Chapter 5 - Robert Chase

"May I introduce: your team."

Nobody said a word, there was an oppressive silence in the room. None of the team members had expected House to have become independent by now, and none of them knew an appropriate response to that. Should they reprimand him, as they would in an ordinary situation, or should they be glad that their boss was back on his feet despite all the odds? Probably both.

Chase had expected their first encounter to be weird. But it was a lot weirder than his imagination had thought was possible. To see their boss, to look into his eyes and see nothing but confusion. House, whose intelligence surpassed anyone else's, looked at him so genuinely irritated that Chase immediately felt uncomfortable. He didn't know what to say, how to act, and the others seemed to feel the same way. Only Taub remained composed, took a step towards his boss according to Wilson's brief introduction and crossed his arms behind his back.

"My name is Chris Taub," he said in his usual dry voice and with an indifferent expression. House didn't reply, he just narrowed his eyes a little and gave Taub a close look. It was all too obvious that he was searching his mind for the tiniest memories that his appearance and name might have awakened in him. But judging by the sigh that followed, he found nothing.

Next, Adams dared to step forward, she introduced herself confidently and friendly and even shook hands with House as if they had never seen each other before. The shy Park followed much less accommodatingly, her soft voice beeped her name and she tried her hand at an encouraging smile, which she hardly succeeded at.

Chase was the last to go. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his shoulders and then stepped into the line that his colleagues had formed in front of him.

"Robert Chase," he introduced himself briefly, the corners of his mouth twitching uncertainly into a smile. He let House examine him, waited intently, tried to read something on his scrutinizing features. But the seconds passed without any new knowledge until House gave it up, visibly a little frustrated, and got up with a sigh.

"Well then, let's get to work," he muttered, pushing himself with the stiff IV pole towards the door and opening it.

"Job? Can you work?" It was Park who had raised her doubting voice. Her words were chosen carefully, she didn't want to offend her boss and seemed to be afraid of hurting him. House might have been sick, but he wasn't entirely different from before.

"As a doctor maybe not, but since I would really like to have my memories back, maybe we should start by bringing my brain back into shape a little, huh?"

At first all team members hesitated. Chase looked around questioningly for Wilson.

Now that House was no longer able to make decisions and issue orders, the task had somehow automatically passed to his best friend. Wilson wasn't actually his treating doctor, but he was actively involved in getting most of the hospital up to date on the current situation and diligently making plans to help House recover. It had been his idea to bring the team back into contact with their boss now and he would certainly always know what was best for him.

Wilson nodded benevolently to them. His brown eyes told of worry and Chase knew that he would have loved to come along so that he could be at his friend's side at any time, but unlike House, Wilson also had to take care of his own job at the same time. A little relief would do him good, and he could count on the team to take good care of House.

And so they left Wilson's office until Chase was the last to close the wooden door softly. Then he turned to House, who was already limping on, using the IV pole as a cane. Chase quickly caught up with him until they walked side by side.

"I suggest we escort you back to your room first so that you can put on your own clothes," he said as professionally as he would probably say to any other patient. House nodded silently.

It shuddered Chase that his boss simply agreed with him and also cooperated. No cynical saying, no contradiction or a trick to get rid of his team. Although he had suspected that things would initially be different than before, and even though House had regularly driven him to white heat in the past, at that moment he wished for normality back and would have willingly been mocked or declared stupid. Although his relationship with House was purely business related, the situation was new to all of them and no one could have guessed what was to come. And that scared Chase.

When they arrived in House's room, they stopped while their boss limped over to his closet and pulled out some clothes. When he had gathered everything, he turned to his colleagues.

"Do you want to watch?" he asked teasingly, furrowing his forehead in a playful manner.

It was only now that Chase was embarrassed to notice that they had all stared at him incessantly. They looked after him like he was a toddler, but just because he was sick right now didn't mean he was stupid.

"Sorry, of course we don't want that," Taub quickly resolved the situation and got all the other members out of the room, he himself followed. Outside they exchanged glances.

"It's weird," Park muttered into the silence. "What if he never gets his memories back?" There was serious concern in her eyes as she looked around. Chase patted her shoulder.

"It's House. He has solved every problem so far," he replied encouragingly and grinned. "The worst will last the longest."

"Thank you, Dr. Chase." Of course, House stepped out of his room just then, fully dressed. He had removed the access to the infusion himself - which to Chase's surprise remained uncommented by everyone - and instead of the rolling frame, he now led the well-known cane next to his right leg again. Limping way he walked past his team and gave Chase a look without stopping, where the blonde realized that his boss was grinning at him in amusement. He found that strange, after all, he had expected House to fire back ice cold, but the counter-attack did not materialize. Sighing, he followed him and after a while took the lead.

"This is your office," he began his introduction hesitantly. Usually it was him who ran after House, listening to his words and theories and instructions. Now their roles seemed briefly reversed, and although he should have enjoyed it, neither joy nor pride arose in him. He just wanted things to go back to normal.

They all went through the glass door into the office with the large adjoining room. Chase watched House look around at his workplace, which was clearly unfamiliar to him. He examined the surroundings very carefully, seemed to pay attention to every detail and finally sat down in his swivel chair.

"Tell me a little something," House urged his team without looking up and spun around in his chair.

Chase cleared his throat.

"This is the diagnostics department that you run. In fact, it's the only department of its kind. It's only there because of you," he began to tell House a little about his work. He grinned again.

"Man, I have to be pretty good," he stated, audibly complacent, and leaned back. He had picked up his red and white ball, which had been lying on his desk, and was playing with it, just as he usually did when he was thinking. "What else?"