Let Them Talk Chapter 1: Let Them Talk, a house, m.d. fanfic

Let Them Talk

Gregory House x James Wilson (if you don't like gay in House, then don't read)

Some drama, romance and a little humour in the mix. Maybe some fluff. Don't be too harsh, I'm not a doctor so nobody will die if I make some mistakes.

I'm not really following any of the episodes, I just use the characters in my own story.

I do not own anything of the House M.D. series, nor the music or the actors. I really respect them and no money's been made out of this. Just a fanfic.

"Doctor Wilson!" Cuddy shouted across the entrance of the hospital. Wilson was just heading outside, adjusting his scarf for the cold, and turned abruptly when he heard his name.

"Yes?" he asked.

"My office." Cuddy said with a nudge of her head in the direction of her office. Wilson followed her, ignoring the curious glances of the nurses behind the desks while pondering what he could've done wrong.

Cuddy closed the door behind them and placed herself behind her desk, putting her hands flat on the surface, bracing herself to tell the news.

Wilson shuffled closer and sat himself down in one of the comfy chairs. He didn't say anything, just waited for the bad news.

"Stacy is coming here." She said.

"Stacy... Stacy? As in House's Stacy?"

"Yes, that's the one." Cuddy nodded.

"But why?" the oncologist crossed his arms, already worrying for his friend House.

"Her father died and because he liked House, he was put in the will."

"But... They've been divorced for like, 10 years or so. And he actually liked House?"

"I think it is because he's the only husband she ever had and he hopes they would get together again. He gave them the house where he lived once his wife died."

"And why is she coming?"

"She wants House to give up his part and sign some papers. She called and she would be arriving tomorrow, around noon. She called me and House doesn't know the news yet. She asked me not to tell." Lisa Cuddy put her hands on her temples willing the upcoming headache to go away.

"And you're telling me this because..."

"Because..." she gave Wilson a pointed look.

"This is going to get ugly, isn't it? And you want me to stand by House once it happens?" James asked.

Cuddy just nodded and sighed loudly.

"Oh boy.." Wilson said.

House stood next to the new giant whiteboard, doodling pineapples with angry faces on the sides when he heard his ducklings come in.

"New case, my young padawans!" House said cheerily.

"What are you doing here this early?" Chase asked while rolling his eyes at the Star Wars quote.

"Free coffee! And the new whiteboard has arrived! Isn't it beautiful?"

"It's bigger." Cameron said.

"And you know what they say about big.." House waggled his eyebrows. Foreman just snorted.

"Back to the case! Cameron, preach the word, darling!" House threw the file at her and she could just barely catch it.

She opened it and read some of the symptoms. "Photosensitivity and..." Chase interrupted her.

"Maybe lupus?" he asked and looked at House for affirmation.

"In all the years we've worked together, haven't you noticed something yet?" House asked.

The others just stared blankly at him.

House smashed his cane on the table. "It's. NEVER. LUPUS. Thank you for being so eager today, but shut up for a while and be pretty."

Now it was Cameron's turn to snort and Chase's cheeks coloured slightly red.

"Like I said, photosensitivity and..." Cameron started again when knocking on the glass wall interrupted them again.

House whirled on one leg to the source of interruption "Oh for goodness sake, some people are trying to work here, what do you.." He snarled but stopped himself. His mouth hung open for a couple of seconds.

"Stacy?" House said disbelievingly.

"How long have they been in there?" Cuddy asked. While House and Stacy were discussing in his office, she and Wilson slipped into the other room to wait with Cameron, Chase and Foreman for House to come back. All the time watching House carefully for any signs of great distress. He had his vicodine addiction just under control after a lot of therapy and no-one wanted him to relapse.

And a visit from your ex was a good reason to cause that...

Everytime House or Stacy looked up, they all pretended to be busy with reading a file or making some coffee. Luckily the new case patient wasn't at risk of dying in the next couple of years.

The white-coated gang heard the couple's voices getting louder. The glass just muffled what they were saying, but they were really mad. They saw Stacy slap a paper in front of House's nose and he signed it with a frown, followed by stalking angrily out of the office. Everyone jumped up.

Stacy followed him "Don't you dare walk out of this argument Greg! Don't you just dare! I know you cared for my father, but he had no right, no right at all, to give you half of the house!"

