I Should Have Known Better
(Scene Two: "SARS?")
A/N: Thanks to all the people who reviewed. Alipeeps, extrabitter, bkwmkiwi, and BubblyShell22 you guys made my day. Those who didn't review but are still reading anyway, kudos to you too. I don't do this for the reviews (although I love feedback about what I should work on), I do it because I am firm believer that fanfiction helps you to perfect your craft… And in saying that, I believe that English teachers should assign fanfiction as an assignment. Please, read, and enjoy.
Disclaimer: If I were brilliant enough to have thought of the personality for Dr. Gregory House I would not be here, I'd be in Hollywood, and filthy stinking rich.
"SARS symptoms are reminiscent of the flu, and are usually most commonly diagnosed as pneumonia," House said, as if that should have been obvious the whole time.
"The symptoms all fit… fever, cough, chill, muscle pain, breathing problems…" Foreman eyed the whiteboard.
"But we can't be sure, with just these few symptoms. I mean, what if it is just a nasty cold?" Chase said.
"Well, it'd be better if we didn't make that assumption," Cameron replied.
"Gee, you're right. We'll have to run some tests…now, how are we ever going to accomplish that? Hum…" House slapped his forehead with his free hand, "Oh! That's right, you're doctors!"
"Right. PCR tests. I'm on it," and with that Foreman exited the room.
"And we should do a test for antigens, just to see if that turns anything up," Chase said, following Foreman out of the room.
"I'll go take a medical history," Cameron said, almost as in a daze, still staring at the whiteboard. She grabbed the folder off the table and left the room. House hobbled after her.
"So who's our patent?" Cameron asked.
"No idea, you've got the chart, you tell me," House said.
"You haven't even looked at the patent's personal information yet?" Cameron said in disbelief. "So, whoever we're treating is just going to be a surprise to you?"
"Oh, you know me. I love surprises."
"Didn't you think that actually knowing something about the patient might help us to figure out what's wrong?"
House stopped walking, scrunched up his forehead and tilted hid head to the side, a series of motions that were beginning to grate on Cameron's last nerve, even if she did like the guy. She braced herself for the abrasive, snide, and House-determined witty comment she was about to endure.
"Nope, not really."
"You're unbelievable!"
"Aw, now you're just saying that 'cause you like me," House leaned on his cane.
Cameron made a sound of exasperation and pushed past House, determined to gather a proper medical history that would shed light on the patient as well as what was wrong with him… or her… House had never even mentioned a gender! Honestly, sometimes that man could just madden her to no end!
She made her way to the room designated on the folder she was holding. It wasn't a typical hospital room. Due to the fact that the patient… Mr. John Evans by the chart, ah, handy little thing that chart, may be highly contagious, his room was one of the few at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital that had been, well, modified.
The room was far more reminiscent of a surgical observation room than actual hospital quarters. There was John Evans, sitting up in his bed, a whole number of apparatuses attached to his person. He had a bedside table, television, and copious amounts of monitors surrounding his bed, very much like a standard issue hospital room. The door that Cameron has just walked through, however, did not lead straight into this room, as a normal hospital room would. It led instead to an observatory room. These quarantine rooms had always reminded Cameron of a viewing hall through which family members could see their newest addition.
There was a single chair in this hall-like room, and it's only decoration was a speaker box, located directly underneath the thick glass that separated the patient from the rest of the living, breathing, world.
It was a cruel irony, Cameron thought, that so many parents should have to see their children end up in rooms like this one, after having admired them once, not so long ago, in the maternity ward, in a similar hall.
As she entered the room, a voice drifted out of the speaker.
"What did my tests say?"
"The tests aren't quite finished yet. Dr. Foreman and Dr. Chase are working on them right now, it won't be much longer. But while we wait for them, I'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's okay," Cameron said.
John Evans nodded. He was so young! Cameron quickly glanced down at his chart… Only nineteen! This was no place for a nineteen-year-old. She swallowed the lump that was rising in her throat.
Behind her, unbeknownst by herself, or the young man she was questioning, stood House. He leaned in the doorframe, observing a bedside manner that was entirely unlike his own… and a person entirely unlike himself.
"Do you still think it's only a cold?" House was taken out of his thoughts by the voice floating through the speaker box. The question had not been directed at Cameron.
John Evans sat, leaning to look around Cameron at the doctor he had just spotted. His tone was not angry, nor condescending, merely inquisitive.
"Do you two know each other?" Cameron asked.
