A/N: I wrote chapter 4 and 5 together and had to split them up since they were so large. Treat them essentially as one continuous chapter. I'm trying a different writing approach with the dialogue. Hopefully that makes the conversations less choppy. If it is noticeable in a positive or negative way, please let me know. I strive to be better. Happy reading!

Paperwork at first provided a nice mindless distraction, but after a few hours it started killing brain cells. Chase had to stop. He couldn't believe how much time he was putting into reviewing and signing files. He had to read and sign clinic discharge summaries, insurance forms verifying diagnosis, verification of lab results, requests for histories and so forth. These files were only a few days old too so it was not like he was taking over what House avoided. How in the world did House do all this?

"She has severe neutropenia. ANC count was way below 500." Cameron handed him a paper with the results, all while looking agitated.

"Is something wrong?" Chase noticed Cameron's off behavior.

"Her family. They never once got off their knees. They prayed the entire time I was performing the tests."

Chase smiled at her aggravation. "They need their faith in time like this."

"You holy rollers are all alike," Cameron snipped. "I wouldn't come out of the coma if my family was like that."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Treat the neutropenia, and then try to find what in the world caused it."

"Neutropenia is commonly caused by other treatments." A familiar voice echoed from the other side of the room. "I take it she hasn't had leukemia, aplastic anemia or tuberculosis."

"House," Chase intervened, "You are staying out of this one. Cameron has it under control."

"Great, now I'm really worried. Let me see the chart."

"Say goodbye Dr. Cameron." Chase whisked her out of the room.

"He's doing great." Cameron smiled. "Maybe a consult will help him feel better."

"Cuddy's orders. Do not discuss anything patient related. Anyway, he still needs rest. You can stop by later if you want."

"Okay, back to the land of salvation." Cameron commented sarcastically.

"Tell the man upstairs I said hello." Chase was having fun with her torment.

---------------

A contingent of people were in the room at all times, all there to offer group prayer and comfort. The only person that was designated to talk about the medical issues was the mother. Apparently the father was a stepfather and had no legal rights.

"Mrs. Harris, your daughter is suffering from neutropenia." Cameron interrupted the prayer ritual to deliver the diagnosis.

"Is that some sort of infection?"

"It is a blood disorder that affects the body's ability to fight an infection. It affects the white count. I will treat it with corticosteroids but I have to warn you, this condition leaves her very prone to other infections. We also don't know what caused it to begin with, so there are many risks of infection right now."

"Do whatever you must to treat her. You have no objections from me. I trust that you will find the problem."

Cameron gave a sigh of relief. So far no trouble regarding the course of action.

"Once she has been treated for this, I want you to figure out how to get her out of the coma." The mother didn't hesitate at all with her request.

"Any such attempts are extremely risky and could kill your daughter. It is best to give her time and let her work it out on her own." Cameron offered her standard cautious approach.

Mrs. Harris was small in frame, but strong in resolve. She knew how to speak her mind, much like the young doctor she was addressing. "You know as well as I do that chances are slim she will come out of this on her own. I have read on the internet all sorts of stories about research happening in other countries for people with brain injuries. They aren't as blinded by quality of life arguments. Those countries believe all life is worth fighting for no matter what the costs."

"Granted I'm not very familiar with those studies, but I know that experimental studies in general are usually met with limited success." Cameron really wanted to prevent Mrs. Harris from building unrealistic expectations.

"Limited success is better than no success. All I'm asking is that you try. I'm not looking for guarantees."

Cameron didn't want to get ahead of herself just yet. "We will look into all options when action is needed. For right now, we just need to give her a bit more time to heal."

Mrs. Harris agreed for the time being. "Okay, you are right, one thing at a time."

Cameron nodded pleased with the mother's sense of rationality. As she turned to leave though, Mrs. Harris jumped in with one more comment.

"Actually, I do have one other question. I mean no offense, but I need to know. Do you believe in God?"

Cameron surprisingly wasn't too thrown by the question. "I don't think my beliefs are relevant to your daughter's care."

"You are right, they are not relevant to my daughter's care. They are relevant to me. When I have to make a decision that will affect the rest of my daughter's life and well being, I need to know if you are presenting choices with God in your heart. It offers me perspective."

"Mrs. Harris…"

"Please, don't worry, I trust you completely as a doctor. God gave you some extraordinary skills whether you choose to believe that or not. I just need to know the bias."

"I am not certain that God exists," Cameron honestly confessed.

"I had a feeling that was the case. It was the way you looked at us while we prayed. You showed contempt and a feeling that we were wasting our time. I have seen that in a lot of non-believers before. Again, this is no offense, but I would like to speak with another doctor that understands the role of faith and God in decisions of life or death. Is there a doctor in your department that sees the power of God in everyday life?"

Cameron was reluctant to offer such information. Initially she hesitated in her reply, but eventually realized she couldn't give this woman what she needed. "Yes, I will have to talk with him though. He is the primary attending assigned to the case and has had many priorities lately. Did you hear about the doctor that was shot here in the hospital?"

"Yes,"

"That was our head of diagnostics. Dr. Chase has had to fill in for his duties and has been playing a limited role in your case. He comes from a devout religious background though and would be able to address your concerns."

"Devout huh? Catholic or Protestant?" Mrs. Harris showed a very keen interest.

"Catholic," replied Cameron.

The woman smiled. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. He has the fear of God in him and knows hell is real. I would like to meet with him when he has time."

"I'll see what I can arrange. In the meantime, don't worry, we will give your daughter everything she needs."

"I have no doubt in your commitment. Thank you." Mrs. Harris went back to the group for more prayer.

