Making Spaces Part 2
Title: Making Spaces 2/?
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing/Grouping: Starts out with none, then House/Chase and eventually House/Wilson/Chase
Disclaimer: Don't own them, as we all know.
Crossover w/NCIS
Summary: Poor Cuddy. A dead Marine, House pissed, and Wilson hurt. What a way to start the week.
Warnings: Hurt!Wilson (like you didn't gather that from the summary).
Beta:
saara_zaara
(Part 1)
****
Dr. Mallard watched as the young doctor patted House on the shoulder before exiting the room. Moving quietly Ducky followed the man into a nearby lounge and waited until he’d sat the coffeepot back down from pouring before clearing his throat.
Chase jumped slightly, sloshing coffee over the rim of his cup. Chase quickly sopped up the split coffee with a paper towel and turned around. “May I help you?”
Ducky read Chase’s nametag and smiled at him. “Ah, you’re the longest lasting duckling. I’m please to meet you, my boy. Everyone calls me Ducky.” He extended his arm and shook hands with a confused looking Chase.
“I’m sorry, should I know you?”
Ducky smiled and shook his head. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t expect Gregory to use his fellowship horror stories as a teaching aid.”
Chase blinked and raised his eyebrows. “What?”
Ducky patted him on the shoulder. “Come along. I do not have much time before Jethro expects me to show up. One can only get lost so much before someone starts paying attention to distances the vehicle has actually driven.”
Chase followed Ducky back out of the lounge, wondering if somehow he’d got hold of some of whatever drug was in Wilson’s system.
****
House stood as Ducky bustled into the room followed by Chase, who was looking more confused than House was used to. “Hey, Duck.”
Ducky waved a hand at House as he moved around the bed to check Wilson. “Hello, Gregory. Do you still only have the three ducklings?”
House snorted. “Quit calling me that. You know I hate it. And, yes, it’s still just the three.”
Ducky looked up from inspecting Wilson’s IV site. “I will call you whatever I like, as you well know.”
House rolled his eyes and turned to Chase. “Show Ducky to the dead guy. He gets lost a lot.”
Ducky patted Wilson on the leg as he came back around the bed. “I see more countryside that way. You don’t take them on roadside differential diagnosis trips, do you?” Ducky pointed at the cane House had leaning against Wilson’s bed.
“Nope. I use a whiteboard with them. Much easier than chalk on a sidewalk.”
“Less portable. As if you really needed the symptoms written down anyway.” Ducky made a rude noise as he gripped Chase’s sleeve and started for the door. “He’ll be fine. We’ll leave you to your hovering and come back to visit more once I’ve gotten the Marine loaded up. I’ll have Jethro with me. I want to see how you two get along.”
Chase let himself be dragged back out of the room and down the hall towards the elevator. Once they were waiting on the elevator, Chase turned to Ducky. “He was your fellow?”
Ducky smiled. “Well, someone had to take him. He was extremely smart, but quite the ass. I could put up with that, since I knew just how good a doctor he could be. Especially if he’d just have stuck with dead people.”
Chase’s eyebrows rose. “Dead people?”
Ducky shrugged as they got onto the elevator. “Well, I wasn’t always a medical examiner, but I have always known the dead don’t lie.”
Chase cocked his head. “House always says everyone lies.”
“Very true. Doesn’t mean you can’t find the truth in the lie. Dead people are usually much easier for deciphering truth from lies.” They stepped out of the elevator and started down the hall towards the crime scene. Ducky looked at Chase. “Whatever you do, don’t upset Jethro.”
Chase dubiously nodded and hoped ‘Jethro’ would be pointed out before becoming upset. From the way Ducky’s expression had looked, he relished the idea of House and Jethro meeting. Chase figured Jethro mad was very close to House mad. At least close enough he didn’t want to be the cause.
“Ducky!” A young female with what looked like a large spiderweb tattoo on her neck bounced up to them and yelled over her shoulder, “Bossman, Ducky’s here.”
Chase watched as a very tall man turned, still speaking to Cuddy and signed something their direction. The young woman signed vigorously back before ignoring the man and turning back to them.
