We'll let Clarissa and her parents settle in at home without our help and continue on with a couple other stories.

Thanks again for reading my story. Loving your comments.

Chapter 41.

With the new knowledge about Vanessa's medical history and the year or more she'd spent in Bolivia, Cameron had ordered additional tests. Now she had the results, negative for TB and negative for the more exotic forms of pneumonia. But the number of interstitial infiltrates was increasing.

The treatment with the usual antibiotics had not been very effective. They still didn't know what was wrong with Vanessa. Cameron believed that the disease, whatever it was, wouldn't have progressed this far if her parents had been honest to begin with. They would have been able to narrow their search, and Vanessa wouldn't have had to go through so many tests. House's mantra was proven right again.

When she'd told him about the information the Corrigans had withheld, besides the expected 'everybody lies', he'd questioned why they'd kept their visit to La Paz a secret. She'd been wondering about it herself, and was determined to find out, but first she had to diagnose the child. She had to talk to the child's parents again.

Michelle Corrigan sat at her daughter's bedside reading her a book. Cameron smiled to see it was the latest in the Fiddlesticks series.

"My son and his friends loved those books," she told Mrs. Corrigan. "My grandson does too."

"So does Vanessa," the mother said.

Cameron looked again at Vanessa, noting that her green eyes were duller and she was having trouble concentrating. A glance at the monitors showed a new symptom. She was going into renal failure. They could treat that, maybe prevent it from progressing, but it triggered a thought. "I need to do an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay," she told Mrs. Corrigan. "There are diseases that have been eliminated in this country that still occur in parts of Central and South America, and I think she may have one of them." She sighed. "Why didn't you tell Dr. Grant or me that you'd been to Bolivia?"

"I...we..." Michelle Corrigan was visibly flustered.

"Why were you there for over a year?"

"She doesn't have to tell you that!" Josh Corrigan shouted, entering the room.

"Mr. Corrigan, if we'd known about the trip, we could have diagnosed Vanessa by now!" Cameron shouted back. "And your daughter wouldn't have suffered any of the irreversible damage we're seeing now. Her kidneys are failing. If we don't diagnose her quickly, she might die."

#

Justin dropped off his wife at Tori's boutique after they shared a quick supper at the diner near the hospital. He kissed her goodbye and said, "I'll pick you up at nine."

Becca and her cousin were already there, talking to Tori about dress colors. Steven and Becca had agreed on a blue and white wedding, so she wanted her maid of honor and bridesmaids in shades of blue.

Sherry arrived, followed closely by Jackie, Becca's college roommate. Becca looked at her four attendants and it struck her how different they were in size and coloring. There was Jahzara, tall and thin with bronze skin, looking like a modern-day Cleopatra. And Audra, who wasn't as tall but just as slim with long reddish-blond hair and fair skin reflecting her Scandinavian heritage. Sherry was the shortest of the four. The stylish cut of her hair disguised the mousey brown color. Jackie had the kind of milk chocolate skin and voluptuous figure that Ricky usually went for, but Becca knew Jackie was already in a very stable relationship.

How was she going to find a dress that suited all of them? She looked at Tori, who was studying the women. "Do you have anything that will look good on everyone?" she pleaded.

Tori smiled and reassured her, "Of course. Wait right here." Before long she was back with three dresses, in varying shades of blue. One was simple but elegant, sleeveless with bands of satin at the top and bottom. The second was a little fancier, strapless with an embroidered bodice, narrow waist, and slightly flared skirt. The last was sexier, with a long slit up the straight skirt and a low-cut top.

"I like the strapless one," Jackie said.

"It'll be cold in November," Audra reminded her.

"There's a wrap that goes with it," Tori said, showing them the wide and long piece of fabric, embroidered in the same pattern as the bodice.

"I'd like to see how they look on everyone," Becca said, and the others nodded.

Tori got their sizes and soon they were trying on each of them while Becca watched.

Chapter 42.

House woke on Saturday morning to find that he was alone in bed. Puzzled, he glanced at the bedside clock and saw it was only 7:30, but he heard the shower running. Why was his wife up so early on the weekend?

The water stopped and Allison padded back to the bedroom, a small towel wound around her hair and a larger one around her wet torso. House licked his lips.

"Why are you up so early?" he asked. He didn't remember that they had anything planned for the day. He thought they'd spend the weekend together before she left for Yale on Monday.

"I have to go into the hospital to see the results of Vanessa's tests and get her started on new meds," Cameron replied. "I'm pretty sure she has hantavirus pulmonary syndrome."

