i was just soooooo happy that Cameron and Chase "broke up" last night, i was inspired to write this. hope it's as good as i feel. i mean...the ickiness is over...YES! let's just hope it lasts!
REVIEW!
Ruby
p.s. how funny was that old lady? hiring a female prostitute... doing coke off a homosexual's stomach... then sleeping with some other dude... 58 years old too...i cracked up!
Chapter Nine
Nicole stepped from the shower, beads of water still dripping down her frame as she reached for a towel. Chase was in the bathroom, fixing as quick shower for himself before they both rushed to work. She watched his reflection move in the mirror, thinking of the wave of astonishment that had hit her.
He was upset with her, and she knew it. She expected it, even, after what had happened. He had proposed, and she had turned a cheek to him, not knowing just what to say. They haven't spoken since.
She wanted to marry him. Really, she did. She had been planning their wedding ever since high school, when they first started their relationship. So why wasn't she able to say anything then? Or now, for that matter? Why couldn't she just tell him what she really wanted to.
YES!
- - - - - - -
House practically pranced into his office that morning, weighing the fact that today COULD NOT be as bad as yesterday. No where to go but up, was his mentality. If he had any say in it, it would stay that way. Popping a vicodin in his mouth, he set himself up at his desk and pulled out his Gameboy. In the middle of jumping his little red dune-buggy over a cliff and watching it smash into little pieces, his team walked in. "Intern not here today?" It really was turning out to be a good day.
Cameron sat herself on the edge of his desk, only slightly aware that House was trying to look up her skirt. "She doesn't start until noon."
House checked his watch. 9:42 am. Damn. "I'll take it."
"You seem relatively...happy?" Foreman smirked, shoving his hands in to the pockets of his white coat after buttoning it.
House's mouth gaped open as he bulged his eyes like he was about to make a sarcastic comment. He held it back though, just rolling with the mood that he had set for himself. "How's the porn star?"
"Kie." Nicole produced the blue file one more time. "He's not responding to the antibiotics we were giving him for the meningitis. That, and he's been profusely vomiting since 4 am."
"You gave him the penicillin? The medicine I told you?" House was baffled, thinking that this was going to be as easy as his other patient this week. Apparently not the case. He was surprised, for sure, but he wasn't about to show it. Again, not if he could help it.
"Kie's allergic to penicillin. I had Foreman start him on a high intravenous dose of cephalosporins instead. We fucked up somewhere, I just don't know where." Nicole took a deep breath, the slowly exhaled. She liked this kid, porn star or not. She wanted him to live. Not that she wanted other patients to die. But still... And Chase was watching her. His gaze was burning a hole in the back of her head, and he thought she hadn't noticed.
"Labs?"
"We did everything. Tox screen. MRI. X-Ray. Everything that wouldn't kill him. Like you said." Chase defended.
"Results?"
"Nothing conclusive."
"Is there anything else we know about the kid, medically?" House's fingers were at his chin, forming the finger-pyramid of contemplation.
"He told me he had a cold last week. Fever, cough...nothing we don't already see."
House got up from his once happy spot and limped over to the conference room for the companionship of his white board. He scribbled the seemingly hopeless symptoms next to the previously scrawled ones. He stood in this position for several moments, glaring at the board with intensity seizing through him. "So if he's not responding to the antibiotics, then it's not meningitis. What looks like meningitis, talks like meningitis, and walks like meningitis?"
"Uh...meningitis." Foreman scoffed, seeing the pointlessness in this situation.
Cameron made a small "tch" sound with her tongue against her lips. It was a disapproval noise. "What about and autoimmune disease? Something making him look like he just has a cold?" Nicole took a moment to notice that Cameron, no matter what the symptoms, always turned to autoimmune first. She was the only one whoever suggested it, and she was usually wrong.
Thinking of this, Nicole raised her eyes towards House. And idea of her own was forming and, although she wasn't a doctor, she figured maybe her opinion could help. "What if... what if the horns and the other symptoms are two totally different things."
"Oh, it's just a coincidence that this guy is a freak of nature?" Chase smirked as Cameron nudged him in the ribs. Nicole also noticed that Cameron was the first one to issue out punishment for insensitivity.
"Well...there have been stranger things happen." Foreman liked this idea. Maybe it was just because it was furthering the diagnosis.
"I've read about it. Keratosis follicularis." Nicole was just proud that she pronounced it right at this point.
"Darier's disease?" Cameron raised an eyebrow. "How can we give a diagnosis of something like with the definition so vague?"
"Darier's disease is defined as any skin condition marked with the formation of horn-y growths." House snickered as Nicole said horny. "The cause is unknown, and there's no specific therapy for it except the prescription of keratolytic lotions and moistening skin regiments to prevent cracking, drying, and skin breakdown. There were tons of lotions in his house. I just assumed they were for the...porn."
House erased the "horns" symptom on the whiteboard and resumed his happy mood. "Do you think he always played the 'sneaky-little-devil' type in his movies."
The entire team let out a long sigh as they collected their things and continued with their work. One symptom down, but that didn't mean that this kid couldn't die. Actually, it really didn't mean anything other than he had horns. Sad, and slightly funny (to House), but realistic.
As the ducklings followed one another out of the room, Jessica made her appearance in front of House. "So... what did I miss?"
House mumbled some obscenities and checked his watch again. 10:45 am. She was early, and that ruined his good day. "You're an over-achiever, aren't you?" He sarcastically asked as another vicodin made his way through his lips and down his throat.
Time to annoy Cuddy a little.
