"How's Julie doing?" House asked as Wilson sat at the table with a dusty box.
"Julie's having dinner with her sister," the oncologist replied. "When they get together they turn into a couple of loud, obnoxious shrews and I'd rather not listen to that."
"Yikes, I guess I can't blame you." The older doctor shifted his attention to the box. "What is that?"
"A chess and checkers set from the bowels of your bookshelf. From the dust on it I'd say it hasn't been touched since the day you moved in."
"Good Lord," House smiled. "I forgot all about that thing. I got it for Christmas when I was fifteen."
Wilson brushed off some dust and triggered a sneeze attack. "Are all the pieces still in it?" he asked, and sneezed again.
"I don't know. I haven't touched it since the day I moved in."
The board came out smelling like an old book. "Well, there's sixty-four squares at least," the younger doctor observed with a final sneeze, and began rattling around the game pieces.
"Wow, you're a regular Bobby Fischer," House cracked.
"Thanks," Wilson replied thickly and set up the chess board. "Looks like you're missing six pawns, all the rooks and two of the bishops. Do you know where they are?"
The diagnostician snickered. "Oh, I remember now. In college I beat my roommate at a game and won a hundred bucks. He got pissed, grabbed a handful of pieces and flushed them down the toilet."
"Sore loser?"
"I won fair and square. You tell me."
"Why didn't you get another chess set, Greg?"
"I never got around to it."
"Not since college? What the hell have you been doing over the last twenty years?"
"I've been busy."
The remaining pawns and bishops went back into the box. "Looks like all the checkers are here. You up for a game"
"Checkers?" the older doctor snorted. "What is this, the third grade?"
"Well, you were too busy to buy another chess set, so we have to use what's available." The red and black pieces went into separate piles. "You afraid you're going to lose?"
"I'm hardly afraid of you, Jimmy," House said, raising an eyebrow at his friend. "You're not exactly nightmare material."
"Look, Greg, you can stare at the ceiling for the rest of the night, counting the seconds until Cuddy's plane lands, or you can beat me at a silly little game and get out of your head for a while." Wilson sat and stared, wondering how successful he was at giving off the impression of not caring one way or the other.
House sighed, making it as overly dramatic as humanly possible. "Fine, get a couple of beers, would ya? I'm red."
As Wilson brought the beers to the table and hunted down the bottle opener he couldn't help but ask, "When is Cuddy's plane landing?"
"Fifty-eight hours and thirty-two minutes." House tried valiantly, and failed miserably, to sound nonchalant.
The younger doctor opened the drinks. "Word is getting around about you and Cuddy."
"Someday Lisa and I might actually care," the older doctor responded as he arranged the red checkers on the board.
"Is that why Cameron has suddenly turned stone cold?"
House glanced up. "I'd rather not talk about Cameron right now," he said, and pushed a red checker over to a blank square. "Well? Are you in or do you suddenly feel like playing 'Go Fish'?"
"Hold on, hold on." Wilson scrambled to set up his black checkers, then moved one over. "To tell you the truth I'm kind of surprised."
"What, that I'm playing checkers?" Another red checker started up the board.
"That too," Wilson said, pushing a black piece closer to House's red army. "Don't take this the wrong way, Greg, but I'm surprised you and Cuddy have lasted this long."
House pushed another red checker, then took a long pull from his beer. "Yeah, well, that makes two of us, Jimmy." He leveled his gaze at the oncologist. "You knew about us long before anyone else. What exactly tipped you off?"
Wilson said, "Well, all last summer I couldn't help but notice the way the two of you warmed up to each other, smiling at each other and what not. At first I thought maybe you and Cuddy called some kind of weird truce. You both seemed to be a bit happier. Then I noticed the way you started looking at her. But I wasn't about to stick my nose into it. Then just before Thanksgiving I was in Cuddy's office and saw a box of Godiva's on her desk. I said something about them and she said they were from a friend. Whatever...it wasn't any of my business." House quietly listened as the red and black pieces prepared for war. "Anyway, that same night I was here, remember, you just got The Godfather special edition DVDs. I came in here and saw something sticking out of the trash can. It was a Godiva catalog. You got them for her on their website but now you're on their mailing list for eternity."
The older doctor grinned. "You're good, Wilson. You're being wasted as an oncologist. I should introduce you to Detective Goren."
"Maybe Goren can find your missing chess pieces." Wilson pushed a black checker to within striking distance of the red team. "Twenty dollars says I get kinged first."
"Make it fifty."
"You're on."
A red checker jumper over a black. "Well, Jimmy, I'll just have to use your fifty bucks to buy some nice Godiva's for Lisa."
