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2025-10-30
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"tell your baby that i'm your baby"

Summary:

One day House arrives at PPTH with... a kid?
That's not even the most surprising part. He's actually being nice to him.
Everyone has their own reaction to that.

For some reason Chase seems to hate that kid though.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Notes:

(this announcement was written on the Oct 3rd):
I have an announcement about the Whumptober.
While I'd LOVE to just keep popping a fic for each day, I literally can't. And even if I could, I think I still wouldn't do it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Sicktember, but at some point the pressure was awful. I felt more bound by it than inspired Because my time was limited I had no time to write anything else on top of the sickfics. For example, this fic I'm writing rn right now is the fic I've been thinking about since the middle of August and yet then the Sicktember came and all I wanted was to be finally done with it and atart writing something with different topics. Also, I had this inner pressure in me to finish it all in Septmeber (and I did, yay!)

So this time with Whumptober, I'm making it an unlimited event for me. I will be writing the prompts I love (there's plenty of them) and when I'm in the mood for. No matter the order and the current month. I will still mark them accordingly with Whumptober tags when they're inspired by the prompts.
Hope you all are happy with that adjustment. I know I am!

Here's my reminder to other ao3 authors: fanfiction is a hobby. Never force yourself to anything, you have no deadlines, no tasks.

Still, wanted to say I loved the Sicktember, it just overwhelmed me a little, but I really had fun too! :D

Anyway, hope enjoy this fic!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"So what's the bet? That everyone will believe that is is your kid? Why wouldn't they? You're not exactly known for celibacy"

House rolled his eyes. "No, not that I have a kid. That I actually can be a father" 

Wilson frowned. "I'm not sure I follow you..." he muttered, then his eyes widened. "Oh God, you're not planning to actually act all... tender and caring... are you?"

House didn't deny it though. "$50" he said simply.

Wilson shook his head. "No. No, there's no way"

"You think my team thinks so low of me they won't believe that I can treat a kid decently?"

He shrugged. "Well, there's that. There's also the fact that I don't believe that you can"

House gasped dramatcally. "You don't believe that I could be a good dad? Wow, I'm wounded" he sobbed mockingly, then spoke seriously. "A double bet then. $50 that I can treat that kid decently and another $50 that the team believes in my sudden change of heart"

The Oncologist smirked. "You're on". He glanced at House. "So, when are you starting?"

"I knew you'd say yes" House said, getting up. "Oh, the kid's already in the office" he added, before leaving.

Wilson blinked a few times. "Oh, this is going to be interesting" he mumbled under his breath as he watched his friend leave.

 

 

"So, the ANA was negative so I guess that leaves—" Cameron stopped talking as they entered the office.

All three doctors immediately looked at the unexpected guest.

There he was, a boy, probably 12, 13 years old at most, if not less. He was blond and had blue eyes. There was also this innocence and young naivety written all over his face. He was sitting in House's usual spot, doodling something on House's old case files.

"Hello, what's your name?" Chase asked softly, sitting down next to him.

"Reid"

He nodded. "Okay, Reid, are you okay? Did you get lost?"

"I'm waiting for my dad" the boy said simply, not looking up.

Chase nodded. "Alright, great, and is your dad a patient? Or was he visiting someone?"

"No, he's a doctor"

Chase sighed, slightly relieved. Okay, that was definitely making things way easier. "Great. This is Dr Foreman, he's going to find your dad and this is Dr Cameron, she's going to get you some food and snacks. We have really good stuff in the cafeteria" he said, getting his wallet and passing Cameron a few dollar bills."In the meantime, how about you tell me what are you drawing, him?" He added, watching the others leave. "Maybe I'll get you some empty paper sheets though, okay? My boss might be quite... unhappy if he notices someone doodles on his stuff"

Well, 'unhappy' was probably a bit of an understatement. Chase already dreaded House's reaction. Hopefully the kid would be already out by the time the diagnostician would be back.

