THE MALE MAN

by GVBW

House had hidden his condition for a many years. But what happens when it becomes known at the worst possible time?

4. Chapter 4

The Male Man

Part IV

By GeeLady

Pairing: Established H/W

Rating: NC-17 Adult.

Summary: House had hidden his condition for a many years. But what happens when it becomes known at the worst possible time?

Disclaimer: Not mine...blah, blah, blah - though a fantasy never hurt anyone.

This story is in response to a prompt by AdamtheAnt. Thank you for the excellent idea! I hope the resulting fic' meets with your approval.

AN: I only know as much about Aspergers as I have read and researched. There are several chairs of opinion when it comes to what makes up an "Aspies" mind; one such opinion suggests that the Aspberger mind is the extreme male spectrum of the human brain, an opinion many Aspies firmly denounce (particularly women with the disorder).

Aspergers has been called the "high functioning autistic". In my story, I have decided that House is a high functioning Aspie.

I can only write as I imagine it might be like to view the world through the mind of a man with Aspergers (or to be the friend of the man with Aspergers), therefore some of my renderings may be inaccurate or just plain wrong! All other medical misunderstandings that may arise in this fic' about Aspergers, and autism in general, are mine and mine alone.

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"I said House has aspergers." Cameron repeated.

Cuddy leaned back in her chair. Rather than get curious, which was what Cameron would have expected, Cuddy asked - "And you're telling me this because...?"

"Because it might go a long way in explaining why House acts the way he does-"

"-I admit House is odd, very odd actually, but up to this point it's never impeded his ability to think or accomplish his job. So I can only assume you're telling me this, not for his good or for mine, but for yours." Cuddy narrowed her eyes. "This is revenge. House fired you, so you want pay-back."

Cameron's features pinched. "House didn't fire me, I left."

"But Chase stayed, and that's what's stuck in your craw." Cuddy sighed. "I don't know what you're trying to start by coming to me with this, but even if House does have aspergers, I have no authority to ask him about it. It's a condition, not a crime. And medically, unless it can be determined that it severely compromises his ability to do his job - and thus far I haven't seen that - it's none of my business. As his boss, not his physician, I'm not even supposed to be privy to that kind of information."

Cameron knew all of that. Still, it rankled her that Cuddy was dismissing it as trivial. "Suppose his condition put a patient at risk, even innocently?"

"The catch-word there is innocent. And it hasn't done so in the past, so why would it do so now?"

"How can you be sure it never did so in the past? How can you know for absolute certain that his condition, a genetic brain disorder, has not been a factor in House's past behavior with his patients; his decisions; his inability to communicate with people on any normal level. I don't mean to be cruel - "

"- sure you do."

"-but I think the parents should know."

Cuddy stood up, her face darker, angrier. The pride's lioness staring down a younger challenger. "Well, I don't. If this were medication-controlled epilepsy, we would not be having this discussion. All this is, is your attempt to screw with the man you blame for ending your marriage. Leave House alone. In fact, why are you still here at all? You don't work here anymore. Go get your hair done, Cameron, go shopping." Cuddy was angrier than she liked to admit. "Go do whatever but stay away from my staff."

After Cameron's departure, Cuddy sat and fumed. She was angry with Cameron for sure, but she was also concerned about the news of House's undisclosed condition. What if it had affected his decision making? What if it was doing so now? She also felt a touch hurt that he had chosen not to confide in her. So she decided to ask the next best man.

"Why didn't you tell me House had asperger's?"

Wilson looked up from his desk littered with papers. House had left not ten minutes before so, despite his advice, it appeared like House had he gone and told Cuddy anyway. "Um, because it was none of your business."

Cuddy sat down. "I know that." She sat back, unsure about what to do with this new information that was none of her business. "But House could have confided in me. I wouldn't have blabbed it to anyone. I can't. He knows me better than that."

Wilson nodded. "True. You wouldn't have, but that doesn't mean he needed to tell you. It's not relevant to his job in any way."

That was correct of course. House had always been a little "off", but no so much as it made him some sort of incompetent. The man was brilliant and always had been. "Is he okay?" She asked. For some reason she was now more worried about her most unusual employee than before Cameron's little evil revelation a short half hour ago.

Wilson dropped his pencil. "See? That right there - that reaction - is why House never said anything to you or anyone else. Now that you know, you're thinking about him differently. You'll probably look at him differently now."

"Don't be ridiculous." Cuddy protested, but Wilson did have a point. She was thinking differently about House already. "If you say he's fine, then I'll accept that. And I will not look at him differently."

Wilson took up his pencil again. "Good."

As Cuddy abandoned his visitor's chair and walked to the door -

"Wait a second. How did you find out anyway? I know House never told you, and no one else but me knows about it."

Cuddy thought maybe she should keep Cameron's little spurt of revenge to herself. What the hell. "Cameron came to me and blabbed. She knows. Don't ask me how."

-

-

Wilson found Cameron in the cafeteria, talking to Chase. He walked directly to their table where, he noted, Chase sat with a sick look on his face, and decided he would take it up with her right then and there. As he approached the table, he could see an manila envelope in Chase's fingers. He was alternately staring at it and at Cameron, looking like he'd just been kicked in the stomach.

