Alright, this is a pretty long chapter, but most of it is pretty important. A lot of parts are basically scenes from the episode Control, which I have modified to fit with my story, so there are small details missing or adapted.

Once again, A big BIG thanks to my reviewers!

I've been uploading a chapter per day for three days strait now so don't expect to have another one until Monday night: I've got time on weekdays but not on weekends. Well, here you go – enjoy! (Still don't own House, M.D.!!)

Chapter Three

Pinch Me

Like a dream you try to remember
But it's gone
Then you try to scream
But it only comes out as a yawn
When you try to see the world
Beyond your front door

----

House was in his office at lunch time; he wasn't hungry. He noticed when Wilson swiftly came in, having been expecting him, but he didn't take much notice of him and continued throwing his red tennis ball against the wall. Wilson had just come out of a meeting with the board and having not found House at the cafeteria, wondered where he was. He stood there, watching the ball bounce between the wall and House's hand, thinking it was pretty fishy for House to be up here, instead of downstairs annoying him and forcing him to pay for his lunch.

When the oncologist opened his mouth to speak, House cut strait across him; "I'm not hungry. I had waffles this morning." Wilson looked at him with his mouth slightly open.

"So it's true then," he said disbelievingly, "I've heard people saying Chase came with you this morning. It's true?" House caught his ball, placed it on his desk and put his feet up on it, passing it between his shoes, still not looking at his friend. "Whatever it is you heard people saying, it's clearly a rumor. What makes you believe it's true?"

"You never eat breakfast. You're too lazy to make a bowl of cereal – let alone waffles… The only reason you have some is because I make waffles whenever I come over." Wilson told him. House raised his eyebrows and said; "Checkmate." His theory confirmed, Wilson rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"Are you taking advantage of him? You know he's troubled because of his father, and –"

"Will you relax, I didn't do anything okay?" House groaned at him, finally looking up from his tennis ball.

"House, you and I both know you'd be more then capable of doing that, and Chase doesn't know what you can be like. Is he just like another hooker for you?" Wilson finally said what he'd come here to say, looking concerned.

"What part of I didn't do anything did you not understand? If you really have to know, yes Chase is upset about his father, but no I did not 'take advantage of him' to use your choice of words."

Wilson looked at him, troubled, and slowly said; "Okay, then." And he left, leaving House alone, who sighed and plugged his iPod. Chase was turning out to be more trouble than he had anticipated. He had thought he would at least have some peaceful days until Wilson found out…

----

As expected, his boss was in his office. Chase stopped outside the glass door before entering because the sight was quite peculiar; House was miming playing the piano on his desk, while the music blared through his speakers. The Aussie chuckled and went in, walking strait to the desk and placing a tray of food on it. House didn't see him for he had his eyes closed, so Chase bent over and unplugged the dock. House stopped, opening one eye, then the other; "What now?!" Chase sat and House looked surprised. "Thought you were Wilson," He said as an apology, then he saw the food. "I've already had lunch."

"No you haven't. You've been in you office all morning." Chase replied, composed.

"I wasn't hungry then. Why aren't you eating downstairs with all your little buddies?" House asked him, ignoring the fact that Chase knew he hadn't left his office at all since the differential. He had probably guessed, though. Or he had spied on him, sneaky bastard.

"I wanted to eat with you."

Wow. Now that, House had not expected.

"You're avoiding Cameron and Foreman. Or just Cameron because you're pissed that she got you with her tacky psychological thingy." House speculated.

"I am not! I want to eat with you!! And besides, you can't accuse me of avoiding anyone, because you're avoiding Cuddy. You don't want to do you clinic hours."

"And you don't want to eat with me. It's just an excuse." House told him with a bored voice, overlooking his comment on Cuddy because he knew it was true. Chase glared; "Why is it so hard for you to understand that someone wants to spend time with you? That I want to spend time with you?"

"Because no one wants to spend time with me. Except Wilson, but he doesn't count as someone." House replied simply, barely concealing his sarcasm, drumming his fingers on the desk and looking strait at his employee, who recognized the beat his boss was playing as the theme song of CSI: NY.

