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“You killed a patient.”
Chase looked up at his boss. He didn’t look pissed or disappointed or anything. He just walked up to him and said the words matter-of-factly.
“Yeah. Lucky for you, my medical license isn’t being taken away, so you don’t have to look for a new doctor for the team.”
House nodded. That was good, but not what he was worried about right now. (Not that he was worried. He didn’t worry about anyone except for himself.)
“What are you doing to cope with this?” He asked.
“What?”
“What, did I accidentally speak Spanish? What are you doing to cope with the fact that your negligence killed somebody? ”
Chase blinked at him, feeling his heart rate pick up. “Why do you care?”
“You didn’t do anything to cope with your father dying. That wasn’t even your fault and you killed somebody. I need to know that you’re coping and this won’t happen again. Stacy can only save your ass so many times. There aren’t as many good looking Australian intensivists as you may think to replace you.”
“Screw you,” Chase mumbled and pushed past his boss.
House reached out with his cane and hooked Chase’s arm with the handle.
“I’m coping fine, okay! Leave me alone!”
“Be at my apartment at 6 tonight.”
“Excuse me?”
“My apartment, 6 o’clock tonight. I’ll help you.”
“I don’t need your help, House.”
“Be at my place or you’ll be confined to the office and the clinic for a month.”
“You can’t do that.”
“If I think you’re going to cause harm to a patient, by accident or on purpose, because you’re not coping, Cuddy won’t disagree with me.”
Chase clenched his jaw as he stared up at his boss. “Fine,” he muttered, and pulled away to finally escape.
House heard the doorbell ring right as the clock turned to 6:00. He wondered if Chase stood outside the door waiting for the clock to change. Probably. He opened the door.
“Good, you listened. I ordered pizza, it should be here soon.”
“Okay.” Chase walked inside. “How do you think you’re going to help me cope?” He asked. He wouldn’t ask why. He knew why. Even if House would never admit it, he knew he secretly cared about him and the few other people in his life.
“You’ve done a psych rotation, haven’t you?”
“Of course. Why?”
“Did you learn about age regression during that?”
“You want me to regress and act like a child around you?” Chase was genuinely surprised. He didn’t think House would be a very good caregiver. Caring wasn’t one of his strong suits.
“It’s a good coping mechanism.”
“I guess, but...why?” Chase rolled his eyes before House could answer. “Because you want me to cope and not kill anyone else, yeah, yeah. What if I say no? I can just leave.”
“You can say ‘no,’ but then you’d be stuck in the office or the clinic until your birthday.”
“Do you even know when that is?”
“I’ll pick a day and that’ll be it from now on. I’m thinking...April.”
Chase rolled his eyes. His birthday was in February.
“I think you should try it. I have some toys you can play with, a box of crayons, I might have one or two kid’s movies. Or you can go home and stew in the knowledge that you killed somebody.”
Chase took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll try it this once.” He didn’t doubt that House would ban him from cases and make him stay in the office or work in the clinic for 11 months.
“Good. Get changed. Clothes are in the bathroom.”
Chase walked to the bathroom and put on the sweatpants and kangaroo t-shirt House left out for him. Of course the shirt had a kangaroo on it. He walked back out to see House carrying a box of pizza to the kitchen.
“Sit on the couch. Do you want apple juice or water to drink?”
“You don’t have soda or something?” Chase knew House would say ‘no’ to beer. He was supposed to be a kid now. That didn’t mean he couldn’t have soda, though. Kids drank soda all the time!
“No. Juice or water. In 5 seconds I’ll choose for you. 1—”
“Juice.”
“Good choice.” House poured apple juice into a plastic cup, putting a lid on it and sticking a straw in. He carried the cup and two plates of pizza to the couch. Before giving Chase his dinner, he tucked a paper towel in the front of his shirt to act as a bib.
“House!” Chase tried to rip the towel out, but House lightly slapped his hand away.
“I don’t want you to make a mess. Leave it, Robert .”
“Fine, Greg. ”
“Watch it. I always use your last name, but while you’re regressing, I’ll be using your first. Hopefully it’ll help you get into a younger headspace.”
“Whatever.” Robert picked up his pizza and took a bite. He ignored the smirk House gave him when sauce dripped onto the napkin tucked into his shirt.
House turned on the TV. “Toy Story is on. You can watch that or cartoons. Uh, PB&J Otter?” House had no idea what that was, but it sounded stupid. He’d let Robert watch it if he chose to, though.
“Toy Story.”
“Alright.” House changed the channel to Toy Story. It was just starting. “Eat up, then you can play with some toys.”
After dinner, House sent Robert to wash his hands and face while he set out the toys. He’d gotten a variety for all different ages. Stuffed toys, blocks, cars and trains, coloring books, puzzles, a couple action figures, and even a science kit. He was curious to see what Robert would choose. He’d assumed he’d regress somewhere around 4-7 years old, but he could be wrong. It was rare, but he was actually wrong sometimes.
Robert looked at everything that had been set out. He eventually picked up the coloring book. Coloring wasn’t too childish. He’d prefer to use colored pencils, but he’d deal with the crayons for tonight. Maybe House would buy colored pencils for next time.
Next time?
It depended on how the rest of the night went, and if House even wanted to do this again, but maybe Robert wouldn’t mind doing this again. He’d think about it.
Halfway through the movie, Robert was barely coloring anymore, only looking down at his coloring book every few minutes. The movie was more interesting than the picture of a farm he was coloring. When he noticed he was coloring outside of the lines on the chicken, he closed the book to pay better attention to the movie.
When Robert wasn’t paying attention, House picked up a light blue teddy bear and put it in the boy’s lap. Without thinking, Robert picked it up and hugged it.
Eventually, the movie ended. Robert looked down at the teddy bear and blushed slightly, but hugged it anyway. He knew toys couldn’t really walk around and talk just because people weren’t watching them, but wouldn’t it be cool if they could? Robert slid down to the floor. Maybe if he let the toys know he wouldn’t tell people their secret, maybe they’d talk to him. Robert glanced behind him, but House was in the kitchen, doing who knows what.
“You know, it’s okay if you want to talk and move on your own,” he said to the toys, but mostly the bear still in his arms. “You probably don’t want people to know you can, but I wouldn’t tell anyone. I can keep your secret.”
In the kitchen, House smiled as he listened to the kid.
Robert yawned. He hadn’t gotten much sleep lately.
“You can stay here tonight,” House said. “You can sleep on the couch.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. You shouldn’t drive when you’re little and I don’t feel like driving you home. Let’s see if I can find an appropriate book to read to you.”
Robert climbed back onto the couch and laid down with the teddy bear.
“What did you name it?” House wondered as he looked through his books.
“Buster,” Robert whispered.
“Hm. Seems like a good name for him. Alright, ready? Into the Wild. ” He’d managed to find the only children’s book he owned, that some kid gave him after he saved their life. He’d meant to throw the book out, but somehow it made its way onto his bookshelf. He was kind of glad it did now so he could actually read Robert a bedtime story.
Robert was asleep by the end of the first chapter.
House and Chase would need to talk about this more tomorrow, but for now, House just draped a blanket over him and let him sleep.