A/N: Here we are again with the fifth chapter of Scars! Thank you to anyone who has reviewed. It's made writing this really fun, otherwise I never would've wanted to continue. And just to make sure everyone is in the same place, we are starting this chapter at late Sunday morning, House time.
Disclaimer: I'm seriously waiting for the day David Shore or Fox or whoever owns House now to get on FanFiction and says, legally, "I own House, M.D."
Well, I'm not David Shore or a Fox representative, so I don't own House, M.D. and I don't own the song Scars.
Here we go!
"I don't want to go to the hospital," House stopped, then jabbed at his friend, "I'm not the irresponsible one who left work early to drink myself into oblivion."
"Yes, but even if you didn't have work to do, you still drunk yourself into oblivion and worried me for hours and made me drive around to find you and pick your sorry ass up," Wilson glared up at House.
Only a few minutes into the ride, House had realized Wilson was taking him to PPTH and had objected quickly. "There is no need for anyone at that godforsaken place to see me shivering and shaking, soaking wet and cold, and this fucked up emotionally and physically," the diagnostician had told himself in his own head. "And turn up the damn heater, Wilson," House commanded in a sharp voice, but Wilson knew he was really saying, "fuck you Wilson, I don't want to go so I'm going to yell demands at you until you take me home."
"House, until you can tell me what the hell happened to you last night, what you were doing this morning, or where any of your things are, you're going to PPTH. Shower, sit in your office and play with your ball, nap, go do your fellow's clinic duty to pay them back for how much of yours they've done, I don't care. But you're staying at the hospital until later so I can at least check you over quickly to make sure you're actually okay, and you're not going to whine. Got it?" the brown-eyed man told House.
House, scoffing at the suggestion of doing clinic duty, retorted with a sharp, whiny, "no. I don't want to go, I don't need to go, I'm fine!" For added effect, he flashed Wilson the most ridiculous pouting face he had ever seen and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Five-year-olds, quite similar to the one you're acting like, don't get to go unsupervised, so neither do you. Now, what's the real reason you don't want to go in? You don't even have to work today, you can spend your whole time tormenting nurses and students uninterrupted, and I know you jump at any chance to do that," Wilson responded to House's kindergartener act.
"I don't want to go, I don't need to go, and it's a waste of my time."
"House, deal with it. Much worse things could be happening to you this morning had I not gotten you."
The brilliant diagnostician let out a grumble then resigned his argument. Sitting in the passenger seat of Wilson's car, not even being allowed to drive his own motorcycle was not something House wanted to be doing. There was no more words spoken between the two friends as the younger of the two drove them both to the hospital, but Wilson could not help but glance over at his friend occasionally. The oncologist wondered what the cause of House's edginess, anxiety, and more-than-normal hostility was today as the older doctor rubbed his leg viciously, apparently to no avail. Just attributing House's obnoxiousness to his hangover and his leg, Wilson pulled into his parking spot at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
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Meanwhile, more thoughts than usual were suffocating Gregory House's brain. He was angry that Wilson didn't allow him to make his own decisions, angry that he had to go into the hospital to see people he really did not want to see, angry that his leg had a hole in it and that even the vacancy of muscle could hurt, but most of all, angry at himself for landing himself in this position. "You did this to yourself, so suck it up and deal with the consequences. There are far worse people who could have found you and had to give a damn about you this morning. Like Cameron," House thought to himself, then let out a miniscule smirk at his last comment, which he quickly covered with his hand and stared out the window, realizing that they were already in the PPTH parking lot.
"Let's go inside, I'll leave you alone for a few hours, then we're both going to the clinic to check you over. Get some water and sleep, you look like hell," Wilson sighed, snapping House out of his thoughtful state.
"Yeah, tell that to the left side of your jaw," House quipped before limping off inside and quickly out of sight, but in the general direction of his office. Wilson could only hope that House would do as he was told and make his life just a little less hellish for one day. Shaking his head and locking his car, Wilson started towards the door of the hospital and approached Cuddy's office, mentally preparing himself for a lecture before knocking and entering.
"Cuddy?" Wilson called as he walked closer to Cuddy's desk, not fully understanding why he was presenting his case to his boss rather than sneaking by, unnoticed, to his office.
"What happened to your jaw?" she asked before her subordinate could get another word out. Already knowing he was most likely here to explain his early departure the day before, Cuddy waived it off and told him it was fine, she knew it wouldn't happen again, and that he was here today to make up for it anyway.
Past the boring actual employee-boss interactions, Cuddy asked Wilson again, "why is your jaw red and starting to bruise?"
Not particularly wanting to answer this question because even he didn't know what caused House's outburst, Wilson quickly dodged the question by saying, "I have paperwork that needs to be done by a certain time today, I'm going to get started," and left Cuddy alone at her desk with her impeccable perfection, wondering what was going on with her star oncologist.
[Line Break]
Later into the day, Wilson realized it was already approaching 6 PM and decided he had done enough catch-up work for the day. Gathering his coat, leather bag, and some take-home paperwork, Wilson began the short walk to his next-door office neighbor, House, and opened the door. Pleased to find that the room was dark and House was actually lying on his couch, appearing to be sleeping (albeit, not peacefully, as he was clearly shifting around quite a bit, but sleeping nonetheless) as he was told, Wilson flipped on the light switch and waited for the diagnostician to wake up.
He wasn't disappointed. Within seconds, the tired, older doctor was squirming all over his long couch and striking out at enemies the oncologist couldn't see. Breathing hard and unevenly with a face covered in a sheen of sweat, House finally woke himself up and looked around the room frantically before his eyes rested on Wilson. Realizing what just happened and quickly coming up with an excuse to hide his panic attack, House looked away from his friend in the doorway.
"A little unnecessary to scare the shit out of a hungover cripple hopped up on Vicodin, is it not?" House bit at Wilson, hoping his response would be enough to fool him into thinking House was telling the truth.
Ignoring the diagnostician's comment, Wilson skipped to his surprise at House listening to his suggestion of sleeping. "So, since when do you ever listen to what I say?
"Since I have a headache concocted by Satan himself from last night's outing that mixed with lightheadedness from the Vicodin. Trust me, nothing I'm doing is because you recommended it. If I followed in your example, I'd have seven ex-wives and would need to be needed by everyone."
Chuckling to himself at his friend's verbal stabs, Wilson paged the receptionist in the clinic, Maria, and asked her to keep an exam room clear for Wilson to use. "Clinic. Let's go," Wilson commanded of his friend, who grabbed his cane and stood up before whacking the oncologist on the shin with his long, smooth cane.
"We can go now," House grinned while Wilson grabbed his shin and began rubbing it out.
A/N: Kind of a filler chapter, but it's the longest one yet to make up for it! We will definitely have some drama and revelations coming up within the next few chapters. Get ready! :)
Please keep reviewing, it makes me so happy!