Look, Sick People!

[saara]

Saara was pretty sure that she probably wasn't supposed to be in the clinic, considering she was perfectly healthy, for her, and wasn't a doctor or nurse of any sort. The fact that she probably wasn't supposed to be somewhere had never stopped her before and it certainly wasn't going to stop her now. Regularly she lurked in the clinic and she only got in trouble one in four times; she liked those odds, plus, her mom worked here, and that usually worked as an excuse. She had pulled a chair into a shady corner when she'd shown up about a half an hour ago and proceeded to just sit and watch.

So far, nothing interesting had come along, just the usual people who had done their usual stupid things to themselves and a bunch of mother worried about their children. Though Saara hated the fact that her mother worried about her so much, she had to give her mother credit for the fact that at least her worries had some grounding. Half of those kids that the mothers brought in didn't even look sick to her, and only a few of them would have anything more then a cold.

Absentmindedly, Saara scratched at a rash on her forearm then stopped herself with a sigh; scratching at them wouldn't help any, even if it did feel good. They dotted her arms and legs, but they were at least not bad right then; if she scratched them, they'd only come back with a vengeance to torment her more. Starting to get bored, she watched yet another person enter the clinic; the person did look sort of sick, but then, so did a lot of people half the time. She was sick all the time, but she didn't complain about that or let that stop her from doing what she wanted; she was used to it, but that didn't mean half these people were just lazy . . .

[Dr. Gregory House]

It was early afternoon and it seemed to be a bright and cheery day, or at least it would be for some. For one Dr. House it hadn't been the most pleasant. Cuddy had been bugging him about getting a case for him and his team, he for once actually agreed with her, but not on the cases she had presented him. Most ended up easily solvable, some he even figured out just by reading through the list of symptoms. Cuddy then told him that if he found all these so boring why didn't he just go work in the clinic. He promptly left to go 'work' in the clinic.

House had found an empty clinic room and, doing one of his favorite activities, napped in it. After a few hours of rest which was only interrupted by a few pains from his leg which were quickly solved by a few Vicodin, he got up slowly, a bit stiff from sleeping on the horrible clinic beds.

He opened the clinic door, blinking rapidly since the waiting room was much brighter then the room he had occupied. He limped into the waiting room, walking over to the nurse's desk. "Remind me to talk to Cuddy about the conditions of the clinic room beds, also we need cable in there." He said to the nurse as he leaned against her desk. She smirked at him and continued filing papers away, to her it was just ordinary House.

House glanced around the waiting room, knowing most of the patients didn't recognize him as a doctor. That was why he dressed the way he did, kept from getting unwanted attention, mostly by nagging mothers and whiny teenagers about their pimples. Of course the cane made many think he was in fact just another patient.

But House found his attention on a blond girl who seemed to be trying not to scratch some rashes on her arms. He might have recognized the girl but he didn't try to recall her name or if he had in fact met her. Right now he was trying to figure out what she had. It could easily be poison ivy but she didn't seemed to be overly itchy. It looked a bit like psoriasis, but it wasn't localized really around the joints. He figured atopic eczema, more common type of eczema, of course it could be a different sort but he figured he should go broad on this one.

[saara]

The arrival of a oddly dress older man with cane caught Saara's attention, mainly because he'd come out of one of the room's hadn't remember seeing him entered. Which meant he'd had to have been in for over an hour, and he didn't look particularly sick other then the fact he obviously had a bad leg since he used the cane. She grinned at what he said to the nurse and she knew that he had to be a doctor, and there was only one doctor who acted like this one. Dr. Gregory House; her mom talked about him sometimes, but she'd never actually met him face to face . . . Probably because he avoided doing work and didn't like children according to her mother; she was going to test that second theory, even though she never counted herself as a child.

Well, at least I don't have to get his attention; Saara though, noticing that House was now staring at her; now why would he be doing something like that? Cheerfully, she smiled and waved at him, before standing up and trotting over to him, still smiling but it had a slightly mischievous and malicious look to it. Not exactly the look you would expect from someone who was five feet tall and looked like guessing her age was fourteen would be a big stretch.

"Hello . . . Mr. House." Saara greeted him, having to look up since he was over a foot taller then her and she knew if she had to keep this up her neck was going to start hurting. So far, she was being nice; if she wanted too, she could call him a doctor in a nice loud voice and summon a swarm to pester him with questions and complaints. Her mom had said that he dressed like he did because he didn't want people to think he was a doctor; ah, having inside information made it so much easier to annoy people.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House grimaced slightly as the girl caught his eye, smiled and waved. He wasn't one for children, if anything he would avoid them at all cost, but his work in the clinic made that happen rarely. When he did talk to children he usually talked to them as adults, much to the displeasure of their parents. House could only figure this as parents being parents, which meant they were idiots.

The last time he had spent anytime with someone under the age of eightteen had been with a mother and daughter. The daughter, who had been twelve, had started her period early and the girls mother would not even let the girl hear about what a period meant. To this House could only sigh, call the mother an idiot and get called to Cuddy's office like he was in high school.

