Day 20: Dr. House's Office [Doctor's Office 2]

[damned_doctors]

The door was unlocked, but the sign hanging on the front of it read "The Doctor is OUT," as if the person inside was banking on the disgusting timidity of humans to keep his peace and quiet. Of course, "peace" and "quiet" were relative terms; cheesy music and badly-delivered dialogue came out strong from the small television that sat on the edge of

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[materianinja]

"Get off of me! Let go!" Yuffie shouted angrily at the orderly that was needed to drag her into the room. He seemed to be paying about as much attention to her shouting as he did to the 'Doctor is Out' sign on the door he'd just opened. And she was -not- a happy camper. Being told she had to leave her friends and talk to some...doctor. Just when they'd been in the midst of forming an escape plan! Well...kinda.

"Dr. House?" The accompanying nurse stood at the doorway, reluctant to go near the struggling girl. "Miss Michelle Doughty to see you." With that, the orderly left the young ninja standing in the middle of the floor, shutting the door behind him as he left with the nurse.

"Nnnn... Jerk!" Yuffie shouted after both of them, stomping her foot for emphasis and crossing her arms, an almost pout. It wasn't until after she'd glared at the closed door for a second or two that she turned to look at the doctor, her expression unchanging. "And you're supposed to be my doctor, then? Well, I don't need one. I want to go home right now."

[damned_doctors]

House glanced up from a big bite of sandwich, chewing as his eyes followed the girl from the door to her stubborn standing position across from the table. He looked away again, not paying much attention to his patient as he fixed his gaze once more on the screen of his small television.

"Jerk, huh?" He finally said as he swallowed the last of his sandwich half and went back to fiddling with the tennis ball. He looked up, a small smirk on his countenance. "Lucky for you, you just won the jerk lottery."

He looked back to General Hospital.

"You don't want me, you can go back to Arts & Crafts or whatever it is they're feeding your swiss cheese brain. Better for both of us."

[materianinja]

"I don't want your stupid Arts and Crafts or anything to do with this stupid building," Yuffie stated, her arms still crossed over her chest, glowering at the man across the desk. Was he really that dense? Probably.

"I said want to go home! To Wutai! And my friends, too!"

[damned_doctors]

"Yeah, yeah, 'Wutai'," House rolled his eyes, shooting a glare at the girl. "Too bad it doesn't exist except for in said swiss-cheese brain."

He looked back to his TV, taking another bite of the sandwich.

"Imaginary friends, too. Go play with them; I'm too busy to put up with whining."

[lustful_thing]

Therapy. Lust, unlike most of the others, enjoyed her sessions. She gladly went with the nurse, pleased to leave a high charged situation behind. She would deal with whatever needed dealing with later.

Lust waited patiently in the waiting room as the nurse announced her.

"Eve Sanders is here to see you," the nurse called into the doctor's room. She then ushered Lust in. Good. Now she could cut that deal that had been offered, negotiate, finally get some answers. She'd been waiting for this ever since her fool of a doctor let slip that he knew what was being done to her.

"Dr, so good to see you again..." Lust purred, slipping into the room. She stopped short, her flirtatious routine dropping immediately. "You aren't my doctor."

[damned_doctors]

"And you," House arched an eyebrow as his eyes traveled the curves of the woman's body that her uniform badly hid, "had a very bad doctor. Wasn't just taking money under the table, was he?"

He paused, shrugged, and leaned forward to turn the TV off as soon as the credits started rolling. He nodded at the woman as he leaned back again.

"Well, lucky for you, we can get some mutual satisfaction out of this. Get your family on this place's ass for taking advantage of a fragile brain and sue the hell outta them. You get your freedom, and I--" he used one leg to push his rolling office chair backwards, placing the tennis ball on the desk as he began to rummage through a box of CDs "--can get some patients whose diagnosis isn't 'diddled by daddy'."

[lustful_thing]

"Excuse me?" Lust narrowed her eyes. Who was this leering idiot? Not that she minded the leering - it was useful, if they found her attractive. But his voice and mannerisms didn't sit well with her at all.

"I'm not sure I like what you're implying, but I was perfectly satisfied with Dr..." What had his name been? Lust honestly didn't know. She'd never bothered with pleasantries or paid much attention. "My previous doctor," she amended. She took the office's other chair and leaned back, crossing her legs.

"I can assure you that there is nothing fragile about me. I suppose you're going to ask me how I feel, or some other rubbish such as that?"

[damned_doctors]

"Yeah, and I'm sure he was perfectly satisfied too." House looked back with a tauntingly forced smile before turning back to his CDs. He found one and held it up, squinting at the handwritten label before dropping it back into the mess.

"Oh, I'm sure there's nothing fragile about you, which is why--" the doctor smiled as he found what he was looking for, pulling it out and sliding it into his laptop "--how you feel doesn't interest me."

House pulled out a large pair of headphones, twirling them in his hands once before pulling them over his head.

"So, what's going to happen now," he said, "is you're going to keep complaining and I'm going to ignore you and your two friends."

He closed his eyes and pulled the headphones over his ears.

[scintillatingly]

Sora's mood had improved since he'd woken up. While he still had no idea where his friends were or if they were okay, there wasn't much he could actually do about that. He was going to find Saïx at lunch, though

[damned_doctors]

House, after his previous two encounters with patients, had taken to leaning back in his chair with a medical journal lying open on his face. He'd hoped to take a well-earned nap before a new, equally irritating patient showed up.

He opened an eye, grabbing the cane that was resting against the side of his desk and using its handle to push up the brim of the publication. He frowned, dropping the cane back into its place as he pulled the paper down and tossed it to his desk.

