Chapter 3

Anomalies

House went to New York the next weekend and for the first time in over a year, Kenna watched television. Typically, she tried not to watch television because growing up they never had one on the farm so when she did watch TV she couldn't stop; she'd spend hours in front of it until someone turned it off. She sat on the couch eating yogurts and watching some of the strangest shows. There was one called 21 Jumpstreet with an actor who was incredibly good looking. When she did recognize a good looking guy it was hard for her to sort her feelings both physically and emotionally. Physiologically, she knew that sex was a powerful drive. On occasion, she had felt urges although they were unsettling. To avoid feeling those urges, Kenna spent a lot of her free time doing activities that would keep her from thinking about it. Occasionally, she had wanted to touch herself but was afraid that if she did, she might like it too much and that would just lead to wanting things she couldn't have. In her mind it sex was like the drugs her instructor talked about in her drug prevention class in high school. She was told that once you had marijuana it was likely to lead to heroin—what would happen if you played with yourself? So Kenna kept her hands where they belonged-on a book.

The semester had been over a few days and Christmas was quickly approaching. Kenna didn't have the money to go home so she was stuck in Baltimore. She found it odd that Dr. House took no steps to celebrate Christmas. Having finished turning in her take home exam, Kenna was riding her bike home when the tire popped and she was thrown to the pavement. She was scuffed up, but ok. Not only was the tire ruined but her rim was bent. She walked the bike the two miles to the bike shop and felt her stomach knot when they shook their heads.

"It's going to be about $50 to bend the frame back and replace the wheel." The hippie-ish store owner told her.

Kenna went white. Financially, December was already a rough month because the research lab would be shut down the last week of December for the holidays and it meant she would be short a week of wages. Her calculations had her just making it to January, but now she was going to be considerably short unless she cut back on food and daily expenses. She would call her parents to see if they could help, but she knew that they were already stretched because they had paid for her brother to fly home to help around the farm over the school holidays. Kenna left the bike to be fixed, picked up her backpack and started walking the four miles to the house. It was turning cold and she had forgotten her gloves. Her fingers were freezing by the time she walked in and saw Dr. House with his friend, Doug, on the couch. Doug, a nice looking man, had introduced himself to her a few weeks ago.

Doug called out to her as she walked through the door, "Hey Kenna, come in and watch some TV with us."

House grimaced at Doug and shook his head "no" to indicate he didn't want her to spend time with them.

Kenna stopped at the bottom of the stairs and shook her head. "Thank you, but I have to call my folks." She took the phone and walked up the stairs as far as the cord would let her. Her parents were surprised by the unexpected call and had to cut it short because they were on their way to the church Nativity pageant. Her parents said they could send her an extra $80 the first week of January, but not before then. She thanked them, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and then went up to her room. Grabbing the $50 she needed from her monthly pot, she marched back to the bike shop, this time with gloves, and paid for the repair. Cycling home, she immediately went to bed and started to cry, wishing she could be home with her family for Christmas. This was the third Christmas in a row she would spend by herself and it was always the loneliest day of the year.

House worked an extra rotation for Christmas because it meant double-time on the next pay check. Once off work, he drove home through the quiet streets and found the house dark. He had brought home a turkey meal from the hospital. The hospital always cooked up a nice meal for the employees that worked the holidays. He was eating when he heard a thud up in her room. Listening for a minute, he heard nothing more and then went back to eating.

Ears red and painful, Kenna was achy all over. She really needed some water. Bundling up, she crawled slowly down the stairs, hanging onto the rail all the way. At the bottom she looked through the living room and saw House eating something at the dining table. She managed a weak smile, "Merry Christmas, Dr. House. I left something for you on the coffee table." As she walked by he saw that her left ear was visibly red. He continued to eat his meal, thought about asking her if she was ok, but decided she would say something if she wanted his help. Kenna walked back through the dining area with a glass of water and ascended slowly up the steps again, the left ear still very red and painful.

He put the paper plate in the trash, drank his beer and went over to the television. Sitting on the coffee table was a wrapped present. He could tell from the feel of the bundle that it was a scarf. He opened it and realized that it wasn't just a scarf, but a homemade one. She must have made it herself. It was nice, electric blue with black stripes at the ends. He felt like crap since he hadn't bought her anything. He thought for a moment and decided he could give her a consult for Christmas-find out what was going on with her ear and the slow, achy movement she made going up the stairs.

