AN: For future reference the medical story line isn't in order like the show is. Thanks.
Chapter Seven
Hospital – Diagnostic Offices
Cameron enters the room hand in hand with House. She takes a seat at the conference table and house moves towards his desk. "What have we got? I was in the middle of something deliciously good" House says while wiggling his eyebrows at Cameron. She lowers her head in embarrassment. 'I'll have to get him back later for that'. Forman passes the patient file to House.
"Kid's heart rate's a mess" House mutters to himself as he stands from his seat and move to the white board.
"Tachycardia can be explained by the burn" Forman says bringing something to the conversation.
"I assume the burn unit knew that" House says and he stands up and walks out the door. He is quickly followed by Forman, Chase and Cameron.
"His potassium's low" House states.
"Which can also be explained by the burn" Forman interjects.
"Except I'm sure the burn unit's pumping him with fluids, which means his potassium should be going up, not down" House says annoyed.
"Could be amphetamines" Forman states.
"Or a bacteria lunching on his heart. Or cardial myopathy or some other very bad thing. He needs an EKG" House almost shouts at Forman. They walk up the steps to a small observatory platform and look into the next room where Adam is sedated though you can see all the burns all over his chest and torso. It isn't a pretty sight.
House scrunches up his face and says "Eww.'Kay, no skin, no EKG".
"Is he even going to survive the burn?" Chase says with boredom in his voice.
"What have you got a date or something? House draws a breath before continuing. "40 of his body, if the burns unit can prevent an infection, his body will regenerate maybe 10, surgeons will do 20 or so, after 6 months in this room he'll end up with a series of nasty scars, maybe some pain and he'll live." Some nurses enter the surgery room and they start to scrub away his dead skin. "Unless his heart shuts down because we can't figure out what's causing the low potassium and tachycardia. We need help from a Belgian doc named Eindhoven".
"He's dead" Chase says.
"While he was alive he invented a little ditty called the galvanometer" House says to his team.
"Where do we get one?" Forman asks with interest
"Go to an electronics store that's been open since before nineteen o five. There's a good chance they got one around the corner in the basement" House replies. Both Forman and Chase leave observation room. Cameron and House are left. He watches her, waiting to see a reaction from her. She is staring at the burn victim.
"I can't imagine how much pain that boy must be in. Physically and emotionally. (A tear rolls down her cheek) I don't understand why people have to go threw so much pain, especially kids. He doesn't deserve it". House walks over and draws her into a hug. Despite that fact that there are nurses below them.
"Cameron, you can put yourself threw this pain. Stop feeling guilty. This is what happens when you get attached to patients" He sighs and runs his hand up and down along her back to comfort her.
"Not all of us are heartless bastards like you" She shouts at him and tries to push him away. He quickly grabs her wrists and shouts at her "Hey! Look at me!" He lets go of her wrists and catches her face in between his palms. "Cameron, I fell in love with you, didn't I. I'm only trying to help you. I don't want to see you hurt". She looks up at him in surprise.
She asks him with a raspy voice, from her crying "What…did you say, House?"
"I said I love you and I don't want to see you hurt" He says quietly. She throws her arms around his neck and brings there lips together. They stand there for what seems like hours. They don't notice when the nurses in the room below look up and see them in a passionate embrace. When they both come up for air, they look into each others eyes and smile. He grabs her hand and drags her out the door. "Come on, we have a case to solve" House says before they leave the room.
Hospital – Observation Room
"Because of the burn, we can't perform any of our normal tests to see what's wrong, so we're going to try a galvanometer" Cameron says explaining the procedure to his parents. Chase and Forman are attaching the galvanometer to Adam in the room below. They start attaching wires to his ankles and wrists with his feet and hands dipped in bowls of water.
"It picks up a pulse in the wrists and the ankles. Hopefully it'll tell us whether his heart rhythm is abnormal" Cameron continues explaining to them with hope in her voice. "I hope this works'.
"What have I done to him? I..." Doug says
"It was an accident! So... he's got all these burns and err... and now there's something wrong with his heart?" His wife interrupts his ranting.
"We're trying to figure out if the two were somehow connected. Had he been sick lately?" Asks them both.
"Anything unusual with his behaviour, had he been tired a lot?" Cameron asks while righting notes down.
"Nothing."
"He was great, he was happy, he was just having a great time and then..." His father replies.
"If he was experimenting with amphetamines or cocaine..?" Continues asking professionalism in her voice.
"No. We gave him some pot about a year ago to try—"His mum starts.
"It was just once. We thought if we took the mystery out of drugs and alcohol, the less he'd experiment" Doug quickly answers.
