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Thicker Than Water, Chapter One
by ParisWriter
Author's Note: I do not own any of the characters or the premise of the show, House, M.D. I am merely an obsessed fan having a bit of fun by putting the characters into a situation of my choosing.
I would like to thank my various beta readers for their input. I appreciate you guys more than you'll ever know. I'd also like to thank all those who may read/review this story.
All medical information presented in this story is as accurate as I can manage to make it. The patient's condition is based, in part, on something that happened to me. I chose an illness I know about to make it as realistic as possible. Various medical facts have been checked with my boyfriend, when he's not busy running 30-hour shifts at the hospital.
All categorizations based on the entire story rather than just this one chapter, so don't hate me because I listed this as a Holiday fic and it's not Christmas yet (for example). They'll all be covered in later chapters.
Chapter One
"So what have we got?" House asked his team as he underlined the last in a long list of symptoms written on the board at the front of the conference room. "Ideas? Anyone?"
"Could be pulmonary edema," Foreman suggested.
"No, his blood ox was normal," Cameron pointed out, discrediting his theory.
"Maybe not pulmonary edema," mused Chase. "But perhaps a pulmonary embolus."
"I suppose it's worth looking into," House reluctantly agreed. "We'll need to order an MRI of his chest to check for any clots in his lungs and--"
A knock at the door interrupted his train of thought and he turned, annoyed, to see Cuddy standing in the doorway.
"To what do I owe this immense pleasure of your venerable presence?"
"You have a patient in the clinic," she informed him.
"Not today, I don't," House informed her with a satisfied smirk. "I've already put in my hours for this week."
"She asked for you specifically, by name," Cuddy continued, unfazed by his attitude. "I tried getting her to see someone else, but she's insisted that it be you."
"Well, kiddies," House said as he stood from his seat and made his way to the door. "I hate to break up this little shindig, but it seems I would have some business to attend to."
The others watched him leave then turned to each other with looks of interest.
"House has a fan?" Foreman asked incredulously, causing the other two to burst into laughter.
"Only one way to find out," Cameron suggested, getting up from her seat with Chase following closely behind.
"You two go ahead," Foreman called after them. "I'll get Mr. Jellinsky started on his tests."
Downstairs in the clinic, House barked an order at one of the nurses to get him the chart of the patient that was so intent on seeing him that they had to have him dragged down to the clinic on his day off. He glanced at the patient's symptoms - they were complaining of severe migraines. Sighing heavily, he swore under his breath about how incompetent some people were.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do," he said as he entered the exam room where the patient was waiting. "I am going to write you a prescription for some pain medication. You are going to go home and take them as directed. You may become drowsy and sleep, but when you wake up, the pain will be gone. Capeesh?"
"It won't work," a feminine voice replied. "I've already tried."
House sighed again. "Look here... Which of us is the doctor? I am. Now, Miss..."
He searched the chart for the patient's name and froze when he found it. Rachel Sutherfield. He had only known one Sutherfield and one Rachel in his life. Very slowly, he turned and looked at the person who was sitting on the exam table.
She was perched right on the edge of the table, her legs dangling several inches from the floor. It was hard to estimate while she was sitting, but he put her height somewhere around the five-foot-three mark. She had long, dark blonde hair and fair skin. When he looked at her she smiled, but it didn't quite reach her sapphire blue eyes. She had certainly grown up since the last time he had seen her. If she didn't look so much like her mother, he might not have even realized who she was.
"Rachel," he said her name, making it seem more like a question than an actual statement of who she was.
She nodded, looking down at the perfectly manicured hands folded in her lap. "I guess I'm the last person in the world you would expect to see here, huh?"
"How did you..?" he started to ask her, unsure what exactly to say to her.
"You weren't exactly hard to find," she told him with a slight chuckle. "You have quite a reputation, you know."
House couldn't help but laugh at the thought of what sort of reputation he might actually have. "I'm sure your mother must be thrilled you're here," he said, his voice oozing with sarcasm.
"Actually, she's the one who suggested I come see you."
"Really?" House asked, unable to hide his surprise. "I thought she would still be telling you to avoid me like the plague."
"Avoid you?" Rachel spat out, hopping down off the exam table and crossing the room to stand before him. "What about all the years you avoided me? Jesus... Not one call, not one birthday card, and you're making Mom out to be the bad guy?"
"Your mother and I agreed it would be easiest for you if I didn't see you."
"Like that would have made any real difference?" Rachel asked him in a harsh whisper, using all of her energy to keep herself composed and not start shouting. "It's not like I ever saw you to begin with. You were never around. Hence the reason Mom divorced you in the first place!"
House opened his mouth to say something, but Rachel held up her hand to stop him.
"Just... Don't, okay," she pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears. "It was a mistake for me to come here. I realize that now. I just thought that, maybe, as my father you would actually want to help me."
