Inquiry: Day Seven, 3:15 p.m. - James Wilson 6
Title: InquiryAuthor: zeppomarx
Characters: All the usual suspects, plus more.
Summary: When a panel is convened to review the facts of Gregory House’s life, his fellows (past and present), colleagues, patients and friends are called to testify.
Thanks: To Brigid45, for her infinite wisdom and advice.
Warnings, etc.: Possible character death.
Disclaimers: Don't own House or any of the show's characters. If I did, things might have gone a little differently.
Chapter Summary: Testimony of James Wilson, Part 6
Day Seven, 3:15 p.m.
Wilson barely had enough time to grab a cup of coffee and use the bathroom before it was time to return to the panel chambers. The chairman picked up where they had left off. “You changed addresses while Dr. House stayed with you, did you not?”
“Yes, I did.”
“How did that come about?”
“I finally decided that it wasn’t healthy for me to stay in the place Amber and I had shared.”
“Or for Dr. House?”
“Or for Dr. House.” Although he hadn’t really considered House’s reaction to living in Amber’s apartment when he had made the decision.
“So you found another place big enough for the two of you?”
“Yes. I bought a condo.”
“We understand this was a condo that Dr. Cuddy had been interested in buying.”
“Yes, it was. But I outbid her.”
“Why?”
“I was annoyed with her for the way she was behaving about House. I felt she was hurting him, and I guess I wanted to get back at her.” How about how he himself was hurting House… repeatedly, apparently? It dawned on Wilson for the first time that, just because House was often obnoxious and never expressed his feelings over how Wilson had treated him, it didn’t mean he had no such feelings. And just because Wilson generally had good intentions, didn’t mean he always did the right thing. The road to hell…
“So you informed her that you had outbid her?”
“Actually, no, I didn’t. I never told her outright I had bought the place.”
“Didn’t that kind of defeat the purpose in buying the condo to get back at her?”
“No, because I knew why I’d bought it.”
“So you bought it for yourself and Dr. House?”
“Yes.”
“You said that you were annoyed with Dr. Cuddy for the way she was behaving. How was she behaving?”
“She was leading House on, all the while she was fooling around with someone House had actually considered a friend. Plus she seemed to be going out of her way to hurt him.”
“We understand some unpleasant incidents took place in that condo.”
“Yes. Dr. Cuddy’s boyfriend, a private investigator named Lucas Douglas, whom I mentioned a moment ago, kept breaking in. He apparently blamed House because Dr. Cuddy had not gotten the condo.”
“But buying that condo wasn’t Dr. House’s doing, was it? Had he encouraged you to buy it?”
“No. I made that decision on my own. Then I informed him that we were moving.”
“So this Lucas Douglas broke in several times, causing damage in the thousands of dollars, as we understand it, as well as loosening the handicapped grab bar by Dr. House’s tub, which caused him to injure his head. Is that right?”
“Essentially, you are correct, although it was my tub, not House’s. He didn’t have a tub.”
“I’m sorry. You bought a condo, in part, for your disabled friend to live in, but it didn’t come with a tub in his bathroom?”
“No, just a shower. I told him to use that, and to stay out of my tub.” Wilson grimaced a bit at how harsh that sounded. He’d never really intended to be unfair about the tub; he’d just gotten caught up in things and hadn’t noticed how inconsiderate he’d been.
“Give us a moment.” The panel chair quickly sifted through the papers in front of him. Finally, he found what he’d apparently been looking for. “In your own medical records about Dr. House, you have mentioned a few times that soaking in a hot tub really helped soothe the pain in his leg. Why would you not either give him the room adjoining the bathroom with the tub nor allow him to use the tub?”
Guilt suddenly overwhelmed Wilson. “I… I figured I’d bought the condo, so I should be able to choose the master bedroom if I wanted to. When I found him in the tub one morning, I felt he was infringing on my privacy.”
“But the tub had a grab bar?”
“Which House installed.”
