Title: Yesterday's Man
Author: JennifferButterfly
Synopsis: Following a life-altering event, Chase finds himself on a search for a new existence as well as some answers to his old one.

DO NOT READ THIS NOTE!! There, now that I have your attention, I would just like to say that this fic was written before the finale so Cameron never quit and Chase was never fired. This also means that Cameron never decided to be with Chase. Again, that’s because all of that was developed in the finale and this was written beforehand.

And much grande gracias to my beta'er, fluffy2001

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Chapter One

“Chase, get in here, I’ve got a chore for you, man-slave.” House yelled from his desk as he tossed his tennis ball around.

Chase, who’d been sitting at the conference table in the other room, rubbed his face and groaned. “You know, ever since Foreman left, I’ve become man-slave. Why do I have to be man-slave?”

Cameron didn’t take her eyes off of her newspaper. Instead she just casually responded with a very nonchalant excuse. “Because you’re the only man now, brainiac.”

When Cameron was right, she was right. Chase glared at here for that obvious statement and thought about a response. He could tell her that he meant why did House have to give him the name instead of dropping it, but decided against any further conversation because House was waiting. Chase sighed, stood up from his chair at the end of the table and rolled up his blue sleeves as he went into House’s office. “About time you came in.” House begrudgingly said, “I’ve been waiting a whole minute and you know how I feel about waiting.” Chase just rolled his eyes and waited for what House wanted. House tossed the oversized tennis ball at Chase, who caught it and set it down on the cabinet next to him, and then grabbed a folder off the desk. “I want you to take this to Dr. Matthews.”

Chase took the folder that his boss held out to him and looked at it questioningly. “What is it?” He asked while he started to open it. House took his cane and hit Chase on the wrist, which made the Australian stop what he was doing. “Ow, what was that for?”

“I don’t want you going through that! For your information, that folder contains some very private information for his eyes only. So stop being nosy.”

“If it’s so damned important how come you don’t put it in a manila envelope, stamp the word confidential on it, and deliver it yourself?”

“Because I don’t have one, the stamp got confiscated by Wilson after I went stamp crazy, and I’m a cripple. Now get moving, Dr. Matthews is expecting my response this afternoon and I don’t it to be late!”

Chase rolled his eyes again and sighed as he left the office. House may have been an ass, but he wasn’t one to be messed with. Besides, Chase was willing to deliver the folder if it meant getting away from diagnostics, if only for a few minutes.

He meandered over to the elevator, taking his sweet time because he didn’t want to head back to soon, and hit the button to summon the lift. He waited for a minute, staring at his shoes, before the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. About four people got off just as he got on. One other person was in there with him, but they got off on fifth floor and Chase was headed up to the top; floor number six. When the other passenger got off, Chase was by himself so he decided to peek in the folder. All Chase needed to do was open it just a little bit to see a note written by House in big red letters in there.

Dr. Matthews,

Do you really think I’d go along with this? Hell no. But if you manage to do this successfully, let me know. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on your wonderful Mercedes Benz while you’re gone.

Now leave me alone,

House

Chase didn’t bother to look through the rest of the folder because it wasn’t unusual for House to refuse giving other doctors a moment of his time. What was odd though was that House wrote a note saying no, but Chase quickly dismissed that anomaly to the fact that House saw the possibility in getting a great car and was probably just writing back for that.

The elevator dinged off and the doors slid open. Chase stepped out and onto floor six, the research floor. He turned to the right and looked on the directory on the wall. Dr. Matthews, Office 624 – Lab 629. Simple enough, the rooms on this floor were numbered just like the diagnostics floor and Chase figured he’d have no problem finding it. He began to stroll down the white, yet slightly dark, hallway and stopped at room 624. He knocked on the wooden door, just below Dr. Matthews’ nametag, but there was no answer. Chase sighed and tried the door handle, figuring he could leave the folder on the doctor’s desk. Unfortunately the door was locked, but thankfully Chase remembered the lab so he continued down the hall to room 629. There was also a wooden door to that room with Dr. Matthews name on it, but this time the door was slightly ajar.

Chase cautiously peeked his head in and looked around. “Dr. Matthews? Hello?”

“Damn it, live, live!!!” A man yelled in frustration. Chase opened the door some more and saw the back of a brown haired man in a lab coat leaning over the table. The man, who Chase assumed was Dr. Matthews, turned to the defribulator on his right and turned the dial. “100, that should do it.” He said. After that he took the paddles and went back to leaning over the table. Chase walked in and over to the doctor’s side, curious as to what was going on.

