A/N: Hi! I realize it's been... 11ish years since I posted anything on this account. I recently got back into House and writing fanfic again, and when I wrote this Chameron two shot I remembered that I had once promised my followers on this account that I would write more with Robbie Chase. I realize most of them are probably gone by now, but I figured that on the off chance anyone still has me on alert and would want to read it, I should post it here. This is an AU from after Season 5, inspired by one of Chase's lines from the finale :) Hope you enjoy!
Allison Chase sat curled up in her favorite chair as the early summer sun shone through the window beside her. In her arms her infant daughter suckled lazily at her breast. The mother and child basked in the sunlight, the sound of crashing waves and laughing children outside serving as a muffled soundtrack to their morning.
She could stay like this forever, Allison mused silently. Bathed in golden sunlight with her sweet baby in her arms.
Suddenly, the sound of her cell phone ringing cut through the silence.
Allison let out a yelp- her sweet baby, startled by the noise, had clamped down hard.
"No no no no no no no," Allison pleaded quietly, adjusting the little girl to rock her in her arms. But it was no use.
The baby's wailing echoed in the empty living room, drowning out the annoying chirping ringtone, and Allison's defeated sigh.
She took a moment to pull her shirt back into place, then stood to bounce her daughter in her arms.
"Oliiiiive," she sing-songed, heading to grab her cell phone off of the breakfast bar separating the living room and kitchen, "you're okay baby."
Olive's wails soon turned to cries, and then her cries to contented gurgles.
"There's my sweet girl," Allison cooed. She pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead, but her gaze was fixed on the screen of her phone. She had missed the call, which had been placed from a number in New Jersey.
That was odd. She had made sure to let everyone- friends, family, work -know when they would be in Melbourne.
This was their chance to unplug, finally, from the usual chaos of their lives. They'd started the tradition when their son was a toddler- renting this little cottage by the water -and now eight years later they still found themselves back like clockwork each summer. It was a second home to them. And somehow, even the comparatively short amount of time they spent in Melbourne was enough to keep the kids in their drawling Aussie accents all year long. Allison couldn't understand it.
She would never complain though. The accents were a small price to pay for the serenity of having a few incredible weeks of just getting to be together and explore the beautiful country she'd come to love (and okay, maybe they were pretty cute accents after all).
So Allison decided to pay the phone call no mind. It must have been spam, or maybe a wrong number. Nothing to worry about.
But just as she moved to set her phone back down, curl back up in her chair with her happily cooing baby -they left a voicemail.
That was definitely odd.
Her curiosity getting the better of her, Allison shifted Olive, freeing up an arm so she could hold her phone up to her ear and listen to the message.
"Hello, this message is intended for Allison Cameron. I'm calling from the Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey regarding your saved specimens. We hope you'll return our call at your earliest convenience. Our number is-"
Allison ended the message. For a moment she was frozen in place, her chest feeling tight.
Then Olive gave a chirp, breaking her mother's trance. She looked down at the little girl, and the pain in her chest dissipated as her heart filled with adoration.
The baby blinked up at her with bright blue eyes- she'd inherited those from her father. Both of their daughters had. Only their son had pulled off her slightly darker green shade. It was funny how life worked like that sometimes.
Funny how things could happen so… unexpectedly.
Allison stared at the phone in her hand, her finger hovering above the redial button.
Maybe she should call later, she thought. She just wanted a little more time to cuddle with Olive before the day really began.
But then, of course, the day would begin. She would be torn in four different directions at once, and her phone certainly wouldn't take priority. What time was it in New Jersey anyway? It was only 7:30 in Melbourne, but wouldn't that make it the afternoon before back home?
Olive's chirping had quieted for the moment, and Allison knew she had to take advantage of her opportunity.
She hit redial.
As the sound of ringing filled her ear Allison perched on the arm of the couch. But she quickly grew restless, getting up to pace back and forth while she bounced Olive in her arm.
After what felt like an eternity, someone on the other end answered.
"Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey, this is Katelyn speaking, how can I assist you?"
Allison's mouth grew dry.
"My name is Allison Cameron," she said, her maiden name feeling foreign in her mouth (she only ever used it at work these days), "I just received a call from your facility."
"Of course, if you don't mind holding for a moment I just need to transfer you to another department."
Before Allison could agree she was met with the sound of too-loud hold music. Why bother asking if they were just going to do it anyway?
So consumed in her thoughts, the sound of the front door opening startled Allison. She hadn't even heard the approaching voices.
But then there was the sound of little footsteps racing down the hallway, mixed with bright giggles that drowned out a half-assed warning of "don't run" from a voice still by the door.
Allison prepared herself for incoming just in time- in a flash of dark curls her older daughter ran into the kitchen, locking her eyes on her mother and catapulting herself at her legs.
"Mummy!"
Four year old Lila collided full force with Allison, wrapping her arms around her mother's legs and grinning up at her. She was soaking wet- a small puddle of water was already pooling by her feet -but she hardly seemed to mind.
