Chapter 3

House and Cuddy sat there in stunned silence for a long time before either one of them found the nerve to speak. It was House who finally broke the silence. "How could you not tell me that you were pregnant?" he asked indignantly.

"I couldn't believe it and if I couldn't process it then how could you have been able to cope? You had a life and I didn't want to disrupt it because of a single night with someone you had just met?" Cuddy tried to explain.

"I had a right to know"

"What would you have done?"

"I… I…" House said but he really didn't know what he would have done with a baby back then. He was in med school and he had already made a name for himself. He had a very active social life and a baby would have thrown a wrench in his life and he knew it. Still it was his kid, he'd had a right to know.

"You don't know do you? I didn't either that's why I put the baby up for adoption" Cuddy interrupted.

"So instead of keeping the baby with family you let him out to the system where he could have wound up anywhere" House fumed.

"No. I researched all of the adoption agencies around and found one that would allow me to see the background checks run on the families and make sure that the baby went to a good home a safe and loving home"

"Safe and loving home!" House practically yelled, "Have you seen Chase's history? He was in anything but a safe and loving home"

Cuddy stopped. She had been promised that her baby would be placed in the best home available so what was House talking about? "What do you mean? He was placed with a doctor and his wife. He was going to be an only child. The family had tried to have their own children but failed. They thought that the child of two med school students would be a good compromise. I was guaranteed that he would be taken care of"

"Well he wasn't. His father left him when he was ten and left him with his alcoholic mother until she died five years later. Who knows what else happened to that boy." House stated agitated "His life was anything but happy. Some adoption agency you found"

"I did the best I could at the time." Cuddy said staring off to the side.

They once again lost themselves in their own thoughts. Consumed with trying to decide what to do now. "Should we tell him?" Cuddy asked.

"No. Not yet" House said

"He needs to know. He deserves to know"

"And how exactly will that go over? We walk in and say hey you know that piece of crap family that you grew up with well it turns out that they had adopted you and your real parents are your boss and your bosses boss who had a one night stand in college" House said sarcastically. "Yeah that'll go over well"

"I wouldn't phrase it just like that but it's the basic information that he needs to know"

"It will just confuse him. We're still confused. How can we expect him to be all right with this when we aren't? If we do this now we'll just scare him away and then we'll never see him again. No. We keep this to ourselves for now" House said.

"How am I supposed to face him now that I know. He's our son, my baby boy. His birthday's coming up. I want to get to know him and yet I know almost nothing about him."

"Well make friends with him then but don't tell him. At least not yet."

"When then House? Hm.. When do you tell your son that he's your son?"

"I don't know!" House exclaimed, "When do you tell the man you slept with that he has a son?"

"Fine" Cuddy caved. "We'll wait, but I don't know how long I'll be able keep this to myself"

"Well try. I just found out who he is the last thing I need is for you to scare him off" House said. He left the lab right after than refusing to give Cuddy a chance to respond. He didn't know how he was going to react to Chase now. The boy was his and he was a hell of a lot younger than House had originally anticipated. There was nothing he could do now though. For now it was time to head home.

Cuddy sat in the lab thinking about what this all meant. Chase was her son. She had sat down with him when he was hired and went over all the rules that went along with his age. She looked at his birthday and hadn't put it all together. The boy was so much like House he was clever, sarcastic, and witty. Chase was just a kid and he was working 80 hour a week shifts sometimes not going home for three to four days at a stretch. How was he eating properly? Sleeping properly? He was just a child he needed to keep healthy. Well she would be looking into that from now on. Cuddy got up from her stool and headed for home. She would be keeping a better eye on Chase and House's team starting tomorrow.

Chase walked into the office early in the morning. He was always the first in in the morning. He walked over and started making the coffee expecting to have time to check on the patient, make the coffee and maybe even grab a bite if he was lucky. With a job like his he rarely had time to grab a snack let alone stick to three meals a day. He did what he could but he hadn't gone home last night until 0300 after leaving work at 0100 and then stopping by the dry cleaners (took forever to find a decent drycleaners open 24/7) and the grocery store and a couple other errands. Getting home so late means no time to eat if he wanted to sleep and he choose the sleep. It was currently 0700 now and the coffee was finally done and the office was clean. Time to check on the patient.

Chase was just turning to head out of the office with his head buried in a file when he bumped House. "What are you doing here?" he asked once he realized who it was in front of him.

"Good morning to you too" House greeted "What are you doing here so early I told all of you that you had the morning off and that I didn't want to see you until noon at the earliest." House had made the call after leaving the hospital last night after realizing that Chase's car was still in the parking lot and that he hadn't seen the boy leave last night. House had been tempted to go and find Chase and drag him home so that he would be sure the kid got some rest and a decent meal but he thought better of it. It wouldn't help his relationship with Chase to be going over-protective. House had thought it over and then decided to give all of his team the morning off since they had all agreed, with the exception of Chase, that the boy had an autoimmune disease.

"I came to run some more tests. It's not autoimmune" Chase said flatly.

"Well you can run the tests after noon just as well" House said. He had asked down in security before coming up and knew that Chase hadn't left until 0100 that morning and here he was at 0700 having already made coffee and from the looks of it he had cleaned the office as well.

