DISCLAIMER: I don't own House. But I do watch it religiously.
HottScott23, please remember to tape 'Distractions' and 'Skin Deep' for me! And tell me all about Gray's Anatomy – I wanted to watch it, but I'm missing the first two episodes (well, duh). Thanks!
Q is for Quarantine
Chapter Seven: Blackmail, Boredom and Blood
James walked closer so that he was directly in front of the trio. He wore a grim expression on his face.
"It's about Doctor Eric Foreman," he intoned seriously. "We have the results from his tests."
"And?" said House, sounding excessively bored. The other two doctors didn't even bother to look surprised by his reaction to the possibility that one of his employees had a life-threatening disease.
"And," continued James, and Cameron and Chase held their breaths (well, not Chase so much – he was trying to be as offhand as House). He paused to create more suspense, face as impassive as stone. "And I would like to see Doctor House privately, please."
Chase and Cameron frowned at the CDC doctor, dumbfounded that they were deliberately being left out of the coup. Cameron opened her mouth to protest, but House held up a hand to stop her. He settled back in his seat after doing this and began twirling his stick, a smug expression coating his face.
"I'm so popular," he said happily. "Everyone wants me to keep their secrets."
"Doctor House," prompted James, a tad impatiently, indicating to the door with his thumb.
"Oooh," smiled House, rising and limping over. He gave James his puppy-dog eyes, and said in an innocent voice, "You know, if you wanted to get me alone with you so badly, you only had to ask."
James was totally shocked by this statement; his stoic demeanour evaporated instantaneously, spoiled by the fact that his jaw seemed to have unhinged. "Why would you think that I was implying-"
"There's no need to sound so embarrassed," said House genially. He bent towards James, who looked as though he was struggling to stop himself from bending the other way, and whispered in a conspiratorial voice, "It's ok; Chase and Cameron may not look it, but they are old enough to understand the complexity of homosexuality. Besides, how else will they learn?"
"Doctor House, I really think you've misunder-"
"He's joking," sighed Cameron, ending the poor man's confusion; none of the CDC representatives had been able to handle House or his 'jokes' (i.e. rude, sarcastic comments). "He doesn't think you're gay."
"He might be," said House. He returned his gaze to James, who seemed to have gained back some of his composure and was standing a little more at ease. "Are you gay?" House asked frankly.
"No! What's with all the stupid questions!" demanded James incredulously.
"Classic denial," House informed Chase and Cameron. "He's so far in the closet, he's probably lost in Narnia by now."
"House, he's not gay," interrupted Cameron. "Now go and have your secret little conversation outside."
"And then come back in and tell us what's going on," added Chase, also quite interested as to what the CDC doctor had to say that was so confidential.
But House had latched onto Cameron's last comment. "And how would you know he's not gay?" he said, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
Cameron shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. I just want to know what's happened to Foreman. So could you do us all a favour and go and find out?"
"Have you slept with him," he pointed at James and squinted at the female doctor, "as well? Is that how you don't know he's gay?"
Cameron scoffed, refusing to rise to the bait. "Have sex with James? I'd rather sleep with Chase ag-" she started, then ceased the rest of her sentence abruptly, eyes darting to the ground and cheeks colouring with mortification. At the next seat down, Chase appeared to be unaffected, but though his eyes were largely out of focus, his ears were alert to the conversation going on around him. Cameron's unfinished comment set off a chain of hot memories burning into his mind's eye, and he scolded himself for thinking of such things. Bad Chase, he thought to himself. You're thinking about having sex with a co-worker whilst waiting for news that Foreman might have Marburg Fever or something. You're turning into House. Stop. Stop. Stop.
House smirked, a delighted glint in his blue eyes. "Sorry, what was that, Doctor Cameron?"
"Nothing," she murmured, tucking strands of hair behind her ear, and meeting House's persistent gaze squarely. "I think you'd better go; your lover is waiting outside for you."
Chase and House looked out of the window and into the hall, and, sure enough, James was hovering by it. He had scrambled out of the room as soon as he could, scared off by the absurd topics of conversation that were going on. Well, House was in the room; what could anyone expect?
"I thought you said he's not gay," said House lightly to Cameron, then sauntered as arrogantly as he could manage towards the door, and where James stood, waiting.
Chase heaved a sigh as House slid the door shut behind him. "Think Foreman's got Marburgs?" he said, changing the subject completely.
