Chapter 7

The ride over to House's place was quiet. Chase sat staring out the window and House kept sneaking glances at Chase.

Chase sat thinking over how things had changed so quickly for him and most of all wondering what had caused the changes. The only good news that had occurred during the day was that his father had left. The list of bad things however seemed to keep piling up. First: House was in the office early and had tried to force him to go home, Second: Cuddy had joined in the argument, Third: both House and Cuddy had punished him for refusing to go home and take the morning off which in hindsight was probably a stupid argument, if he'd have just left and gone to another department for a few hours no one would have been the wiser. Well you live you learn. Fourth: he was forced to sneak out to run tests, and he was caught having done so. Fifth: House hired a baby sitter for him. Sixth: Cuddy started treating him like a child and House went along with it. Seventh: House and Cuddy punished him again and finally Eighth: he was now being forced to go and spend two weeks at House's apartment. Life sucked sometimes.

House was thinking about Chase. He couldn't get his mind off of the fact that Chase was actually his son. Chase was his son and was staying at his place for a week. He was getting to keep his son with him for a week. He just found out he had a son and now that son would be in his home for a week. This was all so new and yet it was happening so fast. How was he supposed to handle things?

House pulled up in front of his apartment and the two men went inside. "You can take the spare room. It's this way" House said leading Chase down the hall and to the door on the right. "My room is right across the hall here" House said pointing to his door. "The bathroom is the door in-between" he finished pointing to the last door at the end of the hall. "I'll let you settle in. Come out to the living room when you're done"

"Right" Chase said. He opened the door to the spare room and looked around. The room was nicely furnished. There was a dresser by the far wall to the left of the window; there was a desk to the right of the window with a chair pushed in. The bed was to the left of the door about halfway down the wall and a bedside table to the left of the bed. The closet was between the right side of the bed and the dresser. It was a nice room but Chase didn't really want to be there, nonetheless, here he was.

If Chase wasn't so sure that House would tail him everywhere he went until he gave in. Chase really didn't want House to trail him; he did have some secrets he'd like to keep. Yes lots of secrets, lots and lots of secrets that he didn't want his boss to know about. His back would be the main one his nightmares being the other. Chase was thankful that he was able to hide the fact that his father terrified him from House, Cameron and Foreman however that didn't change the fact that he was. Every time that Chase saw his father, or even talked to the man, he would remember. He would remember his past and all the pain it involved. None of it was in his file but that's part of the benefit of being a doctor and an abusive father, you can keep what you do a secret.

Chase put his bag on the bed and decided to put up his clothes. If he was going to be stuck here for two weeks he didn't feel like living out of a suitcase the entire time. As he unpacked he realized that he had nothing to sleep in, it hadn't been a required item when he was planning to spend the week working at the hospital. Chase regretted now that he hadn't brought them but what could he do? He heard House mulling around in the living room and decided to finish up and head out before House came looking for him.

"Ah there you are" House said when Chase walked out.

"Yeah" Chase said. He felt awkward standing there in House's living room.

"You can sit you know" House said looking at him. The kid looked nervous and House was uncertain as to what to do himself. While he was pleased to have his son in his home House was uncertain as to what to do.

Chase sat awkwardly on the couch. He didn't know what to say to his boss outside of work, he'd never spent any time with any of his coworkers outside of work.

"So. How about some T.V.?" House asked. Dinner had already been eaten and it was a bit early for sleep. T.V. sounded like a god idea.

"Sure" Chase answered. He's never really had the time to watch T.V. before, his father had never allowed it growing up in fact they had never even owned a television. Chase had spent his youth outside, as far away from the house as possible, even after his father left. Once he was older and in university he had never had time to watch anything because he spent his time studying. The habit had just carried over to adulthood. Now here he was about to watch his first television program in his boss's apartment where he was basically being held captive.

"So what do you like?" House asked joining his son on the couch.

Chase didn't know how to answer that so he just stayed quiet figuring that if he didn't answer House would just pick something himself.

House waited for Chase's answer but the boy just sat there silently. "Do you have a favorite show?" he asked.

"No" Chase answered. How could he have a favorite show when he'd never watched a show?

"O.K. anything in particular you would like to try?" House asked. What was with the boy?

"No" Chase said again. He wasn't being rude just answering simply, he'd never heard of any shows so there were none he'd like to try. He never paid attention to the talk of others when it came to what they'd watched the night before so he never remembered the names.

"Alight" House was running out of ideas here. Typically he would just choose a show and make Chase watch it but this was his first night alone with his kid in his own apartment, he wanted the boy to be happy so he was trying to give him a choice. "Can you name any show that you have watched?" House asked.