 

 

When House walked into the office, he stopped in his tracks.

Foreman was gone, but that was the least weird part. Cameron was by the desk, doing the paperwork, which was also rather normal.

But then there was Chase. Sitting by the kid, chatting and doodling with him. The table was completely full with the various food, snacks and sweets, obviously bought with Chase's money.

"Wow, you must really have this whole ass-kissing rooted deep in your DNA somehow. You didn't even know he's mine and you're already spoiling him rotten" House commented with a smirk.

Reid looked up. "Dad!" He said happily, getting up.

That caught the whole room's attention.

"Yeah, meet Reid. Reid, this is my team. Team, this is my son"

Chase dropped the pen he was holding. "This is your what?!"

Notes:

Hope you like it, got the idea from the episode when House hired that child actor to play Wilson's kid. Also the episode when he pretended to have neurosyphilis

Also, sorry that it's late, it's currently almost 3 am and I'm back from clubbing with my friend as she had birthday so I'm tired, tipsy and need some sleep lmao
Also, tomorrow (or rather today), I have 8 hours at uni, so help me god

Chapter 2: Father

Notes:

Sorry, the health chaos has been crazy lately, I'm so done with my body acting like a cheap post-crash car bought from a sketchy dealer lol

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"And that's basically how the babies are made. Great we had this chat, Chase. Same time next week again? I could teach you about condoms or something"

Chase was sitting down with his face buried in his hands, Cameron was still mortified, while Foreman tilted his head, watching the several sex positions House had drawn on the whiteboard. "There's no way that can be comfortable..." he muttered under his breath.

Chase looked up at House. "I didn't ask you for a Sex Ed lesson, I asked you how on earth you have a kid" he muttered.

House walked up to the whiteboard again, pointing at one of the drawings. "See, imagine that man was me—"

Cameron grimaced, and Chase rolled his eyes. "What I meant was that you've never told us you have a kid. Never mentioned it" he pointed out.

House shrugged. "Didn't know until recently" he said simply. 

Chase raised his eyebrows. "So what? You just found out you have a kid and accepted the news? I— I mean, did you, I don't know, take DNA tests to confirm it or—"

"He's mine." House said firmly, the voice making everyone in the room freeze for a second. House sounded almost... protective? Caring?

Chase scoffed, but then nodded. "Right, sure" he muttered, before getting up and grabbing the file. "We should get back to the case" he said.

House still glared at him for a while, then nodded and erased the whiteboard. "Differential diagnosis" 

"Could be autoimmune, lupus?" Cameron suggested.

"What about toxins? Heavy metals?" Chase added.

"I still think it's infection" Foreman said.

"Fine. Do the tox screen for heavy metals and run the gels for the most likely infections. Cameron — sorry, but lupus suggestion was just simply idiotic" House said, getting up. "Now, if you all excuse me, I have a kid that needs to be taken to the cafeteria"

Cameron and Foreman froze a bit, as if just realising he was still there, including House's wildly descriptive Sex Ed lesson,, mortified, while Chase frowned. "He just ate" he pointed out.

"Yeah, sugar-filled crap and junk food that you'd never eat yourself, great source of nourishment for a growing boy" House said sarcastically.

Chase shrugged. "You never cared about that stuff before. You have a diet of a kindergartener left alone in the Macca's" he muttered.

House smirked. "Just because I don't take care of my old, crippled self doesn't mean I'm going to do the same with my only son" he said before leaving.

Chase's jaw clenched at that a little. 

My only son.

My only son.

My only son.

My only son.

My only son.

Foreman and Cameron stopped by the doorway, glancing at Chase who was still sitting by the desk. "You coming?"

Chase looked up. "Huh? Ah, yeah, um, sure" he muttered before getting up and leaving the office with them.

 

 

"You've been awfully quiet today, are you okay?" Cameron asked.

Chase shrugged. "Fine" he muttered, not looking up from the lab equipment.

