Chapter 7

"It is rat poison in her system," Cameron said. "It's been eating away at her stomach and intestines, but unfortunately, it's her liver and kidneys that have taken it the worst. That's why she hasn't been as sick – it's like it's learned how to filter it out which in turn has pretty much ruined her liver."
Wilson had his head in his hands, elbows on his desk in his office.
"Doctor Finch says she must've been dosed that week, the week her mom was away, in the food, and then later Doug probably added it to the paracetamol. Her body went it crisis that weekend, then us giving her the blood helped her body gain control. But the paracetamol…been a low dose for a few weeks now. The headaches are a symptom of the poison…"
Wilson looked up, "And every time she had a headache, she took more paracetamol, which in turn, gave her more poison into her system."
"We need to start Kate on dialysis right away. House has already put her on the transplant list for a new liver."
"Yeah."
"And the cops are here."
Wilson frowned. "I know."
"Not for death row guy, for Kate. Child services called them, they're saying it was attempted murder."
Wilson rubbed his face. "Sure. Okay. Yeah, start the dialysis. The cops want to talk now?"
"I think so, yeah."
Wilson had a grand total of three seconds before two detectives came into his office.
"It looks like a tape player," said Kate.
"It's a dialysis machine," said Chase. "It's going to get rid of the waste in your blood that your kidneys can't handle at the moment."
"How long does it take?"
"Three to five hours."
"What? That's forever."
Chase smiled. "You'll need it every day."
"Excuse me?"
"Your kidneys and liver are pretty dodgy at the moment, Kate, this is what needs to be done. But, give it a few weeks or months without the poison in you, you should be able to wean off. But you also do get to pick where, leg, arm, neck?" Chase waved the needle around.
"How about nowhere?"
"Arm? Your right-handed, yeah? Can do the left arm?"
Kate rolled up her sleeve. "That's where I've been poked with everything lately, so sure."
Chase paused. "Do you want a line?"
"A line?"
"An intravenus line; a cannula, it just, stays in your arm. Because you're getting this every day we can stop poking you. And when we do blood tests, we can use the line instead."
"Won't I feel it in there?"
"Not if I do it properly. You'll barely feel it."
Kate thought a moment. "Okay."
"All right, I'll go get the stuff."
"Can we wait?"
"Wait for what?"
"Do you…" Kate stammered. "Do you know where my dad is?"
Chase did know. "He's uh, doing a consult. Do you want me to find him?"
Kate shrugged. "Maybe."
Chase put the needle down. "I'll find a central line kit, and your dad."
"Thank you," Kate said softly.

Chase knocked on Doctor Wilson's door and went in. Two men suddenly appeared, clearly leaving. The detectives. "Evening," said Chase to them. "Doctor Wilson?"
"Yeah?"
"Kate's asking for you. We're about to start dialysis but she asked for you."
Wilson tried to hide his shock and stood up.
"I offered her a cannula." Chase said as they walked down to Kate's room. "She's going to need dialysis every day. Thought it might be better than sticking her with a needle several times a day. I think she's a bit scared of having a literal needle in her arm for the foreseeable future."
"Of all the things she's scared of a needle."
"Phobias aren't really logical."
"I guess not."
"So uh…how are you going?"
"We don't have to do this."
"Right. Yep. Okay."
They walked the rest of the way in silence.

