Work Text:
Draw, that is the term that means the game has been tied, it’s one of the ways a chess game can end; no one wins or loses, of course unless it’s a checkmate.
In chess there are two sides, white and black. In the game of life, two sides also exist. The question is, what if no one wins or loses?
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. They were doomed with the fate of death. Neither of them will win nor lose, it will end in a draw.
You can’t consider it winning because both will die. And you can’t consider is losing because both will end up together even if it is six feet under.
Imagine if a chess game was real life, where the chess pieces can actually die.
Well, in this game, one does die of cancer while the other dies from committing suicide. Draw…no one lost, and no one won, it’s a tie…
House had decided that he will be dying with Wilson. He spent 20 years being his best friend and 5 years as his husband. House knows that a life without Wilson is no life at all. He wants the game to end a draw. For the game of life to end a draw. For the game of romance to end a draw.
They are not wasting a single moment together knowing that soon neither of them will lose nor win. So they do everything together.
Wilson and House both know, both sides know, that their fates won’t end in a win nor a loss.
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. However, it will end in a draw. If Wilson goes, so will House. House will follow right behind Wilson until eventually he is in his grave. Six feet under the ground.
On the chess board they are both stuck. Their skills and playing styles are similar, making it impossible to push forward and achieve any outcome other than a draw.
As time goes by House and Wilson are running out of time. The chess clock is measuring two months left on both sides of the dual clock, they are running out of time.
It’s a sad thing knowing that after all of the hard work you exerted the game will still end in a tie, especially if it’s a tournament. Well this is a tournament, life is a tournament.
Life has always been a tournament. It always has been a chess game. A chess game that usually ends with someone losing and someone winning, but on occasions you come across a draw. This tournament of lovers is ending in a draw. Because House cannot live without Wilson, he deems it to be unfathomable.
One month left until the clock runs out of time. They will both die in the end, the moment the clock runs out, the moment they embrace the unavoidable fate of death.
Wilson and House are both in pain. Wilson in pain due to his cancer, and House in pain due to his leg. They end up sharing the Vicodin, just like they will end up sharing a spot side by side in the cemetery.
Both Wilson and House have accepted their fates. The end of the chess game, the game of life, the game of romance.
And that’s when the day comes. Wilson is pale, his eyes sunken. He has been coughing nonstop, the thymoma has been taking root and is soon about to take his life.
The oncologist is sitting on the couch, completely pale, and looking like a corpse. Next to him though is his husband, the both of them are embraced in the comforting silence between them.
That is when House, knowing how Wilson wants to die, reaches for the Vicodin bottle on the coffee table in front of the couch. The grab is slow and dramatic, but not done on purpose but due to the heavy air. Once he opens the bottle he then gives Wilson enough to numb the pain and lead to an overdose. But before Wilson takes it he pours his own dose into his hand, also enough to kill.
After the pills are given, House and Wilson both take their handful of pills at the same time. They want their hearts to stop at the same time, for their breathing to do the same, and eventually for them to die at the same time.
It takes time for an overdose to kill so the couple curls up on the couch. They embrace each other’s warmth and savor their last moment together, their last moment before death.
About an 1 later House can feel his own and his lover’s heart rate start to slow down. The same happens to the couple’s breathing as their body starts to process the overdose and shut down.
About 2 in a half hours later and that’s when the two doctors’ hearts have stopped. The two are still curled up against each other and eventually when rigor mortis sets in that’s how they will stay. They will stay together, as they intended. They planned the draw, they wanted it to be a draw.
So when the time came neither side won or lost, they just stayed together…and they will when they are buried six feet under.