Chapter 1 – 5 to 9

T.V. Show: House MD

Pairing: Chase canon, Major Chase/Cameron

Author: Foxes' Dreams

Summary: Scars are reversible. The cure is always foreseeable for those who wait patiently. Chase has finally found a sure and defiant reason to start rebuilding a changed version of himself despite all the tormenting past secrets that haunt his capturing memory. But, his newly-appeared daughter refused to let him brush near the macabre and somber visions without overcoming their effect. Sequel to "Ticking Clock".


Love is like an hourglass, heart filling up as the brain empties." - Jules Renard

Shadows rested quietly under the breezeless sky, the shiver of the dawns passed fragrantly down the city, the silver silence of the night fading at that early hour. The arising sun made mellow gold of all the air, the sky was growing ensaffroned with the indescribable hue that heralds days.

The atmosphere seemed somehow lazy, dull and brooding, even though the living beings looked relentless and changeless. All the awoken people moved heavily, the tranquility of the previous slumber still lingering on their closing eyelids.

The urban noise was still to erupt, the quiet stillness oddly unfitting for the enormous city. A haze of surreal energy transpired throughout the humans as hours passed by, the epicenter of work crowning in the close area. The walking crowds looked desolate, only the calm bright spirits giggled with anticipation because all the carefree and young creatures were on the verge of stepping back in the campus, as a new chapter in their lives began.

Ashley prepared intensely for that particular moment, running incoherently across the small flat quickly and gracefully, only with a subdued sense of provocateur pace lacing her movement. The watery sunlight cradled her golden curls, quickly enveloping her in a spell of aromatic warmness. She gathered all her scribbled, finished papers, stuffed them indolently in a figure-themed, dark green handbag and strode energetically to the door, only to find herself reaching for a distant pause, wishing silently that time wouldn't be so rambunctious.

The large-limbed, dazzling girl was almost tactically rushing, a bit of brief, unconvincing whimpering came to her senses as she found herself completely breathless, a painful rhythm of inhaling and exhaling attacking her chest. Her style of organizing was too brusque; the cream-colored silk shirt she wore was dancing on the frigid wind and sending shivers down her spine, only amplifying her bloating distress.

Her face was vividly flushed, obscurely blotchy as she made her way towards the entrance, feeling strangely insecure as though any misstep might plunge her back into a consequential conflict. Her crumbling image had definitely transformed, into someone paradoxically softer and harder, a rather regression settling in her mind.

She ignored that sickening thought which was turning in a maze of questions, of weighing odds. The dizzying sensation passed eventually, even though for a moment it seemed fittingly, suddenly jolted by a wave of adrenaline. Ashley entered the majestic building ominously; still flinching imperceptibly at the mention that time never stands still.

After hours of intense study, Ashley headed reluctantly to the cafeteria, her behavior was tender, lessen, not even strict. The steaming hot food tickled her developing appetite, a vigorous momentum of fervor cursing down her slim torso. After a few delicious bites, she spotted Stefan and Adrian coming towards her isolated table with a few long strides. Their friendliness was compelling, proving to be an essential virtue in that tumultuous phase of her life.

They both witnessed her becoming much wiser and less skittish; she seemed capable instead of subdued decisions.

The quick-tempered girl watched them intently, her facial expression betrayed only sympathy, combined with a comradely mockery, all her momentary demeanor shimming in her light-blue eyes. Most of her steady glimpses showed her constructed secrecy, all her expressions ready to escape the warm cage of her mouth. Ashley displayed herself as dismaying eagerness which never surprised the boys, they were rather anxious to comply with the surprising shifts of the situation.

"Well, new bag! I wonder from whom is this little gift," Stefan hummed appreciatively for a second, before allowing the palpating silence to lengthen.

"Can you blame Chase? He's trying to recuperate all the time he's lost," Ashley ditched back, a hunger of possessiveness flaming instantly her irises.

