Here's the next installment. I don't own House or Crossing Jordan. If you like what you're reading hit the little button below to leave a review.
"Have we gotten anywhere yet?" questioned House when he arrived back at the lab Bug was working in.
"No, not yet. Got interrupted by your boss."
House winced, "Don't tell me she's stopped you."
"No, more like accused me of hiding you and the usual twenty questions I've been asked so far on this case." Said Bug as the door burst open and Woody entered.
"So, anything yet?" Bug let out an exasperated sigh, "We narrowed it down that Leah was poisoned. Sam's still working on the ballistics, and no, I haven't heard from her and two,"
"Uh, that would be three," said House as Bug glared at him. House shot him an innocent look and Bug continued, "Three, I'm still in the process of funning a breakdown and comparison to Leah's tox screen and the poison, which is going to take time. I don't know how much, and the both of you sitting here waiting isn't going to make it or me go any faster. So, if you have other things to do, do them. I'll page the both of you when I get anything." Both House and Woody stood there not making a move to the door. Bug let it go for a few minutes and then gave up. "You-"he said, pointing at Woody, "Keep Lu off of us for a while if possible, or find me the actual hard copy tox results. I can't find the copies that Nigel gave Dr. Cameron. And you," he said looking at House, "Go see your daughter, get some rest, get some food, whatever. Just the both of you out and now. Please."
"Yes sir." Said House saluting him with his cane and getting the feeling that Woody hounded Bug for test results whenever Bug landed working a case with the Detective. Woody still stood there like a defiant child. "Are you deaf? You heard the man," said House as he used his cane as a hook to get Woody moving and out the door before Bug decided to do a live autopsy. Woody gave House a glare but it quickly faded. "Well, I better go and see where that tox file is locked up, are you going to take his advice?"
"Yeah, I've got no other choice." Said House.
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(A few hours later) Nigel Townsend was rather surprised when he drifted awake that he and Leah had a visitor and it wasn't someone that he was familiar with.
"Can I help you?" questioned Nigel.
"Relax, I'm one of the good guys. I'm Dr. Lisa Cuddy."
"Dr. Nigel Townsend."
"I wouldn't buy that good guy routine. She's been known to turn at a moment's notice." Said a voice that they both recognized as House's
"Oh, please. You're the one that's usually causing me all the headaches."
"Yeah, and you give me headaches as well."
"I can't even begin to tell you how much trouble you could possibly be in for doing this."
"Well, it's probably a lot less trouble than what Leah's going to be in if this witch hunt continues."
"I highly doubt it. Jail time, suspension, loss of license. Not to mention lawsuits. House do you even stop to think!" yelled Cuddy.
Nigel watched this strange ping pong shouting match between House and Cuddy but was growing a little concerned by Leah's heart monitor. The heart rate was going steadily up.
"Would the two of you please knock it off before we all get kicked out of here!" Cuddy and House both stopped and glared at him. "Her heart rate was starting to go through the roof because of your little shouting match. So either lower your voices or take it outside. Your doctors for crying out loud." Cuddy and House looked a little sheepish. "We're going to talk about this later. Have you gotten anywhere so far?" questioned Cuddy looking at House.
"Chase, Cameron, Foreman and Dr. Vijay are starting to narrow down what Leah ate that could have poisoned her, but that's not going as fast as I or a certain Boston Detective would like. But with how this case could become a very political nightmare, I'm not going to rush anything."
"That's a first." Said Cuddy.
"What did Nigel just tell you?" questioned a very groggy voice.
Everyone in the room somewhat jumped and turned to face the hospital bed.
"Leah!" all three of them said at the same time.
"You were going to bait him again."
"No I wasn't." said Cuddy. Leah opened her eyes a little farther and shot her a disbelieving look.
"Ah, Dr. I wouldn't lie to her. She's been a pretty good lie detector around the ME's office."
"Fine, I probably was, it's a very hard habit to break when it comes to dealing with your father."
"How are you feeling luv?" questioned Nigel.
"Still a little out of it and my stomach feels like it's in a washing machine."
"Just take nice easy breaths. We're still trying to figure out was slipped into whatever you ate or drank. Do you remember anything at all?" questioned Nigel as Cuddy then hopped in on him, "Shouldn't we call the others and let them know that she's awake?"
"In a few minutes, I don't want the wrath of Detective Simmons or ADA Wolcott coming in here and grilling her. Which I'm sure that you wouldn't allow, either. As I was saying do you remember anything?"
"The only things that I remember was Lily visiting and after she left that I should probably eat something and then I remember a few minutes later getting woozy and then nothing until you came and started talking and Dad and Cuddy's little shouting match."
"What were you doing before you got woozy, bump up against anything?" questioned House.
"No, I had gotten some water, it tasted fine to me, but I had this feeling that I had drank the last of the bottled water I had bought, but my memory's been so out of whack with what's been going on."
"You're doing just fine." Said House as he pulled out his cell phone and looked at Nigel.
"What's Dr. Vijay's cell phone number."
"555-2956, why?"
"We might have a possible break in the case."
