Chase had prepped a team at nine in the morning, prepared to see if David really was allergic to the chemo treatments. And if he was, well, then there'd just be more bad news on the way. He gave a nod to the nurses, making sure one was standing outside with Annie and John to prevent them from storming in. "Okay, David, if you are allergic, you're going to go into anaphylactic shock, which is why this room is so crowded. We're here to prevent anything too bad from happening."
David nodded. "Haven't led me wrong yet, Dr. Chase."
Chase eased closer, withdrawing the pillow from under David's head, readying the equipment and taking David's arm into his hand, the free hand wielding the injection. David just glanced up at Chase and nodded once, signaling that he was ready for anything. Chase stuck David's arm with the specially made compound and released it gently, stepping back to watch and wait.
And sure enough, the wheezing began within seconds. "Help," David shouted hoarsely. "I can't..."
Chase knew what he had to do.
"Pushing one shot of epinephrine," Chase narrated his actions as he injected the shot into David's IV, grasping the tools required to intubate and going about his work without a hitch, keeping David's airways open. When the man had settled, Chase turned to the glass partition for the briefest of seconds, immediately turning away.
He'd just arrived at that damn bridge he had dreaded crossing.
Cameron arrived into work, barely taking one sip of coffee before Matt caught her in the hallway with a small satchel of...something. "Here. This was where they had the knives out for show, right with the drugs. I'm not sure what the E was cut with...so, I brought you a sample."
Vindication flooded Cameron as she took the small bag. "I'll get the lab to run trace tests for anything unusual." She was smiling, glad that her belief in humanity had actually paid off. Matt gave a nod of understanding, heading towards Kevin's room while Cameron went towards the lab, glimpsing Chase in one of the patient's rooms, talking with another man. Figures he'd turn up after she could have used his help.
Cameron handed off the sample to the lab tech and made the usual begging requests. It seemed to pay off, because she was given a promise of two hours or her sample was free. Two more hours of a puzzle. She could do that.
Foreman and Dr. Gordon had taken over the conference room of diagnostics, pacing back and forth, scribbling symptoms on the whiteboard -- currently, it displayed 'Sepsis', 'Low Blood Pressure' and 'Lethargy'. Foreman had six textbooks out, trying to figure out what the hell would cause those things. "Antibiotics?" he suggested.
"Broad spectrum or targeted?" Dr. Gordon clarified.
"Specific. Penicillin, maybe. Is Bobby allergic?" Foreman said, weakly. He'd never seen antibiotics do this before. He hated the stage of ignorance. He'd become a doctor to have stores upon stores of knowledge to trump any problem and now he was stymied by a nameless injection.
Dr. Gordon shook his head. "Only allergic to pineapple. Perhaps a cocktail of amphetamines?"
"It would wreak havoc on his system," Foreman countered thoughtfully. "Except blood pressure would go up, not down." It was an obvious fact and they both knew it, but they were grasping at straws. Foreman didn't fault Dr. Gordon in the least for having clouded judgment. This was his son.
Foreman rubbed at his temples, trying to encourage thoughts that would be some kind of helpful. As he stared at the whiteboard, his mind finally took a turn towards the useful.
"Where's your office?" Foreman asked bluntly.
"My office?" Dr. Gordon stared at Foreman. "What does it matter! Bobby is..."
"At your hospital," Foreman cut in loudly. "Where's your office? By the ICU? Pediatrics? Geriatrics? Where!"
Dr. Gordon paled slightly. "They moved me into the surgery wing until they found more space. They perform transplants in the wing."
It clicked for the both of them at seemingly the exact same moment. "He does have an infection," Foreman realized. "Fever and white count didn't go up because..."
"Exactly," Dr. Gordon finished the thought. "There were two surgeries on the board. Bobby must have stumbled upon one and injected himself with an immunosuppressant."
"He needs antibiotics and a clean room, then," Dr. Gordon finished, leaving the room in a rush.
Foreman, however, was reveling in the knowledge that he'd been right about the white count after all. Technically. He wondered if that would be enough to get his bet-money back.
Two hours later, Cameron was holding the lab results in her hands, almost in disbelief at what the tests had confirmed. She must have been staring slack-jawed for quite a while because she never even saw House coming, let alone poking her in the shoulder gently with his cane.
"Good read?" He leaned over Cameron's shoulder to peer at the text. "Any lesbians in it?"
Cameron pointed to the bottom line. "They cut the E with an arsenic compound." It was insane, who did that sort of thing? Sure, maybe it gave them sort kind of crazy buzz, but too much of it was deadly and dangerous. "The knife was lying in tons of the stuff. They might snort a twentieth of what got on the edge of the blade."
