Disease

by DARWIN51

Summary:

Cameron and WIlson are quarantined after catching a deadly undocumented disease. House is in a race to figure out what it is and how to treat it before it kills them.

Chapter 1: Intro

Extended Summary: It started with a cough. Then shortness of breath, infection of the respiratory system. The disease attacks your nervous system next: dizziness, rapid blinking. That’s when you become contagious. The disease moves in a pattern, attacking each body system, leaving it weakened until it reaches the circulatory system. Before that, it will spread to any part of the body to begin the takeover. Whatever it gets to has to be removed or it will get to the circulatory system in a matter of days. But even then, it’s still not gone…
Cameron and Wilson catch the disease, they must be quarantined in an operation room, with only simple supplies to survive.

CHAPTER1-how it all began

“It doesn’t matter what the patient thinks, if he refuses treatment, knock him out and-“
COUGH COUGH
House was interrupted by Cameron’s cough. “Would you stop that! I haven’t gotten in one sentence this whole meeting!” House raged, talking over another cough.
“Sorry, I must’ve come down with something.”
“Well whatever it is, take it back to the ER, don’t get me sick.” He told her.
“Umm… I’m gonna stay…” Cameron insisted, trying to not reveal why.
“Why? You don’t work for me anymore. Cuddy sent you to spy on me didn’t she? She wanted you to make sure I didn’t do anything she wouldn’t approve of.” House accused.
“You caught me, now-cough-what House? I still have to be part of this case.”
House stood up and walked out. “Where are you going?” Foreman asked.
“To talk to a certain little elf.” House replied, limping out.”

 

BANG
The door of Cuddy’s office slams open. Cuddy looked up from her desk and put her hand on her forehead, as if just House’s presence brought about a major headache.
“WHY IS CAMERON ON MY CASE?” House demanded.
“So you wouldn’t do anything stupid, like you normally do.”
“That’s just how I run though!”
“On vicodin?”
“No, on my magical farie pixie-dust pills.” House said sarcastically, taking two pills out of his bottle.
Cuddy rolled her eyes. House brought his hand to his mouth, then hesitated and added; “pooped by real unicorns.” raising his eyebrows, then popped them into his mouth.
“You’re an ass.” She told him.
“That’s why you pay me the big bucks.” He said, turning to leave. “Figuratively speaking, of course.” He added, turning back and scrunching his face at her, then continuing on his way.

 

House entered his office where the team was still sitting at the table. “Fine. Run a biopsy on his liver. Looks like we won’t have to-“ COUGH. House glared at Cameron and spoke the last 3 words with anger, directly at her. “-force feed him. Go get me that biopsy, you,” he motioned to Cameron. “stay.” He said. The team just sat there.
“Go! Mush! What are you waiting for?” He barked. The team fled the room. “What, House?” Cameron asked.
House took a couple steps closer to her. She turned to the side and coughed, then turned back to him and they were just inches apart.
“House…” she squeaked, lust in her eyes. He leaned forward until their noses were touching. “GO HOME!” HE BARKED. She didn’t move for half a second, before she seemed to register what had happened. She jumped back, and wiped spit out of her eye. Her hesitation wasn’t much, but enough for House to notice. Her eyes were blinking quickly, but he assumed that was because he had spit in her eye. She left the room but he know she was just going to the ER.

House marched into Wilson’s room, where he was eating a sandwich. “Don’t you dare-cough cough- take my sandwich.” House took the sandwich. “Ugh, you too?” House said with disgust. “Me too what?” Wilson asked. “With that stupid cough. You and Cameron.” House complained. “Hmm. Must be something going around.” Wilson said.
“Yeah, Must be.”

