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: Ifigured you guys would like to have another chapter now. I finally got computer access! YAY! Oh well, I hope you guys like this fic. I think the song goes good for House and Stacy but I'm a huge Beatles fan and I will find any excuse to put their lyrics in a fic. :Grin: Enjoy and please review!
Chapter 7: Friends and Lovers
There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one who compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
-The Beatles
House walked in to the clinic and grabbed the chart that Cuddy had set aside for him. "Michelle Hunter," he called and limped in to Exam Room 3 as a woman in her mid thirties, and what looked to be her husband, followed him.
"I have a really sore throat," she told House when they were inside the room. "Joshua had strep a few weeks ago," she indicated her husband, "and I was wondering if I had that."
"Do you want to have strep?" House asked. It seemed to him that most patients hoped that they were sick since they always came in for such stupid things; like that woman with fatigue.
"No!" Michelle said, looking completely shocked.
"Why would she want to be miserable?" Joshua demanded.
"We've got a three year old and I don't want her to get sick," Michelle said quickly and rested her hand on her husband's arm to calm him down.
"Kids." House nodded in what was supposed to be a concerned way but only managed to look mocking. "Open your mouth."
"Okay," Michelle said and opened her mouth.
House looked down her throat. "It's red," he said and sat down in a chair so that he could scribble in her chart. After a few moments, he used his cane to help him get up. "A nurse will be in for a throat culture," he informed her and headed for the door.
"You're a doctor," Michelle said with a look of confusion on her face. "Shouldn't you do it?"
"Nah, nurses are trained for this sort of thing. Besides, if it is strep you'll have to take that shirt off and then we'd have to touch; and things would be exposed." He saw the horrible look on her husband's face and smirked. "Yeah, didn't think you'd like that."
"Only if it was for medical reasons," she answered slowly while her husband looked rather angry.
House smirked again. "Your nurse will be here in a minute." He walked out of the room.
Wilson examined the X-Rays with Cuddy.
"It's a Colle's Fracture," Cuddy announced.
Wilson sighed. "People are going to think I'm old if they hear that."
Cuddy smiled a little. "Your bones are fine. We'll have you out of the cast in seven or eight weeks."
"Just what I wanted," Wilson muttered sarcastically.
"It's not fun, I know, but you'll be fine. Good thing you're not a surgeon." She wanted to cheer him up. James Wilson was her friend and she knew he was feeling a little blue.
Her attempt worked because Wilson smiled. "That's a good thing." He got up from the chair he had been sitting on. "I've got a patient in ten minutes."
"I'd better head to the clinic and see if House has done his job," Cuddy muttered to him.
"Good luck!" Wilson called as he turned the corner and headed to the elevator. He had to meet with Leo, the leukemia patient, and his family again that day. It wasn't something he was looking forward to since he didn't have anything new to tell them. Their son was in the same condition he'd been in just a few days before, but a check up would have been done by the nurses and Wilson was expected to go over it with the patient.
When the elevator pinged and Wilson got off, he headed to his office to retrieve his lab coat and Leo's file, which he knew his nurses would have put on his desk. As he shrugged in to the coat, he reviewed the chart and then headed off to Leo's room.
"Good morning," he greeted Leo and his parents, closing the door behind him. "How are you feeling today?"
"I…" Leo began but his mother started to speak at the same time.
"He was feeling weak this morning," she said. "What's causing that?"
Wilson tried to suppress a sigh when Mrs. Herkmin cut in. Parents always tried to speak for their children but he would much rather hear what Leo had to say since he was the cancer patient – not his mother. "He's been on chemotherapy for the last…"
"We know that!" Mr. Herkmin said furiously, surprising Wilson with his outburst.
"Dad," Leo said irritably, "shut up! Let Dr. Wilson speak, he knows what he's talking about. I'm the one getting the treatment, not you and I want to know what is going on since it concerns my life!"
Wilson bit his lip and thought, 'Oh boy, this is not going to be a fun day.' When patients and their families got hysterical it was always a horrible scene and to see Leo yelling at his dad didn't make him feel good. The kid was really sick but the chemo was helping. If the father insisted on being a jerk then Wilson really just wanted to go home and let them hash things out alone.
