House of Cards: Part Much Later Again

Yugi opened his eyes slowly, grogginess overwhelming his mind, which was why he didn’t notice that he was handcuffed to the bed until he tried to reach for the chain of his Millennium Puzzle with his right hand and was surprised by the clang of the handcuffs against the rails and the cuff cutting into his flesh.

His eyes widened as he remembered what had happened, he’d been caught by the police, brought back to the hospital, where Dr Cuddy and a team had been waiting, and then for some reason he’d fallen unconscious.

They had to have drugged him and were obviously afraid that he’d run off again.

Tea was watching him through the glass as he sat up slowly, trying to shake the grogginess, her eyes wide as his head sank onto his chest, his shoulders sinking.

She got up and tapped on the glass between their room, making him jump. “You ok?” She tried to ask.

Yugi frowned, attempting to get up and glaring at the handcuffs, “What did you say?” He asked, or at least that was what it looked like.

“Are you alright?”

Yugi frowned again and Tea rolled her eyes, the idea that the rooms were sound proof hitting both of them at the same time, pointing at Yugi and then signing okay with her hands.

Yugi shrugged.

She pointed at Yugi then indicated drawing from a Duel Disk and tilted her head so he’d understand it was a question.

Yugi shook his head, looking depressed. He brought his hands together as best he could, making the shape of an upside down pyramid.

She drew a house in the air, noting that the security guards were watching them and nodded towards them.

Yugi looked towards the one at his door. He was easily the biggest of the four guards, and if Yugi was right, reading the guard’s posture and actions, was actually treating his position as a joke. The teen guessed that he didn’t expect much trouble out of someone whose right wrist was handcuffed to a bed.

Yugi indicated himself, gestured sleep and then tapped his wrist as if indicating a watch.

Tea indicated two. This wasn’t particularly helpful since it could be two hours, two days or two minutes.

Yugi slumped back onto his bed, irritated. He did not want to be here. He wanted to be out there before the bad guy came looking. Hospitals were no place to instigate a battle. Too many hostages or victims… He needed to speak to House, but how to get their attention?

Tea who had been trying to work out how to sign what she wanted to ask next, tapped on the glass again, making Yugi look over.

He tilted his head at her, making her smile. She pointed at him, moved her hand away from her mouth to indicate talking, then drew a house again.

Yugi paused to think about how to reply.

This was cruel. Tea decided they didn’t need to be separated like this; they weren’t infectious and even if they had been, it was too late to stop the infection from spreading between them.

Yugi looked up and Tea snapped out of her train of thoughts to pay attention as Yugi shook his head, gestured walking and falling over and then pointed to his handcuffs.

Tea responded instantly, hitting her hand on the nurse call button.

The security guards wheeled around instantly as a nurse hurried through the cleaning process and hurried into Tea’s room.

“Are you alright?” She asked, examining the teen quickly.

“My friend needs to talk to Dr House.” Tea replied, looking at Yugi, who was looking surprised by her actions. “And I know we’re not allowed out of our rooms.”

The nurse scowled at her but nodded. Tea led back on her bed as House and Foreman came down. She watched as Yugi got frustrated and tried to explain exactly why being in here was a bad thing, spending around ten minutes trying to reason with them to either let him go or let him have the Puzzle.

His shoulders sank as the pair walked away and Tea tapped on the glass once the pair had gone, tilting her head to get Yugi talking, or rather signing.

Yugi looked really irritated.

Tea frowned and pointed at him before making an upside down pyramid with her hands.

Yugi shook his head, making the sign that was the universal sign for explosion.

Tea’s eyes widened. Signing the Puzzle again and then gesturing an explosion, guessing that Yugi meant that it had broken since she’d last seen it.

What the teen meant was that the Puzzle would have to be broken to go through the cleaning process to be allowed into his room but he didn’t know how to sign that and led back on his bed.

House hadn’t promised anything, but he had said that he would try, and this was House. He’d broken the rules once for them already, Yugi couldn’t help wondering if he’d do it again.

House of Cards: Part Much later

“House.” Cuddy caught him as he was coming out of the clinic, “The brunette that came in with your patient’s in a coma.”

“Which one? The boy or the girl?” House demanded.

“The guy collapsed a block away from the hospital.”

“Symptoms?”

“None, fell into a coma, just like the patient.”

“The children aren’t contagious.”

“I want them in quarantine.”

“We don’t have enough rooms.”

“Four clean rooms just came up. Get them down there and they’re staying there until you figure out what’s causing the comas.”

“They’re not contagious.”

