Seriously beautiful fic. :) The take on the House/Wilson friendship is once again (as always from you!) perfectly in balance, and so in-character and real that it almost hurts to read. Their friendship is so complicated and so based on non-verbal moments that writing it as well as you do is truly amazing, and really lovely to read. :) I love your take on Micheal and House having some superficial and some not-so-superficial traits in common, but still with House being, deep down, more like Wilson than he'd ever give himself credit for. House may take, but he knows the price of his taking, and knows just where the lines stand, the ones that would break another person, the ones that would send him tettering over the edge from narcissitic ass but genuinely a good person, into something altogether without merit or remorse.

And Wilson, who gives and gives, but from a sense of guilt and failure and inability to live up to what he feels he should be able to do. Both men are driven by their pasts, by the things they either failed to do, or were simply unable to provide for those they felt they needed to. House from his inability to ever be the son his father wanted, and Wilson from his inability to "save" his brother and those his brother hurt.

Really, really lovely fic. :)

Now, favorite bits/lines/sections:

"He wondered if he were about to get a glimpse of that mysterious entity known as Pre-House Wilson."

I love this line, so perfectly Houseian. ;)

"This was the kind of jackpot he'd been waiting for since Wilson's family had stopped answering his questions."

Another one, right in the ball park of "Pre-House Wilson". ;)

"Wilson shrugged his shoulders. "She's one of those beliefs I've never managed to live up to." He looked down at the file, staring at the death sentence he'd help write. "And now I never will." When he looked up again, his eyes were dry, but they were so dark with loss and pain that it was like looking into a black hole that had trapped even the hope of light."

The prose-like grace of this section is truly lovely, with Wilson's pain shining through so eloquently, along with his regret for far more than this single patient/childhood friend.

"He glanced down at his locked desk drawer. There were some patients that he saw long after their deaths."

Oh yes. Those that you couldn't save, those things that you couldn't do, the ones that haunt you for all the days of your life simply because you were unable to help them, to keep the black spectre of death from claiming them...because, ultimately, you failed. That scrapbook of remembered pain and failure than you keep and open so often, like pouring salt in an open wound, never allowing it to heal because there is some part of you that *needs* to remember, and to hurt. It's based on reasons even you don't entirely understand, the need, the drive, the almost instinctual insistance that you keep them, remember them, never let them be far from your thoughts as a sort of penance I suppose...because perhaps if you remember enough, and dwell enough, and punish yourself enough...then next time you can save them...and then you can let them go...

Really beautiful story.

I just realized that you are giving the readers lessons. These lessons are learned and taught either by House or Wilson. I love it! Great fic!

Awesome, the emotions in this piece were tragically realistic and I think you did a excellent job of portraying House and Wilson. Just awesome. Excellent job!

hm,why is it that good fics like this one get so few reviews while slash fics(of almost every quality) are swimming in them?:P

Anyway,love it,you kept House and Wilson very much IC.:)

I don't know wht your fic has so few review but in my opinion, you described perfectly Wilson and House's characters. This fic was really interesting and well written. Keep writing, you do it very well! Bye!

this was fantastic! I loved it! :) The emotional depth of the OC, as well as House and Wilson's emotions were perfect! I loved it! :)

God and peace

Vanessa :)