“Duck, there’s some local idiot that thinks it’s his crime scene who managed to make McGee mad.” Abby bounced up onto her toes and waved at Chase, who reflexively waved back. “Hiya. I’m Abby.” She turned to Ducky and jerked her thumb back over her shoulder. “Gibbs wants the body outta here fast.”
Ducky sighed and gestured from Abby to Chase. “Abigail, this is Dr. Chase.” Ducky turned to Chase as he took the gloves Abby was holding out to him. “Please don’t let her talk you into giving her caffeine.” Ducky turned back to Abby. “Be nice and perhaps Jethro will allow you to come along more often.”
Abby moved to the side to let Ducky pass her before turning to Chase. “Soooo, Aussie, huh?”
Chase wondered if he could possibly have fallen and hit his head without noticing. “Yeah. How did you know that?”
Abby smirked up at him. “I’ve been told by a person in the know that you’re the cutest one, right up there with Dr. Wilson, and since he’s hurt…” Abby shrugged and turned back to watch the other moving around the crime scene carefully.
Chase watched as Ducky said something to a man Chase assumed was the local police, considering the rising color and the expressions of the ones with ‘NCIS’ on their jackets. To have Cuddy smiling evilly at the man’s back made Chase think he didn’t want near the cop. Chase wondered briefly how the man had pissed her off, quickly deciding he’d ask her assistance first chance he got.
Beside him the young woman fidgeted with her bracelets. “So, you’re the intensevist, right?”
Blinking Chase turned his head towards her. “Right. Who do you talk to that works here?”
Abby smiled widely. “His name is Tony.” She pointed at the man taking pictures. When Chase nodded she continued talking, “My relative that works here says that Tony’s flirting on reflex with anything that breathes is only rivaled by Dr. Wilson’s reflexive flirting.”
Chase glanced around, checking to see if House, or even Foreman, was nearby ready to laugh at this whole set up. Finding no one nearby that Chase knew for staff, except himself, Cuddy, and a couple of security people, Chase decided to go ahead and talk. “Which one is McGee?”
Abby brightened as she pointed out the shorter man who was taking notes of some sort. “That’s McGee. He’s almost as good with a computer as I am.” Abby tilted her head. “Better in places, but don’t tell him. He’ll just get a big head.”
“Gibbs is the one by Cuddy, then?”
Abby cocked her head in a way the tugged at Chase’s brain, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen it before, just that it was familiar. “Yep. Ducky warned you not to piss off Gibbs, right?”
“He did. I’m not sure why that’s so important.”
Abby waved a hand around and Chase got a flash of another tattoo under the sleeve of her jacket. “The second ‘b’ in Gibbs is for bastard. Which he can be, but if you just do what he says then everything is cool.”
They watched quietly for a few minutes, until Tony stepped up to talk to Gibbs and got a soft smack on the back of the head. Abby giggled.
“Gibbs smacks you if you say something stupid. I swear Tony does it just to get hit, sometimes.” Abby looked at Chase’s expression. “Oh, don’t worry. You belong to House. Gibbs wouldn’t hit you.”
Chase blinked and went still as Gibbs started towards them with Tony and McGee trailing along behind.
“Who’s your friend, Abs?” Tony smiled brightly at Chase.
Chase briefly wondered if ‘anything that breathes’ was an understatement before holding out his hand. “Dr. Robert Chase.”
Tony stripped off his glove and shook hands with Chase. “Pleased to met you.” Tony turned to Abby as he let go of Chase’s hand. “Is he the relative?”
Abby giggled. “Nah. Too young.”
McGee raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t think he’s younger than you, Abby.”
Abby narrowed her eyes at McGee. “You aren’t helping yourself, buster.”
Gibbs gently gripped Abby’s arm and turned her slightly away from McGee. She stuck her tongue out at him around Gibbs’ shoulder. “Do you have anything, Abby?”
Abby shook her head. “Their security sucks rocks, which I already knew. Nothing on their tapes shows the Marine doing anything hinky before he went after Dr. Wilson.”
“Hinky?”
Gibbs eyed Chase. “She means out of place, odd things. Did you witness what happened?”
Chase shook his head. “No. I got called to help stabilize Dr. Wilson. My boss, Dr. House, saw at least some of it; he’s with Dr. Wilson now. I could page him, but he probably will just ignore pages since Dr. Wilson hasn’t woken up yet.”
