wilson's Guestbook

Lynda looked at James and could see something in his eyes, maybe more than what he actually meant for them too. Lynda sat there holding the ultrasound in her hands as she looked at James. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Lynda finally broke the silence and began to speak to James. "James, are you okay?" she asked him and then went on before he could answer. "You look a little off, and it just got worse when you saw my babies," she told him honestly, though couldn't help but wonder if James was missing Elizabeth, which would explain the look in his eyes. Then she moved on to what he said about her having triplets and anything less would be boring. Lynda couldn't help but smile as she began to reply to him. "Okay, now you're starting to sound like House," she said chuckling. "But I do have a habit of being an overachiever," she told James as she went on, this time being more playful than anything. "I think you two need a bromance break," she said chuckling again and then she got serious when she saw him folding his arms, though she noticed that he had them loosely folded, so she thought that was good, but she still stayed serious anyway. "I'm glad that my little ones are healthy," she told Wilson as she looked down at her stomach as she placed a hand over her tummy. But it was when James said that caused Lynda to look up at him. "Now you are starting to sound like Inger, Ben's second wife," she added with a smirk, but it was only half a smirk. She knew he meant well, just like she did, but she also knew they were both right. She did need to slow down, not just because she was pregnant but also because she needed it so she could spend time with her family. Lynda looked away from Wilson for a few minutes to collect herself before finally turning back to James and speaking to him.

This time, she sounded more like a mother-to-be, instead of a boss or even a strong working woman. "You are right James, on so many levels," she told him. "And I had always known that I needed to slow down, even before I found out I was pregnant," she added. "So, yes I will be taking some time off, which means you're still charge, but rather me resting in a clean room, I'll be resting at home, which is just as well, Ben will want to keep a close eye on me," she told him. "And Mark has me back on my meds, so I think I will be okay," she told him with a smile on her face. "You still ready to take over while I'm on sabbatical?" she asked James as she held onto the ultrasound, though she couldn't help but glance down at the ultrasound again, which just happened to put an even bigger smile on her face as she went on speaking to James, this time about how he should break it to Ben. Lynda thought about what James said for a few minutes and then smiled even more as she began to speak again. "I think I can come up with a romantic meal for the both of us to enjoy before I drop the big bombshell," she said with a chuckle. Then her facial expression and her tone soften as Lynda got up and walked over to James. She took his hands into hers as she began to speak to him. "I know and I am thankful for everyone in my life," she told him and then went on. "And don't forget, you are part of my family," she told him. "Not just because you are married to Elizabeth, but because you are a dear friend, which makes you family," she told him with a smile as she then let go of his hands and took his arm. "Good idea," she said with a smirk as they began to walk out of the exam room. "And it's a deal, just don't make it a salad," she told him. "I'm not looking to eat healthy," she added already thinking about all the good stuff that she could possibly sink her teeth into. Just as they were walking towards the elevators, she looked over at James. "And for your information, I don't have sucky hospital food," she told him. "You know I either have to have the best or nothing at all," she added just as they got to the elevator and Lynda pushed the down button.

Lynda couldn't help but look at those three little babies slowly growing inside of her with love and awe. She had a glow about her that every new mother that was expecting always got, even though Lynda had been through pregnancy several times before. But somehow, this pregnancy felt different, she felt different. And the smile on her face had more joy in it now than it had just a few hours ago when she was sitting in Wilson's office, letting him know what was going on with her and that he would be taking over for a little bit why she took a sabbatical from work. Finally, after listening to Wilson speak, even though it wasn't much at first, which gave Lynda a chance to speak before Wilson took over the conversation again. "Well, it also explains a few other things that I probably should keep to myself," she said still with that excitement in her voice and yet still had that doctor's tone to it. When Wilson said that they will be getting to the heartbeats of the little ones and that she needed to slow down a bit, Lynda sighed and then closed her eyes for a few minutes. She could feel a new wave of nausea coming on, which after a few minutes, went away, though she knew it would eventually come back. But when he said she had won the "doesn't do anything the normal way" award, Lynda couldn't help but laugh as she began to speak to him. "Believe me, this wasn't on my list of things to be doing, but you know," she told him with a smile and then went on speaking. "I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world, which I have said with my other children too, but I meant it with them, and I mean it this time too," she said still smiling as she looked from Wilson to the monitor. "I guess I just love being pregnant," she finished, now sounding more like a mother than a doctor.

