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Chase was sitting at the conference room table. His arms were folded and his aching head rested on top of them. He blinked a couple of times, his eyes burned. A shiver ran down his spine even though his entire body felt too hot. “I should have stayed home.” He thought to himself.
The door to the conference room swung open and House stepped inside. He was taken aback for a moment when he saw his young protégé sitting at the table with his head down. It didn’t look like Chase had noticed him yet.
“Chase.” he spoke up from his spot by the door. When he got no reaction from the blonde, he stepped closer.
“Chase!” He tried again. This time a bit louder. The younger man shot up.
“What?” he asked, voice gravely.
“Why aren’t you in the lab?”
The lab. Right. That’s where he was supposed to be headed.
-earlier that day-
Chase had woken up early that morning with a splitting headache and rolling stomach. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep and hopefully wake up feeling a lot better, or maybe not wake up at all. However, his body had other plans. The moment he closed his eyes again his stomach gave a low growl, signaling that he needed to get to the bathroom immediately. He barely made it to the toilet before throwing up everything he ate the previous night.
Exhausted, he collapsed against the edge of the bathtub and closed his eyes. He should probably call in sick and get some rest. That’s when he remembered the huge pile of unfinished paperwork waiting for him. He could probably still get some work done right? As long as he stayed in the office and didn’t have to deal with any patients, everything would be fine.
Getting ready took him considerably longer that it normally would. His whole body hurt and he was scared that if he moved too fast, he might throw up again.
The minute he stepped inside the busy hospital he regretted his decision to not call in sick. But getting back to his car and driving home didn’t sound great either, so he made his way up to the office.
The office was empty when he arrived, even though he came in late. He walked over to the small kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, that’s when he noticed that the pot was already half full and still warm. The others must have gotten here before him and prepared it.
He poured himself a cup and took a few sips. The caffeinated black liquid tasted even worse than usual somehow and the bitter aftertaste increased the nausea swirling around in his gut. Disappointed, he emptied his mug in the sink and watched as the beverage seeped down the drain.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water instead. It took him some effort to twist off the cap as his hands were shaking a little. The cold water soothed his burning throat. Hopefully it would help with his headache too.
-
Focusing on the chart in front of him became more and more difficult. He had managed to drink about half the bottle of water, but unfortunately it didn’t help much with the throbbing in his head. The words on the page swam and his stomach churned uneasily. He was just about to get up to go to the bathroom when House walked in.
“How nice of you to grace us with your presence.” House greeted when he saw Chase sitting at the table. “We have a new case.” He announced before unceremoniously dropping the file in front of Chase.
Chase cursed internally. He really wasn’t up for solving some mystery right now. House didn’t seem to notice his internal struggle and continued on about his newest puzzle.
“Foreman is taking the history and I send Cameron to the patient’s home to look for mold or toxins. I need you to read up on the case and go draw some more blood to re-run all the basics. Maybe the ER missed something.”
Chase sucked in a deep breath to ease his stomach “I’ll get right on it.”
“Great. See ya!” He said before limping out of the office and in the direction of Wilson’s. No doubt to annoy the other man.
Chase got up to go to the bathroom, but he was out of time. His stomach lurched and he made it to the sink just in time to bring up the tiny amount of coffee and half a bottle of water he drank. When he was done he felt dizzy. He walked back to the chair he was sitting in and rested his head on his arms. “I really should have stayed home.” He thought to himself as he slowly zoned out.
-back to the present-
House’s voice pulled Chase out of his trance.
“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?”
House looked increasingly annoyed.
“Why are you still here? I asked you to test the patients blood half an hour ago.”
Was he out for that long?
“I uhh—” Chase started, but he couldn’t come up with a good reason for why he was still here. The older man looked at him expectantly.
“Are you hungover?” It was more of a statement than a question. House came a bit closer and observed him for a second. The younger doctor looked flushed and he kept swallowing like he was about one wrong move away from redecorating the carpet.
“I’m not hungover, I swear. I didn’t even drink last night.” Chase mumbled. He didn’t do a very good job of sounding convincingly.
“The hell you’re not! You look like you lost a fight with a keg!” House said angerly.
“Really. I’m just not feeling great.” He tried weakly.
“Clearly… Get your shit together before you go see the patient.” He told Chase as he walked away.
Chase blinked frustrated tears out of his eyes. Why wouldn’t House believe him?
-
With some effort Chase managed to draw the patients blood so he could re-run all the tests the ER had done earlier. Most of it came back the same, although some numbers indicated that the patient was getting worse.
Satisfied with the results, he made his way back up to the office to present House his findings.
“What took you so long?” was the first thing House said when Chase walked in. Clearly he was still fed up with his employee’s behavior. “We paged you three times! Why didn’t you answer?”