Chapter 2

PANT PANT
“Why are you so out of breath?” House asked nonchalantly.
“Uh, I don’t know. Why?”Cameron replied, handing House the folder she was holding. House took it.
“Biopsy found a hepatoma on liver, which explains the weight loss and abdominal pain, but not his other symptoms. His wife said he travels a lot, so he probably picked it up somewhere with mycotoxin, aflatoxin.
“So we’ve cured B, but not A, which we didn’t even know existed, we thought there was only A.” House said metaphorically.
“Uhh…sure.”
“Great. Round up the team.” He instructed as he started to walk away.
“Where are you going?”
“Out for lunch” He replied with a smirk
~HouseMD~

House headed to Wilson’s room for the second time. He stole Wilson’s sandwich. Wilson didn’t react. “What?” House asked.
“What?” Wilson said back.
“Well you’re supposed to say something along the lines of ‘House get your own damn food’” House told him.
“I’m not hungry.” Wilson replied.
House put down the sandwich slowly, worried about his own health. Wilson started coughing, and House made no snarky comment this time. Wilson’s coughing became more violent, and he doubled over.
“Wilson?”
Wilson fell out of his chair to the floor, his coughs sounding wheezing like. Then came the blood. Wilson spewed it all over the carpet, then turning his head, the bookshelf, splattering a picture of when he was a kid. “Oh shit.” House muttered, then limped out to the hall and shouted for a nurse.
~HouseMD~
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“He’s stable, and coming to.” An unknown voice said.
House peered into Wilson’s line of vision. “What’s going on House?”
“You’re sick. Whatever it is, it’s no big deal. I’ll round up the team and figure it out, but whatever it is, Cameron’s got it too. We’re thinking it’s a respiratory neoplasm, but x-rays show nothing abnormal, and you fit all the symptoms of a pleural effusion.
“Great.” Wilson murmured.
“Well, either way, Cameron’s been improving without treatment, and you’re already improving, so you should be good to go. She’s already up and walking around”
“Is that safe?”
“You work in a freaking hospital. You’ll be fine.”
~HouseMD~
The next few days went by without incident, until a surprise visit to the ER.
A homeless man was found in an alley on South street, wrapped in blankets, with his skin turning purple. He was immediately rushed to the OR as his blood pressure began to drop dramatically, even giving him blood wasn’t doing much.
House, Wilson, Chase, Foreman, and Cameron were called in to try and diagnose the problem, Wilson as an extra surgical hand.
The man coughed blood all over everyone and he was screaming gibberish at them. “Can’t we knock him out?” Wilson cried over the screaming. “His blood pressure’s low enough as it is, if we knock him out, he’ll die!” Foreman shouted back.
The team was trying to figure out what was causing his skin to turn purple. “Give me some analgesic.” Cameron instructed.
Chase handed her a needle, and as she reached over, the sleeve of her surgical uniform rode up on her arm, and revealed purplish looking skin on her wrist. The same kind of purplish that was on the man’s abdomen. Chase immediately stepped away from her. “Oh my god…Cameron’s got it too!” Everyone looked to Cameron, who pulled up her sleeve even further, revealing purplish skin halfway up to her elbow.
House thought things through quickly. If this guy has the same symptoms as Cameron, and Wilson had the same as Cameron, that means Cameron and Wilson have it, along with this guy, since they have never seen this guy before and they have nothing in common, that means this is…
“Airborne” House declared.
Everyone put their masks back over their mouths, starting to back towards the door.
“Stay back.” House told Wilson and Cameron. “What? Why?” “Whatever is killing this man, you’re infected too.”
Everyone else escaped through the OR door, and locked the doors tight behind them.
Panic set in. “No! No let us out!” Cameron shouted, banging on the door. Wilson grabbed her elbow and held her back, she knew she couldn’t and shouldn’t get out. They were trapped until they figured out what this was.
A beeping slowly started in the background, interrupting their thoughts. The patient was dead. Cameron dropped to her knees next to the door.
“Put us in lockdown.” House instructed, as the beeping drowned out everything else.

