“We have another case of CCHF.” Thirteen informed him a little breathlessly.
Everyone turned to look at Derek.
Derek just frowned. He didn’t feel ill, not at all. In fact, he was perfectly fine. If he really was infected shouldn’t he be showing any of the symptoms Penelope had shown already? Maybe the test results were wrong.
Or it wasn’t him. But whom else could it be? Hadn’t Thirteen and House said that the others were cleared to go because all their test results had come back negative?!
“Apparently, it’s the same strain as Miss Garcia’s.” Thirteen added. “Meaning that somehow one must have infected the other. We just can’t tell for sure who’s been infected first.”
Okay, so that certainly meant it was him, right? On the other hand Thirteen’s words sounded a bit too… indifferent for the person in question to be in the room. Or maybe that was just the usual medical distance “ or she’d been hanging out with House too much.
How was he supposed to tell his baby girl that he was infected, too?! She would feel guilty about it “ even though as Thirteen said they couldn’t tell for sure whether she infected him or he infected her. God, if he had infected her… if this was all his fault…
But then again where did he get infected? Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever didn’t sound like a very common disease ‘round here. One of his girlfriends? Certainly not. Didn’t they say something about the incubation period being only a few weeks? He’d been with Penelope for almost a year now. And no matter how much House would like it otherwise he had not seen another girl during this whole wonderful time.
“I suppose it’s not Agent Morgan?” House raised an eyebrow at her.
You could have heard a needle drop until Thirteen shook her head no and everyone sighed with relief. “No, he’s perfectly healthy. The other case is a man in the ICU.” she replied. “They hadn’t noticed until we asked the hospital to have everyone tested who’s showing the least symptoms of the flu.”
A man in the ICU? How did that happen? They had Penelope in a single room since she’d arrived here. That was one of the advantages of being a Federal Agent. And after it had turned out that she was seriously ill they’d closed off the whole ward. Plus, the ICU was two floors down.
“So… he’s not been treated for the fever yet?” House frowned. “Then why is he in the ICU already?”
“He’s been shot.” she handed him the file.
Shot. Derek clenched his fists as well as his jaw. This couldn’t be now, could it? This couldn’t possibly be all the fault of this little twisted pervert! What did Reid say? ‘It’s basically contagious through contact with infected blood.’
That was it! That was how it had happened. Screw House and his theory of one of them cheating on the other. Infected blood. He was gonna kill this sleaze!
House skimmed the first few pages of the file in his hands. “According to his record he and Miss Garcia never had any contact. There’s not a single room in this hospital they’ve been in together or after one another. How did he get infected?”
“We don’t know.” Thirteen replied.
Oh, well, maybe they should just ask if they KNEW each other. Derek grunted. It had to be him. There was no other possibility. He just needed the affirmation before he went right down to the ICU to place both his hands around that sicko’s neck. But he didn’t dare saying anything, he just couldn’t speak. If Penelope got infected the way Derek thought she did it was all his fault.
“What about the blood transfusions he received?” House asked. “Did Miss Garcia donate any blood lately?”
“Wouldn’t that have been tested?” Reid jumped in.
Sighing annoyed House turned to Reid: “Of course, it would. But sometimes they miss something, okay?!”
“She hasn’t donated any blood within the last year.” Thirteen informed them. “And even if she had it wouldn’t matter because she’s AB positive and he’s B positive. Their blood types don’t match.”
“Damn it!” House swore. “So where does this lead us?”
“Maybe they knew each other?” Reid carefully intervened again. “I mean, he could have been infected outside the hospital, right?”
Finally someone who was thinking!
“Very good, genius!” House rolled his eyes at him. “The only problem is that every single person she had contact with during the past months is in this room. Unless there’s something you want to tell me.” he looked at Derek.
Derek couldn’t hold it back any longer. He knew that it was against the medical confidentiality but he had to know. There was only one conclusion this whole story pointed to anyways. “Excuse me, what’s the guy’s name?” he wanted to know.
House frowned at him: “I’m sure you know that this information complies with medical confidentiality.”
Derek snorted slightly: “As if you care.” Actually he’d expected that reaction from Thirteen.
House opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Derek: “Never mind, just let me guess. His name is Lynch, right? Kevin Lynch.”
“How did you know?” Thirteen asked confused.
