Play Along: Chapter Ten
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The next few days went quietly. Wilson avoided House whenever he could. On the few occasions they met on the corridors he turned away. House made no attempt to talk to Wilson either. Foreman and Chase watched the two heads of departments in wonder while Cameron was worried.

None of the two doctors pretended that everything was going smoothly, but both tried to not let it influence their work. Two new patients with tumors kept Wilson busy and a mother of six with recurring blackouts made House's working hours fly by.

Cuddy glared into their offices suspiciously whenever she could. House had not even tried to get around his clinic duty the last two days. He was unusually calm and to Cuddy this was no good sign.

The rumors about Wilson being gay did not stop. His gloomy mood seemed to spark that little fire to keep the gossip alive. His well known wide smile that brought a twinkle to his warm eyes and the comforting voice that made so many girls fall for him was gone. He did his work, but did not seem to be in it with his full heart anymore.

Rebecca was taken aback the first two days after she had been told that she had to leave, but by now she was back to good spirits again. Wilson's behavior seemed to support her story and whenever he walked by, she would throw a triumphant smile at him.
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"Wilson, it's only two more weeks. Do you want to take that time off?" Cuddy asked.

He looked up. "Two more weeks?"

"Yes, we can't make her go earlier. All I could do was make her work the nightshift." The frown on Cuddy's face showed that she was worried and felt helpless. She had tried to talk to the board to fire that nurse. That little girl had caused so much trouble and she could do absolutely nothing to stop that. The smirk on that young face made her cringe, too. And she knew it must be even worse for Wilson.

"I don't want to take the time off," Wilson finally answered. It had taken him a few seconds to understand what Cuddy was talking about. Of course Rebecca annoyed him and he hated to see her grin, but he was much more upset about his fight with House. Wilson was so afraid that this situation could go on forever that he had not slept in days. He did not dare to go near House, because they might start a fight again. Or even worse, House could look him in the eyes, reading his mind. Wilson had no idea what House would read in his mind though, because he was so cofused, that his own thoughts didn't even make sense to himself. He wanted to avoid House, his eyes and his sharp comments, but he was suffering from the distance between them at the same time.

All the thoughts and emotions of these two nights he had spend at House's place came rushing back to him, mixing with snatches of their fights and with his own longings. Everything tossed around in his head like a set of lottery balls. Every now and then one of those balls would fall out and show him his number, presenting him a clear memory. And our lucky number today is: You held his hand!" Wilson closed his eyes, but the picture of his hand holding Greg's would not go away, he blinked and then noticed that Cuddy was still in his office.

"There is more to it than that girl," she stated. "I know that House gives you a hard time, but he'd done this before and you did better than you're doing now."

"I'm sorry, Cuddy. I don't want to talk about it." Wilson shook his head and the lottery balls started to swirl again. And our lucky number today is: you are gay!

"No!" Wilson said it out loud.

"What no?" Cuddy glared at him.

"Nothing." He rubbed his face with both hands and pressed his thumbs on his eyes. "I'm just tired."

"You keep lying to me for days now. You might think I didn't notice, but I did. So if this is something you really don't want to talk about with me, then go find someone else." Cuddy cast him a last long glance and went out of the office.

"I don't have anyone else," Wilson mumbled, feeling hopelessly lost in his lottery.
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"Dr. Cameron, I would apreciate if you could focus on the symptoms instead of the pathetic whining of our patient." There was no sarcasm in House's tired voice. He kept insulting his ducklings, but his usual delight of tormenting them was gone.

Cameron drew in her breath and was about to protest, but Chase hushed her with a glance.

"The respiratory problems got worse. The patient won't be able to tell us anything more in a few hours. We should question him again." Chase was backing Cameron up. She nodded to thank him, but still pouted, because she wasn't allowed to report the new development of their patient herself.

"The patient already lied to us twice and he could save his breath for a little – well, breathing – I guess." House argued.

There was a small muscle at his temple that twitched as Wilson entered the conference room, but House went on as if nothing had happened. "Forman and Chase you go and check on her ex-husband. I'd like to know if he has any symptoms. As far as we know he was the last one who –" House stopped and looked at his team. All three doctors had stopped listening to him and watched Wilson closely as he went to get some coffee.

"The human mind works in most mysterious ways sometimes," House mused on and slammed his cane against the white board for attention. "Astounding how most males are not able to multitask. As I have noted the only one who could do three things at the same time was Cameron: she could watch Dr. Wilson get his coffee, twiddle her hair around her fingers AND manage to hold her pen up. On the other hand there are two males that needed all their brain activities to concentrate on Wilson and his coffee."

The eyes of the ducklings went back to House again, Cameron blushed a little and put her pen down.

"Aww, " House managed a sad look. "Don't put it down Cameron. The three way multitasking was amazingly good." He slammed his cane angrily to the ground. "But it would have been perfect if you had managed four things and payed a little attention to our meeting!" House shouted.

"I'm sorry," Cameron started. "I just thought Dr. Wils-"

"No need to cry," House interrupted her. He went on with his orders and then sent his ducklings away.
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"What are you doing here?" House asked gruffly without looking at Wilson.

"Got me some coffee."

"You've been avoiding me for five days now. You got your coffee in the cafeteria. Don't tell me you lost your way or something."

"The coffee up here is much better." Wilson tried to look at House, but most of the time he let his eyes drop to the floor.

House kept himself busy with cleaning the white board. "Liar. Cameron made it today and it's lousy."

"We need to talk." Wilson took a deep breath before he could look up again. House had his eyes fixed on his face and Wilson felt uneasy, but did not look away. He had prepared himself and he would not let the hurt and the feelings show in his eyes. His eyes were blank.

House tilted his head a little, still looking at Wilson, trying to find something in his gaze, but he couldn't. He gave up on Wilson's thoughts and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, you're pretty good at it today."

Wilson felt relieve and House saw it at once, he smiled for a spilt second and then looked serious again.

"I don't want to fight anymore," Wilson said calmly. "I had told you before, but you've started fighting again."

"You started yelling the last time."

"And you know very well why."

"Denial," House said simply.

Wilson rolled his eyes and put his coffee down. "Stop it."

Nodding House trotted of into his office. He closed the door and Wilson was left alone in the conference room. That went way better than I had hoped, Wilson thought and watched House pick up his tennis ball and threw it straight in the air.