Notes: English is not my mother tongue, I'm mexican. So I'm pretty sure there are some grammar issues over the writing. Please do let me know, I actually correct them.
So, this is my first House M.D. fanfic. And I'm not proud of it, I'm sure I got House wrong. And I'm not convince this makes sense, but I just felt the urge to write something and this is what I could come up with. So, I leave it here.
The song used belongs to Howie Day, I don't make any profit from it, or from House.
Collide
by Uyuki
The dawn is breaking
A light shining through
You're barely waking
And I'm tangled up in you
It had to be some sort of practical joke.
There just was no possible way in which this could've happen. Not in the known universe at least.
Because he had no idea of how they went to a employee-employer relationship. To an old lover-young lover relationship.
And yet, as the sun started to enter through the windows of the apartment Chase knew that this wasn't his home, and that the man that was lying next to him was no other than his boss. And that he was naked.
They both were.
Last night memories were kinda blurry, he remembered going out with Cameron and Foreman to grab a drink after solving a case that had lasted 2 whole weeks. He remembered that House found them a bit later and sat with them for a little while before testifying that his bike wasn't working and that he needed a ride back home.
Chase was the one who lost when they left the decision to fate. He always lost in rock-scissors-paper.
The next memory the young doctor had on his mind was that House let him into his house, although Chase didn't exactly knew how that had happened.
And the last thing registered in the Aussie's brain was that he was in House's bed, with his boss on top of him.
It definitely had to be a practical joke.
He didn't know how would House react to this. Would he yell? Would he deny everything? Would he make fun of him for sleeping with a much older man?
Chase really didn't want to know, and when he realised that House was waking up, he pretended to be asleep and close his eyes without moving.
Anyway he couldn't, he was tangled in House's arms, warm and cosy. Chase wondered if they actually did it or if they just happened to fall asleep.
And then he felt someone moving. His boss was awake and apparently, he had no idea as to why he was embracing his employee like that. Or why both were naked. Or even why Chase was in the same bed.
Without a word, and with no apparent consideration to the sleeping boy, House got up and grabbed his cane heading directly to the bathroom. But before closing the door he gave a quick glance to the apparently sleeping young doctor in his bed. His mouth opened and then closed, as if he had nothing good to say to explain the situation.
He still quite didn't understand why would he sleep with Chase if there where so many good hookers out in the street to satisfy him. His leg was hurting like hell, but that was something of every morning.
He didn't like anybody rather than Stacy (and that was relative, because no human being could possibly love someone and yet hurt them so much… then again, he wasn't a normal human being) Why was Chase special? He had to be in order to have ended up sleeping in his bed and around him.
He could wake his youngest duckling abruptly and study his reaction when he found himself naked and on his boss' bed, but then he had to actually talk to him, and that was the last thing House needed this early in the morning. So he just closed the door and turn on the shower.
Once Chase heard the water running he sat in the bed, not knowing what to do next. House didn't wake him up, so he obviously didn't want to discuss the situation at present, neither did he for that matter.
Chase buried his face on his hands and let out a preoccupied sigh, he was sure that House would make him pay this later at work, probably with subtle comments on homosexuality, but with nothing very explicit though. And maybe, just maybe… he would tell Wilson. Although Chase was hoping this was too embarrassing for House to tell someone, he didn't want the oncologist blaming him for something.
Chase stayed in his place for about ten minutes, until he heard that the water stopped. House just finished showering, and unless he wanted to see his boss coming out with nothing but a towel around his waist he had to get up and leave, he definitely needed a shower too anyway.
He put on his clothes and left the apartment as quietly as possible, his car was still parked in front of the house.
Inside 221 B, House just heard a car leaving hurriedly while he stepped outside the bathroom, leaving him with the idea that Chase didn't want to discuss this either.
I'm open, you're closed
Where I follow, you'll go
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again
A couple of hours later, House entered his office with a brand new file on his hand. Wilson had just give it to him, claiming that he might as well use his time on a case instead of the clinic, and since House was trying to avoid Cuddy all morning he took the file, no questions asked, and headed right into his office.
The team was there already, Foreman was reading some magazine and was already half way trough with it. Cameron was just finishing with the coffee, so she must've arrived a few minutes ago. And finally, Chase was doing one of his eternal crosswords, House took mental notice that he was freshly showered and that his mind was somewhere else (probably still in the morning events) since none of the blank spaces were filled.
