Sorry bout the lateness, but I haven't been feeling all that great lately. I got this pressure building behind my eyes and my nose looks like a red tomato. So yeah I apologize if this seems a bit OOC. (Groan)

Rubix-Complex: Lol, well at least this one is over 3000 words.

AtreidesHeir: We all love Chase torture.

felixgirl: Lol. About the Pride and Prejudice part, I have neither read the book or seen the movie, I'm ashamed I'm not caught up in recent movies. My friend pointed that out too (face meets palm)

IluvLost9393: Sorry to disappoint you but Chase doesn't get friendly with anyone in this story, maybe the next one.

blasphamy6669: Lol, any hot guy torture starts my day too.

kpstar25: Mwhahahaha (cough cough)

isheebishee: I agree with you whole heartedly.

I'll try to get the next one out soon, but my cold's kind of getting in the way of creative skills. Anyway please review.

Shadowed Guilt: Chapter Thirteen Surgery

House appeared in the diagnostic lounge and waved a file under Cameron's nose, she glared and then snatched it from him. Opening it, she glanced back at House, "I thought we already diagnosed Mr Reichs for TB."

Sighing, he sat heavily in a chair with wheels. Rolling over to the white board, he hung up his cane by the handle and pulled the cap off of a black marker with his teeth, "That was only part of the problem. Unless Chase gave him the wrong medication."

The blonde doctor turned from his crossword to glare at House, "I did not."

"You never know, the world and its children are corrupt. Every last one of them." House said seriously, rewriting the symptoms that had adorned it only days before. Plucking the file out of Cameron's hands, he ran a line through a couple of symptoms, "These are being treated by the rifatar that Chase is giving him right now. Which leaves not much to work with."

Cameron and Chase looked at the board covered in House's scrawl and raised an eyebrow. They could've been twins, with their blonde almost brown locks. Especially now that Cameron had re-dyed her hair to a lighter brown. "Where's Foreman?" House asked, diverting his attention back to the file. They shrugged as one and returned to their crosswords and articles. "Well aren't we helpful today?" House scowled and rolled into his office to use the phone, seconds later House's voice was booming through the halls, "Foreman, you get your chocolate 'A' double snakes up here right now and I mean now."

"'A' double snakes?" Chase asked.

Cameron chuckled at Chase's obliviousness and pondered about something in her article, "Don't worry you'll figure it out someday."

Chase frowned and muttered to himself, "Seven letter word for insensitive."

"Foreman." House replied rolling back through the blinds that separated his office from the conference room, "Or Gregory. I could go on all day."

"Starts with a C." Chase muttered.

"Claudel. I never liked the man." House answered deftly referring to the neuro surgeon.

Chase looked up, "I think I'll go with callous."

Foreman burst through the doorway, panting, his tie crooked much like Chase's. They all glanced up, "Oh, young man. You're in trouble." House scolded trying to sound like an overly cliched father.

"Sorry." Foreman breathed hard, adjusting his tie.

"So care to fill us in on where you have been for the last couple of days?" House asked.

With a man as dark as Foreman, you could never tell if he was blushing or not. The only real clue was if you watched the tips of his ears, they darkened to a passable shade of red. Chase and House stared at the tips of his ears, feeling their open gazes, Foreman blushed. House hooked his cane into Foreman's pocket and tugged, "Well, put your love affairs aside and actually focus on the patient for once."

"It's not an affair." Foreman sniffed, "We're engaged."

Chase spat out the tea he had procured from Mrs Reichs house and coughed to clear his throat. Cameron's mouth had dropped open and her pen fell out of her loose grasp. House had tilted his head back, eyes wide. "Whoa." House said, "I was just kidding."

Foreman's ears looked like a red hot stove. Chase reached over and patted him on the arm, "Don't worry. We all make stupid mistakes like that around House."

"So have you and mystery woman been doing each other in a closet or something? I don't think the janitor would take that lightly, knowing his supplies being soiled." House teased.

"When's the wedding?" Cameron asked, eyes bright, "Are we invited? Do we get to meet her?"

