House (2004–2012): Season 5, Episode 12 - Painless - full transcript

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(WRITING)

(EXHALES)

Damn it, Zach. This is the last time
I'm turning around.

The next time you forget something,
you're gonna be on your own.

I can't play
without a stick.

Then I guess
you won't play.

I don't care.
I suck anyway.

Don't say that.

I'm the worst guy
on the whole team.

- No, you're not.
- Then who's worse?



Don't worry about anyone else,
just do your best.

See? You can't
name anyone.

Zach, stop it.

Then name someone.

You can't, can you?

Donny, Mark, Navid...

You really think
I'm better than those guys?

Yes.

Hurry up and
get your stick.

Zach, get back
in the car.

I need an ambulance
at 860 Oakwood Avenue.

Why is Dad's car on?

Get back in
the car, Zach!

(GRUNTING)



Come on.

(PANTING)

Don't do this to me,
Jeff. Don't do this!

(COUGHS)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

I'm sorry. I just...
I couldn't take the pain anymore.

(PANTING)

(WOMAN CHATTERING ON PA )

Either I need a new watch or Mowgli
is cutting into your beauty sleep.

I was up all night
looking at finance reports,

and Rachel is doing great,
thanks for asking.

Proving that you're a better foster mom
than a homeless drug addict.

Departmental budgets
are due this week.

I'm gonna need
an extension.

I've got some
time next decade...

Cameron already
turned yours in.

That's nice of her.

Two questions, why did she,
and why are you telling me?

Same answer.
Now you owe her a favor.

I'm gonna need an extension.
I've got some time...

House, I've got a DYFS
home visit on Friday.

And I've got
a W-H-O-R-E visit on...

Mama's busy.

You two are gonna have to go play
outside for a while.

32-year-old male
with chronic pain all over.

This is the favor?

I was expecting something involving
whipped cream and tongue depressors.

He's seen seven different
specialists over three years,

no diagnosis and no relief.

Oh, I am fascinated already.
It's like I'm treating myself.

He gets cured, and I get to learn
a valuable lesson

about the milk of
human kindness.

If I thought you learned lessons,
I never would have quit.

So you're wasting
a favor because...

I think you can help this guy.

Drug-seeking patients...

Don't attempt suicide with medicine
cabinets full of narcotics.

Sounds like fibromyalgia.

Sounds like you
don't work for House.

A diagnosis that provides
neither an explanation nor a cure

is, by definition,
not a diagnosis.

The American College of Rheumatology
would disagree.

There're specific
diagnostic criteria...

Which this guy
doesn't meet.

Putting pressure on his pain helps,
doesn't make it worse.

He's got abdominal pain,
severe headaches,

muscle cramps that come and go.

And he tried
to off himself.

He's, obviously, mentally ill.
The pain's probably psychological.

It's not a sign of mental illness
to wanna be pain-free.

It is if your solution
is sucking on a tailpipe.

Sane people don't attempt suicide.

Not ever?

So, if you were being burnt
at the stake

and someone
handed you a gun...

I'd shoot the guys
with the torches.

Not one doctor this guy's seen
in the past three years

has been able to find a single thing
wrong with him.

What does that tell you?

It means they're idiots.

It means we got to
start from the beginning.

And do a pain profile to
rule out psychosomatic pain.

Search the home. Go home.
Get a refill. And a donut.

I'll help with the home.

"Choose the statement
in each group

"that best describes how you've been
feeling lately, including today."

I'm not depressed.
I know what I did was stupid.

"I usually sleep well.
I have some trouble with sleep."

"I have a lot of
trouble with sleep.

I have a lot of trouble.

It's up and down.

Between the pain and the meds,
his sleep pattern's pretty erratic.

"He's a calm person. He's more nervous
than most people.

"He's so nervous
he's miserable."

He's definitely calm.

Sometimes calmer
the worse the pain gets.

I think talking, interacting with other
people, actually makes it worse.

Interesting.

Why, does that
mean something?

No, it's just...

