Chapter Four

The night supervisor leaned in to the computer screen from his position standing behind Susan at her desk as she pointed at a particular column, "Here is where I calculate the productivity for each department..." she was saying when Foreman stuck his head in the door.

"Susan, have you seen House?" he asked.

"Not since last night," she answered.

Foreman nodded and left. "Does Dr. House really have to go back to jail?" the supervisor asked.

"He's working on trying to stay out," Susan said, "Now here is where I break it down to tests/hour," she continued obviously switching back to the original topic. The supervisor got the message and tried to concentrate on one of about fifteen million reports he would have to do while Susan was on maternity leave. He hoped she wouldn't stay out long, as he was really not looking forward to doing her work. He didn't mind being a supervisor, but working as the lab director was really not his cup of tea.

"Ed?" he heard Susan say as he snapped back to attention.

"Sorry," he said, "I was just thinking that I hope you don't stay out too long. This is going to be a real pain."

"Pain or not, it has to be done," Susan answered. "All of this data is utilized to set our budget for the next year. This is where we show them where we need to add employees and equipment and what tests we do that need to be dropped or if we should add more."

"How long are you planning on staying out?" he asked.

"I haven't decided yet," Susan said putting him off for the time being. "Now, this next report…."

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From around the corner House watched Foreman poke his head in Susan's office and then head in the opposite direction. He'd dumped seven of his eight patients and didn't want to talk to Foreman about it. He wasn't worried about the patients, any monkey would be able to diagnose and treat them, and so he left them for a monkey to diagnose and treat. He kept the one patient that was interesting to him, a drug addict that truly did have something else wrong with him. What was also interesting to him was that this particular drug addict didn't do the normal song and dance about wanting to get clean. This guy readily admitted that he enjoyed being an addict and planned on continuing his behavior. Truthfulness was not the usual pattern for a drug addict and he wasn't convinced that it wasn't related to his illness.

When the coast was clear, House walked down the hall to Susan's office. She was trying to explain her spreadsheets to the night supervisor who was obviously not really interested. He walked in and flopped down onto the couch.

"Foreman's looking for you," Susan said as he landed.

"I know. I'm not looking for him," he answered.

"Ed, why don't you go on home, we'll finish this up tomorrow morning," Susan said.

With a sigh of relief, the supervisor dismissed himself and headed out the door.

"Tomorrow's your last day," House said.

"Yes," Susan said.

"He has no intention of doing those reports," House said.

"I know, his eyes started glazing over the minute I opened the first one," Susan said. "It's not hard…," she started.

"But it's boring," House explained.

"Yes, it is that. I don't particularly enjoy it either, but it has to be done if we want a reasonable budget next year," Susan said. "So why are you hiding from Foreman?"

House shrugged, "Not important."

"You haven't done anything else to get in trouble have you?" Susan asked.

House shook his head. "I'm hungry."

"Well, then I guess we should do something about that," Susan said getting up from her chair. As she stood, another contraction hit. She paused, leaning on her desk as the pain abated.

"That was pretty strong for a Braxton Hicks, you're not going to make it another three weeks," House said when the contraction let up.

"That would be OK with me," Susan said with an exhale. "I'm tired and would welcome an early delivery. The baby should be fully developed by now."

"Close enough not to need incubator time anyway," House said as he ushered her out the door. "Although he would likely be a bit jaundiced."

The two were headed toward the cafeteria when Foreman came back toward Susan's office and saw brother and sister walking down the hall talking quietly together. He started to call out to House, but hesitated when he saw House smile down at his sister from something she had said. He needed to confront him about his abandoned seven patients and his one remaining patient who was ready to be released, but decided to wait. Let him enjoy his freedom while he has it, he thought to himself, I'll catch him later.

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David opened the door to the house and walked inside. His classes were finished for the day and he didn't feel like spending the afternoon in his office. He didn't want to disturb Susan as he knew she was trying to wrap up a few things at the office before her maternity leave started, so he came home. He set his keys on the coffee table and moved into the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator to peruse through the leftovers. Making his selection, he prepared his plate and took it to the living room and sat down on the couch. He started to pick up the remote when he noticed Susan's laptop on the table. He took a bite of his sandwich and reached for her laptop instead. Opening it, he set his plate aside and logged into her computer. He reached down and took another bite of sandwich while he waited for it to boot up. Soon he was browsing through her computer files until he found the document labeled 'names'. Susan was leaving the first name up to him. She'd asked if it was ok with him to name his middle name after her brother and he'd agreed that it would be fine, but she felt that it was only fair that he decide on the first name. The problem was that the name he wanted to use was based on a tradition he started with Marie when they decided on Phillip's name. It wouldn't be right to continue that tradition with Susan. He looked through her list of names; the one he was thinking about wasn't in her list, so obviously she hadn't even considered it. He scrolled down seeing that she had crossed through several of them before she had re-assigned the task to him. Finally he got to the bottom of the list. He really wasn't fond of any of these names. If only he could open his mind to other possibilities. He started to close the file when he realized he wasn't quite to the bottom of the page. He scrolled down a little further and saw 'William'. Now that was interesting. Why was this name at the very bottom of the page instead of with the rest? If she liked that name, why hadn't she said anything? Then again, maybe she knew the significance of that name, so wanted to remove it as a possibility - but if that was the case why not simply delete it or use the cross through tool as she had other names on the list? Then again, how would she even know the significance of that name, he'd never mentioned what he and Marie had planned.

