"Hey, sweetie." "Yeah, I'm sorry." "No, the meeting's running a little late." "Well, you know Matheson... the guy loves to hear himself talk." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I'll meet you at the restaurant." "Hey, we're going over the contracts now." "I gotta get back in there." "I love you too." "You're getting paid to clean, not window shop, Vesky." "You calling me a thief ?" "Take it easy." "Just yanking your chain." "Damn, it's freezin' in here." "Better the cold than the smell." "Used to think my job sucked." " How much you make an hour anyway ?" " Not enough." "The difference is that this job is just a temporary setback." "You, on the other hand, will always be a schmuck." "Yeah." "Schmuck with a guaranteed pension and benefits." "I'll take it." "I'm sorry I'm late." "No talking about real estate tonight." "I really want you to just enjoy yourself." "Well, seeing you in that dress," "I'd say mission accomplished." "Gets a little better." "Wait till you see what's on underneath." "Fresh tako with lemon." "Enjoy." "I... ordered the appetizer special." "Oh, I thought tako was a kind of tuna." "Ooh." "We're so not eating this." "Well, we should at least try it." "Please, it's moving, Bert." "Uhh..." "Oh, it's so gross !" "Actually, it's..." "not that bad." "Really ?" "I'm not eating it." "To us... on our third anniversary." "The day I met you was... was..." "Bert ?" "Bert." "What is it ?" "What... honey, what's wrong ?" "Someone, please call 911 !" "Honey." "House." "I assume you're avoiding me because of the charity gala." "This Friday ?" "It's completely slipped my mind." "So you'll be there ?" "No, I meant it slipped my mind to tell you I'm not going." "What do you think it'll look like if you don't show up when I get an award ?" "Like I don't give a crap about awards, charities, what it looks like." "If you ever want..." "I RSVPed two days ago." "What, you think I'm a complete ass ?" "If you were already going, why did you..." "Foreplay." "What ?" "Are you wearing my tie ?" "Oh, I saw it in your closet, and it happened to match my shirt." "Why were you in my closet ?" "Looking for a tie." "What's the big deal ?" "Obviously, he wants you out of the closet for some reason." "I suspect marriage, but I'm liberal that way." "Now, tell me how someone can have an allergic reaction when all their tests were negative for known allergens." "Environmental." "File says he's a real estate developer." "Could have been exposed to something visiting a construction site." "He's lying." "He's not an executive." "I saw his hands." "They're covered with calluses and little cuts." "He works with them." "A lot." "Stand up." "Uh..." "Oh..." "Our little girl..." "is finally growing up." "I mean, you dream of this day, but when it finally happens..." "So what did Mr. Meat Hooks say when you called him a liar ?" "Uh..." "I didn't." "Hmm." "Baby steps." "Go down there and do it." "Um..." "But what if I'm wrong ?" "I'll just end up offending him." "Consider that part a bonus." "All right, I'll send along one of your big brothers to help." "You want scary, smarmy, or shorty ?" "We need to ask you a few questions." "Alone." "If you don't mind." "Uh, they tend to be personal in nature." "I'm his wife." "I can probably answer them better than he can." "They're about his job." "Well, what does that matter ?" "He sits in an office all day..." "Honey, take a break." "It's okay." "No !" "Seriously, if there's something really wrong with him, I" " I wanna know about it." "It's not." "Our questions are about what he eats for lunch at work and what comes out at the end... bowel movements, mostly." "Color, texture." "Smell." "Oka..." "Pretty sure you can't help with that." "Maybe I could use a break." "Thank you for your honesty." "You're welcome." "I can't let my wife find out about this." "You have to promise me." "That depends on if it's considered..." "We promise." "I lost everything because of the recession, my entire real estate company." "And she has no idea." "So what do you do for a living now ?" "I used to be a janitor when I was in college, and now I'm almost 40 and doing it for the people I built homes for." "Why ?" "What do you think ?" "'Cause I need the money." "No, I mean why lie to your wife about it ?" "Oh, n-none of