Chapter 30.
In the morning as I showered I found myself humming to myself. I was actually looking forward to going to the hospital, maybe for the first time in a long time, maybe forever.
I picked out a light-blue button-down to wear over my band T and trimmed my stubble. It was looking grayer than ever, but I refused to do anything about that. I grabbed my bag and was out the door, knowing I could get breakfast at the hospital.
My first stop when I arrived was Christopher's room. Ellie and Chase were there, talking quietly. The baby seemed to be resting comfortably and I wondered if they'd already started the sound generation therapy. "Have we gotten any more results?" I asked Chase.
"Not yet, but Paul promised we'd have some preliminaries this morning," he replied. Paul was one of the senior analysts in the lab, and the expert on genetic testing.
I nodded. "I'll be in my office," I said, and left them to whatever they were discussing. I doubted it was the case.
As I passed the conference room, I saw Foreman, Taub and Thirteen sitting around the table. The newspaper was spread out all over it, and it looked like Taub was working on the crossword puzzle while Foreman read the financial pages. Thirteen seemed to be engrossed in an article in the entertainment section. My own office was dark and empty. I reversed my direction and took the elevator back down, deciding I had time for some breakfast.
I spotted them the moment I walked through the door, Jess and Petey deep in conversation over untouched plates of food and mugs of coffee. I went through the line quickly, told the cashier to put my food on Wilson's tab. She did it without any question because it wasn't unusual, and I walked directly to the Giordano's table.
"You don't mind if I join you, do you?" I asked, adding my own plates and mug to the table and filching a rasher of bacon from Petey's.
"We were having a private conversation," he replied, trying to set his weak chin in a firm line.
"It's alright, Petey," Jess told him. "We weren't talking about anything Dr. House shouldn't hear. In fact, it might help him, as well as Christopher, if you told him what you just told me."
"And what was that?" I asked, almost daring him to speak.
"Jess was asking whether I hit my head during the car accident," Petey said, his eyes swiveling between us. "I don't remember. Honestly. But I do remember when I was about ten falling off my bike and hitting the back of my head. Hard."
"You have no memory of any injuries from the car accident?" I asked.
Petey shook his head slowly back and forth. "I try not to think about it."
"Jess, do you remember the bike riding incident?" I asked.
"Only vaguely," she said, shrugging. "I guess I didn't pay much attention to what was going on in Petey's life back then. If he was ten, I was about eighteen."
I hadn't realized she was that much older than her brother. "What about Nina?"
"She would have been around sixteen, and even less interested in our brother," Jess said. "I'm sorry. I guess my father is the only one who might remember. Or maybe Ellie," she said after a pause. "Should I go ask her?"
"No, there'll be time for that," I told her. She needed to stay right where she was. I told myself it was to keep Petey in check, but I was already beginning to realize that was only partly the case. "You did say he had periods around then when he was withdrawn."
"Yes, I guess it was around that time that they started."
"Petey, do you remember needing to block out the world after the bike accident?" I asked him.
"Huh?" He'd been pretty much ignoring the conversation Jess and I were having, starting to eat his food maybe because the chewing would keep him from hearing us.
"You say you remember that accident. Did you feel differently about anything afterwards?" I asked.
"I...I'm not sure. I did start to spend more time studying after that, I think, but that's not what you mean, is it?"
"It may be. You wanted to be alone," I stated.
"Well, yeah. The other kids were distracting," he replied.
"So, that may have been the triggering event." I was silent for a while, if you consider the chomping noise I was making as I ate as silence. "I still wonder about the car accident," I finally said.
"Why?" Petey asked. "And why does everyone keep bringing it up?"
"They don't," Jess objected. "Right afterwards, maybe. But Nina and I don't talk about it anymore because it's too painful for us too."
"Yeah, well," Petey said, swallowing hard.
"Sounds like you don't want to think or talk about it and at the same time you do," I said, watching his reaction.
"I was driving and we had an accident and our mother was killed, alright? That's all I'll say," Petey replied angrily.
I decided to leave it alone for a while, but I was still convinced there was more to it than that.
"So, have you gotten any more results," Jess asked me. She obviously realized a change in topic was needed.
"Not yet. The senior lab tech who's running the tests should have some results this morning."
"And then I can go back home?" Petey asked.
"To Florida, you mean?" Jess asked him.
"Well, yes. That's my home now!" he insisted.
Jess sighed and frowned, her disappointment in her brother was obvious. Me? If I didn't need his body for testing to help Chris, I'd just as soon send him on his way immediately.
I saw Chase in the doorway, waving a sheet of paper, and I knew we had some of our results. I couldn't really tell by his expression what they were, so I took one last bite of food, and one last gulp of coffee and went to see what it said.
He handed it to me, saying, "There's no evidence of Williams, and the mutations associated with autism aren't present in either Petey's or Christopher's genes."
I nodded, not looking up from the report. "But it looks like they both have one defect in common," I said.
"Yes, and it's one that hasn't been associated with any disease or condition in the past," Chase said. He was trying to hide the excitement in his voice.
"So how do we prove a connection to their hearing problem?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.
"That's the question, isn't it?" Chase agreed.