"Mummy," Lila said again, ignoring the phone in Allison's hand, "Daddy said we can go out for breakfast if you says it's okay. Can we go Mummy, please?"
"Why don't you start by getting your towel?" Allison replied quietly, hiding a smirk.
The little girl looked down at herself- at her bright pink swimsuit that dripped sandy saltwater onto the floor at their feet -and giggled. Instead of going to get her towel she squeezed her mother even tighter.
"You can be my towel Mummy."
Allison could feel her pajama pants getting damp, but didn't have a free hand to pry her daughter off. Luckily her son's voice echoed down the hall as he came to find them,
"Lila, you forgot your towel!"
Little Robbie rounded the corner, then rolled his eyes at his sister's antics. He was carrying her towel, his own slung around his shoulders. He too was dripping water all over the floor.
Ordinarily Allison might be a little peeved- more at her husband for not stopping them than at the kids themselves -but this morning it was just the comic relief she needed as the hold music continued to blare in her ear.
"You're getting mum all wet!" Robbie scolded his sister. He hurried over now to pull her off of Allison's legs, slipping on the wet floor.
Quickly pinching her phone to her ear with her shoulder, Allison reached out and caught her son before he hit the ground. The seven year old righted himself, looking up with a sheepish smile.
He looked so much like his father when he did that, Allison thought to herself, especially with his blonde hair getting so shaggy these days. Her mother had asked about it when she'd called the other day. Said she'd seen a picture online, and how could Allison let him go around looking like a little ragamuffin? The real question was how she would bear to cut it.
Robbie looked about ready to say something in defense of his running, but then he realized Allison was on the phone and his eyes widened.
"Sorry mum!" He said in a loud whisper.
The little boy took the towel in his hands and wrapped his little sister in a bear hug, pulling her off of their mother's legs. Lila squealed with laughter as he dragged her away.
"Come on, Dad said we have to dry off before we can get breakfast!"
Allison hoped that they would have the foresight to go to the bathroom, or even their bedrooms, to dry off. Of course she had no such luck. The two stood in the living room, Robbie meticulously drying himself with his towel while Lila danced around him, holding her towel out wide and wiggling against it.
So caught up in watching her children, Allison almost missed the person on the other end of the line trying to get her attention.
"Hello?… hello?"
"Oh, hi, sorry!" Allison piped up. She cringed as she felt Olive stir in her arms, surprised by the sudden noise, "I was just returning a call."
"Your name?"
"Allison Cameron."
The woman paused to type something. In Allison's arms Olive began to wiggle more insistently, giving a quiet grumble.
Allison bounced the little girl, careful not to drop her phone.
"Thanks for your patience, can I just ask you to confirm some information for me?"
"Sure."
The sound of the front door opening and steps coming down the hallway filled Allison with a sense of relief. She had been wondering where her husband had gotten to.
"Could I have your date of birth please?"
"April 12th, 1979."
All at once Olive gave a loud warning cry, Lila slipped on the wet floor, and Robert stepped into the room.
Allison's pleading eyes must have swayed him, because he took Olive from her, swooping in with a quick kiss on her forehead and a mumbled,
"Sorry, had to put the boards away."
Then he headed to where Robbie was helping his sister up off the ground- Lila seemed shaken maybe, but not hurt. Her sniffles weren't nearly as loud as Olive's cries.
"I'm so sorry," Allison said, realizing the woman was waiting on her, "please, go ahead."
"I just need to confirm your address."
"Oh, uhh, I'm not sure which address you'd have on file. I haven't updated my information recently."
That was an understatement, clearly, seeing as they still had her in the system as Allison Cameron. But even as Allison updated her address with the woman her name didn't come up, so she didn't bring it up. It felt… strange, in a way, to use her married name for this.
Once her information had been updated, the woman began to speak again,
"Ms. Cameron, we were calling regarding samples of your husband's sperm you had stored in our facility."
Allison's mouth went dry. She had known, of course, that this would be about the samples. But she thought maybe it was just a confirmation that she wanted to continue storing them.
She could tell from the tone of the woman's voice that that wasn't the case.
It also felt strange to hear the woman talk about her husband.
Her husband was right in front of her. He was bouncing their now quieter baby in his arms. Supervising as their older children spun in circles together on the rug. Stealing glances at her trying to figure out who exactly she was talking to who seemed to put her so on edge.
"Okay…"
"As you may know, our area suffered some significant damage during the recent storm."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Allison hadn't even known there had been a storm.
"Thank you. Unfortunately our facility experienced a major power outage, and several of our freezing units were damaged."
It felt as if her blood was being drained from her body.
She knew where this was going. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and Allison knew she should turn away from her family. Robbie and Lila were all smiles and laughter, Olive was giggling at the funny faces Robert was making at her, and she was about to cry. They didn't need to see that.
But she couldn't look away.
"I'm so sorry," the woman continued, "but your husband's samples were in one of the damaged freezers. We weren't able to salvage them."
There it was.
"Thank you for letting me know."