The girl, who looked no older then thirteen or fourteen, was now getting up and walking over to him. Oh geeze, this would be fun alright. He looked down at the girl, and looked down was right, she was probably nearly a foot and a half short then he was, and figured that the girl was smart for her age. Or at least, figured herself as being smarter then her age group and carried that air of superiority around herself. Kids like this were more horrible then their dumber counterparts, only because they thought they knew everything.

When the girl called him 'Mr.' House, it meant two things, she knew who he was and knew he wanted to avoid being noticed as a doctor. So the ball was in her court for now, of course he could play it off that he had some 'major case' to attend to and quickly make his escape (although quickly for him was more of a fast walk for normal people).

"You don't have eczema, you have human transmitted scrapie, very horrible, and not curable." House said in his normal tone to people, slightly sarcastic with a hint of taunting. Of course there was no 'human transmitted' scrapie, but if the girl had heard of normal scrapie on sheep then she wouldn't enjoy hearing that bit of info from House. "Now why don't you go find Dr. Mommy and get her to take you to your playdate." House said, pointing towards the clinic waiting room doors. He knew this might set the kid off and get her to spill the beans on his M.D. status, but who cared.

[saara]

"I have exzema, atopic exzema, not scrapie." Saara replied to House levelly, her tone taking on the sort of edge one would use to talk to a four-year-old. That edge was on purpose; if he was going to talk to her like she was completely stupid, then she was going to talk back to him as if he was stupid. "I am not a member of the caprinae family, therefore I couldn't possibly have any form of scrapie. Let alone a make-believe kind." She added, referring to the family of animals in which sheep and goat belonged too. When both your parents worked in the medical field, you tended to pick up some things.

Playdate? Who did he think she was? A two-year-old? Well, actually, she was pretty sure she'd never been on a playdate ever, even when she was two. Her mother had been a bit overprotective of poor Saara even when she wasn't stuck in the hospital like she had been half the time when she was a baby. "My 'mommy' is a nurse, not a doctor, and she's working. I think she's working on the third floor today . . ." Actually Saara was sure her mother was working on the third floor, since she worked in pediatrics, but she liked pretending that she only had half a clue were her mother was. She grinned broadly up at House, finding it amusing how annoying he was but his annoyance didn't phase her in the slightest from. Nor did the fact that he talked to her like an adult; she like that he did that, though she didn't like that he acted like she was a little kid. Short she might be, but she was by no means a kid . . . A kid wouldn't know all the things she did and a kid wouldn't be able to be as purposefully annoying as she was.

[Dr. Gregory House]

House made a face. "Oh aren't you adorable, you're one of those gifted children who can win 'Are You Smarter Then a Fifth Grader', probably because you're in fifth grade." House said in a sarcastic tone as he continued to lean against the nursing station in the waiting room. He knew the girl was older then that, but heck, if the kid liked to boast about her intellect that must mean she didn't like to be thought of as a child, or an idiot.

House may have spoken to her like an adult but not as an equal, whether it was because he viewed others as beneath him or if he viewed himself as beneath others was something no one would ever figure out. But he treated everyone with the same degree of disrespect, some earning more, some less then. House glanced back down at the girl and noted her grin, a grin that seemed to say that she thought she had made a perfect play.

House kept himself from rolling his eyes, this girl was so wrong. He twirled his cane in a slow circle and put the rubber end down on the ground. He leaned on it and began to walk towards the waiting room exit. "Come on, we'll see if we can find nurse Wyght and see if she can figure out why her only daughter is hanging out with sick people." House said as he limped towards the exit. He was sure the girl would follow.

[saara]

"Meh, I'd probably lose at that. I have a horrible head for dates." Saara replied, still completely unfazed or annoyed by his disrespect and sarcasm. Normally, she would have been seriously annoyed by being treated like she was a little kid, but when you were being treated like a little kid by a medical genius, it didn't sting as much. Anyway, she'd get back at him later by stealing his cane or doing something childish like that . . . Meh, too plain; she'd have to think of something more creative later, considering she usually didn't like to do childish things, too much of just a cheap shot and it made her favorite sport, annoying, boring.

Slightly confused, or more amused, Saara watched as House twirled his can then started to limp towards the waiting room entrance; was she supposed to follow him? "I'm not 'hanging out' with sick people. I'm studying sick people. Sounds much better." She told him boredly, showing no signs that she would follow him. "And anyway, mom likes it that I hang around the hospital. Gives her comfort that if I suddenly have an asthma attack or an allergic reaction, I'm surrounded by medical professionals, even if half of them are idiots." She talked about the possibility of her suddenly not be able to breathe as if was nothing, in the same tone in which she insulted the hospitals highly-qualified employees. Still she showed no sign of following House, now seemingly talking to no one in particular as she turned to look around the room in a half bored fashion.