Talia's life was on a steady decline, and she had no idea how bad it was bout to become.

Right now though, the team were getting ready for Christmas.

It was Talia and Chase's first Christmas together, so naturally Talia was so excited that she could barely put it into words. Chase wasn't, though. He found Christmas borderline unbearable. "Are you gonna help me put up these decorations or are ya gonna be miserable all day, Mr Grinch?" Talia tutted to him one evening as she sorted the sparkling tinsels into their different shades of silver. Chase just rolled his eyes and continued searing the steaks for their dinner.

"Do you wanna eat at some point this evening or are ya gonna be pissy at me all day, Mrs Hangry?" he drawled back without so much as lifting his head. Talia stared at him for a few moments, completely stunned.

"Good lord, Robert. Cheer up would ya?!" she grumbled whilst redirecting her attention to the tinsel again. Chase sighed to himself and flipped the steaks once more - then finally put the tongs down and turned to face her.

"T, I'm sorry. I just…I've never had great Christmas experiences, you know?" he admitted awkwardly, folding his arms and dropping his head. Talia glanced up at him pitifully but allowed him to finish. "My dad…he was never really around, as you know, and my mum was, as you also know, always drunk or high off her head. So yeah, Christmas pretty much sucked…every single year."

"Yeaahhh I get that, baby," Talia murmured, getting up from their soft cream carpet and walking over to where he was miserably stood in the kitchen. "But I'm gonna make sure this Christmas kick ass, okay? I'm cooking three different meats and everything. And it's gonna change your perception on the holiday forever. So will you let me do it? Pretty pleeeaaase?" she begged, running her hands up and down his chest lovingly. Chase smirked down at her and caressed her face with his thumbs.

"Fine, you weirdo. What exactly do you need me to do?" he sighed reluctantly, making Talia grin and kiss him sweetly.

"Ummmmm….I think I stashed some Christmas lights under our bed when I first moved in. Did you wanna find em for me?" she suggested.

"Sure thing," Chase sighed unenthusiastically - but he shot her a ghost of a smile. "Thank you for trying to make this nice for me, T."

"You're welcome. Now go," Talia giggled, pressing her index finger against his nose. Chase went to do just that, obediently making his way over to their bedroom and kneeling down beside the big queen sized bed of his to try and spot the lights amongst the darkness.

"Gotcha," he hummed under his breath, reaching out for the box. But as he grabbed it and pulled it out, something else slid out with it. It was a neatly folded piece of paper. "Huh," he mumbled, unfolding it with a frown and holding it up to see properly in the light. Immediately, he could see that the writing wasn't his, and it wasn't Talia's either.

On the paper was scrawled,

'SEE YOU SOON TALIA X'.

"What, the f*ck?" Chase murmured. His heart started to race but he didn't know why. Something about those four words was throwing him off. Did Talia know where the note came from? Did she hide it in the first place? She was still unbeknownst to what he had found, singing along to Mariah Carey's rendition of 'Joy To The World' whilst trying to decipher whether she wanted to go with light silver or dark silver tinsel, bopping her head and swinging her hips to the music. Chase steadily walked out to her with the paper in his hand - but immediately felt a pang of guilt. She looked so peacefully blissful and he didn't want to interrupt her, because he knew full well that the paper was going to be more sinister than it appeared.

But it was too late - she had already spotted it in his hand.

"Ooooh, what's that babe?" she smiled up at him, now bent down next to the decorations box and untangling the noisy silver beads for the tree. Chase clenched his jaw and he gulped uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot - and immediately, Talia's heart sank.

She knew what that look meant.

"Chase?" she mumbled, slowly standing to her feet as her boyfriend approached her.

"I…I just found this under our bed," he started off as calmly as possible, handing it over to her so that she could take a closer look. Talia's hands were trembling as she took it from him. "I…do you know where it came from?"

"I…I have no idea," Talia admitted hoarsely, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes flickered up to Chase's again - but this time they were welling up with fear and it was making him want to panic, too. "You s-s-said it was u-under our bed?"