Gibbs nodded. “Alright. DiNozzo, take Abby with you and go speak to Dr. House. McGee, get that idiot away from Dr. Mallard before he gets stabbed with a liver probe.”
McGee sighed and headed back towards the cop and Ducky. Tony turned toward Gibbs as he started towards Cuddy.
“Ah, Boss, we really ought to let Abby have some caffeine soon. She’s going to start withdrawal if we don’t.” Gibbs waved over his shoulder and kept right on going. Tony rolled his eyes and turned back to the other two. “I don’t suppose you carry CafPows in your cafeteria, do you?”
Chase shrugged and started them towards the elevators. “I don’t know what that is, wouldn’t a Mt. Dew work?”
Abby made a rude noise. “That’s kiddy stuff. Maybe I could talk someone into going out and getting me one.” Abby turned puppy eyes on Tony.
“Oh, no. Gibbs said talk to Dr. House, that’s what I’m going to do, Abs.”
Abby huffed and leaned against the elevator wall as the doors started to slide closed. “You’re no fun anymore.”
Tony glanced at Abby before looking back up at the ceiling. “I’ll be fun when Gibbs is normal again, or at least normal for Gibbs. Until he starts calling Ducky something other than ‘Dr. Mallard’ I’m going to live in terror.”
Abby smirked. “You in terror, yeah, right. It is weird though. You think he doesn’t have all his memory back yet?” Abby flicked her fingers against the wall as she glanced at Chase. “Gibbs almost got blown up, again, and he lost his memory for a while. He’s been a little off since.”
“Oh.” There wasn’t much to be said to that, but then he didn’t have any idea what Gibbs ‘off’ and ‘normal’ Gibbs might actually look like. He thought it might be something like House before being shot, which was ‘normal’ and him without pain, which had been ‘off’ to Chase. “How often does he get hurt?”
Tony frowned. “He doesn’t get hurt as often as McGee or I do, but sometimes.”
Abby smiled. “He didn’t get the plague like you did.”
Tony huffed and led the way out of the elevator. “Abby, could you please not mention that in earshot of a bunch of doctors. I’ve gotten looked at enough times as it is. I swear Ducky knows every fucking doctor on the planet.”
House stood in the doorway of Wilson’s room. “Ducky knows every corner at least. Who’s the boyfriend, Chase?”
Chase noticed that the other two didn’t even seem fazed by House’s remark. “This is Tony DiNozzo, and Abby… Hmm, I didn’t get her last name.”
House smirked. “Didn’t ask about her.”
Tony started to bristle until Abby laid a hand on his arm. “Tony, it’s okay. You haven’t heard some of the stories Ducky has told Palmer about him.”
Chase just sighed and pushed past House into Wilson’s room. “They need to talk to you about what happened. I’ll sit with Wilson.”
House turned and moved to sit back down. “We’ll talk in here.”
Chase rolled his eyes as he checked over Wilson. “Whatever.”
House tapped his cane on the floor and rubbed his shoulder for a moment. “Abby, have you been giving my fellow tips on back-talking?”
Abby looked up from studying Wilson’s relaxed face. “Nope, but you’re right about the cute thing.”
Chase froze for a bare moment before moving on with his checks. He could wait for Tony to say something and sure enough he was right.
“What cute thing, Abs?”
Abby gently sat on the edge of Wilson’s bed. “Oh, you know, the usual chatter about who you think is cute, who’d be the best in bed, that sort of thing.”
Tony glanced up from hunting through his pockets for his pen. “So...You’ve discussed the possible sex lives of people you’ve never met before?”
Chase watched as Foreman slipped into the room, probably for the next check on Wilson. Abby swung her feet to the sides and back, knocking her boot heels together. House titled his head and smiled at Tony in that predatory way that Chase just knew was going to lead to chaos. He almost wished Wilson were awake so he wouldn’t miss it.
“She thinks you and Gibbs are perfect for each other.”
Tony stilled and looked at House. “We hadn’t mentioned Gibbs’ name in front of you.” Tony glared at Abby. “Jeez, Abby, you could have said something.”
