Chapter Text
Thinking back, Chase should have known that this had been a bad idea. When Cuddy had told him that he was supposed to accompany House and Wilson to some medical conference he hadn’t been overly thrilled. When she had told him that there would be a six-hour drive until they’d get there, he hadn’t been looking forward to it at all.
Being stuck in a car with House and Wilson for this long was bound to be a disaster. But all his protests had been useless and although Cuddy didn’t even explain to him properly why the hell he had to go to this stupid conference, Chase had just given up, knowing that any further arguing wouldn’t get him anywhere.
Therefore, he found himself standing on his doorstep at seven on a rather chilly October morning, waiting for them to pick him up. Chase shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around himself. He hadn’t expected the air to be this cold, and he quickly stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying not to freeze to death while he waited. Of course, House and Wilson were late and honestly, Chase wouldn’t be surprised if House had intentionally delayed them only to force Chase to stay out in the cold longer.
But finally, Wilson’s car turned around the corner and came to an abrupt stop in front of him. Chase saw House grinning at him from the passenger’s seat while Wilson opened the door to get out.
“Good morning, Chase”, he greeted, sounding as tired as Chase felt but still smiled politely at him. Classical Wilson.
“Morning”, Chase replied without much enthusiasm and followed the other man to the back of the car, where he loaded his small suitcase into the trunk. He decided to take his backpack with him to his seat and climbed in behind the driver’s seat.
“Wow, you really look like you just fell out of bed”, House greeted him teasingly from the front and Chase rolled his eyes.
“You’re late”, he muttered and crossed his arms in front of his chest, partly to show his annoyance and partly in an attempt to warm himself up. “And it’s freaking cold outside”, he added gruffly, before he leaned back in his seat and tried to relax.
“Oh, come on, Blondie. It’s really not that cold outside”, his boss replied and smirked at Chase, who didn’t bother with an answer. “You are really not a morning person at all, are you?”, House added when Chase ignored him, grinning a little too much for Chase’s liking.
“If you two are finished, do you think we can start driving now?”, Wilson interrupted them, sounding somewhere between annoyed and amused.
“Killjoy”, House muttered but after shooting Chase another huge grin, he leaned back in his own seat and nodded towards Wilson, who started driving.
“How long until we get there again?”, Chase asked from the back of the car, after they had driven for maybe five minutes. House snorted.
“Already need a pee break, Blondie?”, he commented, and Chase rolled his eyes.
“Should be roughly six hours without breaks or traffic jam”, Wilson replied, and Chase nodded in defeat. Sadly, their time on the road had not just magically been reduced over-night.
“Stop looking so pouty back there, little wombat”, House said teasingly, “this is going to be an amazing road trip”
Chase highly doubted that.
“Why are you so happy anyway? I thought you hate those conferences as well and I didn’t even know you were capable of getting up this early, so why aren’t you all grumpy?”, Chase asked. House’s good mood was strangely unsettling in his opinion.
His boss just shrugged and grinned at him playfully again.
“I hate conferences, but I love road trips”, he replied and to Chase’s surprise he pulled out an old and worn-out flat cap over his head, looking genuinely pleased with himself. He reached for the radio and changed channels until he found a song he apparently liked and turn the volume up, humming along contently.
Chase really wasn’t sure what to make of this. His boss actually seemed to be enjoying himself, which was new territory for Chase.
“House”, Wilson complained and turned the volume lower, “it’s not even eight yet so let’s keep it down for now”
“Like I said before; killjoy!”, House replied and pretended to pout. As much as Chase tried not to, he cracked a small smile. Listening to House and Wilson bantering was always surprisingly entertaining.
“So, let’s play a car game then”, his boss suggested, still sounding annoyingly enthusiastic. Chase groaned and Wilson rolled his eyes, which unfortunately did not stop House in the slightest.
“I spy with my little eye…”, he began and looked around in the car, “…a grumpy Australian animal”
This time Wilson had to laugh and even Chase had a hard time suppressing a small smile.
“I think the Australian animal is going to take a nap”, Chase said and yawned. He was still pretty tired and figured he might as well get some sleep while they were just sitting there.
“You two are really just one huge disappointment”, House complained, whining dramatically.
“Maybe I’m just not too thrilled about having to drive six freaking hours to go to an oncology conference without even knowing what I’m supposed to do there in the first place”, Chase retorted.
He wasn’t even sure why he was in such a bad mood this morning and knew he was acting a little childish because although it probably wouldn’t turn out to be the best weekend of his life, it wasn’t the end of it either.
A small part of him was actually kind of glad to have something to do other than trying to come up with plans all by himself in his apartment, but he obviously wouldn’t admit that to House or Wilson. That would also mean admitting that he still missed Cameron and that he had a harder time dealing with the divorce than he pretended to. But still, he really didn’t understand why Cuddy made him go to this thing. He didn’t even know what House was supposed to do there, but he figured that his boss had just accompanied Wilson for fun.
“Maybe you’ll have the time of your life there”, House pointed out although the way he grinned at Chase told the younger man that his boss knew all to well that Chase most likely was not going to have a very nice time.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a big blast”, Chase scoffed.
“My goodness you two are annoying”, Wilson muttered but looked more amused than actually bothered. House smirked.
“Alright then, you heard the boss kiddo. Time for a nap back there”, his boss said and turned to look at Chase.
Although Chase was a little bit disturbed by the fact that he suddenly almost felt like the kid in the back of the car with his parents arguing in the front, he had to admit that it was also kind of funny to look at it this way. But he was too tired to think much about it anyway, so he just leaned back, trying to find a comfortable and more importantly warm position in his seat.
Finally, he decided to use his jacket as a blanket and took it off, to wrap it around himself. He really had no idea why he still felt cold.
“You know it’s not even winter yet, Blondie”, House commented when he noticed Chase’s attempt to warm himself up. Chase rolled his eyes at his boss but to his surprise, House actually went to turn the heater up a bit, which made Chase smile appreciatively although House chose to ignore it.
Feeling a little warmer, Chase closed his eyes and leaned his head against the window. Taking a few deep breaths. He hadn’t really noticed it before, but his stomach felt a little queasy. Not too bad yet but he definitely did not want to get carsick on a road trip with House and Wilson. Therefore, he hoped to just sleep through the sensation, hopefully waking up feeling better.
House and Wilson had started talking again, but the constant humming of the car was oddly calming and slowly lulled Chase to sleep.