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Love Interest. That's what Stacy has been for House throughout her presence on the series so far. Well, maybe it's former love interest. Or maybe I'm just lost and these two don't know what they want to be doing. During this week's episode, "Failure to Communicate," the pair are in Baltimore to "defend" House's billings to the government - and since Foreman has been so diligent in getting the paperwork done since he took over as "boss" of the group, I'm sure there are plenty of things to look over. At the same time, the rest of the team are back at the hospital when Cuddy comes in asking Foreman for recommendations of other diagnosticians who can do as good a job as house can, because a well-known journalist has come down with a particularly odd affliction - and she doesn't seem to think Foreman, Chase and Cameron can handle it without House in the building. After convincing her otherwise, they get the case, and Fletcher Stone is admitted. Turns out that he knocked his head on a desk during his editor's last hurrah at the office, and when he got back up he was speaking, but random words were coming out. He thought he was talking normal, but the people near him were just hearing what amounts to pointing at a word on the first five pages of the dictionary, and then constructing them into a sentence.

Stacy manages to pull a fast one on the man reviewing House's records, effectively "bribing" him out of bringing down the house on her client, so to speak. The good doctor is amused by this, and the fact that Stacy managed to get on a different flight than him, so they wouldn't have to ride home together. Unfortunately for her, flights are delayed due to weather, and he's still sitting in the airport when she arrives to do the same. All the while, he's been back and forth on the phone with Foreman & Co., giving them some ideas on what has been happening - because Cuddy called him. So as much as she likes Foreman being in charge, she still doesn't think the other docs can do their jobs as well without the fearless leader.But let's get back to the love interest topic. Stacy managed to reserve a hotel room at the airport, and is letting House stay there with her. He, of course, decides it's high time to look deeply into this, overanalyzing the situation. Fortunately for him, that leads to a discussion of whether she wants to be with him or not. Turns out, it's his lucky day. Well, until she's ready to kiss him, which he goes along with - and the phone rings. Being the doctor that he is, he takes the call, and proceeds to go on and on with his colleagues about Fletcher's condition. He decides to go back to the airport terminal and work out the situation, going as far as writing out on the wall the random phrases his patient is saying.

As usual, the case is solved when House manages to somehow diagnose what's *really* going on with Fletcher, causing a bit of a love problem in that man's relationship with his wife, but saving his life at the same time. Stepping back to the airport, Stacy and House talk in metaphor, perhaps still leaving the door open for another hookup - or perhaps closing the door - based on how people (in this case, House) try and change, or not, for love.

Over and over again I check out the voting over at FOX's House page, which consistenly moves up and down 4 or 5 percentage points, but always hovers around 50% either way to the question of whether we think Stacy and House should get together. What do you think?