The First Steps

He sat in the waiting room near the conference room, trying to organize his thoughts and attempt to make sense of his conversation with Chase. Kutner slumped back in his seat, rubbing his eyes wearily as he felt like his brain was about to explode. Kutner knew that House and the others would want to know where he went, but he was having difficulties in trying to even organize his thoughts let alone explain to the other doctors about his conversation with Chase.

Well…at least I got more information from Chase…that's a start, I guess.

Kutner walked slowly back to the conference room, fiddling with the receipt in his pocket. When he opened the door, the first thing he noticed was that the board was still had "memory loss" and "drug use?" on it. All eyes turned to look at him as he stood next to Wilson by the door.

"How good of you to join us," House said. "Did you enjoy your stroll?"

He's going to be even more of an ass because of this case; the more frustrated he is, the more pissed off he gets.

"Actually," Kutner said, rocking on his feet. "I went to talk to Chase again." House quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What did he say?" Cameron asked from her usual place at the conference table. Kutner hesitated for a few moments.

"He doesn't remember traveling to France." House sighed lightly.

"So he doesn't remember traveling to France and the United States?" Cameron asked disbelief evident on her face. "That's a lot to forget without a head injury."

"He didn't even know he was in the United States when he was admitted." Wilson reminded them.

"So he doesn't remember being in France. What else did he tell you?" House asked seriously. He locked eyes with Kutner and knew the younger doctor was hiding something.

"Chase does something that we didn't catch when we first talked with him."

"Which is?"

"Whenever I asked him a question, he's much more hesitant than most people are." House paused for a few moments.

"What did you ask him?" Kutner took a couple steps into the conference room, his hands still in his pockets.

"I didn't want to overwhelm him too much by asking him first about France, so I just asked him what his father's name was."

"Smart." House said softly, throwing Kutner off slightly.

Did I just get a compliment from House?

"So the first thing I asked him," Kutner continued. "Was what his father's name is. I just wanted to ask him a very basic question." House nodded.

"What's his father's name? If we have his father's name, we could probably get into contact with him and ask him a few questions about Chase." Cameron said, looking over at her boss, but Kutner shook his head.

"That won't help." They gave Kutner questioning looks.

"Why?"

"Chase has never met his biological father." Silence fell in the room as the possible hope for information attached to Cameron's idea died. "But he said that his mother told him that his father's name is Rowan."

"He still won't be able to help since he's never been in his son's life." House said. "What about his mother?"

"What about her?"

"What did he say about her? Did he give you her name or anything?" Kutner shook his head.

"No, I didn't want to push him anymore about his family." He paused, remembering Chase's reaction to his question about his mother remarrying.

"Why not?" Cuddy asked, slightly frustrated. "She could help us try to figure what's going on with Chase."

"When he said that he's never met his biological father, I asked him if his mother remarried. He didn't say anything for a few moments and he wouldn't make eye contact."

"What did he say?"

"Chase said that his mother did remarry when he was about 4 years old, but I think that there's tension between him and his stepfather since he was so hesitant in saying that his mother did remarry."

House nodded thoughtfully, putting together all the pieces of information they were receiving. He turned towards the board, uncapped a marker, and began to write the information they were getting, figuring that it would be more helpful to have the information written down.

"So there probably is tension between Chase and his stepfather," Cuddy said. "From my understanding, in a lot of step-families, there usually is some kind of tension between the step-father and son."

"But Chase's mother remarried when he was about 4 years old, right?" Wilson asked, looking at Kutner for clarification.

"Right,"

"So Chase was obviously quite young when his mother remarried; the older the child is, the more resentment there usually is between the child and the step-parent." Wilson said, glancing over at Cuddy.

"And since Chase was a child," Foreman said, finally joining the discussion. "He probably didn't really understand what was happening since he's never met his biological father in the first place."

"Anything else?" House asked as he finished writing the latest piece of information on the board. Kutner looked down at the floor, remembering his brief thought about something not being right with Chase after he talked about his mother's remarriage.