our business, really." "What kind of cleaning ?" "Industrial jobs." "Crime scene cleanup." "Septic tank repair." "Mold removal." "It's physically killing me." "It's the holy grail of potential diseases... caustic cleaning chemicals, raw sewage, mold spores, fungal infections." "And not to mention cleaning up blood and other bodily fluids from a homicide yesterday." "We should check out the crime scene." "He might have picked up a bacterial infection from the victim's blood." "Place has been cleaned and sanitized by our patient." "We sent for the autopsy report..." "probably take a week to get it." "When he's not working, where does he go all day to hide out ?" "His old real estate office ?" "Treat for bacterial infection." "Meantime..." "Bert take Ernie and check his office for environmentals." "I'll talk to Cuddy about getting the autopsy results faster." "You're Bert." "He's Ernie." "And they're both roommates." "That was a good one." "Well... at least the Alzheimer's patient in room 202 won't remember she only got half a ham sandwich." "I'm doing her a favor." "You're really going to the charity gala ?" "Why ?" "I wanna do something nice for my girlfriend." "You never do anything unless it stands to benefit you." "I realize that three failed marriages can leave a man twisted and bitter inside, but in a good relationship, people sometimes do things for each other." "A hundred says you don't show up." "You're giving me an incentive to actually show up ?" "A personal, selfish incentive ?" "I'm just making easy money." "200." "How high did Cuddy authorize you to go ?" "She... she didn't... 300." "She really wants you there." "Why do people believe" "I'm incapable of doing anything nice ?" "Experience." "It's a tie." "I'm not wearing your underwear." "I said I was sorry." "You want the tie back ?" "Can we get to work ?" "I can't tell if you're being passive-aggressive or this is just your regular fun-loving personality." "Both." "And you can keep the tie." "Went out of style five years ago." "Vicodin." "And he doesn't have a prescription." "We didn't test for an allergic reaction to narcotics." "Or it's the obvious." "Take a look at this." "We think you're suffering from boric acid exposure." "Which is causing the rash." "We need to decontaminate your skin and hope you didn't inhale it into your lungs." "I" " I feel like I'm..." "Never seen a fever spike this fast before." "Acid exposure burns literally." "It shouldn't be causing this." "What's happening to him ?" "Bert ?" "Honey, are you all right ?" "We have to get his fever down right now." "If it gets any higher, it could cause permanent brain damage." "We used cooling blankets to get his temperature down." "He stabilized at 102." "Problem's not boric acid." "We found no traces of it on his skin." "Infection from the murder victim's blood ?" "Autopsy report was negative for communicable disease." "Cause of death was an overly stabby girlfriend." "We found Vicodin in his office." "Give it to me." "Might look like Vicodin but be something else." "It's real." "Unfortunately... his Vicodin doesn't cause rash, fever, and joint pain." "Does make Taub considerably less annoying, though." "Maybe we're thinking too far outside the box here." "Just because he could have picked up any one of a hundred exotic diseases from his job doesn't mean he didn't." "Taub's life partner has a point." "Started treatment with antibiotics, and he got worse." "Simple answer begins with "M" ends with "Mia"." "Meningococcemia ?" "That works too." "Confirm with a lumbar puncture." "And on the off chance we're wrong, find out what else he's been lying about besides his job and his drug use." "You sure do hide a lot from your wife." "Your job, your drug use." "What else ?" "What does it matter ?" "Can't help you unless you're completely honest with us." "I was doing manual labor." "If I came home barely able to move," "Diane would know something's up." "That's why I take the Vicodin..." "to hide the pain." "I'm not an addict." "Is that all you're hiding ?" "I didn't just lose my job." "Well, that's how it started, but I figured it'd just last a couple months." "I maxed out our credit cards, took a double mortgage on the house, and I sold all of our investments." "Who'd have thought the recession would