Chapter 4
House was in Wilson's office, eating all the fruit in his plate while he stared out the window, completely absorbed.
"You're quiet" Wilson said, staring at him.
"You're a doctor" House answered without looking at him.
"And?".
"Oh sorry, I thought we were stating the obvious" House snorted.
Wilson shook his head, giving up to understand him. He focused again on his cold rice, well, half cold rice now thanks to House...
"I was thinking..." House started after a while.
"You do it often" Wilson muttered smartly.
House glared at him "I was thinking, who knows how is to kiss Cameron?".
Wilson looked at him dumbfounded, mouth open and hand with the spoon still in the air. He almost choked with rice and swallowed it quickly. House didn't change his expression.
"What?".
"I said, who knows how is to kiss Cameron" he repeated, half annoyed.
"Cameron as in your immunologist?" Wilson asked still confused.
House turned and looked at him with a calm expression.
"Do you know another Cameron? I don't think she has sisters".
"Let me understand, you're wondering how could be kissing Allison Cameron?".
"Yes, I think. I was wondering...Yes, that".
Wilson stared at him astonished, not believing his ears. There could be only two explanations: or he was completely high or he was dying. House was still eating his fish while Wilson was getting nervous.
"Hi, I'm James Wilson and you have never met Gregory House? You seem to look a lot like him!".
House looked at him frowning "What's your problem?".
"What's your problem! I'm sorry, you're here eating my fish, saying that you want to kiss Cameron! I have every right to be upset!" Wilson said exasperated.
"I didn't say that I want to kiss her, I just said that I was wondering how could be kissing her" he corrected Wilson.
"What's the difference? The two things are closely related, you know!".
House put his half peach on the desk, stretching in his chair.
"No, I don't think so. It's like when you're at the table and you've to choose the dessert, there is the chocolate pudding but also the papaya pudding".
"I've never seen a papaya pudding" Wilson said thoughtfully.
"Let me finish! You know perfectly well the taste of the chocolate pudding; but then there's the papaya pudding, you're curious of its taste...but in the end, you always get the chocolate pudding" he explained.
Wilson rolled his eyes, trying to follow his explanation.
"Wait, so Cameron is the papaya pudding?" Wilson asked hesitantly.
"Exactly".
"And who is the chocolate pudding?" he asked curiously.
"I don't know, it's not that I have all the answers, otherwise I'd be dressed like Elvis in Las Vegas".
"And you woke up this morning, wondering 'who knows how is kissing my immunologist'!".
"It's not like that and I didn't say that I've thought about it since this morning" House got up, heading for the door while Wilson was still processing.
"Hey, wait a second! Why you can't take the papaya pudding for once?".
"But If I don't even buy anything, I always steal your lunch!" he said annoyed.
"I have to kiss her first to tell you how it is?" Wilson teased him.
House thought for a moment, and the fact that he was thinking about it worried Wilson.
"No, I can ask Chase" House went out and Wilson stared at the door, astonished.
House was tapping his cane on the glass table while Foreman re-read the medical reports. Chase entered the room, coming back from the surgery.
"We've to exclude tumors, they'd see them in a year" House said, thoughtfully.
Chase sat down and read the symptoms on the board, House stared at him. Chase noticed it and turned slowly to him.
"I know I'll regret having asked, but why are you staring at me?".
"I've a question for scientific purposes" House started.
Chase nodded hesitantly.
"On a scale of one to ten...no, no, forget it" House shook his head and continued to tap his cane on the table while his two assistants looked at him confused "Ok, let's recap everything" House said finally. He stood up, took a marker but then stopped abruptly "Where is?" House asked annoyed.
"I think that you're talking about Cameron. She is with the kid" Foreman answered.
House left his marker and took the cane, snorting "She is stubborn!" he went out quickly.
"I'd love to know what's your problem?" House exclaimed, enetering the room.
Cameron turned from the IV that she was checking when she heard the door open,
"Don't yell or you'll wake him" she whispered.
"I don't give a damn if I wake him up! What are you doing here? You are not his nanny! You're my immunologist and you need to stay where I tell you to stay! Am I clear?" he almost yelled.
Edward woke up looking scared. An angry House stared at him "Now you're quiet!".
"Shut up House! You're scaring him!" she cut in.
House went to her quickly "You can't run to wipe the nose to the patients! If you wanted to do this, you had to be a nurse not a doctor!" he said seriously.
"Being a doctor doesn't preclude some kind of contact with the patients!" she argued.
"Being my immunologist yes!" he shouted.
"I'm not yours!" she shouted back,
"But you work for me!".
