You want me to Date You?

Chapter Thirty-Four

AN: This has been a LONG TIME coming. I am immensely grateful for the popularity of this story, and I love that you love it so much. I love it too and I know that it hasn't been given much love from me in some time now. But I'm hoping to change that. 

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"The boy most likely has brain damage," Foreman sighed as they team all said in the room adjacent to House's office. 

"There's a good chance," House nodded. "But let's talk about before that. What did you see?" he asked curiously. "Anything?"

"You're not worried about--"

"Anything that I cannot do anything about," House answered. "I want to save the kid. So come on, let's see what we have here."

"Histiocytosis," Foreman stated.

Chase shook his head. "That's very unlikely in a seventy-three-year-old."

"All of this is highly unlikely," Cameron pointed out. 

"We need more ideas, genetic disorders, anything," House commented. "C'mon start bouncing."

 "Genetic disorders could cause masses everywhere. Tuberous sclerosis," Chase commented.

"If it's genetic, why would it start now?" Foreman questioned.

House shrugged and twirled his cane in front of him. "I don't know, but it does fit nice enough."

"We haven't ruled out Leukemia or Sarcoma yet," Cameron suggested. "Sarcoma would cause a lot of soft tissue masses."

"There's sarcoidosis," Foreman added.

"Multiple neurofibromatosis."

 "Chondrocytomas?" Chase added.

The team all turned as they heard the glass door to the room open and Cuddy stepped into the room. "How's it going with the game?" House asked. "Winning?"

"I wouldn't know," Cuddy answered. "I was called away by angry parents. Seriously. There are three of you here and none of you could stop him and call me?" she questioned, watching as everyone looked down to the ground. 

 "I told them you'd signed off," House told her. "The parents are mad because their kid is dying, that's understandable. But if he doesn't die, they won't be mad anymore."

Cuddy huffed and rolled her eyes before giving House an icy stare. "Well, if the child is brain damaged, they just might be a little ticked off, House."

"I had to do it, to save his life," House stated firmly.

"You did it to diagnose Rose." Cuddy ran both hands over her face. "You might have killed a six-year-old because of your stupid obsession with a twelve your old case. You can't expect them to be the same."

"He's not dead yet," House countered.

"No, he's not," Cuddy replied. "But you're done. It's my case now. Go home, go ride your motorcycle, go brood in a dark room, just don't go near Markus again," she growled. "I mean it, House. You're done." She looked around at the team before turning and storming out of the room. 

Cameron stood and walked over to House, placing one hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. "You're going to have to find a way to let this go. We can't go near Markus."

"We don't need to go near him, we have his tumor," House countered, turning towards Cameron. "Cuddy may be right that we screwed up the protocol, she may be right about my obsession, but I'm right about the medicine." He stands and walks over to a small fridge and pulls out the tumor they retrieved from the boy. "How many tests can we do with this?"

Cameron sighed softly but walked over to look at it. "Maybe two good pieces."

"How many okay pieces?" House asked.

"Three would really be pushing it," Chase replied.

House turned around to look back at the whiteboard before sighing. "Three tests, seven choices."

"Sarcoidosis seems most likely," Foreman pointed out as eye looked over the whiteboard.

"Yeah, so likely that Cuddy's going to think of that all on her own. She's got the kid's whole body to play with. Let her do that test. What's next?"

"It's moving too fast to be spreading. It has to be growing from something that's already--"

"A genetic disorder - tuberous sclerosis," Chase said.

"Or it could be his immune system, histiocytosis," Foreman added.