Chapter 9
Their morning was also quite fun and even relaxing, their small family, was at that moment, having lunch in a restaurant near the center of the city. Hope was, indeed, an extremely well-behaved child, much more than any eight-year-old girl they ever meet, but Cuddy knew, that day after day, Hope had become more and more an extroverted and happier kid. Slowly, she was a getting to be child again, without fears and worries. She now was able to play, study, and have fun with her friends without fear anything or anyone. It was her and House priority that Hope could live happily, and that she would slowly forget the horrible months she had spent at Gram's house.
"So next, there's any place you would like to go sweetie?" Cuddy asked her while they were eating "I guess… I've heard about the body world exhibition can we go?"
"I like it!" House them almost immediately "It's the largest human body exhibition with real human bodies, in the world!"
(…)
"House, I don't think Rachel is age appropriate for seeing the body world exhibition?"
"Monkey, come here" House called Rachel "Yes daddy"
"We are about to see some group-up stuff, human bodies, do want to see it?"
"Yes!" She told him super excited "If you feel sad baby, we can leave ok?" Her mother reinsured her "Okay mommy". She extended her arms to House, so we could pick her up. "You are getting her used to this, she can and should walk on her own"
"I don't know how many days I have to be pain free, let her and me enjoy while it last, ok? And don't worry" He told her "Better hold Hope hand, there's to many people in here she could get lost"
House was right, the exhibition was full of people. It was so full that in less than ten minutes House and Cuddy had lost each other. "Mom where's Dad and Rachel?"
"I do not know, sweetie." She looked at the phone to call him but saw a text. "Dad said to let's see she's with Rachel, we'll meet in the middle of an hour, okay?"
"Ok mom." She told him, smiling. The two approached one of the guides who spoke to more than two hundred people, which meant that neither could hear anything of what he said.
"Mom, I cannot hear or see anything" Hope noted the obvious "We'll have to wait for the next round honey..."
"But you're a doctor," Hope told her looking at her. "You could explain everything to me, right?"
"Yes, I can" Cuddy said looking around, she was a doctor and it was only her and her daughter, she could perfectly forget the guide tour and do their own guided tour. "Let's start here, this is the human skeleton, there are 206 bones in the human body, however, when we are born we have 90-95 more bones than an adult"
"Why?" Hope listened intently, and for a moment Cuddy was lost in her own thoughts.
She had not practice medicine in over ten years, which meant that for more than ten years she had not had regular contact with patients. She had always been intelligent one, the best student, the most dedicated, but since she was the Dean of the hospital, sometimes she felt less smart almost dumb, and living with House just made her feel, even more, slow and dumb "Mom? Why do babies have more bones than we?"
"Cartilage" She answers her "When we are born we need to extremely soft and limber so we can be born in the first place… Babies are born with more cartilage than bone but it gradually turns into bone over time, the process is called endochondral ossification, as the baby grows cartilage is replaced by bone, so many bony segments fuse together to form a single bone."
"What is cartilage?"
"Cartilage is a rubber-like padding that cover and shield the ends of long bones at the joint… It's like a smooth, elastic tissue that we still have as adults, like in here." Cuddy told her touching her ears "It also present in our rib cage, nose and some other parts of our body. Cartilage is not as strong as bones but no as flexible as muscle." She point to some of the joins of the baby skeleton "And the baby skull" She told her and point to one of the baby skull display "all the newborns have the head not fully closed, there's one or two soft spots, the fontanelles, with don't have bone tissue at all because the baby's brain will grow rapidly throughout the next two years.
"Uauu" Hope told her fascinated. "So, after two years the baby's bones don't grow anymore?"
"No, until we're at least 25 years old, we can continue to grow in height, usually between 16 and 25, we stop growing. But there are parts of our body where ossification continues until age 30, as it is the case of the shoulder blade. "
Hope was still looking at the bones, delighted. And somehow Cuddy felt, for the first time since Hope was back, that her daughter was a safe and happy child. "Mom, look, it's a heart! Let's go!" Hope hold her hand, and they walked to a body on display where she could clearly see the whole circulatory system. "Mom, how the heart's anatomy?"
Cuddy smiled and looked at her daughter, beginning again an explanation. He made a mental note, sent a text to House and asked him to wait for them, that trip to the museum would take over an hour for sure.
