A/N: Howdy, I thought I would take a break from my LOTRs stuff to work on this. I like Chase and gave him this back story because I'm a South African born doctor who moved to Australia and eventually ended up in the USA for work. Some of what is here are quotes from episodes but some is purely fictional. After the second season most of this will probably become AU but, oh well. Also I'm not an MD, but a DVM so if I messed up any of the human medical stuff, many apologies.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these people nor would I really want to. They seem like a lot of trouble and doctors always have such huge egos. :)

Conflict

Wilson watched from the side lobby as Foreman ripped Chase a new one in front of half of the hospital. The larger man's insults were clear and hurtful. The patient had suffered anaphylaxis and nearly died. Chase had managed to bring them back but only barely. Brain damage was a definite possibility. Later Wilson would look at the chart and see that Foreman had never mentioned the allergy in the history. But for now it was more interesting to watch the two argue.

Or more to the point, watch Foreman yell and Chase seethe. Just once, Wilson wished Chase would stand up for himself. But he guessed it was too much to hope that the prince of passive aggression would actually willingly confront anyone unless he was totally backed into a corner. Oh the Aussie would occasionally snipe or snark at someone but the minute anyone got in his face and challenged him, he tucked his tail between his legs and rolled over. Maybe some of it was an age thing, or a personality thing, but mostly Wilson just figured that Chase really hated conflicts. He didn't try to smooth them over like Cameron did, instead he ran. He would just avoid the problem by sticking his head in the sand until it went away. Not a very emotionally healthy or well adjusted way to deal with life, but then again emotionally healthy and well adjusted were not phrases he usually associated with the Department of Diagnostics.

Foreman ended the rant with a shout of, "you better start sucking House's dick if you intend to keep your job after this screw up, junior."

Chase stiffened and Wilson hoped but in the end Chase only said, rather coldly, "are we done, I need to check on the patient?" Then he stiffly walked back through the glass doors to the ICU.

House wasn't in today so Wilson guessed that Foreman would go find Cameron to complain to. He had a few minutes so he turned and headed towards Cuddy's office and her files.

Foreman was just cleaning up his files, when Wilson arrived in the conference room. He was hoping to have an early night so he could get some sleep. The patient was stable so let Chase stay here all night monitoring them. Foreman was still prickly about the run in with his fellow duckling earlier. Had it been anyone but Chase who had made the mistake he wouldn't have reacted so strongly but something about Chase rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was the laisse faire attitude towards everything or maybe it was the way House had forgiven him for going to Volger but never let Foreman forget all of his screw ups. Or maybe it was just a black man's knee jerk reaction to a rich white man, even if that rich white man wasn't the faintest bit racist. In the end it didn't matter, he just didn't like Chase and didn't respect him and couldn't wait to tell House about this most recent screw up so hopefully he could be rid of the Aussie golden boy.

Just as he was shrugging his coat on, Wilson walked in with two thick files. "Dr. Foreman, a moment of your time, please."

Foreman couldn't very well say no to Wilson. One, he was House's best and only friend, and two he was just too damn nice to ever say no to. "What can I do for you?"

"I have two files I want you to look over quickly, and then tell me what you think." Wilson handed him the files and then left. "I'll be back in an hour or so with sandwiches."

Foreman sighed and sat down to look over the records. To his surprise the first one had his name squarely printed on the front. It was his personnel file. He opened it warily and paged through it. His CV was on top, along with a few notes from his interviews. His test scores and other assorted bits of information including the psychologist's notes from his one session with her. He greedily read what she had to say. Then frowned. He was not "egostitical and stubborn" unless he had to be. And he certainly didn't feel like the world owed him something, other than respect for what he had achieved. After all he had graduated with a 4.0 and had the most prestigious residency and specialty training. Hmrph!

Nothing much in the file was news to him, other than House's notes that he was smart and that House secretly liked him. He tried to squelch the warm fuzzily feeling that started to blossom when he read that. He most certainly did NOT care what House thought of him. He then slid the other file over and it was for a doctor named Robert S. Pronásledovat. He turned to the back page with all the background information on it. "Date of Birth: September 12, 1978. Place of Birth: St. Augustus Hospital Melbourne, VIC. Mother: Abagaile van der Noet Pronásledovat. Mother's place of birth: Pretoria, South Africa. Father: Dr. Rowanjec Pronásledovat. Father's place of birth: Usti nad Labem, Czechoslovakia. Full name: Robert Saint Benedict Pronásledovat."

