Chapter Six: Safe & Sound
Chase woke up to the sound of a silent apartment and kept his eyes closed. Guilt flooded him as he thought about their fight and the sex that had followed. He'd taken his wife against a doorknob for Christ's sake. He'd felt the door knob behind her as he'd held her for a few seconds after they'd finished and horror had filled him. Escaping to the shower seemed like the only thing that he could've done and did.
Rising, Chase quickly put on a pair of scrubs and tennis shoes before grabbing his coat, keys, wallet and ID. He didn't want to have to face Emma later that morning and watch her get dressed. Chase would bet his paycheck that there would have been bruises if he'd stuck around to see. Hearing her stir in the bedroom, Chase closed the front door. He turned his mind to work and the patients he had to see that day.
Emma woke up with a throbbing in her back that she'd been expecting. Having sex against a doorknob probably wasn't the best idea she'd ever had but it was still hurt. Sitting up, Emma almost cried out. Chase was gone and she climbed out of bed and headed to take a shower. The night before, he had spent almost an hour and a half in the shower and Emma had already been in bed by the time he'd come out. She'd faked being asleep so that she wouldn't have had to talk to him. He hadn't touched her or even kissed her goodnight and that had been disappointing.
Looking at herself naked in the mirror, Emma could see bruises in the shape of Chase's fingers and a large bruise covering her lower back that was painful.
Bending over with difficulty, Emma grabbed a washcloth from under the sink and got into the shower trying not to cry when the warm water hit her lower back.
"There's an epidemic at the hospital." House said as he sat down next to Emma who was working in the cafeteria.
"And I'm the Queen," she said sarcastically.
"Aren't you and Chase subjects of the Queen?"
Emma closed the file she was working on and sighed, "Yes, we are. What do you want?"
"A million dollars, world peace, the end of HIV and AIDS, you name it sister."
Picking up her work, Emma stood and exhaled as pain shot up her spine and stared at House, "Please stop bugging me if you don't need anything."
"Nope, I need you to help me investigate the maternity wards."
Emma groaned, "Get Chase to help you. I don't deal with that floor unless someone has died."
"You are a Chase and therefore I can use you. Now move."
Emma followed Housekeeping up as best she could with his long strides in her heels.
"Did I miss a memo or something? Do you need something to entertain yourself with?"
"Nope, I just need your help."
Maternity was the last place she wanted to be at the moment. She stepped into the elevator with House and sighed, "The point of this is to waste two hours looking for something that doesn't exist and then we both get yelled at for not doing our jobs."
They stepped off the elevator and walked quickly down the hall to House's office. He grabbed the closest books and tossed it at Chase who was dozing in the chair.
"Get up," he said as Chase put the book back and rubbed the inside of his thigh where the book corner had hit, "We're going hunting."
"For what?" Foreman asked, confused.
"Wabbits," House mocked.
"House thinks the maternity ward has an epidemic. I told him he's being ridiculous. He disagrees and here we all are."
"Let's go. You too Emma. I need a lawyer when some mother freaks on me thinking that I'm there to steal her baby."
House left with Foreman and Cameron following. Ignoring Chase, Emma walked past him as he held the door open.
"We've checked all twelve rooms," Chase said as he stood in front of the nurse's station of the maternity ward, "No epidemic."
"Well we've only wasted an hour," Emma said looking up at the clock, "Satisfied?"
The elevator opened and House looked over his shoulder, "Overflow rooms. Third floor."
"It's spread to the third floor?" Foreman asked.
"I'll stay here and do paperwork," Emma said, "This is a goose chase and I don't want any part of it."
Emma walked around the nurse's station and asked for copies of everyone's chart on the floor. The nurse gave her a look and did as she was told.
"Hurry up Emma!" House said limping back towards the desk ten minutes later, "We just had another kid get sick! Did you get the charts?"
She looked behind her and winced a little at having to bend her back but stared at House, "Things take time, grow some patience."
