CHAPTER 5: AFTERNOON TURNS TO EVENING
"Chase? Chase? Robert! Hold on, I can't run after you around the entire hospital!", Martha whined. "Fine. What do you want?", the surgeon said. "What happened there? When Mr. Ridgeway talked about his fiancée, you turned pale and hurried out of the room", she insisted.
"You've picked up more habits due to working with House", the surgeon mused. "What?", the young prodigy said, baffled.
"House would do anything in his disposal to find out. And he'd find out in the end. It appears you aren't any less determined", he explained. "Robert... I mean, Chase, I'm asking because I want to...", she stammered. "OK, I'm telling you. His fiancée is... My former wife, the one with the divorce", he confessed.
"Oh, dear! I'm so sorry, I have no words", Martha said, looking at the floor and refusing to meet Chase's gaze. "Could you just stop talking?", he said, a little too abruptly. Recognizing how harsh his words had sounded, he added, "Sorry. I just need to be let alone for a moment". He scribbled a quick note and handed it over to Martha, saying, "tell the nurses to administer those meds to Ridgeway. I have to see how Cheng is doing with House's mother".
That he said, but, after briefly conversing with Cheng, he headed straight for the conference room and sank into his chair, or, in fact, the chair usually taken by House. It was all so unbelievable! Two years after their divorce, Cameron was with another guy. And not only that, but the guy was about to propose marriage to her. It annoyed him, made him angry and frustrated.
When he began to develop feelings for Cameron, she had been so reluctant to commit herself to a relationship with him. It had taken a long time and his patience had been virtually exhausted until she agreed to enter a relationship with him. And then, it was always one bad thing after the other.
She never let him have any space at her place. Even when she emptied a drawer for him, she'd done this halfheartedly. Chase remembered how she'd dodged that romantic weekend he'd planned, back then before they'd got married. It angered him to no end, her attitude in general. People might find her kind, compassionate and so on, but she'd broken Chase's heart more than once.
Was she still keeping her first husband's semen? Another thing that he'd deemed outrageous from the first time he became aware of it. It showed she didn't have confidence that their relationship, their marriage would succeed. And, damnit, it didn't work, he told himself.
He could picture their wedding day. Everybody from Princeton-Plainsboro had attended, except House, who had just been committed into Mayfield. In retrospect, one could say that all the omens were negative. Cutner's recent suicide, House's mental breakdown, it could all be interpreted as an emphatic statement that the marriage of Robert Chase to Allison Cameron wasn't gonna last. I'm sounding like my teachers back in the seminary, the surgeon caught himself thinking.
The face of Dibala dying stared back at him. For all this time, Chase was trying to suppress this memory, to banish it away. He'd broken the oaths he'd sworn when he became a doctor, he had been directly responsible for his patient's death and for what? Because he thought Cameron wanted him to do it. But, instead, when she found out what he'd done, their marriage was over. He refused to feel guilt over Dibala. The man was a criminal about to commit genocide. No, he wasn't going to feel guilty. Yet, his face was what he saw now, the face of the dying dictator, his eyes looking at him, as if about to pronounce a bitter judgement.
Cameron had said he'd been poisoned by House. But, if it were true, how come that she herself wasn't poisoned by him in an equal measure? Always, she had the habit of blaming someone else or something else for her decisions, be it House, the death of her first husband or anything. Never did she admit sole responsibility for her actions or lack of them.
He'd seen her only once after she'd decided to leave him. That night when the entire hospital had been in quarantine, when that infant had gone missing. He'd asked her whether she'd really loved him. They ended up making love for the last time, before he finally signed the divorce papers. The question was resurfacing now. Had she ever really loved him? She'd told him she didn't know, leaving him even more tormented, because of the lack of an answer. House was right in this, as well. People need answers.
Later, though, she'd confessed she loved him and it was her who had the issues, not him. Nonetheless, she didn't change her mind concerning their divorce. That night had been one of the most tumultuous in his life,
He hated all this painful reminiscing, he hated himself for being so affected by finding out that she had a new suitor. Was he truly so incapable of moving on? He'd tried to, really. But, his way of coping with the sad reality hadn't benefitted him much. He'd raced from one tryst to the other, filling the void with alcohol and sex, but the void stubbornly refused to be filled. Feeling his pent-up frustration reach boiling point, Chase rose and kicked his chair, relishing the sound it made when it hit the floor. He banged his fist on the table and breathed deeply. Even his rage had had only such a minor impact, he remarked to himself, putting the chair back in its normal position and sitting on it again.
Only recently, truth be told yesterday night, had he felt that somehow the void could be filled. When he went out with Martha Masters. Martha... Until very recently, he viewed her as merely a colleague. A colleague uttering quirky trivia and objecting to how he treated women. Yet, he had to admit that this opinion no longer held sway over him.
