Chapter XI – Caring is Creepy

"You're a liar."

The patient woke up and propped herself up on the gurney in confusion as the Doctor stood at the end of the gurney, hands stuffed in pockets as he glared at her seriously. House slid open the door and walked into the room, staring curiously at the Doctor as he crept in behind him, intrigued.

The Doctor continued to glare at the patient. "You know that, right? You really are."

"What are you talking about?" The patient looked confused as House walked up to the gurney and looked curiously at the Doctor.

"Yeah Doctor, what are you talking about?"

"You lied to us." The Doctor continued to stare at the patient. "You're no longer sick."

"What do you mean?" House looked confused. The patient remained silent.

"I mean," the Doctor pointed at the patient. "You've been cured. I've checked your blood and your bone marrow, you are terminal no more!"

The patient looked at the Doctor in disbelief. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm sick! I can't see! I'm blind for Circur's sake!"
The Doctor quickly pulled out his sonic screwdriver and threw it at the patient. Suddenly she flinched and raised up her arms over her face as the sonic screwdriver ricocheted off her protecting arm before bouncing off the bed then falling to the floor. The patient held up her arms again for a second then sighed and dropped them, glaring at the Doctor.

"Nope," The Doctor smiled wryly. "Something tells me you can see."

"Congratulations." The patient offered sarcastically.

"Hold on." House looked at the Doctor and then the patient. "Slow down one second. You're not sick? Then why isn't Cameron better?"

"Because she didn't need them to get cured." The Doctor sharpened his gaze at the patient. "See, the Electrios base themselves on energy." The Doctor turned to House and started talking faster. "Their basic form is energy, they feed off it. That blue electricity around the pod, that was the Electrios in their true form. But not all energy is electrical. Like I said before, they are cured by empathy, by the feeling, the energy that is stirred inside when someone cares about something, so basic and so much. They feed off that to get cured, but like we can store up food they can store up the energy." The Doctor turned to the patient. "But why are you doing this? You've already been cured, why do you need the extra energy?"

"I need to get home." The patient looked up at the Doctor as he sighed in understanding. "When I transferred into this body, I lost all my energy, but I was cured. I couldn't stay in this body forever, I had to go home. So I latched on to the body's family and that doctor girl, all those who were capable of pure empathy that I could farm."

"Oh but you're not just farming their empathy," The Doctor looked back in realisation at the patient as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "You're feeding off their life force too."

"I must do whatever can be done to get home." The patient tried to justify. "You're home, you're on your planet. You have no idea what it's like to have your home so far away, light years away from your reach. I miss it more than I can tell, and you are not going to stand in the way of me getting back."

"Dial down the heart strings, you're not going to get any sympathy from me." House glared at the patient. "You get out of that body and return Cameron back to normal then this Doctor can send you back home in his phone box."

"Police box."

"Same thing."

"But I can't." The Doctor suddenly said with a deep voice. "The Electrios is pure energy, if I take it into the TARDIS it'll fry the TARDIS's heart."

"Then I guess you're stuck here." House looked back at the patient. "Cos there's no chance in hell you're sucking the life force out of people for a free ticket home."

The patient just smiled. "Well, not to point out the obvious, but there is no way you can stop me."

"She has a point you know." The Doctor looked over to House.

House raised his eyebrow at the Doctor. "I don't think it's best to point out the fact that she has a point. The whole 'upper-hand' thing kind of gets thrown out the window."

The Doctor looked back at the patient. "But you do have a point, a good point. But, I'm afraid I have one too. 'Cos, as far as I can see," The Doctor looked around the room. "This room is made mainly out of glass and I'm pretty sure – though don't quote me on this – glass is not conductible. And there is also the small fact that though the CDC have no idea what's going on, you're still kind of in quarantine with an armoured guard just down the hall. So if I do this…" The Doctor opened the door and walked out then closed it as House joined him outside. The Doctor then turned around and looked back at the patient through the glass door as she sat confused on her bed. "…it kind of seems like you can't escape."

"You can't stop me Doctor!" The patient jumped of the bed and walked up to the glass door to face the Doctor.

"Oh but I can." The Doctor stared coolly into the patient's eyes. "Because trying to get back home is all well and good, but killing innocent people to get home; that falls under my jurisdiction. And god help you for that."