Grabbing his medical bag, he climbed the stairs and, without knocking (it was his house) he entered her room. It was dark so he turned on a light. Kenna tried to lift her head off the pillow to look up but couldn't. She wanted to tell him to get out, but she was just too weak to really care. House came over to the bed and sat down on the edge, feeling her forehead. He confirmed that she had a fever. Grabbing the thermometer from his bag, he stuck it in her mouth unceremoniously, took out his scope and looked in her ear. It was bright red, almost purple. She probably had a strep infection. He waited for the thermometer to peak. As he waited, he looked around and saw the thread for his scarf and the crochet needle. Smiling to himself, he reached over and read the thermometer-102 F.

"You probably have a strep infection. I'm going to give you a prescription for Ampicillin. Take these aspirin to bring down the fever and take some of the pain away. I'll get you a heating pad and you can lay your ear on it to help with the pain. Get the Ampicillin tomorrow and take all of it, the whole course, even if you feel better." He put away his medical equipment, got up and looked back down at her. She was staring up at him with glassy, feverish eyes like a sick puppy dog. "Merry Christmas, thanks for the scarf." He turned around to leave and saw above her desk a drawing on an 8 ½ by 14 inch piece of paper. It was simplistic...just an amateur drawing of a Christmas tree with ornaments, a star and presents under the tree. He looked at it and then the stack of text books all around and realized it was the only decoration in the room besides one photo of her and what was obviously her family. The way it hung, she could see it from her bed.

Turning out the light, House left and went back down to the living room. He picked up the scarf off the coffee table. Except for the shirt and sweater his mother had sent him, this was the only gift he had gotten. The fact that she had taken time out to make it for him made him wonder even more about her. He knew the drawing of the tree meant one thing- she was lonely. Welcome to my world.

The day after Christmas, Kenna grabbed her purse and pulled out her wallet. She set aside the $300 for the rent and utilities in an envelope for House. This left her with $8.84 left. She took the $8.84 and went downstairs, put on her coat and gloves and walked out the kitchen door to her bike. She could hardly move but she knew she needed to get the medicine. She pedaled over to the local Walgreens and asked the pharmacist, "Can you tell me how much it is going to be to fill this prescription?"

"Do you have a pharmacy card or health insurance?"

She shook her head, "No."

He checked a large book full of prices for different amounts of different drugs and said, "$19.33."

She must have looked shell shocked because he quickly said, "If you sign up for the pharmacy card, it's only $17.22."

She thought a minute, if she could buy half now and half when her parent's money arrived next week, maybe she could get by. "How much will $8.84 buy?"

"I'm sorry, but it's the drug store's policy to only sell antibiotics in their full prescription because you need to take the full course. I'm afraid it's the same policy in all the pharmacies."

Kenna sat down on one of the chairs for customers who were waiting for their prescriptions to be filled. The pharmacist came around the counter and gave her back her prescription. "I'm sorry," he said it and patted her on the back.

Pedaling slowly home, Jodan entered quietly and crept upstairs. She put the prescription down on her night table and then went into the bathroom to rummage through House's medicine cabinet for anything to take away the pain. She found some Tylenol with Codeine and took it with a large glass of water.

On December 30th, House had the day off and was looking forward to sleeping in and later on watching some videos with Doug. It was too cold outside to do anything else. Around eleven in the morning there was a knock on the door. He went to answer it and there was a guy in his early thirties standing outside doing the little dance you do to stay warm when you're freezing your butt off.

"Yeah?" House grunted.

"Excuse me, is this where Kenna Palmer lives?"

"Why?"

"I'm Dr. Geocadin, Kenna's boss. Kenna promised to come in right after Christmas and calibrate our machines before the end of the year for some extra money. She hasn't shown up and that's not like her. She's never missed a day or been late in two years."

House opened the door and let the guy in. "She's been sick but she should be better soon. Let me get her for you."

"Thanks."

House went upstairs and opened the door and was immediately hit by a bad smell, the smell of a sickroom. Opening the thick drapes, he looked down at her in the bed. His prescription was still sitting on her nightstand. House was pissed. If she was going to be an idiot and not get the medicine then he should just let her lay there and suffer. He nudged her to wake her up but she didn't budge. Her ear and face on her left side were bright red and there was an empty bottle of Tylenol with Codeine on the table. Feeling her head, House started to panic, she was on fire. He pulled back her pajama top off of her shoulder and saw red streaks radiating down from her ear to her shoulders and then to her chest. She also had a pink rash.

