5

"There's seriously something very wrong with you."

"What?"

"You heard what I said," House grumbled as he sat down, facing Kelly. "The whole day, you're doing jobs Cameron usually does and taking advantage of the fact that she is absent for the previous few days. Making coffee, which is actually not that good, and sorting my mail."

"Excuse me? She's not here, so of course I have to help you with those jobs!"

"No, you didn't start doing those until you saw Dr. Cameron do those. And anyway, you suck at sorting the mail. You leave so many mail unread but those mails aren't necessary for me to read. If it was Cameron, she would know that she had to decline every single lecture request."

"Oh, please. What, you think I'm trying to replace her and play secretary?"

"That's exactly what you've been doing these few days. Playing secretary. Not only making coffee and sort my mail, I also noticed that you started doing my paperwork. And what's more, your handwriting is awful and you can't forge my signature as well as Cameron can. She had the loopy G's, but who cares?"

Kelly scoffed and rolled her eyes as she looked away. "I'm trying to help."

"Yeah, right. Now either you really don't have that much stuff to do and is willing to help me do my crappy jobs or you've developed a huge crush on me."

Kelly flushed and strolled away with her particularly annoying high heels, trying to keep herself confident for the rest of the day, but was flustered by what House said to her. 

At this moment, Foreman stepped next to House. "Cut her some slack, House," he sighed. "You're being too hard on her. She's right, she's just trying to help you do your paperwork because you won't do it yourself ."

"Look, I don't know why the hell you're saying this and defending her, and I don't give a crap, but shut the fuck up because I have the privilege to fire you, not Kelly."

"It's not like I want to be here doing this crappy job anyway," Foreman spat back.

"No. The job is good—you just don't want to turn into me. Not shit, but without this job you won't be able to find any other."

Chase was listening to the whole conversation next door in the conference room, yet chose to stay quiet. He wasn't in the mood to be shouted at by House, and he himself didn't really like Kelly. He decided to work on his cross-word puzzle as he always did.

"House," said a very familiar voice that could only belong to Cuddy. "You're 4 hours due for clinic duty."

"Oh, come on," House whined, "The clinic is so boring."

"Go. Now," Cuddy ordered sternly, then turning around to leave and go back to her office. House sighed and turned to Chase with a look that clearly said, "Go do my clinic duty."

Chase had no clue but to put away his puzzle and go, or he would be fired, obviously. Foreman rolled his eyes as he sat down on the seat Chase was sitting in just now, pouring himself another cup of coffee. Although he already had a cup this morning, he needed the caffeine as House was already driving him crazy.

Kelly went back to House's desk even after the argument, filling in his paperwork. House stared at the iconic blue file in front of him. An eight year old with seizures. This information made him very interested, but the answer could be simple, which he didn't like.

"Eight year old in seizures," he said as he walked over to the board with a black marker. Foreman was confused. Once second they were arguing, and the next they were presented with a case? And this was Kelly's first one since she got the job.

"We have a case?" Foreman asked with a raised eyebrow. "Really?"

"Oh, that's fine if you want to finish up your coffee first. Don't worry, we can still wait until the kid dies. Go ahead."

Kelly rolled her eyes and sat in the conference room next to Foreman. "Is that all? Seizures?"

"What, you want him to have more? Alright then, let's just assume that his liver suddenly started failing! Does that make you more interested?"

"I didn't mean that, House," Kelly protested desperately. House smirked and wrote down "Seizures" on the whiteboard. 

"Alright. What causes eight year olds to have seizures?"

"Head injuries, infection, high or low blood sugar—" Kelly started to say, until House cut her off, "Are you really going to list everything. You do know that you have the copy of the file in front of you, right?"

Kelly shrugged. "I just thought—"

"You thought nothing. The eight year old has perfect blood sugar, no head injuries, and no infection."

"Maybe we missed something on the CT scan," Foreman offered, staring at the board at the only symptoms written on it. "Maybe he did have head injuries. Did he have a fever?"

"The nurses found normal body temperature when they checked 15 minutes ago," Kelly said, referring to the file. "Should we just redo the CT scan?"

