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

Haunted

Chapter 8: Lab Rat

Hour 14

Chase and Foreman sat in the lab waiting for the test results to come back, they knew it would be negative but it was worse to sit around and do nothing while their friend died then to suffer through a pointless test. It was going on eleven pm so most of the lab techs had already gone home so their was no one around waiting to use the stations.

"Do you realize how pointless this is?" Chase through his hands up in exasperation as he leaned back from peering into the microscope. He still couldn't understand why House was sending them to retest. "Cameron, Lily, and her dad all tested negative for vulgaris, pemphigus, and cellulitus."

"Can't you ever view the glass as half full?" Foreman shrugged him off and continued looking at the slid with a sample of Cameron's blood on it. "Maybe we missed it before."

"Or maybe it's not there at all." Chase rolled his eyes at the neurologist and went to check the latest O2 count to see if that was still stable, thankfully it was, the last thing they needed right now was for her lungs to collapse.

Foreman sighed, giving up his search of her blood for clues to check the Epstien Barr results. "Probably not. House is just reaching for straws right now, I don't think he has a clue."

"It's impolite to talk about someone behind their back when that someone is standing behind your back." Both Foreman and Chase turned to see a smirking House leaning in the doorway. "Hey kids, did you have fun playing with the grown up toys?"

"The tests are still negative." Foreman turned to face his boss holding out a sheet with the results of the Epstien Barr, House stared at it as if it were going to do some sort of trick.

"Start her on plasmapheresis." Both doctors looked at him dumbly for a moment, rolling his eyes he lifted his sleeve to look at his watch. "Go ahead, take your time. I'm sure Cameron won't mind."

"House, we said the test for vulgaris was negative." Chase protested. "Why treat her..."

"Because treatment is quicker, their maybe something hindering the test results..."

"If there was something there we would have seen it. House, a normal..." Foreman interrupted causing a glare from the diagnostician.

"When you're at the fourth and ten at the twenty yard line down by six you don't try fancy maneuvers, you charge straight down the middle." Popping open his bottle of vicodin he dumped the remaining two white pills in his hand and dry swallowed them. "There is nothing normal about this case. Start the treatment. If it doesn't work we'll try another one." House turned and limped out the door clutching his empty pill bottle on his left hand as Wilson walked by the lab. "Hey Wilson!" He shouted, causing the oncologist as well as everyone else in earshot to jump. "Do you got any drugs?"

Hour 15

Cameron lay half asleep as Foreman, Chase and a few nurses were setting up the plasmapheresis machine in her room. The morphine only slightly took the edge off the pain caused by the hypersensitivity and the treatment wasn't working at all. She was trying to ready herself for the pain that was about to be upon her when it was time to hook her to the machine, but she was finding it hard not to weep. She was surprised that House wasn't in here poking her with a stick.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" Nurse Brenda asked with a sympathetic look but didn't touch her because she knew it would cause Cameron a lot of pain. She had signed up for a double shift so that she could stay and help Dr. Cameron.

"I'm okay." Cameron sniffed back a tear as she spoke in a trembling, tired voice. The machine was set up, it was now time to insert the IV's. One IV was to draw the blood into the machine where the plasma was separated out then the blood is mixed with Albumin and returned through the other IV.

"Are you ready?" Chase asked as he held one of the tubes in his hand on her left side while Foreman had the other on her right. Another tear fell as she nodded her head, two nurses moved in to strap down her arms before and help hold them down while Nurse Brenda went to the head of the bed and inserted a tongue guard so she wouldn't bite her tongue because of the pain.

The entire room took a deep breath as Foreman and Chase pressed the needles into her skin. Cameron screamed out in agony as white hot pain seared through her body, tears began to fall from her eyes in torrents as she clenched down on the tongue guard. Both Foreman and Chase took a step back signaling that they were finished, the nurses to abandoned their station to return to their rounds.

Cameron trembled, her stomach churning from the pain as the room swam before her bloodshot eyes. Chase placed a hand gently on her shoulder as he undid her bindings. "Are you okay?" With one final somersault the contents of her stomach was emptied onto Chase's face and chest. Resisting the urge to gag, Chase wiped it out of his face as she tried to apologies. "It's okay, just try and relax."

"Chase." Foreman got the intensivists attention and pointed towards the blood that was coming out of one of the tubes. "Look how thick it is."

"Hypercoagulation." Chase sighed as he watched it slowly tread up the tube. Turning his attention back to the weeping woman he gently pulled the covers back to take a look at her thighs to check for the rash. They had suspected it would return soon, and it had. There it was plain as day about three fourths up her thigh, within the next hour or so it should reach her waist. It was only a matter of time before the legions came into play.

Hour 16

The hot water that was falling over Chase was refreshing. Steam flowing into his nostrils, he sighed heavily hoping this was all just a bad dream and he would wake up and everything would be back to normal. But he knew it wasn't a dream and he knew he wasn't going to wake up.

"How far has the rash spread." House called over the sound of the shower running while he sat on the bench twirling his cane. Wilson sat beside him with his arms folded and eyes closed with his head leaned against the wall mulling possibilities over in his head but nothing that could help.

"It's just below her waist." Chase called over the rush of water as he washed the vomit out of his hair.

"Did you steal a look at naughty parts?" House asked in a serious tone, receiving a glare from Wilson. "Our little boy is growing up!"

"Well, you get to have 'The Talk' with him then." Wilson leaned his head back again as the water shut off and an arm reached out to grab a towel.

Chase stepped out dripping wet with a white towel wrapped around his waist. Both the oncologist and diagnostician found themselves staring at his firm muscled abdomen. "What?"

House opened his mouth to give him a smart assed come back but was interrupted by Cuddy who came waltzing into the men's locker room pausing only slightly to look at the nearly nude wombat. "How is she?"

"The rash is back and she got the next symptom, hypercoagulation." Chase answered as he stood uncomfortably in just a towel.

"I spoke to Foreman, he said the plasmapheresis isn't having an effect so far." Her hand rested on the waist of her navy blue slacks, she looked tired but they knew that she wouldn't be getting any rest until this situation was resolved.

"We'll leave her on it a little more then we'll try something else." House made it a point to stare down her white top as he stood up leaning heavily on his cane.

"House, she's not a lab rat you can't experiment on her!" She threw her arms up in disbelief as she looked at Wilson for help.

"She's the one who made herself a lab rat, not me." House sighed and gave a mischievous smile to the Dean of Medicine. "I understand you're upset, but I've got something that will cheer you right up."

Cuddy's jaw hit the floor as House ripped the towel of Chase's waist leaving him completely naked, his whole body flushing bright red in embarrassment. "House!" He reached to try and get his stolen towel back as he covered himself with his free hand. Cuddy rolled her eyes hiding a smile behind her hand as she walked out of the locker room.

Tbc