The moment that Lynda heard the first strong heartbeat, she could feel her own heart start to skip beats, which she knew there was still two more to get through before she would allow her heart to burst through with joy. While Wilson was moving the wand to the next baby, Lynda was holding her breath. She knew that having a multi-child pregnancy was risky and that she also ran the risk of the babies being born with Downs or some other disabling condition was high, but she also knew she loved these babies no matter what happens during the pregnancy, though she knew she would have to amniocentesis done, but she could have Inger do that. It wasn't until she heard the second heartbeat that brough her out of her thoughts and back to the real world as she went back to looking at the screen, letting hear smile get even bigger as she heard the strong heartbeat of the second baby. But when she noticed that Wilson was having a bit of trouble finding the last baby's heartbeat, she began to get a little worried and scared, until out of nowhere, the third baby's heartbeat began and it sound just as strong as the other two, which Lynda let out a sigh of relief and then a huge smile came back to her face as she felt a sense of joy wash over her. Lynda leaned back and rested her head on the examining table for a few minutes and closed her eyes. She was thanking God that at least she and the babies passed their first hurdle of this unexpected but very much welcomed pregnancy. Finally, Lynda opened her eyes and began to speak to Wilson, once again, using her mother's tone instead of her doctor's tone. "Thank you so much for doing this for me James," she said with a smile on her face as she wiped the jelly off her belly as she waited for the ultrasound photo to finish printing.

Once the ultrasound photo was printed, she watched James glancing at it once more and then handed it to her. She took it and looked at it with a huge smile on her face. She knew that she wanted to do something surprising and romantic to break the news to Ben, which once he got over the initial shock, he would be thrilled. It wasn't until James started talking once more that snapped her back to where she was at that time. She looked up from the photo and into James's eyes as he began to speak with a playful tone with a hint of seriousness mixed in with it. "Don't worry, I have the perfect plan to tell him. I'm going to make him a very romantic dinner and once dinner is over with, I'll serve him the best dessert with the babies photo on it, which of course he will be shocked for a few minutes, but he'll come to be excited just as much as I am," she said as James then turned really serious and the playful tone left his voice as he continued his thoughts once she was done speaking at the moment. "I know I don't, but there is so much of my life you don't know about," she said when he was done with everything he had to say. Lynda then went on replying to everything James had told her, including that he thought that springing life altering surprise on him was very rude, to which she just chuckled as she slowly sat up and faced James. "I know I have plenty of support from you and my family," she said as she let out a sigh. "But it's not that simple to just let everyone know who I am and or where I came from," she told him honestly and then moved onto her pregnancy. "But as for these little bundle of joys, I know what the next step is. Because of my age and this being a multi-pregnancy, I need to set up an appointment with Inger to have amniocentesis done," she said now speaking like a doctor, as she once more chuckled at what James said. For a few minutes, James sounded like Greg House. "James, sweetie, I think you have been hanging around Greg too long," she added still chuckling. "Now, care to escort me down to the cafeteria so that I can grab something to eat, since I'm eating for four?" she said still chuckling.

Lynda laid there for a little while as Wilson went to get an ultrasound machine. She had closed her eyes for a few minutes as she waited for him to return. The moment she heard the wheels of the ultrasound machine coming down the hall and finally James opened the door, Lynda then opened her eyes. And as he was taking her pulse, she began to speak to him soft and gently like. "A little bit, but laying here is helping," she told James honestly. "I am more tired and nauseous than anything else," she told him. "And of course I'm stressed beyond what words can say," she added as she watched him grabbing the ultrasound gel. She lifted her shirt and smiled as she went on speaking as he was starting to put the gel on her stomach. "Oh, that's cold," she smirked as he was getting ready to put the ultrasound wand on her stomach. But before James put the wand on her tummy, she stopped him for a few minutes so that she could speak to him. "Two things I have to say," she said as she held up her hand to stop him. "First, I know you noticed that tremble in my hand, but it's nothing to worry about," she told him honestly. "It will go away once I get back on my meds," she told him. "And the second thing I need to say is that I don't usually do things the normal way, but you'll get used to that," she said laughing.

