It was getting late by now, but Wilson seemed determined to stay upright and move around for a bit longer and Chase wanted to use the restroom himself either way, so they extended their stay on the rest area.

Cameron meanwhile seemed to have chosen to get back into the car and was reading some medical journal while Cathy was still sleeping.

House had announced he would accompany Chase to make sure the good-looking intensivist did not get molested in the bathroom, which led to Wilson and Foreman rolling their eyes before they continued their walk as far as the rest area allowed. House definitely did not appreciate the extension of their trip, his leg was hurting fiercely and he was stiff from sitting so long. While he managed to haul himself up to a standing position, he looked dejectedly at the way to the center. It was not that far, but definitely further than he wanted to walk right now, unfortunately he really needed to use the restroom. Thankfully, after about ten steps they were no longer in Cameron's field of vision and he could lean on Chase without any witnesses except for total strangers.

The Welcome Center was still very full, obviously several buses had stopped at the rest area recently. Without a comment Chase switched over to House's right side when they reached the entry doors in order to prevent people from bumping into House's leg. Apparently that had been a really good idea, he barely managed to catch a toddler that was running and slipped on the floor and would have barreled into House. Some steps further a lady chatting with her friends would have run into the by now really frazzled looking House without Chase's interference.

To avoid any more similar incidents Chase carefully directed House to the handicapped restroom. While he did not strictly speaking need the special adaptions on a regular basis, it would do House good to have a moment of quiet and rest and there was definitely more space in there. Chase had kind of expected House's behavior. While he was usually astonishingly good at navigating crowds – a necessity when working in a hospital and especially the clinic – despite needing a cane and being not completely stable on his feet, today he had clearly reached his limit. Had they been in Princeton, he would probably have stayed in his office with closed doors for several hours by now. For somebody who was not very social, House had interacted with a lot of people for a long time today.

They had been able to slip into the restroom together and both took their time, until House was no longer shaking from the adrenaline rush and felt able to face the crowds again. With Chase firmly implemented at his right side, half a step in front of him, so he could still offer full support but would be able to run interference before people got to House, they looked for the shortest way to the exit.

They were right next to a bench when suddenly an older man asked slightly confused: "Ann, what is going on? Ann?" and with a quick "Go!" House pushed Chase towards the couple while at the same time sinking down on the bench. Chase arrived just in time to catch her when her husband had no longer the strength to hold his swaying wife upright. Directing the husband to sit next to House, Chase started to access the situation. As always they fell into a well established pattern. Chase was as an intensivist better equipped to handle critical situations like these, whereas House was quicker in deducing the underlying problem. Additionally kneeling on the floor next to a patient would not have been a good idea right now for House either way.

Nevertheless House was slightly astonished to hear: "Get Foreman here and tell him to bring our bag, stat!" nearly immediately, but did not hesitate to call their colleague and order him to do exactly that. At the same time he listened to the stream of information coming his way, as Chase determined all vital values he could without further equipment. Next he called the emergency department and started feeding information towards them, at the same time listening to his duckling, observing the patient for changes and asking the husband for further information. The operator had a hard time to note down all the data as fast as it was relayed. He was more experienced to deal with panicked callers who repeated their observations several times and forgot other details.

"Hey, why did you need me to bring your bag?" asked Foreman, when he arrived shortly thereafter, with a glance at the patient at the same time starting to pull out a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope and handing it over to Chase. "Better equipped." was all the answer he got before they fell into their long practised rhythm of treating a patient. And Foreman was impressed by the amount of medication that was in the bag, they had more advanced stuff than a standard ambulance. By the time the EMTs finally arrived, they had revived their patient two times already and were still frantically working on getting her stable enough for the transport.

The EMTs were not really sure what to make of that call. It had taken them nearly twenty minutes to get there and on the whole way they had received steady status updates on the patient as well as medication she had received, that was usually only available in a hospital. They came from a small village and had never had a call like this. Feeling a bit in over their head, especially after arriving at the scene and seeing two men already working on the patient, from time to time conferring with a third in a pace and advanced medical jargon they had a hard time keeping up with, they wondered what they were supposed to do now.

So they were not really surprised, when they were not allowed to take charge of the situation, but instead to be used as poles for holding up saline infusions. Additionally they were ordered around to fetch more equipment from the ambulance, that had apparently not fit into the doctors' bag.

Seeing the husband paling, one of them did a quick check on him as well, and got him a glass of water. He looked better soon afterwards. The stress had been a bit much at his age, but for now he was stable and did not require medical attention.

Another ten minutes later things slowly calmed down and then the blond doctor pronounced: "Okay, she is ready for transport. The nearest hospital that is able to deal with her situation is in Princeton, get her to Princeton Plainsboro." And the man on the bench interrupted: "They need to have a doctor in the ambulance. The ride is long and you have already administered several drugs, they are not familiar with."

"If one of you wants to ride along, we can not take her husband, we do not have enough seats." interjected one of the EMTs and the black guy acquiesced: "Okay, let's send Cameron. I'll stay with Cathy until you are packed up. Mr. Baker can ride with you. If we keep Cameron on the line during the ride, she can ask us whenever she is not sure."

House and Chase nodded at that, and with a sigh House took out his phone and dialed Cameron's number. One of the EMTs however contradicted: "It would be better if one of you came along. You already know what you did! Why sent somebody else?"

