A/N: What's in a name? We're about to find out.

Thanks for continuing to read! Again, Kutner and House perspectives in this chapter. Lack of Cuddy (I know, I miss her too!), but enjoy the build up of House's character until we get there. I think it's worth the wait, but then again, I know where everything is going. I'm kinda like David Shore that way. :)

As always, I own nothing…

Chapter 2: What's in a Name?

Schofield High School, 1990…

"I choose…Kutner!"

Lawrence didn't move until someone pushed him from behind. "Wake-up Lawrence, that's you! Moron!"

Even though he now carried the name, by his own decision, for nearly two years, it still never clicked.

"Whatever man, fine." Lawrence jogged over to his basketball team, avoiding crack on the blacktop, just wishing for gym class to be over. In all of his other classes, he could be quiet and think without anyone bothering him too much. They just made fun of the quiet nerdy kid. Gym class required his attention though, as he still sported the black eye from where a softball had hit him out of the blue last week.

As they began to play, Lawrence couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering. "Am I Kutner? That's what my papers say now, but is that who I am? Is this even real? Will I ever be someone more than the kid who watched his parents die? Changing my name can't erase that…I can never escape…I can never change who I am, can I?"

Suddenly, he runs into something small and…bony? "Watch where you're going!!" One of his classmates yells out as he stumbles from Lawrence's impact. Lawrence tries to remember his name. It's Jonathan, another quiet, meek kid. Who is also incredibly short. All of sudden, Lawrence is possessed.

"Well, shrimp, maybe if you came up to eye level, I would have actually seen you in my way!"

The gym class goes silent. They've barely ever heard Lawrence talk, let alone yell and insult someone. Jonathan's face falls from annoyance to disbelief. The gym teacher is occupied with another group of students at the other end of the court, so Lawrence presses on.

"Seriously Tiny Tim, why are you even on the court? Don't you need a pogo-stick just to reach the basket? Or do you just save that for special occasions, like when you try to reach up to kiss a girl?"

Several of the troublemakers in the class snicker, sensing the need to back one of their own. Even the girls titter on the sidelines, knowing they would never date a guy as short as Jonathan. For his part, Jonathan is still standing like a deer caught in the headlights, so Lawrence decides to go in for the kill.

"Except we all know that Debbie Powell really doesn't want anything to do with you, no matter how many times you tutor her in math or drive her around or stare at the back of her head!"

That did it. The whole class erupted into laughter and Jonathan's face went red with embarrassment. Everyone knew he liked Debbie, one of the tallest girls on the basketball team, and everyone knew that Debbie was just using him to do her math homework and for rides to wherever she wanted to go.

Suddenly, a whistle blew. "This doesn't look like basketball to me," the gym teacher snarled. "Back to work!"

As the group broke up, several of the guys came up to Lawrence. "That was hilarious, Lawrence! That kid needed to know how lame he actually is!" They laughed and slapped him on the back.

"Thanks guys, but call me Kutner."

Japan, 1973…

Greg stares down his long legs to his ragged sneakers as he slouches in the waiting room of the local military hospital. A friend of John's was here for some reason or another, so the obligatory Marine buddy visitation was in full swing.

"Gregory House, stop slouching like that! You'll end up a hunchback!" He looked up to see his mother jokingly admonishing him.

"Guess I'll just have to find a bell tower then."

Blythe smiles at her son and shakes her head as she walks off, passing a mother holding a fussing baby. From its size, it's obviously an infant. Greg watches with interest as the mother tries to calm the baby down . Suddenly, a man walks up besides them.

"Oh honey, the baby won't stop crying. I've tried everything I can think of, but he's just upset," the woman said to the man who appeared to be her husband.

"Shhh…let me try." The man holds out his arms for the bundle and confidently wraps his arms around it. In low soothing tones, he begins to talk to and rock the baby. Soon the baby is completely asleep.

"Ahhh…so that is what a father looks like." Greg thought sarcastically. After determining that John could not be his biological father, Greg had grown even more detached from the man. He still hated him, but at least he could comfort himself that he wasn't a House, not really. If nothing else, maybe he did have an escape in his genes. Oddly enough, this thought never comforted him liked he hoped it would. "If I'm not Gregory House, who am I? Am I only what that brute is shaping me into? Am I the good-for-nothing boy that he'll never listen to?"

His reverie was broken by a group of doctors speaking loud, rapid Japanese. In the middle of the group he noticed what seemed to be a buraku janitor. Greg was surprised. One would rarely see a group of highly respected Japanese doctors speaking openly to a member of the buraku. Interested, he decided it was time to test those months of Japanese classes.

"Need you." "Must solve." "Going to die." Greg picked up snippets of the conversation. His eyes widened as he realized that this man was not a janitor, but a doctor, or at least a very well educated janitor. The other doctors couldn't solve a difficult medical case and they needed a consult. The man listened to them and told them what Greg could only guess to be a treatment plan. The doctors looked visibly relieved and then left without a word of thanks. The man just walked down the hall.

"Even an outcast can be important if he knows enough," Greg thought. Suddenly, he realized something. "If you know the answers, then people have to listen to you. They can't hurt you, they can't control you, they need you." He watched the retreating buraku. "You don't have to be defined by the name you are given. You can be defined by what you know."

Gregory House sat up taller as he began to plan.