Time for a little friendly pep talk... because who does House need when he questions himself about what he shoud or shouldn't do?...

** CHAPTER 10 **

Wilson was quietly seated at his desk but jumped at the sound of the door abruptly opening and House storming inside. The diagnostician went straight to the French window and stood there, looking out.

"Did you know Cuddy had a new assistant?" he asked, after a short while. "God, this woman really has to have them all! She's a true man-eater!"

Wilson leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Waiting without making any comment, perfectly knowing how useless it was anyway, he stared at his friend, totally unfazed. House turned around, looking preoccupied.

"Someone totally should warn her about that because she could get her ass into serious problems, you know. I mean, the kid is so young, Cameron could be his grand-ma!" He finished with a flourish, staring at Wilson with that ever famous look of his that silently screamed: are you gonna ask me now, or what?!

"Something's wrong House?" the oncologist said, compliant.

House immediately turned his back to him to face the French window again. He pressed his forehead against the glass and stared blankly outside without saying a word. For some reasons that Wilson was particularly aware of, knowing his best friend like he did, the more important the matter was to House, the less easy it was for him to share it out loud. Ergo, well-trained to the mechanism after all those years, the younger doctor shrugged and said, sounding deliberately uninterested:

"Ok, whatever! You can stay here if you want. Just as long as you keep quiet so that I can finish paperwork before my next appointment with a patient, which… by the way," he added raising his voice towards House to catch his attention, "is scheduled in less than 15 minutes."

"I rang her bell," House said point blank, his forehead still leaning against the glass.

"Oh good, so you went to Cuddy's place," Wilson prompted, assuming it was about her, considering the subject that seemed to have brought House in his office.

"No. Actually, she went to mine."

Wilson slightly nodded, the hint of a self-satisfied smile drawing on his lips.

"Interesting…" he said, more to himself than to his friend.

"She stopped by yesterday… She wanted to… well, whatever! And before we were able to put a word on it, I rang her bell, metaphorically speaking that is."

"And?"

"It's loud," House muttered half-serious, half smiling mischievously at his own joke.

Wilson stared at him, pretending he didn't understand, forcing him to say it…

"Oh c'mon, don't be purposely lousy at this!" House exclaimed with a childish pout, turning to face his friend again. "I use brilliant metaphors to tell you whatever it is I have to tell you, you get my point, and then we can all move on!"

Both hands on his cane, slightly leaning forwards, House looked down at his feet. It was so obvious that something was upsetting him. Wilson knew he'd have to make him admit the facts for what they really were, before they'd be able to discuss the real matter.

"House, you need to address this. Why can't you just say it?"

"Is the female side of you taking over so much that you actually want me to say it out loud?" House mocked looking at Wilson, who sat behind his desk, stubbornly silent. "Well, obviously it is! Ok, so you really wanna know? Fine! There was a party at Lisa's last night and Little Greg was the guest of honor!"

Wilson greeted him with an ironic grin. Since House, as surprising as it sounded, never usually bragged about his conquests, at least the ones that thoroughly mattered to him, Wilson knew there was something lying underneath his reluctance to talk openly about it. And truth be told, he was also enjoying this whole 'messing up with House' routine a lot. He frowned and shot House a challenging look, letting him know he wasn't going to get away with it easily.

"All right. You got me. We slept together! We had sex! Totally out of the blue wild and hot sex! Happy now?"

"I don't know. Are you?" Wilson asked, sounding like he genuinely cared about the answer.

House recognized this change of tone as Wilson's inimitable way to let him know that it was okay to stop pretending. And indeed, for once, it felt as if he could allow himself to be sincere and tell the truth, without fearing to be hurt. At least, part of the truth at first, just in case Wilson wouldn't understand him and bring him the comfort he was unconsciously seeking without being ready to admit it.

"She left," House said, self-consciously, looking down at his feet. "Right after we did it."

"Oh! And that's… a bad thing?"

"I was willing to let her sleep over."

"And what? She declined?"

"No. I didn't even get the chance to ask her. She just took her stuff and left."

Wilson stared at his friend incapable of repressing the image of House, the world-renowned jerk, discovering that he'd been fooled into a one-night stand like a college girl after a drunken orgy. He burst into laughter but, registering the look of hurt on House's face, immediately regretted he did. House glared at him and set his lips in anger.

Wilson was stunned by what he saw: so House was really serious about all this. His mind instantly processed backwards to acknowledge the facts. It meant he was totally right about his friend "experiencing" some feelings for a woman again. It also meant he was completely right about the fact that the woman was indeed Cuddy. However, it meant that maybe he wasn't exactly right about the fact that the feeling was mutual - which surprised him a lot. But the worse thing was that it mostly meant he was utterly screwed, as House was incapable of assuming his own action without blaming others for the consequences. Now, all that was left for him to do was wait for what would come next. And it came, indeed, phrased in a very upset tone.

"It's your fault!" House snapped. "You're the catalyst in this. You're the one who convinced her to come to my place…"

Wilson looked at him, incredulous. "How the hell did he know?" he thought, even if he already could guess the answer.

"Yes, she told me," House said as if he'd read his friend's mind.

