Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Relationships: All friendship
Rating: T/M
Warning: Nothing too bad. Mild language I guess…
Spoilers: Season 1
Disclaimer: I am not making any profit from this fan fiction, all recognizable characters belong to FOX and all of the others belong to me.
A/N: This is my first try for "House" fan fiction so please excuse when the characters are out of character. To those of you who are praying for an update on my LOTR stories, you're going to have to wait a while. Those are on a hiatus for the next month. Check back around September for one of those.
Chapter 1: Divorce
Wilson slammed his car door, wincing when he realized how loud it was. He wasn't in a good mood, and he needed to get his frustration out somehow. Julie was leaving him and they had argued about it that morning before he went to work so he was still feeling bad. It wasn't that he was surprised when she had announced that she was leaving and she would be gone when he got home, he had known it was coming, he was just surprised that she was getting out so quickly and was informing him. His past wives had left him a note on the fridge or no note at all. Julie was trying to be polite about it; she had even said she would like to keep in touch! He didn't mind that so much, he had even told her it would be nice, it had been when she'd told him that he shouldn't call for a few days because her 'friend' Steve might pick up and verbally abuse him when Wilson had lost his temper.
He knew she was having an affair, hell he'd had a few, but it still hurt him to know she was leaving him because she'd found another person she wanted to be with.
'Good thing we don't have children,' he thought bitterly.
As he walked to the hospital, he tried to forget the discussion with Julie so that he could focus on the day ahead. He knew he had a leukemia patient to see and he wasn't looking forward to it. It always depressed him to visit the leukemia patients because the hope he saw in their eyes was hard to deal with. Bone marrow donors that matched were hard to come by and it wasn't the same as a patient with lung cancer or colon cancer. The other thing that bothered him about the leukemia patients was that for him they were normally children and he hated seeing such young people suffer.
He shook his head, trying to clear it from such depressing thoughts. 'That's what my job is, though,' he reminded himself, 'it's depressing.'
Walking through the hospital doors, he tossed everything that had happened with Julie out and focused on what he was going to be doing that day. He had to check on the leukemia patient first, followed by whoever else was scheduled. Visiting House was normal so he'd do that after he'd seen his patients. Then, he probably had a few hours of clinic duty to do before he looked over the day's charts and headed back to his empty house since his soon-to-be ex-wife would be gone.
He sighed, hating himself for thinking about his personal life at work. Work was a place where he worried about other people; not himself.
An elevator reached the ground floor and he headed over to it, got in, and pressed the button for his floor.
"Good morning, Dr. Wilson," a nurse greeted him as he got out of the elevator.
"G'Morning," he replied, heading for his office where his charts were.
"The Herkmin's are here to speak with you about their son," the nurse told him as he walked away.
"Tell them I'll be right with them I just need to grab his chart," Wilson replied and went into his office to grab the chart for Leo Herkmin – the leukemia patient. He gazed at it briefly to remind himself of what was going on and how the chemo was going. When he had that settled in his brain, he went to talk with Leo's parents.
"Is our son going to die?" Mrs. Herkmin asked as soon as Wilson walked into the room.
Wilson held back his sigh and launched into his explanation of what they were doing for the fourteen year-old boy. As soon as the parents seemed semi-satisfied that their son was getting the best treatment possible, the question was asked again.
"Will he die?"
Wilson thought for a moment, trying to decide what to say. He settled on the honest truth. "I don't know." He saw the bewildered look on the parents' faces.
"But you just said…" the father began.
"I know," Wilson said, knowing very well that the previous explanation had sounded like false hope. "Your son is very sick. Cancer is a terrible illness. All I can tell you is that he is doing better and his treatments are working. Now, if he continues to do well…" he continued, explaining to them that their son might get better and might get worse. This was a conversation he had tons of times a day and had to repeat to the patient and their family at almost every visit. It didn't bother him to spell things out for the people – they didn't understand and his explanations comforted them and made them feel more involved.
"Thank you, Doctor," Leo's mother said when he had finished.
"Have a nice day," Wilson replied and quickly left the room. He had three other patients to see and quickly went about checking on them and seeing how they were doing. When he was satisfied that his patients were all as good as could be expected of cancer patients, he headed back to his office to gather himself before he went to visit with House.
He knew that if he walked into House's office feeling as depressed as he was House would catch on and awkwardly inquire as to what was wrong. Wilson would then lie, saying it was a patient, and then they would start the bantering that made up their strange friendship. House's sarcasm could really hurt when the person on the receiving end wasn't feeling up to it. Wilson was depressed about Julie even though he was trying to keep his mind focused on other thoughts.
