If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
- Hippocratic Oath

*****

JJ wordlessly watched as Morgan pulled Emily into his arms, glad that things had worked out for the best. She just hoped that this wouldn't be the end, but the hope was dim. She finally tore her eyes away from the tender scene when she realized her phone was ringing. She called Rossi over and put it on speaker.

"What happened?" Garcia demanded, sounding as if she were near tears.

"Reid had a seizure, Emily went into cardiac arrest, and now Hotch is sick too," JJ listed.

There was momentary silence as she absorbed that information. "Well, I think I have an answer..."

"What?" Rossi said, hardly daring to believe it.

"I know what's wrong with them," she repeated. The others held their breath, hardly daring to believe that this ordeal might finally be over. "Lassa fever. I had it narrowed down to some kind of viral hemorrhagic fever, which is a fairly long list, even when isolated to ones tested as bioweapons. But then I remembered that Brennan had spent time in Sierra Leone, which is one of the few areas where there has been an outbreak."

"How is it treated?" Rossi asked.

"IV Ribavirin."

"Garcia, you're amazing," JJ breathed.

"Go save our friends," she prompted, dispensing with her usual reply to the compliment.

Just as they hung up and went to get three doses of the drug, the main phone rang. "Q fever," was the only thing House said when they picked up.

"What?" Rossi asked.

"Start treatment for Q fever," he repeated, "Doxycycline."

"No," Rossi said simply.

"What?" It was House's turn to be incredulous.

"We're treating for lassa fever."

"Did you come up with this diagnosis yourselves?" Cuddy asked.

"Yes," Rossi said, because it was simpler than explaining.

"Why?"

"The unsub spent time in Sierra Leone."

"It fits better," Cuddy said, nodding despite the fact that he couldn't see. "Treat for it." Hanging up, she turned to House with a raised eyebrow. "I hope you're happy. Three federal agents came up with the diagnosis before you did..."

"I taught them everything they know..." he said matter-of-factly.

******

"I'm so sorry about everything that happened," Cuddy apologized profusely to the team, "But I'm very grateful for everything you've done for us."

The entire team had been given a dose of ribavirin and decontaminated and Reid, Hotch, and Emily had been brought back to full health. Having wrapped up the case and having seen to it that Brennan was arrested and would receive all the punishment he had coming to him, they were finally ready to set out to return home.

"Well, except for the whole almost dying thing, it was actually kind of fun," Emily said with a smile. For a split second, she caught Foreman's eye and, when he didn't even return her smile, she realized that she didn't regret a thing. She tightened her grip on Morgan's hand, giving him a surreptitious smile which he returned brightly.

Cuddy turned to glare at House. "Isn't there something you'd like to say to them?"

"No."

She sighed exasperatedly and hissed, "You'll say it or I'll chain you inside the clinic and you'll spend the rest of your life treating clinic patients."

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and murmured, "You know I'm always up for some chains..."

She continued to glare at him and demanded, "Say it."

He turned to the team and said, "Thanks for saving my ass... And taking a bioattack for me." Then, he actually smiled as he shook each of their hands.

"Wow," JJ whispered to Reid as they headed to the waiting SUVs that would take them back to the airport. "If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that he actually meant that..."