It's no good having a black eye and nose cut requiring a small Band-Aid on the bridge if you can't get some sympathy for it, so House goes right to Cuddy's office and waits for her to arrive. She does, of course, and asks if he'll press charges against Chase for assault, but House denies that Chase had anything to do with the current condition of his face and blames it on an ottoman he tripped over. Oh, please. Everyone knows that tripping over an ottoman isn't harmful. It just causes a delightful musical flourish as you tumble harmlessly onto the living room floor and then Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam and that stupid kid help you up while staring at you adoringly. So Cuddy doesn't buy it, nor does she respond to House's request for dinner this weekend. She just keeps going, saying that there are three witnesses to Chase punching House plus whoever might have seen it through the glass walls from the hallway. Ew, Foreman, Hadley, and Taub told on Chase? Jerks. Although I guess Chase had it coming for being so mean to them when they tried to be nice. Cuddy says she "can't have doctors punching each other out," not like she minded it to much when House was the one punching other doctors. She's also worried that Chase is headed for a major breakdown and thus needs help. Because Cuddy is so good at identifying and helping her employees with their serious mental issues. Like when she let House practice medicine for three weeks while hallucinating. House is only there to ask Cuddy out, and once she realizes that she puts on her sad and resigned sighing voice and says she's "not doing this" because "it's not fun anymore." And ... she's right. They found a way to make House and Cuddy not fun anymore. CONGRATULATIONS, writers! You've ruined Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein's great chemistry and made yet another pairing unpleasant to watch onscreen. Pat yourselves on the back.