[CLOSED TO CHASE] Old boss meets new

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy waved her hand. "No. Absolutely not. I can't give you information like that from a resident's private file without knowing why you need it. Especially not one who is in a coma and can't give any authority for you to access the information. He has authorised you to treat him medically, not hack into his personal business," she insisted from

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[chasemd]

Chase pressed his lips together in frustration. "He isn't going to care! The guy was willing to let himself be a lab rat for the sake of finding the answer for the others. Sure, it's defunct now that it's looking more and more like he has something different, but I need to know what date from home he arrived here. It's important."

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy pursed her own lips and let out a long-suffering sigh. "How does that have any bearing on you finding what is eating away at his lungs, Chase? Becoming fixated on this is not going to help anyone, least of all the patient," she stated.

[chasemd]

"Because I need to know if this thing killed him back home!" Chase growled, pacing back and forth behind his desk. He scraped his hand through his hair and blew out a sharp breath. "It could give us a time frame. It could tell us if it's terminal. It could be important. That's how it bears, Cuddy."

[dean_ofmedicine]

"You have a time frame. It was a week from when he slipped into a coma and needed to be hooked up to life support. No debates about that. The date he came here is irrelevant. He didn't die back home, he was on his way to service. He told Amber that when he originally was seeing her for the flu," Cuddy insisted, following his movements with her eyes.

[chasemd]

"That time frame might be defunct," Chase told her hesitantly, but didn't specifically elaborate. "He may have verbally waived it the morning before he went into the coma. Which is beside the point for me wanting this information. He died back home."

He picked up the funeral notice from beside his PC, in now in a small plastic bag to preserve it, and handed it across the desk to her. "I need to know how long it was between him arriving here and that date. If it's months, there might be argument to keep him on the life support to treat him. If it's weeks, we might not have seven days under our sleeves. I need to know what date it was back in America that he came here and how long he has been on the island to the day. Whatever this is could be terminal and he could already be a ticking time bomb, coma or not."

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy's mouth was hanging open slightly as she read over the newspaper clipping. "Where did you get this? Does House know?" she asked in disbelief. She rested her fingers against her lips so she could think about the situation. "Could this just be planted as a scare tactic? A US soldier fresh from the war. He could have support just by default, people up in arms that we aren't doing enough to save him."

[chasemd]

Chase dropped back down in his chair. "His car from back home has just appeared. I know, I know. I can't explain it. I can't explain anything on this island and I gave up trying to a long time ago. The keys appeared on his nightstand with a Littlerock keyring, Fox went out to look for it just on a hunch. The keys opened the car and there was some of his personal items in the glove compartment that indicated without a doubt it was his. He had spoken about his love for the car to her in the weeks before he got sick. It's a unique make, unique design, exactly how he described it to her. The article was in there and you can see at the bottom of the clipping it's from an Arkansas newspaper a few days after the date of death

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy looked closer at the cutting of newspaper, seeing what Chase was saying was right. It was an Arkansas paper. It was strange, too. Rob had been here a lot less longer than she had, but his death was close to a year before the date she left Princeton. She felt another rush of air escape her that she hadn't realised she had been holding and looked up at him, her lips forming a thing line. "So, if he dies here, doesn't wake up from the coma, that's it?" she asked quietly.

[chasemd]

Chase gave a slight nod of confirmation. "So it seems," he murmured. "You know I wouldn't ask unless I thought it was important, and you know I wouldn't ask because I know exactly what it's like to have ethics waved in my face."

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy held his gaze. "Important for finding the diagnoses, or important because you know how it feels to be in Rob's girlfriend's shoes and you don't want her to have to face losing someone it's taken a lot to admit she cares about?" she asked him pointedly.

[chasemd]

"Both," Chase eventually confirmed after a long pause. "And you and I both know you know just as well as we do what the latter feels like, if not for a much longer time. Hurts, doesn't it? It hurts a lot."

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy remained calm outwardly, but inside she felt like Chase had just ripped the floor out from under her with his hushed Aussie accent and eyes that said so much yet very little that could be deciphered unless you really knew him. She cursed him silently, just out of principle and stood up, clearing her throat. "I'll consider the release of information and get back to you," she told him. "Is that all you needed me for, Dr Chase?"

[chasemd]

Chase watched her closely, but just nodded. "Thank you, Dr Cuddy," he returned with the same crisp formality her own words had taken. That night in the bar with her all those months that led to a lot more seemed like nothing but a fleeting memory now.

[dean_ofmedicine]

Cuddy merely nodded distractedly, glancing at him one last time before pulling her shoulders back and leaving his office. Damn this case. Damn the whole island. Damn it to hell.