"Yeah, after he talked about his mother's remarriage…something seemed off; something didn't seem right." House turned to look fully at him.

"Elaborate." Kutner hesitated.

"I don't know how to explain it; I honestly didn't think too much of it at the time." He paused. "I don't know, something just didn't seem right." He said, frustration leaking into his voice.

"What didn't seem right though?" Cameron asked. Kutner sighed heavily.

"I don't know, Cameron!" He snapped angrily, surprising everyone. Kutner wasn't known to have outbursts of anger; he was always the calm one out of all of them.

"After you talked with Chase about his family, what happened?" Wilson asked, trying to keep as little tension as possible out of the situation, knowing that it would cloud their thoughts even more. Kutner sighed again, calming himself down.

"After we talked about his family, I asked him if he's ever been to France."

"And he said no." House said, knowing that he wrote that on the board and put a star by it to make it more obvious.

"Right, and the different styles of hand writing on the back of the receipt has been bugging me, so I asked him if he's right or left-handed. Chase said he's right-handed, but then he started to say things that were bizarre and contradictory." House and the other doctors gave him curious looks.

"Such as?" House pressed, uncapping his marker again.

"Chase said that he was right-handed, but after a few moments, he said that it was frustrating to get ink on his hand. I didn't really hear him the first time, so when I asked him what he said, he said that it was frustrating to get ink on his hand and he pointed to the side of his left hand, not his right." There was a brief moment of silence.

"But Chase said that he's right-handed." Cameron said, her brows furrowed in confusion. Kutner nodded.

"That's what I told him and I asked him how he could get ink on his left hand while he's writing if he writes with his right hand, not his left." He paused. "But he said that he never said that." Thick silence filled the room as Kutner's words sunk in. House leaned heavily on his cane, looking thoughtfully at the carpet.

"How long did that part of the conversation last?" House asked, still looking at the carpet.

"Not even a minute. I didn't want to make him more stressed, so I played it off. There is some good news though, I think." Kutner added as he sat, putting the receipt back in Chase's case file.

"What would that be?" Foreman asked a little irritated. House quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I managed to find a phone charger for Chase. Hopefully we'll be able to get in touch with someone from home."

"What do we do from here?" Cameron asked, turning to House.

"We need to rule out any possible physical causes to Chase's memory loss," House said, turning to look at her as Foreman pushed himself off the wall.

"Cameron, go through Chase's file and as many documents that you can find of him that could possibly help."

"Kutner," He turned towards him. "Go to Chase and see if he'll call someone. Get as much information as you can."

"You," He turned towards Foreman. "Run the tests and rule out any possible physical cause to Chase's memory loss. Pay close attention to the toxic screen to see if there's something chemical that could be a cause of his memory loss." The three of them nodded and left to do their assigned task.

"What do you want us to do?" Cuddy asked as she leaned against the table with Wilson standing next to her. House turned to look at her and hid his surprise at her question.

"We want to help." Wilson said, knowing that House was surprised by Cuddy's question.

"You two have enough to do." House said shortly, turning back towards the board.

"You and your team are going to need as much help as you can get." Cuddy said, knowing that saying House needed help was a bit of a dangerous comment. House was quiet for a few moments.

"Find the stepfather. Chase is going to have to get over his daddy issues." They nodded and both he and Cuddy left the conference room.

House stood staring at the board, trying to piece all the information they have so far in some kind of way that makes sense.

None of this really fits together. There's contradiction and too much memory loss for it to make sense. Chase has forgotten a trip from Australia to the United States and didn't even know he was in the United States; forgot a trip to France…probably traveled to there from Australia; and has also forgotten almost a year of his life. Chase said he's right-handed, but then said that it's frustrating to get ink on his left hand while he's writing, and then forgets he said that a minute later. How the hell can Chase forget two trips to two separate countries, a year of his life, and what he's said a minute later?

What the hell is going on? If I have to go talk to him a lot, I'm going to be pissed.

xXxXx

Alright Gang,

Reviews would be wonderful and appreciated!

When-Rabbit-Howls