Tales Told Ouf of Turn Part 2
Title: Tales Told Out of Turn Part 2/?
Rating: NC-17
Pairing/Grouping: House/Wilson/Chase
Disclaimer: Don't own them, as we all know.
Crossover w/Stargate: Atlantis (you don't need to know much about Stargate to get this fic.)
Summary: House spent way too much time moving around the world as a child and some places had more interesting people than others. How much trouble can a childhood friend cause?
Warnings: Hurt!Chase makes an appearance, although the harm is done prior to this fic. Mentions are made, but no graphic discriptitions. (And I fix him, so it's really about the healing not the hurt.)
Beta: recrudescence
(Part 1)
A/N on trio versions: H/W/Ch versions I'm currently writing.
*****
House could see the slightly panicked expressions on both Wilson and Chase as they let themselves into his office. House threw down his Game Boy and raised his eyebrows at them.
"House, that man is scary."
"What’d he say, Wilson?"
Wilson explained what Rodney had said about them being together as he dropped to sit in the chair across the desk from House. Chase leaned against the edge of the desk and watched the other two fellows through the glass wall of the office.
"Rodney is Rodney. He was always capable of being the most seemingly oblivious person when it came to other people, but then he’d have filed away all these little things that he could surprise you with."
"He didn’t even blink as he just came right out and asked if we were all together."
House shrugged. "He once suggested our teacher have a three-way with the principal and a hippo. He doesn’t faze easily."
"Are you going to call that general back, then?" asked Chase as he picked up House’s toy.
House snatched the toy out of Chase’s hands. "No. If they really want to talk, they’ll call again."
"Working bombs, House?"
House snorted. "Yeah." House made shooing motions with his hands. "Go deal with dying people, Wilson."
Wilson sighed, got up, and headed for the door. Partway there, he stopped and turned back. "Don’t think you’re getting out of this conversation. If you avoid it too long, I’ll call your mother."
House threw a pen at Wilson. "No bugging my Mom. I’ll tell you later."
Wilson caught, fumbled, and then threw the pen back. "You’d better."
Once the door had closed, House looked up at Chase. "You okay?"
Chase pushed away from the desk. "I’m fine."
"Go sit with Rodney and his friend. Page me if any suits show up. Don’t let them into the room, though, not even for a Presidential Order, okay?"
Chase nodded. "Sure."
House watched Chase walk away before levering himself up and going out onto his balcony. It was a few minutes before Wilson appeared on his balcony. They leaned against the rail and watched the people moving below.
"Think Chase is okay?"
"Probably. I sent him to sit with Rodney. He’ll keep an eye on the wombat."
Wilson turned around so he was half sitting on the rail. "Why do you insist on calling him that?"
House blew out a breath. "It’s because of something Rodney once said, actually. He referred to himself as a wombat once. Chase reminded me of Rodney when he first came to work."
"Chase reminds you of that…that crazy man?"
House smiled. "They dealt with a lot of the same things growing up, Wilson. The more we pry out of Chase the more it sounds like Rodney on a different timeline."
Wilson blinked. "Drunk parent, all that?"
House nodded. "Matches up fairly well. Rodney’s mother died sooner than Chase’s, though."
"Oh."
"I either just gave Chase the best chance for healing he’s gotten so far, or I just broke him."
"What’d you do?"
"Sent him to sit with Rodney."
"Oh."
****
Chase closed the door of the room behind him and started to check over both men. As he passed between Rodney and the light from the window, Rodney’s eyes popped open.
"Oh." Rodney rubbed at an eye. "It’s just you. Talk to House?"
Chase nodded as he sat down beside the bed. "As much as he talks, yeah."
Rodney dropped his hand to scratch at the jagged scar on the inside of his arm. "House wasn’t ever very much of a talker. Isn’t going to call that general back, is he?"
"No, but you didn’t expect him to, did you?"
"No. You okay?"
Chase frowned. "Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?"
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don’t know. You were dealing with a moron with a knife just a few hours ago."
"He was holding the knife on you, not me."
"True. Don’t much like knives." Rodney waved his hand at the scar on his arm. "Got this from a maniac with a knife. Much prefer John with a gun over anyone with a knife."
Chase gripped Rodney’s wrist and looked over the scar. "This isn’t that old. You attract knives, then?"
Both men looked at John when they heard him snort. "Oh, he attracts all sorts of trouble."
"Coming from Mr. Trouble himself, that’s really rich."
John smiled as he indicated Chase. "He has no idea the amount of trouble either of us attracts."
"Well, he would if you’d shut up long enough for me to tell him about your big mouth almost getting us killed on a weekly basis."
"Me? It isn’t always my big mouth that gets us in trouble. And if I remember right my mouth has gotten us out of trouble on more than one occasion."
"Yeah, any time you kiss someone it doesn’t go so well, now does it?"
