Puzzle Book

"You look bored out of your mind, Hun." Chase turned to his right to see a nurse standing by the door with a book in her hand. She seemed to be in her mid-forties and had her graying brown hair tied back into a bun at the base of her neck, her petite figure loosely outlined in her blue scrubs.

"You would be right in saying that." Chase said, smiling politely. The nurse walked over to him and placed the book on his lap: it was a crossword puzzle book. "I love these." The nurse chuckled lightly.

"So do I. What's your name, Hun?"

"Chase. And you are?" The nurse smiled kindly.

"Beth. I haven't seen a doctor come in here for a while, so I just thought I'd check up on you and keep you company if you like." Chase smiled.

"Company is nice. I've been doing nothing but sitting here since yesterday, waiting for the doctors to give me some news." Beth tilted her head, then realizing that Chase wasn't on any kind of IV; he was just connected to a heart rate monitor.

"Your primary doctor is Dr. House, correct?" Chase nodded.

"Yeah, he said he doesn't usually talk to his patients." Beth let out a soft chuckle.

"Dr. House has quite a reputation around here." Chase quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Oh?"

"Dr. House is rebellious in a sense. He doesn't play by the rules in any sense. Oh the stories I could tell you."

Good. I think that is what's needed.

"I'm kind of surprised though." Beth continued.

"At what?" Beth smiled kindly at him again.

"Dr. House only takes cases that he finds interesting and unusual, so something's going on that made him take your case, despite the fact that you have no physical symptoms, right?" Chase nodded.

"They ran tests and said that everything is normal, but they can't figure out why I have such a poor memory." Beth patted his arm.

Didn't think it would take this long though, but maybe I'm being unfair.

"Dr. House is one of the best doctors on the face of the Earth, Hun. Trust me, you're in good hands." Beth glanced at her watch.

"And," She drew out the word. "Now I'm on my lunch break." They laughed lightly as Beth picked up the puzzle book on Chase's lap. "How about we work through one of these?"

"Sounds good." Chase picked up the pencil that was on the cover of the book and twirled it between his fingers. Beth put a small table on Chase's lap for them to lean the book on and opened to a random puzzle.

"One down, three letters: Month of JFK's birth. Who's JFK?" Chase asked, looking up at Beth.

"You're not from here, are you?" Chase shook his head.

"Melbourne, Australia." Beth whistled between her teeth.

"Wow Hun, you're a long way from home! Why did you decide to come here?" Chase looked away from her and he turned to look back down at the puzzle, staying quiet. Beth bit her lower lip lightly and gently patted Chase on his back.

"I'm sorry, Hunny."

"It's quite alright, don't worry about it." Chase said, looking back at her, his light green eyes piercing through her. "So who's JFK?"

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy; he was the…35th president of the United States…I'm sure he was the 35th." She paused. "He was one of the youngest presidents, but for the life of me, I can't quite remember what month he was born in. It's either 'May' or a 3-letter abbreviation." Chase shrugged and looked back at the puzzle.

"If you don't know, then I sure as hell won't. Let's move on to another one." He tapped his pencil against his lips thoughtfully.

"Sixteen across, Popular Charles Dickens novel published in 1860." Beth slumped back in her seat.

"Hunny, I barely know anything about literature." Chase laughed at her lightly and began to fill in the squares. "You know it?" Chase nodded.

"'Great Expectations'. Damnit." Chase said exasperatedly, looking at the side of his left hand where he now had a trace of lead from the pencil smeared onto his skin. "I hate it when that happens." Beth handed him a baby wipe to clean the lead off his hand. "Happens every time, no matter what I'm writing with." He handed her the wipe to throw away, green eyes flicking up as he saw one of his doctors, Foreman, walk by with a woman he didn't recognize.

"That's why I like my right-handedness. It makes life easy." Chase looked back at her, his green-blue eyes catching the light.

"Makes sense, I think it would be frustrating to get ink or lead on my hand every time I wrote." He chuckled lightly. "I tried to teach myself to write with my left hand because I thought it would be cool to be ambidextrous, but I got frustrated and gave up." Beth's brow furrowed.

So this is what Dr. House is trying to figure out…interesting.

"So you're on your lunch break?" Chase asked, bringing Beth out of her thoughts.

"Yes, Hun." She glanced at her watch again. "I got 20 minutes left. You're not getting rid of me that easily!" They laughed lightly as Chase stretched his arms above his head.

"I wasn't trying too," Chase said, pretending to be defensive. "But I don't want you to starve because of me!" Beth smiled and hit him lightly on the arm as she stood.

"I'll come right back, okay?" Chase nodded and smiled, writing in another answer.

"Sounds good."

xXxXx

Chase is such a sweetheart, and fairly smart by the looks of it, but something seems to be off. I saw him write with his left hand, but then he says that he's right-handed and that he can't write with his left hand…bizarre; but something else doesn't feel right. Now I can definitely see why Dr. House took his case.

"Hi Hun," Beth said kindly. She was a bit surprised when Chase didn't answer as she watched him fold the pages of the puzzle book in different ways. "Hi Hun," She repeated. "What are you doing?"