House ignored her and grinded his teeth. "Case! Let's go to the patient!" He snapped.

House was already in the hallway, followed quickly by his three assistants. Cuddy wrung her hands nervously together, watching Stacy go after House.

Wilson's worry for his friend escalated quickly. House has never looked that agitated before.

"I can make you do anything, you bastard!" Stacy yelled. She was making a scene in the hospital and if there is one thing nurses are good in besides nursing, it was gossiping.

House froze, Chase could just barely avoid stumbling into his boss.

"I know your secret!" Stacy screamed now.

"Oh God." Wilson mumbled, he went to Stacy and put his hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off.

"Do you want me to tell?! Do you?" the ex-wife was going into hysterics.

House turned and with the most vulnerable and broken voice ever heard from him, he answered.

"Don't. Please don't." This made the people around them widen their eyes in surprise and curiosity. Wilson felt like getting stabbed in his heart when he heard his best friend answer like that.

"The great and almighty House has a dirty secret! You want to know why I left him?" Stacy gestured around with her arms as to capture even more interest of the audience.

"Don't." House said again.

"I left him, not only because he couldn't forgive me for his leg. So sorry for caring for you by the way! I didn't want you in even more pain. But you decided to stop trusting me!"

House took a step closer.

"Stacy!" he barked warningly.

"Well if you can't trust me. Why respecting your wishes?"

The man gripped his cane with white knuckles, eyes widening in fear.

"I married you because you wanted to hide your secret and because I thought you would grow to love me, but I was mistaken. You fell in love with someone else and that wasn't the plan, was it now?" Stacy had this hideous jealous and angry look on her face by now.

"Gregory House, world famous doctor, is GAY!"

You heard the icy silence fill the room. People gasped in surprise and everyone looked at House to see him deny this accusation. He didn't.

"You're pathetic! You fell in love with a man and you know he's never going to love you back, so you closed yourself off for everyone who wanted to try. You're a miserable and lonely man and you will stay that way. He will never love you and you will waste your life away by pining after him." With that she left, clutching the signed papers in her hands and leaving House with the remains of his trampled confidence and the burst image of being the person he let everybody believe him to be.

"House?" Cameron asked in a soft voice.

"Get back to work, people. The show is over!" he limped away, knowing his dignity has left him and he scowled even more. Never once meeting the eyes of a surprised and hurt Wilson.

"Well... That was a surprise." Cuddy said. "You heard House, back to work people!"

"He's not picking up his phone." Cameron said.

"We'll talk with him when he gets back to work." Chase said trying to be as reassuring as possible.

"We stil have a case." Foreman said. The three of them went back to work.

"Have you talked with House yet?" Cuddy asked Wilson. They were in his office during lunch break.

"No." Wilson never looked up.

"Why not?"

"He was supposed to be my best friend and he never told me he was gay!"

"I think he needs your support right now."

"And I think I'm too dissapointed to see or talk with him right now." And he went back to work.

Lisa threw her hands exasperated in the air and left his office in a huff.

Wilson then continued staring at the wall, thinking about House. As usual.

"Psst! House is back!" A nurse said on the first floor.

"House is back!"

"He's back!"

"He doesn't look gay, does he?"

"Look! House!"

The whispering voices followed him everywhere in the hospital. He went into his office and saw his team walking very fast down the hall to catch him. Cameron was almost at the door when he looked her in the eyes and pushed the lock of the door in with his cane. He limped to the other door that Chase in the meantime was trying to reach and he closed it too.

"Please House, we don't care. Just talk with us." Cameron pleaded.

House just stared at her for a couple of seconds.

The blinds closed, shutting the outside world completely out.

"It's been almost a week. We can't get him to talk to us and Wilson doesn't want to see him." Foreman said.

"I know. I know! But he's still doing his work, he's being a great doctor at the moment and he does his clinic hours without protesting. I can not discipline him when he's doing nothing wrong. He's quiet and behaving." Cuddy sighed.

"And it's even more infuriating to have him like this, than like he normal is." Chase said.

"I'll try to talk with him again." Cuddy said and the other three went out of the office. Slumped, with defeat written across their shoulders.

"House, you've never shown you had emotions before. Why care now?" Cuddy asked herself out loud.