"Dying woman people" House announced loudly, making Chase jump from his seat, meaning he wasn't even listening to his surroundings.
"35 year-old, she had seizures, lack of breath and psychosis." Cameron read as she took the file. House wrote the symptoms on the board and was a little bit disappointed. This was actually an easy case, but it was better than doing clinic hours.
"Differential diagnosis"
"Drugs" Foreman said immediately.
"No way" replied Cameron, "she has a little baby and I doubt she'll risk her daughter's health like that"
"How do you know she cares at all?"
"Because her baby is perfectly fine."
Both continued arguing, while House noticed that Chase didn't say a word during the differential, he didn't even seem to be tuned in the same wave. Finally, House walked forward and threw the marker to the Aussie, when the object hit him in the chest the boy seemed to come back to reality.
"Tell you what," House started, "you can go and play with our dying woman, poke her with all the sharp objects you want. The first one that gets the diagnosis right won't have to fill in for me in the clinic for a week, and I'll get to see which one of you is the smartest doggy" He said, he didn't want to waste his time on a woman that so obviously had post-partum depression because her husband probably wasn't even at home to help her around. Maybe she used some sort of antidepressants that caused her symptoms. And he would now see if his team was stupid enough not to notice.
Either way, it gave him some time to concentrate on Chase.
"You're not going to tell us what to do." Asked Cameron a bit confused, this wasn't exactly like House.
"Nope."
Cameron nodded and went to see the patient. Foreman followed and Chase stood up by instinct.
"Whoa, where are you going Sparky?"
For a moment, Chase's brain seemed to stop. "Run some tests"
"Do you even know what we were talking about?" House asked.
"Patient"
"Oh sure, how could I have doubted you. What patient?"
"Dying woman-" Chase's eyes trailed off to the white board to see the symptoms that he obviously didn't hear when House cut his sight off.
"No peaking wombat"
So the young doctor lowered his sight and said nothing. He knew that House didn't stop him just for that. He knew that House expected him to say something about the morning incident because he wasn't going to. He was always so closed, but expected everyone else to be open.
For once, Chase actually thought it was a good idea.
"Listen, about this morning, I-"
"You were obviously not here this morning, now go and find out what we were talking about and do your job." House snapped at him
Usually, and under other circumstances, Chase would've just follow House's orders. But he really wanted to set things right (although that was virtually impossible, because nothing would ever account for what had happened to be right). He wanted to hear House saying it was a mistake, that he was too drunk. Hell, he would even like to hear House was high enough to confuse him with a girl.
But Chase knew better. His heart didn't want to hear those words, he wanted to hear House knew what he was doing… because he felt good when he woke up. Confused. But good nonetheless.
Besides House wasn't drunk or high last night as far as he remembered. They probably just got caught up in the moment. Chase kept remembering things all morning. And just a few minutes ago when his co-workers were busy, he remembered how House was teasing him, how he would make improper comments. How he caught his wrist when he was about to go back to his own place. How he pushed him against a wall demanding to kiss him back.
Chase even remembered that when they stopped the kiss, House smiled slightly, and the Aussie was surprised to see his face lighting up for just a mere kiss.
Chase was afraid to never see that smile again.
"We need to talk, House"
"No we don't, for all I care you could've been a hooker" He stated making eye contact, "last night shouldn't have happened."
"Fine."
Chase left the office hiding his face. He never expected those words to hurt so much.
It didn't slip House that his youngest duckling was actually crying, but he said nothing and sat down to play his video game.
Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide
About two hours later, the oncologist entered House's office to find him still engaged on his video game. He wanted to talk to him about a couple of things that he noticed throughout the day. For once, why was he not seeing the sick woman.
And also why Chase was acting so weird since early in the morning.
"I just saw your team poking a woman with lots of needles" stated Wilson to grab House's attention.
"She's their new toy." The diagnostician answered back without lifting his face.
"You're supposed to solve the case you know."
"Well then you should've thought this better, she is no case at all. The woman has post-partum depression and a bad reaction to anti-depressants."
"My your fast, are you trying to break a record?" asked Wilson with some irony on his voice.
"C'mon, you knew she was no mystery at all, why did you give it to me?"
"You didn't ask anything."
"Oh yeah, I was running away from Cuddy. Now you know why they are poking her and why I'm here."
The oncologist rolled his eyes but said nothing more, he knew the woman was not a real case, but he wanted to see if House would accept it just for the pleasure to take an easy case. He didn't expect him to take it because he was avoiding Cuddy and the clinic that badly.
