Thanks to lily moonlight and Aly for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter!

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I've been sick, and with school and homework, it sometimes hard to update. But I'm feeling better now, and hopefully, I'll have less homework. So I'll try to update sooner. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Eighteen: It's Never Lupus

St. Peter's Hospital, Helena, Montana

Dr. Gregory House's Office

House turned away from the computer, leaving the conversation he had just had with Cuddy. She wanted to know where he was, but he wouldn't tell her. He knew once he told her, she would come to his rescue. But that was not what he wanted. Right now, he wanted her to stay with the other doctors, where she would be safe. He would then try his best to save her from the storm, to tell her where to evacuate to and where she would be safe throughout the storm. Though he had lied to her twice: he hadn't just gotten off from working, he had been in his office ever since he'd shown up for work that morning; and he didn't have to go, none of his employees had come to tell him that they had needed his help. But soon, someone did come to his office.

He heard a knock on his door and looked up to see Dr. Jennifer Hansen, a doctor with whom he worked with. He got up from his chair and limped over to her. "Yes?"

"Your patient," Jennifer said. "I think we should run a test to see if she has lupus."

He looked at her questioningly. "Lupus? It's never lupus." He walked out of his office, Jennifer following him down the hall.

"Systemic lupus erythematosus, that is."

He shrugged. "It's still lupus. And no, she doesn't have lupus."

"Lupus explains the kidney failure," she said.

"I could think of a million other diseases that cause kidney failure," House replied, walking faster, though he knew he could only walk as fast as his legs would carry him, which wouldn't be that fast at all. Jennifer would catch up to him with no problem. "And there are a million other symptoms that explain she doesn't have lupus."

"What about the swollen joints and skin rash?" Jennifer asked him.

"Again, a million other reasons why she could have those…"

"What about…?"

He stopped walking and turned to look at her. "Test for lupus, if that's what you think. That way, you won't have to follow me around all day, telling me all of the symptoms the patient has."

Jennifer gave him a look that reminded him of Cameron. "You just want to keep me busy, so you won't have to deal with the patient yourself."

"And how long have you known me?" questioned House.

"One year," she replied, even though he didn't mean for her to answer. "But I guess it hasn't been long enough." She walked away, heading towards the patient's room.

House then turned around, walking in the opposite direction of where Jennifer had gone. An acquaintance he had met a while ago, after he had taken his child into the clinic for the flu, was sitting in the cafeteria, eating lunch. But he was helping him find out what was going on with the weather world wide. Not that he was interested in the weather, but he wanted to, if he could, save Cuddy from facing any bad weather in Chicago. But she already had, and now he was worried that something even worse could happen to her. He wouldn't let that happen.

House took a seat across from him. "I thought I told you to leave."

"You don't want my help anymore?" asked Ted Brennan, who worked as a climatologist. Instead, he knew the real reason why he was there, and then said, "The temperatures have dropped again."

"Again?" questioned House.

Brennan nodded.

"Why is the weather acting up like this?" he asked. "Haven't you come to some theory yet that could explain this?"

Brennan only stared at the sandwich in his hands and acted like he hadn't heard the question.

"What's going on with the weather?" House asked again.

Again, Brennan didn't answer.

"Answer the question, Brennan!"

For the first time, Brennan turned to look at him. "We're experiencing a period of global cooling."

House looked at him, stunned. "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"I'm afraid not House," replied Brennan. "We'll have to wait the storm out, that's it."

"We can evacuate Chicago, right?" House asked almost desperately.

"The airports are down," replied Brennan. "Five tornadoes had hit Chicago…"

House shook his head. "I already know that. We have to evacuate Chicago somehow, call for help or something…"

"House, we can't save Lisa," Brennan said. "I know you want to, but if we evacuated Chicago, we'd have to evacuate the whole United States. And we don't have the power to do that. I'm sorry House, but like I said, we'll have to wait the storm out."

"Then go back to work and find a way to stop this storm." He then got up from his seat and left the cafeteria.

Brennan sighed, knowing that House would do anything to help Lisa. But even with the knowledge he knew, and many other climatologist and meteorologists knew, they couldn't stop the upcoming storm. He went back to eating his lunch, and once he was done, he left the hospital to go back to work.

House limped back to his office, meeting up with Jennifer again in the hallway where they had last talked. Trying not to show his anger, he said, "Wow that was quick. Was the test positive or negative?"

"Neither," Jennifer replied with a smile. "I haven't even performed the test yet."

"Well, you can wait as long as you want, but our patient surely won't be alive if you wait until tomorrow."

"Well, what I was thinking," she said, "is that you could perform the test. You've been staring at your computer in your office since six this morning." She handed the clipboard to him. "Have fun, for me of course." She walked away, obviously satisfied with what she had just accomplished.

House shrugged. Jennifer sometimes reminded him of Amber, wherever the doctor had decided to go. She would have done the same thing to him, telling him to test for the disease. Even Cuddy would have done that, if she thought he had spent too much time in his office. But she would have also performed the test for him, just to be nice. Either way, he had a plan to not have to perform the test.

He limped over to a doctor who was waiting at the front desk. "Hey," he said. "Want to keep yourself busy?"

The doctor shrugged.

House handed him the clipboard. "Susan Gardner, room 24B. She's very sick and needs medical assistance. If you could, could you please test her to see if she has lupus? I would, but I have a very busy schedule. Actually, I'm supposed to be performing a surgery right now, so if you could…?"

The doctor nodded, took the clipboard from him, and headed to the patient's room. House watched him leave and then turned to leave for his office. Jennifer would later figure out that he hadn't performed the test, but he didn't care. He didn't have a surgery to attend to, but he had to find out more about how this rising storm was affecting the earth.

The next chapter will be about Lilly and Scotty. And sorry to those who want to read about Without a Trace…I know it's been forever since Samantha and the others have been in this story, but I promise in four more chapters there'll finally be a chapter about them! And, you'll see later why House is in Montana. Hope you liked!