Why…. Just Another Letter in the Alphabet
Chapter 2: No One's That Good
The Rolling Stones were finishing the last track on their greatest hits concert when House felt a presence. He cracked an eye. Wilson.
He pulled an ear bud out and regarded his friend with suspicious eyes. "What?" He asked as Wilson sat down.
"You did a nice thing for somebody. Unbelievable." Wilson said, his voice laced with a little awe.
"I'm not a grinch." House defended, shooting the man a dirty look.
"I wasn't so sure of that until now. Taking the blame for Ezra Powell's death… That's huge…" Wilson said.
"I didn't take the blame. I merely removed the blame from the guilty party." He corrected, fiddling with the songs on his iPod.
"The guilty party wasn't just anyone… It was Cameron." Wilson pointed out.
House sighed. "Is there a point to this conversation or do you just like stating the obvious?" House asked, his voice tinged with annoyance.
"Why?" Wilson pressed.
House shrugged passively. "She couldn't have dealt with the fallout. Losing her job, losing her colleague's respect. She would have tried, because she's in love with me and all, but she wouldn't have been able to handle it. I'm a big tough guy. Besides, technically, I didn't admit to it. I just suggested it, that's all." He finished, his face showing no sign of emotion.
"You could get in trouble." Wilson reminded him unnecessarily.
"She won't fire me. Besides, they have no hard evidence. Their word against mine. I'd win. Cuddy has the hots for me." House said with a lecherous smirk.
Wilson rolled his eyes. It was useless trying to get any real information out of him.
"So, what'd she have to say? Obviously she came crying to you, telling you how upset she was that she killed someone and then let me take the blame?" House asked, his voice slightly mocking.
"No actually. I went to her. I knew you didn't do it because I saw you last night. Foreman wouldn't do it, Chase, well, Chase may have seen a bunch of other doctors do it but I don't think he cared enough to do it. Cameron seemed like the likely choice. After all, she watched her husband die a long, slow painful death from cancer. I could see her having the moral dilemma, but I know she couldn't have stood by and watched another person in that much pain, suffer. Plus, she was the only one on call ast night, so my bet was on her from the beginning." Wilson finished.
House was having a hard time admitting that he felt a little twinge of guilt. He hadn't thought about her dead husband when all this was going on. Truth be told, he didn't think about him much at all. It bothered him to think about her dead husband. He couldn't wrap his mind around her marrying a man she knew was terminal. People just weren't that good.
"So I told her I knew she'd done it. All she said was you took the blame for it. Then she walked away." Wilson continued, but not without noting House's foray into whatever daydream he had Cameron starring in.
"Just know… If they investigate this… They're going to see that she was here last night. She's the only one without a plausible excuse. They'll know it wasn't you." Wilson warned as he left the room.
House sat in silence, contemplating Wilson's words. He didn't want to think the young oncologist was right. Instead, he just decided to go home.
A little over an hour later, he was sitting in front of his piano, talking to Steve.
"Don't look at me like that." He told the rat, taking a sip of his scotch.
The rat prodigy cocked his head to the right.
"Yes, she is pretty. But I didn't do it because I like her. Because I don't. I did it because she needed to get it together. She needed someone to sit next to her and tell her that she did what was best for the patient. And that meant I had to be a little…. Sensitive. That's it." He told the white furred creature.
The rat picked up a piece of bedding and chewed on it.
"Spit that out and go run on your wheel or something. You have no idea what you're talking about." He told the rat and returned to his playing.
As hard as he tried, he couldn't get his earlier actions out of his head. Why did I try to take the fall? He didn't like thinking about that. He didn't like thinking that he did something out of the kindness of his heart. It meant that he was starting to care and that left a bad taste in his mouth.
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