"Seems that way," House nodded. "You two can finish the work and...I'll get lunch. Or more coffee. Or whatever that gets me out of work."

With a sigh, Foreman nudged to Kelly to follow him to the CT scan room. "He's going to visit Cameron," he apologised for House to Kelly. "He's always cranky in the morning. Don't worry about it, he doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, thanks," Kelly muttered, following him down the hallway. "Shouldn't we keep Dr. Chase informed about the new case?"

"Just call him Chase, we're coworkers. No reason to be formal, huh?" Foreman grinned as he opened the door to the patient's room. "Noah?" Kelly called to the kid. "We're going to take you to do another round of the CT scan."

Foreman looked at the parents. "Don't worry, we'll figure out what's wrong with him." The parents thanked him and the father hugged the mother as they pushed the boy's bed out of the room and into the CT scan room.

Kelly punched the button next to the machine and the boy was loaded inside. "Stay very still, okay?" Kelly told him. The boy nodded obediently, staring at the ceiling of the machine and staying very still like she told him.

Kelly went back to the opposite room, just with a piece of glass separating them. She pressed the microphone button and spoke into the mic, "Alright Noah, we'll begin now." The machine began making washing machine-like sounds.

Foreman clicked on his keyboard to zoom into the place he needed to look at. While they were waiting, he turned to Kelly, "The conversation earlier. Do you actually have a crush on House? A jerk like him?"

"I-I guess," she said, not bothering to lie. "Trust me, I don't know why either. He's rude, isn't he?"

"Hey, I had the exact same conversation with Dr. Cameron three years or four years ago. She had the biggest crush on him and none of us knew why. And look how it turned out. But I don't think he's going to break up with him any time sooner. And...Cameron's like a younger sister to me. I would really suggest you back off and don't interrupt their relationship."

"You think she deserves a better chance with House than me, huh?"

"Look, Dr. Kelly. I'm being serious here. The two of them are great together, though I hate to admit. Please just let them be. The crush will fade away soon."

"How are you so sure it's just a crush and not love? I mean, everybody thought Dr. Cameron had a crush on him until she realised it was more than that."

"Because, the only women who can actually put up with a bastard like House are Cuddy and Cameron, and Cuddy doesn't even like House that way. You—you can't handle a jerk like him. He will break your heart before you even dare to touch him."

"Yeah, and Cameron managed not to get her heart broken?"

"Of course she did. But she's different."

Kelly scoffed as she turned her chair to face the screen. "And what makes her different?"

Foreman didn't answer. He got up from his chair and leaned into the computer, pointing at a glowing white spot on the scan. "That's a brain tumour. It wasn't there this morning," he said in shock. Kelly immediately got up to check. "Oh my god. The tumour caused the seizure, didn't it?"

"We have to report it to the parents right away," Foreman said, quickly getting up.

************************************************

"Got you a little something," House said quietly as he entered Cameron's room. He placed a brown paper bag in front of her. "You like burgers, right?"

"Depends what kind," she smiled as she pulled the burger out of the paper bag, and her smile grew wider. "Cheese and beef. Lovely."

She took a bite. "This isn't cafeteria food, is it?"

"Of course it isn't. I got it at Burger King just now, take-out, you know."

"Mhm. It's good, and I can tell," she stated. She put the burger down and looked at House. "Have you had your lunch yet?"

"No. I'm not hungry, I had a heavy breakfast," he said. Truth was, he didn't eat anything yet, but he wasn't lying about not being hungry. "So...would you like to do some charting for our patient or some of my paperwork? I don't think you're going to be discharged very soon."

Her eyes literally lit up when he finished his sentence, and Cameron nodded eagerly. "I would love to. Lying here sucks. When will I be discharged, earliest?"

"Next week Monday is already the earliest."

"That's a whole week away," Cameron grumbled. "Can you try to get Cuddy to discharge me later? Please?"

"Uh...I kinda refused to do clinic duty today, she isn't really happy about me. Luckily for you and me, I sent Chase down there as usual."

She laughed as she finished the last bite of burger. Her laugh was like music to House's ears, and the tip of his lips twitched up when he heard it. He gently pulled the away the table in front of Cameron's bed.

