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: Since fanfiction has a new rule about reviewer responses, I'm afraid I can't thank you all properly. But I would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who had reviewed and I hope you'll all forgive me for how long this chapter took. I live in Florida and I know that what happened here cannot even BEGIN to compare to those poor people that live in Louisiana, but Hurricane Katrina took my power for a week and I couldn't write.

This is for everyone hit by Katrina. I hope that none of you suffer anymore than you have to.

Please donate to help these poor people if you have the money. They really have been through so much.

Chapter 8: Hurting


Heaven comes to he who waits
But I know I'm getting nowhere
And all the deeds of yesterday
Have really helped to pave my way
Though there's no one near me now
How come everyone can touch me
You see the torture on my brow
Relates to neither here nor now


Watch me bleed


Bleed forever


Although my face is straight, it lies
My body feels the Pain and cries
Here the table is not bare
I am full but feeling empty
For all the warmth it feels so cold
For one so young I feel so old


Watch me bleed


Bleed forever


It's not allowed to be unkind
But still the hate lives in my mind


I'll make no noise
I'll hide my pain
I'll close my eyes
I won't complain


I'll lie right back and take the blame
And try to tell myself I'm living
And when it's all been said or done


Where do I go?


Where do I run?


What's left of me or anyone when we've denied the hurting?

- Tears for Fears

Wilson followed House up to the Diagnostics floor where they were met by Cameron.

"We sent a biopsy to the lab," she informed them. "They ought to get back to us soon."

"Is there calcification?" Wilson asked. He didn't mind doing cancer checks for House and his team, but he didn't like to be dragged around the hospital to look at something that House had told him was probably not cancer.

"No…" Cameron said slowly.

House looked at Wilson with his eyebrows raised and Wilson rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't mean he doesn't have cancer," Cameron protested, her voice hurt. "It could be another form of cancer, something without a tumor. It could be…"

"I know what it could be," Wilson said and winced inwardly when he heard his furious tone.

Cameron looked as though Wilson had slapped her. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean that you didn't know your job, Dr. Wilson. I only…"

Wilson held up a hand to stop her babbling. He couldn't deal with working at that moment, he needed to go home. "Ask Dr. Robinson to help you with this case, I need to talk to Cuddy." He ran his right hand over his head and walked back to the elevators without looking at House or offering another explanation to Cameron.

"That was interesting," House commented when Wilson had walked off.

"I feel horrible," Cameron whispered, "I didn't mean to upset him."

House stared at her, rolled his eyes, and limped to his office. If Cameron was going to blame herself for a stupid reason he didn't want to be around her.

--------

Wilson walked out of the elevator and towards Cuddy's office. He wanted to go home and knew that he was able to leave. He was considering asking for his vacation days and taking a trip to visit his parents and his brother. His brother had invited him for Chanukah but Wilson hadn't been able to get the time off so he'd asked for a rain check. Perhaps this was the time to take his brother up on it.

"What's up?" Cuddy asked when Wilson walked in. She was going over charts and only briefly looked at him.

"I was wondering if I could take my vacation days soon," he answered. "I understand if you can't…"

"Sure," Cuddy said, running her finger down a chart. "No one else from your department is gone so you can take them whenever you want."

"As soon as possible," Wilson replied.

"Starting today?" Cuddy asked, looking up from the charts. She frowned when she saw how tense Wilson looked.

"I guess," he said slowly. He just wanted to get out of the hospital and go home to his bed. Maybe he'd take House's advice and get a dog or a cat. Hell, even a hamster would be comforting.

"Go," Cuddy said. "You look like you need the time off to rest."

Wilson thanked her quietly and walked from the room. He felt exhausted and frustrated at the same time. Divorce always hurt him no matter what. Sure he had cheated on Julie, but she had cheated on him too.

'Perhaps marriage just isn't my thing,' he thought to himself. 'I'll just get a damn dog.'

Wilson took the elevator up to House's floor and ran into a young man as he was getting out. "Sorry!"

"Dr. Wilson?" It was Chase.

Wilson looked startled. He had been lost in thought and hadn't really been looking where he was going. "I'm sorry, Chase, I guess I'd better look where I'm going." He tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace.

Chase noticed the troubled look in the older doctor's eyes that had nothing to do with running into him. He also saw the grimace and that made him frown. "Is…is everything all right?" he asked hesitantly.

Wilson frowned. Of all of House's ducklings, he would never have expected this question from Chase. Cameron would have asked him, she was all ready worried about him for heaven's sake! Wilson knew Foreman would have asked the question as well if he had witnessed Wilson's outburst earlier. But Chase? Chase cared about people as much as Cameron but he seemed indifferent. At least, he seemed to ignore it when someone he worked with was having problems until it seemed to be really horrible.

"I'm sorry," Chase said quickly, wrongly interpreting Wilson's frown and hesitation for anger, "I shouldn't have said anything. It's none of my business…" He trailed off when Wilson held up a hand to quiet his babbling.