Foreman looked up confused. He didn't know any other Australian doctors around the place except for Chase. He quickly flipped through the pages of work visa and other assorted government documents till he found the staff photo. Sure enough a grainy digital picture of Chase looked back at him. Foreman leaned back and sighed. Why did Wilson want him to read Chase's personnel file? Surely Chase wouldn't want him looking at it. The youngest duckling was notoriously tight lipped about anything and everything involving his life out side of the hospital. Foreman thought some more. Maybe Wilson was trying to get rid of Chase too and was giving him ammunition to help.

He thought about what he had seen so far. So Chase was actually as young as he looked. If he was born in 1978 that would make him 26. Damn, that was young! Foreman didn't even graduate from med school until he was 26. Then there was the name. He quickly scanned the visa papers and noticed that all the official documents had the name Pronásledovat on it rather than Chase. Weird. Also, it was strange that neither of his parents were from Australia. Foreman read on.

Next was the CV. "University of New South Wales, Medical Faculty, September 1995- June 2001. Graduated Suma Cum Laude. 4.0 average." The GPA was written in several different ways but Foreman clearly recognized the 4.0. He ground his teeth in frustration and read on.

"Residency: Sydney General. 2001-2002. Residency: Red Cross Hospital Sudan 2002-2003. Specialty in Medicine: University of Sydney Hospital Critical Care Unit. 2003-2004." Foreman realized that after that he would have accepted the fellowship with House. He flipped further back to the notes of other people he had worked with. His letters of recommendation were just as glowing as Foreman's and the notes of his superiors were all exemplary. One even wrote, "Dr. Chase has a good head on his shoulders and a natural ability to see a problem from all angles and react accordingly. If being a good doctor is hereditary, than Dr. Chase Jr. definitely got the gene." This was signed by Dr. Takashi Matusumono, who would have been the chief resident at Sydney General.

"Dr. Chase doesn't mind getting down and dirty and cares more about the patients than his own pride or safety, which is a plus around here. He knows how to keep a level head during stressful times and never puts his own needs above others just because he is a 'Western trained Doctor.' The only real complaint I have about him is that I can't convince him to stay on with the Red Cross." This report was signed by a Dr. Frederique Van Reibeek dated from his time in Africa.

There were many similar ones; all lauding his cool head and laid back attitude like it was a good thing. The only complaints other than wanting him to stay, all involved him being too stand offish personally. Foreman could well understand that frustration. Getting a personal answer out of Chase was like pulling teeth. He still remembered that Chase wouldn't even answer whether he believed in god or not. It drove Foreman about crazy. Cameron had, of course, tried to smooth things over by pointing out that maybe it was cultural. He didn't know, it just seemed rude to him the way Chase answered personal questions by completely ignoring them or giving some weird non sequitur response.

Then there were House's notes about Chase. Now Chase and Cameron were both convinced that she was House's favourite duckling, but Foreman was strongly convinced that Chase was. His theory was based on several facts. First, House tended to meddle the most in Chase's life and give him the hardest time about his personal life. In short, treating him the most like Wilson. Second, with the exception of two random dates with Cameron, Chase was the only one he ever saw with House outside of work. More than once he had spied Chase having lunch or dinner with Wilson and House. Finally, House had forgiven Chase for turning on him. In fact, House hadn't really seemed mad about it at all. No, Chase was clearly House's surrogate son or lover. Foreman just wasn't sure which one.

House's notes were typically scathing like he expected and many of them centered around Chase's looks or his accent. What on earth that had to do with Chase's ability to be a good doctor, Foreman had no idea, but then again it was House. Then there were notes about his skills. Again his laid back approach to things was painted as good. This Foreman could not understand. How had Chase ever accomplished anything if he never exerted any effort on things? Golden boy probably had them handed to him on a silver platter by Daddy that was how. Both he and Cameron enjoyed their rivalry with one and other but Chase wouldn't even participate. Not that Chase was a team player by any stretch of the imagination but he just seemed to prefer to be off in his own little world of dim lights, beeping machines, and rhythmic ventilators in the ICU.

