Painful Adjustments part 10
a/n: Ok, please pick yourselves up off the floor from shock of me posting another chapter so quickly and enjoy part 10. In this chapter, we have some Wilson/Cuddy heart to heart, some Wilson introspective, and MAYBE (I’ll never tell) a special appearance by “Go get your man” Wilson attacking a certain blue eyed beauty’s mouth (and no, I don’t mean another nurse…think grumpier). I hope you enjoy it and thanks so much for reading!! Oh yeah, and please let me know if you liked it :)
Fic Paring: House/Wilson primarily. Some House/OFC and a bit of Wilson/OFC
Fic Warning: Slash and spoiler for season 6 premier
Word Count: 2500
Fic rating: T
Disclaimer: David Shore owns them not me!!
Sequel to: www.fanfiction.net/s/5240505/1/Tell_Me_You_Will_Understand
Previous parts found here: www.fanfiction.net/s/5431612/1/Painful_Adjustments
Chapter 10
He wasn’t used to sleeping alone though through no choice of his own he’d been forced to lie every night in a perpetual state of sleeplessness in a cold and empty bed since the breakup. Well except for that one night with Miss Blond Thing, but he wasn’t really counting that. Wilson was getting used to feeling completely exhausted in the mornings but wasn’t really prepared to deal with his mood swings. He’d always been a pretty level headed guy; always willing to turn the other cheek and play happy diplomat. After all, he had plenty of training just from being House’s friend for so long. When he entered the hospital however, his mood didn’t get any more tolerable as he watched Cuddy approach him while he collected his messages from the day before.
“Good morning Doctor Wilson, do you have a moment?” Always the professional in front of her subordinates, Wilson thought. “Sure, what is it?” Cuddy gestured toward her office via the clinic. “Let’s talk in my office.” Wilson sighed and bowed his head in resignation of whatever nonsense she was going to confront him with regarding House; he was so not in the mood for it.
“What’s House done now?” Wilson set his brief case and coat down and took a seat in one of the visitor chairs as Cuddy made herself comfortable behind her desk.
“What makes you think it’s about House?” Wilson actually smiled at that, as strained as it was. “It always is.” Cuddy returned the smile. “Fair enough.”
“So, what is it then?” Cuddy looked at Wilson with puzzled eyes that seemed to soften as recognition hit. “James, are you okay? You look like you haven’t slept in a week. Is everything okay between you and House?” Cuddy was the only one that knew of the romantic relationship between the two men so Wilson didn’t feel the need to deflect.
“He ended our relationship a couple of weeks ago.” Cuddy was stunned that House would leave Wilson after he worked so hard to get him in the first place but she kept her demeanor neutral in any case.
“Does this have anything to do with the rumors going around the obstetrics’ floor?” Wilson’s eyes went wide in surprise but he quickly gathered his senses enough to play dumb in order to find out exactly what she knew. “What rumors?” Cuddy didn’t miss Wilson’s initial reaction so she figured there must be some truth to what she’d heard.
“Well, I’m told that House accompanied a pregnant woman…I believe her name was Lydia, to a sonogram appointment yesterday. Apparently it was quite obvious that House is the father of her child.” Well so much for doctor patient confidentiality. “It sounds like you pretty much have the important parts of the story.”
“So it’s true then. She’s pregnant with House’s child?” Wilson leaned back; clearly uneasy with the whole conversation. “Seems that way. She’s five or so months along and House believes it to be his, so…” Cuddy cut him off. “Five months? But he was in Mayfield five months ago.”
“Yep.” Cuddy got up from her chair and rounded the desk to lean against the front. It made for a better perspective apparently.
“Wilson…?”
Wilson sighed, how on earth did I get in the middle of this? “Lisa, I really don’t know what you want me to say. He had sex with Lydia while he was a patient in Mayfield. She showed up at his door a couple of weeks ago and announced she was pregnant. Two days after that, he left me…presumably for her. There really isn’t anything else to tell.”
