House (2004–2012): Season 5, Episode 1 - Dying Changes Everything - full transcript

PATTY:
Who picked this dump?

LOU: You suggested it.

I suggested
you look into it.

Sorry,
the online reviews...

Were obviously written by some geek
in their own marketing department.

Next time,
call someone you know.

Stop relying on a computer
to do your job for you.

Brightsize Apparel,

eight sexual harassment suits
in two years.

- Who asked for the meeting?
- They did.

(SNEEZES)



(ELEVATOR BELL DINGS)

Patty Michener,
President of Women's Majority.

And, wow,
do you guys need me.

Nine men?

No one thought it might be a good idea
to put a suit on one of the gals

from the steno pool to make
it look like you give a damn?

We've made it a priority
to promote more women, but...

PATTY: Well, from now on,
you have me standing beside you.

Which is good, because your problem
is a national problem.

MAN: With all due
respect, Miss Michener,

I'd hardly call a few isolated
incidents a national problem.

PATTY: Six out of 10 victims
never even report harassment,

this is bigger than
just eight women.

That still only means 20.



Not enough for you?

How many asses does
your corporate policy allow you to grab?

Tell you what
you're going to do,

you're gonna settle with anyone
you haven't settled with,

you're going to fire
any man who's even been accused.

Somebody, help me!

Please, help me!
I can't get them off!

Please help me!
Help me, please!

Somebody help me!
Get them off!

You gonna call an ambulance
or you just gonna sit there and stare?

Help me, please!

(GRUNTING ON TV)

(WOMAN CHATTERING ON PA)

Wilson's back. You gonna...

Been gone two months,

he can wait till I finish slaying a guy
in a skullcap and a pair of tights.

On a video game you stole
from the pediatric ward?

On advice of counsel, I assert
my privilege pursuant to the Fifth.

When was the last time
you talked to him?

Uh, I think
it was after...

When did his
girlfriend die?

He wanted time alone.

I considered being
a horrendous pain in the ass,

but I didn't want to
tread on your turf.

We got a case.

I got to remember
to close the blinds.

Just got a call
from Patty Michener,

from Women's Majority,
the women's rights...

- We know who she is.
- I dated her.

Well,
not really dated her,

more metaphorically raped her
by having a penis.

- You did, too.
- Her assistant flipped out,

ripped off her clothes
in front of a roomful of businessmen.

Either she cracked under the whip,

or she started to realize
that her evolutionary purpose

is to arouse men,
not to castrate them.

Send her to psychiatric...

Anemia, bradycardia,

and abdominal pain
aren't psychiatric symptoms.

Then it's the latter,
send her to my apartment.

I'll give it to Segal.

House actually wants a case,
and you're saying no?

House has more important
things to do.

Sorry, can't help you.

You need a specialist
to remove those kinds of warts.

Preferably one with
experience spelunking.

Hallucinations,
possible memory loss,

tests show anemia,
slow heart rate,

and a stubborn refusal
to shave her pits.

Have you seen Wilson?

No, but I have seen
the patient's frequent flyer balance.

Eastern Europe, Asia,
third-world countries,

sometimes more than one a day.

No fever means it's
not a tropical disease.

If it's not where she went,
maybe it's the work hours.

Could be amphetamine abuse.

She's probably popping
them like breath mints.

You haven't been by
his office?

Is Wilson hallucinating
ants crawling all over him, too?

Tox screen's cleaner
than the windows she won't do.

Her job keeps her
constantly on the road,

probably living off of
airline peanuts and diet soda.

Severe B12 deficiency
could cause all her symptoms.

THIRTEEN:
Why is everyone leaping to conclude

a strong career woman's been made sick
by her strong career?

It's not B12.
It's an insulinoma in her pancreas,

it's making her hypoglycemic.

(SIGHS) Great, now everyone knows.

You knew
the patient had cancer?

Is that what she said?

