Me and Emily Chapter Eleven
Title: Me and Emily
Author: nomoretearsAS
Rating: K+/PG
Summary: When House discovers that Chase has a kid, he decides to find out more about both of them. House/Chase friendship.
Disclaimer: I don't own House, Chase, or any characters that you recognize.
Chapter: 11/?
A/N: Okay, we're starting to steer away from fluff and move into the meat of the story. I'd love to hear what you all have to say!
Chase watched the months pass slowly. Fall came, bringing the beautiful colors he had never realized he missed while growing up in Australia. Chase registered Emily for kindergarten and Maddie’s hours cut back. Halloween came upon them, Cuddy throwing a benefit party at the hospital. Chase brought Emily, who had a wonderful time.
Winter came, freezing the air, the roads, and blanketing New Jersey in white powder. Emily thrived in school, coming home every day with new stories, new projects, and new friends. Work passed in an unbroken chain of people needing relief.
Chase kept his word and one Sunday that he had to work, brought Emily into the hospital with him. He left her in the care of “Aunt Lisa” as she now called Cuddy and headed up to the ICU. He had two hours of clinic duty that day and was pleasantly surprised to see his daughter check in on him. Lisa had found her a small lab coat, given her one of Chase’s extra name tags and her own stethoscope.
Even House came down to the clinic to see her. Of course, Cuddy managed to get him to do a few hours with Emily “supervising” him. She told Emily that if he didn’t do at least two hours she’d get to fire him. So Emily tagged along after him, making sure he was seeing patients and filling out charts. Chase thought it was the cutest thing he had ever seen.
He watched House sneak into an empty room with Emily in tow, giggling conspicuously and shook his head, heading to the nurses station for another chart. Nurse Brenda saw him and waved him over. “Dr. Chase, I’ve got someone here who says she has to see YOU.” Chase stifled a sigh.
“Did you tell her that this is a free clinic and she gets who she gets?” he asked, annoyed. He had wanted to sneak into the exam room that House and Emily were in and smother her with hugs and kisses.
Brenda gave him a look. “Of course I did. She said she didn’t care how long she had to wait, but she had to see you. She’s got the same accent. Said to tell you her name’s Lauren Holloway.” Chase’s entire world stopped. His heart froze, his breath caught in his chest and he swayed on the spot. Brenda noticed.
“Are you okay, Dr. Chase?” she asked.
How had she found him? What could she possibly want? He managed to pull himself together enough to face Brenda. “Give me a minute and whatever you do, DON’T point me out to her. I’ll be right back.” he said, leaving quickly.
He headed for the exam room he knew that House and Emily were in. He knew that he had to get Emily out of here. Of all days for her to show up! But just as he reached the door, he heard the familiar voice. “Robert? Oh Robert! It IS you!” she cried. He turned to face her.
Time had not been particularly good to her. Even though only a few years had passed, she looked fifteen years older. The alcohol, he knew. And it seemed that she hadn’t sobered up, at all. He could smell booze on her and it made him nauseous. He raised his voice, in hopes that House would hear and understand.
“Lauren. What are you doing here?” he asked. Inside the clinic room, House heard Chase. The second he heard the name Lauren, he immediately knew what was going on. He also knew that he had to get Emily out of there without Lauren knowing she was there or Emily realizing that anything was going on.
“I came to find you. And my daughter.” she said. Chase felt physically sick.
“You’ve had nothing to do with her for five years, why now?” he asked.
“I had nothing to do with her because you took her. I didn’t know where you were and your asshole of a father wouldn’t tell me.” She shot back.
He felt a prickle of pride for his father, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. “You didn’t want her. You almost killed her, more than once.”
“I was sick.” she said. Chase scoffed.
“You’re STILL drunk! I can smell the booze on you...” She glared.
“It’s none of your business. She’s my daughter and I want to see her.”
“Over my dead body.” he said.
While they were arguing, House picked up the phone and called Cuddy’s extension. His voice was also a little louder than normal, hoping Chase would hear him and know what was going on. “Cuddy, we have an abuse case in Exam 4. Can you please come get the kid and take her away?” Cuddy didn’t know why Emily’s mother wasn’t in her life, but she figured out pretty fast that Emily was in some kind of danger. She assured House she was on her way and as she hurried to the room, she threw a questioning glance at Chase, who was talking to a blond woman. He didn’t even look at her, just kept up his conversation with the woman.
She entered the room and looked at House. He mouthed one word at her, ‘mom’. She still wasn’t sure what was happening, but it wasn’t really the time to discuss it. She turned to Emily. “Emily, I’m going to take you back to my office, okay? I’m going to pick you up and carry you and I don’t want you to look up. Someone outside got kind of sick and I don’t want you to see it, okay?”
Emily was confused, but she trusted her Aunt Lisa, so she agreed and let Cuddy pick her up. She carried her out of the room and was halfway down the hall when she heard her dad say, “Over my dead body.”
