A/N: This is what happens when I watch too much House - if there is such a thing. :) Set at the end of Detox. Sort of a filler/add-on to what happened.
Disclaimer: Nope, sadly, they're not mine.
--
"They let me do my job, and they take away my pain."
"Do they, though? Do they really?" Wilson countered. "You're taking twice the dose you used to, House. They take away the throbbing in your leg, but they don't numb what you want them to, do they?" He fixed his friend with a steely glare.
House stared back, with equal fierceness. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"You think? Maybe I do. We all hurt, but we don't all have a goddamn prescription that lets us try to escape that. You're taking the easy road, and it's gonna come back to bite you in the ass."
The diagnostician sighed in what many unfamiliar with Gregory House would've interpreted as defeat. Wilson saw it as merely a retreat. "Go." House told him, eyes cast downward.
Wilson stood his ground. "We should-"
"Go." He repeated firmly, lifting his head and meeting his friend's gaze. Wilson, despite House's efforts to hide it, could see the desperation in the man's eyes.
James began to leave, but turned back for a moment. "Get your hand looked at, okay? You need a splint." He left the room, throwing an apologetic glance over his shoulder just before he was out of sight.
House, after ensuring Wilson had left, moved across the room to the chair stationed against the wall. He pulled the prescription bottle from his pocket and stared at the smooth, white pills through the translucent orange plastic. After a moment, he popped the top off the container and gently shook one small tablet into his palm.
He took a deep breath and swallowed the pill dry, then simply capped the bottle and returned it to his jacket pocket. Slowly he leaned back in the chair, resting his head and closing his eyes, as he let the Vicodin begin to work its magic.
As numbness overtook him, he smirked slightly, glad to have something that would keep Wilson's words – the truth – from ringing in his ears.
--
End