A/N: I'm blushing you guys THANK YOU for the reviews, I'm glad you like the story!

It was two weeks later when House dragged his way down to the clinic on a Wednesday morning. He stood in front of the reception desk. Every chair was occupied and a lot of people were standing waiting on their turn. "Why are there so many of you?" He asked addressing all of them. "Some of you should be in the ER." He said as he took a closer look at some of the people.

Suddenly Cuddy stood next to him. "The ER is filled up with a 28 car pile-up on the interstate, don't you watch the news?"

House rolled his eyes at her and grabbed a file from the top of the big mountain of patient folders. "Jack Edwards!" He yelled so he could be heard.

"I put him in exam room two he didn't look so good, the people around him were getting pale." The nurse at the desk said.

They heard House mumble something about "Two more weeks to go."

"You don't look like a Jack." He said to the black woman in the exam room.

"I'm Miss Bell, I came with Jack." She stepped aside and on the table was his actual patient. Jack turned out to be an 8 year old boy with a bloody face. He had seen on the file that it may be from a broken nose and House didn't need to take a closer look it was broken for sure. House noticed as well that his clothes were way too baggy, Cuddy could fit into his sweater. The legs that poked out from his pants looked very thin. House had a feeling that a broken nose was not the only injury the boy had.

"What happened?" He asked Miss Bell. House didn't think he would get much out of Jack, the boy had been looking at his shoes the whole time House had been in the room.

"I was walking across the schoolyard when I saw four boys standing in a circle around him kicking and punching him."

He nodded and slowly walked closer to the boy. "Alright here's what going to happen, I'm gonna take a look at his face, but it looks like the nose is broken." House gently tilted Jack's chin up, so he could take a closer look at the nose, which wasn't straight anymore. He would have to crack it back into place, but first he needed to clean the blood off his face.

"Alright Jack lie back, I need to clean the blood off of your face." House turned around and opened the door. "Need two nurses in here!" The nurses were not there to help him clean Jack's face, but they were there to hold the boy down to, keep him still, while House cracked his nose back in place.

House used a wet sponge to clean the dry blood, he was extra careful when he dried the blood on his nose. It was amazing that Jack did cry out in pain, because a broken nose could be quite painful, but House had a feeling that Jack had experienced some things that were a lot more painful than a broken nose.

He nodded to the nurses, giving them the sign. It all happened in a matter of seconds House followed the bone structure of Jack's nose. The boy jumped in fear and his eyes filled with tears, but the nurses did an excellent job and held Jack still. Miss Bell winced when the nose cracked back into its place. "That was it, I will give you something for the pain." House handed Jack an ice-pack. "And keep that on there, it will help with the swelling."

He scribbled some notes into Jack's file, he was giving Jack the chance to calm down. Miss Bell was standing at his side and holding his hand. House wasn't done examining him yet though, he needed to make sure nothing else was broken. When he was done with the notes he limped closer to the boy, a few tears had rolled down his face but House could see he was trying to be brave.

"I'm gonna need you take your clothes off, so I can make sure you're not hurt anywhere else." House said gently.

The fear was back again, but this time it was different. It was a fear House recognized very well, he had felt the same emotion when he was eight years old and his Oma wanted to know where the bruises on his arm came from. Oh boy, House thought, he was in big trouble.

"It's okay Jack, he's not gonna hurt you he's a doctor." Miss Bell said and tried calm him, but it didn't help one bit the fear was still there. Jack flinched away from her touch and shook his head violently and his breathing was starting to get out of control.

"You're not helping." House snapped at her. "Just leave!"

By now Miss Bell had tears in her eyes as well and House could see she was worried, but she left anyway.

House reached out to take Jack's hand and leaned down so he was near his ear. "I'm not gonna hurt you, but in order for me to help you I have to check you out." He held onto the hand and squeezed gently. Jack hadn't flinched yet, but House knew it would happen if he just took the boy's clothes off himself, no he needed Jack to understand and cooperate with him. "Nobody's gonna hurt you, I just wanna help you. Do you understand?"

It took a few seconds, who seemed like minutes to House, but finally he got a nod out of Jack and he could see the boy was trying to calm down. "Okay good."

They started with his sweater and what House saw was terrifying, he could see every bone from Jack's upper body. But House had other choice but to school his expressions and keep clam, it was more important to gain the boy's trust, so he needed to keep his anger in check.

Also there were some bruises that had faded on to a yellowish color, many of them looked like handprints. Jack's thighs and shins weren't any different, they were covered in bruises as well. The boy kept his eyes on the floor, his black hair falling in his face and hiding his eyes, but House could see the tears slipping down his chin.

House checked every joint in Jack's body luckily nothing else was broken, but he did sprain his left wrist. House guessed it had happened while Jack tried to break his fall after being pushed to the ground.

He couldn't even imagine what it must've been like, being punched and kicked like that. Luckily for House he had had only his father to deal with and not a whole gang and his father.

"Okay, you did real good Kiddo." House pulled two red lollipops out of his pocket and left them for Jack on the table.

Slowly the boy reached out, it was as if he was trying to figure out if House would take them away from him in the very last second. His eyes twinkled when he finally held the lollipops in his hand and started to unwrap one of them.

House grinned and winked, hoping he had gained a little bit of the boy's trust. "I'll be right back, okay? I just have to talk to Miss Bell for a minute, okay?" He waited until Jack nodded and left the room.

She was waiting right outside the door and he could see she had been crying.

Before she could ask any questions he said "Well aside from the broken nose he has a sprained left wrist and a lot of bruises, but that's the least of my worries right now. There are some bruises that weren't from today, also he's very skinny. I think it's more than just some bullies." He finished and watched as new tears formed in her eyes.

She took a deep breath and asked "So what can I do to help?"

"Well you could go back in there and keep him calm, while I go contact child services. I will also call a child psychologist and ask her to talk to him." She nodded and went back inside, it was good that somebody cared about Jack.