Chapter 3

It was early in the morning, and yet the entire Diagnostics team—that is, everybody besides House—was already present and waiting for a new case. They weren't very surprised that House was late. House was always late. However, they were rather curious to see why Dr. Chase was sitting behind House's desk. He seemed to be working through something on the computer, what he was working through, only he knew. Up until then, none of them felt the need or the want to question him about his presence in House's office. They simply stared through the glass wall, observing Chase's every move. He didn't even seem to notice the staring.

"What do you think he's doing?" asked Hadley.

"I… don't really care what he's doing," replied Foreman with honest indifference. "As long as we don't have anything to do, I say we go and check out the ER and the Clinic for cases."

"Doesn't he have surgery?" asked Taub, clearly ignoring Foreman's suggestion. He didn't really want to work the ER that morning, and he definitely didn't want to start his Clinic duty.

"This is ridiculous," concluded Hadley. "Why don't we just go and ask him what he's doing here. Maybe he has a case for us."

"If he had a case for us," said Foreman, "he'd have brought it to us."

Hadley seemed to consider this briefly before finally deciding that it was probably true.

"Maybe House is taking the day off, and he's just substituting for him," suggested Taub who had no other idea as to why Chase would be here.

These speculations were annoying Foreman. "If House took a day off, he wouldn't need a sub. He might need one if he was taking an extended absence, but then he would have also told us that he'd be gone for a while."

"You're just jealous that Cuddy didn't choose you to be House's sub," joked Taub.

"There's no way he's subbing for House," claimed Foreman.

Chase finally arose from House's desk and made his way to the main office with a file in hand. He dropped it on the desk but suddenly realized that Foreman, Taub, and Hadley were all starting at him expectantly. "What's up?"

"How was your honeymoon?" asked Hadley, trying to ease any notion in Chase's mind that they had been talking about him before he entered.

Chase was taken aback by the question. Why did they care how his honeymoon was? "Um, it was fine," he said nonchalantly.

"You went to London, right?" continued Hadley. "Cameron told me."

Chase nodded. "Well, if Cameron told you, then you don't really need to hear it from me, now do you?" He knew Hadley wasn't really interested in his honeymoon. She was just trying to distract him from whatever she really wanted to know.

Hadley blushed; she'd been found out. Number one rule to lying, though, is to always commit. She'd learned that from House. "I love London. What all did you do?"

Chase eyed her carefully, trying to decipher her real interests. "We… saw the usual sights, did the typical tourist stuff, you know. I did introduce her to my step-brother Adam, though."

"Oh, you're British?" played Hadley. "I swore you were Australian. Here I was thinking House had been joking all these years."

"No," replied Chase. He was becoming very annoyed. "My brother works for a pharmaceutical company over there." He looked at the three fellows carefully. "What were you guys talking about before I came in here?" Based on their demeanors, he could conclude that they were talking about him. Honestly, he didn't care. He just wanted to know why they didn't want him to know.

Taub ignored the question, though, and picked up the file that Chase had dropped on the table. "Is this a case?"

"Yeah," said Chase. "Forty-two year old male goes in for a job interview and comes out in an ambulance. He was experiencing hand tremors, muscle weakness, shortness of breath, and double vision."

"Great," replied Foreman. "It's a panic attack. Job interview makes a guy nervous, and then he panics. Where's the big mystery?"

"You didn't let me finish," said Chase. "He was taken to the ER where the doctors diagnosed him with a panic attack. They gave him tranquilizers, but he went tachycardic. He's stable now."

"Where's House?" Hadley diverted.

Chase gave them all a curious look. They didn't know where House was? Really? Neither Wilson nor Cuddy had told them? They must be trying to keep it a secret. In that case, who was he to tell them? "He's going to be gone for a little while. I'll be taking his place until he comes back."

Taub gave Foreman an I-told-you-so glare before asking again where House was.

"Not here," is all Chase would answer. "Thirteen, you get a history. Foreman, you do a CBC. Taub, you do a tox-screen."

The three were confused. "We're not going to do a differential diagnosis first?" asked Hadley.

"Just cover the basics first, and then we'll do a differential," replied Chase. "I need to go talk to Cuddy." He wanted to find out why she and Wilson hadn't informed the team of House's admission to Mayfield.

The three immediately sensed that something was going on, but they also knew they weren't going to get any answers right then. So, they left Chase to his business.

Once they'd left the office, though, Taub turned to Foreman and smirked. "I told you so."

Foreman tried to ignore Taub's comment, but deep down, he couldn't figure out why Cuddy would place Chase in charge instead of him. It didn't make any sense.