That was another thing Foreman couldn't understand about his colleague. Foreman, like most doctors, didn't like the emergency room or the ICU. They were strange foreign places where things happened too fast. The ER was always too bright and too loud while the ICU was always too dim and too quiet. Neither seemed to bother Chase, but he was clearly more at home in the dark cave that was ICU.

The notes continued to sing his praises from being creative to being almost insensate when dealing with House himself. Foreman had obviously noticed that House bothered Chase the least out of all of them. He had personally seen House do at least 30 things to Chase that would have driven him to punch the older man. For example, House took Chase's lunch, sent him on mindless errands, dropped books on his groin while he was sleeping, offered his services to Cuddy, purposely mistook his heritage, invited his father to join them, treated him like a child, called him names, threw things at him, and other assorted mischief that no normal person would put up with. And Chase would meet all of it with a placid, dopey look, and eye roll, and say, "of course, Dr. House." Nobody should be that laid back, maybe Chase was a pot smoker or maybe one day he walk in and pull out a shot gun. Who knew.

Then something written by Wilson caught his eye. "After talking to Dr. Chase's father, I feel that he would be perfect to work with Dr. House. He has years of experience dealing with crotchety, controlling, and abusive older men and addicts." This gave him pause.

More than once he had heard Chase mention things about addicts and drugs. He just assumed that Chase had been a recreational user when he was younger, like most rich kids. But there had always been that annoying, niggly little memory of going through Lucy's home and Chase commenting about "Enough organization, enough lists, you think you can control the uncontrollable. Fix her meds, fix her clothes, maybe you can even fix her." And then later, "Yeah, right. I'm rich, I couldn't possibly understand what this kid is going through. Just because you're drinking pricier stuff doesn't mean you don't have a problem."

Foreman thought for a moment. Maybe Wilson was trying to steer him towards painting Chase as a drunk. It might work, even though he almost never saw Chase drink and when he did it was clear the Aussie was a light weight. For god's sake, he had seen toothpick Cameron drink the Aussie under the table. But why else would Chase always assume drugs and alcohol was the reason for everything?

He continued to read through Wilson and Cuddy's notes about Chase. Wilson at one point went so far as to say that he thought Chase should be forced into psych treatment but didn't say why. That was annoying. Then there was the psych report itself.

All the doctors coming into the hospital had to go through a psych exam with one of the doctors already at the hospital. Foreman's had been very laid back and relaxed because he had had nothing to hide. He had nightmares imagining what House's must have been like, but then again maybe he was grandfathered. He started to read Chase's.

"Dr. Pronásledovat, or Chase, as he would rather be called seems to exhibit several pathologies. From interviews with former colleagues and friends, in addition to speaking with him my self I have determined that none of them would prevent him from working at PPTH.

Test scores: Dr. Chase's test scores are in line with Hospital guidelines and his standardized IQ score is 198." Foreman paused to seethe, that was 34 points higher than his own. He calmed himself by remembering that the test was geared towards making white males score the highest because of culturally biased questions. He read on. "This is rather impressive given that he comes from a different country and foreigners generally don't score as high.

He is a creative cognitive thinker and very left brain oriented. This stands is sharp contrast to the standard mien for most research or teaching doctors, but closer to Dr. House's scores.

Personality: Dr. Chase seems calm and friendly upon first meeting but when pushed, becomes uncomfortable and anxious about any personal information. His anxiety level rises dramatically when questioned about his family or background. At one point during the interview, he turned his back to stare out of the window and did not turn back around until the subject was changed. The question to illicit this response involved why he chose not to remain in Australia and practice with his father.

He is professionally confident but personally insecure. He also appears to exhibit strong avoidance techniques and passive aggressive tendencies." Foreman gave a big amen to that. Chase was the king of passive aggressiveness. While Foreman would confront someone and Cameron would guilt them, Chase would run. House called them his fighter, his waffler, and his avoider. And the names fit well. Chase was the type of person who would let you rip him to pieces and never say a word in his own defense then turn around and poison your coffee when no one was looking. Come to think of it, he better not eat or drink anything Chase gave him for a week or two.

