A/N: Hey peeps, after this chapter is just sort of the finale, nothing spectacular happens. I've also come up with a name for the series "The Book of Diseases" I was going to call it 'Book Of Diseases Ya'll' just so I could call it BoDY. But Ya'll just seems tacky! XD So yes, keep a look out for Numero 2, I have exams after this, then an appointment at the children's hospital (Any of you wonder about my mad medical research skills, comes with spending lots of time in a hospital!) So yes, hopefully I'll have #2 started before I leave!
"We have a pulse," Foreman said at last as he moved his stethoscope away from the young girls' heart, "But it's weak."
"Keep packing the ice on her." House said, "A few more hours with this temperature and she'll begin suffering permanent brain damage. Chase, I want you to call the police, tell them everything. Make sure Daniel Corbin's safely locked behind a set of steel bars."
"Where are you going?" Chase asked House as he turned to limp out of Jenny's room.
"I'm going to see how far along Cameron is, I want one of you to go get another bag of Hydrocortisone, and from now on, one of you does it. No more nurses."
House looked around the empty hallway toward a small group of chairs, Olivia and Richard Kendall sat on them, curled up together, both looking pale and worn out. House understood the feeling, hospitals just had a way of wearing anyone out, even those that weren't patients.
"Mister Kendall?"
"Yes? Doctor House, how is she?"
House rubbed his eyes wearily, she was alive, but she wasn't getting better, and that wasn't the news that Jenny's parents wanted to hear.
"She's... dying." He said finally, "Her fever has peaked at 106, we're packing ice around her to keep it down as much as we can. A few more hours of it and she will begin suffering brain damage. Her Blood Pressure is low, far lower than it should be, her body..."
"Doctor House," Olivia Kendall straightened up and looked directly at the crotchety man with sad eyes, "Is she going to survive?"
"I don't know," House admitted, "We think we may know what's been causing her symptoms, we should have test results very soon and then we should be able to start her on the appropriate medication."
"How long does she have?" Richard asked quietly as he put his arm around his wife.
"A day," House replied, "Maybe two, it all depends how long she's able to fight this fever."
"She'll live," House heard Olivia say to her husband as he walked back down the hall, "She's made it this far, she's got to live."
"Hey, how is she?" Wilson appeared rather magically in front of House as he limped down the hallway. "I heard she flat lined..."
"Alost three minutes," House replied, "But Foreman got her heart going again, she'll be all right...for now."
"This kid must have written a book about how to annoy you," Wilson said thoughtfully, "I haven't seen you this bitter since Cuddy gave you those extra Clinic hours."
"I'm thinking maybe I should hire her to keep me amused," House replied with a shrug, "You know, as long as she's sick I don't have to do anything else."
"Sick and dying." Wilson put in, "House, please tell me you've got something...An idea or something."
"I think she's being poisoned." House said simply.
"Um... how?"
"When she was tested for Hep B whenever it was, last year, the doctor who took her blood and didn't believe her story was the same who administered the dose of Hydrocortisone just before she went into a coma."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"It means," House said as he turned around quite suddenly, "That she was poisoned probably, and whatever it is, it's killing her. Hence why I have Cameron running tests to find out what was really in that bag of hydrocortisone so we can give her whatever antidote she needs before it's too late."
"How long does she have?" Wilson asked quietly.
"I don't know..." House admitted slowly, "I told her parents a day or two but at this rate... her heart is already failing, she probably has a few hours of extreme pain before her system shuts down completely."
"Good thing she's in a coma I guess," Wilson said sadly, "The kid doesn't need any more pain."
"I suppose..."
"House!" Cameron poked her head around the door of the lab and motioned for him to come. "I think we've found it!"
"What is it?" He asked swiftly as he limped into the lab.
"The bag contains a high amount of scopolamine and hyoscyamine, it's antichloinergic poisoning. I ran the combination of substances..."
"What did you find?"
"Datura... It's Moonflower. She's been poisoned by Moonflower."
"What does it do?" Wilson asked.
"The toxic effects can be anything from confusion to seizures and comas." House replied quietly, "Including Hyperthermia, it explains her temperature, her... everything."
His mind suddenly ran blank, a cold chill went up his spine, a frightening thrill filled his senses. It was that simple. The evolution of Jenny's life was before them, it had started as a simple chest cold and in a matter of days the doctors had been thrown into a sickening conspiracy.
"House... what are you going to do?"
"Start her on physostigmine," He replied as he snapped from his daze, "Continue her hydrocortisone treatment and keep her on ice until her temperature goes back down."
Were they too late? He wasn't certain.
'What's this feeling?' House thought as he collapsed onto a lab chair after Cameron and Wilson had left. 'This adrenaline, this fear? Why? Why am I afraid? Why don't I want to lose this patient. She's just like the rest, she's just an ignorant, stupid, selfish little kid. What makes her different?'
Love, not the type a man feels for a woman and vice versa, but love was that feeling. The type that makes you cry when a best friend moves away. The type that makes you act irrationally and make choices to save another's life, even when you know they won't appreciate it. House had grown to care for Jenny, seeing so much of himself in her was frightening... Shocking. He didn't imagine that there could be another human being in the world that reacted as he did to uncomfortable situations, with wit and insults.
The clock on the wall hit midnight and the hospital was dead. The ducklings were in the room adjacent to House's office, drinking coffee, their eyes drooping and their minds wandering into delirious states. House, on the other hand, was alert as a watch dog, he sat at his desk and stared out to the empty hallways with a frozen face.