"Dr. Wilson?" Leo asked uncertainly, snapping Wilson out of his thoughts. "How much longer until I'm off chemo? I've been getting treatment for five months now and I'm swollen, my hair's all gone, and I feel nauseous a lot."
Wilson looked at the teen sympathetically. "I'm sorry. I know that the reaction your body has to chemotherapy is horrible but it does seem to be helping. We got the labs back and your platelets and blood count is higher. Hopefully in three months or so we can start weaning the treatment."
"What if it doesn't work?" Mrs. Herkmin asked, tears evident in her eyes.
"We should really consider that, if it happens. It shouldn't, he's doing really well," Wilson answered, trying not to stomp out the optimism that Leo had been showing in the last few weeks.
"But what if?" she pressed.
"Then we'll have to look for a donor," Wilson replied. "For platelets or even bone marrow."
"What about stem cells?" Mr. Herkmin asked suddenly. "I read that stem cells can be used now."
"They can," Wilson replied. "Stem cells are amazing and scientists are discovering great things with them."
"Could they help Leo?" Mrs. Herkmin asked, tears still shining in her eyes.
"If we can find a match," Wilson replied, his voice a little sad. He knew how rare matches for patients and stem cells were.
"It's too bad that the government doesn't give scientists the freedom they need to work with the stem cells," Mr. Herkmin muttered angrily. "The research could help cancer!"
Wilson smiled at him. He felt sorry for the man and knew his earlier outburst had just been because he was scared. "The research could help everyone," Wilson replied.
Mrs. Herkmin smiled at Wilson. "Do you really think the chemo is helping?"
"Yes," Wilson reassured. "It is. Try not to think about stem cell, bone marrow, or platelet donors unless we need to."
"Thank you," Leo said, his voice nothing more than a whisper. He was looking at his parents with a sad look in his eyes. "Thank you for reassuring them."
"No problem," Wilson replied with a small smile. He picked up the chart from where he had put it and said, "A nurse should be in with you in a moment for some blood."
Leo nodded. He had gotten used to having his blood drawn every few days on his visits to the hospital.
"Have a nice day," Wilson said as he turned from the room.
"Doctor," Leo said, his voice curious.
Wilson turned with an expectant look on his face. "Something wrong?"
"No, I was just curious…did you break your arm?" Leo was smiling and his parents were looking slightly embarrassed.
"Leo!" his mother scolded.
Wilson gave her a funny look. He didn't think that breaking his arm was something personal. "Yeah, I crashed my car." Leo grinned a little and Wilson smiled at him. "Have a good day," he said again and walked out of the room.
"Greg," a woman said softly when House walked out of another exam room.
House stiffened slightly and turned around. "Stacy."
"How are you? You looked a little tired the other day," she said slowly, not wanting to address the real reason she had come over to him.
"Lover boy's fine," House said heatedly, ignoring what she said about his health. "How're the hospital cases?" He wanted her to go away. Sure, he had been in love with her at one time but he wanted her to go away so that he could think about other things! What she had said the other day had really hurt and seeing her around just made things so much worse.
Stacy shrugged; ignoring the barb about her husband since she had come to ask Greg how Mark was and she'd gotten her answer. She knew that Greg was angry about having her there, and having Mark there seemed to be the icing on the cake. "I saw that you violated a DNR a few months back, that's not a good move," she told him, trying to get him in to a more joking mood.
"Well, I got off, didn't I?" he snapped at her, heading over to the counter and grabbing a file. "Julian Linton," he called.
A tan man with light brown eyes got up and walked over to House. "I'm Julian."
"If you want to hear about your man, ask one of my followers," House shot over his shoulder at Stacy as he led the patient to the exam room. He saw her shake her head but he didn't care, he just wanted her gone. She had been around too long for his liking and he still didn't know when she would be leaving. She had walked out of his life six years before and now he was wishing she'd stayed gone. "Exam Room 2," House muttered to Julian.
