CHAPTER SEVEN:

Susan left David and Phillip and went back to her office. She was behind in her administration duties and decided to leave the boys to themselves while she got caught up, providing she didn't fall asleep at her desk. This is ridiculous, she thought to herself. I've gone 36 hours with no sleep and have done better than this. At least I've managed to get an hour here and there. I just shouldn't be this tired. Susan put her thoughts aside and pulled up her email.

An hour later and she was being shook awake. Susan lifted her head off of her desk to see David looking down at her, "OK, that's enough. I'm taking you home," he said. "You're worn out."

"No, I'm alright. I've gotten as much sleep as you," Susan said.

"No, I've gotten more sitting in that chair while Phillip was sleeping. But that's irrelevant, I'm taking you home."

"What about Phillip?" Susan asked.

"He'll be fine for the short time that I'm gone. Come on we're leaving," David said. He pulled her up and grabbed her bag and led her out the door.

"Why did you come down to the lab?" Susan asked when they got down to the car.

"House dropped by and asked if you'd gone home to rest," David replied. "Then when I told him you went to your office, he seemed perturbed that you hadn't gone home."

"Perturbed?" Susan asked.

"He said you needed to start taking better care of yourself and then he walked out the door," David explained. "I asked Phillip if he was going to be OK for a while and he said he was fine. So I came to check on you and found you asleep at your desk. I'm taking you home and while I'm there I'm going to take a shower and pick up Phillip's homework and take it back with me. You are going to sleep and I don't want to see you at the hospital again until tomorrow morning."

Susan was rather taken aback at David's authoritative tone. She hadn't heard anyone speak to her that way since Jeff and it rubbed her the wrong way. Instead of confronting David, she fell back into her old habit of shutting down and not saying anything. It was always better that way with Jeff. If she got defensive, it was always worse than if she just let him say what he needed to say. She looked out the window and kept her mouth shut. She tried to keep the emotion at bay, but she was so tired that she was quickly failing.

About half way home David realized something was wrong. "Susan?" Susan didn't respond and kept looking out the window. "Susan, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied keeping her eyes averted.

"Susan, talk to me," David said. Susan stayed silent and when David pulled into the driveway, she got out of the car without saying a word and went into the house. Once inside she went to their room, pulled off her shoes and laid down facing away from the door. David walked in the room and sat down next to Susan on the bed, "Susan, please."

David heard her sniff. He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her onto her back. Susan resisted and pulled away, "I'm doing what you said! OK?" she said, "Just leave me alone and let me sleep."

"Doing what I said?" David repeated. "What are you talking about?" Then it hit him what she meant. "Oh. Susan I didn't mean it that way; I wasn't trying to tell you what to do."

"Sure sounded that way," Susan said. "I think I'm capable of taking care of myself. I don't need you telling me when to go to bed or when I should get up and that you expect me to behave in a certain way. I'm not your child. I had enough of that before, I don't need it now."

David got up and walked around to the other side of the bed and lay down next to Susan so he could face her. He situated himself closer to her and put his arm around her, "Susan, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to come across that way. You're just so tired and I was worried about you. I want you to rest, but you're right, I had no business talking to you like that. Please forgive me."

"I guess I'm a little touchy; I am tired," Susan said. "It wasn't as much what you said as the way you said it. It just rubbed me the wrong way and brought back feelings that I'd rather keep in the past."

David pulled her close and held her, kissing her lightly, "I love you. I know you went through a lot emotionally with Jeff. I don't want to be that way; I never want to hurt you."

"It's okay," Susan said quietly. David continued to hold her, gently rubbing her back until he felt her breath even out as she fell into slumber. He continued to lie beside her until he knew she was completely asleep and then quietly got up to take his shower and get Phillip's things.

MDMDMDMD

House walked in to Phillip's room and looked around, "Where's your dad?"

"He went to check on Susan," Phillip said, "but he's been gone for a while."

House went over to the bed, checked a few vitals and made some notations on Phillip's chart. Once that was finished he moved around to the head and pulled a game system out of his pocket and handed it over, "I want it back," he said.

"Cool!" Phillip said, "Thanks." He turned it on and started the game.

"What's between you and Susan?" House asked once Phillip was engrossed in the game.

"Nothing, she's my stepmom that's all," Phillip said as he tried to maneuver his guy around some rocks without getting shot by the opponent.

"That's all," House repeated.

"Yeah, that's all. It's not like she's my mom," he said as shot a bad guy, "Got him!"

"And that matters because?" House asked.

"Moms are cool. Stepmom's are just there because the dad wants them around. They don't care about you," Phillip said sending his guy around another corner and barely avoiding getting his head blown off.

"Interesting," House said. "What's your evidence?"

"My mom was awesome; she took good care of me," Phillip said.

"Unlikely," House said. Phillip looked up from his game at House causing him to lose his guy.

"You take that back! You don't know!" Phillip said.