It was a cat. An orange tabby cat with medium length fluffy, wet hair. It was wet and that came off as a bit odd to Chase. The cat was also laying on its back on a metal examining table, with its legs tied down. The cat had an intubation tube down its throat, connected to a bag that Dr. Matthews was pumping, and it’s pink and slightly grey tongue hanged out of its mouth. Dr. Matthews turned to Chase and scowled. “Start compressions, boy, we need to keep this feller alive.” Chase automatically dropped the folder on the table, at the feet of the feline, and began compressions just like he was asked. Dr. Matthews felt for the cat’s pulse in any spot that he could before growling in annoyance. “Still nothing! Well don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily, Whiskers, I won’t let you. Charging to 110, clear!” Chase quickly pulled back and watched as Dr. Matthews shocked the cat one more time. After that he quickly felt for a pulse once more, this time cheering after a minute of feeling around. “Yes! That’s it, come one give me another beat…yes! Haha, atta boy, Whiskers!” Dr. Matthews quickly stroked the cat’s stomach and the grabbed Chase in a full hug. “It worked!! It worked, my dear boy, I’m a success.”

Chase stood there for a moment before awkwardly patting the man’s back. “Um, congratulations? You saved a cat.”

Dr. Matthews pulled back from the hug and grabbed Chase by his upper arms. “Not just any cat, but the first cat to go through…” Dr. Matthews began to drift off.

“Go through what?” Chase asked.

“Oh, uh never mind. I can’t really talk about it.” Dr Matthews said as turned back to the cat and started uniting him. “So, is there a reason you came here?” He then disconnected the cat from the air bag and then carried it over to a cage with blankets in it.

“Yeah, um, Dr. House sent me up here with a folder for you.” Chase said as he grabbed said folder and followed Dr. Matthews to the cage.

“Excellent.” He said smiling as he carefully pulled the intubation tube out of the cat’s mouth. When it was out he tossed it to the side and turned to Chase to quickly snatch the folder. He was smiling at first, when he opened the folder, but as he read the message, Chase could see him start to frown. Finally, after scanning it several times, Dr. Matthews slammed the folder shut, closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose. After a minute he snapped his eyes open held the folder out to Chase. “Did you look in this?” He asked accusingly.

Chase slowly started to back up. “No!”

Dr. Matthews followed. “Are you sure, because this is highly confidential stuff and if anybody but House were to read it then that person would have to pay!”

Chase, who was now backed up against a fancy blood pressure cuff and stand, gave a meek smile and looked at Dr. Matthews. “Why, what’s in there, a love letter?” He asked, trying to ease the tension.

Dr. Matthews glared at Chase for another minute before he began to snicker and eventually laugh. He eased up off of Chase and walked away while Chase also laughed, but his version was apprehensive. “Oh, that was a good one.” Dr. Matthews said, “A love letter, ha! No, no it doesn’t have a love letter in it, just important research stuff.” He then tossed the folder onto his lab desk and looked at Chase. “Listen, I’m sorry about scaring you there, it’s just that this is some pretty serious stuff and with the way House sent it, I had no idea how many other people saw it.”

“It’s ok,” Chase said, still a little bit uneasy, “listen, I better get going, House is probably waiting for me down in diagnostics.”

Dr. Matthews nodded in understanding and Chase began to leave. Just when he had his hand on the door handle, Dr. Matthews spoke up again. “Do you have a strong heart?” Chase turned around and faced him with confusion plastering his face. “Oh, it’s nothing, really. I’m just a cardiologist and I’m researching a new drug but I need some more people for a control group.”

After a minute, Chase finally spoke, “Uh…”

“Listen, all you have to do is run on a treadmill for a little bit while I take your vitals. I swear that’s it, no testing or new drugs or anything. I know, how about you come in tomorrow, around five, and we’ll run the tests. If you see anything funny or don’t like the looks of anything, I’ll let you leave, no questions asked.”

“And you won’t try to stop me?”

“Nope, you can just head straight out.”

Chase thought about it for a minute, even biting his lip at one point. In the few minutes he’d known Dr. Matthews, the man proved to be rather odd, but it wasn’t unusual for research doctors to ask for volunteers for basic tests to get control group statistics. Chase, as a matter of fact, had already been a volunteer once before for Dr. Kendra’s research on a new eye medicine, and all he had to do was come in and read an eye chart. After carefully considering it in his head, Chase looked back up at Dr. Matthews. “We’ll see.” He said and then he left the lab.

Dr. Matthews smiled to himself and turned around to tend to Whiskers while he whistled a familiar show’s theme song. Dr. Matthews was right about his intentions, all he was going to do was take vitals on Chase as the man ran on a treadmill. But he did lie to Chase about one thing. He wasn’t just a cardiologist like he said he was, though his other specialty did begin with a ‘C’ as well.