"Um.. No" Chase answered. He looked down, he hadn't thought that House would really pry but this was rather embarrassing.

House looked over at Chase. The boy looked ashamed, what was there to be ashamed about? The way he was acting one would think that he'd never watched T… oh you had to be joking. "Chase" House started

"Yeah" Chase looked up

"Have you ever watched T.V. before?" House asked.

Chase looked down again and didn't answer, how could he?

House watched Chase's reaction, it answered his question as good as any verbal answer could. "Well then lets find the perfect first show for you" he said and flipped on the T.V.

House and Chase watched an old rerun of The Pretender. Once it was over House checked the clock it was 2130. Given that Chase hadn't had a proper nights sleep the night before, and probably for a while, and the kid still needed to shower it was time for him to call it a night. "Alrightie then" House said standing up and slapping Chase on the knee "I think that it's time for you to take a shower and then hop in bed."

"I'm fine" Chase responded. He didn't really want to go to bed for fear of nightmares. Also he wasn't a child and didn't like that House was telling him he had to go to bed now. "Lets watch another show," he suggested.

"Wasn't a suggestion" House said standing up and heading toward the spare room. He walked in and started looking for Chase's nightclothes but was surprised to find that there were none. "What do you sleep in?" House asked.

Chase followed House into the room "I… Uh… didn't really…"

"You didn't pack any thinking that you wouldn't need any" House surmised. That wasn't a good thing, there were nearly a weeks worth of clothes here and yet not a single set of nightclothes. "How long were you planning on staying at the hospital?" House asked.

"I don't really know" Chase answered honestly. He had planned to stay there until he felt tired and hungry, that had always told him that his father's affects were over and while that typically only lasted about three days who knew how long it would last this time. The typical time was for phone calls not face to face visits.

"Right" House said. He walked out of the room and headed toward his own. "Meet me in the bathroom" he called as he left.

"House I don't…" Chase called but House had already left so Chase gathered some underclothes and headed for the bathroom.

Chase stood there for a few minutes before House came through the door from the master bedroom. "Here" House said holding out some sleep pants and a t-shirt to Chase.

Chase took the clothes and looked them over, they were a bit big for him but then again House was a bit taller than him. "Uh… Thanks" he said.

"No problem" House said going over to the bath and setting the temperature on the shower. "Here it's all set" House said once the temperature was good. After having said that he turned around and headed out giving Chase some privacy.

Chase waited for House to leave before he locked both doors and then started to undress.

Once Chase was showered and dressed in the loaned nightclothes he headed out of the bathroom and back to the living room where he found House sitting on the couch watching a show. He went over and sat on the couch beside him.

House paused the show and looked over at Chase "I thought you were going to bed after your shower" he said.

"No, you said that I never agreed to it" Chase responded. No way was he being sent to bed like a child.

House looked at him "Bed" he stated.

"I'm not going to bed" Chase said

"Not a request"

"I'm not going to bed"

House looked over at the boy, he definitely was stubborn. If he was anything like him, and House guessed that he probably was, then arguing wasn't going to go too far, not a problem he had prepared for this. "Fine" he said, he picked up a book and settled in.

Chase looked around the room for something to read but it seemed that House had thought ahead because there were no other reading material around. Chase reached over for the remote to see what else was on but House grabbed it and set it out of his reach. "What am I supposed to do?" Chase asked.

"Sleep" House answered simply

"I'm not going to sleep" Chase said getting irritated. He continued looking around the room and spotted the guitars and the piano; that could work. Chase hadn't played in a long time but he always had loved it, if his father hadn't gotten rid of all of the instruments in the house then Chase would probably still be playing today. He stood up and headed over.

"Leave the instruments alone" House called over.

"But…" Chase started.

"No" House said "It's bedtime"

"I'm not going to bed!" Chase said again but he walked over and slumped back down on the couch. He looked over at House but the man still had his nose buried in his book. Chase was determined that he would not go to bed so he crossed his arms and stared straight ahead.

It took about an hour before Chase was so bored that he finally gave up and headed into the spare room.

"Night" House called out as Chase left.

"Whatever" Chase said snarkily.

House smiled at Chase's response, the kid really sounded like a teenager.

Chase climbed into the bed and settled down. Maybe he would be lucky and he wouldn't have any nightmares tonight. The ones last night had been bad; they were the main reason that Chase had packed for a week at the hospital instead of the usual two to three days. He had no desire to go through them again.

Try as he might though Chase really was tired and the bed was comfortable and he was warm. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep. A few minutes later House walked into the room to check on him. When House saw that Chase was asleep he pulled the covers up to his son's chin and then headed out the door to his own bed.