Hey everyone, back for another round I see. Keep in mind that I am not a doctor so if my medical is a bit off just play along.

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

Haunted

Chapter 12: Just Breathe

Hour 26

She lay quietly, afraid to go back to sleep. She didn't want to see that again, she didn't want to see all those babies die again. Cameron had never had a child of her own but she wanted to have one. Nothing in the world compares to holding your child in your arms for the first time. A family was out of the question when she married. Her husband was dying of cancer.

She smiled as she remembered her wedding day, everything had been perfect. The flowers, the cake, the dress, everything. The dress, it was the most beautiful gown Cameron had ever laid her eyes on. The base embroidered with flowers lined with small pearls, the back laced up with silk ribbon. It was way out of her price range but he insisted that she get it anyway. Smiling, Cameron let her mind wrap around the memory. She could almost hear the wedding march being played as she walked down the aisle. She could smell the sweet scent of the many flowers gathered in the chapel, Cameron inhaled deeply letting the sent cascade into her nostrils.

The scent of beautiful flowers vanished and was replaced by the smell of death and rotting flesh. Cameron coughed hoarsely waves of pain shocking through her with each heave of her chest. Opening her eyes she saw Lily standing at the foot of her bed. Cameron almost cried as she saw her wedding dress on the decomposing corpse. Lily even held the exact bouquet of white and yellow roses and a white rose tucked into her hair.

Cameron cringed as Lily ran her bony fingers over the embroidered flowers as she hummed the wedding march. "Do you like my dress?" She asked as she gave a little spin to show it off. "It was really expensive but John said that he wanted his princess to look like a princess on her wedding day." Cameron wanted to cry and scream at her, those had been the words he said to her. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came. She could feel her chest tightening, gasping she brought her hand to her chest.

Doctors Chase, Foreman, and Wilson ran into the room as monitors beeped wildly sending their shrill cries out into the silent hallways of PPTH. "Get the cart ready!" Chase ordered as he pulled the pillow out from underneath Cameron's head. "We need to intubate." Just as he said it the device was put into his hand. Quickly going to work as he noticed her lips we're beginning to turn cynotic. As he began to insert it through her mouth another shrill scream of a monitor pierced the air.

"Her lung's collapsed!" Foreman called out as Chase dropped the intubation kit and grabbed a syringe off the cart and jammed it through her chest. The room fell silent, Wilson turning down the monitors. All could hear the air whistling through the syringe as it escaped her pleural cavity.

Everyone in the room focused their attention on the intensivist. "Schedule an OR." He said in a low tone. "She needs a chest tube."

Hour 27

House sat at his desk with his head resting on his cane. Chase and Foreman were observing the chest tube being put in which left Wilson alone with House. He sat opposite of the head of Diagnostics flipping through the whole of Cameron's tests results since it all began. He couldn't help but feel helpless, none of this added up. Never in his years as a doctor had he ever seen anything remotely similar to this. How can you treat something if you don't know what it is?

Twenty seven hours. Twenty seven hours and they still haven't learned anything new about this disease at all. Poor little Lily Gale had only lasted twenty four hours and her father, Alex had lasted forty eight. Cameron would fall somewhere between them because of the amputation they thought would save her life she had lost some time. There was less skin now for the lesions to cover and less skin to be eaten away. Wilson figured she wouldn't last more then thirty eight to forty hours.

"Have you started the glycopetides yet?" House's voice penetrated Wilson's thoughts.

The oncologist shook his head. "No, we were going to when the pneumothorax happened. We'll get her started on it just as soon as the chest tube is in." They had been heading to her room with the new treatment when they heard the monitors going off.

"Get an MRI first." House leaned back in his chair twirling his cane as he slouched down slightly. "The start the glycopetides."

"I don't know if an MRI is a good idea with a..." Wilson was interrupted by House who gave him that ice cold glare that said shut up.

"If we had time to let her recover from the chest tube we'd give it to her but unfortunately for us she is an idiot and only gave us a small window to figure out what is wring with her." Using the hook of his cane he knocked the ball off of his desk letting it bounce before he caught it with his cane and dropped it again.

"Are you sure calling her an idiot is a good thing to be doing right now?" Wilson asked as he stared down his friend. It was unanimous, what Cameron had done topped all idiot lists but it didn't change the fact that she had done it and now they needed to fix it.

"When is anything I do a good thing?" House retorted without taking his eyes off the game he was playing.

"House, she's dying and you're tormenting her!" Wilson gave a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't you think you should lay off the idiot thing?"

"When a patient of yours dies do you give yourself cancer to martyr yourself out for a cure?" He tossed the ball high enough so that he could catch it and put it back onto his desk before folding his arms in his lap and staring at a weary oncologist.

"No." Wilson replied as he felt the weight of House's gaze coming down on him. There was some thing about being stared down by House's crystal blue eyes that sent a shiver up one's spine.

"No, you send flowers to the funeral or you write a nice letter to the family because that is the smart thing to do. Injecting yourself with a deadly disease makes you an idiot." House was satisfied that he made his point as he saw the defeated look on Wilson's face.

"Will you at least stop calling her that to her face?" The oncologist pleaded after a moment.

"I haven't called her an idiot to her face in hours." House leaned on his cane pulling himself into a standing position and walked to the door. "Stop being such a cry baby or I'll start calling you a wuss."

Hour 28

The chest tube had been inserted with out a problem. Just as the doctor had finished they wheeled Cameron into the MRI room. She was still under sedation so the results of the MRI would be clean. Foreman and Chase sat in the monitoring room and watched the screen as images of Cameron's brain began to appear.

"How long do you think she has before the necrotizing starts?" Chase asked in a reserved tone as he picked at a loose thread on his scrubs. He felt the weight of defeat hanging over him as he stared at his colleague, his friend, in the MRI machine. He did consider her a friend, though they didn't have the greatest relationship he still had become close to her since they worked together.

"I don't know." Foreman's voice was tired and gruff, he paused to clear his throat before continuing. "I hope we figure something out before that happens." Foreman too considered her a friend. Yes they had had their moments when they wanted to kill each other but a friend none the less. He hated seeing her like this.

"The lesions are halfway up her midsection now, the rash is up to her face. I don't think it will be much longer at all." They sat silently for a moment. Occupying their minds with anything they could think of so not to focus on the thought of the pain Cameron would have to endure once her skin starts being eaten away.

Several minutes later Foreman broke the silence. "Do you think House will find the answer in time?" He asked as he looked into his Aussie counterpart's blue green eyes.

"Of coarse he will. He's House." Chase said in a reassuring tone. He had worked with House the longest and seen him do some amazing things. Chase may have lost a lot of faith after leaving the seminary but the one thing that he had more faith in then anything else was House's abilities. "I'm suer he can find the answer." He said with finality in his voice.