Chapter Seven:
Susan opened her eyes and then promptly shut them, "Oh my head," she said as she brought her arms up and covered her eyes. Susan rolled over and tried to sit up suddenly feeling very nauseous, "Oh, please no," she cried as she got up and ran to the bathroom.
House heard Susan retching in the bathroom and hobbled his way there. He grabbed a paper cup from the dispenser next to Susan's toothbrush and filled it with water. When Susan was finished, he handed her the cup. She rinsed out her mouth and sat back leaning against the well. "Oh, I feel awful. I must have eaten something bad," she said.
"Nope, you have a hangover," House said.
"A hangover?" Susan said. "No, I can't have a hang-over, I only drank tea last night."
"You drank Long Island Tea," House said.
"I did have some of that too. Chase gave me his when he had to leave. I drank about half of the glass. It tasted OK at first, but after the first couple of swallows it was just weird," she said.
"Long Island Tea is a mix of vodka, gin, tequila and rum," House explained.
Susan's eyes opened wide and then tears started forming, "Why would he do that, he knows I don't drink?" she cried. House helped Susan up and took her to her bed and laid her down. "Why are you here?" she asked after she settled down.
"I thought you could use some help this morning," he said.
"How did you know I was going to need help?" she asked.
"Because I told them to do it," House admitted.
Susan's mouth dropped open and then she slammed it shut. She turned over to face away from House, "Get out," she said.
"Susan," House started.
"I said get out," she repeated.
House didn't say anything more as he got up. He looked over at her and as soon as he was sure she was going to be OK, he walked out the door.
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Cuddy was staring at her laptop screen, fingering the open heart necklace she had discovered in her desk yesterday morning. He hadn't said anything to her, in fact she hadn't seen him all day yesterday, but she knew it was from House. She had been surprised that he had done anything at all and she wouldn't have made a big deal out of it if he hadn't, but this was sweet and it really meant a lot to her.
House walked in the door. Cuddy sat her laptop down and got up to give him a hug. "I've missed you," she said as she kissed him on the cheek.
She stepped back and he saw the necklace around her neck. "Looks good on you," he acknowledged.
"It's very beautiful, thank you," she said.
House shrugged it off, "Wasn't my idea."
"Susan or Wilson?" Cuddy asked.
"Susan," he replied.
"Well, whether you thought of doing anything or not, it's sweet. Thank you," she said as she kissed him again.
They went over to the couch and sat down. House turned on the TV and started flipping channels. "Susan's pissed at me," he said.
"Why?" Cuddy asked.
"I had the team get her drunk so I could run a CT on her while she was asleep," he replied.
"She should be pissed. House, why would you do that?" she asked.
"I told you, I wanted a CT scan," he said.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"Well, you deserve for her to be upset with you. I'm sure she'll forgive you eventually," Cuddy said shaking her head as she picked up her laptop to continue working on her report.
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Monday morning arrived, it was 9:30 and Susan had not yet arrived to work. The team was gathered around the conference room table, "We need to apologize," Chase said.
"I don't need to apologize for anything," Martha said. "If I had known what you were planning on getting her drunk, I would never have invited her to join us."
"Which is precisely why we didn't tell you," said Foreman.
"I don't know how I can continue to work with you people," Martha said.
"Oh can it," said Chase. "I'm tired of listening to your 'holier than thou' attitude. House had reason for us to do it, so you just need to accept it."
"If he wanted her to have a CT scan, he should have just asked her," she continued.
"And she would have refused," the voice came from the door. House walked in and went over to the coffee maker. "Has she been in yet?" he asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
Just then Susan walked in the door, put her lunch in the small refrigerator and walked back out not having said a word to anybody.
"I think it's safe to say she's still pissed," said Taub.
"Thank you for your astute observational skills," House said sarcastically as he went to his desk.
Susan walked in the classroom and began her second lecture on moles and molecular weights. At the end of class she told them that Wednesday they would review the first three chapters and that their first exam would be on Friday. She went to the lab to file a few things and decided to take an early lunch. She went to the conference room, got her lunch and made her way to the cafeteria. She stood in line to get a drink to go with her lunch and found a table and sat down. A shadow fell over her table and she looked up to see Dr. Chase, "May I join you?" he asked.
"Nope, go away," she said.
"I deserved that," he said. "I'd really like to apologize."