I thought she said,

"I'm suddenly and irrationally defending
the patient's strong career,

"even though in reality
she's just a glorified grunt

"because I'm trying to convince myself
that it's okay not to have a life,

"'cause I don't have a life,
because I was tested for Huntington's

"and my life span's
been cut in half."

Been waiting two months
for her to say that.

Hallucinations,
anemia, bradycardia...

Hyper segmented pews
says that Taub's fight.

Pump her full of B12,

see how a strong career woman's
been made sick by her strong career.

Are you okay?

It could be years
before you see any symptoms.

Why wouldn't you tell us?

I don't have Huntington's.

Are you lying to us?
Because it's none of our business.

If it's none of your business,
I shouldn't have to answer questions.

And I wouldn't have to,
except House doesn't want to answer

questions about Wilson.

He's deflecting
his own problems onto me.

(ELEVATOR BELL DINGS)
Are you deflecting now?

Time for the B12 cocktail
and my life lesson.

No, Patty'll do the hearing,

she just needs to be
the lead-off witness so she...

Okay.
I'll lock it down today.

Need you back in bed.

My boss has a big Beijing trip,
I've been planning it for months.

I was just tired
and dehydrated...

Yeah, whenever I
lose some shut-eye,

I pound my legs clawing
at imaginary ant colonies.

You have a severe
B12 deficiency.

Get back in bed.

I'm sure your boss
can do without you for a few days.

It's not about her,
it's about me.

I want to be there,
I want to matter.

Yeah, I mean, without you, who knows how
much starch they'd put in her shirts?

I'm sorry, I'm sure your boss
depends on you for...

- I need to get up.
- No, you need to stay in bed.

Please, where's the bed pan?
Oh, my God, I'm sorry, I just...

I just had
a bowel movement.

It's okay,
B12 deficiency can cause sudden...

That's not a bowel movement.

My patient is still fighting in the
feminist trenches, but the war is over.

Yesterday's sluts are
today's empowered women,

today's sluts are celebrities.
If that isn't progress...

I'm leaving.

What, you're gonna take
another two months?

Boy, you're really milking
this bereavement thing, aren't you?

I mean, good for you.
Take all the time you need.

I'm resigning.

Maybe moving out of New Jersey,
I don't know yet.

Okay, that's
an understandable reaction.

It's not a reaction,
it's a decision.

I'm writing Cuddy
my resignation right now.

I'm just back for the week to wrap up
my clinical and administrative duties.

You of all people should know,
this is bereavement 101.

You think that
a change in venue...

Well, that spares me
decades of psychoanalysis.

I'm not saying
you're not in pain.

You're saying
my pain's a cliché.

I'm saying that pain fades.

Did yours?

Physical pain is different.

I'd rather have
my leg chopped off.

You don't know that
'cause you haven't felt...

Neither have you.

Sorry,
patient's got a rectal bleed.

- I'm busy.
- We need you to...

Actually, as you can see,
I'm not busy.

It was just a euphemism
for "get the hell out of here."

This is your grief talking,
and, yeah, it is a bit textbook.

So before you give away all your
possessions to the Salvation Army...

My girlfriend's dead.

I'm glad you've read
that book before, I haven't.

I'm late to meet Dr. Olan to brief him
on the case I'm handing over.

Bye.

It doesn't bother you
that House wouldn't take

just two seconds
to talk about the patient?

Wilson's dealing with a lot.

And our patient may be dying.

She was bleeding out her rear,
we're looking up her rear.

You think we needed House's expertise
to set us on this course?

Her heart rate's slow,
bleed should have made it faster.

And it can wait
till after we know where it came from.

And after he's done
dealing with personal issues.

Yeah?
That the way it works around here?

We get cut slack
while we deal with personal issues?

You're not the boss.

Boss gets to make the rules,
boss gets to ignore...

She's bleeding from nowhere.

You did an endoscopy?