"Will do later, right now I need you to call Cuddy and tell her that I was right."
Emma handed over the charts and picked up the phone dialing Cuddy's phone.
"Three sick babies, a fourth showing symptoms," House said, writing on the board.
"How sick?" Cuddy asked worriedly.
"Spiking fevers, BP is plummeting. They can barely keep systolic," Chase said, "At this rate they'll be dead in a day."
"Where did this come from?"
"Two delivery rooms, four maternity rooms and no common personnel and equipment," Cameron said.
"There has to be something in common," Cuddy snapped, "I'm going to go put a team together and start swabbing."
"What is she gonna swab?" Foreman asked after Cuddy left.
"Everything," Emma said quietly, "Call me if you need something or when you're done brainstorming."
She left as House started to make some comment about the hospital being Cuddy's baby and her head exploding. Walking down the hall to the elevators, Emma hit the button for the second floor and tried to ignore the painful tingling in her back.
"Not feeling well?" Wilson said as he appeared by her side.
"I'm fine. Did Cuddy send you to the maternity ward?"
"She called saying that she wanted me to come and help House's team when they arrive," he said as they stepped on the elevator, "Are they brainstorming?"
"Yep and I have no wish to join them," Emma said as they stepped off the elevator on the second floor. She and Wilson went to the nurse's station and sat down to wait.
"Dinner was good," Wilson said after a few minutes of silence.
"Don't bullshit," Emma said, "My husband was an ass last night and House crashed it. What dinner were you at?"
Wilson gave her a small smile, "Yes Chase and House made an ass of themselves last night. What happened after you two left?"
Emma rolled her eyes, "What do you think? Chase and I got into it. I feel like all we've been doing since I joined House is to fight."
"You know that he and Cameron are going to get drinks tonight?"
Emma's head shot up and she looked confused, "What?"
"One of the nurse's heard them talking after that Gout OD case and it's spreading like wildfire through the hospital. Just thought you should know so you're not caught off guard by someone's comment," he said quietly.
Emma slumped in the chair, "So he is interested in her."
"Emma it's drinks between two colleagues to blow off steam probably," Wilson reasoned.
"Do you believe that?" she asked him quietly, "Because that also sounds like a load of bullshit too."
"Don't jump to the worst case scenario."
"You didn't answer the question."
Wilson was silent and Emma sighed, "That's reassuring. Your silence only means you agree."
"Chase isn't going to do anything stupid."
"You and Cuddy keep telling me that but I don't believe that even you believe that statement," Emma said as the elevator dinged and they both looked up to see House's team walk off the elevators.
"Emma," Foreman said, "I'll fill you in. Walk with me."
She gave one last look of skepticism to Wilson and followed.
Emma sat in House's chair a few hours later when Foreman and Cameron walked in.
"I assume whatever you're going to say isn't good news," Emma said, crossing her legs.
"Where's House?" Cameron asked.
"On his way up from the clinic," Emma replied, trying to remain civil and not grill Cameron about her relationship with Chase.
"Well you look cheery," House said as he walked in. He poked Emma's hip with his cane and she nearly yelped in pain. She stood up quickly and House gave her a look, "What's up with you?"
"Sorry. I bruise easily," she said as Chase walked in.
"Two of the babies' kidneys are shutting down," Cameron said.
Chase tossed a test down on the desk and stuffed his hands in his pocket, "The urine tests show no casts."
He moved as far across the room as he could from her and Emma bit the inside of her cheek hard.
"The antibiotics are causing kidney failure," House said dejectedly.
"You're the nephrologist," Foreman said, "What do we do? Don't tell me both medicines can cause this."
"They both can cause this," Chase said, "There isn't any way to know which one it is."
"We can't take them off of both, they'll die," Cameron said, "But if we leave them on both they'll die anyway."
"So we take our best guess as to which is causing Kidney failure."
Cameron and Foreman began to disagree about which drug was doing the damage when House spoke up.