Abby shrugged. “I did. I said I have a relative that worked here.” Abby gestured to the cane. “I thought it had worked.”
House grimaced and tapped the cane against the bottom of Abby’s boot. “It did. Then it stopped.”
“Oh.” Abby signed something and Chase watched Foreman’s expression grow more confused as House watched her for a few moments before tapping the cane against her boot again.
“Wouldn’t help.” House jerked his head towards Foreman. “He’ll go get you a CafPow, just describe it to him."
Abby squealed as she jumped up, making Chase start. She took Foreman by the arm and pulled him from the room. Tony stared after them for a few moments before turning to House.
“You’re the father she doesn’t say much about, aren’t you?”
Chase stayed still, hoping House wouldn’t get too upset at the accusing tone of voice.
House just shrugged. “Her mother didn’t want to be married. I don’t talk about Abby to anyone I know anymore than she talks.”
Everyone turned to Wilson as he groaned and shifted. Chase guarded the IV site as Wilson shifted again, blinked, and then moved his head enough to glare at House.
“Oh, my God, you have spawn and you didn’t even tell me."
House grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t want you, a self-admitted skirt chaser, to go after my little girl, now would I?”
Wilson blinked at the ceiling before muttering, “Asshole parasite maker.” Then Wilson’s eyes slipped closed again.
Chase glanced at House as he adjusted Wilson’s hand on the blanket. House looked almost pleased. Chase wondered if it was because of Wilson waking or what he’d said. House looked up from Wilson to catch him watching. Chase knew that looking away was the worst thing possible so he just kept eye contact.
House smiled. “No chasing for you either.”
Chase smiled faintly. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
House huffed. “Good.” House turned to Tony. “Wilson’s not going to be useful for a while, what’d you want from me?”
Chase slipped out of the room as Tony started asking questions. Collapsing into the first empty chair Chase could find he thought about the idea of House having a daughter. Considering her clothes, which were unique; her tattoos, which Chase figured there were more of; and her attitude, which… Oh, yeah, she was House’s all right. Chase smiled at the thought of what Cameron was going to make of this.
*****
(Part 3)
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing/Grouping: Starts out with none, then House/Chase and eventually House/Wilson/Chase
Disclaimer: Don't own them, as we all know.
Crossover w/NCIS
Summary: Poor Cuddy. A dead Marine, House pissed, and Wilson hurt. What a way to start the week.
Warnings: Hurt!Wilson (like you didn't gather that from the summary).
Beta:
saara_zaara
(Part 1)
****
Dr. Mallard watched as the young doctor patted House on the shoulder before exiting the room. Moving quietly Ducky followed the man into a nearby lounge and waited until he’d sat the coffeepot back down from pouring before clearing his throat.
Chase jumped slightly, sloshing coffee over the rim of his cup. Chase quickly sopped up the split coffee with a paper towel and turned around. “May I help you?”
Ducky read Chase’s nametag and smiled at him. “Ah, you’re the longest lasting duckling. I’m please to meet you, my boy. Everyone calls me Ducky.” He extended his arm and shook hands with a confused looking Chase.
“I’m sorry, should I know you?”
Ducky smiled and shook his head. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t expect Gregory to use his fellowship horror stories as a teaching aid.”
Chase blinked and raised his eyebrows. “What?”
Ducky patted him on the shoulder. “Come along. I do not have much time before Jethro expects me to show up. One can only get lost so much before someone starts paying attention to distances the vehicle has actually driven.”
Chase followed Ducky back out of the lounge, wondering if somehow he’d got hold of some of whatever drug was in Wilson’s system.
****
House stood as Ducky bustled into the room followed by Chase, who was looking more confused than House was used to. “Hey, Duck.”
Ducky waved a hand at House as he moved around the bed to check Wilson. “Hello, Gregory. Do you still only have the three ducklings?”
House snorted. “Quit calling me that. You know I hate it. And, yes, it’s still just the three.”
Ducky looked up from inspecting Wilson’s IV site. “I will call you whatever I like, as you well know.”
House rolled his eyes and turned to Chase. “Show Ducky to the dead guy. He gets lost a lot.”
