"Hey," Cuddy said, sitting up straight, her hand sliding from his back. "Kids aren't.... Being a parent is nothing like being a patient on a locked psych ward."

She snapped her mouth shut and looked away. She knew House hated being here and she knew he wasn't happy about fatherhood but she was offended he'd compare the two things. More than offended.... If he really felt fatherhood was as much a dismal prison as a psychiatric hospital then how was he ever going to accept it? Why would he even want to?

"I'm sure House didn't mean it literally," Wilson said, hastening to play peacemaker. He glanced at House but, deciding that was an unlikely source of help, he turned his gaze on Cuddy.

"Nevermind," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. House was unhappy--angry, even--and drugged. She knew she shouldn't take anything he said right then as fact. Being only weeks, or even days, away from giving birth made her a little sensitive to the subject, though. Which, of course, was part of the reason he was here. She couldn't be objective enough to help him. She wasn't objective enough to not take things he said personally.

"Why would they ask you what your plans for the day are when your day is scheduled for you?" she asked House, wanting to move past the issue of impending parenthood.