Alison Cameron rolled over and slid out from under the blanket. She had found an empty sleep room and managed to sneak in three hours of restless sleep. She wasn't able to stay sleeping. Every time she dozed off, her mind would land on some aspect or other of Maggie Goren's illness and she would waken, only to find her thoughts leading nowhere. She changed into clean scrubs and was surprised to find House at his desk, twirling his cane. He stopped the spinning stick and looked out the window. "Sun's not fully up yet. Why are you?"
"I was thinking about Maggie."
"Maggie or her daddy?"
She gave him an annoyed glare. "Has anything come back yet?"
"Not yet, but go talk to him. He seemed upset."
"What did you do?"
"Now why do you automatically assume I did something?"
"What did you do, House?"
"I actually tried to pay him a compliment."
She stared at him for a moment. House didn't pay anyone compliments. "What did you tell him?"
"I said if he hadn't brought the little girl in when he did she would be dead."
"Tell me you didn't."
"What? I was being nice."
"Maybe you shouldn't do that anymore."
"But it is a good thing he brought her in."
Cameron sighed. "He didn't need to hear he almost lost his daughter."
"He's not a moron. He knows he almost lost her. He even knows there's still a good chance he will."
"But he didn't need to hear it. Oh, forget it. Go back to insulting the man, will you?"
House watched her leave the office. He had meant what he'd said in a good way. They had done the right thing by bringing Maggie right in. A lot of parents would have waited and then it would have been too late. He tried to think of a way he could have said it better, but nothing came to mind.
She stopped at the nurses' station and reviewed Maggie's chart. Still nothing. She perused the last set of vitals and lab results. Her liver and kidney functions were mostly back to normal, and she breathed a sigh of relief at that. Her organs had recovered from the anaphylaxis and were no longer in shut down. Maybe now her liver would fully kick in and start processing the toxins out of her system so the rest of her small body could recover. Fever was still 103, heartrate 150...but a note from the respiratory therapist said she was taking more breaths on her own. Her own respiratory rate had doubled over the course of the night. That was good. It was all very encouraging...but the little girl still showed no signs of wakening, and that troubled her.
She replaced the chart and walked to the child's room. This time she did not linger in the doorway. He turned to look at her when she came into the room. He looked exhausted. She sighed softly. "I have to apologize for Dr. House, Mr. Goren. He really is a brilliant doctor, but as a people person, well... Simply put, he just sucks at relating to others."
Goren gave her a soft smile. "He didn't do anything wrong, Dr. Cameron."
"Maybe not, but he was insensitive."
"I don't think he meant to be. He was just pointing out the obvious, not telling me anything I didn't already know."
This father displayed much more understanding toward House than her boss deserved from him. "He thought you were upset."
He raised his eyebrows in a weary gesture. "That's been a chronic state since she got sick."
"Have you slept at all?"
"Some. I'm fine."
"You look tired."
He waved her off. "Really, Dr. Cameron. I'm fine. I just...I want her to wake up and be okay. I want to wake up from this nightmare, but it's not a nightmare, is it?."
"I'm afraid not," she said softly. She hesitated. "You're very close to your daughter."
He nodded, swallowing hard as he looked toward the bed. "I have always been close to her. Tom is Mommy's boy, and Maggie has been my girl since the day she was born." He sighed, a sad, weary sound. "Do you have any better idea about her prognosis?"
She moved closer and rested her hand on his shoulder. She wished there was some degree of solace she could offer him. "I wish I could tell you she'll be okay, but I don't know what's going to happen. There are some encouraging signs." Her hand tightened on his shoulder. "Her liver and kidneys are almost back to normal and she's breathing more on her own. She's improving, and we need to focus on that."
"But she's still very sick." He offered it as a statement, not seeking confirmation. He knew how sick she was.
Cameron nodded. "I'm sorry. The minute I know more, I'll be in here to tell you."
He nodded, touching her arm in a gesture that assured her he didn't blame her for not having the answers he needed. She gave him a smile she hoped looked encouraging. From the direction of the doorway, a throat cleared. "Umm, I'm telling." Cameron rolled her eyes and turned to look at him as he said, "Be careful, Cameron. I hear his wife packs quite a wallop."
