Chloe sat opposite the white-haired, crinkle-eyed Dr Wright. Just seeing his kind face again was stirring emotions from the last time she'd seen him. She felt dangerously close to tears. He looked up from reviewing her file.

"So how have you been Chloe? What brings you back to see me?"

As Dr Wright spoke, the door to his office swung open and House walked in.

"Sorry I'm late," he said with a grimace, plonking down on the chair next to Chloe.

Chloe was stunned. But then, she realised, this was just like him. Of course he wasn't going to take 'go away' at face value.

House had watched her walk down the corridor. He'd even gone back to his office and sat down for a few minutes. Then his burning curiosity had further inflamed his anger and he found himself striding angrily back to the second floor, still without entirely understanding why.

Dr Wright looked momentarily confused, but then recovered. He didn't cross paths with Dr House very often, and had been around too long to be bothered with hospital gossip, so he had no idea whether or not they were still a couple. He gave Chloe a questioning look.

Chloe put her head in her hands, needing a moment to think. Trying to get rid of House would cause a scene. And he was a doctor after all – a good one at that. At this point, eliminating the pain was her key focus and if he could help then perhaps it was good that he was here. She rationalised the medical benefits and tried to ignore the many personal reasons screaming at her to get rid of him. She looked up and gave a slight nod to Dr Wright.

"So, where were we?" Dr Wright continued. "Chloe, tell me what's been happening."

Chloe's speech was familiar. She'd repeated it to at least three other doctors at home. They'd all found nothing wrong. Finally her gynaecologist had suggested seeing her original surgeon again; perhaps he might have further ideas. That's how she'd ended up back in New Jersey, back to Dr Wright.

"I've been in constant pain since…" she couldn't help but pause and give a sideways glance to House, "…since the surgery. Some days it's bearable. Some days I can hardly walk. I can't work properly, I can't concentrate."

"Describe the pain." House interrupted.

Dr Wright sighed. So this is how it is going to go, he thought.

"It changes. Mostly, like now, it's a dull throb. Sometimes it's a sharp stabbing pain. Sometimes the stabbing pain goes on for hours. It's deep inside, like it's in my bones. Sometimes it feels hot," Chloe struggled to adequately describe the indescribable sensation of being in agony.

"Where is the…" House started before the other doctor interrupted.

"Dr House, you're here as an…" Wright searched for an appropriate term, "…an interested party.I'm here as the doctor. Could you please let me ask the questions?"

House rolled his eyes, but sighed and leant back in his chair to signal his abdication from authority.

"Go on Chloe," Dr Wright prompted.

"It goes from my hip joint into my pelvis," Chloe explained, rubbing her hand across the lower right-hand side of her belly in illustration. "The pain is sometimes like back ache, sometimes right in my hip joint and sometimes more like period cramps.

"I've been to three different doctors back home. All of them ran tests and did scans. They found scarring from the surgery but nothing that would explain the level of pain. Finally one of them suggested coming back to see you because you did the surgery and you might have some further ideas."

House was mentally reviewing the symptoms and proposing and discarding diagnoses. He started silently laying out his proposed course of action. He'd want a pelvic exam and an ultrasound, possibly a CT scan if there was nothing concrete from those. Then the usual round of blood tests of course, and they should check her HCG levels just in case.

"Did you previous doctors test your HCG levels?" Dr Wright asked, in unknowing echo of House's thoughts.

Chloe was now familiar enough with the medical terminology related to her situation to know what he was getting at.

"No, it's not a persistent ectopic," she said, robotically. "My HCG has been normal every time it's been tested, which means the surgery was clean, nothing left behind."

"OK," Dr Wright said, "before we go any further, I'd like to do an exam and take some blood." He stood and gestured toward the screen and examination table at the back of the room.

House nodded approvingly, they were on the same track.

Chloe stood and started to move toward the examination table. But she knew she didn't want House there for the procedure. She couldn't bear the thought of him peering intimately at her in a clinical, doctoring fashion and she knew he wouldn't sit meekly by her head, holding her hand. She swallowed hard and forced herself to speak, knowing the argument she was in for.

"Greg, I'd prefer it if you left the room."

House looked shocked, his surprise causing him to say the first thing that popped into his head.

"But I've seen it before!" House's words and his self-righteous tone caused Dr Wright to suck in a breath, gob-smacked by the other doctor's tactlessness. He knew most women didn't like the thought of their romantic partners taking part in this kind of procedure, doctors or not. And there was obviously something strange going on here, something more than just Chloe being bashful.