“Wow…I..I don’t know wh….was she a patient too?” Wilson admired Cuddy’s attempt at hiding her true emotion about what she’d just heard. After all, part of House’s hospitalization was due to his delusion regarding her. Even though she came to the realization months ago that a relationship was not in the cards for them, she assumed he still desired her early in his stay at Mayfield. It’s a blow to anyone’s ego he supposed…he knew it was to his.
“No, her sister in law was a patient on the same ward as House and apparently they met that way and just…connected. I don’t really know the whole story and honestly, it really doesn’t matter anymore. It’s House’s life, his decision.”
There was so much more that Cuddy wanted to say regarding what she just learned. The breakdown in the institution’s system, the type of person Lydia was, the idea of House being a father. After all, that was the primary reason in the end why she chose not to pursue House; she didn’t think he’d want or could be a father. She couldn’t bring herself to address it any further with Wilson however; one look at him told her all she needed to know regarding how he took the news.
“Wilson, why did you let him go? He loves you.”
Wilson stood up and shook his head; he tried desperately to keep his emotions in check, but his hand betrayed his agitation when it migrated to the back of his neck. “No Lisa, he doesn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t have left me for a woman he knew for all of a month before she took off with her husband without saying goodbye! I just need to move on and hope that I can at least salvage the friendship that we had before I went and slept with him like a fucking idiot!”
Cuddy did not miss the husband piece of that little rant but she let it slide for the moment. “Are you sure that he’s seeing her…dating her? This just doesn’t sound like something House would do.”
Wilson went to grab his belongings; he needed the conversation to end. “He implied it! Lisa, it’s over; there’s nothing I can do but move on.” Wilson headed for the door but Cuddy knew there had to be more to House’s motives. He wouldn’t just leave Wilson to jump into another relationship with a relative stranger, pregnant or not. He’s not that noble; something else was going on. She moved toward the door to hold it open for her star oncologist.
“Wilson, you love him and I know he loves you. Fight for him!”
“You’re romanticizing Cuddy. If you’ll excuse me now, I have appointments.”
“Just think about what I said. I’ll see you later.” Wilson nodded his head, not so much in acceptance of her words, but in an attempt to get her off his back. “Yeah, see ya.”
*****
Of course Wilson had lied to Cuddy. He didn’t actually have any appointments until after lunch because he planned to do paperwork all morning. I really should get my assistant to do some of this; seems like I’m always doing paperwork. Lunch with House was just an hour away and for some reason, Wilson grew more and more nervous about the meeting with each minute that passed.
This is absurd. We’ve been friends for nearly twenty years and had how many lunches together? I feel like a teenager going on his first date. Could Cuddy be right? Can House still love me? Did he ever actually love me or was our relationship just some experiment to him until he became bored? And how in the hell did Lydia know about our relationship? Were we that obvious? If so, then why did I go out of my way to hide it? I mean if everyone could figure out I was bi-sexual anyway, why did I even bother? Ugh…enough of this, it doesn’t matter anyway! Fight for him, yeah right. What am I, some kind of knight in shining armor? I’m not that gay Cuddy.
Wilson spent the next hour going between his paperwork and his thoughts of House; he was so caught up in said thoughts that he didn’t hear House enter his office.
“Wilson!”
Wilson’s head shot up so quickly that he thought he may have given himself whiplash. “What are you doing here House?” House gave him his patented ‘duh, you’re such an idiot’ face. “I thought we were supposed to work on becoming bestest buds again…you wanted to have lunch today, remember?”
Wilson tried to recover his senses but that stupid feeling overtook him again. He really needed to work on that because he was rubbing the back of his neck raw with that nervous habit. “Oh yeah…sorry about that.”
House actually found that look on Wilson to be quite endearing. Seriously…endearing? Man I’ve turned soft since my stupid breakdown. “Well, let’s go. The food isn’t going to just appear if I wish really really hard.”
Wilson looked around uncomfortably for a moment as he considered his next thought. “Do you mind if we eat here? I actually made lunch and I um…brought enough for both of us.” Wilson smiled shyly at that with his head bowed; only his eyes rose to meet House’s incredulous look.
