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TITLE: Unattainable Expectations, part 1
AUTHOR:![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
fluffykitty2001
RATING: PG13
WARNINGS (including spoilers): Spoilers for Season 4. None that are too specific and that hadn’t already been mentioned in TV Guide. Also, this has lots of medical terminology, but ones that can be easily explained on Google or Wikipedia if you’re that curious.
AUTHOR:
fluffykitty2001 RATING: PG13
WARNINGS (including spoilers): Spoilers for Season 4. None that are too specific and that hadn’t already been mentioned in TV Guide. Also, this has lots of medical terminology, but ones that can be easily explained on Google or Wikipedia if you’re that curious.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, although if they were, Chase would have a really bitchin story line right now.
SUMMARY: In the end, Chase and Cameron couldn't explain why they did it; it was just ingrained in them to do better. That was both the blessing and the curse of their training, a passion that defined who they were but could also end up being their doom as well.
BETAS: So much thanks tojenbutterfly and quack3790 . You guys are the best, and yes, this is the first time I've ever used betas.
SUMMARY: In the end, Chase and Cameron couldn't explain why they did it; it was just ingrained in them to do better. That was both the blessing and the curse of their training, a passion that defined who they were but could also end up being their doom as well.
BETAS: So much thanks to
jenbutterfly and quack3790 . You guys are the best, and yes, this is the first time I've ever used betas. NOTES: I wasn’t going to post this tonight, but given the really sad mood of all the Chasers this evening, I thought it was good therapy. This story is 6700 words, and I tried to post it all at once, but LJ got fussy with me! Here is part 1, part 2 coming tomorrow.
We are in this together, and I plan to start a Chase fic master list soon on so we will have enough to float us for the next few months. Group hug everybody!!!
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House got the pronouncement five minutes ago. Hastily he rustled through the filing cabinet, grabbing the instruments needed to continue the fact finding mission. The answers were waiting for him, and he wasn’t about to leave them cold.
He spun around toward the door with supplies in hand, startled to find the blond doctor standing right in his path.
"Out of my way, Chase."
"I'm coming too."
"Sorry, but I'm on the mound tonight and you play for the other team."
"I won't get in the way. There's some specific I'm looking for."
House cocked his head to the side, giving him a scrutinizing look. Reading Chase was always difficult, and this time was proving to be no different. "You can have a turn when I'm done."
"Timing is important."
"What are you up to?"
"A hunch. All I need is a sample of heart and brain cells. One now, another in an hour, another in two hours."
House lowered his head and thought about the best way to get Chase to defer. He wasn’t about to share his project, but when Chase was persistent, a simple no wouldn’t suffice. "We don't know what killed the patient. You can do what you need once I find that out."
Chase wouldn’t back down. "He died of sudden cardiac arrest. I know because I was there. You want to find the cause. I want to examine the condition."
House didn't have time to argue, and could tell Chase wasn’t taking no for an answer. "Fine, come along. If you get in the way or compromise my results, I'll be doing your autopsy next."
A satisfied smile crept on the young doctor’s face. He wasn’t one to gloat, but he always appreciated House’s sense of humor. He nodded and trailed behind the other doctor, for even though he didn’t work for him anymore, he was always destined to follow House’s lead.
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The lights in the lab were dim and the air was blowing cold, but their minds were in too much of a flurry to notice. Chase and Cameron were so absorbed in their tests they didn’t mutter a word to each other. Their first words came only when the moment of discovery finally arrived.
"You should see this," Chase said, never looking up from the electron microscope.
Cameron came over immediately, recognizing that tone in her colleague’s/lover’s voice. It had to be important. She peered into the lenses gasped with excitement, but immediately toned it down when she realized this was from an autopsy. "What set is this?"
"Two hours." His careful smile beamed the hope he let emerge from deep inside.
"Really? There's no necrosis."
"I know."
"That means we can try this."
"It looks that way."
She jumped forward in excitement. He caught her and they grasped onto each other in a big bear hug, him picking her off her feet, but avoiding the urge to swing her around.
"We shouldn't get too excited." He knew this was the break they were looking for, but they had so far to go. "Remember, this is only support for a hypothesis."
"I know, but think of what could happen if we're right."
"I'm being cautiously optimistic. Finding a subject from our laundry list of requirements will be tough."
Cameron pulled away from their embrace and started pacing, making sure she carefully considered all the possibilities. "Not impossible though. I'll keep an eye out in the ER when I'm on shift. When someone comes in, I'll make sure that person is ready for you."
"For us," he clarified, grabbing her hand.
"I know we said we wouldn't do this at the hospital, but it’s not everyday I get to share something big like this with other research partners." She leaned in and gave him a huge kiss. He accepted her gesture, not minding at all.
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Ideas flew left and right, House deflecting each proposal like he was repelling bullets with a shield. They all paused to regroup, taking a rest before beginning the next barrage.