And a colonoscopy.

- CT scan?
- Ordered.

But it shouldn't show anything
the endoscopy didn't.

- We can't do a CT scan.
- Why not?

We don't need a CT scan,
we don't need House.

Stop grinning and talk.

One of the routine pre-procedure tests
was positive.

- Which one?
- The one that if it's positive

would explain
a hormone imbalance

that could screw
with heart rate and blood flow.

Guess she does have a life
beyond her career.

I'm Pregnant?

You want to call the father?
Let him know?

Soon as you do some DNA testing,
let me know.

Must be hard to have
a real relationship when you're...

(CHUCKLES)
Are you making excuses for me?

I'm just saying
it's understandable.

You only have to understand something
if it needs an explanation.

I have needs, I met my needs,
end of explanation.

How recently were you needy?

(SIGHS)
It's been two or three months at least.

What? What is it?

Nothing.

- Tell me.
- It's actually, nothing.

The ultrasound
shows no trace of a baby at all.

Positive pregnancy test,
no pregnancy.

B12 deficit rectified,
but her heart's slowing even more.

And a bleed should
speed her heart rate.

House,
this is the kind of case you love,

contradictions piling up left and right.

Two false positive pregnancy tests,

bradycardia,
lower GI bleed. Go.

Choriocarcinoma,
would've triggered pregnancy hormones.

Also would've shown on the sonogram.

KUTNER:
lmmunoglobulin A deficiency.

No urinary bleed.

If she's had beta-HCG injections,
they can cross-react with...

Keep going.

You're being an idiot.

You're gonna blow up your career,
then six months from now,

when you've moved on
from Amber to burnt sienna,

you're gonna be stuck on a mobile
oncology truck in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

I'd need a flow chart
to explain all the ways in which

that was ridiculously insensitive.

You can't hide from misery.

This isn't your business.

My skull was cracked open
trying to save her.

Then we all need a little tea
and sympathy. I'm through discussing it.

We have a patient.

Who's obviously not going anywhere
with a bloody rectum.

- Great to have you back.
- Actually, I'm...

Actually, he's about to thrust a tanto
into the belly of his career.

I'm leaving the hospital.

I'm sorry. This is obviously
a terrible time, but...

Why are you leaving?

I just need
a change of scenery.

Buy a plant.

Rectal bleeding,
two positive pregnancy tests.

There's nothing we can do...

You could ask House to be a grownup
and respect my decision.

I respect things
that deserve respect.

This decision, on the other hand,
is a dog wearing a cape.

Hallucinations,
heart rate won't respond...

The patient tested positive
for pregnancy

because the patient is pregnant.

(BANGING)

Hey, who are you?

This is Dr. House.

He's too brilliant for introductions.
False positive.

You're too busy to be running
a day care center in your abdomen.

False positive.

Not to mention, you should wait
till at least 30 to punish

that pleasure portal
with a seven-pound tissue expander.

I'm 37.
And I thought I wasn't pregnant.

Thirty-seven? Impressive.

Too bad you're not
passing on those genes.

Does that look false to you?

You were looking
in the wrong room.

It's more common
when the egg lands in the oven,

sometimes it winds up
in the fallopian tubes,

in rare cases, it plummets through
the plumbing entirely.

It's using her intestine
as a blood supply.

Caused the rectal bleed,
and now Junior Miss Steinem's junior

must be pressing on her vagus nerve,
slowing her heart to a crawl.

Yank the fetus. If she survives
the surgery, she'll be fine.

What if she wants
to keep the baby?

She doesn't.

We can't take two seconds
to discuss this?

I mean, fetuses have been
transplanted before,

whole uteruses, too.

Just terminating the fetus
when it's glued to her intestines

is high-risk surgery,
saving it is a fantasy.

That was at least three seconds.

She's a 37-year old woman
who deserves...

People get what they get,

it has nothing to do
with what they deserve.

