My sincerest apologies for the long wait. I finally had a chance to recently sit down and iron out this chapter. I do hope it was worth the wait.

We are still well in the middle of the trial. And for those of you who need a refresher (yes, blame my long hiatus), Cuddy is 27 weeks.

After House was done being questioned by John Greene, opposing council was offered a chance to cross examine the witness. Savoy refused, determined to put all his effort into questioning Cuddy and making her crack.

"Your Honor, the prosecution calls Robert Chase to the stand," John began, after House had taken his seat next to Cuddy behind the table.

Chapter 80:

Once House was seated, Cuddy squeezed his bicep and leaned over toward him. "I'm proud of you," she whispered in his ear. "You did good."

"It's not over yet," he whispered back, looking at her, as he silently tried to convey forgiveness for what had happened moments before.

As House and Cuddy were conversing quietly, Robert Chase stood after hearing last minute advice from his lawyer being whispered in his ear, and after being sworn in, took his seat on the witness stand.

John Greene stood once again, smoothed out his tie with his hand and stepped out from behind the table. He had waited for this moment for weeks and now that it was finally here, he was simply revving to begin.

"Good morning, Dr. Chase."

"Morning," Chase replied stiffly.

"Now, before I begin the nitty-gritty questioning, I just have one simple question to start."

Chase was silent, waiting patiently. He had no idea what to expect. He kept his eyes on John.

"You've worked for your boss, Doctor House, for some time now, is that correct?"

"Yes," Chase replied.

"And you've been a good employee, have you not?"

Chase casually shifted his gaze over behind John onto his boss. Why? He had no idea.

"Eyes on me, Chase. Don't look at him," John told him roughly.

Chase snapped his eyes back towards the lawyer, surprised at John's abrupt change of tone.

"I – I like to think so, yes," Chase finally answered, swallowing nervously.

"Your boss and two colleagues think so, as well," John told him confidently. "So, naturally, that got me thinking, 'Okay, so he's not a bad person, so what happened to make him suddenly…lose control'…."

Chase's lawyer stood up, outraged. "Objection! Relevance?" he shouted. He faced John. "My client did not 'lose control' here, okay?!"

John spun towards him, absolutely livid. "So you would not call getting behind the wheel of a car, driving - drunk enough to blow a .15 on a breathalyzer, which he did -, andkilling an innocent -"

"My client made a mistake, okay?!" Savoy interrupted. "He didn't lose control -"

John interrupted him, half-shouting now. "Mistake?! Your client -"

"Gentlemen," Judge Fleming interrupted, "Stop! Please. The two of you. This is going to become a bloodbath soon. Mr. Greene, un-called for. Mr. Savoy, overruled. And sit down."

Shooting a dirty look at his opposing counsel, Savoy mumbled under his breath but did as he was told.

Calming down, John turned back to face Chase, who was silently waiting.

"I'm assuming you went to work that Friday, correct?" he began, trying to keep his voice level.

"Yes, that is correct," Chase replied, nodding.

"And you left work to go to the bar?"

Another nod.

"Okay, now let's back up, shall we?" John told him. "You and your two colleagues are working on a case that day from earlier on in the week and you just…leave. One of your colleagues Doctor Cameron told me that she thought you seemed…distracted, and when she asked you if anything was bothering you, you just shrugged her off."

John paused and peered at the defendant closely, taking a step closer to where he was sitting, before continuing, ready to gauge his reaction quickly.

"…. That seems like a pretty quick turnaround of events, don't you think?" he questioned curiously. "To go from 'everything's fine' to just getting up and leaving the hospital, going to a bar, drinking for several -"

"Objection," Savoy, Chase's lawyer, interrupted quickly.

Judge Fleming looked at him. "On what grounds?"

"Uh… relevance?"

The black haired judge smirked. "Nice try. I think this is a very relevant line of questioning, so…overruled." He glanced over at John, who could have sworn the judge gave him a slight smile. "Please, Mr. Greene. Continue."

Nodding, the lawyer resumed his questioning.

"Doctor Chase, you have no history of drunk driving whatsoever. Or any bad driving record either. So, it's not like you do this on a regular basis." He took a step closer to the defendant, who stared right back at him, determined not to fold.

"So, what the hell caused you to get so drunk to blow a point fifteen on a breathalyzer and cause my client to lose something her and Doctor House can never get back?!"

During the time John was speaking, Cuddy felt a rush of emotions threaten to intervene in her somewhat calm state, and she fought to not lose control. She felt House squeeze her hand and she turned to her right to look at him. He was looking concerned.

She squeezed his hand back reassuringly.

"You okay?" House asked quietly.

She nodded, her left hand caressing her stomach gently.

"You sure?"

Cuddy nodded again. "Yes," she whispered firmly. She finally tore her eyes away from his and focused her attention on the back of John's head.

"Just stay calm," she heard House whisper in her ear as she listened to her lawyer still question Chase. "It'll be okay."

John was still in detective mode. "…Was it a fight with House? Did you lose a patient? Was it a personal issue perhaps? What made you lose that much control, Chase?"

Chase shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. His tried not to look over at his lawyer who was looking furious.

John kept going, determined to make the doctor crack.

"Was it a fight with a girlfriend? A lover's spat, perhaps?"

For the first time since being questioned, Chase's eyes narrowed and he had a look of pure hatred on his face as he stared up at John, the disgusted look still prominent.

"What do you know about love?" he spat out, bitterly.

John hesitated, surprised. Even House, a few feet behind at the table picked his head up and stared at his employee, shocked.

"Excuse me?" John replied.

"What do you know -"

"I heard what you said," John interrupted him, icily.

