House began pulling the stuffing out piece by piece looking for any sign of the bottle of pills.
Foreman and Chase looked from House and Mandy not knowing who was going to talk next.
"I can't believe you did that." Mandy told him.
"You'll be glad I did when I find the pills and cure you of your mysterious illness." House smiled stilling tearing the bear apart.
"House, what if it's not in there." Chase asked as the bear grew smaller and smaller.
"It's in here, she just hid them at the very bottom thinking that we would give up and stop looking. No, it's in here there is no if about it." House assured him.
Foreman looked unbelievingly at House, he had grown even crazier than he was two days ago. He never thought that was even possible. Cameron had better be okay, or we'll be in misery for the rest of the time we work here. He looked at the bear, hopefully for me and Chases' sake the bear will hold all the answers to her problem. He closed his eyes hoping that House would find the pills and solve the case. If he doesn't me and Chase are in for a long day, when he opened his eyes he realized that House had thrown the bear down and was glaring at Mandy.
"Where are they?" he asked her once again.
"I'm telling you I don't know what you're talking about. I have no secret stash of Wellbutrin around here." Mandy told him angrily.
"I will find them." House told her pointing an accusing finger in her direction.
"I don't have anything." Mandy yelled.
Foreman sighed their day in h had begun.
"I don't believe you." House said picking his cane up off the floor and storming out of the room.
"He is one stubborn man, isn't he?" Mandy asked innocently.
"He can be." Chase answered also realizing that today would be a very long day for all involved.
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Dr. Gilson walked out of the operating room breathing a sigh of relief. Cameron had made it through the surgery, now if her brain had survived the lack of oxygen it would all be good. She was half way there, and he felt her strong will to live would get her through it no matter what was thrown her way.
"Dr. Gilson how is she?" he heard a voice call and knew before he turned around that it was Cuddy.
"She made it through surgery, we repaired everything. We just have to see if she has permanent brain damage or not. And if she doesn't she'll be okay, just have to go to a lot of physical therapy." he smiled glad he finally had some good news.
"Do you think she'll have some brain damage?" Cuddy asked.
"To some extent yes I think she'll have some brain damage. But I don't think it'll be as bad as I first thought. She might have some memory problems or something like that but I don't think she'll be a vegetable the rest of her life." Dr. Gilson told her smiling.
"That's great!" Cuddy exclaimed glad that Cameron had a chance to have a half-way normal life.
"But, don't forget nothing is guaranteed and I don't want anyone to get their hopes up. I have been wrong plenty of times." Dr. Gilson told her.
"I know, but I refuse to think negatively. She'll be okay, I know she will." Cuddy told him smiling.
Dr. Gilson looked into Cuddy's eyes seeing all the excitement in them and not wanting to make her upset or mad turned to leave hoping for the best case scenario, not wanting to even think what would transpire if Cameron were to die or be brain dead, he just couldn't bare to think about it. The longer they thought positively the better it would be for everyone involved.
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House looked around his office, he was wrong, wrong about everything, but it had been the only diagnosis that had made any since at all. He popped two more Vicodin and laid his head on his desk. There had to be something he was missing, a missing piece to the puzzle. He heard a knock at the door and looked up. Cuddy was standing there beaming at him. Without waiting for House to tell her to come in she opened the door, "Cameron is out of surgery." she informed him.
"Is she? How is she? Did they fix everything or not?" House asked all the questions without taking a breath.
"Yes, stable, and yes." Cuddy answered all of his questions in three words.
"Give me some details just don't leave me hanging." House prodded.
"She got through surgery okay, they think she'll be okay, and only have minimal brain damage like memory loss. But she'll be okay, she'll pull through. I know she will." Cuddy told him.
"That's great." House smiled back hoping Cuddy would get the point that he wanted to be alone to think things through.
Cuddy looked into Houses' eyes and saw how confused and hurt they were, she saw how he kept eyeing his bottle of Vicodin and figured he would like to be alone so she turned to leave, to let him process the good news.
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Mandy sat staring at her bear which was now laying ripped to shreds in the trash can. Foreman and Chase were talking about House and how crazy he was acting.