"Just… can I just eat here without having to give you a reason?" Chase finally asked, hanging his head. House nodded just as Chase looked up hopefully. He smiled warmly at his boss and unwrapped his sandwich. House cleared his throat, and said awkwardly; "So, you want to talk or something?"

"Yeah, uhh… so, you like CSI do you?" House laughed at his question but answered nonetheless, and they went along with that.

----

Cameron was looking for Chase. He wasn't anywhere in the cafeteria, despite them having finished all their tests. No one had mentioned the fact that he had come in with House that morning, or that look they had shared over the coffee machine – and she didn't really want to be the one to bring it up. On the other hand, she really wanted to know, and she was convinced Foreman wouldn't say anything. So here she was, looking for Chase.

She decided to go back to the conference room; her lunch break was almost over anyway. Foreman was already sitting there, reading the newspaper. Cameron sat down next to him and began to read the newspaper too, when Eric tapped her on the shoulder and nodded towards the glass between them and House's office.

She stared.

Chase and House were sitting face to face with the desk between them, talking animatedly. They were laughing too. She'd never seen House so happy. So… un House-like.

They stood up and came into the room, Chase sat down and House went directly to the coffee machine. Foreman chuckled; "Did you meet the new chairman of the board? I heard he took your parking space." Cameron scowled, looking from Foreman to House: "That's not funny. We should introduce ourselves… That couldn't hurt –"

"Hm. Patient hit a ten on a pain scale, what could explain that." House asked, walking back to the front of the room with his coffee and handing the file he had been reading over to Cameron, who took it and scanned through it with wide eyes. Chase was the one to speak; "There's no blood clot in her leg… completely clean."

"Robert… what was her sedimentation rate?" Cameron asked.

"Normal… therefore, no inflammation." Chase told her, after about five seconds of silence. "Would you mind sharing that number with me?" Cameron pressed on, making Foreman snicker.

"Fifteen, Alison."

"…" House walked away, behind Cameron so she couldn't see him smirking. "Are you mocking me?" She asked bluntly, to which Foreman replied in a childish voice, "No, Alison!" Chase laughed.

"I'm just suggesting we look outside the box." Cameron said, looking worried about something.

After another few more minutes of differentials, House decided they would go along with Cameron's absurd theory of their patient having cancer, and left to ask Wilson. So the three ducklings went and made themselves comfortable in House's office while they waited for the cancer test results.

"What's wrong, Cameron? You look troubled." Chase asked, playing with House's tennis ball. She shook her head; "Nothing's wrong. Actually… What's wrong with you? I mean, what's going on with House?" Chase looked blankly at her. "What do you mean –"

"Oh stop it. You came in with him, he asked you if you wanted coffee… you had lunch together! Don't tell me that's not normal."

"Has it occurred to you that it's none of your business if House and I are friends, so I have nothing to justify?" He asked her, putting great emphasis on the word 'friends', as if he were trying to convince himself too. Cameron blinked and shook her head; "No… House just isn't like that. Yesterday, you barely talked to each other. Things like that don't just happen overnight. Something happened between you two."

"Nothing happened!" Chase told her, making it clear that he didn't want to say anything more, and bent down under the desk to plug the dock he had unplugged earlier. He chose the song Moonlight Sonata, for reasons best known to himself of course, and left Cameron and Foreman to exchange weird 'what the hell' glances between themselves as he closed his eyes and thought of House playing his piano.

----

House was back, about an hour later, and Chase turned the music off, getting up to sit elsewhere so House could have his chair. He kept the tennis ball though. House flipped through some X-ray scans and frowned, looking up at Chase.

"Am I mistaken in believing you were the one to take these X-ray scans, Dr. Chase?" He asked, visibly displeased with something. Chase gulped; "Yeah… What's wrong with them? They're pretty much clean to me." House grunted and took the X-rays over to the light board, hung them up and turned to his ducklings.

"Who sees the problem here? There's candy in it for you." House told them, however there was no amusement in his voice at all. Foreman was the only one to get up and go see, whilst Cameron narrowed her eyes, looking at the X-rays from the other side of them room, and Chase just sat there, worried. What was wrong with his X-rays? Was House angry?