"Dr. Cameron is safe from my wife," Goren said quietly. "You're the only one in danger, Dr. House."
A smirk played at the doctor's mouth as he approached the bed. He studied Maggie for a few minutes. "It's not often I stay in the hospital like this, detective."
Cameron looked at Goren and confirmed his statement with a nod. As Cameron moved away, Goren stood up and rested a gentle hand against Maggie's head. "Why are you here now?"
"I thought you might be lonely. I see I was wrong."
Goren neither moved nor reacted; he waited patiently for the real answer. Cameron smiled. She liked the way this big, quiet man handled her boss. Foreman and Chase were hoping for another round of boxing, but she didn't see that coming. Not from him. House smirked. "No? You don't buy that?"
"Not for a second."
He shrugged. "Once again, I have been annoying pathologists. If first year med students can identify organisms over the course of a three-hour lab, they should be able to get me identifications before sunrise. Guess what? I was right."
"So you know what's in her lungs?"
"What: yes. Why: no. Has Maggie been in any hospitals lately?"
"No."
"Any health care facility?"
A light went on in Goren's tired brain. "Carmel Ridge. She was at Carmel Ridge."
"Which is?"
"A psychiatric facility outside the city. My mother lives there."
House looked interested. "Really?"
"My mother's illness is not relevant to Maggie's condition, but to prevent you from bribing me for information, she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia."
"Ooh, that's serious stuff."
"I know."
"When was the last time Maggie visited your mother?"
"We went to see her last week."
House became thoughtful, running calculations through his head. "That may fit. Maggie picked up two different pathogens from somewhere. One she could have gotten from a sick person in the grocery store. The other, she probably picked up at Carmel Ridge." He set his cane against the bed and leaned back against the siderail. "The first organism would have made her sick anyway, though probably not this sick. She would have fought it off easily if she's as healthy as you and her pediatrician say. The other is a nasty little bug. Her immune system could have kept it in check and eradicated it without symptoms. It happens all the time. That's why all the worst bugs come out in immune-compromised individuals. When she went into shock, her immune system kicked into overdrive and her immune response to the bacteria accelerated. The fever would likely have appeared in the next 24 hours anyway. As the shock progressed, though, and her systems began to fail, the bacteria were able to take hold."
"Why did she stop breathing?"
"That was the shock and the toxins from the man'o'war stinging cells."
"And what's keeping her sick?"
"The toxins and the infection in her lungs."
"The antibiotics?"
"Effective, but there hasn't been enough time for them to really kick in. What they have done is stop her from getting sicker by preventing the little beasties from crossing over into her blood. That likely would have killed her. It takes 24-48 hours to start seeing improvement from the antibiotics, and I expect her fever to break soon."
Keeping his hand resting against Maggie's head, Goren rested his hip against the bed and studied the floor as his brain processed that information. Finally, he looked at the doctor. "So what does this mean?"
"Well, the pneumonia, we can treat. And she's no longer in shock."
"But..."
"Yeah, there's always a 'but,' isn't there? Irritating."
"Dr. House..." This time his tone held a warning.
"I don't know, detective. She could go either way. She is sensitive to the toxin and she absorbed a lot of it. So we continue to give her the medicine we know has been effective, and we wait. We'll know in 24 hours, one way or the other."
"Meaning...?"
"Meaning she's either going to be better or she's going to be dead. I have no way to predict which it will be. And that's the best I can do." He waved a hand at Cameron. "You can do your thing now. I'm done doing mine."
He grabbed his cane and headed for the door. "Oh, one more thing," he said as he turned. "She is breathing more on her own. We may be able to extubate her tonight if she continues to improve in that regard. It's a good sign, but it doesn't get her out of the woods. Not yet."
He turned and left. Cameron shook her head. "Like I said, he's definitely not a people person."
Goren sat heavily. She's going to be better or she's going to be dead. He didn't feel Cameron's hand on his shoulder, and the pounding in his head shut out her voice. All he saw was Maggie. So this was it. Twenty-four hours. Either...or. In one day, either everything would be okay, or nothing would ever be okay again.
