It's not as if we're actually hurting someone or taking pleasure in real pain. So long as we recognize the difference between fiction and reality, I think hurt/comfort is a fabulous genre.

Heh -- I feel your pain when it comes to rearranging long conversations. Why can't they just progress logically the first time, dammit? But no, they have to work in ten different ways and we're supposed to know which one works best because we're the authors. But by then we've studied it so often it's hard to tell what works and what doesn't. Sigh. Yes, their talk works. House's outburst definitely packs more power because it comes so late.

And, happy birthday!