CHAPTER 49

*Ring, ring*

"How can I help you?" answered House.

"Hot car," said Cameron.

"Chick magnet huh?"

"Definitely!"

"Yeah, well, that's why I bought it."

"Uh-oh! Watch it!" Cameron teased.

"What?" House said innocently. "You're a chick. Maybe I just didn't want your attentions to wane."

"Yeah, nice try," Cameron said through a vibrant smile. She hung up the phone and continued on driving behind House in his new car. He had the top down and music blaring and looked like a healthy mix of a mid-life crisis incarnate and a 16-year-old on his birthday as he receives the keys to his first car.

*Ring, ring*

"Dale Earnhardt, Junior speaking."

"Slow down! Not all cars go 150 miles per hour!"

"160 in my case."

"Whatever, slow down before my tires fall off!"

"Well, if they do, you'll still have a sweet ride home."

Cameron laughed as she hung up the phone and threw it onto the passenger seat. She wished they could be riding in the same car.

*Ring, ring*

He checked the caller id and sighed. "House," he answered, irritated.

"House, I'm sorry. I wouldn't have called unless we were absolutely desperate." It was Cuddy's voice on the line.

"I guess I've got a few minutes."

"No, you don't understand. I need you here."

"Symptoms!" he prompted her.

"Presented with sudden high fever, muscle aches, nausea, blurred vision, rash all over his upper body."

"What does the rash look like?"

"House, we need you here!"

"What does the rash look like?" he persisted.

Cuddy sighed. "It's red. Basically like sunburn."

"Has he travelled recently?"

"Works with the Peace Corps, just got back from a trip to Seoul, South Korea."

"Working outside, long hours…. Heat stroke? Exhaustion?"

"Get real, House. He got back 3 weeks ago, there's no way. Plus, it doesn't explain his more recent symptoms—tachycardia and now kidney failure."

"Food poisoning, Lyme Disease." House frantically racked his brain, throwing out any idea that came to him, groping and clutching in vain for the answer with intensifying desperation as Cuddy eliminated his theories one by one.

"House, we've been through all of this. I'm telling you. I am calling you as a last resort. We need you here. He's going downhill fast. He can't afford for us to waste anymore time."

Drained of all ideas, deflated, and defeated, House was finally forced to face the real world once more. Despite all the crap that he had just endured, throughout it all, even as his mother lay dying, Cameron's presence acted as a layer of insulation that protected his raw nerves, softening the sting of the elements and tempering the bitter cold of loneliness, pain, and regret. And now the inevitable day had come, the day which brought the victory of his sense of obligation and devotion to the medical world over his desire and responsibility to himself and the people around him. He sighed heavily. "I'm on my way. Expect me early tomorrow morning."

"Thanks. I'm so sorry. Tell Cameron I'm so sorry."