Sorry I've been gone for a while on this. I been thinking about what to do for it next, but I'm back with a solution.
Wilson felt his mouth drop. "Are you sure?" he asked Cuddy for what seemed like the fifth time. "And I mean absolutely sure? Because that seems--"
"I know, I know," Cuddy held up her hands. "I know it seems to fast and too soon, but that's what I've been warning you guys. That's why I had you keep an eye on him."
Wilson nodded in understanding.
"I want you guys to be there when the twenty minutes is up," Cuddy added. Then, biting her lip, she said, "I can't afford anybody to get seriously injured."
Wilson stepped into House's office, only to find Foreman and Chase in there already. "We've got two problems," he announced, standing in front of House's desk.
"Is it bad?" Chase asked.
Wilson nodded. "It will be. House only has twenty minutes, Cuddy figures before House totally goes in deep and we still don't know what's wrong with Cameron."
Foreman stopped him. "Rewind...you said twenty minutes? Isn't that a little too fast?"
Wilson nodded. "Exactly what she said. That's why she sent us to keep a close eye on him."
"So, we gotta watch Cameron and House?" Chase asked. "That's insane! If anything--"
"It won't be insane when everything turns for the worst!" Wilson yelled. "With House going to be in the Mental Ward soon and not having him around to help, it'll be hell around here!"
Cuddy ran in not a moment later, looking flustered and extra-worried. "Let the hell begin, then."
Wilson, Chase, and Foreman eyed Cuddy in wondering. "What do you mean?" Foreman asked. "What happened?"
Cuddy looked at Wilson and nodded, biting her lower lip.
Angrily, Wilson chucked the pen he had in his hand and sighed in aggrivation. "Let the hell begin," he repeated.
Only Chase and Foreman exchanged looks.
Allison opened her eyes slowly to find Chase and Wilson on either side of her bed. She looked at Wilson worridly. "What happened? Is he bad?"
There was so much Wilson didn't want to tell her, and there was so much he really did want to tell her. He looked briefly at Chase, then back at her. "House--Cameron, he..." his voice trailed. He just couldn't tell her.
But Allison's pleading eyes looked at him hard. They started to slowly fill with tears. "Tell me what happened to him," she begged. "Please!" she grabbed Wilson's arm in begging.
"I can't," Wilson was pleading with her. He didn't want to tell her the horror that went on with House.
"Yes you can!" Allison begged, tears spilling from her eyes, her hand gripping Wilson's arm. "I need to know! I want to know! Tell me!"
Wilson dried Cameron's face with his free hand, his mind reeling. "Cameron, I can't tell you. I really--I can't."
"You don't want to tell me!" she shouted at him, more tears spilling from her eyes. "You're scared! You don't know what'll be my reaction and you don't know what path he's taking!"
"Don't yell," Chase told her calmly and as softly as he could, laying her back down gently.
"I already know your reaction," Wilson told her. "Because you're doing it now. You already know what happened to him."
Cameron shook her head. "No...I don't. I only know that he's worse! Worse and that you don't know if he'll live or not!" she yelled again, sitting back up against Chase's hands trying to lay her back down. "And you don't know what's wrong with me! You're trying to work on two things at once and you can't figure out either! Especially me without House's help!"
Wilson watched almost helplessly as she sobbed, burying her head into her hands. "Cameron..."
Allison flinched away, her sobs becoming more and more softer. Wilson sat in front of her on the bed and lifted her teary face. "Cameron, you're right. About it all, but I can promise you one thing and one thing only."
"What?" she sucked in her breath.
"House will not die...not matter what comes our way."
Cameron walked into Cuddy's office with her IV pole in her right hand. Of course nobody knew that she had unhooked herself from everything else and stole away from her room, but now she was in Cuddy's office, it was bound to. Yet, she didn't care. She had to talk to her.
"What the heck are you doing!" Cuddy barked at her. "So help me God, I'll have to strap you to your bed!"
"What's wrong with him?" Cameron demanded.
