Last Resort
"Got a minute?" Foreman asked Thirteen as she finished writing in a patient file in the very busy clinic.
"No." She handed the nurse, Regina, the file and looked over the information inside.
"I'm consulting on some clinical trials that involve CNS compounds." He tried anyways.
"While it's true that no sometimes means yes, in this context…" She trailed off.
"One's a new Huntington's drug. Phase three trials are showing real results delaying neuronal degeneration. Probably get you in."
"No, thanks." She gave him a look before walking away.
"Are you doing anything about your disease, following any kind of program?"
"No. Nor am I looking for a consult." She walked away again and this time, Foreman let her alone.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Thirteen honestly wasn't all that surprised as a man with a gun took her hostage along with a teen, Oliver, a girl in her twenties, Nikki, the nurse, Regina, a married pregnant couple, Sandra and Bill, a guy with a migraine, Larry, and a guy that was rather well dressed, Mitch. The only thing she was surprised about was that House was in Cuddy's office.
House looked up, not seeing the captor at first, "Nice try. Love to help."
"Shut up!" Jason, the captor, locked Cuddy's door and started closing the blindes.
House recognized him from taunting him earlier and then he saw the gun, "You wanted to see doctor—"
"I said shut up. I'm sick, and I want to know why. I want the best doctor in this hospital here, now… Or I'm gonna start killing people."
All of the hostages seemed to start squirming and cringing… except for Thirteen, who only looked at him, telling him to do something.
House looked at the man again and, as if talking about the weather, "What seems to be the problem?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
Cameron was with the other boys in the conference room listening to House, the patient, and Thirteen when she had input. Cameron was shaking on the inside. When Chase walked out, she almost ran after him and punched him before making him come back to help… instead, she tried to pay attention and help out so that Thirteen would be alright… they had been so close the week before to getting back together, and no dumbass with a gun was going to ruin it for her. She took a breath and listened for her assignment: Records. That's what she got. She closed her eyes and prayed to any God she could think of to let Remy be okay… and to let her make rational decisions. She had no idea what the woman would do in this situation…
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Herpetic? You think I have herpes?" Jason asked.
"I'm not judging here. This thing is just as likely to be caused by chicken pox." House said.
"I need proof now."
"There is a test. It's dangerous and painful while the treatment is safe and painless. But you make a good point. You need proof now. I'll order up the test. If you have neuralgia, you won't feel it going in."
"It only hurts if your diagnosis is wrong?"
House nodded, "Win-win."
~0~0~0~0~0~
After watching all of them play 'Nose Goes' to see who would be taking the medicine, Thirteen knew she had nothing to lose. "I'll do it." She volunteered causing everyone to look at her.
House shook his head as he prepared the syringe, "This is a level of risk taking beyond anonymous girl-on-girl action." He spoke quietly.
"They're patients. I'm a doctor."
"With a degenerative, drug-unfriendly illness."
"Everything's not some fascinating character flaw."
"This is a genetic flaw. This is your Huntington's speaking. This is you waving a white flag at the world."
"Yes, I have a shortened life span. Another reason why I'm objectively the right choice." She hunched over in pain and gasped out a groan.
"Wow! I would have laid money you had herpes." He said sarcastically, then turned to Jason, "Your turn." He prepared the other syringe, "So why are we here? We've ruled out immediate risk of death, lost love. That just leaves… work? You're defined by your work. But you kept seeing doctors, kept missing time. Couldn't focus. Maybe you made a huge mistake… got fired."
"I just want an answer."
"I know. I'm asking why." House watched Jason kneel down in an immense amount of pain. He knew that that diagnosis was to good to be true… or too easy.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Thirteen burst through the door from getting the medicine to calm his heart… She'd had thirty seconds before he was going to start killing people and she could tell that something was about to happen just before she entered. She gave the syringes to House.
"She takes it first." Jason gestured to Thirteen.
House looked at him like he was an idiot, "Adenosine slows the heart. Which is fine, if it's beating fast like yours. Not fine if it's normal, like hers. Following the math on this?"
