menolly_au

Two ficlets written for the Easter Basket Fiction Exchange. Headings and summaries behind the cut.

Title: The Organ
Words: 395
Rating : PG
Spoilers : Seventh season - Out of the Chute
Pairing : House and Wilson friendship

Summary : Wilson has trouble sleeping after the events in Out of the Chute, then he hears someone else in the loft.

Written for

justjuly4 for the Easter Basket fiction exchange

He didn't sleep well, every time he woke his eyes snapped open and he saw it again. House falling, from that balcony. His fingers curled into fists as he pushed the sight away. House hadn't died. House was alive. Not well, sometimes he wondered if House would ever be well again. But alive.

His eyes sought out the clock on his bedside table. Three in the morning. He needed to sleep. He had to forget House and go to sleep.

He'd just drifted off to sleep again when he heard it, a scraping noise as a door opened and the sounds of footsteps across the floor. His eyes snapped open again, a rush of adrenaline flooding his system. He was fumbling for his cell phone when he heard the first soft notes of the organ.

He'd bought the organ for House, back when he was living here, before Wilson had asked him to move out so Sam could move in. It had sat lonely and unplayed since House had left. Sam had wanted to get rid of it but Wilson had insisted on keeping it. The couple of times House had been here since Sam had gone he'd ignored the organ.

Wilson got up and crept out into the living area. House was sitting there playing the organ, keeping the music soft and quiet. Wilson didn't recognise the song but he did recognise the emotion behind the notes. A soft melancholy tune, that spoke of loneliness and regret.

Wilson looked around the room. A battered suitcase was in one corner, House's cane lay discarded on the couch. A bottle of Vicodin sat atop the organ. House had come to stay.

"I'll make up your bed," Wilson said, knowing that House knew he was there. There was no answer but the stiff nod of House's head as he continued to play.

Wilson quietly backed away and went to fetch sheets and pillows for the bed in the spare room - in House's room. As he made up the bed he could still hear the music being played, the sad tune giving way to something lighter, more hopeful.

When Wilson went back to bed House was still playing, the loft being filled with the music he was creating.

Wilson slept well for the rest of the night.

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Title: If You Fall
Words: 1026
Rating : PG
Spoilers : Seventh season - Out of the Chute + the one after that
Pairing : House and Wilson friendship

Summary : Yet another follow-up to Out of the Chute, Wilson reveals a traumatic event in his past to House

Written for pgrabia for the Easter Basket fiction exchange

Wilson tries to ignore the pebbles hitting his office window, he tries to keep writing. He's done with House's dramas he tells himself. Done. Finished. No more.

He slides the glass door open and goes outside onto the balcony.

House is leaning on the balcony rail, looking down at the ground below.

Looking up, seeing him balanced on the balcony rail, arms wavering. Stepping off, falling, falling, falling, going to die.

"NO!"

"Wilson, Wilson!"

House is holding his arms, shaking him, staring at him with wide blue eyes, he turns away, starts to yell back into the office for help.

"I'm okay," his own voice comes out weak, shaky, he can hardly draw breath.

"You're crying," House touches a gentle finger to his face.

"I'm okay," he says again, firmer.

"You had an absence seizure, you need an MRI, I'll get the team..."

"No, House, it wasn't a seizure."

"You might be hot stuff on the cancer Wilson but my patients seize twice per case on average, I know what they look like..."

"It wasn't a seizure," he repeats, he should know the symptoms after all, the vivid memory followed by a moment of blackout, then this shakiness. "It was a flashback, House."

He looks at House, he's taken his hands away but he hasn't moved off. Wilson looks around and realises that House's cane is lying discarded by the balcony railing. He goes over on shaky legs and retrieves it, carefully not looking over the side to the ground below.

"C...can we go inside now, House?"

When they are back inside he collapses into his office chair, while House looms over the desk, staring at him intently, as if he is about to disappear before House's eyes.

Wilson knows he will have to explain, if he is to ever have any peace. House's eyes are alight with that curiosity that drives him to solve puzzles, never letting any mystery stay unsolved.

"When I was twelve Danny jumped off the roof of our house. I was supposed to be watching him, our parents had gone out for the day, I told them I'd take good care of him." Wilson feels his heart racing as he relives that day, yet again. "I had a test the next day. I was studying, I thought Danny was just playing outside. Then I heard him calling to me."

He remembers hearing his brother calling him, being annoyed that Danny as interrupting his study. Going outside and looking up to see Danny on the roof of their two storey home.

"Look Jimmy, look at me, watch me."

"No, Danny, no!"

The thud as Danny hit the ground, the moment of silence before Danny begins screaming.

"Wilson! Earth to Wilson.

"I'm okay, House, just...remembering..."

"Any more 'remembering' and you'd go into a dead faint. Here," House comes around behind the desk and yanks the bottom drawer of his desk open, extracting a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Kept there for 'medicinal' purposes. He puts the glasses on the desk and pours a finger of whiskey into each glass.

Wilson picks his glass up, still feeling numb and detached from the situation. House downs his drink in one greedy gulp, Wilson nurses his, sipping at it, letting its warmth spread through his veins. He shudders, it's cold in here, why is it so cold?

"So Danny played Superman and jumped off the roof," House says. "I'd ask if he survived to cause your parents more misery but seeing as he's currently a guest in a lunatic asylum in New York it would be a stupid question."

"I saw him fall, it was so quick. One moment he was up there, the next..." Wilson shivers again, swallows the rest of his drink. "He broke both legs, dislocated his shoulder. When Mom and Dad came home they were so upset. They never said they blamed me, but I know they did. I was supposed to be watching him."

"You were a kid, Wilson. It wasn't your job."

"He was my brother."

"Sometimes people do stupid, crappy things and you can't stop them Wilson. Your brother wasn't your responsibility, and neither am I."

"He's my brother, you're my friend. If I don't try and stop you jumping off buildings who else is going to? You said to me once, that if I die you'd be alone, well the same is true for me, House."

House scowls at him.

"I can't promise I won't do any more stupid things, Wilson."

Wilson shakes his head. "I know, House. You wouldn't be you if you didn't do stupid things...just...just don't jump off any more buildings okay?" His mind supplies a picture of Danny sprawled on the ground, legs at odd angles, screaming.

"I've already done that once, no point in repeating a good trick." House points out.

Wilson shakes his head, he doesn't know if he's gotten through to House or not, House has always had a wide self destructive streak, a need to push the envelope, to cause himself and others pain. If you wanted to be friends with House you needed to accept that, to learn to live with it. Living with it was far more acceptable to Wilson than living without it.

House turns to go and then seems to remember something. He extracts a crumpled envelope from his pocket and pushes it across the desk.

"What's this?" Wilson says, poking at it suspiciously.

"Wedding invitation. Getting married on Friday. You'd better come, you're the best man."

House turns and limps out without another word and Wilson stares at the envelope in his hand. Married. House is getting married. Mentally he shrugs, well it might be crazy but it won't kill him - and that's all Wilson can care about at the moment. House is going to jump, again and again, and all Wilson can do is be there to catch him.

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