But Derek didn’t answer. Instead he stormed off into the direction of the ICU. He’d known it. Of course, it had to be him. Of course, HE had to be responsible for all this. As if kidnapping her and making both of them undergo so much fear that day hadn’t been enough! He also had to put them through this hell!
Hotch was the first one to assess what was going on and followed Derek. The whole team as well as Derek’s mother and Thirteen followed suit. Only House couldn’t quite keep pace with them. “Hey, that’s not fair! I didn’t hear a starting signal.” he yelled after them.
Derek pretty much ran into the ICU almost knocking over the nurse who’d just come out. There was only one thought running through his mind. Would he strangle him or beat the guy to death?
At the moment, he didn’t care about the consequences. He didn’t even care about the fact that he might get infected as well while trying to kill that son of a bitch. All he could think about was that Kevin Lynch was the reason why Penelope was suffering endless torments “ and that for the first time in days he felt like there was something he could do. He could at least take vengeance for her, even though he knew that Penelope wouldn’t like what he was about to do.
“Hey!” the nurse protested as she more or less jumped out of Derek’s way. She could remember a time when people were using the bell and asking for entrance to the ICU instead of knocking over nurses who were about to exit.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, FBI.” Hotch explained and flashed his badge as he rushed past her as well.
“What on earth is going on here?” the woman asked angrily as she saw a bunch of other people following the two men. “Dr. House since you’re working this case here this hospital has turned into a nut house.” she mumbled as the crowd rushed past her.
“Believe me, this time it’s not my fault!” he tried to defend himself.
But the nurse just snorted: “You have earned a reputation, doctor.”
It didn’t take Derek long to find the right bed. He opened one door and was about to open the other to pull the lifeless body out of the bed when Hotch grabbed his arm.
“Let go of me!” he snarled through gritted teeth. “I’m gonna kill him!”
“Derek, calm down!” Hotch said in his best boss tone. “This won’t help her!”
“This is all his fault!” Derek yelled and broke free from the hold Hotch had on him. Swearing silently he ran a hand over his face. Of course, he couldn’t kill Lynch. He couldn’t do that to Penelope. But if…
Derek turned around to look at Hotch and added: “If she dies, I’m gonna kill him.”
“Let’s leave him alone.” Hotch said carefully guiding Derek out of the anteroom to the room they’d locked Kevin up in when they’d found out about his disease. As far as he could judge it Kevin Lynch wasn’t very likely to make it anyways. But Hotch also knew that if he made it and Penelope didn’t, Lynch would wish he’d died of the fever.
“Would you mind explaining that to me?!” House asked angrily as Derek and Hotch came back out of the ICU.
“About three weeks ago Kevin Lynch tried to kidnap Penelope from the FBI building.” Reid answered instead knowing too well that, at the moment, Derek just wasn’t in the condition to explain everything that had happened in a helpful way. “On his way out he was shot.”
“He lost a lot of blood.” Derek mumbled and ran a hand over his face. If that bastard had never tried to kidnap her… And if she hadn’t tried to help him… God, she should have just let the goddamn fuckwit bite the dust!
“And I assume your fiancée tried to help him.” House sighed.
“He passed out on his way to… wherever he wanted to take her. She called me.” Derek hit the wall with his fist. “I told her how to stop the bleeding. If I hadn’t…”
Fran put a comforting hand on his son’s arm and gave him a look that told him that no one was thinking that any of this was his fault “ especially not Penelope. Besides they all knew Penelope well enough. Fran didn’t even have to point out that even if she’d known about the disease and the risk of getting infected and even if Derek hadn’t told her how to stop the bleeding she’d tried to save his life anyway.
Derek looked at his mother for a moment drawing comfort from the warm smile she gave him, took a deep breath and added: “When we got there his blood was all over her.”
“And if she had a wound somewhere or got some of the blood into her eyes or her mouth…” House frowned. “Seems we found our patient X.”
“So much for your theory that either Penelope or Derek were cheating on the other.” Fran told him snappishly.
House shrugged her comment off: “Most likely scenario.”
Growling Derek took a threatening step towards House but Reid stepped in his way and asked: “Shouldn’t the next question be where Lynch got infected?”
“So, this guy in there is our patient X.” House frowned summing up what he’d just found out. “He was the one who infected his fiancée.” he pointed his head towards Derek. “And apparently you were all very lucky since all your blood tests came back negative “ especially your son, Mrs. Morgan.”
