[Homeplot 5]

[more_flexible]

Jack had told Chase that he could drop him of at 221 Baker since House told him that he was going home for the day and that Foreman and Cameron could gve him the results of what the stuff is in the morning. Chase clearly resented being a taxi service and errand boy, especially on his vacation, but he did it anyway.

Jack let himself in, took off his suit, and found a pair of running shorts to wear while he looked through the fridge, ignoring the phone every time it rang. Greg would be back soon with pizza and beer and there was no way he was just going to answer that phone.

Time ticked on by and Jack grew bored, so he laid out on the couch and started scrolling through channels, not really paying attention to the shows. At the sound of footsteps in the hall, he sat up, fully expecting dinner and instead....it was Cameron.

Jack sat there, shirtless, and smiled at her. "God, Greg promised me pizza and beer...he didn't say anything about you," he leered. There was probably a very good reason she was here, but from the way he'd unsettled her this morning, it was only fair to keep it up.

"I...I have a key. And House...he didn't answer the phone, but sometimes he doesn't, so I just came..." she stammered, trying not to stare at him just sitting there. Smiling at her. Mostly naked. In House's apartment.

"You know, I can't tell you how many times I've used that excuse," he purred, climbing off the couch and walking closer. "...so I just came..."

Comments

[misanthrope_md]

At which point, House walked up behind Cameron, two pizzas and a bag filled with a six pack of Guinness balanced precariously in his free hand.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, shooting Jack a warning look.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. Are you sure the seventeen year old is the only one that stalks you?" he smirked, brushing past Cameron to retrieve the food and drink. "I'll take care of this...you know she's not here to see me," Jack laughed.

Cameron stood in place, jaw dropped a little. She didn't know what was going on. House had a friend. House and his friend were...guys. It completely shattered several ideas she had about him.

"You didn't answer your phone," she accused, turning to face him.

[misanthrope_md]

"I was busy," said House, and couldn't help but smirk a little. "As you can see. Want a beer?"

"No, I do not want a - there's a dying kid back there!"

"Cameron, do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had a Guinness?"

"I don't know, last week?"

"Jack, bring me a beer," House called to the kitchen. And he absolutely could not help his eyes from drifting over Jack's nearly-naked form.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

The sound of cupboards opening and closing, plates and glasses clinking, and a can popping, and Jack was back with a dark brew poured in a glass, passing it off to him. "Here you go, Greg," he said, looking down at the other doctor.

"You sure you don't want a beer? We could do body shots if that's more you're thing," he grinned, still more of an ass than House.

"No, I do not want anything," she said tightly. "House, would you listen to me for one minute?"

[misanthrope_md]

"You're going to tell me what you found in his backyard. Some poisonous plant, I'd wager. Didn't I say this could wait until morning?" He took a generous drink from the glass and sighed contentedly.

"Jinsum weed," said Cameron.

House snorted. "That's even better than I'd thought! Poor man's acid..."

"Explains the pleural effusion, the heart problems - "

"Of course, the treatment for Jinsum weed overdose and heart issues don't mix. So if you're not sure that's what he's got, he's dead. You know, I had planned to figure this out in the morning."

Cameron glared at him. "Which I would have done, if it weren't for the fact that when we went to check on the kid, his eye rolled into the back of his head."

Okay, now House was interested. "Like... rolled all the way back?"

"All the way back. Foreman figured it just confirmed the Jinsum weed diagnosis - occular paralysis."

"And so you came to get my permission to start him on the treatment. Good thing you did, because Foreman's an idiot." House rolled his eyes and held the now half empty glass of beer back for Jack to take. "Paralysis wouldn't cause that."

"Well, Foreman says..."

"You know," House interrupted, "I've been noticing a pattern. Foreman has all the bad ideas, Chase has all the good ones, and you never have any. You don't think it's Lupus, do you?"

That only earned him another glare. "Foreman says that the other most likely candidate is a microtumor behind the eye."

"Right," House scoffed. "And in his heart. And in his liver..."

"He's doing a CAT scan while I came to find you. I still think it's the Jinsum weed..."

"Which we have yet to even prove that he ate. Sure, the kid would probably eat dog shit if you put it in front of him, but - "

And then suddenly House got that look. That look. The I've-solved-the-case look. He turned back to Cameron, the I'm-not-fooling-around-anymore expression hard on his face. "You mentioned something strange he'd been doing earlier, that his parents told you about. Drawing pictures."