Foreman held up his hands in surrender to Cameron's onslaught of questions, "I think we all know Sharon."

"Oh." Chase said, "The drug rep?"

"Yes, the drug rep." Foreman sighed patiently, "The wedding's in a couple of weeks okay? Stop badgering me and yes, you're all invited."

"Oh goody." House sighed, "There better be champagne and wine and-"

"Other such alcoholic beverages." Chase smirked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Foreman muttered, "Maybe you all should get together with Sharon. She's the one planning the whole shebang."

"Aw, so that's where you've disappeared off to these last couple of days. Being bothered by the soon-to-be-she-Foreman about big party plans." House's lip twitched, "I sympathize."

"When did you get engaged?" Cameron asked, finally picking up her pen to scribble out some more ethical rules broken by the procedure of such and such case.

"About a month ago." Foreman said, a small blissful smile on his face.

"And you kept it secret that long?" House exclaimed.

"Unlike some people, some are more observant then others." Foreman said clearly amused, "I would've thought that you would've known." He tipped his head towards the gold and black promise ring, inlaid with tiny diamonds that was sitting snug on his left ring finger, "It's been there for a while now."

"In my defense Cuddy had me babysitting too many fuzz heads for the last couple of weeks." House threw up his arms and indicated the people who walked into the clinic everyday.

"Right..." Foreman said with disbelief, "Although you do have a legitimate point there."

"See." House said.

"What about the patient?" Chase inquired mumbling over the pen in his mouth.

"Oh, yes." House exaggeratedly nodded, "We must treat the man with the money bags before Cuddy starts playing strip poker with Wilson." the three ducklings tilted their heads at House with questioning looks on their faces, "Oh never mind." House threw up his hands, "You're all just plain clueless."

"Wilson's trying to get Cuddy?" Foreman asked, pursuing the subject.
"Not yet. But it's a matter of time." House said smugly tapping his chin with the marker, "He always marries his rebound girls."

"You got to be kidding me." Foreman said having unpleasant pictures of Dr's James Wilson and Lisa Wilson, "Isn't she a bit old for him?"

"Ohhh." House said, "Burn a plenty."

"Amazing." Chase said loosening his tie some more, "Our minds wander fairly quickly for intrigued doctors."

House grabbed the marker and threw it at Chase, who nearly caught it twice before it clattered to the floor, "You're suppose to be good at the catching part." House informed Chase sarcastically, "What's the matter? Can't focus?"

"Something like that." Chase muttered, but House didn't catch it as he turned back to the board.

"Okay, people. We'll start testing for the other things, although I think we can discount syphilis." House rolled over to the coffee maker to pour himself a cup of coffee, "I'm sure Chase is sick of testing the rich guy's testicles already."

Cameron nodded left, Foreman followed closely. Chase stood slowly, stretching his tired muscles. House stopped him by poking his cane into Chase's shin, Chase looked down at the offending piece of wood, "What?" he said sullenly, clipping the pen back into his lab coat pocket.

"I want you to observe in Mr Cartier's awake brain surgery." House said staring intently at Chase's face.

Chase paled ever so slightly, "Sure fine." he slipped on his plastic smile that House had learned from months of experience to finally tag, "No problem. I'll go scrub in right now."

"Then I want you to monitor him for the rest of the day and night." House shot at Chase carefully.

Grinning, Chase did a one shoulder shrug, "Sure."

House scrutinized Chase as he dipped into his pockets for his vicodin pill bottle, popping one he noticed Chase's slight shaking. It was so slight that someone who wasn't looking for anything unusual in particular would've missed it completely. It wasn't just the hands, it seemed like it was Chase's whole being who was shivering like somebody had turned on the AC too much for the Aussie's liking. "Are you sure?" House asked seemingly unconcerned, "You're shivering like your stuck out in the snow without your jacket on."

Chase averted his eyes and looked at glanced down upon himself, "It's nothing. I was just helping Nurse Brenda at lunch, carrying heavy boxes."

