Disclaimer:We, bandogurl and amhalgaidh-wolfegurl,do not now, nor ever, own any characters, locations, ideas or themes related to the Fox Medical Drama, House, MD. They belong to Fox and whoever wrote it (name escapes me at the moment).We do, however, own Anali and her family.We would appreciate it if no one would steal them from us. bandogurl & amhalgaidh-wolfegurl

To Where She Belonged

Chapter One:

"Chase, how in hell did you manage to marry a total babe?" Dr. House asked when he walked into the team's conference room one day in September. Dr. Chase had been reading a particularly thick volume and looked up, entirely confused.

Dr. Cameron gave Chase a look. "You never told us you were married," she accused, feigning hurt.

House smirked at the blush that was creeping up Chase's face. "Oh, yeah, Anali's a gorgeous woman," he said. "Met her last night at a bar. So sad that you're not around her enough to keep her company."

"You met her at a bar?" Chase repeated, dropping his book. Dr. Foreman chuckled quietly. "Anali doesn't drink."

"She said you haven't come home in over a week, Chase," House said casually. "What's going on? Are you cheating on her? Can't see why you would."

"Excuse me," Chase muttered, getting to his feet. He pulled out his cell phone and left the room.

As soon as the door closed, Foreman turned to House and, with an amused smile, asked, "Did you really meet his wife at a bar?"

"Of course not," House said. "She's been one of my patients for years. I saw her at the supermarket. I just wanted to see his reaction." He sighed as he plonked himself in an unoccupied chair. "But, apparently, there's trouble in paradise. Did you know she could have been a better intensivist than he is if she had stuck with the practice after they had gotten married? Gave up on being a doctor altogether. Still hates it when I call her Dr. Morstan-Chase."

"She gave up the practice when they married?" Cameron repeated. "What on earth for?"

"She didn't want to make him feel incomplete somehow," House said, twirling his cane. "Her attention to detail is phenomenal. Have you seen any of her writings? That's what she does now, by the way. Writes. All day long. How satisfying can that be? She could be helping us save lives, but no, she decides she wants her adorable little hubby to feel adequate as the bread winner and quits."

"You can't hold that against her, House," Foreman said. "If I was in her position, I'd probably do the same thing."

"What about you, Cameron?" House asked, looking at her pointedly. "Would you feel that compassionate for him? Would you give up your dreams of helping people just for your husband?"

She didn't answer immediately. She was giving House a look of silent loathing. "Possibly," she said quietly. "If it meant he'd be happier."

House nodded. "Women are all the same," he said. "Make their men happy; that's what they live for. But now, I'm guessing it isn't enough to keep him happy. What would keep Robert Chase from going home to his beautiful wife every night?"

"I hope you're not suggesting he's having an affair," Cameron protested. House looked at her pointedly again. "House, it's one thing to joke about it with him, but you can't be serious about it when he's gone!" She paused to think for a moment. "Did you do this with Wilson?"

"Of course I did!" he said, a sparkle in his eye. "But, now the question remains: who's he sleeping with and why is he feeling so guilty that he doesn't want to see Anali?" He took a moment to think about it. "Of course, the real question is why would he cheat on her in the first place? That woman has got to be great in bed."

"Will you stop talking about his wife like that?" Cameron demanded. "It's degrading."

"Oh, I'm sorry," House said sarcastically. "I forgot that admiring a woman's sexual attractiveness was offensive to you."

Foreman looked thoughtful. "Does she have any flaws that you know of?" he asked. Cameron threw her hands in the air in disgust. "Physical, character, mannerisms that drives Chase insane with irritation?"

"She's anaemic," House said lightly. "But I would think that would make him love her more."

"Does he know she's anaemic?"

"Not as far as I know," House replied. "Of course I didn't know he wasn't coming home at night until she told me in the middle of the produce aisle. I swear, I've gone from just being her diagnostician to her therapist."

"Well, did she cheat on him and now he's upset?" Foreman asked, leaning against the wall.

