I struggled a bit with this chapter and finally had to rewrite a big part of it today.

Chapter 47.

Monday morning we had a quick breakfast together before Jess left for the hospital in her car. I wasn't about to go in until my usual time. But that gave me time to think about the apartment and the changes I was making because she was now living with me. It wasn't just the additional furniture or the half-full refrigerator. There was another human being sharing the premises with me, and suddenly the place seemed awfully small.

When I arrived at the hospital at my usual late hour, I found the conference room empty. I smiled to myself, knowing the entire team was busy with the study in an exam room they'd been given, and I went straight to my office to plot and plan.

At eleven thirty, Chase came to tell me that they'd done the preliminary tests on the first four patients and three of the control group.

"Keep me informed," I replied and stood, then walked past Chase, and straight out the doorway to knock on Wilson's door.

"It's not lunch time yet," Wilson complained.

"But I'm hungry," I groused, setting his mouth in a petulant frown.

"Give me fifteen more minutes," Wilson bargained.

"Ten," I insisted.

Wilson shook his head but he said, "OK. Ten." So I plopped myself down on the couch in Wilson's office while I waited, causing Wilson to shake his head again.

Ten minutes later, the two of us left for the cafeteria. We picked out our food and I steered the way to a table not far from where Jess was having lunch with Taub and Thirteen. The minute she saw us, though, she rose and made her way over. Ignoring me as we'd planned, she smiled at Wilson and said, "It's good to see you again, Doctor Wilson."

"Miss Giordano, um, Jess, good to see you too. I understand you're working with House's team."

"His team, yes." She flashed a glare at me, then smiled at Wilson again. "And that means I'll be staying here in town." She left it at that, knowing from what I'd told her that my friend was almost sure to bite at her lure.

"Then I guess I'll have a chance to get to know you better." Wilson was clearly pleased about that.

Jess and I both hid our desire to cheer. "I'd like that," Jess said. "Well, I'd better go finish my lunch so we can get back to our project."

"I'll see you around, then," Wilson said, watching her walk away. "She's really something, isn't she?"

"All women are really something to you," I said. "I guess she's pretty, if you're into the type."

"I thought you liked her," Wilson replied. "Weren't you the one to suggest her for the project?"

"She's organized. That's not the most attractive quality in a woman."

"She's built, too." Wilson said with a leer.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling Wilson to keep his eyes and hands off Jess. "If you like 'em curvy."

"You know me too well."

I was already rethinking the plan Jess and I had set in motion. Maybe there was a better way. Unfortunately, I still couldn't think what that would be. "Give it your best shot," I forced himself to say, then turned my attention to my food. Unfortunately, the Reuben, made just the way I liked it, tasted like cardboard.

Wilson watched me for a couple of minutes, then let it drop while he bit into his turkey sandwich. "So, how are they doing with the study?" he asked after two or three more bites.

"Who? Oh you mean the team?" I shrugged. "No problems so far." I didn't know that but figured that if there were, I would have heard about it by then. "They've just gotten started today."

"This is quite a departure for you."

I shrugged again. "Thought we'd try something new for a change."

"Well, I hope something comes out of it."

I studied Wilson's face. Maybe he really did wish me well with the study. "Thanks."

After lunch, I went back to my office. There were a few things I wanted to check out online, and since we didn't have a patient, and the team didn't need me for what they were doing, this might be the perfect opportunity.

After a short time, I began to scowl. My search results were definitely not to my liking. Sighing, I tried another approach but with just as disappointing results.

I swiveled my chair to face the windows and rested my hands and chin on my cane as I thought about what I might my options were. Most of them went against everything I'd purported to believe, but it looked like that couldn't be helped. Once I came to that decision, I rose and strode out of the office to the elevator. Without telling anyone where I was going, I left the hospital, getting into my car and driving out into the suburbs of Princeton.

I cranked the AC up as high as it would go in my old car to ward off the heat and humidity outside, but I was still sweating when I reached my destination. I drove around the subdivision for a while. There were few people out, just an older woman watering some flowers in a window box and a toddler riding a tricycle around in circles on a driveway. Most of the houses were small and well-kept, lawns mowed, trim painted. The cluster of one- and two-story condos in a cul-de-sac at the end of the main road were also well cared for. The epitome of suburbia, I thought, in all of it's boring sameness.

I was still thinking about whether this was the only viable option as I drove back to the hospital. It was too drastic a change. But the searches I'd done hadn't turned up any other alternatives.

I didn't know what Jess would think about what I was planning. Should I tell her right away, or hold off? I just didn't know.

As it turned out, she was bubbling with how well our plans were going. When she arrived at the hospital that morning, she found Chase and Thirteen in the team's conference room, chatting about what each of them had done over the weekend. "How about you?" Thirteen had asked her. "Did you find a place to live?"

"Yes, at least temporarily," Jess replied. "Once I've been here a while I might find something better." She hoped that would throw them off the scent without telling them where she was living. "So, who will we be working with first?"

They'd pulled out the files for the first patients they'd be examining and set-up a list of questions they still had to ask, symptoms they needed to look for, and tests they needed to run. So far so good.

"We'll need a DNA analysis of the patients and the control group, with special attention to the genome we suspect is associated with hyperacusis," Chase said.

Taub joined them as they were leaving the conference room. They'd been surprised to find Foreman waiting with the first group of patients, talking quietly with a young man who seemed to be hanging on his every word. Foreman seemed enthusiastic about what they were about to do. They'd been able to handle at least two people at a time with all of them helping. They were off to a great start.

In the afternoon, she'd run into Wilson again. He'd definitely taken the bait, and asked her to have a drink with him after work. She'd begged off, saying she had to get some things for her new place, but she knew he was interested, and she could reel him in whenever she wanted.

I wasn't too sure I wanted her to.