We've seen that
in other patients.

TAUB: "He can do chores
around the house.

"With help he can do chores.
He no longer can do chores."

ZACH: He helps all the time.

He's really strong. He used to play
hockey. He was really good, too.

"I believe there's hope.

Hoping for things to get
better is a struggle for me.

"Most of the time
I feel completely hopeless."

He still laughs,
all the time.

LYNNE: He was always optimistic.
Still is. It's just, it's harder now.

I guess I pray for
strength more than hope.

There's nothing in there but a
pharmacy's worth of pain meds.

This guy makes House look
like a Christian Scientist.

He's also more compliant than House.
Kept all the inserts.

Had daily pill dispensers
to make sure he didn't mix them up.

Guess if you're gonna go out in a car,
this ain't a bad one to choose.

If I ever did it, it definitely
wouldn't be like that.

Don't worry,
I'm not making any plans.

I certainly wouldn't know.

Ever since we kissed,
you've been avoiding me.

No, I haven't.
I've just been busy.

Metal polish could cause nerve damage,
if he inhaled enough of it.

And judging by the shine on that car,
he used a fair amount.

And judging by the fact that he owns
a body shop, and one of these,

I'd say he knew
not to inhale.

Busy tonight?
We could get some dinner.

I don't think so.

So, making out, okay,
meals, too intimate?

I don't wanna kiss
you again, either.

Why? Because
we work together?

No. Because I like you.

That makes a lot of sense.

What doesn't make sense is me getting
involved with anyone.

I thought you'd gotten past that. That's
why you agreed to the drug trial.

You can't give up
on life because...

I'm not giving up on life,
I'm just giving up on you.

I finally feel like I have a grip
on things, I can handle this.

What I can't handle is dragging anyone
else down with me.

Does this look like
quail to you?

TAUB: You think he's had food poisoning
every day for the last three years?

THIRTEEN: Wild quail can be toxic,
cause rhabdomyolysis,

which would explain his pain as well as
the elevated CK levels.

So would the carbon monoxide
he sucked out of his car.

It's not a toxic reaction,
it's a psychosomatic reaction.

The pain profile showed an excessive
concern about his physical health,

difficulty sleeping,
getting out of bed...

He's not in pain
because he's depressed,

he's depressed
because he's in pain.

Not according to the pain profile
you ordered. It's not a diet issue.

We should start him on antidepressants,
for his sake as well as his family's.

We're not diagnosing
his family.

We're not diagnosing
you, either.

It's rhabdo.

Push IV fluids, check his urine,
do a muscle biopsy.

What muscle?
He says it hurts all over.

Then she'll
biopsy all over.

Where are you going?

If Cuddy can come in late,
I can leave early.

If you need anything while I'm gone,
just ask Cameron to do it.

So if he just stops eating quail,
the pain will go away?

If we're right,
it's definitely treatable.

(JEFF BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GRUNTING) My arm,
it's starting to...

He needs more medicine.

KUTNER: BP's down. We need to get him
in Trendelenburg position.

Jeff, can you hear me?

KUTNER: He's arresting.

THIRTEEN: We need
a crash cart in here!

(ALARMS BEEPING)

(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)

(SIGHS)

He's not answering
his cell, either.

V-Q scan showed
a pulmonary embolism.

Means the pain's
not psychosomatic.

Also means it's
not rhabdomyolysis.

Up till now his heart and lungs were
the only places he didn't have pain.

Means it's getting worse.

(PHONE RINGING)

You gotta let the phone ring

more than four times when you're calling
a cripple.

Chronic pain and
pulmonary embolism, go.

- How'd you know he had a...
- Call after midnight,

it's gotta be a heart problem. Heart
only would be consistent with rhabdo,

which means Thirteen and Foreman
would be singing in the rain,

which means it has
to be lungs as well.

Hypercoagulable state
could cause pain and a PE.

You think the blood clot was caused by
a clotting problem. That's helpful.

What if it's a cancer syndrome,
like Trousseau's?

