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Chapter 41.

We were ready to release Christopher on Wednesday. His progress had been remarkable. Just the use of the pink noise generator had made a tremendous difference. There were no signs that he was diabetic like his father, either, but Ellie would have to have him tested periodically.

She'd decided to take him home to Dorsey. Her parents made the drive to Princeton on Wednesday morning to pick them up. Ellie hoped to get her apartment and her job back, although she knew she'd have to rely on her parents to help her to take care of the little boy.

"Bring him in every four to six weeks so we can check on him," I told her.

She smiled at me. "Thank you for everything, Dr. House. You have no idea how much this means to me!"

It was an odd feeling knowing that a patient's mother was that appreciative of what I'd done, that it meant so much to her.

Chase helped Ellie bring Chris down to the lobby and then to her father's car, that was waiting for them outside. Watching them go, I knew I'd done what I'd set out to do, and yet it wasn't quite enough. I went back to my office to reflect.

Solving this case had brought a deep satisfaction to me. It also got the ball rolling on the study my team was doing to link the disease to a genetic marker. But even that wasn't enough for me. Being a well-known diagnostician had never done it for me. What more did I want?

Well, there was also Ms. Jessica Giordano. She was still in Dorsey. Every time I began to think she'd been convinced by her father and sister to stay there, she called to tell me she'd be back in Princeton soon. It was just taking longer to wrap things up than she expected. She still planned on finding her own apartment near the hospital, but I was hoping I could talk her into moving in with me. Sometimes that seemed liked a great idea, and others like the lamest of lame.

I saw Chase through the glass between my office and the conference room. He'd tried to hide his disappointment in Ellie's departure by working intently on setting up the interviews with the hyperacusis patients, but I'd seen the look on his face when she and the baby got into her father's car earlier that day. He was probably already counting the days until she brought Christopher back for his first appointment.

I barged into the room. "Whaddya say we get good and drunk tonight?"

He smiled wanly at me. "That would be a good idea except I've decided to stay away from the booze for a while."

"You get religion or something? Wait, scratch that. You get religion again, I meant to say."

"I could go for a big steak," he offered.

"As long as I don't have to be a teetotaler like you."

"What, you're not going to demand that I pay?"

"I thought that was a given."

He closed the file he'd been looking at, put it on top of some of the others, straightening the pile as he did. "What are we waiting for?" he asked, rising from his chair.

I didn't know what possessed me to go to dinner with him. Maybe it was like the time we went bowling together. We weren't friends, certainly not in the way I was friends with Wilson. And he wasn't a good substitute for Jess. But at least the conversation wouldn't be as boring as it might have been with Foreman or even Taub.

"So what are you going to do about it?" I asked him once we were settled into a booth at the steakhouse nearest the hospital. The faux leather banquettes were slippery but still comfortable, and I settled back while we waiting to place our orders.

He didn't have to ask what I was talking about. "The divorce won't be final for a while. Meanwhile, I guess I'll get to know Ellie a little better."

"She'll be in Dorsey," I pointed out.

"It's only forty-five miles away."

"Forty-eight."

"There's no need to rush into anything," Chase said. "You know how long my last marriage lasted!"

I nodded. So he wasn't ready to commit yet. That was OK, although I wondered how Ellie would feel if she knew.

A waitress came over to pour ice water in our glasses and take out drink orders. She was a pretty thing, but I noticed that Chase wasn't as interested as he might have been before he met Ellie. She wasn't my type either.

"We'll be starting the study next Monday," Chase said. "We've got our minimum fifty patients and plenty for the control group, as well."

"Do you think we'll get anywhere with this?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

I knew he and Thirteen were on board with making the most of the study, Taub had expressed some interest, but Foreman wasn't enthusiastic at all. It was surprising to some extent, because if we proved what we were setting out to prove, it could make his career as much as that of the others. Maybe he thought we'd fail to substantiate the connection we thought was there. As the waitress delivered our drinks and took our steak orders, Chase went on. "I hesitate to ask, but are you having second thoughts about this? Because if you are, Remy, Taub and I would still want to go ahead with it."

I shook my head. "I'm still curious about what you'll find. Maybe it's not the kind of puzzle that I usually tackle, but I have a feeling it's also more complex than we're saying."

"House, why exactly are we doing this?" Chase asked. "You've never done a study like this before, as far as I know. And it isn't just to spend more time with Jess Giordano, because that wasn't even a possibility when you decided to pursue it."

"What do you think people will remember about you in the future? Your descendants, other doctors, patients you've treated? What will they write on your gravestone?"

"You want your life to have long-lasting meaning?" Chase interpreted the response. "Is that what this is about?"

"We diagnose patients, arrange their treatment, and then they're out of our lives. We don't mean anything to them. Two, five years from now, they won't even remember our names even though we saved their lives."

"You've got an excellent reputation, at least as a doctor, I can assure you that your patients appreciate what you do for them," Chase argued.

"Oh, sometimes they thank us immediately afterwards, and then they go about their lives as if nothing happened. They expect us to do our job, to succeed. We certainly hear about it when we don't."

"Isn't it enough for us to get that job done? To do our best, every time? They come to us because no one else can do what we do for them. I, for one, am proud of what I've done, every diagnosis I've gotten or helped to get."

"Solving the puzzle used to be enough," I admitted. "But now...maybe I'm getting old."

"You want to leave a legacy. I can understand that."

"Yeah, maybe you do get it." We dropped the topic as our food arrived. Somehow I felt a little better talking to Chase about all of this. He was one of the few I'd found whose mind worked like mine.

"So when is Jess coming back?" he asked after a while. "Because once we start on Monday we'll need her to compile the results."

"Soon," I said. It was all she'd said, but maybe once I told her the work would begin on Monday, it would prompt her to hurry back. I certainly hoped so. Maybe she'd help me figure this out.