He was slowly beginning to admit that he found her interesting. She was always socially awkward, but this made her seem very cute to his eyes. Truly, there was something very interesting in her, perhaps worth exploring, he mused.
The sound of the door opening meant that Chase had no more time for his thoughts. The surgeon didn't need to ask who it was, for the characteristic sound of the cane betrayed the entrance of Gregory House.
"House?", he enquired, adding, "You're back?". "Obviously", the diagnostician observed. Chase vacated the chair and his superior sat, frowning and scratching his forehead. "I see the room is still standing, but only one of my fellows. Where's the rest of the gang?", House asked.
"Masters is checking on the patient Cooper ordered us to treat. Cheng is checking on your mother", Chase gave his report. "There was nothing in her hotel room that could have caused her collapse. I'll need her full medical history and the physician she consulted", the diagnostician stated. "Are you not going to see her?", the surgeon enquired.
"I don't see patients. She's my patient now, not my mother, and I'm her doctor. The rest can wait after she is fine", House said, in a manner that indicated he wouldn't tolerate any suggestion to the contrary.
Chase merely nodded, but his superior somewhat changed subject, asking, "What's going on between you and Masters?" "Nothing", the surgeon replied in a curt tone, not looking at House. "That's a lie. Worse, it's a poor lie", the diagnostician called the bluff. "I somehow managed to take her out for dinner yesterday evening", Chase admitted. "Yesterday wasn't the two-year anniversary since your divorce?", was House's next question.
"Right. I was thinking about all of it and Masters...", the surgeon started saying, but the other man interrupted him, interjecting, "You can call her Martha, I'm not saying anything mean". "Martha was asking what was my problem. I told her she didn't need to bother, but...", he resumed his narrative, only to be cut off again, "But she bugged you until you spilled the beans and, without thinking, you asked her out".
"Something like that", Chase admitted. "Bully for me", House mused, and further enquired, "So, did you two... Do it? Have sex?". "Not at all. I kept filling and refilling her glass in the restaurant. She passed out in the cab and I took her to my place", the surgeon answered in all honesty. "But you're getting cold feet, 'cause you still haven't got over Cameron. Or, worse, something happened after your... escapade with our ginger-head that renewed your sense of guilt and pining for your ex", House reached his conclusion.
"The patient Cooper ordered us to treat... He is her new fiancé, House!", Chase exclaimed, his fist balling and hitting the table again. "Cool. The guy went to another state so that he'd surprise her by buying her the ring. And I'm not a medium, I just passed from Cooper's office before dropping by here", the diagnostician replied.
Chase stood silent, not knowing how to reply. House stood up and limped all the way behind Chase's chair, saying calmly, "I knew it from the first moment that your marriage to Cameron wouldn't last. I was proven right, but this doesn't mean I was happy by this. And I know how difficult it is to move on. When Cuddy dumped me, I did one crazy thing after the other, till I tried an experimental rat medicine and almost died performing surgery on myself. In the process of refusing to move on, I almost missed my chance to get better. You, when Cameron left you, you tried to find solace in sleeping around, drinking and all those things. They did their job for a moment, but, then, the pain returned. I'm gonna ask you a question, Chase: do you like Masters?", House finished his soliloquy.
"I... I guess that...", the surgeon mumbled, having difficulty to form a full answer. "You're ashamed of admitting you like her. But you shouldn't. Life is pain, you know, I've been telling you this for years. But, it's not something you should pursue, to live with the pain. If you can make it go away and get happier, provided we accept happiness exists, then go for it. Now, you tell me, do you like Masters?", the diagnostician offered another monologue.
"I guess I do", the surgeon responded. "You guess or you DO? Don't think of it, say the first thing that crosses your mind", House insisted. "I do", Chase said, exhaling audibly. "Then go for it", his superior advised.
"That's all? You didn't approve of Foreman and Thirteen, but you have no issue with me and Martha?", the surgeon couldn't believe his ears. "Foreman and Thirteen were a disaster together. And they sucked in their jobs while they were screwing, so I had to object. You and Masters, hmmm... It can work. And, actually, you're gonna improve if you hook up with her", House replied.
"I don't know what to say", Chase replied. "It's not to me that you need to say something. It's to our ginger-head version of the Internet with breasts. From your expression, I gather you were not so tender with her earlier, that's why you came here instead of supervising the rest of the team", the diagnostician observed.
"Thanks, House", the surgeon replied. An earnest and meaningful reply. He added, "As for your mother, I'm gonna stay with her all night to make sure she doesn't get any worse". "Definitely you are. But, with a twist: Masters is also staying. If you excuse me now, I have to order some tests performed on Ridgeway and go home", House responded and limped out of the room. "See you tomorrow, House", Chase said. "See you tomorrow, Chase", his superior, his mentor, concurred. Chase sighed as he contemplated the other man's words.