Work went well, all things considered. For most of the morning I was pretty busy, the workload didn't come back to bite me in the ass until early afternoon. I made the mistake of sitting down and suddenly felt like crawling under my desk for a nap. I was three seconds away from doing just that when Chase and Foreman paid me a not-entirely-unexpected visit.
"Shingles, huh?" Chase said with a lopsided grin.
"Yeah. Lucky me," I answered, wondering if they would get to the point in ten questions or less.
"Is it as bad as they say?" the Australian asked, thankfully losing the cheesy grin.
"No," I sighed. "It's even worse."
"It must have been bad for House to take two days off to look after you," Foreman said.
"Well, seeing as how I was in so much pain I couldn't walk, it was nice to have someone there to help," I said with a trace of irritation. Why did they have to do this now? Couldn't they wait one more day?
"But we're talking about House here," Foreman continued. "Since when does that man take the time to look after anyone besides himself?"
"House is a doctor," I reminded them, as if they had forgotten their homework or something. "Doctors help sick people. That's what doctors do. But I'm sure you know that already."
"House goes miles out of his way to avoid even looking at a patient," Chase spoke up. "Why is he suddenly so interested in someone with an illness he can diagnose in his sleep? Why would he spend two whole days with that?"
"You've been living with him for a while now," Foreman said. "You've been friends forever."
"Yeah, so?" I sighed, getting fed up with their habit of taking the scenic route to get to the damned point. "Am I breaking some obscure law or something? Are you finished with your interrogation because I'm tired and want to go home."
"Two days...," Chase muttered. "House just doesn't do that."
"Are you and House...involved?" Foreman asked. The room was suddenly filled with his disbelief.
I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and scraped together the last of my patience. "Yes, we're involved. Yes, we sleep together. Yes, we have the kind of super-fantabulous sex you two can only dream about. And yes, Greg House spent two days looking out for me because he was concerned by the fact that I was hurting so bad I couldn't fucking move. House cares about another human being. I know the concept is utterly and completely mind-blowing, but you'll get used to it. Now is there anything else you have to know right this second? I'm not feeling well and really want to go home."
"Um...no," Chase stammered. "Sorry to bother you, Dr. Wilson."
Their white coats were a blur as they practically ran out the door.
All I really wanted was a nice quiet nap, but I knew that if I went to bed I'd never get up again. So I just sat on the sofa with some coffee and tried to follow American Justice.
The book caught my eye. The Alienist was on the table. A magazine subscription card marked his place. He finished a good third of the book last night. Maybe I could have it back by the end of the week.
The motorcycle pulled up to the curb. Keys rattled in the lock.
"Have some visitors today, Jimmy?" Greg asked before the front door was even closed.
"A couple of doctors came to see me," I said flatly. The caffeine was the only thing keeping me awake.
"What the hell did you say to them?"
"I just answered their questions."
"You shouldn't scare them like that," Greg said, limping to the sofa. "That's my job. What were they asking about?"
"Us."
"And...?"
"I'm sure they can handle it. Eventually. But there is something..."
"What?" he said, sitting down.
"Well, it's just that..." I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. "It seemed to me that Chase and Foreman weren't all that shocked by the fact that you and I sleep in the same bed. They were more shocked by the fact that you took two days off to look after me."
"You're kidding."
"No, Greg, I'm not. You can't make that stuff up."
"Why? I don't get it."
"Well, as Chase so eloquently put it, more or less, why would Dr. House waste two days his precious time looking after someone with an illness he can diagnose in his sleep?"
"That is a good question," he said with a faint smile. "You're not going to get all mushy and make me say it, are you?"
"No, not right now," I said with a faint smile of my own. "I'll just have to wait until Chase and Foreman are around again. Then they'll have to believe it."
