Épisode Mauvaises décisions S03E20 - House Saison 3

[Start on a busy street, where a man is doing card tricks on the sidewalk.]

Man: Ladies and gentlemen, step around, step around, come on, gather ‘round, gather around, let me show you a little way to make a little easy money today, you understand what I’m saying? These are the blacks, don’t wanna follow the blacks, you wanna follow the queen, you know why, because she’s red, and that means she is hot! So you gotta find the queen, find the queen. The first to play is free today, so who wants to play? You look interestin’, my man, you wanna step on up? Come on, now, who wants to play? Oh, what about you, sweetie, you’re cute –

Lupe: All right.

Man: --come on up! Come on up here and play. Cute girls win money all day. You look lucky, now you look lucky, now follow the queen, ladies and gentlemen, follow the queen, follow the queen. Ain’t no hailing mary, but this queen is for you. Which one is it, which one is it, which one is it?

Lupe: It’s right there. [points to the card on the right]

Man: Right there? [flips over the queen] Beginner’s luck, beginner’s luck, I’ll tell you what, takes a woman to know a woman, takes a lady to find a queen. [as she goes to take the money] Whoa… want to double up?

Lupe: All right.

Man: All right, we got a chance here, we got a chance here, we got a chance here. All right, here we go, here we go, all you got to do is find your queen. You will not win again, you will not win again. All right, here we go, here we go, where is she, where is she, where is she, where is she, boom! Can you find her?

Lupe: Right there. [points to the left card]

Man: This one? [turns over the queen] She is killing me! She is taking all my rent. Anybody else want to get behind the good luck girl?

Young man: I can do it.

Man: You can do it? All right, you’re next on. Just get me a chance to recover and get my money back, or else I’m going to be out here sleepin’ on the streets and not just playing. All right, here we go, you ready? This is the last time, and I’m not messing with you no more, you’re taking all my money, girl, I’m not messing with you no more. I’m giving you one more chance, and this is your last chance, you got to follow the queen, follow the queen, baby, follow the queen, where’s she at, where’s she at, one time, I’ll show you one time, and there she is, boom, boom, boom. Pick a card.

Lupe: Uh, I can’t decide.

Man: You’re mean, just pick a card, make a decision.

Lupe: I can’t decide.

Man: Come on, any card will do, left, right, center… [getting agitated]

Lupe: I don’t… I don’t know!

Man: You want the right –

Lupe: I don’t know…

Man: The left, the center!

Lupe: I don’t know!

Man: Will you move out of the way and let somebody else play, then?

Lupe: I can’t… decide! I can’t!

Man: You wanna flip a coin for it?

Lupe: What’s wrong with me?

Man: I don’t know. [Woman collapses as the man walks away.]

[Cut to a hospital room in PPTH.]

Lupe: Scariest thirty seconds of my life. I couldn’t do anything, it’s like I couldn’t move inside my head.

Foreman: It’s called abuila, the inability to make a decision or exercise will.

Lupe: Is it going to happen again?

Foreman: It’s part of a T.I.A., a Transient Ischemic Attack. Blood was cut off to a section of your frontal lobe.

Lupe: Is that like a stroke or something?

Foreman: A little. What drugs have you taken recently?

Lupe: No drugs.

Foreman: Toxins are another possibility. You might have been exposed to something at work, for instance.

Lupe: No real job right now.

Foreman: Exposure can build up over time and lie dormant for a while. Where was your last job?

Lupe: Pet store.

Foreman: Exotic pets?

Lupe: Tropical fish.

Foreman: And before that?

Lupe: Unemployment. And before that I sold subscriptions on the phone. And before that, unemployment. Before that I worked in Jeans Gone Wild. Before that, unemployment. Before that I walked dogs. Before that…

[Diagnostics office.]

House: Loss of free will. I like it. Maybe we can get Thomas Aquinas in for a consult. What caused the T.I.A.?

Foreman: Arteries are clear, no sign of a clot.

Cameron: Could have dissolved. Most likely came from her heart, we should do a bubble study.

Foreman: Clots are unlikely in a 28-year-old who’s not on the Pill. It’s probably a vasospasm caused by drugs.