Anyone else but House would've left it at that, but House was House and he recognized Chase's lie like a vulture would a rotting corpse. Shifting back, he smiled up at Chase, it seemed almost predatory, "Now, we both know that's a big fat lie. So why don't you be a good seminary boy and tell the truth to Uncle House?"

"You always say that everybody lies. How do you know if I'd be telling the truth or not?" Chase asked, "Isn't Cartier's surgery starting any moment now?"

"No." House said hanging his cane on the white board behind him, "You still got a couple of hours. So why don't you have a seat and let fire a million different lies?"

Chase's brow furrowed and a perplexed look appeared on his face, "Why do you care?"

"You're never going to get a straight answer out of me." House laced his fingers, "Besides I like puzzles."

"Is that why you keep me around?" Chase asked quietly, "You haven't solved me yet?"

"Maybe that's part of the charity." House raised an eyebrow.

"Charity?" the tone became quieter, "You keeping me around is charity?"

"Everybody lies." House shrugged, suddenly backing off from the sensitive spot he had just hit.

Chase scoffed, "Everybody lies, except for you. That's what you always say, maybe it's true after all." he turned and shut the glass door forcibly behind him.

House frowned, another way not to approach his fellow duckling about personal problems, maybe he should take Wilson's advice after all. Stop talking every few seconds so the other person can actually talk. Then that would be qualified as a decent conversation.

oOoOo

Chase scrubbed at his hands with soap and stared through the glass windows into the operating room, surgeons and nurses dressed in blue knee length scrubs already were prepping Cartier for the next hours of surgery that lay ahead of them. He glanced down at his hands and winced, they were red and raw from him standing there for the last few minutes scrubbing them forcibly. Rinsing his hands off, he grabbed a paper towel and turned off the tap. Chase grabbed a mask and placed it under his chin and tied the back so it dangled like an extremely gaudy necklace. Grabbing a scrub cap, he carefully tucked his blonde hair under the concealing light blue material. Placing the mask over his mouth and nose, he pinched the bridge of his nose to make sure the mask stayed in place while he tied the top part of the mask. Tugging on the knee length scrub dress, he always thought he was wearing it backwards, but he guessed it was so the blood didn't seep into the slight opening the ties at the back provided. Nodding to a nurse, she pulled the surgical gloves over each of his hands. This way would hopefully prevent cross contamination that would affect the patient in any way.

Nodding to the head surgeon, House's supposedly arched enemy Dr Claudel, Chase walked over out of Cartier's line of sight, "I'm anesthetizing him first." Claudel said, even though they both knew the procedure, Claudel liked talking things out first, "Then I'm going to bring him back to the surface when I'm ready. I need you to talk to him."

"Why me?" Chase asked and managed to get a quick glance of House's face through the observatory station above the OR.

Claudel looked at him strangely, it was not unheard of an intensivist to talk to a patient in an awake brain surgery while the other doctors did their work. Chase had no qualms to talking to the a patient and searching for signs of disorientation, but he just didn't want to do it with this particular patient. Claudel although smart and entirely too brilliant for his own good, was oblivious to anything outside of his little world. Which basically narrowed his world down to the open brain before him in a surgery, outside of surgery he was devoted to paperwork and other neuro surgery related topics. Obviously he hadn't heard about the small incident, which involved both the patient in question and Chase crashing through one of the glass walls in the ICU wing. Claudel stared at Chase, "Is it too much to ask?"

"No, it's just that..."

"You're feeling lazy and don't want to do anything but observe up close and personal the intricate workings of the brain?" Claudel asked, Chase wasn't sure if the man was joking or not.

"Never mind." Chase shrugged, "I'm just a little...preoccupied right now."

"That's not a good thing to bring into an OR especially mine." Claudel scolded, "People have been known to make stupid and preventable mistakes that led to the patient dieing because their whole mind wasn't in the zone."

