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Shoulders
by naughtybookworm
Title: Shoulders I
It was unusual that Wilson was waiting for David in front of the hospital when "Mom's Taxi" dropped him off. Some eight-year-olds might balk at that, over being picked up at the bus like a baby, but David didn't say anything, because he'd never had anyone to look out for him like this before. And since there weren't any other kids his age or older in the van today, he didn't mind that Wilson gave him a giant hug, either.
"Hey, buddy," his `Number Two Dad' said to him.
"Hi Wilson." David hugged him back.
Wilson stood up fully, still holding onto David's arms, which were now around his waist. He gently caressed the boy's short dark hair. "Got a surprise for you today," he told David.
David was still kind of uneasy about surprises, even good ones. "What is it?" he asked, steeling himself for a maybe-scary change.
Wilson's smile was a little sad, because he knew the reasons for David's slight hesitance. "Let's go put your stuff away, and then I'll show you."
Hand-in-hand, they went to House's office. David's daddy was busy in the clinic. Only Dr. Foreman was in the office, at House's desk, reading something online.
"Leave your stuff in here, okay?" Wilson told the boy. "I'll be right back."
David took off his backpack and jacket, and piled them on House's easy chair. He sat on the ottoman, and waited.
When Wilson returned, David noticed that he had changed some of his clothes. Instead of the usual lab coat over his dress pants, shirt, and tie, he was wearing one of his nicer pairs of jeans, running shoes, the shirt he'd had on before without the tie, and his suit jacket. David was intrigued now. They were going to go someplace where Wilson didn't have to be all dressed up.
"Okay, buddy, let's go," Wilson held out one hand. David hopped up and joined him out in the hallway.
"Taking your jacket?" Foreman called after them.
Wilson shook his head back at the other man. "It's warmed up a lot - and he's wearing a couple layers."
"Maybe I'll walk over myself, for a few minutes, after I finish up here," Foreman said. Then he nodded to David. "Have a good time."
"Okay," was all David could think to say as he slipped his small hand inside Wilson's big, warm one. They were going outside, someplace close enough that a person might "walk over."
Out on the hospital grounds, David noticed lots of people coming and going to and from the same general area. Doctors and nurses and other hospital staff, families with kids, even some patients. Out in back of the hospital, the running track was just teeming with people inside a bright, rainbow-colored temporary fence. At the entrance to the fence was a banner that read: "PPTH - Fifteenth Annual Ronald McDonald House Fair - Welcome ALL!"
A fair. David couldn't really remember ever going to a fair. He wasn't even sure exactly what it was supposed to be. But everything looked bright and pretty and friendly, and he was willing to go in there, as long as his Wilson was nearby. He tightened his grip on the man, and headed purposefully towards the gate.
Wilson stopped them, though, and knelt down to talk to David. "This is a special fair," he told the boy. "It's meant to help families with kids who have cancer."
David knew all about CANCER now. Wilson was a special doctor who helped people with cancer. It was a scary, dangerous disease, and a lot of people survived it, but quite a lot more died from it, too.
"What are we supposed to do in there?" David asked.
Wilson looked at him a bit oddly then. Shrugging, he answered, "Just have some fun. We pay to go in, then we pay some more for ticket to play games and things. And we can buy a little junk food, too. And all the money that people spend in the fair goes to help the hospital to run a special house where the families of kids who come here to get treatment can live." Wilson turned them around and pointed off into the distance at a large brick duplex. "See that house? That's our Ronald McDonald House."
David had noticed the house before, and had been surprised that people actually lived there on the hospital campus. He had thought that maybe Lisa Cuddy should be the only person living at her hospital.
"Okay," the little boy said. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say.
Wilson stood again, and they walked up to the gate, stood in line. The lady at the entrance was usually one of the hospital cleaners that David recognized, even though he really didn't remember her name. Delores or Doris or something like that. She was always nice to David at the hospital. She was a tall, tall lady, taller than Wilson, with curly blonde hair and false teeth that clicked when she talked.
When their turn came, Wilson pulled out his wallet and took out some bills.
