Chapter 27- Secret's Out.
Chloe's jaw dropped. "Schizophrenic with fybromyalgia?"
"That's what it says here." Chase replied.
House jumped in, in doctor mode. "Chase, find Foreman and get an MRI. And tell Cameron to get another patient history."
Chase nodded and headed left towards the clinic. House went back into his office and pulled out his yo-yo. Chloe grabbed her cellphone and also exited, but in the opposite direction Chase did, with her cellphone to her ear. House peered out the window after her, wondering what she was up to.
It was 5:30pm. The case still wasn't solved and Chloe was mysteriously still gone. Chase and the ducklings couldn't be bothered though, House had them at the big glass table, discussing the patient. Ideas had been thrown out, and all rolled off of House like water off a duck.
"Go home." House sighed, after drilling his team for answers the 4th time that day.
Chloe re-entered, putting her cellphone in her pocket.
"What?" Cameron's head popped up from the table, she was tiredly looking through one of Nora's files.
"Go home." He repeated, his eyes on Chloe. "Kindergartners aren't any fun if they've been deprived of nap time. Just go, we'll finish this tomorrow." House grabbed his big red coffee cup and went back to his office.
While Cameron sat slightly stunned, Foreman and Chase started to get ready to leave. She quickly followed suit. Chloe was a bit bewildered. "What's going on?"
Chase, putting on his bag walked over to Chloe and kissed her on the cheek. "We're going home, just like House said. You hungry?"
Chloe grabbed her jacket and purse. "Uh, yeah. Where do you want to go?"
Foreman chimed in. "You guys like Thai food?"
"There's peanuts in my food." Cameron said, crunching on them with her face scrunched up strangely.
Chloe laughed. "Yeah, they use them in savory meals. Do you like it?"
Cameron swallowed. "I will after a few more bites." She prepared her fork once again.
"Good idea, Foreman, this is a really nice place." Chase observed.
Foreman lifted his chin from his plate full of noodles. "Yeah, I came here a few times with an old girlfriend."
"I'm guessing you don't see her anymore." Chloe pried.
"You would guess correctly." Foreman replied.
Chloe continued, "So, are you seeing anyone at all?"
Chase stared at Chloe. "What kind of a question is that?"
Chloe nudged Chase playfully. "The kind of question you ask friends if you'd like to help them."
"And who exactly would you hook up Foreman with, seeing how you've only been here a little over a week. If he really is single." Chase responded.
Foreman chuckled and sat back in his chair. "I am. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind having a little help in that department."
Chloe smiled. "Really!?"
Chase rolled his eyes. "I think it's time for us to go, Chloe." He pulled out his wallet and laid a couple of twenties on the table. "If that doesn't take care of it, I'll pay you back tomorrow, Foreman."
"Why do I have to pay for it?" Foreman asked.
"Because apparently, you're getting relationship advice from my girlfriend." Chase joked.
Cameron, silently watching for a while, spoke up. "Chloe, you don't have to go, I'll give you a ride home, if you want."
Chloe smirked. "No, I think I'd better go with Robert." She wrapped her arm around his waist. "I think I may have upset him." She giggled.
Chase rolled his eyes once again, and waved as he led Chloe toward the exit.
"Brain tumor?" Cameron threw out.
"Unlikely, we would've caught it in the MRI." Ouch. Shot down by the neurologist.
"Wilson's Disease?" She tried again, she was right with it once.
"No Kaiser-Fleicher rings in her eyes." Foreman took it off the table.
The team had come in a bit early to try and get a head start on Nora's case.
"She's a vegetarian, maybe it's some sort of protein deficiency?" Chase was flipping through Nora's file.
Suddenly, House entered, ready to work, at 8:14 am, with a file in his hands. "You are all idiots."
"You tell us that every day, House. Why does it matter now?" Cameron retorted.
"Do you know what this case needs? A toxicologist." He threw the file on the table. "Ms. Keene, what do you think?"
Chloe looked up from her pile of files. "Um, I don't know. Do you want me to call one for you?"
"Why? There's one here now." House remarked.
Foreman picked up the new file. "House, we already have a case, this isn't Nora's information."
Chase tilted his head to read the name on the side. His eyes widened, and he snatched the file from Foreman's hands. "This is Chloe's file."
Chloe sprung up to see. "Excuse me?" The file was snatched again, this time from Chase by Chloe. "This isn't my medical file, it's my personal file! Why are you flaunting this around?"
"Because, little Chloe, as every employee of mine learns very quickly, everybody lies. Usually it's why people lie that interests me, but this time, the lie itself has just as much intrigue." House revealed.
Chloe closed the file and held it to her chest. She looked up at House defiantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
House smirked. "I think you do. It just takes a few questions. You know, like 'what's a medical school graduate doing filing papers instead of... practicing medicine?'"
"I dropped out of medical school." Chloe defended.
House pulled a few papers out of his bag. Copies of Chloe's file. "But it says here that you went back, and did a PA program at Duke University. Very prestigious, if you ask me."
"I didn't." Chloe tried to take the papers from House, but he held them out of reach.
"Now, why would anyone want to hide the fact that she's a certified doctor?" House glanced at the papers once again. "Look, it's got your DEA number here and everything."
