Part 3

Chase woke up with the sun streaming through the blinds of his hotel room. He had gone straight to sleep after his disastrous dinner with Cameron the night before.

He checked his phone and swallowed as he saw a message from Cameron that she had sent at 11pm the night before, after he had fallen asleep.

Please meet me at Café Aroma at 10 am tomorrow, I'm sorry and I really want to make it up to you.

He checked the time and realized that he only had 19 minutes to meet her, not even thinking for a second whether it was a good idea he got up and got ready, texting her that he was on his way.

When he arrived, he wasn't expecting a baby to be keeping her company.

The baby was being bottle fed by his mother, Chase's first impression was that he looked like her, as much as a baby can look like someone anyway.

"Hey, you brought Oliver," he commented uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking almost frazzled. "My parents were going to watch him today but my mom's sick, I hope you don't mind."

"No, it's fine," Chase placated. "It's nice to see him after hearing all about him."

"But I wanted to talk to you," she insisted. "I need to explain what happened last night."

"You can do that with him here," he reassured her. "But I don't know if it's a good idea for us to keep in as close contact as we have been recently. If you feel like it's something that you can't tell your boyfriend then I don't want to get in the way of your family or make things complicated for you."

Cameron looked frustrated and quickly stopped that train of thought that he had.

"Robert, just listen to me please," she pleaded with him, she looked down briefly at her baby who was still taking a bottle. "I told Matthew I was with you last night, he wasn't happy but he wasn't happy about me going out even before he knew it was with you."

"I don't have a good reason to give you of why I didn't tell Matthew," she admitted. "But when I moved here and started my new life here, I never planned for my old life to come back. It feels like my life is in neat little boxes, my life with my first husband, my time in Princeton and then my life here in Chicago. And now those boxes are mixing and I don't even know how I feel about it, I can't explain it to Matthew before I understand it myself. Does that make sense?"

"This is what I'm saying Allison," Chase continued. "It's making things complicated for you and I don't want that for you or your family, you deserve to be happy and I can't mess that up for you."

"Things have been complicated for months now," she finally admitted. "When I got pregnant, he hadn't even met my family, we were still just figuring out whether there was a future for the two of us. And then all of a sudden it was like our future was decided for us."

Chase nodded, appreciating that she was finally opening up to him.

"Our relationship hasn't been easy," she confessed quietly, looking at Oliver as she said it. "We're both committed to making it work for Oliver but it's all moved so fast and sometimes I feel like I'm constantly running to keep up with where my life is. I think he feels the same way, sometimes it feels like there's so much tension between us because we didn't really know each other before we were making all of these big decisions."

"You're a good mom Allison," Chase promised her, watching as she gently burped Oliver and saw him falling asleep in her arms. "Even if you feel out of control of your life, you're doing great."

"Thank you," she said softly. "I'm sorry for not telling Matthew and I'm sorry for not telling you why I didn't tell him."

"It's okay," he forgave her. "Thank you for telling me the truth, I know it can't have been easy for you."

"No," she agreed. "But actually, now that I've told you it feels like a big weight off my shoulders. I feel like I've been putting on this smiling face and telling everyone that everything's okay because they were already judging me for getting pregnant so quickly so I couldn't let them know that our relationship wasn't perfect. It's nice to finally be honest with someone."

Chase wanted to let out a big grin, knowing that she was finally opening up to him. But he knew it would be inappropriate after what she had just told him. So, he settled for reaching across the table and squeezing her hand.

"I shouldn't have pushed you like that," he admitted. "But I'm glad you told me, if you ever need to talk to anyone about it, or anything else then you can talk to me."

"That offer goes both ways," she said as she smiled at him.

They both took the other up on that offer over the next month. Most of Cameron's confessions involved her stress about motherhood and her moments of frustration in her relationship with Matthew, whereas Chase had gradually transitioned from telling her about the flashbacks of the stabbing to discussing his increasing need for independence.

"I don't know Allison," he sighed whilst holding the phone to his ear. "Sometimes I'm jealous of you and Foreman, you're the head of a department and he's the dean of medicine and I'm just stuck in the same place I was eight years ago."

"I think you're being unfair to yourself," she insisted whilst juggling a couple of baby bottles she had just got out of the sterilizer. "You're a much better diagnostician than both me and Foreman, you could lead your own department tomorrow and it would be successful."

Chase sighed again at her attempt to boost his confidence but he didn't think there was anything she could say to change his mind.

"Even if that was true," he argued. "I'm not going to be running my own department tomorrow."

"Why not?" she questioned him, trying not to let her frustration out in her voice.

There was a pause for a moment while Chase attempted to come up with a better excuse than 'I'm scared'.

"It's not that simple," he muttered.

Cameron looked down at her baby who was staring up at her, almost like he was expecting her to give some ingenious advice to Chase over the phone.

"Is it because you don't want to leave Princeton?" she asked him. "Or because you don't want to leave House?"

"The second one," Chase said reluctantly. "But I don't even think it's House himself that I'd miss, but the idea of not being able to fall back on him when I don't have the answer."

"Oh," she responded, understanding his silent admission that he was afraid of leaving.

"When you left," Chase stammered out, regretting bringing up this conversation almost instantly. "Were you afraid? Did you have, I don't know, doubts?"

She looked at Oliver again as she answered him.

"You realise I quit his team three times, right?" she said smiling over the phone.

"The first time was because I was mad at House and realized how screwed up he was, it was a rash decision. Then the second time, after he fired you, I was so sure I was doing the right thing for myself but also for House," she began. "Because I knew that I had learned what I could from him and I knew that I wanted to try something different because ultimately diagnostics was not for me."

"That makes sense," Chase agreed.

