I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has selected this story as a favorite. I've sent private responses to everyone who commented, unless they disabled the private messaging feature, but thank you all once again.

I'll be traveling next Thursday, so look for the next chapter of this story on Wednesday night.

Chapter 37.

Ellie smiled at Jess and said, "Dr. House just told me you'll be organizing the study they're doing, Can you really do that?"

"I've already started," Jess replied.

I let the two of them talk about the project, and about Christopher's progress, while I decided what to say or do about Jess.

But eventually, just as I had come to the decision to act as if nothing had happened the night before, Jess asked, "Where'd Jackie go?"

"Back to New York," Ellie replied.

"She had an audition she just had to get back for," I said, trying, but not very hard, to hide my sarcasm.

"I don't really need her," Ellie insisted, chin raised and trying to look strong. "Now that Chris is getting better, we'll be fine."

"Nobody thought you did need her. But let me know if you want to talk or something," Jess offered.

Ellie smiled her thanks.

"Why are you here?" I asked Jess.

"I was looking for you. I wanted to ask you about something. For the project. No one else could tell me what the protocol is."

I couldn't imagine what it could be. By that point my team knew more about what they were doing than I did. "Go on," I urged.

"Not here. Let's leave Ellie and Christopher in peace."

We left Chris' room and walked toward my office, but I detoured to the conference room, and got myself a cup of coffee. "OK. Spit it out."

Jess studied my face. I don't know what she was looking for, but she didn't find it, so she just said, "We need to set up some sort of control group, according to Remy. How should I go about that?"

"Oh, so it's Remy now." I had to think. Since I never did a study like this before, I'd never had to create a control group. "Why don't you just use a group of patients and their families that come into the clinic over the next few days." They might as well be useful for something. I didn't think we'd have to pay them, maybe feed 'em a meal or two. "They should represent enough of a cross-section of people and they're convenient."

"That's a good idea!" she said, sounding surprised that I'd come up with it on the spot like that. Didn't she know what a genius I am? She took one more look at me, as if she was about to say something else, then shook her head and left.

I felt like I'd just jumped over a first hurdle but knew there were at least ten more ahead of me. How long could I stay cool, calm and collected with her around? I sat with my cane in front of me and my forehead resting on the hand that clutched it.

Next to interrupt my reverie was Thirteen. "Did Jess find you?" she asked.

"Yes. I told her to cull the control group from whoever she could find in the clinic."

"Not a bad idea," she allowed. "She really has a good practical head on her shoulders, doesn't she?"

I wasn't going to comment on that, and she knew it. "How many of the hyperacusis patients have agreed to participate?"

"It's running about 50-50, right now. Ten have agreed and nine turned us down flat."

"We need a lot more than that for persuasive evidence. What were the objections?"

"The usual ones about invasion of privacy and lack of time. We're beginning to find more patients to contact, though, so I think we'll eventually have enough."

"How far have you spread your net?" I asked. Maybe they'd limited themselves too much.

"Initially, we were focusing on the tri-state area, but we've widened the field to the entire eastern seaboard."

I nodded. I should have known that between my team and Jess they'd be thorough. "I'd say the minimum we need to start is fifty."

"That's what we've been thinking. I expect we'll have that by the end of the week."

"Now we just have to hope we don't have another patient that could take time away from the project."

"As long as Christopher is still under our care, I think we can avoid that," she said. "I do want to see this study to it's conclusion."

Before she left again, Jess returned from the ER. "I've run into a snag. Dr. Peters didn't object to having me talk to any of the patients there, but Dr. Adams put her foot down. I explained the situation without any success."

Hadley looked at me to see whether I had a suggestion. I had plenty and they involved sticking something long and sharp down Adams' throat or maybe even somewhere else, but I knew that would only get me and, by extension, my team in trouble. Adams never liked me so I probably wasn't the best person to handle this. But I knew she had a soft spot for Chase even though he was at least twenty years younger than she was.

"Have Chase talk to her," I told the two women. "She's more likely to listen to him than anyone else."

"Good to know," Jess said with a smile.

They left to find him. It was beginning to sink in how much work this study would take. Even with my team and Jess doing most of it, I'd have all sorts of decisions to make.

An hour later Jess was back to tell me that I was right about Adams. The minute Chase showed up, she became very cooperative, and they already had fifteen people for the control group.

I'd decided that the easiest way to avoid any personal interaction with Jess was to talk about the study, and about everyone else instead. Still, my curiosity was burning and I had to ask, "What did you want to tell me earlier?"

"What made you think..."

"Jess, it was obvious you had something to say."

She nodded. "When I was walking down the corridor to my room last night, there was someone coming out of Petey's room. It was Jackie. She rushed past me and I'm sure she didn't even know I was there because she was crying."

"So you weren't all that surprised to find her gone this morning."

"No. And I'm beginning to think the only reason she finally came here wasn't to see her sister and Christopher."

"It was to reconnect with Petey," I guessed. It made sense.

She nodded again. "The thing is, I don't know whether to bring it up with my brother or to tell Ellie about it. I don't want either of them attributing it to my dislike of Jackie."

"No reason they have to know. Just keep it between the two of us for now," I advised. "Anything else."

She hesitated, then shook her head. "No. I did want to thank you for suggesting that I work on this project. It's probably the most worthwhile thing I've done in my life."

"Yeah, well, wait until we prove what we hope to, and then you can say that."