A House Fan-Fic
entercreativename
author's note: I am not the creator or owner of the characters mentioned in this story. I am instead a poor college student with no money or no hope of money. I wrote this story as a means of exploring the characters in the show, not for profit, notoriety, or other self-assuring means.
Chapter 10 - Interrogation
House, Foreman, Wilson, Cameron, and Cuddy sat around the Diagnostics conference room table with House at one end. Across from the department chair, sat Linda Sanford, recently suspended from the hospital payroll for disciplinary reasons. Stacy came in and took a seat to the immediate right of Sanford while Cuddy set up a tape recorder for later purposes.
Stacy leaned over to Sanford and whispered something. Great, my ex is here to defend the dimwit who thought that she was helping by HIDING the knowledge of a relationship. House scowled at Stacy as he began, "Most of you know why we are here, and not taking this time to treat our latest patient for the condition that he is in," he scowled at Sanford. "For those of you who don't know why we are here, you're about to find out. The woman sitting at the end of the table is not the psychiatrist we all know and love, but instead the childhood friend of our dearly beloved Robert Chase." Damn. I'm off. That didn't come out right at all. House then noticed Foreman's look.
"What?" Foreman practically yelled while Cameron looked confused. Wilson knew House was onto something and was just waiting for him to play out the game.
House looked at the group in front of him. "Let me recap where we were. Chase is in a coma. BP was low, but it's coming up. Kidney function was normal, but I don't know, you'd have to ask a nephrologist," House glared at the other doctors in his presence, "but that's kinda going up too. Now, normally things going up are good, but seems that last I checked, the numbers in a Chem-20 panel going up were not good. Of course, I'm just the infectious disease slash nephrology slash diagnostics department head guy."
Cuddy and Stacy both shot him glances that could kill. Foreman and Cameron were scared; they had never seen him this angry before. Wilson just knew to keep out of the way. Sanford sat across from House, receiving his full glare but not acknowledging it. Instead, she was staring at the edge of the table in front of her, feeling her heart beat in her throat and knowing that she was in trouble. It had only been her luck that Stacy had stopped to yell at House as he was prodding her into the conference room with his cane. Stacy asked what was going on, and House told her.
It was going to be a long night for all.
House looked at his team, already feeling the effects of the long day, hoping that he would have been in bed by this point. With no end in site, all he could do was get the information from Sanford that he needed to help Chase. He looked at Sanford, glared, and asked, "What do you know about Chase?"
Sanford swallowed hard and said, "Nothing. He's been in perfect health that I know of. He was a little stressed throughout college and med school, but who wasn't."
Stress, that word triggered something in House's mind. He thought for a moment, "What kind of stress?"
Sanford had all she could do to keep from throwing up under the pressure. "Just lack of sleep really, and he had a hard time eating. Sometimes, he would get exerted easily, and some headaches. Nothing else really."
House looked at her and thought. Stress, headaches. "When was he diagnosed with hypertension?"
The other doctors in the room looked confused. They all knew House was onto something, but they didn't know how he came to that theory. Foreman interrupted, "Sir, we don't have any indication…"
"Yes we do Foreman; his blood pressure was low when he came in. His symptoms that presented before the coma indicated side effects of an ace inhibitor. He had been under stress. Why haven't any of you seen it yet!" House was frustrated at the doctors in front of him. They had all gone to med school, yet, none of them were able to recognize such a normal disease? He might be in the specialties he's in, but this was basic general practitioner work he had just done.
House noticed that a couple of them had just understood what he was saying. Cuddy and Cameron looked as if they were thinking. Wilson was taken aback thinking about the way House's mind worked; he had really only come to help make sure his friend wouldn't lose it.
It was then that Sanford spoke, "Chase and I are friends. We slipped a little into the territory of dating, but that was it. I didn't know the intimate details of his life, like which vitamins he took, or who his doctor is, just like he didn't know mine."
House gave her a look that would kill.
Sanford continued, "What I'm trying to say is, even though we're good friends, I didn't know of any medical conditions that would be affecting him right now or that could have caused this. Do you think I would have withheld something that would have helped? I'm just as concerned for him as the rest of you." She paused for a moment as she suddenly remembered his headaches he had in college. She looked at Foreman and Cameron and asked, "His headaches. Has he had any recently?"
Cameron and Foreman looked at each other and then Cameron spoke up, "Yes, he has. I mentioned it this morning."
Sanford, suddenly looking like her mother again to House, spoke up, "Yes, but how often has he had these headaches?"