And this has nothing to do
with her genitalia

and everything to do
with your genetics.

You told me to get tested.

I didn't know
it was gonna color

your every medical opinion,
every personal opinion.

You didn't think
a death sentence would...

People die.
You, Amber, everyone.

Don't act like you
just figured that out.

I gave you a diagnosis, you don't
like it, there are exits on every floor.

(DOOR OPENING)

(SIGHS)

I'm sorry to be
so definitive about this.

I know you're still absorbing the news,
but we have no choice but to...

Remove the fetus, absolutely.

I have no boyfriend,
no husband,

I'm on the road with Patty
all the time.

Where do I sign?

Oh!

Feel any tenderness back here?

No, not at all.

So you're treating
professional sports injuries now?

No, I'm not...

Familiar with the concept of sarcasm.

Don't sweat it, it's new.
Have you spoken to Wilson?

We'll get you an EKG.
I'll be right back.

You want me to sleep with him
to get him to stay?

I put the bisexual chick on that,
but if you'd like to sit in,

- so to speak.
- I spoke to him.

What did you tell him?

I didn't tell him anything.
I listened.

So you could feel good
about doing nothing.

- Tell him...
- I am not your errand girl,

the best thing
about leaving you.

The two of you
used to be together?

She dumped me when I lost
the last 85 pounds.

Said there was
less of me to love.

Grief means different things
to different people,

case in point,
means very little to you.

Grief is Newark.

Okay, it's there, you can't avoid it,
but the idea is to hold your nose,

hope the traffic's
not too bad

and get on to Manhattan as quickly
as possible, not to buy property.

You think that's
facing up to things?

I'm not the one
who's quitting.

'Cause you haven't lost anything.

But you have.
He'll listen to you.

What did you do
when your husband died?

I got a new job,
and I moved.

See how crappy
that worked out.

CHASE: Separating the placenta
from the wall of the large intestine.

Sponge.
Suction, we got some bleeding.

(BEEPING)

TAUB: BP's dropping,
90 systolic.

CHASE:
And bleeding like hell, clamp.

TAUB: BP's still dropping.

CHASE:
Amp of calcium chloride, fast.

- Still dropping.
- Shut up.

Squeeze her spleen,

we need to force some platelets out
so her blood clots.

She's in weak shape,
spleen's friable, it could rupture.

(RAPID BEEPING)

WOMAN:
She's stabilizing, oozing's drying up.

And I hate Visitor's Day.

Removing the fetus.

Bye.

You have to stop Wilson
from committing career malpractice.

Talk to him.

Already talked to him twice,
he threw me out.

Mocking him and insulting him,
let's see, yes,

technically,
those are categories of conversation.

Block his references to other hospitals,

tell him
he can't hand off his cases until...

Talk to him.

Deal with his grief, talk to him
about what he's going through.

That's a brilliant idea.
I'll take him out for a beer,

that'll make up for the fact
that Amber's in a pine box,

that there's randomness and chaos
in the universe.

Tell him you're sorry.

I didn't kill her.

You were drunk and...

Yeah, if her daddy hadn't been drunk,
she might never have been born. So...

You called her up in
the middle of the night,

she was on the bus
because of you.

I didn't ask her to come out,
I wasn't driving the bus,

I wasn't driving the garbage truck
that hit the bus,

and I did not prescribe her
the flu meds that killed her.

Yes, I know,
that's all true, but...

You really don't feel
any sense of guilt?

You want to keep him,
he needs to know he's not alone.

Just tell him
you feel like crap.

It'd be meaningless.

Well, then find some meaning.
And do something.

She's got
a neurological problem.

Surgical complication?

Don't think so,
she keeps on blinking.

THIRTEEN:
Her heart's not recovering either.

So the pregnancy
was a coincidence?

Pulse's down to 39,
she's maxed out on atropine.

We're installing
a pacing wire to...

(RAPID BEEPING)

Avoid that.
We need some help in here!