“House.” Cuddy snapped, “Just do it.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

“In ten minutes, I’m expected to bring you three down to the clean rooms for quarantine where you’ll be guarded at all times until I can find the cause of the comas.”

“We told you the cause of the…” Tea froze, her hand on Joey’s arm. “Comas?”

Yugi, who had already grabbed his backpack and Duel Disk and was heading for the door, had stopped, turning to look at House. “Tristan?”

“The brunette you came in with is already there, he was brought in about twenty minutes ago.”

“Ten minutes?” The Yugis had swapped and it was the more forceful one that was asking the question and he looked pissed off.

House checked his watch. “I’ll be back in eight and a half minutes.” He left the room.

That was all Yami needed. “Tea, stay in quarantine, they can’t get to you there. We’ll be back once we’ve rescued Joey and Tristan.”

“Be careful.”

Yugi left.

Eight and half minutes later House entered the room, looked around, pretended to look surprised and asked, “Where’d the kid go?”

“Kid? What kid?” Tea asked innocently.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

“Where’s the brother?” Cuddy demanded as Tea settled into her room, next to Tristan’s empty shell and Joey’s was wheeled into the room the other side of him.

“The brother?” House asked innocently. “I was unaware the patient had a brother. He certainly didn’t come in with a brother.”

“House!” Cuddy got it immediately. “You let him leave!? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?”

“He was nowhere to be found when I went to collect them.” House answered quickly and smoothly, “I asked Security to keep an eye out for him but…” House shrugged, irritating Cuddy further.

“You let a patient with a potentially contagious, unknown disease leave the hospital.”

“I didn’t see him leave; I haven’t seen him for the majority of the afternoon.” That was certainly true, two minutes didn’t add up to much since he hadn’t actually been in the patient’s room since yesterday, unless you counted the two minutes to warn Muto and the five minutes it had taken to get Wheeler out of the room.

Cuddy just scowled at him.

“If it’s any help, Foreman said he’s been coming back to the hospital every night.” House offered, “He’ll be back.”

“If anyone else catches this disease because your team let him walk out of this hospital…”

“No one else is going to slip into a coma. It’s not contagious.”

“You can’t know that.” Cuddy growled, “I want to be informed about every test you perform and every drug you issue. Am I clear?”

“As glass.”

Cuddy stalked off.

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.

House of Cards: Part 3

House was eating lunch with Dr James Wilson when the brother entered the cafeteria, pushed by the tall brunette male.

“Are those the ones that came in with your latest patient?” Wilson asked, as House watched the brunette stack the kid with the insane hair’s plate with food, while chastising the little one about something.

“Uh huh.” House nodded, watching as the pair settled at a table nearby, still speaking in their home language, “Now shush, I’m trying to listen…”

Wilson rolled his eyes, well aware of his friend’s ability to speak many languages, and fell silent, allowing House to hear what they were saying.

“I don’t have time to eat Tristan.” The kid was saying, “I have to find the guy that attacked Joey and defeat him.”

“If you don’t eat, you won’t have the energy to chase down the bag guys.” Tristan replied, “And you didn’t sleep for more then three hours last night. You’re in no state to fight a Shadow Game right now.”

“I fought Marik under the same conditions.”

“You nearly died.”

“So did Joey.”

“Yugi…”

“I’ll be okay, Tristan.” Yugi tried to be reassuring, “I’ll get Joey back.”

“Your other self nearly lost that game, you nearly faded away completely.”

“I won’t let that happen again.” House suddenly gained a rather interesting look, as Yugi’s voice changed, his posture changed and the kid’s eyes narrowed and gained a reddish tint, “I won’t let them attack my partner again.”

“You can’t always stop them.”

“I’m not going to let them attack Yugi.” The not Yugi said, as House frowned slightly and wrote something on his napkin, “And we will get Joey back.”

“I’m not letting you out of the hospital until you’ve eaten something.” Tristan warned, “Then the pair of you can go hunt bad guys to your hearts content.”

The new Yugi glowered at the teen, ate a spoonful of the curry that Tristan had paid for and stalked off.

“Yugi!”

“I’ll be back soon.” The teen said, and walked out the room. The brunette sighed, finished his meal and binned the virtually uneaten curry.

“You thought of something that might help your patient?” Wilson asked, pointing to the napkin.

“No, but the adopted brother has issues.” House replied, finishing his meal and examining his notes. “Dissociative identity disorder.”

“The kid?”