House was amazed at the young Sanford's ability to transform. It was only time until the young woman became as good a doctor as her mother. The look of thought and determination filled her face, and House knew that she was onto something. He stopped and thought along with Foreman and Cameron. He had noticed that Chase was trying to hide something from him and the rest of them at times, yet he just chalked it up to the aftermath from him about Vogler.
He had been wrong.
Cameron spoke up, "The headaches had been returning recently. He used to have them when I was first hired, and then they went away after he took a day off. These were different headaches though, they had different causes."
House spoke up next, "No they didn't. People don't you see? The headaches he had earlier in the past were because of high blood pressure. The headaches he's had recently are side effects. It fits!" He stood up, cane in hand and limped to the whiteboard. House pointed at the symptoms listed there, "These are all connected to side effects of an ace inhibitor. But we don't know which!"
The other doctors in the room looked at each other for other possible ideas. Cuddy looked at Foreman and Cameron and asked, "What are his vitals at?"
Foreman spoke first, "Heart rate is at 84, and BP is back down; 88/43. Breathing is being regulated by ventilator. Temp 99.7."
Cuddy then asked, "What were his last labs like?"
Cameron responded, "Elevated levels of creatinine in the blood. Number is going down thanks to the dialysis, but they're still high."
House, who was now leaning against the whiteboard with his back to the rest of the group, closed his eyes, "How high is high?"
Cameron looked at the file in front of her, "2.8 milligrams per deciliter."
Shit. House furrowed his brow. Twice as high as it should be. "What is the uric acid at?"
Cameron looked again at the results of the latest Chem-20, "14.8 milligrams per deciliter."
Uric acid's also twice as high. House asked Cameron, "What were they at?"
Cameron looked, "3.2 and 18.4 respectively."
If House were a better man, he would have looked at the bright side and noticed that the dialysis was having an effect. Unfortunately, not enough of an effect. They could either ride this out, allowing the dialysis to help the kidneys, or keep searching. Most doctors would choose to ride it out, wait, and be safe. House wasn't most doctors. He still needed to know whom Chase was actually dating to find what prescription he had been taking. Once he found out, he would know what to switch Chase to. The search of area doctors that had treated Chase had come up empty, and the search of area pharmacies that had filled Chase's prescription drew more questions than answers.
House's mind stopped wandering. It was late, and the doctors in front of him were all showing signs of fatigue. Cuddy, Wilson, and himself were no longer in their twenties and he knew he needed sleep. There wasn't anything they could do that night anymore that couldn't be put off until tomorrow. "Go home everyone, we'll meet back here again tomorrow morning."
With that, everyone got up. Cuddy went over Sanford and withdrew the suspension; it was obvious that the younger woman hadn't concealed as much as House made it seem she did. Stacy talked for a moment to Sanford. Cameron and Foreman rushed out of the office, hoping that House wouldn't change his mind. House sat down at the table again, this time next to Wilson.
Wilson looked at House. "You're staying?"
House looked back, tired and wanting to leave, "Yes." He sighed and thought. What I wouldn't give for a good night's sleep for once. Then, Cuddy's glare caught his attention. Leave me alone; I don't want to be bothered. House then realized that Wilson was talking with her. Great, probably telling her that my leg hurt too much today to spend the night. She was walking over and Wilson then left. House was suddenly left alone with Cuddy in the office suite; alone with the overnight nurses and few residents on call.
"House, you said it yourself, there's nothing we can do tonight."
He didn't want her around, all he wanted to do was scare her away and wallow over Chase's illness alone in his office. At least his office was a refuge, especially at night. The overnight nurses were generally too scared or crazy to deal with House, and the interns were pansies. That left the residents who were too concerned with getting sleep than to deal with the department chairs who camped out in their offices.
"I can think of plenty of things we can do tonight, but you'll have to put on some leather first. Oh, and get some of those special condoms from Wilson, you know, the ones with the antibiotics in them from the drug rep."
"House, go home."
"So you're suddenly inviting yourself over? I don't think that would go too well with Wilson."
"House, I'll take the night watch. Go home, sleep. Wilson and I both know you're best when you're not here." With that, Cuddy walked out of the conference room and House was left alone to his thoughts. The hospital was quiet that night, some of the lights from the hall turned off for energy conservation. Visitors had long since gone, and the campus around him slept. It was time for him to go home and attempt the same.
He got up, took up his belongings, turned off the lights, and left.
May sweet sleep come at last.