Chapter 5- Failure to Cure.

The patient was moved to the Old City Sanctuary that night. There was already an antibiotics IV connected to his arm, and he was already on hemodialysis. They also started screening his blood, hoping to wash out of him every other thing he may have gotten in the hospital, be it a disease or a medication. He was then put in the back of the private jet, close enough for Magnus to be able to get to him quickly, but far and protected enough to make sure no one else catches meningitis as well. One patient was enough for them.

Ashley, Will and Magnus were sitting in the center of the plane. While Will and Ashley tried to sleep, Magnus turn to recheck everything they did in the hospital in order to make sure there was nothing there other than the meningitis. She rechecked every one of his records, and had almost given up when she noticed a small anomaly. In his status, the immune system cells number was supposed to be higher than normal, while in reality it was slightly lower than normal for both Empaths and Vampires. It was not much lower, but lower enough to make her second doubt the results she received on the meningitis test.

Leaving the papers she was holding, she quickly grabbed her cellphone and called the New York Sanctuary.

"It's Magnus. I need you to redo Mr. Sung's blood work and what's left of his LP. Check for common infections, including meningitis. Yes, check for STDs as well. Fax the results to the Old City Sanctuary. Thank you."

She hung up and then, seeing her daughter and Will were asleep, she turned towards the back of the jet. She quietly moved towards her patient, shaking her head slightly to herself as she saw he was awake. He looked at her quietly for a moment, not saying a thing, before reaching out towards the small lamp on the table by his side. Seeing that he could not reach it, Magnus quickly turned it on.

"Turn it off!" He screamed the moment the lights turned on. She quickly tried to turn the brightness of the light down a bit, but as he kept screaming she knew turning it off completely was the only option she had left. She quickly turned it off, but before she could say anything, Will and Ashley walked inside, turning on a few lights as they did. "Turn it off! Stop it already!"

The two did not need any other instructions. They quickly turned off the lights and returned to their seats, not even asking what the problem is. As they had expected, they were joined by worried Magnus a moment later.

"He's photophobic," She said.

"Isn't that another symptom of meningitis?" Ashley asked.

Helen nodded. "It is. And it fits the timeline. But for some reason," She continued, taking the papers she left on her seat earlier, "He has low white blood cells level, which doesn't fit meningitis. Either he's got two different infections, or we don't know what's wrong with him. I asked the lab to redo his blood work. Hopefully they'll find something else."

"And if they don't?" Will asked quietly, already guessing the answer.

"We might need to call Doctor House."

The rest of the flight has been uneventful. They covered the patient as much as possible as they transported him out of the airport and to the car that waited for them. He was then put in one of the Sanctuary's private rooms, in which he was connected to his IV, the hemodialysis and the blood screening.

By the time they finished transferring the patient his test results arrived, from both Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and the other Sanctuary. To Helen's surprise, both tests showed negative for meningitis.

"It must have been a false positive," She said as she looked up at Will and Ashley. They were all seated in her office, a cup of tea in front of each of them. Helen took a sip from hers before she continued reading the test results, first the hospital's and then the Sanctuary's. "They didn't find parasites, but they, too, have noticed an immune system problem. We must have tested for the wrong- He's got blood sepsis." She cut herself off as she reached the Sanctuary's only positive result. "That's why he's been stable with the antibiotics and the dialysis," She explained, seeing neither of them was following her.

"So all we need to do is continue treating for sepsis and he'll be fine?" Will asked.

"I hope so." Even though it seemed that they finally found the answer to the question that has been bothering them, Helen did not seem calm. She still seemed as if it was bothering her, as if she was not sure it was the only answer.

"What is it, mom?" Seeing her mother concerned, Ashley herself started getting worried.

"If all that he has is sepsis, he should have been getting better, not remaining stable." She replied. "That and drug damage from the hospital fit all of his symptoms, but for some reason he's not getting better at all, even though he should have been."

"I'm sure it's just a matter of time," Will tried, hoping he is right.

"I hope so."

"So," House walked into his office, wearing his leather jacket and sunglasses, "What have we got?"

His whole team was already waiting in the outer office, ready for another workday. Each of them had a case lying in front of them, yet House did not seem to care. He was holding his own case, which meant their cases, no matter how interesting they might look, were not going to get acknowledged. Seeing they do not understand, House threw the case on the table, revealing the name on it to the other four people in the room.

"Mr. Sung? I thought-" Thirteen started.

"I know you thought," House replied lightly, dropping his bag in his own office, "I want to hear what conclusions you've reached. Or maybe you haven't reached any?" He continued, moving backwards and looking at them through the glass door. They all knew what reaching no conclusions meant when you were working on a case with House- Uselessness.

"We have," Taub pulled out the report they made the night before. "It's not meningitis or parasites. He's White Blood Cells level is low and-"

"I read the report," House cut him off as he limped back to the outer office. "I know what it says. I want to know what you think he might have." He walked towards the whiteboard and quickly wrote 'Leukopenia' and 'Hyperventilation'.

"He didn't have hyperventilation." Kutner stated as Thirteen quickly searched the file for hyperventilation.

"He didn't," House agreed.

