Wilson tore off his lab coat, balling it up and shoving it rapidly under Cameron's head. Her teeth were clenched tight as her muscles went haywire.
"Where's the Entrophine!" he shouted frantically. He fought the urge to hold Cameron's quivering limbs down. His medical training toldhim it wouldhurt her further, but it could barely hold against his the instinctive urge to stop the horrible spasms.
"I can't find it!" the panicked nurse was by the counter hauling out drawer after drawer. There was nothing!
It was too late by then.
Cameron convulsed violently, muscles clenching and unclenching rapidly so her body jerked like she was possessed. Wilson wasn't quick enough leaping back. An elbow collided with his ankle, with such force he nearly fell.
More force than Cameron could have had in her normal state.
Two nurses rushed forward, but there was little they could do until the seizure stopped. Wilson watched with a horrified chill as bloody foam frothed through her blue-tinged lips.
You should be doing something! his insides screeched.
What am I supposed to do?was the snapped reply.
Unfortunately, the seizure was right near a waiting room. Patients, drawn by the commotion, crowded around to watch with fascinated horror.
"Please, can you move back-" Wilson tried to shoo them away, but they ignored him. He was never that good at holding command at the best of times, let alone when there was a spectacle such as this.
"Why aren't you holding her down?"
"Look, can you just-"
"Hey, that's one of the doctors!" said a man suddenly.
"Who's a doctor?" the commotion had drawn Cuddy like a magnet. Relief made Wilson's knees weak.
No one could scare people away like Cuddy.
She saw Cameron jerking on the ground and acted instantly.
"All of you, back down there." she snapped at the crowd. They hesitated.
"MOVE IT!" the sight of an enraged Cuddy sent them scarpering.
Her head snapped to Wilson. "What happened?"
"I don't know. She just collapsed."
"Did you inject Entrophine?" Entrophine was a medicine commonly used for epileptics. A muscle relaxant, it made the seizure less severe. Wilson shook his head, full of frustrated helplessness..
"There was no time."
Cuddy glanced down at Cameron, and Wilson saw the concern in her eyes.
She knew the terrible significance of a seizure.
"She's stopping." said one of the nurses, quickly kneeling down. Wilson joined her as Cuddy reached for a phone.
The horrible jerks were fading to quivering twitches. The seizure couldn't have lasted more than a minute, but decades had passed since the chilling cry that signaled her fall. Gently as he could, Wilson rolled her onto her side.
Cameron was unconscious. A bloody snake slid from the corner of her mouth, pooling on the floor. She must have bitten her tongue. Wilson checked her vitals. A weak pulse, fluttering delicately under her skin.
"We need a stretcher on the second floor." Cuddy said tersely into the phone. She scowled suddenly.
"I don't care. Just get it here." She slammed down the phone. Her teeth bit her lower lip as she watched Wilson and the nurse loosening Cameron's shirt.
This meant so many things. She'd seen Cameron this morning, even if it had been just a glance. The doctor had been fine. Now...
What if she caught it at the hospital? she thought with a chill. How many others could be infected? So many people moved through the hospital, many of them sick. How many had Cameron been near? A thing like this could be a disaster.
She needed this to be worked out, and quickly. Fortunatly, she had one of the countries best diagnosticians sitting upstairs playing a Gameboy.
"Stay with her." she said softly to Wilson. "I'll go inform Dr. House."
House was tapped his cane against his foot, staring at the whiteboard. Thought he wasnot really seeing it. Handin his pocket, he fingered the smooth cool edge of a coin. At last he got it out.
Heads, Cameron. Tails, Foreman.
Yet still he hesitated.
They deserved better than a simple flick of a coin to decide their futures. Deep in his mind, House knew that if he flicked the coin, it would somehow negate the responsibility he had, any guilt he would feel.It was chance, not his fault.
Unfortunately, it was just a little too deep for his conscience to feel.
He flicked the coin.
It bounced, rolling off the desk and onto the floor. He stood to look, but saw Cuddy come quickly down the hall towards his office.
The expression on her face told him something was very, very wrong.
House watched as they lifted Cameron onto a stretcher. A sort of numbness crept down his limbs as he looked at her face. She was so pale...
You caused this, snarled a voice suddenly in his head.
No.
You should have let Chase walk her down. Now look at her! The voice accused. But what could Chase have done? Caught her on the way down? Nobody could have done anything.
It was too late now.