Chase: I don’t think so. She goes from job to job, maybe there’s some kind of ADD here. Help us pinpoint where the neurological –

Foreman: She goes from job to job because she’s a scam artist. She works just long enough to qualify for unemployment, then gets fired and gets high. [House takes a Vicodin, for the irony, you understand.]

Chase: I still don’t think it’s drugs. Did you check for infection?

Foreman: Her LP showed nothing, no fever, white blood count is normal.

Chase: Could be toxic exposure.

Foreman: You’re the one always saying it must be drugs.

Chase: You’re figuring she’s a minority, she must be snorting –

Foreman: You know that’s not what I –

Chase: She seems like a nice girl.

Foreman; You haven’t met her! [While they’re arguing, House pulls back the blinds with his cane to watch Wilson chatting up a cute girl in the hallway.] Pregnant at 15, dropped out of high school, she’s a real overachiever.

Chase: Come on, cut her some slack, her baby died of SIDS.

Foreman: This isn’t some romantic story of a nice girl scarred by tragedy. She’s a drug-using scam artist scarred by tragedy.

Chase: On the other hand, the tox screen just came back. She’s clean.

Foreman: You’re wasting my time – he’s wasting my… [All three finally notice that House isn’t paying any attention to them, and is in fact walking toward Wilson’s office.

[Wilson’s office.]

House: Second ex-Mrs. Wilson wanting money?

Wilson: I am no longer paying alimony; she wanted her independence, so she got her realtor’s license.

House: Market’s doing badly, she wants money.

Wilson: Market’s doing badly, she’s moving into a condo.

House: She wants –

Wilson: She wants me to take Hector.

House: Pool boy?

Wilson: Dog.

House: No longer interested.

Wilson: We got him on our honeymoon, so I’m like… other parent. But I can’t take him! My hotel doesn’t allow dogs, besides… I’m always here.

House: I asked Cuddy to a play Thursday. [Wilson laughs.]

Wilson: Oh, you… okay.

House: She said she was busy.

Wilson: And you didn’t believe her, so you bribed a janitor, broke into her computer, checked her appointments –

House: I asked her as a test.

Wilson: What would you have learned if she’d said yes?

House: A lot about bondage. She’s busy for me, but not for you. She’s not interested in the play qua play, she’s interested in you.

Wilson: No. I’m not getting sucked into the vortex of your insanity again. Don’t pass me notes in class, don’t tell me to ask her to the prom –

House: You cannot see her socially. You’re leading her on!

Wilson: I’ll consider that after I take her to the Hockney exhibit. On Thursday. See, she is busy. It’s not a date. [House stares at him.] She enjoyed the play. I enjoyed her enjoying the play. The woman works hard, it’s nice to see her relax.

House: So all this enjoying is an act of charity?

Wilson: I’m keeping the receipts for tax purposes.

[Diagnostics.]

House: What’s life without the ability to make stupid choices? She needs her free will. Find out why her brain froze before she can’t decide to make her next breath. Find the toxin, run your bubble study. You won’t find anything, but I’ll get the office to myself. There’s a lot of porn piling up on the internet. It doesn’t download itself!

[Cut to Chase and Foreman exiting the elevator into the main lobby.]

Mr. Foreman: Eric, Eric!

Chase: Hello, Mr. Foreman!

Mr. Foreman: Dr. Chase, how are ou?

Chase: Good. You’re lucky you caught us, there.

Foreman: I’ll meet you outside. [Chase walks off.] Hey, Dad. Gotta go, but… why are you here? Everything okay?

Mr. Foreman: Eh, good as ever. Staying at a hotel down the street.

Foreman: You didn’t bring Mom with you?

Mr. Foreman: It’s gonna be her sixtieth birthday in a few days.

Foreman: I know, we talked about it on the phone.

Mr. Foreman: You said you couldn’t come home.

Foreman: You didn’t have to come.

Mr. Foreman: You haven’t been home in eight years. You should see her while she still knows who you are.

Foreman: I talk to her on the phone. She only knows who I am sometimes.

Mr. Foreman: Sometimes is important.