David continued to ponder as he closed her laptop. He finished his lunch then picked up his phone and dialed Susan's office number. She didn't answer as it rang several times before it went to voice mail. When her salutation ended, he left an R/X-rated message for her explaining all the things he was planning on doing to her when she got home. Of course he wanted to talk to her about that name, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to tease her a little.

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Susan walked in her office after having had a rather entertaining lunch with her brother which included a lovely game of steal "each other's food" along with a rousing contest of "who can flick Wilson's peas the furthest" for which Wilson had actually gotten thoroughly disgusted with the both of them and had left the table in a huff. Finally, Susan cleaned up the table in deference to the cleaning crew and excused herself to go back to work. House, of course, had teased her about her waddle as she started to walk away for which she returned the favor by patting him on his bald spot for good luck. All in all, it was a good lunch and David would be happy as she had managed to eat a little more than half a sandwich. Susan's anxiousness concerning her brother's fate was starting to ease as he was making more of an effort to stay open with her and with that her appetite was improving. She sat down at her desk and saw the voice message light flashing. She put the phone on speaker and hit 'play'. As the message announcement started she bent down to pick up a piece of paper that had dropped to the floor. She heard David's voice begin and she smiled. That smile was short-lived however when she abruptly lifted her head and hit it on the bottom of her desk. She reached for the receiver and picked it up with one hand and rubbed her head with the other as she looked around to see if anybody was in earshot of her office. She felt her face go flush as she listened to the rest of the message. She quickly deleted the message and hung up the receiver.

"Are you OK?" Jason asked when he walked in her office. "You look a little flush."

"I'm fine," Susan answered hoping Jason hadn't heard any of that and made a mental note to herself to not listen to voicemail on speaker phone anymore. "I'm glad you're here. I want to go over a few things with you before you take over the night supervisor role next week," she said turning her focus back to work.

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Wilson smiled to himself at the antics of his best friend and his sister as he headed back to his office. It was nice to know that after he was gone that House would have somebody. Everybody else had failed House in his life. Granted, he hadn't helped his cause any with his own behavior, but nonetheless the only people to see him through the tough times had been himself and Susan. Wilson thought to himself that even he hadn't been there for him through everything. He'd abandoned him after Amber had died and again when he'd gone to jail. Susan wouldn't, regardless of the situation. Granted, she hadn't really known him as long in his adulthood, but given her track record over the last three years, Wilson knew that she would never leave House completely alone if she had any control over the situation.

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House was leaned back in his chair with his feet on his desk reading a journal when Jason knocked on his door. He glanced over his glasses at young man who continued to stand in the doorway. Finally after a moment of staring and waiting House finally asked, "Are you going to come in or continue to stand there like some doofas?"

"I brought you the latest results on your patient," Jason replied handing them to House.

"And you brought them instead of uploading them because…..?" he asked as he glanced them over and then looked back at Jason.

"I think something is wrong with Susan," he said.

House took his feet off his desk and sat up, "I just had lunch with her, she was fine."

"She's flush and she was rubbing her head when I walked in her office a few minutes ago," Jason answered.

"Did you ask her if she was ok?"

"Yes, she avoided the question," Jason said.

"Meaning it wasn't any of your business," House said. "Just like it isn't now." House shooed Jason out of his office and glanced again at the lab results and he stood up from his desk. The labs told him nothing, the guy was ready to be released which meant he needed to find another excuse to stay out of prison. He walked out of his office and headed toward the basement where Susan's office was located. She was concentrating on some paperwork and subconsciously rubbing her head when he walked in. He startled her by lifting her head and looking into her eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he moved from her eyes to examining the back of her head.

"Making sure you don't have a concussion," he said.

"Why would I have a concussion?" she asked.

"A little bird told me you were flush and rubbing your head," House said.

Susan rolled her eyes, "I told the little bird that I was fine," Susan said. "I just bumped my head on the bottom of my desk when I reached under to grab a paper that had dropped."

"Bumping your head doesn't make your face flush," House said.

"No, but being embarrassed does," Susan said.

House looked at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes, "Do I dare ask what you were doing under your desk that would be embarrassing?"

"I was reaching for a piece of paper that had dropped to the floor, but had also started listening to a voicemail from David …."

"On speaker phone," House finished for her.

"and I won't do that again," Susan said turning red again. "Really, I'm fine."

"Ok then," House said. He started to turn to leave.

"Are you coming over this evening for dinner?" Susan asked.

"Can't," House said. "I have to release my patient."

House left Susan staring after him wondering why releasing his patient would mean that he couldn't come over for dinner, but decided not to pursue it any further, he must have other plans. She turned back toward her desk and picked up the paper she had been working on.