Work Text:
Checkmate, that is the term that means the game has been won, it’s one of the ways a chess game can end; one wins, and the other loses, of course unless it’s a draw.
In chess there are two sides, white and black. In the game of life, two sides also exist. The question is, which one wins?
In this game, Wilson is the white king piece while House is the black king piece. White for the oncologist’s pure heart, and black for the diagnostician’s dark heart.
The two are different color chess pieces, meaning they are against each other if they were in a game of chess. But in the game of life it means they were doomed from the start.
Imagine if a chess game was real life, where the chess pieces can have cancer and mourn.
Well, in this game, one does die of cancer while the other is left to mourn. Checkmate…one has lost, and one has won.
Five Months Left
The married couple is sitting on the couch of the cabin they have rented for the next few months. They met in New Orleans so that is where they decided to stay for Wilson’s last five months.
Wilson and House are both asleep on the couch. The TV is still on but the two have dozed off, both doctors curled up into each other.
They are not wasting a single moment together knowing that soon one will lose the game. So they do everything together.
Wilson is in a losing position on the board, and both sides know it, both sides know that the black side will win.
It won’t work out, they both know it. They both know that they were doomed from the start. They have been put on opposite teams, opposite sides. A side that loses and a side that wins.
Four Months Left
Wilson has started to look more weak, he has become more pale and lost and an unhealthy amount of weight. His chest constantly feels tightened, making it hard for him to breathe.
He has become more fatigued and is constantly either coughing or feeling nauseous.
House is constantly worried and he hates feeling like he can’t do anything. He might be winning the chess game—the game of life—at the moment but he doesn’t see it that way, how can he when he is losing his husband of 5 years, his best friend for over 20, and the love of his life.
Wilson is checked but not yet mated, he still has time, four months of time in fact…
Three Months Left
The couple has been trying to get everything on Wilson’s bucket list done before ultimately his countdown ends. The countdown to his checkmate, to his death. He is running out of time on his side of the chess clock…And the black queen—the grim reaper— is getting closer to checkmating him.
It’s a sad thing knowing you are losing in the game of chess, especially if it’s a tournament. Well this is a tournament, a tournament to see who lives and who dies, life is a tournament.
Life has always been a tournament. It always has been a chess game. A chess game that ends with someone losing and someone winning.
Two Months Left
His entire frail body is failing on him now, it’s hard to get up without accidentally falling over. House has been giving Wilson all of his Vicodin, without concerning himself with his own leg pain. He only cares about Wilson’s pain, if Wilson is in pain House doesn’t care if he is too.
While the black queen—grim reaper—is trying to get a hold of Wilson the black king is trying to warn his lover about the queen’s checkmate plan.
1 Month Left
Even though Wilson is frail, the two doctors try to finish up his bucket list. They don’t spend a second apart from each other, too scared of the end. Too scared of the end of the chess game. Too scared of the end of the game of life. Too scared of the end of the game of romance.
0 Months Left
Wilson is on the floor of the bedroom while House has went to the bathroom. The oncologist is lying on the bed, completely pale, looking like a corpse. Out of nowhere Wilson starts coughing nonstop, eventually after heaving he keel’s over the bed and starts to hack up blood. At that moment that’s when House finally hears something concerning and sprints out of the bathroom. He finds Wilson on the floor, with dead eyes and hands covered in blood that continues to drip from his lips. He rushes over to him and cradles his husband in his arms. The black queen has finally come for him.
House knowing how Wilson wants to die, reaches for the Vicodin bottle on the nightstand next to Wilsons’s body on the floor while still cradling his husband. He then gives Wilson enough to numb the pain and lead to an overdose.
After the pills are given, House helps Wilson up back on the bed. It takes time for an overdose to kill so they stay in bed huddled together. House lets a few tear drops slide down his face while Wilson is just savouring his last moment.
About 2 in a half hours later Wilson’s breath stops. House holding Wilson to his chest, eventually not only stops feeling the rise and fall of his lover’s chest but his lover’s heart starting to slow down.
The black queen got him. The grim reaper got him…
So when the time came the white chess piece got checkmated. He lost the game of life. He is dead.
So when Wilson dies, the black chess piece won. He won the game of life against his own will. He is alive…he lives.