When Wilson drew near enough, he overheard Chase say "I asked you here to talk and instead you bring this?"

The scene was eerily familiar. Wilson, too, recalled that awful day when he'd received the dreaded manila envelope - divorce papers all ready for him to sign.

Cameron tried not to squirm. "Chase, we both know this is over."

"I don't." He shook his head, about to say more when Wilson appeared at his side. Chase clammed up.

Wilson hated to interrupt their uncomfortable lunch, he had enough to worry about in his own life and didn't feel like hearing about other people troubles as well, but Cameron needed to hear what he had to say, so he launched into her without so much as a howdy-do. "What the hell do you mean by revealing House's asperger's to Cuddy? It's none of your damn business."

Chase found the information as startling as Cameron had although, as a House-ling, had always been less inclined to spread rumors than most. Cameron, on the other hand, had a doctorate in the art of gossip.

Cameron went immediately on the defensive. "She should know. We all should have known. We put up with his crap for years, and so much of the time the fault was made our to be ours. His carelessness put on our shoulders; us cleaning up his messes. I'm not sorry for letting Cuddy know. The real problem has always been House, not us."

"Have you ever read anything about asperger's?? You are a doctor, right? Or are you just hoping to hurt House one last time before you leave for good? When is that happening anyway?" Wilson asked. "I arranged a little celebration and I need to know how many bottles of champagne to bring." Wilson made himself get back to his point. "House's asperger's has nothing to do with the performance of his job, which he is doing, by the way, just as well as ever. Better, even."

Cameron seemed un phased by his criticism and back-handed insult. "You're his best friend, you're biased. You of all people ought to understand that I'm only trying to protect his patients." She lifted her head more erect. "Just like always."

"Right." Wilson said while not believing it for a second. "You don't work here anymore. Do everyone a favor and stop trying to make our lives better. We can't take the stress." Wilson turned away and then turned back. "And stay the hell away from my boyfriend."

Wilson granted himself a small smile at Cameron's stunned face. So, he was pleased to note, Cameron hadn't known everything.

-

-

Cuddy answered the call of the on-duty nurse, and entered the patient's room to find her hands full of a very angry father and a House holding a paper towel to his bleeding nose. "What's the problem?"

The father, shaking the stinging out of his fist, pointed at House. "You know he's not supposed to be here."

Cuddy looked at House for an explanation, one eyebrow on the rise. House knew he wasn't supposed to be there, too.

"I had an idea the parents might be lying about their kid's medical history." He offered.

Cuddy started to ask more when the father started another tirade. "He asked me if I really cared about my kid? What the hell kind of question is that? Does he think we don't love our-?"

Cuddy turned to the father - "Shut up." Then shook her own anger off long enough to throw the dad an apologetic look and steer House from the room. In the hallway - "Why do you think they're lying?" House might be off the case, but he was the consulting physician.

Glad to be out of the reach of the father's fists, but not exactly comfortable - "Because nothing makes sense." He said through his still bleeding nose that was quickly clogging up with snot and congealed blood. House sounded awful and was starting to look worse. "Blood, urine, allergies, heavy metals," He said through his mouth, sounding like it was allergy season, "anything we can think of that might be causing this kid's symptoms is negative. Every test, every time."

Cuddy carefully removed the sodden towels from House's hands, and replaced them with fresh ones from a nearby dispenser. "That looks broken."

House snorted to clear his nasal passages with little success. His face hurt like hell. "Probably."

"You have such a way with people." Cuddy muttered. "Go have one of your team or Wilson take a look at that to see if the bone needs setting. And stay away from the parents like I asked you to."

House frowned at her. "I wasn't trying to insult him, I was trying to find out more information."

"Have your team find out."

"They're wusses. They don't ask the right questions and when they do, they back down at the first sign of trouble."

Cuddy smiled. A small, humorless ironic twist of lip. "Funny, isn't it, how they don't have broken noses or gun shot scars."

"You're right." House walked away. "A scar is worse than a dead patient."

Cuddy watched him leave and took a few minutes to sooth the irate father, plus hand him a warning about assaulting doctors and the charges the hospital would bring against if it should happen again, before returning to her office. How many other times had it been House's mouth that had illicited trouble for himself, his team or the hospital? House used to be just House. Now, Cuddy wondered, was it his condition that was to blame?

-

-

Wilson finished applying the last wet strip of plaster of Paris to his lover's facial protuberance. "How many times are you going to let a patient's relative get away with breaking your face?"

"I guess as long as they keep being stubborn, idiot relatives."

Wilson handed over a fist full of strong pain killers. "Here. For the pain."

House, perched up on an exam table, pocketed them. "S'okay. It'll distract me from the leg."

Wilson looked at him incredulously. "House, you should go home. This is going to bruise and you'll look like a cyclops with one, big purple eye."

"There's no septal hematoma, my cartilage'll be fine. In a week I'll be as handsome as ever. Besides, the leg already feels better."