As Foreman continued, he began to become uncomfortable with what he read. "Evaluation: Dr. Chase is a classic Adult Child of an Alcoholic. He strongly exhibits the co dependant tendencies and has a classic empathy driven mood orientation. Placing him with Dr. House has the potential to be very good for Dr. House but very damaging for Dr. Chase. I recommend keeping Dr. Chase in therapy for at least the first 6 months of the fellowship."

Foreman sighed and thought and what he thought about made him very uncomfortable. He got up and went to his computer and looked up "Adult Child of an Alcoholic" and began to read through the information and started to feel his stomach sink as he read through the characteristics and applied them to Chase.

" Adult Children of Alcoholics often exhibit one or more of these tendencies.

1. guess at what normal behavior is. (One of the first things he had noticed about Chase was that his reactions were often completely inappropriate or a half second behind everyone else's. And if there was no one else there for him to pattern himself after he fell back on sarcastic comebacks. Like the whole spaghetti line to Gabe's parents.)

2. have difficulty following a project through from beginning to end. (He hadn't noticed that Chase did this too often. In fact he generally stayed with patients the longest. But maybe his many residencies showed it.)

3. lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth. (He didn't know enough about Chase's life to answer this one. But if lies of omission counted then hell yeah.)

4. judge themselves without mercy. (Chase had been pretty hard on himself about that angio screw up. It was a simple mistake any of them could

have made.)

5. have difficulty having fun. (Well, Chase seemed to be able to have fun or at least look like he was having fun.)

6. take themselves very seriously. (Ok, this was totally the opposite. Chase never seemed to take himself or too many other people seriously. That was one of the things that drove Foreman nuts about him.)

7. have difficulty with intimate relationships because of trust problems or abandonment issues. (It appeared Chase had even had trouble with simple friendships.)

8. over-react to changes over which they have no control. (That completely summed up Chase's reaction to Volger)

9. constantly seek approval and affirmation. (Another big yes. Chase always subtly trying to get House to tell him he had done a good job, but then again House almost never told anyone they had done a good job.)

10. usually feel that they are different from other people. (That Foreman wasn't sure about)

11. are super-responsible or super-irresponsible. (He noticed often with House, Chase was the

responsible one. He made sure House ate and his laundry was done and that his clinic hours were

covered. It was never as blatant as what Cameron did because he went out of his way to not call

attention to it. However, it was also seemed far more ingrained in Chase to organize House's life

without thinking about it.)

12. are extremely loyal even in the face of evidence that the loyalty is undeserved. (He was very loyal to House, to the point of stupidity, at least until Volger.)

13. are impulsive. They tend to lock themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternative behaviors or possible consequences. (Again Volger explained to a tee. Chase probably didn't think through what talking to Volger would mean. He just panicked and reacted without thinking.)"

Foreman scrubbed his hand over his face. It all fit, but he just couldn't reconcile happy go lucky Chase with all these problems and so much depth, even when they were staring him in the face. Chase was a soulless Surfer Ken doll. He wasn't allowed to have problems. He was the good looking rich kid, he wasn't allowed secrets.

"So, differential diagnosis?" Wilson asked as he laid two sub sandwiches on the table. Both had a large pickle rapped on the side.

"That I am thoroughly confused." Foreman rose and sat at the table, unwrapping his sandwich. It was a Philly steak, his favourite.

"Confused about what? The files weren't that complex." Wilson pulled a long pepper out of his sandwich and ate it separately.

"Why did you show them to me?"

"I thought it would be obvious."

"To House maybe, but not to me. I need a little help figuring out your motives."

Wilson smiled shyly and looked like a handsome kid. "You'll learn I'm not nearly as complex and confusing as House. My motives are usually pretty simple. I just want people to get along and be happy. And from what I saw earlier today, things didn't look too happy."

"Chase screwed up and almost killed that kid. He deserved to be yelled at and it was nothing worse than what House would have done to him." Foreman defended himself.