"Are you kidding me?" House snorted. "She's Mormon—oh, excuse me. LDS. Gotta keep it PC." He noticed the odd looks from Cameron and Foreman. "They were separated during the 'All In' case. Little Ian with Ester's symptoms. Foreman, didn't he move in with you for a while?"

"He told me his apartment building was getting repiped," Foreman said, shrugging.

"He lied," House said simply. "Chase lied to you so you wouldn't ask questions, Foreman. He's been lying to all of use by making us think he's single by not wearing his wedding ring."

"Was there any truth in what he's said about her?" Cameron asked. "Well, to you, anyway?"

"It was his fault they separated at all," House said, beginning a list. "She doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke. She enjoys working in theatre. Stage, not movie. Her father's British, which makes her British-American, which semi-explains her accent. But then, she's been married to him for six years, so that may explain the rest of her accent. Basically, she could pass for a full Briton if she felt like it." He looked at his watch. "And actually, she's due in Exam Room Two in five minutes. Which means I can be ten minutes late for clinic duty because she doesn't care."


"Hello, Anali," House said, limping his way into Exam Room Two. The twenty-seven-year-old brunette was laying on the examination bed, her legs crossed at the ankles, her hands folded comfortably on her stomach and her eyes closed. She smirked when House spoke to her. "How're you feeling? Anaemia giving you problems?"

"You told him, didn't you?" she asked, her soft voice, thick with a British-Australian accent, amazingly filled the room with sound. House was surprised when Chase first introduced his wife. She never spoke much above a whisper, but she could capture your attention with the slightest murmur and you heard every word she uttered. "You told him what I told you. In confidence, House."

"You told me in the produce aisle at the supermarket," he said, sarcasm dripping from his every word. "If it was really in confidence, you wouldn't have told me last night. You would've told me today. Right now, in fact."

"All right, I'll tell you now," she said, her eyes still shut serenely as though she were peacefully napping. "He hasn't come home for ten days, House. I miss him terribly and I'm afraid of what the loneliness is doing to my body."

House pulled his rolling chair towards the bed and sat, leaning his cane against the bed. "Chronic fatigue?" he asked. She uttered a quiet sound of affirmative. "Slight headaches?" Again, affirmative. "Are the headaches daily?"

"Yes," she said. "They're not exactly migraines, but they're not exactly pleasant, either."

"I can imagine," he muttered. "You're a socially anti-social creature, Anali. You crave the seclusion that you've captured in your apartment, but you need the companionship of your husband more than you crave the seclusion." He sighed. "Do you have any ideas as to why he hasn't come home?"

She opened her eyes and gently sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She looked House square in the eyes and said, "None. He called me as I was checking in for my appointment. There was nothing in his voice that suggested any sort of reason for his continual absence. It was the first time he had called since Day Two."

"I told him we met in a bar last night," House said.

"I don't drink."

"I know that," he replied lightly. "But he seemed panicked enough to believe that you would lose your non-alcoholic resolve for a brief evening. Something must be wrong."

"Well, obviously something's wrong," she said. "The last time he didn't come home for over a week, we ended up separated for two months because he needed to 'explore other options.' Do men always need options?"

"You want the honest truth?" She nodded. "Yeah, we do. But then again, so do women. Did you know women are more prone to having affairs than men because of a natural desire for prolongation of the species? They are more naturally inclined to have affairs with extremely handsome men to ensure their children are born beautiful. Don't you think he's under the impression that you had sex with other men while you were separated? He's probably brooding over the fact that he had to share you because he 'needed options.' Does that make sense?"

"Yes, but I didn't sleep with anyone during our separation," she said. "He's always been the only one for me. Maybe I'm insane and the exception to the rule that women need affairs, or maybe it's just the good little Mormon girl in me coming out, but that's the truth. I've only ever needed him, House. Just Robert."