[Cut to Chase and Foreman searching Lupe’s residence.]

Chase: So what’s up with your dad? Didn’t know he was going to be in town?

Foreman: No.

Chase: Building this old, there could be toxic exposure anywhere: asbestos, mold, the coloring agents in the old wallpaper…

Foreman: Or it could be drugs. [He holds up a vial.]

Chase: I thought we ruled out…. Clean tox screen means drugs didn’t cause the T.I.A.

Foreman: Drugs can be laced with toxic substances – arsenic, rat poison. The drugs wash out of her system, the toxins stick around.

Chase: Exposure can come about any number of ways, there’s no reason to assume drug use.

Foreman: Absolutely, except for the crack pipe. I’ll test her blood for arsenic and rat poison.

Chase: You’d like that, wouldn’t you, when your dad asked you out for dinner. I’ll do the tests, you’re stuck with the family.

[Cut to House confronting Cuddy in what looks like Pediatrics.]

House: You like Hockney?

Cuddy: You heard about that?

House: Hot stuff, were the Venezuelan pictures.

Cuddy: That’s a trick question.

House: Yes, but you have no idea how it’s a trick.

Cuddy: I like art. I’m open to new things. What’s the problem?

House: You’re going to a gallery to see Venezuelan pictures that don’t exist, but you won’t go to a play with me. Why?

Cuddy: House, why is my social life suddenly red-hot? One minute I’m mushing along with the huskies as usual, and all of a sudden it’s global warming. You think you saw someone pick up a toy from the sandbox and suddenly you want it.

House: Is that why you said no?

Cuddy: Maybe I just want a friend and Wilson is a safe choice.

House: I’m not safe? Cool. James Wilson is never a safe choice.

Cuddy: Going to a gallery, we’re not getting married.

House: Sure, you say that now. He always marries them in the end!

[Cut to Foreman walking down a hotel hallway. He knocks on door 206. Mr. Foreman opens the door.]

Mrs. Foreman: Is that Eric? Eric! Oh, baby, baby. I wanted to find that picture I took at your high school graduation. I had it reframed. It’s in one of these suitcases, but I don’t know…

Foreman: You can show it to me later.

Mrs. Foreman: Your father wants to know if you’ve been prayin’.

Mr. Foreman: You don’t have to just come out with it like that.

Mrs. Foreman: But I only want to know if you’re okay.

Foreman: Sure, I’m okay.

Mrs. Foreman: You like it here? You have friends?

Foreman: Yeah. Everything is great, Mom.

Mrs. Foreman: That’s why I brought the picture for you. I remember when you were little. You liked to look in the back of the math book, because even it made no sense then, by the end of the year you’d understand it all.

Foreman: That’s why you brought the picture?

Mrs. Foreman: You wanted to look ahead to see how far you’d go. Now you’re a grown man, I thought you’d might like to look back, to see how far you’ve come. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?

[Cut to Lupe’s room.]

Lupe: That isn’t mine.

Foreman: It was in your closet.

Lupe: It belongs to this guy who used to live with me. [She’s coughing.]

Foreman: You might want to let him know he’s got arsenic poisoning. We should get a sample of his hair so we can see the extent –

Lupe: But I don’t do… I don’t do drugs… [She starts coughing up blood, and then passes out.]

Foreman: Get a crash cart in here! Respiratory arrest!

[Cut to the MRI room.]

Lupe: Are you sure it isn’t from the arsenic? Dr. Foreman said I was poisoned.

Cameron: Your hair showed only a trace amount, not enough to damage your lungs like this. We need you to stay still now.

Chase: 6 mm cuts, started at the apexes. Also, I just wanted to let you know, should you change your mind, I’ll be available.

Cameron: Aren’t you getting tired of hearing me say it? I have no intention of going out with you, having sex with you, doing anything with you, except work.

Chase: You don’t have to make a big deal about it, I just thought I’d let you know. I decided Tuesdays would be a good day to do that.

Cameron: You did not suddenly fall in love with me. You were looking for something, and I happened to be st –

Chase: Cameron, it’s fine. No need to go on about it. Advancing through the lung bases.

Cameron: We need to put this behind us.