An oxygen mask was strapped over her face by a nurse. It fogged up as her breath touched it. The two men handling the stretcher began to push her away. Wilson stood beside him, looking like House felt.
"They're taking her down to general wards." he said finally. "Doctor Lambert's going to-"
"No, he's not." said House quietly.
Wilson stopped with a sudden feeling of foreboding. He looked quickly at House. Pale-faced, he stared after Cameron with...guilt? The look vanished in an instant, replaced by something Wilson dreaded. Cold determination.
"You're going to move her to Diagnostics aren't you?"
House didn't answer.
"House, you already have a patient!"
But House wasn't listening. He was already walking towardsthe lift, face grim.
He took the lift up to the room with Mr. Waterhouse. Foreman was inside, but House wasn't particularly interested in what he was doing. He stuck his head in.
"Feeling better?" the man looked at him, slightly puzzled.
"Yeah, I'm...wait, who are you?"
"I was your Doctor." House closed the door, walking towards his office. He heard the slam of a door behind him, then hurried footsteps.
"Hey!" Foreman looked annoyed, and rather suspicious . House watched him levelly.
"What do you mean 'was'?"
"He feels better when his bowels are empty? Its Colic. Give him a dose of-"
"No way." scoffed Foreman in disbelief. Colic was a routine diagnosis, one of the most commonly occurring bowel problems. "Someone would have picked it up before now."
"He hasn't had a CT scan, has he?"
"No. Dr. Lambert was about to do it when you stole the file, actually. And you still haven't answered my question."
"We're getting a new patient. Just get him out of there." something about the cold way House spoke made warning bells ring somewhere in Foreman's brain.
"New patient?" House was moving away, and the look on his face suggested he didn't want to talk anymore. Foreman frowned.
He didn't like this.
"I can't authorise this."
They were outside theward that held the still unconscious Cameron. House tried not to look through the glass at her. Every time he did, a sick feeling crept into his stomach. Instead, House glowered at Cuddy.
"Why not?"
"Because you already have a patient in the ward."
"It's Colic. He's healed. He'll be out of here by Thursday."
"It took you this long to work out it was colic?" she said in disbelief.
"I was being thorough."
"No you weren't. You were using that poor man as an excuse to put off your decision for another week more. Cameron stays where she is." House didn't move, eyes flash-freezing to chips of blue slate. She sighed.
"Look, I know you want to look after her. But even if you didn't have someone already there, I wouldn't allow it. People tend to screw up more if they're close to the patient." she scowled suddenly.
"Besides, I already tried."
House looked surprised. "You did?"
"If it was something she contracted from the hospital, you'd be the quickest to find it. Even if it took a few stabs in the dark before you finally got it." she grimaced slightly.
"Vogler stopped me." she spat out the word like it was dirty.
House felt rage hit him like a punch in the stomach, leaving him breathless. The stupid idiot! This went far beyond their stupid rivalry. Most of the people in the hospital were not near ashealthy as Cameron. Catching it would be childs play.
The results would be catastrophic.
"How could you have let him do that?"
"You think I had a choice?" she said angrily, defensive. "He basically owns the hospital. Dr Lambert may not be as quick as you, though he is more...logical."
The words were there, the tone was right, buther eyes said different. House sensed that the decision had pissed Cuddy off as much as House. Cuddy didn't like to be bossed around, not even by a patron.
But, unlike her, House could do something about it.
With a click of his cane he left without a word, with only a glance at Cameron through the glass. The sight of her closed his decision.
Waterhouse was being wheeled out of the ward as Chase came up the corridor. He'd been hiding in the diagnostic lab, leaving Foreman to do the Colonoscopy.
There were just some things he could live without seeing, and the insides of the obese man's digestive tract was definitely one of them.
As he saw what was happening he stopped, confused. By the pained expression on the mans face, he didn't look as though he was any better.
Foreman was standing at the door, looking perplexed.
"What the hell is happening?"
The black man shrugged. "House says we've got a new patient." Chase looked after the retreating trolley.
"Well, I can't say I'm sorry..." he stopped.
Foreman had gone pale.
"Jesus..." he whispered.
The new patient. Even with an oxygen mask over her face, Chase knew who it was. He stared, blood draining out of his face.
She hadn't even made it out of the hospital.
AN- Sorry it took so long. Stupid School Cert next week (eep!), and its harder to write if people keep coming in to see if you're studying. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon.
ps- for those of you wondering, I took away the prologue because it seemed a bit pointless.