"We knew that the water was poisoned." Said Nigel
"Yes, but I can't for the life of me remember if we remembered to get prints off that water bottle."
"Same here." Said Nigel as a nurse then came into the room.
"She's awake."
"Yes, she is. We're going to need to have another sample of blood drawn and sent to Dr. Vijay from the Boston ME's office. He's working in one of the labs here."
"Of course."
(Back at the lab) Bug let out a sigh when he saw an unknown number come across on his cell phone.
"Vijay."
"It's House."
"I don't have any-"
"Before you start in on me, did we run prints off that water bottle yet?"
"I'm going to have to check with Jordan or Dr. Macy on that one why?"
"Leah's awake at the moment and she said that she didn't think that the water bottle she drank from was there before."
"Okay."
"And it looks like you're going to be sent another blood sample. See if this combo she was drugged with is out of her system or if it's going to come back and rear it's ugly head." Said House
"Thanks. Tell Leah to take it easy and that she's got a lot of people in her corner." When Bug ended the phone call he wasn't too surprised to see Jordan poke her head in.
"Don't shoot me, but how's it going?" questioned Jordan.
"We may be making some head way. We still have the water bottle from Leah's apartment?"
"Yeah, it's back in evidence lockup at the morgue. Why?"
"It could be very possible that who ever framed Leah broke in and placed it in her apartment."
"How do you know that?"
"She's awake right now."
"I'll get right on it after I see her. And good news, Sam's tests are really really leaning towards that Leah didn't shoot JD."
"Great, now I better get back to work before Dr. House comes down and offers to help."
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By the time that Jordan arrived at Leah's Hospital room Drs. House and Cuddy were walking out. Nigel was there with Leah.
"They leave?" questioned Leah.
"They're making their way out towards the elevators, but why do I get the feeling that they're going to rip each other to shreds later?"
"That's typical behavior for those two from what Wilson's told me." Said Leah with a sigh.
"You okay luv?" questioned Nigel.
"I guess."
"Hey, don't start feeling guilty for yourself." Said Jordan.
"Jordan, I'm surprised you feel that way."
"Woah where did that come from. Why wouldn't I feel that way?"
"Because JD's dead."
"Leah, I'm not blaming you for his death. Whatever he was working on was what probably got him killed. Not you. And if you think otherwise, I'm going to have to kick your ass as soon as you're out of that hospital bed."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"You'd do that for any of us if we were in your shoes." Said Jordan.
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"That's great Bug. I'll be sure to pass it along to the others." Said Garret as he saw Renee Wolcott standing outside Garret's office. "Look, Bug I better let you go. Just keep me informed."
"Garret."
"I take it this is a business call."
"It is."
"If this is concerning the Rysten case I don't want to hear it."
"Oh, you're going to listen. You can't have all of your team dedicated and pulling in others just to try and get results that clear Dr. Rysten's name."
"So, you mean to tell me that you have no problems with putting an innocent woman behind bars."
"Innocent! My god Garret, she had her fingerprints and GSR on her hands. She was seen fighting with Mr. Pollack before he died. You're defending her as much as you would Jordan."
"She's not Jordan, nor will she ever be. I assume that you know that Bug called in an independent investigator to go over the ballistics."
"That I heard, but how does he know her?"
"A mutual acquaintance, and from what we've got so far, she didn't fire that gun. Someone fired it for her. She's right handed Renee, the GSR was on her left hand."
"That could mean anything."
"You know as well as I do that she did serve on a police force before coming here and Ms. Redstone did go over her firearm proficiency tests and she was not accurate at all shooting left handed."
"There's a first time for everything Garret, she could have gotten lucky."
"Which team are you playing for Renee? I think you've been spending way too much time with Detective Simmons. Whatever happened to innocent before proven guilty?" Reene didn't respond to that but put out a threat of her own, "Anymore of you try to interfere in this investigation and I will be sure that none of you are going to be working on it." She said as she stormed out of the office.
That went rather disastrously. Thought Garret to himself wondering if he had done the right thing by arguing with Renee. At least he hadn't slipped and said that Leah was awake. Just from the mood that she was in Renee could have put Leah behind bars on some nitpicky violation, if there even was one that she could come up with. He was lost in thought when he saw Woody slightly poke his head in.
"Was that Wolcott I just saw storm out of here?"
"Yeah, Don't even get me started."
"I can guess what she came to see you about."
"Yeah. So, what brings you by?'
"I'm still trying to track down the original tox screens from when Leah was brought in. You still wouldn't happen to have them?"
"Nope, ever since Lu pulled her Svengali on Wolcott your guess is as good as mine."
"Great. Did you hear anything from the others?"
"Just got a call from Bug not that long ago."
"Test results?"
"No, Leah's awake. They're not sure how long that's going to last, this could be just temporary, just keep that under your hat."
"Will do. I'm going to head back to the precinct and do a little snooping."
Woody was coming up with a big goose egg trying to track down the hard copy of Leah's tox screen. The last person he wanted to have to deal with was Lu again. He was a little surprised when his search was interrupted by ADA Wolcott.
"Looking for anything in particular Detective?"