096. Fair

That'll Do

"That's not fair!" House whined, trying not to sound like a four year old and failing miserably.

"Life isn't fair, Dr House," Cuddy said flatly. "You have two choices. You can either take leave voluntarily or I will put you on administrative leave. Either way you are not setting foot in this hospital for two weeks."

"What?" House protested. "Why?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "House, you've been impossible for the last three weeks. You've driven Dr Cameron to tears three times in the last five days. Dr Chase has taken to hiding in the ER and Dr Foreman has threatened to either resign or strangle you and I'm not sure if he was serious on either score or not. I don't know what's wrong with you; I don't want to know what's wrong. But you've got two weeks to sort it out. Now go back to your office, pack your bag and get out of here. If you're not gone in half an hour, I will have security remove you."

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave House an implacable glare. She kept that glare on her face as House whined and complained then she shifted her weight slightly and tapped her watch pointedly. House scowled her for a long moment but she didn't relent, he abruptly turned and limped out of the office. Cuddy watched him limp towards the lifts and gave a sigh of relief as she relaxed. She hadn't been entirely sure she was going to win that argument. Thankfully she had since the main thing this hospital needed right now was a lack of House. Foreman wasn't the only one making little voodoo models of the man and sticking pins into it. She sighed and walked back to her desk and sat down. As she picked up the phone, she kept an eye on her watch. She hadn't been kidding about the half hour time limit and she would have security throw House out if it became necessary.

House stormed out of the lift as best as he could and headed for his office, his furious scowl making more than one person prudently leap out of his way. He yanked the door of his office open and limped inside, snatching up his bag and stuffing a few things inside. Once he was done he grabbed his cane and glanced towards the conference room where his ducklings were rather studiously not looking at him. He was tempted to go in there and really make their lives a misery but abruptly decided not to. He knew Cuddy well enough to know that she actually was serious about the security thing and he wasn't in the mood to put himself through that kind of humiliation just for the hell of it.

He threw his bag over his shoulder and limped out of his office, slamming the door behind him so hard that the glass rattled. He limped back to the lifts and from there out of the hospital. When he got home, he hurled his bag into a corner and got a beer from the fridge before sitting down on the bench on front of the piano. He plunked the beer on the top of the piano and rubbed his forehead with one hand as he sighed wearily.

"You know this sort of thing wouldn't happen if you could just learn to say 'I'm sorry', even if it isn't with words," Wilson said, his voice a mix of exasperation, weariness and wry amusement.

House gave a start and turned on the piano bench. Wilson was leaning in the doorway that lead to his bedroom and his face and body language reflected what was in his voice.

"A bit hard when you keep avoiding me," House said harshly, swallowing his urge to just limp over and shove Wilson against the wall and kiss him until they both forgot about what had happened.

Wilson sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

"Yeah, I suppose," he said at the end of the sigh. "But you've never had trouble finding me whenever you've really wanted to."

House shrugged and stared down at his shoes. Silence fell in the room for a moment then he looked back over at Wilson. He grabbed his cane and levered himself to his feet, limping over to the other side of the room. He gently shoved Wilson against the wall and leaned in, pressing his entire body against his lover's before capturing Wilson's mouth with his own. He gently nibbled on Wilson's bottom lip then licked it before pulling back and resting his forehead against Wilson's shoulder.

"Will that do?" he said, his exhaustion from days of frustration and anger and lack of sleep starting to show through.

He felt Wilson's hands come up and start gently stroking his back then Wilson said softly, "Yeah, that'll do."