Chase snickered, knowing he had hit a nerve. "You don't even know what love is. And yet, here you are, standing on your high horse questioning me about it. What do you know? Right now, you're with a guy who doesn't even know what the term 'homosexual' even means -"

For a fleeting moment, John Greene looked as if he was going to strike Chase across the face, but he immediately controlled himself, although his fist still remained clenched tightly by his side.

Instead, he stepped closer to Chase, staring into the doctor's face. "Don't you ever talk about my personal life again," he spat out bitterly, in a dangerously low voice. "Do you understand me?"

Meanwhile, Wilson was being forced back into his seat by Cameron, who had sat beside him. "Asshole," he muttered under his breath.

Cameron laid a hand on his arm. "It's not worth it, Wilson," she whispered to him. "Stop."

House too was about to rise, the anger quite evident on his face, but Cuddy tugged him back down, the expression on her face hard to read.

"Don't."

House looked around at her. "He just insulted my best -"

"I know," Cuddy said quietly, her expression not changing. "Do you want to give them an excuse to hold you in contempt and then charge you with something ludicrous!?"

He swallowed and kept his mouth shut, knowing she was right. "No."

"Then sit back down and calm yourself. John can handle it."

Meanwhile at the front of the courtroom, while all the scuttling of movement and whispers was going on behind him, John Greene and Robert Chase were still staring at one another.

"Gentlemen," Judge Fleming interrupted the terse silence after loudly clearing his throat. "If we are done with the 'personal', I'd like to get back to the reason we are all here today."

John glanced toward the judge before quickly shifting his eyes back to Chase.

"Oh we're done," he replied coldly as his eyes bore straight into Chase's.

On the other side of the courtroom at the defense table, Stephen Savoy was grinning. His client had done exactly as he had hoped and he had done it flawlessly.

"So, are you going to tell me the real reason why you plowed into my client's car or just keep sidestepping the question with all this bullshit that Steve over there told you feed to me?" John spat out angrily before turning around.

"Because frankly, Chase, I'm losing my patience with you," he continued, after giving Wilson a small reassuring smile and facing the defendant once more.

Chase glanced at John before shifting his gaze over to Cuddy, who was staring at him.

He could see that she was having a hard time and trying her best not to let her guard down.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered quietly.

Before John even had a chance to react and tell him off for speaking to his client, he stared back at the lawyer and began his story.

"…The Sunday before, I met up with a friend from college. His name's Dave. Haven't seen him in years but he was in the area and we decided to meet to catch up."

"Chase, spare us all the bullshit – me included - and tell me what happened," John interrupted icily.

Chase swallowed. "That Friday afternoon, I had gotten a call from Dave's mom, telling me Dave had committed suicide. I mean, I didn't even know he was – he - he seemed fine. His mom told me I was the first person he'd seen in weeks."

"You receive this call at work?"

Chase nodded. "A few hours later, I left."

"And went to a bar and drank yourself into oblivion?" John interrupted, harshly.

Chase said nothing.

Behind John at the table, House's fist was clenched in his lap as he barred his teeth at his former employee. Cuddy took his hand in her own. "Greg, calm down," she whispered, her voice shaking.

House took a breath and exhaled slowly, the anger still evident on his face. He said nothing in response and continued to glare at Chase.

"Judging by your boss's facial expression behind me," John began, as he turned back to face the defendant after glancing behind him at House, "I take it he's pissed at you for what you did. Do you think that's wrong of him?"

"No."

"And you, like almost everyone else in this room, had no idea that my client and Dr. House were more than just boss and employee, correct?"

"At the time, no, I did not," Chase answered.

"Well, that certainly doesn't excuse your behavior," John started, and then quickly switched gears. "What made you think getting that drunk would fix anything? Clearly, you didn't think."

Chase said nothing.

"Just because you couldn't deal with your friend's death in a …responsible manner," he continued, bitterly, "does not give you a free pass to affect other people's lives. You were intoxicated almost twice past the legal limit!"

"Yeah, sure," he continued, "I could argue that my client was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Which is true," he added, "If she had been at that light maybe a minute later, she probably wouldn't have been affected by your stupidity."

The lawyer took a step closer to Chase. "But that's not what happened, Chase. My client was at that light, and as she was turning, your SUV came speeding out of nowhere and crashed head-on into the driver's side of Lisa Cuddy's Mercedes."

At this point, John was gesturing wildly with his hands and his voice became more and more exuberant as he continued.

"Not even a half hour later," he continued, "she received devastating news that she had miscarried one of her twins, on top of the injuries already sustained. Because of what you did. Because you decided to get into your car that night."

For the first time since beginning Chase's questioning, John turned toward the screen that sat on the opposite side of Chase, beside the judge and after picking the remote up from the table, he pushed a button, turning the screen on.

Immediately, a still of Cuddy's Mercedes flashed on the screen, the driver's side horribly dented and caved in, and smoke all around the vehicle.

Silence engulfed the entire courtroom. All eyes were fixated on the screen, some on John.

Chase's lawyer meanwhile made a small incoherent sound. John turned around to look at him, a mixture of pure disgust and revolt on his face.

"Yes?"he sneered.

Steven Savoy, upon being addressed, opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out.

Satisfied, John turned back towards the front of the courtroom before walking back to the table where his client was currently seated, waited two beats, and then clicked the television screen off and sat down.

"Nothing further," he said to the still courtroom.

To be continued... Cuddy's up on the stand next to be questioned by Savoy. Stay tuned. And there's plenty of juicy stuff coming after the trial ends. House still has to go to Vegas for that conference and Bradley 'McCreeper' Kowalski is not out of the picture yet.

And thanks for being extremely patient readers!