I wrote this for a contest on a messageboard about a year ago and I just found it stored on my computer. I really liked it and wanted to share it with all of you. It does deal with character deaths, but it's very AU. It's short, so please enjoy!!
Disclaimer: I do not own House or Wilson. Characters property of David Shore, I'm just borrowing them to play for a little while
.Time had aged Dr. James Wilson. He could barely stand to look at the photographs of nearly fifty years ago. The ones in his office, with his cancer patients - now all long gone. The ones with Greg House and his little ducklings. The ones with Lisa Cuddy.
He rarely went to the hospital anymore. When he'd first retired, twenty years ago, he'd gone often. He'd visit the offices of what were once bright, young fellows, now heads of their own departments. Dr. Robert Chase
who ran the ICU...who was still running the ICU. Dr. Eric Foreman, who had taken over the head of Diagnostics when House had retired. Dr. Allison Cameron had gone to another hospital, but for a while, they had kept in touch. He attended her wedding.
But he didn't go there anymore. He couldn't stand to walk past the office that had once held the words 'Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine', but now read 'Dr. Patrick Reader, Dean of Medicine'. He had been devastated when she had passed away four years ago. He missed her a lot. Even Eric Foreman was retired now and the last time he had talked to Robert Chase, he was planning to leave within the next year.
Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital wasn't the same. So he didn't go there anymore. James Wilson dug into the rubber maid box for the photograph that he needed for this day. And when he found it, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his aged face. It was a picture taken on House's 39th birthday, fifty years ago, to the day. Greg House would have been eighty nine, had he not passed away at sixty.
As James Wilson took the picture and headed out the door, he reflected back on the day he had lost his best friend. House knew he was dying, but selfishly he hadn't told anyone. And that day, the day of his birth...ironically became the day of his death. He had called Wilson who had come by. He knew, walking in to the apartment, that House was going to die that day.
But he told him of other things, how Lisa Cuddy had finally agreed to a date with him. He told Greg that if they got married, House could be the best man and the maid of honor. They had laughed and reminisced of days gone past when they ruled the hospital with impish grins and devious ways. And then, just like that, Dr. Gregory House, world famous diagnostician was gone.
James pulled up on the grass and got out of the car. Every year, on House's birthday - and death day, he came to his grave. For twenty some years, James Wilson made the trip to spend the day with House. House had once made him promise that he would never have to spend his birthday alone. And even in death, James Wilson would not break that promise. And as he lowered himself to the ground, slowly, painfully, for the age had not only affected his looks, he smiled and said. "Hey House, you giving Cuddy hell for me?"