"The House Syndrome" Chapter 6
Title: The House Syndrome
Chapter: 6/6(Plus epilogue)
Fandom: House MD
Pairings: Wilson/Park, House/Wilson
Worcount: (This Chapter-840)
Rating: NC17 (This Chapter-G)
Warnings: Graphic sex for both pairings. Massive Angst-fest ahead. No fluff, no schmoop. Possible triggers. Read at your own risk.
Notes: THIS IS NOT A WIP! The whole thing is done. I just feel like posting in chapters. Very short chapters. Thanks to michelleann68 for Full Metal Beta. Comments and concrit welcome.
Summary: Things are back to normal, so everyone gets hurt.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Why is he looking at me?
OK, it was a stupid question. Clearly, he knew or a least suspected. No, it was House. He knew.
So why was he just staring at her with that expression? Hurt. Confusion. Disgust. Anger. Never had the cold blue glare felt quite so ominous. Even when he was callously making bets on her future or manipulating the relationships among the team members for his own amusement, Park didn’t believe that House had truly seen her. Now he did and it was terrifying.
Finally she couldn’t take it anymore, especially the feeling that that was trying to figure out why Wilson would have bothered to spend time with her in the first place. Park had asked herself the same question enough times.
“What?” she bellowed, as much to drown out the voice of House in her head as to break the tension.
Park realized she’d already given him the first victory of the day when House started lobbing files in their direction, completely derailing the twin sisters with acute tennis elbow or whatever other piece of trivia that Taub had brought in. She was too rattled to absorb most of the symptoms House started rattling off. Something about a fever and a rash. Maybe swollen glands. Nothing that struck her as worth House’s while in the mystery department until she looked at the white board and noticed the urine that smelled like roses and darkening of skin.
Adams tried auto-immune and was immediately shot down. Taub went for pregnancy, but obstetric ultrasonography had already come up negative. Park didn’t know if it would be safer to throw out an idea or keep her mouth shut. It probably didn’t matter.
“Paraneoplastic syndrome?”
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew it was the worst thing she could have said. The malicious gleam in House’s eyes told the tale.
“Dr. Park, how nice of you to join the discussion, even if the suggestion is completely idiotic. It is however interesting as an indication of your state of mind. Do you have cancer on the brain, or just oncologists?” She felt a flush burning her face as House turned to the rest of her colleagues. “Did any of you know that Wilson’s been playing marathon games of hide-the-salami with our own little Korean barbecue? Or maybe I should ask if any of you didn’t know ?”
Taub, Chase and Adams all found ways to avoid looking at her, making the shame and humiliation complete.
Park considered running out of the room, but that would only prolong the pain. She closed her eyes, childishly willing the scene to disappear.
“House,” she heard Chase in a threatening voice. It was touching that he thought he could possibly stop the onslaught.
“Oh please,” House retorted spitefully. “Please don’t pretend that any of you are actually friends.”
“Fellow hostages is more like it.”
That wasn’t Chase and the voice wasn’t coming from the conference table. Park opened her eyes to find Wilson and Foreman standing at the door of the conference room. House had turned to face Wilson, which meant for the time being, he had all of House’s attention.
“Oh look. The knight in shining lab coat appears to defend his tarnished tart.”
She saw Foreman flaring his nostrils, but it was Wilson who moved toward House so confidently that the unthinkable seemed likely. It wasn’t that House didn’t have a healthy dose of physical violence coming. It was just that of all them, Wilson was the one who’d done the most to protect House, even at the cost of his own well-being.
Maybe House thought the same thing. He almost seemed to be goading Wilson into it, trying to prove, House only knew what.
“Why her? Is her grandmother giving you hand jobs on the side? Did you realize you missed the letter K on your sexual world tour or did you want to re-live your nonexistent days in Viet Nam? Let me clue you in, Bunky, she is not going to love you long time”
“SHUT UP!” Wilson’s voice echoed through the room like the snap of a whip, but the real emotional violence came with his next words, spoken much more calmly. “I love her .”
