Bad language, kiddies, and angst angst angst... Ah Chase torture... so much fun! P.S. I apologise for my appauling spelling of 'Sidney' in the last chapter. A mental blank there.



House stood outside Pippa's room, looking in at the woman who was causing his Aussie so much pain. Silent, he pushed open the sliding door before limping in and sitting down.

"Well well well, it's a wombat-ette."

"Huh?" Pippa looked confused.

"A wombat-ette… y'know, the female version of the wombat." The confused frown left Pippa's face as she realised he was talking about Chase.

"Wombat, eh?" She mused. "Is that you're nickname for him?" House toyed with replying with the scathing sarcasm that such a question warranted, before deciding to go along with it. The desire to learn more about the secretive Chase won out, and he replied with:

"One of many." Making Pippa laugh quietly.

"I always called him Oz… He really was the stereotypical Australian when I met him. Of course, then his mum started drinking… and his father…" she trailed off.

"Interesting man." Said House.

"You've met him?" House inwardly shook his head, the woman was nice, but gee… a few fries short of a big mac.

"Mmm. He came here not too long ago. He had cancer." Pippa gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"No way! I never knew." House scoffed, Chase was hardly likely to let such a titbit of information get to someone he was still furious at.

"Oh please, Chase is a proper secret keeper." Pippa nodded.

"He wasn't always like that though." House cocked his head.

"How come you came back?" asked House. "Why did you have my intesivist's address written down?" Finally he was getting to the real reason he'd wanted to speak to the patient. Pippa opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Trying again, she said "I – " but was cut off by Chase flying into the room like a wombat out of hell. He looked furious.

"Robbie!" Pippa exclaimed, shocked. "Robbie, what's wrong?"

"That bastard!" Chase ranted, his arms waving about, taking no notice of House.

"That wanker gave you AIDS! You cheated on me, fucked him and now you've got AIDS. Wow. You made such a good call by sleeping with him! Was it worth it? Tell me – WAS IT WORTH IT!" Chase was screaming now, so angry at himself, Sam, Pippa and everything that it seemed he would never stop.

"Chase!" House said, sharply, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder. Immediately all the fight left him, and he stumbled back, out of House's reach, until his back hit the wall.

One solitary tear slipped down his cheek as he stared brokenly into space.

"You. Come with me." House pointed at Chase before stalking towards his office, his wombat meekly following in silence. Not a word was said in the corridor, lift, or as they passed Cameron and Foreman, who were heading towards Pippa's room. Only when both men were in House's office, with Chase sitting in front of the desk, did House speak.

"You are an idiot." Chase remained silent. "Do you know why she came here?" A shake of the head was his only reply. "You didn't bother to ask, just lashed out and one of the few people who cares about you." Chase laughed dully.

"She doesn't care about me. She's got Sam now."

"She cares." House was silent a moement. "Do you know for sure that Sam gave her HIV?"

"No… but I don't care. It was probably him. He was gay – "

"Oh, and all gay people get HIV? Stop generalising." He paused, and with a sigh, limped towards the door. "If I were you, I would go and find out why she came here." With that he left, leaving and upset and confused Australian to his thoughts.


"Are you happy now? I spoke to him." House was walking through the canteen, balancing a precariously stacked tower of food. They reached the till, and with a sigh, Wilson handed over enough cash for both meals.

"As in 'I had a human conversation and got him to see sense' or 'I yelled, was sarcastic and insulted his hair, his beliefs and his heritage at every opportunity'?" House tilted his head slightly.

"The first one." He said, the barest hint of a satisfied smile on his face.


Foreman and Cameron sped up as the reached Pippa's room, hearing sobs from within.

"My God, Pippa! What's wrong?" Cameron immediately rushed to her side.

"Have… have I got AIDS?" A tearstained face looked pleadingly up to Cameron's.

"Yes." She replied softly. "I was just coming to explain to you… how did you know?"

Pippa explained, in between sobs, what had just happened. Foreman's expression hardened.

"You stay here and look after Pippa." He said to Cameron. "I need to have a word with a soon to be dead man." He left, leaving Cameron to console the heartbroken patient.


"Chase." Foreman burst into House's office, where Chase had remained after talking to House. "You really can be a son of a bitch sometimes. I don't know if you're trying to be House, but man, that was not funny."

"What are you on, mate?" Chase was confused. Foreman turned to Chase, and said flatly:

"She didn't know she had AIDS. She found out when you screamed it in her face." Chase's face went slack, and he visibly paled.

"What…?" He whispered, aghast.

"You heard. That was low, man. Put whatever personal stuff there is aside, and start acting like a proper doctor!"

"She didn't know…" Chase whispered.


"She didn't know." House explained to Wilson, who looked shocked.
"I didn't know…" Pippa said heartbrokenly to Sam, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at her. He had just arrived.

"We're going to need to test you too Sam." Cameron explained softly. He just nodded numbly.

"I'm sure it'll be negative." He replied, faintly.

"We need to check anyway," she replied. She reached into one of the deep draws along the wall of the room and withdrew what she needed. She quickly withdrew some blood from Sam, who held his left arm out, whilst gripping Pippa's hand with his free one.


Cameron sat in the lab, alone, waiting for the test results. It had been a harrowing week. Chase was obviously hurting, still angry for things that had happened in his past, and his bad mood was affecting everyone. He was usually so affable, but his darkened mood had made everyone more short-tempered and snappy.

After the shock of hearing her diagnosis, Pippa had reacted well. She was well aware that she only had a few more months to live – a year at most, and was coming to terms with it well, all things considered. Chase, who was overcome by guilt for the way he had let Pippa know, was in hiding, doing hours and hours of clinic duty. Foreman was still with Pippa, talking to her. She was the kind of woman who wanted facts, straight up, without any mollycoddling, which was why Cameron had left Foreman to this rather grim job. She was excellent at taking away hurt, emotionally and physically, but she'd always stumbled slightly when giving damning prognosises.

She was snapped out of her reverie by the beep of the printer, automatically set to print out the results. She ripped the paper impatiently out of the printer, scanning down to check the end result.