"There are no abnormalities…" Foreman stated slowly.

"Look at her toes. Either she literally has two left feet or you X-rayed the wrong leg. Twice." House said, seething. "Chase, what were you THINKING?" He snarled, before Chase had the chance to say anything. "Foreman and Cameron, go do another X-ray."

The two did as they were told and left in a hurry, not keen on staying in the room with an angry House and a pissed Chase. The Australian couldn't believe it – how could he have X-rayed the same leg twice? He thought around furiously, trying to recall what he could possible have been doing except the X-ray when it hit him; he'd been thinking about House. He hadn't been paying attention much because he was distracted.

He remained seated, waiting for the blow he knew was coming.

But nothing came.

House was pacing about behind his desk, playing with his yoyo, when he suddenly said, in a cracked voice; "Just leave… go do my clinic hours. Come back later, I'll give you a ride home." Chase didn't reply but, obliged for a chance to get away without being yelled at, went down to the clinic.

He didn't know what was worse. He could tell House was disappointed at him, but was he really angry? What if this had destroyed everything that had happened last night and at lunch? Chase had felt like House was suddenly closer to him, but now… he was just afraid of being pushed away. Not that anything had happened, really. It was just that he had been happy at a chance with his boss.

But now he felt so bad. He wished House would have shouted, or punished him; then, maybe, it would have been over. But, he guessed he would have to deal with House's anger later.

----

Chase was examining a rather stupid college girl he suspected had faked fainting to get out of a science class, when House came limping in.

"C'mon blondie, let's go." He said, winking. Chase knew he was talking about him, but the girl, who happened to be blonde, didn't.

"Excuse me?" She said, looking disturbed at being hit on by a man who was so clearly over forty. House looked at her with an exaggerated startled look, as if he had only just noticed her; "Well, I wouldn't say no to you too." He admitted. Chase rolled his eyes as the girl stared and told her not to worry, that she should probably just drink plenty of water and everything would be fine.

"Five forty-eight: Doctors House and Chase sign out. Write that down." House told the receptionist as they approached the desk. Once again, the woman glanced up at them, frowned, but wrote it down. Then they left. Chase followed him anxiously, dreading to think what would happen if Cuddy found out they had left so early.

The first few minutes of the drive were silently uncomfortable. Then Chase decided he couldn't deal with his guilt any longer; "Are you mad?" He asked House, twiddling his thumbs. His boss didn't answer until at least fifteen seconds later.

"No. Just disappointed."

"I'm sorry," Chase admitted, "I… don't know why I made such a stupid mistake." He said, deciding not to tell the real reason behind the error. House nodded and they were both silent once more.

Until Chase noticed they weren't heading towards either of their apartments. "Where are we going?" He asked his boss, who smiled. "I yelled at you. Now we have to make up, right? That's the basic procedure with girls anyway…"

"I know. I have had girlfriends before you know." Chase told him inertly, thought it sounded a little angry.

"Of course I do." In fact, he didn't sound like he believed him at all.

"I'm not gay!" Chase exclaimed, for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

"Of course you're not." House agreed, definitely grinning now.

"We kissed once." Chase affirmed, "It didn't mean anything."

"Of course it didn't." House parked the car in front of a restaurant Chase had never seen before. "I hope you like Indian." He told his employee, stepping out of the car before the latter could tell him if he did or not.

----

Cuddy stopped writing and sighed as she heard a knock. "Come in," she called out, greatly expecting to see House, probably here to rant about a useless something or another. Most likely about Voglar…

Surprisingly, it was Cameron.

"What did House do now?" Cuddy asked, putting her pen down.

"Nothing actually. We can't find him anywhere." Cameron told her a little nervously, as though she anticipated Cuddy to be mad at her. Instead, the Dean of Medicine sighed harshly and got up; "Seriously, that man has no common sense! I thought the message I gave him was clear," she looked at Cameron, though she was obviously talking to herself, "that he should at least try and behave with Voglar around…"

Cameron followed Cuddy down to the reception where the nurse at the reception told her House had left.