Ducky patted Wilson on the leg as he came back around the bed. “I see more countryside that way. You don’t take them on roadside differential diagnosis trips, do you?” Ducky pointed at the cane House had leaning against Wilson’s bed.
“Nope. I use a whiteboard with them. Much easier than chalk on a sidewalk.”
“Less portable. As if you really needed the symptoms written down anyway.” Ducky made a rude noise as he gripped Chase’s sleeve and started for the door. “He’ll be fine. We’ll leave you to your hovering and come back to visit more once I’ve gotten the Marine loaded up. I’ll have Jethro with me. I want to see how you two get along.”
Chase let himself be dragged back out of the room and down the hall towards the elevator. Once they were waiting on the elevator, Chase turned to Ducky. “He was your fellow?”
Ducky smiled. “Well, someone had to take him. He was extremely smart, but quite the ass. I could put up with that, since I knew just how good a doctor he could be. Especially if he’d just have stuck with dead people.”
Chase’s eyebrows rose. “Dead people?”
Ducky shrugged as they got onto the elevator. “Well, I wasn’t always a medical examiner, but I have always known the dead don’t lie.”
Chase cocked his head. “House always says everyone lies.”
“Very true. Doesn’t mean you can’t find the truth in the lie. Dead people are usually much easier for deciphering truth from lies.” They stepped out of the elevator and started down the hall towards the crime scene. Ducky looked at Chase. “Whatever you do, don’t upset Jethro.”
Chase dubiously nodded and hoped ‘Jethro’ would be pointed out before becoming upset. From the way Ducky’s expression had looked, he relished the idea of House and Jethro meeting. Chase figured Jethro mad was very close to House mad. At least close enough he didn’t want to be the cause.
“Ducky!” A young female with what looked like a large spiderweb tattoo on her neck bounced up to them and yelled over her shoulder, “Bossman, Ducky’s here.”
Chase watched as a very tall man turned, still speaking to Cuddy and signed something their direction. The young woman signed vigorously back before ignoring the man and turning back to them.
“Duck, there’s some local idiot that thinks it’s his crime scene who managed to make McGee mad.” Abby bounced up onto her toes and waved at Chase, who reflexively waved back. “Hiya. I’m Abby.” She turned to Ducky and jerked her thumb back over her shoulder. “Gibbs wants the body outta here fast.”
Ducky sighed and gestured from Abby to Chase. “Abigail, this is Dr. Chase.” Ducky turned to Chase as he took the gloves Abby was holding out to him. “Please don’t let her talk you into giving her caffeine.” Ducky turned back to Abby. “Be nice and perhaps Jethro will allow you to come along more often.”
Abby moved to the side to let Ducky pass her before turning to Chase. “Soooo, Aussie, huh?”
Chase wondered if he could possibly have fallen and hit his head without noticing. “Yeah. How did you know that?”
Abby smirked up at him. “I’ve been told by a person in the know that you’re the cutest one, right up there with Dr. Wilson, and since he’s hurt…” Abby shrugged and turned back to watch the other moving around the crime scene carefully.
Chase watched as Ducky said something to a man Chase assumed was the local police, considering the rising color and the expressions of the ones with ‘NCIS’ on their jackets. To have Cuddy smiling evilly at the man’s back made Chase think he didn’t want near the cop. Chase wondered briefly how the man had pissed her off, quickly deciding he’d ask her assistance first chance he got.
Beside him the young woman fidgeted with her bracelets. “So, you’re the intensevist, right?”
Blinking Chase turned his head towards her. “Right. Who do you talk to that works here?”
Abby smiled widely. “His name is Tony.” She pointed at the man taking pictures. When Chase nodded she continued talking, “My relative that works here says that Tony’s flirting on reflex with anything that breathes is only rivaled by Dr. Wilson’s reflexive flirting.”
Chase glanced around, checking to see if House, or even Foreman, was nearby ready to laugh at this whole set up. Finding no one nearby that Chase knew for staff, except himself, Cuddy, and a couple of security people, Chase decided to go ahead and talk. “Which one is McGee?”
Abby brightened as she pointed out the shorter man who was taking notes of some sort. “That’s McGee. He’s almost as good with a computer as I am.” Abby tilted her head. “Better in places, but don’t tell him. He’ll just get a big head.”
