Title: The Study of Feet or the Devil and Daniel Wilson (1/2)
By: lbc
Pairing: JW/GH
Rating: slash
Disclaimer: I sure wish I owned these guys, but I don't
Summary: It is the night before they leave the pharmacology conference in the episode, Known Unknowns and our two lads are talking with unforeseen consequences.
Note: I could not reconcile the timeline of Wilson and his brother. If the big blow up came while Wilson was in Med School then his recitation to House in "Histories" could not have been possible, so I made my own timeline for Daniel Wilson so that Daniel would definitely know about House. Sorry if this bothers anyone.
HWHWHWHWHWHWHWHWHWHW
Greg House looked at the electric clock by his bed, 3:00 am. He had been awake for only a few minutes; his body satiated with . . .
He felt the warm body next to him move and noticed that the covers on that side of the bed had been thrown back with naked feet peeking out.
Studying the feet for several moments, House suddenly spoke into the darkness, "You know that feet can tell us a lot about a person's secrets."
James Wilson's sleepy voice broke fuzzily into the night time air. "How did you know that I wasn't asleep?"
"Your feet told me."
"My, I'll have to get a muffler for those noisy little devils. Gee, House, I never knew that my feet were such gossips. Have they told you anything else?"
"No, but it also helped, of course, that you and I had sex for the first time in some twenty years, and I know that you are still wired from that little activity."
Almost groaning out loud, Wilson asked in a bored tone, "Anything else?"
With a slightly smug grin that no one could see in the almost total darkness, House responded, "Yeah, you enjoyed it."
Wilson groaned, turning on his left side to get away from the smugness that was awash on the other side of the bed.
"Don't do that."
Wilson said nothing, but did turn over, propping himself on his right elbow, while looking at the face of the man that he had had sex with.
"Why not? We have to leave in a few hours, and since I'm driving, I would like some sleep."
"And I would like to know why."
A faint frown crossed Wilson's handsome face. He had hoped that he could have had those intimate moments with House without a major interrogation, but knew it would never happen so he decided to stall. "Why what?"
"Why, after twenty years, did you throw yourself at me, seduce me, and have your wicked way with me?"
Wilson snorted and almost guffawed. "Maybe I was returning the favor; after all you did the same thing at that conference in New Orleans."
House snorted in return and announced with a great deal of innuendo, "Boy, you do take your time to repay favors!"
"Great, House, now we're even so let's get some sleep." Wilson started to get up to return to his own bed, but a hand reached out and grabbed his arm. "Oh no, my friend, that's not good enough. I want the truth."
Wilson had known that he was taking a risk when he had decided to seduce House, but he had hoped that he could wear the man out, and there would be little time for talking. Now it was time to pay the piper.
"I don't know what you mean. I told you that I'm returning the favor."
House stared at the man that he had known for so long. His one true friend. He had to know. "Was it pity?"
Wilson's snort this time almost blew him off the bed. "Hell, House, why would I pity you?"
"You thought I was devastated by losing Cuddy to that idiot Lucas, and you wanted to make it up to me." This last part was whined out in total derision, but the silence that followed was heavy with tension.
Wilson was silent as well then rubbed his nose as he often did when he thought about things. In a very quiet voice, almost a whisper, he replied, "No, House, I didn't want to make it up to you; I . . . I just wanted to say good-bye."
If possible, the tension and silence grew even more overwhelming as both men looked at each other in the gloom. Finally, House broke the void by asking, "You running away from me again?"
"I'm . . . I'm not running away. I'm going to move to New York to be near Daniel. He needs me."
House sat up quickly, perching himself on the side of the bed with his back towards Wilson. "So, the needy Wilson needs to be needed by the needful Wilson or something like that."
"It isn't like that. I've talked to Daniel's doctors and they seem to think that it would be good for him if I was able to visit more often. If I can help, I feel that I should."
"Well, call him more often. Use your webcam; he doesn't need you to give up your life, does he?"
This was going to be more difficult than he had expected, especially being exposed like this and only a foot or so from a very naked House, but Wilson decided that now was the time to take a stand.
"I . . . let him down several years ago, and it's time I made it up to him."
House's voice took on a cutting edge as he shot back, "You told me that you hung up on him while you were in Med School and that's what caused him to leave; did you lie?"
Wilson closed his eyes, remembering that phone call with a vivid memory. That incident had taken place years before Daniel had actually wandered off into the night. Years later, Wilson had found his brother in that dark, dirty street among the homeless. His brother was preparing to walk away into oblivion. The fight had been verbal, no physical blows were inflicted, but the sharp words had destroyed the silent truce between the two men. One name, one word had lit the fuse when it had been uttered: HOUSE.