"Wait, so you don't know who wrote this?" Chase clarified slowly, keeping his eyes on Talia as she started to pace the room erratically with a hand on her forehead. She wasn't speaking, she was just breathing heavily, her head spinning as she tried to remember where it could've come from. "Talia, serious question now - does it look like his writing?"

"Yeah," Talia spoke bluntly, suddenly stopping in her movements and looking at him. "Yeah it does, but there's no way he knows where I live. Chase, if he was to know, he'd sit there on the bed and wait for me after work one evening - trust me."

"Flamin' heck. This f*cker is weird," Chase mumbled under his breath, now taking a seat on the carpet, drawing his knees to his chest. "Well…we…we need to go to the police just in case. How else would that get in our house?"

"This is what I'm saying, Chase, I have no idea. We have an alarm system and everything," Talia muttered - then she suddenly looked up.

She literally had a 'House moment' then and there.

"The cards," she muttered.

Before Chase could even think about asking what she meant, Talia had already boiled out the living room and into their bedroom with her wavy blonde locks flying behind her. Chase's mind was too busy to even think about where she'd gone, though. He simply leant his head against the wall and waited for her to come back, internally hoping with all his heart that she'd return with a reasonable explanation before he really lost it. It was so strange. This Ryan guy had managed to shake him up within a single phone call…so he couldn't imagine how Talia had been dealing with it for years.

When she finally turned up again half a minute later, she was holding a cluster of 'thank you' cards in her trembling hands. Chase blinked up at her as she sat herself down beside him.

"Are you implying that it fell out of one of those?" he guessed hopefully. Talia nodded and began sieving through them in a panic.

"I think it did, I remember something falling into my lap when I opened one of them but…I don't know which one it was," she sniffed, her chest now heaving in a panic. "Oh g-god Robert, I seriously don't know which one-"

"Was it this one? From Mr Sarko?" Chase suddenly pointed out, holding up the little thank you card from the man that Talia had seen in clinic duty a while ago. Talia peered down at the writing and tried to match it to the paper she was still desperately clutching onto, and her eyes darted over to the card and paper, back and forth, back and forth. The writing somewhat looked the same, to be fair - give or take a few letters.

"I…I guess he could've written it…but I don't know why he would. It's creepy," Talia shrugged helplessly, looking up to Chase for any answers. He gulped before quickly thinking of another reason on his feet.

"I mean…sometimes patients use a bit of spare paper to write out the contents for spelling and stuff first before writing it out again?" he pointed out, placing a hand on her thigh as she leaned on his shoulder. "I imagine that's what may have happened, T. A complete accident." It was obviously a long shot but Talia appeared to be taking it on.

"Well…I get the spare paper thing - but why one of him saying he'll 'see me soon'?" she mumbled, not tearing her eyes away from the writing. "That's…that's a bit weird, no?"

"Yeah, but that's cos we're experiencing something weird with your ex in general," Chase answered comfortingly. "We always say stuff like 'see you later' to people we know we'll never see again. It's fine, T. We can still take it to the cops to be safe if you wanna-"

"No, you're right," Talia blurted out before he could even finish. "What you're saying makes sense." She leant her chin on his shoulder and he turned his head to look at her properly. "Thank you. You always know what to say," she mumbled tearfully. Chase placed his hand on her tearstained cheek and kissed her softly, as Talia melted into the kiss herself, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. They sat there locked in each other's embrace on the carpet, surrounded by Christmas decorations with Mariah Carey playing softly in the background.

…

Detective Tritter was an ass, and Talia was starting to understand exactly why House treated him the way he did when he got arrested. At first, she had no idea who he was, so when he first turned up to hers and Chase's front door a few evenings after the card was found, she'd assumed he was there to enquire more about Ryan. Chase was on an on-call night shift, so she was home alone. "Hi there," Talia smiled politely once she opened the front door.

"Good evening. Are you Talia House?" Tritter asked abruptly.

"I am indeed," Talia frowned, leaning against the doorframe.

"Detective Tritter," Tritter introduced himself, briefly holding up his badge. Talia's lips parted open in surprise. "May I come in?"

