Chapter 5

The next day, Cameron knocked on the door to Cuddy's office. She entered when instructed to do so, and sat down.

"What can I do for you, Dr. Cameron?" Cuddy asked.

"We need a case," Cameron replied. "Please, I'm begging you, anything."

"I thought you all would enjoy having House off your backs for a few weeks" Cuddy questioned.

"I would, if he was actually off my back. He's bored, and when he's bored, he's torturing someone. I guess this time, its me." Cameron was desperate for something else to occupy House with.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Cameron, there is absolutely nothing right now that even remotely needs your team. You'll have to hope for some horrible tragedy, I can't help you."

Cameron sighed; she'd been afraid Cuddy would say that.

"Dr. Cuddy, you've known him longer than I have, isn't there anything you can suggest to give me a little peace? He called me three times last night, and twice this morning before I could even take a shower. I didn't think House ever woke up before 10. Apparently, he'll make an exception to torture me at 6am." Cameron just wanted to get him off her mind for a little while.

"Go and ask Dr. Wilson if he has any cases House might be interested in. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're on your own." Cuddy gave her a sympathetic smile before Cameron got up to leave. She felt badly for Cameron, but she was glad House hadn't picked her to torture while he recuperated.

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Cameron stuck her head around the corner of Wilson's door, but the office was empty. She sighed; this had really been her last hope. She turned and made her way to the elevator. While she waited, her pager went off. It indicated she was needed in the ER.

Forgoing the elevator, she rushed down the stairs to the Emergency Department. Foreman and Chase were already there. A young girl had been brought in by the paramedics, and the ER docs were having a hard time getting her stabilized. None of the conventional treatments seemed to be working. With some effort, and a slightly off the wall suggestion by Chase of an alternative, they were at least able to get her stable enough to move. Cuddy reviewed the case and assigned it to the team.

The ducklings gathered in the conference room, and called House. They described the girl's symptoms to him. After assigning Foreman to write the symptoms on the board, of course not without a snide remark about not letting Chase touch his markers, they began the differential.

After about 45 minutes, and an absurdly long list of possibilities, House ordered them off to perform their tests and get the patient's family history, with instructions to call him back when they had something new.

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"Well, we can add muscle weakness in the legs, and decreased urinary output to the list of symptoms," Chase announced as he joined the rest of the ducklings in the conference room.

"Nothing really stood out in the history either," Foreman said, turning his head in the direction of the phone while writing the new symptoms on the whiteboard.

"Nothing?" House's voiced asked from the phone on the table. " You weren't listening hard enough."

Cameron joined the group, "All the tests so far are negative, we're back to square one."

"Cameron, go back and talk to the girl, without the family in the room. Foreman, you take the parents somewhere else and go over the history again. Somebody isn't telling us something, and we need to figure out what. Call me back when you get something." House hung up.

Cameron and Foreman went to the patient's room. Foreman asked the parents to come join him in the hall, while Cameron went in to speak to the patient, Jenna.

"Hi, Jenna. My name is Dr. Cameron, I'm working with Dr. Chase and Dr. Foreman to try to find out what's wrong with you. How are you feeling?" Cameron asked.

"Tired," the girl replied quietly.

"Jenna, I need to make sure that you've told us everything you can remember before you started getting sick today. It's really, really important." Cameron gave the girl a kind smile, hoping to coax something out of her.

"I told you everything I remember. We were having a party because my Uncle Mark came back from Mexico. He showed me lots of stuff he brought back with him, then we went outside and my head started feeling funny, then I couldn't breath and I fell over." Jenna was clearly winded from speaking even this much. Her face was even grayer than when Cameron entered the room.

Jenna's eyes slipped closed, and suddenly the monitors in the room began beeping wildly. The girl was going into respiratory arrest. Foreman and Chase, along with a couple of nurses, came charging into the room, and had to intubate her in order to regulate her breathing.