Chapter Eight:

Susan entered the store and headed over to the bedroom furniture. She had put this off long enough and it was time to get her old stuff replaced. A sales person came over to her and asked if he could show her anything. She told him what she was looking for and he led her over to a corner that had several bedroom suits to choose. Susan wanted wood trim with a medium stained finish. She also wanted a bed with a headboard, matching night stands and dresser. The sales person showed her one bedroom suit that had a footboard that had hidden within it a TV stand that would raise and lower with a push of a button. Susan didn't see much need for that as she didn't watch TV in her bedroom, plus it was quite a bit more expensive than the other arrangements. Susan found the bedroom suit that she liked, but she was disappointed to learn that it didn't come with a double size bed. "You wouldn't want to downgrade to a double anyway," the salesman said.

"I don't need a king size bed," Susan said. "It's just a waste of space."

"We have it in a queen, the salesman said, but it just doesn't come in a double. A queen would still give you additional space in your room."

Susan hedged, "I don't know. I probably should just stay with what I have, this is pretty expensive anyway."

Susan turned to leave when the salesman stopped her. "What if I were to knock off $200 from the cost of the entire bedroom suit? Would you consider it then?"

Susan turned back around and looked at it, she really did want it. It was much nicer than the mismatched set she had at the apartment. "I don't know," she said.

"$300 off?" the salesman asked.

Susan wondered how far down she could get him to go, "Take $600 off, give me free delivery and take away my old stuff and I'll take it."

"I'll have to talk to my manager. I'll be right back." The salesman left and went into an office where she heard him talking to his manager.

When the salesman came back out he offered $400 off and they would deliver it free and take away her old furniture.

Susan tried for $450, but they wouldn't budge any further, so she took the deal, paid for the furniture and set it up to be delivered the following Saturday.

As Susan drove home, she was rather proud of herself thinking she had made a pretty good deal. It wasn't long however before that voice in her head told her that she probably paid exactly what they wanted her to pay for it, there really wasn't any reason for her to be proud of herself. She'd just wasted $1500 on furniture she didn't really need. What she had was good enough. That money should have gone toward Laura's tuition. Susan almost turned around to cancel the transaction, but she managed to keep driving toward her apartment. It's OK, she told herself, it OK to reward yourself once and a while.

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"What about an fMRI?" Foreman suggested.

"No, she has to be awake for that one and she's not going to let us do it," House said.

"Have you asked?" Martha asked.

"She told me she wouldn't have allowed the CT scan if she had known, that's an implied 'No' for every other test," House said.

"We could lie to her and tell her it's to normalize the instrument," Taub suggested.

"Like she would fall for that," House said.

"Oh good night! It's not enough that you guys got me drunk to do a test I didn't want, now you're scheming to get me to do another one," Susan exclaimed from the doorway. "What is it with you, Greg? I told you there is nothing wrong with me."

The fellows were surprised at her use of his first name.

"What, you've never heard my name before?" House asked as he looked at them.

"OK, Dr. House," Susan said switching back into work language. "If you really want to do an fMRI on me, I'll let you – but I'm telling you it's a waste of time and resources. When and where?" she asked with a sigh.

Four hours later Susan met the fellows in radiology for the fMRI. Martha helped her get ready for the test and then House kicked her and the rest of the fellows out of the room. Susan and House were alone. House turned on the instrument and asked Susan questions which she answered. An hour later they were finished, "Well?" Susan asked.

"You're perfectly normal," House said.

Susan gave him a look of 'I told you so' and went behind the curtain to get dressed. When she came back out, they walked together back to his office. The fellows had left for the day and House gathered his things. "What are you doing tonight?" Susan asked.

"Nothing in particular," he said. "Cuddy has a board meeting and the babysitter is with Rachel. I figured I would go harass Wilson or something."

"Why don't you come over and I'll fix you some dinner," Susan said.

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There was a knock on the door and House walked in when Susan opened the door. "Smells good," he said.

"Roast with potatoes," Susan said. "It's been slow cooking all day, so it should be nice and tender." House's mouth was already watering in anticipation. "I just need to steam the vegetables and make the gravy and it'll be ready. Feel free to turn on the TV or whatever."

Susan went back into the kitchen to finish the meal. It wasn't long before she heard the sounds of her piano playing. She was surprised he would play on her spinet when he had such a nice piano of his own. It was nice hearing the piano, she missed it while Laura was at school and Susan's playing wasn't at nearly as accomplished as Laura or Greg's. A few minutes later dinner was ready and Susan called Greg to the table. Dinner was quiet and House concentrated on his meal. He ate seconds and then thirds before he leaned back in his chair and belched. Susan laughed at him, "I guess you were hungry."

