HI EVERYONE!
THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING AND FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS!
UNFORTUNATELY, THIS STORY WILL BE COMING TO AN END SOON. DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER WE HAVE, BUT WE ARE CLOSER TO THE END.
HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS AND ENJOY! :D
................................................................................................................................................................
CHAPTER 29: Please read and comment.
"I've got fifteen that I can give you from my case money, and I know a few games where we can get the rest," Sophie said.
"Sophie, no," Joey stated flatly, shaking his head vehemently.
"We'll just do our thing. Nobody can outplay us if we work together," she continued.
"I can't let you do that," he insisted.
"If you don't come up with thirty grand in two days, they're gonna kill you," she said, her voice quavering.
He gazed down at her engagement ring on her finger and her swollen pregnant belly as every fiber in his being told him that there was no way that he could let Sophie round with him again to get him out of this mess.
But as he looked into her eyes once more, his resolve disappeared.
"What's Chase gonna say?" he asked, closing his eyes a little.
"Let me worry about that," she assured him.
............................................................................................................................................................................................................
"No way," Chase declared angrily.
"Robbie, just listen—" Sophie began, holding up her hands in a placating gesture.
"Are you insane? There's no way I'm letting you get mixed up in this!" he exclaimed.
"It's only fifteen grand. We're just gonna play in a few soft games. There's no risk—"
"You told me there's always a risk!" he reminded her with agitation.
Sophie placed her hands on her hips and diverted her eyes to the linoleum floor of the NICU ante- room, avoiding Chase's intense stare on her.
"What if you lose the money and they come looking for him? They'll come looking for you too!" he begged anxiously.
"That won't happen," she assured him.
"Of COURSE it can happen!" he yelled.
"We won't lose! This isn't gambling! It's a skill game—" she argued.
"Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?" he interrupted her.
She exhaled deeply, looking away from him once more. Part of her did realize that she indeed sounded ridiculous.
But there was another part of her that just refused to admit it.
"I can't even believe that you're considering this!" he told her.
"They're gonna kill him," she said desperately, looking back up at him once more, hoping he would understand.
"And that is not your problem," he stated flatly.
The anxiety over Joey and her disappointment in Chase welling up inside her, she turned away from him to leave. But Chase gripped her arm and turned her around, forcing her to face him and the situation.
"Listen to me. Joey got himself in this trouble. You didn't," he told her, holding onto both her arms as if his grip on her could change her mind.
"And he can't get himself out of this trouble without my help!" she argued vehemently.
"You're not playing," he ordered her firmly.
Her first impulse was to shake free of his hold on her.
But the way his blue- green eyes were boring into her kept her paralyzed in her spot.
"I'll lock the door and the windows if I have to," he added.
"Then I have to buy him some time," she told him, shaking out of his grasp.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
A few minutes later, Sophie was in Cuddy's office.
Cuddy was sitting up straight at her desk, listening to Sophie tell her Joey's plight while House was sitting on her leather couch, playing with his iPhone.
Chase paced back and forth near the door, his ankle throbbing in unforgiving pain.
"Can't we just keep him here for a week or so?" Sophie pleaded with Cuddy.
"You know I can't do that," Cuddy replied, her voice devoid of any emotion.
"Besides the fact that I'm putting this entire hospital at risk if I hide him here, it's against hospital policy to keep someone overnight if their condition doesn't warrant it, I don't have the bed space and he has no insurance," Cuddy stated, maintaining her ramrod straight posture while she ignored Sophie's disappointment.
Sophie glanced over at House for a second, hoping that he'd come to her defense.
Feeling her eyes on him, House looked up from his iPhone and shrugged.
"What she said," was all he said as he looked back down at his phone.
Sophie shot House a wide- eyed glare, clearly communicating to him that she thought he'd help her with this.
"She's the boss and I've never made it to this level in Bejeweled," he stated, uninterested.
"And you're an idiot if you think these guys'll stop looking for him after a week," he added, engrossed in his iPhone once again.
"I just want to buy him some time—" Sophie began.
"FOR WHAT?" House snapped at her angrily, his demeanor suddenly changing, tossing his iPhone across the couch.
Chase, Sophie and Cuddy flinched, their eyes wide with shock at House's outburst. House pushed himself off the couch, taking a few steps across the room to face her, leaving his cane behind.
"That piece of shit was the reason why Lisa got attacked in that casino bathroom! That guy who assaulted her was looking for you!" he yelled menacingly in Sophie's face.
"Greg, stop…" Cuddy said reproachfully as she got up from behind the desk and walked over to him.
