The Worse Of Two Evils
(Minds like a steel trap; rusty and illegal in 47 states)
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own them.
"Two teenagers. Burns on their arms. Hang out together, yet present different symptoms," House wondered aloud.
Kasi and Bryn had been admitted, and had been sent to diagnostics immediately thereafter.
"And what's worse? We can't get a hold of either's parents. How can that be, my little ducklings?" he asked.
"They both said their folks were out of town," Foreman repeated.
"Yeah. Too bad there isn't something we can use to communicate with people far away. You know, like a phone," he snarked back.
"Bryn's unconscious, and Kasi refuses to tell us anything," Chase replied.
"Oh wait, along with phones, we have medical records! Get the numbers, call the parents." Cameron shook her head.
"There are no numbers for them."
"Sounds suspicious. What else did Cassy say?" House asked, purposely saying the name wrong.
"Nothing, really…" Cameron trailed off.
"Tell me. What was underneath her clothes?" House asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Cameron was disgusted, but Foreman smirked.
"Why, House? You never found out? And all those hookers you brag about never showed you?"
Chase and Cameron laughed as House glared at Foreman.
"Who changed her into the gown?" House bluntly asked.
Chase looked up. "Nobody. She was conscious, so she changed herself."
"Cameron. Go see what's underneath. If she has any scars, it could be an infection or bacteria. And try to get a history from her about both of them, if she can."
House-House-House-House-House
"No way!" Kasi growled after Cameron explained what she had been sent to do.
"I need to see if you have any unhealed scars. If so, we can start looking for infections," Cameron explained.
"I probably just have the flu! That tends to be what happens when you're throw up, you know!" she yelled.
"But it could be something else, like an infection from a cut."
"I'm not cut," Kasi snapped.
"Fine," Cameron relented. Kasi smirked, and Cameron told herself to let the teen have her small victory. "I also need a history." A confused look crossed her face. "I need to know details about your mom, dad, and about you," she explained.
"Hmm…Don't know. Don't know. And no allergies and I've been vaccinated," Kasi counted off, and quickly realized a small mistake she'd let slip.
"What do you mean, 'don't know,'?" Cameron asked, picking up on it. Kasi shrugged
"I'm adopted. Never met either of my parents. Bryn use to live with her mom, but she died, and that's when we met since I'm usually in foster care," Kasi answered reluctantly.
"How'd she die?" Maybe mother and daughter had some related illness.
"I don't know. You don't tend to ask that or advertise it," she snarked.
Cameron was suddenly reminded of House and his snappy teenager attitude at times.
"Still, we need to contact your foster parents."
"Not talking. For either of us."
"Does that mean I should suspect you being abused, raped, or runaways?" Cameron asked back, causing Kasi to flinch.
"We aren't runaways, and we haven't been raped." She paused, staring Cameron right in the eyes. "Or abused."
At that moment, Kasi started coughing again, but since her stomach had been emptied before, nothing but dry heaving occurred. Cameron quickly assessed Kasi's vitals, and noticed that she had gained a significant fever, almost at 101.4 degrees.
House-House-House-House-House
Chase and Foreman, in the meantime, had gone to check on Bryn in case she had woken. And she had, though it was reluctant on her part, due to the bleach white room glaring the fluorescent into her eyes.
"How are you feeling?" Chase asked tentatively.
"What happened?" she asked, groggy from sleep.
"You passed out just as we were leaving," Foreman informed her while checking her vitals. She also had a high temperature.
"And Kasi?"
Chase and Foreman looked at each other uneasily.
"She's also been admitted," Chase finally answered. "Though it looks pretty much like the flu. We want to be sure. And we may believe that she's being abused in some way." At that, he looked down at the red-head, and noticed her flinch.
"Bryn, if you tell us who's hurting Kasi, we can help her," Chase tried to explain.
"You mean send her back into foster care," she countered.
"She's adopted?" Foreman asked.
"Already have that covered. And so is she," Cameron said, walking into the room.
Just then, "GIVE ME BACK MY GODDAMN SKITTLES!!" was heard throughout the hospital.
Bryn became wide-eyed. "You shouldn't have done that…now she's likely to destroy this place atom by atom…Addiction doesn't even begin to describe how Kasi is about her Skittles."
"In that case, she might be more willing to give me the answers we need." House's influence had apparently finally sunk in for Cameron.
Unfortunately, at the wrong time.
Suddenly, their beepers went off, showing that Kasi had flat-lined. Just as they were about to run to her room, she appeared at Bryn's door.
"Give them back!" she yelled, clearly pissed.
Bryn imagined that if she was in an anime at this point, she would have sweat dropped.
"Can't you just get more from your stash?" she asked.
"I don't know where they put my bag," Kasi growled. Sweat-drops all around.
"You can have them back as soon as you let me check for any scars." And at that, Kasi seemed uneasy.
"I think that was our tip-off," Chase said, noticing her demeanor. "I'll call Social Services."
"NO!" both girls denied at once.
"What is all this noise about?" asked Wilson, having heard people yelling while passing through the hall.
"We suspect abuse, but they won't say anything to back it," Foreman explained.
Wilson rolled his eyes, and looked at the two teenage girls. His gaze seemed to linger on Bryn, before looking back at House's fellows.
"Why won't either of you say what's wrong? Obviously no one can hurt you in here," he finally questioned.
Neither spoke. Kasi, however, slid to the floor and sat, refusing to move. She seemed tired, all of the sudden, but didn't speak about it. Bryn looked down and fiddled with the blankets. Wilson shook his head.
