Author's note: On the last chapter, Story Fan had noted that New Jersey has civil unions, which do offer some legal protections to same sex couples, and it would make sense for House and Wilson to have those protections. This story is set in late 2005 -early 2006, several months before civil unions were allowed in New Jersey. At the time of the story, I don't even think that most people knew that decision was on the horizon. So at that time, couples like House and Wilson would have been forced to spend lots of money, time and energy just to obtain legal documents to ensure some of the 1,138 federal rights and 300-600 state rights that are automatically conveyed when a man and a woman marry.

Chapter 23: A Mystery Case

Early March

"What the Hell were you thinking?"

Lisa Cuddy looked up at the man who had burst in unannounced, and for a moment, she could only stare at him with a bemused expression as she realized how much she had missed similar such events with Dr. House. She realized he was still yelling.

"…Is that damn deal so important? He's throwing up!"

She cut him off. "Sit down, Dr. Wilson, and tell me what's wrong."

He slumped down in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

Wilson's tirade was over, but he wasn't offering any explanations. Finally she ventured, "I know that lately House has had problems with heartburn and occasional bouts of nausea, but Barry said he wasn't too concerned." She'd even been present on one of those occasions. When he'd returned from retching in the bathroom, they'd both acted as if nothing had happened. She knew House wouldn't appreciate any words of sympathy.

Wilson sighed. "He's thrown up everything he's eaten in the last 48 hours. Last night, Barry put him on clear liquids and IV fluids in an attempt to stop the cycle of eating and then immediately throwing up. If all goes well, tonight he might try a can of Ensure, even if he does consider it old-people food."

She hadn't realized it had gotten so bad. "What can I do to help? Do you need time off?"

"Help? You can cancel the damn agreement! Tell him he doesn't need to treat any more patients!" He was yelling again.

"You know that the agreement was to keep him occupied while he was on bedrest. I would never hold him to it if it could endanger his health!"

"Fine, then assign Sheila Carstairs to someone else." He was calming down a bit.

"Who's that?" Cuddy was genuinely confused.

"You mean she isn't the relative of some donor?"

"Why would you think that?"

"She's been admitted to Diagnostics, but none of House's team had seen her file before they came back from lunch. When they arrived, the file was on the conference table with a post-it note that read, 'you have a new patient.' Cameron came to me because she was worried about House." Wilson slumped down in the chair as Cuddy looked on, completely at a loss.

"How is he, really?" she finally asked, knowing that she was asking him to break a confidence. "He always says that he's fine, but he certainly doesn't look fine."

Wilson's words were reluctant. "Barry's worried that he hasn't gained enough weight. He has no reserves for setbacks like this." He sighed. "It's not like he isn't trying. Ever since the third trimester began, it's been a fine line between eating enough and eating too much. But yesterday was the first time he threw up more than once in a single day. I'm worried about him. He's worn out. Most evenings he's asleep on the couch, and I pretend not to notice. He's tired, but he usually can't sleep through the night. He's up at least twice, because of either his leg or his back, or the need to go to the bathroom cause she's pressing on his bladder."

She looked over at the man in front of her desk and realized that the pregnancy was taking its toll on him as well. "Why don't you go back to work, and I'll take care of this. I'd like to find out how procedure was completely disregarded in my hospital, and I'm sure we can easily get the case reassigned to some other department, or have House's team handle it on their own.

He rose from the chair, more relaxed now that he had shared his burdens with someone else.

"I'll let you know when I have found anything out," she called out as the door swung closed.

An hour later he was back in her office, and he was immediately struck by how worried she looked. "What's wrong?"

"What do you know about Sheila Carstairs?"

"Nothing. Why?"

She picked up the folder from her desk and began reciting the relevant facts. "Sheila Carstairs, age 42. Third pregnancy; previous two pregnancies never made it past 16 weeks. Diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. She is currently at 21 weeks with appropriate care and bedrest, but last night she had 2 strokes. No family history, and her blood pressure is within normal range, but her kidneys are failing."

When she looked up from the file, her colleague was almost to the door. "Where are you going?"

"Diagnostics. Maybe I can catch them before they tell House."

"It's too late. He already knows." She sighed. "You need to know the rest. Sheila Carstairs didn't start out as one of our patients. This morning she was transported from Saint Catherine's in New York."

"What?! Why did Cameron let this happen? She's been handling any requests for consults—monitoring his email and any phone calls to his office."

"Because this case didn't come through normal channels. I talked to the floor nurse. She said that House called and made all the arrangements to have her admitted to Diagnostics." She looked over at Wilson, who was beginning to look slightly ill. "I talked to the patient. She said that her friend Gretchen got House to take the case."

"Gretchen-who?" asked Wilson, trying to remember if he knew anyone with that name, and drawing a complete blank.

"She didn't give me a last name. I got the impression they had never actually met in person. Maybe on the internet?" She paused, thinking. "Gretchen, Greg. The names are somewhat similar."

"You think that House pretended to be Gretchen…" He thought for a moment. It all fit. He remembered all of the times when he had found House typing away on the computer, but wouldn't ever let him see what he was doing. It all made sense, in a way. He set that aside, to concentrate on the problem at hand. "He can't take this case; there's no way he can be objective." He shook his head. "High risk pregnancy, when the sensible option would be to end it and save the mother's life." He sighed. "You know that this case is his way of controlling everything. If he saves her baby, then maybe our own kid will survive."

"He's already involved with this case. If I pull him from the case, it won't go over well." She sighed. "How bad is he? Will continuing on this case harm either him or the baby?"

He shrugged. "I just hoped he could recover for a few days before getting another patient. He really doesn't need any additional stress right now, but telling him flat out that he can't treat patients won't be any better."

She thought for a moment. "I'm assigning Barry to the case as well. For one thing, she'd be his patient if the case wasn't House's. I'll pull some strings to free up his schedule. I want him to see House twice a day until he's doing better and this case is over. If Barry thinks that this is compromising House's health or the baby's, I will put my foot down and get him pulled from the case. Hopefully Barry can be the voice of reason if House takes things too far."

TBC