37 Small Surprise

'Wait, Dr. Robert Chase as in Chase from House? How? I only said sitcoms and slice-of-life anime?'

[Incorrect. User said "Sitcoms and slice-of-life anime. Nothing with superpowers or anything supernatural."]

'You counted that last comment as criteria? I was clarifying my choices not adding another criterion.' I told the DGC to which it didn't respond.

'Well shit. This makes things much more complicated. I don't know what dramas have been added. There are too many. Not to mention, if any cop dramas have been added, the chance of random killings has increased exponentially. And there's a terrorist episode in every cop show for some reason. Shit, well not much I can do except continue living my life and deal with what may come my way.'

"Sir, are you okay?" I heard the receptionist ask me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Hmm, oh, I'm fine thank you very much. Just lost in my thoughts. Sorry about that." I said stepping up to check-in.

"It's quite alright. How may I help you today?" she asked with a very amicable smile.

"I'm here to check in for the conference. Here's my ID." I said handing her my ID card.

"Oh my god, you're a doctor?" she said baffled that I was a doctor.

"Indeed I am. I have a stethoscope and everything." I joked.

"I'm sorry, I've just never seen a doctor so young before. Here you go, doctor." she said before handing me my pass and an itinerary.

"Thank you very much, Chloe." I said before winking at her and walking in to see if I could catch up with Chase. Unfortunately, I lost him in the time it took for me to get checked in.

'Well, I'm sure I'll see him around somewhere. Wait, it's 2012 and it's never specified what year it is in the show, but if we were to go off the year it came out, the show ends in 2012. That means that House is probably in the wind with Wilson. I wonder if I can find anything about it online.' I thought before pulling out my phone and searching up Dr. House on Google.

The first article that came out was about how Dr. House was the greatest diagnostician in the country from a couple of years ago. Followed by some other random articles. Then I searched up Dr. James Wilson which was also a dead end.

'Damn, no useful information. It's weird that there's nothing about how House drove into Cuddy's house though. I thought for sure that would make headlines. Oh well. Guess I'll have to talk to Chase to figure out the timeline.'

Putting my phone away, I took a look at the itinerary that the receptionist handed me. A few panels with talks from well-known doctors, some pharmaceutical companies, one Vogler Pharmaceuticals, and interesting research presentations. To be honest, nothing stood out to me so I decided to just walk around until I found something interesting.

'I could go to the lounge first. Chase might be there. I doubt he would come to a conference for anything other than the social aspect.' I thought before making my way to the lounge area where the doctors could hang out.

Another thing I found out just recently is that for some reason the legal drinking age is 18 in this world, but you can't go inside a bar until you're 21 unless the owner okays it. Lucky me though or I would have to wait three more years before I could drink in a social setting.

Anyways, after a brief walk to the lounge area, I entered and took a look around to see if I could notice anyone. Besides admiring the impeccably decorated lounge area, I saw the man I was looking for nursing a drink at the bar. Walking up to sit one seat over from him, I decide to order a drink before starting a conversation.

"Old-fashioned, please." I asked the bartender.

"I'm going to need to see some ID." he said skeptical about my age.

"Of course." I said before pulling out my ID and showing it to him.

"Alright, it'll be ready in just a minute." he said before going to make my drink.

Turning to look at Chase, he looked exactly like he did in the show. Short blonde hair with blue eyes, and pretty handsome if I do say so myself.

"Dr. Chase, I'm Matt Garetty. I also happen to be a big fan of your boss." I said introducing myself to him while reaching for a handshake.

"Wait, Matt Garetty, as in the youngest doctor ever, who beat the previous record by 2 years, Matt Garetty?" he asked while shaking my hand.

"The one and only." I said with a slight smile on my face.

"Here's your drink." said the bartender with my old-fashioned.

"Ah, thank you. Keep the change." I said before putting the cost of the drink plus a generous tip in his hands.

"Appreciate it."

"So, back to our conversation." I said after taking a sip of my drink and turning back to Chase. "How is your boss by the way?"

"Dead. He died in a fire." he answered with some sadness in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. He was a great doctor. I wish I had met him." I said with some empathy even though I knew he wasn't dead. But this let me know that the events of the show were over, and meeting House would now be by pure luck seeing as he is traveling the country with Wilson.

"He was a great doctor and better mentor. I learned how to be a diagnostician from him." he said reminiscing about his years on the team.

"So where do you work now?"

"I'm running the Diagnostics Department at Princeton-Plainsboro."

"Phew, nice. I guess that means you took over for House?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Any interesting cases?"

"Not as many since House passed, but a few here and there. It'll take a while until people believe I'm just as good as House."

"I don't doubt it."

"What about you? I haven't heard you've settled down at any hospital yet. It would be all over the news if you did."

"No, not yet. I'm going to travel the world and see where the wind takes me. Help people out on the way before I decide to settle down somewhere. Or open my own clinic, we'll see what the future holds."

"That sounds like fun."

"Do you really think that or are you just being nice?" I asked with a smirk.

"It sounds miserable. All that traveling and staying in hotels. I'd rather work at a third-rate hospital."

"Hahaha. Traveling that much is certainly not for everyone."

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AN

Double upload chapter.

I decided to change the legal drinking age in the merged world to 18 because it makes more sense. You can buy a gun but not take a drink, makes no sense to me. Also, it gives me a little more leeway when dealing with certain things that you'll eventually come to see.

I went back and changed a dialogue scene where Ciri blushes at being called lovebirds with Matt because after rereading it I felt it was too out of character. She is supposed to be happier and not as depressed overall considering she wasn't r***d and she has friends she can talk to about her problems, but she's not a schoolgirl. Go check it out to see the new dialogue, no new info but changes the feel of her character IMO. Chapter titled Thank You.