surprise chapter? she's on fire, I know!

...

It was obvious that the team were now majorly concerned.

Foreman had started showing the same symptoms, by bursting out into manic laughter whilst the cop was bleeding into his brain - and Talia was over the entire day at this point. They immediately sectioned the protesting Foreman into quarantine with the cop, and they were now all slightly panicky. Talia was still irritated with him, yes, but her concern for him overrode it. Foreman was a great doctor and he always challenged her way of thinking, so the thought of him getting this sick without knowing what it was genuinely worried her. Cameron had made it crystal clear that she wanted to go back to the cop's apartment to figure out what Foreman picked up - but both Talia and House had also swiftly made it clear that it would be a stupid thing for her to do.

But of course, House's alternative plans were just as ridiculous.

"I can't believe you gave Foreman a brain biopsy," Talia tutted to him as he chucked his trusty bouncy red ball against the wall. "House, that is insane. He himself just thinks it's-"

"Ya, because Foreman of all people would be trustworthy enough to listen to," House scoffed back under his breath. "Now, shouldn't you be busy testing his extracted brain matter?"

"Nope. You sent Chase to test that and you sent Cameron to monitor Foreman and test his matter. I'm looking at this extensive list of diagnosis's that match his symptoms, remember?" Talia reminded him miserably, flicking through yet another page of her book.

The tiredness was heavy on her head now.

"You still tired?" House suddenly asked, turning to look at her properly.

"Why? Another symptom of pregnancy?" Talia shot back as she slammed the book shut. House raised a suspicious brow and said nothing more. "I'm fine. I'm going to check on Foreman."

"The Foreman that you hate?" House clarified.

"The Foreman that I work with," Talia corrected him smoothly, standing to her feet. "You can either come with, or sit in here and wallow in self pity for not figuring this out yet."

…

Having to see Foreman on the other side of the isolation glass was genuinely traumatic. Joe, the cop, was screaming and writhing around in pain in his own bed, making it worse. After a few moments of them standing there, Chase had walked over to join Talia and House, having finished testing - but Talia quickly noticed something. "Wait, wasn't Cameron meant to be in there with Foreman?" she frowned to House. But House turned to look at Chase for an answer, because truthfully, he was just as confused.

"I just bumped into her in the hall. She wouldn't even stop to say where she was going," Chase shrugged. Talia nodded slowly, although she was confused. She wanted to talk to Cameron about Ryan's call, because the more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. She couldn't for the life of her, understand how he'd found her again. She didn't know if he was in the country or-

"FOREMAN! THAT CAN KILL HIM!" she suddenly heard Chase yell from beside her in a panic. She snapped out of her worried daydreams and focused on what was happening in front of her, seeing Foreman had already pushed morphine straight into Joe's IV, desperate ease his pain and stop the screams.

And much to Foreman's relief, he quietened for a few seconds - but then he didn't.

"Oh god. Hyperalegisia," Talia breathed, taking a few steps away from the glass. "Painkillers won't work because the pain signals aren't rooted in one spot-"

"Yup. Put the guy in a coma - this isn't fair on anyone," House murmured to Chase before hobbling off again. Chase nodded and went to suit up in his protective gear, leaving Talia standing opposite the shaken Foreman alone. She bit down on her jaw and shook her head in nothing but pity, and her heart was completely swollen with worry for him.

"Talia," Foreman finally breathed, staring straight into her eyes without so much as blinking, "you are the one who can figure this out, if anyone."

"…pardon?" Talia mumbled as her heart started to race.

"You're just House but minus the madness. I can't afford for House to insert his madness because it could make everything worse before making me better and I'm already in enough pain. C'mon, I'd trust you to fix me," Foreman pleaded as each desperate breath fogged up against the glass. He had never asked her for anything before and yet, here he was, practically begging. "Put your mind to it. You can do this-"

"So now I can do it but two hours ago you were doing my job for me because you didn't think I could?" Talia scoffed, folding her arms and shaking her head. "Wow."

"Please, Talia," Foreman continued on, his eyes widening in fear. "You don't give up on anyone. So…don't give up on me."

Something within Talia twinged at that point. He had clearly hit home and he'd done it reasonably well. She knew it, too.

Those tactics had been used on her before.

"Fine," she muttered, before turning around and walking to the office, leaving Chase behind.

It was a good thing he hadn't overheard that conversation, though.

He would've been livid.

