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"House! What are you doing here?" asked a rather nervous Eric Foreman.
"I-I-I-I," House slurred, his voice somewhat higher than usual, "Am having a rather lovely scotch." He took a glance at the aforementioned scotch to realise he had drained the glass. "All gone .." he murmured, before turning abruptly and looking Chase, who was nearest, quite closely in the face.
"What about you, Chase, aren't you gonna go up there and make a fool out of yourself?" he asked.
"Uh, I – no." Chase stammered, trying to look anywhere but his boss's piercing blue eyes.
"Oh, okay." He countered, as if that was a perfectly acceptable answer, then added, "I guess I might as well join you kids and watch this horrid show."
The ducklings exchanged glances, all wondering simultaneously how much House had had to drink. He scooted in next to Chase, and put his arm up on the seat. Chase tried inconspicuously to inch away, and incidentally, closer to Cameron, who sat beside him. She in turn inched away from him, and somehow they all ended up on one side of the semi-circled booth, squished uncomfortably together, watching House as he smiled and bobbed his head to the music.
Feeling a warm pressure on her leg, Cameron looked down to her knee to see a manicured hand working its slow way up her thigh. Chase's eyes were fixed on the stage, watching the karaoke show like he had no idea what he was doing. With no subtle way to move the offending appendage, she decided that she was going to get him out of the booth.
"Chase!" she proclaimed loudly, trying not to grit her teeth, "Why don't you grace us with a song?" She began to nudge him away from her, towards the end of the booth, and consequently, and oddly pleasant House. The happy look on his face was shattered as he got hit full force in the side by a flustered Aussie.
"What are you doing?" he articulated slowly. Chase smiled up at him sheepishly.
"He was just going to go up there and sing a song for us." Cameron explained sweetly, making it impossible to deny. House looked sceptical.
"Okay," House muttered, misunderstanding, "fine, I'll sing, but you owe me clinic duty." He got up to let Chase out, and went to follow him to the stage, leaning on his cane for support. Only, he had forgotten his cane in the booth. He tipped over with a yelp and caught himself on the table at the last second. He walked away, giggling, pointing over his shoulder at the table and asking no-one in particular if they'd seen that. Cameron and Foreman stared dumbfounded as the guys disappeared into the crowd in their trek for the stage. Then, as Foreman pointed out that they were standing on the side, next in line, the pair pulled out their digital cameras and camera phones. Foreman set his Cannon to video mode, and Cameron cleaned off the lens on her phone. This would make for some interesting blackmail.
Chase was utterly floored at the ridiculousness of his situation. He stood backstage with a list of duets with his plastered boss with whom he was about to sing karaoke in some bar. He definitely wasn't drunk enough for this to seem like a good idea. He held the paper he was holding out to House and told him to choose one, but House was more concerned with walking around his cane in slow, deliberate circles and wasn't paying attention. As he came back around in Chases direction he called, "Number twenty-seven!" without even looking at the page. Chase shrugged and relayed this information the deejay. The somewhat overweight Hispanic man rubbed his bald head and gave him a strange look as he lined up the track. The announcers called for the next act and a man behind him ushered him and his inebriated boss onto the stage.
House looked over and smiled as the music started. In a loud whisper, to Chase's utter horror, he said, "I love this song!" He slowly recognised the slow guitar intro and wondered what the hell he was doing up here, and why he just had to choose this song.
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Cliff-hanger? Well, no. But there's quite a nice song in the next chapter, and an over enthused diagnostician. Review, pretty please, and maybe I'll get it up faster.