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The Little Missy
Cameron
The first thing that I see when I enter the conference room for the diagnosis department is a little girl sitting in one of the chairs. She has white-blond hair that end in curls. She is wearing a hot-pink fuzzy dress. Her little legs are covered in light grey tights and dark grey boots that reaches her ankles.
She is coloring quietly, just paying attention to her book and her jumbo colors. I keep walking until I left my own cup of coffee on the table. The movement make her raise her head and piercing blue eyes look intensely at me.
“Hello there,” I say to her, smiling softly. “My name is Allison Cameron,” I say to her and she smiles up at me. “What’s your name?”
“Ellie,” she says briefly, then casting her eyes back to her picture book. “Nice to meet you, Miss Allison Cameron.”
The glass door opens again and Foreman walks in.
“Who is the little girl?” he asks first thing, not even letting his bag in the table. “Where’s House?”
“She was here when I walked in,” I answer rapidly.
Foreman left a blue folder on the glass table.
“Her name is Ellie,” I answer him, picking up the folder. “She was here when I came in.”
“Well, maybe we should call a nurse to take her back to her parents,” he says and that attracts the attention of the little girl again.
“I don’t think you should be informing the nurses about me being here,” she says softly, but her coloring has stopped.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Foreman says. “This is the office of a very grumpy doctor.”
The frown of confusion in the little girl forehead is all I need to know that maybe, Foreman is scaring the little girl. I step forward and she shift her gaze from my colleague to me.
The glass door opens again and House walks in with two paper cups and a bag from the cafeteria between his fingers. He looks at the girl with a small smile playing over his lips… or maybe is just the light playing tricks on me.
“Well, little Miss, there was no hotcakes,” he says, letting the paper cups on the table. “So, I brought Ruben Warm for you and Ruben Cold for me,” he says, taking a seat. “Oh, Cameron and Foreman, you are here!”
“You are a sinner,” the little girl says to House, opening the back and taking out her warm sandwich.
“Says who?” he asks her, looking her straight in the eye.
The little girl doesn’t flinch a bit. She doesn’t blink either.
“Daddy says,” she smiles up at him. “He says Ruben’s sandwiches were made to eat them warm, and if you don’t then you are a kitchen sinner.”
“Your daddy must be crazy,” House snarks back in that childish way of his.
“I never said daddy was sane,” she replies. “And you are not sane either.” A smug smile is playing on her thin, pinky lips.
“Nice move, kid,” House gets up, taking a fast gulp of his coffee. “Symptoms,” he says, casting his paper cup aside and taking a market.
“Who is the kid, House?” Foreman asks, and I can hear frustration in his voice.
“She is a kid, are you blind?” he doesn’t answer right away. “Cameron, symptoms.”
“Her name is…” I start saying.
“Don’t care about the name,” he says, still holding the market up. “I want the symptoms.”
“You should be nice,” the little girl says softly.
“I am,” House retorts fast. “Just not with the patients.”
“Who is her, House?” Foreman asks again.
House rolls his eyes.
“Little Missy,” he says, and the girl stop eating her sandwich to look at House. “This blacky from here is Dr. Foreman, he is annoying and a neurologist.”
The blondie baby girl looks at Foreman.
“Hello, I’m Ellie,” she says in a cute whisper, extending her little hand towards my college.
Foreman just sighs heavily and shake the little hand between his.
“You can call me Foreman,” he says grumpily.
“Are you the boss?” she asks suddenly.
Foreman smiles at her.
“Why do you think so?” he asks, but House is trying to stifle a laugh in the back.
“Because you said this office was the office of a very grumpy doctor,” she comments like if it’s nothing at all. “So, you are the boss?”
Foreman is looking at the girl like if she has two heads.
“Uh…” And now I am trying not to laugh too. “I am not, Dr. House is the grumpy doctor I was talking about.”
“Oh, okay,” she says like if its nothing and goes back to munching on her sandwich and drinking whatever is it House brought her.
“Don’t choke on it, little Missy,” House says, erecting himself again. “Symptoms.”
“She is a super model, she is fifteen and she has fever, her WCC…” I say trying to diffuse the situation.
“Her lungs are full of fluid. She has pneumonia,” Foreman says after a moment, looking at the patient chart. “She is vomiting and her eyes have conjunctivitis.”
“So, what can cause fever, low WCC, pneumonia, emesis and conjunctivitis?” House asks. “Any guesses?”
“An infection,” Ellie, the little girl says.
“And why is that? Are you a doctor, little Missy?” House asks in that annoying way of his.
“Nope,” she pops the P hard. “But my daddy is,” she says softly. “And then, my other parent is. Fever is a response to infection. When you have the flu, you have fever and you need chicken soup. Is common knowledge.”
House smiles softly at the girl.
“Wow, two specialists have been beaten by a three-year old little girl,” he says. “What else can it be? Go.”
“Multisystemic,” I say. “It could be a virus. The patient was out of the country, she went for a model session to Colombia…” I read down. “It could be a parasite.”
“Too much symptoms at the same time to be just a parasite,” House says. “Any guesses, Foreman?” House asks.
“Even a three-year old can say it is the flu,” he says. “It is the flu.”
“No kind of flu gave someone conjunctivitis and pneumonia at the same time.” I rebuff.
“Maybe malaria. It’s not hard to diagnosis.”
“Malaria it is still a parasite,” she says. “She should have liver failure by now or dead. Malaria is not something that can incubate this slow.”