Chase resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he couldn't count the number of times he had heard the exact same lecture, he had to admit it was getting old. Claudel continued with his little rant which Chase was sure he had memorized or at least written it down somewhere. He zoned out and stared at a point directly overhead of Claudel's bulky six foot frame and nodded at the appropriate moments, he thanked God that he was wearing a mask so Chase wouldn't have smiled until he could literally feel his face cracking into two pieces.

A voice blared through the intercom of the room, effectively starting every doctor and nurse in the OR. Even Cartier who had just been put under the spell of an anesthetic, rolled his head in discomfort and startlement, "Okay people." House's voice boomed into the still air, "The sooner we start, the sooner we get this done."

House may be a pain in the ass for Chase, but this time Chase had to give him credit from saving the OR from a boring hour of 'Why you shouldn't come into my OR without a clear mind lecture'. But then again if Chase followed Claudel's line of thought, what was he doing here anyway? He had been up more then twenty four hours and should be home in bed sleeping what was left of the day away. He shrugged to himself and made himself scarce as the doctor's that specialized in this kind of surgery stepped up and did their thing.

Claudel drilled his way into Cartier's skull, when he had full access to his brain, Claudel nodded to the anesthesiologist to wake him up. Chase stepped up as Cartier's eyelids started to flicker, "Mr Cartier, can you hear me?"

Cartier blinked rapidly, clearing his muddled thoughts and glanced around, "Well this is sophisticated stuff."

"We need you to keep talking, can you do that for us?" Chase asked glancing behind Cartier's head where Claudel muttered instructions to his assistant.

"About what?" Cartier's eyes closed momentarily, "I'm not exactly a chatter box in surgery."

"About anything." Chase shrugged, slowly relaxing. Cartier did not remember that little incident in his hospital room days before, "Sports, girls, whatever."

"You make guys sound so cliche." Cartier smile seemingly unaware that Claudel was now staring inside his head and prodding it ever so gently.

Chase snorted, "You wouldn't believe the guys back in my home town." a sudden sweep of homesickness engulfed Chase, he pushed it back, "They'd go non stop about a certain girlfriend or a certain sport that was in season. Fortunately or unfortunately for me depending on how you look at it, I had no clue as to what they were ranting about."

Cartier laughed slightly, "I use to not have a TV at home. So I was never caught up with the latest episodes of...Friends or something equally as pointless as that."

"You read a lot?" Chase asked, glancing once again at Claudel who was tapping something but Chase couldn't get a good look considering the sheet that shrouded the back of Cartier's head obscured his view.

"Do I look like a bookworm to you?" Cartier smiled, "Just because I had no TV doesn't mean I would turn to those musty books they had stored in that big old library back home. Now my sis..." he stumbled, "Book...love..."

"Cartier?" Chase asked alarmed, "Dr Claudel?"

"Just a minute." Claudel grunted as Cartier continued mumbling random words, "I can get it..."

"You're going to give him brain damage." more then one doctor in the room shouted as Cartier's blood pressure dropped abnormally low.

Claudel sweated at the decision he was about make, brain damage or death. He chose brain damage, everyone stared intently at the monitors as it gave off irritated beeps. "Dr Claudel, pull out." Cuddy's voice boomed into the frenzied room.

Claudel gave in and attempted to pull out, Cameron's voice whispered into the room, "That's way too much blood." she sounded teary and for a good reason.

As Claudel pulled the last of his surgical tools out, the monitor flat lined. Chase rushed over to help, he started pumping Cartier's chest, but to no avail the monitor still emanated its ominous tone. Dropping his hands, he thought of Elena and how he could not save her, a flash of anger rose through him and his fist pounded into Cartier's chest. Miraculously the monitor started beeping slowly and unsteadily, but it was a heart beat. Chase was stunned as the nearest doctors and nurses gave him a pat on the back, Cuddy's voice boomed on the intercom, "Good job, Dr Chase. Dr Claudel please pull back and reassign surgery for tomorrow."

Claudel sighed as he busily reattached the skull cap and the surrounded skin and hair, it would cause the hospital thousands maybe millions over this fumbled surgery. But there was nothing to do as of now, nothing much to complain about. No brain damage, no dead patient.