“I’m at a loss, Dr. Wilson… but proceed with the Lucas Douglas situation.”
“At first, I accused House of pranking me by putting a possum in the tub. After the grab bar was loosened, he thought I was getting even, although he knew he hadn’t been responsible for the possum. House… and I… eventually realized it was no prank war between the two of us when the sprinkler system went off one night, destroying a lot of our property and causing some serious damage in the condo.”
“Then what happened?”
“Eventually, Lucas came clean, after he tripped House in the hospital cafeteria.”
“Were there other people present when this happened?”
“Sure. The cafeteria was full at the time.”
“How did Dr. House react?”
“He didn’t. I wanted him to retaliate, but he wouldn’t.”
“How did Dr. Cuddy react to the news that her boyfriend was terrorizing you?”
“We never told her, although the incident in the cafeteria must have been on the security video, and I’m sure word got around the hospital really quickly.”
“Did you file charges against Mr. Douglas for breaking and entering, or for felony vandalism in damaging your property? In addition, you probably could have made a decent case for assault, given the grab bar situation.”
“No. As I said, House chose not to do anything about it.”
“So, as when Dr. Cuddy played what you have called ‘pranks’ on Dr. House, he chose not to retaliate?”
“That’s correct.”
“This seems to be a pattern with Dr. House. From what we’ve heard, he often chose to be fairly high-minded when attacked by people he considered friends. Would you agree?”
Wow. Wilson suddenly flashed back on the number of times House had refused to retaliate. All he’d ever really focused on were the times House had escalated things… such as when he got even with that guy he knew from med school -- what was his name? -- who had the migraine treatment. Maybe House had sometimes been more mature than Wilson had given him credit for. “I guess you’re right,” was all he could think of to say. He was flabbergasted by the effect this revelation had upon him.
“How did Dr. Cuddy behave toward Dr. House at this time?”
Wilson shook his head to clear his thoughts. “She seemed really annoyed with him, and she felt -- not totally unjustifiably -- that he was trying to interfere in her relationship with Lucas. She even went so far as to send him on a wild goose chase, rather than allow him to come to Thanksgiving dinner at her place.”
“Tell us about that wild goose chase, Dr. Wilson, from your perspective.”
“She sent him to her sister’s place upstate, when she was really hosting Thanksgiving at her own home in Princeton.”
“So he drove, on Thanksgiving, to the wrong location?”
“Yes. It was about three hours away. When he got there, the housekeeper gave him a turkey sandwich.”
The panel conferred once again. Wilson noticed frowns on their faces.
“We’re speechless, Dr. Wilson.”
“It wasn’t a very nice thing to do, although House had been making a nuisance of himself.”
“No, we agree. It wasn’t a nice thing to do. Did you confront Dr. Cuddy about this incident?”
“No, I did not.” And why was that, exactly? Wilson couldn’t remember.
“So why did Dr. House stop staying with you? Did Dr. Nolan tell you he felt Dr. House was ready to be on his own?”
“No… no, he didn’t. I had started seeing my ex-wife, and we wanted some privacy.”
“Did you check with Dr. Nolan before you asked Dr. House to leave?”
“No. I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“You’ve already stated that, in the previous instance, when you nearly evicted Dr. House from your other apartment, you didn’t help him to find another place for him to stay. Would that be true as well when you actually asked him to leave for real?”
“Yes.” Damn. This was getting more and more awful.
“Where did Dr. House go?”
“Back to his apartment.”
“But you just stated that you were concerned he might still have drugs there. Did you accompany him, check it out, make sure he settled in all right?”
“No. He simply moved out, and moved back in to his old place.”
“Where he had hallucinated, and had other unpleasant memories.”
“Yes, I guess so.”
“I think that’s enough for today. We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning and pick up with Dr. Wilson’s testimony then.”
Wilson left the room weighed down by the thoughts conjured up by his testimony, and dreading the day ahead.
Day Eight, 9 a.m. - Dr. James Wilson 7