Allison didn't bother waiting for any hollow platitudes the woman may have had to offer. Or maybe they would try to offer some kind of compensation. It didn't really matter. Her business with them was over.
The samples were gone. After all this time, they were truly gone.
Her family hadn't noticed that she was off the phone yet, and so Allison took a minute to compose herself. She forced herself to bite back the tears that had formed.
Then she set her phone back on the counter and snuck up behind her son. The little boy was swaggering around the rug, dizzy from all of the spinning he'd been doing. Before he knew what was happening Allison was tickling his sides, and then Robbie gave a shriek of laughter. He tried to escape, but Allison crouched down and pulled him back into her arms. He erupted into laughter that cut through the heaviness in his mother's chest, giving her the ability to breathe again. He turned in her arms, desperately trying to tickle her back.
Soon Allison felt something wet against her back, and then Lila wrapped her arms around her neck. Much to Lila's delight, her mother managed to pull her over her shoulder to join in the tickle war. Her happy squeals drowned out the sound of Allison's internal thoughts, a welcome break. The two children tried to bring her down to the ground while she pretended to fight them off. They were getting so big now though that when they teamed up it seemed possible that they might actually take her down.
"Okay, okay," Allison said finally, shaking the kids off and grinning when they eagerly came to stand in front of her. Lila hung off of her arm, blue eyes wide and shining up at her mother.
"What do you say everybody gets changed out of their swimsuits and we all go get some breakfast?"
"Yay Mummy!"
"Thanks Mum!"
The children both gave her quick hugs before sprinting down the hallway to their bedrooms.
"Don't run!" Allison called after them.
She waited until she heard their doors close before turning to Robert. Her husband.
He had stood off to the side with Olive, observing while Allison played with Robbie and Lila.
But now he came back to her, reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"What happened?"
The tears came rushing back.
Robert could always tell. He had always been able to. Even before they were together…
Allison studied his face- he was so much older than when they had met, but somehow he looked to her like he had never aged a day. He was that smug, smooth-talking, sweet and empathetic man she had known for fifteen years. They'd been married for ten now.
"Allison, what's the matter?"
But she didn't answer yet. She looked over his shoulder, out the window she had curled up next to not even half an hour before. Beyond the panes she could see the beach- clear blue waves lapping at the shore. There were remnants of her daughter's attempt at a sand castle. A bright blue pail her son had forgotten to bring back with him. Lines in the sand where the kids had dragged their bodyboards back to the house.
Then she looked down at the baby in Robert's arms. Her bright, expressive eyes. The way she looked up at her father with such a pure love.
"I…"
Allison stammered, looking back to Robert again. Seeing in his face all of their memories together. The things they had done, the adventures they had been on. The way he had looked at her when they found out she was pregnant with Robbie, and then again with Lila, and finally with their little Olive.
And she saw their faces in his too. Robbie was basically his clone, and the girls both had his eyes, and they were so absolutely perfect that Allison could hardly handle it.
"That was the sperm bank in New Jersey," she said finally, "there was an outage there recently. They lost a lot of samples."
Robert's face softened, and he opened the arm not occupied by their daughter, to Allison. She stepped gratefully into his embrace, resting her head on his shoulder.
"They lost Bob's samples."
Bob. Not her husband.
He had been once, and she had continued to refer to him that way for years afterwards, but…
But now her husband wrapped his arm around her. Enveloped her against his chest. Pressed a long kiss to the top of her head.
"I'm so sorry Allison."
She let out a sob. She hadn't even known it was coming. It just erupted from somewhere deep in her stomach, traveling up through her chest.
Then it stopped. There were still tears in her eyes, but they didn't feel like they would last forever. They were just a trickle in time.
And as much as it wrenched her heart to admit it- so was Bob. A brief shining moment in her life, but one that now gleamed far far back in her memory.
Allison realized as she stayed nestled against her husband's chest that she wasn't crying for her loss. She barely felt it as a loss at all.
"Do you remember," she asked, pulling back to look Robert in the eye, "when you asked me if I would be ready to destroy his sperm in ten years?"
Robert gave a small, sad smile, "when we'd have three kids with annoying accents who spend their summers in Melbourne? And we'd be disgustingly happy? Yeah, I remember."
"Well," Allison sniffled, her voice barely above a whisper, "turns out I was ready."
Now it was Robert's turn to tear up. Allison let out a small chuckle, leaning up to place a kiss to his lips. It felt like being pulled out from an undertow.
It was when Olive, tucked between them, began to whine again that they pulled apart. Allison took the baby from Robert's arms, just wanting to feel her in her own.
"Are you going to be okay?" Robert asked, "I can take the kids by myself if you need some space. Or I can see if my cousin will babysit again- though I think she's still a little traumatized from last time."
Allison laughed, sniffled, shook her head.
"Hey," Robert reminded her, "it's okay not to be okay right now. I can't even imagine… whatever you want to do today, we'll do."
From down the hallway Allison could hear footsteps running back and forth, accompanied by sneaky laughter that she knew too well.
She couldn't hide her growing smile as she replied,
"I want to get breakfast."