086. Disappear

Finding Things In The Strangest Places

Wilson was neck deep in paperwork when his door suddenly opened and a very pissed-off Cuddy stormed in. He looked up in surprise as she stopped in front of his desk and leaned on it, her hands in fists, giving him an excellent view of her cleavage. Unlike House, he dragged his eyes away from that view after the briefest of glances.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

Wilson blinked, forgetting about the cleavage on display immediately. "Uh, who?"

"House!" Cuddy snapped. "Where is he?"

Wilson frowned. "Uh, I don't know. Have you checked his usual hiding places?"

"Of course I have," Cuddy snapped. "As far as I can determine, he's not in the hospital and he's not answering his phone at home or his cell phone and he hasn't answered any pages either."

The first sliver of worry began to wiggle its way through Wilson and he frowned.

"That's…unusual," he said slowly. "He might not answer his home phone but he usually answers his cell and responds to pages. It's not like him to completely disappear."

He got to his feet and had grabbed his suit coat before he really knew what he was doing.

"I'll go and look for him," he said tightly as he headed out the door.

"Tell him I want him in my office the moment he sets foot in the hospital," Cuddy yelled as he hurried away.

Wilson waved his hand in acknowledgement then concentrated on getting down to his car and over to House's apartment. He knocked on the door but when he didn't get an answer, he pulled out his key and let himself in. He was very determinedly not thinking about finding House crumpled on the floor because he'd fallen because he'd drunk too much or worse…overdosed. He shoved the door open as soon as it was unlocked and almost ran into the apartment. He did a quick search through the place then, after a quick phone call to the hospital, a second much slower one and when he got back out into the living room, he was frowning and highly confused.

There was no sign of House in the apartment but there was also no sign that he'd gone anywhere. No clothes were missing other than what he might be wearing and his toiletries were still in the bathroom. He'd seen the corvette parked outside when he'd come in but…there had been no sign of the motorbike.

Wilson froze and paled then pulled his cell phone out, fumbling with it for a moment with his suddenly nerveless fingers before he managed to dial the number he was after.

"Lisa," he said in an utterly sober voice that stopped her burgeoning rant before it even began. "Can you call around the local hospitals please?"

"James? What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly worried.

"He's not here," Wilson said with an eerie calm. "There's no sign that he's gone anywhere but his bike is gone."

"You think he's been in an accident?" Cuddy asked with alarm. "Surely he would have got the staff to call you? Or they would have found his wallet?"

"Not if he's unconscious or if he'd been robbed. There are a lot of possibilities," Wilson replied, stuttering to a stop as he found House's cell phone and pager. "Please just make the calls."

"Alright," Cuddy said then she hung up the phone.

Wilson stared down at House's phone and pager.

"Dammit, House. Where the hell are you?" he muttered as he waited. He didn't want to leave in case House came home from wherever the hell he was.

About half an hour later, his cell phone rang. He checked the number then answered it.

"Well?" he said.

"Nothing," Cuddy replied, now sounding worried. "None of the hospitals in the area reported anyone matching House's description being brought in during the last twenty four hours." She paused then continued dryly. "I also called the police. He hasn't been arrested either."

Wilson rubbed the back of his neck as he sighed. "Alright. I'll start checking some of his usual haunts though I can't imagine him going out to any of them without at least his cell phone."

"He hasn't got it?" Cuddy asked with surprise.

"No, it's here with his pager," Wilson replied. "On the brighter side, his wallet is missing so I assume he's got it with him."

"Well…keep in touch," Cuddy said, starting to sound worried. "I'll keep an eye out here in the hospital and get his team to search through periodically in case he sneaks in through a back way."

"Okay," Wilson replied as he hung up.

He scrounged around for a moment until he found a piece of paper and a pen then wrote a large note simply saying "CALL ME!" and left it where anyone coming in the door would see immediately. He then left the apartment and got into his car, mentally planning the best route to the various bars that he'd found House in over the years.