"Hi Miss Beth, I'm making a Christmas tree with the pages." Beth felt her breath get caught in her throat. Her skin started to feel clammy.

Oh shit.

She couldn't breathe as confusion and a hint of fear squeezed her throat shut. Something wasn't right; something definitely wasn't right. Chase turned to look up at her, curiosity evident on his face.

"Miss Beth? What's wrong? Would you like for me to show you how to make a Christmas tree with a book?" Chase pushed the book towards Beth slightly, jade eyes staring curiously up at her.

I don't know what's going on, but… Dr. House should know about this. This…just isn't right. This is creepy.

"Miss Beth?" Chase continued to stare at her as his different tone of voice seemed to echo in the room.

Chase's accent was much softer…

And he sounded child-like.

xXxXx

"Dr. House?" A woman asked, making House sigh.

"We're busy." He said shortly, not looking at the woman behind him.

"Your patient is Robert Chase, right?" House's interest was instantly sparked and he stood and turned to look at who was talking. It was a nurse who he's never seen before.

"He is my patient, why?" Beth stepped further into the room, shoving her hands into her pockets, and looking at the floor near House's feet.

"I had a conversation with him that I think you should know about."

"What happened?" Cameron asked.

"Well, I gave him a crossword puzzle book because he was looking bored. We started to work on one and when he wrote down an answer to one of the hints and he smeared the lead with his hand—"

"He was writing with his left hand?" House cut in, staring intensely at her; Beth nodded.

"Yeah, he said that it happens all the time: he nearly always got ink or lead on the side of his hand."

"But Chase is right-handed." Cameron added, staring at the board next to House.

"I was just trying to hold a conversation with him and I said that that's why I'm glad that I'm right-handed, but then he said that he agrees and that it would be frustrating to get ink or lead on the side of his hand every time he wrote."

"You saw him write with his left hand?" Kutner asked, making Beth nod.

"Yeah, I know he did, but acted as if he didn't." Silence fell in the room as House leaned heavily on his cane, staring deeply at the carpet as he tried to make sense of the new information.

"I went back to see him," Beth continued. "And that's when things got a little creepy." House's eyes cut up towards her as the other doctors sat up in their seats.

"What do you mean creepy?" Beth hesitated.

"When I walked back into his room, he was folding the pages of the puzzle book. I didn't think much of it because it was just something fairly normal to do just to pass time." She paused. "But when I asked Chase what he was doing, he said that he was making a Christmas tree by folding the pages of the puzzle book."

"What's scary about that?" Foreman interrupted. House picked up a spare marker from the ledge of the board and threw it at him, hitting him on the base of his left shoulder.

"Shut up, and don't interrupt again." House said angrily, turning back towards Beth.

"Chase told you he was making a Christmas tree by folding the pages of the puzzle book, then what happened?" Beth hesitated again and began to wring her hands.

"When Chase looked up at me, his eyes were different. They seemed a bit darker and…I don't know the right word for it…murky?" House wrote it on the board.

"What else?"

"It wasn't what Chase said that made things creepy, it was how he said it." House continued to look intensely at her.

"How he said it, meaning word choice?" Beth shook her head.

"No, it was his tone of voice."

"Elaborate." Beth hesitated again.

"His voice was different." She said quietly.

"How so?" House pushed, starting to get more frustrated by Beth's hesitation.

"It didn't really sound like his usual voice. His accent was much softer and I don't know if it was just me, but Chase's voice kind of sounded child-like. It sounded like I was talking to a boy who was elementary aged."

Silence filled the room as the doctors stared at Beth with disbelief and more confusion on their faces. Had they heard Beth correctly?

"Child-like?" Cameron asked, her jaw hanging open slightly in disbelief. House wrote the new information on the board.

"So Chase's accent wasn't as prominent as it usually is and his voice…sounded child-like?" House asked the last part with slight doubt.

"Yes," House sighed deeply and wrote the last bit of new information as his thoughts raced even faster. So not only did Chase's eye color seem to change, now his voice changed. But…what if…

"He could be faking it." Foreman said, crossing his arms across his chest as he leaned back in his seat. "You said it yourself. It's like Chase has issued some kind of challenge." House's eyes darted towards him because he spoke his new thought.

Chase could possibly fake the change in voice, but he can't control the change in his eye color.

"No, he's not faking it." Beth said, bringing House out of his thoughts again. "His accent is really strong, there's no way that he can make his Australian accent soften that much while adding a child-like tone to it."

"Then how the hell did it happen?" House barked, making everyone jump.

"Are you sure that this actually happened?" Cameron asked, receiving an angry look from Beth.

"Are you accusing me of lying?"

"Well you said so yourself that Chase has a very strong accent and that he couldn't make his accent that soft and also add a child-like tone to it."

"I know what I heard." Beth said shortly and turned on her heel and left the room, leaving the doctors feeling even more overwhelmed. House unhooked his cane from the board and marched out of the conference room, the other doctors following him close on his heels.

Alright Gang,

I hope that you're starting to pick up on what's happening. I'm dropping many hints.

Reviews would be wonderful and appreciated! (And motivate me to update more often)

When-Rabbit-Howls