New story already woot woot. This story is a complete 180 from Acid Walls so I hope you guys like it. Please review it makes me happy
Wilson found House lying on the floor of the office well after his ducklings had left for the day. "You know most people go home to do that," Wilson said as he stood in front of his friend, his hands placed on his waist as usual.
"I'm not most people," House answered, his voice stiff and tired. "What do you want?"
Wilson watched as his friends hand traveled down to his right thigh, rubbing his leg through his jeans.
"Your leg is hurting more than usual," Wilson said.
"Really captain obvious, how could you tell?" House snapped irately.
"Here," Wilson said as knelt next to his friend and held out his hand. House stared in disbelief as he stared at two little white pills in the center of his friend's hand.
He thought about asking Wilson why he was giving him Vicodin but decided not to, knowing that if he said something the young man would think better of what he was doing and take the pills away.
Wilson shook his head as House quickly snatched the pills and popped them in his mouth and dry swallowed them. "Now go talk to Chase," Wilson said as he stood up.
"What?" House asked looking up at Wilson as if he'd lost his mind; well the other man had given him Vicodin so it wasn't an inconceivable notion.
"Go talk to Chase, you need to smooth things out with him before he decides to report you to Cuddy and what do you think Tritter's going to do when he finds out about that?" Wilson asked.
House grumbled knowing that Wilson was probably right but he didn't want to think about Chase betraying him like that again. The young man's betrayal in the whole Vogler situation had hurt him more than he would ever admit.
Wilson held out his hand and House took it and with the help of his friend got off the floor slowly and without much strain.
House peered into the conference room and saw that all his ducklings had left for the day. Cursing he picked up his belongings and made for the door. He knew were Chase lived and if the young man wouldn't let him in he had a spare key that he had made when Chase first started working for him.
"Night Wilson," House said as he exited his office and Wilson shook his head knowing that what House really meant was 'thank you.'
The trip to Chase's apartment was a relatively short one and he silently thanked the stars that Chase had a first floor apartment.
He stood outside of his youngest ducklings home wondering what he would say to the young man to convince him not to rat him out. He felt bad for what he had done hence the extra leg and shoulder pain but he didn't want to admit it. He knew Chase was only trying to explain his findings to him so that the little girl wouldn't get unnecessarily chopped into bits. But with the pain in his leg numbing his common sense he had lashed out, not because he was angry with Chase but he was angry at himself. This whole Tritter thing was getting out of hand he should have known the girl was allergic to light, he should have caught it not Chase.
Bringing his hand up he hesitantly knocked on the door before shaking his head and banging on the heavy wood with more force.
"'M comin," he heard Chase's voice say through the door.
The first thing House saw when the young man opened the door was the ugly bruise forming on Chase's jaw. He had done that. He suppressed the urge to rub his aching leg. Looking away from Chase's face he found that the young man had changed out of his work clothes and was wearing a thin black jacket and a pair of khaki shorts, he wore no shoes or socks and other than the stinging bruise on his face he looked comfortable.
Chase's face was blank "Can I help you Dr. House?"
House didn't like it when one of his ducklings put Dr. on the front of his name. For some reason it was like a curse word, something people only used when they were pissed or irritated with him.
"You're not going to invite the poor cripple to come in and sit down?" House asked.
Chase sighed and rolled his eyes before moving out of the way and opening the door wider for House to enter the apartment.
House began to scan Chase's living room observing his surroundings as if he would observe a patient. Anything that would help him diagnose and treat the situation.
House found that it was a standard bachelor pad. There was a TV, large enough to be considered nice; a PS2, a few games, and some movies stacked on top of the game station, a whole rack full of CDs and CDs that wouldn't fit on the rack were stacked on top of each other beside it, and a fairly expensive sound system, along with a comfy looking tan couch and love seat, and a framed poster of Pinhead from the movie Hellraiser on one wall. Apparently Chase was a classic horror movie fan, which in itself was interesting.
"Would you like something to drink?" Chase asked as he walked past the older man.
"What have you got?" House following Chase to the middle of the living room before stopping. His eyes fell on the most interesting thing he had seen so far in Chase's apartment. A blue and white Fender electric guitar was propped up against the arm of the couch it was plugged into a small portable amp and House wondered if Chase was a beginner trying to be "that cool guy with the guitar" or if he actually wanted to play music because he loved it.
