Chapter 21

Feverish Communication

Teagan managed the first month without help, but she was exhausted, hardly able to do the minimum to make sure that the two of them were okay. She knew something wasn't right, but was afraid to take the time and money to go get checked. Every day she felt weaker and it worried her. It finally reached the point where she could hardly take care of the baby let alone cook herself a meal. She was eating directly out of the cans and trying hard to stay ahead of the laundry.

Teagan's mail was piling up at the lodge, which made Yolanda worry. She grabbed it and hopped in her truck, taking it and a sandwich to Teagan. When she arrived Teagan and Gregory were asleep, but Teagan looked thin, fragile. Her eyes were sunk and her usually shiny hair was dry and brittle.

"Sweetie, you aren't looking so hot and we're worried about you up at the lodge. Let me take Gregory this afternoon and you try to sleep. Have you got any milk pumped?

"I have a couple of bottles frozen in the kitchen."

"Good, I tell you what, when I run out of breast milk I'll come back and wake you. Now I'm going to get his diaper bag and you go to bed."

Yolanda left just after Teagan finished the sandwich. The entire lodge had fun watching, feeding and playing with Gregory. Around 7 p.m. Yolanda brought Gregory home, but Teagan didn't wake up when Yolanda entered the house calling for her. Walking into the her bedroom, Yolanda tried to wake Teagan, but she was having a hard time. She felt Teagan's head. It was hot to the touch, very hot.

"Teag, Teagan? Honey, wake up." Teagan moaned, but didn't open her eyes, "Oh Christ."

Yolanda went back to her cabin, picked up Luke and then stopped and got Fred. They managed to put a robe on Teagan and carry her to the truck, putting Gregory in his car seat in the back. As the drove along, Gregory screamed his head off. He was hungry again.

Groveland was where they were met by the ambulance they had called. Teagan was transferred by the paramedics and they took off for the hospital in Modesto. Yolanda made Luke run her to the grocery store where she bought formula and bottles. They went to Bertie's where Yolanda made up several bottles. When she tried to feed Gregory, he resisted the bottle at first, wanting his mother's breast; but he was so hungry they finally managed to get him to suck. After getting his fill he quieted down and went to sleep. They loaded Gregory up with several bottles and took off to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto where Teagan was taken.

Hallucinating because of the high fever, Teagan's blood pressure had also gone sky high. She kept seeing Greg hovering over her. Opening the gate, she began to talk to him as if he was in the room. The gate was opened so far that everyone in the room was receiving her thoughts, but didn't know where they were coming from, from whom or why. The doctors and nurses were looking at each other.

"Do you hear that?" The doctor asked the nurse.

"Yeah. Is it coming over the speaker?" the nurse asked.

"I don't know but they're loud!"

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Greg, Patricia, Wilson and Jennifer were at the Alchemist and Barrister celebrating Jennifer's promotion. Patricia was giving them an imitation of Greg House sleeping, "zzzzz, ahhh,zzzz, ahhhh..." She pretended to snore with her mouth wide open. "It sounds like a construction site. I'm surprised that I even get to sleep at night."

House wasn't amused, but the others were laughing out loud. He was about to say something witty when he heard her voice as clear as if she were sitting at the table with him. He stared over Wilson's shoulder, trying to concentrate on what she was saying.

"Greg, you came! You came to see him! Yes, he is beautiful...but I am so tired."

"House what is it?" Wilson watched as House's face tightened in concentration on something going on in his head. "House?"

House closed his eyes, trying to send his thoughts to her, "Teagan I don't understand you. You're slurring your words, have you been drinking. Teagan?"

"He's really beautiful...but I am so tired...I can't do it Greg, I thought I could but I can't...I'm too tired. "

House grabbed his head and closed his eyes again, needing for her to hear him, "Teagan, do what? Who's beautiful? You aren't making sense. Where are you, you seem close?"

Patricia was getting worried, "Greg, are you okay should we get you to the hospital?

But House wasn't hearing her; he was trying to figure out why Teagan was talking to him and why she sounded so strange.

"I thought I could but I can't...I'm too tired. I'm not good at this...I thought I would be good at it...but I am so tired."

House looked at Wilson. "It's Teagan, she's drunk or drugged or something and she's not making sense."

Patricia looked at him and said, "Greg, you aren't making sense honey. What are you talking about? Who's Teagan?"

But the other's knew what he was talking about and they could see his concern. House was frustrated, he said out loud and in his head, "Teagan talk to me, where are you?"

