Hey to everyone reading! And thanks to airmac, i didn't realize that the character filter wasn't set, thanks so much for telling me!

"The tox-screen was negative for all drugs, pesticides and foreign chemicals." Chase said, holding the papers up for House to see. He had rushed to the lab and done the work the previous day before running home. He'd felt sick to his stomach and that night he had trouble sleeping. He kept waking up, a cold feeling in his chest. This was getting to him and it was only his pride keeping him from asking to be taken off the case.

"Figured." House said. "Chase, angiogram the heart."

"I ran the MRI and did the blood work!" Chase protested.

House made a face. "Poor baby, is someone asking you to do your job?" Chase crossed his arms and looked away. "Cameron, Foreman, search the hotel she was staying at."

Cameron leaned across the table. "Her patient history said she's been having fainting spells over the last year. If it's environmental then it could be at her home in Australia. There's no way we could check that."

House gave her a considering look. "Well not unless Chase feels life going home anytime soon. Just check to see if she brought anything with her. She could be allergic to her shampoo or a perfume she's using."

Cameron and Foreman got up to leave and Chase weighed his options. With the other two out of the room he had his chance to ask off. House was watching him. Maybe he was weighting for just that. He sighed and went to do the angiogram.

"What's on the menu today?" Diane asked as he entered her room.

"We need to do an angiogram." He said,trying to avoid small talk.

She gave him a contemplative look that plainly said she knew he was avoiding talking. "Do I make you uncomfortable?" She asked, not unkindly.

He blinked, startled. "N-no."

"That wasn't a very good lie. If you don't want to be my doctor I won't be insulted."

He paused. "It's not that I don't want to be your doctor it's just that I think I'm biased and that's not a good quality."

She folded her hands and with a quiet intake said: "Then get another doctor to run the procedure." He almost hung his head but she continued. "I'm surprised. I don't think Rowan would have had any trouble with this." Somehow, even though she had said it only as a passing comment it bothered him.

His temper flared up. "You don't know that."

"Are you implying I didn't know my husband, doctor?" Her voice was sharper now.

He bit his lip, regretting his words instantly. They had been petty and childish. "No, I'm not saying that. . ."

"I would hope not because then I would be insulted. Now, go and get another doctor to do the procedure."

He nodded, feeling embarrassed and ducked out the door to tell House he had screwed up.

"What are you doing back?" House asked. "Did the hospital switch to an angiograms in under ten minuets or your money back policy?"

"She didn't want me to do it."

House frowned and Chase prepared himself for the verbal abuse. "Did she want you off the entire case or just this test?"

"I don't know."

"Well, can you treat her or are you going to flake out?" It was a very blunt question.

Chase paused. "I'm not flaking out I just told her that I think I'm too biased to be her doctor."

"Oh good excuse, hide behind hospital procedure to get out of treating your step mother."

"Those rules exist for a reason, I am biased. She's my dad's wife, I have every reason to be biased."

House rolled his eyes. "Everyone's biased on every case we take. This one you just happen to be a little more than usual. It's called looking objectively."

"That's not fair and anyway, you only took this case to get to me. Fainting isn't interesting."

House paused. That was true. "That doesn't matter anymore, we have the case and I need to know if you can work on it or if I should send you home."

Chase set his jaw. "I can work on it." He growled.

"Good now go find something to do since you've managed to weasel your way out of doing the angiogram. I'll make Foreman or Cameron do it."

Chase stood for a minute, not sure what to do.

"I said get out." He turned to go into the outer office but looked back to see House shaking his head. "Door."

"There's nothing here." Cameron said as she and Foreman searched the hotel room. "I mean I can take samples from the stuff she brought with her but I don't think it's causing her to faint."

Foreman rolled his eyes and sank into a a chair. "House is just messing with Chase and because of that he's now wasting our time too. This is getting ridiculous."

"I think it's cruel."

"It's not the nicest thing he's ever done, I'll give you that."

"And Chase shouldn't be participating. He shouldn't even be doing the angiogram."

"Again, House is screwing with him."

They headed back to the Hospital, both irritable only to find Chase missing and an unperformed angiogram waiting. "Why didn't Chase do it?" Cameron asked.

"He found a way out." House said. "One of you do it and if you see Chase tell him he can go home for the day or stay in the ICU. He's hiding out there."

Foreman and Cameron exchanged looks and Cameron went to do the angiogram.

"Why aren't you doing it?" House asked Foreman, looking up.

"Because I think this is pointless. Older woman fainting. Really mysterious. You're just doing this to mess with Chase and it's working."

House shrugged. "Suit yourself. At this rate Cameron's going to end up doing all of the work."

The angiogram revealed a series of small blood clots throughout Diane's circulatory system surrounding her heart. Most were small and with blood thinners would diminish to nothing.

"There." Chase said when Cameron told them what she had found. "The clots slowed her blood flow down and made her pass out when she exerted herself too much. Are we done?"

House gave him a sidelong look before ignoring him. "Any ideas what caused the clots?"

"She's getting older. Older people have protein deficiencies and can't break down blood clots as easily." Foreman interjected irritably.

"Dr. Chase, I sense the need for more blood tests. Be a doll and go draw some more."

