Miracles Happen

House was in an uncharacteristic good mood that day. You could almost say... cheerful. Almost.

While most people would probably attribute that to the fact that it was Christmas, his ducklings couldn't be fooled. He was up to something, and they all had to check twice where they stepped and if there was something between them and their chairs. Somehow, it seemed something House would do: pull a nasty prank on someone just to say, Happy Holidays.

"Our patient sent us a Christmas present." He said, as soon as they were sited. He stood in front of the white board.

"Really?" Foreman asked. "What would it be?"

"Two new symptoms." He turned to the board, which still had the symptoms and differential diagnosis for that patient from the day before, and talked while he wrote. "Arrhythmia and kidney failure."

Cameron frowned. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Not with the dumbass guesses you gave yesterday, it doesn't." He scratched the previous possibilities and turned to them again. "Shoot."

"Meningitis." Chase said, after a second of pondering.

Foreman frowned and shook his head slightly. "Why meningitis?" he asked.

"Why not meningitis? Infectious diseases can cause kidney failure."

"Sure. And how do you explain the arrhythmia?"

"There can be a huge number of explanations." Chase said, sounding a bit unsure. Cameron just looked lost in her thoughts, so Chase continued. "What's your theory?"

Foreman waited a bit before answering. "Neurobrucelosis."

"That's a bit of a long-shot, isn't it?"Chase said.

"It's better than yours." House said in a low, almost provocative tone. Chase ignored him.

"And it would have shown in the blood tests we did." He refuted, stubbornly.

"Not after the oseltamivin I gave her for the pneumonia." Cameron finally interrupted, speaking very slowly with a very guilty look. "I was so sure!" She said excusing herself, because of the shocked looks that Chase and Foreman were giving her. House frowned and looked at a spot somewhere on the wall behind them.

"You mean you went and did something behind our backs out of pure self-assertiveness?" She looked down while he pretended to clean a tear from his eye. "They grow up so fast..."

Cameron rolled her eyes, still a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry. I won't ground you." Then House got serious, at least, as much as possible. But now both things are possible. The arrhythmia might have been caused by the oseltamivin." He was sure he saw a twinkle of satisfaction on Chase's eyes. After pondering for a while, he continued. "You, go talk to her and ask her if she has putten any meat of suspicious origin in her mouth lately." He told Foreman. "You two, do a lumbar punction when he's done." Then he made a movement with his head towards the door, indicating they could leave.

Foreman go to the door and passed through it first, and both Cameron and Chase were about to cross it secondly, when House's yelling stopped them.

"You two STOP right there!" They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at House, who was smirking. For a second, fear was mirrored in their eyes. House's smirk got bigger. "Look up."

They did. There was mistletoe hanging over the door. Over their heads.

"Come on." House said, like he was telling little kids that it was okay to take a lolly pop. "You know what that means."

Foreman was making no effort whatsoever to pretend he didn't find that funny. Chase looked extremely uncomfortable, and Cameron looked at her feet.

"Aw, come on. It's not like we don't know you two slept together." House said, impatiently.

If Chase looked uncomfortable before, now he looked like he wished for a hole to open on the floor and swallow him. Cameron had a weird expression on her face.

"House, I'm sick of your pranks." Chase said, shaking his head. Then he turned to Cameron. "Come on, we've got work to do." And he left with Foreman behind him.

"Some consider that brings bad luck, you know!" Chase ignored him once more.

For a second Cameron just stood there looking rather relieved, as if kissing Chase without being under the influence wasn't something she'd want to do. Then she followed the other two into the hallway.

House found himself a bit jealous that they had slept together, now that he thought about it. He had always thought that he'd be involved in the first work relationship around there. He was just that irresistible.

But what bugged him was that he couldn't quite figure if he was jealous that Chase had slept with Cameron or that Chase had slept with Cameron.

"I can't say I wasn't a bit disappointed..."

"You were disappointed because they didn't kiss?"

"...but the looks on their faces was rewarding enough. Just priceless."

Wilson closed his eyes and sighed. Sometimes House was just unnerving.

"Still, you know what they say." House continued his dialogue/monologue.

"What now?" Wilson asked, exasperated.

"Chase is supposed to have bad luck all day." He said, like he was announcing cake was being given for free in the cafeteria.

