Guys, I am so sorry that this has taken so long to post. A lot has happened in the time between the last chapter and this one. I fell and fractured my elbow, so I've been dealing with that. I'm doing better, and I'm not in a cast, but it's bothersome and painful. Then the pandemic happened and everyone's life has had to be altered. I hope that everyone is doing well and is safe. I hope that this story gives you a way to escape for a little while. As always, like, follow, and review. Revies make me happy!

Chase stood to the side as they helped Michael into a wheelchair. Once they were on the way and they began to wheel him towards the next room for a test, Chase began asking him questions. "Does anyone in your family or family history have neurological issues?"

Michael shook his head, "No."

"Have you been out of the country in the last five years?" Chase continued.

After looking behind him cautiously, Michael nodded. "Yes."

"Three years?" Chase asked, trying to narrow down how often he'd traveled.

"Yes."

"Two years?"

Back in Michael's hospital room Foreman stood in front of Tina, Michael's wife, wanting to ask her the same questions to see if everything would stay lined up between her and his patient.

"He stopped traveling for work two years ago, after we became serious," Tina explained.

"Have you gone on any vacations?"

"His last one was six months ago, it was a golf resort in Brisbane."

Meanwhile Chase had moved from asking Michael questions, to talking to their friend Maya.

"There was no way it was a golf resort," she argued, "Knowing Mike; he was going to every bar in the area before settling down."

This caused chase to sigh and return to Michael to ask him more questions, hoping to bring more light to the case. "Have you been drinking?" he asked.

Michael shook his head. "No."

"What about amphetamines?"

"No."

Chase narrowed his eyes at him. "You tested positive for them," he clarified, causing Michael to turn and give him a look.

Foreman and Chase took turns and questioned everyone for some time, trying to get some sort of real answers. Currently they were showing Michael and his wife the MRI scans of his brain.

"There's a little edema, brain swelling and an area of scarring," Chase said as he pointed the different places out on the image.

"Is that what caused the aphasia?" Tina asked.

"Actually, that's what's odd," Chase continued, "The scarring is not in the area of the brain normally associated with conduction aphasia. And it's old. So it happened before he hit his head. Could have been a small stroke or some other underlying condition that could be causing this or it might have nothing to do with it at all." Chase looked over at Michael. "Have you ever had head trauma before?" He watched as Michael shook his head, "Ever had any numbness on one side before? Or dizziness?" Again, Michael shook his head at him.

Meanwhile, back at the airport, House stared out the large pained windows with a cup of coffee in hand as he watched the snow come down in blankets. The attendant at the desk had just come over the loud speaker to say that all of the flights for the night were either delayed or cancelled, which made him sigh. "Great," he grumbled.

Cameron came up beside him and placed a hand on his back. "I got us a room at the airport hotel. It's better than staying here on a cot all night."

He turned and looked down at her, giving her a smile. "Thanks, you didn't have to do that."

She shrugged. "I know, but you didn't have to bring me here with you to do all of this either. Do you want to head to the room now? Or wander a bit longer?"

"We can go now; leg's stiff as it is with these damn hard seats."

Cameron nodded and rubbed his back. "Let's go then. We're on the second floor."

House let her take his hand and begin to lead him out of the airport terminal and towards the hotel. I'm glad that I brought her along, it would be a drag without her being here, he thought.

Back at the hospital, the team had come to a dead end and wondered where the scarring on his brain could have come from. They came to the conclusion that they should search Michael's home and office to see if they could find out anything that they were unwilling to tell them about.

The search leaded for Chase and Foreman to find and unfinished home improvement project and several different types of medicines, but nothing that would give them a definitive answer that they were looking for. When they returned to the hospital and checked on Michael they found him to be grunting and acting like he was in pain.

"I think it's his stomach!" Tina said as both Chase and Foreman rushed to his bedside.

"A till in the jug," Michael complained.

"Was it something you ate?" Foreman asked.

Michael grabbed a metal fork from his hospital tray and put it in his mouth, before running it along his tongue.

Tina sighed. "He keeps doing that, I don't know why."