Two hours later he was frustrated and frantic. There had been no sign of House in any of the bars and no one had seen him, in some cases in years. He drove back to House's apartment and called Cuddy.

"No, no sign of him," she said wearily. "Chase, Cameron and Foreman have practically turned the hospital upside down. He's definitely not hiding here." She paused then continued tentatively. "James, maybe we need to call the police. Unless you saw him last night, it's been over twenty-four hours since anyone's seen him."

Wilson swallowed hard. "No, I didn't see him last night but…let me call his parents. It's…something of a long shot but he…might have gone there."

Cuddy sighed. "Alright but we're going to have to do something soon."

"I know," Wilson replied then he hung up and called House's parents, taking a deep breath as House's mother answered the phone.

"Blythe? It's James Wilson."

"Hello, James," Blythe House said warmly. "How are you?"

"Um, fine. Uh, Blythe, is…is Greg there?" he asked tentatively.

There was a moment of silence and when Blythe answered her voice sounded wary and worried.

"No. Should he be? James? What's going on?"

"He's…disappeared," Wilson replied helplessly. "No one's seen him since just after lunch yesterday. He didn't turn up to work this morning and he's left his cell phone and his pager in his apartment. Everything's still here but his motorbike is missing as well. We've been searching all day but he hasn't turned up anywhere. We've checked all the hospitals in the area."

"Oh," Blythe said, sounding a little stunned. "That's…that's not like him."

"I know," Wilson replied. "I was hoping he'd gone to see you for some reason."

"No, he's not here," Blythe stammered. "What are you going to do?"

Wilson swallowed hard. "I think we need to call the police. Put in a missing person report."

He heard the gasp at the other end of the phone. "Yes…yes, of course," Blythe said faintly. "You…you'll take care of that, won't you, James?"

"Of course," Wilson said as soothingly as he was able to manage. "And I'll keep in contact."

"Thank you," Blythe said weakly then they both hung up.

Wilson drew in a deep breath then let it out shakily. He was just about to leave to go to the police station when his cell phone rang again. He looked at the display and was surprised to see his parents' phone number listed.

"Hello?" he said.

"James. Thank goodness," his mother said with relief.

"Mom, what wrong?" Wilson asked, wondering what else could possibly have gone wrong now.

"Greg's here," his mother said with an odd note in her voice.

"What?" Wilson gasped.

"He turned up about…oh, three this morning," she said. "He was in quite a state. He wouldn't really tell me what was wrong, just rambled on rather incoherently about being stupid and making mistakes and hurting you. He didn't seem to be drunk or under the influence of anything and he finally dropped off to sleep about half past seven. He's still asleep and it didn't occur to me until just a few minutes ago that I ought to let you know he was here. Your father doesn't get back from his fishing trip until tomorrow and I had a couple of appointments this morning."

Wilson fumbled his way over to the couch and sat down.

"Thank god," he whispered, running one hand down his face.

"James? What's wrong?" his mother asked with concern.

"Nothing now," he said with relief. "House…didn't exactly let us know where he was going. We've been looking for him all day."

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear," his mother said with chagrin. "I didn't realise. I'd have called sooner if I'd thought that he'd run off without telling you."

"That's okay, Mom," Wilson said with a small smile. "Look, I'm going to come right over. Don't let him leave."

His mother snorted on the other end of the phone. "James dear, I'll be surprised if he wakes up before you get here. He looked exhausted when I opened the door last night."

"Yeah…well…he can surprise you at times," Wilson said dryly. "Just…keep him there."

"Alright," his mother said calmly. "I'll see you soon."

Wilson hung up and scrubbed his face with one hand before calling Cuddy and letting her know the good news. He was walking out the door as he called her and he asked her to call Blythe to tell her the good news. He then hung up and tossed the phone on the passenger seat. He had no idea what had driven House to go to his parents' place but he intended to find out.