Check Up
By Lomeinie
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 3's Resignation
Characters: Cuddy, Foreman, Wilson
Summary: Cuddy receives a rare patient complaint regarding Wilson. Missing scene?
Word Count: 2,061
Beta: Bookfan85
Disclaimers: I don't own House or any of its characters since both belong to Fox and David Shore. I have made no money from this so please sue me not.
0o0
"Uh excuse me, Dr. Cuddy?"
Cuddy looked up from the paperwork on her desk to find a nervous young woman standing in her doorway. She smiled at her, "Yes, how can I help you?" She gestured for her to step inside her office and to one of the chairs.
The young woman came in and sat down across from Cuddy, "Uh I'm Abbey Evans. I'm one of Dr. Stein's patients. The nurse told me I should see you with any complaints."
Cuddy had never gotten any complaints about Stein before so she was surprised as she asked, "And you have a compliant in regards to Dr. Stein?"
Abbey shook her head, "Oh it's not about Dr. Stein, really but about Dr. Wilson the doctor he sent me to for a breast examination."
"Your complaint is about Dr. Wilson?" Cuddy asked.
Abbey nodded, "Although what I want to say isn't really a complaint I suppose. It's more like a. . . concern."
"Why don't you tell me what happened, Miss Evans."
"Well after Dr. Wilson came into the room with me, apologized for being late, and had introduced himself. He tried to put on a pair of rubber gloves but only got one of them on. He made a comment he couldn't seem to put on his gloves today. In fact he didn't finish putting on the second one and only had on one when he started the examination. I said something about how he sure talked fast and he said something like that was nothing I should see him when he's busy and then he winked at me."
Wilson winked at a patient? That doesn't sound like him, Cuddy thought. She knew he didn't typically go around flirting with patients.
Abbey continued onwards, "Now he immediately apologized for the wink saying he'd never winked at a patient before in his life. I tried to reassure him that it was okay, that he hadn't offended me but said no it wasn't because he'd hit on me. He said what else could I have thought and I said that maybe he was being reassuring. He said he felt like his heart was going to explode and I asked him if he was okay. He asked me if he was sweating, I said yeah and asked if something was wrong. He said something about not being able to put on gloves for a breast exam, and then took off the clip thing on my finger-"
"Heart monitor," Cuddy provided.
Abbey nodded, "And put it on his own finger. He said it's 185 over and over before he said excuse me I have to go kill someone. He then left me alone again."
"Did someone finish your exam?"
"Yeah another doctor came in about two minutes after Dr. Wilson left. I'm fine. But I came to talk to you because while I don't know how Dr. Wilson normally acts he seemed like he was acting strange to me," Abbey finished.
Cuddy nodded, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Miss Evans."
Abbey had rose out of her seat and was about to leave when she turned back at the door, "I didn't just get Dr. Wilson into trouble with this did I? I really wasn't offended."
Cuddy smiled, "No, Dr. Wilson is not in any trouble."
"Oh good." Abbey said, and left the office.
"Excuse me."
Cuddy had stood up and was about to head up to Wilson's office when she heard Foreman's voice just outside her office.
He poked his head inside, "Got a second?"
"Yeah, sure what's up?"
Foreman stepped all the way inside and closed the door, "I think there's something going on with Wilson, something you might need to know about." He then told her how Wilson had asked to see him in private when he had went to see him.
Cuddy paused for a moment to consider whether or not she should let Foreman know she already knew something was out of the ordinary was going on with Wilson. "Let me guess Wilson was acting strangely when you saw and talked to him."
Confusion gleamed in Foreman's eyes as he asked, "How did you know?"
"A patient expressed some concerned to me about how he acted during an examination. From the description I was given it was clear Wilson's behavior wasn't normal. However I want to know if you yourself observed anything medically possibly relevant during your conversation with him." Cuddy already had suspicions about what was going on with Wilson from what Abbey Evans had told her but she wanted to see if Foreman could confirm it with his observations.
"Wilson was hyperactive, his pupils were a little dilated, and he was having some difficulty in talking. He also was perspiring a little as well."
Cuddy decided to let Foreman draw his own conclusions about Wilson's behavior privately. "Is House still here?"
"No, he went home some time ago."
"All right I'll go see what's going on with Wilson then."
Foreman's pager shrilled at that moment and after looking at it he hurried from her office without saying anything. Cuddy followed him out but at a much slower pace. She was only halfway across the lobby while Foreman was pressing the button inside the elevator trying to get the door to close. When she reached the elevator she patiently waited for the second car to come down thinking about what she was going to say to Wilson.
Less than a minute later Cuddy was standing outside his office door noting if Wilson was still there he had the lights off. She knew it was highly unlikely he had a patient consultation going on at this late hour so Cuddy didn't feel the need to knock before entering. The light from the hallway flooded the dark room and Cuddy heard a low groan of pain.
Wilson's voice shot from the dark, "Go away and close the door!"
