Chapter 6. It's Getting Crowded in Here.
Cameron began to empty the bags and boxes of supplies House had brought back from the drugstore. "Home pregnancy tests?" she asked.
He shrugged. "You never know."
He said it with such seriousness that she laughed. "Some of these other items could come in handy," she admitted, reading the box for a new kind of fingertip oximeter.
"I wouldn't have spent the money otherwise," he said.
"Speaking of which, how much do I owe you?" she asked. She hadn't really thought about how much it all cost when he brought it in.
House shook his head. "We'll talk about it later." He was sure the clinic didn't have much money for supplies. "Too bad they haven't approved the DNA test kits that've been in the news lately." He looked around at the lab equipment. "How did you end up here?" he asked as nonchalantly as possible. The question had been plaguing him since he'd confirmed that she was indeed the doctor in the clinic.
"Chicago turned out to be a mistake," she readily admitted. "I...I was bored silly. And then I saw an ad Dr. Sweeney placed in a medical journal, JAMA I think. He wanted someone to work with him here for two months, and then take over when he retired." She shrugged. "It was just what the doctor ordered, for me anyway."
"Hah!" he said at her feeble attempt at a joke. She'd finished emptying the boxes and bags. He began to write down symptoms on the dry-erase board. "Right now we need to get to work. You said that Zithromax isn't working." He added that to what he'd written. There still was very little on the board. "I'd say we're missing something, but in this case, I think we're missing a whole lot."
"I'll start the Amoxycillin and hopefully that will work," she suggested.
"Have you run the blood samples through the centrifuge?" House asked. He'd noticed an old one on the counter, and remembered how attached to the things Cameron could get.
"Yes, but nothing unusual precipitated out," she replied. "After I give the patients the antibiotic, I'll get you some urine samples. You can at least test the pH," she said chuckling and holding up tests strips for a home pool.
He chuckled too before turning away from her and opening the packaging on some of the meters he'd purchased.
Cameron took one last thoughtful look at his back, then returned to her patients. She was very happy for House's help. There was something about his presence that gave her more confidence in her own ability. She knew she had to get to the bottom of this illness that was plaguing the three people lying on cots in her clinic, and, with his help, she thought she could.
She'd just sent Kelly to the small bathroom so she could get a urine sample when she heard the bell indicating that someone else had entered the clinic. "We're in the back," she called out. "Just come straight through."
A woman with dark hair walked through the doorway, supporting a dark-haired child of about ten. "Doctor, Pam's been having a hard time breathing," the woman said.
"I'm glad you brought her in, Janet," Cameron said. "Pam, sit down on this cot so I can examine you."
The girl and her mother looked around at the other patients. "Are they sick, too?" Pam managed to ask before she started to gasp for air.
"Yes," Cameron replied,
"Is it contagious?" Janet asked, watching the doctor check her daughter's heart rate, ears and throat.
"We're beginning to wonder whether it's an infection or something else."
"Then, why are so many people getting sick?" the woman demanded.
"Good question," House said, joining them from the lab. "Too bad we don't have an MRI scanner." He looked around. "There isn't even an X-ray machine."
"And here I was sure you had X-ray vision," Cameron quipped.
He chuckled. "Your sense of humor has improved." He looked around the room. "Looks like you've run out of beds," he said.
Cameron nodded and sighed.
"You slept here last night, didn't you?" There were now four patients and four other people, but only four cots. "We gonna double up?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Your sense of humor is still sophomoric, or should I say sopho-moronic!"
"Oh, c'mon, Cameron. Give me a break. I'm soaking wet and trying to solve a twenty-first century medical puzzle with nineteenth century equipment."
"Twentieth century equipment, but you made your point. So what do you suggest about the bed situation? Seriously," she cautioned.
"Oh, you don't have to provide a bed for me," Janet piped up. "Phil and Kevin are waiting for me in the car. They've evacuated everyone who lives along the shore. We're supposed to go to the high school gymnasium." She looked at her daughter. "You will take care of Pam, won't you Doctor Cameron?"
"Yes, we will." Cameron said. "So they're expecting flooding from this storm?"
"It's already started and the main part of the storm hasn't reached us yet," Janet said. She kissed her daughter's forehead. "Be good and listen to the doctor, hear?" she told her.
Pam nodded, and Janet began to leave.
"Wait, has Pam been sick at all lately? A cough? Bronchitis?" House asked. "Or does she have allergies?"
"How'd you know?" Janet said. "She's asthmatic, but this wasn't like an asthma attack. Her inhaler hardly worked at all and..."
House dismissed her, and turned to Ralph. "What about Kelly?"
"Uh, she had bronchitis a week or so ago, but it was completely cleared up! You think this is a recurrence?"
"Not really, but it weakened her lungs," House said, wandering off to the lab without another word of explanation.
"I think he's gotten an idea," Cameron told the others as she watched him walk away.