House of Cards: Part 4

House was at home and had told them only to get in contact if the patient was dying, otherwise he’d be in at eight tomorrow morning and Chase had given up and gone home hours ago, while Foreman and Cameron were still in the office, going over ideas to offer to House or anything they could think of that would cause sudden comas, when there was a knock on the door at around half past eleven.

Since the corridors had been rather quiet for the last couple of hours and no one tended to invade this meeting room unless they worked here or were Cuddy on a rampage, it caused the pair to jump.

Foreman looked over to the door, surprised to find the brunette Asian teen waiting semi patiently.

“I got it.” Cameron said, walking over and opening the door. “What’s wrong?”

“Not sleeping.” He replied.

“You can’t sleep?”

“Not me. Yugi.”

“I’m not surprised, his brother’s in a coma.”

“Yugi get hurt when not sleep.”

Cameron frowned, wondering just how good this kid’s English was and wondering if the sleep problem was a symptom they hadn’t heard before. The adopted brother could be coming down with the same thing as the patient. “He falls over or…?”

Tristan looked exasperated, “Not fall down…” He shook his head, as if unable to explain. “Yugi need sleep. Won’t sleep.”

“We can’t prescribe anything to Yugi without examining him first.” Foreman said, “We’d need to look at him.”

Tristan hesitated.

“How long has he been unable to sleep?” Cameron asked.

“Two days.”

“Insomnia could be a symptom of some kind of illness.” Cameron said, thinking, “We should look him over.”

“It’s either that or wake Chase up and tell him that he owes House twenty.” Foreman nodded, “We’re not getting anywhere here.” He turned to Tristan, “We’ll be down in a couple of minutes.”

“Arigato.”

“You’re welcome.”

Tristan left.

“You speak Japanese?” Cameron asked, amused.

“No, but everyone knows what Gomen nasai, arigato and hai mean.” Foreman shrugged, “Sorry, thank you and yes.”

“Oh.”

“Well, you wanted to examine the brother.” Foreman said, exiting the room. “You coming?”

When they reached the room, the kid was stood outside with a smile on his face that was a combination of amusement and minor irritation. “Tristan said you wanted to check me over?” He asked.

“We just want to run some basic tests.”

“Can’t it wait until morning?”

“You have somewhere you need to be?”

Yugi hesitated for a moment, his eyes glazing slightly for half a second, then he was fully alert and watching them, “No, I guess not.”

“This way then please.” Cameron said, herding Yugi away from his friend’s room, as Foreman poked his head around the door.

The comfortable chair was empty and recently vacated by the looks of it; while the uncomfortable one that they’d ‘borrowed’ from the next room over, was full of sleeping teenage girl.

Tristan gave him a slight smile and settled against a wall.

“We could bring you another chair.” Foreman whispered.

“Floor is good.” Tristan shrugged.

“Alright.” Foreman bowed out and followed his colleague to the exam room.

“Your friend says you haven’t been sleeping,” Cameron was saying, “And I can’t help but notice that you’re under weight.”

“I don’t eat much when I’m worried.” Yugi shrugged.

“Can you take you shoes off and get on the scales please?” Cameron directed the teen.

He sighed, kicked off his shoes, which he put under the bed out of the way and got on the scales.

“42kg…” Cameron noted down, “And if you could stand against that pole so we could measure your height…”

Yugi moved along to the measure and was amused at the looks on the Doctor’s faces when they had to push the indicator past his hair for a few inches.

“5’2”, you’re around four or five kilos under being in the recommended weight range and at least ten under your ideal weight.” Cameron was writing again.

“Probably because you haven’t been eating,” Foreman offered, “You been sick lately?”

“No,” Yugi sighed, wondering if he was going to have to repeat himself over and over again. “Other then a cold over Christmas, I haven’t been sick since the fire and that was a year ago.”

“Fire?”

“I told you about it when Joey was brought in. He saved me from a burning building, I suffered severe smoke inhalation and a couple of second degree burns and Joey and Tristan got some first degree burns.”

“Sorry but we have to repeat ourselves otherwise we get bored.” Foreman joked, making Yugi smile slightly.

“What about your blood family? Any thing important we should know?”

“My Grandfather suffered a heart attack around three years ago, he was seventy one at the time and recovered quickly with no side effects, I don’t know my parent’s medical history.”

“Alright…” Cameron jotted it down, “I have to ask, any drugs, alcohol…?”

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs.” Yugi shook his head, “I took one ibuprofen for a headache last week, but the headache was caused by my best friends shouting in a confined space.”

“Allergic to any medical drugs?”

“Not as far as I know.”

“Are you taking anything that was prescribed to you?”

“No.”

“And the only problems you’ve got are that you can’t sleep and you don’t eat often?”

“Uh huh.” Yugi lied, thinking of all the problems that were waiting for him and his dark side outside this hospital, but omitting them as they weren’t relevant.

“No problems with vision or hearing? You’re breathing alright?”

“No problems with any of that.”

“Okay, hop up on the table.” Yugi sat on the exam table and patiently sat there as they took his blood pressure, checked his pupil response, checked his reflexes, listened to his heart, took some blood, checked inside his ears and tested his memory.

“Well everything seems normal. We’ll just need to do a blood test but…”

“I’m okay; I just tend to have problems sleeping when I have friends and family in the hospital.” Yugi shrugged.

“That’s understandable.” Foreman nodded, “I’m worried about the fact you’re about a stone and a half underweight, I’d recommend that you eat more once we’ve sorted your brother out, but other then that and the fact you’re small for your age, I’d say that you’re perfectly healthy.”

“So, can I go?”

“The lack of sleep, is it because you can’t drift off, or because of nightmares?”

“I have trouble getting to sleep and then nightmares plague me all night.”

Cameron nodded, noting that down, “Give me a second.” She popped out of the room and came back a couple of minutes later with a blue caplet and a cup of water.

“What’s that?”

“It’ll help you get to sleep and make sure that you get a restful night.”

“Are there any side effects?”

“You’ll probably get dizzy, feel drowsy and have trouble concentrating until it wears off. It’s possible, but unlikely that you’ll get sick, have a dry nose, mouth or throat, decreased co-ordination, or problems with you vision. If you have any of the unlikely ones, feel free to send one of your friends to get us. We’re going to be here all night.”

“And it’ll help?”

“Uh huh. Just don’t go looking for anyone to fight until it’s worn off.”

Yugi downed the pill with a gulp of water. “Thank you.”

“I’ll walk you back.” Foreman said, offering Yugi his shoes.

“I’ll head back up to the office.” Cameron said, nodding to Yugi and taking the notes with her, as Foreman followed the, quickly becoming drowsy, King of Games back to his friend’s room where he fell asleep, curled up in the chair, rather quickly.

Foreman closed the door behind him on the way out.