Suddenly everyone was looking at her and Park would have done anything to escape the attention, most of all the stricken look on House’s face. That expression told her it was all true. Every sneering rumor and innuendo she’d heard or thought about in the time she’d been at Princeton Plainsboro. Wilson wasn’t just cheating on his best friend in a metaphorical sense. This was a deliberate infidelity to a lover. Oh shit!.
If she were lucky, she’d only be fired. House was capable of exquisite cruelty at the best of times. Right now he was a wounded animal. That it was Wilson who had set and sprung the trap didn’t matter. He’d forgive Wilson; everybody did. She would have to leave PPTH, maybe even New Jersey and she’d have to lie to her parents about what had happened. They might accept her having a sex life, but there was no way to explain this mess without admitting her own poor judgment.
“No!” she shouted, standing up, not even sure what that would accomplish. House still towered over her. His face turned even uglier, poised to rebut any defense she might offer. “It’s over,” she announced, doing her best to modulate.
“But…I thought….”
Wilson looked and sounded genuinely hurt, causing Park a pang of guilt for what she was doing.
She quickly brushed it off. One thing she had learned working for House was self-preservation.
“I’m not the problem here,” she said, with more sadness than she ever thought she’d feel for House. “And you,” she continued, looking at Wilson, “aren’t worth my job.”
Maybe it sounded harsh. Wilson would get over it. He’d only been using her to hurt House, whether he realized it or not. Park knew she was walking a fine line that might still lead to the unemployment office, but at least she was going to get there with her dignity intact.
Looking into House’s nearly cobalt blue eyes, seeing him so vulnerable, Park could almost understand the attraction. She already knew about House’s brilliance and she was aware that it took a certain kind of charisma to hold the team together the way he did. There was more though, some deep, powerful humanity under all that pain and anger. It was enough to make him a brilliant doctor, but still a miserable bastard who wanted everyone around him to be equally miserable.
“You deserve each other.”
House’s hint of a smirk told Park he was accepting unconditional surrender and that he’d heard variations on her epiphany many times before.
She could feel the tension level in the room fall back to the usual chaos of a differential, rather than the high drama that had been sizzling in the air all morning. House and Wilson exchanged a look that served as a dismissal of both Wilson and Foreman. Whatever else it meant for House and Wilson later, she didn’t want to know.
“OK, people. If you want to watch a soap opera, it’s nearly an hour until The Young and the Restless. In the meantime we still have a patient with funny smelling pee.”
“Waardenburg-Shah,” declared Chase, with the same conviction he might have expressed when declaring that he’d won a poker game with a royal flush.
House cocked his head and grimaced, but couldn’t seem to come up with any objections.
“All right,” he said, grudgingly. “Adams and Taub, do the blood panel. Park and Chase, check the apartment. Make sure our treatment won’t be compromised by any environmental factors.
The team shuffled out of the office. Park didn’t think she was the only one avoiding eye-contact with House or the only one who thought the assignments were bogus. If Chase had the correct diagnosis, he should be the one to confirm with blood-work. House’s motives weren’t much of a mystery. She got a smirk and eye-roll combo from Taub to make the point.
It wasn’t until she was alone with Chase in the elevator that Park allowed herself to relax. Leaning against the back wall, she let out a sigh of relief. Sweat started beading on her forehead and the tears she’d held back started forming in the corners of her eyes.
Chase was looking forward, but he must have heard her sniffling. He produced a clean pack of Kleenex from the pocket of his lab coat and handed it back to her without looking.
“You know I’m here to make sure you don’t go running to see Wilson?”
“Yeah,” she sniffled, hearing a touch of hysteria in her own voice. “I know.”
He appeared to be looking for something in both the top and bottom of the elevator before he spoke again.
“You’re lucky. They would have destroyed you.”
It took some nose-blowing and wiping before she could reply.
