Wilson drives House home. He has a "nice facility" picked out for House, who thanks him sadly and then looks in the backseat. Yep, CTB is sitting right there, grinning away. House packs at home. CTB says it'll be "like living with Mom again. Delightful!" I guess House's subconscious didn't mind his childhood years. Or it's being sarcastic because it's still angry at House for trying to insulin shock it away. Wilson answers House's phone to tell Foreman that his boss is currently unavailable. Foreman doesn't care, saying that the infection has made Penelope septic and brought her BP down too low for them to be able to operate and remove the abscess. "He's off the case," Wilson says, and hangs up. Sucks to be Penelope! House made her skin fall off and now he's abandoning her in her time of need, much like he's abandoned most of his patients these last few episodes. Wilson lies to House that everything is fine at PPTH, and both CTB and House know that isn't true but also don't care. House is more concerned about why he doesn't feel scared right now when his life is falling apart and he's on his way to a place that will take him off the pills he thinks he can't live without. "We've always been able to find a way to cheat," CTB purrs. House thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. CTB is right. "It won't work," he sighs. Wilson says it will, because this time House wants it to work. "Do we?" CTB asks with an angry edge in her voice. "It's your only option," Wilson says. House says that doesn't mean it'll work, which is probably why he's been so resistant to trying it in the first place. It's better to never know how you'd do than to try and know for sure you'd fail. House seems to have another idea. He leaves the apartment and Wilson leaves the episode.

Back at PPTH, the Cottages have to figure out what to do with Penelope. "We need a blood vessel holder-together machine," Hadley says very scientifically. Foreman says they could try shooting Penelope up with dopamine to close her blood vessels and thus raise her blood pressure enough to operate. Taub thinks Penelope's heart will "explode" with that much dopamine in it. Foreman says if they don't do it, her heart will fail anyway. Hadley wonders what happened to House. Foreman says it sounded like he was "done," and they should all be used to this by now anyway. That's enough to convince Hadley to go with the dopamine. Well, that and probably the fact that it was suggested by her boyfriend.

House limps into Cuddy's office looking lost and very serious. Cuddy doesn't notice it, figuring he's here to give her the usual hard time. He sighs and quits. She still doesn't get it, figuring this is his way of bargaining for vacation time or something and saying she has to get home before the nanny takes off. "You're gonna go suckle the little bastard child who makes you feel good about yourself," House says. Yeah, that's how you ask for a favor. "Screw you," Cuddy replies, and starts to walk out the door. CTB appears as House lets Cuddy get halfway through the door before telling her that he's hallucinating. Cuddy immediately figures it's from Vicodin and decides her foster daughter can wait. She wants to admit him to PPTH, but House says that a rehab facility won't work because he knows he'll find a way to cheat. "These people know what they're doing," Cuddy says, severely overestimating the capabilities of the PPTH rehab team as well as totally forgetting that House managed to cheat no problem the last time he was in rehab. House says they might know what they're doing, but they don't know him. And she does. House's subconscious tells him that Cuddy isn't his keeper. That doesn't mean she can't help, so House tells Cuddy he needs her. Yay! But also, why did it take forty-five minutes of the episode for this to happen? And why doesn't House need Wilson? He needed him for the first three-quarters of the episode, but when it comes down to it, he turns to someone who's been absent all episode instead? And then Wilson disappears for the rest of the episode, seemingly not caring what's going on with his best friend who was about to admit himself into rehab while his life was falling apart? That seems so unfair to fans of the House/Wilson relationship. But I'm not one of them! I like House and Cuddy, so this is great! Cuddy makes arrangements with a baby-sitter. She may have a daughter, but House is still obviously more important.