"She takes everything I take. I don't want anything that cross-reacts."
By this point, Thirteen tied the tourniquet around her arm and took a syringe and gave herself the drug.
House rolled his eyes and limped over to her as she collapsed on the floor, "The martyr's heart is beating dangerously slow. Are we good to go?" He asked then gave him the other syringe, "Your heart's back to normal. No tachycardia. No sign of a heart defect at all. But you're sweating."
"I nearly had a heart attack. You're surprised I'm sweating?"
"On one side of your face, but not the other."
"What's that mean?"
"A tumor is pressing on your sympathetic nerves. You have lung cancer."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Regina was taking Thirteen's pulse. She looked over to House, "Pulse is down below 50."
"So's her IQ. Help her up. Get her heart going faster." He said.
"I need proof it's cancer."
"Of course you do!" House glared at him before he took his phone and dialed… he had two calls to make and the first was to Cameron.
~0~0~0~0~0~
When Cameron answered the call to the conference room, he paused a minute hesitant before he spoke, "Cameron… is there someone else, or even two someone elses in there with you?"
"Foreman and Taub are both in here…"
"Okay, Foreman. Go stand next to Cameron and get ready to catch her or… something…"
"House, what are you—"
"Thirteen is taking everything he is." House says seriously.
Cameron's knees buckled and Foreman got to her just in time to help ease her down, "Now her heart has slowed way down… You needed to know."
Foreman picked Cameron up and brought her to House's office so she could have a little privacy. Then he went back into the conference room for the rest of the information, all the while keeping an eye in House's office.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Thirteen barely registered what was happening as rope was tied around her and she formed a circle with Oliver, Regina, Ben and House around their captor. She looked around with an open mouth most of the time. She almost felt out of body.
Once they got to radiology, her movements were made due to muscle memory. She wanted to pass out then and there.
~0~0~0~0~0~
After releasing all the hostages except for House, Thirteen and Olivier, who wanted to stay out of curiousity, and giving up the gun, then getting the gun back, They were all gathered in the CT lab still.
"You had four theories. You ruled out four theories. Maybe no one can cure me." Jason broke the silence aside from the constant ringing of the phone.
House finally grabbed the phone, "He overpowered me and got the gun back." He told the police man on the other line and hung up.
Thirteen stared at House, "You're a coward. You need to know everything because you're afraid to be wrong. You're so afraid of being ordinary, of being just another doctor, just another human being, that you'll risk other people's lives."
House gave her a look right back, "I'm arrogant. You're the coward. You're terrified of death. You just want to cheat it by making it come sooner. Gives you the illusion of control."
~0~0~0~0~0~
They negotiated once more and got more medicine for Jason to try. The negotiation for the medicine was letting Oliver go and Thirteen not taking it first.
So when Jason tried to get House to give it to her first anyways, he began arguing. He was not going to let Thirteen die for him… not when Thirteen was the answer to his best friend's happiness… He knew he'd gone soft, but that's what happens when your two best and only friends are a couple of romantics.
He glared at Jason, "She has Huntington's. If these drugs are real, it could screw up her liver."
Thirteen grabbed the syringe from him and injected herself, "The chances are slim. Chances of him shooting one of us, on the other hand—"
House tried to stop her, "Don't do—"
It was too late though. Thirteen just gave him a weary look and sat back on the CT bed.
"How long do you have to live?" Jason asked.
"Eight, ten years."
"Killing her is your chance to get personal?" House interrupted.
Jason ignored him and continued, "Huntington's doesn't have—" He gasped for a breath, "Doesn't have a cure?"
"No."
"So if we get out of here—"
"If she were clinging to hope, she wouldn't be standing in line waiting for you to order up more drugs." He was really scolding Thirteen as he checked over Jason. He looked to the brunette as he put his stethoscope to his ears and said, "Take a deep breath." She looked back at him, knowing what he meant when he said what he said.
Jason listened to House and took deep breaths, "Not knowing what was wrong with me… made me miserable. Maybe that's insane. Doing this… Yeah. Insane. But I had something to gain. You can't take risks with no upside at all."
