5 to 9 - Recap

Cuddy wakes up at 5 a.m., alone in bed. She gets up and goes about her daily preparations for the day. Rachel starts crying and Cuddy tries to take care of her while checking the time. The sitter, Marina, finally arrives. As Cuddy is heading out the door, Lucas arrives and apologizes for running late on a stakeout. She needs to make a proposal at 8:30, but he suggests she stay for some morning sex and promises to have her out the door in time. As they end up on the bed, House calls with an emergency page. Cuddy insists on ignoring it. Two minutes later, Lucas admits that he's had trouble pacing himself. Cuddy is now late and frustrated, and looks in the mirror to promise herself she can do it.

Cuddy arrives at work and tells Nurse Regina she couldn't get there any soon. Regina tells her that there's an emergency in the pharmacy. As House limps up, Cuddy walks away and refuses to discuss the new procedure he wants to try on his patient. House notes that infecting his patient with malaria would have worked. As they go to his office, House wonders why she didn't answer his call, and figures she was having sex with Lucas. He then explains that he helped Lucas on the stakeout, and they had a bet going on whether House could interrupt them. Cuddy wants to discuss that even less. She goes to check out the pharmacy emergency while planning a press conference en route.

The pharmacy tech, Oscar, tells her that they received double the number of mistakes, and the supplier insists it didn't make a mistake. He can't find any of the purchase orders and he point out it's Gail's paperwork. Cuddy tells him to get the paperwork to Gail so she can deal with it when she returns from her sick day. As she goes, she asks Oscar if the extra med was Vicodin. He confirms that it was Ephedrine, and she tells Oscar to get Gail in there right way. Regina arrives to tell Cuddy that her 8:30 appointment is there.

En route to her office, Cuddy gets a page from Dr. Hourani. He's in the middle of surgery, and complains that House bribed the physical engineers to lower the AC to get him to hurry his operation. She says she'll deal with it and leaves. As she makes the call, House intercepts her and discusses her case, and notes that his patient needs to undergo surgery. Cuddy calls Marina and finds out that Rachel is vomiting and has a fever. She then takes another call that her 8:30 appointment, Eli, is in her office.

When Cuddy arrives, she tries to get Eli and his company, Atlanticnet Insurance, to give them a 12% increase. Eli tells her it ain't going to happen and she threatens to fail to renew the contract. Cuddy warns him that she's enlisted a PR firm and she'll be making the announcement at 3:00 unless Atlanticnet capitulates. Eli says he'll be sad to see her go.

Next, Cuddy is meeting with the board. As she heads to that meeting, House intercepts her and analyzes her meeting. He figures she issued an ultimatum and wonders if it's not a bluff. Cuddy insists it isn't a bluff. Hadley and Taub arrive to tell House that their patient, Mr. Pluta, is showing new symptoms. Cuddy still refuses to approve a malaria treatment, and slips away while House ponders the case.

Outside the conference room, Cuddy finds Chief Surgeon Dr. Dave Thomas waiting for her. He's not happy that House is literally freezing Hourani out and tells her that he needs a replacement for Chase since House stole him. He threatens to quit unless she starts doing her job. Cuddy then goes before the board and tells them that she doesn't have a contract with Atlanticnet. She informs them of her ultimatum and insists it's the approach they have to take. The board accepts her decision because they put her in charge of it, but warn that if they lose the contract, she'll lose her job.

At the clinic, Cuddy discovers that House has skipped out instead. She fills in temporarily and deals with Hall, a patient who wants her to write her a prescription for mother's breast milk to treat his cancer. It's an experimental treatment and the insurance company won't pay for it unless Cuddy prescribes it. Hall thinks she's shilling for the insurance company and says that it won't harm anyone. He needs help and he has no money and no job. When Cuddy refuses, he calls her a bitch and leave.

Cuddy heads back to her office and finds a lawyer, Ronald Westbrook, waiting for her. He explains he's representing Martin Acevedo, a carpenter who is suing Chase and the hospital because Chase reattached his thumb. Martin doesn't want the thumb reattached. Cuddy meets with Chase, who explains that insurance only covers 60% of inpatient expenses. Chase told Martin that he was only going to cover it up, but then reattached it after Martin was under. Now the insurance company wants $80,000.

Next, Cuddy meets with Gail, who insists that she took the ephedrine to lose wait so she wouldn't become unattractive to her husband. She begs Cuddy not to fire her, insisting her husband will divorce her, and asks for a second chance. Cuddy tells Gail that she has to fire her but she won't report the theft to the DEA.

