This chapter MAY be short because of my time limit, but here it is anyway...! lol


Wilson, Chase, and Foreman were in the Conference Room later. All three were sitting around, thinking long and hard about what Cuddy'd told them and what their next move should and would be for both Allison and House. So far, everything was a big haze and it wasn't going to get any better.

"Did Cuddy say how long it would be until House went completely overboard?" Foreman asked Wilson.

Wilson shook his head. "No...and I don't think she really wanted to. We've got too much on our hands now to be worrying about when he goes completely mental."

Chase was studying the whiteboard, matching up all of Allison's symptoms. "Foreman...did House ever run another blood test on her?" he asked, picking up a nearby folder, Foreman following suite.

"No--why?"

"I think she may have a toxin of heavy alcohol. I'm thinking cirrhosis in the liver," Chase explained.

"Can't be, it would've already passed through her system by now," Foreman objected. "Unless there's something else in there possibly blocking her major organs, then, yeah, sure why not?"

Chase stood up. "We should run a CAT Scan and get another bloodwork done."

Cuddy walked in just then. "No, you won't," she sighed. "I wouldn't go near her or House," she added.

The three men looked confused. "And...why not?" Chase asked. "What happened now?"

"Her heart stopped suddenly for a full four minutes. House wanted to be in the center of it all," she explained. "I didn't dare call any of you in case things got out of hand. I stayed outside myself to avoid any disruption. His mind's fragile as it is, we couldn't and can't avoid any slips with, near, or around him."

"God only knows what would happen then," Wilson agreed. Then, he asked her, "Do you know how long it'll take before he goes off the deep end?"

Cuddy shrugged. "It's different for everybody. My dad got admitted into the Ward in less then an hour. It seems to me that House is moving a little faster than Dad had," she looked from Wilson, to Chase, then to Foreman. "My estimated guess is that he has a little more than an hour, but much faster. We may be seeing it happen within the next few minutes, hours...even days. But we can't really tell for sure."

"So, until then, we have to be careful?" Chase asked.

Cuddy nodded. "Very careful..."


House stared at the ceiling in complete boredom. He was tired of lying in bed every waking moment with nothing to do but look at Allison, hope that Wilson and who was left of his Team could figure out what was wrong with them both.

Although, House had already known what was wrong with him long before Cuddy had came in and even told him. He'd known since the blood incident with Wilson in the room. The only thing he was hoping wouldn't happen was that it was going to get worse.

Cuddy walked in alone not a moment afterwards and House didn't break his gaze.

"How is she?" Cuddy asked.

"Fine," House looked at her. "Why?"

Cuddy gave him a odd look. "House, her heart gave out for four minutes...remember? You were in the center of it all and I--you don't remember?"

"No..." House looked at Allison. "She's been fine for hours. Nothing's happened."

Cuddy was even more confused than House himself. "But...I watched you! You were--"

"Unless...unless this isn't really happening," House was thinking hard. "Maybe Cameron's four minute heart failure wasn't real."

"It was, House, I watched you and last I checked, I wasn't the one going crazy!" Cuddy forced the issue.

"No...but maybe I'm getting worse..."

Cuddy sucked her breath in. She couldn't hide the fact of how true that really was. It was a probable and good explaination and it was the only thing that really made sense and fitted. "House...are you hallucinating?"

"Yeah--you figured that out hours ago," House told her.

"No...I mean now. Are you?"

House's electric blue eyes shot open and he was looking at the faces of Allison and Wilson, who were both staring at him with concerned looks. "What?"

"You were hallucinating again," Allison said in a soft and weakened tone. "You called me Cuddy."

House's face was swept by a look of confusion. "No I wasn't."

"Yes, you were," Wilson said. "You were muttering, too, although we couldn't really hear what you were saying."

House looked at Allison. "Did--your heart give out?"

Allison looked at him oddly. "Yes...don't you remember that?"

"No," House shook his head. "I can't remember a thing..." he looked at the ceiling. "I don't remember anything that'd happened at any time."

Wilson and Cameron exchanged glances. They both knew deep inside that House was just going to get worse...and there was no denying it...


Wilson walked into Cuddy's office not a split-minute after leaving House and Cameron. "I need to talk to you," he said, standing behind a chair. "And, no, it can't wait," he interrupted when Cuddy opened her mouth to object and wait for it later.

"Okay..." she gave him her eye look. "Shoot."

"I went to check on Cameron, see if everything was okay with her," Wilson started. "House was asleep. When I was done looking over all her monitors and everything, I started to leave when House started muttering and was calling Cameron you."

Cuddy looked interested. "You mean that he was hallucinating, right?"

Wilson nodded. "Exactly. But--after that, he came out of it, but had a total blackout. He didn't remember that Cameron's heart gave out. He couldn't remember anything prior to when he fell asleep."

Cuddy sighed and closed her eyes momentarily. "I--there's nothing we can really do for him at this point other than to deal with it and make sure that he doesn't do anything too rash that'll hurt him or anybody else."

Wilson nodded in understanding.

"How's his leg?"

Wilson thought. "Same. Really hadn't changed much."

"Up his morphine drip," Cuddy ordered.

Looking confused, Wilson shook his head. "Wait...you want to up the dose?" Cuddy nodded. "Is there a reason why I'm not following this or am I just too dumb?"

"Okay, here's the thing and reason: House is going ballistic and nuts. He can't remember anything, and he's hallucinating like it's the most common thing in the world. The next thing on the list is--"

"Cuddy!" Foreman ran into her office just then, interrupted. Cuddy sighed. She knew why he was here...she knew what was happening. Still, she didn't want to give that away.

"What?"

"It's House...he's in pain," Foreman told her.

''How bad and where?"

Foreman shook his head. "It's bad and I'm not entirely sure wh--"

"Up his morphine and sedate him," Cuddy ordered. "Now! Before he does any more damage than he's probably already done!"

Foreman took off faster than he'd came in and Wilson looked curiously at Cuddy. "You knew, didn't you? And yet, you didn't tell him?"

"I knew, yes, but better to have not known earlier than to worry about it!" Cuddy snapped.

"How fast?"

Cuddy sighed and bit her lower lip. This was like living in a nightmare...a re-run of what'd happened to her dad. It hurt either way to think about it. She blinked several times to keep the tears away. "Faster than we thought."

"How much time does he have?"

Looking up, Cuddy looked at Wilson and said, "Honestly: only 20 minutes left..."


Bye

JayJay