Sighing softly, he turned from the direction of his office and headed to the elevators that would take him to House's floor. It was probably best to get out of his department and walk around, the fact that he was heading to House's floor and office was merely a coincidence, he told himself.
"It's under control, we don't need you," House greeted as Wilson walked into the conference room where House, Chase, and Foreman were gathered.
"Nice to see you too," Wilson said dryly, pouring himself a cup of coffee and mixing in some milk and sugar.
"Must you always drink my coffee?" House demanded.
"Doesn't Cameron make it?" Wilson asked, taking a sip and sitting down next to Chase who was doing a crossword.
"Yes," Foreman said, looking up from the medical journal he had been looking at. "He just takes the credit."
House rolled his eyes at Foreman. "He's just jealous because his coffee tastes like sewage."
Foreman ignored the barb and turned back to his medical journal.
"Where is Cameron?" Wilson asked, drinking his coffee and noticing she wasn't in the room.
"Patient's room," House said dismissively. "What do you want? We don't have anything for you."
"I was bored," Wilson replied, growing slightly annoyed with the questions.
"No balding kids to play with?" House asked.
Wilson glowered. He wasn't in the mood for House's sarcasm and he wasn't in the mood to be treated like one of House's ducklings. "Don't you have some snotty noses to wipe in the clinic?"
"Ugh," House said. "No. I got out of clinic duty."
"He means he is trying to get Chase to do it," Foreman put in, not looking up from the medical journal.
Wilson smirked a little at House who grinned back.
"The clinic is a waste of time," House said, waving his hand as if to show how little it mattered to him.
"Yes," Wilson said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "I forgot. Clinic duty is when you could be watching TV or playing your video games."
"Exactly," House said, giving Wilson an odd look.
Foreman picked up on the weirdness between Wilson and House and decided he didn't want to be around if the two were about to fight. "Come on, Chase, let's head to the clinic and get those hours in."
Chase, who as usual was oblivious to most of what was going on around him, looked up in annoyance. "I've almost finished it."
Foreman rolled his eyes and walked out of the room where Chase sighed and followed after a few seconds.
"Patient?" House asked, starting to walk to the door.
"Huh?" Wilson asked, confused but following House to the elevator.
"Is it a patient? Is that why you're so worked up?" House asked again, pressing the floor for the cafeteria.
"Oh, no," he said, not wanting to have that conversation.
"Oh, then it's your wife," House commented, waiting for the elevator doors to open.
"Yeah," Wilson said, looking at the floor. After a few seconds he sneaked a look at House who had a 'here we go again' look on his face. Wilson sighed; House had traveled with him down the road of divorce before.
"She get the paperwork yet?" House asked, his voice betraying that he felt a little uncomfortable. Private things such as Wilson's problems with his wife weren't usual conversation. Who Wilson was cheating on his wife with was much more appropriate.
"She's going to the lawyer today," Wilson said, heaving a sigh. "She'll probably call me in a week and tell me when we need to meet with the divorce lawyer."
"Nice," House said sarcastically. "You can tell your girlfriend you're single now."
Wilson gave House a horrible look. "I'm not dating anyone, Julie is. She's the one cheating."
House smirked but didn't say anything about Wilson's flings.
"Shut up," Wilson snapped, seeing the smug look on his friend's face.
"I didn't say anything," House replied.
"The look said it all," Wilson said angrily, looking at his feet.
House nodded. "Sorry."
Wilson's head snapped up and he stared at his friend. "I must have misunderstood what you said, could you repeat it? It sounded like you said you were sorry and genuinely so."
House glowered. "I said no such thing." He got out of the elevator as the door closed and headed to the cafeteria.
Wilson smiled privately, knowing his friend was sorry about the marriage and making Wilson feel bad but wouldn't ever admit it again. "She's moving in with some guy named Steve."
"What's he do?" House walked to the food line and grabbed himself a coffee cup to fill up as he listened to Wilson talk.
"He's a realtor, I think," Wilson replied. "I found a business card on her drawer this morning after she told me."
"Oh, so you went upstairs and searched her things?" House smirked a little as Wilson shot him an annoyed look. "You throw things too?"
"It was on her drawer!" Wilson protested. "It's nothing compared to what Katie did when her friends told her they thought they'd seen me in a restaurant with another woman."