Cameron sounded relieved. "No," she said confidently. "He used protective gloves; there's no way he could have come into contact with Cosgrove's blood."
"That's good…"
"No need to sound so enthusiastic about it," said Cameron, sounding disapproving. Chase made a face.
"Well, it's as you said; there's virtually no chance of him catching whatever disease we're dealing with, here," he said casually, resting his head on his clasped hands and leaning back. As soon as the back of his skull touched his hands, he regretted it immediately and jerked forwards suddenly as if receiving an electric shock. Cameron gave him a bewildered look and he grimaced, miming punching the air with his fist, and fingering the spot of impact beneath his hair. Cameron rolled her eyes.
"Weakling," she teased him. "I told you girls kick ass better than boys."
"Well, I didn't see you rushing to help out," Chase grumbled.
"What, and interrupt the show?" snorted Cameron, "No way. It was funny to see an old man intimidate you, Mr Macho Intensivist."
"Just because House is not here to make fun of me, there's no need for you to fill in for him."
"No, sorry, of course not… Wimp."
Chase groaned.
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House followed James a little way down the hall, until he led him into a small alcove, away from prying eyes and ears.
"Great. Nice and private," remarked House, back slightly hunched in the cramped space. "Did I tell you that I'm a plain vanilla heterosexual? But don't let that get in the way of our relationship."
James cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. "Doctor House, I have been ordered to talk to you about what would happen if you didn't comply with the terms in the agreement you had with Director Walker."
House turned serious, a frown creasing his lined brow. "What's he threatening to do, now?"
"You are expected to exchange all information and ideas concerning the viral outbreak in PPTH in exchange for Doctor Foreman's safety," James told House quietly. He had risen back into his former pompous self, but House was in no mood to throw a rude insult his way to deflate his ego.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked shrewdly.
"You have to tell the CDC all about the stuff you have been researching with Doctors Chase, Cam-"
"Not that part, you idiot," exclaimed House agitatedly. "The whole 'Foreman's safety' bit. What were the results from his tests? Is he gonna kick the bucket?"
James shook his head. "There is no evidence to suggest that your employee has Ebola or any other life threatening disease."
"So… you want information on our research in exchange for Foreman's safety, meaning…?"
"Your employee has no infections, yes?" House nodded cautiously. "Well, we have a number of highly contagious patients in this hospital. It would be very easy to accidentally get some of their body fluids into Doctor Foreman… and that wouldn't be very good, would it?"
"Oh, I don't know," said House, as if in a great deal of thought. "Maybe we should test that theory before trying it out on Foreman first… Fancy playing guinea pig?"
James' face hardened. His voice hissed, low and dangerous, "This is not a joke, Doctor House. Director Walker was serious when he said –"
"When he threatened, you mean," interjected House.
"Whatever. Just tell us what you know and nothing will happen to your employee."
"Why don't you go figure it out yourselves?" Before James could answer, House gave his own opinion. "Well, let me guess, you've already told the news crews and the paparazzi that we're dealing with a serious outbreak of Ebola? Ooh, I wonder how they'll react when the headline's not 'Ebola strikes in New Jersey; the CDC are heroes' but 'The CDC are a bunch of useless losers who don't know anything about life-threatening diseases'? I personally prefer the latter, but that's just my opinion. Truth is always preferable to lies."
"We have Doctor Foreman in custody," James reminded him testily.
"You've got the whole freaking hospital in custody!" exclaimed House. "If I don't agree to spoon-feed you information, are you gonna infect everybody in here? Somehow, I don't think so."
"You are willing to risk all your colleagues for your pride?" asked James suspiciously.
"Is Walker gonna kill all my colleagues for his?" House countered.
James sighed. "Director Walker told me that you would not agree," he said heavily. "So he asked me to remind of a certain fact; we also have a lawyer in one of our testing rooms right now… What a coincidence it would be, if, when we're poking needles into her, one could be carrying something a bit more deadly than your average sterilised needle?"
House remained poker-faced, not revealing that his insides were actually twisting themselves into knots at hearing this threat. Already, his brilliant mind was whirring into life, trying to find a way around the latest development in his and Walker's conflict over who was going to come out on top. Was he willing to risk Stacey's health – her life! – just to gain the satisfaction of being (rightfully) crowned the best doctor out of him and Walker? He knew the disease that was causing all of this ruckus; why not just tell the CDC Director and save everybody the stress?
