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

4: The Simple Answer

The night shift had been long and excruciating. We gathered our test results, but no one had a suitable assumption yet. I tried to keep my mind off the disappointment. A lot easier said than done.

We sat in House's meeting room that morning, so tired we were barely functioning. All our eyes were red and bloodshot from looking at screens and tests instead of sleeping all night. No one spoke for a long time.

"What else can we do?" Cameron asked, breaking the silence. Her voice was scratchy and exhausted.

I shrugged. "Has she eaten anything yet?"

"No, she's sleeping," Chase's voice sounded as though he'd been strangled.

I picked up Johanna's medical history file to check over it again in case we missed anything. There was nothing there. No bloodline diseases similar to her case, no allergies other than pollen, no history of other illnesses that might've come back. 

I rolled my eyes and slammed the file shut.

It was then that House came strolling into the room.

"Anything?" he asked.

We all shook our heads.

House sighed, "Byrne, go check if she's awake yet."

I stood up and left the room. The walk to the elevator seemed longer than normal. I was exhausted and hungry. 

I saw my reflection in the mirror in the lift. My hair was messily tied up, my under eyes were dark grey, my eyes were red. I looked a little scary. My hair fell loosely at my shoulders when I took it out of the ponytail. It made me look slightly better.

Johanna was sitting upright in her bed when I came in.

"Hey, Dr Byrne!" she said, weakly. The red blotches had spread across the side of her face. 

"Good morning, Johanna, have you been awake long?"

"Not really, it's been a few minutes. The other doctor was here, so I wasn't by myself."

"Which other Doctor?"

Dr Wilson walked into Johanna's room holding a tray of breakfast for her. He grinned over at me.

"Morning, Byrne."

I smiled and nodded, not saying a word.

He set the tray down in front of Johanna. Eggs and toast again.

"Enjoy," he stepped back towards me.

We both left the room to let her eat her breakfast.

"Anything yet?" Wilson asked me.

"Nothing," I responded bluntly.

"Are you alright, you seem a little tense or something," he looked a little concerned.

I tried to sound as cheery as possible, "No, I'm fine."

"I'm not sure I believe you," he put his hand on my shoulder.

"No, really, I'm okay."

"If something's bothering you, you can tell me y'know."

"My God, Wilson, I'm fine, would you just let it go," I snapped out of nowhere.

Wilson looked slightly taken aback, "Okay, I'll stop." He quickly took his hand off my shoulder and walked back into Johanna's room.

Guilt spread through me like a wildfire. I already hated seeing him upset. It was even worse when I was the one who upset him.

I followed him into the room and took Johanna's tray.

"Need anything else?" I asked.

"Nope. Thanks, guys." Johanna tried to smile happily at us but she was in a lot of discomforting pain. I smiled warmly at her.

Wilson and I walked in silence down to the cafeteria to return the tray.

As I put the tray back behind the counter, I finally decided to speak.

"Hey, sorry for yelling," I put my hand on his arm, "I'm just cranky from not sleeping. I promise, it was nothing to do with you, you were only trying to help."

'Nothing to do with you?' I thought, 'You know you're lying your ass off, right?'

"It's okay, I understand," Wilson put his hand on my hand that was holding his arm, "You didn't sleep at all, I don't expect you to be dancing across the moon."

I chuckled a little, the guilt still running through my head. I looked down at my shoes.

Wilson smiled at me, "Y'know something, Claire?"

"What?"

"You're such a genuinely good person, you still feel bad after a perfect apology," he patted my hand, "Let's go back to the team."

I smiled at him. If only he knew.

Back in the meeting room, we still couldn't figure out Johanna's illness.

House was carefully reading through the symptoms listed on the whiteboard. Cameron was thoroughly checking through the case file. Chase and Foreman were off doing another test.

I read the symptoms list over House's shoulder.

Fatigue, nausea, fever, bloodshot eyes, spreading rash like shingles or eczema... eczema?

"Are we sure she isn't allergic to anything?" I said out loud.

Cameron looked up at me, "Yeah, it says in the case file that she has no allergies."

I contemplated things for a moment. Then, I realised.

"That rash started spreading after she ate the eggs, yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah, and?"

"What if she's allergic to eggs? That would explain basically everything!"

"Dr Byrne," House turned towards me, "I think we'd know if it was something as simple as an egg allergy."

"You wouldn't because the case file doesn't say it," I said, "I'm going to go down and ask her a few questions."

I left the room and made my way to Johanna's room, the entire team following me.

"Hi, Johanna," I sat down in a chair next to her bed, "How often do you eat eggs?"

Johanna looked at me confusedly.

"Uh, well I guess I started eating them a few weeks ago when I got braces and couldn't eat cereal."

"And then you started feeling sick?"

"Yeah."

I looked over my shoulder at the team with an expression of triumph on my face.

"Well?" I asked.

House rolled his eyes so far I thought they'd stick. 

"Stop giving her eggs for breakfast and see what happens."

Sure enough, after just one day of not eating any eggs, the rash started to clear up a bit.

We dispatched Johanna and she went home.

Cuddy then called me into her office.

"Hi, Dr Byrne, nice job on your first case. You really concentrated on the patient themselves, rather than what's written in the paperwork."

"Thanks, Dr Cuddy!" I smiled, gratefully.

"So, since House is too stubborn to ask you himself, we'd like to offer you a temporary spot on the diagnostics team to see how it goes. And, if it goes well, a permanent spot."

I could've jumped for joy.

"I would absolutely love that."