"Is this about Reid? You got all weird when House revealed the news" Foreman said.

Chase scoffed. "Yeah, 'that secret' being just the fact that he has a teenage kid no one knew about" he said sarcastically.

Foreman shrugged. "I mean, it's House after all. Nothing's shocking with him anymore" he pointed out.

"I know, but still, a kid? That's completely surreal" 

"If anything, I pity the kid" Cameron commented and Foreman smirked. "Yeah, definitely, poor guy" he agreed.

Chase opened his mouth, but then went silent, focusing back on the work.

 

 

"The test results are back, negative for any—" Chase spoke but froze as he entered the office.

House was sitting with Reid over some notebooks, it looked like they were doing... homework? together?

House didn't even look up. "Go on" he said.

Chase was too absorbed in watching the scene in front of him. Now he pitied the kid a little bit too. House helping someone with homework while busy with case? Seemed like an awfully perfect excuse to channel all his frustration at them. He couldn't help but smirk. He could only imagine how House would react the moment the kid would make some mistake. The snarky remarks? The yelling? The name calling? Poor kid was going to get himself called an idiot more times than in his whole life.

House looked up. "...well?"

Chase finally snapped back to the reality. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Right... The tests were negative for any toxins. They showed no infection either" he said.

"For the next time, just save us some time and say 'all negative'."

us?

Save them some time? Was the kid the part of the team too now? That was completely ridiculous.

House turned back to the Reid. "Wait" he said, stopping him writing.

Chase smirked. Ah-ha, there it was. The mistake. Oh, this was going to be good.

"Look, you're doing it wrong. If you're removing the x, you've gotta do it on the both side of the equation" he said, before looking up at Chase. "So any new ideas?" he asked.

Chase just stood stunned for a while. The way House just calmly corrected Reid, so calmly, so softly, so... fatherly.

He focused back on the question. "Uh, how about mould?" he suggested.

House glared at him. "Jesus, have you even looked at the labs? The results don't fit. Wow, sometimes, when I feel too smart and need to get my ego a little down, I remind myself that I can't be that much of a genius if I hired someone like you into my team" he said harshly, his frustration, before turning back to Reid. His expression softened immediately. "Wait, no, you've gotta mulitply by 5 now, see? No no no, both sides" he said. "It's okay, buddy, math can be hard"

Chase stood there completely frozen. The stark contrast between the words House aimed at him and at Reid was so huge it actually made his stomach clench. Then his glance turned a little sharp. "Actually, math is simple. Just need to have the brains for it" he huffed under his breath before leaving the office.

"I always got straight A's in math..." he added bitterly, just to himself, after he left.

Notes:

Hope you all liked it!
I felt foggy but tried my best

Chapter 3: Affection

Summary:

House continues to be nice to Reid
Chase continues to lose his shit
Shit happens
That's the summary, you're welcome

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The whole team had expected House to be an awful father. To be honest those expectations were completely justified. The idea of House being even mildly decent towards his offspring was absolutely surreal. 

Which was exactly why the fact that they were proven wrong was so shocking.

Not only they were about him being awful, he wasn't even decent. He was good, excellent even. 

He constantly made sure that Reid was well taken care of — hydrated and fed. And not with just some vending machine crap. House would either steal some food from Wilson (since he knew that his friend ate relatively healthy) or even at some point he started cooking for him. 

He also made sure to keep him close at all times, but he also didn't want him to get too bored by being in the hospital. He tried his best to keep him interested and entertained by including him in cases as much as possible — he would show him the imaging results and explain them to him as simple and interesting as possible.

This was going on for over a year and Chase felt like he was going to lose it. He didn't know how to explain it, but there was something absolutely infuriating about watching House being so soft. It was unnatural to see him like that. Yeah, that must've been the reason. He just wasn't used to that new version of his grumpy boss. 