"So, what's up with Chase?"
"Why? He got seduced by another dying nine year-old?" House mocked, he knew what Wilson was talking about, but he decided to avoid the issue as long as possible, "I told him to stay away from nine years-old, but he seems to enjoy it."
"House-"
"I don't know, I'm not God you know."
"Maybe you're not God, but you like playing you're God with your employees." Said Wilson, playing along. "Could it be something you did?"
"Why do you always assume it's because of me, I haven't done anything to the wombat… yet." House replied.
"Because it's always you. And that was a lie, you did something." The oncologist attacked, he knew Chase was angry with House because when he asked for the diagnostician, the Australian cursed and left.
House could easily kept lying until Wilson got tired of the game, but that would've leave him in the same situation as before. He needed to talk, he needed to tell someone what he did and that he pushed Chase away, so the only one left was the oncologist.
"I don't know if it counts." House said, popping in two vicodin pills, "I let him stay at my place yesterday."
"That's all?" inquired Wilson.
"Yeah, that's why he is so upset this morning, because I was so nice to him." He said sarcastically, "of course not, you idiot. We slept together."
The face Wilson made at the time was priceless, and House wished he had a camera to take the picture. Although that probably would've been really bad, since the reaction came from something bad he did and just confessed.
Something he was trying to explain logically, and couldn't.
"Oh God, you're in so much trouble." Wilson finally said. "How could you even do it... He's Chase, he works for you!"
"Okay, first of all we didn't have sex, we just slept together. Second of all, don't you think I've noticed?"
"Probably not." Confessed the oncologist, he still didn't believe what he just heard, "Then explain something to me, because I'm obviously missing something. How can Chase be so angry at you if he consented to sleep with you?"
"Well, maybe because he didn't actually consent" said House, like guessing.
"You raped him!"
"What part of we-didn't-have-sex didn't you understand?" asked House. "I just got him to strip and crawl into bed like a four year-old."
"You're unbelievable. You really would go to any lengths to get what you want, wouldn't you? You read Stacy's file so that she would fall for you. What did you do to Chase? Did you drug him? Just so you know how it feels to kiss a guy, or to see how much you can break Chase down?"
House never stopped looking at his friend into his eyes, the game boy left to oblivion. But he remained silent. Every now and then, Wilson was right about him. This was one of those times.
He went to look for his ducklings just to trick Chase into giving him a ride home. Fortunately the Aussie lost and drove him. Chase was complaining of a headache produced by a hard day at work. House gave him a pill of vicodin telling Chase that it was some ibuprofen, and the boy swallowed the pill, no questions asked.
Not much later, the Aussie was high and House told him to go inside the house since he obviously couldn't drive like that. He just wanted to see if the feelings he was having for Chase would vanish if he kissed him, since he was a man, and House never considered himself as liking men.
Ever since Rowan died, House found himself worried about his youngest duckling, he didn't seem to have any other relatives or friends. And the boy seemed to like House since he usually agreed with him.
And from one day to the next, he found himself desiring the Aussie's body, although he didn't know why. He wanted to know how if would feel to kiss him, to touch him. And last night, the opportunity presented.
The good thing was that now, House knew he liked Chase, and that it wasn't his imagination.
The bad thing was that he wanted it to happen again.
"You better set this right House, you've tortured Chase before, but this is too much."
The oncologist gave his ultimatum and left House's office.
The diagnostician didn't go back to his game boy, he knew that he had fallen hard this time. He actually did something really terrible just for the pleasure to do so.
And yet, even when he knew that he and Chase were total opposites, he liked the feeling when the Aussie was near.
I'm quiet you know
You make a first impression
I've found I'm scared to know I'm always on your mind
Three hours later, and after a lot of unnecessary tests on their hands, the team was back with House. Foreman was really happy because his drug test was positive for very strong anti-depressants. Cameron thought it was caused by mere stress and Chase (who still didn't know anything and didn't bother to check at all since his head was still somewhere else) gave the long shot that she had multiple personalities and that she should be sent to psych ward.
"That's all you got?" Asked House a bit disappointed. Apparently, they were stupid enough to obviate simple things.
Then again, it was a long time since any of them managed a simple case under his guidance, the thought that the woman might not actually have some very bizarre disease didn't even pass through their brains.
"Okay people, lets go back to med school." Started the diagnostician. "First of all, less cross out seizures and lack of breathing since she has none of them."
