Title: Hex

Rating: T

Genre: Angst/Drama

Pairings: No specific pairings - Friendship

Summary: After "treating" a patient for a serious condition, Dr. House starts to exhibit the exact same symptoms himself. But it's nothing he can medically cure with a perscription - It's demonic possession.

A/N: 161 hits and 4 reviews. Thank you for those kind reviews and also to those who are reading but didn't care to comment. I'm trying to write as much as I can between work and sleep and all of that living crap, but as you'll see with this chapter the story is picking up. Enjoy! And R/R :)

Alipeeps: Ahhh I was hoping nobody would notice that one :) When I submitted the story I kept finding typos and re-uploading the chapter. Then it just stopped working for me and I gave up and let that one slide. Looks like I've been typing the word "website" too often huh?

Hex - Chapter 2

"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."

- Oscar Wilde

-----

"Are you excited?" House waved the folder around that he was holding in his left hand. Wilson walked along side him, hands dug deep into his jacket pockets.

"Am I excited that a kid might be dying? No," he smirked in response as the two rounded a corner and came up to the conference room. "I don't know why you're so excited, it's just a tumor, not malaria."

House raised his eyebrows as he went to slide back to the glass door to the room where his sheep were already flocked.

"Ah but you see my disciple, this is no ordinary tumor." House walked into the room to and immediately went towards the light board.

"Patient X, eighteen years old. Complains of flu like symptoms, dizziness, disorientation, weakness and he has a quite handsome twitch in his right hand," he opened the folder and stuck two MRI scans up.

"Patient X. He doesn't have a name?" Cameron walked over from her spot next to the coffee pot and handed House a red mug.

"Not while he's my patient. The disease is my patient, not the home where it lives," House took a gulp of his coffee and leaned on his cane. "Okay what do you see?" He motioned towards the light board with his coffee mug and took another sip.

"Besides the obvious?" Foreman asked sarcastically and motioned to the gigantic mass in the temporal lobe.

House shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of coffee. He glanced sideways at Wilson who was standing near the door.

"The obvious.. and maybe.. more.."

He knew full well that there wasn't anything else there besides the huge terminator brain tumor that was killing this kid. He wasn't sure why he took that exact moment to toy with his team, but he liked to always keep them on their toes. Maybe there was more on the scan. Maybe there was something else that would cancel out the tumor. Ha, yeah right.

Chase leaned into the scan closely and pointed to a very bright white line, "This is probably something."

Foreman and Cameron leaned in to look as well.

"Looks like a lesion," Cameron observed.

"Very good, see Chase is always looking," House said towards Foreman. Chase grinned. Foreman sighed and looked away.

House rolled his eyes and walked up behind the three of them. He leaned in his head, took a deep breath and blew at the scans. The sheets fluttered at the bottom and the white line disappeared.

"Lint," he said in response and went back to his spot near the counter. Chase shuffled his feet and Wilson smirked from the door.

"Well I don't see anything abnormal.. besides the obvious," Foreman said with more impatience in his voice.

"Bingo bango. Go break the news. Cameron, tell him he's dying. Go round up an OR. " House started over to Wilson on his way out the door.

He thought he heard Cameron mutter a 'why me?' from behind him but didn't care. Foreman was great at breaking news. Cameron needed a lot of work. She needed to learn how to tell someone they had four minutes to live without sobbing uncontrollably by their bedside. Wilson must've agreed with his decision because he fell into step with him walking out the door and didn't say anything about it.

"I thought you said there was more than just the tumor," Wilson said with some humor and dug his hands into his pockets again.

"Correction: I said there was maybe more, you really should pay more attention Dr. Wilson, I'm very disappointed in you," House answered and checked his watch.

"So where are you going now?"

"Home, or maybe I'll stop by that cute strip club by your place. I hear you have VIP access and free lap dances for a month saved up on your punch card."

Wilson smirked. He wished.

