Chapter 3

He wasn't sure why, but House decided that he's go and meet their new patient. She was something of an oddity and he was curious about her.

House walked into her room and stood in the doorway, looking the girl over. Cameron and Chase were both in there, checking her O2 stats and drawing blood for testing.

"Who are you?" she asked, as noticed him staring at her.

"Janitor," he answered as he entered the room and sat in the chair next to her bed.

"Cassie, this is your doctor, Dr. House," Cameron said.

"Oh, so you're the one who they were warning me about," Cassie said as she turned to face her doctor.

House glanced up at Chase and Cameron and saw a slight embarrassed flush from Cameron and a barely disguised smile from Chase. "No, I'm sure they meant the other Dr. House. There's nothing to warn you about with me," he answered.

"Uh huh. You'er just a ray of janitorial sunshine who would never be condescending or a cynical prick."

"Cynical prick?" House said as he raised an eye brow up at his two minions.

"We never said that," Chase quickly said, looking surprised at Cassie.

"No, but it was implied," she said without a hint of remorse at having said it.

"Pity, I was about to congratulate you two on your honesty for once," House said.

Cameron and Chase both rolled their eyes and left the room, having gotten everything that they needed.

"So why are you here?" Cassie asked. "They said that you might not ever see me."

House was about to come back with some sarcastic remora when Cassie started coughing. Not sure what to do, he looked around and saw a piture of water next to a plastic cup. He poured her a cup of water and handed it to her.

She took it and quickly drank it. The water seemed to help sooth her cough.

"When did you start the coughing?" House asked as soon as she had settled down again.

"Just now," she answered and she took another sip of water, emptying her cup. House reached out to take the cup from her when she started choking again and coughed up so of the water she had been drinking, getting it all over his hand when he took the cup.

House just looked at her as she finished out her coughing. Finally she got control of herself again. "Sorry, it went down the wrong side," she said as he place her cup on the table and walked over to the sink to wash off his hand.

House didn't say anything, he had a new symptom to work with, he had all that he needed. He quickly left the room again.

"It was nice meeting you too," he heard Cassie call after him as he left.

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Foreman was in the conference room when House arrived again and went to the board to writing down the new symptom. Coughing, he wrote.

"She's having difficultly breathing and you think coughing is a significant development?" Foreman asked.

"It's something new. New is always significant," House said as he stared at the board.

"She's been getting better over the last few hours. She hasn't even needed the air mask to assist with her breathing and she seems fairly healthy to me now. Maybe it was just a virus that is getting better," Foreman suggested.

House was about to say something when first his beeper and then Foreman's went off. They glanced down and then quickly left the room, heading back to Cassie's room.

They entered just in time to see Chase connecting the ventilator to the tube that was shoved down their patient's throat. Apparently she needed to be intubated.

"What happened?" Foreman asked Cameron who was also near by.

"She couldn't breath. I was in here talking to her when all of a sudden she just wasn't able to pull in air anymore."

House looked at his patient and left the room again, going to ponder something else.

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Over the next few days they were unable to come up with anything, but Cassie seemed to be getting better again. She was able to breath alright with a nose mask so they were able to remove her tube. But even though she was looking better and her symptoms were lessening, she was getting weaker and weaker. She had been there for three days and they still weren't sure what was wrong with her.