"There's no point in guessing. Take one kid off one drug and take another kid off the other," he said.
"No," Emma said, standing up straight, "You can't do that. That's experimental babies."
"They have the same disease and you want to give them different treatments?" Chase said, confused.
"What the hell are you doing?" Foreman asked as Emma stepped between Cameron and Foreman and grabbed the phone on House's desk. She speaks dialed Cuddy.
"You wanted to know if he's going to do something insane the moment has arrived. Get up here now," she said before hanging up.
"It's not favorably looked on by courts to experiment on babies. You do this and you may just lose your license."
"We have four sick kids and you want to talk about ethical issues?"
"You can't do this!" Emma yelled at him, "If I remember right you took an oath to do no harm!"
"I also swore never to lie in a court of law but I did that too. If these kids have different reactions then we'll know what the hell this is," House snapped back.
Emma was silent for a moment before looking at Cuddy who walked in.
"What's going on?"
"House wants to put two different babies on different medication in hopes of finding a cure," Emma said quietly.
"You wanna take one baby off medication and the other baby off the other?" Cuddy just about yelled, her eyes popping out of her head, "Are you crazy?"
"No…maybe a little. I'm trying to do my job and not have six dead babies." House snapped back at her as they stood in the conference room staring at each other.
"Give me a medical reason why baby A should be taken off drug x and vice versa," Emma said rubbing her forehead.
"You're considering letting him do this!" Cuddy said, looking at Emma angrily.
"No, I just want to know what I'm going to have to tell a judge soon."
"Two more babies have become symptomatic. Which is more important? Six dead babies or a consent form?"
"No House," Emma said, "You do a lot of crazy things but this is over the line."
House grabbed her arm and twisted it, forcing her to walk around the desk.
"House," Chase said warningly.
House slammed his cane down on his desk causing Emma to jump from, "Just sign the forms saying that I can treat them. I'd rather have one dead baby than six dead ones."
Emma shook her hand again and House grabbed her hand. He tried to pry her fist open but only succeeded in stabbing her with the pen.
"House!" Cuddy shouted as blood began to drip from Emma's clenched fist over the consent forms that she was required to sign.
"Stop it, House," Chase said, "You're hurting her."
Emma closed her eyes and resisted the urge to cry as the pen dug in her hand more.
Cuddy sighed, "Fine. Do it."
House nodded and dropped Emma's hand. She picked up the pen and sighed and looked towards the ceiling trying not to cry. House left the office angry and Cuddy followed.
"You alright?" Foreman asked, looking at her with concern as Chase walked over with a few tissues.
"Yeah, I just signed the death warrant of someone's baby. Nothing's wrong at all," Emma said, taking the tissues and walking out of the office. She went to the clinic where Cuddy was with another lawyer.
"Can I talk to you?" Emma said, looking at Cuddy tearfully.
Cuddy nodded and sent the lawyer away.
"Can you look at my back?" Emma said walking to Cuddy, "I think I messed it up. I've been in pain all day. Not to mention I've been stabbed by my own pen."
Cuddy nodded and showed Emma to the bathroom where she untied her wrap-around dress and took it off.
"Emma what happened?" Cuddy said, putting on gloves, "Did Chase hurt you?"
"No. I just had sex against a door knob."
Cuddy made a noise of displeasure, "It looks like you have deep bruising Emma, probably bone bruising too. Ice it and stay off your feet as much as possible. I'll give you a shot of pain killers. Hang on."
Emma nodded and wiped away some tears, "Thanks Lisa."
Cuddy nodded, "You wanna explain how you had sex against a door knob? Was it difficult?"
Emma laughed a little, "I didn't even feel it until afterwards and surprisingly we managed not to fall over…I can't believe I just signed House's form to do his experiment on the babies."
"I know," Cuddy said softly, "It's really our only choice. Everything will be fine."
Cuddy gave Emma the shot in her hip and left so that Emma could redress. When she left the office ten minutes later, Emma practically walked into Chase, "Need to talk to you."
