Thank you for the reviews! It seems the alert system is down again, but I still check your opinions – as I said, it gets addictive.
In "All things uncomely and broken" I had a slight House/Cameron ship; in this story there is a little of Cameron/Chase and some kind of a ship between House/Cuddy. I'm not strongly for or against any ship, so as these seem to fit this story, I just go with them.
And a medical warning: I am not a doctor; though I do try to do some research on whatever illness I'm using to get on with my story, I may well get it wrong! Remember, this is just fiction. :)
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Friday morning House wheeled himself into the lobby of the hospital. He did admit to himself that he was somewhat curious about meeting Cuddy after the previous night. He hoped that their weird, but working relationship had not changed because of one strange night. He did not really expect Cuddy to be any different from before, but one could never be quite sure.
He found that it was a good thing he had had no expectations, as when he got in Cuddy was in full swing in the lobby. Somebody had got the bright idea to decorate the lobby with live plants and Cuddy was supervising the men bringing in and potting the blasted palm-trees and what not. That Cuddy was supervising was a clear indication that whoever the idiot behind the plants was, he had a big wad of money. Perfect! Hopefully he, whoever he was, was around to hear House voice his opinion of this particular decoration plan.
"Cuddy my dear, have you gone insane?" House greeted her politely, though loudly.
"House," Cuddy turned startled. "You are late, as usual. And no, I have not gone particularly insane, though no thanks to you. What are you talking about?"
"Plants in a hospital," House pointed out. "You do know that people are allergic to them, even if the plants themselves aren't poisonous. Besides they attract all sorts of insects and things, and are you sure that soil is not full of harmful microbes and fungi? I mean, Cuddy, you are a doctor, don't you have any consideration for the patients in this hospital? I'm sure I can smell mould or something in the air." House sniffed the air with deep suspicion.
"If you spent even a little more time outside you would recognise the normal smell of earth! And of course I have made sure that all the plants are non-poisonous. Just shut up and go to your office or whatever," Cuddy instructed him looking around a little apprehensively, which clued House in on the fact that the donor was indeed somewhere around. He smiled widely.
"Come on Cuddy, tell me what the real deal is," he invited. Cuddy sighed.
"One of our biggest donors has a wife," she started.
"Ah, say no more!" House concluded. "She has a gardening business?"
"No, she does interiors," Cuddy stated. "It is her younger brother who has just started a garden centre."
"I see; you are whoring for the hospital again," House nodded thoughtfully getting a look of deep indignation from Cuddy. "The husband donates enough dough and you let him do whatever he wants, including having his wife do some interior decorating where none is needed – or even advisable."
"Shut up House," Cuddy growled at him hands on hips. "It's just for a few weeks, by that time she has forgotten all about it, or I can tell her that the plants just didn't like their surroundings and died."
"Could you bend when you do that," House said indicating Cuddy's stance. "When I'm sitting in this chair my view is severely limited."
"No I am not bending for you!" Cuddy huffed. "You will just have to make do with the view you have."
"Fine, at least your ass is in perfect place once you will just turn around for me," House shrugged.
"I am so not turning my back to you after that," Cuddy informed him. "And don't you have better things to do with your time than sexually harass me? You do owe me several hours of clinic duty."
"Oh, I cannot work in this toxic air you have allowed to invade this area," House told her, and just then Aiko sneezed. "See, even Aiko agrees with me. I think my first duty is to take her to a healthier location." House wheeled himself quickly towards the lifts and out of the lobby.
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When House wheeled himself into his office, he was still smiling at having avoided the clinic – at least for the time being, he didn't think even for a minute that Cuddy would let the matter rest. As soon as she had the lobby under control, she would come hunting for him! He placed Aiko in her crib, got out of his chair and went to his desk. Cameron had been there already as his mail was sorted. He was just about to go to the conference room to get his first coffee when his ducklings walked in; Cameron fortunately had his coffee with her.
"We have a patient," Foreman informed House.
"Like we did the last time?" House doubted taking his coffee from Cameron.
"A little more complicated, I think," Cameron said.
"He has seen a couple of doctors already, but the symptoms were too vague," Chase explained. "It is possible that it is something he picked up somewhere else. He is into extreme sports and has been pretty much on every continent just within last twelve months."
"Don't you just love globe-trotting," House griped. "In the old days they were happy if they could travel through one country in twelve months, now they just hop on a plane and in no time they have exposed themselves to a dozen deadly diseases, and then they bring them all back home, too. Tell me that at least he is in quarantine?"
"First thing we did when he was admitted," Chase confirmed.
"And I got as thorough a history from him as he could remember, including people he has been in contact with since his return," Cameron told House.
"So am I going to hear any of his symptoms or am I going to make the diagnosis based on his travel plans?" House invited.
"Didn't you do just that the last time we brought a case to you," Foreman responded, but went on immediately to give the symptoms. "He has a runny nose, a fever that has now lasted for a few weeks, night sweats, fatigue, general weakness, he has lost his appetite and the resulting weight loss has been significant. He originally assumed he had just a bad cold, but it went on for too long. His doctor found that his spleen is enlarged and there is some swelling in his lymph nodes. He has also had occasional nose bleeds. There is some hair loss, too, but I'm not sure if it is result of stress or a symptom. His skin is dry, almost scaly, but that could also be just exposure to the elements as his last trip was mountain climbing in Nepal."
"It could be something non-contagious, even unrelated to his travels," House shrugged. "Have you talked to Wilson about Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma or leukaemia?"
"His previous doctors have already ruled those out," Cameron pointed out.
"Since when have we trusted other doctors?" Chase flipped.
"Careful, Chase," House warned him. "If you sneer at her she may decide not to give you any tonight!"