"Did the parents ever reveal what they were doing in La Paz?" he asked, interested in the diagnosis as well as the Corrigans' secretiveness.

Cameron shook her head. "They're still being cagey about it. Either it was something illegal or something to do with National security, I'd guess."

"You think they're spies?" he scoffed.

"Maybe." Her brows furrowed.

"It could be industrial espionage," House suggested.

"I hadn't thought of that," she admitted. "But I'm more concerned about Vanessa right now. She started to go into renal failure yesterday, and I had to give her intravenous fluids. I hope we don't have to subject her to dialysis."

He nodded slowly as he got out of bed. At first Cameron thought he was just going to the bathroom, but he returned carrying his clothes as she was beginning to dress.

"Where are you going?" Cameron asked.

"I figured I'd go with you," he said with a shrug. "Not as much fun here without you."

She wasn't sure whether he meant at the house in general or more specifically in bed. The only thing she was sure of was his curiosity about the diagnosis and even more about Vanessa's parents.

They ate a quick breakfast and headed to the hospital. They stopped at the lab for Vanessa's test results. Neither House nor Cameron was surprised that they confirmed HPS.

"You can give her Deviran," House suggested, and Cameron nodded in agreement.

Josh Corrigan looked at House with suspicion when they entered his daughter's room.

"We know what's wrong with Vanessa," Cameron announced. "It's called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. It's almost non-existent in this country and even in Central and South America it's rare."

"In Eurasia, a similar virus causes complete kidney failure almost immediately," House added, even though it was beside the point.

"As I told you yesterday, Vanessa's kidneys are beginning to fail," Cameron said.

"And that could have been avoided if you hadn't lied!" House interjected. The parents' eyes went back and forth between the two of them.

Cameron smirked at House. "What we're going to do is treat her with Deviran. It's a relatively new drug that binds the virus and renders it harmless," she explained. "Then we'll see how much damage has been done to her lungs and kidneys. Hopefully, we can reverse some of the damage."

"She didn't take Diamox or Dexamethasone to prevent high altitude sickness before you went to La Paz, did she?" House asked. "It's not usually given to anyone under the age of five." That, too, had nothing to do with what was wrong with Vanessa. It was just a probe for more information about their trip.

But rather than reply, Corrigan asked Cameron, "Who is this guy? What's he doing here?"

Cameron glanced at her husband, then back to Vanessa's father. "He's Dr. Gregory House. He's the head of the Diagnostics Department at this hospital. And I'd like to hear your answer to his question."

Reluctantly Corrigan replied, "No, she didn't take any high altitude medication. We lived in Denver before we went to Bolivia."

"But Denver is only a mile high. La Paz is closer to two," House pointed out.

Still, no matter what House or Cameron asked or said, Corrigan wouldn't say anything about why they were in Bolivia.

##

Ruth sat on a bench in front of Macy's at the mall, waiting for her sister Jessica. They were going to shop for a gift for their mother for her sixtieth birthday. Twenty years before they hadn't thought that Doris Schultz would make it to sixty. And then Gretchen's father had proven she'd been misdiagnosed.

A shadow fell over Ruth and didn't go away. Ruth looked up into the laughing eyes of Charley Lerner. His daughter was at his side.

"Ruth, right?" he asked.

"Um, yes," she replied, mentally kicking herself for the lame response. She finally tore her eyes away from his to look at the little girl. "Hi, Amy. Do you remember me?"

Amy looked at her father, as if to ask permission to speak, and when he gave a slight nod, she replied, "You're A.G.'s mom's friend."

"That's right." Ruth nodded and smiled at her. Her eyes returned to the handsome man. She felt she needed to explain her presence at the mall. "I'm waiting for my sister."

He nodded just as her cell phone rang. When she hesitated to even look at it, he said, "You should get that."

"Oh, yes. Of course." It was still playing it's song when she looked at the caller ID. It was Jess. "Hi, I thought you'd be here by now," Ruth told her sister.

"Sorry, Ruth. I'm not going to be able to make it today. Matt's not feeling well."

"What's wrong with him?" Ruth asked with concern. Matt was Jessica's five-year-old son.

"He has a slight fever and sore throat. I don't want to leave him," Jess said.

"No, of course not," Ruth agreed.

"I'll call you later and let you know whether I can make it tomorrow."

"Just take care of my nephew and don't worry about it. We still have another week," Ruth replied. "I'll talk to you later. Bye." She closed the connection. She was surprised to find Charley and Amy still standing there watching her.

"Sounds like you got stood up. I was just about to take Amy for some lunch," Charley said. "Would you care to join us?"