NOTE:
This story is a CO-AUTHORED story between myself and Corky Castel. Move over to her page and check out her House/Wilson story, let her know what you think as you let me know what you think of a combination of minds!
Chapter One:
The folder dropped with a thud in front of him on the counter, making him raise his eyebrows and look between it and the dark haired woman beside him.
"Exam room one, House," she said, looking at him for a moment before turning and somewhat storming off. Rolling his eyes, he picked up the file and folded it open, wrapping his fingers around the cane leaning against the counter and somewhat hobbling off towards the exam room, mumbling softly as he read through the file. Opening the door, he walked in, his eyes still focused on the file, and pushed the door closed again. Lifting his head, he saw a young man sitting on the exam table, his hands on his thighs but his thumbs up and angled slightly. Raising an eyebrow, he set the file down.
"I'm Dr. House," he said, tossing his cane up a bit and catching it closer to the bottom and laying it on the counter by the sink. He hobbled over to the rolling stool, sitting upon it and looking at the boy. "You are…Anakin?" he asked, giving an odd look. "Did your parents watch Star Wars during your birth?" he asked sarcastically. Anakin looked at him in confusion, before shaking his head.
"You are the doctor who's gonna treat me?" Anakin question, somewhat unsure. House pursed his lips together, curling the corners into a smile and raised both his eyebrows, lowering them back down just as quickly.
"What's the problem?" House asked, not answering his previous question. Anakin sighed, and held out his hands, his thumbs staying in the same position.
"These…" he started, when his thumbs began to twitch back and forth a bit. House looked at his hands, raising an eyebrow, and looked up at Anakin. "And I keep waking up with these bruises, like, on my legs…I just don't know how I-"
"Do you play video games?" he asked. Anakin looked up.
"Well…yeah…just got the new Playstation…why?" he asked, confused yet again. House sighed, and stood up, picking his cane up off the counter.
"Lay off the games for a while. You see, playing video games for more than twelve hours in one day can lead to an imprint in your brain, so even while you're sleeping, your brain thinks your playing, which is why your hands are cramping that way," he said, motioning to his hands, "and also as to why you're sleep walking, which explains those unexplainable bruises. Lay off the games, you'll be just fine." Turning, House opened the Exam Room door and walked out, limping off towards the elevator and pushing the UP arrow.
As the door opened, House limped on, but just as the door began to slide shut, a hand reached out and grabbed it. Looking up, House was none too surprised to see a younger brunette doctor standing there, with a partial smirk, partial straight face, as he climbed onto the elevator next to House.
"What floor?" he asked as he looked at the younger doctor.
"Uh, same one you're going to, I see," he said, motioning at the lit number on the list of floors. House leaned against the wall, and nodded, looking at him for a second before readjusting his feet under him. "Cuddy manage to get you into you clinic duty, House?" he asked, glancing up at him. House looked at him, his head tilted, and rested the bottom of his cane on the floor of the elevator.
"What makes you guess that, Wilson?" he questioned sarcastically, shuffling out onto the floor with Wilson right behind him.
"I can see the irritation on your face," he said somewhat jokingly, glancing at him as they moved down the hallway. House rolled his eyes mockingly at Wilson, making him chuckle, as he turned and pushed his door open and headed into his office, while Wilson continued passed, and further down the hall a ways before opening his own door and stopping in the doorway with a half smile on his face. Chuckling softly, Wilson walked in and closed his door quietly so as to not disrupt the girl lying on his couch. She gave a soft moan, and rolled over, looking at him with a sleepy smile as she pushed herself up on the couch.
"Hey, you…" she said, smiling over at him as she pushed her hair off her face.
"Sleepin' on my couch again, Lil? You can't just come in for that, ya know…" She stood up, and walked over, putting her arms around his shoulders as she hugged him.
"Yeah, I know…" she said, chuckling. "But I was waiting for you, and you were taking too long, so…I figured I would lay down for a little bit." Pulling back, she kissed his cheek and dropped into one of the chairs as he sat down across from her at his desk.
"Well, why were you waiting for me?" he asked, looking up at her. Lil shrugged.
"I was going to ask you if you wanted to get lunch today, or just go out for dinner." Wilson pulled open his calendar book that laid on his desk, and looked up at her.
"Not gonna promise lunch, so we'll just have dinner, okay?" he asked, smiling at her. She nodded, and stood up, leaning over and poking at his chin to get him to look up.
"Sounds good…you know where to find me," she said, giving him a quick kiss before moving to the door. "See you tonight, Jimmy," she said, smiling and heading out, waving as she left. Wilson smiled back at her and watched as she was quickly replaced by another woman of about twenty-nine. Her blond hair was pulled back up into a messy pony tail and her green eyes were shallow and sunken in. Gulping slightly, she looked around before giving a half-hearted smile to him.
"Are you Doctor Wilson?" She asked softly, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. Giving a sympathetic smile, Wilson nodded and sat up at attention.