House took his sandwich and put his waterbottle in his armpit. He looked over the crowd to find a spot and saw the guys from the maternity department. They knew him, he sometimes lounged in their lounge and he could sit with them today because he knew Wilson was angry with him.

"Hey guys." House said and sat down. The conversation stopped immediately when House stood at their table. They looked uneasily at each other.

"House. Why are you at our table?" The asian dude asked.

"Can't I sit with my buddies from the maternity floor? What's wrong with a little interhouse bonding?" and House behaved like he always did, but now they knew he was gay.

"Euhm... Yeah... Nothing wrong with that but euhm... I just finished." One of them said and he left, with a plate clearly still halfful. The second one left too and this time without a word.

"Euhm House..." the asian guy started.

"Et tu Brute?" House sneered.

"I'm sorry, it's just... I don't want to fuel the gossip mill even more and being seen with you... Well, I don't want them to think I'm the man of your dreams and dude... I'm happily married, I could do without bad publicity." And he left too, leaving House alone at the table.

"Fine." House said out loud, resigning himself to start eating in his office, behind closed doors. All alone. It's not like he cared.

Cuddy was really busy and it took another week to find some time to talk with House. Around noon she made her way to his office.

Knock knock "House?"

No answer.

KNOCK KNOCK "House!" her rings making the knocking sound even louder.

"House! You can't ignore your superior! Open the door or I'll call the janitor or just break the glass! And you know I mean it." Cuddy said, luckily almost no-one was around. Everyone was still eating.

The door opened and a haggard looking House stood in the opening.

Cuddy looked at him, his beard was unkempt, his clothes wrinkled, exhaustion clearly written in his eyes and his cheekbones seemed even more pronounced.

"Have you been eating?"

"Yes Mom, is that all?" He said.

Cuddy opened her mouth again when suddenly Wilson passed by.

"Lisa." Wilson said.

"Doctor Wilson." She nodded back.

Wilson looked at House, their eyes met and House kept himself from flinching when he saw the raw dissapointment and hurt in those bambibrown eyes.

"House." Wilson ground out.

"Wilson." House said with a hoarse voice.

And then he was gone down the hall. Cuddy turned to scold House some more but got the door in her face.

"Hiding is not the solution, House!" she shouted through the closed door.

9 AM

"You have a rash?" House asked. The young man nodded.

"Okay let down your pants and I'll take a look."

The young guy hesitated.

"Get on with it! I haven't got all day!" House said.

"I think I want another doctor."

House stilled his hands to stop putting on fresh white gloves. "What for?"

"I heard you are a gay doctor and I don't feel comfortable with you looking at my dick. I would feel sexually harrassed and I don't think you can stay objective." The man said.

"That's ridiculous!" House shouted. "So if I would be a hetero and I had to deliver a baby that woman could accuse me too of harrassing her?"

The young man just lifted his chin, showing he wouldn't change his decision.

House sighed. "Fine!" He bit out. He threw open his door and yelled for the whole floor to hear. "Another doctor for this guy, because he thinks I would hit on him!"

Some people laughed, other pointed at him and Cuddy looked up from the reception.

House turned and said loud enough for everyone to hear to the guy.

"You've got quite the ego, you're not even my type." And with those words he strode off. He had enough of this.

Cuddy just watched his back when he walked away, she felt hurt in his place and said to herself she would help her friend. Even if it would be the last thing she'll ever do.

After another two weeks, things went back to being more normal again. People still gossipped about the possible love interest of Dr. House and they still whispered and pointed at him behind his back. Thinking he didn't notice. Cameron, Chase and Foreman treated him the same, kind of... He got out of his office to work on cases, but still ate alone and he did his clinic hours.

One day he just shouted out loud, making Chase drop his mug of coffee. "Stop treating me like I'm made out of porcelain!" The three just smiled a bit sheepishly, but from then on they were back to normal. They still kept an eye out for their boss, but they didn't try to talk to him about his emotions anymore.

Wilson still hasn't shown his face and they barely acknowledged each other in the hallways. The others noticed but didn't dare to say anything about it. It was obvious that the fall-out caused House to feel depressed and Wilson was starting to feel guilty about abandoning his best friend. It changed again one day when House was assisting an operation. His cane and clothes were outside the operation room. Abandoned, in the past already used as the perfect opportunity for pranksters and this time it was House's turn.