“Well, I happen to agree with the little girl,” Foreman says.
I cannot believe this.
House rolled his eyes, hard.
“She is a little girl,” he is next to yelling and Ellie’s ready to turn herself into a little ball. “She can say whatever she pleases because she is in kinder garden. You went to Med School; you don’t get to have a simple say like this. They send the teenager model in here for a reason! Are you really this useless, Foreman?”
“Stop it,” I yell back at my boss, standing up and going to the little girl. “You are scaring her.”
“I’m sorry, munchkin,” House says, taking a few steps forward and putting his hand on the girl’s head. “It wasn’t my intention to scare you.”
The little girl nods, but I can see tears shinning in her blue eyes. House sighs loudly, while I watch the little girl.
“I’m sorry too,” she says, rising her arms. “I am supposed to stay quite.”
House picked her and place her firmly on his hip.
“Wanna go watch something cool?” he asks her, walking to the door. She nods enthusiastically. “Cameron, go fetch me a real history from the patient and while you are at that, make a toxic blood-screen and all the tests you can think of for viruses that act just like these one. Foreman, since you think she has the flu, you are out of this case. If she lives, it wouldn’t be thanks to you.”
“What are we gonna go to do?” Ellie asks House. Her blond hair falling softly over her shoulder. The hot-pink color of her dress making her looks like a little princess.
“We are going to watch a surgery,” he says softly. “They have all the cool stuff you, maybe, have seen in your daddy’s book, since he is a…”
“Neuro-stitcher,” she supplies, her face lit up at the memory of her daddy.
“Yeah, they have all the cool stuff for a neuro-stitcher to be happy,” and then House is pushing the door out.
“I will tell Cuddy about you taking someone’s else kid to an OR,” Foreman accuse fast.
House turn in his heels fast.
“You can go to mommy,” his voice is dripping sarcasm, not caring… Maybe. “I am going to take little Missy here to watch the pros do a surgery. Tell mommy I will be in OR number 5.”
He walks out and I can see the little girl putting her little arms around my boss’ neck for support. He is not smiling, he is all serious, but I can see how the little girl is smiling and it makes me feel hopeful.
“Aren’t you concerned with him walking around with someone’s kid?” Foreman asks me, while we walk out of the conference room. “I am going to inform Cuddy about this.”
“Okay, you do that,” I say, taking the stairs not wanting to be in the middle of this.
* * ** * * * *
My beeper goes off and I can see Cuddy’s message. I left the blood sample with a nurse.
“Take this to lab 2, please,” I say the young nurse. “Tell them I need it tested for uncommon viruses, like echo and enterovirus.”
“I will, don’t worry,” and then, she is off and I start walking towards Cuddy’s office.
Once I enter I can see Foreman still on his feet.
“Doctor Foreman told me that Doctor House took a little girl with him to an OR a few minutes ago,” she says. “Is it true, Dr. Cameron?” I nod softly.
Cuddy huffs and then she is calling someone and then, she is making another call.
“Anyone has reported a missing girl in the last hour or so, Nurse Evans?” she asks to the person at the other end of the line. “Keep your ears open. Maybe, someone lost a little girl this morning.” The person at the other side says something and then, Cuddy is nodding softly.
The door opens and House appears again with the little girl perched in his other hip.
“Hello, mommy,” House says sarcastically.
“Is she really your mommy?” the little girls ask.
“Yeah,” House says.
“I don’t think so,” the little girl says. “She is not your mommy.” She accuses House, scrunching up her nose, and then looking at Cuddy. “She is auntie Lisa.”
“Hello, sweet heart,” Cuddy says, standing up and walking towards House. “What are you doing here?”
“There is a epidemic bug in my school,” she says seriously. “The bugs doctors are going to threat ‘em.”
Lisa smiles and then she says: “I heard you were watching a surgery.”
“It was really cool,” Ellie says. “They were all smart.”
“Aren’t you a smart cookie too?” Cuddy asks. Ellie nods and then, Cuddy is looking at the both of us. “Is this the girl House was with this morning?” We both nod and Cuddy sighs heavily. She let herself fall in chair. “Tell them. Now.”
House rolls his eyes.
“Hi, I’m Doctor House, your employer,” he says. “And a diagnostician.”
“House!” Cuddy press.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you I have a daughter?” he asks, his voice full of sarcasm.
But then, I can see how comfortable the girl is in his arms. She clings to him with muscular memory. She isn’t afraid to talk back to him. He bought her breakfast this morning.
Her eyes are the same shade of blue as House's. That’s the only thing they share in common and maybe, the antics.
“I have a patient, Cuddy,” he says. “He must miss me.”
“She is your what?” Foreman asks, dumbfounded.
House rolls his eyes.
“Were is her other parent?” Cuddy asks him.
“Working,” House says. “It is easier for me to bring her here, since you know, I don’t have to deal with blood and scary knives. Thank Lord I didn’t pursue a career as a meet-cutter or playing dead advocate.”
The little girl is turning the words in her head. I can see it and then, she is giggling.
“Don’t let your other parent know about my comment. It was a bad comment,” House says fast.
Cuddy smiles.
“Take the rest of the day off,” she says. “And find a nanny for tomorrow.”
“Bye, mommy,” he says to Cuddy and then, he is walking out of the room.
“Is it true?” Foreman asks to Cuddy.
She nods.
“Her name is Aurelia ‘Ellie’ House,” Cuddy’s confirms.