Emotionally Detached
After sleeping with Cuddy, House freaks out and avoids her, leaving Wilson to explain his best friend's actions. Companion to Shut Out.
"Cuddy? Earth to Cuddy?" Dr. Wilson says, looking worriedly at the Dean of Medicine.
She shakes her head as if to clear it. "Sorry."
"We need an MRI for-" He starts, but he notices that she isn't looking at him when he speaks. "Cuddy?" He sees that her eyes are aimed over his shoulder, so he turns to see what has distracted her. But he sees nothing more than an elevator across the lobby.
"Lisa, what are you looking at?"
She jumps at his use of her first name. Only House is allowed to call her that at work, and even he hardly does. "I-oh-sorry."
"What're you looking at?"
"Um, House," she admits, more willingly than Wilson expects. "He just came out of the elevator, but when he saw me, he went back in. Do you know what's going on with him? I mean, we slept together, the next day he brags about it, and all of a sudden, he's avoiding me like the plague! You're the only person I know who's ever been able to get inside his head. What's wrong?" she demands.
He can't see a way out of this.
With a sigh, he admits defeat. "He's scared. He gets like this from time to time. I saw it happen after his and Stacy's first date. It may not make sense to you right now because you're frustrated that he's behaving this way, but House is harder to figure out than most people might think. When it comes to work, his mind is logical and that makes his decisions rational, but when it comes to love, his mind stops spitting out straight logic and that makes his decisions irrational. That's what he's afraid of. He says the only thing about people that interests him is how they work, but we both know that he's afraid to get close enough to find out for real. He lives in fear of becoming emotionally attached to anyone or anything. He takes being emotionally detached to the next level. For him, it applies not only at work but everywhere else because it makes his life that much more interesting and just a little easier. And he's afraid that if he becomes too emotionally attached to you, things will get boring. And difficult."