FOREMAN: Page House.

- Already paged him.
- Page him again.

(VIBRATING)

It's for you.

If I told you that I was sorry,
would it change anything?

I wouldn't believe you.

If you believed me.

It's hard to imagine such a world.

I'm going home

until you agree
to stay at this hospital.

You can't be... That's blackmail.
And to do your job?

Why not hold a gun
to your own head?

Your conscience bleeds
more freely than my head.

(VIBRATING)

Text. Patient's in cardiac arrest.
Ouchy.

You'd jeopardize a patient
because of my...

If it keeps you here.

Your friendship matters more to me
than this patient.

I've gotta do what's right for me.
You gotta do what's right for you.

Yeah.
But it comes easier for me.

(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)

(BEEPING)
Where is he? Where is he?

Status?

FOREMAN:
Her heart's stabilized,

we have a pacing wire in her, but the
bradycardia's not getting any better.

House was bluffing.

I called him three times,
he's not picking up.

- What do you want us to do?
- Same thing you'd do if he was here.

If he was here,
we'd be asking him what to do.

- What are the usual suspects?
- There aren't any.

She had a vitamin deficiency
and we corrected it,

an ectopic pregnancy,
we removed it.

But her heart problem
won't go away,

and now something's
wrong with her brain.

I have complete confidence
in you guys.

Who wants to go service House
so this patient can live?

We can do this without him.

Maybe something happened
during the surgery, caused her to...

Surgery was on her bowel,
not her brain.

Anxiety, stroke, Tourette's,
could all cause eye-blinking.

And cause her heart to beat faster,
it's slowing down.

MS. If a lesion took out the
sympathetic innervation of her heart,

it'd explain
the bradycardia and the blinking.

But not the vitamin deficiency
or the ectopic pregnancy.

House would want
a unifying theory.

House is gone.
And so are those symptoms.

MS explains everything
that's wrong with her right now.

Start her on interferon
for MS.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

Mind if I come in?

Not at all.
You mind if I leave?

I told you not to take that case

specifically so you could deal
with Wilson.

And the two ended up dovetailing
rather nicely, don't you think?

This is how you show your friendship?
By bludgeoning him with guilt?

Because he's my friend,
I know what works on him.

Well, I can't let you
walk away from a patient.

Then fire me.

You're willing to risk your career
but you're not willing to say sorry?

I told him I'm sorry,
he didn't believe it.

- Well, make him believe it.
- I don't believe it.

You don't want
to believe it.

Because if you tell Wilson
how you actually feel about him,

about what
happened to Amber,

about your part in what happened,
and he walks out the door anyway,

if you make yourself
vulnerable for once

in your nerve-deadening,
emotionally-obliterating...

You're doing the same thing he is,
you're running away.

Only he's not killing
anyone in the process.

Where's Dr. House?

He's not feeling well.

Was MS his idea?

We work as a team.
You know how it is,

collaborative, sometimes it's hard
to tell where an idea comes from.

But you're not really a team.
You work for him.

And you work for Patty.

I'm sure a lot of
her ideas are actually...

She would be fine without me.

I'd be nothing without her.

Maybe if you just had the chance.
I'm sure you've learned a lot.

Not everybody's created equal.

Does Dr. House think
I have MS?

Yes.

(SHIVERS)

Did you just shiver?

You're running a slight fever.

Is that bad?

It means we were wrong
about the MS.

You had my cable disconnected.

Well, that's quite a leap.

Just because I happen to have
a 31 -person maintenance department,

each of whom you've personally abused
at some point...

Why?

'Cause you think I'm okay
with letting someone die,

but I'm gonna fold
if I can't watch celebrity bowling?

That is not an unreasonable theory,

especially with only
10 minutes till your favorite soap.

Gee, is this the remote
from the doctors' lounge?

This is your 911? Goodbye.

Stop.

