Wilson tried to focus on what he was reading but the words kept blurring. Worse, his hand was shaking and he was wracked with chills, first hot, then cold. He knew he was sick, had been sick all day, but he had so much to do he'd been trying to push through it. Now he had to admit defeat, his temperature was soaring, and his whole body had begun to shake. He would go home, try and sleep it off. As he went to stand he felt his legs collapse underneath him and he crashed to the floor.

For one brief moment he experienced a moment of lightness, of total disconnect from his body. All around him was a white fog, he peered through that fog and saw a young girl standing there, holding out a hand. He reached towards her...

He heard the sounds before he was fully awake. The beep of the machines, the steady drip of medication, House snoring. He forced his eyes open and focused on the tall body stretched out on a chair beside his bed, head flung back, mouth open.

He cleared his throat, for some reason his mouth was terribly dry and it took a couple of goes to get some sound out.

"House, wake up."

House's eyes snapped open and then focused on him, as if he was the only thing in the world that mattered to Gregory House at that moment.

"About time you moron. Trust you to become deathly ill on a Friday evening, I've wasted all weekend in this hospital."

"Sorry, next time I'll try to do it during the week."

Wilson was about to ask what exotic disease he had contracted when Thirteen entered the ICU cubicle, file in hand. She smiled at him when she realised he was awake.

"Doctor Wilson, nice to see you awake again."

Wilson gaped at her, confused.

"Thirteen? But you left."

"And now she's come back in, see how that works? The kiddies have been very worried about their Uncle Wilson."

"You threatened us with instant firing if we didn't stay here all weekend you mean." Thirteen responded, checking Wilson's pulse, temperature and respiration on the monitors.

"No, no, I mean...you left the hospital. Put a note on House's desk and disappeared."

"No, sorry Doctor Wilson, I would never leave, I love it here. House is so nurturing."

House nodded.

"This place is like the Hotel California. You can check in but you can never leave. Well, except for Cameron, and Kutner..."

"You did, it was the night of the crane disaster. House came back to work and found out you'd gone."

"Crane disaster?" House asked, staring at Wilson as if he was particularly interesting lab specimen.

Wilson looked from Thirteen to House, his eyes wide.

"Yes, you know, the crane disaster. When you tried to rescue that woman - Hannah, and you had to amputate her leg, and then she died anyway. Don't joke about it House!"

House shook his head.

"I don't know what you are talking about Wilson. It never happened."

Wilson thought at first that House was playing a joke on him but one glance at Thirteen showed he was serious. It had never happened. His vivid memories of the last few months were false. He collapsed, exhausted, against the pillows as he heard House telling Thirteen to get Foreman up to the ICU.

"So, after Thirteen and I were locked in the cafeteria together I asked my first wife, Sam out on a date.." Wilson was feeling a lot better. He was sitting up in bed and telling a fascinated House all about his false memories. They still seemed really vivid to him, despite Foreman's assurances that they were only vivid dreams caused by his medication. He had established that the last thing he and House both remembered was the redecoration of the loft and Wilson buying an organ for House to play. For House those events had happened only a few days ago, for Wilson they were months old.

"You and Thirteen were locked in the cafeteria together." House smiled, eyes gone vacant.

"Get your mind out of the gutter House. It was during a lockdown of the hospital. We played truth and dare. I told Thirteen that I was thinking of asking Sam out as she said I should."

"This is Sam the Harpie we are talking about? She that provoked the great bottle throwing incident in New Orleans? That Sam? And you met her on facebook and thought it would be a great idea to get together again?"

Wilson nodded, shame faced. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was good for a while, and then we broke up because she put the milk in the door of the fridge, well I thought she did but that turned out to be you..and then we got together again."

He fell silent and started fiddling with the blanket on his bed. House stared at him as if he was retelling the plot of House's favourite soap opera.

"Yes, yes and then what happened..."

"I...asked you to move out of the loft so Sam could move in."

Wilson looked back up to meet House's eyes.

"Sex with hot chick beats living with a cripple." House shrugged. "And you didn't really do it Wilson."

"Yes, but it just seems so real. It's like someone was showing me the future or something."

"The ghost of Wilson's future? Did three old guys come for you in the middle of the night?"

Wilson said nothing, he had a vague memory of a child appearing just as he was succumbing to the fever, but he wasn't about to tell House that. He was pretty sure that there hadn't been any random old guys hanging about anyway.

"So what happened after I moved out?"

Wilson sighed.

"Well there was a crane disaster in Trenton, you went to help, with Cuddy. Things went wrong. You were upset, went back to your apartment. Cuddy apparently went to see you and, well, I don't know exactly what happened next but the day after you and Cuddy had sex the whole day. You've been together ever since."

House stared at him.

"What about Lucas? And the rug rat?"

Wilson shrugged.

"Well, she broke it off with Lucas, the day after she got engaged to him."

"Nice..."

"And it took a while but eventually she let you near Rachel. Cuddy got you to babysit one night. You called me over to bring food and rescue you. Rachel ate a dime and we spent the next day keeping an eye on her, doing tests and covering it up from Cuddy." Wilson smiled as he remembered their antics on that night and the following day. Despite his frustration with House at the time, it had been fun to once again share in one of his mad schemes.

House's eyes boggled as he stared at him.

"Then Cuddy killed us when she found out we hadn't told her that her precious little two year old was in mortal danger?"

"No, then I woke up. So I'll never know what happened next." Wilson shook his head, probably for the best if he didn't have a sequel to the memory of that particular fiasco.

He looked around for his laptop. Spying it he gestured House to hand it over.

House peered at him as he opened up his browser.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to facebook and deleting my account." Wilson located the page, and pressed a key sequence rapidly.

"You won't meet up with Sam."

"I don't want to meet up with Sam. I escaped that once, I am not going through that again." Wilson finished his task and closed the lid on the computer.

"You do know you weren't seeing the future don't you?"

"Of course, they were just dreams." Wilson said, with little conviction in his voice. Those months of a life never lived were still very vivid. "I'm just not taking any chances."

Wilson was discharged the next door. House was there, of course, walking with him as they passed through the lobby of the hospital. Lucas entered the hospital with Rachel in his arms just as they were leaving. The little girl went running across the lobby into her mother's arms. Lucas went over to join them and there was a family group hug.

Wilson watched House who was watching the happy scene.

"Thinking of lost opportunities?"

House shook his head.

"Lucky escape Wilson. Come on, let's go home, I've got an organ to break in, if you know what I mean." He gave an exaggerated wink and leer. Wilson rolled his eyes.

They continued walking towards the door. Just as he reached it Wilson turned back. Rachel was holding Lucas' hand. She turned to stare straight at Wilson. Smiling, she opened her mouth and pulled out a shiny dime.

The End