"Warehouse was damp?" House asked.
"Damp enough to get powder to stick to the knife, yeah," Cameron confirmed, following his train of thought. "He gets stabbed and then the knife embedded E and arsenic into the system. So, with some palliatives and avoiding a repeat of the stabbing, he'll be fine. After a good long bout of suffering," she scoffed. She was pleased though, that it was an easy fix with little pain.
"So you get him away from that hard knock life," House summarized.
Arsenic and E, delivered to the gut by a knife-delivery system. Well, it was unique, Cameron would give them that. "I'll tell the patient," she said, loving when she got to deliver the good news. She gave House the glimmer of an optimistic grin before heading towards Kevin's room, charts in hand.
Matt was waiting outside the room, mainlining coffee and looking far worse for the wear than the day before. He was wearing nice clothes, the sort you wore to job interviews and funerals.
"Hey," Cameron said softly to get his attention. "I've got good news."
Matt turned, gesturing inside the room, which was now empty. "Yeah? For me or for him?"
Cameron gaped at the messy bed, then at Matt. "Is he still in the hospital?" she demanded.
Matt chuckled. "Relax. Yeah, he went outside for some air. One of the other doctors gave him the go-ahead." Cameron relaxed slowly, exhaling a held breath she hadn't even realized she'd been keeping in. "Said he was getting stir-crazy." Matt turned his full attention to Cameron, fidgeting with his tie like it was some kind of punishment. "I know the feeling."
"The lab results came back," Cameron offered. "The E had traces of arsenic in it. They got along the serrated edges of the knife and wound up being transferred to Kevin's body when he was stabbed."
Matt seemed to think a good while about that. "Arsenic poisoning?"
"Yup."
"So, what happens now?" he asked in disbelief.
"We treat the pain, keep him away from arsenic, and he'll be free to go in two to three days. Simple as that," Cameron promise, her whole demeanor far more pleased now that she had both solved the puzzle and been able to lift a weight off the chest of the family and friends of the patient. "Sound good?"
Matt's laugh was warm. "Sounds great."
Cameron flipped the charts shut and gave him a curious look. "Can I ask...the clothes?"
Matt fidgeted with the cuffs of his shirt. "Court," he explained. "I advised Kevin to press charges."
Cameron's smile softened, a little more genuine than before. "Good," she said firmly. "It's the right thing to do."
"Yeah," but Matt sounded uneasy. "I just hope Kevin realizes that one day."
Chase closed the curtains of the room while Annie opened the curtains of the window, an exchange of light. Chase hated doing this and he already felt heavy with grief that he'd have to give to these people. He drew a chair opposite the side of the bed, Annie and John both holding David's hand on the other side. Chase met each of their gazes for a brief moment, each of them looking daunted and worried. They'd won the battle, but the war was about to kick their collective ass.
"So, the reaction..." Annie began, her expression puzzled, as though she were muddling through the various medical jargon she had been told over the many months.
"It confirmed what we thought," Chase picked up her sentence, his tone apologetic. "It appears that David has become very allergic to the chemo, which means that he'll need to be switched to radiation as soon as possible."
"Okay," David agreed. "No problem."
"Unfortunately," Chase sighed wearily, because there was a problem, "There's some bad news attached to that. Because of the tendency of this cancer to metastasize in the brain, doctors use chemo to slow that. It's a body-wide attack and more effective. Radiation is specific. And less effective." He turned his gaze to Annie. "Whatever your old doctor said..." His attention turned to John. "What I assume was eight to twelve months." Finally, he let his gaze settle on David. "It's likely more like four to six months now." It hit almost immediately and the grief flashed over their faces. "I'm sorry," Chase offered quietly. Annie crumpled silently against the bed, head resting on David's shoulder. John appeared numb and David was simply in what appeared to be a state of unhappy shock. "You'll be able to leave in twenty-four hours."
Surprisingly, it was John who spoke up. "Thank you, Dr. Chase." He rose to his feet, wiping his palms on his jeans. "I'll uh, give you two a moment." He smiled wanly as he left the room.
"We have an excellent oncologist on staff," Chase assured. "You'll have a large pool of resources to use."
"I think we just need a moment," David said in a whisper, the news finally sinking in. Chase glanced to Annie once more before leaving the room, watching from beyond the glass as the realization fully struck them and they fell apart as two people bound to the same inevitable facts of the future.
tbc