"Then why-"

"He still has. Unconsciousness, urinal bleed, fever, kidney failure, arrhythmia, depression, low white blood cells count and hyperventilation." House turned to look at them, putting the marker down. "Ideas?"

"He doesn't have hyperventilation. It's his asthma." Thirteen looked up at him. "His breathing's fine."

"No, it's not. We've been ignoring it because we thought it's his asthma. What if it's a symptom?" House asked, looking at them intently. None of them spoke. "C'mon, give me something!"

"Brain tumor," Foreman spoke, his voice calm. "It would explain the unconsciousness, the arrhythmia, the depression and the hyperventilation."

"An infection would cause fever," Thirteen continued, "and it might cause kidney failure, too. Urinal bleed is a symptom of kidney failure."

"Good." House seemed excited to hear the new ideas. He quickly took a red marker and a purple one before circling the different groups of symptoms in the two different colors. "It could also be poisoning, which would cause something systemic." He added, taking a third color to write 'poisoning' on the board.

"We checked for drug poisoning," Foreman said, looking at the file for a moment before turning back to House. "He was clean."

"It could be spider infection," Taub suggested. "It would cause fever, kidney failure and dark urine. Maybe it's not urinal bleed, maybe it just got darker." He added quickly.

"The WBC level can be caused by Leukemia, chemical poisoning or Banti's syndrome." Thirteen suggested, leaning forward. Her eyes, like everyone else's, were focused on House alone.

"No," Kutner shook his head, "It's not Banti's. We'd have seen digestive symptoms." He thought silently for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Combined with the fever, the arrhythmia and the hyperventilation, it could be sepsis," He said finally.

House nodded as he quickly circled the group with an orange marker. "Great differential." He put down the markers and turned to leave, ignoring all the other cases on the table and the wondering looks his team sent him. "Oh, wait, let me guess- you wanna ask where I'm going." He asked as he opened the door, finally acknowledging their curiosity. "I'm going to wait for Magnus to call us. You all… find yourselves something to do," was all he said before leaving them in the office, looking at each other with slightly wondering looks.

"Mr. Sung, you look better," Helen smiled at her patient as she sat down on a chair by his side. However, her smile disappeared as she looked at the heart monitor, which showed continuous arrhythmia. However, her patient was clearly slowly recovering, as his hyperventilation disappeared, and his White Blood Cells count went slightly higher during the day. "How are you feeling?" She turned back to him, looking at him with a gentle, compassionate look.

"I'm fine." His voice was slightly hoarse of lack of usage. "Where am I?"

"You're at the Sanctuary," She replied patiently. "You're an abnormal, kind of a human with special abilities," she added as she saw his confusion. "We help people like you. Since when have you had special powers?"

"Since I can remember. What have I got?"

"You've got sepsis. An infection in your blood. With the drugs they gave you at the hospital you were in, it caused all of your symptoms. You should be better in a couple of days at most. What kind of powers do you have?" She tried to be as reassuring as possible.

"I can feel others' feelings," He replied. "I can sense… that you're worried, and you want to make me feel better," He murmured a moment later.

"It's true." It was always nice to have confirmation that she really did want to help these people. They trusted her easily, knowing exactly how she feels about them. "We're here to help you feel better and learn and control your powers. I know how overwhelming it is to have these special powers," She continued gently.

"It is." He sunk back to his weird silence.

Helen waited a few moments before getting up and leaving. She turned to her room, deciding to, unlike the last few nights, use that night to get some sleep. Even she got tired after a while. She went up to her room, lay in her bed and started reading, hoping to feel tired enough at some point to be able to fall asleep early.

That did not happen. However, three hours later she heard a knock on her door. "Yes?" She asked, putting the book aside and grabbing the gun she always kept by her bed.

"Magnus," It was Henry. There was certain urgency in both his steps and his voice. "It's Mr. Sung. He's screaming like crazy."

She quickly got up. She did not even have to say a word as they quickly hurried down to the infirmary. Biggie was already there, trying to calm down the screaming abnormal. Helen quickly put on her gloves, sensing it would need delicate care, and then entered the room, taking Biggie's place by the abnormal's right as he turned to his left.

"Mr. Sung," Helen called, trying to overcome the noise. "What are you feeling?" She nodded at Biggie briefly and the other abnormal grabbed a syringe and quickly turned to get sedatives. "Mr. Sung!"

"My feet!" He screamed. "I can't stand it!"

Helen hurried towards his feet, nodding at Biggie again. The abnormal quickly injected him the sedatives using his IV. Sung slowly stopped screaming as the sedatives started taking effect. Helen's face turned worried as she gently touched his swollen feet before she looked up at Henry, who was waiting outside the room.

"He has edemas," She told him. "All of his legs. It appears he has congestive heart failure," She added.

"What could have caused it?" Henry asked back.

"I don't know." She admitted. The truth was that she really did not know what caused his symptoms. She thought it was the drugs and the sepsis, but time went by and things did not change enough. More than that, there appeared to be other symptoms. And she had absolutely no idea what happened to him.

"Should I get House?"

She sighed. This would not be pleasant. "Do it."