A/N: Firstly, I'd like to say a huge HUGE thank you to everyone who's reviewed or added this story to their favourites or alerts. Even when I left this going stale for months I still kept getting the occasional review or favourite, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for that. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to BlackadderVII, who began reading this story without having seen Castle and has continued to show support for it and for several of my other stories. Thank you very much to him.

Also special thanks to VanillaRosePetals for the kind offer of help with research. Depending on how these next few chapters go, I might be taking you up on that, since I've managed to misplace all the notes I did for this. Somehow they disappeared when I was moving all my stuff around when I went home from university for summer, so I've basically started again and made a few changes to the original plan. I think it may work out for the better this way, although my medical knowledge is still pitiful. I honestly don't know how the House writers managed to do this every week.

Chapter Six – A Novel Theory

The repetitive sound of a cane tapping the floor sounded as House paced up and down in his office, speaking another phrase every time the cane hit the tiles. "Sudden loss of consciousness." He spun round and began to step the other way as he continued. "Shortness of breath; episodes of impaired eyesight, vertigo, acute fatigue and chronically deteriorating brain function." Finally, he twirled the cane round in his hand before jabbing it in the direction of the four doctors sat at the nearby table. "Go."

There was a beat in which the four of them looked at him, glanced briefly at each other, and then one of them opened her mouth to speak. Before she had chance, House interrupted again.

"And if anybody says 'dehydration', they're fired."

Thirteen shut her mouth again, glared at him for a moment, then spoke anyway. "Actually, I was going to ask why 'chronically deteriorating brain function' is on our list of symptoms? There's nothing in his medical file to suggest that his brain's been gradually deteriorating."

House gave her a smug look. "That's because you're just looking at the medical file. If you'd read his books it's obvious that this man's brain is nowhere near functioning at the capacity it was a few years ago."

That sentence prompted raised eyebrows around the table. "You've read his books?" said Taub, in a tone that was both mildly surprised and slightly mocking.

"They used to be the only crime novels where I had a hard time figuring out who the killer was," came the rather arrogant response. "His early works were full of twists and turns, and then they gradually got more formulaic and predictable before eventually the moron killed off his main character. Now he's writing some trash about a female cop with a name that sounds like an eighties porn star. Anybody who would kill off Derek Storm to write about a woman named Nikki Heat clearly has a brain problem."

Unconvinced, all four of the other doctors were still reluctant to offer a diagnosis. Chase rolled his eyes. "So he's lost inspiration and turned into a crappy writer. Big deal. That still doesn't suggest there's anything wrong with his brain. Not when his symptoms could be easily explained by exhaustion or an allergic reaction or something less severe."

"Exhaustion caused by what?" The response actually came from Thirteen before House had chance to deal his rebuke. "The guy was doing a book signing; it's not exactly exertive. I don't think there's a brain problem, but there's definitely something wrong here."

Taking Chase's side, Foreman chipped in. "It still probably isn't something other doctors couldn't figure out. I don't see why we aren't taking one of the other cases when someone else could deal with this one just fine."

"That's because, Foreman, other doctors would have overlooked the brain issue," House said condescendingly. "Now thank you, Thirteen, for your input, but I'm paying you to make a diagnosis based on all symptoms. So would anyone care to suggest something that accounts for reduced brain function?"

In response to his snideness, Foreman sniped back. "House, why don't you just admit you're only taking this case because you're a fan of his books?"

"Because I'm not a fan," came the put down. "Or did my scathing verdict on most of his novels not make that clear enough?"

The argument could have continued, but then Taub spoke up again. "If there's a chemical imbalance in his brain it could be caused by his glands," he said, causing House's other three employees to look at him in annoyance that he was actually going along with the brain theory. "A thyroid problem would account for the symptoms, and it can cause mood swings that might explain why he'd kill off a successful character."

"And the points for actually doing their job go to Taub," House announced. "Inconsistent thyroid function would give the appearance of dehydration in the short term and explain the long term decline in his writing ability. Go and run the tests."

Thirteen continued to protest. "House, I still don't think we're focussing on the right issue here…" but he waved her away dismissively.

"If you've got any more complaints, save it until you have the test results." He was already beginning to limp out of the room, having decided he had better places to be.

That was the point at which the others realised that continuing to argue was pointless. Reluctantly, and with a few irritated murmurs about Taub being a suck up and House being an arrogant ass, they went to do the tests.

-oOo-

Again, Castle was feeling better, or at least he was while lying down. The moment he tried to get up the dizziness returned and so he found himself confined to his bed. It frustrated him, not being able to get up and walk around just to have a change of scenery, but at least this was preferable to passing out again.

Gina had left about an hour ago, having to organise the packing up of the promo material for the book tour and deal with whichever news reporters were wanting statements about the incident last night. That was fine by him though, since Alexis and Martha had arrived shortly after, and he now knew that Beckett was on her way.