The worst part of the situation was that House didn't treat the team any differently. He was still the same rude, arrogant arsehole to them. Reid was the only exception. And that was purely maddening.

 

 

Chase walked into the office, hesitating a bit as he noticed that Reid was there. Again.

"Of course" he muttered under his breath before entering. "Uh, I've got the test results for you" he said.

House looked up from whatever Reid was doodling on his old case files. "Uh, sure, let me see them" He glanced at them. "Alright, what does it tell us?"

"Well, the scan clearly shows—"

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Dr Chase, I wasn't asking you" House cut him off.

Chase frowned. "Then who?"

"Reid"

Chase scoffed. "Reid's not a doctor" he pointed out, way more annoyed than he'd like to admit.

"Well, not yet, but who knows about his future? He's interested in medicine, let's not ruin his new-found growing passion. Come on, why don't we just let him guess, then we talk actual diagnostics? He's really interested in that" House said, passing the scan to Reid.

"Uh, it looks like it's a swelling...?"

It wasn't.

"Not quite right, but you clearly have potential. Come on, look closer and try again" House said softly.

Chase lett out a long-suffering sigh. "House, come on, it's getting annoying..."

"Oh please, don't you remember how you got into the medicine? Surely it's because of your dad"

Chase had enough. "Right. I'm going to treat the patient since I don't have time for the diagnostics kindergarten you're running here and neither does the patient. You two, have fun" he said, annoyed, then snatched the scan from Reid. 

"Oh, come on! You could've left the scan, it's not like you need it to treat the patient" House said, half annoyed, half amused.

"I do" Chase muttered, leaving.

He actually didn't.

 

 

"So... What do we think of Reid?" Chase asked suddenly.

Cameron and Foreman both looked up from their lunches.

"Uh... Can you be more specific?" Foreman asked confused.

"I mean, isn't it a little weird that suddenly a kid appears — what, at his doorstep? — and he says 'Hi, you're my dad'?"

Foreman shrugged. "He didn't actually tell us the specifics" he pointed out.

"So what? No matter how it happened, House seriously just believed it? That doesn't sound like him at all. Usually he questions everything, I mean, what happened to the 'everyone lies' and all of that?"

Cameron shrugged. "Maybe it's different when it's about your kid" she said. "Or maybe he just liked the idea of having the kid too much to test it and risk it being just a lie?" she suggested.

Chase scoffed. "Yeah, because House is exactly the type of person to just beam from happiness at the news that some random, annoying kid is his son. He just craves parenthood so much"

Foreman smirked while Cameron just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, fine, fair enough" she muttered. "Still can't understand why this whole situation bothers you so much"

"It doesn't. I'm just... surprised"

"More like jealous" Foreman joked with a teasing smirk.

Chase glared at him. "Oh, hilarious" he muttered.

"You know what's surprising equally about this whole situation? Your reaction; you usually love kids" Cameron chimed in.

Chase shrugged. "Well, yeah. What about 'my reaction'?" he asked innocently.

"Oh, please. You act like that kid personally offended you" Foreman pointed out with a smirk.

"Right, House acts like he got concussion and lost his mind and I'm in the wrong" he muttered, getting up.

"You've barely touched your food and the break doesn't end in another 30 minutes or so" Cameron pointed out, a little concerned.

"Just realised I've got something to do" Chase said and left.

 

 

Chase slipped into the empty office carefully and looked around. It felt wrong. Should he roll down th blinds so no one sees him? Or maybe it would look more suspicious if the usually visible office was suddenly covered? After a while of hesitation he decided to leave it as it was. If anyone saw him in there, he'd just say he was looking for some test results or dropping some paperwork off. He was an employee after all.

He walked to the desk and looked around. House's mug was there, half empty now. 

He got swabbing kit out of his pocket and unpacked one swabbing stick, ran it over the edge of House's mug carefully but thoroughly. Then he put it back into the ziplock bag carefully.