I'm withholding your salary history from
every hospital in the Tri-State Area.

You go, girl.

And I'm permanently setting every TV
in this building to the Pottery Channel

unless you both sit down.

Welcome to couples counseling.

TAUB: It's not the surgery.

Timing fits.

The location doesn't,
unless her brain's in her bowels.

If bacteria entered her bloodstream,

it could have caused
an infection in her brain.

TAUB: The surgery went fine.
You were there, you saw...

Peptostreptococcus
could explain the blinking and...

No. You want to watch a grainy video
and have an epiphany.

Shut up, you're making me
miss House's mocking.

I know you told us
it was none of our business,

but if House thinks that your
Huntington's is affecting you,

- maybe it really...
- It's not, because I don't have...

You're desperate to do this
without him.

You're not trying to cure her,
you're trying to prove...

Stop the tape.

Zoom in.

On the anastomosis,
that little bump.

It's a hematoma,
a harmless pocket of blood,

which is why Chase ignored it
during the surgery.

Could be a ganglioma, which is
why Chase shouldn't have ignored it.

If it's an abnormal growth of nerves,

it could be causing
all the patient's symptoms.

We have to open her up again,
get a piece of it.

So what do you
want to tell us?

Nothing.

Nothing I say is gonna change anything.
You guys need to talk.

Actually, you should read
the latest psych literature,

repression's gaining
a lot of fans.

What you don't face
can't crush you.

Talk to each other.

(SIGHS)

How you doing? Good?

Fine. Thanks.

(EXCLAIMS)
Sit.

See, the two of you are friends,
look how you both...

Think you're an idiot.

We both also eat with forks,
that doesn't really prove...

Talk to him. Tell him how you feel
about what he's doing.

I told him
he's an idiot.

Tell him what you think
about him leaving.

I think he's an idiot.

CUDDY: You're an idiot.

He's in pain, and your response
is just to emotionally blackmail him.

You told me
what your position is on that one.

You're against it, right?

She hasn't told you in front of me.
She needs to prove she's on my side.

Go to hell.

So much for that theory.

I'm sorry you lost Amber.

I cannot imagine what it is
you're going through,

but it will not get better

by you walking away
from everyone that cares about you.

Do you think Amber
would want you to walk away?

Nobody at this hospital
even liked Amber.

Same time next week?

You want me to do a second
major surgery on a patient

we almost lost
during a first major surgery

to see if she needs
a third major surgery?

We need a piece
of the ganglioma.

Then you're talking
about another patient,

yours doesn't
have a ganglioma.

And if there is one
and you missed it?

Then you're talking about
another surgeon, I didn't miss anything.

But we're not talking
about another videotape,

this one showed a bump,
we need to biopsy it.

A bump? Oh, yeah,
my grandfather died of a bump.

She can't survive a second round of
general anesthesia, let alone a third.

You'd do this for House.

Yeah.

Then what do you suggest?

Because the patient's got
a high fever, a low heart rate,

and a dim chance of survival
if we stand here like idiots.

Then I suggest
you don't stand there like idiots.

How do you get coal out of a mountain
when it's someone else's mountain?

If we don't have House,
doesn't mean we can't think like House.

But it does mean
we don't have to talk like him.

You don't dig down.
You go in from the side.

We insert a lighted scope
through the rectum,

move the intestine
till we find the ganglioma,

then push it to the surface.
Where we see the light, we cut.

We'll make as small
an incision as we can,

but unfortunately
it'll be very painful.

After your surgery experience,
we can't give you anesthesia...

Can I talk to Dr. House?

No.

We can do this,
we know what we're doing.

I don't mean
to be insulting,

but my former boss didn't insist on me
coming here because of you or...

Your former boss?

I've been replaced.

- I'm sorry. I mean, you must be...
- I'm fine.

She has a big Beijing trip,

ton of work to do, she can't just wait
for me to get better.