"You actually believe that?" Wilson's eyebrows raised. "What about Cameron?"

House snorted. "It was Chase who refused the kiss, not Cameron. Besides, you don't expect me to follow two people around all day, do you?"

Wilson stopped suddenly. "Wait. You mean you're gonna-"

"Sh, he's coming." House pulled him to the side where they were both hidden by a corner wall. Wilson never found an explanation to the fact that a cripple could be so quick when he had dubitable second intentions.

When Chase was about to pass through that corner, deeply emerged into a patients file, a cane appeared right in front his legs, apparently out of nowhere, making him fall on all fours and the file land five feet away from him.

"For God's sake, don't you wombats see where you're going?" House said, sounding unbelieving.

Chase picked the file after he picking himself up. He just glared at House for a second, before leaving.

House watched him leave until he disappeared into one of the rooms. Then he turned to the oncologist that stood beside him. Wilson had an absolute disbelief look on his face. But then again, he thought, this is House we're dealing with here.

"If anyone asks", he said, "I don't know you." And he left, walking the opposite way Chase had.

House's smile faltered a bit but he still went after Wilson.

"Does that mean you're not gonna buy me lunch?"

Chase's bad luck did follow him around for the rest of the day. By that time, Chase's arms and legs were bruised in several places, and in two occasions he feared he had broken his knee cap. At first he tried to keep calm, because one, he'd never win a yelling game with House (that man could get really loud when he wanted to) and two, Chase yelling at him would probably amuse him deeply.

But when House made him trip with his cane again and fall over Cuddy, who happened to be passing by, knocking her down, it was hard to restrain himself. House's yell of, "I can't believe it! This must be my lucky day!" would have been more than enough for him, but he ended up deciding that Cuddy's yelling and the extra twelve hours of clinic duty she gave him for that week were enough punishment.

Even if it was him who would end up doing most of those extra hours, as House remembered him when Cuddy left.

And by most he meant all of it.

Chase now walked looking at the floor, to forestall House's cane from making him fall. He wasn't gonna fall anymore. He was quite alert, waiting for that cane to pop out of nowhere.

"Hey Chase!"

He looked up, only to have his forehead connect rather unpleasantly with a stick that much resembled the cane he was looking for on the floor, just a second ago.

He yelped of pain and shock, as he was sent back by the impact. He lost his balance and was going to fall backwards but at the last second two hands that grabbed his arm and the side of his waist tightly stopped him from falling.

House's heart had skipped a beat when he saw Chase was gonna fall backwards and that his head seamed to be on it's way to hit the floor very harshly. He pushed himself forward as fast as he could to catch him, dropping his cane, and grabbed what was closer to his hands. He feared he was going to fall too, but he was able to keep his balance and keep Chase on his feet.

"Damn it, you Aussie." He said. "If you fall backwards you can actually hurt yourself and then you won't be able to do my clinic duty."

Chase was utterly speechless, to say the very least. Not only House had gotten his nationality correct, as he, House, had helped a person. He helped another person not to get hurt.

He helped him not to get hurt.

He knew it was a time of the year prone to miracles, but that was just too much.

"Bad luck's still after you, ain't it?" He finally snapped back into conscience at the sound of House's voice. And he realised what an awkward situation he was in. They were in a middle of a hallway in a crowded hospital, and House was still grabbing him, their bodies were still mere inches away from each other. Chase found himself very uneasy and self conscious beneath House's tight and warm grip. The places on his arm and waist that the other man touched seemed to be on fire, he could feel them in a strange way.

"That was hardly an accident." He said, trying to sound much more confident than he really was.

House finally let go of him and bent to pick up his cane.

He didn't mean for his wombat to fall and he got really scared, almost protectively. Not that he'd ever tell that to anyone.

He shoved the thought away.

"Who was trying to make it look like an accident?"

Chase thought House was done bothering him, for the day being, that is, since after that last incident he hadn't done anything else. He decided to go to the cafeteria, since it was getting kinda late and he was getting hungry. Both his and Foreman's guesses were wrong, and now they were waiting for the new test results. When he got to the cafeteria, he bought a sandwich and was about to leave when he thought it would be nice to sit there for a minute while he ate, and have a peaceful moment.

About five minutes after that, someone dropped something hot and wet all over him. He looked down at himself and gasped, and then he looked back. Apparently, now it was House who had tripped, which was obviously an accident.

