AN: Here is the next chapter and I hope you'll get a good idea of what's going through Chase's mind.
I hope you'll enjoy it!
...And don't forget to review... :)

Chapter 17

After being home for more than 4 weeks, Chase felt relieved that he could finally go back to work. Sitting home, doing almost nothing, that wasn't something Chase liked to do. He needed to be busy with something and he knew that he still needed to keep his mind busy. If he allowed himself to just think about those events, he became anxious and his breathing quickened. His bullet wound had almost healed completely but his muscles around that area were still a little stiff and he couldn't perform difficult exercises as his lung still wasn't what it should be.

But this morning, he felt like he could take on the world. It was a warm day and the sun was giving its best again. The drive to work wasn't long and Chase smiled as he was back at the hospital. This time, he would be the doctor, not the patient and that thought made him absolutely happy.

After being hospitalized for nearly 2 weeks, he knew almost every nurse and doctor's name and everybody knew him. But that didn't bug him, on the contrary, it was like this hospital had become more familiar to him. And the fact that the day that he arrived here after Parker had dropped him of was kind of a blur to him helped too. He thought it was a blessing that he didn't really remembered that day. He remembered the night before, but he had sworn to himself not to let it crush him. It happened, so what?

He used the stairs to get to the right floor and as soon as he walked into that room where they discussed all the possible diseases, he felt good. He hated to admit it, but he had missed it.

Foreman and Cameron were already there and they greeted him with a big smile on their faces.

'Welcome back!' Cameron said as she poured him a cup of coffee.

'Yeah, we missed the guy who keeps kissing House's ass.' Foreman laughed.

'Good to be back.' Chase smiled as he decided to ignore Foreman's little comment. Foreman laughed and gave Chase a pat on the shoulder.

'Good to have you back.' He said in a silent voice as if he didn't want anyone else to hear it.

'Thanks.' Chase said in the same silent voice.

The door flew open and a awfully cheery House walked in.

'You're in a good mood.' Cameron said suspicious.

'Well yeah,' House said, 'have you seen the new case we've got?'

'Euhm, no.' Cameron said but she suspected it would be something wild. House liked wild things. The crazier, the better.

'He has eleven fingers!' House said childish. He held his hand in the air and spread his own five fingers. 'Can you imagine that there are six?'

'No,' Foreman said as he rolled his eyes, 'what are his symptoms?'

'Besides the sixth finger?'

'Yeah.' Cameron said.

'No symptoms.' House said while shrugging his shoulders. He had begun to open and close his hand and a smug smile appeared on his face. 'Six fingers…that must be awesome.'

'House!' Chase said in a firm voice to draw his attention. 'You can't hospitalise a man because he has an extra finger.'

House looked up and looked suspicious at Chase.

'I forgot you worked here.' He then said, 'it's been a while…' House let his hand drop and looked at his 3 employees. 'Anyway,' he quickly continued, 'we should do blood work on this guy, he looks a little pale and keeps coughing up blood.'

'That sounds like symptoms to me.' Foreman said, confused now.

'Well, du-uh,' House said while he walked to the coffee to get a cup himself, 'if I had said that before, you would have ignored the finger-part. Foreman, you do the blood test and Cameron, check the medical history of this patient.'

Cameron and Foreman nodded and left the room a little hesitant as they realised that Chase hadn't gotten an assignment.

'Go on!' House encouraged them. They left for real this time.

'What do you want me to do?' Chase asked. He took a sip from his coffee and waited for House to answer him. House sat down on the other side of the table and looked at Chase with his eyes envisioning Chase's eyes.

'So,' he said after a short moment of silence, 'sleeping well?'

Chase had no idea what was going on but he sure wasn't feeling like playing a game with House. That was one of the few things he hadn't missed.

'What do you want?' he asked as he eyed House with suspicion.

'Having nightmares?' House said as he ignored Chase's question.

Chase took in deep breath, stood up and prepared to leave the room.

'I'll take that as a yes.' House said as he followed Chase's example.