"Your mom was sick and dying from the time you were born. She could barely hold you much less feed you, change your diapers or clean up your puke. You don't know what she did or didn't do for you because you don't remember," House said. He took his game away from Phillip and walked out.

"That's not true!" Phillip yelled behind him.

Phillip sat back in his bed and thought about what House said. By the time David returned from home, it was readily apparent that Phillip had been crying, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Phillip said.

"What is it today? Between you and Susan I'm getting a lot of 'Nothing's' when something is clearly wrong. Why were you crying?" David asked.

"I told him the truth," House said from behind.

David turned around, "Explain."

"He's your kid; let him explain it to you. In the meantime, Susan doesn't need to deal with this right now," House said.

At this point David was beginning to think that everybody was talking in circles around him, "What's wrong with Susan? That's the second time you've alluded that there might be a problem with her."

"Nothing is wrong with her, but she sure doesn't need the added stress your kid is putting on her right now. You have a problem," he said pointing to Phillip, "and you need to deal with it." House walked out of the room and went to his office. He sat in his chair and pulled up his pant leg to scratch his leg around the monitor strap. House turned his attention to his computer and started browsing Medline for relevant articles and soon was lost in his reading.

MDMDMDMDMD

"You want to tell me what that was all about?" David asked his son as he put Phillip's backpack on the bed next to him. Phillip shook his head, "Ok let me rephrase that; tell me what that was all about. It's not a request."

"House said I couldn't remember mom," Phillip said.

"OK, I think we both already knew that. Why does that upset you?" David asked.

"He said she didn't take good care of me," Phillip said.

"Well son, House doesn't always phrase things as gently as he should, but he has a point," David said. "Phillip, your mother was very sick. She did the best she could, but an infant takes a lot of work and by the time you were six months old, her cancer started spreading and the chemotherapy she was on made her very ill. That doesn't mean she didn't love you, but she couldn't really take care of you. She had to have a lot of help," David explained. "I still don't understand why this upset you."

"It wasn't a very nice thing to say," Phillip said.

"No son, it wasn't," David agreed. David knew that wasn't the whole story. Susan believed that House never did or said anything without purpose so there had to be more than Phillip was letting on. David also knew that the only person House was even remotely protective over was Susan; he'd seen that over and over again so House had to feel that whatever Phillip was dealing with was going to adversely affect Susan. David decided to go talk to House, "Phillip I need to step out for a minute, will you be OK?" Phillip nodded and started flipping through the channels on the television.

MDMDMDMDMd

House looked up as David came in the door and sat down in front of the desk, "That was a little harsh don't you think?"

House shrugged, "It was the truth."

"Sure, but you didn't need to say it that way. He's just twelve."

"The world isn't nice and cuddly, sometimes the truth hurts," House said.

"Also true, but family shouldn't be the one to bring the pain, at least not on purpose," David replied.

"It shouldn't, no; but usually family causes the most. Look David, I'm obviously not his family. If he can't accept Susan as his mother; do you really think he's going to accept me as his uncle? Susan and I are biologically tied, but we weren't raised together. Technically, the 'family' part of the deal is tenuous at best."

"What's wrong with Susan?" David asked changing the course of the conversation trying to get answers to his other concern.

"Nothing is wrong with Susan. She's perfectly healthy," House replied.

"Then why are you worried about her?" David asked.

House looked at David, "I'm not worried."

"Bull," David said. "Susan is the only person you are protective with and you've said several times now that she doesn't need to deal with this or that she needs to rest. I want to know what is wrong with her."

"Nothing is wrong with her David; she just needs rest and a little less stress. Go take care of your son," House said. David didn't get up and stared at House. "That was your cue to leave," House said as he gestured to the door. David eyed him, but got up and walked out without saying anything else.

David walked in the elevator and punched the button to the pediatrics floor. The conversations between him and Phillip and then with House meandering through his brain; he knew Phillip was having issues with Susan, but he didn't know why. It was obvious that Phillip had been listening to Jerrod about stepmoms, but Jerrod had problems of his own that he was sounding out about. Phillip had finally accepted that Susan had not poisoned him, but he was still struggling with the fact that she actually cared about him. That totally blew his mind as it was obvious that Susan cared very deeply for his son. Lately Phillip had been worried a lot about the relationship or the lack thereof he had with his mom. There was no way that Phillip would remember anything about Marie, but he liked pretending that he did. Snippets of past conversations about Susan came back to David, "I wish you wouldn't call her mom, she's my stepmom at most. Why does she care? She's just my stepmom. Stepmoms just want the kid out of the way; Dad, I think Susan made me sick." This almost seemed like brainwashing. David shook his head, it's not brainwashing. It's a confused kid that wants a mom, but is afraid to reach out, afraid of being rejected. Jerrod had certainly done a number on Phillip with all his talk about his real mom and his stepmom. It was time to talk to Jerrod's dad. David pulled out his phone, "Craig, this is David…."