Susan looked at him, "I don't want to talk about it."
Chase left the cafeteria. It wasn't long before someone else was at her table, she was about to tell him what he could go do with himself when she looked up and saw it was Dr. James, "Oh, Dr. James how are you?" she said.
"It's David and may I join you?" he asked.
Susan gestured to the seat across from the table and David sat down. "I'm getting a lot of positive feedback about your class," he said.
Susan was a little embarrassed but thanked him. "I am enjoying it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed teaching," she said.
"I'm sure I could talk to Dr. Cuddy into bringing you on full time if you like. I'm sure Dr. House is difficult to work for," he said.
"I know it sounds weird, but I enjoy working for Dr. House and before you say it, it's not just because he's my brother," she said. The cases are interesting and I get to perform a wide variety of lab techniques that most hospital lab techs never experience. Though, right now I admit I'm pretty upset with him," she added.
"Why's that?" he asked.
"Because he did something insane, I'm OK, but I'm going to let him stew a little before I go talk to him," she said not telling the professor what House had done to her. She still didn't know why and at some point she'd have to talk to him to find out what he was up to. That hangover was a horrible experience and if she had to experience that, she wanted to know why.
"My understanding is that he's always doing something insane," David said with a chuckle. "I also hear that you don't want to get on his bad side."
"No, that's probably not a good idea," Susan admitted.
"What does your husband think of him?" Stephen asked.
"Huh?" Susan asked and then noticed he was looking at her wedding ring. "Oh, I'm a widow. I just haven't been able to bring myself to not wear the ring," she explained as she twirled the ring around on her finger.
"You're rather young to be a widow," he said.
"It was unexpected," Susan said without anymore of an explanation.
David looked at his watch, "I have a meeting in 15 minutes. I guess I better get moving." He got up from the seat and then turned back toward her, "Would you mind if I called you sometime?"
Susan looked up at him for a moment studying him and then said, "Sure."
David walked away and headed out of the cafeteria. Susan got up, bussed her table then headed back to the lab.
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The next couple of days went by rather quickly. Susan was still angry with what they had done to her. She did her work quietly and efficiently only leaving the lab when necessary. Dr. House still didn't have a case, so there wasn't really any need for her to go to the conference room other than to store her lunch. She hadn't heard anymore from Dr. James, she supposed he was only being nice when he asked if he could call her sometime. She wondered if he were serious when he said he might be able to get her a teaching position full time. At the time she didn't even consider it, but as time wore on she thought maybe it would be better if she did. She was mulling over these thoughts when House walked in the lab and shut the door. He sat down in the chair across from her desk and didn't say anything.
Susan just stared back.
They probably sat there for 10 minutes when House leaned forward in the chair, put his chin in his hands and looked intently in Susan's eyes. Susan leaned forward as well and did the same. They stared each other down neither blinking for at least 5 minutes before Susan had to blink her eyes. She leaned back in the chair and laughed, "Alright, you win," she said.
House smirked, "I always win."
Susan grew somber again, "Why?" she asked.
"I thought I needed a CT scan and I knew you wouldn't just let me give you one," he said.
"You're right, I wouldn't," she said.
"So, you see – I had too," House explained.
"No, you didn't. You could have just dropped it. I told you I was fine, I was just a little down," she said. "I am fine."
"You're not fine," House said, "You're not acting like yourself, you're moody and temperamental. There's nothing wrong with your thyroid, your hormone levels are normal, your labs look fantastic and your CT is clean, but there is still something wrong."
"And you have this overwhelming desire to find out what that is," Susan said. "Why can't you leave it alone?"
"Do you know me? Hi, I'm Greg House," he put out his hand to shake hers.
Susan reached out and grabbed his hand and put it in both of hers. "Not everything is a puzzle that needs to be solved Greg. Sometimes you just need to let things go. If something was wrong that you could fix, I would come to you, but you can't. Nobody can fix this, I just have to deal with it alone," Susan said.
"You're not alone Susan," he said as he pulled back his hand.
"I know I'm not, but even when you are not alone, there are still some things you have to deal with on your own," she replied.
House nodded agreement and got up to leave. "Are you still angry?"
"No, but don't do it again," Susan said. "I have my reasons for not drinking Greg and maybe I'll tell you sometime, but for now just please respect my wishes."