"Can you sit up?" He asked.

"I don't think so," she frowned. "It really hurts when I try to."

He nodded. "That's because your waist hasn't completely recovered yet. It'll take at least five more days. If you could though, I would take you on a stroll outside the hospital in a wheelchair, so tell me when you are able to sit up."

"Damn," she murmured to herself. House sat down next to her and looked at his watch. "I'll bring in the paperwork by 12. Sounds good?"

She nodded while turning her head to the left slightly to look out the window. There was barely any sun and barely any air in the room. "Hey, can you turn up the air conditioning?"

House frowned. "It's already at 20 degrees, it should be really cold. Look, I'm shivering right now."

"House, I'm sweating," Cameron complained. "Maybe it's not working. Just turn it on."

House turned it up and sat down again, still frowning. There was no way she would feel hot in such a cold temperature. The hospital air conditionings were always way too cold, whether in the clinic, the rooms, or his office, which is why he always had his jacket on.

Unless...

"Allison, you're burning up," he said as he put his hand on her forehead. "Gosh." He quickly took a thermometer and stuck it on her mouth, taking it out afterwards. "105. Nurse!"

Nurses came rushing in. He yelled at them, "Cooling blankets and cold water. Go. Now! Her brain is going fry itself!" The nurses quickly got out and came in again, this time holding a blue bucket of freezing cold water, and a few blankets that were cooling.

House grabbed the cooling blankets and towels, placing the towel on Cameron's forehead and the blankets all over her body. He pulled down her blanket and stuffed the cooling blankets down.

Once he was done, he gave the nurses a nudge and they immediately poured the freezing cold water onto Cameron's body, leaving her drenched. Her temperature lowered down to 103 fifteen minutes later.

"Put her on ibuprofen," House ordered, and the nurse took the IV drip bag and connected it to the stand, then inserting the needle into Cameron's arm. "All done, doctor."

"High fevers don't just pop up all of a sudden," he said to himself as the nurse looked at him in confusion. Abruptly, he stormed out of the room and headed to his office in a rush.

**********************************************

"House, this eight year old has a brain tumour in his head. We just schedule him for surgery and radiology and he'll be done."

"Change of case," House announced, rubbing everything from the board off.  "Sudden high fever. No malaria. As for the kid, discharge him tomorrow morning."

"Wait, wait, wait," Foreman said. "Where did this imaginary patient suddenly come from? You were gone for less than an hour and boom, a patient comes here before you solve the last case?"

"Oh, but we did solve the last case," House said with a grin. "And now we have another. Excellent business!"

"What are you doing, House?" Foreman sighed. "Fine. Let's play along then. Which room is the patient in? Because unlike you, we actually have to visit patients to diagnose him."

"It's a her," House smirked. "She spiked a fever of 105, then we gave her some cooling blankets or medication. In fifteen minutes, her fever dropped to 103."

"We?"

"Me and the nurses," House said rather proudly. 

"No—you went to see the patient before even coming here? Did you wake up at the wrong side of the bed, and maybe, hopefully, became the typical friendly doctor that everyone in the hospital except for you is?"

He snorted in reply. "I'm not such a bad doctor, and that's so mean," he winked. "Anyway—the patient's room..." he forgot which room Cameron was in. "532 or something. Yeah, 532. Go."

The two doctors in the room scurried to the fifth floor.

Foreman and Kelly went into room 532 as instructed, and leaving Foreman shocked. "Cameron!?" 

"Cameron is our patient?" Kelly exclaimed.

"What?" Cameron asked, baffled. "What happened? Who's the patient?"

"Apparently you are, Cam," Foreman said, confused. "House said we had a patient spiking a fever of 105. He was referring to you, was he?"

"Y-yeah, I guess so," Cameron replied. "Why?"

"We solved our last case already, actually, way quicker than we were supposed to, so House told us we had another patient with very sudden fever. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"No, just a bit tired," she answered. "And I only have a very low fever now, it's not bad."

"Good," Foreman said. He checked her temperature himself. "Wait—low fever, you said?" Cameron nodded to confirm.