"Oh no, Dr. Wilson!" She clicked at them. "Your money's no good here." She smiled down at David. "Hi, sweetie."
David managed a little smile back at her.
"Every little bit helps, Darcy," Wilson reminded her. He insisted until the woman accepted the money and gave them a bunch of little cardboard tickets. Wilson rolled the tickets up into a coil and shoved them into his jacket pocket.
"You know," Darcy spoke to Wilson with an air of conspiracy, "It's still not too late for you to open up a kissing booth, Dr. Wilson. I'm sure you'd get LOTS of takers."
The two adults laughed. He wasn't sure exactly what a kissing booth was, but from the way Wilson was blushing a little, David had a pretty good idea that he was guessing correctly. Daddy would have something to say about Wilson in a kissing booth.
Inside the fair wasn't nearly as chaotic as David had thought it would be when he was outside the gate. There were booths lined up all around the outside of the huge running track. David read some of the banners above the booths. Some of them were for information about many kinds of cancer and cancer treatments, but most were places where people could play little games to win prizes, kind of like at Chuck E. Cheese. In the center part, there was a horseshoe of booths where you could buy food, a stage upon which a band was playing some music, and lots of chairs for people to sit and listen and enjoy their snacks.
David felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of people, so he stuck very close to Wilson. They visited a few booths and played some of the games. Together, they played three games of Whack-a-Mole, and won something cheap and colorful and plastic.
While they were sharing a giant soft pretzel with mustard, Dr. Cuddy came over. "Hi sweetheart," Lisa said to him, casually dropping a kiss onto his forehead. "You're on in five minutes," She told Wilson.
"Okay."
David didn't know what that meant, but he listened and waited to find out.
"I'm going to go up there," Wilson pointed to the stage, "And talk to the people for a few minutes, David."
"Okay."
"You gonna be okay by yourself? I can get someone to stay with you." He offered.
David shrugged. "I'm good."
Wilson peered at the boy intently, as if he thought maybe leaving David alone in the crowd was against his better judgement. "Stay right HERE, okay?"
"'kay..."
Wilson wiped at his face. "Any mustard?" he asked, drawing an imaginary circle around his lower face with his index finger.
Smiling, David shook his head.
"Thanks." He kissed David exactly where Lisa had, and hurried to the stage.
When the band stopped, all the people who weren't sitting scurried around for seats. When all the seats were taken, people stood around the edges and in the back. By the time Lisa entered the stage, everyone was quiet or shushing one another.
Lisa gave a short introduction about the "Shining Star of PPTH, whose department worked wonders for children with cancer." The everyone was up and out of their chairs, cheering and clapping for Wilson. David's Wilson.
David had to stand, too, because there were so many tall people in front of him. Still, he only occasionally got a glimpse at Wilson, when somebody got restless and moved a little. Wilson's speech was short, though. He mostly thanked everyone for giving money for the house where two families could stay while their children were receiving treatment. And he talked about the plans for a third house that would be built within the next year, "God willing."
Wilson said a lot of other stuff, too, but David was distracted by the family that was immediately next to him. There was a girl about his own age, and a little boy about four or five, and a mother and father. A perfect family. David felt an old familiar twinge as he watched the two parents, absent-mindedly loving their children without even thinking about it at all. The father held the little girl up on his shoulders so that she could see the stage. The girl wasn't even paying attention! She might as well have been sitting down. And the boy was whining, even though his mother was sitting and holding him in her lap, caressing his little face and asking, "are you too hot, baby? Do you want something to drink?" That old familiar twinge started to burn somewhere below David's throat; it was that "what about me?" feeling that he got when he saw families like this one. And these kids didn't even care how loved they were! For the millionth time in his short life, David wondered how it was that some children could be so lucky, have so much without even trying, and others, kids like himself, could end up with so little in spite of how hard he tried.
The little girl looked down at him, little alone-David, who couldn't even see what was going on because he didn't have a daddy to help him out. He thought that she was smirking at him like a mean kid, pointing out his lack of what she had.