Chase: Understood.

Cameron: But you keep bringing it up!

Chase: You’re the one who’s still talking. Look, I’m not demanding anything from you, I’m not following you home, I’ve got no expectations. A gentle, polite reminder once a week is hardly stalking. There’s a mass just outside the lingual.

[Cut to the lab.]

Chase: Biopsy shows there are white blood cells in the walls of the blood vessels.

House: They’re not supposed to get past the bouncers.

Cameron: It’s got to be autoimmune, something lymposidic. White blood cells are attacking her own body.

House: The only question is what kind of autoimmune.

Foreman: Doesn’t matter what kind.

House: It always matters what kind.

Foreman: Treatment is always steroids.

House: Treatment is always boring! Diagnosis is –

Foreman: Okay. It’s affecting the larger blood vessels, so it’s gotta be giant cell arteritis. I’ll start her on steroids. It’s affecting her smaller blood vessels, it’s gotta be lupus vasculitis. I’ll start her on steroids. It’s affecting –

House: Yeah, got it. Start her on steroids.

Foreman: Good idea. [He leaves.]

House: Told you. That was boring. I gotta go out.

Cameron: Why?

House: Wilson’s got a date.

[Cut to Bonnie, Wilson’s ex-wife, showing House around a place.]

Bonnie: It’s got 15 foot ceilings, an open floor plan…. You know, I can’t believe you called me.

House: Hey, I need a condo. Didn’t you and Wilson have your first date around here?

Bonnie: Wow, you remember where our first date was? I didn’t think you were paying attention.

House: Really? He’s my best friend.

Bonnie: Our first date was in Boston.

House: Oh. Not quite as close to here as I remembered.

Bonnie: But we’re not here to talk about him.

House: Absolutely not.

Bonnie: Wait ‘till you see the kitchen. All granite countertops…

House: Since I wasn’t paying attention back then, what was it like dating him?

[Cut to the art gallery, where the art is rather… racy? Sexual? In nature.]

Cuddy: So this is Hockney?

Wilson: No. I don’t know what happened.

Cuddy: I’m sure you don’t. I never knew your tastes were so ecletic.

Wilson: Oh, the Hockney exhibit finished on April 20th, I thought it was May 20th. Okay, my bad. This is not somewhere I’d bring someone on a date. Not that this is a date, obviously. I was just thinking… he’s doing landscapes on multiple canvases now, and they’re kind of peaceful, and you’re always busy, and…

Cuddy: Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you embarrassed before.

[Cut to House and Bonnie.]

Bonnie: Oh, it was never a date. I was coming off a bad relationship and he said we could go out as friends, you know, go see plays, go to a museum. I didn’t think you liked Trenton.

House: Love it. So he’d say it’s not a date, but then he’d jump you.

Bonnie: Oh no, he meant it. James Wilson, carefully calibrating his level of protectiveness for your individual needs.

House: Did you just compare Wilson to a tampon?

Bonnie: [laughing] No. It was very endearing. He really just wanted to be a friend, so I jumped him. The bedroom’s through here.

[Cut to Cuddy, examining a piece of art.]

Cuddy: That’s such a bad idea. There’s no way that won’t cause damage to the large intestine.

Wilson: Are you keeping us here to torture me? [He looks closer at the art.] Is that a bicycle pump?

Cuddy: That’s what I’m saying!

[Bonnie and House.]

Bonnie: It’s like walking into a sticky trap. Once you’re the focus of all that attention, it’s addictive. This unit’s kitchen’s got a chef’s oven.

House: I cook a lot. Go on.

Bonnie: It’s the emotional stuff that really sucks you in. He’s just so knight-in-shining armor, you know? Always there to support you, until he’s not, but by then you’re hooked. Hey, do you think you could talk to him about taking the dog? He’s the only one that Hector really gets along with.

House: Hey hey, we’re here to talk real estate, not Wilson. So you’re saying if you actually had sex before you connected emotionally, you’d have gotten over it.

Bonnie: Oh yeah, it seems weird, doesn’t it? Because sex with James is fantastic. Nobody works harder to give a woman what she wants. It’s got six burners. The chef’s oven.