"He left! At five forty-eight! I don't believe it." Cuddy cried out angrily. The nurse held out her notebook so she could check and Cuddy frowned. "He left with… Chase?" The nurse nodded but it was Cameron who spoke; "Those two came in together this morning, too!"

Cuddy turned to stare at her and closed her eyes. "This is so bad," She muttered, and promptly left, leaving Cameron in her wake.

----

"WILSON! Pinch me, I must be asleep."

Wilson jumped as Cuddy came in his office, practically bellowing. The two stared at each other for am moment, then: "Um, what's the matter Lisa?"

"House. It would seem, that he and Chase came in together this morning and that they left together just now."

"They left together too?!" Wilson gasped, eyes widening, "It's barely past six!" Cuddy scowled at him; "You already knew about this morning?" She asked, sounding very displeased. Wilson flinched. "Well, yeah… but when I asked House, he told me to drop it so…"

"So you dropped it? Wilson, I know you're his friend but we really have to stop this: he's going too far. I don't want him to hurt Chase."

"I'm not eager on Chase getting hurt either, believe me… I just don't want House to be hurt either." The oncologist folded his arms and sat more comfortably on his chair. "What do you mean?" Cuddy frowned, and Wilson scratched the back of his head, thinking; "Well, what if it's real? Let's say that, hypothetically, Chase and House are… in love…"

Cuddy looked deeply concerned, and took a seat in front of the desk.

"Maybe… I guess. But wouldn't House have told you? It's just so… absurd. House is obviously into women isn't he?"

"I don't know what to think Lisa. I spoke with Cameron earlier," Wilson started, reassuringly, "she came to ask me if I knew what was going on. I told her I had no idea, but she said they had lunch together today… That really made me think you know? I mean think about it: if they were just sleeping together or something of the sort, they wouldn't have lunch together. If I know House, at least." Both Cuddy and Wilson fell silent, lost in their own thoughts and theories.

"What if," Cuddy reflected slowly, staring at the surface of the desk, "Maybe we're over reacting to this? I mean, you sleep at House's sometimes… Maybe he and Chase are just friends."

"It's a possibility I guess. I'm pretty sure House would have told me, then again, House can be… well, House. We can't know for sure, it's just that I supposed they were something other than just friends because House just… doesn't have friends." Wilson agreed thoughtfully. Cuddy smirked with difficulty; "Maybe… we'll just have to wait and see."

----

"Thanks for the dinner…" Chase mumbled slightly as House drove him home. House had won the fight over the bill, which was strange because Chase knew how much House hated to pay – he always managed to have someone pay for him somehow.

The car stopped in Chase's driveway but before the Australian could thank House again and leave, the latter turned to him and said; "Wilson spoke to me today. About you. He seemed to think I'm taking advantage of you."

"What advantage could you get from me –"

"He thinks I'm having sex with you." House reformulated, making Chase glad it was so dark; hopefully, House wouldn't notice him blushing.

"But… How can he think that? It's barely been a day! Since we've been friends I mean!" Chase stammered.

"Yeah. So, you want to be my friend?" House asked, sounding very un House-like once more today. Chase smiled, feeling pathetic; "Of course I do. You're an interesting person, House, however ordinary you think you are… well, you're not." House looked into the Aussie's eyes, perceptible in the dim light coming from outside the car, with such emotion in his own blue ones that Chase couldn't look away. It couldn't be clearer that his boss couldn't find the words to express what he was feeling. Chase vaguely wondered if House had ever been in love.

And they kissed. Neither of them knew what had possessed them to crash their lips together at that same precise moment, but reasons were soon laid aside. Lips moved, tongues danced, teeth collided, breaths mingled, hearts merged, and they finally broke apart after what had seemed for both of them like an eternity.

Chase gaped at his boss; what would he think now?

It was hard to tell; House was staring directly in front of him, fingers drumming the steering wheel. "That was a friendly kiss." He stated, making Chase laugh quietly. "Yeah sure. Goodnight House. Thanks again." The door of the car opened and the blond walked out to his apartment. He needed to be in his own stuff for a while, to mull things over.