Disclaimer: House MD is property of David Shore and Fox TV, only the plot in mine.

Haunted

Chapter 7: Time Marches On

Hour 12

Dr. Burgen had been instructed to give Cameron pain medication but make sure she was awake after the surgery. He had gave her the injection to bring her out of the anesthetic induced sleep and left the room. Cameron slowly opened her heavy eyes blinking several times as she moaned. She looked around the room, it was different then before, it was one of the recovery rooms. 'Why am I in a recovery room?' She thought as it suddenly dawned on her.

Gasping she looked down to see the dip in the blanket just above where her knees should have been. She began to cry as she cupped her face in her hands, panting heavily as she shook her head. House had done it, he had really cut off her legs. Albeit to save her life, but that was the furthest thing from her mind right now. Right now all that she could think of was that she would never be able to walk or stand again. When she was younger she had taken ballet lessons and was very good at it, she would never dance again.

Dropping her hands away from her face exasperatedly as she continued to cry Wilson and House walking towards the room. She dried her eyes as best she could and reached to straighten her hair, another clump falling off into her hands. Over half of her hair was gone now, so was her legs. 'House was right.' she thought, 'I am an idiot.'

"Hey." Wilson greeted warmly as he stepped through the door. "How are you feeling." Drawing the pin light out of his pocket he checked the dilation of her pupils as he placed a hand gently on top of her head. She blinked a few times at the violating light but held still so Wilson could check. As he pulled his hand back another tuft of brunette hair fell to the bed. "I..I'm sorry." He stuttered apologetically as she began to weep again.

House sighed as he looked at his wounded duckling, he'd never admit just how bad he felt for having her legs taken off but he thought it was better then letting her die. Crossing the room he pushed Wilson aside with his cane and tossed the blankets back so that he could check for the rash, luckily there were no signs of it at all. House breathed a sigh of relief but he knew that there may be a chance that this was not over yet. Covering her he looked up to see the most pained, angry, sorrowful look he had ever seen as her teary blue eyes glared into his. "You son of a bitch." She mumbled as she wiped the moisture away from her eyes.

"Would you have rather me let you die?" House leaned on his cane as he stared down at her. "You lost your legs but at least your still alive. We're busting our asses to try and save your life. You could at least show some appreciation" House kept his voice calm and even as he spoke to her. He knew that she was regretting what she had done.

"Thank you Stacy." The acid in her tone made Wilson give her a double take as House snickered.

"Just remember, you brought this one yourself." House leaned in a little closer glowering in her face as he mussed up her hair causing a handful to fall out. "All this, the hair, the legs, it was all your fault. Don't blame me for trying to fix it." With that the diagnostician strode out of the room as Wilson sat down on the edge of the bed trying to comfort her as she cried.

After a few moments her tears stopped, leaning back she glanced down once again to where her legs used to be. A tiny maggot was squirming and wiggling around, she quickly flicked it away and looked back at Wilson. "At least tell me they found something out." She pleaded with him as she dried her eyes.

"Burgen took samples during the surgery, Chase and Foreman are running tests one them now." He knew that it was unlikely that they would find something much like with Lily's autopsy but he still hoped they would.

Cameron sighed as she returned her gaze to the empty space at her knees. Another maggot was writhing around, again she flicked it away. Wilson looked at her sympathetically as he gently squeezed her arm. "They do wonders with prosthetics these days, you know."

She did not hear him, another maggot appeared and then another and another. Holding her breath she began to frantically push them away, throwing the covers to the floor she screamed as she saw the vile insects crawling all over the what was left of her legs. Wilson grabbed a hold of her, shaking her to snap her out of it as three nurses ran into the room.

"Cameron!" He shouted as she blinked at him in utter horror. "There's nothing there, you're fine." She looked back down and saw only white bandages, collapsing in his arms she began to cry once more. "Look, I'll give you a sedative so you can sleep for a while okay." She nodded as she continued to sniffle. He directed the nurse to get him some Haldol, he laid her back down gently as the the short blonde nurse put the syringe in his hand.

She screamed as a gut twisting pain shot through her as the needle touched her skin. "Stop! Please!" She cried as Wilson drew back. A look of utter defeat washed over the oncologist's face as he sat the syringe on the table.

Hour 13

The team sat in silence in the diagnostics lounge as Wilson told them what had happened in the room. It was what they had feared, the amputation hadn't worked, the next symptom had just presented itself. Hypersensitivity is an immune response that damages the body's own tissue causing excruciating pain. Lily was to young for morphine, they hoped it would help Cameron.

House tapped his cane on the floor as he wrote up the new symptom on the board. "Are you sure it wasn't just a reaction to being pulled out of the anesthesia so soon?" Chase asked. He hoped it was otherwise her legs had been cut off for no reason.

"I'm sure." Wilson sighed as he leaned his head back staring up at the ceiling.

"It's still possible that this is a bad case of vulgaris." Foreman leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees as he ran his hands over the back of his head.

"The test was negative." Chase pointed out. He knew the neurologist was grasping for straws at this point but they were useless straws.

"We can do the test again." Foreman sighed as he shot a glare towards the Australian.

"It's pointless to test for something we know it's not, Foreman." Chase returned the glare as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Do it anyway." House didn't take his eyes off the bored as he spoke. "Rerun the tests for cellulitus and pemphigus while you're at it."

Wilson looked at his friend as the other two scurried out of the room to run the tests. "You've ran those tests three times now."

"Keeps them busy." House said as he turned to face Wilson with a look on his face that was a cross between nervous and defeated.

"What is it?" He knew that that wasn't a good look and it must have been why he ordered the tests.

"The amputation..." House's voice trailed off as he looked away. "I have a feeling the rash will be coming back, it's next stage is legions, then necrotization."

"And...?" Wilson gestured for him to elaborate, he wasn't getting what House's point was.

"Now there is less flesh to be eaten. When the necrotizing starts, it will begin at her thigh. I think we may have lost her a few hours." The doctors both exchanged worried glances as they stared up at the clock.

Tbc.