Explains blood clots, multi-focal pain,
lack of obvious physical signs...

And why he's gone three years
without anyone seeing it.

Check his chest, abdomen,
and pelvis for tumors.

Why did he think only you two
would be singing in the rain?

(WATER RUNNING)

Bone windows are normal.

Checking for cancerous
masses in the lungs.

So, who do you know
who committed suicide?

Hemingway, Goebbels,
Romeo and Juliet...

Your mom, dad?

Saying I wouldn't do it
under any circumstances

means my whole
family was suicidal?

No. But categorically
insisting there are no circumstances

means you've got baggage,
personal betrayal, abandonment...

Just because you grew up
in a Charles Dickens novel...

It's people like me
who don't do it.

When your life sucks from the beginning,
nowhere to go but up.

Thorax is clear,
no tumors in the lungs.

The only betrayal comes from
father of the year in there.

He has a wife, a kid, people
who count on him to have a pulse.

Okay-

Switching to high-res
cuts of the abdomen.

My parents live
very happily in Queens.

They never attempted, thought about, or
attempted to think about committing...

What?

There, along his diaphragm.

That's not cancer.

No hurry. I already bathed
once this week.

I wouldn't
want to look elitist.

Can't do anything till
I write up an estimate.

Fine. Pad it all you want.
Here's a check for the deductible.

Don't touch the piano,
and lock up when you leave.

Sorry, deductible
doesn't apply here.

I'm no architect,
but I'm pretty sure the master bedroom

is part of the home,
which means the home warranty...

Doesn't cover negligence.

This pipe goes through the ceiling,
over that wall and into your shower.

It didn't burst,
it was pulled apart.

Yeah, 'cause I'm clearly a guy who likes
to knock out a few naked pull-ups

before I greet the day.

You hang laundry in there?

I'm about to hang
a plumber in there.

Look, there's no rust,
there's no corrosion.

I don't know how it happened,
but I know what happened,

and it's not covered.

So, whenever you're ready
to spend the $2,200,

give somebody else a call.

I promise, I'm only holding your hand
to check for choreiform movement.

I'm getting absolutely
no intimacy from it.

I told you, it has
nothing to do with you.

I know.
That's the problem.

There's 80 reasons we shouldn't date.
But you can't shut everyone out.

You're gonna
need help, support.

Look at our patient.
Thirty-two years old, not dead yet,

and already
he's traumatized his wife, his son...

And I'll bet they're cherishing every
traumatic minute he has left,

wouldn't trade him
for the healthiest guy in the world.

True. And they're stuck suffering
with him, hating every day,

only their pain has
no prospect of relief.

This a bad time?

- No.
- Yes.

No trace of cancer
in the patient.

But we did find edema
in his intestines,

air in the intestinal blood vessels,
and House won't answer his phone.

His intestine must be damaged,
the air's leaking into his body.

If there's a blockage
in the superior mesenteric artery,

it could be
choking off blood flow to his intestine.

Blockages all over his body
would explain his pain,

why the cramps come and go.

Do an angioplasty
on the superior mesenteric,

and find the other blockages,
before he has another cardiac arrest.

I'll help.

Good thing we don't
have a suicidal patient

with a horrific,
undiagnosed pain disorder.

We did,
till we diagnosed it.

We found intestinal edema
and air in the blood vessels.

The pain was vascular.

If it was vascular,
we would've seen uneven pulses.

His blood pressure was uneven.
Thirteen and Kutner are doing an angio.

He'd have hemorrhages
in his fingers.

There's air in the intestine,
it has to have come from somewhere.

Yes, it does.

After we thread the catheter
through his groin and into position,

the blood will start
flowing freely again.

Will that take
away the pain?

It will be completely ineffective,
and the pain will completely go away.

- Cancel the angio.
- He has air in his blood vessels.

If we don't open
the artery to his intestine...

Where can air come from?

Hmm.

Air can either come from a breach
of the lumen in the small intestine,

or, in rare instances,
air can come from the air.

Teeth marks.

