Bestest Buddy 18: Differential II
Five minutes later, Foreman, Cameron, Chase, and House sat around the table. David remained at the whiteboard.
“Okay, eight-year-old male of Chinese and Caucasian descent -”
“-Nine,” David corrected. “Sam's a year older than me.”
“Nine-year old... About the same height-”
“- plus half an inch.”
“...and weight as David.” House waited for David's correction.
“Four pounds more.”
House smiled to himself. “Okay.” He started to write that down, but David, unused to writing on any kind of board, had taken up most of the space with his “Actions” and “Simptoms.” House pointed to the white board. “This is what's going on with him. Commit it to memory.”
Alison Cameron watched her boss pick up the eraser and touch it to what his son had written. House paused, then, looking a little embarrassed, pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of the whiteboard. Cameron gushed inside. Having David around made House do absolutely the sweetest things sometimes.
“OK, start from the top,” House told his son as he erased. “What kind of cookies?”
“Sandwich cookies.”
Chase glanced down at what David had written about chocolate. “Oreos?” He asked. “If they were Oreos, that would rule out any issue with chocolate, because he didn't go “bonkers.”
“Do Oreos have much or any real chocolate in them?” Cameron wondered aloud.
“Vanilla - with cream inside,” David told them.
House remembered those cookies. He didn't really like them - which was why Wilson bought them because House would have eaten them all, depriving David of one of the few sweet snacks the boy would eat..
“How many?” asked Foreman.
David thought for a few seconds. “Maybe six - but he also ate all the filling from mine.”
Chase pretended to be scandalized. “You've got it backwards, David. Kids are supposed to eat all the sugar inside and throw away the cookies.”
Shrugging, David told him, “I don't like that part.”
“And you're an American kid?”
David shrugged again.
House interrupted with: “Did Sam eat just a little bit of chocolate, or lots of it?”
David shrugged. He wasn't sure how much to consider to be a lot or a little.
“Can you say what he did eat during one of the times he went bonkers?” This was from Foreman.
House's son nodded thinking back to the first time he'd seen Sammy's symptoms. “A sandwich with weird stuff in it, a Hershey bar, a package of Ding-Dongs and a package of Ho-hos.”
“That's a lot of junk,” Foreman commented.
“What was in the sandwich?” asked Cameron.
The boy's face wrinkled. “Strange things, like Lucky Charms and peanut butter. I didn't see everything.”
“Eww...” Cameron commented quietly.
House leaned back in his seat. “Did this happen today?”
David shook his head. “No, TODAY, Sam was bonkers before lunch. He wasn't concentrating, I guess, and he missed one of the spelling words. Then Mr. Burdette made him go to the nurse early.”
He noticed that his daddy's eyes were getting that sharp look that happened when he was solving his medical puzzles.
“Okay - start from the beginning of today,” House ordered. “Tell us everything you saw that had to do with Sammy.”
Foreman sighed. If he didn't like House's kid, he'd have protested against collecting a history from an 8-year-old third party. But what the hell; the alternative was to go back to the clinic and wipe noses.
David climbed down from his perch on the chair and sat down on it. “When he got to school, he was just quiet.”
“Unusual for that kid,” House mused. “Then what?”
“Mr. Burdette made him go to Miss Biggam. He was different, by then.”
“What was different?” House asked his son.
“I dunno...” David thought hard for a moment. “He speeded up, I guess. He started acting up.”
House rested an elbow on the conference table and stroked his beard with his knuckles. “What happened between the classroom and the nurse?”
Now David's own eyes were sharp. “Daddy, Sam went into the Boy's room and after he came out, he started getting all weird.” He had thought that was a little strange, but now he wondered...
The team all looked at one another. “Did you actually SEE him use the bathroom?” House asked him.
David shook his head. “He went in a stall, but he only stood inside the door for half a minute.”
House took his son by the arm and gently tugged until his boy was standing in front of him, eye-to-eye.
“This is really important, David. I need you to tell me the truth.”
“Okay Daddy,” the boy whispered.
“Have you ever seen Sam take any drugs?”
“HOUSE!” Cameron shouted. “He's a little boy!”
THIS was precisely why David didn't like Dr. Cameron. She assumed that just because he was a kid, that everything was all 'sunshine and puppies,' as his dad sometimes says. She had no idea that David had probably seen things that she wouldn't be able to wrap her brain around.
Wilson was returning to his office from the clinic when he saw it - House's entire team in the conference room, apparently running a differential. He did a double-take when he saw his son in front of the whiteboard. House was leaning forward in his chair, peering intently at their son. He thought at first that maybe House was just dealing with a rare interruption from David while working with the fellows. But then House leaned back again, and David stood on a chair, and started writing “9yo - Chinese/Caucasian (Polish?) - male - 53 lbs - 4 ft 1 in” on the board, Wilson was intrigued, and HAD to know more.
