Four years, eight months and one day ago:

House was sitting in the conference room at exactly 8:55 on a Tuesday morning. Cameron and Foreman he could hear walking down the hall together, they no doubt met in the elevator. However, Chase, who usually came in an hour or sometimes more early, wasn't to be found. Not here, nor in the clinic or the NICU or ICU.

"Hey, House," Cameron greeted when she and Foreman walked through the door seconds later. She frowned and stopped in her tracks as Foreman went to the coffeemaker. "Where is Chase? The ICU or something?" she asked.

House frowned. Lately he had been noticing differences in Chase. If possible, he was being even more withdrawn then normal, and he hadn't come to House to refill his anti-depressant prescription in months. As he pondered what to tell Cameron, it was only a minute before he decided that he wanted to talk to Chase before broadcasting that there was something wrong to Cameron.

"He has the day off."

This caused even Foreman to look at House shocked.

"Chase never takes days off, in all the time that I've been here," Cameron said, flabbergasted as she and Foreman both took seats at the table.

"All the more reason that he deserves this one day," House retorted.

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Nine hours later, House had not seen nor heard from Chase. That was why he stood here, outside Chase's apartment door trying to decide whether to knock, or just break in. In the end he decided to knock. But after five knocks in ten minutes, House frowned and merely picked the lock, looking around to make sure that there were no security cameras. There was one, but it was a rotating one and wasn't pointing towards him when he picked the lock and let himself in.

The first thing that House noticed was the darkness. Not one light was on and all of the blinds had to have been closed to make it this black. The second thing that he noticed was the smell. The smell, plus the apartment that the smell was coming from, almost made House sick to his stomach: alcohol.

Present:

"Chase was drinking?" Foreman asked, shocked.

House, Cameron and he were sitting in House's hotel room about half an hour after they had met at the airport.

"To be more specific, Chase was passed out when I got there," House told them.

"But- I don't understand- why?" Cameron asked.

"Well," House said, "I don't think that I can give you the exact reason, because not even I am completely sure but I will say that I think that it had something to do with his mother."

Cameron and Foreman looked at one another, confused.

"You know that they say that the children of addicts are two times more likely to become addicts themselves then those who grow up with parents who aren't addicts? Chase's mother was an addict; she was an alcoholic for pretty much his whole life, until she died from so many years of alcoholism when he was fifteen. He spent all of his time taking care of her, doing everything that he could think of to save her, but in the end he couldn't. I know that he has always felt as though he failed her.

Chase has always tried so hard to not become her; he never drank before I assume would be about a few months or so before I caught him. He didn't care anymore. About three months before Chase left, he stopped coming to me to refill his prescription of anti-depressants. I knew that he was really depressed but I wasn't sure how to call him on it. I'm not exactly a people person."

Four years, and eight months ago:

"Hey, House," Chase walked in looking noticeably worn. He was hunched over a little and his hair was uncombed and in his face. "What are you doing here so early?" He took a seat at his desk and began working on a crossword puzzle.

"I came in early to talk to you." House replied, not taking his eyes off the young duckling for a moment. "You weren't here yesterday."

Chase nodded, trying his best to concentrate on his puzzle and not on the man before him. Where is he going with this? Chase wondered, not knowing that House had been at his home that night.

"Yeah, I was feeling kind of sick," Chase replied and, if he didn't know otherwise, House totally would have bought it.

"Yeah, you look kind of sick,"

Chase looked up, "I'm fine now."

House narrowed his eyes. "Sure you are." He replied.

Present:

"So that's it?" Cameron asked, horrified, "You knew that Chase was drinking heavily and you did absolutely nothing about it?"

"A) I would have done something if there was something that I could do; and B) that would have been completely hypocritical of me." House answered.

"Hypocritical?" Cameron screeched. "You are always being hypocritical what would that have mattered? This could have helped him if you hadn't been so damned selfish!"

"Don't go talking to me about being selfish, you are the one who used him and broke his heart, remember, it was only about three weeks after you told him that you used him and didn't have any feelings for him that he started drinking. If I have any blame in this then so do you!" House roared.

Cameron tried to fight back tears. She knew it was true; it was just so hard to consider herself responsible.

"You are not responsible, the only person responsible is Chase, he knew what he was doing the second he first opened that bottle of Vodka. He purposely drank knowing that he would become an alcoholic."

For the first time in half an hour, Foreman spoke up, "So that's it, he drank himself to death?" he asked.

House looked at him for a moment before shaking his head. "Yes he did, and the reason for it was, I assume, that he couldn't take the pain anymore. His mother caused him great grief when he was younger, and his father threatening to stop paying for his mother's rehab if Chase didn't agree to leave Seminary and go to medical school was very rough on him. He started on anti-depressants when he was fifteen. His mother left rehab and started drinking again, and died only three months after Chase left the Seminary. He felt too guilty to go back.

Chase stopped taking his anti-depressants when he started drinking, I assume, because he knew that they wouldn't mix well with the alcohol. You see, the alcohol was a way that he could forget all of his pain even for just a little while. I don't think that Chase was ever addicted to the alcohol; I think that he chose to drink; he wanted to kill himself in a way that was less obvious. He knew what he was doing."

Cameron had tears running down her cheeks and even Foreman looked like he might cry.

"I can't believe this," Foreman whispered.

Before anyone else could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Frowning, House got up and opened it. In the doorway stood a short, brown haired woman with a tear streaked face and rumpled clothing.

"Greg, I, um," She looked at her hands. "I found this in Robbie's bedside dresser. It's a letter that Robbie must have written before…" she trailed off before standing up straight again, "Anyways, it's addressed to the three of you. I thought that you would want to read it."

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Wow, I am so glad that you guys like the story, really! I really appreciate all of those who read it and I really really appreciate those who take the time to review, I love to hear your feedback on the story. Let me know what you think about this chapter and the next one should be up soon. Thanks.