"You were throwing up all over the ER when you saw the bruises on Lisa's face and you blamed yourself!" House continued, ignoring Cuddy's hand on his arm as she was trying to pull him back.
Chase, however, didn't move from his spot to step in.
"Or did you forget?" he spat out bitingly, his bright blue eyes penetrating her.
Sophie darted her eyes to Cuddy, the overwhelming guilt she felt on that horrible night flooding back to her.
"…I didn't forget anything," she said softly.
Cuddy somehow managed to pull House back a few inches from Sophie.
"… Just think for a moment," Cuddy began, taking a more gentle approach to try to make Sophie see reason.
"If you were in Joey's situation, would he do this for you?" she asked Sophie.
"Yes," Sophie answered without hesitation.
At this, Chase laughed out loud in disgust behind her.
As she heard his laugh, Sophie whipped around to face him.
"If Cameron was in this situation, you'd help her," Sophie told him an accusing tone.
Chase shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest, taking a defensive stance.
"Cameron would never put herself in this situation," Chase said coldly.
For a moment, Sophie just stared at him.
Then a tiny laugh filled with contempt escaped her throat and she shook her head.
"You're an asshole," Sophie stated, turning on her heel to leave Cuddy's office.
But Chase grabbed her roughly back towards him.
"You didn't give a shit about this guy until you saw him today in the ER!" he said menacingly.
"AND YOU LIED TO ME!" she yelled back, her voice just as toxic as his.
For a minute, Chase was thrown off guard, unable to reply, having no idea what she was talking about.
"You don't think I know that you still have feelings for her?" she asked, her voice quavering.
House and Cuddy turned their heads in unison towards Chase, waiting with baited breath for his reply to this.
His expression softened as he loosened his grip on her arm, his body slumping as his arm fell to his side.
"I told Cameron good- bye because I love you and I want to move on with my life and spend the rest of it with you," he stated sadly.
His words completely stunned her. She felt as if a knife had gone right through her heart.
She had never expected him in a million years to say that.
But before Sophie could reply to this, the door to Cuddy's office opened. Nurse Jeffrey popped his head in and scanned the room.
"Jeffrey, this really isn't the time—" Cuddy began.
"Need you in the Clinic," Jeffrey announced to Sophie, ignoring Cuddy.
Sophie looked around for a minute to make sure that she was indeed the person Jeffrey was talking to.
"…Me?" she asked in surprise and disbelief, pointing to herself.
"Not enough nurses and no doctor'll want to do this," Jeffrey assured her.
She gazed at Chase, who by this point looked completely heartbroken.
"Robbie…" she began contritely.
"Just… go," he told her, his voice barely audible.
Jeffrey shifted his weight and placed his hands on his hips in an impatient gesture. Knowing she had no choice, Sophie left the room with him, not saying another word to Chase on the way out.
"Good. She's finally gone," House said bluntly.
Cuddy shot House a nasty look. Chase barely reacted at all.
"Why is that good?" Chase mumbled, focusing on the floor.
"Because I just bought you at least thirty minutes," House told him.
Upon hearing this, Chase looked up, completely blindsided.
"… You… paged Jeffrey?" he asked incredulous, putting all the pieces together in his head.
"Now go be the sneaky bastard that you are and do whatever it takes to stop Sophie from making a huge mistake," House ordered him.
At first, Chase furrowed his brow and shook his head, having absolutely no idea what the hell he could do to prevent Sophie from Rounding with Joey to save his life.
And then it hit him.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Moments after Chase left Cuddy's office with a look of epiphany, House went back to his place on the couch and got comfortable.
Cuddy watched him, stunned.
"Wow!" she finally said.
House crossed his ankle over his knee and placed his arm across the back of the couch, a tiny smirk forming on his face.
"I impressed you with my stealth texting," he stated.
"Honestly… yeah," she admitted, crossing the room and taking a seat on the couch next to him.
"You had me at 'no insurance,'" he quipped.
She laughed slightly at that, leaning back against his shoulder. He lightly wrapped his arm around her and gave her a tiny kiss on her temple.
They sat on the couch in silence, he gazing down at her prominent belly, their minds both jogging back to that horrible night at Mohegan Sun casino, when House found Cuddy in the women's bathroom, bruised and bleeding at the hands of a psychopath.
He had beaten the guy within an inch of his life with his cane and his bare hands.
But sometimes he wished he had finished the job right.
"…Do you ever think about what happened that night?" Cuddy asked him in a raspy, faraway tone.
"I try not to," he admitted gruffly.
She exhaled, forcing herself to block out the images in her mind that occasionally resurfaced.
"Yeah, me too," she said.
