Chapter 22

After Dr. Cameron left, Larry and Don brought chairs over to Charlie's bedside and sat. Alan sighed. "Now we wait."

Don put his hand on Alan's shoulder. "Now we wait. At least his fever's going down. That's gotta be a sign that the infection is going away, right?"

Alan smiled, "Yes, you're right." He ran his fingers through Charlie's curls. "He feels cooler. Why would someone do this to him, Donnie?"

"Well, the theory is that Mohammed Abu-Hassan was protesting the US involvement in his country."

"So he gave his father and four American consultants a dose of anthrax? That doesn't make any sense," Alan said. "I would think he'd look for a more impressive target."

"I'm telling Charlie you don't think he's impressive," Don said, grinning.

"I'm being serious, Don. If he were trying to drive the Americans out of Iraq, why not use the anthrax in a more public way? Is it possible there was some other motive?"

"I suppose anything is possible. I wasn't really trying to figure out why this was done. I just wanted to find out anything I could about the anthrax itself. The goal was to help Charlie, not solve a crime."

"I know," Alan said, "but don't tell that you aren't even a little bit curious now that Charlie's getting better."

"Okay, I am curious. But why are you so curious, Dad?"

"Well, we're not as different as you might think, Donnie. You're not the only one who wants to do grave bodily harm to whoever did this to Charlie. And we've got to figure out who he or she is before we can exact our pound of flesh."

"Ah," Larry said, "'Shylock from The Merchant of Venice.'"

"Admittedly not a very admirable role model," Alan said softly.

"A father who was pushed to extremes to protect his family," Larry said, shrugging. "But I am presuming that you not speaking of an actual pound of actual flesh, but rather speaking metaphorically of exacting justice."

Alan sighed, "Well it is fun to fantasize, but, yes, I was speaking metaphorically." Charlie stirred and moaned. "Charlie? Son? Are you okay?"

"Dad?"Charlie murmured, rubbing his stomach.

"Right here. You need anything?"

Charlie shook his head. "Not really. Just wanted to make sure it was really you. Not some hallucination."

Alan smiled, "It's really me, Son."

Don grinned, "And we're not even riding horses, Chuck."

"Horses?" Charlie asked, opening his eyes and looking around. "What horses?"

"Don, stop it," Alan said. "Charlie, your brother thinks it's fun to tease you. You were hallucinating horses and soldiers before."

Charlie grinned, "You're kidding me, right?" He closed his eyes and rubbed his stomach again.

"You okay?" Don asked.

"Hmm? Yeah. Just a little queasy." He opened his eyes again. "The bacteriophage? Did they...?"

"Yeah," Don said. "And your temperature is going down. That's a great sign, Buddy."

"Can we get you anything?" Alan asked.

Charlie shook his head. "No." He gulped. "I think I'm gonna be sick again."

Don pushed the call button for the nurse while Alan helped Charlie roll onto his side and picked up the wastebasket.

Chase dragged himself into the office, and poured himself a cup of coffee. Cameron was running the CBC, and Foreman was already nursing a cup of coffee. Chase muttered, "Why did House drag us back in here? He need new victims to torture?"

Cameron looked up from her work. "He gave Charlie the bacteriophage about half an hour ago. We need to monitor his condition, run CBCs every half hour, and take blood to Dr. Adukalil so he can test for antibodies and do cultures. So, yeah, he needed two more victims to torture."

"He used the bacteriophage?" Chase asked, amazed. "I hope he got permission."

Cameron shrugged. "He said he did. And the anthrax started to mutate while you two were catching up on your beauty sleep. There was nothing else he could do."

"Dare I ask where he is?"

"Probably still with Dr. Adkalil. He was there when I brought him the blood."

"Okay, what do you need us to do now?"

Cameron checked her watch. "Finish your coffee and take the next blood sample."

Chase entered the room. Unlike House, he liked it when patients' families and friends were involved. And Charlie Eppes had family and friends who obviously cared about him. "Excuse me," he said, "It's time for another blood test."

"It's been half an hour already?" Alan asked.

"Yes, it has. How's he doing?" Chase put the vacutainer and tubes on the table.

"He threw up blood again a few minutes ago. But until that, he seemed better," Alan said, moving aside to make room for the doctor to work.

"It'll take time for the bleeding to stop," Chase said. "But I can give him something for the nausea if it doesn't get better soon."

"That would be good," Alan said. "It really seemed to hurt. He was exhausted afterwards."

"All right. I'll tell the nurse on my way out.."

"Thank you, Doctor. How's everything look?"

"Dr. Cameron said his fever's down and his BP is still up. The blood pressure would go down if he were hemorrhaging. If the bleeding keeps up, we may have to give him some more platelets to improve the clotting." He found a good vein and filled two tubes with blood, then bandaged the puncture wound and untied the tourniquet. Charlie slept through the whole process.

"He's going to look like a pincushion," Alan said.

Chase grinned. "Yeah, hopefully we won't have to do this too much longer." He checked Charlie's temperature. "Very good. It's still going down. It's almost normal."

"How was the last blood test? The one Dr. Cameron ran?" Don asked.

"I dunno. She was finishing the tests when I left to come down here. I'll ask her to come and talk to you when she's done, okay?"

"That's not necessary..." Alan started.

"I know," Chase said, "but I know if it was someone I loved lying here, I'd want to know. And knowing Cameron, she'd feel the same way. I'll see you later."

Cameron had finished the test when Chase returned. "How's it look?" He asked.

"Not bad, all things considered. White blood cells are up a little, red are down. But that's to be expected. The key is going to be what the next few CBCs show us."

"I told his father you could come down and let them know the results," Chase said softly. "They're such nice people."

"Yeah, they are," Cameron said, "Okay, you run the next one, and I'll go talk to House, and then go see the family."

House was twirling his cane like a drum major's baton as Adukalil was looking at Charlie's blood under the microscope. "How's it look?"

"It's early days, yet. I wouldn't expect to see changes in the antibodies this quickly."

Cameron knocked on the door and entered. "I figured you'd be here," she said, handing Hosue the results of the CBC.

He looked at the page, then tossed it on Adukalil's desk. "Nothing here either yet. I know, I know, it's early days. How's his temp and BP?"

"Temp's down. BP unchanged."

"Well, that's encouraging, anyway. Did you manage to find Chase and Foreman and get them to drag their sorry butts in here?"

Cameron grinned. "Yeah, and after another gallon of coffee, they should be human."

House leaned towards Cameron. "And yet, you keep on going, just like the Energizer Bunny. What is it, Cameron? An overdose of perkiness?"

"I don't know. You're still going and going and going. And I know it's not perkiness in your case," she turned to leave. "I'm going to go talk to Charlie's family."

"I don't believe it. She's perky and she talks to families. Mike, when are we going to break her of these filthy habits?"