DISCLAIMER: I don't own House.
2. Mischief Managed.
Chase could not believe that he of all the people would be falling for this kind of trap. "I guess that's what happened when Taub and Park decided to join forces and Foreman gave them his blessing." He muttered. He seriously thought, now that House was out of the picture, the staff, at least two third of his Diagnostic team will leave him and Adams alone. They are old news. House tried matched them before to no avail. They just don't click that way. Even more so after he turned down Adam's offer to get drinks with her ages ago. Apart from being equally pretty and good-looking, Chase and Adams shared nothing else in common. What's up with these people trying to get them together, then?
"Park, I want you to tell me what exactly do you expect to achieve from me doing this?" He determined to unravel the mysteries once and for all. He was lucky that it so happened he got in the same elevator with his employee that morning.
"Satisfaction." She replied coolly.
"You can't be serious. What kind of satisfaction do you, Taub and Foreman share in common?" He asked with the ever easy smile spread across his face.
"You don't think you can do it?" Park said, sounding a little challenging than she intended to. "You sounded so sure of yourself that you can pull it off when you agreed to Taub's term of loosing a chess match against him that other day." Came the ever snide remark from the small doctor. "What changed your mind?"
"I didn't."
"I just got back from my kids' daycare and guess who I found-" Taub trailed when he saw his boss and his colleague in a middle of non-medically relevant conversation that looked intriguing. "What did I miss?" He asked, immediately disregard the file in his hold.
"Chase is chickening out of the deal." Park told him.
"You can't do that, we've got a deal. Now, be a man and honour the deal." He hurried a dissatisfied huff.
"I'm not." Chase retorted equally fast. "What's the story?" He gestured to the file in Taub's hand to no avail.
"Will you kiss me?" Chase asked Adams bluntly during lunch time at the cafetaria that day. After much thoughts and unsuccessful attempt at formulating a plan to smoothly ask Adams, he decided to just blatantly ask her about it.
'Excuse me?' Will be the correct response if Adams hadn't already took a big bite of whatever she's having for lunch. It looked like a double cheese hamburger, although he doubted the double cheese. Adams took her time chewing her food, partly to compensate the unladylike action she just made and partly to mellow the out of bound and not to mention inappropriate question. She was hoping that by the time she was done with swallowing that now bolus chunk of food, the moment would pass and Chase will move to a more medically relevant subject so the question was no longer relevant. But Chase seemed like he's not budging until he got an answer. "Why?" So she decided to ask.
"You know, as a preposition."
"No, I don't know." She answered. "What is this, a kindergarten?" She scoffed.
"So, you're not gonna kiss me? Never?" He decided to press the matter to clear things up for the level he was in.
"Unless some turns of event happened and you and I are an item, which I highly doubt will ever happen because seriously, have you not notice our patterns of social activities, and in such cases only will I ever indulge to such action." Adams crossed her arms while stating it matter of factly.
"That's a bit insulting. Lucky that you're hot, so it's easier to put up with."
"When will you learn that both of that question and that statement are insulting?"
Ouch.
The rest of the day went by quite normally. Taub was still clocking between being a doctor and a dad, and kept on getting better at it. Park was still seeing her steady boyfriend she met through a holiday party. Chase and Adams are still Chase and Adams.
Chase spent the next three days getting rejected with the consistent tone each time he asked Adams, even when he came clean about the deal. He spent the next three days formulating a plan to get her to kiss him, only to result in her rejecting him again. He then spent the rest of the week trying to find a new angle for him to get to Adams.
Then, Chase escalated to the phase where he quitted worrying about the deal so much but somehow caught up and tangled in a web of trying to discreetly getting to know Adams. He even got to the extent of following her home that week. What he found was Adams was in fact had a completely different social activities than him. He found out that she volunteered to three different clinics, went by the same area of neighbourhood on the opposite direction to her home just to give little kids on the streets there something nice. Sometimes she dropped them flowers, sometimes she distributed candies and Chase took a wild guess that she gave them toys on a very special occasion.