"The third time," she said, sighing as the painful memories flashed through her head. "That was different, I was so shocked and confused that I just ran. I barely even thought about the decision for the next couple of months, until I came back that day when the hospital went into lockdown."

She heard Chase sigh over the phone and she closed her eyes, trying not to let the memories flash back in her head; images of them shouting, dancing and having sex for the last time.

"I think that was the hardest time," she admitted softly. "Because I knew there was no way back for me at Princeton, no way back for us."

Chase remained silent because she was right, their confessions and acts that night was a finality to their relationship that both of them had needed, even if neither of them truly wanted it.

"When I left Princeton, I was trying to move forward in my life," she said, swiftly diverting the conversation to something a little less painful. "And it's worked even if it wasn't exactly how I imagined. Maybe it's time for you to move forward too?"

"Deep down I know it's time," he admitted. He noticed Foreman walking towards him in the staff lounge. "Listen, I've got to go. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "Let me know what you decide."

Chase talked to Foreman and House, both of them had seen his decision coming but it was still a tough conversation, particularly with House. They hadn't shown emotion even if they both knew it was there, he had slowly realized over the years that House truly did care about him, in his own way. It had been most evident to him after the stabbing, he'd seen the guilt and regret in the way House had tried to make sure he was coping, but he had known House long enough now to not expect some grand farewell from him, he also thought House might expect him to return in just a few months. House and Princeton had been a stabilizing presence in his life for the past eight years, despite how unstable the job had felt at times. But through his father's death, his relationship and subsequent divorce from Cameron and his recent stabbing, he had his job to steady him and now, having just quit with no job lined up for him, he had lost that stability.

When he got home that night he sat on his couch and took a breath. He was free of any sort of commitment and structure, and he wasn't feeling an overwhelming panic like he thought he might, he was feeling relieved. He immediately started looking for flights to Australia, dreaming of surfing, hiking and even making amends with his sister, but then he was interrupted by his phone ringing.

"Hi Allison," he greeted her.

"Hey," she said, sounding distracted. "Sorry to call you twice in one day, I just needed to talk to someone."

"Of course," Chase responded, closing his laptop. He would continue planning his trip to Australia later on, it could wait. "What's going on?"

Cameron stopped for a second, hesitating before telling him.

"I don't know if I should even be telling you this," she said. "Matthew just walked out of the house in the middle of an argument and I'm worried he's not going to come back."

"Oh," Chase replied unhelpfully.

For a minute he didn't know how to respond, giving relationship advice to your ex-wife was not something he had prepared himself for.

"What happened?" he asked, stalling to give himself more time to react appropriately.

"I'm don't even know," she said, the stress in her voice betraying her. "The argument started over him not liking what we'd had for dinner, it's so stupid, but then it just descended into arguing about… everything. Like how we didn't really know each other and how he's supporting our family while I'm on maternity leave, we said awful things to each other."

"I'm sorry Allison," he said, not knowing what else to say. And he truly was sorry, he knew how committed she was to her family, he didn't want for her to be struggling.

"I don't know what to do now," she said and he could hear the tears in her voice. "He walked out and I don't know where he's gone, and it's not like I can go after him because I've got Oliver. He's not answering his phone, I just don't know what to do if this is the end."

"He'll come back Allison," he asserted. "He will because he loves you and he loves Oliver, couples have fights, hell we certainly did, but that doesn't mean your relationship is over."

There was silence over the phone as Cameron remembered saying something awful to Chase, that she hadn't known whether she'd loved him, she'd regretted saying that from the second it left her mouth. That had been the end of their relationship, her biggest failure in life. She couldn't have another failure like that, not now that she had Oliver to think about as well.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Sometimes I wonder why we're still together."

Her confession made him swallow, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Sometimes it's so hard that it doesn't feel worth it," she admitted. "But then I look at Oliver and I realise that whatever is going on there's always going to be love between us."

"Then that's what matters," Chase replied. "If you love him and want to make it work then then you'll be okay."

Cameron smiled softly over the phone.

"Thanks Robert," she said. "I can't even think about this anymore. Please can you distract me?"

"I quit today," he responded, she was the first person he'd told aside from House and Foreman.

"That's amazing," she replied. "Congratulations."

Chase laughed over the phone.

"Usually that's not the response you give when someone tells you that they're unemployed," he grinned.

"It's the kind of response you give someone when they're making positive steps to change their life," she defended. "Seriously Chase, I'm really happy for you."

He stayed silent over the phone, he already knew what her response would be, especially since she had been encouraging him so much to do this very thing.

"So, what are you going to do with your time now?" she asked him softly, not daring to say she hoped a trip to Chicago was on the itinerary at some point.

"I'm going back home," he said. "At least for the next month, just to relax for a bit."

"I guess our phone calls are going to be at very different times now," she joked.

"Well, you're up half a night anyway with Oliver," Chase laughed back. "This might actually work out better."

When their conversation had ended Cameron turned around and saw Matthew walking in through the door.

"I'm sorry," he said tiredly.

"Me too," she responded before walking over and hugging him, she was relieved that he had come home but has she hugged him she still felt a tear fall down her cheek.

Chase had just got out of the ocean, closing his eyes as he felt the sun beat down on his back. He loved being in Australia, it was his home and sometimes he didn't understand why he'd ever left. But then he had spent the past two weeks alone, he hadn't kept in contact with his old school friends, his family with exception to his sister was dead and he hadn't lived in this country since he was eighteen. This trip had made him realise if nothing else that his future wasn't in Australia, except for an annual trip for surfing.

He went and sat where he had left his belongings, picking up his phone only to see a couple of missed calls from Foreman and a text message from him.

I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you but I know you'd want to know. House died last night. Call me when you get this message.

Within 24 hours he was on a plane to New Jersey.