"Empty, threat, James," he drawled, after a moment's contemplation. "You can't infect Stacey; she had no contact with the infected persons. Her infection – or death – would be a bit hard to explain, no?"
James smirked. "If Foreman had gotten infected by the patient – he hasn't yet, but that can be easily arranged – and Stacey was around Foreman just after his infection…" he let the explanation hang in the air between himself and House, allowing the words to sink in. The CDC had thought everything through…
"Why can't the CDC figure everything out?" asked House, mystified at how clueless the agency was. "A lowly diagnostician, immunologist, intensivist and neurologist managed to come to a conclusion about this disease outbreak whilst you lot were still babbling on about Ebola! And now, you expect to have my co-operation to help you amend for whatever time has been wasted? Let's just say that I'd rather give up all the Vicodin in the world than help you people clean up your own mess. Tell Walker that if he wants to blackmail a doctor into giving him what he wants, save it for a doctor who cares."
House clunked out of the alcove and made his way back to where Chase and Cameron were. He sincerely hoped that James would believe his 'I don't give two shits about Foreman and Stacey' speech, and that Walker would release the neurologist and lawyer in favour of trying another way to get him to tell him the identity of the disease that they were dealing with. House huffed frustratedly; he didn't know whether God existed, but now was as good a time as any to start praying.
James stood in a pensive silence for a couple of minutes after House's quick departure. He dwelt upon House's reaction to his offers – and threats. He assessed what had been said, and came up with something to say to Walker. Feeling ready, he whipped out a phone and speed-dialled a number.
"Hello," he said, after the line was picked up at the other end. "This is Doctor James."
"James," came Walker's crisp British – accented voice. "Report."
"Doctor House did not give me any information regarding the disease outbreak," said James. "I reminded him of your deal but he merely said that he didn't care and walked away."
"Typical House," muttered Walker bitterly. "He probably does care, but with House, you'll never know."
"What should we do, Sir?" James asked his boss.
"We can't let the truth get out," whispered the Director forcefully. "We have to get House to tell us what he knows, or everything would have been for nothing. We have to blame this on him and his team. Right now, the world thinks it's an outbreak of Ebola, so we have a little time to prepare. The slip with Patterson was unfortunate, but hopefully, no one noticed."
"And if we can't blame this on House? What then?"
"We will blame it on House."
"Very good, Sir. What should I do?"
There was a beat of silence. "Let me handle it."
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Stacey and Foreman sat in separate testing stalls, a flurry of CDC doctors and scientists flapping around them, passing bottles of blood, needles, tubes, and swabs for testing… their sleeves were rolled up, and constantly had something sticking into their veins through their exposed skin. It was a boring and painful process, and they both sat on their examination tables, thinking Why me? over and over again. Foreman kept nodding off (the effects of not sleeping for the past forty-eight hours or so), only to be roughly shaken awake by a beady-eyed doctor with a cheesy smile and crooked teeth. Stacey stayed wide awake, thinking about disease, blood, death – basically all things dark and morbid. And, of course, House. Did that count as morbid?
At the same time, a doctor approached both Stacey and Foreman, in their different cells. For both of them, the doctor was holding a needle and syringe; they didn't bother to react, already accustomed to the mass of doctors that had already extracted several gallons (it seemed) of blood from their arms. They just held their arms out without having to be asked.
Simultaneously, the doctors plunged the needles into both Foreman and Stacey's arms, injecting something into their systems. Extracting the needle, they smiled and retreated, taking care not to touch the needles or the substance in the syringes. They made for a box labelled 'WARNING: BIOHAZARD' and dropped the used instruments in.
"What was that?" asked Stacey, in her cell.
"Something to help you relax," answered a young woman as she stuck yet another needle into Stacey's shoulder. "Boss's orders."
A/N: Shorter chapter this time round, but I'm in China, so deal with it! Anyway, I wanted to get this chapter in so that I could go on to write more interesting stuff about the diseases and all the other crap (medical terms – yay! sarcasm), like the relationships between the characters and the CDC's secrets.Can't guarantee another update before I get back to England, which isn't for another fortnight or so. Thank you to all my readers, especially the reviewers. Hope you all enjoyed the latest instalment – review and tell me what you thought!
Daygoner