Please Forgive Me

Chapter One

After the lockdown was over and the patients, visitors, and staff were finally free to leave the hospital, Dr. Chase stood on the balcony overlooking the lobby and watched his ex-wife leave the hospital for the last time, heartbroken upon realizing that this was most likely the last time he'd ever see or hear from her again. They may have parted on good terms, which is good compared to how they left things the last time they parted, but that fact didn't make this parting any easier for either of them.

Once Cameron was gone, Chase turned and walked back through the corridors and found Foreman, Taub, and Thirteen inside House's office as they were getting ready to leave for the night. House walked in a few minutes later and simply walked past his team without muttering a word. It was obvious that he was upset about something.

"All right, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what's wrong?" Taub asked as most of them, with the exception of Chase, walked over to stand in front of their boss and stared at him with contempt. "You look like you've just been given the worst news in the world, or on second thought, you look like what every other person would after being given the worst news in the world."

"And both you and Foreman are acting as though you're stoned," the genius doctor replied in his usual manner as he looked up at them. "Or at the very least, coming down from being stoned. It's good to know exactly how you spend your downtime."

Forman rolled his eyes in frustration, realizing how stupid he was for thinking that they'd be able to get away with hiding their getting high from the man who always seemed to know everything, as he stated, "Taub and I were stuck down in the records room after we both went down there to search for our patient's latest file and we happened to find an old stash of your vicodin. There was time to kill and nothing to kill it with. So we tried to put ourselves in your shoes. It may have been stupid, but now we know not to ever do it again. And we certainly don't envy you."

House looked at them in confusion as he asked mockingly, "And it really took two of you to search for the patient's records?"

"That's really what you took away from all that?" Remy stated.

"Yes," he answered quickly. "I don't care about the rest of it. Most of the words that come out of your mouth sound more like the invisible adults from all of those Peanuts movies they run on TV every year during the holidays."

Foreman grumbled, "Yeah, we figured as much."

House stood up stiffly, using his cane to lean on for help, then walked over to the table where Chase was finishing packing his bag and sensing his depressed mood he asked, "So, what exactly is wrong with you tonight? Did you get stuck watching a boring old man spill his sob story before killing over too, or did you take some sort of anti, anti-depression drugs instead of some of my old vicodin pills?"

"It's nothing," the Australian responded coldly. "I'm tired. It's been a long night and I just want to go home to shower and crawl into bed."

"Do I look stupid to you?" House asked sarcastically. "Gee, I must have been born yesterday. Please, you might be tired, but there's something else, isn't there?"

The younger doctor glared at his boss as he replied, "I believe Taub asked you about what the hell was bugging you first. Answer him first and then I just might consider answering you."

The narcissist looked between the others as he spoke up saying, "That's funny, I thought I already did. I said an old geezer died tonight after boring himself to death. I thought I made myself pretty clear."

"I've got to admit, he kind of did," Thirteen answered in agreement. "I suggest you just talk, otherwise House will keep right on hassling you. Wilson and I played truth or dare tonight. I got him to steal a dollar from the cafeteria's cash register, which he put back immediately out of guilt and he dared me to show Taub my boobs, which I did."

"Which you did on your way out the door, so what are you doing back here?" Taub asked curiously.

She smiled and responded, "I enjoyed showing you my boobs so much, I thought I'd come back to show Chase and House too, seeing as Foreman's already seen them. No, actually I just left my cell phone here. It's as Chase said, it's been a long day."

Foreman chuckled and then looked over at Chase as he said again, "Come on, it's your turn. We've all shared what we did tonight. What'd you do? Spill it."

"Fine, Cameron stopped by and when we got trapped in here during the lockdown, we talked, I finally signed the divorce papers, and then we had sex one last time," Chase replied in frustration.

"You had sex with your ex-wife just after signing divorce papers?" House asked with surprise. "Wow, that must have been some talk. Either that, or she was wearing really tight pants and an incredibly revealing shirt. As for why she would agree to have sex with you, maybe it's the new haircut. Perhaps if you cut it like this before, she might have stayed with you."

The Australian glared at the man tiredly, then walked to the door with his pack over his shoulder while he answered, "I'm leaving. See you guys tomorrow."

As Chase was leaving, House called out, "Enjoying another round of sex with that succubus you supposedly call your ex!"

Meanwhile…

Cameron walked slowly to her car while she jingled her keys in her hand subconsciously, as her mind was on the tough and yet beautiful night she had just spent with the man she still loved despite her own personal issues that she knew she couldn't force upon him. She knew how much she was hurting him, because she felt the same pain he was undoubtedly feeling too.

Her mind was so lost inside of her thoughts that she didn't sense someone was watching her from a short distance, nor did she sense she was in any danger until a man came up behind her and suddenly wrapped his arm around to the front of her face, pinning her body tightly between his own and the body of her car, as he held a cloth drenched in chloroform over her nose and mouth. She struggled against him as she tried to scream, but he held his grasp firm while he tried to calm her by shushing quietly into her ear until she finally lost consciousness after two minutes of trying to hold her breath to avoid breathing the pungent liquid in.

As she started to collapse against him, the abductor pulled her into his arms and cradled her against him as he carried her over to his own car, then laid her gently inside its trunk, but before he closed the hatch, he tenderly stroked the side of her face, having become infatuated by the doctor's beauty, the same way he had felt during the three nights he remained in the hospital while she treated and cared for him months ago.

After he finally stood up straight and closed the trunk, the man drove away from the hospital taking Dr. Allison Cameron with him. Thirty-five minutes later, Chase walked outside and headed into the parking lot toward his car while he pulled out his cell phone and called Cameron nervously, wanting to tell her something he had forgotten to tell her earlier. However, as he waited for her to pick up on the other end of the line, the ringing grew louder the closer to his car he became. That was when he stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing Cameron's car still parked not too far away from where his own was parked.

As he nervously walked toward her car, her phone went to voicemail and Chase immediately redialed her number, which was when he heard the ringtone she used loud and clear, indicating that her phone was close by. He looked into the vehicle through the closed windows, then swiftly came around the car and that was when he found her phone, along with her purse and keys strewn out across the ground near the driver's side.

"Allison?" the Australian cried out in fear as he looked all around him for any sign of her, then ran his hand through his hair. "Allison!"

"Dr. Chase?" one of the nurses asked worryingly as she walked toward him upon leaving the hospital herself and saw the panic on the man's face while he called out for his wife. "Dr. Chase, is everything alright? What's wrong?"