He stuck his head in the door and asked, “Hey, what's going on?”
House nodded to the whiteboard. “Running a differential,” he answered.
“Sammy?”
“Yeah,” both David and House answered.
Wilson joined them.
“I've never seen him take any drugs,” was David's answer to House's question. “Even at the nurse's office, I have to wait outside on the bench.”
House nodded to himself. That didn't mean that Sammy wasn't taking something. He'd been out of David's sight for 30 seconds - and for what purpose?
Foreman was the first to voice this view. “He might be just a little guy, but that doesn't mean he hasn't gotten ahold of something from his parent's medicine cabinet.” He folded his hands in front of himself. “Doesn't mean that pushers aren't hitting elementary schools.”
David, who really liked Foreman, frowned to himself. This was making him angry. “H-he's not like that!” the boy insisted. “He's a nice kid...”
“Hey, just because he's a nice kid, and you like him, doesn't mean he can't be on drugs, David,” House persisted.
'You ought to know,' Foremen thought to himself.
“You gave them a referral for his ADHD.” House said to Wilson. “Who's his specialist?”
“I referred them to Anderson.”.
“Huh...” House was surprised that Sam was still having symptoms, because Stefan Anderson was actually especially good with figuring out ADHD kids and their diets. Then again, if the family refused to follow the diet, nothing Anderson could do would help. “Did he prescribe anything new?”
Wilson was on the same track. “Still Ritalin, according to Liz. Anderson didn't even change his dosage. He gave them a pretty strict diet to follow, and he'll have a follow-up after a month.”
“Where does Sammy get all the junk food at school?” asked Chase.
“Trades for it, usually,” David replied. “He really has boring stuff for lunch, so he buys some of the kinda-okay vending machine snacks with his pocket money, then trades it for the really good stuff.”
“Once again, everybody lies,” House declared. “His parents actually keep the junk food at home under lock and key, and he gets none of it. He buys Fruit Roll-ups and trades them for chocolate, which makes him...” he glanced up at the now nearly empty whiteboard. “Bonkers.”
Chase looked down at the notes he'd scribbled from David's original list. “We should look at all the things he ate. All that sugar might be setting him off.”
“Remember, though, he ate a ton of cookies when he and David had that play date at ou- … awhile back.” Wilson reminded House. “They didn't have any impact whatsoever.
Why was Wilson this knowledgeable about House's kid's play date? Cameron took this revelation as yet another clue that these three, House, Wilson, and David, were a hell of a lot closer than they really let on. “Rules out sugar probably,” she agreed.
House had David write: “Sugar,” then had him cross it off.
“But chocolate made him 'ennergetick,'” House reminded them.
Foreman chuckled to himself. This wasn't a hard differential; House was kind of drawing it out as a way of rewarding his son's initiative. Foreman decided to go along, because he was enjoying hearing House's kid talk this much. “Chocolate has caffeine.”
David didn't get the big deal about caffeine. “But I have coffee every day, and you don't see me acting like a nut case,” he said.
Wilson thought that his son was just about the most adorable little person he'd ever known. “That's true, h-David, but some people are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine.” He hoped that would cover his deception - Wilson had regularly cut the coffee at home with decaf until David was only getting what little caffeine couldn't be removed from coffee beans.
“...caffeine sensitivity.” House intoned. “Write that down, doc.”
David had never had 'caffeine' on a spelling test. He took his best guess, which was “cafeen sense-tivity.” House and the team left well enough alone.
“Wouldn't he just avoid caffeine? If it made him get 'really ennergetick?'” asked Chase.
House shrugged. “Unless he really LIKES going 'bonkers.'”
He wasn't any fool. David knew that they were using his words to be playful with him. It was the way they all seemed to be using invisible bunny-ear quotation marks as they spoke his words. It didn't really bother him. His plan was working anyway. He knew that his 'differential' would attract their attention, and this result was better than he had hoped for. Someone was paying attention to Sam's problem.
Then Cameron added a question of her own: “Was there any chocolate in the ice cream?”
David got a gleam in his eye that reminded Wilson of his partner. “COFFEE ice cream,” the boy told them.
“So everything that made him 'bonkers' had caffeine of some kind in it.” Foreman muttered to himself, thinking aloud. “Doesn't explain was set him off between the classroom and the nurses office, though.”
They all looked at one another, all thinking the same thing.
“Not until we know what happened in the stall,” Foreman concluded.
