Chapter Twenty
House and Susan arrived at the mother's address to find a DHS vehicle in the driveway. They got out of the car and walked up to the door. Susan knocked politely and when the door opened, House barged past her through the door. Shirley stood upon his entrance, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.
"The person who's saving the little girl's life," House replied walking through the living room to the kitchen.
Susan walked in the house and went right up to the DHS representative for damage control, "Hi, I'm Susan James," she said reaching her hand out to brush against Shirley's arm in a friendly gesture, "we're working with Dr. Christian to find the cause of the little girl's illness." She turned to the mother who'd just been shoved to the side when House barged in and was just coming to her senses. "I apologize for my colleague's brusque manner. He's very focused on finding a cure for your daughter." Susan guided the mother to the couch to sit and took a place right next to her. "Dr. Christian has called us for consult on your daughter's case. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?
The mother was looking toward the kitchen where House had disappeared, "What kind of consult are you?"
"He's an exceptional diagnostician and I'm his lab assistant," Susan said trying to be very careful not to mention her brother's name.
"What's he looking for in the kitchen?" she asked.
"Anything that could possibly be making your daughter sick," Susan explained.
Seeing that the mother seemed safe enough with the lady, Shirley moved to follow House into the kitchen, "Who are you?" she asked again when she found him crouched on the floor looking under the sink.
"I already told you," he said.
"No, what is your name?" Shirley asked.
House hesitated and then answered, "Greg."
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Looking for toxins," he said.
"Why?" she continued.
"Are you a moron or something? I said I was the person curing the kid, what do you think?" House responded. He closed the door on the cabinet and moved to the refrigerator.
Outside Dr. Christian pulled in front of the house as the driveway had both a DHS vehicle and another vehicle with New Jersey tags in the driveway. He'd hoped he waited long enough before calling House that he would have gotten here ahead of him so he could run interference. "No such luck," he said to himself as he put the car in park. Hoping not too much damage had been done by House's brutish manner; he made his way to the porch.
When he walked inside he saw Mrs. James sitting and speaking together with the mother and saw, or rather heard, Shirley's voice coming from the kitchen, "What could you possibly be looking for on the floor?!" Dr. Christian quickly made his way across the living room toward the kitchen.
"I'm not repeating myself," House said as Dr. Christian walked into the room.
Shirley turned toward him when she heard him enter, "Dr. Christian, I demand to know who this person is and what he has to do with your patient." House mumbled under his breath as he moved to the next cabinet over.
"Dr. H….," Dr. Christian started and caught himself. "The doctor is consulting with me on my patient," Dr. Christian explained. "He's one of the best diagnostician's in the world and he's agreed to help me on this case."
"One of?" House asked rhetorically glancing sideways at Christian.
Christian rolled his eyes, "and he has the ego to match," he added. Dr. Christian gently guided Shirley out of the kitchen distracting her with the new information from the latest testing. He described in great detail every test he had run with the results and what that meant or didn't mean. He didn't really intend to go into that much detail with her, but doing so gave House the space he needed to finish his inspection.
Back in the living room Susan was speaking quietly with the mother when the baby woke up from his nap. The mother stood to excuse herself to the baby's room. "May I come with you?" Susan asked. Acknowledging, Susan followed her into the baby's room. Walking in the room Susan looked around. The walls were covered in a large number of brightly colored pictures and hanging from the ceiling was a small disco ball reflecting light in all directions on the walls and the ceiling. The room was so busy it was enough to make Susan dizzy so she focused her attention on the mother as she reached down to get her son. The mother lifted her son out of his crib and started to walk out of the room when Susan mentioned, "You don't have to change him? My son is usually soaked when he wakes up from his nap."
"Oh, I guess I should," the mother said setting the baby back down in the crib and started rummaging around for a fresh diaper. Finding one she started changing his diaper.
"You have a lot of decorations in here," Susan said.
"Yes," the mother replied. "I read that you should provide a lot of things for these babies to look at. It helps their brains develop since they're not normal."
Susan kept her opinion to herself about that piece of literature, but she was hoping that the mother was just misinterpreting the article as she re-examined the walls and the ceiling. There was stimulation and over stimulation and this room ran into ridiculous. The baby continued to scream and cry until the mother was finished changing him and picked him. They walked out of the bedroom and as soon as they left the room, he started to settle down which only confirmed to Susan what she had been thinking.
Finished with his inspection of the kitchen, House walked out of that room and asked the mother, "Where's the kid's bedroom?" She pointed it out and he walked down the hall. "Susan," he said as he passed by wanting her to follow him. "What have you learned?" he asked as he started examining the room, which like any child's room was a mess.
"Not much," Susan said. "She's overwhelmed with the care of the baby and isn't able to pay as much attention to the little girl." At that moment the five year old came into the bedroom.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Susan turned around and faced the little girl who had obviously been outside playing. She knelt down to be at eye level with the child, "My name is Susan," she said.
"How comes you're here?" she asked.
"We're looking to see if we can find what's making your sister sick," Susan said.
"I'm not sick," the little girl said. "This is my room too."
"I see that," Susan said. "Which bed is yours?"
The little girl pointed to the bed across the room, "That one. You can tell 'cause it's not got poop on it."
"Your sister has a lot of accidents," Susan said.
"Uh huh, she can'ts help it though," she answered. "She's got a leaky bottom."
"Do you help her?" Susan asked.
"Uh huh, 'cause I'm a big girl," she said.
"What do you do to help her?" Susan asked.
"I puts on new clothes for her and give her food," she said.
"Can you show me what kind of food you give her?" Susan asked. House had been looking around, but had also been paying attention to Susan's conversation. Intrigued he followed Susan and the little girl out of the room to the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen the little girl pulled a chair up to the cabinet and started pointing out the different things she fed her sister. Mostly cereal and bread, but as she was pointing through the boxes Susan noticed she kept skipping a few here and there. "What about these?" Susan asked pointing at some generic poptarts.
"Nope, those is mine. She don't like them."
"She doesn't?" Susan asked rather surprised.
"Nope, they gots icing on them."
"She doesn't like icing," Susan repeated.
"Nope, she don't like nothing sweet. It makes her tummy hurt," the little girl announced.
House stopped dead in his tracks and as Susan started to move to follow the little girl to the refrigerator she nearly bumped into him. She looked up at him and he had that familiar faraway look in his eye. Suddenly he turned on his heal and walked into the living room, "You're an idiot," he said to Dr. Christian who looked up at him when he entered the room. "You said you ruled out fructose intolerance."
"I did. The way she reacted to the breath hydrogen test confirmed that it was not fructose malsorption," he said.
"It eliminated fructose malsorption, but it didn't eliminate hereditary fructose intolerance which causes all her symptoms." He looked over at Susan, "My work here is done." House walked out of the house leaving Susan behind.
Susan turned to Dr. Christian, "Do you need us for anything else?" she asked.
The doctor shook his head as he pulled out his phone. Not thinking about his words and focusing on the keypad on his phone to call the hospital he just said absently, "Tell Dr. House thank you. I'll take care of things from here."
Susan turned around and headed out of the house. She moved to get in the driver's seat and finding House already sitting there, walked around the car to the passenger side. She pulled out her keys and handed them over and then leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.
"What's wrong?" House asked.
"Dr. Christian thanked you for your help," Susan said.
"So," House said with a shrug.
Susan opened her eyes and looked over at him, "He used your name."
House didn't say anything and started the car. The ride home was quiet.