“The brunette mentioned an ‘other you’ and the kid showed all the signs of having at least two personalities.” House shrugged. “Probably would have been more careful if they’d known someone here speaks Japanese.”

“And you can tell this from a two minute conversation?”

“And he has an eating disorder.” House pointed out.

“There could be any number of reasons that the kid didn’t eat his dinner. His brother’s in a coma!”

“Adopted brother.” House pointed out, “Which suggests something happened with his previous parents that triggered it.”

“House, you can’t be serious.”

“It’s the most common cause of the disorder.”

“You can’t accuse everyone’s parents of abuse!” Wilson sounded exasperated.

“Why not?” House asked, sounding far too amused, “It’s true in the greater majority of cases.”

“Because…” Wilson sighed, trying to calm down, “The brother isn’t your patient, focus on the kid that is.”

“He’s stable. Completely. Nothing’s changing. At all.”

“From no symptoms to a completely stable coma?” Wilson stared at him, “Is that even possible?”

“Apparently.” House answered, “We haven’t needed to administer any drugs since he got in.”

“No wonder you took the case.” Wilson snorted. “They say anything useful to the case?”

“Maybe.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Tea was hovering worriedly in the doorway as Dr Cameron finished up for the night and headed out the door.

“You ok?” She asked the girl who was nervously pacing the lobby and had been doing so for the last three hours.

“Hai.” The girl sighed, “Just waiting for someone.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“No…” Cameron couldn’t really tell what the girl was thinking.

“Joey’s going to be alright, we’ll work out why he’s in a coma and then we’ll be able to bring him out of it.”

“You won’t.” Tea replied, “The Doctors never do. Yugi…” Cameron waited, figuring she’d say more, “It’s never something the Doctors can fix.” The teenager turned to look at Cameron, “Can’t you get all the tests from Kaiba Corp’s doctors?”

“Each case needs new tests.” Cameron replied. “Kaiba Corp didn’t give us anything on this. Apparently their Doctors haven’t had access to the sort of faculties that we have here when people were suddenly falling into comas.”

Tea’s shoulders sank and she just stopped talking.

“Has Joey been in a coma before?” Cameron pressed.

“He…” Tea broke off as Yugi walked in, amethyst eyes half closed, shoulders slumped, exhaustion obvious. “Yugi!” She darted forwards, reaching her friend’s side as he staggered. “Daijoubu?”

Yugi watched the floor miserably, “Suihou.”

“It’s okay, Yugi.” Tea went into motherly mode swapping to English because Cameron was watching them closely, “Have you eaten all day?”

“Iie.” Yugi shook his head.

“Yugi!” The teenage female growled at him, “Canteen, now.”

“I’m not hungry.” Yugi answered slowly, “I just want to sleep.”

Cameron watched as Tea led Yugi towards the canteen.

She turned around and headed back up to the office. 

House of Cards: Part 2

There were three teenagers and a pre-teen in the room, all Asian and all very different.

The patient was a well built blonde, heavily muscled, though, from the chart, possibly a little underweight, tall certainly and completely unresponsive.

The young woman leant against the window sill was slight in comparison, a dancer’s build, with shoulder length brown hair and concerned blue eyes.

Leaning on the back of the chair was another teenage boy, around the same build as the patient but with brown eyes and brown hair that came to what, if Foreman hadn’t seen the child’s hair, would had been the most ridiculous spike he had ever seen on a guy’s head.

The child, who was fast asleep in the chair, didn’t look more then twelve, thirteen at most. He was tiny, his clothes fitting well but revealing just how thin he was and had the most insane hair Foreman had ever seen. It was black, at least the greater majority of it was. It was spiked up into a star like shape, the edges of which were red and he had a blonde fringe which had settled into bangs and was currently covering his left eye.

“Yugi?” Foreman asked the brown haired male, assuming he was the adopted brother, considering that he was the only other teen in the room.

The teen surprised him with a small, tense smile and a shake of the head, reaching over the chair and shaking the child in it gently. “Yugi-kun, okiro.” The teen said, as the child blinked at him. “Ishi touchaku.”

“Sumimasen.” The child apologised, amethyst eyes blinking sleepily, speaking the first words of their language that Foreman recognised, noting that they were speaking Japanese, as they had a brief conversation and then the child turned to him. “I’m Mu…” The child paused, “Yugi Muto.”

“You? But you’re…”

“Sixteen.” Yugi sighed, having been through this already, “Are you Joey’s doctor?”

“One of them, yes.” Foreman nodded, “I’m Dr Foreman. I work with Dr Cameron and Dr Chase under Dr House. He’s one of the world’s top diagnosticians. We’ll work out what’s wrong with your brother.”