…

Talia had now been at work for over 24hours non stop, which meant that she had technically been awake even longer due to the phone call. She was trying her best to figure out Foreman could possibly have, but it was beginning to give her a migraine because she just couldn't get it. She had even decided to use Wilson's empty office for silence so that she could concentrate better, but all that meant was that she could sleep on the pile of thick books at his desk without being interrupted.

Until Wilson actually walked in.

"ARGH!" he yelped once he opened his door, snapping Talia awake.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" she blurted out, rubbing her eyes and hurriedly standing up straight. She now had dark red circles under her eyes and her hair was a complete mess - more to the point, her head was aching and her nose felt stuffy.

"Were you…were you sleeping in here?" Wilson frowned as he stepped into his office properly, Talia winced in embarrassment as she watched him shuffle off his coat. "Ya do know Chase is going crazy out there looking for you, right?"

"What…what time is it now?" Talia sniffed as she gathered her books and notes.

"It is…9:50am…" Wilson answered, watching her droopy eyes go wide in horror. "What time was it when you last checked?"

"7:30am. Not enough sleep time to rejuvenate," Talia mumbled miserably, trudging over to the office door. "Sh*t."

"Ya might wanna go and find Chase before he completely looses his mind," Wilson urged her with a small frown.

"I will do…thank you," Talia gave him a brief smile in return, then she began to sluggishly make her way down the corridor.

"Wait! Talia!" Wilson called out before she could get too far. She spun around again and saw his thick eyebrows furrow together in worry. "Are you…feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Talia assured him shortly. Before he could pry any further, she turned back around and made her way back to House's office with her belongings clasped to her chest, attempting to regulate her breathing to calm herself down. Not only was the tiredness and Ryan's return pushing her towards a panic attack, but everyone in that hallways started to resemble him. It was as if all their faces were morphing into his, and only when she continued blinking did she realise it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.

She was petrified - then Chase intercepted her as soon as she reached the office.

"Oh my god, where have you been?" he hissed, taking her head in his hands and stroking her blotchy swollen cheeks with his thumbs. "Alright see now you look awful-"

"I was…trying to diagnose Foreman," Talia admitted groggily, avoiding his eye contact at all times. "Went to Wilson's office to try and get it done in peace but…apparently that didn't work out."

"Doesn't even matter, House and Cameron found some built up pigeon crap outside the cop's place and they're testing it for toxins now," Chase assured her as he gingerly took her hand and led her to sit down at the table. He started making her a coffee without her even asking. "Personally, I think we got it-"

"Wait - House and Cameron went to the guy's apartment again?" Talia frowned, resting her heavy head on her hand.

"No, Cameron went without telling anyone and House figured out where she was. Turns out Foreman pricked her with an infected needle and threatened her - so if she didn't figure out what he had, they'd both die. It was totally f*cked," Chase explained darkly as he switched on the machine.

The news was like a blow to Talia's stomach. She felt her palms get hot.

"He pricked her with an infected needle?" she repeated with a growl of disgust, the rage quickly building up inside of her. "That man gets worse and worse as the hours go on I swear-"

"Yeah, definitely wasn't his finest moment," Chase muttered as he started up the coffee machine. "Anyway, I think it's-"

Suddenly, both their pagers went off simultaneously - and it was from Cameron. They both glanced at each other for the briefest of moments before pelting out the office and down the stairs to the isolation war. They skidded to the window beside House, who was watching Foreman try his best to administer CPR to the cop…but to no avail.

"Oh god," Talia murmured, hearing House call time of death. She, Cameron, Chase and House all exchanged concerned looks with each other.

As if the panic wasn't enough already.

…

Six more hours of non stop research and still, to no avail. House was now losing his mind as Foreman predicted he would. He wanted the team to treat Foreman for every and anything they could possibly think of, also reaching his peak of panic. Chase and Cameron were on antibiotic watch, and Talia was now yawning uncontrollably as her headache went from slightly irritating to being borderline unbearable. She was crashing, and she knew she had to go and sleep.

But the first thing she had to do was go and explain to Foreman that she had failed his mission brief - and she knew that was going to be the hardest thing thus far.

She tenderly approached his glass wall as her eyes fell on him lying on his bed. She was more than aware that he couldn't even see properly at this point, and he looked sicker than ever before. "Foreman?" she spoke gingerly. He said nothing back, but she knew that he could hear her because his eyes flickered slightly. "Eric, I…I'm so sorry. I can't fix you. I don't even know what it is that you've got…I named all those infections to House and till this hour we still don't know which one it is."

"So what now?" Foreman suddenly blurted out with a croaked grunt, making her jump slightly. "What, you just treat me for everything and then just go home and relax?"

