[Dr. Jones, Dr. Jones, Wake Up Now...]

[hiheelboots]

WHO: Daisya Berry, Yu Kanda, Gregory House
WHAT: Kanda needs surgery!
WHERE: House's house... o_O
WHEN: Middle of the night

Comments

[causticguy]

House glowered--positively glowered--at Daisya, because god damn it, as badly as he really wanted to say "Sorry, not interested," Daisya was his patient and House had a vested interest in keeping their relationship copacetic so that the next time he had a test he wanted to run he would have a minimum of convincing, arguing, or cajoling to do first

[causticguy]

"Uh-huh," returned House dryly, clearly unimpressed. He wrapped the knee as he explained to Daisya (who was apparently the only one who could be trusted to remember this conversation in the morning), "All right, here's how this works: torn ligaments usually heal well with rest. The more she tries to use it, the slower her recovery will be. Keep it wrapped and immobilized. We'll pack some ice around it for tonight. Yeah, there's an MCL tear, but she's probably also got a ruptured ACL," he traced the line where each ligament ran so that Daisya could see. "It's a fairly common injury, especially for women and athletes. We'll know more when the inflammation goes down.

"And, only because she mentioned it-we do not want to do reconstructive surgery here. Not unless we have no choice. I'd have to take a graft out of her thigh, drill into the bone to repair the damaged ligament, and even with all the toys in that charming old sanitarium that you and Schuldig played Zap the Exorcist in," he gave Daisya a baleful glare, "the facilities here

[sh_hereisgone]

"Oh shit, he told you about that?" Daisya laughed nervously. "Heh, it was kind of an accident!"

He lifted Kanda into his arms and sighed, then took her into the living room and knelt next to the couch so he could put her down. He paused a moment, then took off his coat and spread it over her as a blanket.

"Thanks again," he said, standing. "I'll come back for her in the morning."

[causticguy]

It was kind of you being an idiot. But he didn't say it because he was more interested in watching Daisya's body language around the girl in his arms: his "girlfriend" quip had apparently only managed to achieve five varieties of dumbstruck-Daisy, which was significant in itself, but still left a lot of questions unanswered.

Following his patient and her human gurney into the living room with ice packs in hand, House watched the care with which Daisya laid her down and covered her. Silent confirmation: more than just friends. Or at least, that was how he felt about it. Not a huge surprise. But if Sunshine really thought he was getting out of here that easily, then he was definitely in for a surprise of his own.

"Yeah, yeah," House said impatiently, as he packed the ice in place around her knee, "spare me the martyr routine. Kitchen. Go. And take off your shirt."

[sh_hereisgone]

"Do what now?!"

When House just stared at him, Daisya sighed and walked into the kitchen. He carefully took his shirt off, wincing a bit as it stuck to the wound in his back. Though small, Daisya was in exceedingly good shape - as well-muscled as his frame would allow, slim and athletic. He sighed a bit and rolled his left shoulder, then peered at House curiously.

"You noticed... but how? My coat's black." He frowned slightly. This fell neatly into the category of things he did not want to talk about, but with House, he wasn't so sure he'd have a choice.

[causticguy]

"The fabric stuck where it was wet," said House simply, his impatience apparently gone at least for the moment. In part that was simply because he was choosing to do this exam rather than having it dropped rather desperately into his lap, but it was at least as much because it was Daisya. And yeah he still wanted answers, still intended to figure things out, but he also simply didn't like seeing people who he knew hurt. It was part of why he was so resistant to making an actual human connection with anyone: he might actually have to give a damn if they up and got them selves electrocuted or stabbed or something

[sh_hereisgone]

Daisya hissed and gripped the back of the chair as the antiseptic came into contact with the wound. It hurt, and he still didn't want to talk about it, but it seemed like that was going to be out of the question.

"The guy who killed me is here," he finally said quietly, staring straight ahead and trying to ignore the cool liquid on his back. "We met up on the docks... and that's how Lenalee got hurt." He paused, then looked at the floor. "His power is ignorin' things around him... reachin' through 'em as though they're not there, touchin' what he wants to. He grabbed hold of my heart."

Spoken that way, it was almost like it had happened to someone else, and it was easier to tell because of that. He hated remembering. "Cross an' the others startled him, I guess, he lost control of his powers... an' he ripped through me when he pulled his hand out. Didn't get it out fast enough."

That had hurt like a bitch, but it was more knowing that the Noah had held his heart. Again. At least this time it hadn't ended as poorly as it had the

[causticguy]

A week ago, House thought, he would never have even entertained the idea of taking this answer seriously. People couldn't just choose to "ignore" matter and expect the material world to bend itself around space and time to accommodate them. Reaching into someone's chest and pulling out their still-beating heart was…just a hackneyed and really overdramatic figure of speech. And people didn't die and then turn up alive again in weird anachronistic island cities, either. They also didn't live for a hundred years without aging, heal all their wounds before you could count to thirty, read your thoughts, or selectively disregard gravity. Except that here, they kind of did

[sh_hereisgone]

For his part, Daisya hardly flinched when House began stitching the wound. He sat quietly for a moment, figuring it was going to take a while anyway, and thought of the right words to say. He'd not spoken of that night to anyone - at least not beyond the "I think he killed me" part. In fact, the last thing he remembered was

[causticguy]

This was, reflected House as he drew another stitch through Daisya's skin, kind of what you might call surreal: talking to a guy about his own ritualized murder while you stitched up the wound in his very-much-still-alive back. Shit, he was glad that Wilson couldn't see him right now; he'd never let House hear the damn end of it, and not just because he was actually taking the story seriously. If Wilson had seen all the things that House had in the past two weeks, House knew that he'd take Daisya seriously too-would be even quicker to do so than House was, probably.

No, the thing Wilson would never let him hear the end of was what a cruel calculating heartless bastard he was. He wouldn't really have deserved to hear the end of it either, House supposed, because he knew that he should just leave it alone (it was Wilson's voice telling him, even), but as much as House liked Daisya, and as much as he knew that the guy really didn't want to go into details, he simply…couldn't"You're almost done." Half a reassurance at best

[sh_hereisgone]

"I don't know. I came here before it happened." He frowned slightly. "I was told... electrocution, an'... missing an organ. I'll let you figure the rest out."

He rested his arms across the back of the chair and rested his chin on them. "It was... unpleasant."

Whatever House was getting at, Daisya fervently hoped he got to it soon.

[causticguy]

Give it up, House. You finally found someone who's not going to argue with you. Again the voice in his head sounded suspiciously like Wilson. House cursed at it fluently, especially because it was apparently right

[sh_hereisgone]

Daisya paused, then smiled faintly. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I understand what you're trying to say."

He stood carefully and looked down at the bandages - more for his collection, it seemed - then looked up at House and smiled. "I'll take her with me so you don't hafta listen to her if she does wake up."

He walked into the other room and lifted Kanda into his arms again, wrapped in his own coat, and glanced back at House. "Thanks again. Really."

[causticguy]

House followed Daisya into the living room and, leaning heavily on his cane, watched from the doorway as he lifted the girl into his arms