“I wanna get a better look at this kid,” House said quietly.
“Okay, eight-year-old male of Chinese and Caucasian descent -”
“-Nine,” David corrected. “Sam's a year older than me.”
“Nine-year old... About the same height-”
“- plus half an inch.”
“...and weight as David.” House waited for David's correction.
“Four pounds more.”
House smiled to himself. “Okay.” He started to write that down, but David, unused to writing on any kind of board, had taken up most of the space with his “Actions” and “Simptoms.” House pointed to the white board. “This is what's going on with him. Commit it to memory.”
Alison Cameron watched her boss pick up the eraser and touch it to what his son had written. House paused, then, looking a little embarrassed, pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of the whiteboard. Cameron gushed inside. Having David around made House do absolutely the sweetest things sometimes.
“OK, start from the top,” House told his son as he erased. “What kind of cookies?”
“Sandwich cookies.”
Chase glanced down at what David had written about chocolate. “Oreos?” He asked. “If they were Oreos, that would rule out any issue with chocolate, because he didn't go “bonkers.”
“Do Oreos have much or any real chocolate in them?” Cameron wondered aloud.
“Vanilla - with cream inside,” David told them.
House remembered those cookies. He didn't really like them - which was why Wilson bought them because House would have eaten them all, depriving David of one of the few sweet snacks the boy would eat..
“How many?” asked Foreman.
David thought for a few seconds. “Maybe six - but he also ate all the filling from mine.”
Chase pretended to be scandalized. “You've got it backwards, David. Kids are supposed to eat all the sugar inside and throw away the cookies.”
Shrugging, David told him, “I don't like that part.”
“And you're an American kid?”
David shrugged again.
House interrupted with: “Did Sam eat just a little bit of chocolate, or lots of it?”
David shrugged. He wasn't sure how much to consider to be a lot or a little.
“Can you say what he did eat during one of the times he went bonkers?” This was from Foreman.
House's son nodded thinking back to the first time he'd seen Sammy's symptoms. “A sandwich with weird stuff in it, a Hershey bar, a package of Ding-Dongs and a package of Ho-hos.”
“That's a lot of junk,” Foreman commented.
“What was in the sandwich?” asked Cameron.
The boy's face wrinkled. “Strange things, like Lucky Charms and peanut butter. I didn't see everything.”
“Eww...” Cameron commented quietly.
House leaned back in his seat. “Did this happen today?”
David shook his head. “No, TODAY, Sam was bonkers before lunch. He wasn't concentrating, I guess, and he missed one of the spelling words. Then Mr. Burdette made him go to the nurse early.”
He noticed that his daddy's eyes were getting that sharp look that happened when he was solving his medical puzzles.
“Okay - start from the beginning of today,” House ordered. “Tell us everything you saw that had to do with Sammy.”
Foreman sighed. If he didn't like House's kid, he'd have protested against collecting a history from an 8-year-old third party. But what the hell; the alternative was to go back to the clinic and wipe noses.
David climbed down from his perch on the chair and sat down on it. “When he got to school, he was just quiet.”
“Unusual for that kid,” House mused. “Then what?”
“Mr. Burdette made him go to Miss Biggam. He was different, by then.”
“What was different?” House asked his son.
“I dunno...” David thought hard for a moment. “He speeded up, I guess. He started acting up.”
House rested an elbow on the conference table and stroked his beard with his knuckles. “What happened between the classroom and the nurse?”
Now David's own eyes were sharp. “Daddy, Sam went into the Boy's room and after he came out, he started getting all weird.” He had thought that was a little strange, but now he wondered...
The team all looked at one another. “Did you actually SEE him use the bathroom?” House asked him.
David shook his head. “He went in a stall, but he only stood inside the door for half a minute.”
House took his son by the arm and gently tugged until his boy was standing in front of him, eye-to-eye.
“This is really important, David. I need you to tell me the truth.”
“Okay Daddy,” the boy whispered.
“Have you ever seen Sam take any drugs?”
“HOUSE!” Cameron shouted. “He's a little boy!”
THIS was precisely why David didn't like Dr. Cameron. She assumed that just because he was a kid, that everything was all 'sunshine and puppies,' as his dad sometimes says. She had no idea that David had probably seen things that she wouldn't be able to wrap her brain around.
Wilson was returning to his office from the clinic when he saw it - House's entire team in the conference room, apparently running a differential. He did a double-take when he saw his son in front of the whiteboard. House was leaning forward in his chair, peering intently at their son. He thought at first that maybe House was just dealing with a rare interruption from David while working with the fellows. But then House leaned back again, and David stood on a chair, and started writing “9yo - Chinese/Caucasian (Polish?) - male - 53 lbs - 4 ft 1 in” on the board, Wilson was intrigued, and HAD to know more.