"So, as I can see, you were able to talk this time," Wilson replied quietly in an attempt to deflect.

"Yeah. We had a pretty nice chat bef…" House began answering, dragged into Wilson's empathetic and neutral tone. But he abruptly cut himself off mid-sentence and widened his eyes, pointing an accusing finger at Wilson. "Don't you dare change the subject! I'm not happy with what you did!"

"Whoa… what?! Excuse me but what did I do exactly?"

"You couldn't keep your mouth shut!"

"I may have spoken to Cuddy, indeed."

"Oh you may have! God! Who told you to?"

"I'm not sure you want to hear the answer to that," Wilson stated ironically.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"House, yesterday you stormed into my office, and then told me you went to Cuddy's but couldn't actually show yourself at her door. So excuse me if, being your friend, I read that as you being a little confused about it and needing a little help."

House looked down, feeling touched by Wilson's friendly concern no matter what he would try to pretend, but stubbornly refusing to admit it nonetheless.

"So yes, I went to see Cuddy after you left," Wilson carried on. "To tell her how I felt about the two of you being so obstinately blind about your feelings for each other. And God, I don't know what you two find exciting in this, but you're both really trying hard to fight them".

A slight smile lightened House's face as he tried to imagine Cuddy giving Wilson a hard time. Well maybe Wilson didn't know, but he surely knew why he'd found that exciting…

Disillusionment had now replaced anger and House was ready to surrender. In his own very special way, that was.

"Maybe if you don't see anything exciting in this, it's because you didn't see this naked" he provoked with a half-smile, raising his face to his friend.

"So tell me: how is this?" Wilson asked in a very spontaneous burst of boyish curiosity.

House sent him a glare that unequivocally drew a line beyond which, despite the sincere friendship, he made it clear to Wilson it was inappropriate to walk. Wilson immediately read that possessive reaction as another crying sign that House truly cared for Cuddy and he realized it must have been really hurtful for him to realize she had left.

"Wow! You really do like her," he said, feeling deeply sorry for his friend.

House looked intensely at Wilson, as if searching for the answer in his friend's eyes. Suddenly, his face slightly changed from hurt to annoyance. But it had always been the whole concept of House's healing mechanism: the more he witnessed sincere empathy in Wilson's eyes, the more he was able to feed his brain with a good reason to pull himself together and get over whatever upset him. That was just his special brand of irony: grief and sympathy helped him feel better by making him bitter. And right in that instant, Wilson's genuine caring perfectly triggered his deflecting cynicism.

"I can't focus on my medical cases!" he shouted suddenly, as if it was the only rational reason to explain why everything felt so wrong to him. "She sent me her fifth-grader assistant to give me a case."

"I don't get why this is in any way relevant, here," Wilson answered completely taken aback by the fluctuating, unpredictable pattern of their conversation.

"What I'm saying is: I want things to be normal. Cuddy brings me my cases, and always has. I hate change. You know me. I need things to be the way they were."

"Don't be childish, House. This is not the point and you know it," Wilson replied, trying to make his friend admit what the real issue was.

"I can't focus on my medical cases. That's my point," House persisted, staring at him defiantly

"So let me sum this up: you two had sex, then Cuddy left... now she doesn't want to be the one bringing you your files and, it only is just about medicine? But, of course! Who am I to think this is about something else, eh?"

"Ok, alright. Let's say she's still an annoying thought that keeps popping into my head every damn minute but she's also preventing me from doing my job properly. That's what matters. And this is your fault, by the way. So you're going to fix this! As surely as you started it in the first place."

"What do you want me to do, House?" Wilson asked resignedly, knowing that it would be impossible for him to try and find an easy way out of it.

"I don't know. You're the one with the brilliant ideas, find one!"

"Don't you think, for a change, that you could try to solve your problems by yourself? ... House!"

Wilson watched bemused as his friend suddenly started marching towards the exit decidedly. On his way out, totally ignoring his advice, House pointed a finger at Wilson and threatened him with a smirk.

"And it better be a good one or I will never buy you lunch again!"

"You never buy me lunch!" Wilson exclaimed in disbelief.

"Then I'll just change nothing about it!" Wilson heard him shout from the hallway.

Wilson sighed heavily and shook his head, trying to understand why in God's name he he had to be friend with a man like House. His life would be so much easier and calmer if he wasn't… and so much more boring too! He smiled and took his coat before heading for his consult.

A/N

Ok... so I don't know how that works... because I see people are reading this so first I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO ARE READING THIS STORY ... this is amazing to see how many of you have given a look at this ... BUT the truth is I'd be so much more happy to hear about you! :-)

Anyway... A HUGE THANKS to everyone who added my story or me in their list of favorites. it means a lot to me. and of course a special thanks to the people who already left me a review : I'm sincerely touched by the fact that you have found the time to stop by and add a few words in here to share your thoughts with me. any kind of comments, even suggestions are welcome. So I'm waiting to hear from you!

NEXT CHAPTER VERY SOON...

ps: and just a little precision, regarding a comment I receive lately: this story is currently over 300 pages long and NOT OVER YET! so you can be assured that if you like it, you'll have more of it... :-)

have a nice day - maya