"What's his problem anyway?" Mandy asked rather disgusted with the whole situation.
"That's just the way he is. When he thinks he has things solved he just thinks it is the right thing and immediately acts on them no questions aske." Chase answered with a smile.
"That doesn't mean he has the right to tear up other peoples' personal property." Mandy argued.
"The truth is he's under a lot of stress right now. Actually we all are." Foreman admitted.
"What about," Mandy said softening her tone of voice.
"One of our doctors, well you know her, Cameron, she's been in a serious car accident." Foreman answered.
At the sound of Cameron's name, Chase instantly tensed up and he became rigid. Foreman looked at Chase and realized what he was doing, he's taking it pretty hard, Foreman thought to himself.
"I'm so sorry." Mandy told them, she knew how hard it was when someone you knew got hurt.
"It's okay." Foreman told her still eyeing Chase.
"I took one pill." Mandy admitted looking at her feet.
"What!" Chase yelled forgetting about Cameron.
"I was depressed no one knew what was wrong with me. I felt like everyone thought I was making it up. So I had my boyfriend bring me in one pill. It was just one though, honest." Mandy sobbed.
"So you do have Wellbutrin withdrawal?" Foreman asked more to himself than her.
"I told you I didn't have a stash around here I wasn't lying. But no one believed me." Many told them.
"That's true but you didn't tell the complete truth either..." Chase scolded her.
"The good news is I don't think it's Wellbutrin Withdrawal so we're going to keep this our little secret okay." Foreman told her not wanting House to conclude she did have Wellbutrin withdrawal because of one pill.
"You mean you don't think I have Wellbutrin withdrawal?" Mandy asked shocked.
"No, I don't. We're going to draw some more blood and possibly do a spinal tap." Foreman told her.
"A spinal tap." Mandy asked already not liking the idea.
"Yeah." Foreman told her while Chase got ready to draw some blood.
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Dr. Gilson looked down at Cameron who was in a coma. "Come on you have to pull through." he told her. He looked at the monitor to check that her vitals were stable. Once seeing that they were he looked down once again, it had been twelve hours since her surgery if she was not awake in twelve more hours he would start to worry about brain damage. He sighed, she just had to wake up, she just had to.
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Chase pulled the paper out of the printer and looked carefully at it, "She doesn't have Wellbutrin withdrawal." he informed Foreman.
"That's great!" Foreman exclaimed.
"Uh, no it's not, I think she has lupus. It would explain everything she got better when we treated her symptoms and then her body became immune to them and the symptoms reappeared. Plus, it explains all of her symptoms." Chase informed him.
"No, let me see them." Foreman ordered Chase pulling the paper out of his reach.
"I'm telling you that is what she has." Chase told him.
"I bet you she does...there's no cure." Foreman said hardly a whisper.
Chase shook his head slowly, "No there's not."
"Nothing we can do for her." Foreman replied.
"I'm sure there are experimental treatments..." Chase began but stopped knowing none of them were guaranteed to let you live your whole life.
"I can't believe we didn't catch it sooner." Foreman sighed leaning against the wall, not at all looking forward to telling Mandy about her illness and also not wanting to be around when House found out she didn't have Wellbutrin withdrawal.
"It's a hard diagnosis." Chase said also trying to by them a little time.
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Dr. Gilson sat down at his desk and sipped some of his coffee, It was the first time he had had a chance to take a break since about fourteen hours ago. He looked at his watch if Cameron was not awake in ten hours he would begin further testing for brain damage. He hoped that they had gotten her breathing fast enough in the emergency room and she had not been deprived of oxygen for too long. He lied his head down on the table. A relaxation period is just what he needed.
"Dr. Gilson?" he heard a voice grown.
"Ugh, what do you want?" he asked sitting up and looking at her.
"Your patient Cameron is beginning to wake up…you said you wanted to know if she did right away." the nurse told him almost bashfully.
"Oh, right thanks…" Dr. Gilson said jumping up and heading to her recovery room.