"Great, what about Reid?" he muttered, annoyed as he scanned House's office for anything that could have the boy's DNA, but nothing seemed to be there.

Then he stopped. There it was. An empty can of Reid's favourite soda in the waste paper bin. 

Bingo.

Chase hesitated. Then besides the objections, he got out nitrile gloves and put them on. He got the can out of the bin with a small grimace. Then he started carefully swabbing it.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Chase froze, dropping the can, the can loud with a soft thud, the sound of the metal muffled by the carpet. The thud that couldn't be muffled though was his heart because, despite having the medical degree and knowing it was impossible Chase could feel he could hear his heart let out a single loud beat before stopping entirely as he glanced at House standing in the doorway.

Shit.

Notes:

Hope you liked it

Btw, just watched Breaking Bad and I have question who other people who watched it. Was word "cooking" also so weird to you after watching the show? Like, when I wrote sentence about House cooking and then got distracted and went back to writing and read about House cooking I was like "cooking? wtf, why did I write it? he's not Walt, why would he cook meth— Wait. Omg, I'm such a moron" lmao

Also, first time posting exactly at midnight (0:00), feels satisfying, wish I could set the date to the current day and not the 8th though haha

Btw, just edited to add, nothing better than being on the first night away from home, scrolling internet happily after posting fanfiction chapter and seeing an article that your exact medicine that you just started has been recalled for being unsafe and you can't check if it's your batch because the original packaging with the series number is at home 🫠
Guess this is my version of Ao3 curse lmao
Fml

Also, look at this!

Chapter 4: Confirmation

Notes:

Hi guys, I'm back, hope you missed me
And hope you like this chapter!

Chapter Text

"What the hell are you doing?"

Chase froze, dropping the can; it landed with a soft thud, the sound of the metal muffled by the carpet. The thud that couldn't be muffled though was his heart because, despite having the medical degree and knowing it was impossible Chase could feel he could hear his heart let out a single loud beat before stopping entirely as he glanced at House standing in the doorway.

Shit.

 

 

"I asked what the hell you were doing" House said, walking into the office, watching his employee, who was currently standing there, completely frozen like a deer in headlights.

Chase blinked a few times and finally snapped out of his trance. "Uh, look... It's not what it looks like..." he said awkwardly.

House raised his eyebrows. "Oh, isn't it? Great then. Because I stupidly assumed that my employee sneaked into my office to take samples of my and my son's DNA to run a paternity test and check if he's even my kid. That's what it looked like to me. But since not only did you say it's not what it looks like, but also it would be completely insane of you, I'm happy to be corrected" he said.

Chase opened and closed his mouth repeatedly for a while, looking like a fish that's been suddenly dragged out of the water. "I— Uh— I mean— Look— I—" he stammered for a while, then cleared his throat. "Look, you could say that it was technically true, but... It's not like that... I just..." he hesitated for a while. "One could argue I was doing you a favour, actually" he added, trying to sound confident but failing miserably.

House stared at him for a while dumbfounded, then just burst out laughing. "Oh my god, this is priceless" he said once he stopped laughing. "My employee engages in a damn heist in my office to, what, steal a bit of my saliva and run a DNA screening? Wow, you've seriously lost it" he said with a grin.

Chase immediately set the both samples down. "Sorry about that" he muttered, heading to the exit.

"Ah ah ah, not so fast" House blocked the door with his cane. "If you're unhinged enough to come up with that whole plan, you're gotta be shameless enough to follow through with it when caught red-handed. Otherwise that's just unhinged and pathetic" he said, before walking over to the desk and grabbing both samples. "Go on, run the test. Make the daddy proud" he said with a smirk.

Chase just grabbed the samples — hesitant and embarrased — and left the office.

House watched him leave, then chuckled. "The kid takes so much after me. Cheeky idiot" he muttered to himself, amused.

 

 

Chase found himself mentally unable to run the test all day. It felt awkward now that House knew. He cringed at the memory of their exchange in the office.

