Treating Robert Chase
A House MD / In Treatment Crossover
Prologue
"Hello, Dr. Weston. This is Rowan Chase speaking. Dr. Maher suggested I'd call you. I need an appointment as soon as possible. It's rather urgent. You're having a slot this week? If it's inconvenient, I'm not going to waste any more of your time and call someone else."
The voice speaking on the other end was polite, with the hint of an accent. Paul automatically reached for his logbook on the desk. He had never heard of a Rowan Chase, or a Dr. Maher, for that matter. "Why are you calling?"
"As I already said, I need an appointment. It's not for me. It's my son. He's been travelling with me to a conference here in Baltimore, and he's getting a bit of a worry."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he's a teenager," Rowan said, as if it explained everything. "He's difficult to begin with, but he's acting out recently, and I believe he should see someone about it. I tried to talk to him, but it's no use. He… he seems to have a hard time opening up to me."
"So your teenage son doesn't talk to you, and you're feeling he needs therapy."
"No," Rowan replied, "I think he needs therapy because he tried to harm himself last night."
There was a moment of silence before he cleared his throat, speaking again in a low, deliberate voice.
"He denied it, of course. Said it had been an accident. I had left him alone at the suite, attending the conference without him because he said he was jet-lagged. Next thing I hear, they found him fully dressed in the hotel pool. He jumped over the balcony and just barely hit the water. Sprained his wrist and broke his collarbone when he hit the ground. People saw him dancing on the railing like it was some sort of a dare. Don't you think that's reason enough to be worried?"
Paul fumbled for his glasses in his shirt, checking his schedule. "You said you're here for a conference."
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
"Well, it means you're in Baltimore for a limited span of time. If I decide to take on your son as a patient, it might take a little bit longer than that."
"I'm not asking you to treat him," Rowan said. "I need him to talk to some professional, and Maher said you're the best there is."
"It doesn't usually work like that."
"Listen, I know how it works. My wife has been seeking out therapists for years, to little effect. All I want you to do is to evaluate my son's state of mind, and talk some sense into him if you can. If you fail to do that, I'll have to consider having him admitted to a specialist back in Melbourne, and I will if need applies. But I'd rather have him talk to you than tying him to his room while I'm maintaining a full schedule at the conference. I'm one of the main speakers."
Still, the name didn't ring a bell, though it was clear that Rowan Chase expected Paul to understand what a busy and important man he was.
He searched through the dates and names on the list, calculating their importance. "I have an opening on Friday at six pm."
"Fine. He'll be there in time."
Rowan hung up. As soon as he did, Paul realized that he didn't even get a chance to ask for the boy's name.
a/n: Upon a reviewer's suggestion (thanks Nina!), I decided to re-post this story in the House M.D. section. It's a crossover of House/In Treatment, but the main focus is on Chase, so I guess it's okay to post it here where people can actually find and read and, hopefully, enjoy it. I discovered In Treatment just recently and was immediately fascinated by the character of Dr. Paul Weston, beautifully portrayed by Gabriel Byrne. Paul has a lot of common ground with Chase - in short, his parents got divorced when he was a boy, and like Chase, he felt like he was being abandoned by his father who was a surgeon, and left alone to take care of a sick mother. I felt like he could easily relate to Chase, so I decided to write a fic where Chase gets to meet Paul while he's still in his teens. (If you haven't seen In Treatment, you might want to give it a try, because Paul is absolutely amazing with young patients!)
This story is not beta-read, and English is not my first language, so if you find any mistakes that feel odd enough to be corrected, feel free to let me know.