House removed the ear pieces and put the stethoscope around his neck, "I can't decide which is riskier, taking crazy risks or taking advice on crazy risks from a crazed risk-taker." He went to check Thirteen, "Heart's racing. Fever." He laid her down, "And your breathing's unchanged."
"Does that mean she…?" He trailed off.
House turned back to him, "Means I was wrong. Her kidneys are shutting down because of the meds you made her take."
~0~0~0~0~0~
House had called the office again. He heard the absolute terror in Cameron's voice as she rattled off as many ideas as possible, "Is he absolutely sure of that? Mexico. Costa Rica. You've never been—"
"I've never been anywhere south of Florida."
House and Thirteen both turned and looked at him. Even in excruciating pain, Thirteen was thinking clearly enough to know that this guy was an idiot.
"You idiot." House said for everyone present, via telephone or lying in agony on a CT bed.
"Florida counts?"
"Well, not to the Supreme Court. But it's warm enough for germs." He hung up his phone, "You keep blaming doctors when you can't even give a halfway decent history."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Thirteen listened to them all make the final negotiation. She thought about what needed to be done. She thought about the fact that this might be her death date, she thought about Cameron and how she wanted to tell her she loved her one last time. And despite it all, she felt herself say, "House, get out of here."
"Shut up. I'm not leaving." He looked at her.
"Who's the martyr now? Either the drugs kill me or he kills me. Doesn't seem to make a lot of difference." She took in a deep breath.
House walked over to her. She looked at Jason then when he took a step back to give them a minute, he assumed of negotiation, she looked back at House. Tears were in her eyes and House knew then and there that he had been right the whole time… and she was just now realizing everything.
She closed her eyes, "Tell Allison…" She couldn't finish her words. She didn't need to. He knew what she wanted to say. He only nodded before he walked out with Cuddy as she brought the meds.
After getting the last drug they were going to get, Thirteen looked at him, "You really don't feel bad about killing me?"
"Not if you don't feel bad about killing yourself."
"I don't want to die."
"Yeah, you do. You just don't have the nerve to actually do it. You just want it out of your control. Well, it is. 'Cause I've got a gun."
Thirteen hesitated as she prepared the last syringe, "Don't do this."
Jason turned and looked at the wall that a loud noise was coming from, "Either I do this with you alive, or—"
"Please. Sometimes you just have to trust people." She swallowed hard as she got ready to inject herself, but she stopped, "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
~0~0~0~0~0~
When House walked out of the room and down the hall to Cuddy, the last thing he expected was Cameron there. He had hoped that Foreman had enough sense to keep her away. Cameron saw him coming from the room and tears sprang to her eyes. He let her fall into his arms, and gave a scolding look at Cuddy who had her hands to her cheeks.
"I didn't see her until it was too late." She said quietly.
"She's not gonna take it." Cameron said faithfully, "She won't." She stared over to the men that were currently working on the wall to make an entrance.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Jason looked from the wall, knowing the swat team was going to blow the wall open. He grabbed the syringe from her and stuck it in his arm just as the wall blew up. He and Thirteen were thrown to the floor.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Cameron ran passed House and opened the actual door first. She saw Remy on the floor and turned her over. When House got there, he looked at her shocked, "Why are you still alive?"
Thirteen looked from him to Cameron, "He didn't make me take it." She smiled before passing out finally, knowing it was okay to do so.
Cameron collapsed on Remy and after only a minute for the SWAT team to take Jason into custody, they get her into a hospital room on dialysis. She stayed with her the whole time.
Foreman was in the room with them when Thirteen woke up once more, "A week of temporary dialysis, your kidneys will be okay."
Thirteen nodded. She stared at Cameron as she spoke to Foreman, "About that Huntington's drug trial…" She finally looked over at him and smiled. She picked up Cameron's hand and kissed it as she looked back up at her. Cameron smiled down at her and they kiss for the first time in what felt like 90 years.
Foreman smirked and stepped out of the room then.
After breaking the kiss, Remy snuggled into Allison close, "Thanks for waiting for me to come back to you so we can get on with our life."