Chase’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, I must not have heard it go off.” He felt guilt rising in his throat along with something else. “The tests indicate that the patient is getting worse.” He handed the piece of paper with the results on it over to House.
House snatched it out of his hand and crumpled it up before throwing it in the direction of the trash can. He missed it by a lot.
“You know what else indicates that the patient is getting worse? The fact that he started vomiting blood, genius! But you wouldn’t know that since you were too busy taking a nap down in the lab!”
The mention of vomit send Chase’s own stomach over the edge. He barely made it to the trash can before throwing up for the third time that day. His whole body shuddered with the force of it. When he finished, he coughed weakly. House hadn’t moved an inch. He just stood there, waiting until Chase was finally done so he could continue yelling at him.
Chase swayed as he got in an upright position again. House frowned, anger making way for concern. The younger man looked worse than he did this morning. He’d expected him to improve at least a little bit.
Chase stumbled as he walked past him on his way to the sink. House’s hand shot out instinctively, grabbing his arm to keep him from falling over. The heat radiating through the Chase’s shirt surprised him.
“What the hell?” House said to no one in particular. He held on to Chase’s arm and guided him to sit in the nearest chair. He gently pressed the back of his hand to Chase’s forehead, then his cheek. He was hot to the touch. This wasn’t a hangover.
Instant guilt wrecked his body as he looked at the younger man limply sitting in the chair in front of him. “Sit tight for a moment.” He told him.
As he dug through his desk drawers he played the events of this morning back in his head. He felt bad for not giving Chase a chance to explain himself. He felt even worse for not believing him when he tried to.
When he found what he was looking for he returned to Chase. The younger doctor hadn’t moved an inch and House could see he was struggling to keep his eyes open.
“You’re burning up.” He said flatly. “Open your mouth so I can take your temp.” Chase complied and House slid the digital thermometer under his tongue.
“Not hungover…” He mumbled. House felt something squeeze in his chest at the words.
“I know bud. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
The thermometer beeped. House took it from Chase’s mouth and let out a low whistle as he read the numbers on the display.
“103.6.” he announced. “I always knew you were hot, but geez.” Chase didn’t laugh at the joke. He didn’t have the energy to.
“How about we get some Tylenol into you? Bring that fever down.”
Chase nodded.
House grabbed the bottle of Tylenol he got from his office and handed two pills to Chase, who popped them in his mouth without hesitation. Next he took the bottle of water that was left out on the table and screwed the cap off before handing it to him as well.
Chase took a big gulp and grimaced as the pills went down his esophagus.
“You good?” House asked, wanting to make sure Chase wasn’t going to throw up again.
A nod.
“Good. Now let’s get you horizontal, shall we?” He hoisted Chase up and draped one of his arms around his shoulder. He used his free hand to grab his cane. Together they stumbled to House’s office.
“Still doing okay?”
Another nod.
House carefully dropped him on the old, worn out couch. Chase immediately sunk into the cushions and closed his eyes against the harsh light assaulting his retinas. He mumbled something, but the older man couldn’t quite make out what it was. He was about to ask when he noticed Chase was already asleep. He grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over him. He also placed a small trash bin next to him, just in case.
The door to House’s office swung open and the other two fellows barged in.
“Patient is stable again. We had to—”
“Would you shut up.” House whisper yelled, nodding his head in the direction of the couch. Cameron and Foreman both looked down, surprised to see Chase fast asleep.
“Is he okay?” Cameron asked, careful to keep her voice down.
House motioned for them to go to the other room.
“He alright?” Cameron asked again after they stepped out of House’s office.
“It seems our little wombat has encountered the only type of bug Australians aren’t equipped to deal with.”
As if on que, the sound of retching could be heard coming from the office next door. Cameron and House were both quick to go check on Chase. Foreman took his sweet time to go after them, not exactly looking forward to come to the aid of his sick colleague.
When he did finally walk in, he was met with the sight of Chase violently retching into the small trash can while Cameron was rubbing circles on his back.
House cursed under his breath. He had hoped Chase would be able to keep the meds down long enough for them to kick in.
After a couple minutes, the heaving stopped. Chase flopped back onto the couch and groaned. The others looked at him in sympathy. Well, maybe not Foreman. He was more grossed out then sympathetic.
“Okay, okay. Show is over.” House said after a while. “Cameron, Foreman. Why don’t you two see if out actual patient needs caring, while I make sure this one stops reenacting the exorcist.” He looked over at Chase. The younger man’s breathing had evened out again. A telltale sign that he was no longer awake.
It was not long before it was just the two of them again. House watched Chase sleep for a bit. Even unconscious he looked uncomfortable. He grabbed his phone from his pocked and called the one person he knew would help.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Wilson, I need you to do something for me.”