"Oh…yes, of course," Talia nodded. She let him into the house and shut the front door whilst Tritter stepped through into the living room, looking around her apartment with an impressed hum. Talia walked over to join him a few seconds later as the nerves built up in her stomach. "Please, do take a seat. Can I get you like a drink or anything?"

"No, thank you," Tritter declined, sitting himself down on the cream L-shaped sofa. Talia nodded and sat a few seats away from him, clasping her hands together and clenching her jaw as she waited for him to start. "You're the daughter of Gregory House, is that correct?" Tritter began, his beady eyes looking dead into her tired ones.

"I…am indeed," she answered slowly.

"How long has he been taking Vicodin for?" Tritter enquired, as he irritatingly chewed his gum.

"Vic…um…for as long I've known him?" Talia frowned. "I'm sorry - is this meeting about him? Wait, this is about House?"

"You haven't figured that out yet?" Tritter muttered blandly. Talia's dark eyebrows shot up in surprise and she leaned back ever so slightly in the sofa.

Tritter continued on regardless.

"And…you work in Princeton Plainsboro hospital too, is that correct?"

"It is."

"How long have you been working there for?"

"Um…a little over 10 months now," Talia murmured, fiddling with her fingers. "I'm sorry, why are you-"

"Have you ever prescribed Dr. House with Vicodin in your name under his request?" Tritter cut her off bluntly.

"In my name? No!" Talia scoffed back. She cocked her head to the side. "What are you-"

"So when you all figured out that this man was clearly suffering from a drug addiction, as doctors, why didn't any of you stop him or encourage him to get him help?" Tritter argued, his voice getting louder so that it overpowered her questions before she got a chance to ask them properly. Talia blinked at him, feeling her patience begin to wear thin. "You're his daughter, are you not? As his daughter, did you not-"

"I've been his daughter for roughly a little over ten months now," Talia shot back before he could finish this time. Tritter raised an amused eyebrow. "Yeah, ya didn't know that part, huh? So I'd hardly think that this is my responsibility when I'm the newest person in his life."

"I see. This…this is a nice place…how long have you been living here? This is your house, I take it?"

"It is. I moved in a few months ago now. I…I currently live here with my boyfriend."

"Yes, Doctor Robert Chase. But before that, you lived with House, is that correct?" Tritter clarified.

"When I first moved down here, yeah," Talia blinked bluntly. "Why?"

"Because there was a seriously dangerous and concerning amount of stashed Vicodin in his house when I searched it. I happen to find it extremely irresponsible that again, as doctors, you're all allowing this to happen under your noses-"

"Ohhh f*ck me," Talia rolled her eyes. She was at her breaking point now. She shook her head and sat up straighter and cleared her throat before launching into it. "If you've got something against House, Detective, then please just say that. Did he do something to you? Embarrass you in clinic? Upset your wife in a case? Accuse of cheating which is usually 90% of the time true?"

"These are all common things for him?" Tritter hummed stonily.

"These are all common things people tend to suffer from when they come for my father in some heated revenge agenda and it's honestly nothing but draining to hear about," Talia muttered back. "You're gonna ask me to work with you to take him down and I'm not gonna do it because I'll 'no comment' my way all the way all the way down to the station. So please, Detective Tritter - don't even bother."

Tritter looked at her in silence for a few moments, still trying to figure her out - and Talia stared straight back at him, completely unfazed.

"You have an ongoing case with the police department, is that correct? A…harassment case?" Tritter suddenly asked her, catching her well off guard.

Talia's mouth went dry.

"I…do," she answered slowly.

"Any arrests made yet?"

"No. It's kinda…taking a while to go through."

"Would you be interested in it being sped up?" Tritter offered up semi-casually, cocking his head to the side as Talia's palms started to sweat. She knew exactly what he was offering her. It meant that if she spoke up about House, he'd progress the case with Ryan.

It was an inviting sentiment, and her life would be so much easier if she did it.

But she couldn't.

"Wow. The fact that you're using my own safety and wellbeing to coerce me into speaking out against a man who is in constant pain whilst saving lives is enough to tell me the type of person you are, Detective," Talia told him bitterly, glaring him up and down in pure disgust. "So thank you, but no thank you - I'll pass."