House chuckled a little and grabbed some Jell-O and what was probably pasta salad. "I told you Katie was a nut…even before you married her she was crazy."
Wilson shot House a 'you better shut up or I'm going to hit you' look. "It was just on the drawer, I didn't turn her things out and smash everything breakable like Katie did when her friends told her I was seeing someone else."
"You were seeing someone else," House pointed out, paying for his food as Wilson picked up a sandwich box.
"That doesn't mean she had to smash all of my things," he countered.
"True, but she was nuts," House replied, balancing the food tray in one hand and using the cane in the other.
Wilson sighed and paid for his own food, before following House to a nearby table and sitting down. "Remember what Emma did when I told her I was leaving?"
"Who could forget the sweet bundle of joy that was your second wife?" House asked sarcastically. "As if your first wife wasn't crazy enough."
Wilson snorted and sipped the juice he'd gotten. "She was scary."
"I don't understand why you married her," House said, biting into his pasta salad and curling his upper lip in disgust. "She was a stalker."
"She was not a stalker!" Wilson protested.
"She filled your answering machine up with death threats after you left," House replied, taking another bite.
"Ok, that was a bit weird…"
House snickered. "Cuddy was worried she was going to come to the hospital with a gun!"
"No, that'd be you," Wilson teased.
House rolled his eyes and put a vicodin in his mouth.
"All right, I'll admit Emma was a bit of a freak, but she was really nice when we were dating," Wilson said honestly.
"Yeah, but when you got married she cheated and got pregnant with some other guy's kid," House replied.
"Which is why she left death threats," Wilson said.
"How do you know it wasn't your kid?" House asked, smirking every so slightly.
Wilson turned crimson and took a big bite of his sandwich. "Me meren't 'aving mex," he mumbled through the sandwich, his face quite red.
House grinned awfully. "You weren't having sex?"
Wilson swallowed. "No."
"Because…" House prompted.
"Shut up, we've gone through this," Wilson said angrily.
House smiled but backed off. He knew Wilson needed some playful bantering and sarcasm, even teasing him about his exes was a good thing, but making him feel bad was another. "So are you coming over tonight?"
Wilson sighed and ran a hand though his hair. "I really don't want to get wasted."
"Looks like you already took out your frustration on your wall," he replied, indicating a bruise on Wilson's forehead. "You bang your head against it?"
Wilson lifted his hand to touch the light purple bruise on his forehead and winced when he pressed it. "No, I ran into the door this morning when I was leaving the house." He had actually. He'd been thinking about other things and had hit his head against the door just as he was opening it; his depth perception off.
"Good job," House said, finishing the pasta and opening the Jell-O. "So are you going to get a steady girlfriend and get married and live happily ever after?"
"Are you going to do the same?" Wilson demanded.
"Nah, I've got internet and Rosy Palm," House shot back.
Wilson made a face between disgust and amusement. "No dating, not for awhile."
"Liar, that's what you said last time. God, you're as bad as my patients when it comes to lying," House complained.
Wilson stuck his tongue out and a serious look came over his face. "I'm too old to go through this again, Greg."
"You're not too old, you're too young. You're in your mid thirties and you've already had two divorces, that's way too young. It's probably time you got serious, though." House finished his Jell-O and sipped his coffee.
Wilson stared at his friend. "Was that compassion?"
"No, compassion is me feeling bad for you, that was me looking out for a friend," House snapped. He looked at Wilson and smiled a little. "You're my friend."
Wilson looked sad for a moment but it quickly passed. "You never cared much before."
"Maybe you're gay," House said thoughtfully. "You're certainly sensitive enough and you're acting like a girl right now."
"Isn't that a little stereotypical?" Wilson asked, ignoring the barb about him being gay. He'd heard that often enough from House he knew better than to come back with a snide remark of his own.
"No, stereotypical would be for me to say…"
"Enough," Wilson snapped, cutting him off.
House smirked. "Are you coming over, you never answered."
"Maybe you're the gay one," Wilson muttered.
House rolled his eyes. "Fine, enjoy your empty house." He got up from the table and bused his tray.
Wilson looked down knowing he'd just blown the chance to go to House's place for the night and actually enjoy himself. If he went now he'd have to endure a bunch of sarcasm and rudeness. He sighed sadly, knowing he was going to be miserable about Julie for a while, and got up from the table to bus his own tray.
End chapter one. I will do my best to update once every five days or so. Please review I will respond to all reviewers! No flames please.