-
Wilson walked into House’s office about fifteen minutes later with the supplies House asked for.
“How is he doing?” he asked when he saw the sleeping figure on the couch.
“Not great.” House replied. “I took his temperature again after I called you. It’s up to 104 now.”
Wilson nodded solemnly. “I’ll get the IV started.”
House stopped pacing the room and sat down in the chair closest to Chase instead. He couldn’t help but feel like this was all his fault.
“Are you sure you don’t just want to take him to the ER instead?” Wilson asked.
“No… He once told me he hates being the patient. Figured I’ve tortured him enough today.”
Wilson stopped what he was doing and looked up at House. “What do you mean? You’re not the one who made him sick, right?”
House shook his head. “No nothing like that… but he did try to tell me that he wasn’t feeling good and I dismissed him because I was convinced it was just a hangover. I yelled at him and made him feel like he needed to push through. And look where we are now.” He combed his fingers through Chase’s soft locks. The skin underneath them was hot to the touch.
“Well, look at it this way.” Wilson said as he prepped the IV bag. “if you had send him home, there wouldn’t have been anyone to take care of him. It might not have ended so well.”
House hadn’t thought of that. “Maybe… but I still shouldn’t have yelled at him.”
That was something Wilson could agreed on. “Probably, yeah.” He hung the bag on the IV pole and connected it to the line inserted in the crook of Chases elbow. “All done.”
“Normal saline with acetaminophen?” House asked.
“Yes. Like you asked for.”
“Thank you for doing this.”
Wilson smiled at his friend. “Happy to help.” He grabbed the trash bin and left to go clean it out. When he returned he put it back next to the couch where Chase could reach it.
“I have my own patients that need tending to so I’ll leave you two alone for now. Call me if you need anything.” And with that, he walked out the door again.
-
Chase slept for a couple more hours, only waking up once to throw up. The others came by periodically to check in. Even Foreman stopped by at one point to see how he was doing.
House only left his side to go discuss their other patient’s case. And even then, he stayed close enough to monitor Chase.
It was a little past six when Chase woke up, and not just to vomit, but because he genuinely felt better. His head felt more clear and he didn’t feel burning hot and freezing cold at the same time anymore.
He looked around and saw House sitting at his desk, watching some soap. He cleared his throat to get the man’s attention.
House looked up at the sound. “Hey, you’re up.” He got out of his chair and made his way over to the couch. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.” Chase could honestly say. He looked at his arm, only now noticing the IV.
“You’re fever was getting dangerously high.” House explained. “We had to administer IV acetaminophen because you couldn’t keep the regular stuff down.”
Chase nodded in understanding.
House fished the thermometer out of his pocket and gestured for Chase to open his mouth so he could slide it under his tongue. After a short moment, the device beeped.
“101.4” House read from the display. “Much better.”
Chase sat up and coughed in his elbow. House handed him a bottle of water and Chase took a couple of tentative sips to see if his stomach was okay with it. When he didn’t immediately feel nauseous, he downed the rest of the bottle.
“Thanks.”
“I mean, it’s just water. I can get you more if you—”
“For everything, I meant.”
“Oh.” House wasn’t sure he deserved it. “You don’t have to thank me. I completely ignored you at first.”
“True, but you did step up when I really needed you. Besides. I probably would’ve done the same thing. You did your best so let’s just forget about the first part.”
House still felt bad for the way he treated him earlier. “You ready to get out of here?” He was sure Chase would rather sleep in his own bed than on some beat up couch.
“Absolutely.”
House took out the IV and together they made their way to House’s car. The drive to Chase’s apartment was quiet. Neiter of them said anything.
When they arrived in front of the building, House spoke up.
“If you want I can stay.”
Chase considered it for a moment. “No, that’s okay. You’ve done enough and I’m sure you could use a good nights rest too. Besides I’m just going to be sleeping. Not much you can do to help.”
Even though Chase looked about a thousand times better than he did this morning, House was hesitant to leave him alone. “Fine, but you call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
“And I better not see you at work tomorrow.”
Chase rolled his eyes. “Alright, I get it. I’ll be fine, really.”
House smiled. He loved it when he was this annoyed.
“Okay then. Good night.”
Chase grabbed his bag and stepped out of the car. “Goodnight, House.” He closed the car door and waited for House to drive off before making his way to the front door of his building.
Once inside, he looked for the softest pajamas he could find and changed into them. After that, he brushed his teeth and washed his face. When he felt somewhat clean again he crawled under the covers. He could shower tomorrow, right now he just wanted to sleep. He was exhausted.
he closed his eyes and was out within minutes.