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]

What? Fine. "Eddie, Doctor Leonard McCoy. Doc, the Riddler." How's that?

[edsidlemirth]

Eddie turns his head to look over at the two of them, and quirks a brow. While he waits to see what the other doctor says, he carefully closes his book and puts it down next to him.

[notatvcharacter]

This happens, sometimes. With some kinds of people. Not every day, but often enough that he just reacts with a glance, as he moves around House to correct him.

"Lucas McCoy. Actually. Neuropsych and neurosurgery. Dr. House has been consulting with me on your case."

[edsidlemirth]

"Ah, cool, you're the brain guy." He is in many ways obnoxious, but he changed his name to Edward Nigma on purpose. The last thing he's going to do is joke around about the name someone else got stuck with.

"My case is pretty weird, huh? Apparently constitution is my dump stat. Where did you study medicine?"

[notatvcharacter]

"Mississippi University. Ole Miss." He gives Eddie an easy smile as he sets the file on the table, and gets himself comfortable for a Q&A session.

"It's something, that's for sure. Can you tell me when you first started noticing anything out of the ordinary?"

[edsidlemirth]

"Oh gosh, I've been having headaches since I broke out of Arkham. It's hard to tell when exactly it started, because I was going off my meds at the same time, and you know how ~that~ goes." He tilts his head. "Is that a good school for your field? You think so, huh? That's cool. I'm, uh... busy for the next five years, so I have to be around for it, okay?"

[notatvcharacter]

"Best I ever went to."

He does, in fact, know how that goes with medication. Damn. "Which was back in March, according to your file." There's a point past which withdrawal would be an unlikely cause for headaches, but it's easy to see them blurring together. "How about changes in your behavior, unusual urges or feelings?"

And the topic of prognosis. Never fun. Especially with cancer. Especially with this kind, nasty little critter that it is.

"Well, we're gonna do the best we can." The file goes open, and he shuffles the scans to the top for Eddie to see, long fingers tap-tapping on the offending spot. "Good news is, the tumor's in a good place for surgical removal. We can cut it out and biopsy it, just to be sure of what we're dealing with, and then put you on something to kill off as much of what's left as we can."

[edsidlemirth]

"That's harder to say, anyway. How have I changed? I shot the Joker in the face. I feel terrible about getting Geoffrey arrested. I don't feel like myself, at all, right now, but I'd say there's plenty of evidence to point at that being situational. Guess that've been an advantage to staying under observation. If anyone left working at Arkham'd notice. They didn't even notice I had tetanus." He makes a face. "~I'll sleep it off

[housepital]

House is so glad you two are hitting it off without any fireworks. Really. Yup. That's a yawn of entertainment.

"You two have fun talking brains, then. I get to go check on your buddies. It's Arkham Family Reunion in here this week."

Time for him to go pester the cops.

[notatvcharacter]

At the mention of the tetanus incident, Luke snorts. "That's why you don't put head-shrinkers in charge of physical medicine."

He's sorry, so sorry, that he hasn't sedated Eddie for House's entertainment yet, by the time he decides to leave. Really. He gives the good doctor a distracted wave-and-nod goodbye, most of his attention still on the patient. "Have fun."

...and back to Eddie.

"This is a nasty kind of cancer, I won't lie. A lot of people don't make those five years. I can't make you any promises that you will. Neither can anyone else. The only promise I can make is that we're going to do the best we can, just like if you were any other patient. The Hippocratic Oath isn't just a bunch of Ancient Greek. Not to say the extra reassurance isn't good to hear."

[edsidlemirth]

"They aren't especially good at head-shrinking, either, to be honest." He shrugs and folds his hands together, to keep himself from fidgeting.

"Bye, Doctor House!" Okay, that was enough pretending to be cheerful for this conversation.

"When I was here being treated for the tetanus, practically no one would even talk to me. It really sucked. I'm not -psycho-. I'm much better than any of these other guys. And I really don't want to, um..." He turns his head to look away from the page. "Dr. House told me the chances of this affecting my intelligence before this takes me out are slim, and that's... oh gawd, I can't talk about this and not sound pathetic. Look, just ask me questions. Headaches in March."

[notatvcharacter]

He doesn't say anything about Eddie's ego. He isn't the boy's shrink, and prodding at his narcissism would just make him uncooperative. Which is the farthest thing from what Luke needs.

"Headaches in March." Behold, a pen and pad of paper. "Describe them for me. Location, intensity, duration. Any changes, from start to present."

[edsidlemirth]

"Kinda general headaches, off and on, getting worse in June. When I woke up." His answer has a few pauses. His voice wavers. His ego is not holding up as well as he would like to project. If the people here believe he's not any better than these psychos, he's going to spend the rest of his life talking on shallow professional terms with a few doctors who think he's fruitloops, and being put through horrible medical procedures.

He adds no further details, and lowers his head.

[notatvcharacter]

Funny, isn't it, how when you commit major crimes while wearing a funny costume, people start to think you're just another psycho.

He writes that down.

"Only in the mornings?"

[edsidlemirth]

That does not compute. He is clearly supposed to be awesome.

"No," he mumbles. "Not only in the mornings." He moves his foot, rattling the other half of these handcuffs against whatever it's attached to.