Cameron looked at House shocked. Chase cursed in his mind, but he wasn't really surprised; there was no keeping any secrets from House, so he decided to just roll with the punches: "As she is currently having a house guest I was sort of assuming I was out in the cold anyway for now."
"Good thinking," House conceded. "However you should remember that women have long memories. But I'm still in the dark about our Wilson situation?"
"No, we have not consulted him, yet," Foreman told him. "I'll go do it now." He left the office a little huffily.
"Do that," House nodded at Foreman's retreating back. "And you two could go and check for tuberculosis, just to rule it out. There is no saying what he has picked up and where. It could also be a parasite. In fact, given that he was recently in Nepal, you might want to run tests for Kala Azar."
"Kala Azar?" Cameron asked.
"Leishmaniasis," House clarified. "They call it black fever in India."
"I don't think I have seen any news of an epidemic of that in Nepal," Chase doubted. "Isn't it fairly rare anyway?"
"No, it's anything but rare," House corrected him. "It's just thoroughly ignored. Unlike TB it doesn't have good looking young doctors like Dr. Sebastian Charles dedicating themselves to its eradication." House gave an arch look to Cameron, who glared back at him. "It affects nearly two million people every year, so rare is not the word I would use for it – though since the countries most affected by it are Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, and Sudan, it is hardly surprising it does not get reported. If it's not in our backyard, we rarely care. Yeah, you know, I'm liking it better and better for our guy!"
"Ok, fine, we'll run the test," Cameron huffed, still smarting from House's glib remark about Chase and the reminder of Dr. Charles. "And while we work, what are you going to do? Visit the patient?"
"No," House smiled. "I'm having a nap. You know how it is with new fathers; you have to get your sleep when you can between the bottles and nappies and bouts of colic."
"Aiko has colic?" Cameron was all concern immediately.
"Yes, she had colic last night," House repeated with exaggerated patience. "But I am handling that. You, however have a patient to handle. Go do it so that I can have my nap."
"Fine!" Cameron snapped. "Come on Chase, I can do the tuberculosis test and you can run the Montenegro and CBC."
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At the end of the day House's diagnosis had been proven correct: it was Kala Azar. The patient was put on Sodium stibogluconate injections for thirty days. Not a fun treatment, especially as it was possible that it would not work, since India and Nepal had a version of Kala Azar that was resistant to the treatment, and even if it worked it could have some very unpleasant side effects. But House did not think it was really his problem anymore; he had diagnosed the patient, the treatment was up to others.
He was on his way back to his office having escorted his mother to where his father was waiting outside in their car. Blythe had spent most of the day with Aiko again, though she had gone to lunch with John. House was happy that he hadn't seen his father that day except to exchange short greetings – it seemed that Blythe had decided to keep her men apart for now. House knew that was not going to be a permanent state of affairs; for one Blythe had already told him that they were going to have Sunday lunch together. Fortunately Wilson was also invited, so he might get away with only some general conversation with his father.
House was leaning against the wall of the lift when the doors opened and Cuddy got in. They were alone for the first time that day. Cuddy stood silently with her back to him, and something in her stance looked a little uncomfortable.
"So now you are presenting me with your back, when I'm no longer at the perfect level to admire your ass," House complained to her.
"Serves you right," Cuddy threw at him over her shoulder. "If Mrs. Smythe had heard you, she might have told her husband that we don't appreciate her work and he could have changed his mind about his donation."
"So what," House shrugged. "Who needs plants?"
"The plants were not part of the donation," Cuddy explained. "They were a completely separate issue, paid separately." Cuddy still would not turn to really look at House. House contemplated her ass for a moment and decided then to tackle the real issue that was bothering Cuddy.
"In case you were wondering about A. Nonymous," House said conversationally. "The patient is comatose."
Cuddy gave a small cough, that House was sure was designed to hide a laugh: "Does it seem like a permanent condition?" She asked sounding a little strained.
"Well, he has been that way before," House replied with utter seriousness. "But some tender, loving care has often helped."
"Do you think there is a chance of such care being extended?" Cuddy wondered neutrally.
"I don't think I should count on it," House mused. "On the other hand, it depends on circumstances."
Cuddy didn't say anything for a moment. Then she suddenly hit the stop-button and halted the lift between floors. She turned to House looking him in the eyes for the first time since stepping in.
"House," she seemed to be looking for the right words. "I don't regret what happened. I'm a bit confused at my own impulsiveness, since that is not normal to me, but you were right. I cannot let fear dictate my choices and I'm very ok with the choice I made last night. But there is still an element of weird here."
"Sure there is," House agreed. "But we have always been a little weird about each other. You are pretty much my favourite person to fight with; yet you are also a friend. I don't think last night brought too much new weirdness to our relationship – or what would you call this we have."
"So we are ok," Cuddy said. It was not a question but a statement. "After all, this is not even close as big a change than you becoming a Father is. Come Monday, I probably won't feel awkward at all."
"Hey, you adjusted just fine to me sticking all those needles in your ass," House pointed out. "This ought to be no biggie after that."
"The biggest hurdle there was getting up the nerve to ask you," Cuddy remembered. "You are right; this is easy compared to that."
"So, you'll tell me if it took?" House asked.
"If things go the way they usually go with you, it's probably you who will tell me," Cuddy grumbled hitting the buttons to make the lift move again.
"Why don't we agree that the one who knows first will tell the other?" House smiled at her.
"Fine. But don't get your hopes up; the likelihood of success is not very big," Cuddy warned him.
"Well, we'll try again then," House shrugged and leered at Cuddy.
"If I can get my nerve up to it," she muttered almost inaudibly. Fortunately they reached her floor and she was able to step out of the lift leaving House to leer alone.