"...I can't do it Greg, Please don't be mad at me...I wanted to do a good job. He's beautiful isn't he?"

"You can't do what? Teagan, I'm not mad. Tell me who he is." He thought as loud as he could, but no response. Looking up at everyone staring back at him, he balled his fist, "Damn it. She keeps telling me that he's beautiful but she won't tell me who. She also said that she wanted to do a good job. I can't get her to tell me what she wants or why she's contacting me."

He jumped up from the table and looked around at them as they staring at him in disbelief. "She doesn't make any sense. And now she's gone quiet."

Wilson tried to console him, "Well, if she isn't making sense, not much you can do about it now. Sit down and we'll try to get in contact with her tomorrow."

Jennifer thought she had an idea what Teagan was talking about. But she had promised Teagan not to say anything. It wasn't her place to interfere.

House was frustrated, but Patricia looked even more frustrated. Everyone seemed to know what was going on but her. "Greg, what are you talking about?"

House snapped, "I'm in touch with the Death Star and they want fries with their order." House saw the hurt in Patricia's eyes and the disappointment on Wilson's face, "I was intimate with a woman named Teagan. She's a psychic and she's talking to me...from California."

"You're joking." Patricia looked around at all of them.

They all shook their heads, no."

"Do you have feelings for her?" Patricia asked soberly.

Greg shrugged his shoulders. "Look, right now she's in my head and I'm worried about her because she's loud and not making sense. I might have feelings for her, but I can't tell you right now what they are, because I'm not even sure."

Patricia looked at Wilson who was avoiding her eyes. She knew from Wilson's face that he believed House was in love with this woman. Even Jennifer looked guilty. "Greg, can you please take me home?"

House didn't argue or try to dissuade her. The ride to her house was quiet with a thick tension between them. She opened her door slowly, but she turned back to him, "Call me tomorrow and we can talk about it."

He gave her a serious nod, reached over and gave her a kiss on the lips, then drove off.

Once home, House sat in a chair hoping he would hear her again, but he didn't, her voice was silent again.

I spent three days in the hospital and then Yolanda sent Luke pick me up. The doctor made me stay an extra day because the exhaustion had made me susceptible to the infection I contracted and he wanted me to sleep. I had a staph infection and it was resistant to several antibiotics until they finally gave me vancomycin. The doctors warned me not to nurse Greg for a few days until the antibiotics were out of my system. I didn't know then that I had broadcast my thoughts all over the hospital and back to Greg, I had blanked that entire night out. All I knew was that I just wanted to get home to little Greg.

Back at the Lodge, my heart raced as I saw Yolanda standing on the porch with my little baby boy, all sweet and happy. He seemed glad to see me and I could sense that he was relieved to have me home. I still felt weak, but much stronger.

Standing with one hand on her hip, the other shaking a finger at Teagan, Yolanda tried to control her voice,"You need to learn how to ask for help. We would have given you a break and let you get the sleep you need. From now on Gregory is coming up here every Tuesday so that you can get some sleep or get caught up on whatever you need to catch up on. We won't take no for an answer. That doesn't mean you can't ask us to watch him more often. Ok?"

Teagan nodded sheepishly, "Thanks."

"Teag, we had a phone call. It was from Greg House." Yolanda watched Teagan flinch as she absorbed this information. There was a brief flash of hopefulness that faded quickly into one of concern. "He said that you were sending him thoughts the night that you went to the hospital"

"What else did he say?"

"He wanted to know if you were ok. We told him that the night of the transmission, you had a fever and went to the doctors. We also told him that they said you would be fine. We didn't tell him the whole truth, but we didn't lie until he asked us what you meant by, "I can't do it Greg,I wanted to do a good job. He's beautiful isn't he?" We told him we didn't have a clue."

"Go on, what did he say?"

"He asked if you needed him." Yolanda wanted to shake her and scream at Teag to call him and say, "Yes, I need you" but Yolanda knew to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of it.

"And you said?" Teagan was nervous.

"We said that only you could answer that question."

"Oh no, that will be a red flag to him."

Teagan took Gregory home and put him down in the crib for a nap. She opened the gate and tried to find out what Greg was thinking. He was worried about a patient was preoccupied with him. It seemed as if Greg House was back to normal.

House was trying to get the patient diagnosed and treated but he kept having a nagging feeling that something was wrong and that she needed him. But if she needed him she would have called back. He had to remind himself that it had been over nine months since they had seen each other and a lot could happen in nine months.