"Rodney!"
Chase covered his mouth and laughed quietly.
"Hey, you can’t laugh at us unless you let us in on the joke." Rodney waved his hand at John. "Although I can understand laughing at him, he is really funny looking with the hair."
Chase shook his head. "No, I’m not laughing because of that. You two act a lot like House and Wilson."
Rodney harrumphed. "Bet you won’t tell House you think that."
"I bet he would."
"Wouldn’t."
"Would so." John pointed at Chase. "He’s not afraid of your friend."
"Maybe he’s afraid of me, then."
"Actually I’m not afraid of either of you. House isn’t scary unless you make him mad. I haven’t done that in a while."
"Your co-workers are afraid of me though."
"Oh, please, McKay, they ran away because they couldn’t stand you any longer."
Chase smiled. "They’ve gotten immune to the most common of House’s barbs. They don’t know what to do with you."
They all looked at the door as House pulled it open.
"Chase, go eat lunch with Wilson. I’ll stay with them."
"Hiding from Cuddy?"
House smirked. "Attracting her here so I won’t miss the fireworks."
Chase nodded. "You voluntarily dealing with patients is a common sign of the end of the world."
Rodney choked and coughed for a moment. "You actually have a list of common signs?"
Chase smiled at Rodney and headed for the door. "It’s posted in some of the lounges. I’ll get you a copy."
House waited until Chase had closed the door behind him to sit down by Rodney.
"Nice kid. What happened to him?"
John cocked his head. "Rodney, you do know that you understanding people is a common sign of the end of life as we know it, right?"
Rodney made a rude noise. "Just because I’ve nothing better to do than pay attention to people right now does not an apocalypse make." Rodney looked at House. "Well?"
House tapped his cane on the floor. "He got attacked seven weeks ago."
"Attacked how? He didn’t seem upset by the moron in the ER, but he’s twitchy when people pass behind him."
"He was coming home from socializing with my other fellows when his car broke down. He went into a nearby bar to call because he dropped his cell or something. Five guys decided to have a party with him and dragged him out of the bar. Luckily he called me instead of some tow company."
"How bad was it?"
"Bad enough. When I got there I wasn’t expecting to find him on his knees being forced to perform sexual acts. I got mad." House held up his cane. "Had to get a new cane because I broke mine. Sometimes it’s good to be a doctor. One of the bastards won’t walk again, if he wakes up, and I only hit him the once."
Rodney nodded and made a ‘tell me more’ motion with his hand.
"They beat him for resisting them. He told the police that they didn’t get any further than what I saw. I put three of them into the hospital. He’s been having nightmares to the point where he was sleeping on the couch."
"Back to sleeping with you now?"
"Last night, at least. He used to take the middle most of the time. He started out there last night, but moved at some point."
Rodney nodded. "How’s he doing on touching?"
House shrugged. "Better. He’ll let Wilson and I hug him now. He’s pushing himself to accept kissing without flinching, but that’s only working part-time."
"You going to send him in here for me to keep an eye on some more?"
House grinned. "Think you can stand him?"
"He grows on you."
"Yeah, like a fungus."
John snorted. Both of the others turned to glare at him.
"Sorry. He learn that saying from you or you learn it from him?"
House and Rodney looked at each other for a moment before turning back to John and answering together, "We have no idea what you are talking about."
John laughed, then winced, and grabbed at his chest. "Oh. Ow. Don’t make me laugh."
House patted Rodney’s arm as he got up and went to check John. Once he had satisfied Rodney that John was fine, House sat back down.
"I’d like to have him sit with you, Rodney. You’re the first person to get him to show more than a bare smile since he was hurt."
Rodney nodded. "Sure, House. You do realize I will be telling him embarrassing stories, right?"
House tapped his cane against the railing of Rodney’s bed. "Wouldn’t expect less from you."
"Can I ask something, Dr. House?"
House turned to John. "What?"
"Why does Rodney call you House, but you call him by his first name?"
House leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. "There were three boys named Gregory in our school, but only one House."
"Makes sense." John smiled. "He couldn’t remember your name, or he refused to remember?"
House grinned. "I refused to remember his until he remembered mine."
"It only took me a couple of days."
"Yeah, well, if you’d have watched what you ate, it would have taken a few minutes."
"How was I supposed to know the stupid woman thought lemon juice made better brownies?" Rodney waved his hands. "Besides, the hospital was a lot more fun for you than school anyway."
"Yeah, I got to look up nurses’ skirts. Loads of childish fun until someone called my Mom."
"Shouldn’t have ditched school to visit then, should you?"
"The hospital was more fun."
"Told you."
House stuck his tongue out at Rodney, who retaliated with an obscene gesture. The door made a small noise as it opened to allow in Dr. Cuddy.
*****
(Part 3)