Chapter 3

Tap Tap Tap…Squeak
Tap Tap Tap…Squeak
Wilson paced the tiny room, turning every three steps. Two days ago, Cameron and Wilson had been closed up in this death trap operation room with a dead hobo. A dead hobo carrying a terrifying new disease. A disease they had. So far all they knew about the disease was the early symptoms and that it was deadly.
Two days.
Forty-eight hours.
Two thousand eight-hundred and eighty minutes.
Felt like a lifetime.
Cameron was slumped in one corner, right leg tight against her chest, left leg straight out. It was almost completely purple.
Tap Tap Tap…Squeak
A light bulb went out.
Tap Tap Tap- “Will you stop that!” Cameron burst out in frustration.
“Sorry.” Wilson sat down on the floor.
“Look alive, guys!” House yelled through the intercom, leaning on the button with his cane. Him and Cuddy had just arrived. “Except for him. Then my theory would prove correct, which is not a good thing.” He said, gesturing at the dead guy. House had this joke that he thought they were zombies. It was just a joke, that had never been funny, not even the first time. This was no laughing matter. All of the surrounding areas had been evacuated and the hospital shut down. House and Cuddy were in hazmat suits until the area was determined clean of the disease. Cuddy took over talking. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
“Look, guys. We have to do something, and soon, like today. Otherwise you guys are going to starve to death before you die from this disease.”
They hadn’t eaten in two days either. Anything they tried to eat just came right back up.
“The disease is spreading up her leg.” Wilson said. “I was thinking…”
“Thinking what?” House demanded.
“Well, I mean, like what if this is the heart of the disease. If we just…disconnect it, maybe she has a fighting chance.”
“Disconnect?” Cameron asked.
“Look. The flesh is purple and brown and red, all up her leg, but the veins are still blue, like normal,” He pointed along the visible veins along her foot and back of her knee. “-Which means it’s not in the bloodstream yet. It ends right here.” He said, making an imaginary line on her upper thigh.
“What are you suggesting?” Cuddy asked.
“I’m suggesting we amputate.”

Chapter 4

Here’s the chapter lineup:
1 Intro
2 Beginning
3 New Ideas
4 Procedure
5 Worse
6 Involved
7 Freedom

 

