Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also canon typical references to medical stuff with associated implied child abuse/neglect. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: Oops. Yet another person is looped in on the secret patient's existence. (Not that House has been trying very hard to, you know, hide it.)

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 16); MC4A (Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Red Lights; Ginger; Red Bull; Medic MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion [x2]; Ethnic & Present; Small Fry; Claimed; Hold the Mayo; Zed Era; Old Shoes (Y); New Fandom Smell; In a Flash; The Real MC (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 16 – Assignment 08
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [299](Knowledge); 1000 Prompts Challenge [554](Luffy Quotation); Hogwarts Gardens [Equipment 07](Heartbroken)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [5C](Stone/Crystal); TrB [4D](Beginner's Luck); Chim [Reta] (Race Bend; Hospital/Medical Ward);Hunt [Sp WD](Aromanticism);
Representation(s): Remy Hadley; Desi & Autistic Harry Potter; Team as Fam;
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Nontraditional; Peddling Pots; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp); Chorus (Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Thimble); SN (Rail; Intercept)
Word Count: 497 words

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House & Homes
Weights
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They were on the second bag of O-Negative when Remy's phone alerted with a text notification. The kid shifted his attention from the documentary on the television to her. Under his silent gaze, she read the message from Kutner about what he and Foreman had found in their official patient's house. He was running the tests for calcium levels. She knew Kutner was distinctly not asking where she was, since she had been on lab duty.

Not that it would change what she could tell him. House had made it clear that the kid wasn't officially a patient. Even if she hadn't run the tests herself and knew the numbers, the anemia had been visible. The kid needed treatment, regardless of what the other tests still running or waiting to be run in the lab. A fight over custody was likely to delay treatment.

Cuddy getting involved would probably be even worse. She would question House at every turn. She would fight him. Under normal circumstances, that would act as a whet stone for House's sharp wit. But this time, Remy thought it would be a horrible idea.

The kid wasn't like their average patient. He was a lot younger for one thing. Remy knew (mostly by rumors) that House's patients were mostly adults. House wasn't really the kind of person most would expose children to, though he seemed to do well with the one that came in with her mother. The almost uncanny sense of people that House had worked well in this instance, because the kid hadn't spoken a word in the nearly four hours that she had been with him.

Remy tapped her phone against her lips. She had to answer Kutner with something. If she didn't, he would raise the alarm. He was the anxious sort in general and even more curious than House. He was good people, and Remy didn't have a lot of experience with that. Most that she had met was like House, good but covering with a veneer.

Taking a risk, Remy asked Kutner to run the kid's sample for calcium levels at the same time he was running the official patient. She got an affirmation back quickly. Then, before she could slip her phone back into her pocket, he sent through the results of the few tests she had left running that would have been done. The information came without questions, without platitudes or comments.

The knowledge of trust felt like it was going to explode within her. It felt like too much. Combined with just how bad the values in the lab results, it felt like she was trying to swallow a stone. Desperate for some sort of anchor, she raised her gaze to the kid, who was still watching her.

Then he looked towards the door as if expecting someone.

"It wasn't House, kiddo," Remy said gently as her heart broke again.

The kid frowned but turned his attention back to the television.

Remy texted House.

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To be continued
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