"No, but I can blame you for not calling him 'dad'," Stefan replied eagerly, a formless dread and despair lacing all the pronounced syllables, as he saw his friend's pent-up tolerance being repressed. Obviously, he sensed her overwhelming fear, conquering even the most remote parts of her brain, and installing as a pressure of accumulated misgivings.

"You know such things come in time. It's barely been two months. And plus, this bag was his during residential years," The petite blonde answered simply, restraining the rising storm of defensive words.

"I think it matters to him. You said yourself it was his lifetime goal to have a child," Adrian said leisurely, feeling the environment catching a solemn and awful quietude.

"Fine, I'll do it! Congrats, musketeers, you duo has just won," Ashley replied ultimately, replacing the scars of rancor and remorse with a joking attitude.

"Hard day?" The nerdy, boyish person asked, vainly trying to change the subject in order to suppress a deepening sadness.

"Short hours for me," Ashley answered purposefully quick, sending a bolt of unreal, royal arrogance in their direction.

The two boys huffed loudly, a look of tiredness buffeting both of their faces, while their backs instantly bent, and their veins were attacked by shafts of wavering courage. "There are times when I wonder why I haven't signed up in the mathematics-informatics class," Stefan confessed, mirroring the smiling incarnation of self-esteem.

"Lucky me, in this case," Ashley chirped adorably, feeling the spell of a deathless dream in her pores, imaging a future career. Just as she was mustering a shy, but satisfied grin, the phone which was previously still, rang loudly, evoking a wave of curiosity. "I have to meet him in twenty minutes. See you later!" The dynamic girl said, rushing to gather her things and to usher herself from the obnoxious crowd.

They watched her drift away from them, without adding something vital, as though she was utterly eager to leave. Still, the stridden discord was mocking both their moods, since Ashley's bonding was occurring at an alarming speed.

"I really hope this guy has serious intentions about being her father. I don't think Ashley can take another letdown in the near future," Stefan explained, breaking the momentary silence, and nurturing a suspicion of secret malevolence.

"I don't see him bad-willed. He's just as eager and clumsy as Ashley to get a whole family," Adrian sustained convincingly, the timely effusion of lasting friendship motivating him to defend his friend.

"Let's hope you are right," Stefan deadpanned, looking utterly consumed by a plastic doom.

"Oh come, Stefan, skip the melodrama! Why would he do this otherwise?" The shorter masculine figure inquired rhetorically.

"For vengeance, maybe?" Stefan shot back just as forceful and bittersweet, feeling propelled by a vast contradiction.

"Towards her mother?" Adrian debated, feeling the tumult in his heart subsiding in front of an unrealistic expectation. He received a nod of approval and continued his deliberately motivating speech. "I highly doubt that. Ashley told me they barely talk, only agreed on custody terms," He said calmly, exposing the unmasked batteries of his gloriously gray eyes.

Stefan remained painfully silent, locked in a veneer of realization. He was still spurred to doubt this entire alarming scenario, but found a light trace of hope as he considered paternal love as the main bonding factor.


The velvet of the cloudless sky turned progressively darker, and the stars magnificently more luminous. Ashley had been used to bearing annoying, peril-sourced silence since little age, as her mother's job became an inflammable, overmastering pit, ready to engulf her entirely.

Just as in a round of inexpressible realization, time passed and managed to imprint its power on all the living souls. For the little lass, the notion of silence and missed communication drastically changed, shifting from sorrow to a delightful memory.

With scribbled, handwritten notes and pages of decipherable, labyrinthine theory, Ashley was sinking into endless study, feeling the every pulsation and throbbing of her intellect. It seemed like the wheel of her thought turned in the same, desolate groove, but she was motivated to overcome that syncope of ideas.

A miraculous, tiny flutter of movement determined to escape the deep haze of stress. It was a casual, light peck dropped right in the centre of her softly covered skull. Still, it had the necessary power to release a kind of exhilaration imprisoned in the subtle baiting of the small gesture.

"You can manage by yourself a few minutes until I send my fellows to do some analysis?" Chase asked, showing off the exquisite balance of his paternal skills.

