I'm sorry for the delay in updating, translation is not an easy thing to do, at least not for me :) My deep gratitude goes to everyone who took their time to review and of course to the editors of this story - Koralina, Sanna Black Slytherin and UchidaKarasu.
As soon as Treiber was out of sight, Chase slowly got out of the car. His body ached from sleeping in an uncomfortable position. He stretched, exercising his stiff muscles, then sat back into the car and started towards the airport.
Several times during the ride, Chase had to resist checking for Wilson in the back seat of his car. He couldn't comprehend that the body wasn't there anymore. All this madness was coming to the end and soon he would be able to put it behind him. He shook his head to clear it. He had a long ride ahead of him, with terrible timing – it was a rush hour in L.A. The last thing he needed was to get into an accident because his mind was too occupied with his thoughts.
Chase was fifteen minutes away from the airport when he took out his phone and dialled the number. He couldn't postpone it any longer.
"Hi, Foreman, it's me."
"It's about time," Foreman answered after a short pause. No matter what, he was glad to hear Chase's annoying accent again. "Because I was thinking about firing you."
"I'm surprised you haven't done that already."
Foreman stopped to think about it. Chase was right – if it had been some other doctor that had disappeared for several months he would have fired him without a second thought, but not Chase. Was he repeating Cuddy's mistakes?
"I'm sure there is a reason for you to call me. Do you want to come back?"
"I'm coming with Wilson."
There was a long silence on the other end. Chase even thought that the line had disconnected.
"Did you find them?" Foreman could not hide his surprise or a certain admiration for the perseverance of his friend.
"I'd rather not discuss it over the phone," Chase answered quickly. The time wasn't right for that kind of conversation – although Chase wasn't sure that he would ever be ready to talk about what had happened, especially with Foreman. "Wilson passed away yesterday. His body will be loaded onto the 9 p.m. flight from L.A. to Newark. I haven't bought a ticket yet, but I hope to catch the same plane. I'll send you the flight number as soon as I know for sure."
Foreman answered something like "Okay", trying to comprehend the information. What his friend did best was get him into trouble, leaving Foreman no choice other than to go with the flow while trying desperately not to drown.
"Please contact Wilson's relatives. And somebody needs to make the arrangements with funeral agency to pick up the body from the airport." Chase continued to give his directions, oblivious to his boss' strange silence.
"Chase..." Foreman stopped. There was so much he wanted to say and even more to ask but this was neither the time nor the place, so he settled for asking, "Do you want me to pick you up?"
"I'll catch a cab."
"Okay, fine. Call me when you land."
"See you."
cCc
Chase slept through the entire flight. He didn't even wake up when the soft drinks were served.
When the plane landed he turned on his phone and was greeted by the message from Foreman: "I'm at the airport, don't leave without me." Chase took the long breath, knowing that Foreman wouldn't be able to resist swamping him with questions.
"Damn it, Chase! Have you seen yourself in the mirror?" Foreman almost cried out at seeing his friend coming out from the arrivals area.
"Do I look worse than after the three days without sleep that you gave me after the grinder in the tunnel? When you conveniently remembered that I'm not only a diagnostician but a surgeon as well?"
"Sadly, yes. But I'm still glad to see you," Foreman said with a smile, hugging his long lost friend.
They reached the parking lot in silence. Chase threw his bag to the back seat and settled in the passenger's seat.
"I'm taking you home, right?" Foreman asked before starting the engine.
Chase nodded.
Foreman knew that it wasn't the best time to interrogate Chase but he couldn't help it, he wanted to know so much. He decided, however, to start with safe questions first.
"Thank you for helping out. I mean with the cases; I know you helped the girls."
"You knew?" Chase smiled.
"How could I miss it? When I was told that Park performed the stress test on your eighty-year-old patient I knew that they couldn't have come up with that without you. After that even a simple blood test wasn't happening without me knowing about it."
"They didn't complain to me about you."
"Because I told them that I'd fire anyone who would do that."
"But you didn't interfere in the working process, because they would have told me if you did." Chase smiled again, glad to talk about anything not connected to death.
"I knew who was behind all that."
"Thank you for trusting me," Chase said sincerely.
"You're welcome, but you won't get money for it. I don't pay for on-line consulting."
Chase looked up in disbelief. They both knew that without his contribution, not all of the patients would have left the hospital through the main entrance.
"What did you expect? You disappeared for several months without a call or explanation."
"I left you a message."
"And now I'm leaving a message to you that you didn't get any salary for all this time. You'll get one only when you come back full time. And, by the way, you still owe me clinic hours."