The girl said something, not that Foreman could understand a word of it, which caused Yugi to turn around and reply in the same language.

“If you know something that could help.” Foreman said, causing Yugi to jump and wheel back around to face him.

“I wasn’t there when Joey lost, but trust me when I say there’s no medical reason for him to be like this.” Yugi sighed.

“What do you mean?” Foreman frowned as the brown haired teen left the room for some reason, “There has to be a reason.”

Yugi muttered something in Japanese and sighed, “I can’t explain but…”

“If you can’t explain, then we have to run tests.” Foreman warned.

The teen, who was obviously fighting with himself over something, looked towards the bed where his brother lay, “Nothing invasive.”

“Yugi-kun!” The girl protested.

Yugi replied quickly, the girl snapping back a reply just as quickly

“Guys?” Foreman asked, “Joey could be dying.”

Yugi glanced at the girl and then turned backed to Foreman, who was feeling out of the loop, even though he didn’t know what the loop was.

“Nothing invasive.” Yugi repeated, “Joey’s not sick. He’ll get better soon.”

“We want to do tests, just in case.” Foreman wondered how Yugi could be so calm, “Dr Cameron needs to do an MRI and Dr Chase needs to do a Toxscreen.”

“Toxscreen?” Yugi stumbled over the new word.

“It checks the blood for drugs or toxins.” Foreman explained, “If your brother’s been taking something he shouldn’t have, or someone slipped something into his drink, we should be able to find it.”

“Joey doesn’t take drugs.”

“Something might have been slipped into his drink that caused the coma. We have to check it.”

“MRI?” The girl asked.

“Magnetic Resonance Imaging which allows us to see how the body is working and if there’s anything inside the body that shouldn’t be.” Foreman explained, trying to use words they would understand from class and failing.

“Do what you need to but…”

“We’ll be as careful as we can, but we might have more luck if you could tell us what you know about his condition.”

“I can’t… I’m sorry.”

“If you feel that you can trust us, here’s the extension number.” Foreman wrote it down and passed it to Yugi, “In the mean time, we’ll be running the tests.”

“Okay.” Yugi nodded.

Foreman left as Yugi moved from the chair to the end of his brother’s bed, “Joey, Gomen nasai.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Yugi waited until Foreman had left before turning to Tea. “I’m going.” He said in Japanese.

“Yugi, he wants to kill you.”

“He’s got Joey’s soul. If I don’t defeat him, Joey’ll never get it back!”

“But Yugi…”

“I’m going Tea.” Yugi sounded firm on the matter, “I don’t care how dangerous it is.”

“You have to stay; these aren’t Kaiba Corp Doctors who know better then to poke and prod and you’re the only one they recognise as a relative.”

“Until they find out I lied about the papers being in the post and I’m not really Joey’s adopted brother. You heard the Doctor when we came in, she’s trying to call Joey’s mum or dad. Neither of them are going to want to come out here and if I’m found out, everything about Joey’s care will have to go through Kaiba Corp and Kaiba won’t care what they do to Joey. They will do whatever tests they think they need to if I’m here or not; I’m not old enough to stop them!” Yami took over and gave her a piercing look, “You let us walk away last time, Tea.”

“That was different Pharaoh!” Tea growled, noticing the change in tone and posture.

“How?” Yami asked, looking at her, “Last time it was Marik who wanted us dead.”

“Last time you knew who the attacker was! You knew who to watch out for!”

“We have to do this, Tea!” Yami’s hands balled into fists. “We can’t…”

Tea didn’t push it, aware that if Yami was snapping like this, then Yugi had probably already worked himself up into a fine state.

Yami stood up and stalked out of the room, leaving Tea all alone with Joey’s empty shell and a machine that did nothing but go beep, beep, beep, beep…

House of Cards: - Yugioh/House xover

Sometimes I worry about what I write when bored...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’ve got a case that might interest you.” Dr Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine and the hospital administrator of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, told her most awkward and irritating practitioner of medicine, passing him a case file as he headed out of his office door. “Asian teenager, sixteen years old, came in by ambulance an hour ago.”

“So?” The Doctor she was talking to didn’t seem amused as he leant on his cane and flicked through the file. “Coma? Why would that interest me?”

“No trauma, no drugs, he just collapsed after playing a card game and didn’t get back up.”

“Family history?”

“Father’s a drunkard with a shot liver, but the rest of his family’s clear, the mother’s side have a clean bill of health too. The little sister nearly went blind around two years ago, the kid’s adopted brother won the prize money that paid for the operation to save her sight.”