"You're not getting better, you're still burning hot," Foreman said. "I'll put you on more ibuprofen, okay?" Cameron nodded again.

"I feel fine," she stated. "Can you please tell me what happened to the last patient whose case you just solved? House promised me some charting, and I can't do my own charting if I'm the patient."

"There was an eight year old who suddenly had seizures while playing in his garden, and he has tumours in his brain, which, obviously caused the seizures and now he's in surgery."

"That's quite an easy case if you ask me, House would diagnose that in less than 5 minutes."

"The diagnosis took 5 minutes, the CT scan test took way longer," Foreman said with a chuckle. "Seriously though, Cam, you wouldn't have a fever suddenly, and that high too."

"I'm fine, okay?" She snapped, louder than she intended to. When she noticed, she flushed and looked down. "Sorry. Please just tell House that I'm alright, okay?"

"Alright," Foreman sighed and gave in. "Apart from the fever, do you feel pain anywhere else? This will be the last question, I swear."

"My waist still hurts from surgery," she replied.

"Okay, so nothing abnormal. We'll be on our way now, get better soon, Cameron."

"Bye Foreman, bye Kelly," she said. Kelly just nodded back somewhat uncomfortably, and Cameron noticed how she said nothing the entire time in the room. 

Foreman burst into House's office, trying not to get too worried. He didn't want to make House even more nervous with the news about Cameron's condition, not when she had a big wound on her waist and a high fever.

"Yes?" House asked impatiently.

"Her fever returned, still at 105, and it isn't dropping. I put her on more ibuprofen already. She doesn't feel uncomfortable, hot or anything, and she isn't sweating."

"Okay, which means?" House questioned them, raising an eyebrow. "And also, Kelly, you're kinda useless when you just keep your mouth shut, you know? I might have to consider firing you if you don't start with the diagnosis."

"Look, this is a waste of time," Kelly said, scowling. "She has a cold. A cold. That's all, and we have fevers all the time from colds."

"Except she doesn't have any symptoms of a cold, no sneeze, no cough, no runny nose, and no headache," Foreman retorted. "And if you think diagnosing Cameron is a waste of time, then just get out of the room and go have lunch."

House grinned at Foreman's statement. "Alright then. Foreman, what causes sudden high fevers that come and don't go?"

"If she still had a fever, it means the thing that's causing the fever is still here. Bone infections, appendicitis, skin infections or cellulitis, and meningitis. Respiratory infections such as colds or flu-like illnesses, sore throats, ear infections, sinus infections, mononucleosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis can also cause high fevers in adults."

"Good. Most of them are infections, infections and...infections. Boring," House faked a yawn. "Alright then. What's the infection that Cameron might most likely have?"

"I'm ruling out bone, respiratory, ear and sinus infections," Foreman said. Writing them all onto the board then crossing them out. "Which leaves skin infection."

"And why do you think it is a skin infection, Dr. Foreman?" House challenged.

"Well, we all know she has a wound on her waist, there is a chance that it got infected, especially if it wasn't sanitised properly. Moreover, the wound was very big and long, and she just bled out of it not so long ago, bacteria could have gone into it."

House mockingly gasped. "That's right! Why didn't I think of it before!?" His gasp then turned into a smirk. 

Moments later, all three of them found themselves rushing to Cameron's room. House stood right in front of her. "We know what's wrong with you now," he grinned. 

"What's wrong?" Cameron asked.

"You have a skin infection." House tore the blankets off her and gently lifted up her patient gown, revealing a huge bandage on her wound. "H-house, what are you doing?" Cameron asked, nervousness heard clearly in her voice.

He tried as gently as he could and slowly removed the bandage. Cameron winced slightly at the pain. House then rubbed his fingers on the wound, and stopped, pointing at the very tip of the wound. "There. Look. There's a slight swelling but only at the end. It's the place where you got the infection. We'll just clean it better and you'll be alright. The fever should also fade gradually."

"Thanks House," she smiled softly. 

"My pleasure, Allison," he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

Kelly was glaring at the two of them at the door. For now, she was going to dig harder for the private information she needed and for the feelings House had for her.