Chase rubbed his temples, trying to figure out how he got hauled into this mess. Sure he was called for consults from time to time, but a differential with this many people was crazy. He counted thirty-six people in the room plus House and himself. He should have known this would be bad when he was summoned to the lecture hall instead of the diagnostics conference room.
After hearing all the ideas tossed around, he had to admit life in surgery was different. He was learning many new things, but missed the old team. He missed House's unpredictable genius and Cameron being there all the time. He even missed his high spirited competition with Foreman, although he didn’t miss the man himself. If Cameron hadn’t mentioned he was working at Mercy, he wouldn’t have known at all what happened to Foreman.
Through the quiet pondering that swarmed over the crowd came a loud grating sound of a pager. The entire room looked to see the excited reaction from the recipient. Chase got up and ran out without saying a single word.
House took particular interest in the reaction. Chase was usually calm and professional when he answered such calls. This time he was a bundle of nerves. He shook it off, recognizing he was still working on his dilemma with a large audience. "Back to work." House grabbed the marker and prepared for round two with his contestants.
"Reiter's syndrome," one spouted.
"No, the..." House froze in his tracks. His curious mind wouldn't let him ignore what just happened. "Excuse me." He left the room, leaving the bunch to wonder whether they should go on or wait.
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Chase arrived in the ER, out of breath and slightly sweating. Cameron was in the hall waiting for him while the crash team worked behind the glass wall to revive a patient. She handed him fresh blue file that was clutched in her hand.
“How long have they been working?"
“Thirty minutes. A co-worker started CPR immediately.”
“Clear!” They heard another doctor yell behind the wall. The frustration from the team was evident by the flat line.
Chase went back to the file. He was floored how this person fit every criteria. "Family approves heroic measures?"
"Her mother told me do whatever we have to. She’s flying in from Florida and would like her daughter to still be alive when she gets here."
"No prior history of heart trouble?"
"Perfectly healthy. Her heart just stopped. The same thing happened to her father. She’s the perfect age for this.” Cameron took the file back, needing to hold onto something to contain her nervous energy. She didn’t think this moment would happen so quickly. She glanced up at the action on the otherside. “It’s troubling that they can’t revive her though.”
“Not a problem. We have a way to address that. Of course if we aren’t successful, this will be a short case study.”
Cameron pulled three syringes from her pocket and handed them to him. “There’s a liter of solution already in there.”
His gracious smile gave his approval for her thorough thinking.
“I’m calling it!" They heard the doctor declare.
"Come on, it's showtime." Chase said with eyebrows raised, ready to spring into action.
"No, we have another option!" Cameron ordered, sliding open the door with Chase following behind. "Keep doing CPR and reduce the pure oxygen."
Chase moved to the patient’s side, injecting a syringe into the IV.
The team froze in shock, wondering why these two respected doctors were commandeering their dead patient. “How do you exactly plan to revive her? She's gone."
Chase inserted two tubes into different places of the myocardium and injected two more syringes in each of those tubes before hooking in a different liter of solution to the IV. "Revival right now will lead to reperfusion since she's been down too long."
Cameron got on the phone. "We're sending up someone for bypass stat!"
"Tell them I’ve started cardioplegic blood infusion.” Chase added.
“If you can’t revive her, what in the world will putting her on bypass do?” The doctor had only worked with Dr. Cameron a short while and met Dr. Chase once, so he was not at all pleased with this unusual situation.
Cameron took over compressions and Chase pushed the gurney with still dead patient out of the room. “Sorry, can’t explain right now.”
The ER team remained in their spots, processing what just happened. "Did they just steal a patient?"
"I'm on it." The doctor headed for Cuddy's office.
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Cuddy wasn't at all surprised to find House sitting outside the procedure room, watching the spectacle unfold. After all, when she heard the names of the doctors responsible, she was shocked that the name ‘House’ didn’t go with it. Considering they were his former subordinates, it was close enough.
"What are Chase and Cameron doing?"
"Preventing reperfusion."
"This woman has ischemia? Doesn’t that require a beating heart?"
"Who needs a heartbeat when there’s something cooler like putting her heart into suspended animation? Reperfusion has to be the least of her worries though if her heart won’t start."
Cuddy watched Chase inject something into the IV. "What's he doing?"
"Giving her cardioplegic solution. He's supposed to do that every twenty minutes."
"I know how cardioplegic blood infusion works. The question is why? Even if they do bring her back, chances of her surviving beyond that is almost none."
"There's always hope, right?" House mocked with an overemotional outcry. Once he saw Cuddy wasn't buying it, he went on. "That's why I'm here. I have a feeling they know the odds and have a plan. This is better than watching a murder mystery."
Cuddy still wasn’t buying it. "Did you put them up to this?"
"Once kids grow up they never listen to their parents anymore.” That spurned another un-amused reaction from Cuddy. “I had nothing to do with this, I swear, although it makes sense now why Chase burst into my autopsy last week."