Wilson sighed. "Only you would welcome a broken nose as a treatment for leg pain."

Tearing the paper sheet in the process, House slipped off the table - a simple thing to do because of his height and the length of his legs. "There are better distractions." He said suggestively. "More fun ones."

"Not at the office." Wilson took a few seconds to indulge a look at House's nicely padded backside before he could slip on his jacket. Sometimes Wilson wished he had more of an ass, but as long as he had House's ass, he tried not to complain. But never at the office sucked. "How's the patient?"

"Thin as the cafeteria's soup. I don't know how this kid grew up with vegans as parents."

"No meat, huh?"

"No meat, no eggs, no milk, and I'm betting no flavor. They eat nothing that poops, and nothing that came from anything that poops."

"So. Obsessive, then. Hmm, now who does that remind me of...?"

House tossed Wilson a false hardy-haw. "I'm not obsessive, I'm focused."

"Hungry?"

House shook his head then regretted it. "No. I gotta' go see if the Dad'll be good enough to break a few fingers this time. Should distract me from the nose."

"Cuddy wants you to stay away from the parents."

"Cuddy's neither here, nor there."

-

-

House skirted the patient's room for the time being and headed-off his team who were putting their coats on and making like they were going home for the night. House lasso-ed them all back with a deep scowl and two words. "Hello-o-o. Differntia-a-l."

Thirteen pulled her hair from beneath the collar of her coat. "He's stable and none of us have slept in over twenty-four hours."

House sat down at the head of the table, then noticed Foreman looking at him. "Oh? You want this chair? Right, I'm not officially on the case, however I'm still officially your boss."

Foreman reluctantly sat back down, along with Thirteen, Chase and Taub.

House was unsympathetic. "If ya' want the power, ya' gotta put in the time." He looked around the table at four sets of bagged eyes. "Ideas?"

House got blank faces from all four. "When I hired you, I'm pretty sure your mouths came with the package."

"House, we're exhausted." Thirteen said.

Chase chewed a pencil, dreaming of home. "We can't think anymore."

House stared at them each in turn for a few seconds. "Right. Okay, then." He stood up.

Thirteen took that as a signal to again put on her coat, but House stopped her with another scowl. "I said okay, then. I didn't say go home." He left the room. "Follow me."

House lead them to patient's room where the mother sat beside her sick son who was for the present sleeping. The husband was nowhere in sight. The wife looked at House with a flash of annoyance then turned her attention back to her child.

House stood in the doorway and asked the child's mother. "Ever hit anyone or do any boxing?"

She shook her head.

"Good." House walked up to the bedside. "What are you feeding your son behind your husband's back?"

The mother sputtered, but House shook off her protests with a wave of his cane. "Don't bother denying it. One of you is cheating on the Vegan god and making your son cheat, too."

Chase leaned in and asked House. "Why are we here?"

House didn't turn around. "Protection."

Foreman and the team had heard about the run-in House's nose'd had with the father's left hook. The nose cast made it obvious to everyone else as well. "But the dad isn't here." Foreman whispered.

House tapped his cane on the floor. "See? It's working." To the mother - "Your son has an allergy. He also has almost no body fat which I know looks healthy but actually isn't, especially for someone his age. So either he isn't sick, or he is because your feeding him something that dear ol' dad would disapprove of."

The mother looked worried but kept her mouth shut.

Taub whispered. "We ruled out allergies."

House turned half way around and whispered back, though loudly enough that the everyone in the room could easily over-hear. "But we didn't rule out a possible toxin on the food the mom's sneaking in." He turned back to the mother. "So?"

"I'm not-" She started to say when her son started shaking from head to foot. It began gradually, then rapidly increased in speed and severity.

His team members all appeared stunned. House stepped aside. "I also brought you here to do doctor stuff." He urged.

The momentary group-freeze vanished and Foreman ran from the room to the nurses station and back. He carried a syringe. "No IV..." He jabbed it into the boy's upper arm and depressed the tiny plunger.

The boy's shaking slowed and ceased. "That was no epileptic seizure." Foreman said.

House silently agreed. He bit his lip. "Draw some blood. Check his glucose. And MRI his pancreas"

"You're thinking diabetes?" Taub asked. "If this was JD, he would have died years ago without treatment."

"I'm thinking MEN." House said.

"Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia?" Chase repeated. "Then we should check his pituitary and thyroid as well."

House said "Great, but focus on the pancreas like I asked. Hypoglycemia causes seizures that look just that one. I oughta' know." He said under his breath. "Been there, done that."

Taub sniffed. Then sniffed again, lifting his nose in the air. House turned puzzled eyes on his shortest employee. "I'm wearing AXE." He offered. "And I know it's irresistible but -"

Taub walked over to the room's small trash container that had been shoved behind the curtain surround. "I smell banana." Taub said and fished his hand into the plastic basket, pulling out his catch; a fresh banana peel.

House looked back at the mother's guilty face. "It's not a smoking gun, but it'll do."

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TBC asap

Next Chapter of EVEN TRADE tomorrow!