last this long, huh ?" "So it's Obama's fault you're lying to your wife ?" "Look..." "I screwed up." "It's too late now." "I want you to roll over on your left side for the procedure." "Haven't you ever done something in a relationship you wish you could take back ?" "Maybe." "How'd you handle it ?" "I told the truth." "Eventually." "How'd that work out ?" "Not well." "I need some intel on this charity event on Friday night." "If I go, do I have to actually give money to charity ?" "I'm going." "Just don't want it to suck." "There has to be a way to make this fun." "Show up and behave." "Problem solved." "Your problem solved." "Don't you think she deserves more than a plaque and a round of applause for 15 years of running this dump ?" "It's a watch, not a plaque." "It's a cliche." "I want to make things more exciting, something she'll remember for more than ten minutes." "Okay." "By fun and exciting, you mean screwing this up for Cuddy so she won't even dream of asking you to go to one again." "You really can't stand seeing me happy, can you ?" "Gram stains are negative in the first CSF samples." "One down, three to go." "I'm starving." "You wanna get a bite after..." " Already have plans." " Date ?" "What difference does it make ?" "We're roommates, not a married couple." "We don't have to eat every night together." "So you're saying..." "it's a date ?" "Yeah, it's a date." "I don't have plans." "Ooh." "Shocking." "Are you mad because I picked you ?" "You're stuck actually doing your job ?" "A little hazing never hurt a med student." "I doubt it ever..." "helped either." "I'm sorry that I think our patient shouldn't be lying to his wife." "I'm a woman." "I guess I just have a different perspective." "You're sharing this unique insight that women don't like lying ?" "Uh, no, I'm sharing my unique insight that you don't respect women." "You sleep with a different one every few days." "Or maybe..." "you find meaning in meaningless relationships." "At least I have relationships." "I'm seeing a high lymphocyte count in the CSF sample." "And that couldn't wait until they finished mocking each other ?" "That means it's not meningococcemia." "He's getting worse !" "He can barely move his legs." "I can't feel them." "I can't feel my feet." "What is it ?" "What is happening to him ?" "Luckily, he didn't lose his feet." "We were able to restore his circulation before any serious damage set in." "It's not meningococcemia." "CSF was negative for bacteria." "But high on lymphocytes." "It's some kind of viral infection." "Serum sickness fits everything." "There'd have to be a cause, some drug he's been exposed to." "In rare cases, a tick or a spider bite could set it off..." "Show of hands." "Who's going to this charity thing Friday night ?" "Already got a date." "Cuddy is getting an award." "I think we should all be there, show our support." "I assume you're planning on screwing it up, so you want to maximize witnesses." "Why does everyone go to that ?" "Experience ?" "Shut up !" "How 'bout go... or work the clinic all weekend ?" "I hear it's genital herpes awareness month." "Serum sickness fits." "Take him off the antibiotics." "Start him on corticosteroids." "If we're right, he'll be better by morning." "Canceled date, huh ?" "You're bugging my cell phone ?" "No." "I just noticed you're not wearing it." "What ?" "Your first-date shirt." " You tracking my wardrobe ?" " I'm just observant." " That's why I'm good at my job." " It's also the reason you're starting to annoy the crap out of me." "Forgive me for trying to connect a little with my roommate." "I just found out that Rachel is now officially more than just emotional with her online friend." "You're getting divorced." "What did you expect ?" "I know." "You're right." "Just... thinking about it kinda makes me wanna throw up." "You still wanna get something to eat ?" "I could cook." "Ooh." "That had to hurt." "Not as bad as you." "You just missed a free upgrade." "Ha." "Just did it again." "You ran past the power up." "Double damn !" "Are you just letting me win ?" "Of course I'm not letting you..." "Okay, maybe a little." " You're having fun, right ?" " Not anymore." "I used to think the whole brooding thing was just part of your work persona, but now I live with you." "You need