House: Right.

[Cut to Lupe’s room, the next day.]

Foreman: How’re you feeling?

Lupe: That wasn’t my crack pipe.

Foreman: You told me. Are you tired?

Lupe: I just took a hit off of it a couple of times. What’s wrong with having a little fun?

Foreman: Your personal life is none of my business.

Lupe: You don’t like me, though, do you?

Foreman: That’s your imagination. I’ve seen every account of drug abuse… no offense, but you don’t even stand out of the pack.

Lupe: I’m betting you got money the same place you got attitude. You know, people who quit drinking and people who lose weight, they think they’re better than the people who couldn’t, and because you got out of the projects, you think that anybody who didn’t is weak and stupid.

Foreman: I’m not judging you, now take a breath.

Lupe: The only difference between me and you is that I made some bad decisions, and you made some good ones.

Foreman: You make bad decisions every day of your life. Stop doing drugs, stop having fun, go back to school and get your G.E.D.

Lupe: Yeah, where’s the money coming from? The system’s not set up for people like me. What are you staring at?

Foreman: Your eyes. [shines a light in them]

[Diagnostics.]

Foreman: There’s yellow in the sclera. Her liver’s failing. Without a transplant she’ll be dead in the next 48 hours.

Chase: We should increase her immunosuppressants and treat her more specifically – [drug name I didn’t catch].

Foreman: Give her more of what’s not working. This is not an autoimmune disease.

Cameron: Her white blood cells are attacking her body. That’s autoimmune.

Foreman: First brain, then lungs, now liver. All getting worse and all in two days. It’s moving too fast! It’s got to be cancer – lymphomatoid granulomatosis. It’s rare even by our standards, but it fits her symptoms. Explains why the steroids aren’t working, the poor fingernail growth –

Cameron: A lot of people have bad fingernails!

Foreman: A lot of people don’t have three organ systems shutting down! Her blood vessels are taking this thing everywhere. She needs total body radiation.

Cameron: We can’t do anything until we can confirm –

Foreman: Running those immunochemstries can take a week, she’ll be dead by the time we –

Chase: That doesn’t make radiation any safer.

Foreman: Okay. Suppose Chase and Cameron are right. Suppose it’s an autoimmune disease. What’s the biggest danger of total body radiation? It suppresses the immune system, which is what we’re trying to do with the steroids anyway!

House: I don’t usually put out on the first date, but I gotta say, that is a rad move. Get her consent. Start the radiation.

Foreman: The patient is not too thrilled with me.

House: I’ll get her consent.

Chase: Foreman’s got a personality issue, so you’re going to step in?

House: Patient doesn’t like Foreman. I’m interested.

[Lupe’s room.]

House: Fatigue, hair loss, possibility of damage to the lungs, infertility. All possible side effects of radiation. Why don’t you like Dr. Foreman?

Lupe: He thinks he’s better than he is.

House: How good is he?

Lupe: I don’t know. Can we get back to what’s wrong with me?

House: There’s a small possibility of leukemia some time in the future. Hardly worth mentioning. You can’t say he’s better than he is if you don’t know how good he is.

Lupe: No one’s as good as he thinks he is.

House: I am. You might also get cataracts. Sign here.

Lupe: I don’t know. You’re telling me how dangerous this is.

House: We’re saving your life. We’re that good. Sign there.

Lupe: I can’t decide.

House: Would you rather a pencil or a pen? Who’s the better James Bond, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig? Now, you see, that’s not even a decision.

Lupe: It’s happening again. I can’t… I can’t… [She passes out again. House presses the call button, and then sits and watches Lupe as he waits for the nurses to rush in.] Up her blood thinners, get her down to radiology. The attack will be over in 20 minutes. And then she’ll want to sign this.

[Cut to Wilson in the cafeteria. Houses comes by and steals a sip of his coffee.]

Wilson: Bonnie called last night to talk about the dog. Your name came up.

House: Good lord, how do you still have teeth?

Wilson: She’s the worst realtor in New Jersey. What is this, escalation? I go out with Cuddy, you hook up with my ex? I don’t even know what that’s designed to do.

