House grabbed his cellphone and selected her number and hit the call button. It rang three times before she picked up. He heard Rachel in the background and Cuddy was muffled not yet having her phone to her ear yelling at her to not run in the house. Something he always encouraged her to do. "There's so many things in here to destroy, Rachel!" That would always bring a smile to her face and get her to run from her room, down the hallway and into the living room where he was standing, leaning on his cane, waiting for her.

He was imagining her running down the hall when a thought hit him.

He had no idea what their hallway looked like. Because of him, they had to leave it. "Hello?" Cuddy finally said into the phone, House being able to tell she didn't see the screen to let her know who was calling otherwise would have addressed him directly. But, he couldn't do it. He took his phone off of his ear and disconnected the call.

A couple seconds later, as he expected, his cell rang with caller ID saying it was Cuddy.

"Yeah?"

"House, you just called, are you alright?"

"Yeeeaaaahhhh, you know, I called YOU by accident when I was meaning to call Candy. She's this..well, I was a bit lonely and-"

"Oh," her voice dropped in tone and he knew what he said hurt her.

He didn't even know why he said it. He squeezed his eyes shut, twisted his mouth and banged his left hand on the couch cushion next to him. "That's a lie," he paused, "I haven't even saved her number in here yet and-"

"House, I don't have time for this," she started to sound annoyed. "Either you have a reason for calling or you don't, which is it?"

"I have- a favor to ask," House dragged out of himself.

"Is it about work? Are you thinking of coming back?" her voice sounded eager.

He wondered why she kept bringing the hospital up. Was she trying to get him there for the benefit of the hospital, or just to have him there to be close? "You know what? Forget it. Never mind. Good night, Cuddy."

"But House I-" she heard the phone disconnect from his end.

He tossed his cell phone on the couch and looked around his apartment stopping at his piano. He grabbed his cane and walked over to it to play.

As he was playing his eighth song, he stopped midway through when he heard a knock at the door. Wilson was already here, he didn't call for anyone to come over so considered not answering it, deciding whoever it was, it wasn't of any interest to him. But, the curiosity got the best of him when the knock came again.

He got up from where he was sitting, grabbed his cane and opened the door. "What was the favor?"

House poked his head outside confused and looked at her. "Don't you have a kid who is supposed to be with you?"

"Called a neighbor to come over and watch her. What's the favor?"

"It's nothing."

"House."

"REALLY. It's nothing. You can go home now, I-" she stuck her foot in his doorway to stop him from closing it on her and raised her right eyebrow at him.

"What's the favor?"

He turned his back to her and walked to the couch. She walked further into the apartment and kept her eyes on him seeing that his limp looked worse than she remembered. His cut was better, and she knew he was in pain earlier needed his pills but, she doesn't remember his limp ever being this bad. She looked up when she saw his leg turned because HE turned to face her.

"What? What is it?"

"How bad is your pain?"

"Bad."

"How bad?"

"Oh...I don't know. Almost like- PART OF MY MUSCLE IS MISSING!"

She shouldn't have expected an answer any different than that. She closed the door behind her and walked to his couch and sat down, leaving a cushion in between them.

"Why did you call, House?"

She could tell he was struggling to find the right words. She was starting to be a little fearful of what it was he had to ask her. "I'm starting to see this shrink-"

"That's great!"

"I'm not finished!"

"Sorry. Go on."

"One of the things he wants to do, which I think is stupid and leaves me to question if I should even be dealing with this guy or wait until MY guy can take me because this one might be a moron- I mean, his first name is Scott. Says his friends call him 'Scotty.' I don't know if I can trust a guy who has a nickname that a five year old usually has. Therapist's names should be names that you hear from old century times. Because they SHOULD be old. Their names reflect their age. There should be no way to make it sound cute by sticking a "Y" at the end. What was he thinking even TELLING me that in the first-"

"House."

He sighed, while nodding his head as if saying 'no,' still showing signs of resistance and looked at her who was still fully interested in what he wanted to ask her. "He wants to meet you. He thinks it will help if we sit there together."

"Like COUPLES therapy?"

"No. Because we're not a couple."

"I KNOW we're not a couple!"

He looked down while he rubbed his right thigh and they fell into silence, which Cuddy broke after a few seconds. "So, when is it?"

"You don't HAVE to go," he looked back at her and she noticed he kept rubbing his leg.

"I know. But, I will. If it will help you. When is it?"

He looked up in thought. "Three weeks from now. On Monday at five."

"Okay. Then I'll talk to you again when it gets closer."

He nodded his head.

"I should get back home and let my neighbor get back home."

"Yeah," she stood up and let herself out. She paused on the other side of his door smiling at the thought of House going as far as talking to a therapist again to get back on track. But, her smile started fading when it dawned on her that she just agreed to go with him...