Kate managed to find new babysitter in four days time but she decided not to return to work for two whole weeks just to make sure the new sitter knew the ropes and that Melissa was comfortable with her. Upon her return, she was faced with tone of paper work and endless memos from attendings and residents. Her calendar was full as most of her patients' appointments were simply moved forward and not taken care of by other psychiatrists, although Dr. Simons took all the urgent cases and therapeutic groups without a word of complain even if that meant working around the clock on some days. Kate smiled to herself, wondering how long she will be able to use his guilty conscious over the pneumothorax case to get things done. Kate listened to the list of patients to be seen that day and she was surprised by the fact that House has actually made an appointment instead of wandering into her office at whatever time suited him. The mystery was resolved by a memo from Wilson, stating that he made the appointment but could not guarantee that House would actually come, so he apologized beforehand.
House turned up in the afternoon, half an hour late, and Kate appreciated Wilson's forethought in booking his friend on the last available slot that day so that she had no other patients after him. Kate's main efforts were concentrating on convincing House that he needed a better pain management plan including physiotherapy and a more sensible medication than Vicodin. They were having a heated discussion over the pros and cons of Oxycodone when Kate realised that House sounded a bit odd to her. He seemed to have difficulty finishing longer sentences.
"Are you feeling alright? You seem a bit short of breath"
"I'm fine." Kate didn't expect any other answer but she could hear clearly a very faint and somehow suppressed cough that followed.
"Let me check", said Kate taking a stethoscope out of her drawer and waiting a minute before approaching House to let him come to terms with what she was going to do.
"You must be joking. Do you really miss internal medicine that much?"
"I think that the topic of our next insightful session will be why do you have so much trouble admitting it when you need help", Kate sighed. "Take off your shirt, I am not going to look, promise."
"It's cold." House backed off the second the stethoscope touched his skin.
"For God's sake, you are worse than a five-year-old." – Kate warmed the instrument in her hand and tried again. "Now be quiet for a second and take a nice deep breath."
Kate listened to the House's lungs for a couple of minutes and then started tapping over his chest. House could see that she was getting concerned. He really wanted to shake her away but suddenly felt too tired to do so. He didn't oppose her putting hands on his back.
"Say blue moon."
"Ninety-nine. Ninety-nine. Ninety-nine…" House kept repeating until she took her hands away, thinking that she clearly had not done many chest examinations since her residency as she was taking the methodical approach typical for junior doctors. He was wondering what the hell she has heard in there to make her do such a scrupulous examination.
"Can you whisper ninety-nine?"
"Would you back off?" House said in a quiet voice.
"Close enough for me." Kate smiled and put the stethoscope around her neck. "Tactile fremitus is increased. On auscultation, there are loud crackles on inspiration. Percussion reveals that the left side is totally dull. Text book case of pneumonia, even a psychiatrist can figure that out."
"No way! I don't even have fever." House was annoyed. Not that he thought Kate was wrong; he was sure that what she heard was accurate. He was angry with himself for letting her listen in first place as he was sure that she was going to form a united front with Wilson and he would find himself in hospital bed in no time.
"You must be joking! With those levels of acetaminophen in your system? Let's take the Vicodin away and I bet you'd hit 102° in no time. I'm calling Wilson."
"What for? Can't you just prescribe some antibiotics?"
"You need a chest film and I am not very good at interpreting those."
"I'm going home. I'll ask Wilson to prescribe some Augmentin on my way out." House stood up and suddenly felt very light-headed and fell forward, grabbing Kate's arm for support. That was something she did not expect, but she managed to get her balance right quickly enough to prevent them both landing on the floor.
"Easy now… Are you ok?"
"I guess so."
"Good! Now sit down in that damn chair and do not even dream of moving before Wilson gets here." Kate was irritated, mainly by the fact that bearing House's weight for that split second was enough to give her some pain in the lower back, not to mention the arm.
Wilson got Kate's message on the pager and excused himself from the staff meeting in oncology department. He was now walking along the corridor quickly wondering what the hell House got himself into this time.
"What's going on in here?"
"House has pneumonia and I think he needs to be admitted. No need in saying that he has slightly different opinion on that matter."
"Are you sure it's pneumonia?" Wilson was a bit sceptical.
"Crackles are loud enough to be heard by a lay person. Increased fremitus, dullness and all-time favourite whispered pectoriloquy indicate that there is already some considerable consolidation." Kate recited long list of symptoms with some resignation in her voice. She felt a bit as if she was a resident again.
"I have been with him all day. Not a single cough!"
"Hydrocodone suppresses the cough reflex." House said faintly, looking at Wilson getting furious.
"I don't believe this. House, you are impossible. You must how known all the time. How long have you been planning to pretend that everything is all right?"
"It's nothing. Will you stop getting all worked up?"
"You need a chest X-ray and intravenous antibiotics. I am admitting you to…"
"You are not!"
"Have you got a death wish or something?"
"That sounds more like my area of expertise, don't you think?", Kate interrupted and smiled at Wilson. "House, we both know that you are not stupid and will do what is necessary, but if you really need to tease Wilson beforehand, could you please do it outside my office, preferably on your way to the radiology department!"
"You are kicking me out. Have I finally managed to annoy you?"
"You managed to do that when we first met in ER, but now you have reached the ultimate level of annoyance when I actually let it show. Plus, if I don't kick you out soon, we will have to deal with hypoxia in my office and it is not exactly equipped for that."
AN: I have finally committed a chapter with the cliché "House is getting ill." I hope you can bare with that. Another thing, there is quite a lot of jargon in that chapter, hope you don't mind and if you do just skip those bits. Finally please review. It is important to me to know what you think so if you read it and want to read some more let me now. If you read it and hate it badly let me know as well.