I'm guessing from
when he blew into his IV tube.

Air bubble caused
the PE and cardiac arrest.

You tried to finish the job
that you started at home.

Jeff, why?
You said that...

I lied.

I want to die.

Please just let me die.

No.

KUTNER: He's in
a hyperbaric chamber.

A dose of high pressure ought
to chase the air out of his blood.

CUDDY: Is anyone
keeping an eye on him?

You know, because
the whole idea of suicide watch

was specifically created
for suicidal patients.

I realize how you might have thought
the name was just a coincidence...

Are there any
visuals in this room

that are key to us learning our lesson?
Because the telephone...

I'm inconveniencing you
because you inconvenienced me.

(BABY GURGLING)

When was the last
time you showered?

Scent of a man.

I realize you haven't
experienced it sober.

If anyone should be able to handle
a depressed pain patient...

He insisted
he was no longer...

Apparently, he lied.

Didn't think I'd have to remind
you of that remote possibility.

I have a DYFS inspection in less than
24 hours, so if you can't control...

Non-motor seizures.

Sorry, I was thinking about the patient.
What were you saying?

- Go on.
- The pain started in his abdomen,

near his intestine.
The first symptom's got to be key.

HOUSE: He's had multiple EEGs,

all of them cleaner and squeakier
than Cuddy's rubber nipples.

What about a glycogen-storage
disease, like McArdle's.

Explains the pain,

plus there's plenty of muscle cells
in the wall of the intestine.

Foreteen is right.
Go run an ischemic forearm test.

Take the garbage
out on your way out.

If you want a man to take your crap,
you have to marry him first.

Or employ him.

Good girl.

I don't think I'm ready
to run a decathlon yet.

If we can get you managing your life
a bit better, that'll be plenty.

Dr. Hadley,
whenever you're ready.

Janice.

(CHUCKLES)

You look better.

Yeah, they said my basal ganglia
volume's improved.

All I know is,
for the first time in two years,

I can drink a cup of water
without spilling it all over myself.

Thank you for getting me
back in the study.

I haven't even
seen you in weeks,

I didn't even know our appointments
were back-to-back again.

Well, they weren't.
Mine got switched this morning.

We're gonna take
your blood repeatedly.

If the increased strain
makes your arm hurt more,

you have a muscle abnormality.

If you're right about this McArdle's
disease, can you take away the pain?

With gene replacement therapy,

with lifestyle changes,
we can reduce it.

Keep squeezing
the ball.

(GRUNTS)

How long does he have to...

Maybe you and Zach
should eat something.

LYNNE: Honey,
don't worry about us.

I'm not.

Please, get out of here.
These tests are all I can handle.

TAUB: They're trying
to help you.

They can't.

Then how about helping them?
You know, by not being...

An ass? You have no idea
what I'm going through.

I know it's better than
what you tried to go through.

Sure, no baggage at all.

- Where's the pain worst right now?
- In my left arm.

- Does it hurt more?
- Couldn't.

And lactate level's steady.
It's not any kind of glycogen...

(SCREAMING) Oh, God! Pain jumped to
my leg. This never happened before.

Your chest, your abdomen,
you feel anything there?

My leg feels like
it's been sawed off.

- Nice.
- What?

Switching Janice's appointment time,
so I can see the skies brighten

- like a Lifetime TV movie.
- I don't know what you're...

Sticking your most improved study
participant in my face.

Is that your way of
getting into my pants?

I don't make the schedule, and if I did,
I wouldn't use it as a social lubricant.

And this is the first
I've heard of Janice improving at all.

So, hey, thanks
for the good news.

Pain started
in his abdomen.

Now it's hopped from his left arm to his
left leg, skipping the trunk entirely.

- I need the name of a good lawyer.
- We're getting sued?

Probably.
That's Cuddy's problem.

Hopping pain. Means it's something
in his brain, not his body.

Except the pain's in two places

that connect two separate regions
of the brain,

which means you're
not using yours.

Come on, you're from one
of the Twelve Tribes,

you must know
a ton of shysters.