"Crap, Crap!" He ran downstairs yelling, "I've got to get her to the hospital right away." He put on his jacket, grabbed his keys and then ran upstairs, wrapped her in the blankets, and then started back down the stairs with Kenna in his arms.

Dr. Geocadin took one look at Kenna flopped over in House's arms like a rag doll and said, "Oh my God! Come on, we can get her in my car."

House ran her out to Geocadin's car and sat holding her in the back seat. She was incredibly thin. House was talking more to himself than to Geocadin, "I wrote her a scrip for antibiotics and she didn't fill it."

Geocadin nodded. "She probably didn't have the money. She lives hand to mouth. Occasionally my wife and I will invite her for dinner or I'll take her some leftover food. She lives off of her twenty hours of work that I give her. She probably makes $500 a month, maybe a little more, but not much." He paused and looked at House in the rear view mirror, "She's brilliant though. The University is already planning on offering her a position when she gets her doctorate. If she goes out into the commercial world she'll be making more than most neurosurgeons."

House quickly did the math. He was taking $300 of her $500 each month. Her share of the utilities was probably more like $30 than $50 he was charging her. He also realized he probably ate $15 a week of her groceries and there had never been any indication that she had eaten any of his food. No wonder she was so thin, he was eating her out of house and home. Crap, crap!

They got to the hospital and House started barking orders at the interns and emergency docs. Her fever was 106.5 so he ordered an ice bath to bring the fever down while they strapped her up to intravenous antibiotics. House had already noticed a faint pink rash and redness around her joints which was bad news. Her admitting doctor came into the bath area. "House, who is she?"

"My tenant, she rents a room from me."

"Christ, why didn't you get her some treatment sooner?"

"I gave her a scrip for ampicillin but she didn't fill it. I've been working lots of shifts, didn't notice...ah hell, she's a big girl."

"Doesn't look big to me. She looks emaciated. Hasn't she been eating?"

House was feeling guilty and when he felt guilty he went on the defense. "Hey, I just rent a room to her, I'm not her Dad. Look, I diagnosed her, gave her a prescription and did my part."

"She was living under your roof, didn't you follow up?"

"Are we going to argue about this or treat her? She's got rheumatic fever and we need to get her on prednisone."

The ER doc looked at her. "How can you tell?"

"The rash and her joints are inflamed."

The doctor nodded. "So they are. I'll start her on prednisone. You need to go fill out some paperwork on her."

House could only fill out her name, address and phone number because he knew nothing else about her. Dr. Geocadin gave him some information on her work and student information. House was filling the documents out in the waiting room on a clipboard.

Dr. Geocadin looked distressed. "This will put her back quite a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"She's obsessive about paying bills, I mean obsessive. She sold her boom box and music when she got hit with a bill for lab fees. When she gets the bill for the hospital, she's going to want to pay it off. She'll have to quit school and go to work."

"She's not an idiot. If she just lets the hospital chase her for six months, she'll get her doctorate, make a lot of money and pay it off quicker."

"I'd like to see you convince her of that. She's an odd duck. Her parents are incredibly strange and all her life they've emphasized that she must take responsibility. I've met them. They tend to favor their son who is smart but he's not a genius like Kenna. They pour what little money they have into his education and the farm. From the time she was a child she's always worked either in their dairy or doing schoolwork. Play wasn't something they put much stock in when she was growing up. Kenna never had a childhood."

"How do you know this?"

"My wife and I had her to dinner and gave her several glasses of wine. She had never been drunk and I doubt she's been drunk since. When you get to know her she's really very sweet. My wife is very fond of her and once offered to do kind of a makeover. You know, cut her hair, put on makeup, give her some clothes, but she was too shy." He was quiet for a moment until House finished the documents. "What's wrong with her?"

"She has rheumatic fever and her fever is too high. They're getting it down by putting her in ice baths. I've got to get back there. Can you turn these in to the charge nurse at front?"

"Sure."

House went into the bath area and saw that they were getting ready to pull her out. One of the nurses looked at House, "Her fever's down to 104."

He nodded and watched as they held her up to dry her off. He was trying to think of her as a patient but he couldn't help but admire her breasts and petite body with the strawberry blonde patch of pubic hair. The ribs and pubic bones were too prominent, but if she gained some weight she'd be hot. House knew Kenna would be chagrined if she knew a man was looking at her sexually. He chuckled to himself and then walked out. There was nothing more he could do.

