A gruff old man sat behind the solid oak desk in the office. As Terry, Don, Cuddy and Foreman entered, Terry was struck with the realization that he actually wasn't as old as she first thought. His eyes were closed, sneakers propped on the desk, the thin white cords indicative of an iPod trailing down from his ears. Where she had first seen age, Terry now saw an immaturity that seemed to suit the man. She realized that he couldn't be more than 45, despite the weathering of his face.
Cuddy gave an exasperated sigh and stalked up to the man's desk, dropping a pile of clipboards and charts from a height of about 3 feet, resulting in a loud bang. Strangely, the man didn't flinch. After a moment, he cracked one eye open and studied Cuddy.
"Come to apologize?"
Cuddy stared at him, so he continued. "You know, apologize. The thing you do when you were wrong, I was right and the little words 'I'm sorry, House' come out of your mouth." Cuddy's lips tightened, and Terry and Don had to suppress a smirk at the ease with which this man had frustrated and flustered her.
"Dr. House, these are the FBI agents I told you were coming here. Would you please tell them what you know about the cases." From the stresses Cuddy put on certain words, Terry could already tell that Dr. House made a regular habit of misbehaving in front of visitors and, she suspected, misbehaving when there were no visitors as well.
"So what, no apology?" Cuddy decided it would be best to take the bait.
"Apologize for what exactly, House?"
"I don't know. But isn't that why you usually come to my office? Because I was right and you were wrong? That or it's that time of the month and you can't find Wilson to chat up."
Cuddy flushed. House grinned. Don cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry if we're interrupting something, but could we talk about the case? We really do need to find out what is causing these deaths, and we need to do it before anyone else gets hurt."
House looked up from where he sat, swung his legs off the desk and leant heavily on his cane as he stood up.
"I guess that depends on whether I get any names. I mean, I could go through this whole thing calling you Scully and Mulder, but that could get confusing."
Don introduced himself and Terry, and found himself slightly irritated by the liberties this older man took. House reminded him of the specialists who had treated his mother before her death. He was rude, narcissistic and almost had a god-complex. Still, he was one of the best diagnosticians in the country, and the only one who was treating patients with probable connections to their case. As House begun to limp out of his office and into the diagnostics room, the small crowd followed him. Foreman snorted a laugh at the way his boss was playing up the 'cripple' angle. Only House could know how to manipulate people to see him as vulnerable and yet offend them at the same time.
Two hours later, and the crowded diagnostics office still contained a whiteboard with several possible diseases, none of which was a perfect fit for the symptoms – except influenza. Dr. Cuddy had been forced to leave to attend a meeting, but Cameron, Foreman, Terry, Don, Chase and House, and the newest addition – Wilson still sat around the table, puzzled.
Terry and Don listened on in interest as the doctors flung diseases and responses across the table at each other, occasionally lapsing into side conversations with the two agents about the symptoms of the previous victims.
Dr. Cameron shifted uncomfortably in her seat before launching another disease at House, who stood at the whiteboard.
"Infectious Mononucleosis."
Before she had even finished closing her mouth, Chase had rebuffed her. "Not deadly. Could have caused the complications which lead to their deaths, but the symptoms are too severe. It's difficult to diagnose, but that shouldn't have stopped it showing up in the bloodwork from the victims in LA."
House nodded his approval at the Australian doctor's rare display of intellect. Foreman turned to the two agents.
"Terry, how long did you say the victims had been home sick for?"
"Just under a week each. That's why it's so important for us to separate anyone who shows these symptoms. When I was talking to them now, the two patients told me that they both arrive in New Jersey yesterday afternoon for a conference. They said they were both on the same flight, but never saw each other. One was flying business class, the other coach." Foreman nodded and all five doctors grew silent in thought.
Wilson was the first to speak.
"So they both live in LA. Both fly across the country to go to a conference. Neither have met before, and they are coming from the place where the disease seems to originate."
House looked up at his friend, trying to determine where this was leading. "What are you getting at, Jimmy?"
"Well, what if this isn't an infectious disease. What if these people have all come into contact with some environmental issue that had compromised their immune system to some extent, enabling a simple case of influenza to attack their bodies?"
"That could explain the lack of evidence found during the autopsies," Foreman supplied "but what causes immune problems to this extent? I mean, I'm going to assume that we're excluding HIV."
"Ding ding ding, Foreman, you win a candy bar. Now does anyone have anything helpful to suggest?" House stalked across the room and filled his coffee mug.
After a moment Cameron spoke up. "Leptospirosis? It would explain the short incubation period and the selectiveness of the targets."
"Oooh, cool diagnosis. Dirty soil transmits the bacteria and random people become sick. Me likey."
House made his way back to the whiteboard and scrawled the diagnosis across the top. He turned back to his team and began handing out orders.
"Cameron, I want you to go back and question the patients about any contact they may have had with barnyard animals, soil, or contaminated water. Chase, go run cultures. I want spinal fluid, blood, and saliva run. Foreman, you can take our guests on a quick tour. Looks like they won't be needed here for much longer, so the trip may as well be educational in some way or another."
Hey guys, I know that wasn't quite in the same strain as the other five chaps, but I'm being begged to relinquish the PC, and I'm staying wth friends for a few weeks. Until next time
Au revoir,
-c.