And with that, she stood up gestured her hand towards the front door. Tritter stood up gradually and kept his eyes focussed directly on hers.

"I'll be in touch. Don't worry, I'll see myself out," he hummed hoarsely, before nodding his head and making his way out the house. Talia let out a shaky sigh once she saw him leave out of the front door, and pressed herself up against the wall before she started hyperventilating.

She didn't know whether what she did was a smart idea or not - but she was sure as hell about to find out.

…

It was getting a little tense for Chase as well, to be honest. But he was slightly smarter than the rest of the group. After Tritter went to visit Talia, he decided to head back to the hospital and apprehend Chase as well before she had a chance to contact him to tell him what he should and shouldn't say. "So, how many pills does House take a day?" Tritter asked Chase from where he had apprehended him in an unused lab.

"Um…well, it's hard to put a firm number on it," Chase responded vaguely. "With pain comes levels…if the levels vary, so do the number of pills taken."

"Uh huh. And do you write those prescriptions?" Tritter asked.

"Some of them," Chase shrugged back.

"Why? He…tell you to do that?"

"No…like any patient, he asked me to," Chase frowned as if it were obvious.

"House? Asking for something?" Tritter muttered beneath his breath. "Absolutely not. I think that you're lying to the police to cover up something that you don't really want to. Is that to help your girlfriend out?"

Wrong move.

"Don't talk about her," Chase interrupted suddenly with his hand risen. "Keep her well out of it. She has nothing to do with anything, and she doesn't deserve to be dragged into this mess."

"Well I'd have to drag her in if you don't start being honest," Tritter compromised, leaning back in his chair in accomplishment as he watched Chase slowly start to crack in front of him. "So if I were you, I'd start making a few better decisions about it this before it all gets…unnecessarily complicated, no?"

…

"T?" Chase called out once he got back home.

"In the living room bub!" Talia called back from where she was curled up on their sofa, watching TV whilst filling out some accumulating paperwork. "You okay? Did that bastard detective come into the hospital?" Chase froze from where he was taking off his jacket in the hallway.

"Wait, how could you tell?" he frowned, hanging his jacket up and walking into the living room.

"Cos he came here first," Talia answered with a bored yawn. She held out her arms, indicating that she wanted a hug. "House needs to stop pissing people off, particularly people in power who will then abuse that power to get back at him. I'm sick to the brim of defending the man - first Vogler, then he got shot, and now Tritter? When oh when will enough be enough?"

"I know," Chase murmured awkwardly as he made his way over to her and planting himself down on the sofa beside her. He leant his head on her shoulder in thought, debating with himself whether or not to admit what he had said to Tritter. But whilst Talia absentmindedly played with his locks using one hand, he found it difficult to say it.

He didn't want to disappoint her again.

"So…what did you tell him?"

"He tried to…he tried to bribe me with the prospect of rushing Ryan's case faster," Talia admitted, ticking off all her papers with one hand and still stroking his hair with the other.

"What?!" Chase gasped, coming off her shoulder again. "Talia, that's totally out of order!"

"Yeah cos he's completely messed up," Talia drawled with an obvious roll her her eyes. "Anyway, I pretty much told him to go to hell. So honestly, I think I've made an enemy in the police at this point."

"Yeah, I think you may have," Chase murmured to himself with a little frown. "You sure you don't wanna rethink that option, though? I mean, pushing the case could get us some serious answers-"

"And it could also put my father in prison for fifteen years," Talia scoffed back, propping herself up slightly to stare at him. "Yeaaah, not happening. Even I couldn't do it. Yeah he's got a problem but…he needs the Vicodin to use his damn brain and the good that comes out of that is better than whatever agenda Tritter's trying to push. There's not much else I can say about it." Chase clenched his jaw and nodded.

Fair point - he didn't know what else he expected from the daughter of the man he was tempted to rat out.

...

tritter can go to hell. best worst villain in the entire series. i can't even focus on his episodes for too long cos they give me a headache. BUT it's interesting that this time we have chase holding a secret from talia instead of the other way round! WILD RIDES AHEAD