the first thing House did when he got to his apartment was grab the big, full bottle of whisky, which he knew that by the end of the night, would be empty. He tossed it skillfully on his couch, grabbed a glass and limped to the couch. He turned the tv on as loud as he could without needing to worry about his neighbours complaining and poured himself a generous amount of whisky in his glass. Only once he was fully comfortable, and his first glass was empty, did he fully allow himself to think.

So, Chase was gay. That was okay with House. I mean, why wouldn't it be? He wasn't homophobic. He didn't care whether Chase slept with men or women. That didn't change who he was or how House saw him. Right?

House poured himself some more whisky.

The only thing that really bothered him was that he'd never seen it before. It had never ever crossed his mind. Not once. Okay, maybe once. Chase never talked about women. He never said anything perverted. He never mentioned girlfriends or anything. But he never showed any interest in men either. He was nice with House though. He always talked with House and told lame jokes that House pretended were funny, always did what he asked with a smile, you'd think House would have figured it out by n-

It suddenly dawned on him. What everyone had already figured out, but he hadn't; Chase was in love with him. Of course ! It made so much sense !

House poured himself a third(… or was it his fourth?) glass and pondered on what he'd just realized. He wasn't homophobic, but he was a bit weirded out by this discovery. He'd just never really thought about Chase that way. Or, at least, he tried not to. He reflected on this until his glass was empty and he asked himself;

"Am I falling for him?" No. Of course he wasn't. He wasn't gay. He liked women. He loved women. . . Didn't he?

Then again, it would explain why he cared so much about Chase. Why he couldn't get him off his mind. Why he went through all this freaking trouble just for him.

House stopped pouring himself glasses of whisky and just started drinking directly out of the bottle until he couldn't even think straight anymore. Until he couldn't hide it from himself anymore. He liked Chase. No. He loved Chase.

House loved Chase.

When he woke up with the worst hangover he'd ever had, House knew his day was going to be a pain. He noticed he was on the couch and not in his bed. He could officially add back pain to the list of things that were currently killing him. He took his bottle of vicodin and popped two pills for the back pain, his leg and the huge migraine. He got ready for work, trying to ignore the pain. After puking his guts out, his stomach began killing him.

He knew what he was going to do. He was going to have to talk to Chase about his …. feelings.

No. There was no way he could. He took another vicodin. The pills he had taken earlier hadn't done their jobs. He thought about how complicated his life was about to get. He took another pill for that.

Another one for when he confronts Chase.

One more for when wilson asks why he's acting weird.

Two for bravery.

Another for when Cuddy yells at him for skipping work.

Three for when he tells Chase the truth and the rest of the bottle for when everything crashes down on him.

House felt a bit dizzy when he got to work. The pills were starting to take affect. He ignored it and went in the hospital.

As he walked to his office, he thought he heard someone call his name but he was probably just hallucinating from the few too many pills he'd taken.

"House!" Someone grabbed his arm and spun him around..

"Jimmy!" House said, a bit too loudly. He was acting suspicious.

"I just wanted to tell you Cuddy's looking for you.. and…." Wilson observed him. "Are you okay?"

"Who? Me?" House nodded. "Fine."

"You're high." Wilson said flatly. How the hell did he figure it out? House asked himself. He suddenly realized, he had something important to do.. though, he couldn't remember what.

"I have to go." He said to Wilson.

"Wait, House! How many pills did you take!" Wilson yelled after him. "I'd like to know if I need to treat you for an overdose anytime soon!" House ignored him and kept walking. He tried hard to remember what it was he needed to do. He knew it had something to do with his staff. He couldn't remember until he saw someone walking towards him.

"Chase!" He yelled. The blond looked at him weirdly. "We need to talk." He said as he got closer to him. "Now."

Not more than two minutes later the two of them were in House's office. House immediately sat down, since his stomach was still killing him.

"I'm going to ask you something and you are going to answer." House said. Chase suddenly looked highly uncomfortable. House got up and a stabbing pain shot through his stomach and he sat back down holding his stomach as if it was about to blow up.

"Are you alright?" Chase said as he hurried towards House.

"Are you gay?" House asked suddenly. Chase just stared at him.

"So what if I am?" He said defensively. "Are you going to fire me just because of that?" He was getting angry. House shook his head.

"Of course not." House said.

There was a long awkward silence between the two of them.

"You look like you don't know what to say." Chase said, breaking the silence.

"I don't."

"Are you going to hold this against me?"

House was about to go tell him how extremely stupid that would be, but as soon as he got up, his legs failed him and his mind went blank as he hit the floor.

"House!" Chase yelled after him. He began seizing. The last thing he saw was Cuddy coming in with a gurney and Wilson right behind her. The last thing House thought before he completely lost consciousness was how pissed they were going to be at him.