"Sophie's being an idiot," House said after a few more moments of silence between them in, deciding he had dwelled on the past long enough.
"She cares about this guy," Cuddy replied with a shrug.
"I'm sure she's the only one who does," House said. Cuddy nodded slowly in agreement.
"If our daughter ever brings home a loser like him, I'm not letting her out of the house until she's forty," House declared.
Cuddy looked up at him with a twisted smile, well aware that House was deflecting to avoid thinking about what had happened to her.
"Oh so now we're having a girl?" she asked coyly.
"I told Sophie she's having a boy. Figured I'd do my part to balance out the universe," he said.
"Do you want a girl?" she asked.
"I don't care," he said a bit too casually.
"You're lying," she stated with a sly grin.
Unable to keep the sheepish smile off his face, he caressed her cheek with his thumb.
"My ultrasound and amnio is in a few weeks. We could always find out the sex of the baby if you want to," she reminded him.
"That's up to you," he told her.
"…I kinda wanted it to be a surprise," she admitted.
"Then we won't find out," he said.
She gave him a loving smile and a kiss, caressing the scruff on his cheek with her hand. He gently brushed his lips against hers, his hand instinctively finding its way to her belly.
They eased back on the couch again, him still tenderly rubbing her stomach, not wanting to get his hopes up this early of the possibility of them having a daughter together.
"Besides, if I really want to know what we're having, I can always break into Sobol's office or the hospital's mainframe," he added.
"My password isn't 'partypants' anymore," she stated.
"I know. It's 'Head Bitch In Charge,'" he replied without missing a beat.
Her jaw dropped in shock as she turned towards him.
"How did you know—" she began.
"What else would it be?" he asked.
............................................................................................................................................................................................................
It only took Chase eight minutes to find Joey.
Chase had found him waiting in chairs in the ER for someone to reset his nose and bring him his CT results. He was still holding the now melted ice pack which he hadn't even bothered to put on his badly mangled cheek.
Joey immediately noticed Chase limping slightly as he approached him and took the empty seat next to him.
Chase stared at him for a few moments with cool eyes, saying nothing.
Joey raised an eyebrow at him, hoping that Chase wasn't about to deck him in the middle of the ER.
"Let's take a walk," Chase told him.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
A few minutes later, Chase and Joey had walked a block away from the hospital.
Neither of them had said anything to each other.
Suddenly, Chase stopped in his tracks, causing Joey to stop walking as well.
Chase stared at him with the exact same cool expression he had a few minutes ago.
He then reached for the front pocket of his scrubs. The action caused Joey to wince and pull back slightly, expecting Chase to punch him.
Chase arched his eyebrow, noticing this.
But he said nothing as he pulled out a folded piece of paper out of his front pocket and handed it to Joey.
Joey eyed the paper skeptically for a moment before taking it from Chase.
His facial expression didn't change in the least when he saw that it was a check made out to "CASH" in the amount of thirty- thousand dollars, signed by Robert Chase.
"What's the catch?" Joey asked him, still looking at the tiny piece of paper that would save his life this time around, knowing full well that Sophie had no idea about this.
"You disappear," Chase replied simply.
Joey finally met Chase's cool stare on him, realizing exactly what Chase meant.
Chase folded his arms across his chest, waiting to see what Joey would do.
Joey then re- folded the check and placed it in the front pocket of his weathered jeans.
Chase immediately laughed in disgust and shook his head.
"You didn't even hesitate," Chase said.
"Should I have?" Joey asked lightly.
"Sophie was willing to put herself and our baby at risk to save your life," Chase told him, his voice thick with contempt for the other man.
"Then I come along, give you a check on the condition that you can't see or speak to her ever again and you take it," Chase continued.
"What does that tell you about yourself?" he asked Joey, gazing at him as if he was a pathetic creature.
Joey shrugged. "Nothing I didn't already know…" he replied casually.
"… And… that I love Sophie just as much as you do," Joey said sincerely.
"Maybe even more than you do," he added.
Chase hardened his jaw at this, refusing to acknowledge Joey's comment. The corner of Joey's mouth turned up ever so slightly, inwardly delighted the fact that he had hit a sore spot in Chase.
"I never wanted her to help me out of this mess. That was all her idea," Joey told him.
"So what does that tell you about her?" Joey asked him.
"That you don't deserve her," Chase stated flatly.
"I know I don't," Joey said, his own bright green eyes locking on Chase's.
"But let's hope you do," he added.
Chase watched him turn on his heel and walk away, an uneasy, unsettled feeling washing over him.
He then turned around and limped back to the hospital.
TBC…
