Title Five People Who Loved House (And How He Broke Their Hearts)
Rating PG
Pairing House/Wilson; House/Cuddy, House/Stacy, House/Cameron, House-Chase
Word Count 1,997
Spoilers 314 - Insensitive, and a bit beyond (although not very noticeable)
Summary Cuddy, Stacy, Cameron, Chase, and Wilson think about their twisted relationships with House.


1

House completed his rehab, only in the sense of going through the motions, and returned to work, behaving as if nothing had changed. That wasn’t what was surprising; Cuddy was shocked to find herself believing he was capable of any sincere change. She had told him that she owned his ass, but Cuddy doubted he believed a word of this, seeing as she hardly did, either.

Cuddy was right back to checking exam rooms to make sure House was actually with a patient, doing his damned job. She had learned to lower her expectations when it came to him.

They were lowered, but not completely forgone. Cuddy continued to hold House to some sort of standard, which he still managed to fall short of. And yet she had risked her job to keep him out of jail, because he was an excellent doctor.

As expected, behind exam room door number three, was House and his patient – a portable TV with Jerry Springer on. He seemed to be too mesmerized by the trash on the screen to acknowledge Cuddy’s presence. Or maybe he was just hoping that she’d turn around and leave. Cuddy put her hands on her hips and began the old routine, “House –”

“You’re not pregnant.” He said it very casually, without any excess movement. Cuddy’s mind went back to that day when House told her she would fail as a mother. Although she knew he was just detoxing and in pain, those words still bothered her.

“No” was all she replied. Cuddy walked around the exam table to face House; she refused to talk to his back. “Now get out there and do your job.”

House took a moment to take in her posture, tone, and expression before replying, “yes, sir” with a salute. He slid off the table and grabbed the TV in a smooth motion before leaving Cuddy behind in the room.

She sighed to herself; Cuddy did want a child, so she was angry at herself for letting House reinforce the quiet doubts she already had. The only thing left for her was this job, which she was apparently better at than actually practicing medicine. Cuddy would never be as good a doctor as House, which was why she needed him here.

And, unfortunately, it was the only reason she could allow herself.

2

Stacy excused herself from the table to answer the phone, which rang for the third time in the last few minutes yet left no messages. Either it was a telemarketer she could let some pent up anger on, or it was actually something important.

She immediately recognized the voice on the other end, and he only called to tell her about one topic, despite trying to convince Stacy it was a bad idea. But she still wanted to know what was going on in House’s life, even if he would hate it, and Wilson knew him best.

“He’s been shot?” Stacy said too loudly, causing Mark to eye her suspiciously. She lowered her voice – twice? Where? Who did it? Why? Although the last question was horribly naïve.

Wilson spoke to her in that reassuring manner he slipped into so easily into – abdomen and neck, we don’t know yet, he’s stable, he asked for ketamine.

Stacy nodded as he explained what the ketamine would do, and felt herself begin to tear up. She thanked him for calling and hung up before she could begin to cry.

“You okay?” Mark asked when she returned to the table with red eyes. He didn’t know that Stacy had received updates on House ever since she left him, and Stacy didn’t intend to tell him now. She never told Mark she had considered leaving him for House, and never would. He would start to doubt her too much. She loved Mark and didn’t want him to leave her.

But, somehow, as Stacy sat in their home, at their dinner table, across from her husband, her thoughts managed to drift towards House. It had been like this for five years; sometimes months would go by with her being blissfully unaware of House’s existence, and then he would be all she could think about.

During those times, Stacy really believed she wanted to be with House again. When she was alone and honest to herself, she tried to mentally list reasons why. Her attraction to House had been immediate; she felt inevitable drawn to him. The week went by in a blur: she shot him, he smiled, they insulted each other on their only date, she was moving her possessions into his apartment. For two years, she was the only one allowed in, and they were happy – mostly – the entire time, until the impossible decision came.

Now, she could see more clearly, that the cracks had begun to form before that, when he left her alone all the time, even when he was there. There had never been a clean break, just a slow chipping away.

She would settle for one day, maybe, seeing him again, happy again, with the one he couldn’t so easily push away.

3

“I think we should start having sex.” Chase took on that goofy expression that meant all he could think about was sex; he would say yes.

Cameron wasn’t serious about anyone at the moment, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have sex. She was very sure that was the reason, thanks to Foreman’s speech on commitment, although she couldn’t yet justify why she chose Chase.

It didn’t really matter; whatever will happen will happen, Cameron thought. She wouldn’t be able to commit even if Mr. Right came along, because, despite her protest, she still wasn’t quite over House. Even though everyone treated her like a child, she knew, in her mind, that a relationship with him would never work out.