Ugh, that was embarrassing.

He sighed, watching the coffee swirl lazily in the paper cup.

Why did he even do that? What possessed him to actually do that?

Was he seriously unhinged?

He finished the coffee, then grabbed the empty cup along with the samples and got up. "This was idiotic" he muttered to himself, walking to the rubbish bin.

He threw the cup, but as he was about to throw the samples, he stopped himself. For some reason, he just couldn't do it.

"Already got humiliated for it, might as well do it..." he muttered, heading to the lab. Or at least he was about to head to the lab, when his pager went off. Of course. It just had to happen now, right? He ran to the patient's room.

 

 

"Alright, differential diagnosis, people" House said, walking to the whiteboard.

"Well, the treatment seemed to be working at first, so it seemed like we were right, until—" Foreman started, but then House cut him off.

"Yeah, until the patient suddenly started seizing, which clearly proves that your theory wasn't, in fact, right. How about we focus on theories that still could be right?"

Cameron thought for a while. "Well, we were thinking about autoimmune earlier, lupus would still fit. Seizures aren't common but still possible with SLE. Or could be autoimmune encephalitis"

"I still think it could be infection. Neurosyphilis?" Foreman suggested.

"So autoimmune or infection. Shocking" House said, sarcastically. Then he glanced at Chase. "What about you? Any ideas? Or are you only good with gene testing now?"

Chase, who seemed a bit zoned out, glanced at him, snapping back to reality. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

House groaned. "God, you're useless. I bet my kid would contribute more to this case than you" he muttered.

Chase winced but just scoffed. "Yeah, right, because your kid is such a genius. Can't solve simple algebra, but a medical case? Sure, not a problem" he muttered sarcastically. 

House raised his eyebrow, susrpised with the attitude, but didn't comment. "Go do the tests" he said to the team.

 

 

Chase was in the lab, running the blood tests while Cameron and Foreman were doing another scans. He was annoyed and the time wasn't helping; if anything, his annoyance kept swelling.

"I met my kid would contribute more to this case than you" he repeated in a mocking tone. "Arrogant jerk" he muttered.

He put the blood sample in the machine. 

Now all there was left to do was wait.

Unless...

His eyes landed on another machine. 

He shouldn't. 

He really shouldn't.

"Ah, screw it" he muttered, getting the samples out of his lab coat pocket.

"Can't hurt" he muttered, starting the testing.

 

 

Chase has been questioning his decision through all those hours. "God, it's taking ages" he muttered.

The computer finally beeped, causing his head to immediately snap up.

He got up from his chair and almost run over there.

He glanced at the screen and groaned. "Oh, seriously?"

 

"The alleged father cannot be excluded as the biological father of the tested child. Based on the analysis of STR loci listed above, the probability of paternity is 99.99999999%."

Chapter 5: Explosion

Summary:

House realises his prank might not have been taken that lightly by certain someone... Who would've thought?

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Chase just stood there for a while, staring at the results.

He kept re-reading them as if they were going to change miraculously at some point. Or as if he had lost his reading comprehension for a while and rereading was going to get it to kick back in at some point. He kept reading each word, analysing it as if there was some hidden message there that he had missed. As if he hasn't read the DNA test results thousands times in the last few years of his career as a doctor.

"Ugh, no no no... This can't be happening"

He froze once the words left his mouth. 

Why?

Why was it bothering him so much? It felt... unlogical. There was absolutely no reason for him to feel this way.

He didn't even know what it was exactly. Annoyance? Anger? Hatred? Or maybe—

His pager went off.

"Ugh, of course" he muttered.

He grabbed the test results, folded it carefully, almost as if it was laced with poison, and then hid it in his lab coat pocket. No one could find this. Especially House. Maybe he still hadn't done the test himself? There was no reason why he should know about the results... right?

He sighed. "God, what is wrong with me..." he muttered under his breath.

 

 

He walked into the office.

