Summary: Chase takes the job leading the second diagnostics team that Cuddy offered Foreman at the end of season 3. This is the story of him of him finding his own fellows.

Authors note: I actually came up with this idea a couple of months before season 4 started. I have taken some stuff that I've seen from eps 4.1and 4.2, and integrated it, but the story doesn't really have anything to do with what's on TV at the moment.

My first fanfic. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Do not own House/ David Shore characters


Needing a Team

"What are we going to do about Chase?" asks Cuddy. "It's been one month and he hasn't hired a team yet."

Cuddy paces in her office. House sits on the couch, happy that, for once, Cuddy wasn't getting worked up over him.

"You have to make him hire a team," says Cuddy.

"What do you want me to do? Put his feet in boiling water, and make him throw darts at CV's on the wall?" retorts House.

"Please tell me, that's not how you chose the top ten," Wilson asks dryly, leaning on the door frame.

House shrugs his shoulders and smiles mischievously.

"What the hell are you doing here?" asks Cuddy, finally realizing that Wilson is in the room also.

"I thought this was a House employment issue. Did you try threatening Chase?"

"I told him a week ago that he would have clinic duty until hired a team."

"But he has a patient now."

"He found him while working in the clinic. He kept him in the clinic all day yesterday, than admitted him to the Internal Medicine Department instead of Diagnostics, so the patient is still technically a clinic patient."

"That sneaky minx. I taught him well." House muses.

"He's worst than you!" Cuddy declares, flopping exasperatedly into her chair. House and Wilson chuckle. Never had they thought that the mild- mannered Aussie would put Cuddy in such distress. Neither did she, apparently. "I can't force him with clinic duty, he actually works, and he doesn't have any vices I can exploit."

"Don't you mean habits to support?" House says as he pops a Vicodin in his mouth. "You need to hire more addicts."

Cuddy rolls her eyes. "How did you get him to do your bidding."

"I flashed him some leg."

"House," Cuddy said warningly.

"Well if he was especially whiny, I threatened to make his life a living hell," Cuddy glares at House, "since you've tried that already, there's always humiliation, or emotional blackmail as I'd like to call it."

"But I don't know anything about Chase!" Cuddy says exasperatedly. "I know three things about him, he's a good doctor, both his parents are dead, and he's shacking up with Cameron."

"What kind of administrator are you!" House admonishes her. "Not knowing your employees, shame." House and Wilson shake their heads, but for two completely different reasons. "Then again, you can order Cameron not to sleep with him, until he hires a team."

"That's sexual harassment, House!"

"You don't have to do it so obviously. Just schedule her for all the ER shifts at night. They'll never see each other."

"That hurts Cameron, not Chase. Besides, they'd probably end up in a janitor's closet again."

House snorts remembering Chase doing a differential in the janitor's closet.

"What?"

"Nothing." House deflects, trying to contain his laugh. Wilson and Cuddy look at him strangely.

"Well what does Chase fear?" Wilson chimes in. "He fears losing his job. He fears people prying into his private life…"

A sly smile crosses Cuddy's face. "I know exactly what he fears, who he fears, I should say."

Cuddy gets up and walks out the door.

House turns to Wilson. "So this is what it feels like to be you."


Chase looks over the balcony stretching as he watches people walk in and out of the hospital. He had been up thirty- six straight hours, in order to diagnosis his patient with Addison's disease. The good news was, he had figured out what was wrong with the patient, bad news was, that the patient had cancer.

Oh well, he's Wilson's problem now, thought Chase.

Chase sees House pass underneath him followed by Turner, Lesley, and six new recruits.

House had hired a new team about six months ago, after putting forty people through a hellish six week process. A skittish doctor named Ashcroft, quit a couple of weeks ago, after he was attacked by a dog when he broke into a patient's home. The patient was dog sitting a Doberman at the time, and forgot to tell the staff. Luckily, Ashcroft managed to outrun the Doberman and spent six hours hiding in a closet. Chase thought that Ashcroft quitting was probably for the best. If the man was stupid enough to think that House would have helped him in that type of predicament, than he was probably not smart enough to work for House. House was watching General Hospital when Ashcroft called for help and forgot about him. Ashcroft, didn't get out of the closet until the patient's cousin came over the house to pick up the dog. The man could handle being called Ass-cock all day, but decided that risking his life was too far above and beyond for a job, especially one with such an unpleasant boss, who constantly questioned his sexuality.

Cuddy gave stricter guidelines in order for House to do the "Survivor" process a second time. Only ten applicants, and two weeks. It was reasonable, and House didn't have the budget for it to go longer.

Chase shakes his head. He was glad that he didn't have to go through the same process when he became a fellow. He doubts that he would have stuck out enough to impress House when competing with such a large group.

Chase had been head of the second diagnostic team for a month. The only problem was, there was no team. Chase yawned. He really should hire someone. At the very least, it will give him an extra set of hands. Trying to run tests, while preventing someone from flatlining was difficult. He had been sneaking around using House's fellows in order to bounce idea's off of, but since House threaten to fire them, they won't be caught in the same airspace as him.

But what did Chase know about being a leader? Hiring a team? He was confident in his own diagnostic skills, but teaching others to improve their own? He questioned whether it was a mistake accepting the job so quickly. He liked being on the surgical team, but ultimately he missed the challenge and creativity of being in diagnostics. So when Cuddy offered him a job working in diagnostics, but not necessarily with House, Chase immediately accepted the offer.

Someone interrupts his trance and drops a stack of papers in his hands.

"You have three weeks to find your own team, or I'm going to let House pick it for you," says Dr. Cuddy. "And you cannot hire everyone who has sent their resume in, there's over eighty."

Cuddy gave him a triumphant smirk, turned her heel and sashays away.

Chase looks grimly at the stack of papers his hands. This is one task he would rather skip.


If House has cottages and ducklings, what should Chase's fellows be called?

Please R&R!