House MD Oneshots + Imagines

A Cold Winter's Night Spent In Your Arms (James Wilson x Reader)

Wind howls outside the four walls of your apartment as you curl up in your king-sized bed, waiting for your husband to get home.

It's freezing cold. Through the glass window in the bedroom, your (e/c) eyes put together the sight of snow piling up on the roads of New Jersey. The frozen water droplets are colored like cotton and fall like feathers. The snow contrasts the pitch black sky in a way that makes you feel nostalgic for last winter; James took off to spend the holidays with you for once in his life, and the two of you went to his family's cabin to stay for a week. You remember it being romantic and relieving from the chaos from your normal lives working at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

Finally, after what feels like forever, the front door unlocks. You know it's James based on the sound of the light, gentle footsteps that come increasingly closer to the bedroom. Within the next minute, James walks into your shared bedroom and lays in bed next to you. The bed frame creaks with his added weight before he settles and wraps his arms around you from behind, his strong body like another warm blanket. You let out a sigh of relief. Having him close to you on nights like this feels like relief.

"Sorry I'm late, honey," He apologizes with a kiss pressed into the back of your (h/l) (h/c) hair. "I ended up driving House back to his apartment, and by the time I finished dropping him off, the storm had gotten pretty bad..."

"It's alright," You calmly reassure the oncologist and wriggle around in his arms so you can face him. His chocolate brown eyes are tired and decorated with bags underneath them that are the most prominent they've been since you've known him. "Are you going to come to bed?"

"Sure, just give me a few. I've gotta go do a couple things in the kitchen," Then, as fast as he came to the bedroom, he leaves. You sit up with the blankets wrapped around your shoulders and stare down at the bedsheets. Normally, the two of you would've gotten ff at the same time and gone home together, but he had a patient going downihill that he wanted to stay with in case anything happened. Low and behold, there just so happened to be a dire case that the diagnostics team had to handle as well, which stressed him out even more. Right now, it's past midnight, nearly seven hours after his shift is supposed to end. When he comes back to the bedroom, he's dressed in nothing but boxers and has a large mug in his hands. "Here."

Wilson hands you the mug, which you hold with both hands. It's perfectly warm hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and whipped cream.

"Oh, thanks," You murmur.

"It's the least I can do for keeping you waiting up on me like this."

"How was the rest of your shift?"

"Honestly? It sucked," James sighs and takes a seat right next to you. You offer him your blankets, so he scoots so close that your shoulders are touching and readjusts them so they're wrapped over both of your shoulders. Then, he pulls his knees to his chest and begins to talk. "House ran out of Vicodin and I was too busy with the patient on my floor dying to write him a script, so he was pretty pissed off at me- Cuddy was out sick, Chase and Cameron are doing their usual on and off again thing, so they were bickering all day, and Foreman is the only sane one there but you can just tell he's seconds from falling apart and it is incredibly concerning."

"You said all of that without pausing to breathe," You chuckle and shoot him a worried glance as you sip on the hot chocolate. "You good?"

"The only thing that got me through it was the thought that I'd get to come home to you after it was all done with," He admits.

"I'm sorry you had a rough shift," You finish half of the chocolate, then hand the rest to James, who accepts it with a smile and a nod.

"No, no, it's my fault for staying," He insists, downs what's left in the mug in his hands, then sets said mug on the nightstand. "I was supposed to get off early for our dinner date today and-"

"Health and death don't work on a schedule- they just can't, and with your line of work, things are incredibly time sensitive. Your patient was knocking on death's door and you were worried, and it seems like House's team was going through a lot too- and that's on top of the snowstorm," You reassure James again, which makes his chocolate brown eyes widen. A look of surprise takes over them, which doesn't shock you- the common debilitator of most of his marriage was how often he was gone with Greg or gone because of work, but you've both learned to compromise and make time for each other while still prioritizing both of your jobs. "You had no way of knowing today was going to be like that when you made the dinner reservations last week, and I was able to call and cancel them when you asked if I wouldn't mind you staying late tonight, so we didn't inconvenience any of the staff there either. It's okay."

"Thank you, sweetheart," Wilson says with a sigh of relief and wraps an arm over your shoulder to pull you close. "You're the best."

"I try," You chuckle and lean against his large, warm frame.

"Didn't you say you were cold?" Wilson questions and wraps his arms around your body so he can pull you into his lap. He rests his chin on your shoulder and circles his arms back around your frame from behind. "I could probably warm you up a bit if you'd like."

"Oh, yeah? How do you intend on doing that?"

"I can show you," He whispers with a kiss to the side of your neck.

"Go ahead," You whisper back, and with that, he's dragging you down to lay on the mattress with him and pushing his lips against yours.