CLOSED.

[the_house_rules]

Who: House and Martha Jones.
Where: Common room somewhere.
When: Tonight.
Warnings: Snark.

Comments

[thegooddrjones]

Martha had been wandering. She liked to wander, she liked to walk through the familiar corridor with steps that seemed too quick for such little legs. Long ago she had discovered set pathways, movements that took her past the places that she wished to go while avoiding the ones she used to avoid. It was funny, really, how there were less places that she felt the need to avoid now. So many people had left that corridors she'd once gone out of her way to avoid now held no stigma, and she didn't need to worry about the ghosts from the past that haunted her

[the_house_rules]

He'd heard footsteps, so he wasn't surprised when he heard the voice at the door. He caught the ball and shifted, looking up and over his shoulder in the direction of the door, his expression almost innocent. Almost, but not quite.

"Forty seven." No hesitation.

"When I try and keep going to forty eight, my alien hand gets angry and we fight," he looked absolutely, utterly the fuck serious.

"Never anger the hand," he said, holding up his left hand like a Lady GaGa claw.

[thegooddrjones]

"Forty-seven's rather impressive." Martha said quickly, but there was no trace of anything that could be like humoring him in her tone. She actually did mean it. When he mentioned the alien hand, Martha didn't doubt the serious look on his face. After all the things that she had seen in the last twelve months would have made this seem relatively normal even if she didn't have the pedigree of her travels with the doctor to rely on

[the_house_rules]

Wow. There was not even a hint that she didn't buy it. If his alien hand bullshit was taken as not strange enough to doubt the truth of, then this barge was weirder than he imagined. His eyes widened in surprise, perhaps in alarm, but the corners of his lips quirked up in the hint of a grin. Weird was good. Weird was better than being alone.

He decided, both because she appeared to be gullible, and also because he wanted to see what he could gain from pretending to be here against his will, that he would lead her to believe he was an inmate. He wondered how long he could make that last.

He didn't sit up, but reached out to shake her hand. "I'm House. So what are you in for?" he asked.

It was good. Subtle. It insinuated that, since he was asking, that he too was here against his will. In truth, he didn't need to ask. This was a prison ship, and she was smiling and welcoming him to what he imagined most inmates felt was a hellship. She was clearly the furthest thing from an inmate that could possibly exist.

[thegooddrjones]

When he grinned like that, Martha inclined her head for a moment, watching him. Well, she could honestly say that she hadn't expected that little hint of a grin. Most people didn't grin when she mentioned things like that, so Martha just watched him, rather calmly for a long moment.

When he reached out to shake her hand, but didn't stand up, Martha moved closer to him and took his fingers in a firm but gentle shake. House. Well, considering that she had heard of people with more odd names than House, she didn't even blink at the introduction. The question of what she was in for made her smile a bit softer, but a bit more proud as well. "I'm in here for being a Doctor, actually."

She got that he was an inmate; or rather that he had been pretending to be one. Martha was indeed the furtherest thing from an inmate, but that didn't stop her from understanding why people where here.

[the_house_rules]

House took his hand back after the introduction, but kept his gaze on Martha. There was something about the way she was looking at him that told him he'd fucked up. Perhaps, ironically, he seemed too pleasant to be mistaken for an inmate.

Whether she was on to him or not, he wasn't going to out himself on his lie. He wanted to see, now, how long she'd watch him play it before she called him out.

"Like Dr. Kevorkian?" he asked, tossing the ball again.

[thegooddrjones]

She wasn't onto him, at all. Inmates came in all shapes, sizes and disorders really. She was used to the different way people handled it, and frankly she was quite glad that he was being rather composed about it. So many people weren't really, and she was relieved when there wasn't violence. At least when there wasn't it meant that she had less hours in the infirmary.

When he mentioned Kevorkian, Martha laughed quickly. "Thankfully not. Not like Frankenstein or Jekyll or Lecter either. Just plain old me. I'm the head of the infirmary here." There was a pause. "Well, maybe a little like McCoy, now that he's gone."

[the_house_rules]

From those people he had seen and recognized, he'd caught on that people were brought on board... but so were book characters, movie characters... it was a fucking mind-fuck. House's eyes lit up. Not about Frankenstein or Jekyll, or even Lecter, but McCoy.

"You mean McCoy like... I'm not a physicist, I'm a Doctor, McCoy?" he held tight to the ball, waiting for his answer.