He gently grasped her elbows and guided her to the exam room that was empty.
Closing the door, Chase turned around and looked at Emma who crossed her arms and stared at him.
"What did I do now?" Emma said frustrated.
"I want to know why you're letting House experiment on these babies."
Emma laughed humorlessly, "You're mad at me because I'm letting House try to do his job? Robert, what other choice is there? Either there's one dead or six dead. It can't be both ways."
"No I'm mad that you're letting him condemn one of this kids-"
"You don't think that I feel bad? Jesus! Robert, I just signed someone's death warrant! I get it, I can do anything right in your eyes and that I'm always doing something wrong so if you came to yell at me for this I don't need to feel like crap anymore then I already do," Emma snapped and moved to the door.
Chase reached out and wrapped an arm around Emma's waist, "Did you get your hand looked at?"
Emma shrugged his arm off of her, "Please don't touch me. I don't want to talk to you."
She opened the door and slammed it behind her.
Chase slid the door open of the NICU and walked out. He and Emma had been avoiding each other for the day. It wasn't anything new. The one thing he did look forward to was having drinks with Cameron in a few hours.
Cameron and Emma were night and day to each other. Where Emma was always serious and hardworking, Cameron could be fun and relaxed. It was the reason why he likes spending time with her. Cameron could let him forget for a few hours the pressures of life and let him relax before he'd have to go home. It wasn't that he didn't love Emma because he did. The truth was that he was just tired of fighting with her and being around her. He could only take Emma in small doses and it felt like he was OD'd on her.
"Hey," Mrs. Hartig said when she saw him.
"Hi," he said quietly as he walked to stand next to her.
"Is Max any better?" she asked quietly.
"Her fever has been stable the last hour," Chase said, crossing his hands over his chest, "That's a good thing."
"We're not going to make it are we?"
"Sorry?" he said, turning to look at her.
"Ian and I, we're not going to make it. Our next door neighbor's son died in a car crash and a few months later they were divorced. That always happens right?"
"Divorces happen for all sorts of reasons," Chase said quietly, "They could have been having problems long before their son died."
"Do you have any kids? I saw the wedding band earlier. How long have you been married?" she asked.
"Ten years. I don't have any kids and I can't imagine what you're feeling but try not to get ahead of yourself. Your daughter is alive right now and that's all that matters. Don't focus on the negative," he told her a beeping went off in the NICU.
Mrs. Hartig followed him but was stopped by Emma who had come to talk with her, "Come with me."
"Is my baby dying?" she asked in near hysteria.
Emma grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall, "Mrs. Hartig if it is your daughter you don't want your last memories of her to be that."
Ian came running to her and Emma backed away so that he could comfort his wife. She moved to stand back at the glass as they closed the curtains.
House walked out and looked at her as he popped a pill, "How's your hand?"
"Fine," she mumbled, "How's your leg?"
"Fine," House said, giving her a Vicodin and limping away.
A few minutes later Wilson and Cameron left the NICU. Wilson put a hand on her back as they walked away.
Cameron sat in the stairwell crying.
She knew that she was supposed to tell the family that their son had died but she'd frozen. Memories of being in their situation had come back and she didn't know how to fight off that feeling. A door opened and she looked up. Chase stood there with a bottle of whisky and two shot glasses.
"I think we could both use a drink," he said.
"I couldn't do it," she said wiping away her tears, "I couldn't even tell the family their baby had died."
Chase poured a small amount of whisky in a glass and handed it to her, "It's not the end of the world. Babies are different from adults. They're always harder."
Cameron took the shot and set the glass down, "House will probably fire me."
"No he won't. He's more occupied with his case," Chase told her as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"He'll fire me after the case," she amended.
He chuckled and wrapped his arm around his shoulder, "Now you sound ridiculous."
Rubbing her arm, Chase poured them both another small shot one handed and smiled, "Everything is going to be fine."