FLICK
Cameron squinted at the bright lights above her. She felt a jerking motion on her elbow. She tried to lift her head, but it was secured down.
“Shh, go back to sleep. We’re gonna start soon.” Wilson said. He finished tightening the straps around her wrists, elbows, shoulders, chest, head, stomach, ankles, and knees.
After an hour and a half of Cameron puking in the corner, they had determined that pain medications would not stay down either, and after injections came the unprecedented allergic reactions. House told the story of how he sawed off that woman’s leg in the building collapse and she didn’t have any medication. House decided to leave out the part where she died.
So the plan was to have Cameron on the table, strapped down, asleep at the start of the procedure. Wilson would use the first of three tools, which looked like a tool used in clay sculpting. Two handles attached by a flexible, sharp wire would slice the flesh. Next, the muscle knife. Okay, it was just a knife, but they didn’t have much. Last, the bone saw. Cameron would awaken likely at the very first touch of the first tool, but she would have to bear through it. That’s what the straps were for.
Wilson wasn’t trained to use the bone saw. House told him how to use it over the intercom, and explained the different settings. It couldn’t be that hard, after all, it was just like any saw.
Cameron was asleep again soon, wearing a light blue button-down shirt with no pants, but the shirt covered what needed to be covered. Unfortunately, Wilson had to move the shirt up to get at their targeted goal of where they were going to cut. He gently lifted the shirt out of the way, frowned at House’s horny expression, then pulled out a sharpie and drew around where he was going to cut. He gave one last nod to House and Cuddy, then picked up the first tool. He wrapped the sharp wire around her thigh, then pulled as hard as he could. Blood sprang out and Cameron awoke, but he kept pulling, rotating the tool to get through all the tender flesh on all sides. He tossed the tool to the side after struggling to remove it from where it was buried in her flesh. She made no sound, but clenched her fists and her face scrunched up. Wilson took the second tool and quickly sorted his way through the bloody mess until her found where he had been working. He dug the knife in quickly and cut. Cameron opened her mouth in a silent scream and lifted her head off the table, straining against the straps. She gave up and let her head drop back down. Her hands were bleeding from where she clenched her fists so hard her fingernails cut her palm. Wilson finished off and picked up the bone saw. Without any hesitation, he cut deep into her thigh. She screamed a horrible sound and her back arched for about five seconds, then she went limp and passed out. The noise the bone made was sickening, a high pitched screaming of defiance. Finally, Wilson finished and he took a sheet and pressed it hard to her open wound. He shoved her detached leg aside, the wrapped it in another sheet and tossed it over near the dead man in the corner.
He held the sheet tight to her stub of a left leg all night and into the morning. He replaced the drenched sheet and taped another one down firmly. He gently removed her straps then took her pulse.
“She’s barely hanging on, house. There’s nothing else I can do right now.”
“Right.” House said. For once he didn’t have a smart-ass remark.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Worse
“Get it off! Off! Ahhh!” Cameron’s screams awoke Wilson around 3a.m. 5 days after her procedure. Wilson jumped in shock, and ran to Cameron’s side. This was the first time she had woken up so far.
Doctors were constantly in the observing room. One of them dialed House’s number to inform him that Cameron was awake.
“Get what off? Doctor Cameron, calm down!” Wilson shouted, all but calm.
“The straps! Get the straps off!”
“They’re not on!” Wilson replied. Cameron looked around then flopped back on the bed. “Oh.” She said.
Concerned, Wilson went over and took her temperature. “102,” He read aloud. “That’s up from yesterday.”
The doctors in the room wrote furiously on their clipboards. Wilson wanted to punch them. It’s all about keeping record, isn’t it? He thought. Cameron’s dying and they just want to secure their spot in the history books. But deep down he knew there was nothing they could do and they were just doing their jobs.
Wilson gently brushed Cameron’s hair away from her eyes. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“Like shit. Steaming shit that’s been thrown into spinning blades.”
“…Wonderful.” Wilson made a face. “Well, I guess that makes sense. You have a fever, and I cut your leg off. Do you remember?” He asked.
“Unfortunately, yeah.” She replied.
“Well, that’s a little good at least. I mean, you remember, so that’s good.”
“Yeah…” Cameron trailed off. “So what happens now?”
“We wait. You’re running a fever of 102, and it’s been getting worse. If it continues, we’re going to have to get out the cooling blankets. Which…we don’t have.” Wilson realized mid-sentence.
Cameron looked down at her leg for the first time. Or…where her leg had been. She sighed. “It really happened. I really don’t have and never again will have a left leg.”
“Well, there are prosthetics…”
“It’s not the same.” Cameron protested.
“Hey. This saved your life.”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t talk like that!”
“Wilson, get real! What are the chances we make it out of this alive?”
Wilson spun so he wasn’t facing her anymore. He ran his hand through his hair and let out a big breath. He picked up a tray and threw it at the tiled wall, watching its contents go flying in every direction before impact.
“We have a perfectly fine chance! House and his team are gonna figure out what this is, they can get help from doctors all around the world! Then they’ll treat us-“
“Wilson shut up!”
He spun angrily, kicking the tray making it clatter across the floor.
Cameron flinched.
“No, Allison. YOU shut up! If you want to be negative, take it somewhere else!” Wilson realized his poor choice of words.
“Trust me! I’d love to be far away from you right now!”
“Children, stop fighting!” House shouted over the intercom.
They both looked up at a window they couldn’t see through.
“I get woken up with good news, and I come here to find you two yelling at each other. That’s not going to do anything but make things worse. I know there’s a lot of tension in there, you probably can’t stand each other; if I were in there, I wouldn’t be able to stand myself! Just bear with me here.” It was probably one of the smartest things House had ever said.
“Sorry, Cam.” Wilson said.
“Sorry James.”
“Good job, children!”
“Shut up, House!”
Wilson carefully re-bandaged Cameron’s stump. As he leaned over to tape off the last of the bandage, Cameron gasped.
“What?” Wilson asked.
She just stared at where his shirt sleeve had ridden up from reaching over.
Wilson looked down at his arm. “Oh god…”
Wilson’s forearm had turned purple, and it was spreading.