Wanting nothing more than the whole thing to be over Chase got up and left. He had spent most of the day hiding out in the ICU until three pages drew him back. Diane did not say she didn't want him as her doctor and said had she would be fine with him doing other tests. He wished she had been more angry.

He turned a corner and stopped. Three people were inside of Diane's room and judging from their ages they were probably her children. He paled and tried to turn away but was stopped by the daughter. "Are you one of her doctors?" She asked.

He nodded hesitantly. Australian accent, definitely one of Diane's kids. "She said she had a test done earlier, what did it say?"

"Er, I need to discuss it with her first. Does she mind you being in the room?"

"No, I'm her daughter and those are my brothers. She's fine with it."

He nodded and followed her in. What looked to be the oldest son held out his hand. "Chris Larkin, Dr. . ." He looked at Chase's name tag and his eyes widened. "Mom, you didn't say he was your doctor."

Chase wanted to back out of the room, Chris did not look happy.

"I knew he was a doctor in America but this. . ."

"Aren't there rules against something like this?" The daughter interrupted.

"Usually but I haven't had to make a complaint." Diane said. "Dr. Chase, the test?"

Chase swallowed, maybe he was just imagining things but at the moment all of her childrens' eyes looked hostile. "W-well the test revealed that you have a number of small blood clots around your heart. They haven't made it inside yet and with blood thinners we should be able to manage them. Once they're gone your blood pressure should go back up as well."

"Is that what caused the chest pain?" The other son asked.

"Most likely that was the clots. We'll keep you here for observation for a day or two."

"I told you there wasn't anything to worry about." Diane said, patting her oldest son's hand.

Chase moved to replace her IV bag with blood thinners but was stopped by Chris. "I'd rather someone else did it." He said. "You understand, you being Rowan's son and all it's a little awkward. I don't want any hard feeling getting in the way."

Chase glanced down at Diane who simply shrugged. "Oh yeah, sure. I'll go and um find someone." He left awkwardly feeling yet again embarrassed and a little humiliated.

"Her son wants someone else to attach the IV bag. I guess he thinks I'll poison her or something." He said, sticking his head into the office and throwing the bag on House's desk angrily. "I'm done for the day." He grabbed up his satchel and headed out. It wasn't quite time to leave yet but he was done. He was angry and humiliated.

As he headed for the door he heard someone call out his name. "Dr. Chase!" Turning he saw Chris coming up behind him. He sighed and turned to face him. "I wanted to apologize for earlier. It wasn't anything personal or I guess it was personal but it was nothing against you. Rowan was a brilliant doctor and I miss him, really I do. I was only thirteen when he married my mom. We liked having him around. He wasn't dad but he was pretty great."

Chase felt a painful lump form in his throat.

"Honestly, I think the reason he was so good to us was because of you." Chris seemed almost reluctant to continue but he did anyway. "I think he felt guilty."

And somehow that made him angry. He didn't want to hear about his father feeling guilty or about him raising some other kid.

Chris held out his hand. "I'm sorry I had that reaction earlier I just. . . I worry about mom. You know? I'm sure you felt the same about yours."

"Yeah." He said automatically. It occurred to him that he had met Chris sometime before. He thought it might have been a brief encounter when he visited his father to thank him for helping him get an internship in Melbourne. He started to say so when Chris seemed to realize the same thing.

"I kept thinking I'd never met you before but I think I did. You came and visited us once, didn't you?"

Chase nodded his head, trying to clear it. "Yeah, I think so. I had just gotten an internship."

"Rowan help you get it?"

It wasn't a jab, although the numbers of times House had used it as one were fresh in his mind. Chase nodded. "Yeah."

"Listen, I've got to get back but thanks for looking after her, okay? And uh, I really liked your dad. We were all really sad when he died."

Chase nodded again but couldn't find words to speak, instead he stood still for a minute, watching Chris walk away before turning and walking quickly out to his car.

He sat behind the wheel for a long moment, first hands in his lap and then when he tried turning the car on, tight on the wheel. He hated that House had taken the case. He hated himself for getting so worked up.

He leaned his head against the window and sighed. He wondered if his father had left money to Chris and his siblings. They seemed well off but then they might have had money before. He wasn't naive enough to think Diane was a gold digger or anything like that, she seemed like a fairly nice person and somehow that made everything worse.

And suddenly he felt like a bad person for disliking her so much. She really wasn't a mean or rude person and even after he had snapped at her she had asked him to leave politely. She had even taken into consideration that being around her made him uncomfortable. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel, feeling drained. He knew House would make him do all of the work the next day, it was his last opportunity to put him in the same room with Diane. He considered calling in sick but knew he wouldn't. That would be a dead give away that House had gotten to him.

He put his head in his arms to try and calm down. His mind was racing and he was upset. She was a nice lady and nothing was her fault. He felt guilty for blaming her and resenting her children. They had liked his father. He had been nice to them because he felt guilty for leaving his other family? That was awful to think about.

Suddenly his face felt hot and he wanted to get away from the hospital but couldn't move. His fist clenched with anger and then relaxed in defeat. It was bad enough working for House most of the time but now he had his personal business thrown in everyone's face. Foreman already didn't like him and now he probably thought he was a petty jerk. He sniffed, now more embarrassed than ever and rubbed at his temple with his thumb.

A sharp rap on the passenger's side window made him jump.

Thanks for reading!