"Three subtle differences though, 1. You aren't Chase's boss, in fact he in the ICU he is an attending and out ranks you plus he has more seniority. 2. House would have yelled about his mistake, not attacked him personally and not in front of the patient's family. Do you really think they are going to have any confidence in him now?" Foreman looked down at his food feeling chastised. "And 3. Chase didn't screw up." Wilson produced a third file bent open to the history taken by Foreman. "You never put in a notation that he was allergic to shellfish."

Foreman stared in disbelief at the file. He clearly remembered the family telling him that their son was allergic to shellfish. How could he have forgotten to put it in there? "You mean I screwed up?" He asked.

"It's been known to happen to the best of us." Wilson tried to soothe before Foreman went into some self effacing rant. "It was a simple mistake and Chase managed to cover your ass about it." He emphasized Chase and your, making Foreman feel about 2 inches tall.

"So you think I owe him an apology?"

"I think you owe him some understanding and a little respect."

"Why do you care?" Foreman shot back defensively, trying not to think about the things he had said to Chase.

"Maybe I empathize with a young, fresh faced doctor that no one treats with respect because he is younger and boyishly handsome." Wilson smiled again, clearly describing himself. "Or maybe because Chase is a good guy who doesn't deserve your shit."

"Good guy? He is a stuck up, rich brat, who thinks he is better than everyone else."

"Or, maybe he is a quiet, shy kid, who is 15,000 miles away from home."

"So now you are playing favourites like House?"

"No, I just happen to like Chase and have gained a new respect for him since I have been in contact with his father." Wilson leaned back and sipped at his drink.

There was a puzzler, Rowan Chase. That was the most emotional and off balance Foreman had ever seen Chase. Even House had seemed worried about him. He had been rude to the family, snapped at Cameron, and been pissy towards House for almost two weeks afterwards. And the really funny thing was, House actually seemed contrite for having butted into Chase's family life. For a month afterwards Foreman could almost see him wearing spiky armour and a neon sign reading "stay away."

Wilson slid over another folder. Where was he getting all these folder from anyway? Foreman thought. "I need a consult." Foreman looked at the diagnosis and the treatment and the eventual time line. Stage four lung cancer, not good, maybe three months. He looked at the date, scratch that, make it one month. Then he looked at the name, Rowan Pronásledovat. He recognized that word, Chase's father. He looked up at Wilson, in shock. "Chase doesn't know, so don't tell him. Not that you can anyway since now you are a consulting doctor."

"What do you mean he doesn't know?" Foreman was incredulous. If it were his father or anyone in his family, he would be on the first plane back to Los Angeles.

"I mean, Rowan never told him. He wants to spare his son the unpleasantnesses of watching someone slowly suffocate from cancer." He let the facts sink into the younger doctor for a moment, then took a chance. This could all blow up in his face. "He didn't want Robert to sit beside his bed and see him die by inches the way Chase saw his mother die."

"Chase's mother is dead?"

"Yup, hepatocellular carcinoma from severe cirrhosis. Not a pretty cancer, not that any of them are, but liver cancer is one of the worst to see. According to Rowan she was a heavy drinker and drug user. He said he was too until he cleaned up. I think he said Robert would have been about 9 or 10 then. She died right after his 16th birthday. Bled out in the foyer of their house as Rowan described it. Apparently they managed to resuscitate her when they reached the hospital but she was clinically brain dead. He had to wait through weeks of highly publicized legal wrangling to let a 16 year-old sign papers to shut off life support. Apparently it was a national case on par with Schiavo. Something about a 16 year old not having the mental or moral ability to make that sort of decision." Wilson paused for dramatic effect. "Could you imagine, having to make that kind of call when you were 16? Basically rendering yourself and orphan before you are old enough to drive?"

"But he wouldn't have been an orphan. His father is still alive." Foreman pointed out.

"Rowan said that he hadn't talked to his son in almost a year when she died. He then said that after her funeral Robert stayed with him in Melbourne for two weeks, told him what had happened and then Rowan felt so guilty he didn't talk to Robert again for 2 years. So for all intents and purposes he was an orphan. But then again the way Rowan described his mother's drunken behaviour and frequent disappearances, he was probably pretty self sufficient for some time before that.