He also found out that her social circle whenever she's not giving herself to charity was by far out of his league. Not to mention the ladies she's been talking to when he followed her to an evening hi tea were all a lot more attractive and good-looking than the girls he used to pick up at his functions and parties. The men in the room were no justice neither. Their good looks and chivalry somewhat degraded Chase from 'super hot and pretty' to 'you're not that pretty, but we guess you're pretty enough to join our class'. No wonder Adams was indifferent to his charms before.
'This woman is a living wonder. Her husband was downright mad to cheat on a woman like that.' He thought to himself along his way back to his place after that.
"Damn you all! You've been planning on this all along, haven't you?" Chase stormed into Foreman's office when he saw Taub and Park were there too with Foreman.
"The only thing that's planned all along is to proof that there's something non-medically relevant that I can do better than you, hence the chess. I don't really care that much about the deal, but the hospital is dying to see some of you two, so I figure, why not just give them some?" Taub countered with his usual half smile.
"You're not actually mad, are you?" Park asked.
"I dunno. Is there a reason that I shouldn't?"
"When did you had this emotional overhaul?" Foreman asked.
"About two days ago. Why?" He replied.
"You're not mad because we played you. If you are, you'd be barging in here two days ago. You're mad because you realised that you're just really late for the party." Foreman as almost as boringly as ever. "If you like her, go and tell her. Do what you have to do. You've got two choices, you either tell her, or prepare to plan for her farewell party." He added.
"She mentioned to me when we're doing the lab test that she's gonna give the Doctors without Borders a go." Park explained.
The news hit Chase harder than the whole hospital crumbling down on him and stung sharper than the scalpel that pierced his heart muscle. 'She's leaving.' Was the only information he could register into his brain at the moment. "I have to go."
"Adams. I need to talk to you after the examination." He peered his head into the examination room that Adams was in. He waited outside until the patient exited the room and told him Adams will be waiting for him inside. They exchanged a brief greeting look when Chase entered the room and he started to question himself for the umpteenth time how did he miss this hot now-employee is a beautiful and good hearted woman. "I heard you're signing up for the Doctors without Borders. Are you planning to tell me? Or are you just gonna go all of the sudden, leaving nothing but a letter on my desk?" He asked.
"You've been talking to Park about me, then. Probably asking for insights to get me to kiss you and relieve you of the deal." She hold back a sniffle. "I thought on telling you as the symbol of authority for the department I work in; after I actually signed up. I haven't decided on when to sign up yet." She told him.
"Oh." Chase managed to say.
"I guess Park left that part out, because I haven't told her that." She somehow felt glee for that.
"Adams." He started. "I really like you. I'm sorry I picked you up the wrong way, but now I'm looking forward to see whatever this is can go and grow." He said, reaching for her hand to hold in his. "Will you give me the chance?" He asked when their eyes finally met.
Adams pulled her hand from Chase's hold and searched his eyes. When she saw the fallen look on his face, she cupped his face with both of her hands. Then, the least expected thing followed. Jessica Adams landed a soft and slow kiss on Robert Chase's cheek. She drew a small smile Chase had never seen before and kept one hand on his face. "Not today." She said and left the room.
Chase was left alone stunned and froze to his brain to process what had happened. It took him a while to realise Adam's invitation to try again. Chase left the room with a look that said his day couldn't have gone any better. Well, actually, there's plenty of ways his day could get any better, one of which if Jessica Adams ultimately agreed to marrying him, but that's a far long way to go from here.
That was when the relevation came upon Chase. The only way to get Adams' kiss and settle with the deal is the real way. He'll have to commit. He'll have to play by the naive and hopeless romantic's rule. He'll have to cut off his social activities with the ladies. He spent two cases trying to decide if the deal was worth any of it and the next case and half case after the next case trying
On the other side of the hospital, Foreman, Taub and Park passed an accomplished look among themselves and mouthed, "Mischief managed."