Nothing wrong with a consult.

[housepital]

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Someone's throwing a rubber ball against a door. That's not annoying, is it?

"Hey, new guy. Need you for a consult. You don't have family in town, do you?"

Comments

[notatvcharacter]

Luke doesn't look up, at the thunking of the ball. Not immediately. He takes his own sweet time, highlighting a line in the file he's poring over as he answers House. "Name's McCoy."

McCoy who is definitely not a Gotham native, if that accent is anything to go by.

He gives the page another once-over, and finding it to his satisfaction, closes the folder and flips it face-down. Then and only then does he look up. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound much like a consult question."

[housepital]

"Believe me, it's relevant. No one you'd mind losing to a crocodile? Errant bomb?"

Thunk. Thunk. Thud-unk. Thud-unk.

Finally, House catches the ball, and steps into McCoy's office.

[notatvcharacter]

McCoy's office is neat in a lived-in sort of way, books shelved and folders stacked in... presumably some sort of system, but one of McCoy's own creation, and God help anyone trying to make sense of it. Not many hints of a life outside of work. No pictures of the family, no little Georgia-themed snowglobe sent by the parents...

(He wanted to break ties, when he left. Leave everything behind. So he did.)

House talks about a crocodile, and an errant bomb, and these things -- or rather, what they imply -- are quite relevant to McCoy's interests. His eyebrows raise almost up into his hairline. "In that case, not a soul. Sounds like you've got yourself a celebrity."

[housepital]

Heh. "He'll like you. Got myself a brain tumor. Ring-wall, edema, growing pretty fast. Oncologist's had a go at him, but he won't stick his fingers in his brain."

[notatvcharacter]

"Well, thank God. The last thing anyone needs is some sausage-fingered onc who's never cracked a skull before, poking around and making a mess of things."

He pushes his chair back, stretching his legs. "Ring-wall... probably glioblastoma. 'course," a sidelong look at House, "a look at the scans would probably help."

[housepital]

Pulling the folder out from under his elbow, he tosses it onto Luke's desk. Some clever soul has put a sticker over the name, replacing it with a big scribbly '?'. Clever

"Personality changes over the last month, two months, what might have been a secondary psychotic break last week. Shot a guy in the face."

Enough clues yet?

[notatvcharacter]

There's the scans. And there's the little spot that's been causing so much trouble. Luke clicks his tongue as he traces the light-dark circle on one printout. "Oh, yeah. The white ring's the live cancer, and the dark's where it's gone necrotic inside. There's a few other things with the same look to 'em -- abscess, tumefactive MS -- but you'd have either known about that beforehand, or it would've progressed a hell of a lot faster than two months."

He measures how close it is to the surface of the brain, and how close it is to the important white-mattery bits, and does some mental calculation. The results seem to meet his satisfaction.

"He's a lucky boy. It's in a good place. Which in this context, means surgical removal's likely an option."

[housepital]

"Wonderful. That means he probably won't blow this hospital up. I just got my office the way I like it."

[notatvcharacter]

"Wouldn't be the first time." He flip, flip, flips through the file, taking just as much interest in Nigma's pre-existing psychological conditions as in his current predicament. "I'd like to hear more about these personality changes you mentioned. Details."

[housepital]

Leaning against the edge of the desk, House takes the weight off his leg. "Before my time.

"Ever heard of a tumor fixing a personality disorder?"

[notatvcharacter]

Up go his eyebrows again. That's interesting. Very, very interesting. He plays it cool, though.

"I'm not a neurology journal, I just read them." And occasionally write for them. "But tumors affecting personality are common as dirt. You could push something back into place just as easy as you push something out of it."

[housepital]

House isn't about to share how long he's been communicating with Eddie with this guy, but he agrees, very interesting.

"Come meet Eddie. He's going to love you." Or... throw up on him at the thought of Luke cutting into his brain. But that'll be entertaining too.

[notatvcharacter]

"Which means I should look into alligator-proofing my home, right?" He closes Nigma's file and stands, gesturing with the folder. "Lead the way, Dr. House."

[housepital]

"Right-o." This way, apparently, because this is the way House is going. At least he's easy to keep up with.

[edsidlemirth]

Eddie is, of course, still in his hospital bed. He is, right this moment, reading, or at least staring at this page of the book, which he's been looking at, for a while. It's a math book, though, so it may have more to do with considering a problem than being lost in more depressing thoughts. Not that he doesn't have those, too.

[notatvcharacter]

The walk down to Eddie's room gives Luke the chance to look over his files some more, and wish to God he had more information on 'personality changes.' He'll have the opportunity to figure out more, though, soon enough.

He doesn't just shove his way into the room and get to work, when they get there. Instead, he nudges House. "Well, doc? Aren't you going to introduce us?"