About Last Night - HouseMD FanFiction - James Wilson x Original Character

2: First Case

(Note: I know nothing about medicines and medical stuff, so most of the medical things in this will most likely be very wrong).

The first few days of my job were simple enough. I did some eye tests for older people starting to use reading glasses, prescribed some eyedrops to a kid with an infection and got an order for prescription pair of sunglasses. I had a twenty minute lunch-break at one o'clock every day and mostly ate with Dr Cameron from the elevator. She and I had become pretty good friends after a week or so.

On the Wednesday of my second week, I arrived at my clinic office in the morning to find someone waiting for me.

"House," I tried to hide my slight grimace, "What's up?"

Dr House was leaning on his cane with one hand and holding a file in the other.

He sighed, "We need you on a case. Thirteen year old female with what looks like shingles in her eyes."

I laughed in disbelief, "That's impossible, a thirteen year old-"

"Can't have shingles, yes, I know, I've had this exact conversation with five people today," House cut me off, rolling his eyes, "Would I be asking the new doctor for help if I thought it was at all realistic?"

I shrugged, slightly taken aback, "Guess not. How come you didn't get Dr McCarthy, he's more qualified than I am."

"Because I said 'let's get an eye doctor so this kid doesn't die' and Wilson suggested you," he responded, leaving the room. His voice called from the hallway, "Dr McCarthy is boring. I need someone new to scare."

I chuckled and followed him out of the room. As unfortunate as it was for that girl with the eye issue, I was really excited. My first real medical case. This should be fun.

I followed House to a room next to 'Dr Gregory House's Office'. There was a table with some chairs around it, a sink in the back with a coffee maker beside it, a few shelves of stuff and a whiteboard with some markers in front of the table. Cameron and Chase were sitting opposite the whiteboard at the table. Another man was on the far side of the table. Wilson was standing beside the whiteboard as House and I came into the room.

"Everyone, this is Dr Byrne, the fresh meat," House introduced me.

Wilson sighed at House, "Dr Byrne is our new ophthalmologist." He looked over at me and smiled, then introduced everyone else in the room.

"I believe you already know Dr Cameron, that there is Dr Chase and on the far side is Dr Foreman."

I nodded and sat down in a chair to the right of Cameron.

"Alright, team," House began, "What symptoms do we have so far?"

"Burning eye pain, blurry vision, a rash around the eye, swelling in the cornea," said Dr Foreman.

House wrote the symptoms on the whiteboard.

"Also a fever, fatigue, nausea and respiratory problems," Dr Chase said. It was then that I noticed his Australian dialect. 

"Have you tried corticosteroid eyedrops yet?" I chimed in.

Dr House looked at me as though I had asked him what colour oranges are.

"No, we did not give the patient with eye shingles the medicine for eye shingles," he snapped sarcastically. Wilson sighed at him.

I smiled passive-aggressively, "Yes, but since she's so young there's no telling if the symptoms are actually shingles. It could be just something that resembles it. I only asked because I figured you already new all this and maybe decided not to give her the drops." 

The room was silent. House stared at me for a moment. 

"Clever," he mumbled, begrudgingly. He turned back around towards the board.

I turned slightly in my chair to see Chase looking over at me. He smiled, impressed.

I shot him a smile back and looked back over at House. 

After a while of discussing things, he sent all of us of with different tests to run. As I was leaving the room, Dr Wilson caught up with me.

"Hey, I'm going to tag along with you to make sure you know where to go and stuff," he said.

"Thanks, I was going to ask you for directions anyway."

We stepped into an elevator and Wilson pressed level 4.

I let out a sigh, feeling a little nervous about my first big case.

"You okay?" Wilson asked, looking at me with a worried expression.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright, just a little nervous I guess," I smiled softly.

"You'll be fine, your patients always tell me you're great, so you must be doing something right," he nudged my elbow slightly with his own.

"Thanks for being nice to me, Dr Wilson," I giggled in response.

"Well, when you're around House, a little comforting is needed to keep you sane," he rolled his eyes a little.

"Are you guys friends?"

"Strangely enough, yes. Although it's not the healthiest of friendships."

"Maybe you need a nice friend to balance out the irritating," I joked.

"A friend who doesn't make me feel like a parent would be nice, yes," he smiled down at the ground.

"Hey," I said, under my breath, "We're friends, right?"

Wilson looked back up at me with a little grin on his face, "Most definitely."

The elevator door opened and we walked out.

Wilson and I made our way across the corridor to the room where the young girl was lying in bed. She turned her head towards us coming through the door. On her right eye, there was a red rash dotted around the skin.

"Hey, I'm Dr Byrne," I said, trying to sound comforting, "This is Dr Wilson."

"I'm Johanna," she practically whispered.

Wilson watched me as I stepped towards Johanna and inspected her eye.

"Hey, Wilson, do we have some eye equipment up here?" I asked.

Wilson opened a drawer. "Yep."

"Could you give me the torch, please?"

He handed me the little torch and I flicked it on.

"Stay as still as you can, okay?" I raised the torch towards her eye and had a look. It was all red and there was pus in areas. It looked really sore. I turned off the light and put on some lab gloves.

"Tell me if it hurts," I said, lightly prodding the skin around her eye.

She winced, "It hurts all around."

"Have the drops made any improvement?"

"No, it doesn't feel any better."

I took off the gloves and turned towards Wilson.

"This might take a while."