Fic : Managing House

[menolly_au]

Title: Managing House
Words: 689
Rating : G
Spoilers : For 8.07 Dead & Buried
Characters : House, Wilson

Summary : Small conversational coda to 8.07 - Dead & Buried after House leaves Foreman's office.



"Thanks."

Wilson was where he thought he'd be, in his office, waiting for him. House entered and sat opposite him, sinking into the soft, comfortable chair. Wilson raised an eyebrow, enquiring what he was being thanked for.

"Foreman was going to send me back to prison, to assert his authority. You talked him out of it. What did you tell him?"

House leaned forward in the chair, tapping his cane on the ground. He was tired, bone tired. It had been a long few days, and a dead kid.

"That he should manage you, not try to control you. That Cuddy's methods worked."

"You lied to him."

Wilson shrugged. "He lied to me about the boxing, I lied to him about clinic hours having magical powers. It should make you happy that we're both affirming your life's philosophy. What did you get?"

"Thirty hours. I told him Cuddy would have given me ten, so to prove he's the boss now he gave me thirty. That's the going price for being right apparently."

"You disobeyed his orders, broke your parole, he had to give you something."

"I did ten months in prison, including a month in solitary, what sort of impact does he think thirty clinic hours, that I'm not going to do, is going to make?"

There was silence and House looked up to see Wilson staring at him. "What?"

"Did you really do a month in solitary?"

"You know me, did you think I'd get through jail without being thrown in the hole? Yeah, when I got the ten months added to my sentence it included a month in solitary. Also because I was right, and saved a life. Seeing a pattern here?"

"Why would you risk ever going back there? To that? How can solving a puzzle be worth it?"

"You're forgetting the whole 'saving a life' thing, isn't that what we're supposed to do? Well, those of us who aren't oncologists that is."

"You didn't know it would lead to saving anyone's life. That kid had been dead for four years. Why did you decide to start looking for answers? How did you even know about it?"

"A guy in my 'anger management' group, turns out he was angry because his son died and he didn't have a reason."

"So you gave him a reason?"

"Yep. Now he doesn't need to be angry any more. Group will have one less person yammering in it, win-win."

Wilson shook his head, "It doesn't work like that House. His kid is still dead. He's still got plenty of reason to be angry."

"He's miserable, and an alcoholic, and his wife has moved on, to husband number two, son number two. She's moved on. But he's stuck."

"Like you're stuck?"

"Oh, I see what you did there, Doctor Wilson! " House waggled his finger, "You think I'm that guy, stuck in a loop, looking for answers."

"Aren't you? Isn't that the one puzzle you can't solve? How to be happy?"

"There are some puzzles that no-one can solve."

"You don't believe that. You're an addict, remember? You need to solve every puzzle. You'll keep trying to find the answer."

"And failing." House said, looking out the window into the darkness outside, as if the answer might be written there, but there was nothing but silence.

"Well, if you ever do find the answer, tell me too." Wilson stood up, pulling on his coat. "Come on, I think you've earned a meal, I'll pick something up and bring it 'round. We'll celebrate you staying out of prison, and solving two cases."

House levered himself to his feet, grabbing his own coat and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

He fell into comfortable step with Wilson as they made their way out of the hospital into the cold winter's night.

"House?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did Chase get his eyebrows waxed?"

House reached into his coat and pulled out a DVD.

"Let's just say that there are some things that you have to see to believe."

The End

Comments

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

This all makes so much sense :). And YAY for working Chase's tv turn into this at the end, ROFL.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) Chase must have rocks in his head to think that TV thing was a good idea, he must have known House would get hold of it...

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

You tapped into the characters. I can see them having this conversation. Chase's TV spot was a great ending too.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I can't see House letting that TV thing go in a hurry :)

[barefootpuddles.livejournal.com]

I really like the pattern and tempo of your dialogue here. It feels perfectly 'them'.

A few lines in particular:

"Oh, I see what you did there, Doctor Wilson! " House waggled his finger

Continuity in mannerisms and throwbacks to canon. Yay!

Wilson shrugged. "He lied to me about the boxing, I lied to him about clinic hours having magical powers. It should make you happy that we're both affirming your life's philosophy. What did you get?"