We've been well trained,
we'll take good care of you.

How can you let her
treat you like a footstool?

The world needs flunkies.

Don't say that,
you're better than that.

I have no problem with it.
Why do you?

Because life is short.

I mean,
yours could've ended in that surgery.

You'd have never lived for yourself.
What kind of feminist...

- We can have anything.
- No, we can't.

We can aspire to anything. But we
don't get it just because we want it.

I would rather spend my life
close to the birds

than waste it
wishing I had wings.

FOREMAN: You're through the sigmoid,
into the descending colon.

Switching on the light.

Advance toward
the anastomosis.

That's it.

Push the wall of the intestine
toward the skin.

There, I see it.

Don't look down.

Scalpel.

So your last day is Friday?

I'm gonna miss you.

You shouldn't go.

Did House ask you to talk to me?
Or are you trying to save the patient,

- because there'll always be another...
- House asked me.

- And you're doing it?
- I told him to go to hell.

Thanks.

But I think he's right.

You think you're making a rational
choice. You think the worst is over,

and then six months later,
you look back and you realize

you didn't know
what you were doing.

Are you saying the pain
doesn't go away?

It gets easier.

Not in two months.
Not in two years.

But, no, it never
really goes away.

Being here,
in this building...

I was just in the lounge,
I kept staring at Amber's locker.

I saw a guy
wearing a scarf this morning.

The color reminded me of his eyes.

We lived 500 miles from here.

I have to do something.

Then do it.

But don't think it's the right choice,
because there isn't one.

It's not a ganglioma,
the problem wasn't the surgery.

Abnormally deposited proteins.
It's amyloidosis.

It would explain the blinking
and the low heart rate.

The only way to treat amyloidosis
is to treat whatever's causing it.

It's not as if a lot of things
cause amyloid, rheumatoid arthritis.

Familial Mediterranean fever.

Lymphoma.

Well, we can't all be right.

But you can all be wrong.
Patient's joints don't hurt,

abdominal pain went away
when the fetus did,

and no palpable lymph nodes.

Got anything
constructive to say?

Sorry. Sorry.

She has lots and lots
of palpable lymph nodes,

joint and abdominal pain,
she'll be better by dinner time.

If we don't find
the cause of the amyloidosis,

we never get her off that wire,
she never walks out of this hospital.

But, hey, who needs House?
So glad we lost those training wheels.

You want me to
make the call?

There seems to be
some disagreement.

And this isn't just a pretext
to pressure me into staying?

Does it look
like a pretext?

No.

She really is dying,
isn't she?

Inflammation, enlarged nuclei, some
mitotic activity. It could be lymphoma.

There are no palpable
lymph nodes.

Makes it less likely,
but doesn't rule it out.

I'm an oncologist,
I see cancer.

Show it to an immunologist,
they'll see autoimmune.

I already showed it
to an immunologist.

We'll start her on chemo.

You should leave.

House doesn't want
to lose his sidekick.

Cuddy doesn't want
to lose her check on House.

No one's talking
about what you want.

It's not that I want to.

Want to, need to.

If there's any chance
that being away from here

will make your life
even a little bit easier, do it.

That's what everyone else here would do.

Don't expect anything
to change too fast.

Lymphoma was your idea?

Why?

I feel better.

Sometimes just knowing
you're being treated helps.

You've given me 18 different treatments,

this is the first one
that made me feel better.

I don't think
it's psychological.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have
gotten angry at you.

Your choices
are your choices.

You're not like me.

Maybe you have wings.

I have Huntington's Chorea.

Dozen years or so,
my nervous system, my cognitive skills,

even my emotional balance,
they'll all start to fray.

I won't be able to fly,
I won't be able to walk,

I won't be able to breathe.

And you want to make sure
your life matters?

I don't want to just be tightening bolts
and following instructions.

I want something to be different
because of me.

I am.

Not just 'cause
you saved my life.