"My legs have been itching really badly," Julian said when he and House entered the exam room. "They've got rashes on them too. I don't know what's causing it."
"Do you shave your legs?" House asked, lowering himself into a chair as he opened the file.
"Yeah," Julian replied quietly, a blush rising to his cheeks. "I'm a swimmer. My coach says that it'll help me move faster in the water."
"Uh huh." House looked rather skeptical. "Did you ever think that maybe you're allergic to the shaving cream?"
"I'm not stupid; I know that you can have an allergic reaction to all sorts of things. I don't use shaving cream. I just use soap and water. I'm not allergic to the soap; I use it on the rest of my body," Julian told him.
"You don't say?" House said, wishing he had called a different patient because he didn't want to deal with some weirdo who shaved his legs and wanted to talk about personal habits. "Well," he said, his voice resigned, "let's see your legs."
Julian nodded and pulled the leg of his jeans up. "See?"
House, deciding he wanted to torture the poor guy, said, "Take the jeans off; I want to see the entire rash."
Julian winced slightly but pulled off his jeans so that he was standing in his boxers. "See, it goes up past my knee." Seeing House's look he said, "No way am I taking those off."
House snickered a little. "Well, I'm not sure so just sit there and I'll call a consult." He paged Cuddy after Julian nodded.
"What?" Cuddy demanded when she walked in to the room. "I was going over some of the files from this morning." She looked at Julian and an 'Oh, dear God, what now?' look came over her face.
"So sorry to bother you but I just wanted your expert opinion on what might be causing this poor kid's rash," House said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Cuddy rolled her eyes and looked at the kid's legs. "Allergic reaction. Looks like a Poison Oak allergy."
House slapped his face as though he was embarrassed. "Poison Oak, how could I have missed that one?"
Cuddy glared at him but turned to look at Julian. "Pull your pants up and I'd suggest buying some Calamine lotion." She walked out of the room rolling her eyes. "Don't you leave the clinic, House, you owe me three more hours!" she called as she walked out of the room, a small smile on her face when she heard him moan.
"Could I go?" Julian asked stupidly and looking very embarrassed.
"Yeah," House replied. "Get some Calamine otherwise you're going to have a nasty itch for a long time. Of course, it's stupid to go trekking through Poison Oak and forget to mention it."
Julian looked scared rather than angry. "Sorry I wasted your time," he murmured and quickly left the room.
House laughed when Julian left and left the room.
"Was that really necessary?" Cuddy asked when House walked from the exam room and dropped off the chart.
"I thought you'd like seeing a kid drop his pants." House grinned wickedly at her and took pleasure when she rolled her eyes. He had enjoyed the look on her face when she had walked in to the room.
"Just do your job," Cuddy snapped and stalked off to her office.
House smiled and called his next patient.
Wilson wandered down to the clinic in search of House. After hearing what Cuddy had said about House and Stacy, he wanted to check up on his friend but not seem like he was checking up. He didn't know how he would start the conversation but he figured it would start eventually.
"James!"
'Well, speak of the devil,' Wilson thought. "Hi, Stacy."
"How's your arm?" she asked, indicating the cast.
"Fine," he replied, forcing a smile and wishing she would leave. "It should be healed in seven, maybe eight weeks."
"How did you manage to crash? You were always such a safe driver." She looked at him intently, a small smile on her face.
Wilson wanted to tell her to go away but he and Stacy had been friends before and he didn't dislike her. "It was really late and I guess I just lost my focus," he said lamely.
Stacy nodded but didn't look like she believed him. "Well, okay, I'll talk to you later, James."
"Yeah," he answered and walked in to the clinic to find House. He knew she had wanted to say more but he had brushed her off and she had always been good at noticing when people wanted her to go away.
Wilson found House hiding out in Exam Room 1 with his feet propped up and reading a magazine. "I'm impressed."
House looked up from his magazine and grinned. "I saw the patients whose charts she put aside. Cuddy said I had to see them but she didn't mention any other patients."
"So you figure you're home free for the next few hours if you pretend to be treating someone?" Wilson asked. He was always amused by House's ideas; the sad part, was that they normally worked.