That said, she forcefully opened the exam room door and started to storm out into the hallway. After three steps she came to a halt and closed her eyes, bringing a hand to her head. The room was spinning, and her head was full of a searing pain. She opened her eyes, but her vision was swimming so badly she ended up closing them again before she became ill.
House also had his eyes closed, thinking back on the mistakes of his past. His young wife, their daughter, the divorce... It was all coming back to haunt him in ways he had never dreamed possible. He began to reach for the bottle of Vicodin in his pocket when he heard Rachel's voice curse behind him, followed by the sound of her body hitting the floor as she suddenly collapsed.
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Chase and Cameron had been standing outside the door of the clinic exam room where House was with his new patient, listening intently to the conversation on the other side. They couldn't really make out the words being said, but they noted that the patient was female and that both she and House sounded upset.
They nearly knocked each other over as they rushed to retreat from their posts when they heard someone approaching the door. When it opened and the young woman appeared, they were both standing at opposite sides of the doorframe, acting as nonchalantly as possible - Chase running a hand back through his hair as he looked anywhere but directly at the girl and Cameron pretending to be engrossed in a poster on the wall advertising a blood drive.
As she stepped past them, not seeming to even notice their presence, they both let out a small sigh of relief and moved closer to one another again to discuss the possibilities of who this mystery woman might be. Neither of them got a word out, however, because seconds later the girl stopped walking and placed a hand to her head. She stood there for a moment, wavering slightly on her feet. Chase started to move toward her, but Cameron placed a hand on his arm, stopping him.
"Oh shit," they her the girl say just before collapsing to the floor. Chase was already on his way to her when House came out through the exam room door, rushing over as fast as he could to his fallen patient.
"Get her in here," he ordered his two students, pointing from the unconscious girl to the exam room with his cane. "Now."
Chase and Cameron complied, lifting the girl up and taking her into the room, where they deposited her on the exam table. Cameron pulled out the extension on the end of the table to prop the girl's legs up on while Chase started taking her vitals.
"Her pulse is racing," he informed House. The older doctor looked her over, his eyebrows knitting together the way they often did when he was considering the possibility for a patient's illness.
"That doesn't make sense," Cameron stated as she rooted in a nearby drawer for a blood pressure cuff, which she handed to Chase. "If she passed out, shouldn't her pulse be low?"
"Not necessarily," House informed her as Chase took the girl's blood pressure. A moment later he shook his head and did it again.
"What?" House asked, rounding the bottom of the table to check the reading over Chase's shoulder and he check it the second time.
"Jesus," he breathed.
"BP is two-hundred seven over one-hundred eighty-three," Chase told Cameron. She hastily looked for the girl's chart, groaning in frustration when she couldn't find it anywhere.
"Here," House said, handing it over to her. "I want her on an IV with Vasotec, and I want it done yesterday," he ordered, pushing Chase aside to get closer to the patient. Cameron hurried out of the room to get the IV and drugs he had requested.
"Rachel," he called her name, gently stroking the top of her head. "Sweetie, can you hear me?"
Chase cleared his throat behind House, obviously wanting some sort of explanation for why he called a patient `Sweetie.' House sighed deeply. He hadn't wanted to ever tell anyone about her, but now that she was at his hospital and in bad shape he had no choice.
"She's my daughter," he whispered over his shoulder. Chase nodded, not wanting to prod too much into his personal life.
"What happened?" he simply asked.
"I married too young, couldn't handle the responsibility of a wife and child and ended up divorced at the ripe old age of twenty-three."
"I meant, what happened in here just now," Chase clarified.
House sighed, standing up to his full height and closing his eyes and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "She presented with chronic migraines. I was going to prescribe some drugs for her to treat the headaches, but she got upset and told me it wasn't going to work."
"Did you consider the fact that she may have been to see other doctors and they may have already tried treating her with drugs?"
"And they didn't work so I was her last resort, yes I did consider that." He sighed, shaking his head as he looked down at Rachel's unconscious form once again. "We need to get her on a heart monitor."
Chase silently nodded in agreement before leaving the room to find the closest monitor. House remained at Rachel's bedside, mentally going through possible causes of her condition. Her heart was going nuts, but she hadn't complained of any chest pain, so he figured he could rule out a heart attack. But just to be on the safe side...
"And schedule her for an EKG, stat," he called out into the clinic, hoping Chase was still close enough to hear him.
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Legal Disclaimer: The authors published here make no claims on the ownership of Dr. Gregory House and the other fictional residents of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Like the television show House (and quite possibly Dr. Wilson's pocket protector), they are the property of Fox Television, David Shore and undoubtedly other individuals of whom I am only peripherally aware. The fan fiction authors published here receive no monetary benefit from their work and intend no copyright infringement nor slight to the actual owners. We love the characters and we love the show, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
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