"It's fine." Wilson turned to walk away but looked back and called Chase's name. "Why did you say something?"

Chase turned and looked like a deer caught in headlights. He sighed and said, "I've noticed you looking hurt and detached but I didn't say anything because you've looked like that before." He heaved another sigh before continuing. It was obvious that he was more than a little uncomfortable. "I noticed you broke your wrist. I know it was a car crash but it seemed a little…odd." Chase stopped and fidgeted. He didn't want to have this discussion with Dr. Wilson. They weren't friends, they were just colleagues. "It's really not my place."

Wilson nodded thinking that Chase wasn't given enough credit when it came to observation. It was obvious that Chase didn't ignore people, he just gave people time, waited them out. Wilson decided he had made the younger man too uncomfortable so he decided to ask a question that would get rid of the awkward moment. "What are you doing here, I thought you were sick."

Chase frowned. "Cuddy sent me home, but I wasn't sick. I had some personal things to work out. I'm supposed to head to Australia in a few months but my dad wants me to go out a little sooner."

Wilson's heart stopped beating for a second and he went pale. "Oh. Did he say why?"

"He just wants us to discuss some things." Chase didn't understand what was wrong with the oncologist. "Is something else wrong, Dr. Wilson?"

Wilson shook his head and tried to smile, this time, he was successful. "I've got to go talk to House."

Chase nodded and watched the older man walk off, an odd feeling in his stomach. Dr. Wilson hadn't been mad at him for saying anything about how he was acting, that had relieved Chase a lot, but he was concerned that the older doctor was on the verge of either killing someone with his passive-aggressiveness or sobbing in the hospital. He hoped it was neither but he was sure about one thing: Dr. Wilson was depressed.

Wilson paced outside of House's office; he seemed to be contemplating on entering and had forgotten the doors were clear glass.

"Wilson!" House bellowed from the doorway. He had an amused and annoyed look on his face as his friend turned confused eyes upon him.

"Huh?" Wilson asked, smiling a little.

"Well?" House demanded.

Wilson was confused. He hadn't heard any question; of course, he had been in his own world. "Well, what?" he asked, cocking his head to the side like a lost puppy.

"Are you done pacing outside of my office? It looks like you're stalking me." House grinned a little.

"I'm going home. I asked Cuddy for my vacation days and she gave them to me," Wilson said, not moving from his spot on the floor.

"I'm not your mother; you didn't need to check in with me," House said irritably.

"I need a ride home," Wilson said. "Would you mind giving me one?"

House didn't mind too much, it meant he would get out of clinic. However, he was interested in his case and was reluctant to leave. He was trying to figure out which was more important to him when he saw the miserable look on Wilson's face. "No problem, let's go."

"Just like that?" Wilson asked. "No argument, no persuasion?"

House stared at him. "Are you OK?"

Wilson shook himself. "Yeah, fine."

"No you're not!" House accused. "Come with me, we're going to the pharmacy."

"Why? You have your pills, I just wrote you a script two days ago" Wilson pointed out.

"We're not going for me," House replied. He ducked into his office, grabbed his prescription pad, car keys, and his bag before going back to where Wilson was standing.

"I don't need meds," Wilson told him as they walked to the elevator. "I'll be fine."

"You're depressed," House said.

"Since when did you care about depression? If we're going to diagnose depression we're starting with you," Wilson snapped. He felt anger coursing through his veins. House had no right to prescribe him antidepressants when he didn't want any. "Besides, I'm not depressed."

"Shut up," House snapped back, his voice happy.

Wilson wanted to hit him over the head with his cast. "Are you only happy when I'm miserable?" he demanded.

"No, but I like the idea that I get to prescribe you medicine," House replied.

Wilson fought the urge to grab House's cane and beat him with it when the elevator doors opened and they walked out and towards the pharmacy. "I don't need any."

House ignored him and went over to the pharmacist. "Wellbutrin XL," he said as he scribbled on the pad.

"Patient?" the pharmacist asked in a bored tone. He knew Dr. House very well and he also knew that the man would probably prescribe himself medicine if he could.

"Right there," House answered, jerking his thumb in Wilson's direction.

The pharmacist nodded and went to fill the bottle.

"You had to tell the truth?" Wilson moaned out. "Now I've got to listen to rumors about how you prescribed me a strong antidepressant."

"It won't be a rumor, it'll be true," House replied with a creepy smile on his face. "Just be thankful I'm not prescribing anything that will get rid of your sex drive or make you gain weight." He took on a thoughtful look. "Of course, you're probably all ready sex drive-less."

Wilson flipped him off. "You're such an ass."

The pharmacist put the pills down and Wilson snatched them off of the counter before stalking out the doors and towards the garage.

A/N for extrabitter: Thank you for pointing out my mistake on this chapter. I changed it.