- 25 -

"When a power outage struck Princeton-Plainsboro, recovery seemed unreachable for the Ebola patients, or any patient at the hospital for that matter. Still, they fought."

Foreman and House rummaged quickly through the remaining tools in the Diagnostics Department. When House finally found a screwdriver, he handed it over to Foreman.

Foreman darted out the glass door quickly, but House didn't follow him, and he quickly noticed his absence. Foreman turned back and found House staring out the large window.

"What's going on?" asked Foreman.

"Look," said House. He pointed out the window. "Everybody else has power."

Foreman looked out the window and saw a city full of light. He frowned. "The problem is just in our hospital," he said. "Maybe it'll be easier to fix, then."

House shrugged, almost doubting that logic. Nonetheless, he followed Foreman out of the department. They took the elevators to the basement.

x - x - x

Chase continued to pump oxygen into Wilson's lungs, hoping that enough of it was getting through to his organs. In Wilson's condition, there probably wasn't enough blood in his body to deliver the oxygen anyways.

Allison's body was beginning to feel the effect of the growing toxins in her blood. Fatigue overcame her, and she was beginning to feel even sicker than she had in a long time. It wouldn't be long before she went into shock. Her body was delivering toxin-filled blood to already unhealthy organs. On top of that, her hemorrhaging was causing her to have a lack of blood. It was only a matter of what would kill her first.

"Is this working?" asked Chase. "He doesn't seem to be getting better."

"Just keep squeezing that bag!" snapped Lisa. She searched her mind for something that she could do to help Allison.

"Why isn't he awake?" asked Chase.

"He's tired," said Lisa. She knew that Wilson was probably unconscious at the moment, though.

"He doesn't seem like he's sleeping," commented Chase. He opened Wilson's eyelids. "Don't your eyes move when you're sleeping?"

"Close his eyelids!"

"Sorry," said Chase quickly and he continued to pump the bag. "Why isn't this helping him?"

"He doesn't have enough blood to deliver the oxygen to all of his organs."

"Like Joe."

Lisa nodded, and tears fell down her face as she recalled Joe's outcome. "Just keep squeezing that bag."

Chase nodded. "What's wrong with Allison?" He had become very fond of the pretty girl who often slept in the pews of his chapel and came to talk to him when nobody else was there.

"Her kidneys aren't cleaning her blood," she said. "And there's also not enough blood to deliver oxygen to her body."

Chase frowned. "What can you do to help her?"

"She needs dialysis, but we can't give it to her until the power comes back on."

This upset Chase even more.

Lisa panicked. "Why aren't you pumping that bag?!"

Chase came out of his daze and started constricting the bag once again. "I'm sorry, I just—I—."

Lisa frowned. There was something wrong. "Chase… what's going on?"

Chase wiped the sweat from his forehead as he continued to fill Wilson's lungs with oxygen.

x - x - x

House and Foreman finally arrived at the electrical system, and as assumed, the doors were locked.

Foreman kneeled down on the ground and gathered his tools. He jiggled one, then the other. It looked like a magic trick to House.

There was a click, and Foreman finally got the door unlocked.

"That was amazing," House joked. It really was amazing, though.

"Come on," was Foreman's only response. He entered the large electrical room and looked around for any problem. "Do you see anything?"

House moaned. "Yeah."

"What is it?" Foreman turned around to find House holding two ends of a wire. They were chewed in half. "Dammit."

"There are more of them over here," said House. He picked up more wires that had been chewed in half.

Foreman walked over to the 'eaten' section of the electrical system and examined it. "We can fix this. We just have to reattach the wires."

They set out to do so, pulling small metallic wires out of their rubber holders and reattaching them. Of course, they were wearing rubber gloves to protect themselves.

They were almost done reattaching the wires when House stopped. He heard a squeaking noise.

"What is it?" asked Foreman.

House shushed him as he stood up and gripped his cane like a weapon in one hand.

"What are you doing?"

House shushed Foreman again as a rat appeared among the wires. House stared at him malevolently for a moment, and the rat just tilted his hide to the side in innocence.

House tilted his head to the side also, curious about the mouse's odd gesture.

