Authors Note: HI! waves at all the readers> Just as I promised, a sequel of sorts. This takes place about 2 months after How Do You Deal. As a warning Chase and House do act a bit OOC, but I think I'm allowed considering the situation I put both of them in. Please let me know what you think. The title is symbolic and will hopefully make sense in upcomming chapters.
Chase paused before turning the corner. He could do this. He wasn't going to run again. Not this time.
That was the reason he was here today.
He knew he still had two weeks and more if he needed it before he had to be back. But Chase knew that if it wasn't today he would never go back. And he was tired of running.
He reached into his pocked and opened one of the pill bottles, taking a pill out. Swallowing it dry he counted backwards from 15.
He could do this. He was 27, almost 28. It was time for him to be a man. He knew his father would be proud.
Glancing at his watch again he noticed the time. 10 Am. The rest of the crew was already in there working. He could do this.
Chase took a deep breath, readjusted his crutches and turned the corner.
When the door opened Cameron and Foreman both looked up out of habit. Cameron's "Chase." Got House to look up also.
"Don't you still have like two weeks off?" Foreman asked.
"Got bored." Chase mumbled. It hurt to talk still. He was working with a speech therapist to help stop the mumbling.
"Do you need anything?" Cameron asked next, standing up.
He shook his head, thrilled that she didn't come over to try and hug him. He was glad they remember he still wasn't too keen on touching. If it wasn't for the valium and prozac he'd probably lock himself away from the world.
"It's about time you got back. These two are boring without you." It was as close to a welcome back as Chase was going to get from House.
Things were odd between the two of them now. Chase clearly remembered House being by his bedside the first few days after the attack. But after, he barely visited. Not that it bothered Chase that much, as he was having trouble with people being in the same room with him. But he had a feeling that if House was there he'd be okay.
The other three people in the room were silent as Chase made his way to a chair and slowly sat down. He shifted a bit, putting his broken leg up on a chair and tried to get comfortable.
Chase knew that comfortable was close to impossible, but thanks to the valium and other pain killers he was pretty darn close.
House was the first to break the silence as he started to rattle off the symptoms of their latest patient.
Chase sat quietly. A pad of paper in front of him, where he wrote different ideas quickly and then crossing them off as others said them.
"You want to contribute Chase?" House asked. Chase slid his pad down to the table. House caught it and picked it up. After a few moments of perusal, House ordered them to get more tests.
"Chase a moment." The other two doctors paused before heading out of the room. "Chase? You doing okay?" House asked leaning against the table. Chase nodded. "Glad you're back, but if it gets to be too much I expect you to pull back a little. If you need anything, just ask." Once again Chase nodded before heading out the door.
House held his breath as Chase hobbled out of the conference room. He understood the need to jump back in, to normalize his life as much as possible. But House still thought it was too soon.
Through Cuddy he found out that Chase was seeing a psychologist and psychiatrist. He was also going to physical therapy three times a week.
Once Chase was out of ICU, House turned Chase's care over to another doctor. It wasn't that he wanted to cut off contact from Chase but it was the only way that he was able to put some distance between himself and the issue of Chase and Steven.
It had helped. He had gone to check on Chase once he was released a few times, but nothing that would seem too out of the ordinary.
House wondered how much of those first few days Chase remembered.