"Ups."

The intensivist just couldn't believe it. He just left, too furious to say anything this time.

Chase stood there, under the shower, much more calm and relaxed than before. He loved to have the water that way, so hot it almost burned, and just feel it pouring down his skin. He turned the water down and wrapped a towel he had placed over the shower wall around his waist, before stepping out of the shower. He sat on the bench opposite to it and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and removing a bang of wet hair from his forehead.

At least now he had his moment of peace.

House just loved to make fun of him, more than he enjoyed making fun of anyone else. In a way, he was special to him.

For a moment he enjoyed that thought, but then he shook his head not only mentally as involuntarily physically. He didn't want to think about House at that moment. He wanted the moment to himself.

But it didn't take him long to find that all he could think about House. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing either.

He slowly opened his eyes and smiled. He knew exactly what he was gonna do for... revenge.

"Still nothing, huh?" House asked, looking at the intesivist in front of his desk as he bounced his tennis ball on the floor.

"She... hasn't responded to the treatment yet." Chase answered, looking through the window. It was already far into the night and House had thought of another possibility for that patient when the test results arrived, but the medication hadn't taken effect yet, when it already should have, even if barely.

House caught the ball and looked at Chase, whose gaze was somewhere in the sky. He noticed that his blond hair was wet, and it looked funny. Not, weird funny, or even, laughing at funny, it was just... nice.

When Chase finally realised the ball had stopped bouncing, he looked at House and their eyes met. Chase felt examined under those blue eyes, but he didn't mind. House broke the connection when he got up.

"I guess we'll just have to wait then. By tomorrow, either I was right and she'll be fine or I was... not so... right, and she'll be dead." He said. He looked back at Chase before he continued. "I believe this an appropriate time for you to pray for one of your miracles."

He walked towards the door and Chase did the same, but slower, so they got there at the same time. Just when House was about to cross the door to leave, Chase impeded him by putting his hand over the door knob before House could reach it.

The other man turned to him inquisitively. They were facing each other and Chase's hand was still on the door knob. House was going to say something, but Chase spoke first.

"Above your head." He said. "Remember?"

House's head immediately shot up for him to find out he had forgotten to take the mistletoe off of there. He looked back at Chase and snorted slightly.

"Bad luck? I think I'll take a risk." He said. Chase didn't let go of the knob.

"I won't."

Instead, he leaned forward pressed his lips against House's.

The diagnostician's last thought was, Chase is kissing me. It wasn't shocking or even surprising, it was just a fact. Then his mind went blank and all he could feel were his wombat's soft lips on his and some bangs of wet hair on his forehead.

He opened his mouth and started slowly moving his lips, to what Chase responded by kissing back and finally letting go of the door knob to bring his hand up to House's face. He found that he liked the feeling of House's unshaven face against his own face and his hand.

House's mind had now gotten over that blank state and was yelling rather loudly things like, stop, what are you doing, this is Chase, stop, go get a hooker or something, to which another part of House's mind responded rather rudely with something that surely wan't thank you.

The mind rarely wants what the body's always begging for.

Chase pulled back slowly but House followed his movement and prevented the kiss from breaking. But at a second attempt Chase was quicker and was able to pull apart. They both gasped for air. The kiss hadn't lasted longer than ten seconds, but it sure felt much longer. Chase realised his hand was still on House's face and he quickly removed it, blushing heavily.

"I didn't see that one coming." House said, smiling at the blond reaction.

Chase looked him in the eyes.

"Miracles happen. You just have to do everything you can for it."

He opened the door and left, not looking back, because he knew if he did he wouldn't resist to turning back.

House was thinking, I should be going after him now, but he didn't.

Chase was thinking, I wish he came after me now, but he never did.

A/N: Hey! As promised, here's more House/Chase. I'm sorry for any medical inaccuracies, but for the time being my only medical knowledge comes from medical encyclopedias.

So, did you like it? Please leave a review. I'm quite happy with this fic, but I wanna know what people think. I hope you understood what I was refering to with "surely wan't thank you"... in case you didn't, it's a word somewhat close in sound to thank... ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own House, M.D. or any of the characters. I just write for fun!

So, don't forget to leave your thoughts!

Yours,

Barbie