“Really? You are such a girl, you know that?” House sat down in the chair across from Wilson none the less and waited to be served. Wilson visually relaxed and put the food in front of his ex-lover.
“Well, you know me; I like home cooking. And don’t mock me, you like it too.”
The two men ate in silence; the tension palpable in the air. House, being House could no longer take the silence so he decided on a topic of conversation that was sure to cause even more tension…if that were even possible. “So how’s Nurse Bimbo? You know, the one that was half naked and draped over your arm when I came to see you? Are you still seeing her? Ya know, she doesn’t really look like the type to be the fourth ex-Mrs. Wilson though. “
Wilson rolled his eyes, as much to hide his discomfort as to show his displeasure over the topic of conversation. “I really don’t see how that’s any of your business.” House scoffed at that; playing it off as something of little interest to him. “Just curious, I mean you had her in your bed like five minutes after you left mine.”
That pissed Wilson off. “You are something else, you know that? You left me, remember? And if you must know; no I’m not seeing her and it was two days after I was kicked out of your bed!”
“Geez Jimmy, calm down there, just trying to make friendly conversation.”
Wilson just shook his head and gave one of his trade mark smiles that indicated just how pissed he was. “Oh ho, really? Well then tell me, how did your date go with Lydia last night? I’m guessing you spent most of it screwing her brains out considering what I know of your previous encounters with her.”
Now it was House’s turn to be on the defensive. Of course defensive for House was to be snarky as hell. House stood up to exude the full effect of his bragging. “Wow, let me tell you. She was so hot for my bod that we didn’t even make it to the restaurant! Almost didn’t make it to work today, she may be preggo but woah was she some kind of animal.” House’s eyes went wide in mock disbelief and waggled his brows to add insult to injury.
Wilson rose from his chair as well to even the playing field as it were…well that is if a pissing contest between two grown men could be considered a game. Both men stood inches apart; daring the other without words to push the match just a little bit farther. At that point, a thought popped into Wilson’s head; a thought that strangely had the voice of Cuddy attached to it…weird. Fight for him. The younger man chuckled to himself; I guess I am that gay.
Before he could talk himself out of how stupid of an idea it might be, Wilson spun House around abruptly and pushed him forcefully against the door. House’s leg began to buckle but Wilson anticipated that and held him up by placing himself firmly against House’s body. House was stunned into inaction and Wilson took the rare opportunity to attack House’s mouth.
“Hmph…Wils…”
“Shut up.”
Wilson forced his tongue past House’s lips and kissed him with all of the emotion that had built up over the course of two agonizing weeks. A heart filled with unbearable sadness, with hurt, longing, deceit, and betrayal. As he felt House start to kiss him back, his thoughts changed to twenty years of friendship; of stolen lunches, monster trucks. And finally to four months of passion, lust….of love.
The two men separated; foreheads pressed together, eyes downcast as both drew in long draughts of breath. The air around them mingled together as if they were one.
“I…gotta go. Patient…case, kiddies waiting for me....” Wilson backed away slowly to give House enough room to pull himself together before opening the door. As House turned to do just that, Wilson pulled himself back into the moment.
“House…?” The unspoken question hung between them like a lead balloon.
“I don’t know. Wilson, I…don’t know.” Without another word, House left the younger man’s office.
I don’t know is better than no…isn’t it?
TBC
a/n: I figured it was time for them to start to get a clue. Now that they’re at least heading in the right direction, I will be starting to address the pesky problem that was prominent in the prequel and the beginning of this story before Lydia sidetracked them: Wilson’s inability to openly accept his own sexuality. It was touched on in his thoughts a bit in this chapter and going forward will be addressed more. Lydia will play a part in this somewhat and of course, there’s the whole baby thing to work out. Not to mention, I think the boys may be getting a bit horney so my job now is to get them to where they can have really hot and sweaty smex, and your job is to tell me what you thought. So, go forth my friends and comment! Thanks so much for reading.