The ducklings entered the conference room in good spirits; they were pleased that they seemed to have gotten away with the biopsy they had performed the previous night and they each got to leave without House collaring them to run any more tests.

So none of them were prepared to find their boss in before them, reading up on Andrew Howard's case notes; they were especially unprepared to find that he had started a DDX on a sheet of paper, without them, on the patient they sent over to Oncology the night before; something was seriously up.

"You're in early." Chase stated in a surprised tone; it was unusual to see House in the conference room let alone in the hospital before nine, "what happened to your face?"

"Never try to beat Cuddy at strip poker; she gets aggressive when she loses." House stated without looking up from the files on the table, "got a patient."

"What happened?" Cameron asked, clearly not believing the strip poker line.

"Cardiac Arrest, we cured the autoimmune haemolytic anaemia and Infectious Mononucleosis and diagnosed him with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma but he still has anaemia…why? Ok, Go!"

"You're talking about the Howard kid?"

"So it would seem…" House said just as Wilson burst into the conference room.

"Why are you here; you should be at home?"

"Working here" House replied, trying his best to look engrossed in the files.

"You have no cases-"

"Tell that to the kid we thought we cured yesterday"

"You didn't cure him; you just proved he has cancer"

"Yeah well...it usually amounts to the same thing."

"How does it amount to the same thing?"

"We cure them, we never see them again; we diagnose them with cancer, we never see them again – see, same outcome"

"So why are you still working on him?"

"Well obviously we haven't finished diagnosing him yet…have you even been to see Cuddy yet or were you just planning on annoying me all morning?" House asked, irritated by Wilson's questions.

"I saw you through the window – I was hoping you were just a mirage; but no, it seems you really are idiotic enough to come into work when you're sick."

"Well if you had been in to see Cuddy you'd know that the kids still sick…much sicker than me"

"Yeah, we get it - he has cancer" Foreman interrupted, "he can't exactly get much sicker"

"Well given that his heart decided to go into overdrive last night and managed to go into cardiac arrest…I'm thinking maybe he has something worse than cancer"

"He's my patient – why wasn't I called?" Wilson frowned as he picked up the file, "it says that Cuddy was the attending…"

"Yeah – you think that's relevant? She could have been wearing an extremely low cut top – it'd make my blood pressure rise…not sure about putting me in cardiac arrest though-" House mused, getting the ducklings and Wilson exasperated further.

"I mean have you spoken to Cuddy about what happened?" Wilson said forcefully to House who was still leant over the desk with the file in his hand.

"Maybe it was stress" Chase offered; trying to look over House's shoulder at the file.

"Right…'cos otherwise healthy 14 year olds are prone to heart failure when they're stressed – it explains those pesky mortality rates during high school entry exams" House said with biting sarcasm, "thanks for playing though…anyone else want to hazard a guess or should we just hope it's an uncommon side affect to the lymphoma and let Wilson deal with it?"

"Oh keep the damn case" Wilson sighed, "whatever makes you happy"

"Don't sulk, he's still got cancer – we can share can't we" House whined.

"What's so special about this kid – usually you're shipping them out of your department quicker than it takes for the diagnosis to enter your head!"

"He's a nice kid…plus he hates his dad – so we have something in common."

"You hate your dad?" Cameron asked, causing House to groan.

"No – I hate his dad, weren't you listening? Now go take some blood."

"We have blood-"

"His heart nearly exploded – something's changed, get blood and find out what it is!" House shouted weakly, looking up from the files for the first time since they had entered the room.

Chase left first, unwilling to be on the end of another one of House's bad moods; Foreman scooped up the file from under House's nose and Cameron gave her boss a worried frown before walking out to join the others, leaving Wilson to lecture House alone.

"You should have stayed at home."

"I know."

"So why didn't you?"

"Cuddy called after the kid arrested just after 10"

"You've been here all night?" Wilson questioned, not believing his ears.

"Couldn't sleep – my head feels like it's going to explode and I've been throwing up all over the place."

"So you're planning on staying awake 'till the pain goes away and you stop throwing up?"

"That was my plan"

"You're unbelievable."

"Thanks."

Wilson sighed and sat down on the chair next to House who had his head in his hands.

"Stop staring." House said angrily, although it was aimed at the desk rather than Wilson because it hurt too much to look up when the room insisted on spinning like it did – making House nauseous beyond belief.

"Do you need a hand to your office?" Wilson asked tentatively, "at least try and get some rest on your comfy chair." He added seeing House yawn after being up all night.

House looked up at Wilson, intent on letting him know that bribery wouldn't work, but instead he caused alarm bells to go off in Wilson's head, "Whoa, how long has your eye been bloodshot like that?"

"I haven't really been in the mood to look at myself in the mirror lately due to the fact I look like I've been in a fight with Mike Tyson...but by the way you're reaching for your penlight right now, I'm guessing it looks pretty bad huh?" House said sleepily.

"Yeah" Wilson replied as he checked House's pupils, "you should get Foreman to check you out."

"Thanks but he's really not my type."

"You could have brain damage, nerve damage to your eye-"

"Oh stop, you're just mad 'cos I stole back my patient-"

"I'm just mad because you are more worried about your patient than you are about yourself!" Wilson fumed as he stood up, exasperated; he sighed and walked out of the room before he lost his temper with House completely.

House leaned back in the chair and put his hand over his right eye; Wilson was right to be worried, all House could see out of his left eye was a hazy red sheen, 'maybe a call to Foreman would be necessary…' he thought as he groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the next wave of nausea to pass…

Author's note – Ok, next chapter is back to Andrew with the ducklings – I haven't forgotten about him! Reviews would be great!