"Now you're just picking symptoms, that's new" said Foreman sarcastically.
"No, the anti-depressant caused those, she hasn't had any since her admission because I'm assuming you never gave her more, she probably just had a bad reaction to them when she combined them with something else." Explained House. "So, what causes psicosis on a 35 year-old woman with a new born and no experience at all."
"Post-partum depression." Said Chase immediately, it was the first kind of thing he learnt at his psych rotation. And he mentally slapped himself for not noticing.
"But she said she wasn't depressed." Said Cameron.
"And I would assume you believed her of course." Mocked House.
"She actually seemed fine to me." Agreed Foreman.
"No, that's just because you were so hyped up with your brilliant attribution to drugs. Or lupus."
"So nobody wins." Said Cameron.
"Nope, apparently your brains are too messed up already to think simple and nice things."
"Well, that's your fault, you never handle simple cases to begin with, I don't even want to know why you took this one." Accused Foreman, he really wanted to be off clinic duty.
"But I love simple cases." Said House sarcastically and with a big grin on his face. "Foreman, you have clinic duty, Cameron… go and find something to do. Chase, my office."
An annoyed Foreman left the diagnostics room, grabbing House's tag name. Cameron went off to the lab and Chase got up from his chair to follow his boss silently.
House sat down on his chair and kept staring at Chase, waiting for the Australian to do something. But the reality was that the boy was frozen. After how House denied everything he didn't want to push things further, so he just sat down, eyes on the floor and remained quiet. The impression he got earlier from his boss made him quite clear that last night was really a bad mistake.
"You can't stay quiet forever." Said House after a long moment of silence.
"You didn't seem open to discussion earlier."
"Really? Must've slipped my mind. I'm open now. Talk"
"I honestly don't know why I did it. It's not like me. I-"
"Would you do it again if you got the chance?" interrupted House, he needed to know. He wanted to hear Chase saying yes.
"No." Lied the Australian.
House had two options now.
He knew Chase was lying, his body language was telling him more than that. Which actually gave him an advantage.
He could accept that to be true, let Chase go and never mention it again.
Or he could let the Aussie know he was aware of the lie and see his reaction.
Neither of them were good ideas, since he already tortured Chase more than enough to top it up with further humiliation. And he didn't want to let him go. Not know.
Chase just sat there, waiting for an answer. He wanted to do it again, even if the first time was a mistake. It didn't matter to him if he was his boss or not. He just wanted to kiss House again, and to see him smile again.
But at the same time, he was afraid of House's answer. If he said he didn't want it to happen again, everything would end there. But if he said he actually wanted it to happen again…
Chase didn't even want to think what would happen then. He was scared to find out that his boss like him. Even though he really wanted it.
Suddenly, House got up and went to the door to lock it up. Both of them. He close the blinds too and Chase got tense.
"I don't believe you." Finally said the diagnostician.
And without giving Chase time to refuse the argument he grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him to kiss him. The Aussie was caught off guard, but yet he didn't flinch or tried to break the kiss. He got hold of House's wrist and closed distances with his boss.
Don't stop here
I lost my place
I'm close behind
As impossible as it seemed, none of them wanted to break the kiss, but oxygen started to become a priority, so they did.
"See, told you you lied." Mocked House with a grin of satisfaction on his face.
"You did too."
"Everybody lies."
Chase decided it was smarter to say nothing at all and just wait to see what House would do. The younger doctor was actually happy that his boss had those kind of feelings for him, because he kept holding himself back, reminding himself that House was his employer, that he was straight, that the relationship was virtually impossible.
Now all that didn't sound so crazy anymore.
"So, what now?" asked House, and Chase noticed that there was no trace of sarcasm on his voice. He was dead serious. "I know you'll keep treating me like your boss in front of Cameron and Foreman. I will certainly keep making fun of you as much as I can. But it's obvious that I lost the place of boss on your perverted British mind."
"Australian." Replied Chase with a grin, it was the first time he didn't mind being called British.
"As far as I see it there's not much we can do." Continued the blond doctor. "Either we pretend it didn't happen or we keep this up for as long as we can."
"So, you really want this."
"I thought you did."
"That was not the question."
"Yes."
House nodded in agreement. He was still going to be the same rotten bastard he was, making sharp comments to Chase, even when they might actually hurt the boy (he would make sure to compensate that later). And he would be close to Chase, like he wanted to.
Even when they always were at each other's nerves.
You finally find
You and I collide
END