House: You’re an addict. I’m saving you from yourself.

Wilson: By condo shopping, thank you.

House: If I can figure out where you keep going wrong, then I can nip this Cuddy thing in the bud before she becomes the fourth ex-Mrs. Wilson.

Wilson: Yes, I was worried there was no way to stop that train.

House: You have to have sex with Cuddy.

Wilson: Wait… to stop the train? [House nods.] Bonnie said [quietly] I’m bad in bed?

House: [loudly] Huh?! [normally] Yeah. She also said if she slept with you before she liked you, then it would have been easier to handle when you turned into the sorry bastard that left her alone.

Wilson: I told her you were wasting her time, by the way.

House: You think that’s going to stop her? The woman’s the worst realtor in New Jersey.

[Cut to Lupe.]

Foreman: How do you feel?

Lupe: Weak, sleeping all the time.

Cameron: That’s normal after radiation.

Foreman: Deep breath.

Lupe: A little queasy, too. When I feel sick to my stomach I always want vanilla ice cream, it’s soothing.

Cameron: It’s best to stick with liquids for now.

Foreman: Shhh. I’m getting a murmur.

Lupe: Oh, oh my arm! It’s hurting me! Take it off! Take it off! [Cameron removes the blood pressure cuff, but Lupe keeps screaming.]

[Diagnostics.]

Cameron: Pain isn’t the issue. Just the pressure of the BP cuff was enough to start her screaming.

Chase: That’s not cancer. It sounds like…

House: It sounds like she’s septic.

Foreman: A lot of things can cause pain.

House: How much?

Cameron: Too much.

Foreman: It’s not cancer, it’s not autoimmune. It’s an infection and we friend her immune system.

Chase: But she had no fever. Her LP was clear.

House: Do an echo to confirm it’s in our heart, and then I’ll tell our patient that we just killed her.

Foreman: I’ll tell her.

[House’s office.]

Bonnie: Oh, great. You haven’t been returning my phone calls.

House: I’m busy.

Bonnie: Well, um, but if you have half an hour this afternoon, I just found this unit, it hasn’t been on the market yet –

House: I’m off the market for condos.

Bonnie: James was right. I never had the teeniest chance of selling you anything.

House: Of course he was right. He doesn’t stop giving good advice just because you’re divorced. He’s compulsive about remaining on good terms with his exes.

Bonnie: Do you want to know why I named that dog Hector?

House: No. Let’s keep it a mystery.

Bonnie: Because even when he was a puppy, he was the worst-tempered dog we’d ever seen he. He was supposed to be house-trained, but he’d pee on the carpet every morning. When we had people over, he would nip at their ankles. “Hector does go rug” is an anagram for “Doctor Greg House” – that’s how early in the marriage I resented you.

House: Wow. Did I ever waste money on that place setting.

Bonnie: James at least had the decency to feel guilty when he hurt me!

House: Whereas I never hurt you! I never even married you, cleverly hoping to avoid moments like this one.

Bonnie: You always needed him, and he was always there for you!

House: You keep yelling, and I’ll think you owe me sex.

Bonnie: You knew he had a wife waiting at home, you didn’t care. I’m not saying you broke up the marriage, but you didn’t help.

House: First, “Hector does go rug” is a lame anagram. You want a better one for “Gregory House”: “Huge ego, sorry”. Second, find a new career. You’re never going to sell to anybody if you let them control the agenda. And third, I don’t owe you anything. I’m not Wilson, I’m not going to buy a condo just to make you feel better.

[Cut to Foreman and Wilson walking in a hallway.]

Wilson: You okay?

Foreman: Yeah. Tell me how to do this. House says people thank you after –

Wilson: It’s not typical.

Foreman: I already killed this woman. All I can do now is not make any more mistakes.

Wilson: First of all, stop thinking you can minimize the hurt. A lot of people are afraid of the word ‘dying’ – if you pussyfoot around it, she’s not going to read your mind.

Foreman: Okay.

Wilson: No, it’s not. When you look in her face, you’re going to feel the instinct to temporize. Crush it.

Foreman: Yeah.

