Author: Milady Dragon
Disclaimer: I don't own House, the Tomorrow People, or Bones. Although I like them an awful lot!
Author's note: Okay, here we go again! I was going to write a couple of short fics before starting another really long one, but realized all my shorts actually fitted into a pretty interesting plot. So, I decided to put them together, mix in some plot bunnies, and stir. What came out is the beginning of something that I have no idea how long will go on. I've also managed to add an entirely new "universe" into this as well. Hope you like, and if you do please review! That would make my day!
And for those who are picking this up cold, you might want to take a look at Face from the Past and The Death of Allison Cameron before tackling this. Yes, I know they're kinda long, but it might make certain terms and ideas a lot easier to understand.
So, on with the story!
Chapter One
Allison Cameron was leaning over the microscope in the lab, trying to get caught up on some tests that House had ordered on yet another patient, when she felt an odd sting in the small of her back.
Her hand was moving automatically to investigate, when the sting became agony, pain shooting up into her head and down into her legs. Cameron felt her limbs spasm, and she would've knocked over the microscope with her flailing if it hadn't been so heavy. She fell off her stool, slamming hard into the tile floor. And she couldn't do a damned thing to catch herself.
Cameron heard someone calling her name, but she couldn't respond. It felt like she'd gotten shocked by a live wire, only a thousand times worse. She couldn't think, couldn't act…couldn't even lose consciousness.
"Allison!"
Tim's voice echoed through her mind, and she wanted to answer but couldn't gather enough of her scattered thoughts together to form a cohesive reply.
"You are receiving psychic feedback from an outside source. I shall jaunt you back to the Lab at once –"
"No!" she managed to send. "I'm…not alone…" The pain seemed to finally be easing a bit.
"Cameron!" It was Foreman trying to help her. He'd been running neural samples at one of the other microscopes.
"I'm…okay…" she managed to say out loud. "The feedback…seems to be going away…" she said to Tim.
"Yes, it is fading. However, I would feel better if you were examined by either Dr. House of Dr. Chase." The biotronic supercomputer sounded a little more relieved."Stay there," Foreman went on. He actually looked worried about her. "Let me get a gurney – "
"That's okay, I'm fine…" Her limbs weren't shaking nearly as bad, and her juddering heart was going back to normal.
"You just had some sort of seizure! I hardly think that's fine – "
"I…think it was some sort of muscle spasm," she lied. "It's fading out now." She experimentally tried to move her arm; it did, but it still shook a little. Cameron tried to push him away from her, so she could stand up.
Foreman didn't move. "I'm going to get some help – "
There was a click from the door. Cameron looked up, and saw House standing there, pointing his cell phone at them. "Please don't let me interrupt you two," he drawled, "although you could've taken this to the broom closet. I have it on good authority that all the cool kids go there." He snapped another picture.
"Be serious, House," Foreman barked. "Cameron had some sort of seizure – "
"It wasn't a seizure!" she barked back. "I said it was some sort of muscle spasm – "
"And that's why you were flailing around on the floor like a dying fish?"
House snorted, taking yet another picture. "Great material, you two. With these I might be able to blackmail my way out of clinic duty for months!"
"Stop that and help me up," Cameron ordered, finally managing to push Foreman away. She held out her hand to House, and tried to ignore that it was still shaking.
"You should stay there while I get a gurney." Foreman was already on his feet, looking both concerned and affronted at the same time.
"Screw the gurney!" Cameron had finally had enough. "Damnit, this floor is cold and I don't want to stay the fuck down here any more! Get me the hell up…now!"
"Do you kiss with that mouth?" House put his camera-phone away, taking her hand. "If so, can I be next?"
His grip gave her enough leverage to regain her feet. Her legs were a little wobbly, and she had a pounding headache, but other than that she was beginning to feel like herself again. "In your dreams," she muttered."
"You don't want to know what's in my dreams," House leered at her. "Although if you're really curious I'm sure I can oblige – "
"Can you two be serious for just a minute?" Foreman got between them. The neurologist looked at Cameron. "Maybe someone should check you over, make sure you're all right." He was trying to sound convincing, but just managed condescending.
"I'm fine!" She threw up her hands in disgust. "Why don't you get it?"
Around Foreman's shoulder she could see House looking at her, the humor he'd been showing completely gone from his face. He raised an eyebrow at her, questioning. He evidently wasn't buying her self-diagnosis. "Foreman," he ordered, "finish up those samples. Cameron, you're coming with me."
She wanted to argue with him, but then he was about the only one she could trust with the real reason for her collapse. "What…anything to get your hands on me?" she huffed, keeping up the act.
He motioned her out of the lab. "Like I need an excuse?" He took a playful swat at her ass on her way past.
Together they walked down the hallway toward the elevator. "You going to tell me what really happened?" he asked.
