AN: Finally a new post. Sorry but work school and life take up more time then you might think. Longer chapters ahead.
Chapter Three
Bedside Manner
Hospitals are rarely a fun place to be. The cheap art reproductions with the wide landscape views of oceans and nature would be pleasant enough if it wasn't for the fact the last time you caught yourself staring at a copy was another hospital. Try harder and you can barely remember the last time you actually walked on a beach or hiked through the woods. Worse still… hospital rooms are usually shared by another half naked patient. You could be in pediatrics and still the smell of sick death weighs heavily. There's no place you'll find yourself more hypochondriacal. Wash your hands three times with hot soap, but don't forget to use a paper towel when opening the door. Hold your breath when someone sneezes; germs traveling at 42 meters a second. Wash your hands again. Yet in the midst of this two doctors watched with wide eyes full of enjoyment as two of their colleagues argued over the illness currently killing one of them.
Chase walked around a corner of Princeton Plainsboro to find the amusing sight first hand. Just ahead of him Dean of Medicine Lisa Cuddy and colleague Allison Cameron were peaking between the blinds of their current patient to watch the show. Chase leaned to the side slightly to get a glimpse himself. There was a shout before he saw a flash of a cane and a mug of ice chips crash to the floor. Smirking Chase made his way over to the two ladies.
"Who's winning?" He asked startling them out of their daze. They replied simultaneously but with apposing views.
"House."
"Harry."
Cameron and Cuddy shared a brief glance towards each other before looking back towards the show.
"What are you doing here Chase?" Cuddy asked. Chase almost laughed at her accusatory tone. Like she's working? He thought sardonically.
"I got the tox screen and x-rays back." Chase answered waving the folder. Cuddy grabbed it out of his hand before he could even finish the sentence.
"I'll take it in." She said as she took a cursory glance at the results. Cameron pouted as she was too late to claim the job.
HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS HR HS VS
"Oh pleeease!" House dragged out. "For a moment I thought you were an intelligent being, but happily you prove my theory of a lower evolutionary class of humanity correct!" Harry knitted his brows as he looked towards the clock.
"Mind if we hold on? My shows on and I think Erica is only pretending to be in a coma." Harry asked as he poked around for his remote. House froze.
"I KNOW Erica is lying because she wants out of her marriage to her ex-father-in-law." House stated as he snatched the remote up to flip to the correct station. "Any idiot could see that." He scoffed. Harry nodded not listening to House as he took in the show's opening. House dragged the visitors chair towards the bed for a better angle at the tv. He then propped his leg up on Harry's bed to rest it, and that is the scene that met Cuddy when she walked in with the lab reports. Her two best doctors zoned out as they watched day time soap.
"You've got be kidding me!" Cuddy couldn't believe it.
"I know. I thought for sure she was faking it." Harry answered. Cuddy quirked her head to the side. Was he serious? Snatching the remote Cuddy promptly turned to the tv off. Two sets of annoyed stairs were all the thanks she needed.
"I thought you would know better Dr. Potter." Cuddy reprimanded the younger doctor. Harry looked properly embarrassed at the situation but House was as brazen as ever.
"I thought it was my job to break down patient moral, but nicely done." Cuddy rolled her eyes as she waved the folder in front of their faces.
"We have the x-rays as well as the tox screen back." House's eyes brightened as he had a reasonably fun assignment of digging through Harry's records. Harry's eyes, however, narrowed slightly.
"Another tox screen? Why was that ordered?" He asked suspiciously. Cuddy sighed handing over the data to House before answering.
"Blame House." With that she turned to the white board. Several symptoms had been written already, but funnily enough several were crossed back out. Obviously Harry has argued some of them off the list. 'Point to Harry.' Cuddy thought.
Fainting spells- "Big girly baby" House had commented earlier to Harry before listing it.
Exorcist Style Vomiting
Lightning growth
Fever
Delusions of grandeur (which was crossed out)
Both House and Harry were quietly ignoring Cuddy as House looked through the reports, sighing dramatically when he found nothing that could explain the symptoms. But as House held the x-rays up to the light an understanding glint came into his eyes. Limping over to the white board, and ignoring Cuddy's annoyed protest as he pushed her out of the way, House wrote a new 'symptom.'
Child abuse – multiple bone fractures
House turned in time to catch Harry's subtle flinch. Popping a vicodin House turned his penetrating blue eyes on Harry's guarded greens.
"Sooo, daddy was the one aiming towards the medical field? Maybe you just needed a nudge in the right direction? I'm sure all those breaks were just to let you know he loved you." House mocked. Harry gained some confidence back at the inaccurate assumption; enough so that he felt combatable turning the tables around.
"Nope." Harry smirked and waited until just before House was about to speak again. "Actually that sounds like you're projecting a bit there. My dad was killed in the line of duty when I was a baby. On the other hand I heard your dad visited a while back, and I also heard you weren't the most hospitable son. Can't quiet burry the hatchet yet?" Cuddy held her breath as she waited for House's response. Harry felt slightly guilty trying to hurt the older man, but he felt asserting himself would be the only way House would respect him, and considering one out of ten children in the US are abused, Harry thought the odds were worth the shot. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or not when House's eyes flashed momentarily with pain from some lost repressed memory.
"Mamma's boy?" House finally asked after a moment. Harry didn't feel like playing House's game anymore and decided to just level with him.
"My mom died shortly after my dad in an auto wreck… My Uncle was a right bastard though. My room- at least until I was eleven- was our cupboard under the stairs." Harry finished his tale looking House in the eyes. Surprisingly House remained stoically quiet before nodding once. No more needed to be said. Cuddy felt like vomiting, and the intensity of the emotion the short explanation evoked in her had her heart in her throat.
"So back to nothing…" House trailed off as Harry pushed his bangs to the side revealing his lightning bolt scar. House's eyes narrowed…
To be continued…
AN: Reviews are appreciated and I have enjoyed all the ones I got so far.