"It was good, I think I'm going to have to make it a practice to start stealing your lunch instead of Wilson's," he said.

Susan smiled as she got up to start clearing the table. House helped her clear the table and straighten up the kitchen. "You don't have to help," Susan said as she opened the dishwasher to load in the dirty dishes. House didn't answer as he turned on the water to pre-rinse them and handed them to Susan to load. While they were doing dishes, Susan started talking, "Jeff never helped me with the dishes."

"Cuddy has me well trained at this point," House said.

"Nobody has you trained, if you're helping do the dishes it's because you want to be helpful," Susan replied. "That's sweet, I'm sure she appreciates it."

"She puts in a full day too, most of the time her days are longer than mine," House acknowledged.

When they were finished with the dishes, Susan dried her hands and reached over to put her ring back on her finger. House grabbed her hand and took the ring from her. "Susan, Jeff is gone. It's time to move on."

Susan took the ring back from him but she didn't put it on her finger. She turned it in her hands looking at it, "Today is the anniversary of Jeff's death," she said as the tears started welling up in her eyes. "Sorry," she said as she wiped her eyes and slipped the ring back on her finger and went to the living room. House followed behind.

Susan sat down on the couch and handed the remote to House who shook his head, "You choose," he said. Susan turned on the television and flipped the channel until she found WWF and set the remote down, "Is this something you would normally watch?" he asked.

"Not really. I thought you might enjoy it," she said.

"I didn't ask you to choose something you thought I would like, choose something you want to watch," House said. Susan just looked at him. "Seriously, I want to see what you like," he added.

Susan hit the menu button to show the listings and turned to CSI. "I like to watch them to see if they get the lab work right," she explained. "It's kind of fun to catch the mistakes. Sometimes I think it would be cool to be a consultant for a show like that."

House smirked and then settled back to watch the show. After a few moments, Susan spoke, "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," House said, but waited for her to continue.

"Do you think I'm attractive? I mean, I know I'm your sister and you don't think of me that way, but as a guy? I mean, I know I'm old and all, but I was thinking and…"

"Would you shut up? I can't answer the question if you keep talking," House said.

"Sorry, never mind," Susan said looking downcast.

"No, not 'sorry, never mind', Jeez Susan – what is it with you lately? You act like you've spent the better part of your life apologizing for your every word," House said and then it hit him. Oh crap, he thought. He should have realized. He came from an abusive family; he should have recognized the signs. She wasn't just physically rejected by Jeff; he abused her and she blamed herself for it. Why was she acting this way just now? She'd been in New Jersey for nearly a year and she'd never acted this way before.

"Susan, you are attractive and no, I'm not just saying that because you're my sister. You don't look like you're in your 20's, but you're not in your 20's. You are holding your age well I doubt very seriously there are very many people that would guess that you were 44 years old," House told her. He fell silent at that point thinking about his recent revelation and then he asked, "Susan, did Jeff abuse you?"

"No, he never hit me," she said.

"Not all abuse is physical," he said. "Did Jeff abuse you verbally or emotionally?"

Susan looked at House a bit confused, "No, I mean, he crawled my case when I did or said stupid things, but he only yelled at me when I deserved it," Susan said.

Deserved it? he thought. "How often did he yell at you?

"I don't know, I can be pretty stupid sometimes," she said looking toward the TV knowing that she couldn't look Greg in the eye.

"You are not stupid," House said, "answer the question."

"Sometimes he would get upset with me several days in a row, other times he would only get upset with me on the weekends. It was entirely dependant on how often I screwed up. For some reason weekends were more difficult" she said. Wanting to get away from this particular subject Susan asked, "Do you know Dr. James?"

"He's in charge of the basic sciences division of allied health, but I don't really know him. Cuddy worked with him to get you the teaching position," he said. "Why?"

"He asked if he could call me sometime," Susan said, "But he hasn't, so I think he was just being polite." Susan went quiet again and then said, "It's probably for the better anyway."

OK, that was it. House had enough; he had to get to the bottom of this. He'd decided to put his investigation aside because there wasn't any physical reason for Susan to be acting this way. She didn't think Jeff was abusive, but House had never seen Susan act or say anything stupid, except for this recent self-depreciation. Her recent moodiness and the self-depreciation had to be related.