Cuddy pushed her palm to her forehead, not expecting these two to play renegade doctors. She thought she was playing it safe by hiring them back. Since they worked for House for over three years though, she should have known better. "Okay, there can't be too much harm since the patient is already dead and the family wants this." She turned away.
"You don't want to stay and see what's going on here?” House’s disbelief sparked a shocked smile. “They might actually be coming up with a cure for death."
Cuddy shrugged and took a seat next to House. He had a point there.
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Chase poured over the lab results. “CHEM labs are promising, or as promising as they can be for a dead person.”
Cameron wasn’t surprised. “We’ve been adjusting the blood chemistry constantly the last hour. I should think so.”
Chase took a long hard glance at the motionless body in front of him. He couldn’t take time to think about how absurd an idea this was. This grand experiment was actually working, and considering the critical objective was to keep the patient alive, it was miraculous it had gone this far. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, going through all processes in his mind, making sure they hadn't forgotten anything. He glanced at Cameron, who looked like she was running a similar checklist in her mind.
"It's been an hour. I think we can try to restart the heart now."
Cameron nervously smiled, reading him carefully to see if his declaration was confident. He nodded to answer her silent concern. They moved into their places, him at the bypass machine, while Cameron warmed up the paddles. They shared once last glance before going on, each mouthing their own wishes of luck.
"Okay, now." Chase ordered. She fired the paddles held her breath in anticipation. The heart skipped a beat or two, then went back to flat line.
They both smiled. "That's a good sign. Try again," he said.
She gave it one more charge and applied the paddles again. The heart started beating with erratic beats, sinus waves on the monitor in a scattered pattern like a game of connect the dots.
"She needs one more shock," he said, hoping that would correct the tachycardia. Cameron charged the panels one more time and fired. An improved heartbeat soon displayed on the screen. They both froze like statues, eyes glued to the monitor, aware that any changes were the margin between life and death.
After a few minutes of consistent yet still erratic rhythm, the pair were overcome with happiness and fell into each other’s arms for a congratulatory embrace. Their tight grasp of each other allowed them to share their confused feelings of ambivalence and relief. Both were glad they could be doctors together again. They always made a great team.
“Okay, it’s not pretty, but she’s alive.” Chase’s heart was beating as wildly as the patient’s. “We'll give her another hour to stabilize, and then we can go onto the next step."
Slow applause rang out from behind them. "I knew you had a dastardly plan. Care to share what happens next? I love hearing spoilers."
"There might not be a next if she doesn't survive the next hour. You're just going to have to see the show like everyone else.” Cameron already knew House was watching, and expected him to but in as soon as he could.
"A show? Can I bring an audience?"
"Ask us again in an hour," Chase replied.
“Great. I’ll go assemble the crew.”
Chase and Cameron watched House go away, sadly accepting it was only temporary. Chase moved back to the patient. “We better get ready before he gets back. The last thing we need is him coming back and telling us what to do.”
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If they weren't feeling the pressure before, they certainly were now. A large collection of eyes peered on them through the window, watching their next move.
"Standing room only," Chase said while he got the equipment ready.
"What, you've never performed in front of an audience before?" Cameron smirked, actually enjoying the attention.
"I don't need stage fright to go along with everything else we have to remember. We only have one chance here."
"Oh, you just love fussing. You've always been good under pressure."
His un-amused face delivered the message that he didn't need her teasing either. "Okay, I think we're ready."
Chase changed the IV bag and hooked in the chilled saline. Cameron applied the cooling pads on the legs, abdominal area and chest. "Okay, starting the pump."
They watched intently as the internal temperature creep down one degree. "Ninety-two degrees ought to do the trick."
"Of course, they're inducing hypothermia." One of the observers said, watching from outside with complete fascination. "I read about similar studies at Penn."
"I can see why they want to inhibit the apotosis, but aren't there huge unknowns about brain function since the patient was down so long? What kind of life could this give her?" The candidate didn’t see why the desperate actions were necessary.
"Unknowns that are not our concern," House explained. "We as doctors need to do everything we can to keep the patient alive. We don't have guarantee quality of life. Given that the family wanted this, I doubt they're asking for one either."
Another person was in awe over what they were witnessing. "The hospitals doing these studies are very choosy about the candidates that qualify. This patient would have been allowed to die anywhere else. It's great they were willing to give her a fighting chance."
"Yeah, well don't sing their praises yet," House replied. "The patient's got a long way to go to come back. She's going to have to stay in hypothermia for the next twenty four hours. If she survives that long, chances of ever waking from the coma are still only fifty percent. The odds get worse when looking at total recovery."
House's dose of realism dampened the crowd, but their eyes stayed fixed on the thermometer as it crept downward toward ninety-two. They could be witnessing history, and didn’t want to miss any minute of it.
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