Foreman saw the rat as well. "Just hurry up and kill the damn thing before it chews through any more wires!"

House snapped out of his daze and hit the rat on the head with his cane.

"Come on," said Foreman. "There's only a few more. Thank god he didn't go through the whole place. There would have been no way we'd have been able to fix it."

House sat back down on the ground and started reattaching wires with Foreman. Hopefully they would finish in time.

x - x - x

Lisa frowned as Chase told her about the news that had been haunting him for several days. He apparently hadn't talked to anyone about it until now.

"I'm sorry about your dad," she said.

Chase nodded. "It's just…."

"What?"

"He died of cancer."

"That must have been a terrible way to go."

"Yeah," said Chase. "But he must have known, too. I mean… he must have known that he was going to die."

Lisa was confused.

"He never even told me that he was dying. He just… died."

"I'm sorry, Chase," she repeated. "But you can't let your own emotions distract you from doing your job."

Chase shook his head. "My job? I'm not a doctor. I'm a priest, remember?"

Lisa sighed. "I know, but right now, your job is to save his life." She motioned her head towards Wilson's still body. "Do you think you can do that?"

Chase looked at Wilson. It wasn't his fault that his father had never told him about his death. He looked back at Lisa and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Good," said Lisa. "Now if we could only find a way to—."

Her statement was interrupted when Terry and Donahue walked into the isolation room.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Lisa. "You should be downstairs! Those patients need your—."

They both shook their heads.

"They're gone," cried Terry. "They didn't make it." She wiped a tear from her eye.

Donahue sighed. "We checked the ICU, to see if they needed help."

The look on his face wasn't promising, though. "And?" asked Lisa in fear.

"The nurses there are doing everything they can," he said. "But most of their patients have already passed away."

Tears fell down Lisa's face again.

"We wanted to see if you guys needed any help," said Terry. She looked around the room. "Where's House? I would have thought that he'd be here still. And… Dr. Foreman, right?"

Lisa nodded. "They went to fix the electrical system. Can you get me some type O blood?"

Terry and Donahue nodded. "How much do you need?"

Lisa looked at Wilson and Allison again. "A lot."

The two infectiologists sighed heavily as they left the room to complete their task.

Realization suddenly hit Lisa. "Wait… Chase… Chase…."

"What?"

"Your dad wasn't… Rowan Chase, was he?"

"You knew him?" Chase was amazed.

"I think most of the people in the medical field knew him," replied Lisa. "He was a great doctor."

Chase frowned. "Yeah, I know."

Lisa looked at Chase. He still wasn't telling her the whole story. "What is it?"

"He didn't want me to be a priest," he said. "He always wanted me to be a doctor."

Lisa shrugged. "It's your life, not his. You did what you wanted to do."

Chase looked carefully at Wilson. "I'm just not so sure anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I always wanted to become a priest to help people," he said. "And it seems like I only help people when I'm with you guys."

"I'm sure you've helped a lot of people, Chase."

Chase shook his head. "No…."

Lisa chewed on her lips. She didn't really know how to comfort Chase when she was such a mess herself.

Right as Terry and Donahue arrived with the packs of blood, the lights flickered on.

Lisa, Chase, Terry, and Donahue all laughed in ecstasy.

"Oh thank god," said Lisa. She made sure that Wilson's respirator and Cameron's hemodialysis were functioning properly. They were.

Several minutes later, House and Foreman returned to the isolation room.

"We don't know how long it'll last," said Foreman.

"We called the electrician to have him fix it properly," added House. He looked at Allison and Wilson, prepared for the worst. "How are they doing?"

"They're okay," said Lisa. "Well, as good as we could have hoped anyways."

House's heart skipped a beat in excitement. They were still alive; they were still here with him.

House couldn't express how thankful he was to have his two best friends, Lisa and Wilson, still with him.

Heck, he had only met Foreman, Allison, and Chase about a month ago, and still he was thankful to have them in his life. He hoped that it would stay that way.

This virus had completely changed all of their lives, but was it for the better or worse? House liked to think that it was for the better.

By some twist of fate, this disease had brought them all together.

The End