She blinked. "Well, if you could call them that... squiggly lines, everywhere. But that's not - "

"He's been trying to tell us!"

House turned back to Jack. "Dr. Harkness, get some clothes on. I'm about to bat this one out of the park. Tonight."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack had been standing behind Cameron and he could see House's mind working. The tone of his voice, that hard, in-control tone, Jack didn't even bother to say anything. He simply turned on his heel and walked down the hall, returning quickly in the jeans he'd worn that morning and the button down with the tie hanging loose around his neck.

"Let's go save a kid," he grinned, wishing he could grab House's ass on the way out the door. The trip back to the hospital may well have been even faster than the one this morning.

"You've got it, don't you? You know exactly what's wrong with the kid."

[misanthrope_md]

House smirked. "I do."

Cameron was gone by the time Jack emerged, heading back to the hospital on her own. "You don't want me to spoil it for you though, do you? Half the fun is the dramatic reveal."

He grabbed his keys and locked the door on their way out.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Don't tell me," he chuckled. "I want to be impressed so I can pat your head and give you a gold star later," he said, reaching over and laying his hand on Greg's leg once they were in the car.

[misanthrope_md]

Once they got to the hospital, House was a man on a mission, limping purposefully through the corridors to the kid's room.

Foreman was there, along with the parents, and he looked surprised when House walked in. "House? What - "

"Kill the lights," House demanded, and leaned his cane against the foot of the bed before sitting down beside the kid and pulling out a pen light. "He's been trying to tell us the whole time," he said as he held one of the kid's eyelids open and shined the light into his eye, looking. "He's been seeing what's wrong with him all the time, been drawing it over and over... we just didn't know how to speak autistic."

"What are you talking about?" blurted the dad. "What? What's he been trying to tell us?"

House leaned closer. His lips curled into a slow smile. God, he loved being right. "Hello, my pretties." He looked up. "It's not a tumor, Foreman. It's worms. Swimming in his eye."

Foreman gaped. "What - "

"Let me break it down," said House, straightening up. "Animal makes potty in sandbox. Boy plays in sandbox. Boy eats sand... and it just gets grosser from there."

Foreman scowled. "We tested the stool, remember? No parasites."

House wagged a finger at him. "Raccoon roundworms are not excreted by their hosts."

Cameron had walked in by this point, and sighed. "We tested the sand... but obviously not all of the sand."

House pulled himself to his feet, grabbing his cane. "The worms spread from his gut to the rest of his body. To his lungs... that's what made him scream and caused the effusion. In his liver, and sent dead liver cells coursing through his system. Then attacked his eye and the muscles surrounding it, causing the eyeball backflip." He looked down at the kid. "Laser photocoagulation will fix the eye, high dose of benzamitocol will kill the worms."

"So he's... going to be okay?" the dad asked.

"As okay as he was before the worms," said House, "which I guess is a relative matter."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack leaned back against the wall, just some doctor observing House. He watched as the kid looked around, not focusing on anything, then made eye contact with House. And held it. He didn't say anything, but from the looks on the mom and dad's faces, it must have been something remarkable.

And then it was over.

"You saved his life," the mother beamed.

[misanthrope_md]

House caught the eye contact as well. And that the parents thought it was a big deal, which made him uncomfortable. He wasn't supposed to be good with kids.

So he just nodded a little in response, and then looked at Jack, jerking his head towards the door a little before heading out of the room.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack smiled genuinely and nodded at the family and followed House out, falling into step beside him. "That was amazing. Did you see how happy they were?"

[misanthrope_md]

"Yeah, I almost feel bad for having thought they might have been trying to off their kid."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Can't be easy, having a kid who isn't perfect," Jack shrugged. It was something he could barely imagine. Starving war orphans, sure. Born sick like that? It was hard to comprehend.

"So, now what? Some post diagnosis ritual? Or back for cold pizza?"

[misanthrope_md]

"My work here is done," said House, with a hint of cheerfulness. "The curing's the easy part, Foreman and Cameron can handle that. So I say we go back and take the phone off the hook, don't think Cameron will be walking in unannounced anymore."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He looked back over his shoulder at the room, then at House. "Probably not. And Chase thinks I'm shallow," he grinned. "And Foreman doesn't strike me as the drop-by kind of guy."

[misanthrope_md]

"Come on," House said, taking his hand once they were out of sight. "I'll bet we can make it before the pizza's cold."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"The way you drive? Of course we can."