Her head shot up and she called out, “Daddy!” before jumping out of Cuddy’s arms and running to him. Chase looked involuntarily at the sound of her voice. Cuddy stopped, House stopped, Chase stopped, Lauren stopped. It seemed the whole world stopped, except for Emily, who was still running at him and jumped into his arms. “Daddy!” she said, hugging him.
“Emily, I need you to go with Aunt Lisa and Uncle House, okay?” he said, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible. She pouted.
“I want to stay with you.” she said. Lauren was staring at her. Emily looked at her. “Daddy, who’s that?” she asked.
“She’s a patient of Daddy’s. Go with Lisa and House.” he said, placing her on the ground. But before she could run back, Lauren grabbed her arms and stooped down to her level.
“Hi Emily. I’m your mommy.” she said. Chase hadn’t seen House come up behind him but he was pretty sure that if he hadn’t been standing there, he would have fallen over. House steadied him.
Emily looked at her. “I don’t have a mommy. I have a daddy! And a Aunt Lisa and a Uncle House.” she stated proudly.
“Your daddy lied to you. You do have a mommy and I’m her. I love you so much.” She tried to hug Emily but Emily got scared. She backed up into Chase’s legs.
“Daddy, make her go away.” she whimpered. Chase threw a helpless glace to Cuddy, who rushed over and picked her up. She carried her quickly into her office, even though Emily was crying out for her father.
Lauren pushed Chase. “How dare you tell her she doesn’t have a mommy! You...you took her away from me. You left me with NOTHING!” she screamed. People were beginning to stare.
“Do you even remember what happened that day? Or were you too drunk? You nearly killed Emily. She was only two months old. There was no way I was going to let my little girl grow up with a mother like that.” he practically spat.
“Right, blame your mommy issues on me. I was a wonderful mother!” House was trying to move them into a room, but neither one was budging.
“You didn’t even want her. You tried to abort her! You threw yourself down the stairs!” he yelled back, forgetting he was a doctor employed in this hospital. Years of anger and hatred had welled up in him. She didn’t deserve Emily.
“I fell! I told you that!”
“You told me from the start you didn’t want kids. You told me when you got pregnant you didn’t want kids. You told me the day you gave birth to Emily you never wanted kids. I wanted her, I loved her, and I was NOT going to let her grow up feeling the way I felt growing up.”
“See! There, right there! You’re blaming your past on me!” Lauren screamed again. Neither seemed to notice security getting closer.
Two guards came up behind them. “Come on folks, let’s take this somewhere a little more private.” Lauren turned on him.
“No! Not until I get to see my daughter!”
“That moment you saw Emily, that’s the last you’ll ever see of her. She’s my daughter!” The guards maneuvered them into an empty conference room. House had disappeared and Cuddy was now there. Chase could only assume that House had his daughter.
“Dr. Chase, umm...” Cuddy faltered, not knowing the other woman’s name.
“Lauren.” Chase filled in for her.
“Dr. Chase, Lauren, obviously you can see we’re in a hospital here and this is not the time or place for this. Emily is quite scared.” Chase took his eyes off Lauren to turn to Cuddy.
“Oh God, is she okay? Is House with her?” he asked. Cuddy saw the torture in his eyes and wanted to ask him so many questions. But like she had just said, this wasn’t the time.
“She’s fine and yes, House is with her. I believe he’s calling Maddie.” she said.
“Who’s Maddie? Some new slut you knocked up and married here in the states?” Chase turned a disgusted glance back on her.
“Maddie is her nanny. And I never married you. You never wanted to be married.” he said.
“I loved you.” she protested.
“You loved alcohol. I swear to God, Lauren, if you don’t leave I will FIGHT you. And guess what, the courts will be on my side. I’ve raised her, I’ve provided her with a home, food, love. And you are an alcoholic.”
“The courts always side with the mother. Especially one who had her child KIDNAPED.” Chase turned white.
“I didn’t kidnap her. While you were passed out cold, after attacking me AND Emily, I left to protect her.”
“Did you ever go to the police with that story? Or did you just up and take a two month old baby away from her mother?” seethed Lauren, knowing exactly what he did. Chase felt like he was going to throw up.
Cuddy tried again. “Please, let’s settle this somewhere else. Clearly this isn’t an appropriate forum for this discussion.” Chase turned back to her.
“Dr. Cuddy, my deepest apologies.” But Cuddy knew him and she knew Emily. She just nodded to let him know he was off the hook, but decided to try and fool Lauren a little.
“Dr. Chase, this kind of behavior is completely inappropriate for a doctor in my hospital. I suggest that you get your guest to leave and report to my office at once.” She turned to security. “Please escort Lauren off the property.” She turned and left. Chase hid a smirk, she was good.
“Don’t think this is over, Robert. Not by a long shot. She’s my kid, too!” Lauren yelled, as the security practically pulled her out. Once she was out of sight, he let himself sink down into a chair. How could this happen? How did she find him? And how on earth was he ever going to explain this to Emily?
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