-----------------------------

"The lymph node biopsy showed he has an infection, but so far we are unable to identify the organism. I'm running a few more tests. We will know in another day if there is any cancer." Foreman told Chase as he entered the ICU.

"So Harpo is still a patient? I knew something was seriously wrong with him." House blurted out. Foreman didn't notice he was awake. "Is his fever still high?"

Before Foreman even had a chance to answer, his pager went off. He looked at Chase. "You better come with me, we have trouble." Chase shot up quickly and followed Foreman.

"Good, I thought he would never leave." House got up very tenderly and started leafing through the patient files that Chase left behind. "Glad to see that I haven't missed anything," he muttered as he reviewed one boring clinic case after another. Then a big one caught his eye. "11 year old, coma, gun shot wound, infectious symptoms. Assigned to Cameron? Has Cuddy lost her mind? There are possibilities here though…"

House then heard someone coming and quickly jumped back into bed, uttering sounds of pain in the process. Cuddy entered surprised that he was all alone. "Where's Chase?"

"He and Foreman had an emergency, and I don't need a babysitter."

"You have been having hallucinations for two days. We needed to make sure you wouldn't do anything harmful, at least to other people."

"Why are you wearing big bunny ears and a cute fuzzy tail?" House stared at Cuddy with a puzzled look.

Cuddy reacted with a big gasp.

"It's a joke! I don't remember any hallucinations, so that's something. So why did you decide on the ketamine? I know I asked for it, but you were so against it a few weeks ago."

"Chase told you." Cuddy wasn't pleased, but then again she wasn't all that surprised.

"You know how easy it is for me to get the truth out of him. I could tell something was different the second I came to."

"It was a quick decision and I decided the risk was worth it. How is your pain?"

"Since you obviously found out about the morphine because you didn't give me any, my neck and side are killing me. The leg feels slightly better, but maybe that is because the pain is distributed elsewhere."

"That is to be expected, plus it is too soon to notice the full results. We'll keep any eye on it."

"So what do I do about the pain in the meantime?" House was never tolerant when it came to pain.

"Live with it," Cuddy barked with a tough love attitude. "I have marked your chart with a huge morphine allergy warning, so acetaminophen and fentanyl is all you get. You better enjoy the pain while you have it. It gives you both a chance to catch up on old times."

"I need a laptop, and internet access. I need something to do while sitting here going out of my mind."

"I'll allow that." Cuddy was skeptical but did not find any reason to deny the request. "I'm blocking all the porn sites though. I don't want this hospital to get in any type of trouble."

"Will I have access to myspace?"

"Yes, I suppose that is okay as long as I set the parental controls."

"Then I'm fine. I have over a thousand friends online."

"Right, I'm sure you do. I'll have to get you a loaner since yours is still in a cordoned off room. I'll amuse you for now."

-----------------------------------------

Chase and Foreman gathered in the hall after performing an emergency tracheotomy.

Foreman felt aggravation over the way this case was going. "This is not making any sense, I know that he has some type of infection, but what in the world would cause the tongue to swell so bad that it cuts off the airway? We have tried the normal round of antibiotics. I'm going to start a more aggressive round next."

Chase agreed that something wasn't right about it. "We need to consult. We must be missing the obvious. Get Cameron and we'll meet in a half hour. I'm sure she has some issues to bring up with her case as well."

Just then Chase's pager went off. "Never mind. It looks like I need to help Cameron now. I'll see what she needs and get you when we are ready."

Chase rushed downstairs to join Cameron. The sound of alarms screeching was all he could hear as he got closer. "She's not breathing!" Cameron shouted.

Chase rushed over to check the pulse ox. "She didn't respond to the oxygen you gave her?" He noticed the oxygen mask on the patient.

"Yes, for a few seconds then she just stopped breathing." Cameron replied.

"Her brain injury wouldn't be causing this. Okay, we need to intubate." He grabbed the needed instruments and started the procedure.

"Careful of the ICP Monitor." Cameron pointed to the probe still inserted in the patient's skull.

Chase had a tougher time than usual inserting the tube because he had to be careful of the way he moved the head. "Its not going in. I'm going to have to tilt the head and try again."

"That could aggravate her brain injury." Cameron was very worried about the risks and had a look of panic in her eyes.

"She isn't breathing. I have no choice." Chase tilted the patient's head upward and inserted the tube. Cameron quickly hooked her up to the respirator. After a few seconds, the breath sounds went back to normal.

Chase and Cameron both shared a sigh of relief. They removed their gloves and stepped out of the room to start a private discussion. "Heart contractions appear normal so this didn't come from the brain stem," Chase commented.

"I'll get a chest x-ray. This could be another infection."

"Once you get the results, meet Foreman and I in the new lounge. We will be discussing his case too. Two codes in 15 minutes. When it rains, it pours."

"Dr. Chase?" came from a voice that echoed behind him. He turned around. "I'm Melanie Harris, Emily's mom. Has Dr. Cameron talked with you?"

"Not yet." He looked at Cameron suspiciously.

"I need to meet with you sometime. Dr. Cameron suggested you might be able to offer some answers to specific questions we have."

Chase suspected that the "specific" questions were related to religion. Cameron gave him an "I'm sorry" glance in the background.

"Sure, I'll have some time later this afternoon. In the meantime, we need to figure out what caused your daughter to stop breathing."

"Thank you doctor. I appreciate any time you might have. This is very important."

Chase headed upstairs wondering what else can happen next. He quickly wiped away that thought. There was always potential for worse. Too late. His pager again began to generate its usual shrieking noise. This time it was from Cuddy. He grabbed his head realizing that he wasn't getting any mercy.