"Go ahead and get her back to her room. She looks exhausted," he said, motioning towards Kasi. "Besides, unless you can get a hold of their guardians, you can't really do any tests since you need consent." And that was where Wilson had a point.
Chase gently helped the dark-haired girl up. Kasi didn't have the energy to put up a fight. She promptly fell asleep once back into bed, and since Bryn remained awake, the questioning continued.
"Her arms were covered," Chase said when he returned. "Either she's got a bad disease, or it's abuse."
"Bruising could indicate leukemia. I can test her, and then you can call Social Services if the test is negative," Wilson commented, but noticed that he shouldn't have said that when Bryn was paying attention.
"She could have cancer?"
Wilson looked uncomfortable at this. "It's…a possibility."
"But if someone else is doing it, it's not?"
"Anyone can get cancer. It's just that bruising is a symptom of it. Along with fatigue and sometimes flu-like symptoms," Wilson explained. "You guys head back to House. Do a differential, or something. It's either that, or have him come down with his cane and poke at these two."
They shrugged and prepared to leave, but first they needed some blood from Kasi and Bryn to test. Bryn growled at the needle as though she were a dog and it was a vicious foe.
"It'll be a quick poke. Then you'll be done," Chase said as he approached her with a needle. Bryn sat up on the bed and back up to the headboard.
"No way in Hell, man."
"It's just a needle. We need to blood to run some tests and make sure you're okay."
"No," Bryn pressed again. It was Foreman's turn to step up.
"The sooner we get your blood, the sooner we can run the tests. The sooner we run the tests the sooner we treat you. Then you can go back to building bonfires and skateboarding." Bryn eyed the needle again, glaring at it. If only she could make it explode with her mind…
"Look at me, Bryn," Chase said. Bryn turned to face him, but quickly turned back to the advancing Foreman, with the needle. She wrapped her arms around her waist. "Don't look at him, look at me." Bryn turned back to him. "Where do you go skateboarding at?"
"'Round town," she replied as Foreman grabbed her arm and began palpating her vein.
"How long have you skated?"
"Few years. Kasi's been doing a lot longer. She's a lot better, too."
"You guys seem like pretty good friends," Cameron remarked. Bryn nodded.
"I could write her biography, and she could write mine."
"How'd you guys meet?"
"Dictators Anonymous."
"All done," Foreman informed her. She looked at the tube of blood in his hand.
"Now then. We need to get a history from you, and if you can, tell us about Kasi," Wilson prodded. "Kasi mentioned that your mom died. Do you know what from?"
"Car crash. Drunk driver hit her car. I was at school when it happened. After that, I was put into foster care, which is where we met. And Kasi never told me anything other than that she didn't know either of them," Bryn answered as Wilson wrote down the information.
"Can you tell me your mom's name so I can do a background check? See if she had anything that could be passed down genetically," he explained.
"Roslyn Amantea." Wilson looked up. "And before you ask, I don't know who my dad is."
"Uh, anyways, have you had any recent problems? Colds, sore throats, problems at school or home?" he asked.
"Nope. Last time I was sick was two or three months ago."
"And Kasi?"
"About the same."
"All right then," he sighed, standing up from the chair. "I'll go give this information to Dr. House, and I'll see about those tests for Kasi, and throw in a few for you to check for basic things."
With that, Wilson left, leaving Bryn kind of confused, seeing as how he left in such a hurry.
Wilson quickly dropped off the information for House to review, told him he would do the testing for the two girls since he was an oncologist and better suited to looking for cancer. House looked at him, questions in his eyes as he saw a new mystery, but turned back to the ducklings, who were throwing out what diseases matched for the girls and he wrote them down on two separate white boards. One was labeled "Skittle Addict" and the other was "Shorty". It wasn't hard to guess which board belonged to who.
Wilson quickly made his way to the lab, and ran some of Bryn's blood first, since he suspected something. Afterwards, he ran Kasi's blood, and put it under the microscope, looking for the signs of leukemia. He relaxed when he realized that her blood didn't show the signs at ALL. However, unless the bruises Chase told him about were some other ailment, that meant that it was abuse. As it was, they needed to call the Service to get information of Kasi's parents, if she had any, and possibly Bryn's as well, if he couldn't find the file.
Just then, the machine he'd put Bryn's blood signaled that the test was done. He took the results and skimmed over them. He shot a hand out and grabbed a hold of the table to keep his balance. He'd done what he could, and went to his office, holding both test results. As it was, he'd received one negative and one positive.
A few minutes later, House came into the office, not knocking or anything.
"Where are my tests?"
Wilson handed him the results to Kasi's blood scan, not looking at him. He just stared at one of the results.
"Negative for leukemia. Good. That means that we might be able to fix her yet! And the mystery goes on." House noticed Wilson's lack of reaction. Normally, he would be scolded for treating to patients like guinea pigs. "Someone die? You'd think you'd get use to it after working with cancer patients," he snarked.
"Here's the mother's file," Wilson said, handing him Roslyn's file.
House looked at it, and then at the second test, the one that was positive. At last, he looked back at his only friend, and stuck out his hand, which Wilson grabbed hesitantly.
"Congratulations! You're the father of a sick sixteen-year-old!" House said sarcastically, setting down the positive paternity test. "And since that's the case, I need your consent to run some tests!"
Author's Note: We would like to thank our first two reviewers, and we would also like to remind you that review make us very happy as well as make us review faster. These things go hand and hand, you see. Hope you liked this chapter of TWOTE!