Cameron sighed. She didn't really want to, but didn't have a choice. "I felt this…sting, on my back, then suddenly it was like I'd grabbed a bare electrical wire."
House pushed the call button with the rubber foot of his cane. "Does Tim know about it?"
"He felt me get hit. I don't know if he was able to get anything from it, though." She switched to telepathic mode. "Tim, were you able to find out anything about what happened to me?"
"I was unable to trace the source of the feedback. However, it was a mental signature unknown to me."
The elevator doors slid open. House bowed her inside, then followed.
"Could it be a new break-out?""Yes, it could. Yet it disturbs me that someone breaking out could be in such pain."
"You're not kidding." House was giving her the evil eye, so she relayed what she and Tim were discussing.
The elevator doors opened, and House motioned her toward his office. She followed his gesture, figuring that was the most privacy they were likely to get.
"Take off your lab coat and raise the back of your shirt," he said, once they were inside.
Cameron sighed, but did as he asked. She could feel his sure fingers on her skin, and she repressed the shiver that started up her spine. She wasn't about to react to his touch, no way…no how…
"Looks like you have two marks just over the ninth thoracic vertebra, about an inch apart…Jesus, Cameron, they look like taser hits…"
She pulled her shirt back down. "That would explain why I felt like I'd been shocked." Cameron felt outraged, and would have been even if whatever had happened hadn't been to one of her own people.
"Well, duh…" House rolled his eyes. "Apparently someone hit one of your lot with a taser. Any idea who got it?"
Cameron shook her head. "Besides me, Terry and Danielle are the only senior active TP on Earth right now, and if anything had happened to them like that I doubt I would've felt it. Most likely I'd be hearing from one of them to tell me about it, and since I'm not…no, it must be a new break-out. That sort of feedback usually comes from an untrained mind."
"Then the next trick is to figure out where this person is, and why somebody felt like they had to do grievous bodily harm to them."
House had the knack of breaking things down into their lowest common denominator. Cameron would have grinned if the situation hadn't been so horribly bad. A new Tomorrow Person just didn't have the defenses to handle anything like this, especially if they're just starting to break out. That was a particularly dangerous time, when anything could go wrong.
And one had just been attacked.
"I have to find whoever it was," she stated.
"How do you plan on doing that?" House asked, sincerely curious to know.
"Tim, have you spoken to Terry and Danielle? Did they sense anything?" She spoke aloud as well, so House would at least feel part of the conversation.
"I have, Allison, and they felt nothing at all."
"Then whoever it was must have been practically in my back yard."
"That would explain the strength of the feedback, and why no one else felt it. I did, simply because of my connection to you."
"House and I both think the new break-out was tasered."
"That is disturbing news indeed. We must find them and help them if we can."
"We will." She sighed.
"So, how do you intend on finding this newbie?" House asked.
"I'm going to try to call out to him, and see if he can respond." The look on his face spoke volumes. "Wishful thinking, I know, but I can't just not try it."
Her boss didn't say anything; instead, he stepped toward the door, and Cameron was immediately grateful that he was going to act as lookout. She settled herself in a chair, closing her eyes in concentration.
"Tim, can you link with me?"
"I shall, Allison, although this is best done in the Lab, at the link table."
"I know. But I'm afraid I'll lose the chance of any sort of contact if I get too far away, even with the increased power of the link table."
"I am with you, Allison." Reassurance flowed through their link like a gentle breeze.
Cameron took a deep breath, steadying her nerves. Her hands went into an unconscious meditation position, curled up on her knees, the tips of her middle fingers just touching her thumbs. Her mind linked with Tim's, the supercomputer adding his own considerable power to her own.
"Hello?" she called, sending her thoughts outward in every direction. "I know you're out there, I felt you. Can you hear me? If you can, all you need to do is think to me, and I'll hear you. I know you've been hurt, and all I want to do is help you. Please, don't be afraid. I'm like you. You're not alone." Cameron fell silent, her mind straining to hear an answer…any answer.
She had no idea how long she sat there, waiting for a response that didn't come. Finally, she slumped, losing the meditative posture she'd assumed. "Damnit."
For once, Tim didn't call her down for language. "You have done all you could. However, with the strength of the attack, there was a very good chance whoever had sent that feedback into you is now unconscious."
"I know, Tim. But I had to try."
"I understand, Allison. And we will be ready when the break-out attempts to contact you again."
Cameron just hoped there was a next time.
House was watching her closely. "I take it there was nothing?"
"No."
"Well, that was to be expected."
She knew that, but didn't want House to rub it in. "I'll just have to wait, until whoever it is tries to make contact again."
"You mean you hope they try to make contact again."
That didn't even warrant a response. After all, House was just stating her own thoughts out loud.