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Dr. Gilson looked down at Camerons' eyes which were fluttering up and down. "Cameron can you hear me? If you can hear me squeeze my hand." he coaxed her.
Cameron heard someone talking and desperately wanted to communicate. She tried to move her hand, but found it hurt way too much to try and move, so she decided to not move if she could keep from it. She went to answer them tell them she could hear them, but she couldn't move her mouth. So she began to panic…Oh my…am I paralyzed? I'll never be able to…to…wait a minute what did I do? Who am I? What happened?
"Cameron you have a tube down your throat, we'll try to take it out in a day or so. But I need to know if you can hear me. Come on move your hand." Dr. Gilson tried once again.
The voice Cameron was hearing was becoming clearer and she twitched her hand ever so slowly.
"That's great!" Dr. Gilson exclaimed.
Cameron looked at him and unable to speak thought to herself, What's great the fact that I'm laying here with no idea who I am? She had to know what had happened. She held her hand up letting him know that she had a question trying desperately to ignore the pain that was shooting through her body.
"Do you want a pen and paper?" Dr. Gilson asked walking over to the cabinet and pulling a notepad out. He held the pen out to her and laid the notepad on the stand by her bed.
The words, can't remember, appeared ever so slowly.
Dr. Gilson looked at her his hopes falling slightly, "It's okay, it may be temporary." He assured her.
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Chase walked into Mandy's room alone, while Foreman was trying to find a doctor who would accept her into their experiment treatment. He nodded to the nurse telling her to give them a minute. The nurse looked at him questioningly but walked away.
"Mandy, we found out what you have." he told her.
"Okay…and what is it?" she asked.
"It's not Wellbutrin withdrawal." Chase told her avoiding the answer as long as he could.
"I didn't ask what it wasn't I asked what it was." Mandy told him as she eyed him cautiously.
"Before I tell you let me say there are experimental treatments." Chase began.
"I'm going to die!" she gasped her hand flying to her mouth.
"No, no listen to me you have Lupus, it can't be cured but it's controllable with antibiotics." Chase told her.
"Lupus?" she asked tears running down her face.
"Yes, Lupus." Chase repeated slowly.
"What exactly is Lupus?" Mandy askedlooking at Chase.
"Well. . . the body attacks its owncells and tissues, causing inflammation, pain, and possible organ damage," Chasesaid whirling off the symptoms.
"That sounds bad," Mandy saidstarting to cry again.
"At least now we know what we are dealing with." Chase smiled at her.
Foreman walked in and looked at Mandy's tear stained face. "I found you a doctor he will come and see you in about an hour for you to sign some papers for an experimental treatment. He'll answer any questions that you may have."
"Thanks." she told them burying her face into her blankets.
Foreman and Chase left letting the news sink in.
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House walked out of the hospital, he was tired and needed a good nights sleep. He couldn't believe all of the things that had transpired that day...more than anyone could handle.
The night had grown cold and an eerie silence hung over the parking garage. He had the mysterious suspicion that someone was watching him and he looked behind him thinking that it was Wilson or Cuddy, but seeing no one he began to walk at a faster speed.
He heard a car door slam and jumped and then realizing what he had done began to laugh. He saw his car at the very end of the isle and saw something white on his wind shield. He couldn't place what it was so he continued to stare at it until he finally reached his car.
He sighed it was an envelope probably from Cuddy telling him if he needed to talk she would be there. He slid it out from under the wind shield wiper and opened it smiling.
In big red letters it said,
I am watching you, I know what you did. And you will pay. Look behind you.
House turned around and saw someone sitting in his car a mask on his face. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. This had to be some king of sick joke.
A bullet rang through the air and landed in Houses right front tire. House dropped the letter and limped as fast as he could to the hospital once again. Watching the person in the car start their engine and pull away, it was funny he hadn't even seen them move.
"That was just a warning." he heard a muffled voice call.
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The mastermind had succeeded in their first step in revenge. They looked around, "It has only just begun." they whispered to themselves.
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This is the end of this story….I am working on a sequel right now, It's called the Darkness that Fell Upon Them, when you see it please check it out.