Dr. Ford, a young promising doctor, jealous of House saw his chance and took it. When House got out of the operation he looked for his cane but he didn't find it.

"Where's my cane?" he asked at a nurse. She just shrugged her shoulders.

House limped undignified to his office and whistled loudly on two fingers. "Hey! My three musketeers!" Chase, Cameron and Foreman looked up from their screens and papers.

"It's not funny guys, where's my cane?" House asked angrily.

"We don't have it. Were did you last saw it?" Cameron asked. House explained and they went looking for their boss's cane. House his leg was killing him and he had to keep low on painkillers to avoid becoming addicted again. The bum leg was spasming a bit and he tried massaging his thigh.

A knock on the glass and House looked up. Wilson.

"What do you want?" House said.

"Chase said you've lost your cane and I helped searching for it. I found it." And he held out the cane.

House his eyes went wide, his cheeks reddening with fury. "Do you think it's funny?" He hissed.

"No! House! It wasn't me! I found it like this in the cafetaria! I swear!" Wilson put the cane on the table, discreetly trying to hide the letters on it.

The three musketeers were back and were watching the exchange between the two elder men.

"What's on it?" House asked. His voice softer. Wilson felt relieved, House believed him.

"I don't think you want to know.." Wilson started, but House had already leaned forward to turn the cane on its other side.

The cane was rainbow coloured and in big dark letters the following sentence stood out:

"Dr. House loves hard wood."

It could've been funny, but it wasn't.

With a thump House let his forehead drop onto his table.

"House?" Wilson asked.

"Please, just leave me alone."

They left the room, respecting House his wish, and determined to find the culprit of this distasteful prank.

It wasn't the only prank. The cane-incident went like wildfire through the hospital. Pictures were taking of House when he went home with the gay-cane.

Gayporn was waiting for him at the reception between his letters.

His name on the door of Examining Room 1 was changed into Dr. Gay, the next day in: 'Dr. Fag'. Resulting in patients with complaints.

House started to take even less care of himself and he clearly broadcasted an aura of depression. Wilson couldn't take it anymore, but House didn't want to talk about it.

The pranks got ignored as much as possible by House, he started talking again about things that weren't case-involved. He was just whining about his detuned piano and how hard it was to find someone to make an appointment with to tune it for him and that he couldn't play it for another 4 weeks, when Wilson interrupted him.

"It's twelve, I'm hungry. Let's go down to eat something. My treat."

House was silent for a moment.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"It just isn't."

"Why?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes you... We're not three-years old. Why not House? You're clearly neglecting yourself. Let's go eat something. You can pay your own meal if that's the reason you're opposed to go down and eat something." Wilson watched his friend closely for any sign, maybe a little flicker of emotion that could give him an insight of House.

There it was. His mouthcorners were down, he was frowning and looking at the floor.

"House, tell me."

"I don't want them to... damage your reputation." House finally admitted.

"My reputation? How so?" Wilson was truly clueless.

"You don't want to be seen alone with a... With a queer like me."

You could hear a pin drop.

"House..." Wilson wanted to reassure his friend. "We have always been friends, they wouldn't say something like that about us. There's nothing abnormal about the two of us eating together. We've done it for years!"

"I'm not hungry! Just leave me alone."

Wilson knew that nothing would change House's opinion and left.

Knock knock

"What do you want Wilson?" House asked irritated.

"I hope you like the cheese dish they served today." And Wilson put down the plate in front of House, making himself comfortable on the chair with his own food and drink.

House didn't move for a couple of minutes.

"Thank you." Wilson heard and he didn't look up because he knew how difficult it was for House to say the words.

"Don't mention it. What did you think about the game last night by the way?"

And House smiled, his first real smile in weeks, feeling grateful for Wilson and his diversion. Both of them didn't want to talk about the giant rainbow coloured elephant in the room.

Yeah, I know I portrayed Stacy as a bitch and Ford is a made-up character. But it's fanfiction for a reason. If you don't like it, then don't read it. And if you wonder why nobody is doing anything about the gay bashing, it's because they don't know who the pranktser (but we do) is so have a little patience the guy will get his punishment.

Reviews are my drugs! So hit the button please!