"Relax? Foreman, I have to go home because I can't focus," Talia admitted shakily, nibbling on the pad of the thumb. "I am s-so tired, and frankly I'm of absolutely no use to you like this. It's irresponsible of me to-"

"Of course," Foreman muttered under his breath. "Maybe you really did only get this job cos Daddy helped you out. That's what people are saying round here, and I think they might be right."

Oh they did? Low blow.

"What were you even doing that night that your brain is so damn useless all of a sudden?" Foreman's words were cutting, and Talia was trying to stay calm because she knew that it was the panic of his undiagnosed lethal symptoms talking - but they still hurt.

They really did.

"I…I was up all night because I think my abuser is stalking me," she admitted as her tears started to burn her already tired eyes. That shut Foreman up. His wide eyes blindly darted from left to right as her words slowly sank in. "I haven't told my boyfriend, nor my father, nor his mother…I haven't even told the police and I f*cking should of, I've told nobody - but you, now. I haven't returned home since because I've been forcing myself to stay up to try and diagnose you after you guilt tripped the sh*t out of me earlier. Haven't told anyone about that, either, by the way."

"Talia…" Foreman started off ashamedly.

"Nope, save it. Save it, cos what you did to Cameron was f*cked up enough. But you can apologise to me and her when you get better, because you will get better, understood?" Talia hissed sternly. Foreman let out a pained grunt.

"Why are you…w-why are you still helping me?" he choked out, still writhing around in pain.

"Because as much as you're an ass, Eric - I know bad people and you're not one of them," Talia muttered in annoyance, crossing her arms. "If you were, I'd let you die." She turned on her heel and was about to walk off before she thought of something else. "Oh, and by the way - Cameron was pushing to reenter the cop's apartment before you tried to kill her with a tainted needle. It was myself and House that tried to stop her for her own safety, you absolute ass. She might not be your 'friend', by your own admission, but she sure as hell was the only one willing to risk herself to save you before you compromised her health." Then she finally left, marching back up the stairs to House's office even though her eyes were stinging and her muscles were aching with every determined step she took.

Once she got upstairs again, Talia finally decided to switch tactics. She had decided to retest everything from Joe's place for the third time, knowing that she was pretty much at her wits end but unable to stop trying. As she busied herself with that, Chase, who found that he couldn't stop her, took it upon himself to go and deliver Foreman his next course of antibiotics.

But once he'd finished, just before he left the isolation ward, Foreman stopped him. "Wait, Chase - how's Talia?" he asked weakly before knocking back the multicoloured pills. Chase froze in and frowned up at him.

It was a bizarre question.

"Um…well, she's working herself silly to try and get a final diagnosis…we all are," he murmured back, walking back up to the glass again. "Why…? Have you spoken to her recently? She's barely come up for air."

"I…just…t-tell her to go and get some sleep before she damn near passes out in that lab," Foreman instructed him quietly. Even if he wasn't blind, he'd still be avoiding his eye contact out of sheer guilt. Chase's head jerked back in surprise.

"So you have spoken to her…do you know what's wrong with her? I'm her boyfriend and I have no clue-"

"It's not really my place to say," Foreman muttered, confusing Chase even further, "but it is my fault that she's been working like that. I made…I made her feel as if she could solve this case alone yesterday and she's been on it like hell ever since. So tell her…tell her that I'm sor-"

"Woah, wait," Chase let out a dark laugh, pinching the corners of his eyes in disbelief. "Wait, you guilt tripped my girlfriend into diagnosing you alone? Was…OH! Was this the same day you tried to kill Cameron?" Foreman dropped his head and bit down on his jaw, the utter shame washing over him like a tidal wave. Although he couldn't see Chase, he could hear the disgust and disappointment lingering in his voice - and that was more than enough.

"Just…just tell her I'm sorry," he murmured awkwardly. "I'm not proud of it, it wasn't fair and I shouldn't have done it."

"Yeah, no sh*t!" Chase hissed back. "She's stubborn enough as it is without you having to shove this massive ultimatum in her face. Not only was something keeping her up at night, but now you're keeping her up too? Flamin' hell, Foreman. You've reached new lows."

And with that, he left to go back to the office, ready to tell Talia that he was taking her home - and confront her about what Foreman knew that he didn't.

...

next chapter still on saturday! i really wanted to begin developing talia and foreman's relationship so i haddd to include this episode...and it's also one of my favourite episodes of all time so i could never leave it out!