"Because Cameron can not drive a car with a trailer." answered Foreman part of the question. He did not really want to tell them, that he wanted to have House with him in case Wilson got worse and Chase was needed to drive the second car, since neither House nor Wilson were up to commandeering a vehicle today – and leaving House and Cathy alone with Cameron was a recipe for disaster. The EMT wanted to argue again, but held back when he saw the angry glares in his direction.

House was trying to speak with Cameron who sounded completely frazzled and could not really be heard over Cathy's crying. Obviously the little girl had woken up and panicked when neither House nor Chase were in sight. Even Wilson's arrival had not really helped. They had been trying to calm her down together, but it did not seem to do much good. "Hold the phone, so she can hear me!" ordered House frustrated, wondering why they had not called him earlier, and then started to talk calmly to her over the phone. It did not take long before she only hiccuped and House could start to tell Cameron what was going on inside and that she should join them.

Chase had in the meantime helped loading the woman onto a stretcher and then taken out his own phone to dial Wilson's number, making sure Cathy and he were fine while they packed up their stuff. Cathy was obviously not familiar with cell phones and kept looking around to figure out from where Chase was talking according to Wilson's report, but otherwise she seemed okay now.

When the EMTs took the stretcher outside, Foreman walked along together with the husband. Cameron had met them at the doors, still listening to House instructions, and together they loaded the woman in the ambulance. When the ambulance left, Foreman guided the husband to House's car, and helped him to settle down next to Cathy. She was a bit shy about getting to know another new person today, but Chase had already told her in simple words what had happened.

At some point she had not been willing to stay in her car seat any longer and knelt down on the back seat instead. Now she reached over and putting her small hands on his arm told him determinately: "Not sad. Uncle House best! Cam good!" which brought a twinkling to Foreman's eyes. On the questioning glance he translated for the husband: "She thinks you should not be sad. Doctor House is the best doctor and if he trusts Doctor Cameron she has to be very good at what she is doing. I have to agree with her, Cameron is the head of Emergency Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro, she is the best person to be in the ambulance right now."

Then he addressed Wilson and Cathy as well as the husband: "Can I offer anybody something to drink or a snack?" The men denied the offer, but Cathy pressed the water bottled insistently into the hands of the husband. Then she looked hesitatingly at Foreman, but did not request anything. Seeing her glance, Foreman inquired: "Did you want something to eat, sweetheart?"

Wilson, who was still fighting against pain flaring up from time to time had not watched their interaction until now, and turned to Cathy: "I'll prepare you a bottle for now, okay?" Not even waiting for her to answer first, he went to do just that. If he had observed House's interaction with Cathy correct earlier, he guessed she would not ask for food until nearly starving, and Chase had clearly insisted he did so over the phone.

As he had expected, she had tried to get back into her seat and obviously Foreman had helped out at the end. When he handed over the bottle, she looked slightly dejected and thinking it had to do with the fact that she would have preferred different food, he offered: "Here you are. Sorry, we have nothing better for now, tomorrow you can help me cook something." She seemed to be reluctant to take the bottle and drank only very slowly, even though she seemed to be quite hungry. Confused Wilson asked: "What is wrong, sweetie?" only to be told by Chase: "Hold the phone to her ear, now!"

Whatever he had said to her seemed to have worked, she looked much happier afterwards and sucked on her bottle until it was completely empty. Seeing that she was content for now, Wilson stepped away from the car and inquired: "What did you tell her?"

"Just that House has enough money to afford however many bottles she can drink..." came the cryptic answer. "Are you okay at the car? We have packed up here and will be back shortly."

Guessing correctly that Chase wanted to put away his phone to have both hands free, Wilson confirmed: "Yes, we are good here for now, Cathy is just settling down to sleep either way. See you soon!" and ended the call.

House felt slightly bad about not being able to give Chase a hand with packing up all the stuff they had pulled out of the bag, but squatting down was definitely not an option at the moment. He had prepared to get up a few minutes ago but had to abort that idea before even Chase noticed what he was about to do when his muscle spasms increased. Massaging his thigh he talked Cameron through one more cardiac arrest, having her check for different signs so she might be able to catch any arrhythmia early the next time.

Shortly thereafter Chase was standing in front of him, obviously he had ended his call with Wilson and gestured for the mobile House was talking into. Since the patient was stable at the moment, he handed it over, only to have Chase make the same request again: "Hey Cameron, you good for a few minutes? - No, nothing is wrong here, we just have to get back to the car, we'll call you from there. - If something comes up in the meantime, call Foreman or me, okay? - Yeah, hear you soon, bye!" Then he handed back the phone to House and offered him a hand up.

Thankfully there were no longer as many people around, some of the personal had hold off the visitors earlier while they were still working on the patient and afterwards all buses had left. Soon House was standing on his left leg, leaning against Chase with his left side and on the cane with his right arm. Carefully he put his right leg down on the floor, but did not put any weight on it when he felt the spasms running through it by the small motion. Since he had a good support on both sides, he figured it might work out nevertheless and started walking trying to put as little weight on his leg as he could get away with at the beginning.

They made their way back to the car very slowly. Knowing he would have to go to physiotherapy if his muscles deteriorated further, House dutifully put down his right leg with every step, and let it give as much support as possible before it would falter. Thankfully this time, it got a little better with walking and by the time they were visible from the car, he was once more able to walk on his own, only supported by the cane, even though Chase kept directly to his left, prepared to catch him should he stumble. Cathy was already sleeping and the husband very impatient to get to his wife, so they started driving without further delay, House again on the phone with Cameron as soon as he had fastened the seat belt.