Wilson: Then wait. Give her time to process the news. Let her know you’ll be with her through all of it. Wait ‘till she’s done thinking, until you think it’s appropriate, then maybe you can touch her, put your hand on her arm like this, let her know that she’s still connected to another human being.

Foreman: You’ve got this down to a science.

Wilson: You’re freaking out.

Foreman: I told you –

Wilson: Give her what she needs. What she doesn’t need is a doctor who’s not there with her because he made the wrong call. You are freaking out. You should be freaking out.

Foreman: I won’t let her see it.

Wilson: Let her see it.

[Cut to Foreman entering Lupe’s room.]

Lupe: Hey. How come no mask?

Foreman: We think… we think you have an infection.

Lupe: Didn’t the radiation work?

Foreman: It did what it was supposed to do. You’re dying.

Lupe: What, what do you mean, like some day things are bad, and I’m gonna… [Foreman shakes his head.] How much time? How much time?

Foreman: We can’t know exactly.

Lupe: A year? Less than a year?

Foreman: Less than 24 hours.

Lupe: I don’t understand. Why are you sayin’ this to me, you tryin’ to scare me? Why would you do that?

Foreman: I’m sorry. It’s true.

Lupe: How bad is this cancer? Yesterday you thought I had a chance.

Foreman: You don’t have cancer. You came in with an infection. We didn’t catch it.

Lupe: What kind of infection?

Foreman: It doesn’t matter. The radiation was the worst thing we could have done. We destroyed the part of your body that was fighting it off. It spread to your heart –

Lupe: Then give me drugs! They have drugs for infections.

Foreman: Antibiotics work with the immune system, but your immune system is non-existent because of the radiation.

Lupe: If it’s my heart, you can get me a new heart. People have heart transplants all the time.

Foreman: It wouldn’t help. The infection’s everywhere. There’s nothing we can do. I’m so sorry. We’ve called your grandparents.

Lupe: Get the hell away from me! Get out! Get out! [Foreman leaves, rips his rubber gloves off, and punches a wall. Way to be, Foreman.]

[Cut to Cameron patching Foreman up.]

Cameron: I think it’s broken.

Foreman: Nothing like a melodramatic gesture to solve everything.

Cameron: We were wrong, too. Steroids wouldn’t have helped her.

Foreman: I didn’t help her, I pulled the trigger.

Cameron: There’s nothing left for you to do. One of us could go home with you –

Foreman: Are you trying to make me feel better?

Cameron: Yeah.

Foreman: I killed a woman, don’t you think it’s appropriate I feel like crap for at least a little while?

Cameron: It won’t help you.

Foreman: Where is he?

Cameron: He went to the ICU.

[Cut to the ICU desk.]

Foreman: What are you doing?

House: Prepping for an aspiration. We still don’t know what infection –

Foreman: It’s not going to help her.

House: It’s not going to hurt her. Well, it is going to hurt her, but –

Foreman: No.

House: This will just take a few minutes. Grab a piece of an abscess, some pus –

Foreman: You really don’t care.

House: You really don’t care why she’s going to be dead.

Foreman: She’s going to be dead –

House: WHAT? What did we screw up, what did we miss? I need to know.

Foreman: You’ll have to wait. We’re moving her back to her room.

Nurse: Patients who’ve had total body radiation have to stay in ICU.

Foreman: ICU isn’t gonna help her. Let’s give her some privacy.

[Lupe’s room.]

Lupe: What do you want? Wanna see if I’m dying on schedule? Or do you want me to tell you it’s all right, I’m okay with it?

Foreman: I’d like your forgiveness, but I don’t expect it.

Lupe: Good, ‘cause this isn’t like you ran your cart into mine at the supermarket.

Foreman: No. Your grandparents haven’t arrived yet. If they don’t make it on time, is there anything you’d like me to tell them?

Lupe: Never really knew them.

Foreman: You got any friends you’d like me to call?

Lupe: It’s the middle of the night. They’re not the kind of friends you call to ask you move, let alone watch you die. I never did much. No kid to leave behind. When I leave, the world’s not gonna be any different. Kind of a relief for you, huh? [Foreman sits down next to Lupe. Shot of Wilson bringing House coffee in his office and sitting down with him, and then back to Foreman and Lupe.]

