Chapter 32.
"I guess you don't need me anymore," Jess said, biting her lower lip and looking from Ellie to her sister and back. "I'll just be off home."
"Oh, Jess, do you really have to go?" Ellie asked.
"If she wants to go, let her," Jackie said, shrugging.
"You'll come back," I asked, or maybe stated. I wasn't begging, not really.
Jess looked at me. Finally she smiled and said, "Of course." With one last look at Christopher, she slid open the door and left.
"And since when did she become your friend?" Jackie asked her sister. The sneer in her voice matched the one on her face.
"She's been very supportive," Ellie said. "Hasn't she, Dr. House?"
"Yes, she has," I said.
"And you think I haven't wanted to be?" Jackie asked me. "I said I'd come as soon as I could."
I had to say it. "So what kept you?"
"I had to work!" she shouted. "I'm not independently wealthy, you know!"
"And you think Jess is? She defied her father, abandoned her job working for him, and came here to see what she could do. And then she stayed and helped me find Petey." Why was I defending Jess?
"A lot of help he's been!"
"Oh, maybe not voluntarily or purposely, but actually he has," I said.
"Doctor, my sister isn't a bad person," Ellie finally felt the need to say.
"Yeah, yeah," I said. I wasn't convinced based on what Jackie had said and how she'd acted.
"I don't care what you think of me," Jackie said defiantly.
"As long as you don't get in my way, or in the way of my team, I don't care one way or the other," I told her. "Your nephew is my only concern."
Like Jess, I took one look at the baby and, pleased with his reaction to the sound generation treatment, I left the two sisters.
I didn't want to go back to my conference room because Petey was probably still there, and I had nothing to say to him. So I went to bother Wilson. I needed time to think through why I'd reacted to Jackie the way I had.
Except that Wilson had the nerve to be out of his office. My office might be safe, so I entered and went to my desk, leaving the light off so I didn't have any unwelcome visitors.
I didn't know what to think about first: proving that the chromosome defect we'd found was related to a tendency for hyperacusis, finding any other treatment we could try with Christopher, examining my own antipathy toward Petey and my instant dislike of Jackie, or facing the unaccustomed emotions I was feeling when Jess was around or even when I thought about her.
No, I didn't really want to think about the last. It would mean I felt something for her and that wasn't a good thing. Just stick to the medicine, House, I told myself.
My ploy with the light didn't work. I heard footsteps outside my door, but at least it was just Thirteen who found me. She dropped a pile of printouts on my desk. "Cuddy OK'd an application for a grant to study some of these patients." She pointed to the papers. "These are the first fifty people I've identified with the same condition, but we're going to have to select our study group."
"Have Foreman do it," I said. "And you and Chase can handle the contacts necessary to convince them to participate."
"And what'll you be doing?" she demanded with her arms crossed.
"I'll take the credit for whatever the study shows, of course," I said. "Unless it doesn't show any connection. Then I'll let you and Chase explain it."
Thirteen smirked. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"Has anyone set up Petey with a noise generator?" I asked. "The sooner we treat him, the sooner he's gone."
"You don't like him, do you?" she asked.
"It's not just his medical problem that turned him into a jerk."
"Takes one to know one." This time it was a real smile that crossed her face.
"You can do better than that," I told her, sneering at her.
"Yeah, I know," she agreed. "Cheap shot, and oh so easy. I think Chase is arranging for the noise generator."
"It seems to be working well for Christopher."
"I know," Thirteen said. "I just stopped by his room."
"So you met Jackie." I tried to keep my face neutral to see what her take was, but I didn't fool her.
"Not a fan of Ellie's sister either, are you?" she asked. "Frankly, I don't blame you. She's got an attitude problem."
"So it wasn't just me."
Thirteen had nothing more to say about Jackie for the moment. "Ellie said that Jess went home to Dorsey." She studied my reaction to that, but I'd had time to get used to the idea, and I knew she'd be back.
"She felt things were under control here and she wasn't needed anymore," I said shrugging. "We've pretty much diagnosed Christopher, and Petey, too. And someone else was here to hold Ellie's hand while the baby gets treated."
"And how long do you think Jackie will be willing to do that?" Thirteen asked. So she wasn't finished with commenting on her.
"If she leaves again, you can have the honor of calling Miss Jessica Giordano about it," I said. So, I was a little peeved that she'd left the way she had. I certainly wasn't going to beg her to come back.
It was a little disconcerting the way Thirteen was studying my face. "I'll do that," she finally said.
"Was there anything else? Because as you can see, I'm pretty busy here."
She smirked at me. "I'll bet you are."
Chase showed up at that point to say, "I've gotten Petey set up with his sound generator. Did you want me to monitor his progress?" It sounded as if he wasn't too keen on doing that.
"Why don't you try to get Finnegan to do it?" Thirteen suggested. "I bet he'd just love to do something like that!"
Chase nodded. "Good idea." And he was off again.
"Weren't you leaving, too?" I asked.
Thirteen looked like she wanted to say something else, but changed her mind. She turned and walked away, and I was all alone once again. But it wasn't long before I heard footsteps again. Now what did Thirteen want?
But it wasn't her figure that was soon backlit in my doorway. "I thought you left," I told Jess, trying hard to keep my voice level, trying not to smile, or frown, or anything else.
"I decided I wasn't finished here just yet," she said, taking a seat in my visitors chair without my invitation.
I had no idea what she was getting at, and I was both eager and fearful to find out.