"Fine then, I won't consult any further. It's up to you what to do with the senator," Chase said calmly.
"What? It has nothing to do with your last patient," Foreman snapped. "Adams said you found the answer and decided on the treatment."
"You know how it goes. We have a theory, we go for it, but it could be wrong and if so we start all over again. We started the treatment a week ago, so it should be apparent soon whether or not it's working. I would say today or tomorrow." Chase couldn't hide satisfied grin from his face.
"You're such a..." Foreman barely refrained from cursing. "Do you know how important this guy is for the hospital?!"
"You don't want to pay for my work and then blame me when I don't want to do it for free?" Chase didn't hide his indignation.
"Why should I pay you?! You're not showing up at work!"
"But patients are coming and leaving the hospital healthy. You get money from them."
Foreman considered Chase words. The Australian was right, but Foreman wasn't going to admit it and he wanted to teach him a lesson because that kind of behaviour was unacceptable if Chase was still going to work at Princeton-Plainsboro. But Foreman also knew that he could use his friend's out-of-the-box thinking probably not only with this particular patient but with many more to come, so he decided not to push too hard.
"30% of your previous salary."
"50%"
"40% and that's my final offer. Otherwise it's easier for me to just shut down the whole department."
"Deal," Chase grinned, satisfied. He knew that Foreman was probably bluffing and wasn't going to shut down his department, but 40% of what he had before without needing to show up at work and all he had to do is solve his beloved puzzles. He could work like that all his life!
"You'll get it for the past months as well." Foreman paused and looked at the Australian, to make sure that he appreciated his generous act. Chase simply nodded in response.
"As for the future, you have one month to deal with whatever you need to. If you won't return after that the deal is off and you get fired, your team as well," Foreman said, knowing that if he didn't set a time limit, Chase would never want to come back and work full time.
Chase made an unsatisfied sound and crossed his arms across his chest, scheming ways to get more freedom without losing his job.
Foreman was glad that he managed to settle the working issues and now wanted to ask the questions that bothered him the most.
"How is he?"
Chase knew exactly whom Foreman meant.
"Considering the situation, not bad. But I'm not sure what will happen now, after Wilson..." Chase didn't finish.
"Maybe I should visit him," Foreman mused.
"I'll find out if he'd want it."
"Why wouldn't he?" Foreman sounded outraged. He knew that he had never been one of House's favourites, but Chase had no right to poke his nose in it.
"How the hell do I know?! It's House!" Chase didn't want to insult Foreman, but he wasn't going to come back to House and bring their former colleague on his tail, even if Foreman was genuinely concerned about him.
"You didn't ask him when you went to find him," Foreman said, trying to defend his point of view.
"Well then, find him yourself."
"When did you become so boring?" Foreman muttered, not knowing what else to say.
"Look who's talking!" Chase snorted.
"It was me who told you that he was alive! "
"I didn't ask you!"
Foreman didn't miss the barely noticeable irritation in Chase's voice as if he regretted that Foreman had told him that day. It stopped him from arguing further and made him have a closer look into the tired and haggard face of his friend.
"I can see it wasn't easy for you."
Instead of answering, Chase nodded. He had no one to blame except himself. No one had forced him but he would do it again, even knowing how hard it would be.
"Are you going back?"
"I promised I would."
"But you can't be there for him forever!"
"I'll just help him to settle down and get back."
"Help House to settle down?! Are you kidding me?!"
Chase knew Foreman was right. Even if he was able to somehow give House the will to live after Wilson's death, it would tie Chase up to old diagnostician in the process, thus making him House's new best friend. He didn't want to stay in House's shadow forever, but he couldn't leave him either. That was why he was postponing the decision for as long as he could. Wilson was right – all of them were drug addicts and House was their drug.
"Foreman, I wasn't thinking that far ahead. Let's just get through the funeral, and then we'll see."
They arrived at Princeton. Nothing had changed – it hadn't been that long ago – but for Chase it felt like an eternity since he had been in the city. Ten minutes later, Foreman was parking at Chase's apartment building.
"I called Cameron. She's coming to funeral. I hope you don't mind," Foreman said cautiously while getting out of the car.
Chase shook his head and opened the back door to get his bag. He looked up at the windows of his apartment – he hadn't been at home for almost four months.
"Do you need me to come in?"
"No thank you. I'm sure you have other things to do. Do you know what time the funeral is and where?"
"Not yet. I'll let you know."
"Okay, thanks for picking me up."
"You're welcome."
A/N: I hope you're still reading and enjoying, please let me know what you think :)