"Frozen bank accounts!" Talia exclaimed the next morning in House's office, slamming her hands down on the glass table irritably. "Ohhh this Tritter guy is the f*cking worst!"

"No, it's CAMERON. C-A-M-" Cameron practically shouted down her phone to the poor bank worker on the other end.

"Well could ya try and unlock it? I need to eat, don't I?" Foreman argued down the line to someone else.

"Wow. Is this what it feels like to be a ghost?" House blinked to the group in annoyance. But nobody bothered to look up. "UM, HELLO?"

"Oh my god House would you give us a damn break?" Talia suddenly snapped, scrolling down to her bank's phone number to try and call them one more time. "This is all your fault, by the way!"

"If I ask 'how' it would sound as if I care but - how, exactly?" House asked, now semi-intrigued.

"Tritter froze all our accounts," Foreman jumped in, giving Talia the opportunity to talk on the phone.

"Hello? Yeah my name is Talia Winter Delmario? Yeah hi, I'm calling to see if there's any way I can move money from one account to another so that I can, like, EAT?"

"Oh you'll eat eventually, now can we get back to the case? Kid's got no-" House began again.

"I'll eat? You feeding us? Is lunch on you, Pops?" Talia hissed, before turning her back on him to keep arguing. "Yes, Delmario? D-E-"

"The kid had stones which indicated a bacterial infections, but those don't cause a vesicular rash," House spoke over her loudly, leaning against the bookcase. Talia glared at him properly for a few moments - but happened to notice that he looked wearier than usual, which quickly concerned her.

"Are you feeling okay? And…if we do a scratch test and check for allergies-" she suggested, lowering the phone from her ear.

"I'm fine, and when that scratch test comes up negative you could do a broad spectrum of antibiotics!" House exclaimed with a sarcastic gasp, before hobbling straight out of the office again to leave them all on their rage calls.

But Talia had to stop him.

She abruptly ended her phone call and ran out after him - but just before she could go, Chase grabbed her hand.

"T, I'm gonna go and take out as much money out as possible whilst my account is untouched," he muttered up to her. "Lunch is on me, clearly."

"Clearly," Talia sighed back, before rushing out after her father again. "House!" she shouted to his turned back.

"Woah! That was the quickest broad spectrum I've EVER seen!" House snapped back. He clearly wanted to be left alone - but of course, Talia's persistence wasn't going to let that happen.

"House are you…okay? You seem even more unbearable than usual. I know Tritter's pissing you off too but-"

"Have you spoken to Wilson about your beloved rapidly dying punching bag recently? Because - newsflash! She is…rapidly dying!" House suddenly gasped at her sarcastically, causing Talia's face to fall. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Who? L-Leona?"

"How many dying punching bags to you know of?" House drawled. Talia had no response. "Maybe you should go and actually pay attention to her and get off my ass. Do your job instead of being pretty, useless…and pretty useless," House suggested with a mockingly tight lipped smile, before speedily sauntering off. Talia stood there in silence.

She was stunned.

House had said some offensive things to her before, but even this was a little much. 'Punching bag'? Knowing her past? Regardless of whether House was just trying to hurt her or not, his words had clearly shaken her - so she ran up to Wilson's office and gave it a hurried knock, trying her hardest not to cry.

"Come in?" Wilson called out. Talia cracked open his door and slipped in, shutting it behind her and leaning herself up against it. Wilson looked up to greet her - but then his face fell. "Oh god, Talia-"

"W-what's h-h-happened to Leona?" Talia choked out as she staggered over to one of his leather sofas. Wilson's mouth formed into an 'o' and he put his pen down.

"Did House talk to you?" he guessed with a sigh. "Or…snap at you?"

"House snapped at me and called her a punching bag, then announced that she was rapidly dying and that I should 'get off his ass and stop being useless for once'," Talia corrected him angrily, trying to keep the wobbliness out of her voice. She was close to having a breakdown already because of the rogue note that she and Chase had discovered, never mind House being back in business with Stacy - so his words just made it worse.

"What?" Wilson murmured in surprise. "Damn. That's a little heavy, even for him-"

"I know," Talia sniffed grumpily. "So…what's going on?"

"Well I'm pretty sure he's suffering withdrawals because Tritter made him-"

"I don't mean House! F*ck House," Talia interrupted angrily. Wilson's eyes went wide and he gave a quick nod. "I mean Leona. Has her cancer gotten worse or is House just messing with me?"

