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It was a busy Friday at Princeton-Plainsboro teaching hospital, it started off as a slow day, House’s team had not long finished a case and hadn’t picked a new one yet, but it didn’t take long before they were all being paged to the ER.
It was a mass casualty situation, a lorry had crashed into a school bus causing it to flip. House had managed to cycle through some of the most annoying teenagers he’d ever met, a few had concussions, some broken bones, nothing really exciting, most of them were just complaining that they were missing out on their school trip to some activity place for the weekend. House wasn’t really listening as he stitched up a cut on some girls head. Suddenly he heard someone call out his name, he looked around and noticed Cuddy rushing towards him.
“House I need you,” she said.
“Can’t you see I’m very busy here,” he replied sarcastically, Cuddy gave him a look that made clear she wasn’t in the mood for his antics.
“It’s Wilson,” his head snapped up to look at her when she said this.
“Does he need a consult?” He asked.
“No he just needs you,” she replied before walking away, House called over an intern.
“Sort her out will you,” he said, gesturing to the patient, before following Cuddy.
————
“He’s in there” Cuddy told House when they were outside of the locker room, “I’ve got to get back, but please look after him,” House raised his eyebrow as she spoke but before he could ask anything she had rushed off. He headed into the locker room and was met with the sight of Dr James Wilson sitting on one of the benches, staring ahead of him. He was soaked in blood and House limped over.
“What happened?” He asked, ignoring the pain in his leg as he crouched down in front of his boyfriend. He lifted a hand up and directed Wilson’s head so he was looking at him.
“I- he-“ Wilson stuttered, before locking eyes with House, “this kid came in, he was no older than 14 or 15, he had some metal from the bus stuck in the side of his neck, it was in his carotid artery, we were getting him ready to go to an OR but there weren’t any surgeons available, I had a resident with me and she was supposed to be be holding it in place,” he looked down at his blood stained hands, “blood was trickling out and her hands got slippery and-“ he cut himself off, “I could see it happening as if it was in slow motion, the metal came out, I ran over to help try to stop the bleeding but it was squirting out and spraying us both, we tried packing it but it was no use, he bled out in minutes,” he looked back up at House, “he was just a kid,” he choked out, House took one of his hands and slowly stood up.
“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up,” he said, leading the other man towards the showers, they both stepped in and House went back out to get Wilson’s shower gel and shampoo that he kept in his locker. When he got back he saw that Wilson had sunk down to the floor, sitting with his back against the wall. House turned on the shower and got down next to him, not caring that he was still wearing his clothes. He wrapped an arm around the other man and sat so that Wilson was practically in his lap. He began to wash the blood out of Wilson’s hair before removing his lab coat, tie and shirt.
He continued to undress and wash Wilson until the water running down the drain was no longer red, before grabbing a towel. He stood his partner up, wrapped a towel around his waist and led him back into the locker room. He helped him to dry and got him dressed into spare clothes before stripping off his own wet clothes and changing into his spares.
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10 minutes later, the two men were in the cafeteria, Wilson nursing a cup of tea and House bringing over a plate of food.
“You should eat,” he said as he put the plate in front of him. Wilson didn’t say anything, just smiled up at him slightly, still damp hair sticking to his face in a way that made House’s heart skip a beat, House sat down opposite him, “how are you doing now?” He asked.
“Since when do you ask people how they are?” Wilson replied, seeming slightly more himself.
“I have my moments,” House answered. Wilson smiled at him again.
“A bit better,” he replied, picking at the fries on his plate. House reached forward and grabbed a couple of fries before putting them in his mouth.
“Good,” he replied simply before the two lapsed into silence, both picking at the food on the plate.
“Thank you,” Wilson said suddenly and House looked at him, “for getting me cleaned up, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a caring side to you.”
“Cuddy told me to,” House told him.
“What she told you to wash a teenage boys blood out of my hair?” Wilson countered.
“Maybe not in so many words,” House commented, Wilson chuckled lightly at House’s inability to admit that he actually cares for someone.
“Well either way I appreciate it,” he said, the two men finished off the fries before Wilson spoke again, “Do you think Cuddy will let us go home yet? I could really do with laying around on the couch and drinking a beer.”
“I don’t think she’d stop us,” House shrugged.
So that was how the two doctors spent the rest of their evening, cuddling on the couch watching crappy tv and drinking beers.