"Shouldn't you be going home?" she asked to take the shot.
"Emma and I have been at each other's throats. I wasn't lying when I said I don't really want to spend time with her," Chase said before taking his shot, "I like spending time with you. Is that a crime? Besides, I have a change of clothes and I'll just sleep on the couch in the NICU lounge."
Emma's phone rang and she grabbed it hoping it was Chase. It was late and she was curious to know where he was.
"Hello?"
"It's Wilson. I thought you should know that Chase passed out on the couch in the NICU longue."
Emma sighed, "Thanks. I tried calling earlier but no one picked up."
"Yeah well he's here and dead asleep so don't worry. See you tomorrow."
Emma hung up the phone and laid back on the bed. What was happening to them? They had once been so close and now Chase was sleeping on a couch in the NICU instead of coming home to sleep in his own bed. Was she really that bad of a wife that he didn't even want to come home? Pushing the covers back, Emma quickly grabbed a bag and put together a change of clothes for Chase in the morning. Going to the kitchen, she grabbed a post-it note and a pen. She smiled as she quickly scribbled a note and stuffed it into the bag.
Climbing back into bed, she hoped and prayed that she could fix things. Breaking down Chase's walls was hard but she'd done it before and she'd do it again.
Emma walked into the office the next morning carrying two cups of coffee and the bag over her shoulder to where Chase sat at the conference room table.
"Hey," she smiled and set the bag and coffees down, "I brought you coffee and a change of clothes."
Chase didn't look up from what he was writing, "You didn't have to. I already changed and I got coffee with Foreman and Cameron this morning."
Emma stopped, "Oh. What time was that?"
"Early. I'll see you later, I've got to go give the Hartig's an update on their daughter."
He left and Emma watched him go feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach. Chase hadn't even looked at her when she'd said good morning. Wilson walked looking just as exhausted as she felt.
"Coffee," she asked, offering him the second cup, "I got it for Robert but I guess he went with Cameron and Foreman to get a cup."
"Foreman hasn't come in yet," Wilson said confused.
"So he went with Cameron," Emma amended sadly, "I'm not surprised he lied."
Wilson took the coffee she offered and shook his head, "I feel like I'm bringing bad news to you when it involves Chase. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I'd rather know the truth than be kept in the dark."
It was two days later that Emma stood at the nurse's station with Cuddy watching as Chase and Foreman gave the Hartig's good news about their baby's health.
"You two should have kids. Chase would make a good dad," Cuddy said as they watched Chase smile at the parents.
"He wants to wait to have kids," Emma said, wrapping her arms around herself, "If he even wants them."
"How long does he want to wait?"
"Five years minimum."
Cuddy looked at Emma with a sad smile, "How do you feel about that Emma? You won't be young forever."
"I'm angry Lisa. Is he going to tell me five years from now that he doesn't want kids at all? I'm almost thirty and I thought that by now I'd have a baby, maybe two. I don't want to wait until it's too late to have kids," Emma said watching as the parents happily hugged each other, "I have to decide if I want to put this dream on hold again or if I'm willing to go off on my own and fight for what I want for once."
Cuddy gave Emma a one armed hug, "Do what makes you happy. Waiting for Chase could take years and from what you've told me you've always put him first. Don't let him suck you out of all your selflessness."
Emma gave Cuddy a tearful smile, "I couldn't leave him though. I love him too much. That's the tragedy of all this. That no matter what, I'll love him and if he's not ready, I'm willing to be miserable for the next five years and wait for him."
Cuddy and Emma looked back to where Chase stood with the parents.
House closed his eyes as he listened to Cuddy and Emma's conversation. Emma was self-sacrificing like Helen. Willing to put another person she loved before herself. Even when Helen had been diagnosed with Cancer and had been five months pregnant she'd chosen to let Emma live instead of terminating.
God he hoped someone knocked some sense into Chase before he blew up his own marriage.
