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Chapter 7.

We settled on the first idea, even though neither Jess nor I was happy about it. It was a good thing we did, because when we pulled up in front of the shop, Giordano was waiting for us, and his first question was, "What's he doing with you?"

Jess acted like a child who knew she'd done something wrong and been found out. She wasn't exactly ashamed, rather apologetic. "Dr. House intrigued me, but Nina wouldn't let me go off with him alone."

Giordano nodded as if he bought the lie. "Next time you leave town, let me know, capece?"

"Yes, Dad," she said, "I...I will. It's just, well, I didn't think you'd let me go."

But he was finished listening to her excuses. "And you!" he pointed a finger less than a foot from my face. "Stay away from my daughters, ya hear?"

I thought of protesting, of vowing my undying love for Jess and determination to spend the rest of my life with her, but I knew that was going way too far. "Yes, sir," I agreed, but when he turned next to Nina, I winked at the girls.

"Nina, thank you for staying close to Jess, but you should have called me," he chastised her.

Couldn't he compliment anyone without throwing in a zinger? I know, you're wondering how I can complain about someone else doing what I did habitually, but you have to realize, I'm trying to change. Really I am. And seeing someone act like Giordano was acting, made me understand on a new level how my behavior affected those around me.

"There wasn't time," Nina said.

"Well, you're both back now," Giordano said. "If you'll excuse us, doctor, my daughters and I have some things to talk about. I'm sure you'll understand." He turned his back on me and ushered his daughters inside the dress shop.

I watched them go, got on my bike and rode off. I'd learned a lot, but was I any closer to finding Ellie and Christopher, or even Petey? I wasn't sure.

I hadn't traveled more than two or three miles when my phone rang. I thought of letting it go to voice mail. It was probably my team looking for me, or even worse, Cuddy or Wilson. But there was also a possibility that it was one of the Clearys, so I pulled over to the side of the road and answered it. And I was glad I did.

"Dr. House? This is Jaclyn Cleary," the caller said.

"Did you talk to your sister?" I asked, getting right to the point.

"Yes, I did. She asked me to tell you that she's taken Chris to another clinic. They think it's just some kind of allergy."

"Allergy? Are they out of their minds?" I bellowed, then caught myself. "An allergy might cause his rash and difficulty breathing, but not the lack of coordination. Even an ear infection wouldn't have such severe symptoms. Please, please ask Ellie to call me, or better yet, to bring Christopher back to Princeton." I'm not prone to begging but in this instance, I thought it was necessary. "If they just treat this as an allergy, he could get much worse."

I could almost hear her mind considering what I'd said. "OK, Dr. House. I'll give her your message. But are you sure you're not being an alarmist?"

"If you knew me, you'd realize that's not my style," I said. "One more thing, has Ellie heard from Petey?" Finding him had nothing to do with Christopher's case, but I'd become curious about all the players in this little drama. And it was possible that, if this turned out to be a genetic disease, we'd need to do some testing on both the baby's mother and father.

"No. She hasn't heard from him in a few months," Jaclyn said. "He just took off one day and didn't come back."

"OK. Thanks. And thanks for calling. Let me know what Ellie decides," I said ending the call. I just hoped the young mother had enough brains to understand my message.

By the time I reached Princeton I'd decided to go straight to my apartment. My only stop was to pick up a pizza and a six-pack of Pauli Girl at Dino's. I managed to get the box inside without any of the cheese sticking to the underside of the lid. Foregoing a plate, I just opened the box on the table in front of my couch. Popping the top of one of the beer cans, I settled back for my dinner.

I couldn't wait for Jaclyn or her sister to call me back. I guess I'd struck out with the Giordanos. Neither Nina nor Jess would help me any more now that their father had laid down the law. Too bad, because the more time I spent with Nina Giordano, the more I was attracted to her. But that left me to my own devices.

What was the name of Petey's friend, the one she mentioned who lived in Philly? Something with a 'J'. Johnny? No, Jerry. Jerry Fields, that's it. I dropped my half eaten pizza slice back in the box and went to get my laptop. Ten minutes of searching showed half a dozen people with that name in the Philly area if you included all the Geralds and Jeromes, but there was only one listing for a real estate agent by that name.

I called the number listed, but all I got was his voice mail. I debated what to say and settled for, "Hi, this is Greg House, Petey Giordano told me I could call you. I'm looking for an office in Center City." I left my number, and now there was one more person I was waiting to hear back from.

Nothing to do but finish my pizza, watch a little TV, and hit the sack. I expected to dream about Nina Giordano, and even if it might never happen, I would have welcomed that dream. Instead, Eleanor Cleary Giordano's thin face and hollow eyes haunted my dreams. It must have been the pepperoni.

In the morning, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for work. I did still have a job. It was always possible that the tedium of it would prompt me to find another approach for my search. Stranger things have happened.

But not that day. Cuddy came up with a case for us that a third-year medical student could solve. We had the patient diagnosed by two in the afternoon. It would have been sooner, but when she gave me the case, she insisted that Spiegel in cardiology had ruled out any heart problems. It may not have been particularly noticeable, but the damage to a heart valve was a vital clue to the fundamental problem.

I returned to my office and checked my messages, hoping I'd missed one. Well, I hadn't received one message, I'd received three, one from Jaclyn asking me to call her sister and leaving a number, another from Jerry Fields saying simply that he had several properties to show me, and last, but most surprising, a message from Nina Giordano just asking me to call.