What type of lawyer
do you need?

I'll bring it up at the next world
domination subcommittee meeting.

I didn't say I needed a lawyer, I said I
needed the name of a lawyer.

Pain hopped to another limb on the same
side, it's gotta be central...

Could still be peripheral.
If multiple areas of disc disease...

Were consistent with
a completely spotless MRI.

Who represented the hospital when you
set that patient on fire?

Chris Carrick.

Chris.

That doesn't sound like
a very good lawyer.

If we can't even resolve
body versus brain,

we're never gonna diagnose the guy.

What was the
name of the firm?

Caddell and Carrick.

It's not like we can chop off his head
to see if the pain goes away.

Why not?

(DOOR OPENS)

Need to cut off
a guy's head.

Gotta figure out if
his pain's

coming from
his brain or his body.

Stiff shot of Lidocaine
below the brain stem

should numb him all the way down
to his tippy-toes.

And hearing me say "no" over the phone
wasn't good enough?

I'm inconveniencing you because you
inconvenienced me.

You know that foster care official
is coming in the morning...

If they weren't
there'd be no inconvenience.

Do not try and force me
to choose between my child and this...

I'm forcing you
to do your job.

- If you can't also...
- Fine.

You want to separate
a patient's central nervous system

from the rest
of his body.

If the pain stays, it's in his brain.
If it vanishes...

What about options three,
four and five?

His respiratory system freezes,
or he dies of infection,

or he leaks CNS fluid
like a fire hydrant,

which would
make him wish he were dead.

Scratch option five,
he's already there.

You preach objectivity, but as soon
as a patient comes in, in pain,

all you want to do is
look under the hood.

You don't care if there's a one-in-three
chance you'll kill him.

If I don't diagnose him, there's a
one-in-one chance he'll kill himself.

(PAGER BEEPING)

I gotta go-

Do whatever it is
you think is right.

(BABY CRYING)

Tammy. You said you were gonna
be a little late.

DYFS is gonna be here in an hour,
and this place is a disaster.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

Never mind.

This should numb everything
from your shoulders down.

Any pain
that's peripheral should be gone.

What are you doing here?

Just stretching my leg.
Carry on.

Bad pain day today?

About to get better.

Don't worry, he's
making yours a double.

(SCOFFS)

I remember when the drugs
still made things tolerable,

when I still thought
I had good days left.

Turns out you have
to live to find out.

JEFF: You don't have
a family, do you?

Left them all back
on Krypton.

You're alone.
That's why you can handle your pain.

No need to put up a front,
to be what anyone else wants you to be.

You're having more
bad days lately, aren't you?

Yes.

Take a look at your future.
Let's hope the drugs work this time.

(GROANING)

I really wasn't
expecting you till later.

Had a cancellation, so I thought
I'd knock you off the docket.

Well, I'm sorry this place
is such a mess,

it's been a bit
of a difficult work week.

- Any guns in the house?
- No.

- Pets? Besides the ants?
- No.

Nice bag. Pricey way
to ditch the diapers.

That's not what I usually...
I sort of panicked.

Mr. Carlton, if you'll just give me
a minute to explain...

Everything looks fine.

Really?

Dr. Cuddy, you've got
sufficient income,

a high degree of personal
and professional stability,

and you care enough to be embarrassed
by what a mess this place is.

Believe me, that puts you
head and shoulders

above most of
the foster moms I visit.

See you next year, if you haven't
adopted her by then.

(SIGHS)

My legs, they're
different, better.

- No pain at all?
- No, but less.

Four out of 10,
maybe five.

Can't be.

If whatever's causing the pain's
in your brain, it's still a 10.

In your periphery, a zero.

It is. Some of the pain
is gone, but not all of it.

What does this mean?

Maybe Taub was right,
it's psychosomatic after all.

Which one of
you is House?

The big black guy.

Chris Carrick. Next time you use
my name in a threatening e-mail,

it won't be just a bill,
it'll be a lawsuit.