"His first name's Robert?" he asked. "Oh, wait. I knew that." He sighed. "All right," House said, getting to his feet and pulling out his stethoscope. He put the ear buds in his ears and pressed the amplifier against her back under her shirt. "Deep breath. Again. And… Again." He stowed the stethoscope in his pocket. "Nothing suspicious in your lungs. A nurse took your other stats?" She nodded. "Perfectly normal?"

"Slight temperature," she shrugged. "Other than that, nothing extraordinarily out of place."

"Slight temperature?" House repeated. He didn't bother to check her chart. "How slight?"

"97.3," she said. "My normal temperature's 96.8. But the higher temperature's probably just an after-effect of the headaches."

House nodded. "Right," he said. "You know, I haven't heard you sing in a while. Indulge me."

"What do you want to hear?" she asked. He gave her his 'sing anything' look. "Time and time again, I say that I don't care, I'm immune to gloom, that I'm strong through and through. But every time it matters, all my words desert me. So anyone can hurt me. And they do. So what happens now? So what happens now? Where am I going to? Where am I going to?"

"Still lovely," he said absently. "Okay, I'm gonna fill a prescription for you. And depending on how busy the pharmacy is, that's how it'll take." He began to leave before she stopped him.

"You're going to medicate me?"

"It'll just help you focus and relax," he said, closing the door behind him. He went to the nearly empty pharmacy and filled the prescription. Then he paged Chase to come.

"What? What is it? What's wrong?" Chase asked as he ran over to House. "Is she all right?"

"She's fine," House said. "She wants to talk to you. Exam Room Two." He pushed the reluctant Chase towards the door with his cane.

Chase slowly entered the exam room. Anali was lying on the examination bed with her eyes closed. When he closed the door, she said, "I refuse to take anti-depressants, House, if that's what you want to give me."

"I'm not House, Anali," Chase said quietly. She opened her eyes and sat up, but said nothing to him. "House said you wanted to talk to me." She shook her head. "He lied." She nodded. He turned to leave, but found that while he could turn the door handle, he couldn't open the door. "He's leaning on it. I suppose that means we're stuck in here for a while." He pulled the rolling chair away from the bed and sat by the door and looked at his lovely wife silently.

They sat in silence for several minutes, looking at each other. Their eyes never met, but they flittered over every inch of each other's face. "Robert…" she whispered. "I miss you." His eyes flicked up to meet hers. There was very little in his expression that confessed that he felt the same. She wasn't entirely surprised by this. If there was only one man who rarely expressed any emotion beyond mere amusement or slight anger, it was Robert Chase. "Why haven't you come home? Have I done something to offend you into leaving? Tell what's wrong so I can fix it."

"I can't, Anali," he said. "It isn't your fault. There's nothing for you to fix."

"Then tell me what's wrong so I can help you fix it," she urged, getting off the examination bed. She crossed the room to him and reached out her hand to brush his blond hair from where it fell into his eyes. He rolled away from her. "Robert, please."

"Anali, I can't do this right now," he whispered. "I have to figure this out on my own."

"Figure what out, exactly?"

"Nothing, Anali!" he said sharply. "I just… I just can't hurt you… Again."

He could see tears pooling in her dark green eyes. "Too late," she whispered. "The fact that you haven't come home in ten days has hurt me. I want you to come home, Robert. I need you to."

The door swung open. House limped inside, saying, "All righty then, Anali. I've got your prescription ready for you. Unless this is a bad time?" He looked between Chase and Anali. Chase rolled his eyes and pushed past House out of the Examination Room.

House held out a small glass bottle to Anali. She hesitantly took it. It was filled with a liquid of some sort. "What is it?" she asked, fighting the tears that were still trying to force their way to the surface.

"Lavender oil," he said. "Pour half a teaspoon in your bath every night until it's gone. You should be more relaxed and focused. According to Cosmo, anyway."

She smiled faintly. "Thank you, Dr. House," she said. She started to walk out of the room, but stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. "You read Cosmo?" she asked, a stronger smile pulling at her mouth.

"Only for the awesome sex tips," he said.

She smiled. "Good day, Dr. House," she said and walked out.