-----

Cameron paused outside of Patient X - Jason Adler's room before entering. She hated this part of being a doctor and she hated it even more that House knew about it. He liked to make her life a living hell. During Med School, she never really gave much thought to this part of the job. She had studied her terminology for hours into the night, aced her exams, and knew all the technical aspects of the profession of her choice. She just figured telling the patients the bad news would be like readng them a textbook. Tell them the problem and that would be it. But once she looked through the glass at the mother and father gathered around a young aspiring pro baseball player, everything she knew and had rehearsed went out the window.

Yes the kid would get the surgery. But the tests she had performed herself told her that there wasn't a very good chance that surgery was even going to help anything. The tumor was in the worst malignant stage. Even if they did open him up, they wouldn't be able to get all of the canerous cells out without killing him. House knew that, and that's why he had ordered her to let them know that their child was going to die, regardless.

Taking a deep breath, Cameron slid open the door and stepped inside. The parents didn't flinch from their position hunched over the bed. Jason lay there, looking worse than he had before when he had been checked in. Something tugged at her heart at the site as she remembered her late husband. But this was definately not the right time to be thinking of all of that.

"Mr. and Mrs. Adler?" she asked quietly, not wanting to disturb them, but having to do so anyway. Mrs. Adler swatted away an unwanted fly and turned to her. She had the face of someone who knew everything. Perhaps a mother's instinct was more creditable than anyone would have known. "Can I speak to you outside for a few minutes?"

The parents said nothing and followed Cameron outside of the ICU room. Jason laid there, eyes wondering around. Cameron didn't even know if he was even coherent enough to know what was going on.

"We ran some tests.. and your son has a Stage 3 malignant tumor growing in his temporal lobe," Cameron told them as delicately as she could. Mr. Adler stood behind his wife and tightened his hold on her shoulders as the effect of the words stung into him. His wife nodded.

"He's going to need immediate surgery, and we'll try to get most of the tumor out, but in this stage.. it could be fatal," Cameron almost choked on the last word but regained composure. The mother's face crumpled at the last word and tears slid down her cheeks. She knew it had been coming, but hearing the doctor say the words just made it more real.

"I'm so sorry.." Cameron added sincerely, not knowing what else to say. She was trying not to get too attached. Trying to follow House's advice. Wilson's advice. But she was human.

The mother looked down and her husband took her into his arms, visible tears in his eyes as well.

"We're going to get him into surgery right away.."

Another tug at her heart and Cameron had to look away for a second. "There is still a chance.." she added quietly. Her mind screamed at her for throwing that in. Yes there was a chance, but that chance was less than House grabbing her in the hallway and confessing his undying love.

The couple didn't seem to hear her, and they started back into the room to say their goodbyes to their son. Cameron stood there watching them, holding her clipboard.

-----

House strolled in around noon. His damn alarm clock didn't go off. Usually he was pretty good with getting his ass out of bed and into work. He would get up earlier even, have a coffee, catch a tv show, look over some case notes. But he supposed it was going to happen sometime. Everyone experienced it sometime in their life. Eyes snap open to the unusual amount of sunshine pouring into the bedroom and then a chain of swears is let off once the eyes flicked over to the glowing numbers on the bedside clock. He could have made a mad dash for his car to not upset Cuddy.. but nah. He did what he always did. Took a too-long shower, finished off a pot of coffee, and read the newspaper cover to cover. House, for once, just didn't feel like going into work and facing all of that. He would anyway, the little trooper he was, but what he wanted was to lay on his couch and watch a few episodes of Judge Joe Brown.

"House! Clinic!" A voice called from behind him. House lowered his head and made a dash for the elevator. Maybe she wouldn't know it was him. Maybe the cane wouldn't give it away this time. The footsteps proved him wrong. He reached the elevator and pressed the 'Up' button, praying for the stupid thing to come down faster.

"Clinic duty, you're late," Cuddy reached his side and ordered. House kept his eyes looking up, waiting for the doors to open.

"I can't, I have a case. So sorry to disappoint you," he responded still waiting for the doors.