He stuck his head in the door and asked, “Hey, what's going on?”
House nodded to the whiteboard. “Running a differential,” he answered.
“Sammy?”
“Yeah,” both David and House answered.
Wilson joined them.
“I've never seen him take any drugs,” was David's answer to House's question. “Even at the nurse's office, I have to wait outside on the bench.”
House nodded to himself. That didn't mean that Sammy wasn't taking something. He'd been out of David's sight for 30 seconds - and for what purpose?
Foreman was the first to voice this view. “He might be just a little guy, but that doesn't mean he hasn't gotten ahold of something from his parent's medicine cabinet.” He folded his hands in front of himself. “Doesn't mean that pushers aren't hitting elementary schools.”
David, who really liked Foreman, frowned to himself. This was making him angry. “H-he's not like that!” the boy insisted. “He's a nice kid...”
“Hey, just because he's a nice kid, and you like him, doesn't mean he can't be on drugs, David,” House persisted.
'You ought to know,' Foremen thought to himself.
“You gave them a referral for his ADHD.” House said to Wilson. “Who's his specialist?”
“I referred them to Anderson.”.
“Huh...” House was surprised that Sam was still having symptoms, because Stefan Anderson was actually especially good with figuring out ADHD kids and their diets. Then again, if the family refused to follow the diet, nothing Anderson could do would help. “Did he prescribe anything new?”
Wilson was on the same track. “Still Ritalin, according to Liz. Anderson didn't even change his dosage. He gave them a pretty strict diet to follow, and he'll have a follow-up after a month.”
“Where does Sammy get all the junk food at school?” asked Chase.
“Trades for it, usually,” David replied. “He really has boring stuff for lunch, so he buys some of the kinda-okay vending machine snacks with his pocket money, then trades it for the really good stuff.”
“Once again, everybody lies,” House declared. “His parents actually keep the junk food at home under lock and key, and he gets none of it. He buys Fruit Roll-ups and trades them for chocolate, which makes him...” he glanced up at the now nearly empty whiteboard. “Bonkers.”
Chase looked down at the notes he'd scribbled from David's original list. “We should look at all the things he ate. All that sugar might be setting him off.”
“Remember, though, he ate a ton of cookies when he and David had that play date at ou- … awhile back.” Wilson reminded House. “They didn't have any impact whatsoever.
Why was Wilson this knowledgeable about House's kid's play date? Cameron took this revelation as yet another clue that these three, House, Wilson, and David, were a hell of a lot closer than they really let on. “Rules out sugar probably,” she agreed.
House had David write: “Sugar,” then had him cross it off.
“But chocolate made him 'ennergetick,'” House reminded them.
Foreman chuckled to himself. This wasn't a hard differential; House was kind of drawing it out as a way of rewarding his son's initiative. Foreman decided to go along, because he was enjoying hearing House's kid talk this much. “Chocolate has caffeine.”
David didn't get the big deal about caffeine. “But I have coffee every day, and you don't see me acting like a nut case,” he said.
Wilson thought that his son was just about the most adorable little person he'd ever known. “That's true, h-David, but some people are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine.” He hoped that would cover his deception - Wilson had regularly cut the coffee at home with decaf until David was only getting what little caffeine couldn't be removed from coffee beans.
“...caffeine sensitivity.” House intoned. “Write that down, doc.”
David had never had 'caffeine' on a spelling test. He took his best guess, which was “cafeen sense-tivity.” House and the team left well enough alone.
“Wouldn't he just avoid caffeine? If it made him get 'really ennergetick?'” asked Chase.
House shrugged. “Unless he really LIKES going 'bonkers.'”
He wasn't any fool. David knew that they were using his words to be playful with him. It was the way they all seemed to be using invisible bunny-ear quotation marks as they spoke his words. It didn't really bother him. His plan was working anyway. He knew that his 'differential' would attract their attention, and this result was better than he had hoped for. Someone was paying attention to Sam's problem.
Then Cameron added a question of her own: “Was there any chocolate in the ice cream?”
David got a gleam in his eye that reminded Wilson of his partner. “COFFEE ice cream,” the boy told them.
“So everything that made him 'bonkers' had caffeine of some kind in it.” Foreman muttered to himself, thinking aloud. “Doesn't explain was set him off between the classroom and the nurses office, though.”
They all looked at one another, all thinking the same thing.
“Not until we know what happened in the stall,” Foreman concluded.
“I wanna get a better look at this kid,” House said quietly.