Disclaimer: Don't own.
A/N: Hello, okay so I really, really don't want to become one of those authors that hold their stories hostage until they get a certain amount of reviews, but seriously the lack of reviews is starting to upset me. If you guys hate the direction this is going in or want it to move in a particular direction I need/want to know your opinions. So, I'm taking a risk here and am probably going to sound pathetic, but… please, PLEASE review! Also, I had no idea how to not make this chapter cheesy because the majority of it is a flashback so just bear with me. And now to the next chapter…
Cameron and Chase were back in the lab testing for Lupus because they didn't have any other ideas. House was in his office thinking and Forman was doing his clinic duty. (There was a bet between them that involved Wilson, a patient, a Popsicle stick, and a cotton ball… you don't want to know.)
"ANA is negative," announced Chase as he put his head in his hands and sighed.
"Not surprisingly," Cameron commented. She saw the opportunity to prod Chase for a few answers and jumped all over it, "So… what's the deal between you and April-May?"
Chase lifted his head and wiggled his eyebrows at her, "Jealous?" He knew full well that April-May's life was at steak and that he shouldn't be joking around with Cameron, but if he didn't distract himself with this he'd start to lose it again.
Cameron gave him a 'yeah, right' look, "I'm just curious is all. I mean you said you weren't going out… but then when I walked in on you two…,"
"We're not going out," Chase said definitively as he grabbed a vile of April-May's blood to rerun some more test. (Just incase of false negatives.)
"But you use to," Cameron continued. Chase shrugged in response. "How long were you guys together?"
"A while," Chase replied. He decided to stick to the bare minimum for answers.
"Why did you break up?" She asked overly perky. God, Chase thought, are we back in high school?
"We were better as friends than as lovers," And that was the truth. They cheated on each other all the time. They always knew about one another's affairs, but didn't mention anything until one night Chase called them both on their bull and that's when April-May proposed the idea of friendship.
It was Cameron's turn to wiggle her eyebrows, "You mean there were problems…,"
"That's none of your business and no," Chase interrupted.
"Did you go to school together?" Cameron pressed forward.
"Yes," Chase was getting agitated; he wanted to be distracted from his friend's condition, but not like this.
"Is that where you met? In school?"
"No. Can you hand me some more blood?"
"Sure. Then where did you guys meet?"
Chase paused thinking about the day April-May moved in next door…
Chase was upstairs in his bedroom watching out the window. There was a new family moving in next door. A mom, a dad, a fifteen year old son, and a twelve year old daughter—the same age as Chase. The perfect family. A whole hell of a lot more perfect than Chase's at that time. It seemed as if anyone would be.
"Fine! Just go then! I don't need you!" Chase heard his mom yelling at his father down stairs.
"I will!" Chase's father screamed.
Then a door opened and slammed shut. Chase shook at the sound. But, that wasn't anything new. Rowan (Chase's dad) had been walking out on (but always coming back to) Elizabeth (Chase's mom) ever since he could remember.
The refrigerator door was opened by Elizabeth so hard it swung hit the cabinet that it was next to. (There was a good-sized dent in it already… and that was the fourth door that Rowan had to have installed. They kept breaking.)
"Mom's getting blotto, again," sighed Marissa (Chase's fourteen year old sister) from her position lounging on Chase's bed. She was in there because Chase's room was the best to spy on the neighbors in. It was on the corner and had windows covering the two outer walls. (It was the only room in the house like that.)It had a good view of two of the four surrounding houses. And, much to Marissa liking, her sixteen year old crush, Blake. He liked to practice Australian Rules football in front of Chase's window in the summer afternoons. Chase was playing look-out for Marissa until he came. She was waiting impatiently, flipping through a magazine.
"Shut up!" Chase commanded throwing a throw pillow he was sitting on at her.
"What? It's the truth, you know it," shrugged Marissa calmly. She took the 'whatever' approach to dealing with their mom's alcoholism. Chase was more sensitive.
He growled at his sister and turned his attention back to the new family.
"Do you they're going to be nice? Or like the Miller's?" Chase wondered about the new family aloud. (The Miller's were this awful family that lived there before and would call the cops all the time on the Chase's pet dog Alex for no good reason.)
"Robbie, are you even watching out for Blake?" Chase didn't respond. Marissa took this as a 'no' and threw the pillow back at Chase barking, "Stop spying on the new neighbors and watch for Blake!"
Chase sighed and shifted his focus on the house that sat behind theirs. No sign of Blake. "Not yet," he reported.
Just then Elizabeth burst through the door and wrapped her arms around Marissa. "Oh baby," she wailed, "it'll all be okay. I promise he'll be back!"
"Ugh," Marissa tried to wiggle out of her mother's grasp, "Mum, you reek!" She was right. Elizabeth smelled of an overly strong Bloody Mary and cigarettes.
Chase walked over to his mother and lightly rested a hand on her back, "Mum, come on let's get you into bed." He was always much better at dealing with his mother than Marissa was.
Elizabeth changed her attention from her daughter to her son and enveloped him in a hug instead. He accepted the hug and patted her hair when she began to sob.
She was already about four inches taller than Chase and was wearing three inch heels so maneuvering her into bed was a tricky task, but after about three years experience Chase had it down to a science and had her tucked away in no time.
When he came back he shot Marissa a dirty look, but she didn't notice on account of Blake jogging around his yard—shirtless— for his warm up and was sweating buckets already. Chase was sick of his family's crap and did the only thing he knew to do when he felt as if he was going to explode.
He walked to the other end of the hall and into a guest bedroom. There was a large tree that branched between his house and the former Miller's home. It was strong and sturdy enough for him to climb all the way to the top (about two stories above his three story house). And take a break from his dysfunctional family; actually, he spent most of his free time up here. Either trying to wade his way through the beautifully wound lines of Shakespeare or pondering the meaning behind the many tales the bible had to offer.
He had put a wooden board as a make shift platform in the crack between two branches and stole a lawn chair from his backyard to sit on.
He climbed up with ease, but when he arrived there he encountered a problem. There was an incredibly pretty girl perched in his chair, frowning at his bible that he left up there from yesterday.
"Hi," Chase greeted the girl shyly.
She looked up and smiled, which made Chase blush, "Hello,"
"Um… what are you doing here?" Chase asked gingerly wanting the girl to go away so he could have his much deserved alone time.
She shrugged, "Reading."
"Anything interesting?" Chase asked trying to make polite conversation before he politely asked the girl to buzz off.
"Nope," she said breezily tossing Chase's bible on the ground, "it's crap. I don't believe in god,"
Chase was floored. Everyone in his community were strong Catholics, in fact, their church was made up of the entire community except one Jewish family that mostly kept to themselves. "Why not?"
She shrugged again, "I just don't believe in him." She said 'him' with incredible distaste; like the word made her want to vomit.
Chase stood in shock. He had no idea how some one could just simply not believe in god. He was raised as a Catholic and, apart from the Jewish family; he hadn't met anyone that wasn't. "Then, what do you believe in?"
She smiled, "Truth, I believe in truth, and…" she picked up the copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream he had also left up there last night, "Shakespeare… you?"
Chase was floored, once again, meeting another person his age that read Shakespeare? That was crazy! He figured he was the only one in the whole world did. But he liked it all the same.
He took a deep breath before answering:
"I believe in God and Shakespeare,"
"Chase?" Cameron asked Chase waking him out if his daydream, "How did you guys meet?"
"Um… she used to live next door,"