CHAPTER TWO

An hour later little Tyler Brookstone lie in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. He was awake and humming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over and over. The medication House administered him to stop the seizure worked immediately then he was admitted for further testing. His mother, Danielle, sat at his bedside, still scratching and complaining that she was the one that was sick, although her son was an inch away from lapsing into a coma. House paged Cameron to the room and she didn't look at him as she entered but looked directly at her new patient.

"Oh! You have one of those, too!" Tyler said excitedly as he pointed to the stethoscope around her neck.

"Don't let him near that." House warned. "The kid will burst your ear drums."

Cameron seemed to ignore him but told Tyler, "If you're good, I'll show you how to hear your own heartbeat. How's that?" Cameron said as she padded Tyler on the knee and he smiled up at her.

"Oh, great, bribe the kid why don't ya…" House started to say but was interrupted by Danielle.

"That shot you gave me hasn't stopped the itching. I thought you are a doctor. Can't you give me something else?" She asked as her nails bore deeper into her scraped arms and neck, leaving streaks of blood on her arms.

"Mrs. Brookstone, if you continue to scratch they will get infected." Cameron warned her but she continued to scratch.

"Stop whining, woman!" House yelled at her. "Remember having the mumps? Or measles? You've got Fifth disease, an offspring of the two. And there's a reason why usually only children get them; because while children tend to not complain about the bumps and itching, adults are a pain in the ass."

Danielle looked at him blankly as House continued his tirade.

"And yes, you gave your son the disease, and you may just have killed him." House shot at her.

"House!" Cameron scolded him.

"Oh, please. You know it's true. Now answer Cameron's questions, quit complaining and maybe if you're good she'll let you hear your heartbeat, too. Yeah, that'd be hot…wait, no it wouldn't. Lollipop. That'll work." He said as he turned and left the room.

Both women stared in awe as the door closed behind him as Danielle asked, "What's his problem?"

Cameron snickered and said, "He missed the second part of the cliff hanger of OC last night because of the day and time change for part two. Ok, I know this is difficult right now but we have to find out what's wr…"

"You mean he's really sick?" She asked dumfounded, like she just realized her son might be dying.

"We don't know. We need to do preliminary tests first to ascertain why he had the seiz…." Cameron answered her, honest and straight forwardly.

Danielle stood up, wiped her hands on her pants and walked to the side of Tyler's bed. She lovingly looked down at him and watched him as he sang his favorite song from his favorite movie.

"Mommy? Why'd dat that doctor have a stick? Dit-ed Daddy have a stick like that?" He asked as she pulled the covers up around his shoulders.

"Yes, baby. Daddy had one like that. You remember?"

"Uh huh. Mommy?" Tyler said as he felt the material of her silk blouse between his fingers.

"Yes, baby?"

"Can you bring Chitty Bang so I can watch it while I'm here?"

"Yes, of course. Anything." She said with a smile and kissed him on the cheek. "We'll be back in a minute. And remember what Dr. Cameron said. You can listen to your heartbeat. Cool, huh? Just like a real doctor?"

"I'd like that, Mommy. Mommy?"

"Yes, baby?"

"I'm gonna sleep now." He said as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D.

Cameron and Danielle sat outside in the waiting area outside Tyler's room. While she was answering the questions her eyes never left her son in the room in front of them.

"Does Tyler have any siblings?"

"Yes, umm, Tucker, his twin." She said as she sniffed and reached in her purse for a tissue. "They were fraternal twins. Tucker was born with Down Syndrome while Ty was comp…is completely healthy." She corrected as Cameron wrote down the information.

"Tuck died at two, and sometimes Ty still has nightmares about waking up with his brother dead beside him; he'd died in his sleep. Terrance, my husb…ex-husband, couldn't handle his death very well and we divorced. But Ty remembers him."

Her attention was drawn on Chase who had walked into Tyler's room with a tray with several items on it.

"What's he doing?" She asked nervously.

"He's going to draw more blood for a CBC…a total blood count…to check out his white and red cells in his blood. If there's any type of infection it'll show up."

Danielle settled back into the chair as Cameron continued to get his medical history.

HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D. HOUSE M.D.

Back in House's office he was sitting at his desk playing Sodoku on the computer and coming very, very close to beating Chase's low-time score of 47 seconds when his concentration was disrupted by the sudden crashing noise of his office door being slammed against the glass panel. Wilson stormed into his office and stood in front of his desk.

"MAN! I was almost there! Just three more seconds and I would have beaten his score. He will NOT beat me! You moron! You owe me, owe me big." House said then threw the computer mouse at him and crossed him arms over his chest.

"Oh, I know you owe me more than you think I do." Wilson shot back as he plopped himself down in a chair.

House's eyes furrowed into his friend as he thought about what Wilson just said. "Dude, that didn't make sense."

"House, Grace died this morning." Wilson said solemnly.

"I thought she was still in Venice." House asked, giving him all of his attention, which was hard for him in the first place.

"She was. She used me as next of kin, since she has no family. I just got the call."

"Well, I think I'd want to be in Venice when I die, but not alone." House said rather coldly and uncaringly.

"House!" Wilson yelled and stood up. "You'd be lucky to have anyone come to yourfuneral."

Wilson turned and headed to the door and almost ran into Cameron as she held the door open for him.

"Cameron, you need to find yourself another man."

She looked at him confused as he stormed into the hallway then glanced at House, whose face had a little bit of remorse and regret for what he said about Grace.

"What was that about?" She asked as she approached his desk.

"Lover's spat…oh, speaking of which...didn't we have one this morning?" He said.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about personal things in the office."

"But this is my office and whatever I say…GOES!" He said trying to be funny but it backfired.

"Yeah, goes out of your mouth into the hallways. Look, I didn't come in here to talk to you about this morning…"

"But we still have to talk, right? Can't avoid that." He said as he stood up and approached her, who suddenly stiffened and took a few steps back.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at her, seriously looked at her like, like he'd never really done before. It was like she was a woman he didn't recognize at all, even if they'd been seeing each other for two weeks.

"Ca…Allison. Are you scared of me?" He asked as he reached for her but she pulled away.

"Nooo." She muttered unconvincingly.

"God…what happened this morning? All I remember is I had a nightmare. Why are you pissed at me?" He asked as he leaned against the edge of his desk.

Just then her pager went off and she immediately reached down and pulled it out of her pocket. "It's Tyler. He just fell." Cameron said then walked out, leaving House baffled.

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