"It…it has become aggravated, yes," Wilson informed regretfully, literally watching the worry settle into her eyes. Talia nibbled on the pad of her right thumb anxiously as her dark brows furrowed together.

"How bad?"

"She…she came in for her session yesterday and the cancerous breast has now gained a significant amount of blotching."

"Blotching?"

"Blotching. Look." Wilson showed the pictures he had printed to Talia so that she could see for herself. Looking at it was proof if proof be needed - Leona's entire breast was dark, bruised and various deep shades of yellow and purple.

"What…the hell?" Talia breathed, eyes darting back up to Wilson in a panic. "What happened?!"

"She won't say - and that told me enough," Wilson sighed as he shot Talia a knowing look.

She knew exactly what that meant.

"Those bruises have officially aggravated her cancer. She does know that, right?" she muttered angrily, standing to her feet. "She does know that the boyfriend of hers almost killed her again?"

"Almost? Talia she's gotta go on doxorubicin," Wilson stated as he shook his head. "I know you were reluctant to start her on it because of the side effects but at this point, we can't afford to-"

"God," Talia groaned, flinging her head back. She couldn't stomach this all today. "Is she in recovery now?"

"Yup," Wilson confirmed grimly as he picked back up his pen, "you should go visit her. She's been asking for you ever since she got here."

…

"Dr Talia," Leona smiled weakly as Talia tiptoed into the recovery room. She grabbed a chair to sit opposite her, who was lazily draped in an armchair beside the window. "I've missed you!"

"Aww, I've missed you too," Talia giggled, although she was biting back her tears already. The chemo had completely weakened her - from her croaky voice to her appearance. Her skin was drawn out and looked almost grey, and her usually lifelike eyes were now dull and heavy.

But she was still smiling - she was so resilient.

"How are you feeling?" Talia started off hesitantly.

"As good as I can," Leona hummed. She pushed her tongue over her teeth and stared out the window. "I don't…I don't even look myself anymore. I avoid myself when I walk past mirrors."

"Hey! You're beautiful, Leona," Talia cut her off with a frown. Leona glanced over at her and laughed dryly. "No, you are! Hair or no hair, you're gorgeous."

"Thank you, doctor," Leona blushed, holding back a shy smile.

"You're welcome. I…I take it Dr. Wilson has spoken to you about the cancer?" Talia asked as gently as she could. Leona bit both her lips and avoided her eye contact.

"Yeah."

"Do I need to involve the police, Leona?" Talia asked her seriously.

"No, Doctor!" Leona rushed out. But instead of it being convincing her, her eyes were filling with tears. "Please. It wasn't him, I just bruise like that o-on my-"

"Leona," Talia spoke both firmly and clearly, "as a doctor your safety is my greatest priority. Therefore I am obliged to make sure you're safe in more than one way. You cannot physically be going through chemo here and then continue getting beaten in those damaged and sensitive tissues by a man who claims to love you. Therefore I'm reporting-"

"And I'll just lie to the police," Leona shot back as the first few tears spilled out of her red raw rimmed eyelids. "I will lie and refuse to talk-"

"Stop protecting him!" Talia hissed, leaning forward.

"Protecting him is protecting myself!" Leona cried croakily. The words left Talia's throat as she sat back in her chair again, defeated. She understood that.

Leona sniffed and scrubbed her tears away after a few seconds of pondering silence.

"You don't need to worry. He's not living at my place now. He's gone. Said I was 'no use to him anymore'."

"No use to him?" Talia repeated in disgust, feeling even more nauseous than before. "What…what did-"

"I don't know. W-whatever it was, it changed pretty fast," Leona mumbled. She sucked in her cheeks and looked back out the large window again, staring down at the ground swiftly filling with crisp white snow outside. "Dr. Wilson said he'd help me find some accommodation after this round of chemo is done. I'm already getting help without bringing in the law. So I'll be fine, Doctor. Please, please don't put me at risk. He'll be after me in a damn heartbeat, you know he will."

It was true. Talia did know.

But she was a doctor first, and couldn't have the guilt of not saying something weighing on her heart and her conscience.

"I'm writing up a report. The police might not pick it up immediately, but it definitely needs to be on file. He needs to be dealt with. You're not alone here," she murmured with authority, taking Leona's wired hand and giving her fingers a light squeeze. "We're in this together, and I would never let you do something that would harm you in the long run. There'll be measures put in place to ensure that doesn't happen." Leona shuffled awkwardly in her chair.

"You promise?" she finally sniffed.