`Stupid,' David told himself. He did have House, and Wilson, too. At least for now. But he wasn't sure for how long. Any time now, Mommy could come back and make him go and live with her again. And Daddy and Wilson didn't have to keep him. If he did something bad enough, or got on their nerves, or if they just got tired of him, they could call a social worker, and just like that, this time, these wonderful five months would just be over. Daddy had said that he could stay, but in David's experience, good times like this usually ended as soon as he got comfortable.
Unconsciously, David had started biting his nails again. The little girl next to him sniffed and looked away. David hung his head a little. Why would anybody want a nail-biting kid? He stuffed his hands resolutely into his pockets.
"And so, once again - thank you, all of you. And now let's move on to something really fun..."
The crowd had started to sound excited. A couple of the kids were saying "Yea!!" and clapping their hands. Wilson flashed his handsome grin at them. Then he peered around through the group. "Oh, hey, I've lost track of my own kid! David? Stand on a chair, buddy, so I can find you."
`My own kid...' David bit his lip. Then he stood on his chair.
"Here he is!" Shouted the man next to David, who had the little girl on his shoulders. He patted David's arm. "Wave your arms around so your daddy can see you."
David raised his skinny arms up high and waved them around.
Wilson scanned around in his direction until their eyes met. He smiled at David, just for David. "Stay right there, buddy; I'm on my way." Then he addressed the crowd again, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you the `Silly Hats Magic Company!'"
Wilson descended from the stage as a group of people in ridiculously loud, iridescent outfits started performing magic tricks right away.
David stayed where he was until Wilson made his way to where he stood on the folding chair.
Without asking, Wilson somehow got himself up under David's legs, and soon had him sitting way up high on his shoulders. David had never ridden on anyone's shoulders before. Instinctively, he grasped Wilson under his chin for fear of falling off. But Wilson just held on to the boy's legs firmly. Eventually David realized that there was no way he could possibly fall, not with Wilson holding on to him.
It was so high, nearly eight feet, David estimated. So high from his usual position, just over four feet off the ground. He could see above everyone's head, except other kids who were riding their dad's shoulders. Glancing over at the little ingrate next to him, David allowed himself a small, smug, smile in her direction. But he didn't dwell on being petty. David knew that what he had right now was precious, and that he had better make the most of this time.
He could barely pay attention to what was going on onstage. David was more concerned with how today he wasn't the miserable problem-boy that no one wanted. He looked just like all the other kids with parents who cared that they were alive. He could only focus on the fact that there were these strong, broad, shoulders underneath him that belonged to one of the two people he loved. That for all the world to see, here was somebody who loved him, David.
The little boy sat up, and felt even higher. He felt like he was riding a hot-air balloon, hundreds of feet above the earth. Leaning down a bit, he buried his face in Wilson's dark hair and just inhaled shampoo-and-sunshine for a while.
Wilson tilted back his head as if he could look back at the boy. "Okay?" he asked David.
David couldn't answer. He didn't know the right words. Instead, he pulled Wilson's head back further, hoping to kiss HIS forehead the way Wilson had. He didn't quite reach, though, and let the kiss fall where it would, in Wilson's hair.
Inspired by this picture by Elicia8.livejournal.com: http://pics.livejournal.com/naughtybookworm/pic/000029xg
Title: Shoulders II
A CAR riding on a boat. How cool was that? David watched in wonderment from the rental car's shotgun seat while House drove them up the ramp and onto the ferry that would take them and all the other passengers across the Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke Island. They had decided that the beach was out for the day, unless it got a LOT warmer. Dressed in jeans and sweatshirts with T-shirts underneath, the two set out for a few hours of exploring.
After all of the cars were parked, David was surprised again, when House opened the car door and got out. He waited to see what the man would do next.
"You coming?" his dad asked as he leaned down and popped his head back into the open window.
"...Oh!" David opened the passenger door and got out too, closing it carefully behind him. He followed House over to the railing at the bow of the ferry, and peered out at the water. Moving around on the boat felt a little funny, deep in his stomach, but he didn't feel queasy, the way House had warned him that he might.
