House had been beastly that morning, but now he was positively cheerful, causing his team to speculate amongst themselves. Well, causing Kutner and Thirteen to speculate; Foreman and Taub were very clear that they couldn't care less.

They did care, of course, but didn't want to stoop to admitting that their boss's erratic behaviour was an object of interest.

"So where are you going?" Thirteen asked.

"None of your business."

"Well, when are you coming back?" Taub pressed.

"None of your business," House repeated.

"Actually," Foreman interjected, "it is our business."

"And are you GONE gone?" Kutner weighed in. "Like, incommunicado?"

"And is Foreman in charge?"

"Oh, fine. 2 weeks. And I'll have my cell phone but I only want to hear from you if someone is dying of something excessively cool and you absolutely 100% can't figure it out, however I warn you that if I can solve the case over the phone you're all fired. And sure, Foreman is in charge. Treat him with the same love and respect that you show me."

House disappeared under his desk, which they were all standing around, to unplug the charger for his iPod base. "Dammit. Can someone...?"

Thirteen came to his aid and used the chance to remark for his ears only, "I saw Kelly's car in the parking lot when I left this morning. Is something wrong with yours?"

"No, I will not sleep with you! Get your hands off me!" House was smirking when he reappeared. "Foreman, you'll need to keep your eye on her; we may have been wrong about you-know-what."

Hadley just shook her head while Foreman appeared to ignore him completely.

"If you have nothing to do, work the clinic."

"I'm already over on my clinic hours -" Kutner began.

"Then work mine. Taub, you can keep helping in plastics if they want you there. Thirteen and Kutner, special project: deal with my mail."

"Expecting to get a lot of mail?" Kutner broached.

"I more need you to deal with the mail I've already gotten." He opened a desk drawer to reveal the dumping ground for memos and letters he'd received over the last month. Cameron had always dealt with his communications, and while he took responsibility in fits and spurts when Cuddy was on the prowl and he needed to look busy, it had been awhile. "Better go through my email while you're at it. Just ignore the naked pictures Cuddy's been sending; you can tell it's just her head stuck on Selma Hayek's body. I would have gone for someone younger but I appreciate her special brand of integrity."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"You, Foreman, are going to tape my shows for me. Be sure to cut out the commercials." He stood and looked at them. "Any more questions?"

"Are you going to be here to run Kelly Janes' evaluation tomorrow?" Kutner was fishing now.

House shook his head with mock disapproval. "Come now. I know she has a tendency to be mean and uncooperative, but there's four of you and only one of her... Oh, except maybe you're looking for that assignment yourself, Dr. Kutner? Hoping she might give you her number so you don't have to steal it from her chart?"

"He could always just get it from you."

Everyone turned to look at Thirteen, and then to House to see his reaction.

Still standing, House calmly picked up the phone and dialed a number by heart. "Cameron, it's House. I heard you're short staffed for the overnight shifts in the ER this week, so I'm going to lend Dr. Hadley to you; she said she'd like a change of scenery. Don't bother to call her when you get this message. She'll be there tonight ready to work. I'll see you in two weeks."

House slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked through them toward the door. "Try not to kill anyone while I'm gone," he called nonchalantly, whistling as he closed the door behind him, his cheerfulness in tact. Freedom, even two weeks of freedom, felt good.

His team was still standing around in his office, not sure where to start in picking apart that encounter. Eventually they moved into the conference room and Foreman let them know what he REALLY expected of them while House was gone. They too became cheerful; freedom, even two weeks of freedom, felt good after all.