"What's going on? Something wrong with the patient?" he asked, worried, but froze, noticing neither Cameron nor Foreman were there. Just House.

And Reid. 

Ugh.

House raised his eyebrows. "Patient? Oh. No no no, it's all fine, Cameron found something, Foreman is treating. Or the other way. I don't really know" he said, as if the cases suddenly didn't interest him at all.

Chase frowned. "Found what? What's the diagnosis?"

House shrugged. "Somewhere in the file. Honestly, I don't really care" he muttered.

Chase felt his heart drop. It was like the old House was gone, just replaced by this weird, apathetic shell of House.

What the hell was happening to him?!

"You don't care?" 

House shrugged. "Nah, even Reid got bored with this case. Moving on"

Chase scoffed. "Moving on? Why did you call me here then?" he asked annoyed.

House frowned, seemingly not remembering for a while. "Yeah... I needed you... For something... Oh, I know! I need you to take my clinic hours this Friday. You okay with that?"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, there's this animated movie being played on Friday."

Chase blinked a few times. "You... You paged me with 'emergency' to ask me if I would take your clinic hours so you could was a kid's movie?" he asked, not really able to hide the growing irritation in his voice.

"Well, we could go on Saturday instead, but it's a premiere day on Friday, there are some attractions and Reid's been really excited about it and—"

"No" Chase said suddenly.

House looked up. "Sorry, what?"

"I said 'no'. No, whatever Reid wants, count me out, I'm not getting involved in this. I'm your employee, not your stupid kid's!" Chase snapped suddenly. 

House froze. 

"There, I said it!" Chase continued, getting even more agitated as he kept going. "He's actually stupid! Who on earth doesn't know simple math?! You act like he's such a great kid, but he's mediocre at best! And you know what's most annoying? That you keep dragging him everywhere like he's some trophy! You know how pathetic you are?!"

"Chase—"

"No no no, don't you dare. What the hell happened to you?! You used to be a genius, a diagnostic idol basically when I applied for this job and now what? You're gone, you act like the little brat lobotomized you! As if he was even worth it!"

House glared at him. "Hey, whatever bullshit this is, you don't get to talk like that about my son—"

"No! He's not your son! That's not how it works! Kids don't just get to suddenly get a parent they never had! It doesn't work like that! And even if it would, why would he be the one to get lucky? Why would he? What had he done to even deserve a father?! Had he spent half of his childhood with an alcoholic mother, hiding away from the bottles smashed right next to him, trying to raise a baby sister away from all that trauma or—"

"He's an only child" House pointed out, but then he froze, realisation making all colour drain from his face. "Are you projecting?"

"Also, why would he get the 'nice' version of you? You're the meanest person I know, what's so different about him? Why are some people going through being treated like shit by everyone around them and get nothing out of this and others suddenly just appear and take what's not theirs?! He's never had to endure you! As an asshole and addict! Never had to endure you when you're out of Vicodin, or when the pain is too much! How come he gets that nice, soft version of you then! I didn't even know that the nice, soft version of you existed! If it's not your personality that's the problem, then what is?! Am I the reason you treat me like shit?"

By the time Chase was done with this outburst, he was shaking and hyperventilating even, his eyes tearing up as he wheezed for air. "What is wrong with me?" he choked out.

House stood there frozen. Then he turned to Reid. "Out"

"What? But dad—"

"The role is over. You're not Reid anymore" He said, as if the kid who just played his role was the reason behind all this mess. As if he wasn't the one who hired him to do exactly that. Create a mess, a chaos. Then he got his wallet out and grabbed all the bills that were in there, not wasting time in counting it. "Your money. Keep the change. Just get the fuck out before I have the security come here. The show's over" he hissed.

Notes:

Hope you all like it! Flaring up today so I might've went a bit heavy on the emotional part. But surprisingly (or not), you usually enjoy it haha
Again, changing the "?" to "6" feels so sad. Something's ending. Oh well