"Well, no, I am waiting for Cameron to page me. There's this man with some weird growth. I was actually going to call you for a consult. Looks like cancer but I think it's just a benign growth, you know how my team is when it comes to getting things right," House said, a smirk on his face.
"Send a biopsy to the pathologist," Wilson answered lightly.
"Wonder Boy doesn't want to do it for me? I'm hurt," House said with false sadness.
Wilson rolled his eyes. "I saw Stacy haunting the outside of the clinic. She waiting for you?"
House's ears pricked up at the sound of Stacy's name. "I spoke to her earlier about…Mike?"
"Mark," Wilson answered with another eye roll. "What did she say to you?"
"Nothing much," House answered.
"How do you feel about her working in the hospital?" Wilson asked, trying to make the question sound innocent but knowing he sounded concerned and inquisitive.
House raised and eyebrow. "Concerned for me? I'm touched, Jimmy."
"You're touched in the head!" Wilson snapped angrily. "Jimmy," he muttered sarcastically. "I haven't heard you call me Jimmy since I was a med student and you were just out of med school."
House grinned horribly. "You were really annoying that first week."
"Thanks," Wilson replied sarcastically. "How did we become friends again? I honestly should have just ignored you and requested oncology right away. Why did I want to be in diagnostics for those first few months?"
"I think you told us that since diagnostics covers all sorts of disease and oncology only covers cancer, you would rather start in diagnostics and then move on if you thought you liked oncology better," House answered, a terrible smirk on his face now.
"That was over ten years ago!" Wilson cried. "How did you remember that?" When House started to answer Wilson held up a hand. "I don't even want to know."
"I've been looking through your file again." House put on an innocent face when Wilson scowled. "I was just worried and wondering if breaking an appendage is normal for you when you get a divorce."
"Ugh." Wilson sighed a little angrily.
House's pager went off and he looked a little triumphant. "Come on, I want you to meet your newest patient."
"You mean you want Cameron to introduce me to my newest patient," Wilson muttered angrily but nonetheless followed House of the exam room and to the elevator, mentally kicking himself for letting House skirt the subject of Stacy.
Reviewer Responses:
Jennamajig: Thank you for the review I really love them. I like that you noticed Cuddy's protectiveness and I think you'll like her in this chapter too. I figured that House leaving his clothes at Wilson's could mean one of two things. One: that House spends time at Wilson's or Two: that Wilson has taken some of House's clothes when he needed something else to wear when he couldn't go home in his clothes for one reason or another. I'm not too sure where I'm going myself, but I like to write and I enjoy seeing what I am going to write next so I hope you enjoy it. BTW, I loved your House fic!
Br1de-of-fr3ddy: :grin: I hope you like this chapter and the bit at the end where House is moving closer to expressing his feelings. Did you notice how he skirts the subject like he accused Wilson of in the previous chapter? Oh well, I hope you like this addition.
Nikelodean: I'm glad you're enjoying this fic and I do hope you continue to read. I too love the House/Wilson friendship and I think it's loads of fun to write.
Rennie: :Blushes: your compliments made me feel really good. I am so happy that this story had captivated your interest and I really hope you continue to enjoy it. I completely agree with you on the Wilson being hurt bit and there really isn't enough of it out there. Maybe you should write some too:wink wink nudge nudge: I am so happy I made you laugh. I think that a little bit of humor in a semi-dramatic fic is always a good thing. Well I hope you enjoy!
Evila-elf: Heehee, I think many people forgot about Stacy. I forgot until I went back and read a transcript and remembered that she was still around. She kinda gets on my nerves…I love House/Wilson friendship but I will read slash. I prefer friendship but there just isn't enough out there for me so sometimes I'll go delve in to the slash world. Anyway, hope you liked this chaper!
A/N: A Colle's Fracture refers to a part in the wrist that most people break because their bones are thin. However, it is also the most common break in car crashes and other accidents. When Wilson talks about how people are going to think he is old, he is referring to the fact that most people over the age of seventy end up with this particular break.