Cuddy only halfway complied, and stepped into the office instead of leaving it before closing the door. She considered flipping the light switch but then decided against it given Wilson's reaction to the hallway light. Her eyes soon adjusted enough to allow her to see him laying on the couch with on arm sprawled over his eyes. She kept her tone of voice gentle, soft when she spoke, "Wilson?"
Wilson immediately pulled his arm away from his eyes and looked at her. "I think I've got a migraine coming on. I thought I'd rest here a bit see if I can stop it from becoming full blown so maybe I can go home tonight."
"A migraine, huh?" Cuddy said moving closer to him, "Is it okay if I at least turn on the desk lamp?"
A grudging "Yeah, sure." was all she got from Wilson. Cuddy turned it on and as she pulled a chair over closer to him she noted Wilson had covered his eyes with his arm again. Sensitivity to light was a definite sign of a migraine.
Cuddy pushed aside thoughts of concern for Wilson's impending headache to ask, "Wilson, have you been taking amphetamines?"
Wilson groaned, "Yes, I took some but it's not what you're thinking." The last part of that sentence as well as the next part came out in rapid secession, "House dosed me."
"House dosed you?"
"Check the pharmacy's logs if you don't believe me," Wilson replied, taking his arm off his eyes before he slowly sat up. "In any case he dosed me without my knowledge or consent." He laughed sarcastically before adding, "Oh the fact House gave me a free cup of my favorite coffee would have raised a red flag. Most people who know House well enough know he doesn't do things just to be nice! I mean when has he ever given me, his best friend, a cup of coffee just because it's what nice people do?"
"But House did have a reason to dose you didn't he?" Cuddy asked, already knowing the answer to her question. She knew House wasn't the type to take random actions for no reason. He always had some reason for what he did and she knew there had to be one of three reasons why he had dosed Wilson. The first reason House might have dosed Wilson was simply for the amusement of seeing his friend hyped up speed. Cuddy quickly eliminated that one though since the amphetamines could have caused Wilson permanent physical damage. House might be ethically challenged at times but even she was sure he wouldn't wish serious harm to his best friend. The second reason involved some sort of prank war that these two were known to have had in the past but since neither she or anyone else had witnessed anything else to confirm it, she dismissed that reason as well. The third and the most likely she knew was that House had observed something he perceived to be physically wrong with Wilson and had dosed him with amphetamines in an effort to correct whatever it was that he saw.
"Wilson," Cuddy began slowly, "This wasn't because House was bored or because you two have some kind of juvenile prank war going?" Wilson shook his head in the negative. "Then House must have observed some sort of physical symptom with you he thought the amphetamines would help you with?"
Wilson sighed, "I recently began taking anti-depressants recently."
"Ah."
"House observed me yawning a lot lately no matter how much sleep I get or coffee I drink. Because he didn't know about the anti-depressants, therefore he couldn't have known about the side effects, and so dosing me with amphetamines was just House's screwed up attempt to help me."
Cuddy sighed, "Even so, I am still going to talk to House in the morning about this. Setting aside the fact you might have had a heart attack or stroked out. . ." She stopped speaking when she noticed the look of sheepish guilt cross Wilson's face. "You did do something to him first didn't you?"
Three full seconds expired before Wilson nodded a confirmation to her suspicions. "It's not what you thinking because at this point House doesn't even know I've been doing it."
"What exactly have you've been doing?" Cuddy asked.
"First let me ask you something. Does House seem. . . happier to you lately or at least not as miserable as he usually is?" He paused while Cuddy considered his question, continuing on when she nodded. "The reason he's been less miserable lately is because I've been secretly dosing him almost daily with anti-depressants."
Cuddy stared at him before breaking into an amused smile, "It's not that I don't appreciate anything that helps with House's. . . moods but what am I going to do with the two of you?" She continued to laugh before saying with a smile, "I won't say anything to House about this or him dosing you because I think you're even, but Wilson tell him what you've been doing."
"You know he'll tell me to stop the anti-depressants which means he'll go back to the same level of misery he was at before," Wilson said.
Cuddy nodded, "He probably will tell you to stop, and even if that is the result, you still need to tell him. As strange as it may seem to use this word when it's House we're talking about, it's unethical to dose him without his knowledge or consent."
"Yeah I know, I know and assuming my head isn't still killing me tomorrow I'll tell House I've been dosing him."
"All right," Cuddy said, relieved Wilson's pain didn't seem to have gotten worse during their conversation but even so it was obvious he was still in a lot of pain. "Come on, let me drive you home."
"Oh I wish I could but I've got three critical patients in the ICU who aren't going to survive the night."
Cuddy knew even if he couldn't do anything more for the patients, Wilson still felt an obligation to stay for the families, and nothing she said would persuade him to leave the hospital tonight. Instead of arguing with him she stood up. "Okay I'm going to at least write you a scrip for your migraine. I'll even fill it before I leave."
Wilson smiled gratefully at her, "Thank you."
"No problem, I'll be right back."
-- end
A/N: I did my research about amphetamines at wikipedia so don't blame me if isn't entirely accurate.