Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters, dialogue, and/or situations are not my own. I repeat: I do not own anything.

Chase and Thirteen had managed to get Darrien to the hospital in time after she had fallen unconscious in the car, but they had run into a snag at the entrance.

There were officers waiting for an injured Darrien to show up to receive treatment, and, not wanting to implicate both him and Thirteen in her crime, Chase told the officers the truth, bending it a little to suit their needs.

After they figured out what was wrong with her, Darrien would once again be behind bars. The situation didn't sit well with Thirteen. They were currently doing a CT scan to locate the bleed. For now, Thirteen was forced to work with him which, judging by her posture and the way she was so intently searching for abnormalities, Chase surmised she was not happy with. He, on the other hand, was glad of the opportunity to find out the reason for previous actions.

"You were defending your friend beyond all rationality. You were granting her the right to die in your bedroom. Is it really all because of a promise?" Chase asked.

There was no way he was going to let the events at her apartment go without an explanation. Thirteen was usually very level-leaded, easily keeping a clean perspective when it came to her work. However, when her personal life interfered, it crippled her and made her a clumsy doctor. There was no doubt in his mind that there was a bigger issue to be dealt with; he just didn't know what.

Thirteen quickly turned to face him. "That word means something to some people," she said, turning away just as quickly in an effort to keep their conversation as short and impersonal as possible.

"Not that much," he retorted in a tone that clearly conveyed he thought she was being stupid.

Thirteen simply ignored him, opting to go back to her intense examination of the screen. It was obvious she wanted to avoid whatever it was he might say or discover.

"I don't see the bleed; I'm moving down to the brain stem," she said, dismissing him.

However Chase wasn't done with her yet. He could sense he was close to reaching the truth. He had all the pieces; all he needed were the right words to express what he knew. Staring at nothing, mouth slightly open, Chase quickly searched for the answer to her strange need to keep her promise.

A promise—and there it was.

"You promised your brother you'd euthanize him, and you think you won't feel bad about it as long as you can blame it on the promise," he began slowly. "That's why you have this twisted obligation to keep all promises, or your carefully constructed defense mechanism could crumble down," he finished in a soft yet confident tone.

"I saved my brother from a lot of pain."

Chase had not expected an answer. He knew he had come to the right conclusion, and, given her current detachment from him, he had thought she wouldn't want to delve into the conversation any further, so Thirteen's words had surprised him. Not only were they a confirmation but there was something else. There was a strange note to her voice that caused a rush of remorse to overcome him. It was as if she were trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him.

Giving into his curiosity, he turned to meet the eyes he could feel staring intently at the side of his head.

What he saw took him aback and, if he were being honest with himself, scared him more than he ever thought a look could.

He had not expected to see unshed tears glazing her eyes, giving them a sheen that made her already unusual eyes seem more alien. Thirteen was very much like House and Foreman; she rarely let others see her as anything other than a professional and astute doctor, Chase could count on one hand the number of times she had revealed anything personal to him, so the crumbling of her façade shook him.

Chase couldn't bring himself to look away from the rare sight in front of him. It was only when Thirteen broke eye contact to resume her study of the computer screen that he managed to regain his focus. They still had a case to solve.

Again, I apologize for the delay. The updates should be more frequent, but I'm starting school once again next week so... I'll try.

Thanks for reading!