to lighten up, Bert." "And you think I need you to show me what ?" "How to have fun, relax ?" "It was working till you flipped out." "If I was gonna take advice on how to live my life, it would not be from you." "You're broke, you ruined your marriage, and yet you act like you're the victim here, like somehow we're all supposed to feel sorry for you." "You screwed up your life, not some emotional friend your wife met on the..." "Ah !" " What's wrong ?" " My stomach." "You... you poisoned me !" "I ate the same thing you did." "How come I'm not..." "Ooh !" "Ooh..." "Oh, dear God." "Open the door, Bert, please." "Baby, talk to me." "He locked himself inside." "He went crazy." "He hit me." "Bert." "Open the door, Bert." "Bert ?" "I can't get out !" "Why ?" "I can't get out !" "Oh, lord, oh, no !" "Why can't I... get out ?" "Skin rash is gone." "But whatever it is, it obviously moved into his brain." "Or not." "He had a psychotic break." "I'd say that usually indicates neurological involvement." "Usually." "Not always." "The hallucinations stopped once the steroids we gave him cleared his system." "I think that..." "Mm." "I think we caused this." "What happened to you ?" "Taub tried to kill me last night." "The steroids probably did clear up the rash, but the rest of his symptoms are the same." "And now bilateral conjunctivitis." "Uh, excuse me." "I'll be back." "I..." "I, uh, better go check on him." "Swollen joints, high white count, fever." "Conjunctivitis." "Anyone ?" "Taub and Foreman:" "Seriously ?" "What, you two can't think and poop at the same time ?" "There's a life at stake here !" "Uh... could be familial mediterranean fever ?" "Not likely." "That almost always presents with abdominal pain or... diarrhea." "Given his job, the skin and eye involvement, it's more likely a systemic fungal infection." "Well, we would have seen it in his blood work." "Unless the saline used to recover and store the tissue samples has been shown in recent studies... get new blood and CSF samples using formaldehyde instead of saline." "And start him and his wife on triple antifungal therapy." "His wife ?" "Well, if he's really trying to keep her happy," "I assume they've shared bodily fluids." "I hate you." "You could have picked it up from your job." "The... real one, not the fake one." "If you had been more honest about... how is that relevant ?" "If his wife knew about his job, they both might have been more alert to the early symptoms." "We could have caught it earlier." "That's ridiculous." "My God, sweetheart, I'm so sorry." "Whatever you're doing, it's obviously not working." "We think he has a systemic fungal infection." "We're starting him on a parenteral antifungal regimen." "It can be transferred through bodily fluids, so we have to start you on the treatment as well." "A fungus ?" "Where would he..." "It could be from anywhere." "The spores can become airborne." "But why would he be the only one ?" "No one in our neighborhood, no one in his office building ?" "Sometimes it just happens... that way." "It's hard to explain." "No." "It's not." "I need to talk to my wife in private for a moment." "Your numbers indicate the medication isn't helping with your cholesterol." "Hey !" "Huh ?" "What are you doing ?" "What's it look like I'm doing ?" "Auditioning a band for Friday night." "So you're trying to ruin Cuddy's moment in the spotlight." "Ruin ?" "These guys recorded with Juan Gabriel." "They're gonna cost me 2 grand." "This is not a prank." "These guys are the beginning of Cuddy's evening to remember." "Which, in turn, will make my evening..." "I think, if you do this, your evening will end with you in your apartment alone... with a sock." "Muchachos, adelante." "Tres, cuatro..." "This is all for the best." "Yeah." "Either that or..." "the opposite." "If it means anything, um..." "I think he's honestly just trying to protect you and keep you happy." "Oh, God, of course he would tell a bunch of strangers before he would tell me." "I mean, why not ?" "I'm just a stupid housewife, right ?" "You know, I have something you can share with him." "It's over." "He's a liar, and I never want to hear from him again." "You may wanna go check on him." "His fever's back." "But I am done worrying about him." " She's right." "He's at 101." " Diane ?" "We're gonna have to get your fever down." "What... what's wrong ?" "What are you saying ?" "I can't hear you." "I can't..." "I can't hear anything !" "Why can't I hear anything ?" "His hearing's almost almost completely gone." "The new blood and CSF tests were negative for spores and fungus." "Tumor necrosis factor syndrome ?" "Fits the conjunctivitis and painful swelling in his joints." "Except it's never been documented to cause hearing loss." "Ever." "Oh, no, she di'int !" "This isn't the classroom." "In the real world, real doctors know that patients can have more than one thing wrong with them." "Zing." "He was taking Vicodin." "Extreme abusers can experience hearing loss." "Except his drug levels never got into the ototoxic zone." "You have a better idea ?" "I do." "Only in the sense that you're wasting my time with a bad idea and she's wasting my time with no idea." "Maybe we should hear from silent and silenter." "It's probably neurological." "Brain tumor ?" "Or a viral infection that's reached his brain." "I say we go with Ernie on this one." "Get an MRI." "Find it." "I'm gonna move out next week." "I'd rather stay friends than be roommates." "Just make sure I get my keys back." "It's not my fault." "I cooked it thoroughly !" "Looking forward to Friday night ?" "Yes and no." "Yes, because it is a great honor, and no because..." "Well, you know the because." "You think House is going to embarrass you." "Well, not intentionally." " Maybe intentionally." " I know what you mean." "I picture him doing something stupid like... hiring a mariachi band or something." "Well, actually, I could get behind that." "I tried to hire one last year, but the board wouldn't let me because they thought it was too expensive." "I'm freezing." "Is... is Diane coming back ?" "Bedside 101..." "when a patient is near death, try to be nice." "She's not coming back." "I'm not gonna lie to him." "Stop." " What ?" "You heard what she said." " He's seizing." "We gotta get him out of there." "Both his kidneys are fried." "He's in a coma." "He has maybe a few days left." "We can try and get him on the transplant list, but in his condition and without a diagnosis," "I don't see him getting selected." "He wouldn't survive the surgery." "Hence my previous comment." "What do you want us to do, House ?" "If it's a tumor, we start chemo." "Bombard his head with radiation." "Which will probably kill him in this state." "And without an MRI, we don't even know if he has one." "He's definitely dead if we do nothing." "If I'm wrong, all we do is shave a few hours off." "We'll need his wife's consent." "Masters will get it." "Probably not a good idea." "Uh, he's right." "No, he's not." "Consider this me officially booting you out of the nest." "Just wanted to watch." "Do you even like me ?" "Why ?" "I put making friends and having relationships on hold so I could concentrate on studying." "I always thought there'll be plenty of time for that in the future." "But... now when I do want them..." "I can't even get a date to this charity event." "If I can't establish relationships in my personal life, how will I ever do it with a patient ?" "Be honest with her." "But if it comes down to a choice between the brutal truth and hope, side with hope." "He's in a coma." "We think it's a brain tumor, and we need your permission to start treatment." "Due to his current condition, the risk factor..." "You mean..." "It could kill him ?" "It's possible." "But... there is still hope." "Can he hear me ?" "They say that... that people in comas can still do that." "Sometimes, but your husband's hearing... is fine." "I didn't mean any of those awful things I said." "I'm so sorry." "I love you, Bert." "I've always loved you." "I also kept a secret from you." "I was gonna tell you at the restaurant... but you got sick." "And I wanted to wait until you felt better." "I'm pregnant, sweetheart." "You're gonna be a daddy." "Why rash again ?" "It went away." "It needs a reason to come back." "We know it's not an allergic reaction, so we must have done something to set it off again." "What ?" "We put him on dialysis ?" "Moved him to the ICU ?" " We also did a partial MRI." " Two hours before the rash came back." "They're not connected." "What was he doing two hours before he broke