“And the brother?”

“World famous.” Cuddy warned. “The King of Games.”

“Medical history.” The Doctor rolled his eyes, “Not life story.”

“Brother looks malnourished and is certainly smaller then is normal for his age.” Cuddy replied without missing a beat, well versed in the Doctor’s ways, “Other then that, he has a completely clean medical history. No recent illnesses other then a cold.”

“And the patient slipped into a coma for no apparent reason?”

“None at all.”

“Insurance?”

“The medical bills are being footed by Kaiba Corp.”

“Who?”

“The second largest games company in the world,” Cuddy glared at him, “Don’t screw this one up, House, the CEO of the company used to hire hit men. I do not want to have to replace the carpet because you irritated the wrong person.”

Gregory House snorted, “Then you picked the wrong Doctor.” He said, going to hand back the file. “I enjoy irritating my patients. Haven’t you heard? It’s a hobby.”

“Just take the case.”

“Why?”

“Because I told Kaiba Corp that I’d get my best Doctor on it.”

House waited.

“And I’ll let you off four hours of clinic duty this week.”

“Let’s go see Sleeping Beauty.” House replied, shutting the file and staggering off down the corridor, carefully.

Cuddy rolled her eyes and sighed. There’d be complaints by the end of the day, she could guarantee it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

“You can’t be serious.” Dr Robert Chase, a specialist in Intensive Care and Cardiology, was protesting, “You’re telling me a child can win more then we make in a year, just by playing a card game?”

“It’s not just a card game to those who play it.” Dr Allison Cameron, the team’s specialist in Immunology and Internal Medicine, protested, “And it’s not only kids who play.”

“I’m not surprised with that sort of money on the table.” Dr Eric Foreman, the Neurology specialist, snorted, as he waited for the coffee maker to finish.

“I played for a while.” Cameron said indignantly, “For fun, not for money.”

“Doesn’t mean that there aren’t some adults out there who wouldn’t like an easy way to get two million dollars.” Foreman pointed out, as Dr House, the team’s leader, the Head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and a specialist in Infectious Diseases and Nephrology, walked in, leaning heavily on his cane, came over to the coffee maker, took Foreman’s coffee, wrote Sleeping Beauty along the top of the white board that took up quite a sizeable part of the room, and settled at the table with the cup.

“I just can’t believe that the World Champion is sixteen years old.” Chase grumbled.

“I bet he has more then the one million dollar prize on his mind at the moment.” House said, tossing the marker to Foreman, “His adopted brother’s in a coma.” There was silence for a moment, “Differential diagnosis people, sixteen year old Asian male, 62 kg, roughly five foot ten, fell into a coma for no good reason about an hour and a half ago.”

“Drugs?” Chase offered quickly.

“Kid doesn’t touch them apparently.” House answered just as fast.

“And you believe him?” Chase sounded surprised.

“Patient’s not saying much.”

“You believe whoever you spoke to?” Foreman looked sceptical.

“No, but I’m giving you what I know.”

“We should run a toxscreen.” Chase decided.

“Because it’s impossible for there to be a sixteen year old male who doesn’t take drugs?” Cameron demanded, “There could be any number of reasons he’s in a coma.”

“Drugs are the most likely cause…”

House watched the two banter as Foreman wrote down the one symptom they had and then wrote down possible causes underneath.

“Trauma.” Foreman spoke over Cameron and Chase’s discussion, interrupting them and causing them to look at him, “Head injuries might explain…”

“The only kind of fighting he’s been doing recently is with a Duel Disk.” House disagreed.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be obvious, or even that recent.” Foreman pointed out, “If there was an older injury that was left untreated, the effects from that could be causing the coma now.”

“Virus or bacteria?” Cameron offered, thinking.

“Patient wasn’t sick, right up until the time he collapsed.”

“So it’s not drugs, he wasn’t in a fight and it could be some obscure virus that has no symptoms at all except a coma?” Chase sounded justifiably irritated.

“Chase, run a toxscreen, I bet you twenty that it comes up negative for drugs. Cameron, MRI, if it’s something in his brain, I want to see it. Foreman, talk to the children he came in with. See if they can think of any symptoms he was showing.”

“Why can’t I talk to the kids?” Cameron demanded.

“Because one of them is small enough for you to take home and you get attached far too easily.”

They waited for a moment.

“What are you waiting for? Marching orders?” House demanded, “Fine, hup two three four…”

Cameron, Chase and Foreman left.