House x Wilson

8

In less than a second, House was fastening his belt and Wilson was on his feet. House looked at his friend staring at the ground, pure mortification coloring his cheeks. House guessed he was internally smacking himself for not taking half a second to lock the door. House wasn't as bothered as his counterpart, but he wished the other people in the hospital found out about them some other way. He could have screwed with them for a long time yet before they went public. Foreman and Wilson were making no clear moves so House decided to break the awkward silence. "Thanks for the exam, Dr. Wilson," he quipped before making an attempt towards the door.

Wilson glared at him. How can he stay in character when we were just caught? He knew he had nothing to be ashamed of for being with House, and he wanted the hospital know they were together, but he just didn't plan on his coming out story to be so... unplanned. "House," he almost pleaded and followed him out into the lobby.

Foreman stared at a cabinet--well more like towards a cabinet-- not bothering to follow the two out. He had just seen his Head of Oncology sucking off his Head of Diagnostics. What?? Everything he knew about his House and Wilson was put into question in less than a moment. The playful banter, jealousy of each other's relationships, and stubborn games all took a new meaning. Well, Chase was certainly right about something being off with House. He was just so, so wrong about the what.

"That was humiliating," Wilson hissed when he started conversing with House in the clinic waiting room. He put his hand to his forehead, hanging his head and praying the blushing would stop. "This can't be real."

"Oh, relax. It's nothing he hasn't seen before," House snapped in a feeble effort to reassure him. "You're just mad because now Foreman knows you're the girl."

"It was necessary for the role-play," Wilson retorted, feeling some of the stress (but not the embarrassment) roll off his limbs. "Now that I'm thinking this through... if a patient came in looking to be tested for STIs, that's probably the last thing I should do."

"Don't cheapen this," House teased. He grabbed Wilson's hand in a wordless attempt to comfort him. He felt him tense up underneath his touch.

Wilson scanned the clinic to see if anyone else had noticed his intimate gesture. They hadn't, so he leaned into House's chest. "Thanks," he muttered. When he lifted his head, he was met with House's curious and scrutinizing gaze and he sighed. Psychoanalyze me, he thought.

"You don't want to go public," House guessed. He dropped Wilson's hand as if to demonstrate 'this is what you wanted.' The oncologist took a quick step back and stared at him with wide eyes. House reconsidered his stance. Wilson had widened his eyes at the prospect—he was surprised, not guilty or ashamed. "Ah, let me guess. You want it to be special. You want a coming out party,"

"Nothing like that," Wilson argued, though he was getting closer to the point."I just don't want everyone finding out like Foreman found out."

"Don't worry. Foreman won't tell anyone. He's not much of a gossip, however if Chase had walked in there just now..." 

Wilson shook his head, not wanting to picture it. "Well, you're going to have to talk to him, you know." 

House shrugged. "I was thinking we just ignore him for a while before he can't possibly bare the silence anymore and comes to us." Foreman had a tendency to bottle up his emotions just the same as him, so he had a feeling with his method there would really be no confrontation. 

Wilson also realized the implications of taking the silent approach. And as much as quietly sweeping everything under the rug appealed to him, he knew that the right thing to do was the opposite. "He is the one who must approve having your ankle bracelet removed. You should be as candid with him as possible." 

"I can just stay here and at my house all the time. It's not like my routine will change that much after the bracelet is--" 

"I thought you might say that," Wilson interrupted. "But this morning I got a call from Dr. Newford at Massachusetts General. He wants me to come up for a consult, and he said he'll pay. So,  if you come, it's basically an all-expenses-paid vacation." He held his breath a bit after asking that. He had been invited, but he hadn't even considered bringing House until the words just slipped out of his mouth. Wow, I must be more desperate than I thought. 

"So you want our first couples trip to be to Boston? Wouldn't you prefer somewhere a bit more romantic? Such as my dead grandmother's moldy basement?" He started to limp out of the clinic as he spoke, and Wilson scurried to keep up. 

"It doesn't matter which city, House. It matters that it's a four hour drive away from this hospital and these people." He didn't bother to engage him on why he hates the city that's pretty much universally loved in the healthcare community. He gently put his hand on House's shoulder, bringing him to a halt in front of the elevators. "Am I moving too fast? I can always go alone, so you can gather your thoughts." 

House met his gaze. "If you go alone, I might change my mind about us," he said. 

"Then I suppose you should come," Wilson said. "That is, if you don't want to change your mind." 

The elevators door opened, but Wilson rushed towards the stairs, leaving him with the weight of having to talk to Foreman. 

**********

Beep! Beep!

Foreman's pager went off. The patient sitting on the bed beside him, jumped a bit, startled by the sudden noise. He had been trying to determine if it was okay for Dr. Chase to move her from the cardiology department to diagnostics. 

"What is it?" Chase asked. "The fundraising committee not making enough on cookie sales?" 

He looked at the sender of the page. House. "It's nothing. I'll be back" he said. If it was something about a patient, he would've paged Chase, as well. He had a feeling he knew what it was about, and he had absolutely no interest in sharing it with Chase. As he walked over to Diagnostics, he thought about what would happen when he opened that door. Would House make him pinky swear not to tell anybody? More likely he would try to blackmail him with pictures of his girlfriend. 

"Welcome! It's the man of the hour!" House greeted Foreman the moment he walked through the glass window. Taub and Adams looked over from where they sat in the chairs in front of his desk. 

"You want to talk to me in front of them?" He asked, folding his arms. He still hadn't crossed out the blackmail theory. 

"Why not?" House said, with a blank expression. "These are my bestest friends in the whole wide world." He decided to go for the subtle technique, but smooth execution required witnesses. People have such low tolerance for public confrontation. 

"Can we get back to treating the patient?" Taub sighed. "It's obviously not Lyme disease." 

"You're right. In fact it's so obvious, I don't know why you said it." House stood up, leaning heavily onto this cane. He turned his attention back to Foreman. "I don't see why I have any reason to hide that I would like to have my monitor removed."

Foreman stared at him, incredulous. "You called me in here to talk about your ankle bracelet?" He didn't even know House was jonesing to have it removed. There were much more glaring things to talk about at this moment. Which, after he thought about it, did seem a lot like House. Avoid what he didn't want to talk about, by talking about something else of lesser importance. 

"Yes. I want to go on vacation." 

Foreman let out a big, but mirthless, chuckle. "Yeah, okay." He shook his head. "I'll have to do a performance review and have a meeting with a the parole man." 

"Great." House clasped his hands together in closure. He knew Foreman didn't actually believe him about the vacation. It probably seemed a little too un-House to randomly leave Princeton and go roaming the world, so he would be in no hurry to get the monitor off, but at least he didn't seem to have any objections. 

"A vacation?" Adams asked with a smile. 

Well at least she believes me.  House thought.