- 24 -

"The first survivor of the New Jersey 2007 Ebola outbreak was the infectiologist. A screening confirmed that the virus had completely cleared his system, but the news wasn't quite as good for the other patients. Unfortunately, survival became nearly impossible at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital."

House's fever finally disappeared, and Foreman officially released him from the isolation room the day after Allison was admitted.

House no longer worked at PPTH, but there was no way that he could leave now. There was no way that he could leave his only friends while they fought for their lives.

Foreman advised House that it was unsafe for him to be working in the isolation room, but House didn't care. Allison had sat at his side while he was sick, and he was going to do the same for her.

Lisa's fever eventually began to drop, and she was eventually released six days after House. What should have been a joyous day quickly turned into the worst day of her life, though, when Mike left her. Apparently, he couldn't stand to look at the woman who had both kissed another man and caused the death of their only daughter. It seemed like the only people she had left in her life now were her two friends, Greg and James. And so, she sat faithfully at their sides.

Wilson's condition wasn't improving like Lisa's had, sadly. Foreman eventually had to hook him up to a respirator to keep his organs from suffocating.

Unfortunately, Allison wasn't doing too well either. Her reluctance to have herself admitted (which Foreman and House were very mad about, by the way) and late diagnosis had damaged her kidneys severely. Of course, sufferers of this disease normally end up with completely liquefied internal organs, so she was lucky to only have damaged kidneys.

Allison awoke, once again, to the sound of a pill bottle opening. She had always thought that Greg was taking those pills because of the pain from the virus, but he was healthy now. "Why do you take those pills?" she asked. She knew it was because of his leg, but she also knew that there was more to the story than he was telling her.

"My leg hurts," was his only answer.

Allison coughed fiercely. "I don't remember you taking them before you had the virus."

"Wilson's been prescribing them ever since my leg was crippled." This girl was too nosy for her own good, and House didn't like it one bit.

Allison shrugged lightly. "I guess I just never saw you take them before."

"Well then you haven't seen me in pain." House twiddled the bottle in his fingers.

He was in pain now, but not then? What had changed? He was healthy now. Allison dismissed the puzzle as a wave of nausea overpowered her. She vomited into a bowl that House had conveniently set on the side of the bed that he wasn't sitting on. She frowned. "There's blood in my vomit."

House chewed on his lip. He kind of knew that there would be blood in her vomit, but that advanced knowledge didn't seem to comfort him. "Your blood isn't capable of clotting. You're starting to hemorrhage."

Allison rolled her eyes. "I know that."

House shrugged. "Sorry."

Allison frowned. "I didn't mean to snap, I just—."

House shrugged nonchalantly. "It's no problem."

Allison was confused. He really didn't seem to have a problem with her sudden outbursts. Maybe it was because she'd learned to adjust to his. She was about to thank him for his patience with her, but the lights went out.

"Dammit, House," complained Foreman. "Turn the lights back on!"

House stood up from his seat and looked around the room. "It wasn't me."

Lisa got up from her chair as well and looked around. "The power went out."

Allison started to panic, but House calmed her.

"Don't worry," he said. "The hospital has an emergency power system."

House watched as Wilson's chest fell and rose rapidly as he struggled to get air.

"How long does the emergency power take to come on?" asked Lisa. She was new to the hospital and had never experienced a black-out here.

"It should have come on by now," said House.

This caused Allison to start worrying again.

Father Chase, who had offered to help them out for the duration of the epidemic, spoke up. "What are we going to do?" He seemed almost as worried as Allison now.

"I could go down and check the electrical system," suggested House.

Foreman put a mask over Wilson's mouth and began to manually pump air into his lungs. Without power, none of the medical equipment was working. "Don't you guys have electricians… custodians?"

"They left," said Lisa meekly. "They said that cleaning up vomit was too risky for them or something." She gave an unsure shrug.

"Chase, you're coming with me," said House.

"Wait," said Chase. "How are we supposed to get in there? I mean, aren't the doors locked or something?"

Everyone in the room cast each other worried glances.

"I've got an idea," said Foreman. "Chase, you take this."

Chase walked over to Foreman and took the mask from him. He began pumping oxygen into Wilson's body. He was definitely getting the hang of all this doctoring stuff.

"I'm going to need a screw driver and a bobby pin," said Foreman.

Lisa pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and handed it to Foreman. "What are you going to do?"

"We're going to break in," said Foreman. "Anyone know where we can get a screwdriver?"

"I'm sure there's one in the Diagnostics Department," suggested House. "I mean, the place is still under construction. They're bound to have left some tools around, right?"

Foreman nodded as he followed House into the decontamination room.

"Wait!" shouted Lisa. "What do I do?!"

"Make sure Allison doesn't die," House quipped as he and Foreman made their leave.

If the power was out too long, there was no doubt in any of their minds that a majority of the patients in the hospital could die.

Wilson would fail to receive the needed oxygen, and he would go into multi-system organ failure.

Without the necessary dialysis, Allison would go into acute renal failure and die.

House and Foreman would have to hurry.