Chase was about to reply but was cut off by the office door opening and Cuddy walking in "House I was wondering if you knew…." Cuddy tapered off upon seeing Chase. "What are you doing here?" she asked Chase.

"I'm already getting into that," House said snidely to Cuddy then turning his attention back to Chase "You need to go home. I don't want to see you back here until… lets see you've been here for an hour so lets say 1300." House ordered.

"I'm not leaving I'm going to run some more tests. The patient doesn't have autoimmune" Chase stated and started to walk off.

"No" both House and Cuddy said together. Cuddy stepped in front of the office door and House reached out and grabbed Chase's arm to stop him from leaving.

"Let go of me!" Chase said to House.

House let go of his arm "You're not running anymore tests right now. You all have the morning off and you're going to take it" House stated

"No I'm not. I'm already here and I am going to prove that it's not autoimmune. What does it matter anyway I've never taken the mornings off when you've given it. I've never left early either and you've never cared before" Chase tried to reason.

House was getting irritated and slightly concerned. "I've never known before but rest assured I'll be fixing that issue now." House stated calmly while staring Chase straight in the eye.

Chase gulped. He hadn't meant to draw House's attention to his working habits. He had thought that House already knew and figured if he hadn't said anything before then he must be all right with it. Guess he was wrong. "I'm here and I'm running the tests"

"What is it that you're testing for?" Cuddy asked finally stepping into the conversation.

Chase looked towards Cuddy hoping to find some type of an ally "I don't believe that Gage had autoimmune so I am working on proving it"

"Proving it how?" Cuddy asked.

"By running tests on every autoimmune that there is" House interjected snidely.

"That'll take weeks if not months" Cuddy said disbelievingly.

"So" Chase said sounding like a petulant teenager. Which House had to remind himself Chase actually was.

"You're not running tests for every autoimmune" Cuddy stated

"It's my time" Chase said. So much for his ally.

"And it's my lab equipment" Cuddy responded

Chase huffed. It seemed that Cuddy was taking House's side in this. "Fine. I'll run tests for other theories" Chase acquiesced.

"No" House stated, "You're going to go home and take the morning off"

"No I'm not. If I'm not allowed to run the tests I want I'll do something else but I'm already here and I'm going to work" Chase said. He didn't want to go home there was nothing to do and since his father arrived the nightmares had started again so sleeping wasn't on the top of his to do list either. Working was what he always did to get rid of the nightmares. He always felt safe at work he just didn't know why.

"You're not allowed to go anywhere near the patient or run any tests for the next twenty-four hours" Cuddy said putting an end to the argument.

"What!" Chase exclaimed, "You can't do that. House tell her she can't do that" Chase turned to House hoping for some small shred of support. House didn't like Cuddy messing with his department.

"Nope. I agree with Cuddy on this. You refuse to listen to us so now you will have to deal with the consequences" House said. He was secretly glad that Cuddy had made the proclamation because then Chase wouldn't blame him for it.

"This isn't fair. All I'm doing is my job and I'm being punished for it" Chase said indignantly.

"No. You are being punished for refusing to follow the orders of your boss and your boss' boss." Cuddy said simply. "Now why don't you head home"

"I'm not going home!" Chase yelled. He started to exit the office again only to be stopped by Cuddy and House again.

"Where do you think you're going then?" House asked

"The clinic" Chase said simply.

House and Cuddy shared a confused look. What was going on? It was one thing for Chase to want to prove his father wrong but now he was going to do any work in order to avoid going home. Why? "No" House said simply

"Why not" Chase asked becoming irritated with this conversation

"You're not scheduled for today and you're my employee" House said simply

"Well apparently I'm not working for you for twenty-four hours so I can do what I like" Chase shot back

"No you're not allowed to work on the case that doesn't mean that you're not my employee and if you're so set on working then I have plenty for you to do" House said with a small smirk. If Chase didn't want to go home then fine he would give him something to do.

"And what is it that you need me to do?" Chase asked snarkily. This hadn't been what he'd expected when he came into work today. When House gave them the morning off then he wasn't in until 1500 or later and yet here he was bright and early.

"Paperwork" House said as he walked over to his desk and all around the office and gathered up all of the paperwork he could find and dumped it on the spare desk in the office. "I want it organized, filed and anything else that you need to do with it." House stated.

Chase walked over gawking at the amount of paperwork there was. He thought that Cameron had been taking care of House's files but apparently not as well as he'd thought. Looking at the pile closer there were more than just patient files there was also the budget reports, mail, and referrals from other doctors as well as those just asking for a consult. "This'll take days possibly weeks" Chase complained.

"And you're not allowed back on regular cases until this is finished" House said.

Chase shot House a pleading look hoping that he was kidding but House just nodded his head towards the desk and walked into his office completely ignoring Cuddy.

Cuddy watched Chase until he finally sat down and got started. She wasn't happy that Chase was working but at least he wasn't running himself ragged and he was stuck in the office where House could keep an eye on him and she could see him anytime she walked past. Just to make sure that she would be able to keep an eye on Chase herself if she wanted to she opened the blinds between the large office and the hallway "These stay open" she said to Chase.

"Fine" Chase pouted as he got to work on the large pile of paperwork on the desk in front of him. This was gonna take forever.