Cuddy immediately bit her lower lip and shied away from her anger.
"Tell me," Cameron's tone was harsh. "I know you know. And I know that you told Wilson, Chase, and Foreman not to tell me in sheer fear."
Cuddy closed her eyes for a moment. "Allison..."
"Don't play sweet with me!" Cameron shouted, the tears coming back so much easier. "Just because I'm labeled as the girl who can't handle bad news doesn't mean that I don't want to know!"
Getting up from her desk and over to Cameron, Cuddy placed two hands on her trembling shoulders. "You need to relax and calm down," she told Allison as calmly as she could.
"I am calm!" Allison stomped her foot. "I just want to know what's wrong with House!"
Cuddy sighed and looked into Cameron's teary eyes. "Cameron, House lost it."
"I don't understand."
"He...there's no easy way to tell you," Cuddy sighed again.
"Then just tell it to me straight! Where is he!"
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Cuddy said, "He's in the Mental Ward."
Allison's eyes grew wide. "What?" she breathed in disbelief. "Are...Cuddy, no!" she backed up into a chair and let her tears run. "Please tell me you're lying..."
"I wish I was," Cuddy knelt in front of Allison. "I wish it was a dream, but it's not. It's real, Allison. He's there and he's lost it all."
"No...not House...never..." Allison was swimming in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Cameron," Cuddy tried to slow Cameron's sobs down. "I don't know how long--"
"Will he get worse? Please...just tell me that."
Cuddy sighed and looked down for a split second. "I don't know about worse, but he could ultimately commit suicide if we don't keep an eye on him."
Cameron only sobbed.
Wilson watched his sedated friend from the other side of the plexi-glass walls in which kept House confined into his room. So many thoughts were running through his mind. The looks on Allison's face, her tears and yelling voice to his own frustration and loss.
He knew that Cameron loved House deep inside and this was a big hit for her on top of her own illness that still remained a mystery. He knew that she wasn't going to take it lightly. He knew that she was going to break down even worse sometime soon.
Wilson thought that this day would never come. He'd thought about it and dreamt it before, but he never thought that it would become a horror of a reality. And that's what it was like: being in a R rated horror movie that was just going to grow worse and worse with each passing minute. This was going to hurt everybody...but especially it was going to hurt Allison.
"Breath in," Foreman instructed Allison, pressing a oxygen mask against her face.
Still in Cuddy's office, Allison suddenly couldn't breathe and was gasping for air. Cuddy had called Foreman and Chase immediately and they'd brought an oxygen mask and tank into the office, afraid to move her during the spasm.
Cuddy had her hands on Allison's arms assuringly, her eyes occasionally wandering from Foreman to Chase.
"Do you feel dizzy or light-headed?" Chase asked Cameron.
"I did," Cameron said. "Now I just feel all hot."
Cuddy looked at Chase, who looked slightly concerned.
He placed his hand on her forehead and felt his eyes widen as he looked at Foreman. "She's burning up. Gimme a thermometer."
Foreman handed Chase a thermometer with his free hand and Chase stuck it under Cameron's tongue.
Cuddy looked at Cameron, who's eyes looked wasted and face pale. Within moments, Chase took the thermometer from Cameron's mouth and looked at it.
"What is it?" Foreman asked, looking at a seemingly shell-shocked Chase.
"105.5 and rising," Chase's voice shook slightly. "We gotta cool her down."
"We can't move her!" Foreman forced the issue again. "We move her, she'll more than likely seize."
"Cuddy..." Allison's voice sounded faint and exhausted.
Cuddy snapped her worried attention to her. "Yes, Cameron? What's wrong?"
"Tell...Wilson...that I--I'm depending on him..." Cameron started to sway slightly. "For me...and House."
That was the last thing she said before all went black and she passed out in the blink of an eye...Cuddy calling for a gurney and Foreman and Chase scrambling to keep her living.
But nobody knew that at the exact time of Cameron's passing out, a certain doctor was trying to be force-talked back to sanity...
Angsty for you?
JJ