David stood close to House, close enough that the man nearly poked the boy's foot with his cane a couple times. But House didn't say anything that made David think he was annoyed. House almost never got annoyed with David the way he did with other people.
People were climbing two sets of stairs to the very top of the ferry to get a good view of the inlet, or to get inside the climate-controlled cabin. David thought he might like to go up as well, but he didn't say, because he knew the steps would be bad for House's leg.
"You go ahead," House told him, nodding towards the stairs. "Ill be right here when you get back.
David definitely did NOT want to go up alone with all those people. He still felt nervous and jumpy inside when his Daddy wasn't close by. "That's okay."
He sighed in a way that let David know that House was on to him. "Okay." The man limped back to the rental car and pulled out a small set of binoculars and a book. "Look up `brown pelican,'" he ordered, shoving the book at David.
While David searched through the index for the phrase, House was hanging the binoculars by their strap around his neck, and adjusting them to his eyes as he peered out across the expanse of water.
"B-b-brown...." David took a few deep breaths to still his stutter. "Brown pelican: Pelecanus oc-ci... occi..."
"-just skip that part..." House interrupted.
"...smallest member of the seven species of the pelican family...." David skimmed past some statistics. "...this bird is distinguished from the American White Pelican by its brown body and its habit of diving for fish from the air..."
"Yeah," House interrupted again. "Now watch..." He pointed off into the distance, where a huge, ugly bird was skimming gracefully across the water, mere inches from the surface - sometimes the tip of a wing would actually skim the surface for half a second. "It's looking below for fish..." House was using the binoculars again. Suddenly the bird swooped up in a sharp arc and flew way up into the sky. Then, the pelican doubled back and plunged forcefully, from a height of about thirty feet, straight into the water. Several seconds went by.
Intrigued now, David exclaimed, "Where'd he go? Is he gonna d-d-drown?" He tried to get a better view by hoisting himself up so that he could balance his midsection over the railing.
"Just keep watching," House told him. He leaned his cane against the railing. Before David knew what was happening, House had lifted him up onto his shoulders. Then David really did lose track of the bird, because he'd never ridden on House's shoulders before. Daddy shouldn't be picking him up with his leg problem. David wanted to say that he didn't need to see. He wanted to stop House before he hurt himself.
Before David could protest, though, he was completely awed by the strength he felt. House's shoulder muscles felt like they had been constructed of steel cable. He rose with David effortlessly. There was nothing weak or fragile about his Daddy, David thought. Only the leg. Maybe Daddy wouldn't be able to carry him around, but he wasn't likely to drop him, either.
David had never doubted that House could protect him - if someone attacked, Daddy had a cane, and a bad enough temper to do damage. But now David knew there was a little more brawn in House's arsenal. Now he really, REALLY, felt safe.
"There's another one," House took the binoculars off and handed them to his son. But they weren't adjusted to David's eyes, so the boy just held them and watched while new pelican did the same as the first. Skimmed the surface, soared up high, dived down. This time, David was treated to the reappearance of the bird with a fish in it's mouth, sitting on the surface of the water, bobbing around like a duck.
"Cool, Daddy..." David handed back the binoculars.
"Yeah..." Then House started talking about pelicans, and then gulls and all the other birds that were hanging out around the inlet. David listened intently, not for the information - he knew his dad was a walking encyclopedia - but for the deep, rumbly vibrations that he could feel in his legs when Daddy talked.
Inspired by this picture by Elicia8.livejournal.com: http://pics.livejournal.com/naughtybookworm/pic/00003kq8
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Legal Disclaimer: The authors published here make no claims on the ownership of Dr. Gregory House and the other fictional residents of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Like the television show House (and quite possibly Dr. Wilson's pocket protector), they are the property of NBC/Universal, David Shore and undoubtedly other individuals of whom I am only peripherally aware. The fan fiction authors published here receive no monetary benefit from their work and intend no copyright infringement nor slight to the actual owners. We love the characters and we love the show, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
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