House x Wilson

11

"House?" Foreman called from the backseat. Foreman, Wilson, and House were in Wilson's silver sedan heading straight North. New York City could be seen off in the east. House looked back at him from the passenger seat. "Why are you having your team perform an unnecessary battery of tests on a patient who came in for a flu shot?"

Wilson shot a glance at him as it clicked in his mind what Foreman may be talking about. With all the stress caused by planning a trip and going to the meeting, he had thought or hoped that House would forget about their stupid bet. "What's her name?" he asked Foreman.

"His name is Bradley Phillips."

"Does Bradley Phillips happen to have any relation to Kayla Phillips?" He cast a mini glare at House, before focusing back on the road.

"... No."

"You are unbelievable."

Foreman sighed. "Can one of you explain what's going on here?"

House immediately jumped in to tell the story. "Wilson had a clinic patient who he found out has never had sex and who claims she has never felt sexual attraction."

"Yes," Wilson jumped in, preventing House from making any more offensive insinuations. "And like an immature perv, he has to meddle and prove that all people are sex-crazed creeps."

Foreman chuckled. "Do I sense projection?" and House rolled his eyes.

There were a few moments of silence before Wilson jumped in again. "It's understandable." From the corner of Wilson's eye, he saw House bite his lip.

House wasn't going to let Wilson bait him with that patronizing tone this time. "Don't do this to me, Wilson. Not in front of Foreman." There were a few impressive moments of silence before that pesky curiosity got the best of him. "Fine. What do you understand?"

"Why you want to destroy their happiness." Wilson sighed, turning on his left blinker as he switched lanes. "You think if happiness is based on lies, then it's okay for you not to be happy. You've been in this relationship for no more than a few days, and you don't know if it's going to make you happy yet, so you're preparing yourself in advance for when it doesn't."

"No, I'm doing the bet because I want the cash. Sometimes there's no deeper reason than pure monetary greed."

"Mmmm."

**********

The drive from New York State to Boston was a smooth one. House had spent the entire ride ordering his team around over the phone and intermittently pointing out every New Jersey license plate they passed in order to help Wilson 'remember where he came from.' And when the sun had began to dip below the western horizon, House told Wilson that the the sunset reminded him of them. Wilson had snorted good-naturedly and continued driving. However, the smoothness came to an end when they actually entered Boston.

"Turn left here!" House snapped. They had been aimlessly driving around the city at night for so long, House had felt like he'd seen every road twice. Every road except the one with their hotel.

Wilson tried to take House's advice, but his attempt to switch into the left turn lane was met with a symphony of impatient honks. He was forced to go straight at the intersection and the road took them moving towards some ambiguous water.

"Great going," House said. "Now we're back at the ocean. And here I was thinking we finally passed it."

Wilson stopped at a stop sign, causing a tailing car to slam on its breaks and honk. Wilson slapped the steering wheel, frustrated. "That's the river!" He kept going down the road, presumably farther from their destination.

"Foreman. Your phone has GPS. Who's right?" House called back.

"According to this, you're driving in the middle of a building."

House shot Wilson an innocent look. "Now you're the one going to prison for 6 months to a year."

"Okay, but which street?" Wilson asked, ignoring the jab.

"Commonwealth Avenue."

"No!" House huffed. "Commonwealth goes from east to west. We need to go to a street that goes north to south."

"Look!" Foreman called. He leaned forward and pointed to something through the windshield. "It's the Prudential Tower. Get on Massachusetts Avenue and then turn onto Huntington Avenue and the Marriott is a few yards to the east of it."

"Isn't there another way to get over there?" Wilson whined. "I'm pretty sure that's a toll road."

"No!" Foreman snapped at the same time House said "Suck it up!"

*********

At 10:59 P.M, Foreman staggered through the automatic glass doors of the large Marriott hotel. House and Wilson were following behind him, bickering about whether they should let the valet take the car or if Wilson should park it himself after they check in. Foreman ignored them and examined the interior of the hotel. It was definitely higher end. It had gold lining among the copious amounts of glass and beige tile. He wondered as they rode the escalator up to check-in how much Wilson had to shell out to get them 3 nights at this place. He didn't have to wonder for long.

Wilson took over when they reached the front desk. "James Wilson. two rooms, both Kings," he said before the woman could even greet them. He just wanted to flop onto his nice bed and slowly drift off into a deep sleep.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the woman, Lucy according to her nametag, said. "One of your rooms is unexpectedly unavailable. We could get you another King room but it'll be on the opposite side of the hotel as your other one."

House nodded enthusiastically. "Anything to get Foreman away."

"Or," the woman continued. "We could upgrade you to a Luxory Longwarf Suite for the same price you would be paying for the two Kings. $500 a night."

House and Wilson exchanged a glance. Foreman could tell they were actually considering the deal so he stepped in. "No, we'll just do the two Kings as originally planned."

Wilson furrowed a brow at Foreman. "We wouldn't be sharing a room in a suite. They have two bedrooms," he attempted to convince him. "And a living room, kitchen, and dining table."

Foreman shrugged. "You two are here for a consultation. Not to make googly eyes on a waterfront balcony while sipping room service martinis."

"Correction, he's here for a consult," House motioned towards Wilson. "I'm here for that second thing you said."

Foreman ignored him. "2 kings."

Lucy obeyed and handed them each a key.