temperature has risen. There doesn't seem to be any change in her or in Miss Byrne or Mr Meyers."

House thought for a moment, unsure whether to be pleased that there had been no change for the worse or disappointed that they had nothing more to add to the list of symptoms. He opted for the first one and was glad that Cameron was not worse until the tests were at least underway, especially as the TB test would take so long. Speaking of which...

"I'm going to need you to perform a Mantoux test on one of the patients. Preferably Holly Byrne as she's been ill the longest."

"No problem. But you know it'll be..."

"At least two days. Yes, I know. It's a precaution. Hopefully another test will come back positive and we won't need the TB test."

"Alright then. I'll go and do that now."

"I'm going to wait here. You go and tell Cameron to take histories for Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers. She knows what to ask. Tell her to write it down and then bring it back to me. Then you'll hold it up to the glass and I can read it."

Naomi walked away and House rested his shoulder against the glass, staring through it after the young nurse until she disappeared and then turned his gaze to the number of patients huddled at the nearest end of the ward, away from the contagious people.

Many of them were clutching their masks tightly to their face, determined not to breathe any air that had not passed through the mask and were looking around fearfully. Some were staring at him rather rudely, as though he'd committed a crime equal to attacking their mother by tapping on the glass to gain attention. He met the eyes of one particularly impertinent young boy until he grew uncomfortable and looked away, leaving House smirking despite himself at having won the juvenile staring contest.

When he looked away, he was surprised to see Allison, followed by Naomi, approaching the glass. He raised his eyebrows as he looked her up and down before vocalising the question contained in his eyes.

"Why aren't you in bed? And why are you still in those clothes? You should change into some hospital robes." As House asked, Naomi turned and walked away, leaving them alone.

"Hello Greg. I will change in a bit. I was busy. And I was in bed until you came down here."

He smiled before something in her answer registered fully. "Busy? Doing what? You were supposed to be resting."

"I knew you'd come down here. I've got their histories ready for you."

House grinned at this. "Good. That's great, Allison." She smiled back at him and pressed the first sheet, Holly Byrne's history, up against the glass.

"Only child, no partner or children, journalist for the travel section of a newspaper, you can get all her medical details on file, she was here about a year ago for a check up..." Cameron carried on relaying all the information while House scanned the paper, dedicating everything she had written, loopy G's and all, to his memory.

Once House was confident he would be able to remember the main points of the history until he got back upstairs and wrote them down, Cameron held up the next paper and pressed it flat against the glass. He could see the shape of her hand through the thin paper as the sun shone through it and felt another wave of sadness hit him.

He quickly shook himself back to attention and scanned the history for Stephen Meyers whilst Cameron's gentle voice talked over the main point, worryingly punctuated now and then by little coughs.

"Stephen Meyers, 32, lives with his girlfriend. He has a son from a previous marriage but only sees him twice a year. His girlfriend is in Missouri visiting her family but she has been contacted and is taking a flight back. His ex wife is keeping his son away for his safety but has been receiving updates. He's a chef and works in a restaurant a couple of miles from here."

She remained silent while House focussed on the paper until he finally looked up at her. She smiled at him and he returned it.

"How are you? Are you alright?" He asked her softly, eyes intently focusing on hers.

"I'm okay. No worse anyway." She sighed and shrugged her shoulders a little. He was still staring at her unblinkingly and she found the only way to cope with the intensity was to look away, so she moved her gaze down to the floor. "Have you any idea on what it might be?"

"Oh, we have a lot of ideas, don't worry. It's going to be fine."

"So from the symptoms it could be... TB, Whooping cough..."

"Or just the flu." House cut her off, not being able to bear hearing her speculate on what potentially deadly disease her body might be fighting.

She offered him a smile, grateful for his attempt at comfort but not believing he was optimistic for a moment. "You don't believe that."

"Lupus?" House suggested, a slightly joking tone creeping through the sadness.

Cameron smiled in appreciation and laughed weakly. "It's not lupus."

"I know." There was a pause. "I'm trying Allison. You know I am."

"Yes, I know, Greg. Thanks."

"It'll be okay." Cameron smiled but didn't answer. They simply looked at each other in silence for a moment before House looked away, unable to cope with the highly emotionally charged moment only three months into the first serious relationship he'd had in years, and cleared his throat, reverting to business mode.

"Okay, thanks. I'll write those histories down when I go upstairs. Until then, I want you to get back into bed and relax. Remember to page me or Wilson if anything changes with you or the other two." He looked straight into her eyes. "I love you."

"Love you too, Greg."

He smiled and fixed her with a faux stern look which was somewhat diminished by the gentle look in his eyes. "Get back into bed now."

She laughed again. "Okay. See you later."

"Bye."

House watched her walk back down the ward for a few seconds before turning to walk towards the lab, eager to see what results, if any, Chase, Wilson and Vikki Tatum had found.