"I swear. You'll stay here for as long as I can hold you and then…I don't know, I'll join forces with Wilson and we'll find somewhere safe. Somewhere where he won't find you. Okay?" Talia whispered comfortingly. Leona's nodded in confirmation but kept her attention focussed out of the window.

…

Talia knocked on Cuddy's office door about an hour or so later. "Yup?" came her boss' choked up reply. Talia immediately registered the emotion in her voice and started frowning.

Then once she fully entered the room and saw Cuddy in floods of tears on her sofa - she immediately sprung into action.

"Cuddy?" she gasped, bending down beside her. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine," Cuddy responded with an added miserable sniff.

"What…what happened?" Talia blinked worriedly. She had never seen her boss cry before, so she was a little on edge.

"Your father happened," Cuddy answered as bluntly as possible. Talia's face softened.

"He snapped at you too, huh?" she guessed with an annoyed sigh.

"He told me that I'd suck as a mother…knowing I've been trying to get pregnant," Cuddy explained a little ashamedly, unable to even meet Talia's gaze.

"You've…been trying to get pregnant?" she blinked before she could stop herself. Cuddy rolled her red-rimmed eyes, choosing to carefully stay silent - and Talia quickly got the gist. "Sorry - that was none of my-"

"It's fine," Cuddy cut her off briskly, standing up. "It's not like the hospital hasn't been in your business for the last year or so, right? And I get that House is detoxing cos of the investigation but…this is…he was…"

"Mean?" Talia finished off quietly, causing Cuddy's head to snap over in her direction instead. "Experienced it myself. Decided to tell me that my patient's cancer's aggravated by calling her my dying punching bag. He's being a specific kind of bastard today." Cuddy sighed and walked over to her desk to chuck the crumpled tissues in the bin.

"You spoken to Chase recently?" she asked casually.

"Not since this morning," Talia answered, sitting herself on Cuddy's couch with a sigh. "…why?"

"Apparently he was getting lunch with Tritter today," Cuddy sighed, leaning tiredly on her hand. Talia attempted to look surprised - but she just wasn't. She remembered how Chase sold House out to Vogler, so she certainly wasn't surprised at his actions this time, just slightly disappointed.

All that did was confuse Cuddy more.

"You don't think he could be ratting House out again? That doesn't concern you?"

"I denied the chance to push my domestic violence case forward in exchange for a testimony against my father. But after how House acted today? I'm beginning to feel very little need to protect him, in all honesty," Talia admitted quietly, carefully avoiding Cuddy's eye contact. "Don't you?" Cuddy opened her mouth to respond - when suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by commotion in the hallway outside. They glanced at each other for a brief second before they both leapt up and rushed out the doors, their hearts racing in anticipation. When Talia whacked Cuddy's office door open to see her boyfriend on the floor tenderly cupping his jaw, it was safe to say that she was stunned.

She was even more stunned once she saw who delivered the punch.

"House?!" Cuddy yelped, whilst Talia fell to her knees to tend to her boyfriend in a panic.

"Light damages blood cells and those damaged blood cells contain protoporphyrin. The protoporphyrin then builds up in the liver…that's why her damn liver is shutting down," Chase muttered up to the confused looking House, with a mouth rapidly filling with blood. Talia's head snapped up to face her father in a rage as Cuddy carefully sat Chase up.

"House. Take your damn Vicodin and go to hell," Talia hissed, aware of how choked up her voice was. House looked stunned at his own actions. He didn't say anything else - he just slowly limped away, leaving Cuddy and Talia to deal with the injured Chase. "God, Chase - let's get you checked out," Talia murmured to him worriedly as she gingerly reached out for his jaw.

"Can we just go home?" Chase grunted, nudging his head away from her touch. "Foreman and Cameron are finishing up on the case. At this point, I'm too pissed off to stay. I'm like…this close to losing it, Talia, I swear to god." Talia and Cuddy exchanged brief glances before Talia nodded quickly.

"Yeah…yeah of course we can, baby," she whispered comfortingly as she helped him up.

…

As soon as Chase and Talia got back home, the first thing Talia did was flick on the living room lights and settle Chase down on the sofa. He hadn't spoken for the entire way back.

Once he was settled, she rushed to get their first aid kit and knelt down in front of him to tend to his bruised jaw, being as gentle as she could. "I hate your dad," Chase suddenly broke the silence. Talia smiled to herself and kept quiet, knowing that he hadn't finished yet. "I hate your dad so much that I spoke to Tritter this afternoon," Chase admitted a little quieter, unsure of how his girlfriend would react.

But to his surprise - she didn't.