out the first time ?" "Cleaning a crime scene." "Crime scene and an MRI." "Still not seeing the connection." "We've been missing connections this entire case." "Did he say anything ?" "Did he show any signs of stress in the MRI room ?" "He said he was cold, but it's always freezing in there." "Cold and rash." "Cold urticaria causes rash, but it's almost instantaneous and not time-delayed." "And it wouldn't explain his other symptoms." "That's what we did." "We made him cold." "Caps." "Genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the cold-induced autoinflammatory syndrome one gene." "Muckle-wells syndrome ?" "There's only been a couple thousand documented cases in the U.S." "Well, now there's a couple thousand and one." "Fits every symptom there." "We're idiots for not seeing it before." "Treat with Rilonacept." "He'll live a long and healthy life filled with lies to his wife and future child." "# I call you now # # to tell you I'm thinking of you #" "# does me no good # # when the phone is just blocking my view #" "# and I would # # sail back to you #" "# and I would # # sail back to you #" "# and I would come back # # and admit that it wasn't your fault #" "# but I'm tired and unwilling # # to be the only one who was wrong #" "# and I would # # sail back to you #" "# and I would # # sail back to you #" "You okay ?" "Why wouldn't I be ?" "Solved my case." "But your patient died." "I didn't say in time." "It happens." "I can't save everyone." "I just came to apologize." "You're right." "I am turning bitter and cynical inside." "You're finally putting the cat down." "She loves mariachi." "I told you." "Go home and... change." "Party's in a few hours." "You don't have to move out if you don't want to." "I realize you might have had a point." "I've been alone a long time." "And I don't want to end up like House." "What you said about me and my marriage was..." " I was being an ass." " True." "But you were right." "I needed to hear it." "So we're good." "You know, I have a couple tickets..." "Don't push it." "Taub and Foreman done ?" "I'm hitching a ride with them." "Me too." "You're not picking up your date ?" "Naw." "Going solo." "All those meaningless relationships tend to wear a guy out after a while." "We've got 15 minutes to get there if we wanna see the board freak when House's mariachi band marches in." "All of them are gone, Wilson." "They're all dead because I am screwed up." "You lost one patient." "And it wasn't your fault." "What about that mom who gave her baby cancer ?" "If I'd figured that one out quicker, she'd still be a mom alive." "She refused treatment when it was offered." "How is that your fault ?" "And there was that guy" "I spent a day trapped in isolation with." "He was five feet away the whole time." "Just watched him die like an idiot." "Yeah." "You' lost patients before, and you'll lose patients again." "Why..." "Exactly !" "Why ?" "Because love and happiness are... nothing but distractions." "The only thing my relationship with Cuddy has done for me is make me a worse doctor." "Right." "The great Dr. House doesn't deserve to be happy." "You know it's not true." "My happiness is being paid for by other people's lives." "How is she ?" "She's worried." "She's upset that you didn't show up tonight." "I gotta tell her the truth, Wilson." "First..." "First, you're not driving anywhere." "And second, you are definitely not talking to Cuddy like this." "Okay." "I'm gonna walk." "We really, really need to talk." "You're drunk." "And you screwed up big time." "Go home !" "You completely disappeared on me." "You wouldn't even answer your cell phone." "You're gonna want to..." "sit down for this." "Go ahead." "Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit." "I've made a decision." "Being happy and being in love with you... makes me a crappy doctor." "Shut up." "You're too drunk to end this relationship." "I am drunk." "And I'm also right." "You have made me a worse doctor." "And people are gonna die because of that." "And..." "You..." "Are totally worth it." "If I had to choose between... saving everyone and loving you and being happy..." "I choose you." "I choose being happy with you." "I will always choose you." "My head's on your vagina." "Go to sleep, House." "Yeah." "I am kinda tired."