056. Appear
Now You See Him
Chase had never had a nervous tic before but he was seriously thinking about developing one. House was driving him crazy and he was starting to be firmly of the opinion that a nervous tic was something he needed. If nothing else so that he could point it out to the therapist he was sure he was going to eventually need and say 'Look! Look! See what he drove me to, the misanthropic son of a bitch!'
He had no idea how a crippled man, and a man who always seemed to have a pathological need to be loud, could just appear out of nowhere the way House always seemed to do. He was constantly sneaking up behind Chase and scaring the blue blazes out of him. He was starting to get jumpy and paranoid…and this was of course where the need for a nervous tic came in.
Today was just a case in point. Chase had been calmly sitting at the table in the Diagnostic Medicine conference room, idly doing a crossword since they currently didn't have a patient. Foreman was off trawling for a case since he'd reached the point of boredom where beating your head against the wall was starting look like an attractive way to waste an afternoon. Cameron was down in the Clinic doing House's hours since she hadn't been able to resist it when House had pulled out the puppy eyes on her, something which would provide excellent snickerage material for Chase for days. And House was…somewhere. Most likely with Dr Wilson. Possibly doing something they shouldn't be. Definitely doing something Chase didn't want to know about considering what he'd seen them doing last week. But either way…not in his office and not in the conference room.
And yet…somehow the man had managed to sneak in and frighten the life out of Chase. This despite the fact that Chase had been facing House's office with the door to the conference room also in plain sight. Okay, he had gotten caught up in his crossword for a few minutes but he still didn't see how House could have snuck in without him seeing. And since Dr Wilson had also snuck in without him seeing, it was making him wonder if they'd never left at all. And if they hadn't left, where the hell had they been hiding and what in god's name had they been doing…
Chase's brain was starting to hurt.
He shook his head abruptly and continued stalking down to the ER, muttering under his breath and bent on settling his ruffled feathers with some nice, calming emergency trauma and steadfastly ignoring the muffled laughter coming from behind him.