Can you blame me? Last time that
happened, the guy shot me.

What if the spinal block triggered
some sort of placebo effect?

Guy's taken the finest opiates
Blue Cross can buy,

how come they didn't
trigger a placebo effect?

(PAGERS BEEPING)

(SCREAMING)

What happened?

LYNNE: He just started
screaming. Do something!

Please, God, do not let it be
what his father has.

I think he's faking.

How dare you?
What makes you think...

House, the kid's
in excruciating...

- Where is it?
- Where's what?

His idiot son
distracted the orderlies

so that Daddy Deathwish here could down
a bottle of isopropyl.

Put him on dialysis or in half an hour
he'll be a corpse.

- You're hurting me.
- Remember the feeling.

Maybe next time you wanna help Pops,
you'll do a better acting job.

You can't help him.

Zach, why did
you do this?

Because he's
not Dad anymore.

He just wants it
to be over with.

(CRYING)
Please, please, just let him die.

FOREMAN: Fabry disease might be able
to cause central and peripheral pain.

No angiokeratomata.

Lightning pain
from syphilis.

All the syph tests
were negative.

Why aren't you
guys still talking?

Because we ran
out of ideas.

Nothing explains this.

Something has to.

Unless nothing does.

So now you think it's...

Mine's a more interesting
version of nothing.

It used to be something.
We can't find anything

because whatever injury caused the
original pain healed a long time ago.

The only thing left
is the drugs.

Opioid-induced pain.

Pain and the drugs that treat pain work
by changing brain chemistry.

Sometimes to the point
where pain receptors

read painkillers as killer pain.

Take him off the drugs.

We can't cure him,
so we're gonna torture him?

Torture is the cure. Eventually his body
will recalibrate itself.

Assuming you're right.

Yes, I find it confusing
to assume otherwise.

How would you like
to stop taking Vicodin?

Good thing I'm
not the patient.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

It's open.

(CHUCKLING)

- Thank you.
- Is it too big?

She'll grow into it.
Put it there.

I take it the home inspection
was pushed back?

I passed.

You do realize
that's a good thing?

This place was a disaster.

I had to stash a dirty
diaper in my briefcase.

So you buy another briefcase.

I let House supervise himself.
That's like handing a 12-year-old

the keys to the liquor
cabinet and the car.

You passed the inspection.

The patient lived.
The car is still in the driveway.

And the next time my nanny gets sick?

When House wants
to saw someone in half?

Did I mention you
passed the inspection?

I passed by their meager standard,
I failed by mine.

Why do women
always do that?

- Fail?
- Create ridiculous standards

that no human could meet.
With your careers, with your kids.

You gotta be more
like us men.

Be lazy? Blame others?

Get help.
Most men in your position

have a deputy and
two assistants at work,

and a wife and two nannies at home.

You're not Superwoman,
don't be a martyr.

We'll be injecting
you with naloxone,

which will knock the opioids
out of your pain receptors.

If we're right, your system will
recalibrate within a few hours,

- and most of the pain will be gone.
- Hours?

I need those drugs.

Not if they're
causing your pain.

Then knock me out,
sedate me while you...

That takes drugs, too. We need to clear
everything out of your system.

Please, I'll try
anything else.

TAUB: That's what
we're trying to stop.

So it's not your parents, then it's
your wife, someone you were close...

A colleague.
We were residents together.

I should've done more to stop it. He had
the mother of all God complexes.

So busy treating everyone's problems,
he was blind to his own.

Helped himself to a vial of insulin.
It's a miracle he survived.

His friends and family almost didn't.
He was a selfish ass.

It'll be over soon.

(JEFF GROANING)

This is lunacy.
You're torturing this guy on a hunch.

It's the only
hunch we've got.

If I really wanted to torture him,
I'd manipulate a clinical trial

in the hopes that
he'd sleep with you.

Are you suggesting I got Thirteen in
that trial because of some personal...

I think you got her in
because of your usual messiah complex.

I think you messed
with the appointment schedule

because of your I-like-to-have-sex
complex. I checked the logs.