Chloe closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, trying to pretend he hadn't just said that.

"Greg, that's not the point," she said, flatly.

"But," House's confusion was mounting. It just made sense that he was there for the exam. He could help diagnose her better if he saw for himself than if he just had to go by Wright's scribbled notes. Besides the man must be at least 60, what if his failing eyesight or arthritic hands missed something?

"But, I'm a doctor!" he protested.

"Also not the point," Chloe replied.

"But…" House trailed off, realising his logic was failing him. His next point had been But I'm the one who did this to you. Which was ridiculous, of course.

With a last acidic look at both Chloe and Wright, House rose and walked out of the room.

Chloe let out a ragged breath.

"Are you OK?" Dr Wright asked, concerned at her now pale face.

"I'm fine," Chloe said. "Let's just get this over with."

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Chloe walked out of Dr Wright's office half an hour later with a cotton ball taped to the inside of her elbow, a slip of paper booking her in for an ultrasound the next day and a further appointment with Dr Wright for the day after that. She'd have to delay her flight home, but that would be OK.

Over her years of loyal service she had accrued weeks of sick leave and although her employers were not thrilled with her patchy work record over the past seven months, they'd been surprisingly understanding. They'd been strongly hinting that the client in New Jersey was keen for her to relocate to be more available to them. She decided to call her boss and ask for the next couple of weeks off to investigate whether or not she'd want to take that step. And it was also probably a good idea to take some time to go through the tests than continue to try to balance work and illness.

Now she just had to decide what to do with the rest of the afternoon.

She could follow up on her meeting from that morning, but that wasn't urgent. She'd already checked into her hotel, so she could just go have a nap.

But the anxiety that had been nagging at her all day hadn't gone away. She knew what it was about and realised that it wouldn't leave her until she did something about it. Even if it was the last thing she felt like.

She stopped a passing nurse.

"Excuse me, could you tell me how to find Greg House's office?"

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House sat at his desk, irritated and restless. He'd just had what should have been a satisfying yell at one of his fellows for messing up a simple stress test on a patient. But it hadn't provided the relief he'd expected. He was still angry and confused. Why had he bothered to go to Chloe's appointment? Why had she let him stay but then kicked him out? Why did he even care? She was the one who'd disappeared without a word.

He started sorting through files, slamming them down in piles on his desk with unnecessary force. His distraction meant that Chloe had walked almost all the way up to his desk before he realised she was there.

"What did those papers ever do to you?" she asked lightly, wondering about the depth of his anger.

A little startled by her presence, House stopped mid-sort and looked up at her.

"I imagine these pieces of paper are better at returning phone calls than some people," he said bitterly, the words out before he could stop them. "At least they have given me a second thought in the last seven months."

Chloe felt physically sick at his accusation. She hadn't expected him to be so forthright. Feeling a little weak, she grabbed for a chair and sat down.

House dropped the files in his hand onto the nearest pile and sat back in his chair. They regarded each other frankly for a moment.

"Greg, I…" Chloe started, wincing slightly as she unconsciously pushed a hand into her belly, trying to quell the pain in her abdomen that had started pulling harder. "I'd like to talk…"

They were interrupted by the sound of an argument; three doctors had entered the adjoining conference room and were loudly discussing a case. The door between the office and the room was open, and at any moment they'd turn around and see Chloe and House talking.

"Not now," House said bluntly, one ear on the conversation in the next room.

Chloe nodded. Impulsively, she grabbed a pen and post-it note from his desk.

"I'm staying at the Park Hyatt. This is my room number," she said, writing it down. "And my cell phone in case you don't have it any more. Meet me in the bar in the foyer?" she added, making it a question.

"It'll be about eight before I can get there," House replied, judging from the conversation in the next door meeting room that he was still in for a long afternoon.

"That's fine, see you then." Chloe rose, stifling a small groan as the movement provoked a sharp stab of pain. She left his office without looking back, her teeth gritted. Once she was sure she was out of his line of sight, she leant against the wall, gasping at the hot swords stabbing into her. Her pain killers were back in her hotel room. She'd just have to make it.

House watched her leave. He fully recognised the look on her face as she'd left. It was the look of someone who was exhausted by being in pain. It was a look he knew well.

He grabbed his cell phone and scrolled through the contacts. Chloe Parker. Of course he still had her number. She'd almost had his child.