Chapter 8

"Alright, what do we know so far?" Cuddy asked once everyone was assembled in Diagnostics.

"As of right now, we know that the other night Cameron went to bed lightheaded and nauseous. She then woke up a few hours later and vomited leaving her very weak, which resulted in her sleeping on the bathroom floor. Next morning, she was running a fever of 101, and according to Chase, was white as a ghost, shivering, and could barely walk. He diagnosed it as the stomach flu." Foreman read from the case file.

"Okay, that's the initial diagnosis. What happened after that?" House asked as he checked off Cameron's symptoms that were already listed and circled the diagnosis.

"About an hour later, her fever's still there, but she stopped shivering, so Chase started her on the saltine diet."

"Most popular diet next to the see-food diet," butted in House. "Sorry, carry on."

"She then managed to fall asleep, but woke up later coughing. After she was lying down straight afterward, the chest pain started. And, I think we all know what happened after that."

"Yep: Brought her into Cuddy's office, checked her out, said she was fine, she stands up, and three steps later she's fainted," Wilson pointed out. "But what caused her to faint in the first place?"

"When I initially checked Cameron's blood pressure soon after she and Chase showed up, it was normal. But after she fainted and we moved her, I checked it again and it was about ten times lower than what it had been. That also spiked the fever. The dehydration on the other hand, was probably started at home, and worsened when she arrived here. Also explains the shortness of breath."

"Classic signs of hypotension," said House as he checked that off as well. "After that, Cameron wakes up, starts coughing again, chest pain comes back, I show up, and you and Chase, Foreman, rush her down to x-ray, which revealed the inflammation around her lungs, aka pleuritis," writing that down as a major symptom.

"That's when we took her to CT and diagnosed it as pneumonia, which it wasn't. That was when we started hemorrhaging," added Wilson. House wrote down "hemorrhage/perforated stomach ulcer" as another major symptom. "What are you thinking House?"

"I don't know yet. Hold on, after you stopped the hemorrhage, you found the ulcer and sealed it, then put in the chest tube, and that was that. Something doesn't fit." He turned around, and looked over Cameron's symptoms again. "What happened after I left to find Chase?"

"After we brought Cameron out of surgery, her fever was holding at 103 and her blood pressure was still very low. She still wasn't breathing normally also," Cuddy put in. "House, what are we dealing with here? What does Allison have?" There was fear in Cuddy's voice.

"There's only one thing that she has," House said solemnly, writing it on the board. Putting the marker down, he stepped aside.

"A virus?" Wilson called out, in shock just like everyone else in the room.

"Not just any virus. It's a hemorrhagic virus. It's the only one that fits the symptoms. The only question is, which one of those bloodsuckers caused it?" Foreman, Wilson, and Cuddy were all dumbstruck, and watched as House picked up the marker again. "We don't have much time, so we have to work fast."

"Since Cameron's symptoms only fit for a few of the viruses, we can cross out the ones found in Argentina, Bolivia, and the Crimea region of the Black Sea," called out Foreman.

"Cross out Dengue, Yellow, and the Rift Valley fevers as well, for the same reasons," added Cuddy.

"Okay, those are the less common ones," said House once he was done with his "Don't Test For" list. "Now, which ones to test for?"

"Allison has most of the symptoms of Ebola virus," Wilson put in.

"Add the Brazilian virus, as well as Lassa Fever," Foreman added quickly.

"Alright, I think we got most of the big ones. Go prospect." Everyone stood up and left. House then sat down at his, no, Foreman's desk, and said out loud: "You can run, but you can't hide." Just hope we catch it in time.

Cuddy had to go deal with paperwork in her office, so she left Wilson and Foreman to the testing. When they walked into Cameron's room down in ICU, it was a sight to behold: Cameron was still unconscious, and Chase had finally fallen asleep. His head was lying next to her arm, and was still holding her hand.

"I'll tell Chase, you draw the blood," Foreman told Wilson, as he walked up to Chase and tried waking him up.

"Yes, Count Dracula," said Wilson, not only being sarcastic, but trying to lighten up the mood.

"Chase. Wake up buddy. I got something to tell you."

"Huh? What, what was that?" Chase groaned sleepily.

"I said, we're closing in on a diagnosis. We've narrowed it down."

"To what?"

"We think it's a hemorrhagic virus of some type. Which is why we need a blood sample," explained Foreman once Wilson was done taking a vile of Cameron's blood.

"All of her symptoms fit. Sure, go ahead. I fell asleep, what are Allison's vitals now?"

"Her fever's gone up again, close to 105. Until we know for sure what it is, we're just going to have to give her more fluids, and start on sponging her down the old fashioned way to bring the fever down a bit," Foreman exclaimed.

"We'll be back as soon as we can with a diagnosis. For right now, just try to get her fever down," Wilson called out as he and Foreman ran down to the lab to run the tests. Dear God, I hope we're not too late!

"Mr. President."

"Any new information Joseph?"

"Yes sir. Her fever's on the rise again, and those American doctors have just taken her blood for testing. Not much longer now sir." He smiled.

"In less than twenty-four hours, there will be no more left to save her. And at about that time, I shall be walking out of this hospital, knowing that my plans for the future have worked." He smiled as well, then started to laugh once again.