Chapter 7-
'fatigue, weakened immune system, self-harm, fainting spells, vertigo and weight loss.'
House wrote on the white board and called a differential diagnosis.
"differential diagnosis, go" House said to his two employees.
"uhh… where is Cameron?" Chase asked.
"sick" House replied.
"and who is the patient?" Foreman asked.
"a 30-year-old woman from the ER" he said.
"why are we treating her?" Foreman asked again.
"because I said so, now will you do your job and be useful?" House commanded.
"fine, maybe the woman has an eating disorder, but you already know that aren't you?" Chase said.
"I don't know, is there any other possible diagnosis" House asked again.
"look, if she is self-destructive than an eating disorder is the best fit, if not then leukemia or lymphoma that metastasized to the brain, or maybe Wilson's disease but less likely without liver involvement." Foreman added.
"okay, thank you" he almost whispered, he knew that all of the conditions they said are not any good.
"are you going to let us go to do the testing?" Foreman asked.
"no, go do your clinic duty, and mine" he ordered.
"since when do you run tests?" Foreman asked again.
"just go already" he demanded.
"bye boss" chase greeted him on the way out.
As soon as they left, he limped his way to Cameron to face her with all the facts.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
With a French accent he said "hello mademoiselle" when he entered the room.
"what do you want House" she was irritated.
"I did a differential diagnosis and guess what, its either Wilson's disease, a late-stage lymphoma or leukemia or my personal favorite, an eating disorder, its either you come clean now or we're going to run the tests. So, which one is it?" House confronted her.
"you're the doctor" Cameron had to keep defending her disorder.
"well with the 5-year-old body you got, I'm going to say an eating disorder, but you wouldn't like that, wouldn't you?"
"…" she didn't respond.
"aren't you going to defend yourself? Or are you hesitating" he tried reading her.
"I don't have an eating disorder; this is the body I always had" she finally replied.
"no, it wasn't. you think we didn't notice but you lost approximately 30ish pounds in the last few months." House said.
"will you please just leave me alone" she hated how he was right.
"fine" he left the room.
All she could think of was to just run away. But She was too weak, she had a voice that shouted at her to run away. She needed to escape this somehow. And House, oh House... he just couldn't let it go. He had to be that annoying juvenile smartass that he is. But its not about the mystery anymore, it was about getting on Cameron's nerves. He was so stubborn, just wanting her to be humiliated, ashamed. Even though he was a very smart man, a genius sort to say, his social skills and emotional intelligence was very far from an ordinary human. House is not ordinary but he's not stupid either, he wanted to prove something, but he still hasn't given the clue to what he was trying to show.
but Cameron was on edge. Her cozy secrets that wrapped her in a fuzzy blanket and keeping her in control became public, and once the secrets were revealed, she felt like everyone saw her naked. Like the whole world was watching 'Cameron the failure' show. She wanted to run but she couldn't even walk, in view of the fact, her leg was throbbing and without the medication she was given she would collapse before she reaches the elevator. She could hear the voice in the back of her head ringing and shouting about how much she's an idiot, it almost sounded like House. How could you let this happen? They will force recovery on you! you don't need recovery! You need to be punished. After all those years you should already know that this is what you deserve. The voice belting and making Cameron lose her sense of sanity. Even though she knew it was manipulative, she still believed it, after years of counting on every word it says, she built a trust on that voice, this hateful little creature created a safe place for her. even though she felt hostility, she needed it. And at the time, it felt like that voice was right.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
As Foreman walked through the ICU, he saw Cameron, he respected her privacy and left, but his curiosity never left him, as he walked to the doctor's lounge, he went to speak with chase about the weird incident.
"do you have any ideas to why Cameron is in the ICU?" Foreman asked Chase.
"uhh... since she's a doctor I assume she has a patient" Chase replied, weirded out by his moronic question.
"no, I mean as a patient. Is she really that sick?" he wondered.
"she's a patient in the ICU? Why?" then Chase realized what was going on and shared his epiphany "Maybe she's the patient House mentioned"?
"we should go check up on her" Foreman said.
"let's go right now" Chase said, and the men headed to the ICU to meet their ailing friend.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
On their way to Cameron, they could sense something was wrong. Before they entered the room, they took a deep breath, looked at each other and exhaled. They opened the door, seeing Cameron hooked to an IV, her heart rate was below 40 and she just looked... dead, and she felt like it.
"what are you doing here?" Cameron asked hasty.
"we know what you did Cameron" Foreman said.
"what do you mean you know" she could feel her chest tightening.
"about your self harm and eating disorder" Foreman explained.
"Cameron, you know you are very dear to us, right?" Chase asked her.
"I don't have an ed" she kept on fighting knowing her issues are becoming everybody's business.
"you don't have to keep your guard up" Chase reassured her.
"I'm not" she said while her chest kept tightening.
"I know you're overwhelmed with this right now but let us help you" Foreman stepped closer and grabbed her weak, old looking hand.
"I'm unfixable you can't help or fix me, I'm damaged supply" she said and felt worse than ever.
"you're not, we are here for you" Chase said and hugged her.
As he was hugging her chest felt like its being squeezed into a small box and there is no where she could get air. Her heart rate dropped to 21, chase and foreman looking frightened more than ever.
"bring the pedals!" Chase screamed.
"charging" … "clear" Chase shouted.
"charging 180" ... "clear" chase shouted again.
"she has no pulse!" Foreman almost screamed.
"charging 190" …" clear!"
As they went on, they knew she was forever lost.
"Chase stop! Its not working... I'm sorry" Foreman said with tears building up in his eyes.
"no!" Chase started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"please Chase, she's… she's dead. And she was dead long before we got here" Foreman said letting a tear trickle down his face.
"I… I can't" he mumbled.
"she was a big part of us, but she damaged her organs too severely." Foreman comforted Chase.
With chase still in shock from what happened house came.
"what happened?" House asked the two men.
With a shaky voice Foreman said "House, she's dead"
"she's dead?! How could you let this happen!?" he shouted.
"we didn't cause any of this! How do you dare to scream at us when clearly its not our fault?" Foreman lashed at House.
"it is my fault. I should have known." Chase whispered.
"no its not! Don't let him get to your head" Foreman assured Chase.
"how could we miss all of this?" Chase asked himself quietly.
"she hid it so well, this had to be going for years" Foreman remarked.
"we couldn't save her or at least had the chance to" House almost whispered.
The end