"Look who I found," Chase said as they came in the room.
Kate smiled a little at Wilson.
"And got you a line kit. Are you ready?"
"No," said Kate.
Wilson pulled up the chair next to the bed. "It'll be fine."
"The disco machine standing in the corner makes me think otherwise."
Wilson smiled. "It works, it'll clean your blood."
"What does that even mean?"
Chase took the distraction to the get the line kit ready.
"Your kidneys normally filter your blood; they get rid of waste. Your kidneys have been working overtime and can no longer keep up. So, you've got extra waste floating around in your blood."
"Lovely."
"The dialysis machine can filter the blood, put the clean blood back into your body."
"The machine is going to wash my blood?"
"Essentially, yeah."
"OW!"
"Sorry," said Chase. "Thought I could sneak in there."
"THAT'S HUGE!"
"That's the line, the needle is just normal needle sized," said Chase. He taped down the outside. "Let's hook you up for your first blood cleaning."
"Hello campers!" said Doctor House.
"What are you doing here?" asked Wilson.
"I'm visiting my patient."
"I'm Doctor Finch's patient," said Kate.
"Not anymore," said House.
"You did not take Kate's case," said Wilson.
"Say that five times past. Take Kate's case. Take Kate's case; real tongue twister."
"I thought death row guy was your patient?" asked Kate.
"I can't have two patients?" asked House.
"No," said Chase, Kate, and Wilson.
"Wow. Tough crowd. Come on Wilson, you want the best on Kate's case."
"And you're the best?" asked Wilson.
"Of course."
"You have a lot of familiarity with dealing with poisonings in teenagers?"
"No. Mary Kate Wilson would be my first." He winked at Kate.
"No offense, House, but I'll stick with Doctor Finch," she said.
"Oh, you're no fun. Here, cranky pants," House said, slapping the chart to Finch as he came in. He must've seen him in the halls earlier.
"Are we ready to start, Doctor Chase?" asked Finch.
"Yes."
"Here we go."
Chase turned on the dialysis.
"It's a bit loud," yelled Kate.
"It's disco," yelled Chase.
"We can get you some headphones or something," yelled Wilson.
Doctor Finch went over and checked the machine. "Looking good. I'll come back and check in half an hour that we stay good." Finch looked around the room. "Or one of the other three doctors in this room will." He left.
"Don't you have another patient to take care of, too?" asked House.
Chase said nothing but also left.
House went over to the machine, "Ooh look at your blood all in there, so fun!"
Kate was purposefully looking away, towards Wilson rather than to her arm and the tubes of blood. "I'm good."
"Oh trust me, it's cool. It's like those crazy straws all wiggled around sucking and pumping your blood. Much better than looking at Wilson."
"Impossible. Dad's blood is on his insides, where it's supposed to be."
"True that. Do you guys want food?"
"You're going to get us dinner?" asked Wilson is disbelief.
"It's not completely self-sacrificial. I'm hungry too." House turned and left.
"I'm allowed to eat while being drained?"
"You're not being drained. You're being drained and refilled. You're not losing any blood. And yes, you can eat. You're on dialysis, you're not an invalid."
"Can I move around?"
Wilson paused. "Not while you're hooked up…there's a lot of tubes."
"So I am a temporary invalid."
"For three to five hours, yes, you are in invalid. Happy?"
Kate rested her back on the pillow. "Not really."
"Yeah, me neither."

"Didn't mean to interrupt," House said when he came back with a bag. He slid the door shut behind him and put the bag down on Kate's table.
Wilson got up and pulled out the food as House sat down on the chair to the right of the bed. Kate kept staring blankly at the TV. House poked her with his cane. "Are you a zombie now?"
Kate rolled her eyes and looked at him. "I hate needles and blood and currently I have a needle in my arm for months and my blood is being pumped through tubes."
"Yeah, but it's really cool."
Wilson sighed and handed Kate her container of food, opened, with a fork. "Where did you go?"
"Italian restaurant."
Wilson frowned. "There's no Italian restaurant nearby."
"I drove."
"You brought this back on your bike?"
"No, I took your car."
Wilson tapped his pockets. House pulled out his keys and threw them at him. "Thanks?" said Wilson, catching them.
Kate started eating. House took his food and pulled the table closer to him.
"Hey," said Kate, and pulled it back.
"I'm cripple."
"I'm a patient."
"Not my patient."
Wilson sat down in the chair on Kate's left and started eating and pretended to be engrossed in the TV.
"You're a jerk."
"And you're either a liar or completely delusional."
"House," warned Wilson.
"How'd the rat poison get into your system?" asked House.
"I don't know," said Kate softly.
"See," said House, pointing his fork at Wilson. "Delusional…or a liar. I'm going with delusional."
"I'm not delusional," said Kate.
"Exactly what a delusional person would say."
"Is the word 'delusional' losing it's meaning to anyone else?" asked Wilson trying to change the subject at least slightly.
House wasn't having it, he leaned forward, "Come on Kate, fess up, what're mommy and daddy really like?"
"What about you fess up, are you sleeping with Stacy?" Wilson nearly choked on his food.
"What?"
Kate shrugged. "All the nurses are talking about it."
"Around you?" asked Wilson.
"I'm right near the nurse's desk and people keep not closing the door," Kate said with another shrug. "Also when the nurses refer to 'the angry doctor' there's not a lot of options."
"That's the codename they chose?" asked House.
"If the shoe fits," said Kate.
"Your teetering between denial and anger like a seesaw."
"I'm not going through the five stages of grief."
"No; you can't make it past the second stage because you keep flipping back to the first stage."
Kate rolled her eyes and ate her food.
"Maybe the cops that're at your apartment will find all the evidence they need anyway and you'll be forced to move on fully into anger and I'm sure Wilson will really appreciate that." House took a big bite of pasta and smiled at Kate.
"The cops are at the apartment?"
"How would you know?" asked Wilson.
"I may or may not have told some random officer I was you," House said with a half-full mouth of food. He swallowed. "I wonder what they'll find in all those notes and files of Dr Fairchild's?" he eyed Kate.
She stared at him. House winked at her. They all then pretended the Survivor was the most entertaining show of all time.