"I know you did," she hummed back calmly instead. "I suppose that's why your bank accounts were never frozen, too?"

"Yeah," Chase admitted ashamedly. "I'm really sorry, T. I was just so-"

"Don't apologise and hold still," Talia ordered him under her breath, squinting her pretty eyes as she concentrated on the bruise. "This is gonna swell-"

"Wait…so you're not mad at me?" Chase frowned whilst trying to keep his jaw steady for her.

"Robert. My biological father just almost knocked the sh*t out of my boyfriend for seemingly no reason," Talia murmured as she chucked the cleansing pad into the bin and fished out a new one. "I think I got bigger things to worry about - don't you?"

"But…when it was Vogler, you were pretty much ready to kill me," Chase pointed out quietly. Talia finally met his gaze and sighed, dropping her hand from his face.

"You know how…when you're younger, you feel like at least one of your parents is the best and coolest person ever?" she started off slowly.

"Yeah- well n-not really, no," Chase frowned quietly, "but…go on?"

"Okay, well that's how I felt when I first moved. I thought House was cool, clever, and most importantly, beyond correction. I admired the hell out of him," Talia mumbled, lowering her gaze into her lap in embarrassment. Chase placed a gentle hand to her face and nudged her head back up to his. "My mum always said I was either gonna love or hate my father. She didn't warn me there was a possibility of it being both - and I wish she had." Chase pushed his tongue into his cheek absentmindedly, briefly forgetting about the bruise - and therefore hissing in pain, prompting Talia to finish tending to his rapidly swelling bruise. "I didn't think I'd think I'd ever hate him…but today…"

"God," Chase murmured under his breath. "This can't have been just because he punched me. What did he say to you?"

"The guy told me that I was a useless doctor and called my abuse victim patient a damn punching bag, knowing I was also abused," Talia answered immediately, without skipping a beat. Chase's head literally jerked back in surprise and his eyes grew wide in horror. "Yup. He's an ass."

"No Talia, he's the devil! That's disgusting!" he spat, his beautiful eyes going dark with rage.

"Absolutely disgusting yes - but he's also suffering from Vicodin withdrawals," Talia murmured back, chucking yet another cotton pad away.

"So? Does that give him the right-"

"No. It doesn't give him the right but it gives him a reason."

Chase said nothing. All he did was stare at her in what looked like disbelief mixed with disappointment.

"Oh come on, Robert. You gonna act like a person suffering from withdrawals hasn't completely lost his sh*t before? As a doctor, is that really what you're claiming?" Talia challenged him quietly whilst boldly staring him out again. Chase rolled his eyes and shook his head in defeat.

"I just…its insane. I got the case right today - and he doesn't care. You are in incredible doctor and he knows that, but he doesn't care. Then when he hurts people, we're expected to ACT like it's fine just because 'we know how House can be'? And he will never apologise for it either, because as you said, he's above correction from everyone including his damn boss? All this in the name of Vicodin - it's insane, and I know he's your father, babe, but I've had about enough of his sh*t," Chase ranted angrily whilst allowing Talia to take off all the leftover antiseptic lotion from his face.

There was a silence between them as Chase got himself to calm down before speaking again. "I take it you'd rather I don't testify against him in court, then?" he suddenly muttered.

Talia raised an amused eyebrow.

"I'd rather you do as you see fit, Chase," she answered quietly. "I'm not gonna stop you. Just cos I understand him, doesn't mean that I'm not tired of protecting him." Chase's tongue darted across his bottom lip and he let out a reluctant sigh.

"Clearly I'm not tired of protecting him," he muttered to himself. Talia smiled at him briefly and stood up again so that she could tie up the disposable plastic bag. "How do I look?" Chase sniffed.

"Like you got socked square in the jaw by a drug addict?" she frowned back playfully, causing him to let out a small chuckle. After she chucked the bag in the bin, she walked back over to him and snaked her arms around his shoulders from behind, pressing an extremely gentle kiss onto his tender face. He held onto her arms and sighed again, this time a little sadder than before. "Robert…you still love me even though I'm the daughter of your greatest enemy, right?" she murmured against his stubbled jaw.

"Oh please. I could never stop loving you, idiot. Spawn of Satan or not. And Merry Christmas, by the way," Chase chuckled, angling his head to kiss her lips instead.

"Merry Christmas, sugar," Talia smirked back once they broke apart.

…

Honestly I always found House super destructive, despite how much I adored him. Realistically, I do think he would wedge between his daughter's functioning and healthy relationships and that is so wild to meee!