Written on the body

[flywoman]

As most of you know, I'm currently writing a ridiculously long House/Wilson amnesia fic set in late S7. I would like to have a scene in which House gives himself a physical exam, looking for clues to his past. If you can think of particular depictions of, or allusions to, experiences that would leave permanent signs on his body or Wilson's (ahem), I'd love to hear about them. So far I've got the infarction/amputation, the scar from the gunshot wound at the end of S2, and Wilson's partial liver donation. Thanks!

Comments

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Also the large red birthmark on House's head from his biological father.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

How about the finger he broke in detox - could have healed crooked. Or the self-inflicted cuts on his arm in the Tritter arc, they could have left scars. Would there be any sign of his head injury/DBS from the bus? or a scar from the motorcyle crash in Locked In. Do burns leave scars? His hand was badly burnt in 97 seconds (though miraculously healed by the next episode!) I've seen heaps of people put callouses on his palm from the cane use, also guitar players usually have callouses on their finger tips I believe.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

You are awesome, thank you. I think he might be able to see the signs of damage to his finger, possibly scars from when he cut himself, almost certainly the head injury if he probed since his skull was cracked. And yes, he'd have fingertip calluses from playing guitar (although when's the last time we've seen him play anything? I miss his music), and some musculoskeletal evidence and probably calluses from the cane use.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

The last time he played anything would be the organ Wilson bought him shortly before chucking him out of the loft I think (: I really miss the piano playing...

When Chase punched him out did he break his nose? I seem to remember him having some sort of bandaid or something on it...

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

I don't think Chase was the first person to punch him in the nose, either. I expect there might be other old scars/bruises on various parts of his anatomy from being an ass at the wrong time & place...

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

If you want to get really angsty you could have old scars from childhood abuse (assuming there was something other than ice baths/sleeping outside)

With the amount of injuries/hospital stays the guy has had I think his body would look pretty battle worn in places...

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

I think part of the reason why his father chose ice baths/sleeping out was that it *didn't* leave scars. John House only abused House when his mother wasn't there, so I think he'd make sure there was no visible injury.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

Do we know that it only happened when his mom wasn't there? My impression was that House's dad punished him for breaking rules and being a defiant twerp, which must have happened A LOT. Although it did sound like the abuses were calculated (like the summer of silent treatment) rather than outbreaks of uncontrollable rage.

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

The ice baths and being shut out at night probably happened when Blythe House wasn't there: in 'One Day, One Room', where House tells of those incidents, he ascribes them to his grandmother at first, saying that it happened when his parents were away. I therefore assume that the part about the non-abuser (his mother) not being there was true. The things that happened when his mother was there would have been run-of-the-mill enough in those days to have passed as normal punishment, I'd think, and would therefore have left no scars. In the case of House's father I doubt that it is the *violence* of the abuse that is the point; it's more about betrayal of trust. Someone who should be protecting you from harm, whom you should be able to trust unconditionally, is misusing his position of authority to damage you.

One notices this in House's reaction to parents: he's scorching to parents who aren't doing their best, even if they are not abusive, whereas he'll bend the law both ways to help families whose parents care about their kids, even if their attempts at raising their children border on pathetic.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

I definitely have noticed this in House's reactions to parents who have been neglectful or abusive. He really cares about kids, even though he often pretends not to.

And his funeral speech in Birthmarks articulates his opinion of his father's misuse of authority very well. (Of course House also uses his own authority as an employer and doctor to coerce people into doing what he thinks is best for them, which I am able to believe is all his father was doing, at least consciously.)

[readingrat.livejournal.com]

Getting slightly off-topic here, but practically everything House says about his father in the 'eulogy' applies to himself as well. Here an excerpt, courtesy of clinic_duty (how the heck does one link that?):
"This man you're eager to pay homage to, he was incapable of admitting any point of view but his own. He punished failure, and he did not accept anything less than — "
"He loved doing what he did. He saw his work as some kind of… sacred calling. More important than any personal relationship."

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree - I'm pretty sure that was the point. Much as he might rail about genetics and complain about their relationship, House has become very much like the man who raised him. Perhaps it even took that eulogy for him to admit it to himself.

[stenveny.livejournal.com]

It's my personal fanon that House has a scar under his hairline from a bar fight about music or religion (or something less mundane than a woman or sports.) With his drinking habits and strong opinions, I can't imagine that he's unscathed -- and it would explain his immediate empathy for Wilson starting that bar fight in New Orleans.

Hugh Laurie seems to have a scar on his nose -- no hypotheses there.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

Well, surely we can hazard a hypothesis for House if not for Laurie re: the nose scar :). And yes, he must have taken some hard knocks in bars along the way. We know he did after Wilson evicted him.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

The nose scar looks like an acne scar, but since there's nothing like that anywhere else on his face I assume it isn't. My dog has a perfect nearly hairless circle on his head from where we extracted a tick 6 years ago. Every other injury has visibly healed,some of them severe, and yet this little circle is just...there.

Maybe young Greg got a tick on his nose from sleeping outside, or that reaching?