Every Second

A House Fan-Fic

by - entercreativename

Disclaimer: I am not the creator or owner of the characters mentioned in this story. I am instead a poor college student with no money and no hope of ever earning money. I wrote this story as a means of exploring the characters in the show; not for profit, notoriety, or other self-assuring means.

Chapter 4 - Senior Hi

1989 was a slow year for Dr. Gregory House. After losing several research grants while in California, he decided that he had enough of the politics of medical research in America. He wrote a letter to the Dean of Medicine at UCLA and a week later was on a plane to Sydney, Australia. He had heard about some exciting research being done by a rheumatologist down under.

Shortly after arriving, House had decided that he could learn a lot here. Still a nephrologist, he made an appointment to meet this rheumatologist to try to join his team. Instead, he met Dr. Libby Sanford, an infectious disease specialist who worked with the famous rheumatologist in research. House met with Sanford on numerous occasions, each time learning more about the research that she and her partner worked on. House also learned that Sanford's partner was in residence at Oxford for a semester, so he would be unable to meet him. No loss however - the time he spent in Australia sealed House's fate of changing specialties to infectious disease.

It was two years later, when House had been working towards his second specialty, that he received a phone call from a random woman with an important message. The infamous rheumatologist, Dr. Rowan Chase, was in the area and wanted to meet House after he had heard good word about him from his partner Sanford. House cleared his schedule and later that night he was at dinner with both Drs. Chase and Sanford. It was a meeting he would never forget. House was so taken by the brilliance of this team, and their method of diagnostics, that he had to find out how they did what he did. As a nephrologist, he often relied on factual information gathered from test results, however, these two had something more than just that - they used intuition. It was rare for a scientist to rely on his or her instinct; it was even more rare for that instinct to be correct. However, match that instinct with knowledge and seasoned problem solving skills, and that suddenly became gold. It was at that meeting that House signed a contract for his fellowship under Dr. Rowan Chase to learn the art of diagnostics after completion of his residency in infectious disease.

Rowan Chase had a son named Robert who was interested in medicine. However, Robert didn't get along with Rowan, as Senior left Junior with his mother at a young age. One day however, a seventeen-year-old Robert suddenly appeared in an examination room in Sydney. The doctor assigned to the "case" happened to be a younger Gregory House. Though House was already cynical at that age, he still had enough heart left in him to hear the story of the boy.

"I don't know who you are, or why you are here Doctor, however, I do know that you work for my father."

House looked at the boy, "You are correct, Robert. Now,why exactly are you here? There's nothing physically wrong with you, so it must be something else."

"What's your name?"

"I'm just another doctor here to learn from your father. I'm practically anonymous."

"Yes, Doctor. But I know the game that my father plays, and I've played it long enough."

House stopped staring at the ceiling of the little room to look at this boy sitting in front of him. Game? What kind of a game could be going on? "So, why exactly are you here?"

"My father has always played this game. Made his students assume if parts his personal life were important enough for him to pay attention to. Which, he shouldn't."

House looked back at this boy. He seemed to be wise for his years. Thinking, House asked "No one really gets a referral to your father unless it is through one of his students? This includes his family?"

"Yes."

House looked back down at the chart in his hand. He knew that he wanted to do what was right, however, he also knew that what was right could end badly for everyone.

"So, can I see him?"

House continued to contemplate.

"It's not like I'm going to be taking a lot of his time. I just want to see him, tell him Mom is gone. Tell him I miss him and that I want him in my life. He's my father. That has to mean something."

"Your Father is extremely busy." House was agitated now. Normally, he was always in control of what was going on around him. Now, a seventeen year old both controlled him and suddenly reminded him of his own past.

"Please," the boy begged. Begging. No man or boy would degrade himself to the level that this one had.

"This is all that I ask. Just write a referral note for me so that I can see him. Use a fake name." House knew the boy was serious and would not leave.

"I just want to tell him…. Forget it. You're not going to do it. You're just like the other students of his. None of them had ever been brave enough to let me see him." Robert Chase got up and was about to leave when House told him to wait.

House left the room and walked down the hallway to another examination room. He knew that he shouldn't be doing this, Rowan had expressed that he did not want to be concerned with familial matters while at work. Work was his boss's family, not that kid that he left with that woman years before. However, House knew that he couldn't get rid of the kid that easily either. He knocked and Rowan Chase excused himself into the hall.

"Greg, what can I help you with?"

"I need a second opinion on a case. Seventeen-year-old Caucasian male complains of pain near his left shoulder. Referral to your clinic from family physician, and he's not agreeing with my diagnosis."

"What is your diagnosis?"

"It just looks like tendonitis to me. Could be something more serious, but he's insisting that I get another opinion, and from you specifically."

Rowan thought for a moment. He knew that he didn't have the time, and he had heard reports that a boy had been coming to the clinic recently to see him. His boy, his son. If

"Let me see."

"Sir, it would be better if you came and looked."

Rowan Chase knew that something was up. It was not like House to either ask him for help or hide facts from him. "I'll be down there in a couple of minutes."

That was the last day that House worked for Rowan Chase. After seeing the boy flee the exam room after a heated argument, he knew that it was better to leave the job than to stay on. He's his son. How can he treat him like that?

It is odd how life cycles itself. People look at a stranger and see an old friend from long ago. Insignificant memories suddenly become reality. People who you thought you could forget, suddenly come back into your life in a blaze of glory. Seven years had passed since that chance meeting in Sydney, and House had all but forgotten about the young Robert Chase.

Seven years later, House had just received authorization from the administration that allowed him to hire three fellows to work with him at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He didn't really want to do so, but since the infarction, it had been harder to go about his job the way he had done so in the past. Gone were the days of running around the hospital and staying late looking at labs. Instead, his leg dictated the schedule, and his use of Vicodin increased. Nothing was controlling the pain anymore, and rather than quit his job, he realized that he would need to rely on others to help him out. And, it was a teaching hospital.

Three files lay before him. Two names he was completely unfamiliar with. Then there was the third - a Robert Chase. Was this the son of Rowan? If so, he knew whom to hire. House opened the file, and instantly recognized the son of his mentor. Interviews were merely a formality when he already knew whom he wanted on his team. Wilson even supported the hiring of Robert Chase. If the son were anything like the father, then the son would have to be hired. It was a risk House was willing to take.

Since the interview, House began to look at Chase differently. Instead of being another doctor, this was the son of his mentor. Now, the son looked to House as a father figure. What could House do but be a father back?

He had to save Chase.