“I know that too.”
Chapter: 6/6(Plus epilogue)
Fandom: House MD
Pairings: Wilson/Park, House/Wilson
Worcount: (This Chapter-840)
Rating: NC17 (This Chapter-G)
Warnings: Graphic sex for both pairings. Massive Angst-fest ahead. No fluff, no schmoop. Possible triggers. Read at your own risk.
Notes: THIS IS NOT A WIP! The whole thing is done. I just feel like posting in chapters. Very short chapters. Thanks to michelleann68 for Full Metal Beta. Comments and concrit welcome.
Summary: Things are back to normal, so everyone gets hurt.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Why is he looking at me?
OK, it was a stupid question. Clearly, he knew or a least suspected. No, it was House. He knew.
So why was he just staring at her with that expression? Hurt. Confusion. Disgust. Anger. Never had the cold blue glare felt quite so ominous. Even when he was callously making bets on her future or manipulating the relationships among the team members for his own amusement, Park didn’t believe that House had truly seen her. Now he did and it was terrifying.
Finally she couldn’t take it anymore, especially the feeling that that was trying to figure out why Wilson would have bothered to spend time with her in the first place. Park had asked herself the same question enough times.
“What?” she bellowed, as much to drown out the voice of House in her head as to break the tension.
Park realized she’d already given him the first victory of the day when House started lobbing files in their direction, completely derailing the twin sisters with acute tennis elbow or whatever other piece of trivia that Taub had brought in. She was too rattled to absorb most of the symptoms House started rattling off. Something about a fever and a rash. Maybe swollen glands. Nothing that struck her as worth House’s while in the mystery department until she looked at the white board and noticed the urine that smelled like roses and darkening of skin.
Adams tried auto-immune and was immediately shot down. Taub went for pregnancy, but obstetric ultrasonography had already come up negative. Park didn’t know if it would be safer to throw out an idea or keep her mouth shut. It probably didn’t matter.
“Paraneoplastic syndrome?”
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew it was the worst thing she could have said. The malicious gleam in House’s eyes told the tale.
“Dr. Park, how nice of you to join the discussion, even if the suggestion is completely idiotic. It is however interesting as an indication of your state of mind. Do you have cancer on the brain, or just oncologists?” She felt a flush burning her face as House turned to the rest of her colleagues. “Did any of you know that Wilson’s been playing marathon games of hide-the-salami with our own little Korean barbecue? Or maybe I should ask if any of you didn’t know ?”
Taub, Chase and Adams all found ways to avoid looking at her, making the shame and humiliation complete.
Park considered running out of the room, but that would only prolong the pain. She closed her eyes, childishly willing the scene to disappear.
“House,” she heard Chase in a threatening voice. It was touching that he thought he could possibly stop the onslaught.
“Oh please,” House retorted spitefully. “Please don’t pretend that any of you are actually friends.”
“Fellow hostages is more like it.”
That wasn’t Chase and the voice wasn’t coming from the conference table. Park opened her eyes to find Wilson and Foreman standing at the door of the conference room. House had turned to face Wilson, which meant for the time being, he had all of House’s attention.
“Oh look. The knight in shining lab coat appears to defend his tarnished tart.”
She saw Foreman flaring his nostrils, but it was Wilson who moved toward House so confidently that the unthinkable seemed likely. It wasn’t that House didn’t have a healthy dose of physical violence coming. It was just that of all them, Wilson was the one who’d done the most to protect House, even at the cost of his own well-being.
Maybe House thought the same thing. He almost seemed to be goading Wilson into it, trying to prove, House only knew what.
“Why her? Is her grandmother giving you hand jobs on the side? Did you realize you missed the letter K on your sexual world tour or did you want to re-live your nonexistent days in Viet Nam? Let me clue you in, Bunky, she is not going to love you long time”
“SHUT UP!” Wilson’s voice echoed through the room like the snap of a whip, but the real emotional violence came with his next words, spoken much more calmly. “I love her .”
