Chapter 5

"Biopsy showed no known foreign toxins," said Doctor Finch to Wilson. "But her liver and kidneys aren't working properly. And the damage down her intestines shows that something is attacking her, it does look like some sort of chemical burn. She's been ingesting something that's eating away at her body."
"What are you suggesting?" said Wilson.
Finch shrugged. "When kids take drugs from their friends no one knows what it's supposed to look like or taste like, they just take it thinking it's normal."
"Kate's not on drugs."
"Oh how would you know?" asked House. "You see her six days a year."
"Who let you in here?" asked Wilson.
"I'm a doctor."
"You're not Kate's doctor."
"We going to run a drug test," said Finch. "See what she might be on and hopefully diagnose the foreign additive that someone's been sneaking in."
"Or you could just ask her?" said Wilson.
"And the 14-year-old wouldn't lie, would she?" said House.
Wilson rolled his eyes.
"During the surgery we already took a urine sample and a blood sample, we should have the tox screen back in another hour or so. You can keep pretending your kid isn't on drugs until then." Finch left.
"Can you leave to?" asked Wilson.
"Why? She's fascinating. And technically, I'm her godfather."
"That's a legal matter made in poor judgment, and this isn't.'
"I don't think you're in your right mind, so it kind of is."
"I'm fine."
"Did you talk to Colleen?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Her cell phone is off."
"Go to her place?"
"They're in Atlantic City."
"Why?"
Wilson shrugged. "Colleen was away for the week, she got back, they went to Atlantic City."
"Just like that?"
"That's what Kate said. But oh, you think she's lying about everything."
"Do Colleen and Doug even like Kate?"
"What?"
"Colleen hasn't seen her kid in a week and she's happy to galivanting off to Atlantic City with the new boy toy?"
"They've been married for 6 years."
"Right. And that's why Kate calls him 'daddy'."
"She does not."
"Struck a nerve, did I?"
Wilson sighed and sat down on the chair next to Kate's bed. "You know in the last 10 years I've spent 72 days with her. That's it, 72 days."
"You did the math?"
"I literally counted."
"Well, if I do the math then, in the last 10 years Kate's pent 3,650 minus 72 days with Douglas Fairchild as her father figure."
Wilson leaned back in the chair. "Thanks for that."
"And she doesn't call him 'dad' or 'daddy', that she reserves that for you. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"Yes."
House blinked. "I honestly wasn't expecting that answer."
"Yeah, well, you're right."
"She trusts you."
Wilson laughed. "Why would she?"
"Okay, she trusts you more than she does her own mother and stepfather. What does that tell you?"
"Stop trying to solve everything."
"It doesn't strike you as odd? A 14-year-old with two parental figures with tonnes of money doesn't argue about her two short trips to see her father across the country every year for 4th of July and Thanksgiving? What teenager would gladly do that? She would spend nearly 20% of the time going to see you on the plane or taxis, not to mention when they were in Hawaii."
"Can you just shut up please?"
"Well, since you said please."

Kate woke up to three doctors arguing in her room. They were all so preoccupied with each other that none of them notice her open her eyes, or try and reach, and fail, for the water on the table.
"She's clearly been taking something!" Doctor Finch practically yelled.
"She tested negative for every drug," said Wilson. "What more do you want?"
"To do a follicle test."
Wilson ran his hands through his hair. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"She's been sick, no chance to do anything, follicle test will give us nearly 2 years of history."
"Oh so she was going around getting high at 12?"
"Stranger things have happened," said House. "We could check her apartment?"
"You're not breaking in to her my ex's house."
"Who said anything about breaking in? I have a sneaking suspicion Kate's got the key."
"What do you think you'll find at the apartment?" asked Kate. She'd never seen three people swivel so fast. "Morning?" she said after a little too long of no one saying anything.
"Drugs," said House flatly.
"The only drugs we have are prescription," said Kate.
"A likely story."
"Uh huh." Kate leaned for the water again, before she gave up, House used the wall to get down and hand her the cup and straw. She frowned at him as she sipped.
"You have to tell us what you've been taking," said Doctor Finch.
Kate swallowed. "Nothing."
Finch rolled his eyes and his head in frustration. "We can't help you if you don't tell us. Her liver and kidneys aren't liking whatever it is you're taking."
"Oh I'm sorry, should I stop drinking water? Eating food? Would my starvation and dehydration be the cure?"
House pointed at Kate. "I like her," he said to Wilson.
"Kate, this is serious. What have you been taking?" asked Finch.
Kate turned to House, "Front pocket of my backpack."
"What?"
"The keys." She turned back to Finch. "I'm not taking anything. And you can test my hair."
Kate hated needles, and doctors who think they know everything, and being called a liar when for once, she was telling the truth.