Chloe tried to retrieve her private information in vain, and finally after much struggling, gave up. "Fine, House. I'm a doctor. I wanted to work for you, but you weren't hiring. All I could find here was this stupid secretarial job. I took it in the hopes to privately ask for a interview. Not so you could take my personal file and parade it in front of everyone. You want your damn toxicologist? Fine!" She turned to the team. "Nora has severe lead poisoning. She lives in seclusion and drinks well water, it says so in the file. Her house is also near a factory dump site, the waste must have leaked into her groundwater source. Start her on Dimercaprol, and the voices should go away. It was the cause of her fibromyaglia, too." She turned back to house, both fuming and practically in tears. "Happy?" She stormed out of the conference room, leaving everyone in shock except the attending.
"Yes." He looked at his team. "You heard her. She is the expert you know."
Chase, mouth agape, took a moment to contemplate what had just happened and ignored House. He chased after Chloe.
"Is that it?" Chase found Chloe on the roof, looking over the campus. Chloe didn't reply."Are you sure you aren't lying about anything else?"
Chloe laughed ruefully. "Way to kick her while she's down, Chase."
"Chase. You've never called me that."
"I'm feeling a bit distant right now."
"You didn't answer my question. Is this the only lie?"
"Could you think of anything bigger that I would need to hide?"
"Maybe, why you decided to stay with me?"
"Last minute decision. Seemed like a good idea the time."
"That's it? Just spur of the moment?"
"Yeah. That's it."
"That's not what it sounded like when you were talking to Anna the other day."
"What do you mean?"
"I heard you, you said something about needing money fast. And guess who the richest person within 10 miles of here is."
"I don't want your money, Chase, I want to make my own. I wanted to convince House to give me a better paying job than the one I've got. You know, a medical job?"
"Oh."
"That's all you can say? 'Oh'? I can't believe you actually thought I would want to take your money!" Chloe accused.
"What else was I supposed to think? You wouldn't tell me anything about what you did after I left! Suddenly you're back in my life again, unexpectedly, no phone call, no letters, no nothing! Because you just wanted to 'drop in'?" Chase argued.
"What do you want to know? You left, I was devastated. The daycare lost its funding. I had no job. I had nothing. I took out a bunch of crazy bank loans and applied to Duke. I went to school while you were gone. That's it. But of course, if I told you that, it would've ruined my whole plan! To make something of myself on my own. To do something for myself for a change, instead of for someone else. To find out if I could actually not screw up for a change, okay? To see if I could actually go through with something before giving up on it!" Chloe started to cry again, and turned her back on Chase.
There was an awkward silence before Chase wised up and went to comfort her. "You were never a screw up," he whispered. Chloe couldn't speak. "Don't worry about anything, I'm sorry I thought badly of you, and I'm sorry House is a jerk, and I'm sorry that your plan didn't exactly work out the way you wanted it to."
"Thanks." Chloe sniffled. "What a day. I've only been awake for 3 hours." She laughed, so did Chase.
"Go talk to House. Make him give you a job. He likes assertive women like that. Just look at how he is with Cuddy." Chase joked, and the two laughed again. "I'm going to check on the patient. Why don't you go get cleaned up and see about that job you deserve?"
"I don't think it's as easy as it sounds."
"Worth a shot. After all this, don't you think?"
"Sure, why not?"
Two weeks has passed, after quite a few meetings with Cuddy, House, and even Wilson (in Cuddy's office, because House refused to meet in a conference room), Chloe's fate had been decided. She had been at home during that time, Cuddy thought it better for her to discontinue her job as House's secretary. A few times she had come in to speak with the superiors, and the ducklings had been brought in once.
This final time, it was just Chloe, House, Wilson and Cuddy.
"This certainly is unprecedented." Wilson observed.
"Of course it is. But still, I think it is to be taken very seriously, and shouldn't happen again. Technically it isn't fraud, because you did tell the truth, just not all of it. And it didn't really put anyone in danger."
"You've already lectured her, Cuddy. Just cut to the chase." House, interrupted. "You got the job."
Chloe squealed. "Really! I can work here?"
"Welcome to PPTH Dr. Keene. You'll be joining the team in the diagnostics department today." Wilson finished.
"Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Chloe got up from her seat and hugged all three of the doctors excitedly. "I have to go tell them!" She paused. "My co-workers!" She ran out of Cuddy's office towards the diagnostics department.
The first person she met was Cameron. When Foreman and Chase returned from the lab, the two girls were jumping around screaming and hugging like they were a couple of 14 year olds with tickets to a Jesse McCartney concert.
"I got it! I got it!" She ran up to Chase and kissed him.
"Wow, that's great!" Foreman patted her on the back.
"You are now looking at Dr. Keene, of the PPTH diagnostics department." She beamed.
"So. Now we have an immunologist, an intensivist, a neurologist, and a toxicologist." Cameron declared.
"And a genealogist. I have a double specialty," Chloe corrected.
House entered. "Enough of the slumber party squeals. Let's get back to work. Keene, you have clinic duty. The rest of you, find something for me to do." He limped to his office and pulled his gameboy out of his pocket.
"I do?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah, it's his." Foreman pointed out, as he swept past her, and into the hospital, followed by Cameron.
She still had her arms around Chase. "Hey, that means I get to call you Chase now."
Chase smiled. "I guess it does, if you want to."
"I will. It's so much sexier than Robert." Chloe revealed.
"I know, you told me once."
"I did?"
Chase headed towards the door, smirking.
Before she headed out after him, Chloe glanced at House in his comfortable chair. She knew that she finally had achieved what she had been working for, all her life.
Chase held the door open, ready to escort her to the clinic. "You got it?"
Chloe looked at him and smiled. "Yeah. I got it all."
THE END.