"I still have a brain and the capacity for discernment! Beyond what you think, I'm not an ornament of your study!" she glared at him.
"That's for sure! My chair has never given me all this trouble!".
Edward began to breathe heavily and both turned to him. He was cyanotic.
"Panic attack" House muttered.
Cameron felt useless in the next minutes while she tried to give air to the lungs of Edward. The room filled quickly with nurses. Foreman and Chase arrived shortly after. House stood on the sidelines, watching.
"Stop!" House yelled after a while.
"No, we must continue to ventilate, otherwise he-" Chase answered astonished.
House stared at the lifeless body of the child "It's not a panic attack, he's having a heart attack".
After administering some heparin, everything returned to normal. Cameron kept staring angrily at House, who now couldn't take his eyes off from her red lips.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm not the one who caused the heart attack. I want to see his heart" House left the room, going to his office.
It's the abstinence, no doubt.
He saw them entering the conference room, he stood up from his chair rubbing his leg. He went to the conference room but then he felt a painful cramp in his leg and he lost his balance.
"It hurts?" Cameron asked immediately.
"What? You're tired of the the child yet and you're already going back to old habits?" House said breathlessly.
This time, Chase and Foreman glared at him too. House dismissed them and tried to walk again.
"So! Give me his heart!".
Foreman showed the scintigraphy to House and his expression suddenly changed.
"Ok who is this scan for? You did it on someone else so that the young immunologist didn't mourn over the kid?".
"Edward Sullivan Jr." Foreman smirked.
"It's not possible, he had a big heart attack. This can't be his heart" House said confused.
"We were all there, this is his heart" Chase confirmed.
House continued to stare at the scintigraphy, getting nervous.
"This heart is healthy! It is impossible that it has just had a heart attack" he stared at the scans, tapping his thumb on his lip "We've to provoke him another" he said after a while.
"Are you crazy? He's almost died" she looked at him shocked.
"I know that he was dying but this time we'll prevent it. What was the cause of everything?".
Cameron looked at him annoyed but he didn't take his eyes off from the scans.
"You're completely incapable of normal relations with people" Cameron muttered seriously.
"Well, nothing new" House shrugged and went out. The team stared at him and then they followed him.
"Are you serious?" Foreman asked.
"His heart doesn't react in the right way so you will do a biopsy during the seizure" House explained.
"We can't! It's dangerous, he's a child" Chase reasoned.
"It's crazy!" Cameron cut in.
House arrived in front of his patient room but Cameron stood in front him, putting her hands on his shoulder. House grinned amused.
"The only different thing since the last time you did it, it's that I haven't the gown of the patient and the IV".
Cameron looked at him confused "What?".
"Oh, sorry, it was my hallucination. I think that you'd like the robot part. Move" he finished seriously.
"No!" she didn't move.
House took her hands off from his shoulders, trying to enter the room but another hand pulled him back.
"House come on, you can't provoke him another heart attack" Foreman told him seriously.
"Not you too!".
"Foreman is right, his heart is very weak" Chase cut in.
"Perfect, even Yogi and Booboo are against me! You're doing a peaceful resistance! Move away Mahatma Gandhi!" he said looking at Cameron.
"What's happening here? I heard your shouts from the other end of the floor!" Cuddy said, coming closer to them.
Cuddy stared at them, Cameron in front of the door, Foreman and Chase next to her, stopping House.
"Tell them to move away or you'll have to deal with me while I do the interviews again!" House said.
Cuddy turned to Cameron "What's happening?".
"Why are you asking her? I'm the boss!" House whined.
"Shut up House!" Cuddy glared at him.
"He wants to provoke another heart attack to Edward" Cameron explained.
Cuddy looked at him astonished.
"I want to do it for him, not for my personal amusement. I have to see the heart functioning under stress, and by the way it has been done on pigs" House tried to explain.
"You want to do a biopsy while he's having a heart attack? He's not a pig!" Cuddy tried to stay calm.
"I know, but the pigs are similar to us for many things, especially for the cardiovascular system. There's been a positive result in 60-70% of cases and then, I didn't see anything in the scintigraphy".
"You are completely out of your mind! You have to stay away from this kid if you don't want to be radiated!" Cuddy threatened him.
House shrugged off the hands of Chase and Foreman "Fine! Do wathever you want! But don't you expect to see me at the clinic today!" House walked away frustrated.
Cuddy turned to his team.
"Cameron, you stay with the kid; you two make sure that he won't paragliding from the roof to carry out his plan" Cuddy ordered.
House, who had hidden behind a column in the hope to see them leave, walked away fuming.
TBC...