Chapter Text
Doctors hear a lot of names throughout the day. That was a fact of life. Ice is cold, the sky is blue, and doctors hear a lot of names throughout the day. Most of the names James Wilson heard throughout the day tended not to stick out to him. Sure there were some here and there that still haunted the oncologist mind but most just left him when the patient left the building.
Until today.
House was holding a patient's file, muttering about “hating clinic duty”. James had learned that sometimes it was ok to tune out what Greg House was saying. Especially when it was obscenities about patients. However, as House picked up some of the files he (very vocally) planned to discard, the last name on one caught James’s eye.
Anderson
Now, James was sure that he could look it up and find a statistic on how common of a last name Anderson was, but a small voice in the back of his head muttered, It’s him. It’s Todd. He’s here. James shoved the voice back, sure that it would go away.
It didn’t. The worst part was it seemed the more he tried to ignore it, the more the voice seemed to demand his attention. He tried to focus on his paperwork but all his brain seemed to want to think about was soft blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes and soft- ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH. So, James found himself heading down to see. He just had to know. He felt a pit of dread at the bottom of his stomach. He had no idea what would happen if it was Todd.
Would he be happy to see him?
Would he freak out?
James briefly pulled himself out of his own head to ask a nurse if she knew where House was. She told him and he thanked her. He made his way there slowly, like if he just walked slow enough he could stop time entirely. But alas time still went on at its normal pace not caring about James’s anxiety that was rising with every step threatening to spill out of him either as a scream or throwing up. Both probably wouldn’t be appreciated by the hospital patients or staff. Wilson finally found himself outside of the room that the nurse had told him earlier. The idea of simply turning on his heel and running back to his office sounded real nice right about now but James found himself frozen in place in front of the open door. He stood there for what felt like a good 30 minutes before finally that small voice that sometimes crawled its way back into James’s mind came out and forced him forward.
Carpe Diem.
James somewhat awkwardly stumbled into the room but neither House nor the patient seemed to notice. The patient. It was him. It was Todd Anderson. His hair was longer than it had been during their Welton Days and he wasn't as scrawny. But his eyes were still the same perfect blue that reflected everything he was feeling in them. Right now, there was annoyance in his eyes, as was typical with many patients left in a room with Greg House for over 5 minutes.
“Oh my god.” James hadn’t even registered that he was speaking until the words had left his mouth. The other two men turned to look at James and when Todd saw him all the color drained from his face. His eyes widened in shock and then he blinked a few times.
“Neil?!”