Manipulative Wilson is a favorite of mine. And again, I like how he uses House's thought process to explain things to House in his own terms. He often does that in the show, or at least used to do that a lot.

A great piece.

As for what really used to be Cuddy's role, I always felt she allowed herself to be the authority figure that House needed to fight against. And perhaps a set of absolute limits.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it :)

As for what really used to be Cuddy's role, I always felt she allowed herself to be the authority figure that House needed to fight against. And perhaps a set of absolute limits.

I think thats pretty much right, when she set a really firm line in the sand he tended to respect that. The one thing I always liked about Cuddy was that she seemed to realise that House *can* actually save lives, and she gave him a lot of leeway for that. I hope Foreman remembers that too.

To go off on a tangent, I thought it was interesting that House proved he could easily run two cases at once (even with having to work around all the limitations of the dead kids case). If I was Foreman I might be inclined to use that knowledge.

[barefootpuddles.livejournal.com]

To go off on a tangent, I thought it was interesting that House proved he could easily run two cases at once (even with having to work around all the limitations of the dead kids case). If I was Foreman I might be inclined to use that knowledge.

Exactly. And considering it was Foreman who took two cases on once back when he was on the team to prove to himself he could do it, you would think that he would notice that House had done it too, wouldn't you?

Methinks it was the writers who forgot! ;)

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I think the writers forget each episode as soon as it's done myself. Foreman should have been objecting to House 'wasting his time on a dead kid' rather than the fact he was taking two cases. I mean, there's *five* doctors on the team, pretty sure they can handle at least two patients...

[justjuly4.livejournal.com]

Loved the dialogue. Dynamic and very IC. Great lines for both of them and a good ending at a light note.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you liked it, and the ending note which I struggled with:)

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

"You're forgetting the whole 'saving a life' thing, isn't that what we're supposed to do? Well, those of us who aren't oncologists that is."

that line is so IC for House it hurts. great fic!

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it :)

[murzum.livejournal.com]

that was very comforting after the ep itself. thank you.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it :)

[srsly-yes.livejournal.com]

This was insightful and amazing! The story answered all the tough questions brilliantly. *mems*

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and thanks for the mem :) Glad you enjoyed it :)

[leakey-lover.livejournal.com]

Perfect voices. This:

"So you gave him a reason?"

"Yep. Now he doesn't need to be angry any more. Group will have one less person yammering in it, win-win."

House deflecting praise. Nice.

Awfully good. Thank you.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it :) Somehow I think House must give that anger management group a lot of opportunity to practise managing their anger :)

[knitty-woman.livejournal.com]

Nice follow up to a good episode. I am starting to hope House will be back for another season, although I suspect that's a vain hope at this point.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) Yes, that was a good episode, I wouldn't mind if House came back for another season too, they seem to miss more than they hit these days, but when they get it right it's so good :)

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Very nicely done!

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[writerdot.livejournal.com]

I liked this a lot. This line:

"He lied to me about the boxing, I lied to him about clinic hours having magical powers. It should make you happy that we're both affirming your life's philosophy. What did you get?"

was my favorite. Yay! Manipulative!Wilson.

Great job and wonderfully IC.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it :) I loved Wilson's reactions at the end of this one, much better than the last episode (and very generous and open hearted of him when you consider how House screwed him over in that episode)

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

This is the world is at ought to be. Caring!wilson, House risking everything to solve a puzxle (and saving kids in passing), and our best fanfic writers providing perfectly IC missing scenes.
Thank you for having Wilson admit that he's not happier than House is.

Non native speaker question: did Chase make his accent stronger in the TV program? It was so good of you to close the scene with a callback to that!

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I like Wilson's reactions to House's actions in this episode, and he did also recognise that House had saved a life in the process. I don't know if Wilson will ever admit to being a miserable as House in his own way, it would be nice if the show touched back on that.

Non native speaker question: did Chase make his accent stronger in the TV program? It was so good of you to close the scene with a callback to that!

Yes, Chase made it stronger to the point where it was a caricature of the accent, and fairly hard to understand I thought - don't know how the non-Australians went with it, I'm not good with accents anyway. I wasn't that fond of that segment but it was a relief that his sub-plot didn't involve more womanising...