A/N: This story is a sequel to "Not Alone" Story ID: 6576430 and picks up several weeks later. Please enjoy.
Chapter One:
"Beep, Beep, Beep…." The alarm went off and Susan opened her eyes. Reaching her hand out from under the covers, she pressed the snooze button to quiet the alarm and looked at the clock. Squinting her eyes to focus, she saw that the time was 5:30am. Groaning, she rolled over and sat up in bed. "Ouch" she said to herself. She was still a little sore from surgery a couple of weeks ago. For the most part it didn't bother her, but in the early morning as she sat up, the stiffness from not moving all night would cause her abdominal muscles to complain a little. A warm shower would wake her up and help with the stiffness. She got up out of bed and grabbed her robe she had draped over her desk chair. As she walked into her bathroom, she heard her alarm go off again. She hung her robe on the towel rack and walked back in her room to turn off the alarm. As she went back into the bathroom she wondered if Greg – Dr. House, she'd better start calling him that again – was getting up and around. "Probably not," she thought to herself, he didn't strike her as much of an early riser. Her dad was like that – up most of the night and preferred to sleep in whenever possible. The military didn't really allow for that, but after he retired, he enjoyed "his beauty sleep" as he called it.
Today was to be her first day back to work after surgery. She was recovering nicely and Dr. Chase had finally released her to return. It had taken a little longer to recover than they had anticipated because she had donated the larger lobe of her liver to Dr. House. But now her enzymes were all normal and her jaundice was gone. Besides, he had told her, they had gotten spoiled with her running the labs for them and the fellows were all clamoring for her return. She smiled at that thinking back to the resentment that some of the fellows had shown her when she had first come to work for Dr. House. "I'm glad I was missed," she told him, "shows that I was contributing something positive for the team."
Susan finished getting ready, ate a light breakfast and headed out the door. She made her way toward Princeton Plainsboro and as she was driving down a residential street, she saw – "surely not" she said to herself. Dr. House was walking toward the hospital. She pulled up next to him and rolled down her window.
"Hey good lookin', need a lift?" she said. Dr. House got into her jeep and she continued toward the hospital. "Why are you walking to work?" she asked.
"Car broke down several blocks back and the batteries are dead on my cell phone." He answered
"Well, I'm glad I came this way this morning then, it's too cold to be walking. You don't charge your phone overnight?" she asked.
"Aren't you full of questions this morning? I was occupied and it didn't cross my mind," was his answer.
Susan smiled; she knew why he was occupied. "How is the family by the way?" she asked
"Not a family, but everybody is fine." He replied.
"Why not?" She asked.
"Why not, what?" Dr. House asked.
"Why aren't you a family? You're there more often than you are at your own apartment," Susan asked.
Dr. House didn't answer and stared out the window in silence the rest of the way to work. Susan pulled up to the doors of the hospital to let Dr. House out of her jeep. As she came to a stop, she heard Dr. Chase, "Curb-side service?"
"Perks of being the boss." was the reply.
Susan smiled and pulled away to find a parking place. She was a fairly new employee and low on the totem pole; she had to park at the end of the lot. It was quite a walk to the front doors and it was freezing outside. No way was she going to make Dr. House walk the distance from the lot to the front doors.