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Sean O'Malley, age 24 was admitted to the emergency room late on a Thursday afternoon with a fever, vomiting and a high fever. Tests for the most common infections had shown nothing. When he'd begun to appear jaundiced, Cuddy had referred him up to diagnostics. Unfortunately Cameron was the only one still there when the call came through that they had a new patient being admitted. She quickly paged House who had left only ten minutes prior and after putting her things back in her locker and donning her lab coat once again headed down to get a history on Mr. O'Malley.
When she arrived at the room she found their patient was asleep, with an older couple sitting watch over him.
"Mr. and Mrs. O'Malley?" Cameron asked, and gave them a small smile when they nodded.
"I'm Dr. Cameron. I'll be one of the doctor's caring for your son. Could you answer a few questions for me?" she asked politely.
"Certainly," Mrs. O'Malley agreed, "but we were told that Dr. House would be taking the case."
"I'm one of Dr. House's associates. I've paged him to let him know that your son is here, but in the mean time I'd like to get some history and possible begin some tests," Cameron explained.
Twenty minutes later Cameron was finished with her questions and before leaving went over to examine her patient, and draw some blood. She'd only glanced at him occasionally since entering the room; now up close she could appreciate how handsome the young man was. As she bent over him to draw his blood she saw his eyelids flicker. By the time she was done he was looking at her in confusion.
"Am I dead?" he whispered.
"No, Mr. O'Malley, you are very sick though. You're at Princeton/Plainsborough Hospital," Cameron assured him.
Her patient gave her a wan smile. "You mean you're not an angel?" he asked.
Cameron blushed slightly. "No, far from it. I'm Dr. Cameron," she told him.
"Could have fooled me," he commented before slipping back asleep.
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Cameron's pager went off as she was leaving Sean O'Malley's room. She quickly made her way to House's office and called him back from there.
"Please tell me this is a case of the flu and I don't need to come back in," he griped as soon as he picked up the phone.
"Definitely not a case of the flu, but I have a couple of clues as to what it might be," she replied.
"Well don't make me beg," House demanded.
She quickly ran down his symptoms. House sighed when she was done. "Well it's definitely an infection of some sort, now we just have to narrow it down from the hundreds of possible types. Anything in his history to give us a clue?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. He went camping and rafting in the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago," Cameron told him with a grin.
"Well, well, what do you know? Useful information from a patient history. I'm impressed. So that leads us to a handful of bacterial diseases," he mulled. "Got a favorite?"
"Leptosirosis," Cameron stated and then held her breath.
"I assume you have a blood sample?" he stated by way of agreement.
"I'm on my way to the lab now," she informed him.
"Call me when you get the results," he said. Then the phone went dead.
Cameron stared at the phone in her hand for just a second before she shook her head and went off to do her job, berating herself for letting House get to her with his bad manners. She hadn't expected a pat on the back, but would it hurt the man to give her some sort of acknowledgement when she was on the right track?
Less than an hour later she called him back to let him know that the lab tests had confirmed her diagnosis.
"Excellent. Before you know it I'll be able to do all my work from home," House prophesized. "Start him on IV Doxycycline and monitor him overnight. I'll see you in the morning," he declared, and once again the phone went instantly dead.
Allison put a quick call in to order the needed antibiotics and then stopped by her locker to check on her overnight supplies. Luckily she had everything she needed including a change of clothes for the next day.
By the time she made it back down to her patients room the Doxycycline was waiting for her to administer. There was also a room full of people waiting anxiously for her to appear. She paused in the doorway taking in the newcomers. Three gorgeous men had joined Mr. and Mrs. O'Malley at Sean's bedside and Allison literally had to catch her breath as they all leapt to their feet and turned towards her.
She was glad when one of then broke the silence. "You must be Sean's angel, Dr. Cameron," he said in a deep melodious voice. "I'm his brother Patrick, and these other two are Jack and Edward, also brothers, although of far less interest," he informed her.
"Hey!" the other two protested simultaneously.
Then a quiet command came from the corner where Mrs. O'Malley sat. "Boys, stop it. Let the doctor speak."
All three had the grace to look guilty and Cameron flashed them a small smile before proceeding.
"We were able to pinpoint the bacterial infection that Sean picked up while in the Dominican Republic. It's treatable with antibiotics, although since his case is so severe we will need to administer them through an IV. The good news is we caught it before it did any serious damage to his liver or kidneys so he should make a full recovery," Cameron explained even as she took the syringe with the drugs and emptied it into Sean's IV.
"Thank the lord," she heard Mrs. O'Malley whisper as her husband pulled her into a relieved hug.
"We will be monitoring him throughout the night, but my guess is we should start to see improvement by morning. He'll need to stay here for at least three days, at which point we will see how he is doing. The infection is not contagious, so none of you are in any danger, but if he went on this trip with friends I would encourage you to get in touch with them so they can be tested. Some people have very mild reactions to the bacteria and they may just have a case of diarrhea, but even so they will get better much faster with treatment," she explained.
Patrick O'Malley stuck out his hand. "Thank you very much Doctor, and thank Dr. House for us too," he said. "You really did turn out to be Sean's angel."
Cameron blushed once more at the moniker. Thank goodness none of her team were here or she would never hear the end of it. Little did she know that by the next morning they would be very aware of the fact that the O'Malley brothers had put her on a pedestal.
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TBC