Chapter 6

House lay in the isolation room, still pondering over what they might have. If the blood tests turned up negative, he just couldn't see what the connection might be. This whole thing didn't seem right and now he was sick as well.

At least that's what it seemed like, but he felt perfectly fine now. Well, other than his leg anyway. It was then that he noticed that his leg was throbbing more than it usually would. But of course that had to be because he hadn't had any of his Vicodin in a while and they were probably not anywhere near by.

He began to look around, hoping to spot his bottle or his jacket that would have the bottle in it. Of course they were no where to be found.

He glanced up at the monitor next to him and noticed that everything looked perfectly fine. He felt fine, and all of the readings indicated that he was fine. There seemed no reason to be isolated in here while he had both himself and the girl to diagnose.

He threw off his covers and swung himself off his bed and used it to help support himself as he limped over to the phone.

"Wilson," he said as soon as his friend picked up the phone House's conference room. "I want you and the kids down here now with the white board so that we can go through this!"

"House, I think you're taking the phrase, 'Doctor, heal thyself,' too far," Wilson answered.

"I'm fine and I am not going to leave my life solely in the hands of a bunch of idiots like you. Now get down here!" he said as he slammed the phone down.

"And he's supposed to be your friend?" a weak voice sounded from across the room.

House looked over to where Cassie had been sleeping a moment before. He decided to ignore her for now as he limped back over to his bed and sat down heavily on it.

"Are you really as brilliant as they claim, or are you all talk?" she asked as she sat up a little.

He still didn't feel like talking to her so he lay back down and tried to will his team to hurry up.

"The silent treatment huh? You must really be pissed with me for getting you sick too."

"We don't know if that's true," he answered monotone.

"But it's what you suspect. And since you're such a genius, it must be true."

"What do you want from me?" he asked, sitting back up and looking at her.

"Just thought I'd make our time together a little more amusing. I'm sure that you're getting pretty bored being cooped up down here without your team or friend to antagonize."

"Well thanks the sentiment, but why don't you go back to sleep as I work on saving your life?"

"Suite yourself," she said with a weak shrug and laid back down herself and was soon once again asleep.

"Why god? Why do I have to have such an asshole for a friend?" Wilson said as he showed up with the ducklings in tow. Foreman carried the infamous white board with him.

"I could ask the same question," House said. "What kind of friend leaves a death bed to go poke around in the friend's private stuff?"

"That sound's a lot like you," Wilson said.

"Oddly enough, it wasn't… this time. I expect you found nothing of interest."

"You mean other then your doll collection?"

"Ha, ha. Very funny. You didn't actually think that you would find something did you?"

"No, but it was fun to use as an excuse,"

"Sure it was. Now as the good friend that you are, could you kindly bring me my Vicodin while my team and I get to work."

Shaking his head, Wilson said, "You are unbelievable. You nearly die and now all you can think about is your next fix?"

"That's generally how addiction works. Now, are you going to make me beg?"

Wilson sighed and left once again.

"Alright, differential diagnoses," House said, rubbing his hands together.

"Are you sure we should be doing this with the patient present?" Cameron asked.

House looked over at Cassie. From his angle he was able to see her open her eyes and give him a wink before closing them again and pretending to be asleep.

"She's asleep," he replied.

"But she could wake up at any time," Cameron persisted.

"No she won't. She was annoying me a while ago so I gave her a dose of Haldol. She'll be out for a while."

"House!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Oh, seriously. Do you think I would actually do that?" he asked.

"Yes," all three said in unison.

"Ok, maybe I would. But it doesn't matter. You are going to need my help and since you won't let me leave here, we're going to have to work with the patient present. Actually this might help us move faster since we won't have to go running to her room every time we have a knew question or she develops a new symptom."

"Or you could scare me to death with all of the outrageous diseases that you think I might or could have while you're trying to pinpoint what it is I really have," Cassie said, deciding that it no longer mattered if the rest of the team knew she was awake or not.

"You didn't drug her?" Chase asked, rather surprised.

"No but I could if it would help us get started here," he replied.