[thegooddrjones]

"Yep." Martha said with a quick grin. "He was here for a while. I took over from the infirmary from him when he went back to the Enterprise. He left the infirmary rather well stocked though. We're using Star Trek scanners and what not." There was a sadness in her smile, because Martha really did miss Leo and his grumpy brilliant self. It was even worse because he'd shown up for about a day and then left again.

"We had Kirk, both young and older, and Uhura's still here as well." There was a little chuckle. "Princess Leia is here as well."

[the_house_rules]

"No way," he said, unable to hide his amusement and disbelief. It was too unreal to be true. Unreal and awesome.

Knowing that, however unreal this seemed, that it was all quite certainly real made him wonder. The infirmary had Star Trek technology. Could anything be done here to help his leg? He wanted to know, but he still wanted to keep from telling anyone he was a doctor, and a doctor who was eligible to do doctor things on board the barge. He knew that inmates weren't allowed. Ah, if only.

"So... do you think your tricorders or hyposprays could do anything for, say, a leg infarction?"

Hypothetically, of course.

[thegooddrjones]

"Way," Martha answered easily. She'd had a similar reaction when Snape showed up. But thinking about missing Snape made her feel much more sad than McCoy did, so she shoved it away quickly.

When he mentioned the technology and then spoke in proper medical terminology, Martha looked to him quickly, and she was in full on doctor mode. Doctor mode was becoming more and more Martha's normal frame of existence, and she found herself missing what it was like being outside of it.

"Well, it would have been if Leo himself was still here; we had several patients who had advanced scarring to their faces, one due to violence and another due to burns. The burns included scar tissue in the esophagus and lungs that required a respirator. Leo was able to use his technology to fix it. I, on the other hand, don't know how to use anything more advanced than the scanner."

[the_house_rules]

Either she suspected or she didn't. He wasn't entirely sure either way anymore, but the change in her expression when he said infarction made him wonder. However, it was entirely plausible for someone who had suffered an infarction to know what one was, even if most non-doctors who had probably explained the event to others by saying something like 'heart attack in my leg,' or 'infraction.' People were idiots.

"Bummer," he said. She hadn't said anything about the equipment not still being on board, in fact, had said the infirmary was well stocked. "So all that stuff's just laying around in there?"

He was fishing for info, wanting to know how possible it would be to break in and try and figure some of it out.

[thegooddrjones]

Martha blinked a bit in response to it being around, and she shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not. I mean, we have a surgical suite of course, because of the amount of trauma we need to deal with, but we don't have that specialized equipment any longer. Leo requested it specifically for the surgery involved, and he used it all when the procedures were performed. He needed to re-request it in order to do the second one."

Martha perched on the coffee table; she was short so it wasn't that much of a hight difference. "How long ago did you have the infraction, Mr. House?" Martha was business now, but she was light business, soft and caring. "Or would you prefer for me to just call you House?"

[the_house_rules]

"Just House. Like Cher," he said, deciding finally that it was time for him to sit up. He didn't want to, but there was just so long one could talk to someone while reclining and still feel as though you had the upper hand, and he was just about at the end of that time.

He moved stiffly as he settled himself upright, in the center of the couch, right leg out in front of him, clearly lacking the flexibility to rest comfortably. "Eleven years this April," he said, "We were going to go to the Bahamas for the anniversary, but we ended up here."

[thegooddrjones]

"Alright, House is it is." Martha managed to just barely avoid the joke and call him 'Just House', because it didn't seem to fit in with the circumstances that were currently going on. If he was going to be honest and talk to her, the least she could do is pay attention. The stiffness in his body was observed and Martha noted it mentally.

Eleven years. Bloody hell that was a long time to deal with it. "I'm sorry." Martha said quickly. That was a horrible thing to have happen on their anniversary. "May I ask how long you had it for?"

[the_house_rules]

"Three days," he said. Why was he being honest with her about this? Why wasn't he lying to her face and mocking her behind her back and taking malicious joy in it? This barge... it felt like a free pass. No one knew him, nothing mattered. Or maybe it mattered so much more. He wasn't entirely sure yet.

"I was skiing in the Swiss Alps... couldn't be bothered to cut it short for a silly thing like this," he was unable to resist the cool comfort of a distancing lie.

"What about you? You're kind of young to run an infirmary, even on a prison barge. Who do you have dirt on? Or are you from some sequel of Back To The Future that I don't know about?"