"You don't have any case," Cuddy replied. House looked at her.

"The kid upstairs.." He chose his words carefully. He knew that there wasn't much for him to do with the kid, but he hoped she didn't know that.

"The brain tumor? How is that a case? He has a brain tumor, he's being rolled to the OR in a few minutes." Cuddy crossed her arms. House closed his eyes and tried to will the elevator doors to open. ("They're going to open.. now.. They're going to open.. NOW! ... NOW!")

"It's not just a brain tumor."

The elevator doors shot open, House sighed in relief and he scurried into the empty box.

"Yes it is; I checked the scans myself-!"

"Sorry, I have to go save a life," House smiled and the doors slid shut in her face.

And the Round One points went to a certain Dr. Gregory House.

-----

After dropping off his bag in his office and checking his empty e-mail box, House decided he should probably make an appearance near the patient's room in case people started to talk. Maybe if he was around there it would look like he was doing something.

The mother (presumably - if it was a girlfriend, he would be worried) was sitting next to her son's bed, holding his lifeless hand. House stood outside the room and looked through the glass at Foreman who was adjusting IV bags. He finished up and went to go meet House out in the hall.

"Why has he not been through surgery yet?" House demanded and looked at his watch. He knew what time it was, but seeing the time on his watch just made it more pathetic.

"OR was booked up all night. There was a stabbing incident down at one of those nightclubs, and Jason was pushed back until morning," Foreman informed. "He'll be going up any minute though."

House sighed and took another look inside the room.

"How's the kid," he asked still looking straight ahead. The kid did not look good. Not as good as he had looked in the clinic the day before, that's for sure. Dark circles sat under his eyes like rainclouds, he was sweating profusely. He looked to be sleeping, but his face was twitching into snarls and other facial expressions. Nightmare?

"..Well let's just say he needs that surgery. Although you and I both know that even that isn't going to help him," Foreman replied and looked at the kid. He didn't need to explain any symptoms, House could see all just by looking at him. House was so good, he could tell you your resting heart rate just by looking at your face.

"Page me when he's out," House grunted and started walking back to the elevator. There was nothing else he could do but wait.

-----

"Clamp," the surgeon held out his right hand, and a tool was slapped down onto his glove. All that was heard was the steady beat of the heart monitor and the respirator. So far, so good.

"Suction."

Silence.

The surgeon looked up and around at his team.

"Where is it?" He asked and stopped all movement with his hands. Silence.

"Where is what doctor?" A nurse on his right side asked, her voice coming out muffled from the mask on her face.

"The tumor - there's nothing here," the surgeon looked down confused at his work and poked around a little bit.

"This is the right patient right?" A nurse from his left side asked frantically and her eyes grew wide above her mask.

"Yes, It's him," the first nurse answered.

"Well I don't know what's going on here, but this patient has no brain tumor. His brain is perfectly healthy," The surgeon paused. "I'm going to close."

-----

House paced quicker than usual in the conference room, his hand stuck to his chin in deep thought. He stopped and glared down at Cameron who was sitting at the table holding a file.

"What do you mean he has no brain tumor."

"He's clean, they found nothing," she answered just as baffled as he was.

"He has a tumor, it's there," he grunted in response and started to pace again.

"Maybe it's one of those ghost tumors, disguises itself to look like healthy tissue," Chase spoke up from beside Cameron.

House almost laughed. He almost wanted to tell him to go play with his blocks in the corner and to let the doctors work. He ignored him instead.

"How is the kid doing now?"

"He's actually doing better. All his levels are coming back up and when he woke up, he had no idea that anything had happened at all. Just a regular.. kid," Foreman took the liberty of answering that one.

"Run another MRI. Something is fishier here than a hooker's bedsheets," House started for the door again and the three started to stand up.

House made his way to his office, and for one of the first time in his career, he was lost. He had seen the tumor, all the symptoms fit, this was supposed to be an open and shut case. Tumor death.

What the hell was going on here?

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