Wilson returned to reality as the memories of that awful night caused him to shudder as they continued to haunt him even now. "I . . . I've always put you first. After we met, I thought about you a lot. I know we didn't see much of each other, but Daniel was upset that I divorced Margaret and he blamed it on you. I talked about you quite a bit after we met at the Convention. I guess I was kind of in awe of you or something. My relationship with Daniel started going down from there, and then . . . you had the infarction, and he saw my marriage to Bonnie disintegrate as well."
"So you lied to me?"
"Not exactly, Daniel and I hadn't gotten along for quite awhile before you appeared on the scene, but you seemed to coincide with a lot of the bad things that have happened in my life. To be truthful, Daniel thinks you are the devil, and when he walked away from me on that dark street so many years ago, he was very bitter and let me know it."
"So he blamed me, even though we've never met?"
"Probably part of his illness, but yes."
House turned around in the bed and stared at his best friend. "Let's see those feet."
"House, this is ridiculous."
"I have made a study of feet, and I can tell when you are lying. Of course, you're such a rotten liar that it doesn't take your feet most of the time."
Staring at Wilson, House's blue eyes wandered over the naked man then he whispered, "What else aren't you telling me?"
Wilson sighed so deeply that it seemed to reach his soul. "Nothing, I'm moving up north to stay near my brother and help him through his illness."
"This isn't cancer, Wilson, although being on the streets all these years, he could have anything. I would assume that those New York quacks have examined him?"
Wilson nodded his head. "They've given him a thorough physical and found nothing. Jeff recommends that he be put in a special psychiatric treatment . . ."
Wilson stopped suddenly, realizing the terrible mistake that he had made. He had never meant to mention Jeff Driscoll's name to House.
It was, as if the blue eyed doctor's ears had literally perked up. Although Wilson could not see him, he knew that the blue eyes were gleaming. Waiting for the axe to fall, Wilson heard doom crack all around him.
"That wouldn't be the Jeff Driscoll that works at New York Mercy in the psychiatric department, would it? The same Jeff Driscoll that you were playing footsie with at a medical convention in New Orleans some twenty years ago?"
Wilson's mouth dropped open, "How did you know that? We hadn't even met then."
"Well, when I'm thinking about using my hard-earned money to bail out a man who just threw a bottle through a window, I want to know all about him, and I just happened to read the name Jeff Driscoll in the report."
"You had a private detective check me out?"
House looked at his friend like he must be a moron and, of course he had done such a logical thing. "Well, that was big bucks that I was riskin', friend."
James Wilson sat there stunned. Finally, another thought came to mind. "Then . . . you knew that I had slept with Driscoll?"
House looked even more disgusted and was obviously thinking that Wilson was even a bigger moron than he had thought. "I had no idea if you slept with him, but I was pretty sure you had sex with him. When I found out about 'Woodie', I figured you might need a diversion."
"Will you stop calling her Woodie, she couldn't help it if she lost her leg. Her name was Margaret . . . well, I guess it still is for that matter."
"Only you would marry a woman with one leg, then go to a Med Conference and hook up with a guy and then get thrown in jail."
"You didn't mention that you seduced me and got me in your bed as payment for going my bail."
"I DID NOT DEMAND THAT AS PAYMENT; YOU CAME UP WITH THAT!"
"Well, you sure didn't protest; you enjoyed it as much as . . . I did."
Not looking sheepish at all, House nodded into the darkness, and replied, "Sure did."
Assuming that everything had been revealed, Wilson, once again, made for his bed, but was stopped. "Oh no, my friend. Those little tootsies don't lie; there's more to this than you've revealed."
"I've told you everything. Daniel hates you. Daniel needs me to be nearer to him. The doctors say that it will help him. Jeff has offered to get him into a special psychiatric unit so that he can get more personal attention . . . "
"And?"
"And? Nothing. You're so suspicious."
"And?" The determination on House's face was readily apparent even in the gloom.
Taking a big breath and then letting it out rapidly, James Wilson completed the statement in record time. "And, sincehelivesinConnecticut,he wantsmetomarryhim."
Silence was followed by the easily understood noise of House getting dressed; then blindness as House turned on the bedside light. Wilson could see nothing, but he knew that his friend was angry while trying to get dressed. Blurting out without really seeing his target, Wilson asked, "What are you doing?"
By the time that Wilson could see more clearly, House was standing by the hotel room door, his glacial blue eyes boring into the naked man. "I'm going somewhere to wait until you can get your ass dressed so we can get out of here."
Wilson's brain was in such turmoil that he failed to react as House began to open the door. Then the bearded man whirled around, looking exceedingly dangerous.
Pointing at Wilson, he said in a quiet voice that took a lot of effort, "You are an idiot and a moron, but if that's what you want; then here it is. I'll take a look at Daniel and see if there is anything medically wrong with him. We'll bring him to Princeton and find a psychiatric unit for him, and then you can marry me, if you want to sacrifice yourself on the altar of your needless guilt for your brother!!!"
With those mind-boggling words, House opened the door and slammed it shut as he left.
End of part 1