"But he was lucky it didn't affect his school work. After all he was already in college by then, or as they call it University. They have this 6 year program thing where you skip all the stupid history and English stuff we had to take and go straight for the major courses. Think about it." Foreman did. "When you were 16 you were a sophomore in high school and committing petty crimes. Chase was dealing with his mother's death and the fact that he had to be the one to sign the termination paper, no easy feat for a devout Catholic, and doing the course work of a junior in college. Pretty impressive."

"Wait, why did he have to sign the paper? I would assume any relative could do it." Foreman thought. He was still trying to process the information. So Chase's did know what Luke was going through.

"You read the file, both his parents were from other countries. They married and moved to Australia without their respective families. His closest family member was an aunt in Namibia somewhere."

"Chase is Catholic?"

"Yes, he even spent time in seminary school before starting medical school. He also was accepted to the Art program at the Sorbonne in Paris. He has several pieces of his work on display in Australia, mostly abstract stuff, not my taste but still impressive."

Foreman did a double take on that one. Chase as a priest, he was sure all the Catholic School girls would love that. And Chase as an artist. Ok, he had seen his fellow duckling draw colouring books with Kammi the Kola for very young patients and he was always doodling on his crosswords, but an artist. "Artist?" He managed to croak.

"Yes, apparently his mother was a ballerina and after having children became a very well known photographer and artist. I guess she taught Chase some of her tricks. If you ever get bored look her name up on the internet. She was a babe. You can see where Chase got his looks. But he became a doctor, not an artist and a damn good one too."

"Yes, I guess he did."

"And you owe him an apology."

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"What is it about him you don't like?" Wilson was all ears now. Trying to mend bridges and lower stress in the department to help House.

Foreman thought for a moment. "He is too laid back about everything. He sucks up to House too much. He never stands up for himself. And House totally plays favourites with him."

"He is pretty laid back. But while that might be a detriment for an oncologist, immunologist, or a neurologist it is a serious plus for an intensivist. He doesn't get rattled about things and when people code you don't want the person trying to prove they are the best or thinking about abstract medical problems, you want the person who does the job with a level head and moves on."

"I guess." Foreman sulkily conceded.

"As for sucking up to House, that is more complex. But in the end, I think Chase is just looking for someone to be proud of him."

"Most of us moved out of that stage when we were twelve." Foreman snarked.

"No, most people don't ever move out of that stage, it just becomes less important. But I sometimes get the idea that Chase has never had anyone say they were proud of him."

"Going to college at 16 and having a 4.0 and no one said they were proud of him? I don't believe that for a minute."

"Think about it, Eric, you were the first person in your family to go to college right?" Foreman nodded his ascent. "So anything beyond what was cultural and family expected of you was a bonus. When you graduated from high school you had a party right? And even bigger one for college? When you made dean's list your family freaked and called you a wonder boy? When you graduated from med school there was probably Foremans lined up around the block to see you walk the stage? Am I right?"

"So my family was supportive and proud of me, so what?"

"So Chase's wasn't. Everything that you did would have just been expected of Chase. The bar was set so impossibly high for him that nothing short of perfection would have garnered him praise. Everything he achieved would have just been expected of him as normal. After all you don't congratulate a kid for colouring a picture so why should you congratulate the son of a medical genius for graduating med school?"

"Even still, I'm sure someone has said they were proud of him at some point in his life, or he wouldn't have had the confidence to do anything."

"It was a hyperbole, my friend. It would be difficult for someone as smart as Chase to not have confidence in his intellect, what I was talking about was the broader sense of self confidence that comes from knowing that there are people who will care about you no matter what."

"So you think Chase thinks House will care about him no matter what. The only thing House cares about is his Vicodin." Foreman said dismissively.

Wilson shot him a dark look. James Wilson did not like being faced with the fact that his friendship to House might in fact be one sided. "No, I think that Chase has glommed on to House as some sort of demented daddy replacement and thinks that if he does enough things right maybe his new daddy won't be quite as demanding and distant as his old daddy. Sort of sick and depressing for Chase really."