Whatever worry Martha and Alexis had felt upon first seeing him was quickly alleviated the moment Castle mentioned who his doctor was. Alexis went wide eyed for a moment, and then said, "Dr. House? As in Gregory House?"

"You've heard of him?" Castle said, puzzled as to why his daughter would know that name. He was pretty sure he'd never encountered the doctor before in his life, and couldn't think why Alexis would have.

She nodded. "Dad, he's one of the best doctors in the state. Some say in the country."

That was reassuring, although he still didn't have any idea how she'd know that. "That's good, although when did you start finding out so much about doctors?"

"I was doing research, in case I do decide to apply to medical school," she explained. "He's got quite a reputation. All the cases other doctors can't figure out go to him, and he's got an almost a hundred per cent success rate. There's practically nothing he can't diagnose."

Thinking of what the doctor had been like when he'd encountered him earlier, Castle smiled ironically to himself. It seemed he'd got himself a brilliant doctor, who happened to have no manners or people skills whatsoever.

"You hear that, Richard?" said Martha, "You're in good hands. I'm sure you'll be out of here and back following Beckett round in no time."

"Yeah, I should hope so," he agreed. "Although I suppose the question now is, do I be concerned that this is serious enough to warrant his attention? Or be reassured that I have one of the best doctors in the country?" He seemed to think about that for a second, then said, "Or he could just be treating me because he's a fan, which is quite flattering." That seemed unlikely to him, to be honest, but it was nice to entertain the thought.

"What's he like, dad?" Alexis asked, clearly eager to hear more about the famous doctor she'd read about, and he wondered how she was going to feel about the answer.

"Well…kind of rude, actually," he answered honestly, "And arrogant. More than a little egotistical and condescending, even if he does know what he's talking about. I can just see him as a character: the brilliant doctor, whose mind is far superior to those of his peers, but yet his arrogance and disregard for authority lead him to unable to sustain human relationships. His friendships are volatile and strained, their difficulties fuelled by the instability of his personality. A man who is eccentric and brilliant; a genius but socially inept, and thus the only meaning he can draw from life is in solving the problems too difficult for anybody else, the thrill being not in saving lives but in simply solving the puzzle, lending purpose to his day to day existence."

Castle trailed off as he came to the end of his artistic musings, and Martha smiled slightly. "Richard, don't tell me you're going to start writing a series of medical mysteries based on him now."

For a moment Castle actually seemed to consider that, and then said, "Nah, I think it'd work better as a TV show."

Alexis looked a little disappointed, as if her expectations of this man had been spoiled slightly, but before Castle had chance to say something to cheer her up the door to his room slid open and two people in white coats walked in.

"Mr Castle, I'm Dr Chase," one of them introduced himself in an Australian accent. "This is Dr Hadley. We're dealing with your case."

Castle wondered what had happened to House. "Have they switched my doctors round again? I thought Dr House was treating me."

"We're part of Dr House's diagnostic team," the one introduced as Hadley explained, and Castle glanced at Martha.

"I think you're right, mother. I've House as a doctor plus two more. I'll be out of here in no time at all." He then turned back to Dr Hadley. "So what have you diagnosed?"

"Nothing specific yet," she said as she began to prep a syringe, "We need to run a few more tests, so we'll have to get another blood sample. And actually, it's House plus four. We've got two colleagues in the lab going over your blood work from earlier, but there's a couple more things we need to check."

"Five doctors? I feel very privileged," Castle said as he stuck out his arm for her, already a little bruised from the blood test he'd had earlier. "Are you sure that's necessary though? I mean, is my case really that bad?" He was trying to make light of it, but again he wasn't sure if he should be worried or reassured that he had so many doctors treating him.

"It's just part of the standard package when you're House's patient," said Chase. "Don't worry. It just means we'll get you treated five times as fast."

"Well, if that's the case, I've got no complaints," Castle said as Dr Hadley inserted the needle to draw blood into the plastic tube. He'd only been bed-ridden a few hours or so, but it was already driving him crazy.

Withdrawing the needle and pressing a cotton pad down onto the puncture mark, Dr Hadley handed the blood sample to Chase. "We'll get this analysed and should have the results back in a hour or two."

Castle knew he shouldn't expect to know anything for certain by then, but it was nice to hope that perhaps he wouldn't be in here much longer. The feeling of being stuck here was almost as bad as the feeling of being ill itself, and he was pretty sure that if he had to spend more than a few days in here he was going to hate it.

As the two doctors began to leave the room, Castle looked up to see someone else on the other side of the sliding glass door. As he recognised her, the despairing thoughts he'd had about being stuck in hospital began to abate.

She reached the door just as Chase and Hadley had exited it, then entered the room to look at him with her green eyes full of concern. "Castle?"

His mouth turned up in a smile at the sight of her. "Beckett."

A/N: I realise there has still been no Wilson in this, for which I apologize because I love Wilson. So hopefully next time, if you don't mind being patient. Thank you again to everybody who's reviewed so far, and I hope you'll continue to read even though updates may be infrequent.