A/N: This story has been several weeks in the making and is the fifth in the Susan Chronicles series. The story begins after Recession Proof and yes, the timeline is messed up. Ms. Edelstein said in an interview that Bombshells happened immediately after Recession Proof, leading many to believe that the events of Bombshells and Out of the Shute were all part of an elaborate dream, but for the purposes of this story there is about a week or so in between and the events in those stories are all assumed to be part of the actual cannon and not a dream. As I was writing this story, in the week following Recession Proof, I was suddenly hit with shrapnel from Bombshells and stopped in my tracks. It took me several days to come up with how Susan was going to deal with this new situation in her life. Hopefully you'll enjoy how I've dealt with this particular situation and if you are so inclined, leave a review and let me know what you think – good or bad.

I do not own House or any of the characters from the show; I'm just borrowing them for a little fun (and to avoid doing my chores). I do however own Susan, David and Laura.

Chapter One:

Tuesday morning, March 1st, Susan thought. February was over, winter was coming to an end and spring was well on its way – except there was still snow outside. At home, well in the Texas panhandle anyway, things would be just starting to turn green and buds would be on the trees and the first flowers would start blooming. Susan always had daffodil bulbs planted in her flower garden at home just so she could see early color and brighten her mood knowing that spring was right around the corner. She really needed to adjust her thoughts. Texas wasn't home anymore; home was here in New Jersey. This is where her family was – what was left of it. Greg was here and Laura was nearby though she wasn't much around, but she wouldn't have been anyway. Susan was closer to her university here than she would have been if she had stayed in Texas.

Susan rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Disrobing before getting into the shower, she stepped on the bathroom scale, "Aaaah!" she exclaimed. "10 pounds! I've gained 10 pounds!" Susan jumped off the scale and then stood on it again just to make sure. Sure enough she had gained 10 pounds over the winter. Not even bothering to put her robe back on, she stomped out to the kitchen and opened her freezer. She pulled out the containers of left-over chili, stew, lasagna, beans and ham and other various winter comfort foods she had saved to take in her lunches and threw them in the trash. Having completed that chore, she went back to the bathroom to take her shower and get ready for work.

The morning went by quickly with Susan performing all of the daily maintenance and QC routine for the lab. Dr. House didn't currently have a patient having just lost his latest one last week. He had taken it hard as he always did when he lost a patient – though he tried to make light of it telling Wilson that he solved the case, so he didn't really care. This time he blamed his relationship with Cuddy. He had come to the conclusion that him being happy and in love made him a worse doctor. Cuddy and Susan had both taken it upon themselves to prove to him that this wasn't the case. Dr. House had some of the most difficult patients and it stood to reason that he would lose a higher percentage of his patients than many physicians. Susan wasn't sure what it would take to make him see the truth of that, but she was determined to show him. He'd helped her work through a lot of emotional turmoil in the last month, she owed him as much. Her stomach growled, complaining from the lack of breakfast so grabbing a few dollars out of her purse, she headed down to the cafeteria to see what she could find that wasn't fattening.

Fifteen minutes later she was sitting in a booth staring at her salad plate with light dressing on the side. She hated salads, but they didn't have many calories in them so she resigned herself to eating at least one salad per day in place of a 'real meal'.

"Why are you putting me on a diet?" House asked as he sat down.

Susan looked up at him, "Not interested in stealing ice burg lettuce and sliced tomatoes?" she asked.

"Not really, no," House replied.

"Don't blame you," Susan said. "I can't stand ice burg lettuce."

"Then why eat it?" House asked.

"I've gained 10 pounds in the last six months," Susan explained.

"I know," House said.

"Of course you do," Susan replied, "what gave it away – my ever expanding derriere with matching thighs?"

"Actually no, your watch is tighter on your arm and your motherly belly pooch is a little bigger. Your hips and thighs haven't really changed much. You're at higher risk for diabetes the way you gain weight in your stomach you know," House said.

"Thanks for the honest assessment," Susan said sarcastically, "and I know. That's way I'm on a diet, I refuse to allow that disease to present itself when I am capable of preventing it. My mother's family had a large preponderance of Type II diabetes, and I gain weight very easily, so I watch it very closely."

"Except for this past winter," House said.

"Winter foods are my weakness. I'll get rid of it; it's just going to take quite a bit of work on my part. I need to find an exercise program," Susan said.

"There's an opening in my Yoga class," Cuddy said having overhead them as she came to the table pushing House further in on the seat so she could sit down.

"Yoga isn't exactly what I had in mind," Susan said.

"It's great, you should try it," Cuddy said. "It's very relaxing."

"I need to burn calories, not move slowly and stretch into inhumane positions – I'm thinking team sports," Susan said, "or maybe one of those boot camp exercise classes."

"What do you play? You're too short for basketball or volleyball," House said.

"Short people can play basketball. Dr. Foreman says that Dr. Taub is pretty good. But no, I don't play either of those. Softball is my game, but I'm probably getting a little old for fast pitch. I'm going to see if I can find a slow pitch recreational league somewhere and see if they'll let an 'old lady' join the club," Susan explained. "It would be a good way to meet other people too. I'm getting tired of being alone."

"You're not alone," House said.

"No, I know I'm not – that's not what I meant," Susan said. "Having friends wasn't much of an option when Jeff was alive. My life centered on him and Laura, and that was it and my only associations with other people were through our daughter's school and church, when I could go. With Laura gone to school, my life now revolves around work and of course I attend church on Sundays, but I don't really socialize well. I just would like to find somebody with similar interests just to hang with from time to time."

"I'm going shopping with my sister this weekend if you'd like to join us," Cuddy offered.

Susan glanced over at House who was grimacing.

Susan had no desire to go shopping, but decided to go ahead and tag along in order show she was willing to make an effort. "What time and where?" she asked.

Cuddy smiled and gave her the information and then got up to go back to her office.

"Do you have any idea what you've just agreed to?" House asked.

Susan sighed, "Yeah, I think I do."

"It's your funeral," House said as he got up to leave.

Susan looked back at her plate and pushed it away. She had only managed to eat half of her salad, but couldn't stomach any more. She got up and went back to the lab; she had papers to grade anyway.