AuthorsNotes: I know I'm supposed to be finishing my other story (Something Different) but I had this in my head after seeing The Confession and just had to get it down. This is just a little Chase introspective piece about working for House and how he feels about being back.
He'd almost forgotten what it's like, how much he missed all of this. It's only been a year but it feels so much longer. When he first heard House was going to prison and the department was going to be disbanded he was shocked. All those times House cheated going to jail it seems his luck finally ran out, he never thought Cuddy would be the one to put him there though. Before she leaves she promises him a glowing recommendation to any hospital he wishes to apply to. Even before she finishes making the offer he knows that after all these years he can work nowhere else. So he decides he'll take a year off from medicine and do some traveling it's only temporary he tells himself House will be back, he has faith.
Originally he had only taken the fellowship as a way to further his career. After all House was one of the best diagnosticians in the country and putting having worked for him down on your resume would open doors or so he thought. The more time he spent on the team though the more he realized that this was more than just a job. It's difficult for him to put it into words even now after spending nearly nine years working for House. Cameron once told him that House corrupts people he takes them and changes them for better and worse. It didn't happen overnight but somewhere along the way he realized he truly was a different man than the one that started all those years ago. He's been an altar boy, playboy, he's helped saved countless lives and taken a life.
He isn't entirely sure what makes him keep coming back he thinks it must be the whole experience. The friendships he's made at PPTH have been some of the longest lasting of his life. He may give them both crap constantly but Foreman and Taub have been with him through the up's and down's and at the end of the day that counts for a whole lot. Then there's House himself, the ringleader of their little group. House has a dedication to his patients that he has never seen in another doctor, he is willing to do whatever it takes to save them whether it's illegal or immoral. Chase has hated him, respected him, and even been afraid of him but no matter what he has always come back for more.
He will never admit this to anyone but in some ways he's come to see House as a replacement father figure. Sometimes he thinks House may see him as a son or at least a protégée, and when House tells him how happy he is that that the prodigal son has returned and hugs him he is shocked but looking passed the sarcasm he knows House has missed him too. That's why he knows he could never practice medicine anywhere else everything about working for House has forever corrupted him and deep down he wouldn't have it any other way.