"What are you doing?"

It wasn't the curiosity type of question, as if a person was asking another what he or she was doing to pass the time. Instead it was a demanding question, as if one person was asking another, 'What are you doing, taking up space and air in the hospital?'

Jenny didn't look up to see House, she just put three small beads onto a thin wire and pulled the opposite wire through the small holes.

"Making a lizard."

"Why?"

"Because I haven't learned how to make a penguin yet."

House couldn't decide if she was being sarcastic or not, the young girl simply went on her way, placing another two bright blue beads on the wire and repeating the process. It had been just over an hour since they had begun the treatment on Gloria Corbin, so far there had been no results. In fact, her white blood cell count had risen substantially, she was fighting off the foreign medication in her body. House had decided to go for a walk to try and clear his mind when he came across the girl, Jenny, sitting far away from her mothers room alone, making bead lizards.

"Is your friend gone?" House asked.

"Yes."

"Are you going?"

"Yes."

"Are you saying 'yes' to all my questions?"

"Yes." The girl looked up sharply, "I'm going, are you going to try and stop me?"

"When are you leaving?" House sat next to the young girl and fiddled with his cane.

"When my dad comes, someone has to look over my mom."

"Why do you work in a bar?"

"Why is it any of your business?"

"It's not." House shrugged, "I can't help it, I'm just so fascinated by fifteen year-old girls who are abused, work at bars and have conspiracies to run away from home."

"How did you know I was fifteen?"

"Looked through your mothers file, I felt obligated to...being her doctor and all."

"And yet, you haven't actually checked on her yet." Jenny noted, "You really do hate the patients."

"I find I accomplish a lot more by not holding any emotion for the people I treat. That way I care less if something goes wrong and I can be brutally honest." House watched as the young girl slipped three blue beads and three white beads onto the wire and then crossed the wire over the three and through the first blue ones. "How many of those do you have?"

Jenny pointed to a box resting on her knee that was full of the small multicoloured animals as she repeated the process on the other side of the wire, making legs.

"Good grief." House muttered, "You need a hobby."

"I have one," Jenny replied, "Making bead lizards."

"So who gave you the shiner?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Most people say they fell down...or tripped... or-."

"I did trip."

"Onto someone's fist..."

"A banister..." Jenny said sternly, "Trust me, If I was getting abused I would-."

"Get on a bus and leave?" House suggested with his brow raised.

"Call the cops." Jenny finished with a glare. "Do you want something? Or are you just wasting time?"

"If I was trying to waste time I'd still be playing Solitaire or Super Mario RPG, instead I'm trying to find a way to convince you not to run away."

"Why?" Jenny demanded angrily, "You don't know me, you don't know anything about me! Why would you try to help? You have no idea what-."

"If you run away, your problems will follow you," House said calmly. "They always do, I don't know what you're trying to run from but you can stay and fight it..."

"Fight it." Jenny scoffed, "Doctor House, I've been fighting it for thirteen years, I've got not ammo left, no army to stand beside me, I'm quite content with turning and running away."

House heaved a sigh, "Fine, but at least be careful, its dangerous going to New York by yourself." He adjusted his grip on his cane and slowly stood up, "By the way, why do you work at a bar?"

"It's a job my dad arranged for me." Jenny said as she turned back to her lizard, "I don't know why, I enjoy it though."

House scratched his rough chin before turning to leave when Jenny looked up and quickly spoke.

"Doctor House?"

"Yeah?"

"I wouldn't go back there if I were you, they know it was you, they think I talked to you. I didn't but... you probably aren't that safe."

House stared at the young girl for a moment before turning and walking away, it was a strange and cryptic warning, one he had never received before, let alone from a fifteen year old girl.

Jenny watched the nosey doctor hobble down the hall out of the corner of her eye and wondered if he would really stay out of her business or if by warning him, she was simply increasing his curiosity which would not do. She pulled the wires tight and twisted them shut, a miniature lizard, no larger than a Canadian tooney stared at her with purple eyes, its tiny nose was upturned as if it was staring at its creator with great interest. She gently placed him in the box and then put the box in her backpack, she needed to get out of the hospital. Her father wasn't there yet, her mother was still quite incapacitated, no one would mind if she went for a walk, as long as no one found out.

"She is being abused!"

"You heard House, it's none of our business!"

"We're treating her mother, we could be treating the woman who abuses her!"

"How do you know its not a boyfriend?"

"How do you know it is?"

"Honestly Allison, you're getting all worked up about nothing..."

"Well someone has to Robert, either way you look at it, she's being abused by someone."

"So what do you suggest we do? Call child services? There's no proof, she has a black eye, that's nothing!"

"I don't know why I even bother voicing my concerns to you, you just brush them off like they're nothing..."

"House says not to worry about it, so we shouldn't. You're the one who always tells us to trust him..."

"But-."

"Hey, you guys?" Foreman stuck his head through the door of the room in which Cameron and Chase found themselves arguing. "There's another patient."

"Who?" They asked in unison before exchanging looks of bewilderment.

"Gloria's daughter, what's her name? Jenny? She's in worse shape than her mother, coughing up a lot of blood."

"BP?" Chase asked as he and Cameron swiftly dropped their fight and followed Foreman toward the room.

"86 over 65," Foreman replied, "And she has a temperature of 100.4."

"What happened?"

"A resident found her collapsed outside on the sidewalk, unconscious, we were able to revive her, looks like she's got whatever her mom has."