Chapter 5. A Regular Boy Scout

As House got out of his car, another one pulled up alongside, splashing him. He didn't think he could get any wetter. The driver got out too and shouted "Sorry!" above the pounding of the rain, then went around to the passenger side of his car and opened the door. As he helped a thin woman out he asked, "Would you mind getting the door to the clinic?"

The woman leaned on the man as she walked slowly toward the door. House opened it and held it for them, then followed them inside.

"Dr. Cameron said to bring her right over," the man explained without being asked.

"She's in the back," House told him, finally shutting the outer door against the rain. He walked around the couple and opened the back door so they could enter the make shift infirmary. "Got you another one," he called out to Cameron.

She looked up, trying not to register surprise at seeing him back. "Put Kelly over here, Ralph," she told the man. Obviously, she knew the couple.

He led the woman over and she practically collapsed onto the bed. Her breathing was shallow and labored.

"Any luck finding out what's wrong with them?" House asked.

Cameron shook her head. "And Zithromax hasn't worked for either of my other patients. I don't think I have enough Cipro or Levaquin for them all, not to mention any others who might show up."

"If you need more, you'd better get it before the storm gets any worse," House told her. "Or maybe it's not an infection."

She nodded. "Ralph, if I call in some prescriptions, could you head over to Walgreens for them?"

"I don't really want to leave Kelly," he said.

"I'll go," House told her.

"I thought you were leaving town," Cameron said, finally registering her surprise that he was back. "You don't even know where the drugstore is!" She studied him. "What happened to Ole Yeller?"

"It was Mo's," he said, knowing she meant the slicker, but not how she'd ever heard of the ancient TV show.

"Well, if you're going out again, Dr. Sweeney left a raincoat in the lab. It's longer than your jacket. Might as well take it." She picked up the phone and called the pharmacy. "Hi, Phil? This is Dr. Cameron. I'm going to need all the Amoxicillin and Levaquin you can spare. I'm sending someone over to pick it up." She listened for a minute, then said. "Thanks, Phil," and hung up.

"He's about to shut the store," she told House. "Most of the other shops in town have already boarded their windows and closed." She gave him directions. The pharmacy wasn't far away.

He took just long enough to exchange his leather jacket for the longer raincoat, and than headed back out into the deluge. He had to admit that the coat protected him somewhat from the elements, but that was all that could be said for it. What he wouldn't give for a spy-like trenchcoat! That would be much cooler!

He got into his car and turned right out of the parking lot. He drove to the first traffic light, then turned right, as instructed. The store was at the end of the block, a typical corner drugstore, huge and filled with all sorts of things besides drugs. He had made a list in his head of some supplies he thought Cameron might need. This was just the kind of place that would have most of them.

Phil, the pharmacist, a middle-aged man, tall and heavy with a mustache and glasses, was still collecting the antibiotics Cameron had requested. That gave House time to wander through the aisles, filling a cart with a battery-operated torch and a couple of flashlights, some large bottles of distilled water and drinking water, whatever meters he found on the shelves to supplement the woefully inadequate equipment at the clinic, and assorted other items.

The druggist helped him carry everything out to his car in a box and several plastic bags, and he drove back to the clinic. The rain hadn't let up as he carried the bag of prescription meds in. He handed it to Cameron and called to the man she'd called Ralph. "If you can drag yourself away from Katie..."

"...Kelly...," Ralph corrected.

"...whatever, I could use some help carrying everything else in."

Cameron looked at him in shock with a layer of curiosity. But this was House. Who knew what he'd been up to.

Ralph pulled on his heavy windbreaker and accompanied House back to the car. Between them they managed to bring in everything House had bought. At the last minute, House added the small chest of items he'd brought from his apartment. Some of the chemicals might prove useful.

Cameron watched wide-eyed as House brought in the vast assortment he'd purchased.

"They say the storm will be continuing for at least two days," he explained. "Gotta be prepared."

"You're a regular boy scout," Cameron said, smirking at him.

It was the second time that day that he'd been called one. Even though it had been said sarcastically, both times, he was strangely pleased that anyone should consider him boy scout material. "You've accused me of worse," he shot back before carrying some of the items into the make shift lab and Cameron followed him. He turned to her and asked, "Any progress?"

She shook her head. "It's only been forty-five minute since you last asked that. House, I'm not sure I can handle this. If it weren't for the storm, I'd send these patients to one of the hospitals in Salisbury or Annapolis, or maybe even Norfolk."

"If we can't figure this out, what makes you think the doctors there would be able to?"

"We?" she questioned.

"I'm stuck here." He shrugged. "Better than staring out the window at the downpour."

She tried to smile. "This isn't the best-equipped lab either of us has worked in."

Was she apologizing? "That's an understatement! So." He pulled out two more items, a child's dry erase board and some markers. "What've we got so far?"

Now she really did smile. "OK. The obvious would be an infection, something contagious. I'll bet there are more cases out there."

"Aren't there other doctors in this town who might be seeing other victims?" he asked, putting the board down for a minute.

She shook her head. "There's an Ob/Gyn who lives here, but she works in Salisbury. And a dentist. That's it."

"Where do these people get their health care?"

"House, they're farmers and fishermen. They don't have health insurance," she said. "The few who work in the cities and do have insurance, or have the money, go to doctors in those cities. I'm afraid I'm it for everyone else."

House nodded. "Pete's a fisherman, I gather. What about the others?"

It was an odd question, but no odder than others she'd heard him ask in the past. "Harry's from Baltimore. I don't know what kind of job he has, but he's only here for the week to visit his cousin."

"And Kelly?"

"She's a housewife, works part-time at the Giant food store in town."

"So, it's not occupational," House mused.

"The only things they have in common are their symptoms," Cameron said. "I'm going to give them all Amoxicillin. None of them are allergic. I've also started them on a decongestant."

House nodded. "While you're doing that, I'll play with these blood samples." He indicated the rack of tubes. "Got urine?"

That actually made her laugh. She'd forgotten that working with House could actually be fun. It would be more so if she wasn't so worried about the patients.