Chase walked into the hallway and tried to ignore House but his voice was very hard to shut out of your mind.

'You act like you're fine and you think that you're doing fine, but don't fool yourself.' House said as he was pacing behind Chase now, just a few steps behind.

'Will you stop it?' Chase said as he turned around to face his boss, 'why don't you just leave me alone?'

'Because ignoring it won't make it go away and one day, it will come back to bite you in the ass.' House said as he leaned over his cane towards Chase.

'I'm fine.' Chase said while gritting his teeth together.

'So you won't freak when I start talking about a rape-victim?' House asked; his face sincere and his gaze adult for once. He actually cared for Chase now and he was convinced that he was helping him.

'Stop it.' Chase said in a weak voice, almost pleading. He tried to keep strong but his mind was already wandering of to that one place in his memory that he had wanted to ignore. That small room, the sedative to keep him calm,...

'How will you handle it if I start talking about Parker? You know, that man that abused you, that touched you…'

Chase threw his arm forward, his hand balled into a hard fist and he slammed it against House's face. House staggered back, lost his balance and then fell to the floor. He brought his hand up to his face and whipped away the drips of blood coming out of his mouth. His lower lip felt painful and thick and pain extended from one side of his mouth to the other.

'Not that well, huh?' he said as he stood back up his feet, using his cane for support.

'You had it coming.' Chase hissed as he forced back the tears, still trying to suppress the memories that were floating around. His whole body was trembling and his breathing was spinning out of control.

'But I just proved my point.' House said.

'What does it matter?' Chase yelled now.

'Because you can't let it swallow you!' House said firmly, not intimidated by Chase's anger.

'GOD, you're such a JERK!' Chase continued, not able to keep himself in check.

'I bet this is the first time you're actually dealing with your situation! Let it all out!' House encouraged Chase.

'Why do you care? You never care about anyone!'

'I just want to help.' House said.

'Right!' Chase laughed a little insane. He turned around as he wanted to walk away. He couldn't handle this. The memories were still too fresh and he wouldn't let House kill his mood. He was doing fine and he was happy until he started interfering. What did he always had to spoil stuff.

'Just admit it that you're not dealing.' House said in a loud voice as he tried to keep up with Chase.

'SHUT UP!' Chase yelled, still walking down the hallway.

Wilson had heard the noise and opened the door of his office. He had recognised the two voices and he couldn't believe that this was happening! They were actually yelling against each other! He didn't even want to know what House did this time. He saw Chase walking by and he didn't understand why there were tears in his eyes. House followed him and Wilson just had to follow House. Someone needed to stop them.

'Chase…'House said now in a softer voice. Chase turned around to see House watch him with concern in his eyes. Wilson came running behind him and Chase remembered that day again. He had stood in the parking lot and he had felt so lost. Wilson had been the one saying comforting words against him. He still remembered his voice.

The memories were so heavy and Chase couldn't handle them anymore. He turned around and slammed his hand against the wall, producing a loud bang that made everyone look at him with concern. Chase ignored the pain that now took over his hand.

'GOD!' Chase screamed, unable to deal with these emotions he felt. 'I HATE YOU!' he then yelled to Parker who wasn't even there. He punched the wall in front of him again, making the fire in his hand even stronger, and then let himself fall against the wall. Slowly, he slid down to the floor and placed his head between his arms, his hands covering his face.

'I HATE YOU SO MUCH!' he screamed into the air. House let himself slid down as well but he looked ahead of him, not at Chase. Chase looked up then and stared into the air. His eyes were wet and his chest hurt like hell.

'I wish he had never existed.' He nearly whispered as he streaked away his hair out of his eyes.

House didn't answer and Wilson only looked at him with sorrow in his eyes. It was obvious that he felt sorry for him and Chase didn't look at him because that was the last thing he wanted to see in people's eyes.

'It just hurts so damn much by just think about it.' Chase whispered.

'I know,' House answered, placing his hand on Chase's shoulder. 'but at least now you're dealing. That's the first step you have to take to be able to move on.'