He wondered if he should try and call her parents? He had their number on a phone bill at home. Nah, what could they do for her? House went home, went into her room and packed a bag, threw it in his backpack and went to sleep. When he went to work the next morning, he almost forgot that she was still a patient...what is it about her that makes everyone forget she's even there? He went in and saw her watching television.

Kenna looked over at House and then looked down, embarrassed.

"How are you feeling?"

She started twitching and had trouble trying to pick up the remote control which meant that there was some brain involvement. "I'm having trouble with motor skills," she said.

"You have some inflammation in your brain. It will go away. You're going to have to be on antibiotics, a low dose, for the next year to make sure it doesn't come back." He picked up her chart at the end of the bed and read through it. "Well your fever was down to 101 this morning, that's good. You look better. I brought you a change of clothes. Of course I found the selection overwhelming, blue sweat pants, grey sweat pants, red with white stripes sweat pants or one pair of levis that look like they'd be three sizes too big on you now." He walked over and took his stethoscope and listened to her heart. There was a palpitation. He suspected that her heart was inflamed. "Not good, but your symptoms should all go away. You might have some damage to your heart valves, but we won't know that for awhile." He looked into her eyes, "Why didn't you fill the perscription?"

She looked away from his eyes, refusing to answer.

"Was it money?"

She looked back up and nodded. "Don't worry, Dr. House, I do have the money for the rent and utilities; it's in an envelope in my nightstand drawer. You can take it."

"Wait, you had $300 but you wouldn't spend it on antibiotics? Are you a fucking moron?"

She started crying. "Why do you always call me names? I'm not stupid. That money was yours, not mine. How would I pay you if I bought the antibiotics with that money?"

He continued to yell even though the tears were running down her cheeks, "You are a moron. How would you pay me if you were dead? You could have died! You have your priorities screwed up. If you don't have good health, you can't make money to pay your debts. It's simple fucking logic."

"I had obligations."

"Yeah and I have a headache." He shook his head in disgust and left.

The following day her fever dropped to 100 F so she was deemed safe to be sent home to keep her costs down. House managed to scrounge up two months worth of antibiotics and prednisone in samples from the drug companies and gave them to her as she was leaving the hospital. It didn't occur to him until she had been gone fifteen minutes that she was probably walking home. He ran back inside and told the charge nurse he had to run home quickly. Driving the streets in his car, he didn't see her at first. Frustrated, he soon realized that she was probably taking short cuts rather than the traffic route. He took a couple of side streets and saw her sitting down on a low wall.

"Kenna. Come on, get in."

She looked up, smiled and climbed in. "Thanks."

"You have got to learn to stop being a martyr. Why didn't you just ask for a ride home?"

"I knew you were working. Dr. House, I know you don't like me, so I don't expect you to do anything for me. Besides, I've got to learn how to take care of myself. So far, I've made a mess of it. I've got to find an extra job, something to help pay the hospital bills; do you know anything that starts about 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.?"

"It's not that I don't like you, I just find you to be an illogical moron. Look, I eat a lot of crap and I spend a lot of money on fast food mostly because I can't stand to cook and clean. What if I cut your rent to $150, including utilities, in exchange for you cooking dinner and cleaning the house. I'll give you the money each week to buy groceries. You do know how to cook don't you?"

She looked at him strangely. She knew he wasn't fond of her but he was being really nice. "I know how to cook. I know how to do a lot of things." She paused. "I don't want you to feel like you have to do this for me."

"You'll soon realize that I look after myself. This just seems to be a solution to two problems. Don't worry right now about your hospital bills, I've arranged for you not to be billed until after you graduate."

"Really?" She smiled broadly

"Really." But House had lied. He had simply changed the address for the billing to go to him in Infectious Diseases. He had informed accounting that she would make payments of $150 a month for a year while she was in school but that she would increase the payments when she got a job. He told them that they could accept that or she'd file bankruptcy. They took what they could get. House decided to use the $150 that she gave him each month for rent and make the payment for her. He wasn't quite sure why he was doing it, except that he felt guilty for overcharging her and eating her food. Besides, he really could use someone to clean and cook for him, he was starting to get sick of take-out and his body felt sluggish from the crap he was putting into it.