Young Minds (Open, Multiple Threads Encouraged)

[meansfamily]

Lilo was sitting in the lobby. She had a bowl of cut pineapple beside her, and her legs tucked under her dress. She was reading a book on dermatological conditions, and every now and then would dogear one of the glossy pages. She read quietly to herself, from time to time plucking a bit of fruit and munching on it. Only a few times did she have

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[thors_fav]

Jack was headed toward the bar and his daily self-allotted alcohol intake. He'd already taken several steps into the lobby before he noticed the little girl. He stopped, glanced around, then took a longer look at her. He hadn't been aware there were any children in the hotel. He supposed she could be here with a parent, but he had a bad feeling that wasn't the case.

He walked up directly to her and glanced down, taking in her reading material. "You know--I was aware we had a veritable surplus of doctors in the hotel. But I wasn't aware we had a doctor in training."

[meansfamily]

She looked up at the man and smiled. "Well, it's neat for one. And for two, what'll we do if someone ends up having keratosis palmoplantaris? Do we have any dermatologists? It may be up to Lilo Pelekai to discover it!" She held up a triumphant hand, then laughed a little at herself.

[thors_fav]

"Kera...carrot palm plants? Sounds uncomfortable," Jack said, mangling the disease's name. He wasn't trying to be funny. He simply had a deep seated aversion to geeky science stuff which included scientific names.

"Pelekai...that sounds Hawaiian." Jack squatted down next to her, grimacing as his knees popped. "I'm Jack."

[meansfamily]

She pointed at the picture. "Yup! Gross, huh? And I'm from Hawaii, yeah." She scooted over so that he could sit down. "Don't hurt your knees. I heard that."

[rubicks_complex]

House was heading... he didn't know where he was heading. Somewhere. Anywhere just to get out of his room, and to find himself a distraction. Hiding out in his room after that disastrous date with Cuddy the night before was getting old, fast. Brooding over it only made it worse

[meansfamily]

Lilo stared at the man who'd moved her book. He was walking with a limp, and using a cane. Something must be wrong with his leg. And he was pretty smart. He knew what she'd been looking at just by the picture.

"Are you a doctor too? Were you a war doctor? Did you take shrapnel in the war?" She turned another page in her book, wrinkling her nose at a particularly gory picture of pyoderma gangrenosum.

[rubicks_complex]

House peered at Lilo curiously. She sure asked a lot of questions. Observant ones, too. Shrapnel? What normal kid at her age - which House guessed to be about... six? eight? - knew what shrapnel was?

"Too?" House echoed. He eyed her book again, pointedly. "Is there a midget doctors convention happening that I wasn't aware of?"

He knew what she meant - was he a doctor as well as Cuddy (and whomever else she'd met in here who was a doctor). But seeing a kid reading a book on dermatology wasn't exactly the most typical thing to see a kid doing. Then again, he thought as he watched her turn the page over and make a face at the picture, she was probably only looking at the pictures.

"I only answer one question at a time. And for every question you ask me, I get to ask you one. Quid pro quo; Latin for 'something for something'."

He craned his neck to look at the picture she was studying. "Mmm. Necrotic ulcers. Tasty."

[meansfamily]

Lilo put the book down, sighing. "I'm not a midget, I'm new. I'm only six. Well. Six and two months." She pointed at the information on the disorder, puffing out her cheek. "It's good to know that it's usually not fatal, but it sure does look like it hurts." She moved her dictionary and scooted over so he could sit next to her.

"I know what quid pro quo means. I rented Silence of the Lambs about 800 times last year. You can ask me things."