“Gibbs is the one by Cuddy, then?”
Abby cocked her head in a way the tugged at Chase’s brain, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen it before, just that it was familiar. “Yep. Ducky warned you not to piss off Gibbs, right?”
“He did. I’m not sure why that’s so important.”
Abby waved a hand around and Chase got a flash of another tattoo under the sleeve of her jacket. “The second ‘b’ in Gibbs is for bastard. Which he can be, but if you just do what he says then everything is cool.”
They watched quietly for a few minutes, until Tony stepped up to talk to Gibbs and got a soft smack on the back of the head. Abby giggled.
“Gibbs smacks you if you say something stupid. I swear Tony does it just to get hit, sometimes.” Abby looked at Chase’s expression. “Oh, don’t worry. You belong to House. Gibbs wouldn’t hit you.”
Chase blinked and went still as Gibbs started towards them with Tony and McGee trailing along behind.
“Who’s your friend, Abs?” Tony smiled brightly at Chase.
Chase briefly wondered if ‘anything that breathes’ was an understatement before holding out his hand. “Dr. Robert Chase.”
Tony stripped off his glove and shook hands with Chase. “Pleased to met you.” Tony turned to Abby as he let go of Chase’s hand. “Is he the relative?”
Abby giggled. “Nah. Too young.”
McGee raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t think he’s younger than you, Abby.”
Abby narrowed her eyes at McGee. “You aren’t helping yourself, buster.”
Gibbs gently gripped Abby’s arm and turned her slightly away from McGee. She stuck her tongue out at him around Gibbs’ shoulder. “Do you have anything, Abby?”
Abby shook her head. “Their security sucks rocks, which I already knew. Nothing on their tapes shows the Marine doing anything hinky before he went after Dr. Wilson.”
“Hinky?”
Gibbs eyed Chase. “She means out of place, odd things. Did you witness what happened?”
Chase shook his head. “No. I got called to help stabilize Dr. Wilson. My boss, Dr. House, saw at least some of it; he’s with Dr. Wilson now. I could page him, but he probably will just ignore pages since Dr. Wilson hasn’t woken up yet.”
Gibbs nodded. “Alright. DiNozzo, take Abby with you and go speak to Dr. House. McGee, get that idiot away from Dr. Mallard before he gets stabbed with a liver probe.”
McGee sighed and headed back towards the cop and Ducky. Tony turned toward Gibbs as he started towards Cuddy.
“Ah, Boss, we really ought to let Abby have some caffeine soon. She’s going to start withdrawal if we don’t.” Gibbs waved over his shoulder and kept right on going. Tony rolled his eyes and turned back to the other two. “I don’t suppose you carry CafPows in your cafeteria, do you?”
Chase shrugged and started them towards the elevators. “I don’t know what that is, wouldn’t a Mt. Dew work?”
Abby made a rude noise. “That’s kiddy stuff. Maybe I could talk someone into going out and getting me one.” Abby turned puppy eyes on Tony.
“Oh, no. Gibbs said talk to Dr. House, that’s what I’m going to do, Abs.”
Abby huffed and leaned against the elevator wall as the doors started to slide closed. “You’re no fun anymore.”
Tony glanced at Abby before looking back up at the ceiling. “I’ll be fun when Gibbs is normal again, or at least normal for Gibbs. Until he starts calling Ducky something other than ‘Dr. Mallard’ I’m going to live in terror.”
Abby smirked. “You in terror, yeah, right. It is weird though. You think he doesn’t have all his memory back yet?” Abby flicked her fingers against the wall as she glanced at Chase. “Gibbs almost got blown up, again, and he lost his memory for a while. He’s been a little off since.”
“Oh.” There wasn’t much to be said to that, but then he didn’t have any idea what Gibbs ‘off’ and ‘normal’ Gibbs might actually look like. He thought it might be something like House before being shot, which was ‘normal’ and him without pain, which had been ‘off’ to Chase. “How often does he get hurt?”
Tony frowned. “He doesn’t get hurt as often as McGee or I do, but sometimes.”
Abby smiled. “He didn’t get the plague like you did.”