Suddenly everyone was looking at her and Park would have done anything to escape the attention, most of all the stricken look on House’s face. That expression told her it was all true. Every sneering rumor and innuendo she’d heard or thought about in the time she’d been at Princeton Plainsboro. Wilson wasn’t just cheating on his best friend in a metaphorical sense. This was a deliberate infidelity to a lover. Oh shit!.
If she were lucky, she’d only be fired. House was capable of exquisite cruelty at the best of times. Right now he was a wounded animal. That it was Wilson who had set and sprung the trap didn’t matter. He’d forgive Wilson; everybody did. She would have to leave PPTH, maybe even New Jersey and she’d have to lie to her parents about what had happened. They might accept her having a sex life, but there was no way to explain this mess without admitting her own poor judgment.
“No!” she shouted, standing up, not even sure what that would accomplish. House still towered over her. His face turned even uglier, poised to rebut any defense she might offer. “It’s over,” she announced, doing her best to modulate.
“But…I thought….”
Wilson looked and sounded genuinely hurt, causing Park a pang of guilt for what she was doing.
She quickly brushed it off. One thing she had learned working for House was self-preservation.
“I’m not the problem here,” she said, with more sadness than she ever thought she’d feel for House. “And you,” she continued, looking at Wilson, “aren’t worth my job.”
Maybe it sounded harsh. Wilson would get over it. He’d only been using her to hurt House, whether he realized it or not. Park knew she was walking a fine line that might still lead to the unemployment office, but at least she was going to get there with her dignity intact.
Looking into House’s nearly cobalt blue eyes, seeing him so vulnerable, Park could almost understand the attraction. She already knew about House’s brilliance and she was aware that it took a certain kind of charisma to hold the team together the way he did. There was more though, some deep, powerful humanity under all that pain and anger. It was enough to make him a brilliant doctor, but still a miserable bastard who wanted everyone around him to be equally miserable.
“You deserve each other.”
House’s hint of a smirk told Park he was accepting unconditional surrender and that he’d heard variations on her epiphany many times before.
She could feel the tension level in the room fall back to the usual chaos of a differential, rather than the high drama that had been sizzling in the air all morning. House and Wilson exchanged a look that served as a dismissal of both Wilson and Foreman. Whatever else it meant for House and Wilson later, she didn’t want to know.
“OK, people. If you want to watch a soap opera, it’s nearly an hour until The Young and the Restless. In the meantime we still have a patient with funny smelling pee.”
“Waardenburg-Shah,” declared Chase, with the same conviction he might have expressed when declaring that he’d won a poker game with a royal flush.
House cocked his head and grimaced, but couldn’t seem to come up with any objections.
“All right,” he said, grudgingly. “Adams and Taub, do the blood panel. Park and Chase, check the apartment. Make sure our treatment won’t be compromised by any environmental factors.
The team shuffled out of the office. Park didn’t think she was the only one avoiding eye-contact with House or the only one who thought the assignments were bogus. If Chase had the correct diagnosis, he should be the one to confirm with blood-work. House’s motives weren’t much of a mystery. She got a smirk and eye-roll combo from Taub to make the point.
It wasn’t until she was alone with Chase in the elevator that Park allowed herself to relax. Leaning against the back wall, she let out a sigh of relief. Sweat started beading on her forehead and the tears she’d held back started forming in the corners of her eyes.
Chase was looking forward, but he must have heard her sniffling. He produced a clean pack of Kleenex from the pocket of his lab coat and handed it back to her without looking.
“You know I’m here to make sure you don’t go running to see Wilson?”
“Yeah,” she sniffled, hearing a touch of hysteria in her own voice. “I know.”
He appeared to be looking for something in both the top and bottom of the elevator before he spoke again.
“You’re lucky. They would have destroyed you.”
It took some nose-blowing and wiping before she could reply.
“I know that too.”