Something was wrong.
House could sense it the moment he entered the examination room.
And it both lifted his mood and pricked his interest.
He had been in a foul mood recently, everyone could see it and it was more than usual. Ever since the Tritter situation had ended, for some reason House's mood and gone down instead of up and Cuddy giving him extra clinic hours had not helped. House had had it up to here with boring ass patients.
The girl stood in exam room one was not boring.
She looked boring.
Boring beautiful face. Boring blue eyes. Boring brown hair. Boring black jeans. Boring blue shirt and boring brown jacket.
Boring, boring, boring.
But those boring blue eyes were scared.
Not of being at a clinic or being near a doctor, he knew what that kind of fear looked like.
Noooooo. This was something else.
"Hellooooo sick person" he said his cane clicking slightly as the point hit the floor while he walked over "Tell me what's wrong, be short, be sweet and don't be boring."
The girl jumped slightly when he started talking and then began to speak quietly
"I-I have a real bad pain in-in between my-my chest and stomach. Here" she gestured to the affected area.
Silence for a moment as House looked at her expectantly
"Okay when I said be short I didn't mean be useless. That cant be your only symptom. You don't look stupid enough to come here just for a stomach ache."
"Oh I uh- I cant sleep. My head hurts. But-but the pain r-right here's the worst" she said softly, once again gesturing to the middle of her torso.
House appraised her with her eyes narrowed for a moment before sighing and pointing with his cane to the bed in the middle of the room.
"You there. Sit. Now." He turned away to pick up his stethoscope as she sat on the bed and as he did he said over his shoulder "Shirt off it too."
House turned back around to see that the girl had frozen where she sat, hands clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles were turning white.
"Sorry was another symptom temporary deafness?" he snarked at her "Shirt. Get rid."
"C-can't you just-just use the scope over it?" the girl asked as House flicked through her patient form that every patient had to fill in when they arrived at the clinic.
"Well" He checked the front of the form again "Miriam?" He looked at her almost pityingly but with scorn dancing behind his eyes "seriously your parents legitimately called you Miriam? Are you a time traveller? Are you secretly 90 years old?"
"N- Yes my name's Miriam." She said softly but House didn't miss the fact that she almost said no.
"Well 'Miriam'. You are absolutely right I can use this" he waved the stethoscope in her face "over your shirt. However what I cannot do is a visual examination because, believe it or not I don't have x-ray vision. If I did, Dr Cuddy would have to find a new hospital to work at."
When the look of frozen anxiety didn't leave Miriam's face House sighed again and said like he was explaining something to someone very stupid
"Just lift it up when I say so I can look. I promise I'm not going to look at your boobs." Giving her sarcastic puppy dog eyes he held up his right little finger "Pinky promise."
Slowly Miriam nodded and leant back so she was lying almost completely flat.
House sat on the stool, leant his cane against a cabinet and then wheeled the stool over so he was beside the girl. He listened to her chest for a few moments. Before standing up and saying
"Shirt."
Taking a deep breath, Miriam lifted her shirt high enough so that House could see a triangle of flesh, the point of which ended just beneath where he guessed her bra was.
The skin appeared clear.
He pressed in different areas gaging her reaction, but true to his word he didn't look at anything past what she exposed.
He didn't need to.
She had shown him more than she had meant to without realising.
And House had seen enough.
"I'm going to take some blood. Sit up."
"Why do you need to take blood?" Miriam asked sitting up as instructed.
"Because I'm a vampire who has found the perfect occupation in which to obtain the thing that I crave." House deadpanned. When Miriam just stared at him, he rolled his eyes and said "I need it to confirm a theory about what's wrong. Good enough?"
After handing the blood sample over to Chase who he had barked at to test it quickly, House turned back to Miriam who was still sat on the bed looking at the band aid on her arm where he had put the needle in.
"You can wait outside. Someone will call you when your blood results are in."
As Miriam hopped down off the table House watched her with a narrowed gaze.
He didn't speak until she had her hand on the door handle, when he said
"He doesn't love you you know."
She froze.
"Who?"
"Whoever gave you the scars on your side and whatever other injuries you're hiding."
Miriam slowly turned to face him and said in a tremulous voice
"I-I don't know w-what you're talking abou-"
"Don't lie. You suck at it." he said bluntly and Miriam looked at the floor. House exhaled and then said in as a not sarcastic voice as possible
"You suck at lying but you're not an idiot. I can tell, I've met idiots and you're not one. You know it's not love."
Miriam flickered her eyes up to meet his gaze for just a second before she turned and left the room.
House looked at the closed door, raised his eyebrows, shrugged and as he picked up his cane he muttered
"Or maybe you don't."
First chapter done.
I honestly don't know if I should or will continue with this story it was just a vague idea I had.
Let me know what you think.
Maybe more soon?
Geronimo xx