"Now you may continue," she added as she put down her hand so that he could put the wand on her abdomen and once it was there, James started to move it around, showing exactly what was going on in Lynda's abdomen, which left both Lynda and James speechless for a few minutes or so. Lynda tried for several minutes to come up with words to say, but nothing would come out as they continued to look at the ultrasound screen. Finally, Lynda forced herself to speak as she turned to look at James. "Well, this explains a lot," she told him and then chuckle. Lynda could see the look of surprise that was on James's face as he was trying to gather his thoughts, which she couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Lynda then cleared her throat and began to speak to James again. "It's a good thing I'm not going through this alone, because I'm going to need all the help I can get now," she added as they were looking at three small babies that were growing inside of Lynda. She couldn't help but chuckle, though she really didn't know why she was chuckling for. "Ben is going to have a heart attack when I show him what he deposited inside of me. Is there anyway we can listen to their heartbeats please?" she asked him. "I just need to know if they are okay," she said as she could feel the tears starting to sting her eyes. "Oh and I'll need a photo so that I can show Ben too," she added with a smile, though the tears were still there.

House goes still.

 

Not physically—there's always some movement with him, some shift of the cane, some restless flex of his fingers—but something in his face stills.

Wilson's words don't glance off.

They hit.

For a moment, the room is quieter than House likes it.

His eyes narrow, not in anger, but in that familiar reflex—the instinct to take something true and carve it apart before it can settle under his skin.

Except this time, he doesn't.

His mouth twitches, almost a smirk, but it fades before it fully forms.

"Wow," House says at last, voice low and rough around the edges. "That was disturbingly perceptive."

A beat.

"I'm going to need you to be less emotionally literate. It's bad for my reputation."

The line is classic House, but it lands softer than it usually would. More shield than weapon.

He looks away first, gaze sliding toward the darkened window of the office, the reflection of the two of them caught in the glass.

"You make it sound so simple," he says after a moment. "People leave because that's what people do."

No bite.

No cynicism sharpened into a blade.

Just a tired fact he's carried too long.

His grip tightens slightly on the cane.

"They leave when it gets hard. When it gets ugly. When it stops being charmingly damaged and starts being exhausting."

Then his eyes cut back to Wilson's.

"And I am exhausting."

There's the faintest ghost of humor there, self-aware and bitter around the edges.

Another silence stretches.

This one feels different.

Less like distance.

More like surrender.

House exhales slowly, shoulders dropping in a way that makes him seem, for just a second, older.

"You staying," he says quietly, "was never the part I didn't understand."

His gaze holds Wilson's now, stripped of most of the usual armor.

"It's why."

The question isn't mocking.

It isn't rhetorical.

It's the closest thing House gets to admitting that this matters.

Because it does.

More than he wants it to.

His voice lowers another notch.

"Because if you really do know exactly what my standards are..." A pause. "Then you also know exactly how hard I've tried to give you reasons not to."

And there it is.

Not an apology.

Not quite.

But something dangerously close to honesty.

House's expression softens in that almost imperceptible way only Wilson would catch.

"So why are you still here, Wilson?"

House stares at him for a long moment, expression unreadable.

 

That alone says more than any comeback.

James Wilson's words hang there, annoyingly calm, annoyingly accurate—and House hates how little he can immediately dismantle them.

So, naturally—

He scoffs.

Gregory House shifts his weight, tapping his cane once against the floor like punctuation. "Wow," he mutters. "That was almost touching. Do you rehearse these speeches in the mirror, or do they just come naturally with the whole 'terminally empathetic' thing?"

But there's a delay. A fraction too long.

He doesn't look away right away either.

Wilson's still getting that look—the one most people never notice because they're too busy being bulldozed by sarcasm. The one that lingers just a second longer than it should.

"You're making a lot of assumptions," House adds, quieter, less bite behind it than usual. "Liking people. Respecting people. Next you'll be telling me I have feelings."

A beat.

"...Dangerous road."

He shifts again, but this time it's smaller, less performative. His grip tightens slightly on the cane, then loosens.

When Wilson says he'll "settle for this," something flickers—brief, almost imperceptible.

House exhales through his nose.

"Yeah, well," he mutters, not quite meeting Wilson's eyes now, "your standards are clearly too low. Might want to get that checked."

But he doesn't tell him to leave.

Doesn't deflect him out of the room.

Doesn't shut it down the way he usually would.

Instead, after a moment, he adds—almost like it slipped out before he could stop it:

"...You're still here."

It's not a question.

Not really.

House finally glances back at him, one brow lifting just slightly, the ghost of a smirk tugging at his mouth.

"Guess I haven't scared you off yet."

And underneath it—buried, but there—

He didn't deny a single word.