Cuddy reached the hospital after leaving House's apartment fifteen minutes later. As she walked through the lobby she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and called Fredrickson to ask where he was to cut time out of looking for him. When he told her that he was in the patient's room trying to help her out in explaining to the patient why it was important he have the surgery she said that she would be right there to help and hung up.

When she walked in she surveyed the room. Fredrickson was silent with his eyes on the patient as the patient looked down into his lap. "I don't care about the risks," the patient finally said looking up. Cuddy caught his eye and continued, now looking at her, "I don't care what you have to tell me either. It's not going to work."

Cuddy looked from the patient to Fredrickson, who she looked over at sympathetically then back over at the bed. "Can I call you Aaron?" Cuddy asked softly.

"Go ahead, it's my name, isn't it?" he asked.

"Aaron, you have to have this surgery," she said as nicely as she could.

"I've heard everything that has to be said about it. But the fact is, I want my leg."

Cuddy sighed, thinking of House and all those years ago when he said almost those exact same words to every doctor who tried to talk him into amputation, as he kept insisting he wanted his leg. "We explained why we have to do it and you were okay with it. Why are you hesitating now?"

"I've had time to think about since then and now. I don't want it," he announced stubbornly.

Fredrickson and Cuddy exchanged glances and Cuddy looked back, silently telling him she still wanted control of the situation. "Aaron, if you do nothing, then what happened to your leg will spread to your entire body," she said, trying to avoid what she knew he was thinking of doing. "We have to amputate to save your-"

"You can do that other thing, I've heard it works the same way as amputation. You told me that. That takes out the affected area and I can save my leg that way."

"Yeah, I told you that because you asked. Not because I was suggesting it as something you should consider. And you didn't want that done, remember? You said that it sounded like something you didn't want to do, asking how someone can live like that." She hated saying those words. All she could think of was House while saying them and it caused her more pain then she imagined when she started it.

"Yeah, but then I heard it was done before to someone here. The guy with the cane," Cuddy bit the inside of her right cheek to keep from breaking down in tears. "He must be alright, if he's still working here as a doctor. If he can do it then I can too."

At that moment, Cuddy heard the familiar sound of a cane hitting the ground and wished she didn't. She knew what he was coming here to do and wished he didn't care about this one. She wanted him to stay away so he wouldn't be faced with what happened all over again. It was the anger and frustration that drove him to show up, to save the kid from the misery he was feeling and she walked towards the door to meet him in the hallway to try and stop him but she wasn't fast enough. He was already limping through the door.

Aaron smiled when he saw House walk in. "See, here's the guy. He'll know what I'm talking about. Tell them that I don't need to amputate my leg," he told House cheerily.

"No," House stopped at the right side of the bed. "I can tell them that you're being a big moron, but," he shifted to look at Cuddy and Fredrickson then back at Aaron, "I think they already know that."

"What do you mean, I'm being a moron? You're the one who-"

"What? Refused amputation when I was in your situation? Yeah," he said sarcastically. "Worked out great for me didn't it?"

"You look fine to me. You have your leg," he argued back.

"You call this a leg?" House's voice raised while motioning to his leg with his left hand. "This isn't a leg! What do you think you can do if you decide to just cut the muscle out? You can never play football again. You'll walk with a limp, probably need a cane," he lifted his cane to show him, "and that's not going into the pain of what it feels like every second of every day for the rest of your life!"

"You don't seem like you're in pain," he spat out, trying to hold onto his argument.

"Not in pain? Oh now you're an even bigger moron then you made yourself out to be a second ago! Did you just not listen when these two told you about how much pain you'll be in?"

"I heard. But, I had time to think about it and I decided that I can handle it. If you can handle it, a tall thin white dude like you then I can do it."

"You're white."

"Yeah, but I'm stronger. I have a higher tolerance for pain," he paused and watched House limp over to a drawer from the table that was near the bed and pulled it open. "What are you doing?" he asked when he saw House shuffling through it as though he was looking for something and pulled out the biggest needle he could find. "Hey, what are you doing with that man?" House didn't say anything. He grabbed the blankets and threw them off of Aaron and stabbed his good leg and Aaron let out a scream.

"House!" Cuddy shouted, trying to get his attention but he didn't react to her. He stayed focused on the patient.

"Can handle pain, huh? Well that was just one little needle prick!" he took a step closer to him, leaving the needle sticking up and Cuddy shuffled over to take it out and set it down on the tray in front of Aaron and grabbed House by the shoulders and he jerked away getting out of her grasp. She sighed, knowing the best thing was to just let him be until he was done before he gets violent. She walked back over to where Fredrickson stood, silently taking what was happening around him in.

"You want to know the kind of pain you'll be feeling?" House dug into his jacket pocket and dropped three different pill bottles into Aaron's lap. "Vicodin." He ignored the hurt expression he saw plastered across Cuddy's face he saw in the corner of his eye. "Pretty strong right?" he leaned down onto his cane, "it's not enough. That just dulls it. Not to mention all the anger you feel towards everyone else for not knowing the kind of pain your experiencing. To know that they aren't feeling what you're feeling. To have to need something like that to get you through the day, the hour in some cases," he scooped the bottles back up and put them back into his pocket. "You'll have more bad days then good ones. You'll push everyone away that was once close to you because you can't stand it! I was living with someone when it happened to me...she said she would be there to help get me through it," Cuddy tensed, knowing who he was talking about. "I drove her away too with all my misery! I'm not talking about a day after surgery, I'm not talking about a week, or a month...I'm talking about every day for the rest of your life living in that kind of pain!" He paused and surveyed Aaron's expression. "You want us to take the muscle out and leave the rest? Sure," he started sounding cheery and shrugged his shoulder, "lets wheel you in and we can start right now." He turned to face Fredrickson. "Let's get him prepped. Draw little lines or whatever it is you do to target the dead muscle and cut only that and-"

"No," Aaron interrupted, and House turned back to him. "Amputate. Just take the damn thing off." House smiled, "you're not as big of a moron as I thought." House shifted back to Fredrickson, "get him in there before he decides he doesn't want it again." Fredrickson nodded still in amazement of House and walked out to get a surgical team ready.

House glanced at Aaron one last time who looked back at him horrified, and House turned to leave the room. Cuddy followed him four paces behind. "House," she called out when she exited the room and watched him make his way down the hallway.

"Stay with the patient, Cuddy," he called over his shoulder, getting further away from her.

"But, House are you okay?" she asked nervously.

He sensed her worry and turned his head to the side to face her. "I'm fine," he lied. "I'm going home. Stay here." She watched him turn the corner when he reached the end of the hallway and wished there was something she could do to help him...