But she still wasn’t over House.

Maybe in her heart, having watched him carefully, she thought she could do what Wilson did. Better, even. He did open up to her from time to time. After all, she was the only one who had not betrayed him.

At first, Cameron was a bit put off by House, and then, something else – it took several months before she could admit to herself that she liked him. A lot. There was actually a lot to like about him, and she wished everyone else could see it, too, including himself.

House never really acknowledged her all the time she worked for him; when he went out of his way to get her to come back and agreed to a date, Cameron thought she had a real chance.

And then she faced the crushing blow of rejection. Her first rejection, when Cameron thought about it, and it wasn’t even gentle. She wasn’t really sure how to react to this, except to futily attempt to hate House. Yes, she hated him; Cameron tried to convince herself, despite crying once she was into her apartment. Maybe if she kept repeating it, it would come true.

She didn’t hate him. She didn’t really love him, either. Cameron was walking around with a half-broken heart, and knew the other half had to go, too, if she wanted to move on.

Cameron pushed Chase into one of the hospital’s closets; he was becoming suspicious of her motives, and she was just realizing them herself. If Chase got hurt because she involved him, it wouldn’t matter.

Neither of them were the one.

4

Chase slammed his locker door and walked out, rubbing his jaw, unsure where he was walking. He found himself in the oncology lounge, violently spreading jelly on a slice of bread.

Wilson was there; Chase said something about House to him. Maybe that was the reason he came here. Maybe Wilson could get House to…Chase wasn’t sure what he expected him to do.

But Chase knew he only had one choice.

“I’m not waiting around anymore.” He left without even taking the sandwich with him. There hadn’t been any peanut butter left, anyway. He walked quickly, hoping it was enough to calm himself down.

As insane as the man was, Chase had liked the way House thought; he felt there was something he could actually learn from him. There were moments when House showed a glimmer of approval or made attempts to show he cared (those may have been accidental). But most of the time, when he wasn’t ignoring Chase, he would mock him and tear him down.

Chase had accepted it; House simply wasn’t the type to show appreciation, at least not very often, although he definitely felt it. For over three years he put up with House’s treatment.

Then the realization hit him as hard as House’s punch. Chase wanted to be told “good job” or that he had done the right thing, although he wouldn’t admit it to himself, because he knew it would never happen. Chase had been through this before, and didn’t want to believe he was willingly subjecting himself to it again.

He had made a few mistakes, and didn’t fault House for being angry with him at those times. But every time House derided his abilities and intelligence, a part of him began to believe it.

So he did what he was best at in these situations: to stop caring so it would stop hurting.


5

“Breakfast?”

“Yeah.”

Wilson and House left the hospital in their curiously in-sync walk, neither minding that it was Valentine’s Day, or had any love life to speak of, or that they would be eating breakfast together at a restaurant filled with couples. House never cared about image, and it was finally rubbing off on Wilson.

Of course, many women in the running for Mrs. Wilson the fourth noticed, with dismay, that he was increasingly careless about his looks. But at least he didn’t look as bad as House. Yet.

Wilson wasn’t sure what he saw in House, much less what House saw in him. House had never been charming or nice, and didn’t even appear sane half of the time. House stole his food, borrowed obscene amounts of money, pissed off each of his wives, and always caught him red-handed in an affair.

House was brutally honest, yet, at the same time, somehow incredibly accepting. Wilson, who had always been very careful of the image he projected, did not find himself shying away when put under House’s microscope. The fact that nothing Wilson could do would truly shock or disgust House made it easier to have his faults exposed.

He wound up spending more time with House than with any of his wives, and House spent more time with him than with Stacy.

Once he had emerged from the aftermath of the infarction and the break up with Stacy, House really began to test Wilson. Wilson himself wasn’t sure where he’d draw the line, if ever, although he thought he had done so several times. But whenever House wanted to be alone, Wilson wouldn’t let him, God knows why; he had been through that before. But he had pieced House back together, mostly.

“Still living in that hotel?” House asked, coloring in his kid’s menu that he practically had to tackle the waiter for.

“Yeah,” Wilson replied simply, stealing one of House’s crayons to color in his kid’s menu. No one around them could see the deeper meaning in the short exchange, but Wilson got the message, and knew House got his.

“Sirs…are you ready to order?”

Some people would ask, with no tact at all, how Wilson’s relationship with House could go back to normal so quickly.

Well, it was easy, once he accepted that his world did, in fact, revolve around House and that with him, heartbreak was bound to happen. All he could do is pick up the pieces and try to glue them back together – as many times as he had to.