Antifreeze

House found Wilson sitting outside in the cold, half-hidden behind a stubby tree in the car park, head in his hands.

"Bad day?" he asked as he sat down beside his friend, grunting as pain shot up his leg.

"What...? What are you doing here?"

"Well, obviously I'm here for the car fumes. God, I could snort those all day long..." He was rewarded by a shaky half-laugh from his friend, who slowly lowered his hands. House risked a sideways glance at him, not all that surprised to see slightly reddened and puffy eyes after what Cuddy had told him earlier. "So, what happened? Cancer kids just not fighting it like they used to?"

Wilson snorted at that before realising the diagnostician, despite his sarcastic manner, was waiting for an actual response. He sighed. "You'll think it's stupid."

"Probably, yes," House conceded. "But it'll make you feel better to tell someone."

"Oh, please, you don't think it'll make me feel better," Wilson retorted. "You hate talking about stuff like this. You just want to know what's got me so torn up because of your stupid, child-like need to know everything about everyone."

House smirked, all but telling the oncologist that what he has said was in fact truth, even though the diagnostician knew it wasn't, not really. He wasn't about to admit that, though. Instead he gestured for the other doctor to continue, and once Wilson realised he wasn't going to get a response past that, he sighed again and looked at the ground. "Fine. But you better not berate me for it." He took a deep breath. "My... my nan died today." He took a chance and looked quickly up at his friend, surprised to see his eyes to be warm and sympathetic, not at all mocking. Wilson threw his hands up in the air. "She wasn't even sick. She was fine. But then... stage IV primary liver cancer. Metastasised to her lungs, died of cardiac arrest secondary to respiratory failure. She wasn't even sick," he repeated uselessly.

House watched his friend sigh quietly, staring sadly at the ground in front of him. He had nothing to say to that. And what could he say? Nothing would bring her back.

They lapsed into silence for a while before Wilson suddenly said, "Why did you come looking for me? It's 3 in the afternoon, too late for lunch and too early to want to leave, even for you. Did you solve your case?"

"No. She's an idiot anyway."

Wilson ignored him, his tone growing more suspicious by the minute. "And how did you know to look here? I never come here, which is why I'm here now, so there'd be no way for you to find me."

House looked back at his friend, and, seeing the determination on his face, sighed and relented. "Okay... your parents phoned Cuddy. They were worried about you, said you weren't returning their calls. She told me what had happened, and that she'd seen you head out this way."

"My phone was flat," he explained lamely. "Wait a minute - that means you knew already, which means you weren't here to 'find out what happened'!"

House rolled his eyes, seeing the inevitable conclusion Wilson was coming to. "Yes, okay, you've caught me!" he joked, in an attempt to avoid the potentially soppy moment. "I'm actually a teddy bear at heart. I just came to hug and kiss it better!"

Wilson stood, chuckling slightly, and helped House to his feet. "Well, I'll pass on the kissing, but..." he wrapped his arms around a surprised House. "Thanks for coming to find me."

So much for avoiding a soppy moment, House thought, rolling his eyes. After a moment he raised his arms to tentatively hug the oncologist back. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, embarrassed as he awkwardly patted his friend's back. "You'll be okay if I go now, right? Patients to save and all that..."

Wilson let out a brief half-laugh and nodded into his shoulder, but still didn't let go. House cleared his throat. "You, um, you know where to find me if you need me," he continued quietly, disentangling himself from his friend. He started walking back towards the hospital doors, glancing at Wilson every so often to make sure he was still beside him. Once through the doors they parted ways, Wilson heading towards his office and House to an empty exam room to do his usual thing of avoiding clinic duty. As he passed Cuddy on the way, he thought he saw her smiling.