fandom_clinic | (no subject)

Wilson had managed to squeeze in a short nap before a ~~nightmare~~ busy brain had woken him up. He'd grabbed a shower, made some fresh coffee and was now wandering down the hall towards the front desk.

"Can I take a picture, blow it up and just set it there for the next week?" The oncologist snarked good naturedly as he walked up and leaned over to kiss the Diagnostician on the cheek.

Sitting up on the counter, facing House, Wilson looked around.

"Another nice and quiet day?"

"Blessedly quiet," House nodded, eyes shifting to the door, then back to Wilson.

He brought a hand up to rub Wilson's thigh. "Your eyes are puff," he commented casually.

Self-consciously, Wilson reached up and rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palm.

"Are they?" Lowering his hand, the younger doctor covered House's fingers where they rested on his thigh.

House lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. His eyes shifted again, almost as if checking to make sure they were alone.

"You wanna tell me about it?"

Wilson gave his head a brief shake.

"The same." House had been woken by screaming oncologist a couple of times, the older man would know what he meant.

"Jack's going to be out of rotation this week. He's got a fairly ugly case of pneumonia. I have him set up in the back room, where Parker was staying."

"Yeah. I went back. Wheezing's kind of hard to miss. He was sleeping, so I found my way back up here."

House threaded his fingers with Wilson's, his other hand rubbing his stubbled chin.

"You should take a Vicodin before bed tonight. It'll help you sleep."

Gently curling his fingers in with House's, Wilson gave the area a quick glance to make sure there were no waiting eyes and then lifted his lover's hand for a gentle kiss.

"I start taking Vicodin, now? I'm never going to stop." His words were low. "Besides, around here? The number of Emergency On Calls are at least once nightly and with Lisa gone and Jack out of commission that number is just going to go up. I don't dare drug down."

Stretching, Wilson leaned back against the front of the counter, fingers still entwined with the older man's hand.

"We going to be socialble tonight?"

"Are you up for being social tonight?" House asked softly. He let the subject of drugs and taking drugs drop by the wayside. No point in making a huge deal out of it. He'd made the offer, because he knewhow powerful the narcotic he took regularly could be. He'd built up a tolerance for it, though it still effectively took a bit of the ache out of his leg, he was never able to forget exactly why he took so many of the little white pills.

He'd basically been watching Wilson fall apart, little by little, since he arrived in Fandom. He was doing a good job holding himself together, but he was Wilson. House would expect no less from him. Most people probably couldn't even see it. House could, only because he knew Wilson so well, even without the new-found physical aspect of their relationship.

Six years ago, when he'd been recovering from the infarction, Wilson was the only person he'd allowed inside the walls he built up around himself in the face of Stacy's betrayal. A person can't get that close without giving something back, without forging a nearly impenetratable ond.

Looking at Wilson now, though he wasn't flat on his back in a bed with a leg that wouldn't hold his weight, Hosue had a very distinct feeling the roles were being reversed.

Despite always having been acknowledged as the more 'out going' of the pair, Wilson actually didn't have that many close friends who he allowed within his own reflective walls. He'd learned many, many years ago that if you simple turn the conversation back on a person, make it about them...most people were easily distractable.

House, never had been one of those people, which was part of what had helped the grumpy man get past the smooth glass of Wilson's mirrors.

Smiling gently the oncologist gave a little shrug. "Why not? Maybe I'll get a chance to talk to people when I'm not trying to figure out what they are and then what might be wrong with them."

Exhaling softly he leaned forward, looking down at the floor and in a voice that was quite different from his usual, light and friendly tones he admitted.

"That's part of what's wiping me out...House...this place...there are always so many variables and none of the diagnostic tools or even the treatments we have on hand work the same way they should. I've had to go outside the box so many times in the past couple of weeks, I feel like going into the box is the radical thinking now."

House set ihs hands on either side of Wilson's face, then strained up a bit tin order to kiss him. it was a gentle kiss, soft, but possessive. He leaned back, hands still on Wilson's face.

"This place...It's different. The half of the patients that aren't Parker, aren't human. At least not the kind of human we're used to. I don't know how to deal with that, most of the time. It's frustrating, and instead of throwing myself in to the puzzles, I'm walking away from them. I've let you take over running the clinic, with very little help from me, and the assistants aren't exactly holding their own anymore. I'm sorry, James. All I can do, is try to do better. Try to come in more, and take some of the burden off of you."

Wilson lifted his head slightly to meet House half way in that gentle kiss and then he looked into those lasar like blue eyes.

"I don't mind the work, House...you know that...but the truth is, people want you. As for the assistants." Wilson gave a gentle shrug. "They're kids, they have a lot on their plates and someone new coming in can cause anxiety. I left a message on Bristow's machine to see about setting up some sort of compensation for the assistants that might make working her dovetail into their studies, rather then be another burden for them."

"Only because I was here before you. Most of them don't know me from the guy in front of them in line at the Qwik Mart. Lisa's the only one, and even she's abandoned us." House shrugged.

"But that sounds like a good idea. I never made them any sort of offer. Just a position working in a clinic. I had fifteen apply, only three or four of them are still around, though Mmm Jack seems to keep finding excuses not to do his time."

"I think that, as usual, you are underestimating your appeal." Wilson straightened.

"I'll try to work on the situation with Bristow, then write up a proposal for you to review and hopefully we can get some more assistants in here."

Wilson grinned. "Because I know just how much you love clinic duty. Come on, let's get changed and go investigate the party...free food and if we're lucky someone might spike the punch."

"You get the lock and the lights?" House groped for his cane, used it to balance his weight as he stood up.

"Think we should take a flask, just in case? Seemed to work well at Homecoming."

Wilson slid down off the counter and if it just so happened that he sort of slithered against House when he did that...

Moving towards the front doors to lock up he grinned over his shoulder.

"Marty Blank sent over a bottle of some excellent singlemalt, fill the flask with some of that."

Getting the locks turned off, Wilson shut down the lights as he followed House down the hallway.

"Can we make out in a dark corner again, also?"

The corners of his mouth twitched, and a slow smile touched his lips.

"Who says it has to be a dark corner?"