"This is wrong on so many levels," said Wilson as they arrived at the apartment.
"I prefer ambiguous. We have keys," House jingled the keys and closed the front door. "Jeez, they're clean people. And well read…"
Wilson walked over to the packed bookshelves. "Douglas has made massive neurological breakthroughs in the last eight years; I'd assumed he'd be well-read."
House started skimming the shelves and Wilson went down the hallway to the left to find the bathroom. The medicine cabinet was filled with medicines, all named out to Douglas Fairchild. Wilson started reading through them all, some were standard, for blood pressure, flu medication. Wilson smiled to himself when he came across Viagra. There was aspirin, a lot of aspirin, and some bottles unlabelled by a pharmacy and instead hand written labels on.
"He's got ten or so bottles of unlabelled drugs, they look hand pressed," Wilson said coming back out to the lounge room.
House was sitting at the desk, pouring over some notes and files. "I think he's trying to develop a new drug for shrinking brain tumours," said House without looking up.
"Why would he have his own test drugs in the medicine cabinet?"
"You think little Katie is taking things she shouldn't be?"
"I don't think she's that much of an idiot."
"You don't think Dougie's giving her things he shouldn't be?"
"They only have aspirin," admitted Wilson.
House looked up from the notes, "For a having a kid whose blood doesn't always clot, how healthy and normal to not have any other pain meds in the house," said House.
"Did you check the kitchen?" asked Wilson.
"No, I'm reading his initial research for this new thing he's developing. It's fascinating."
Wilson sighed and went to the kitchen. He looked under the sink, bleach, rat poison, dishwashing liquid, nothing special. Wilson closed the cabinets and thought for a moment. He went to the fridge, not much there, freezer. Ah hah. Labelled containers.
"Kate – Saturday Dinner", "Kate – Sunday Lunch", "Douglas Sunday Dinner", "Colleen Sunday Dinner", "Kate – Sunday Dinner".
"Huh," Wilson said out loud. "He's frozen meals separately and labelled them by name!" he called out.
"Has he got OCD?"
"Not that I know of."
"Take one of Kate's."
Wilson stuck his head out of the kitchen. "You think Doug's poisoning her?"
"Why else does he need to name the food?"
Wilson didn't necessarily agree but he took out "Kate – Saturday Dinner".
"Anything else?" asked House when Wilson came out.
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
"They don't even have a balcony," said House.
"You don't either."
"Yes, but I hate fresh air."
"What do you think of the research?"
"Douglas Fairchild is a genius, unfortunately. He's collect data from around the world in the 50 years, if there's someone who can shrink brain tumours, I wouldn't be surprised if he manages it."
"You sound disappointed."
"Why does he get to be so smart?"
Wilson laughed. "Can we go? I don't Colleen would appreciate seeing me in her house."
"Why didn't you ever marry Colleen?"
"What?"
"You're on wife 3 and not 4. You have a kid with Colleen, but you never married her."
"You know why."
House laughed and stood up, "Being married to someone else at the time might have something to do with it, yes?"
Wilson said nothing, and left.

House gave the apartment one more look over. And went down the hallway, saw Kate's room, then the master suite at the end of the hall. Curious, House went through the nightstands. Nothing special. He went back to Kate's room. It was immaculate. Her bed was even made. He opened the wardrobe. Everything pressed, hung perfectly; drawers had everything folded nicely. With effort, House looked under her bed. Nothing. Not even a dust bunny.
"Did you find anything in your search?" asked Wilson when House got in the car.
"Her room is spotless."
"Oh and a clean person must be a drug addict?" Wilson said, starting the car.
"Kate had chills, twitching, all sorts, but she still finds time to clean the house, vacuum, make her bed before taking herself to the clinic?"
"Her bed was made?" asked Wilson.
"See, weird."
"A little."
"Almost as if she was fearful of having a messy house for mommy and daddy dearest when they get home."
"Drop it."
"Why are you so sure they're the perfect parents?"
"Why are you so sure that they're not just decent people?"
"I don't trust either of them."
"You barely know them."
"Neither do you."