Tony huffed and led the way out of the elevator. “Abby, could you please not mention that in earshot of a bunch of doctors. I’ve gotten looked at enough times as it is. I swear Ducky knows every fucking doctor on the planet.”
House stood in the doorway of Wilson’s room. “Ducky knows every corner at least. Who’s the boyfriend, Chase?”
Chase noticed that the other two didn’t even seem fazed by House’s remark. “This is Tony DiNozzo, and Abby… Hmm, I didn’t get her last name.”
House smirked. “Didn’t ask about her.”
Tony started to bristle until Abby laid a hand on his arm. “Tony, it’s okay. You haven’t heard some of the stories Ducky has told Palmer about him.”
Chase just sighed and pushed past House into Wilson’s room. “They need to talk to you about what happened. I’ll sit with Wilson.”
House turned and moved to sit back down. “We’ll talk in here.”
Chase rolled his eyes as he checked over Wilson. “Whatever.”
House tapped his cane on the floor and rubbed his shoulder for a moment. “Abby, have you been giving my fellow tips on back-talking?”
Abby looked up from studying Wilson’s relaxed face. “Nope, but you’re right about the cute thing.”
Chase froze for a bare moment before moving on with his checks. He could wait for Tony to say something and sure enough he was right.
“What cute thing, Abs?”
Abby gently sat on the edge of Wilson’s bed. “Oh, you know, the usual chatter about who you think is cute, who’d be the best in bed, that sort of thing.”
Tony glanced up from hunting through his pockets for his pen. “So...You’ve discussed the possible sex lives of people you’ve never met before?”
Chase watched as Foreman slipped into the room, probably for the next check on Wilson. Abby swung her feet to the sides and back, knocking her boot heels together. House titled his head and smiled at Tony in that predatory way that Chase just knew was going to lead to chaos. He almost wished Wilson were awake so he wouldn’t miss it.
“She thinks you and Gibbs are perfect for each other.”
Tony stilled and looked at House. “We hadn’t mentioned Gibbs’ name in front of you.” Tony glared at Abby. “Jeez, Abby, you could have said something.”
Abby shrugged. “I did. I said I have a relative that worked here.” Abby gestured to the cane. “I thought it had worked.”
House grimaced and tapped the cane against the bottom of Abby’s boot. “It did. Then it stopped.”
“Oh.” Abby signed something and Chase watched Foreman’s expression grow more confused as House watched her for a few moments before tapping the cane against her boot again.
“Wouldn’t help.” House jerked his head towards Foreman. “He’ll go get you a CafPow, just describe it to him."
Abby squealed as she jumped up, making Chase start. She took Foreman by the arm and pulled him from the room. Tony stared after them for a few moments before turning to House.
“You’re the father she doesn’t say much about, aren’t you?”
Chase stayed still, hoping House wouldn’t get too upset at the accusing tone of voice.
House just shrugged. “Her mother didn’t want to be married. I don’t talk about Abby to anyone I know anymore than she talks.”
Everyone turned to Wilson as he groaned and shifted. Chase guarded the IV site as Wilson shifted again, blinked, and then moved his head enough to glare at House.
“Oh, my God, you have spawn and you didn’t even tell me."
House grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t want you, a self-admitted skirt chaser, to go after my little girl, now would I?”
Wilson blinked at the ceiling before muttering, “Asshole parasite maker.” Then Wilson’s eyes slipped closed again.
Chase glanced at House as he adjusted Wilson’s hand on the blanket. House looked almost pleased. Chase wondered if it was because of Wilson waking or what he’d said. House looked up from Wilson to catch him watching. Chase knew that looking away was the worst thing possible so he just kept eye contact.
House smiled. “No chasing for you either.”
Chase smiled faintly. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
House huffed. “Good.” House turned to Tony. “Wilson’s not going to be useful for a while, what’d you want from me?”
Chase slipped out of the room as Tony started asking questions. Collapsing into the first empty chair Chase could find he thought about the idea of House having a daughter. Considering her clothes, which were unique; her tattoos, which Chase figured there were more of; and her attitude, which… Oh, yeah, she was House’s all right. Chase smiled at the thought of what Cameron was going to make of this.
*****
(Part 3)