"Of course. Chemistry isn't a mystery anymore since you taught me how to resolve all the problems," The blonde figure replied, conjuring a smile of large proportions.

There was a spendthrift grandeur in Chase's replying smile, an easiness slightly alien for him and moreover, a taste so kindly in its everlasting candor.

He walked through the plain, exquisite glass door to resume a work of excessive platitude, boredom compared to the poignant picture of his only daughter sitting in close proximity.

"What did the angiogram show?" He asked, his voice still catatonic in state of elation, through his veins coursing only pure, loving adrenaline. Willingly, Chase casually stole minuscule glances at her, thrilled to the depths of his being and shockingly never tired with a dull or listless fatigue.

"Nothing. We're back to where we started," Adams parroted suddenly on an accusing tone, spurting out words in a thronging haste.

"The patient has difficulty breathing. It could be a mild case of anaphylaxis, which was left untreated," Park said, occluding the diagnosis with a theory both unrealistic and mundane.

"Anaphylaxis wouldn't have disappeared when she stood upright. Pulmonary embolism?" Adams proposed, sounding amicably resilient, and convincingly concerned.

"It would have showed up in the X-ray. Here's noted she had paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea, it could easily lead to pulmonary compliance," Chase suggested, his answer seeming vastly dissimilar to the tangible reality.

"It doesn't explain the coughed blood. The pulmonary tissue isn't scarred enough to cause any hemorrhage," Adams contradicted, the little, independent thread of inquiry ran through the apex of her skull, but promptly died away.

Transformed into a bewildering medical mystery, the case proved to be a mosaic of turnings and unexpected, gathered pressure. "Pulmonary edema with small pleural effusions would explain all the symptoms," a small voice stated, submitting the random idea with scourging, good grace.

Three pairs of curious eyes turned in the direction of the hoarse, polarized voice, exactly where Ashley was sitting remorselessly, in the narrow doorway.

"It would actually make sense," Adams whispered, looking taken aback by the shifting tension and the ephemeral breakthrough.

Chase, with a passionate, overmastering pride, went to the petite girl's side and gently stroke her irresistible tangle of golden curls. "See who's got the brains?" He stated inattentively, lost in the misty of Ashley's person as though the most enchanting beauty was entrapped within her small pose. "Of course, that means she had cardiogenic pulmonary edema. Go, dope her with Furosemide and glyceryl trinitrate," Chase ordered forcefully, feeling the quick pulse of gain.

Still retreated in a nest of ardor, his soul merged on fire and was ultimately prepared to release a rising storm of questions.


Untouched by a ruthless spirit, but blessed by a marginal improvement, silence fell and forced unstudied depths of inquiries to come to the surface. Secrets keep great malice and should be avoided as much as possible. Chase's ardent lips wanted toss the visible and palpable wonderings out of himself, to unleash any trace of doubt or poisonous scenario.

"You did great. All the results are good and the method seems to be right," Chase said soothingly, vibrant with a surge of newly discovered affection and addictive protection.

Ashley hurriedly, ungracefully closed all the veiled books and locked her sea-blue eyes with his, trying to find richness and vigor of resource. "I'm so glad it's all done! You should have been a teacher, everything finally made sense," The petite girl said, adoringly pitched and lounged on the extensible chair to get a momentary, needed relief.

"Why did you want to find me?" Chase asked spontaneously, ultimately breaking the space of ethical trespass, the one compulsorily built to prevent malice from overcoming their senses. Voices that charmed the ears and echoed a subtle resonance in his soul told him to apologize and to forget, to move on and take advantage of the stillness.

Ashley parted her golden strands, wantonly and eagerly quick, a bolt of pain overwhelming her scalp. Her palms were covered by a sweet-flavored layer of nervous sweat, and she couldn't help a deep sigh from escaping her lips, bringing out the volcanic upheaving of imprisoned passion. "I needed you in my life. I needed to know the origin of my traits. I wanted to know everything, all the reasons. My friends told me to give up because I'll get hurt or disappointed. But, I wanted to know you," she confessed, a new sparking, glistening smudge was reflecting on her retina.

