Please Forgive Me
Chapter Three
When the police arrived within fifteen minutes of Nurse Smits' call, they entered into the Dean of Medicine's office upon being shown where to go by the nurse behind the desk, where Cuddy was sitting beside Chase and Wilson on the couch once more, Foreman, Taub, and Thirteen were standing nearby for support of their friend, and House was sitting behind Cuddy's desk while he twirled his cane in his hand as he watched the surveillance footage of his former employee's attack again and again.
"Officers, thank you for coming so quickly," Lisa said as she stood up and walked before the two policemen, then reached out to shake their hands.
"You call that quickly?" House asked cynically. "Fifteen minutes, when the station is less than ten minutes away?"
Cuddy glared at the narcissistic doctor coldly, then turned back to the officers again as she continued, "Just ignore him unless he has anything relevant to say in regards to why you both are here."
They nodded and then one of the men spoke up saying, "We understand one of your nurses has gone missing. What can you tell us?"
"First of all, Allison isn't a nurse," Chase responded sternly as he stood up to face the cops. "She's a doctor and second, she no longer works here. She was only visiting. I'm her husband. Or I was her husband, up until tonight that is. She came to ask me to sign the divorce papers."
"You're an idiot," House stated as he looked up at the youngest member of his team. "Don't you realize that you just gave these guys the perfect motive for Cameron's abduction?"
Wilson immediately called out, "House, would you just shut up until they speak to you? Now is not the time for your… Well, now is not the time for you to be such an ass."
The cops looked between the two doctors, then turned to the missing woman's husband as one of them asked, "Is there reason we should believe there might be a motive for you to have your wife kidnapped?"
"I didn't kidnap, Allison!" Chase shouted out of anger, then sighed heavily to try to calm himself down. "She may no longer be my wife, but there were no hard feelings between us. Things between us ended amicably."
"If that's true, then why are the two of you going through a divorce?" the second cop asked.
The Australian looked at the men before him as he sat down again and replied wearily, "My ethics changed over the years that I've worked here and hers didn't. She always had high morals, sometimes annoyingly so. I've gone against her ideas on how we should treat patients a few times and eventually it became too much for her. She asked me to leave my job before I changed completely and I couldn't, but Allison couldn't stay either. So, she quit and left town. House was right about me. I am an idiot, who realized my mistake too late and now I might not be able to tell her. I might not be able to beg her to take me back even though I know I don't deserve it. I love her. I will always love her."
The officer who spoke up first nodded in understanding, seeming to believe all that Chase just told him and his partner, then looked around between the rest of those in the room as he said, "We need to know if there's anything else that might be pertinent to Dr. Cameron's kidnapping. We will also need any surveillance footage you have in case the cameras we saw out in the parking lots picked up anything suspicious."
"Of course," Cuddy answered as she walked over to her desk and pushed House out of her chair, quickly made a copy of Cameron's attack for the police, then handed it over to them. "Everything Chase said about loving his wife, is true. His priorities might have changed, but how he felt about her never did."
"We've all known him for a long time now," Foreman responded calmly while he crossed his arms. "He would never hurt her. Chase was always very protective of her and I don't mean in a possessive manner. We all care about Cameron. We want to help in any way we can."
One of the officers asked again, "Was there ever anyone you can think of who might have stood out to you as someone capable of doing this to Dr. Cameron?"
Thirteen finally spoke up as she replied, "As doctors, it is our job to treat all kinds of people, including the homeless, gang bangers, thugs, drug addicts, and even criminals. We've all been threatened by patients, including Cameron."
"But none of the threats ever amounted to anything for any of us," Taub continued. "As far as we know, the threats were always part of the patients' symptoms or happened under the influences of the drugs we've treated them with."
"And what about since she's left Princeton Plainsboro?" the second officer asked as he turned back to Chase. "Did your wife possibly mention that someone may have threatened her after she moved away?"
Chase shook his head as he answered, "No, never. And she might not have told me about any of her patients that may have threatened her, but if she was worried about anyone truly wanting to hurt her, I would have sensed something was wrong when I saw her tonight and I didn't, other than her being afraid to admit the truth about why she really left me. She walked out on me before without telling me the reason, which was as I said earlier. This bastard might have been stalking her and if he was, it was without her knowing about it. And if he isn't a stalker, then Allison might just have been a victim of opportunity for the guy. All I know right now, it is that I'm afraid of why he took her."
The first cop looked into the distraught man's eyes directly as he responded sadly, "I can only imagine what you must be feeling right now and unfortunately, there is nothing more you can do for your wife other than to hope that she is found as soon as possible, and pray… if you're a praying man. We will do everything we can to find her."
"Thank you," Chase replied as he stood and walked around the officers to leave the office, then exited the hospital, taking his wife's things with him as the men neglected to ask him for them.
"I'll give you any of our numbers you might need for the investigation," Cuddy spoke up saying quietly as House stood up and followed after Chase, as did Wilson once again. "We'll be here at the hospital most of the time if you ever need us for anything. Please, keep us all informed. We're a close family here and Dr. Cameron was… is a good friend to all of us."
The genius called out to Chase, shouting, "Hey blondie! How would you like to go out to grab a few beers, on me. And by on me, I actually mean on Wilson here."
Chase kept walking as he answered, "I'm not in the mood for beer and certainly not in the mood to spend time with you."
"House, perhaps now isn't the time," Wilson stated as he tried to pull back his long time, narcissistic friend.
"Come on, you and I both know that you're going to go home and wallow in misery," the man replied, completely ignoring Wilson's warning. "A few drinks will do you a lot of good. It always done me..."
All of a sudden, Chase stopped swiftly, then spun around to face his crippled boss as he answered angrily, "Why? Because you and I are such good friends or so that we can pretend that you actually care about me and Allison? You and I both know that it's bullshit. Allison was right about you all along. You really are a cold-hearted bastard. And of course I knew it, but because I allowed myself to become mesmerized by your idiotic mind games and your damn puzzles, I pushed your constant abuse and cruel disdain for us and your patients aside. You use smoke and mirrors to get whatever you want and only Allison was able to see through you, even if she did love you at one point. Wilson and Cuddy think they can see through you, but they don't, or maybe they can't. They're still your friends. I allowed you to get into my head instead of fighting for my wife… the woman that I love and I let her go. I am to blame for losing her, as well as for what's happening to her now. But I am not the only one. I quit, as of this moment. And there is nothing that you or Wilson here, can say to get me to change my mind this time. If you care at all, for once in your life, think of someone else other than yourself and use that brain of yours to save her life. If the cops can't find her, maybe you really can. I've seen you do the impossible before a hundred times. Goodbye, House; Wilson."
Both men stared after him as he walked away for good, then Wilson said quietly, "Whoa, I had no idea Chase had all that in him, but good for him. Because both you and I know that he's right, which is why we're not going to go get drunk. We need to take a trip like you would do for one of your patients, or like you would send your team to do. We need to search her home."