Here's the next chapter for you guys, my lovely readers! I cannot believe that this story has over 2000 reads! It's so exciting that this story is liked so well. As always please follow and PLEASE review! It's your reviews that keep me writing! (That and a certain diagnostician with a limp.. *wink*)
Cameron smirked to herself when she came into Marcus's room to collect him for his stress test. She watched as he stood up and tried to get his gown to cooperate with him before he finally looked at her with a huff. 'House would have a field day.' She thought.
"Could you help me with this?" he asked. Cameron nodded and he turned his back to her so she could tie the gown together in the correct places. "I don't recall asking for a stress test or an echocardiogram." He said.
Cameron nodded as she had him sit in a wheelchair. "What are you going to do, walk out refusing treatment? Corporate sponsors won't like that." Cameron moved to prepare a syringe. "I need your forearm."
Marcus held out his arm to her and she prepared to give him a shot. "What's House thinking?" he asked.
"He's thinking that it could be sick sinus syndrome."
"That's a lot more serious than TB." Marcus replied, watching as Cameron stuck him in the arm. "Is that a PPD?" he questioned.
Cameron nodded, "If it changes color in the next forty eight hours,"
"If House thinks that it isn't TB then why is he testing for it?"
Cameron shrugged. "To cover all his bases I presume."
Marcus scoffed. "Yeah… he doesn't seem like the type of guy to do that sort of thing." This made Cameron smile.
"We have you scheduled for an Echo at eleven." Cameron replied as she grasped the handles of his wheelchair and led him out of his room and towards the elevator.
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House and Wilson stood in the elevator as they both made the descent downward. 'Ugh, I hate the clinic.' House thought before he looked over to Wilson, tired of the silence. "Every minute that we refuse to love one another, another puppy cries another tear."
Wilson snorted and rolled his eyes. "You're just jealous that he's closer to a Nobel than you are."
"Yet I've nailed more Swedish babes, crazy, crazy world we live in."
"Hmm, what does Cameron think of that?" he asked getting a glare in response, which made him chuckle. "It's not just Stockholm, you know. It comes with a cash prize too."
House chuckled. "Seriously? No wonder everyone's going after that peace thing." He said sarcastically as the elevator dinged and they both stepped out into the lobby and they began to walk towards the clinic.
"The man cures thousands of people every year, you cure, what? thirty? Forty?" Wilson asked.
House raised an eyebrow at Wilson. "Burger King makes a better hamburger than your mother because they make more?"
Wilson raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Ahh, I get it now, you don't like the man because the lives you save are better than the ones that you save."
They both walked in the front doors of the clinic and House grabbed the top folder on the nurse's station before he turned to Wilson. "Sure, that's the reason. Nobel invented dynamite. I won't accept his blood money." Wilson rolled his eyes and grabbed his own file before he walked off. House opened the file that he held before he announced the name on it out loud and walked into the nearest open exam room.
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It was an hour later when House emerged through the clinic doors after finally seeing the last patient that he needed to see for the day. 'Ignorant people I swear…' He huffed and looked towards the elevators to see Foreman walking up to him.
"The stress test came back normal." Forman said as he gave him the paper that held the results.
House looked over the papers he was given. "His EKG didn't come back normal though."
"His echo was normal."
"Two for you, only one for me… we need a tie breaker here."
"The echo and stress test are more reliable to go by." Foreman took the papers back from House and they both began to make their way to the elevators.
"What about a tilt-table test?"
Foreman shook his head. "That test normally never works."
House smirked as the elevator dinged and they both stepped inside. "I bet you a week's worth of clinic duty that the test works."
Foreman laughed, "Oh you're on."
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House and Foreman sat in a windowed room while Marcus sat in a connecting treatment room, strapped to a table that slowly moved from horizontal to vertical. "So do you like this guy?" House asked as he watched the patient move back and forth.
"You've always told us that our opinion of a patient is irrelevant." Foreman replied.
"Medically it is irrelevant… that says something though… about you I mean."
"So you figure that anyone that gives a crap about people in Africa must be full of it? Is that it?"
"Yes, you caught me." House said. "There's an evolutionary imperative why we give a crap about our family and friends, there's also an evolutionary imperative why we don't give a crap about anyone else. If we loved all people indiscriminately, we couldn't function." He explained.
Forman nodded. "So you're thinking the great humanitarian's as selfish as the rest of us." They both watched as Marcus continued to move up and down on the table.
"He's just not being honest about it."
Foreman looked down at the stats for Marcus and read his vitals along with the EKG that he was connected to. "You also always tell us motives are irrelevant." Foreman leaned forward a bit to push the button that would connect him to the other room, so he could speak with the patient. "Dr. Grady, your heart's handling the changes in orientation just fine. No pauses on your EKG." Foreman chuckled, thinking that the bet was his for the win.