“What owes me the honor of you remembering my name.” she said sarcastically.
But this time House didn’t throw anything back at her. Instead he just mumbled as if in a trance: “She was infected through contact with his blood. But where did he get infected?”
Everyone was silent for a minute waiting for Dr. House to say something in addition since the look on his face showed that he was processing the new information in his head trying to figure out what to do next.
“Thirteen, you need to check his apartment!” he finally said. “I need to know where he’s been infected with the virus. These two might only be the tip of the ice-berg and I’m so not up for a CCHF pandemic.”
“I can’t just break into his apartment.” the young doctor protested.
“Why not?” House rolled his eyes. “How else do you think we’ll get this information?! Search his stuff, I’m sure he’s got his keys somewhere.”
Thirteen just bit her lip in a silent protest.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he won’t care.” House whispered to her.
“Dr. House!” Emily jumped in. “Tell us what we’re looking for and let us do this job. We’re FBI, we can search the apartment without causing a stir.”
He grinned at her: “I like this lady.”
Emily crossed her arms in front of her chest: “What exactly are we looking for?”
“A hooker with a Congolese passport.” House shrugged.
“But if she’s not coughing up blood, I assume we don’t need to bring her here.” Emily tossed back.
House sighed and admitted defeat “ for the moment. These people were a tough nut to crack! “Look for a passport or flight tickets. Anything that’s telling you if he’d been visiting any of the countries in the distribution area.”
“That would be Middle and South Africa as well as Southeast Europe and the Middle East.” Reid added.
House rolled his eyes again. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
“Hardly.” Hotch, Emily and JJ said in unison.
“I see.” House mumbled. “If there’s no evidence that he’d been out of the country lately look for something he might have imported from there. CCHF is also passed on by ticks which themselves are quite easily transported literally everywhere through luggage and other goods of transit.”
“Wait a minute.” Rossi said as he pulled out his cell phone.
“Hey, you know that you’re not allowed to use that thing in here, right.” House protested pointing at the apparatus in Rossi’s hands.
“I’m sure you’ll allow me to make an exception.” Rossi shrugged as he dialed a number. Only a few seconds later the call was obviously answered and Rossi spoke to the person at the other end of the line: “Chuck, I need you to check something for me. I need to know if someone with the name Kevin Lynch has flown to any country in Africa, Southeast Europe or the Middle East within the past two months.”
They all waited watching as Rossi did the same with his ear on the cell phone. Finally, after what seemed like nearly an hour, the corner of Rossi’s mouth moved upwards slightly. “Thank you, Chuck. I owe you.” before closing his cell.
“We don’t have to waste our energy.” he told the others. “Six weeks ago Lynch returned from a three-week holiday in Turkey.”
“And he certainly got infected there.” House nodded. “How did you get that information so fast?”
“Well, it can be helpful to work with the FBI.” Rossi smirked. “But it can be even more helpful if your brother-in-law works for an airline.”
“We also need to find out who he had contact with since he got infected.” House explained.
JJ sighed: “Let’s hope that he didn’t infect anyone else and that he got infected in Turkey and not here. I mean, if he’s not the patient X…”
“More than fifty people died of CCHF in Turkey since January this year.” Reid tried to calm her. “So it’s very likely that he got infected there.”
“Oh, come on.” House exclaimed. “NO ONE knows that.”
“Wait a minute.” Reid suddenly burst out completely ignoring House’s comment. “The incubation period for CCHF is only up to nine days if he was infected by a tick bite. And for getting infected through contact with contageous blood there’s a documented maximum of the incubation period of thirteen days. Meaning that he must have already felt ill when he kidnapped Penelope.”
“Does that mean he knew that he had a potentially deadly disease?” JJ’s eyes widened.
Derek took another threatening step towards the door of the ICU but was held back by Hotch again who pulled Derek with him. “Come on, there’s someone who needs you right now.”
“He didn’t necessarily know it.” Reid answered JJ’s question. “If he didn’t go to see a doctor or if the doctors didn’t find out what was wrong with him he might have thought that it was just the flu or a bronchitis.”
“We’ll find out.” Rossi grumbled. “If he knew what illness had caused his symptoms this was malicious injury.”