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Author: wanderingwidget
PG13/Gen
summary: the things House does and doesn't.
Gregory House did not say "I love you." It was a fact of life as immutable as gravity and that kid who sits behind you on airplanes, the one who kicks the back of your seat the whole trip while his mother either goes from drunk to drunker or whispers ineffectual admonishments. It was a fact House wrote across his life in large, bold, neon pink letters. Complete with a stripper on a pole. He would banter, he would snark, he would tell you all the reasons that you were wrong, but he'd never say those three damn words. Not if you put a gun to his head or offered him a million Nintendo games.
It boggles the mind. But remember that genius has that annoying habit of treading hand in hand with utter insanity and - while House isn't sane by any measure - he most certainly isn't careening through the hallways wearing a tinfoil hat and screaming that the aliens are coming to get him. Wilson makes a mental note to share that thought with House, if only to see if he actually would do it.
Sometimes Wilson thinks that he can see how much it wears on his friend, carrying those words on a chain around his neck and refusing to share the burden with anyone else. Jealously keeping hold of the pickle in the jar, trapping himself behind glass walls and anger.
It used to worry Wilson. The knee jerk pulling away from anything that might offer him comfort, the wariness, the trying to push everyone as far away from him as possible. It bothered him to see his friend like that, bothered him more that he was suceeding, that his ranks of friends had dwindled down to him and him alone, with a small contingent of National Guard playing poker in their bunker. Their loss.
Gregory House did not say "I love you." It was a fact as immutable as dead batteries and as painful to watch as the man himself. He would banter. He would snark. He would tell you all of the reasons that you were wrong but he would never say those three damn words. Perhaps he thought he'd choke if he did, or that no one wants to hear it from a cranky old cripple. More likely he never thought about it at all, and when he did he was very careful not to mention it even to himself. Gregory House did not say "I love you." But sometimes he'd offer to share his chips, if he was in a good mood.
THE END
