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Wilson always seemed to cheer up when House entered the room. In the beginning, House was too busy to notice, he couldn’t care less about his friend of about the fact that he was cheery when the other one was close. But after a while, House noticed that even when the oncologist was in one of his weird moods which made him snap at the nurses, House seemed to help. In the beginning of their friendship, House had seen Wilson as a man who was always very much in control of himself unless someone – or something – got him angry. The best example was set on the day they had met. Wilson had been drunk and pissed at a man, a combination which made him throw a bottle through a window. The part of the day in prison had cleared the oncologist’s mind and he had been back to the controlled man. Gregory House had never seen this side from Wilson up close, but he had heard tales of the angry, snappy Wilson.
It was getting worse and worse though, the last couple of weeks more and more nurses had gone to Cuddy to complain about the behavior of the oncologist. The Dean had in turn come to House to ask if there was something wrong with his best friend. House had no idea about any personal problems the oncologist was currently struggling with – no wives to divorce, no more terminal patients than otherwise – but obviously, something was wrong, because even the diagnostician, who couldn’t care less about other’s feelings, had started to notice the change in Wilson’s behavior.
The only thing was that the snappy Wilson disappeared every time House stepped into the room. House couldn’t investigate and examine symptoms if they disappeared when he was around. So, after a brief conversation with Cuddy on the matter, House had installed some cameras in Wilson’s office. He made sure the oncologist couldn’t see them of course, if he was discovered that would only lead to more trouble. Every moment he wasn’t working on the case or talking to someone, he was staring at the feed the cameras were sending him.
The more he watched, the more worried he got. Wilson had started talking to himself and when he replied, it sounded like someone else was controlling the man’s body. Some of the conversations were about quite normal stuff, but others worried him slightly. The conversations between the two sides of Wilson – one was the normal side everyone knew, the other was a crueler, meaner side of the man – could go on for a couple of minutes or for hours.
There was one conversation that haunted the diagnostician though, mostly because House had never seen it coming. He stared at the camera as he listened to Wilson discussing it with himself.
“I need to go and see House about this case.” The normal Wilson had gotten onto his feet to walk to the door and go to open office. Not even mere seconds after he had finished his sentence, a cruel smile appeared on the oncologist’s face.
“Is that all you want to do with House?”
“Shut up.” Wilson had muttered before he started walking to the door. “That’s none of your business, now is it, Kyle?”
“You know you just want to pull him into your arms, Jamesy.” The man called Kyle teased Wilson. “You just want to kiss him senseless and make him whimper in your arms. Just admit it and I will let you take over just long enough to call his name.”
“Kyle, I told you to shut up. Is that so hard to understand?” Wilson had a scared look on his face. What this Kyle was saying might be true, but at the same he never wanted House to know any of this. He wanted to keep the diagnostician far away from his double personality.
“Oh but James, the fun has only just begun. You can do anything to him. Imagine House in front of you, naked, begging for his release. On his knees, despite his bad leg, and the precu-“
House turned the computer off. He didn’t need to see this, he didn’t want to watch his best friend talk to his dark side. He got up immediately, ignoring the cries of his team who had just return from doing the tests for the case and walked straight to the Dean’s office. When Cuddy wasn’t there, he sat down on the couch and waited for her to arrive. While he waited, he couldn’t stop thinking about this Kyle inside Wilson. The man seemed to want a lot more than just House’s friendship, but the way he wanted it, that was what troubled House. It was obvious that Wilson’s feelings were true and there, but the bad side was the one he would need to keep an eye out for.
He was about to give up on waiting for the Dean and go looking for her as she walked in. She looked at House surprised and was about to ask him what he was doing in her office and what he wanted this time when he cut her off.
“There’s something wrong with Wilson. Like seriously wrong.”
This earned him a confused and worried look from Cuddy. “What is happening to him exactly?”
“He is talking to another side of himself, one he calls ‘Kyle’.” He started to show the video but stopped it before Kyle started speaking about the nasty stuff. Once the video was over, House looked back over at the Dean. “What do you think?” There was a hint of worry in his face, something so rare that it made Cuddy think twice before she nodded, expressing the same worry as the diagnostician.
“We need to go talk to Wilson, this… this second personality isn’t him. Kyle does need to go.” Cuddy sighed. “We need to convince him to go to a psychiatrist…”
“That will be terribly hard. Kyle will take over if we try to convince him…”
“We need to try at least. There’s no other way.” Cuddy took a deep breath and got up. “Let’s talk to him now.”
House turned around and limped straight to Wilson’s office. He knew that there was a chance that Kyle was there, that Wilson’s dark side had taken control. He opened the door and limped in. Wilson’s face immediately lighted up and he grinned at the diagnostician.
“Hello House. What brings you here?” Wilson almost bounced closer to the diagnostician, glad that Kyle seemed to have left him in control for a little bit.
“I am worried about you, James.” House sighed softly as he tried a smile. Cuddy was trailing right behind him and she had the same problem with the smile.
A frown appeared on the oncologist’s face. “What the hell are you talking about?” There was a weird glance in his eyes too, the one that was there when Kyle was out. House quickly stepped closer, trying and hoping that it would keep hold of Wilson.
You can do anything to him.
Kyle’s voice drifted to his head, over and over again. If the dark side of the man could take over just for long enough, he could be in big trouble.
“We know you’ve got a split personality.” House didn’t want to look at his best friend as he uncovered his dark secret.
“Well, well, well, seems like he let me out to play a bit too often.” It was Kyle in control now. “You did take quite a long time figuring it out, you know.”
“Kyle…”
“Yes, you know my name. How exactly?” The man looked around in the office, taking a closer look at the book shelves and all that. “You placed cameras here?”
For a moment, Wilson sounded like his own self, annoyed with House and what he had done now. House wanted to smile and maybe even press a soft kiss to his lips.
“I didn’t really have a choice. I told you I was worried about you. And I wasn’t lying, for once.”
“I should’ve known you would be the one to figure everything out. Of course you would. Did you honestly think that your presence would keep me back long enough to have this conversation with Wilson instead of me?” He smirked.
“Why… How did you start to exist?” Cuddy intervened, she felt like she had to.
“Do you honestly believe that Wilson is as perfect as that man would like everyone to believe? Everyone’s screwed up and Wilson even more than all the rest of the world. There is something in his past and in a defense mechanism, he created me. In the beginning, I was only allowed to come out a few moments. You saw the accident the first day we met. Well, you and Wilson met. And then there was the bottle throwing on your dad’s funeral, that was also me, but apart from that, I don’t think we’ve met before. It was the last few months, with the infuriating knowledge that he loved you but he couldn’t get you to love him, that helped me out.” He smirked. “There’s nothing you can do to get him back now.”
“He… He loves me…?” House mumbled softly, a bit too stunned to focus on anything else. “He loves me… I…”
“Ooh, is this one of your great, brilliant moments?” Kyle smirked more. “Are you going to stop talking and walk out of the room? Because I’d like to see that in first person instead of third.”
House took a deep breath and stepped closer to the oncologist. He cupped the man’s cheek gently and wrapped his other arm tightly around his waist. He smiled softly before he leaned in and kissed the man.
Wilson gasped and pulled back quite abruptly. “Gregory…” He whispered before he moved closer and pulled the man back in for another kiss.
House moaned softly into the kiss while he pulled the oncologist closer to him. “James, is that you…?” He mumbled around the kiss.
“Yes. Yes, now shut up and kiss me.”
House didn’t hesitate a single second to listen to that last command from his best friend as he pressed his lips against his one more time.