You moved your most
promising patient right before her.

False hope being
quite the aphrodisiac.

How's it false if the trials
are showing results?

If it were that promising, you wouldn't
have to change the schedule.

But, hey,
hope springs eternal.

(JEFF CONTINUES GROANING)

This was
a cooking accident?

First time making
Cherries Jubilee.

Awfully big fire.

If you ask me, some of the portions
in that recipe were off.

I sure hope it happens to be covered,
under, say, section three,

subsection 2.2, paragraph one.
"Accidental fire damage."

In which case you'd have to
replace the entire water line

to fix the sagging pipe.

I guess so.

(PAGER BEEPING)

I'd hate to have your next-door
neighbors end up with no hot water.

Lucky the fire skipped
your pipes entirely.

(JEFF GROANING)

(CONTINUES GROANING)

It's not working.

I know. I've started him
back on the pain meds.

Which means you can leave.

My son was right.

I've tried for so long
to protect him from...

But I'm the one
who's been selfish.

This is no way
for him to live.

Until we get an answer,
it's the only way.

- There is no answer.
- There's always an answer.

Then what is it?
He's been here for four days.

Three suicide attempts.
You don't have an answer.

When I saw you,
when I saw the cane,

I thought, "Thank God,
a doctor who will understand."

Because I sure
as hell don't.

My husband
thinks it's over.

So look me in the eye,
tell me you'd want to live like that.

Then stabilize him,

get him in decent enough
shape for the drive home,

so he can finally...

(CRYING)

Okay-

There's gotta be
something we can do.

We can't just
let the patient leave.

We didn't, House did.

TAUB: Because he realized
there's nothing he could do.

THIRTEEN: There's always something we
can do, something else we can try.

You're insane.
You know that, right?

Because I have principles?

Because you paid
more to bribe me

to lie on your claim
than the entire cost of the repair.

I don't care if I pay,

as long as the people
who pocketed my premiums

for the last nine
years also pay.

I didn't break the pipe.

Whatever.

You wanna stick it to the man,
that's fine by me.

- You happy?
- No. But I'm right.

(LAUGHS)

Lock up on your way out,
and don't touch the piano.

Testicles. What do
they make you think of?

STDs, testosterone issues,
that summer on Fire Island.

Oh, so close.
The correct answer is epilepsy.

Epilepsy doesn't
cause chronic pain.

It does if it spreads
to the sensory region of the brain,

then rewires the pain neurons.

Would've shown up
on an EEG.

Not if the seizures are in a place
you can't see on an EEG,

a place too deep
in the brain,

like the area that controls the muscles
supporting the...

Testicles.

Feels like you got kicked
in the nads, doesn't it?

The abdominal pain,
how it all started.

It wasn't the stomach.
It was lower, right?

It's everywhere.

But when it first started.

It started in the
stomach, cramps.

Like bad gas or
a permeating pain?

Like your kidneys were being pulled out
through your scrotum?

Why?

Because epilepsy
is treatable.

Looks like we shot
the guys with the torches.

Yeah. Pays to hang around.

That selfish ass
with the God complex

who almost made
the stupidest decision of his life,

it wasn't your colleague,
was it? It was you.

No.

See you tomorrow.

You're here early.

I'm feeling better.

- What's wrong?
- IV's leaking a little.

It's no big deal.

I'll be right back.

Foreman.

You busy tonight?

No.

Rita, the spike on Dr. Hadley's IV bag
wasn't pushed in all the way.

I don't want
any dosing errors.

Sorry. It won't happen again.

- Stinks, doesn't it?
- What?

The medication. When we switch out the
bags you can smell it. It's disgusting.

I didn't smell anything.

She must be on
the placebo, then.

You offered to do House's budget because
you wanted him to owe you,

wanted him to take
that case. Why?

I thought it would help House,
seeing someone worse off than him,

possibly curing a guy
with even less to look forward to.

(CLEARS THROAT)

Can I ask you something?

How would you like my job?