Foreman: You were right about me.

Lupe: Yeah, which time?

Foreman: I, uh, I had a problem with you. But you were wrong, too. I’ve made some bad decisions. Stole cars, robbed houses.

Lupe: Killed a woman.

Foreman: But then I got another chance. Left home, went to college, entered a whole ‘nother world. And yet some part of me I can’t get rid of thinks, “If I’m not the smartest, if I’m not the first, everywhere I go, they’ll figure out I’m not supposed to be here.” They’ll send me back.

Lupe: You know that’s not going to happen. You’re out.

Foreman: I’ll never be out of there. When I came home, that last Christmas I was in college, it was like… the rooms felt so small. It was so suffocating. But when I was standing on the stoop saying goodbye, my mom put her arms around me. That was the last time I ever felt at home. I only put distance between you and me because I know there isn’t any.

Lupe: You were right about me, too. That stuff about the system being against people like me, I know it’s crap. I mean, it’s true, but it’s also crap. I just wasn’t ready to try again. But I always thought I was young, I had time.

[Cut to a short time later. Lupe is having trouble breathing.]

Lupe: Aren’t you ever gonna leave?

Foreman: No.

[Cut to Foreman turning off the monitors. House’s phone rings.]

House: Yeah?

Foreman: Time of death, 3:35. Do whatever you want.

[Almost-ending montage. House gets out his autopsy tools.]

Chase: You want to go get drunk?

Foreman: No thanks. I’ve got paperwork.

Chase: Listen, I don’t… I don’t know what I believe, but sometimes I need to think there’s something out there paying attention. So when I can’t talk to anybody, I talk to God, and pretend somebody’s listening. We were all wrong, Foreman. Even House was wrong.

Foreman: I know.

[House begins to cut open Lupe’s body. Meanwhile, Wilson is talking to a couple in the lobby, and he touches the woman as he instructed Foreman to earlier. House looks at samples under a microscope. Foreman does paperwork. House stares at Lupe’s body as Wilson enters.]

Wilson: I got your consent.

House: Her bra hook.

Wilson: What?

House: She scratched herself with her bra hook. That’s how the infection got in. Staph aureus.

Wilson: She died from a simple Staph infection?

House: That and some bad decisions.

[Cut to Wilson and House entering House’s office, where Foreman is sitting.]

Wilson: I’ll be outside.

House: Go home, have a few drinks, go to sleep, get up tomorrow, and do it tomorrow, only better. If you need absolution, go to a priest or give alms to the poor, whatever ritual comforts you.

Foreman: I killed her.

House: Yeah, me too.

Foreman: This wasn’t, “oh, I should have thought of that idea sooner”. This wasn’t messing up a dosage. We see a disease rushing down on someone like a train, we can’t always get them out of the way. But this wasn’t that.

House: No. And you’ll do it again. To a lot of doctors, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of mistake. But we’re not a lot of doctors. We’ll save a lot more patients than the guy down the street, but a few of the ones he’d save by doing what everyone else does we will lose.

Foreman: So you’re giving me numbers?

House: Because they don’t lie. I can’t forgive you, Foreman, because there’s nothing to forgive. [He leaves.]

[Cut to House and Wilson leaving the hospital.]

Wilson: What’d you tell him?

House: That guilt is irrelevant.

Wilson: You wanna get something to eat? [They get into the elevator.]

House: Can’t. I’ve got a dog waiting at home.

[Cut to Foreman at his parents’ hotel room. He goes to give his mom a kiss.]

Mrs. Foreman: What’s wrong?

Foreman: I did something bad, Mom. I hurt somebody.

Mrs. Foreman: It wasn’t your fault.

Foreman: It was.

Mrs. Foreman: Then I forgive you, I forgive you. [She gives him a hug.] I can see from your face, you’d never hurt anybody on purpose.

Foreman: Do you know who I am, Mom? It’s Eric. [She nods, and gives him another hug.]

Mrs. Foreman: Of course. My little boy’s name is Eric. [Closing shot if off of Foreman trying not to cry into his mom’s hair. Aww.]