"Oh, yeah, we're old friends," said House, making his way into the room and directing his attention toward John. "Seeing as you're the one sitting in the funny-looking room, that's kind of an odd question to ask."
"Hey, I didn't ask to be put under your microscope, okay? It was Allison, she did it."
Where had House heard that name before…ah, yes, the girlfriend. He opened his mouth to say something more when he heard a voice coming from the direction of the doorframe.
"Dr. House, can I speak with you a moment?" Stacy smiled at Cameron for a instant, before turning her eyes to House.
"What else have I got to do?" House followed her out of the doorway, leaving Cameron to finish taking her medical record.
Stacy was leading him back to her office, where she had just recently settled in.
"What, has someone decided to sue me for malpractice? Its Mark isn't it? You just couldn't twist his arm hard enough - "
"I've told you this a million times before, Mark is grateful for what you did for him. And no, no one is suing you for malpractice, but I'm sure that's the first time you heard that."
"Then what's with the serious lawyer face?" House said sardonically.
Stacy did not answer, but rather turned into her office. House followed. She closed the door, and took a seat at her desk. Her office was small, but not cramped. A large, oak desk took up most of the space in the room, but there was still room enough for a spare bookshelf or two, a few filing cabinets, and a large window, that overlooked the front of Princeton-Plainsboro.
House dropped into one of the chairs on the opposite side of the large, oak desk. He looked around the room, and took in its simple appearance.
"Love what you've done with the place," He noticed a picture on the corner of her desk. A picture of her and Mark smiling happily at the camera, obviously enjoying their vacation at wherever it was they were.
"You're treating a possible SARS case, and you haven't contacted a single plague center?" Stacy said, catching House off guard.
"Yeah, you know those plague guys," House said. "Once they hear I've got the interesting patient, they'll try to take him from me."
"Are you trying to get me fired?"
"Please, there are a lot more interesting ways to get you fired, personally I like the sound of sexual harassment."
"Greg, this is serious! You are legally bound to turn this man over to the Plague Center - "
"If they ask me to," House said, with just the barely visible hint of a smirk on his face.
Stacy's mouth hung open ever so slightly. "Do you mean to tell me that you aren't even going to report this?"
"There's nothing to report," House said standing. "All we've got is a kid with a cold."
And with that House opened the door to Stacy's office fully prepared to leave. There was, however, an obstruction in his path. The worst kind too. It was a person. A young person. And she looked oddly familiar…
"Dr. House?" questioned the young woman, in a surprisingly strong tone of voice for a person of her stature. "Dr. Cameron told me I'd find you here."
"Do I know you?"
"I'm Allison McGraw, John Evans' girlfriend. We met this morning," her voice remained even and, dare House even think it, quite powerful.
"Yes, Dr. House is treating John," Stacy stepped in.
"I think you need to explain to me exactly what is going on."
"From speaking with your boyfriend, it seems that you know more than I do about his present condition," House said, a tinge of annoyance in his voice. He was thinking desperately of a way to avoid talking to this young woman. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go." He turned on his heel and left.
"But Dr. House!"
"Sorry, important doctor stuff."
House made his way down the hall and into Diagnostics, whiteboard still scrawled across with symptoms. He noticed a few additions to the list: weakness, exhaustion, and sneezing.
"When did my handwriting get so girly?" he asked of no one in particular, although Cameron was in the room, right beside the whiteboard, in fact, pen in hand.
"Gimme that," House turned to her, and snatched the pen. "I write on the board. You stand over there, and admire me from afar."
Cameron huffed.
"Antigen tests came back negative," Chase announced, walking into the room, followed closely by Foreman.
"PCR tests were a negative, too," Foreman said.
"They aren't always definitive," Cameron replied. "The results of the test depend on the specimen as well as the time of testing during the course of the illness."
"Then run more tests," House said, matter-of-factly.
"You mean, continually run PCR tests on this kid?" Foreman asked.
"Until his symptoms begin to worsen, there's no way to tell how far along the virus is," Chase said.
"Unless…" House began, looking at the white board, "this isn't SARS at all."
A/N: Okay, I did take a bit of literary license with this one. All I know medically is what I learned in three years of biology (a surprising amount of stuff, but only a small portion of which is useful in this particular story). I may not have all the medical stuff down exactly, but I tried my best to make it look like I knew what I was talking about. Also, I really was not sure about the legality involving the Plague Centers, I just had to get Stacy in there somewhere. You may flame me if you so wish.