They had waited for three hours with no sign of improvement from Jenny, House had suggested that maybe the ducklings head back to their ponds and get some rest and eat a few mosquitoes, none of them left, they all wanted to be near by when or if Jenny died. House's Ipod played softly in the background, something by Chantal Kreviazuk, though he wouldn't admit it if asked, Flying Home... That was the song name.
Something caught his attention, Chase, Cameron and Foreman all swiftly got out of their seats and left the conference room, their pagers hadn't gone off but something had dragged them up and out, a feeling undoubtedly.
'I could go too,' House thought grimly, 'But I don't like dead bodies, there's usually crying people near by... I hate crying people.'
He stood up, with cane in hand, and hobbled out of his office, slowly of course, he didn't want it to look like he had followed the others to Jenny's room. They might mistake his wandering nature for actual caring.
When asked later on in his life what the most memorable moment was in his career as a doctor, Gregory House would not reply that it was the time he delivered a baby in the dead of winter in the back of a taxi and he would not claim that it was him finding a cure for Ebola. The most memorable moment was witnessing the young Jennifer Kendall slowly open her eyes.
Cameron, Chase and Foreman were already in the room, all three of them in shock and quite paralysed by the sight of the girl who was smiling slightly.
"Miss me?" She asked quietly with a weak chuckle.
"Oh... my god."
House stood outside of the room and watched as Cameron took her vitals and Foreman replaced the bag of hydrocortisone and Chase began explaining what had happened. He couldn't be certain but her thought he saw the young girl turn her head and look out toward him, it didn't matter. House turned as quickly as he could manage and began limping back down the hall to his office where he felt like he could finally get a bit of rest.
"Jenny," Cameron said quietly as she sat beside the young girl, "There are some people here who want to meet you... They've been here for a while but you slipped into a coma before we could introduce you."
"Who?"
"Are you feeling up to meeting them?" Chase asked.
"Depends who it is, who is it?" The girl demanded weakly.
The three doctors exchanged brief glances and nodded to each other. Foreman quickly stepped out the sliding door and then back in, two people who looked vaguely familiar trailing behind him.
"M-mom? Dad?"
Olivia Kendall covered her mouth as she gave a sob, Richard Kendall's eyes brimmed with tears, the two parents, the two canes that Jenny had needed for so many years, slowly walked forward and sat beside their daughter. The moment of silence was broken by tears of joy.
xXx
"You can avoid talking to her all you want," Wilson snapped, "But eventually she's going to catch up to you."
"I have a cane, I can beat her back."
"You'd really beat a kid that just came out of a coma? Come on House, Just talk to her. You owe her an apology for being so mean!"
"How was I mean? I'm not mean! I am never mean, I may be brutally honest, I may be snippy, but I am NEVER mean."
"You were mean to her."
"I know," House rolled his eyes, "Doesn't mean I have to talk to her. I'm mean to patients all the time. Hell! I make little woodland animals cry, do I ever apologize? No. So why should I now?"
"Because you'll keep jumping down everyone's throats until you see for yourself that she's breathing and being as sarcastic as ever." Wilson replied from his spot in House's office, "Just talk to her, It's not like you can be any more insulting to her."
"What the deuce are you-."
"You're only scared because she can give as good as she takes, she can bite your head off at three paces! You're scared because she's just like you."
"I am not scared."
"Oo look at me!" Wilson went high pitched in an effort to mock House further, "I'm House, I'm a bitter old man who's afraid of a patient because she's wittier than I am! Boo hoo! Please don't hurt me!"
"You can shut up now."
"Go on, talk to her, you know you want to."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
"No I-.."
"Okay, we can do this all day, it's not going to change the fact that you want to talk to her, we can all see it. You just want to confirm for yourself that she's alive. There's nothing wrong with making sure your patient is still breathing!"
"If I go will you go away?"
"No."
"So what to I gain from it?"
"Peace of mind?"
"Ha ha." House forced a laugh, "Funny. You should go on the road with that show, I'd pay to see it again, really I would."
"I'll take two of your clinic hours."
House was up and out the door before Wilson finished his sentence. With a sense of victory, Wilson leaned back in the chair and picked up a discarded Archie comic.
"He's right... why don't they ever graduate?"
xXx
House gently slid the door to Jenny's room open with his cane and closed it again. She was sitting up in bed, still pale but certainly alive. Her fingers moved carefully as she pulled a wire through a small seed-like bead.
'She's making lizards again?' House thought, 'Good grief.'
Jenny didn't look up, she knew immediately who it was just by listening to the awkward walk.
"You're awake." House noted.
"You're still gimped." Jenny retorted, "Sorry, I thought we were playing the 'Point out the obvious' game."
"Touche," House muttered as he walked forward, "How are you feeling?"
"Would you believe better?" Jenny asked as she slammed the wire down in frustration, her hands were still shaking too much.
"I only have one question." House said as he picked up the wire and slipped it through the beads as he had seen the girl do when he had first met her. "How long has this been going on? The abuse, everything, really. How long?"
"Since I can remember," Jenny replied quietly as she accepted the wire back with a grateful nod. "Listen, I'm so-."
"Forget it," House replied coolly, "Remember, I don't like patients that lie. No one is exempt from the rule, not even you."
He walked out of Jenny's room without a second glance, knowing that if he did look back or listen for some kind of reaction, he would only put his guard down again and leave himself open to more hurt.
That was fine, Jenny made no reply, she simply strung beads onto a wire and continued making her lizard.