"I'm really glad you did. You turned my life upside down in a great way, I finally felt that love hasn't bypassed me completely," Chase responded, when all the profane voices were hushed and the music of the words didn't sound alien anymore in his ears. As he squeezed his daughter's hand tightly, reassuringly, the destiny whistled life away in perfect contentment.

"I couldn't have said this better," Ashley tried to muster, but her voice broke under the pang of realization.

"Nobody good enough to replace a father figure?" Chase asked, his tone sounding childishly curious, wrapped in an accessible mood.

"Mom married a guy while she was pregnant. Turned out to be a cheating jerk. After the divorce, he moved back to Chicago, but we stayed here in New York. It's weird how close we were and never knew each other," The tiny silhouette said, sincerely wrought out by the comical tragedy.

"Your mom even worked here a few months. I only knew she had a baby, I never saw you. One day, she fled away, and then we all heard that she got heartbroken and ran away. Still, I have never guessed she would just move to NY," Chase said, revealing an outstanding truth, worthy of being analyzed deeper, more profoundly.

"Anyway, she had a couple of boyfriends, who all endured things varying from biting to even being thrown out. I guess I knew they weren't fitted for a replacement," Ashley said easily, words meaninglessly being wrenched from their true significance.

Silence fell, as they both processed the capricious irony of fate which ultimately managed to keep them apart.

"But we met once," Ashley broke the uncomfortable stillness, with a vanquished and weary sigh. "At the restaurant, a day before I came to you. It's weird how I chose to look at you from all the table people," She confessed, seemingly deprived of any unnecessary shreds of anxiety.

"I took only a small glance at you. I tried to shut people put of my life after so many disappointments, but I couldn't help thinking about you that evening," Chase said, wrought out of any past emotion, infectious and splendidly dangerous. "I didn't even see Cameron walking before you, I thought you were just a stranger, obviously I was wrong," He said in addition, flushing crimson in his high cheekbones.

"Even a stranger can change your life in a definite way," Ashley said seriously, obviously influenced by the vivifying touch of geniality.

"A stranger who finally turned out to be a close relative," The adult diagnostician replied, with an urbanely plastic and versatile interest.

"Do you-" Ashley tried to muster, getting lost in the variously ramified and delicate channels of expression. "Do you regret not being here since the very beginning of my life?" She asked, knowing the treacherous implications of such a virile issue.

Chase took in a deep, steady breath. It was finally time to face his inner demons, his fatalistic fears.

"I regret not having been present in some of your major moments, to see how beautifully you've grown up," He started fearfully, covering the vast sweep of mellow distance. "But what matters is that we are here now, ready to start a new life together," He continued, his cheeks obviously furrowed with great, genuine purpose.

He needed the powerful, conducting impulse to transmit his comment of delightful flavor directly, without any physical obstacles. Chase grabbed her palm in a desperate attempt to prove his crystallizing intentions.

Ashley stared coldly, flabbergasted by the current play of emotions, vainly repeating the words in her unsettled mind. She already knew the answer, granted to the passages of affection he had previously shown.

"We just have a lifetime to build," She replied spontaneously, her words portraying exactly his mixed ideas, slightly distinguished from his exact ones, varying only the exquisiteness.

"And we'll make the most of it, I promise you," Chase said, plunging in the fathomless pit of enchantment.

He made a promise, one of epic proportions, to offer continuous love, supported by serene leisure and easiness.

Endowed by life and emphasis, he instantly knew he would dedicate his heart, in its entirety to the feathery-haired figure, restful and peacefully contented against his chest.

His long lost daughter found her way towards her respective paternal model, enticed irresistibly by the freedom of an open could finally alleviate their bleeding wound and cover, with classic graciousness, the part of flesh lacking from their erratically beating hearts.

Author's Note: Finally here! So happy to be writing again about Ashley's adventures.

Isabel, Nayra, Andreza the much awaited sequel is here! ;)