"Ignorance is Bliss" post-ep ficlet.
Nov. 23rd, 2009 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_luminaryTitle: Surface Gestures
Author: dominus_trinus (lit_luminary)
Rating: PG
Characters: Chase
Summary: "Chase hates it when people pretend to care." On insincerity and the occasional necessity of incurring a little collateral damage.
Chase hates it when people pretend to care. He hates pity.
There’d been enough ‘I’m sorry’ and other condolences to last him a lifetime when Mum had died, although there’d been no one to help him while she drank herself to her grave. After Rowan’s death, he’d received cards from his father’s colleagues expressing regret, not understanding there’d been no real loss.
Everyone’s reactions to Cameron’s leaving fit the same meaningless pattern: suddenly Foreman’s shed the Leave me out of it attitude and wants to offer him an ear. Even Taub and Thirteen, whom he’s barely ever so much as spoken to, are dispensing dinner invitations and advice.
If any of them were actually his friends, there’d have been some indication before his wife walked out: none of this is really about him. Foreman feels obligated. Taub just wants to know Chase won’t put a bullet through his own head. Thirteen thinks that since therapy helped her, of course it’d help him.
Suddenly it’s easy to understand why House hates social niceties so much: concern that comes out of—whatever they think it is—can’t be genuine. What do they know about how he feels? None of them has ever lost a partner. None of them has—
(He’s not going to think about it. He’s not.)
He tries ignoring them, tries to go on with business as usual (isn’t their patient supposed to be more important to them than his broken marriage?). No appreciable result, so he turns to sarcasm; but that doesn’t keep them at a distance, either.
Then again, Foreman’s worked with House five years and Taub and Thirteen three. If acerbic remarks got to them, they’d have fled screaming ages ago; and nothing he says is going to match House on a bad day.
At least House knows enough to leave him alone. Maybe it’s just that the weekly puzzle’s more interesting, but part of it is also that House doesn’t believe in empty words. House isn’t going to ask him about Cameron; isn’t going to pretend a beer or dinner or therapy will fix any of what’s irreparably broken.
Which is why he feels a little guilty when House starts goading him and he suddenly knows exactly how to get the others off his back. He’s not really angry (he’s had enough exposure to House to expect things like this, and if he’s honest, his colleagues have annoyed him more than this does), but what House is saying is apparently provocative enough. The rest of the team won’t think to look past the surface and what they’ll read into it.
Rising, he closes the distance between them, pulls back his arm and punches the older man squarely in the face.
He goes down hard, and Chase leaves the office. He’ll apologize later.
House will understand: it’s just the sort of thing he’d do himself.
END.
Author: dominus_trinus (lit_luminary)
Rating: PG
Characters: Chase
Summary: "Chase hates it when people pretend to care." On insincerity and the occasional necessity of incurring a little collateral damage.
Chase hates it when people pretend to care. He hates pity.
There’d been enough ‘I’m sorry’ and other condolences to last him a lifetime when Mum had died, although there’d been no one to help him while she drank herself to her grave. After Rowan’s death, he’d received cards from his father’s colleagues expressing regret, not understanding there’d been no real loss.
Everyone’s reactions to Cameron’s leaving fit the same meaningless pattern: suddenly Foreman’s shed the Leave me out of it attitude and wants to offer him an ear. Even Taub and Thirteen, whom he’s barely ever so much as spoken to, are dispensing dinner invitations and advice.
If any of them were actually his friends, there’d have been some indication before his wife walked out: none of this is really about him. Foreman feels obligated. Taub just wants to know Chase won’t put a bullet through his own head. Thirteen thinks that since therapy helped her, of course it’d help him.
Suddenly it’s easy to understand why House hates social niceties so much: concern that comes out of—whatever they think it is—can’t be genuine. What do they know about how he feels? None of them has ever lost a partner. None of them has—
(He’s not going to think about it. He’s not.)
He tries ignoring them, tries to go on with business as usual (isn’t their patient supposed to be more important to them than his broken marriage?). No appreciable result, so he turns to sarcasm; but that doesn’t keep them at a distance, either.
Then again, Foreman’s worked with House five years and Taub and Thirteen three. If acerbic remarks got to them, they’d have fled screaming ages ago; and nothing he says is going to match House on a bad day.
At least House knows enough to leave him alone. Maybe it’s just that the weekly puzzle’s more interesting, but part of it is also that House doesn’t believe in empty words. House isn’t going to ask him about Cameron; isn’t going to pretend a beer or dinner or therapy will fix any of what’s irreparably broken.
Which is why he feels a little guilty when House starts goading him and he suddenly knows exactly how to get the others off his back. He’s not really angry (he’s had enough exposure to House to expect things like this, and if he’s honest, his colleagues have annoyed him more than this does), but what House is saying is apparently provocative enough. The rest of the team won’t think to look past the surface and what they’ll read into it.
Rising, he closes the distance between them, pulls back his arm and punches the older man squarely in the face.
He goes down hard, and Chase leaves the office. He’ll apologize later.
House will understand: it’s just the sort of thing he’d do himself.
END.
