Disclaimer: *sigh* nope, not yet.


Instead of getting home early, she got home late. She and Forman had caught a case an hour before they were due to go home, and because of the lateness of the hour they had decided not to call the rest of team in. House would only grumble and Chase, Chase wouldn't be happy. They had solved it fairly quickly once the patient had decided it was in their best interest to give them their full medial history. Warts and all.

But, she still home three hours later than she was supposed to.

In an attempt to put of going home for as long as possible, she circled the block around a few times then went to the corner shop for a pint of milk, which she then promptly threw away as soon as she got outside, she wasn't allowed to buy anything that wasn't on the shopping list. Alison knew that in the end though her attempts were useless, it was just delaying the inevitable. With that thought in mind she parked her car and started the journey towards her apartment, her heart heavy and her stomach in knots.

When Alison walked up the steps to her apartment she thought it was strange that no sound could be heard coming from inside the apartment. She prayed he wasn't there, but as she had learned the hard way, her prayers were useless. He was always there, whether she wanted him there or not.

As soon as she entered the door, a palm connected with her cheek. The injury was instantaneous, and she tasted the blood from her now split lip. She looked up to meet the eyes of her tormentor. Robert Chase.

What she didn't notice, when she was circling the block putting off going home, was the pair of worried blue eyes that followed her every move. Although the person belonging to the blue eyes lived a good twenty minutes away from her, he had decided to stop by and pay her a visit. She hadn't seemed herself lately and he wanted to know why. He had to know why, he hate mystery.

His duckling in question had taken more sick days than usual and blue eyes had noticed that during differential she had become quiet and withdrawn, only offering suggestions for the diagnosis when called upon and before she answered him she always glanced at Wombat, almost asking for his permission to answer; he didn't like it. Since when did she need permission to answer answer him?

When Alison went into her apartment complex, Blue Eyes (aka House) followed her. He had discovered – after practising on sneaking up on Cuddy more times than he could count – that if he supported himself against a wall, he could move without his cane, and that way people didn't know he was coming. Okay, it was more painful and time consuming, but he wanted to get to the bottom of his ducklings 'offness'. He still carried his cane around with him though, just in case.

House was brought out of his cane related musings when Alison unlocked the door to her apartment and was greeted by the reason for her personality change.

"Do you know what time it is?" Chase practically screamed at her as she stepped inside the entrance to her flat. They both forgot that the door was still open, allowing House to hear, and see the whole altercation.

"I..." she trailed off, not knowing what to say to him. She didn't get chance to speak as the next thing she knew she was being thrown across the room by an very irate Chase.

"I told you to be home three hours ago! I know for a fact that you finished work three hours ago. So where were you?"

Alison got up off the floor and stood there, her face hidden by her long hair. She looked so defenceless, House thought while inching closer to the open door, fists clenched in anger. The curiosity he had felt towards his ducklings 'offness' was nothing compared to the shock he felt of just how badly the reason for it was treating her.

"Chase, we caught another case before we went home, I didn't get chance to call you-" She didn't even see it coming, his fist connected with the side of her face and she was thrown backwards by the force of the punch.

House came to his senses and took his phone out of his jacket pocket, and dialed 911.

"I'm calling to report a case of domestic violence..."