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"A dying Cameron, the CDC and a psychotic alien: Go."

House chucked the white board marker behind him as he finished writing on the white board and looked over at Foreman, Chase and the Doctor as they all sat silently in thought at the table.

"You actually think the white board's going to help?" Foreman raised his eyebrow at House.

"It's the only way I can get through." House feigned sadness as he clasped his hands together and looked sadly at Foreman. "So what are we going to do?" House quickly snapped out and walked over to the coffee brewer.

"Can we do anything?" Chase asked dully as he burrowed his face in his hand as he leant on the table.

"Sure we can!" House poured himself a coffee. "We're doctors, we can do everything!" House smiled wryly as he took a sip out of his red coffee mug.

"But she's cured!" Chase looked up to House. "The alien/thing-whatever is cured but she's still infecting Cameron and the family. There's no way we can stop her. All we can do is wait till she sucks out all their life force."

House looked down to the Doctor. "You did that psychic thing to talk to the alien, can't you bring back the girl?"

"What point would it make? The Electrios would still have its hold on the others." The Doctor leant back in his chair and started to rub his earlobe. "Plus I don't know if I could reach her. Usually the original self snaps back into place after a while but it seems like the Electrios is holding her back, compressing the girl to the back of her mind until soon there will be nothing left."

"Well that's not depressive at all." House rolled his eyes as he walked over to the whiteboard.

"Then there's nothing we can do." Chase burrowed his head into his hands once more.

"There is one thing we could do, failing all else." Everyone looked up at House. "We could kill the alien."

The Doctor shook his head lightly. "But they're both connected in the physical form. Killing the Electrios kills the girl."

"But it would stop it sucking out the other's life force." House leaned on his cane. "Sacrificing the girl would save Cameron and the family, it's easy to do the maths."

"But it's wrong!" Chase suddenly cried out.

House looked at Chase curiously. "You never make up your mind, do you? First you're for euthanasia, now you're against it…"

"This isn't euthanasia, it's murder!" Chase stood up from the chair. "The girl has no idea what's going on, she was infected with this alien, she has nothing to do with it!"

House sharpened his gaze at Chase. "The alien is killing her and everyone else. It is the murderer; we're merely speeding up the process, and reducing the casualties."

"But it's just wrong!" Chase tried to exasperate. The Doctor stood up from his chair and walked up behind Chase.

"Don't you want to save Cameron?" House raised his eyebrow.

"Of course I do! But Cameron would definitely not agree with this."

"Guess we'll never know now!"

"House, we can't." Chase calmed his voice. "Think about what it would be like as this girl. She survived being struck by lightning, she was blind, she had no idea what was going on and then suddenly she's dead?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Chase as he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Feeling a bit empathetic are we?

"What?" Chase quickly looked back at the Doctor, confused.

Suddenly Chase looked over to House and opened his mouth quickly to say something when he collapsed on the floor. Foreman jumped out of his chair and crouched on the floor over Chase as he quickly brought out his stethoscope and listened to his chest. "His heart's not beating." Foreman said quickly as he whisked off his stethoscope and began to listen for Chase's breaths. "Someone get me a gurney!! STAT!" Foreman shouted to the people outside.

House remained still, staring down at the unconscious Chase with a furrowed brow as suddenly the doors to the office were swung open and three nurses rolled in a gurney.

The Doctor crouched down to Chase as the gurney was brought down and picked up Chase's right hand. Turning it to the palm the Doctor brushed his thumb over dark marking's on Chase's palm.

"Looks like he got struck by lightning."

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NB: 'Ello 'ello 'ello. Been a while, hasn't it? Actually I think "been a while" might be a tad of an understatement. So it's been a fuck long time since my last update. Sorry about that. Had stuff and then went to Europe and everything but enough of that! The Doctors are back!! And currently I'm writing this in the summer house so I have no idea what has happened in Doctor Who past "Utopia" so this is my way of keeping my crazy excitement levels reasonably down. But the story! Chase is down, what else will happen? Will they figure out something in time before the alien kills them all?? Was originally going to make the alien nice but then I thought stuff, let's have the good ol' evil alien!

Hope you're liking it, and hope you all haven't disappeared in my absence. So I guess there's nothing else for me to say but: REVIEW!! Cheers.