008. Weeks

Slow Discoveries

House and Wilson had been sleeping together for nearly six weeks before Wilson mentioned the word 'relationship'. House had actually cringed when he said that word and quickly limped out of Wilson's office. Wilson had not seen him for the rest of the day. He'd finally appeared in the doorway at the end of the day and with forced casualness asked whether Wilson was ready to leave. When Wilson said he was, House had nodded and they had left. The word 'relationship' had never come up again.

House and Wilson had been sleeping together for nearly nine weeks when Wilson first referred to House as his partner. It had occurred one evening during a somewhat heated phone conversation with Julie regarding the divorce. It hadn't been planned nor did he fully realise what he'd said. He'd merely wanted to express to Julie what House meant to him without using the one word that House always, always flinched and ran from. When he'd finally managed to get off the phone he'd found House staring at him with an unreadable expression though his eyes were full of varying emotions. Wilson had not asked what he'd done; he merely mentally reviewed his conversation with Julie to try and determine what might have brought those emotions to the fore. He'd concluded that it was the word 'partner' since the rest of the conversation had mostly been about the house and various other sundry matters pertaining to the divorce. Wilson certainly didn't regret calling House his partner and while House was certainly unsettled by it, he wasn't openly complaining. Wilson chose to take that as a good sign.

House and Wilson had been sleeping together for nearly thirteen weeks when House's team found out about them. In retrospect Wilson was surprised it had taken that long for them to find out. While he and House had been relatively discreet about the whole thing, they hadn't exactly been hiding it either. Though he supposed that if they hadn't wanted the ducklings to find out, they probably shouldn't have kissed in House's office. The damn place was a fishbowl, far too much glass to be doing things like kissing. Overall the ducklings took it well. Foreman was clearly surprised but after a few minutes he appeared to dismiss it as irrelevant to his life. Wilson felt there was something to be said for House hiring someone who didn't give a damn about much other than his job. Chase also took it reasonably well. He was certainly startled but finally he just shrugged and made the comment that now they had the explanation as to why House had be more bearable over the past few weeks. That had probably been a bad thing to say from the slightly evil look that appeared on House's face and Wilson was momentarily tempted to feel sorry for the three doctors, Chase in particular. It was hard to tell exactly how Cameron took the news. Her initial reaction was one of shock and her voice was brittle when she spoke but gradually she either accepted it or just became more adept at hiding her feelings. However an air of injured pride lingered around her for days. On the whole Wilson was satisfied with their reactions and vaguely pleased that now they knew.

House and Wilson had been sleeping together for nearly fifteen weeks when Cuddy and Stacy found out about them. Unlike with House's team, this discovery was not due to any carelessness one their part. House had been rather grudgingly serving his time in the clinic when the patient he'd been seeing had some kind of fit of rage. Before House had been able to recover from the sudden change in direction of his patient's temperament, the man had grabbed House's cane out of his hand and begun beating him with it, including two very solid blows on the thigh. House's hoarse, startled screams had alerted the nursing staff and security had quickly been called and had subdued the man. One of the nurses had had the presence of mind to call Wilson and he'd arrived at a run to find House curled up on the floor of one of the examination rooms. House was in very obvious pain but was refusing to allow anyone near him. Wilson had been filled with horror, anger and worry but had not allowed any of that to show as he calmly got everyone out of the room and knelt beside his lover. He'd been relieved when it had only taken a few minutes of arguing with House to get him to allow an examination. Wilson had been quick and thorough and had insisted that House stay in hospital overnight. House had been irritated but had eventually…and rather grudgingly…agreed. Wilson had asked one of the nurses to bring a wheelchair and when it arrived he helped House into it. Once he had House settled into a room and everyone else had gone, he finally allowed his worry to show. House had permitted his show of emotion and had slipped into a drug-induced sleep with their fingers entwined. Wilson had then caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned in time to see Cuddy and Stacy disappearing out of the room. He sighed as he settled into a chair beside the bed. The two women had undoubtedly seen enough to work out that his and House's relationship had changed. He didn't think it would be a problem but hoped that Cuddy would be able to stop anything rash that Stacy might think of doing.

House and Wilson had been sleeping together for nearly twenty weeks when Wilson walked into his office one morning to find a small jewellers box sitting in the middle of his desk. He stared at it for a moment then slowly walked over to the desk. He picked up the box and turned it over in his hands as though there might be some kind of answer in the black velvet. Finally his curiosity got the better of him and he opened it. He stared at the contents for several minutes, his jaw hanging open. Nestled in the box were two plain gold bands. With his expertise he easily identified them a two men's wedding bands. A small noise behind him had him turning and he saw House was standing in the doorway, looking uncomfortable and oddly hopeful.

"It won't be legal," House said almost diffidently. "But I thought we could go to Canada."

"When?" Wilson said, feeling stunned and still trying to come to terms with what he held in his hand and what it meant.

House gave a small shrug. "Whenever we can get away."

Wilson nodded slowly. "Why?" he said in what was almost a whisper.

House stared at the floor, at his hands clenched around the handle of his cane, out of the window, at Wilson's immaculate desk, back down at the floor then finally at Wilson.

"Because I…love you," he said, sounding slightly choked.

Wilson's eyes widened and a broad smile broke out on his face. He carefully placed the box containing the rings down on the desk and walked over to stand in front of House. He ran the fingers of one hand along House's cheek then leaned in and kissed his lover. When they broke apart, Wilson smiled again.

"I love you," he said simply. "And yes, I'll marry you…even if it won't be legal here."

House nodded once and he gave a small smile. "Good."