"What the hell happened?!" demanded Doug when he got to Kate's room that evening at the hospital.
"We're not sure," said Doctor Finch.
"My kid went into surgery and you're not sure why?" Doug yelled.
"She had a stomach perforation, and we don't know what caused that. We still don't. Kate's liver and kidneys aren't in great shape either."
"And what conclusions have you made then?"
Finch awkwardly shuffled his feet. "We don't know. But things haven't gotten worse since she's been here which is a good sign."
"I'm so glad your medical care here is top notch," said Doug.
Colleen sighed. She was sitting on the edge of Kate's bed, holding her hand. "Why was she brought to this hospital anyway?" she asked.
"Kate brought herself in," said Finch.
Kate could've punched him. "They have a free clinic downstairs," said Kate. "Someone from my study group told me, and I know the bus schedule because it's the same one to the library."
"Oh," said Colleen. "So you haven't seen…"
"Seen who?"
"Anyone you know?"
Kate smiled. "Doctor House works here," she said. "He came by a few times."
"Oh charming."
"House, as in Greg house?" asked Doug.
"Yes," said Kate. "He must've seen my name on file or something."
"I told you we should've changed her name," Doug hissed at Colleen.
"He wouldn't let us," Colleen whispered.
Kate pretended she couldn't hear. Even though she was literally holding her own mother's hand. Were they really this thick? Kate hoped so. Thankfully Doctor Finch seemed to finally get the message and had shut up.
"We'd like the discharge papers," said Doug. "Now."
"We still don't know what caused-" Finch started.
"You said she was fine. She looks fine, she hasn't gotten worse. We'll take her home and bring her back if anything changes," said Doug.
"I don't recommend it," said Finch.
"Then bring me the form that says we're taking her against medical advice. We're taking our kid home. She's not staying her another minute longer than she has to."
Finch nodded and began to leave.
"And if you see Doctor House tell him to stay the hell away."
"Will do."
"I'll be back, darling," said Colleen. She practically leapt off the bed after Doctor Finch.
"I'm gonna get coffee, Kate, do you want something?" he asked.
"Hot chocolate?"
"Of course." He left too.
"Doctor Finch?" she asked him at the nurse's station.
"Yes Mrs Fairchild?"
"I'm still a Doctor," she said. She shook her head, as if realising the silliness of the statement. "Is, uh, is Doctor James Wilson here today?"
Finch froze a little. He didn't much like Wilson, but it was clear from Kate's reaction that her mother and stepfather had no idea that they'd been in contact. Protect the patient or make Wilson's life a hell of a lot more difficult. It was a dilemma. "Uh, it's Sunday. Doctor Wilson normally only comes in if he's paged. I don't think he has today."
"Oh good…he's not, Kate didn't list him as her next of kin or anything in the clinic or anything?"
"I'm sorry I didn't see that. She was admitted after that, and I didn't see the papers she filled in."
"Oh okay. It's just, I mean technically Doctor Wilson is her father but you know, he's not really in her life and we kind of try to keep it that way."
"I don't need to know the family history, if you don't want someone to see your daughter, you're allowed to make that call." Doctor Finch was loving the dirt on Wilson though; this would be great to spread around. Anything to knock him down a few pegs.
"Okay. Thank you. Is there any way of stopping him from seeing she was admitted?"
"He'd actually have to go looking for her name on file, unless he does that, no one's going around saying that your daughter was even here." All of that was true. It's just that Wilson was the one who'd signed the consent form for the surgery anyway, but Dr Fairchild wasn't asking that.
Colleen breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh good. Thanks."
Kate was up and had officially been discharged. Kate, Colleen, and Doug were walking towards the elevators when Kate paused.
"Actually," she said. "I need the bathroom, do you mind? They kind of over-hydrated me with the IVs."
"Of course darling," said Colleen. "We'll wait here."
"Do you know where?" asked Doug. "The public ones I mean."
Kate nodded. "I won't be long." She smiled and walked back down the hallway, down the corridor to the bathrooms and kept going. She paused at the door. Kate knocked once and let herself in. Part of her thought he'd gone home already, but another part hoped he was still here. Kate came into his office, he was there behind his desk. He looked up, a little shocked.
"Hey," said Kate.
"You're dressed," Wilson said.
Kate smiled. "Going home. Doug signed the papers; says he'll bring me back if I get worse."
"How do you feel?"
Kate shrugged. "Fine."
Wilson raised his eyebrows.
"Well enough to leave, I swear."
"Is home safe?" asked Wilson.
Kate shook her hood. "Please don't start that again. I'm fine."
Wilson looked down at the work he could barely even concentrate on. He shook his head, "They still think I don't know that you've all moved back here. They don't even know that you know I work here, do they?"
"No."
"So, you'll have to forgive me if I don't trust everything you tell me."
"I really have never done illegal drugs."
Wilson smiled.
"Look, I told them I was going to the bathroom, so I really should get back or they'll figure it out, and we'll both be in trouble." Kate headed for the door.
Wilson nodded. "Okay. Just…"
"What?" Kate paused; the door handle half turned.
"Don't wait until the 4th of July, okay?"
Kate smiled and left.