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House walked into to the office, holding a file up, excitedly. "We have a new cas—" He stopped in his tracks and frowned. "Where is the wombat?"
"Blood draw" Foreman said dully while skimming through some medical journal.
"What? Why? We don't have any case"
"He's the one whose blood is being drawn" Cameron explained.
House scoffed. "Oh, that is not an excuse" he said, annoyed, before heading to the exit. Then he stopped, noticing the rest of the team were still sitting down at the table. "Come on" he urged them before leaving the room.
Chase was sitting at the blood draw station.
"You ready now, Dr Chase?" the phlebotomist asked.
"Uh..." Chase froze. "Why don't you let another person cut in line?" he suggested with a nervous smile.
"... You've already let 5 or 6 people ahead of you"
Chase shrugged. "It's not a problem. I have time, I don't mind waiting, I'm sure those people are in rush and I real—"
"Looks like you're in luck" the phlebotomist said, opening the door and glancing out, then closing it again. "No more patients left. Just you" she added, sitting down and getting the vials ready.
Chase nodded. "Great..."
The door opened loudly.
Chase immediately looked up, seeing his boss and then the team following in. He sighed, exasperated. "House, what are you doing here?"
House sat at one of the tables with a shrug. " We've got a new case" he said, throwing a file at him.
Chase failed to catch it. He sighed and picked it up from the floor, quickly skimming it. "Can't it wait? I'm kinda busy right now"
"Oh, please" House rolled his eyes, snatching the file from him. "You have ages of experience in doing medical procedures yourself. And now she's the one doing on the work, you just have to sit here and look pretty, I think you'll be fine" he said.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen such problematic veins before, they're barely visible" the phlebotomist commented, inspecting Chase's arms. "This is going to be a nightmare" she mumbled.
Chase tensed up a bit and House definintely noticed that. He tilted his head curiously, but didn't say anything.
"Which spot do you usually get your blood drawn from?" the woman asked.
Chase sighed. "No specific spot. Usually, it's trial or error" he said honestly, before turning to House. "Can you leave?"
House smirked. "Not a chance. Not when it's clearly going to be way more interesting than predicted" he said. "Okay, differential diagnosis, go"
"Could be a bacterial infection. Staph?" Cameron suggested.
Foreman nodded. "Or viral, I'm thinkin—"
"Ow!"
The whole team immediately turned their heads to Chase. The phlebotomist had got the needle in his arm, but clearly missed the vein, as no blood was running. "Sorry" she said, taking it out. "Let me try another spot" she said, moving the tourniquet to a different part of his arm.
Team watched her try five different spots unsuccessfully. Then they returned to the differential.
"It could also be—"
They were stopped by a sudden whimper. They immediately turned to Chase, who was sitting with his hand taken far away from the armrest. He glanced down, clearing his throat awkwardly and put the hand back down, his cheeks a bit red.
Foreman smirked while House openly grinned. "Oh, this is going to be interesting"
"Maybe we should go..." Cameron suggested.
Chase was about to say something, but then he winced as the phlebotomist tried another spot. It was a miss again. "Agh, can you get it out?" he said, as the blood didn't run again.
"Of course, sorry. Let me try the left one again"
"No, please, just wait a minute" Chase said, desperately.
Foreman snickered. "Wow"
House grinned. "You're scared... of needles? Medical needles?" he asked, amused.
"No, I'm not..." Chase mumbled. "Shut up..." he added.
"Oh my god! You are!" House said amazed. "Oh, this is golden"
Cameron rolled her eyes. "House, let it go. Seriously, let's go..." she said, before glancing sympathetically at Chase.
Foreman was just sitting there, trying his best not to laugh.
"Seems like we finally found it" the phlebotomist said as the blood started finally flowing slowly into the vial, drop by drop.
Chase glanced at the vial and took a shaky breath. "Oh God" he groaned.
At that both House and Foreman completely lost it. Foreman started chuckling and House burst into laughter entirely.
"You're a doctor!" House mamanged to say, chuckling. "How can you be scared of medical needles?"
"Because my job doesn't require me to be the one stabbed with them!" Chase said, groaning.
House continued laughing.
"Dr Chase?" the phlebotomist asked, frowning suddenly. "Are you going to faint?" she added and House snorted.
"No, I'm fine" Chase said.
"Well, you hand is going a bit limp and the whole colour completely drained from your hands and face..." she said, before glancing at the team. "Can someone get him a cup of cold water?" she added, before getting the needle out of his arm and closing the vial.
Cameron immediately nodded and got up, running to the water dispenser.
"Oh, come on, he's just being dramatic, he's not going t—"
The discussion was stopped by a loud thud.
The phlebotomist and Cameron were immediately at the Australian's doctor side.
He felt the way his whole body was numb and tingling when he started waking up on the hospital cot. His head ached and he felt nauseous.
His eyes fluttered open.
"Rise and shine, sunshine" House said, grinning.
Foreman had an amused glint in his eyes while Cameron was watching him with a concerned frown.
Chase started sitting up sluggishly. "Sorry, I—" He winced softly.
"Woah, easy there, diva" Foreman said with a smirk.
Then House got an idea.
"I have bad news" he said, his face suddenly getting dead serious. "Because of your collapse the vial fell on the floor and smashed, so you need to get your blood redrawn" he said and Foreman snickered.
"House" Cameron hissed. "Stop it"
"Oh, please, it's not like he's actually going to believe it, the vials are plasti—"
They were stopped by another — this time softer — thud.
"Oh, come on, it was a joke!" House choked out, chuckling, while Foreman almost howled with laughter and Cameron started checking Chase's vitals.