House looked down at the table in front of him. "What does this knobby thing a ma-bob do?" he asked before he reached for it and turned it up in speed by a few clicks.
Foreman rolled his eyes and sat back in his seat. "I'm well within range for the test."
House turned the knob up again, causing Marcus to move up and down on the table rapidly. "The way I figure is, if this could show you any problems at six, imagine what could happen if you crank it to ten."
On the table, Marcus struggled to stay oriented. "House?" he called out. "Is that you?"
"Does the dial go to eleven?" House asked as he reached for it again, only to get his hand slapped away by Foreman.
"Would you stop? You lost. I'm scheduled for clinic duty Thursday and Friday, feel free to take over both of those days." House smirked and reached for the knob again.
Meanwhile in the other room Marcus had begun to feel dizzy. "All right, I'm beginning to feel nauseous."
Foreman slapped House's hand away again. "Would you stop before you break the damn thing?"
Marcus called out again. "Alright, I'm beginning to get dizzy and I'm going to pass out."
House looked down at the monitor and grinned. "I win."
Foreman scoffed. "At those speeds astronauts even throw up."
House shook his head. "I'm not talking about the nausea." He stated as he pointed at the monitor causing Foreman to nod and begin to slow Marcus down while House left the room.
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After the test Foreman stood in Marcus's room and looked over the paperwork before he looked down at Marcus in his bed. "The test we did revealed a problem."
Marcus glared at him. "Oh really? That House is insane? What he just did –"
"Was abusive and unprofessional." Foreman finished. "But if he hadn't done it, we wouldn't have seen the problem. You have an abnormal P-R interval. It could be dangerous and possibly fatal, particularly if you're in Africa away from advanced medicine." He explained.
"I… I'll need a pacemaker?" Marcus questioned.
"We have you scheduled for this afternoon to go in for the surgery."
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That afternoon Cameron wheeled Marcus to the elevator and pushed the button to wait for the machine to come to their floor. Cameron glanced down at him before she decided to explain more about his pacemaker that he would be receiving. "You'll be able to maintain your pacemaker from anywhere; you just need to get yourself to a phone line every few months."
Marcus looked up at her and grinned. "Or, you could just join me at one of my clinics that I go to." He said openly.
'Did I just hear that correctly?' Cameron thought as she looked down at him. "I-I'm kind of spoiled." She answered, trying to brush his suggestion off.
"Well, we could get you a hut with a view, do you like sand?" he asked.
Cameron let out a breath, "I mean medically, No PET scans, no MRIs…" She paused when Marcus stood from his wheelchair.
"This is ridiculous." He said with a sigh.
"Marcus, please sit back down."
"I know, I know, hospital regulations. Darling –"he called to an older woman walking by with a walker and pointed to the wheelchair he got up from. "– have a seat." He then looked to Cameron with a wide smile. "Come on, it cannot be that far to take the stairs." Cameron warily followed Marcus to the door of the stairs and watched as he opened the door and she followed him inside. "I'm sure you would adapt to being there. Which way?"
"Um, the basement." She replied. The then both began to walk down a flight of stairs.
"All right. You might find that without the technological crutches you become a better diagnostician. My heart can handle this, right?" He questioned as he turned to look at her when they came to the first landing.
Cameron smiled at him. "So far it's just the carnival rides that seem to set you off."
Marcus turned to face Cameron. "When you meet these people it-it changes you. We should talk about it over dinner." He said his voice hopeful.
Cameron looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you asking me to Africa or on a date?" she questioned, her voice a tad harsher than she meant for it to be.
Marcus raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, I can ask you halfway across the world but I can't ask you to a restaurant a block away?"
Cameron cleared her throat. "Well… one would be for work, the other… um… I'm kind of seeing someone."
"Kind of?"
"W-we haven't really put a label on things just yet, but we have been on a couple of dates and things have been going well."
Marcus nodded. "Well then… um, that's good. But my offer to Africa still stands, which you haven't answered by the way." He said with a grin, only to stutter to a stop and hold his head. "I'm sorry, my head is killing me."
"Sit down on the step." She said softly, helping him sit before sitting beside him and checked his pulse.
"So, are you going to answer me?" he asked.
Cameron ignored his question. "Your heart rate is normal."
"Of course it's normal, it was only one flight of stairs." He chuckled as he looked down. "My vision is a bit blurry…" Marcus's voice waivered suddenly before he fell forward and got sick. Cameron caught him by this shoulder only for them to both fall forward, Marcus landing on top of her.
"Second floor stairwell!" Cameron yelled, hoping someone would hear her. "Call a code!" she was glad when she heard the door burst open above her and she spotted nurses running down the stairs to their aide.