I'm applying for a job at a foundation.
Running the finance division.

I mean, I don't know if
I'm gonna get it,

but if I don't,
there are other foundations.

(SIGHS)

It's almost 4:00.
Soap time.

(GASPS)

Nurses' remote,
works in the doctors' lounge.

Why do you think
Wilson's leaving?

How many times
do I have to use the word "idiot"?

And that's
a good enough answer for you?

Whenever anyone does
anything out of the norm,

you have to tell them what screwed-up
process is really at work in their head.

That's why I locked
the two of you in a room,

so you would say
something stupid and insensitive

and maybe
with a little bit of truth.

But you didn't.

So I can only assume
that you don't want to know the reason.

You're afraid to know.

You're not listening to me,
are you?

Try it sometime,
you'll see why.

You look 37.

I am 37.

You looked 27 last week.

Unless I blacked out for 10 years,
your skin...

She has got lymphoma,
chemo's probably...

- Stop the chemo.
- She's getting better.

Bradycardia's improving,
we didn't...

She have bruising?

She was pounding her legs
during the hallucinations.

It's not lymphoma.

Hey, don't...
No, no, no.

(GROANING)

My bad.
Thought "no" meant "yes".

Those aren't bruises,
they're mycobacterial lesions.

She has diffuse lepromatous leprosy,

must've caught it on
one of her overseas estrogen tours.

Chemo wipes out some of the bacteria,
she feels a little better,

wipes out most of her immune system,
she gets a whole lot worse.

Leprosy?
Like where my limbs fall off?

Actually, this is the flattering one.
It's also known as "pretty leprosy".

Doesn't disfigure,
makes your skin look younger, smoother.

Don't let the girls hear,
they'll all want to lick your face.

Unless you're that kind of feminist.

Blast her with antibiotics
and prednisone, she'll be fine.

Damn, it's after 4:00.
I'm late.

- Damn.
- What?

She's happy
you're gonna be fine,

but she'd be happier if you were
gonna be fine five minutes ago.

Test confirmed
Dr. House's diagnosis.

Thank God.

When you got pregnant,

the physical stress
triggered e-nodosum leprosum,

a common complication of leprosy.

Inflamed the nerves to your heart,
made it hard to absorb vitamins,

scarred your fallopian tubes.
It explains everything.

Better prescribe me
some skin cream, too, huh?

You might want it
for those job interviews.

I'm going back on the road with Patty.
My replacement flamed out.

She says I can manage some projects
on my own, carve out more of a role.

Do you really think she can change?

I don't know.

The truth is I'm not sure I...

You can change.

No.

I'm not sure
I want her to change.

If she's reasonable,
if she's just another employer,

then I'm just another employee.

In a weird way, I matter.

I like you better now
that you're dying.

I was wrong.

You took a shot.

She's going back to work for that idiot.
It's pathetic.

You thought something would change?

She almost died because of that job.
Yeah, I thought...

Almost dying changes nothing.

Dying changes everything.

I'm sorry.
I know I didn't try to kill her,

I know I didn't want her hurt,
I know it was a freak accident,

but I feel like crap,
and she's dead because of me.

I don't blame you.

I wanted to. I tried to.

I must've reviewed Amber's case file
a hundred times to find a way...

But it wasn't your fault.

Then we're okay?

I mean, I know you're not,
but maybe I can help.

We're not okay.

Amber was never the reason
I was leaving.

I didn't want
to tell you because...

(CHUCKLES)

Because I was trying,
like I always do, to protect you,

which is the problem.

You spread misery
because you can't feel anything else.

You manipulate people because you can't
handle any kind of real relationship.

And I've enabled it for years,
the games, the binges,

the middle-of-the-night phone calls.

I should have been the one
on the bus, not...

You should have been alone on the bus.

If I've learned anything from Amber,
it's that I have to take care of myself.

We're not friends anymore,
House.

I'm not sure we ever were.