"Don't you people ever figure out your problems on your own?" He grumbled as one hand rummaged in his pants pocket for something. A moment later, he procured an orange pill bottle whose cap he flipped off with a thumb. He began to pour out a good few of its contents. "Or do you like having your parents spend money on sending you to a place that'll just screw you up more?"

[scintillatingly]

A nap. A nap. A nap sounded like a good idea. Sora felt sort of bad that he'd been intruding, though. Then again, this hadn't been his idea in the first place, so it was pointless to blame himself for it.

As he reached the chair he was meant to sit in, he made sure there was nothing on it before sliding quietly into it. His blue eyes widened when he took note of the cane that the doctor had. He almost blurted out something along the lines of, "What happened?" but bit his tongue at the last second.

Then there were the pills and the obvious irritation. Sora hadn't exactly been expecting to be berated the moment he stepped into the room. Weren't doctors supposed to be nice? This one needed a cane and took medicine--he seemed more like a patient than a doctor, in the boy's opinion.

"My parents didn't send me here, sir," Sora said honestly. "I don't think they'd have the sort of munny to pay for this, anyway." His eyes were still on that tennis ball, but he quickly realized how rude he was being and moved his gaze to the doctor.

[damned_doctors]

"Right, the little ghoulies in your head did," House said, snapping the bottle's cap back on again with one hand and throwing several pills in his mouth with the other. His adam's apple came up and down again as he swallowed, and he pocketed the bottle once more. He looked back to the patient with a small smirk.

"No, no, I don't mean your imaginary parents--your real parents--the ones who're glad they don't have to help you with your high school homework now that you're locked up in here."

House watched the kid for a second, then sighed and pulled something from the space next to his keyboard drawer.

"Of course, you're the annoying kind of lunatic--the kind that whines about their chronic psychosis instead of gurgling like the other good girls and boys."

[what_the_henry]

This was getting weirder and weirder.

Henry didn't complain when he was escorted to this "therapy", or whatever it was. There was a good chance, after all he'd seen, that he could use it.

Blood everywhere and Eileen is screaming and someone is knocking on your door--Henry pushed the thoughts out of his mind as best as he could. Still, what good did talking to someone really do? Henry didn't think it would help. Talking never did unless it was paired with liberal amounts of alcohol

[damned_doctors]

"Hey," House replied, having switched his small television back on to watch a re-run of the very same show he'd been viewing before. "You here for pills or pity? Because even though we're fresh out of the last one..."

He looked towards the patient, leaning forward conspiratorially as he patted his jacket's breast pocket with a wink.

"We've got oodles of the first."

[what_the_henry]

Henry was silent for a moment. He thought he must have missed something, something that would have made this "joke" (that's what it was, right?) funnier. Instead, he glanced around the office for a moment before frowning. He didn't really need any pills. He thought.

"Uh, no thanks." Actually, he wanted to say, I'm only here because they brought me. This was weird. Weren't doctors supposed to do most of the talking?

Henry's eyes flashed towards the doctor's jacket pocket, then he looked up, meeting his gaze. Might as well start with a little introduction. He hadn't even caught this guy's name.

"Uh, I'm Henry. Henry Townshend." Never mind what they were calling him.

[damned_doctors]

"Yeah, well, even though that's not the name that I carelessly skimmed over in your report," House looked up with pursed lips and narrowed eyes, "I.... don't really care."

He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked back to the screen.

"Don't worry. You might be trying to get your family's money's worth now, but a few conversations with the other patients will convince you otherwise." The doctor's eyes moved back to the patient, where they fixed him with a comically serious stare. "Rage against the machine, man. It's the cool thing to do."

[offduty]

The entire thing was getting to be just so damned absurd that Reno felt almost amusedly compelled to play along. It was either that, or strangle someone.

Because. Whatthefuck. Therapy? Therapy? These people weren't the first to suggest he needed it, but they were definitely the first to put their advice into action.

It sure as shit better not be Hojo in there or something.

It wasn't. But the doctor also wasn't the stereotypical therapist type, with their irritating smiles and condescending nods. Instead, there sat a man, eyes fixed to some sort of crap television show (at least they weren't Chocobo races), playing with a very large ball. Talking to himself.

This guy looked like he needed the therapy more.

Reno flopped down on the closest available seat and immediately slid into his usual slouch. He drummed his fingers on the armrest, already bored.

"So. Tell me what sort of role I'm supposed to play so I can get the hell out of here ASAP."

[damned_doctors]

"Hey." House growled out in a strange sort of whine, shooting the red-head patient an irritated glare. "Can't you see I'm trying to watch something, here?"

He looked back to the screen, now using one hand to throw the tennis ball against the floor and catch it when it bounced up again. The obnoxious blare of commercials came on, and the doctor focused his attention fully on the inane activity.

"Of course, you don't seem to want to waste my time, so how about I don't waste yours." He glanced towards the patient with a small smirk. "You can tell them I got touchy-feely and I'll tell them you got weepy-weepy. Deal?"

[offduty]

Okay. So therapy was going a little better than he thought it would. At least his doctor wasn't oozing of false sympathy.

Reno returned the smirk. "Sounds good. 'Course, you don't mind if I ask you a few things, yeah? Promise, it'll suck up less of your time than if I did get weepy-weepy and tried to convince you I live in a world where we ride on birds. And trust me, I'll have just as much fun doing that."

[damned_doctors]

"Actually," House scrunched up his face as he looked towards the ceiling, "I do mind. I mean--" he looked back to the red-head with a shrug as he shifted in his chair "--I'm the one who's supposed to asking stupid questions. But more importantly..."

The commercials died back down into cheesy music, and House leaned forward to turn up the volume on his television. He gestured towards the screen as he leaned back, giving the patient something of an affronted expression.

"...dude. The man is watching a show?"