"Why are we doing this?" asked Kate as Foreman pushed her down the hallway.
"House thinks it'll be good to check your brain."
"But why?"
"He thinks your delusional."
"I know, but why does that mean it's actually a brain thing?"
Foreman shrugged. "It's not uncommon for poisoning to affect the brain. It's your blood, and your blood goes to your brain."
"Is the poison still in my blood if I've had dialysis?"
"Dialysis works slowly, it's not 100% at cleaning the blood, just the kidneys aren't. They filter the blood, so does dialysis. They can only work so much. So, if you're blood has poison in it, and it's going to the brain it can affect it."
"So House's thinks because he thinks I'm delusional that's it's medical?"
Foreman sighed. "Yeah."
"You don't agree?"
"I'm just doing what I'm told."
"Do you think I'm delusional?"
Foreman didn't answer.
"Doctor Foreman?"
"I think you're a 14-year-old who's going through a lot."
They arrived at the MRI. Foreman wheeled her in and helped her up onto the bed.
"All right, lie down."
"Does my dad know?" asked Kate.
"What?"
"Does my dad know I'm getting an MRI? Did Doctor Finch tell him?"
Foreman froze. "Uh…yeah, they do. They both do. Sure."
Kate nodded slowly and laid down. "Oh, okay."
"What is it?" asked Foreman. He lay a blanket over her.
"Oh, it's just…he's been…around, I mean, for all the other stuff. Is he with a patient?"
Foreman took a breath. "Do you want me to call him?"
"No, I don't want to be a bother. It's just a scan, right?"
Foreman smiled. "Yeah, it's just a scan." He pushed the button and Kate went into the machine.
"Alright, Kate, we're starting now. The machine is going to make some clunking sounds; that's normal. Just try and stay as still as possible," Foreman said through the microphone.
"Okay."
"Just breathe, you'll be fine." Foreman switched off the mic.
Chase was watching the screen as the first images came up. "Do you think she's got a tumor?"
"I really don't know," sighed Foreman. "House seems convinced."
"All because she's defending her mother and stepfather? It's not that unusual."
"They poisoned her!"
"I meant it's not unusual for victims to still want to please their parents. Kate probably wants to keep her parents happy because that's all she's ever known."
"Her brain's looking clear."
"There's a shadow," Chase turned on the microphone, "Kate you need to stay still, we're nearly done."
"Sorry, I had an itch."
"It's okay, just try and stay still, especially your head."
"Okay."
The door slammed open. "What the hell are you two doing with my patient?" Doctor Finch yelled.
"Uh…" Chase managed.
"Doctor House asked us to-"
"She's not his patient! And you two aren't stupid enough to realise Doctor House doesn't rule this hospital. I'll be reporting the both of you!"
"Look her brain's clear…" Foreman began.
"Not completely…" Chase said looking at the scans. "She has white matter at her brainstem," Chase pointed to the screen.
Doctor Finch looked over. "And there's a mass just below it," he said.
"Is it the shadow?" Foreman asked.
"Maybe," said Chase. "It's not in the exact same spot though," he said, clicking between the images.
"Call Doctor Wilson," said Finch.
"As an oncologist or a parent?" asked Foreman.
"Both," said Finch. "Are you sure it's not a shadow?"
"She's still as anything now," said Chase.
"That's because you never turned the microphone off," Kate's voice said through the speakers.
The three doctors had nothing to say for an awkwardly long time. Chase flicked the microphone off. "I'll get her out of there."

"White matter can be a symptom of neurotoxins," said Doctor Wilson holding the scans up to his office window.
"And the mass?" asked Foreman.
"Yeah, that's not great. It's dark, which means it's probably a tumor, or it could be a build up of blood from the neurotoxicity. Either way you need to get in there for a biopsy and to remove the white matter."
Doctor Foreman nodded as Wilson handed back the scans. He didn't leave.
"What is it?" asked Wilson.
"It's uh…" Foreman struggled to find the words. "It's not our patient."
"What do you mean? You said it was a consult? I assumed…"
"House asked me to scan her because he thought her delusions were a symptom…"
Wilson blinked slowly as realization flooded over him. He leaned against the door to the balcony. "So, on top of kidney and liver failure my child now has white matter and a possible tumor in her brain?"
Foreman nodded. "I'm sorry."
Wilson kicked the couch. "Dammit!" he yelled. He rubbed his face.