"Fine, let's get going." Foreman said, pulling a dry erase marker from his pocket.

"Who said you could write Foreman?" House asked.

"Well obviously you can't, being separated by the glass wall and everything," Foreman answered.

"Unfortunately true. But that doesn't mean that you're the one who gets to write."

Foreman rolled his eyes. "Fine then, who writes?" he snapped

"Well you of course. I can't stand looking at girly handwriting," House said with a little of an emphasized look at Chase. "Of course with that reasoning, Cameron could possibly be able to do it."

Chase looked pissed but was trying to ignore him. Both Cameron and Foreman ignored the comment and waited for House to continue with something useful.

"Tough crowd today. Everyone must be so overcome with worry that they just don't have it in them to find me funny today."

"House, we never find you funny," Cameron said.

"No wonder you haven't figured what's wrong with me yet," Cassie said from her bed. "All you guys do is argue with each other."

"See, I told you we just all needed to get a long," House said. "Alright, we have the list of symptoms I see. At least, I kind of do. Who wrote that anyway?"

"I did," Wilson answered as he came into view once again. "And if you want your precious pills, you better not make some scathing comment about my hand writing."

"Fine," House said. "Foreman, could you please rewrite the symptoms so we can read them. It seems some anonymous doctor thought it would be great to impersonate a chicken on our board."

"What, you want me to withhold you're pills?" Wilson said.

"One, I never said anything about it being yours. Two, withholding them would be cruel and unusual treatment."

"Only for Cassie," Cameron muttered.

"Well for her sake, I also brought along his ball and game boy," Wilson replied as he place the Vicodin, ball, and game boy in the air lock.

"I'm not any good at video games," Cassie answered.

"Good, cause it's not for you anyway," House said as he limped over to the air lock.

"Trust us Cassie, you don't want to be locked up in there with him if he begins to get bored," Wilson told her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," House said as he popped the top of his pills and dry swallowed two of them. "And you'd think someone could have been nice enough to leave my cane for me."

They all looked slightly embraced but Cameron. "Well, you shouldn't have even gotten out of your bed, so there was no reason to put it in there," she said as if it was all perfectly logical.

"Uh huh. And when have you even known me to do what I am supposed to?" He said as he took the ball and game boy back to his bed and plopped down on it.

"Can we please go though this?" Foreman interrupted.

"Fine, like I said, differential diagnoses people."

"Myocarditis?" Cameron said.

"Doesn't account for the seizures," House responded.

"Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?" Chase put in.

"Not with the fever," House answered.

"Leukoencephalopathy?" Foreman suggested.

"Someone want to explain why this is a bad idea?" House asked.

"It's not contagious," Chase answered.

"But we still don't know for sure if the two are related," Foreman argued.

"It's not Leukoencephalopathy… for either of us," House replied shortly.

"Fine, what is it then?" Foreman demanded.

"Tox screen back yet?" House asked ignoring Foreman.

"Not yet. Another hour I think," Chase answered.

"The most likely thing is a toxin. But could also be parasitical."

"In both of you and not us?" Cameron asked.

"Sure, why not?" House said.

"Because you were barely near her and person to person parasites are usually difficult to catch. It would be a more likely idea if it was one of us who were sick because we have spent far more time with her," Cameron explained.

"I'll first quote Foreman that our cases are not necessarily related. Second… you're just using this as an excuse to remind me how little I actually work with a patient."

"That has nothing to do with this," Cameron defended.

"Well he's going to get plenty of patient time in now," Cassie said with a wicked grin from her bed.

House glared at her before continuing on. "Alright, MRI, L.P. and an Antigen test."

"I get the MRI and the Antigen, but the L.P?" Cameron asked.

"Because I said so," House answered.

"Don't argue. He's just given us permission to stab him with a large needle. I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this day," Chase said.

"Careful, I'm your boss. That means that I can stab you with a needle anytime I want with some trumped up drug charge," House answered.

"Oh and who here is the one that's a drug addict?" Foreman said.

"Just get to it," House snapped.