Chapter 4

Mice

The next morning found House sitting in his chair, again focused intently on the computer in front of him. Wilson walked in to see that the office was empty except for House.

"Where is everyone?" Wilson asked.

"I've got Foreman and Cameron checking out the old foster home for mice, and Chase is with the girl." House replied distractedly, never taking his eyes off of the computer screen.

"What's on there that's got you so interested?" Wilson asked again. He would never admit it, but his curiosity was making it hard to stand on the opposite side of the desk.

"Like I said, important research." House clicked out of the site he was on and turned to his friend. "Why are you here?"

"No reason; just thought I'd check in." Wilson replied with a small smile.

"Right, just 'checking in.' When are you going to learn that you can't avoid the questions with me?" House gave Wilson a smirk of his own.

"Fine, I'm interested. How could a doctor diagnose her as being deaf? Twenty years ago I could see that maybe, but less then ten years ago? No way." Wilson looked at the white board that now had a different set of words on it. Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis was circled in black ink. "So that's why you have Foreman and Cameron looking for mice. Have you started treatment?" After receiving a glare from House, Wilson smiled and replied, "Right, of course you have."

"With the abuse, I thought that they probably didn't keep her in a very nice place. Mice, and rodents in general, harbor the virus for life. If would have been easy for her to pick it up if she was in a room full of rats. They excrete it in their urine, feces, and when they sneeze. It fits, not perfectly, but tests can be wrong."

"Right; people lie, so do tests. Well, I have real work that needs to be done, and you had better get down to the clinic if you don't want Cuddy getting pissed with you again." Wilson waved over his shoulder as he left the room.

Cameron and Foreman had stopped at the DCFS headquarters, located in downtown Princeton, to get the address of Kelly's former foster parents. If the people working there had found the fact that two doctors were doing legwork odd they didn't say anything about it. It had taken Cameron a good half an hour to finally get the information. She finally resorted to the "It could be contagious" line and that seemed to work. Now she and Foreman were driving up to a small farm. The field that they had passed was barren, even though it was spring, and Cameron had to wonder how this family was ever cleared as a foster family in the first place. The farmhouse was faded white and the paint was peeling from all the sides that Cameron could see. A screen door hung halfway off its hinges, and there were a few random animals wandering around the yard.

"What does House expect us to do here?" Foreman asked angrily as they pulled up the small dirt road that led to the house.

"He wants to see if there is a mouse infestation here to prove that she has Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis." Cameron replied calmly.

"It's a farm! Of course there's gonna be mice!" Forman slouched further in his seat and Cameron couldn't help but give him a small grin. "Besides this guy beat a kid who he thought was deaf and retarded. What do you think he's going to do to us when we ask to see where he did it?"

"He's not home." Cameron replied coolly.

"And how do you know that?"

"No car in the driveway; besides, I checked the file on him. He works on a large corporate farm 50 miles from here Monday through Wednesday. He's not home. I'm hoping his wife will be more accommodating than he would be."

Foreman sighed and stepped out of the car as it pulled to a stop. Together they walked up to the dilapidated home and Cameron knocked tentatively on the doorframe, afraid that if she knocked too hard, the whole door would fall off its hinges onto her. After a moment of waiting, the sound of a person approaching the door could be heard.

Scared blue eyes looked out at them. The woman who the eyes belonged to looked as fragile as the injured girl back at PPTH. "Can I help you?" Her voice was as frail as her body and Cameron immediately felt bad for this woman.

"Yes, Hi, I'm Dr. Alison Cameron, and this is Dr. Foreman. We're here because one of our patients used to live here. Kelly Shadore?" Cameron spoke up, trying her best to keep her tone light and friendly.

"Yeah, Kelly used to live here, she doesn't any more. She's been gone almost a week," the woman replied.

"Yes, we know, but we were wondering if we could possibly look at where she used to sleep. She's very sick, and we're trying to find out what caused it." Cameron gave the woman a small smile and prayed that this was the right approach.

"I'm sorry, but my husband, he wouldn't like it." A nervous glance to the road that led to the house made Cameron clench her fingers into fists.

"I'm sure, but we're afraid that it may be contagious. If Kelly has it, it could be that you could get it too." Cameron tried to make her words sound less like a threat and more like a concerned plea. At this the woman looked nervously around and then glanced to Foreman with more then a little trepidation.

"Fine, but you'd best make it quick." She let the screen door open enough to just have them squeeze in, and led them down a sparsely lit hallway to a small door in the back of the main stairway. The doorway opened to a set of rickety steps that led into a damp basement.

"She stayed in the basement?" Foreman asked incredulously.

"Kelly always tried to run away. George just kept her down here so it was harder for her to get away." The woman replied. Cameron then realized that they hadn't asked her name. All Cameron knew was that she was Mrs. Makel. She led them over to another small door, and when it was opened Cameron saw that a small cot filled it.

"Thank you Mrs. Makel, we'll just be a minute." Cameron told her as Foreman started searching the small space.

"I've got definite mouse infestation. House was right; it is Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis." Forman said after a moment of searching.

"Is that bad?" Mrs. Makel asked.

"Well it's not good, but as long as you get rid of the mice, you and your husband should be fine." Cameron replied. "I'm sorry we had to take up your time, we'll be going now."

Cameron and Foreman beat a quick retreat to their car, and once on the road again, Foreman made a quick call to House.