CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The next day, Wilson walked into House's office and looked in the diagnostics room; the triplets weren't there. He was greatly relieved. House had looked up at him but didn't say anything. Wilson sat down in the chair across from him and sat there, his eyes staring at the back of his desk.

"What's going on?"

"I've got 39-year old patient with Familial Peutz-Jeghers syndrome," Wilson told House forlornly.

"Has it turned into cancer?"

"Yes, stage II."

House squinted his eyes and looked at Wilson closely. "And you're telling me this be-caawws…?"

"I need your team to do a colonoscopy."

"And your doctor can't give you one be-caawws?"

"I want your team to do it."

House sat back hard against the back of the chair and frowned, causing the usual three deep wrinkles to appear just above the center of his eyebrows when his brain surged into thinking mode. House hated these types of games, especially with a friend. But then again, Wilson had never really played games with House – well, he had, but nothing to this extend. House already figured out where Wilson was going and he didn't like it. But he knew how difficult it was for Wilson to actually come to him asking for help, so he'd play along with it until Wilson could get it out.

"And you want my team to do it be-caawws?"

"Because it's ME!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wilson walked into his living room that night after work and felt sick to his stomach. He didn't want to tell Debra, but he knew he'd have to. He just wanted to get it over with. He walked into Gregory's bedroom and saw Debra sitting in the rocking chair with the sleeping baby in her arms. He smiled at her in the doorway, and she smiled back.

After Wilson picked up Gregory and placed him in the crib, the two went into the living room. Debra sat on the couch expecting Wilson to join her, but first Wilson poured himself a shot of Whiskey and downed it quickly, setting the glass back down a little harder than he expected and almost broke it. He turned to look at Debra, and by that time she was alarmed.

"James, what's wrong? We've had that Whiskey for a year as a house-warming gift and that's the first…"

When she saw the expression on his face, she knew it was bad. Immediately she grew worried. She stood up and approached him, putting her arms out to hug him. But he grabbed her wrists and told her to sit down, which they both did. She reached out her hand to his forearm and waited, impatiently. He shook his head and look at the wall behind her, not able to look into her eyes.

"Debra, when Gregory was born I was petrified there would be something wrong with him…"

"Oh, my god. Is it Grego…"

"No, no." He had to take a deep breath to continue. "I was worried because when I was born I had dark freckles around my lips and brown spots in my mouth. I checked out Gregory thoroughly when I first got my hands on him. He's fine. I checked him out because I had them when I was born. I've been tested every few years for the gene. In my family the polyps were never discovered until they were in late mid-forties, so I'm surprised I already have them."

"What was it?"

"Symptoms of… Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, PJS. It's a hereditary disease that my father has, and every male in my family had…and/or died of."

The intake of breath escaped Debra's mouth and Wilson looked at her for the first time. "Of what?" she asked nervously.

Wilson kept talking, diverting his eyes again, not listening to her. "PJS is a condition where polyps form in the intestinal track, stomach, among other areas. Granted, my father is still living, who's 62 and he's never had it but my grandfather…"

"I thought you said your Dad has it."

Wilson impatiently nodded his head then shook it, as if getting the words back together in his head. "He has it, yes, but my grandfather died from it."

"James! Will you stop beating around the bush and just TELL me!"

"My grandfather died of colon cancer."

And it all sank in. She tightened the grip on his forearm and she felt him pull back a little. "You've got colon cancer?" It came out more of a statement than a question, but she'd finally asked him.

He looked at her and put his hand over hers, squeezing it tight. "Yes."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hee-hee-hoooo…hee-hee-hoo."

"Oh, god…that expression is what got us in trouble in the first place!"

"Yeah, and it was your fault, and it was your face!"

"Yeah, well, you do that to me."

House and Cameron were sitting on a mat in LaMaze class again, practicing the breathing method she'd use during labor pains in the delivery room. It was the last class before she would deliver the baby, and she had four weeks left. The soon-to-be-parents were ready, and everything had gone so smoothly with the pregnancy that they were able to cope with the life-threatening problem with their friend.

Wilson had a sigmoidoscopy a week earlier, which showed there were indeed polyps, multiple ones, in the muscle walls of his colon, a sure sign of cancerous polyps. They were biopsied for cancer, and they came back positive, Stage II. At the moment, while House and Cameron were in class, he was having most of his colon removed.

Wilson explained to Debra the procedure as gently as he could, but there was no easy way for anyone to tell a person they might die. And although Wilson was an oncologist, it was three times harder than he expected when he was referring to himself. Then after his surgery, he told her he'd need to have a colostomy, which creates an opening in the abdomen for stool, or feces, to be drained from the large intestine, or colon. He assured her that in 90 percent of the cases it was successful. No chemo, no radiation – just check-ups every six months.

That didn't seem to comfort Debra at all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Okay, the next chapter is the fateful day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAMERON HAS HER BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or, should I say the devil's spawn? lol