Chase furrowed his brow in confusion. "Are you hungry?"

"No," Michael said firmly.

"He's in pain," Foreman stated, "Is it a sharp pain?" he asked.

"No!" Michael yelled, and proceeded to place the fork on his tongue again. "Too indigent."

"Taste?" Chase asked.

"Yes!" Michael exclaimed.

"A metallic taste?" Foreman questioned.

Michael nodded excessively. "Yes!"

"I'll be right back," Chase said, then rushed out of the room.

House lay back on the hotel bed and watched as Cameron grabbed a pillow and proceed to prop up his leg. "You really are too good for me you know that?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Oh really now?" Cameron asked as she moved to hover over him.

"Yes really." House glanced down at her lips before he looked back into her eyes to find them slightly dilated, which made him smile devilishly before he reached up and grasped her behind her neck and pulled her in for a heated kiss.

Cameron eagerly kissed him back as she cupped his cheek, feeling his three day old stubble scratch against her skin. She found herself sitting on the very edge of the bed as she laid on his chest, feeling as House moved his hand up into her hair. He had just nipped and licked at her bottom lip when her phone began to ring, causing her to pull away from him with a sigh.

"Ignore it," House said softly, now caressing the back of her neck again.

"It could be the hospital, about the case." She fully sat up and retrieved her cell from her pocket, then answered it. "Hello?"

"House around?" Wilson asked.

Cameron smirked, and then handed the phone out to House. "For you."

House grumbled before he took the phone with his free hand, letting the other one wander down Cameron's back. "House."

"Did you know your phone's dead? Do you ever charge it?" Wilson complained.

House rolled his eyes, causing Cameron to chuckle. "They recharge? I just keep buying new phones," he replied sarcastically.

A sigh could be heard from Wilson. "I thought you would want know your aphasia guy is tasting metal."

"What's his creatinine level at?"

A six point eight right now and his kidneys are failing. Foreman's got him on dialysis and he's stable for the moment - unlike Cuddy, who's suicidal."

In the diagnostic conference room, Cuddy paced back and forth while Foreman and Chase watched her. Foreman cleared his throat and tapped his pen on the table. "It's either meningitis or encephalitis, or maybe auto-immune."

Cuddy turned and glared at Foreman. "That's perfect. It seems like you really narrowed it down over dinner! Here's the plan, we talk to House…"

"We've tried," Chase cut in, "He's not answering his cell."

"It's obvious that we have to do a lumbar puncture," Foreman added, "We have no choice."

Cuddy turned to retaliate when the phone in the center of the table began to ring. She quickly answered it and put it on speakerphone.

House's voice filled the room. "You have to do it, just right."

"What are you talking about?" Chase asked.

"Well, either you've decided to do a lumbar puncture, or you have to fire me so that I can't fire all of you as soon as I get back in charge. Is Cuddy there ranting?"

Cuddy sighed. "If I had known that you would have been out of contact…"

"They can handle it," House interrupted, his voice stern.

"Right, so far only three organ systems have failed," Cuddy replied sarcastically.

House moved to sit up further on the bed. "Ok, they can't. It doesn't matter; the guy's not stable enough to move. So go rant in your own office."

Cuddy huffed. "Fine. Call me when you're done," she snapped, then turned and leaned against the wall. She looked to Foreman and Chase and nodded at them to keep going as if she weren't in the room.

Chase leaned forward in his seat and put his elbows on the table. "What do you mean about doing the LP just right? It's not like we'll screw it up."

"The odds are that this guy knows something that we don't," House stated.

Foreman rolled his eyes in frustration. "The man could know the meaning to life as we know it House. The man cannot communicate!"

"Have you had any indication that he's tried to communicate something important to you?"

"No," Chase answered.

House nodded to himself. "That's because you guys haven't scared him enough. I'm sure you've been all 'oh we'll take really good care of you', so why should he say anything? When you prep him, tell him he's going to die. Crush all hope. Don't let Chase do it. Cuddy, you got a problem with any of that?" he asked snugly.

Chase and Foreman looked at Cuddy, just as she looked back at them with her eyes wide. "No, I don't."