"Uh I have Tea, Milk, Mountain Dew, Heineken, and Full Throttle Blue Demon, I have lots of that actually," Chase said as he peered into his refrigerator.
"Heineken," House said as he moved closer to the guitar.
"Right," Chase mumbled as he leaned down and retrieved the beer for his boss.
"See you've found Carrie," Chase said as he held out the beer. House took it and looked back up at Chase. "Carrie?" House asked, he had named his guitar, the relationship must be serious.
"Yea, I named her after the Stephen King novel," Chase admitted and House nodded. He apparently had been right about the classic horror movie fan.
"So did you just come over here for a beer and to gawk at my guitar or was it something else?" Chase asked.
"Wilson seems to think you're going to rat me out so I came to negotiate terms with you," House said as he popped the tab on the beer and took a sip.
Chase shook his head "I've learned my lesson about ratting you out to people; you should know that by know."
"Never hurts to make sure," House said and Chase shrugged.
"So now you know I'm not going to do anything so you can go now," Chase said.
"You just gonna kick me out, I just got here, walking up those steps outside was hard on my poor leg ya know," House whined and Chase couldn't help but smirk and shake his head.
"So when did you start playing?" House asked.
"When I was thirteen," Chase said.
"Good age to start, not too early, not too late," House said as he gently plucked one of the strings to make sure it was in tune and that Chase wasn't lying to him just to impress him.
"How long have you had her?" House asked and Chase smiled "Since I was thirteen."
"Very serious relationship then," House said with a grin.
"Very, she can be a bit of a hand full especially when her strings break but for the most part we get on very well," Chase said.
"You do realize you're talking about your guitar as if it were an actual person right?" House asked in amusement.
"Don't you?" Chase said knowingly and House shrugged.
"So since your leg won't allow it for the moment what would you like to do?" Chase asked feeling a bit awkward now that they had stopped talking about Carrie. Just three hours ago he had been punched in the face by the man and now he wanted to stick around his apartment and most likely drink all his beer.
"What have you got to do?" House asked moving away from the couch and towards the entertainment center.
"Video games, movies, music, the usual comforts," Chase said.
House began to rifle through the video games when Chase said "I'll um…I'll be right back," Chase said as he began to move to the kitchen, stopping at the refrigerator to grab a drink. House looked up and decided to follow just in case Chase decided to call Tritter while he wasn't around.
"I'm just going outside," Chase said as he walked through the kitchen and opened the door to his small balcony, or what House considered a small porch seeing as how it was on the ground.
House closed the door behind him and found two padded lawn chairs and a medium sized cooler.
"Cooler have any beer in it?" House asked before taking another drink from his own beer.
"Nope, friends drank it all," Chase said as he popped the tab on his drink.
"You have friends?" House asked in surprise and Chase rolled his eyes.
"Surprising huh?" Chase asked annoyed. "They're all going to be wondering where this came from," the young man said as he pointed to the bruise on his face.
"Thought you said you weren't going to do anything about it?" House said worrying that Chase actually would file a complaint against him.
"I'm not, doesn't mean I'm not mad about it, you didn't have to punch me ya know," Chase said, the slightly comfortable air from the living room now long gone.
"You were in the way," House said weakly.
Chase rolled his eyes and set his can on the ground. "Don't worry I'll get over it in a day or two."
"What is that?" House asked trying to change topics as fast as he could.
"Full Throttle Blue Demon, other wise known as the drink of champions," Chase said with a smirk as he reached into his jacket pocket.
"Some new kind of soda, like Cherry Coke?" House asked.
"Energy drink, you have your vicodin, I have my energy drink," Chase explained as he pulled out a pack of Marlboro Lights and a lighter.
"You're dad died of lung cancer you know," House said.
"Vaguely," Chase said as he lit his cigarette and put his feet up to press against the railing of the balcony.
House nodded, he wasn't going to get into an argument about Chase smoking, it wasn't like he could change the young mans mind. Besides Chase didn't bitch about his vicodin use so he wasn't going to preach to him about his smoking…or his addiction to energy drinks.
House settled back into the surprisingly comfortable chair and decided that he was glad he had come over to see Chase. He had found out things that made the young man more interesting than House had ever thought him capable of being. House knew there was a reason why Chase was his favorite duckling.