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?” Wilsonasked, 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?” Wilsonstared 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.” Wilsonsnorted. “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.