Cuddy gets lunch at the cafeteria and tells Wilson what's going on, while she tries to call Marina without success. She asks him what he thinks she should do about Atlanticnet, and he suggest asking House. Cuddy doesn't want to get House involved. She goes to her office and finds House browsing porn on her computer. He asks her to authorize malaria treatment for her patient, and Cuddy realizes that he has a bet going to see if he can convince her to treat a patient for malaria. When he points out she's taking a much bigger risk in negotiations, Cuddy insists that it's a carefully considered position.

Cuddy spots Stan, the head of the pharmacy, and tells him to check Gail's records. Lucas arrives with lunch and after Cuddy tells him off for discussing their sex life with house, he assures her that everything is okay with Rachel. When she tries to call Marina again, they realize that Lucas grabbed Marina's phone, and he admits he turned the ringer off on the home phone so he could sleep. He offers to investigate Atlanticnet's CEO, but she says that there isn't enough time. However, she does ask Lucas where she can find the CEO.

Cuddy goes to see the Atlanticnet CEO, Keith Tannenbaum, where he's eating at lunch. She talks about how the insurance company is making much more money than the hospital, and she'll announce it to the press if they don't capitulate. Tannenbaum refuses to cave, satisfied that he'll still be rich.

Back at the hospital, Cuddy meets with Stan and discovers that Gail has been stealing $50,000 in drugs over the last three years. She tells Stan to get Gail back in there and then goes back to her office. Eli is there and admits that Tannenbaum was impressed enough with her to go with an 8% increase. Cuddy insists on 12% because it's what they deserve, but Eli warns that nobody gets what they deserve.

Cuddy seeks a few minutes of privacy in the stairwell and then emerges to find House waiting for her. Pluta's liver is failing and he needs a transplant surgeon. He wants Cuddy to talk to Hourani. Cuddy responds by asking what he'd do about the contract, and insists they should get at least 12%. He tells her to do the pride and nothing else, and that it's stupid to try stamping out stupidity. Cuddy points out he would do it, but he notes he infects patients with malaria to win bets.

At 3 o'clock, Cuddy tells the staff first to notify them they're dropping the Atlanticnet contract. Everyone is in an uproar.

Later, Foreman comes to see Cuddy and tells her that they've found a liver match for Pluta. He warns that House wants Chase to do the surgery to score points on Thomas. Chase wants to do the surgery, but they need Cuddy to put Pluta on the OR schedule. Cuddy goes to see House and discovers he has a masseuse in, supposedly for his leg. She tells him to get his staff under control, and he points out that Atlanticnet isn't going to notice her efforts, and this time the big corporation might win.

Cuddy calls in Martin and Ronald, and tries to convince that he needs the thumb. By filing the suit, the hospital won't get paid, and Martin is responsible for any expenses owed the hospital. Cuddy wants Martin to drop the suit and admit that Chase was acting in his best interests. The hospital will cover half his deductible and he pays them the other $16,000. She notes that Martin can still work and that the hospital training costs money. Martin says that he's sorry, but he can't afford to pay $16,000. When she notes that they were concerned about Martin, Ronald notes that the doctors are rich, but Cuddy says she's take Martin's house to get the money if they need to.

Cuddy is summonsed to the OR, where Chase, Foreman, Thirteen, Thomas, and Hourani are all fighting. After that, Gail arrives and tells Cuddy that she'll tell the DEA that House forced Gail to steal the drugs and Cuddy covered it up because she was having sex with House. Cuddy leaves and when Regina says the board wants to see her, Cuddy says she's quitting.

Cuddy sits in her car in the parking garage, and House gets in. She admits that Lucas won the bet because they were having sex. House admits that he wrote a prescription for Hall to get reimbursed for breast milk Cuddy admits she thought Atlanticnet was bluffing, but House assures her she isn't going to quit because she's too stupid. Cuddy asks him about Gail and he admits he had her pegged as a psychopath, but he thought she might prove useful in the future. Thinking, Cuddy gets an idea.

Cuddy calls Gail into her office and tries to appeal to her better nature. It's clear Gail doesn't have a better nature, and says that Cuddy is an idiot. Gail has been stealing almost since she started, and only got caught because she was sick. She warns Cuddy that if she goes down, Cuddy will go down with her. After she leaves, Cuddy takes a flower out of a vase and shows it to Regina. Inside is a miniature tape recorder that Lucas gave her. She then goes to give the board her resignation.

As Cuddy goes, Marina calls and tells her that Rachel is fine. Eli comes up to her, calls her a bitch, and tells her that he didn't think she'd do it. Cuddy says that she would, and Eli tells her she got her 12%. She cheers in the lobby as everyone stares.

The board and the staff applaud Cuddy as she gives them the news. House just watches and smiles. As she leaves for the day, she finds that Martin has left off the first installment payment on the $16,000. Cuddy rips it up and goes home. Come 9 p.m., she's in bed with a sleeping Rachel and an amorous Lucas. And House pages her at home again.

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