"Yeah, if he thinks House is ever going to say anything nice about him to his face other than complimenting his looks, homeboy is sorely mistaken." Foreman joked.

"Yes, he is. And the fact that he chose House to latch onto rather than someone a lot nicer and a lot more giving says way too much about his relationship with the senior Chase. But that isn't important."

"Does House even know?"

"Well I guess that brings us to complaint number four, that House plays favourties. I think on some level House knows and takes obscene advantage of it. House likes his ducklings damaged, a little scratched around the edges, but I don't think he realizes just how broken Chase is."

"House knows everything, I thought."

"He doesn't know any of this. I haven't told him." Now Foreman was shocked. "I wasn't sure how he was going to react. Depending on his dosage he might take his intensivist under his wing and pet him till he falls asleep or take a chisel to Chase's cracks and shatter him completely. Proverbially speaking.

"But whether House wants to admit it or not, he does care about Chase. I think he sees a lot of himself when he was younger in the Aussie. For different reasons of course. Chase was warped and damaged by his circumstances while I think Greg was just born defensive,." Wilson smiled to show he really didn't think ill of his best friend. "Plus Chase is the perfect duckling for him. He does what he is told, rarely causes trouble, doesn't challenge him, covers for him whether he is too stoned to go to work or just doesn't want to go to the clinic, doesn't follow him around making cow eyes at him, and is a damn good doctor."

"Chase covers for him?"

"All the time. House will sign into the clinic and Chase will actually see the patients. I really shouldn't let him do it but oh well." Wilson shrugged. "But he does it on bigger stuff too. Did you really think House had eaten 'bad clams' last month when Chase took him home?" Wilson was referring to a morning last month when Foreman had come in to find Chase holding House up over a trash can while the elder man puked. Chase had claimed it was bad clams and said he was going to take House home. Cameron at offered to help, but Chase had rather rudely warned her away. The Aussie had then bodily dragged the shaky, staggering doctor out of the building.

"House was drunk, wasn't he?"

"Off his ass. Why do you think Chase always get here first, so he can make sure House is fit to work that day and if not get him home and come up with an excuse why he isn't. He's quite adept at it too, he can spot a drunk or a druggy at 100 paces. He is even better at telling if House is inebriated than I am. I guess experience will do that."

"So House plays favourites with him so that Chase can continue to co enable his drug habit, nice. If I give him a morphine drip, will I be his new best friend?"

"No, he doesn't like morphine, it makes him nauseous. Look Foreman, I'm not trying to convince you that the kid is without faults, in fact he has a lot of them, but most of them hurt him more than others. He isn't perfect but also isn't nearly as bad as you think he is. So give him a break and don't give him any more crap for a while."

"We are supposed to be hunky dory now that I found out he had a shitty childhood? So have a lot of people and they aren't as annoying as Chase."

"I don't give Rowan more than a month to 6 week to live and Chase is going to take his death pretty hard. Especially when he finds out that his father was sick when he was here and didn't say anything." He sighed. "And neither did House."

"House knew?"

Wilson nodded his head "yes." "He figured it out somehow."

"Well why in the hell didn't he tell him?"

"Maybe because Rowan asked him not to and it really wasn't his place to say anything. But in the end, I think he didn't because he knew Chase would go home and take care of Rowan and he doesn't want to loose him."

"Maybe House just wants to be the one to tell him so he can see him cry." Foreman sniped, feeling his chest constrict at the thought of House telling him that his own father was dead.

"That might be part of it. I think House wants to tell him so that Chase won't be alone when he finds out."

Foreman thought about that. It was cold. He felt bad for Chase, it could really screw with someone's head to find out that neither one of their 'Daddies' cared enough about their feelings give them a chance at closure.

"Look I don't mean that you two should be best friends for life, just go easy on him until this whole thing blows over. Then you can go back to treating him like you're so much better than he is." Wilson rose and collected the trash. "I need to get home, I'll see you tomorrow."

Foreman numbly nodded his head. He sat still for a while longer trying to process everything that he had learned. He briefly thought about going by the ICU to check on Chase and the patient but thought better of it. He needed to get home so he could hear some music and clear his head. He pulled on his coat and headed home.

TBC