A Rush Of Blood To The Head – Chapter XI (hehe, sorry bout lateness :P)

Meredith had followed House as he passed them in the hallway. No one else had moved. No one else wanted to move. For some reason, they all knew that House was going to talk to the patient. Meredith became curious and followed him while everyone else stood lifeless next to the lab room. House was nearly at the door of the patient's room when he stoped and turned around.

"Is there a reason why you're following me or do you just like playing tag?"

Meredith froze. "I just thought… I was his surgeon originally so, I don't know. It might be better, for him, to have a familiar face there."

House rolled his eyes and opened the door. "Not sadistic at all!"

Meredith followed as House walked into the patient's room and came to the side of Mr Dunn's bed. He was sleeping. Meredith sighed, she knew that she had to wake this guy up from his solace and tell him he has an incurable disease. Life sucks. As she stood there looking over the patient, House raised his cane and started to poke him. Mr Dunn groaned, yet whether it was from waking up or from the pain he must feel, Meredith could not tell.

"Morning!" House chirped happily.

Mr Dunn opened his eyes and raised himself up from the bed, confused. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dr House. But I guess you can call me Lath spell" House smiled at his own pun while the other two stared at him confused.

Dunn looked at Meredith. "So what have I got?"

House stopped smiling and turned his head down, now frowning. Meredith did not want to say it, but she knew she had to. "You have Lupus," she sighed

Dunn raised his eyebrows. "Lupus?" He looked at House "What's that?"

"It's an autoimmune disease which kind of makes your body allergic to itself."

Dunn stopped short. "Seriously? It's curable right?"

House looked at Meredith for an answer. "It is treatable."

Dunn lay back on his bed, staring up into the white void of the ceiling once more. He heard House's voice speaking, but it was dull, distant.

"We need to put you on steroids and immunosuppressants. You will have to take them on a regular basis. Don't worry; you can still live a regularly normal life. Just look at Michael Jackson." Meredith shot a sharp look at House, who immediately stopped talking.

Meredith moved closer to the bed and took Mr Dunn's hand. "It's ok. House has found the disease in time. There is minimal damage."

"What, besides the stroke, renal failure and brain haemorrhage?" Dunn drew a quick breath to stop the tears now stinging his eyes. "Just give me the drugs so I can get out of here."

Meredith looked down and let go of his hand. "I'll page the nurse."

House looked at Meredith with the patient and walked out of the room. Meredith followed.

Standing at the nurse's station, Meredith watched as House walked down the hallway to the lab. No one was there. Looking in the adjacent rooms, House moved back up the hallway while peering into the doors he passed. Meredith started to fill out the file for Mr Dunn as House came up the nurse's station and dropped his cane on the counter. "Have you seen a Dr Cameron around?"

The nurse looked up from the computer, eyes up over the glasses that rested on her nose. "She left just then with all the other doctors."

"What do you mean left?"

"Well, it is 9 o'clock. Unlike nurses, doctors have the privilege to sleep at night."

"Yes, but unlike doctors, nurses have the privilege to whine about how they are so undervalued all the time."

The nurse scowled at House then got up and left with some files. House turned around and leaned against the counter, arms crossed.

Meredith looked up from the file. "Do you like Dr Cameron?"

House looked shocked and stared at Meredith in disbelief. "What?"

Meredith realised what she just said and cringed. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean… I just, when we got paged it's just somebody mentioned you were with Allison, and we were talking at lunch and then… sorry. Forget I asked…. But, do you?"

House rubbed his temples with his hand and sighed annoyingly. "Christ, are we in a hospital or a soap-opera here?"

"I mean, I have no reason to ask, except that I'm kind of now friends with Allison and all…"

House picked up his cane. "You're worse than Wilson."

House was about to walk away when Meredith's pager began to beep. Quickly she took it off and looked at the small screen. House watched as her face suddenly became grave. "Oh shi…"

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The door in room 401 crashed open as Meredith hurried to the bed of Mr Dunn. Amongst the crowd of bustling nurses she could see the patient one the bed, squirming and gasping for air. One of the nurses was trying to cover his mouth with the oxygen mask but he was moving too much. Meredith ran to his bed and took the mask off the nurse and tried herself. Dunn was still gasping violently, his oesophagus swelling up. "We need to intubate." She handed the mask to the nurse as she moved to the head of the bed. "Push another CC of steroids." The nurse rushed to the cabinets and hurriedly tried to find the syringe. Quickly she grabbed the steroids and rushed to the bed where Meredith was desperately trying to intubate the suffocating patient.

"Stop." House stood at the door. "What are you doing?"

Meredith looked up. "His Lupus is progressing, I'm increasing the treatment."

House remained stoic amongst the chaos in the room. "No it isn't. This isn't the Lupus. It's an allergic reaction."

Meredith rolled her eyes and continued to intubate, now getting through to the oesophagus and grabbing a clear tube. "Well, that is the definition of Lupus. Push those steroids." The nurse stood by, about to inject the steroids. House raised his voice. "The patient is allergic to the treatment!"

Meredith looked up, shocked. "What?"

"This Lupus would not cause raspatory distress such as this. Take him off the treatment. It's going to kill the guy." House walked out of the room, leaving Meredith standing there, squeezing the ambo-bag. Dammit.

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NB: Sorry guys, it's been a f!ck long time since I last posted a new chapter so sorry. Just had a lot of things to do recently so yeah, will promise to keep posting regularly, even though you have probably given up on me. But, am curious. Only got a couple of more chapters to go on this story and am curious, do you guys want me to continue? Or shall I just leave the story as it is? I will keep posting regularly from now on so don't worry about huge freaking long gaps between chapters. But yeah, review and tell me what you want me to do. Maybe I'll be able to smuggle Wilson in. But, you guys know the drill: REVIEW!! And make one little Aussie very happy!