"We'll know more after the test". Cameron says while turning from the two parents and focusing her attention on the room below.
"It looks like they're going to electrocute him" Doug says with panic is his voice.
Hospital – Conference Room
"Who electrocuted my patient?" House says as he walks into the conference room.
"He had a seizure" Forman replies.
"He wasn't electrocuted" Cameron adds to the conversation.
House moves over his desk and starts looking through books. "What does the seizure tell us?" House looks up from his book to see Chase leaning against the desk "Move!" He shouts at Chase.
"What are you looking for?" Cameron asks as she watches House intently.
"Same as you - love, acceptance, solid return on investment." He says to Cameron with a smirk on his face. Chase and Forman look up at the two. House still searching for the papers on the desk "Differential diagnosis, go."
"Could be epilepsy or seizure disorder?" Chase says for the first time.
"Not with the tachycardia. It could be a virus in his brain" Cameron interjects.
"Specificity is impressive. Adrenolukodystrophy." Chase states.
"Could be MS, seizures could be caused by plaques and lesions on the brain" Forman adds.
House finally finds the file he was looking for on another table and picks it up "Well let's find out which, get an MRI." House walks out of the room.
"No nuclear imaging." Forman shouts to House. House walks back in interested. "He wouldn't survive the move to radiology. MRI and CT scan are both out."
House sighs and says "Ok. Lumbar puncture will tell us if his proteins are elevated and at least we can exclude MS." House walks out again.
"Can't do a lumbar puncture either." Chase shouts to House. House walks back in.
"You're cramping my exits. Don't tell me, no skin on his spine." House sighs sarcastically.
"We'd be inserting a needle into an area that's teeming with bacteria. If he doesn't have a brain infection already, we'd give him one for sure" Chase explains.
"There's no other way to look at a brain." Says Cameron.
"Transcranial doppler sonography." House interjects after a pause.
"She said brain, not pregnant woman's uterus you idiot. Although they do sound alike" Forman says sarcastically.
"I used one to look at a brain this morning." House says smugly, with a smirk on his face.
"Why didn't you take the patient to radiology, get an MRI?" Forman nearly screams at house.
House turns around suddenly and looks around "Obviously I was doing something illegal and using nuclear imaging would have raised questions."
"You're not going to get a diagnosis of MS from a sonogram!" Forman shouts at House.
"Not definitively, but patients with MS have more reactive neurons in their occipital cortex." He walks out yet again, but quickly peers back in "Ok then, carry on, Cameron see you at lunch. Got to talk to you about some business" He says with a wink and leaves.
Cameron takes a seat at the conference table and starts on the paper work that has been on her desk for nearly a week. 'House is rubbing off on me'. Forman comes over and places a coffee mug in front of Cameron. She looks up and smiles in thanks and then goes back to her paper work. Forman and Chase look at each other and then stare at Cameron. She feels their eyes on her and looks up. "Is there some you guys want, or can I go back to my work" she says in agitation.
"Are you dating House?" Chase quickly asks in nervousness. 'I hope she isn't. I always thought that we would be good together'. Cameron stares and him and replies "Why is everyone suddenly interested in my personal life? You never did before" Cameron asks in wonder. 'Why is Chase staring at me like that'? Cameron sighs and replies "Looks guys we're not so much dating, we're just together. Give us some room we have only been together for a short time" She pleads with both of them.
"So your not dating" Chase asks with hope in his voice.
"No, but we are together" She stresses trying to get the point across.
Forman stands up with a file in his hand walks over to Cameron and says quietly so Chase can't hear them. "Be careful. Don't let House break your heart again".
"Don't worry you haven't seen this side of House. If anyone is breaking any hearts it will be me. And that won't be happening any time soon" Cameron says with a smile on her face. Liking the fact that Forman has taken the role of big brother. Forman start to walk out; Cameron shouts "Thanks!" as he leaves. Chase and Cameron are the only ones left in the room. Chase moves to sit down next to Cameron.
"So why House? What makes you so attracted to him" Chase asks. Cameron looks up at Chase in wonder. 'Why does he care? I thought I already explained this'.
"Chase, you can't help who you love. Why are you so interested anyway?" Cameron asks confused. Chase moves his chair closer to Cameron and her body automatically moves away.
"I agree you can't help who you love. I love you Cameron, and I think we'll be perfect together. Why can't you just give us a chance?" Chase says to her and he grabs her wrists forcefully. She jumps back but his grip only tightens.
"Chase let me go" She says with hurt in her voice. She pushes him back stands up and slaps him across the face. "Don't you ever touch me again!" She screams before rushing out of the room to go find House.