"Are you okay?" Cameron asked as House slammed around his office with no obvious purpose.
"Go away," he growled, giving up his crashing and sitting down heavily. Cameron nodded tersely before leaving the office in a huff. "Why can't everyone just mind their own god damned business?" House groaned loudly, running his hand over his face.
"I've been asking myself that same question for years," Wilson responded, having suddenly appeared in the office. Jumping, House made eye contact with his ex lover.
"How was Boston?" House asked, his voice dripping in bitterness. Wilson sighed and shrugged.
"As to be expected. My family was doting and condescending all at the same time. They send their love."
"You didn't tell them?"
Hardly," Wilson snorted, prying his gaze from House's, having taken a sudden great interest in the wall fixtures. "My sisters love you, why mess things up?"
"Your family hates me, especially your sisters."
"Well, I didn't want to break your heart."
"Obviously."
The silence strummed in the air, throbbing against House's ears and mind.
"Why are you here again?" he asked, unconsciously rubbing his thigh.
"What, we can't be friends now? Don't be silly..."
"Oh, we were never friends!" House spat, whipping his head around. "We were never, ever friends. You tolerated me, I tolerated you and in the end, we spent nine months pretending like that toleration could be something more. We have nothing to save, Jim, because there was nothing there in the first place!"
"Do you actually believe that or are you just lying to yourself to make you feel better?"
"I don't lie."
"Everybody lies," Wilson responded, his resolve finally shattering. "I love you and that freaks you out, so you lie to me, try and break me before I can break you. Well, guess what? It isn't going to work. I will always love you, I always have, and nothing is going to change, no matter how much of a prick you try to be."
"I'm not trying, Wonder Boy. I actually am."
"Whatever you say, House. Whatever," Wilson said, his face contorted into a grimace. "I hope that you can live with this."
"Melodrama! Nice touch," House called after Wilson's retreating form as he stormed out of the office and down the hallway, nearly cold cocking Cuddy with the door on the way out. Watching Wilson retreat, her face creased with confusion, Cuddy pushed in House's office.
"What just happened?"
"I stole his lunch money, duh."
"Of course. Now, what really happened?" House sat, unanswering for a long moment, before flicking his eyes up to meet Cuddy's.
"It is nothing," he enunciated, twirling in his chair.
"Oh sure, that's why you're both moping around, avoiding people, and patients. Not that any one of those things is uncommon for you..."
"I broke his heart, okay? I broke his heart because I told him that I couldn't love him back and that we couldn't be together anymore. I'm the bad guy, Cuddy; is that what you wanted to hear?"
"How do you manage to do this with every relationship you have?" Cuddy asked testily. Slamming his cane against the desk, causing Cuddy to jump, House stood up.
"Fucking once in college hardly makes you an expert on my relationships." Blushing, Cuddy opened her mouth to speak, before thinking better of it and raising her hands in defeat.
"Don't mess up the one good thing that you had going for you," she said, before leaving the office, presumably to go have the same conversation with Wilson. Breathing heavily, House grabbed his bag and hobbled out into the hallway, clearing the doorway just as Foreman passed him.
"Where're you going?" he asked, planting himself in front of House's escape route.
"Home."
"You just got here!"
"Don't remind me. Now move, before I move you." Rolling his eyes, Foreman stepped aside and allowed House to pass, watching him down the hallway until he boarded the elevator and disappeared from sight.
HWHWHWHWHWHW
"Really, Lisa, it's no big deal," Wilson insisted for the third time in ten minutes.
"So you mean he was just being glib when he said he broke your heart?" Wilson felt embarrassment tinge his cheeks and ears.
"He said that?"
"Do you seriously think I could make something like that up?"
"At least he knows it."
"Aha! So it's true."
"That's not a eureka moment to be proud of, really." Cuddy bit her lip, realizing that, of course, he was right.
"I'm sorry, Jim. I just... I'm having a hard time visualizing the situation in its entirety."
"What's to envision? We lived and slept together for nine months, I said the L word, and he freaked out. I don't see what part of this isn't my fault."
"Denial isn't your best color."
"Be that as it may, there's really nothing I can do beyond what I did. We both know Greg House well enough to know that if he wants something, he'll get it, no matter what it takes. The nonchalance with which he handled the whole matter spoke volumes, so to speak."
"You've been rehearsing this speech, haven't you?"
"Bet your ass." Cuddy smiled slightly.
"Well, I'm here if you, uh, need to talk," she stated, the offer sounding uncomfortable even as she made it. Wilson nodded.
"It's unlikely that I'll ever want to think about it again."
"You won't want to but you will."
"Yeah," Wilson responded, resting his chin on his closed fist. Looking up at Cuddy without moving his head, he smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem," she said, patting the doorframe she'd been leaning against. "I'll be around."
"Okay." No sooner had Cuddy left the room than did the law firm of Foreman, Cameron and Chase osmosis themselves into Wilson's space.
"Dr. Wilson, what's wrong with House?" Cameron asked timidly. Being the only one of the three with perfect breasts, Cameron had been elected to speak to Wilson, the other's hoping his penchant for womanizing would be fed by her low cut blouse and therein by ease the tension.
"He's got a bum leg," Wilson said, his gaze unmoving from the poster on the wall over Chase's head.
"He went home," Foreman interjected, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"And this is surprising, why?"
"It's early even for him, especially since he only got here twenty minutes ago," Chase added.
"What makes you think I would know anything about it?" Wilson snapped, swinging his gaze to the three young doctors in front of him. Slightly taken aback, they exchanged glances.
"Well, we just assumed..."
"You know what they say about assuming, Dr. Cameron. I don't know what's wrong with House and you have grand rounds. Go do your jobs." Shuffling out, Cameron and Chase reluctantly obeyed. Foreman, however, wasn't so easily persuaded.
"I know you know something," he said, stepping into Wilson's aura. "You have to."
"Drop it."
"No way. If he's not here, we're in a sort of a jam. I mean, not that we can't do our jobs without him..."
"Then go do your job like the other two."
"Dammit, Wilson, what's going on? Are you sleeping together? I don't care if you are!" Foreman added quickly seeing Wilson's body tense.
"We were."
"So you broke up?"
"We were never together."
Foreman stood thinking for a long moment, before nodding, as if to say he was satisfied, and left. Spinning his chair, Wilson stared out the window, his mind strumming.
"You can save yourself James. Learn how to lie. Learn how to not feel. Learn how to be him," Wilson thought aloud.
When the autopsy report came back, the cause of Wilson's suicide was an overdose. 35 Vicodin pills from an empty orange bottle prescribed to House, Gregory.
Finally the same.