"Yes, can I help you?"
"Um…they sent me up here from downstairs, with these. They uh, they said you had better take a look at them. I thought it was just a cough but…I guess they saw something they weren't sure of." She answered, handing him a file and a folder with an x-ray inside. Wilson knew that someone who looked as she did, holding a file folder with an x-ray and being sent to him from the clinic meant she was a cancer patient. Reaching out for the folder, he motioned for her to sit down.
"Alright, well Ms…uh…"
"Newman, Haley Newman." She answered, giving a small smile as she sat down in the chair across from the doctor. Wilson nodded as he opened the file and held the x-ray up to the light. Looking it over in silence for a moment, he finally sighed and set it down and sighed heavily.
"There is a mass growing in your left lung. Judging by the lack of surprise on your face, I'd say you probably already knew that." Haley sighed and looked down at her hands. She had known, she had known for some time, but she wasn't ready to admit it. Gulping, she nodded slightly.
"I had my suspicions that something was wrong. Lung cancer isn't that big of a surprise to me…my grandpa died of lung cancer." Wilson looked up at her, and nodded slowly, looking back at the X-Ray.
"I'm sorry to hear that…and even more sorry that cancer can be genetic," he said, setting the X-Ray down and crossing his hands over his desk. Haley nodded, giving a soft partial laugh.
"Yeah…so am I." Wilson looked at her, and opened her file, reading over it a little bit before looking back at her.
"Have you ever gotten a biopsy done, to find out whether or not that mass is benign?" he asked, looking at the file again. Haley knitted her eyebrows together, and thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"N…No. Not that I know of. The…the other doctor's I've been to, they never even offered me that," she said softly. Wilson reached over, picking a pen up out of a cup on the end of his desk, and looked at her as he did so.
"Are you able to come back in tomorrow?" Haley quickly shook her head.
"Um…I won't be able to come back in…until this weekend," she said, looking at Wilson. "I…have to work until then," she finished, sighing. Wilson started jotting down a few things on a slip of paper.
"I'll make up an appointment for you to have a biopsy this Saturday, at two. Is that alright?" Nodding, she gave a soft smile.
"Yeah…that's good. Thank you…Dr. Wilson." He looked at her, at how pale and ill she looked to him, and sighed, setting his pen down.
"What do you say to getting her around noon, I can buy lunch at the cafeteria downstairs?" Wilson offered, smiling sweetly at her. Haley blushed, and looked at him.
"Can…can you do that? I thought there was some…I don't know, Doctor-Patient thing that stopped you from-"
"Actually, that's from dating, but lunch is just lunch. In the cafeteria here," he said, and she nodded, smiling softly.
"Okay…I mean…that sounds good," she said, nodding with a soft smile. Wilson smiled back, and picked up a slip of paper, jotting down the date, the time for lunch, and the time of the biopsy, before handing it to her with a smile.
"Alright then…was there anything else you needed to do here, or was that all?" he asked, pushing the pen back into his cup.
"No, this was all…" Wilson stood, and, putting her file back together, walked around the desk with it in one hand, extending his other arm to her.
"Then let me walk you back downstairs and I'll set up the appointment at the front desk." Smiling, Haley took his arm, and stood up, following him into the hall.
Wilson waved to Haley as she left the hospital, a smile on his face, as he talked to the nurse behind the desk to set up the appointment. As the nurse penned in the appointment, Wilson jerked his knee forward, turning in surprise as House chuckled, placing his cane back on the ground and leaned against the counter.
"Hitting on more patients, Wilson? I thought you would have had enough after you picked up Lillian, considering she still is your ever-trusting girlfriend…well, at least, your current ever-trusting girlfriend." Wilson gave him a somewhat dirty look, and looked over to see the nurse nod as she finished making the appointment.
"Call her to make sure she has it…she just left, so leave it on her machine or whatever she has. House, don't start. She's sick, she's known for a while and no one has offered her a biopsy. So I'm being nice, an ability with which you have no experience, and buying her lunch before hand, so she isn't as unnerved," he said, nodding a thank you at the nurse and heading away from the counter. House followed behind him.
"You do realize that if she wants to go somewhere on your lunch on Saturday, you'll either have to tell her that you can't because your going out with another patient, or you'll have to find some way to lie to her without lying to her," House said, as Wilson attempted to ignore him and climbed in the elevator, hitting the button for his floor. House whipped his cane into the doorway, making it stop and reopen, as he walked onto the elevator beside his best friend.
"House, knock it off, okay? Lily will be fine, it's not a date, its lunch to take the edge off," he said, shaking his head. House looked at him.
"Alright." As the doors opened again, and Wilson climbed off, House lifted his head. "But don't come crying to me when Lily gets ticked that you're sleeping with another patient." Wilson spun to retort, but House just waved his hand, wiggling his fingers as the door closed, leaving Wilson there with his mouth open and his eyebrows pushed together.