- When Della, a seemingly healthy and active 14-year-old, suddenly collapses during a skateboarding exhibition, House and his team struggle to diagnose her condition and reassure her parents who already have to cope with their son's terminal illness. After her body rejects a donor lung, and with time running out to save her life, Della's family is left with little hope of securing a new donor and faced with a seemingly impossible decision regarding the fate of both children. Meanwhile, House tries to appease an elderly father and his son at the clinic, and House and Cuddy begin to face the challenges of taking their romantic relationship into the workplace.—Fox Publicity
- Open with an athletic teenage girl tearing up a skateboard course. Afterwards, she grabs her wheelchair-bound brother and starts pushing him around. All of a sudden, she keels over and falls to the floor, unconscious.
House (Hugh Laurie) and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) arrive in the hospital parking lot together and discuss how they will handle their relationship. Cuddy wants to inform HR of their relationship and doesn't want to go public until then.
Of course, the second House gets with the team, he tells them he's now sleeping with Cuddy and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) doesn't believe him. They discuss the 14-year old girl from the open, Della, who has a heart arrhythmia. Her tests are clean. They tell House about Thirteen's disappearance and he doesn't seem to care. They mention Della's older brother, Hugo, has severe congenital muscular dystrophy and likely won't live past 25. They suggest Long QT Syndrome and plan to scare her in an effort to test her heart.
Foreman (Omar Epps) doesn't like the scare test, Taub (Peter Jacobson) does.
House goes to see Wilson, who still thinks he is lying about Cuddy. Cuddy comes into the office and has to grab House's crotch for Wilson to believe.
House and Cuddy meet with HR and convince him that she will still be able to effectively supervise House. House mentions the scare test and Cuddy thinks it's a bad idea. Shockingly, House quickly gives in and cancels the test.
We find out Della's kidneys appear to be failing.
Taub tells House he's worried that him agreeing with Cuddy about the scare test could indicate a problem. House thinks Taub is jealous of his happiness. The next suggestion is amyloidosis which means taking a small amount of marrow from Hugo.
And elderly father and son come to see House. The father is 102 years old and is having some health problems. House thinks it must just be old age, but they convince him to run tests.
Della tells Taub and her parents she won't take any marrow from Hugo, despite the fact the process is virtually risk-free. Taub tells House who thinks it's clear she is living Hugo's life for him and wishes people were more selfish.
Wilson wonders to House whether it's smart for Cuddy to be supervising him. House assures him he can handle it.
Della admits to Taub she has been doing things Hugo can't do for himself. All of a sudden blood begins pouring out of her mouth.
House tells Cuddy that Della is bleeding to death from her lungs. Again they differ on the best course of action, with House favoring something more risky and fast-acting. Cuddy defers to House, but as soon as she leaves House tells Chase to go with what Cuddy originally suggested.
House tells Wilson he's starting to think he won't be able to work under Cuddy. He thinks they should come up with a gameplan together.
Taub is still convinced House is giving in to Cuddy too quickly. The next suggestion is Goodpasture's and House orders treatment.
The elderly son pays House 40 bucks to pretend the tests prove his father needs to be in a home. His father can't live without him, he says, and he wants him to move out.
While lying in bed with Cuddy, House gets a call. Della needs a lung transplant.
Della's donor lung started failing almost immediately. House decides to treat for rejection first, though it's starting to look bleak. Taub doesn't think Cuddy will approve this course of action, so House tells him to make the request, telling her she's good at sitting on her ample bureaucratic behind.
The elderly father pays House 100 bucks to tell his son he should be in a home. He thinks his son is the one who can't let go. An angry Cuddy walks in and tells him it's unlikely to be rejection. House agrees with her, saying that was his thought the entire time.
Outside, Chase (Jesse Spencer) hints to Taub that he's dating someone. They get a page. Della is crashing. It means she is rejecting the lung.
Wilson finds House in the cafeteria. He realizes working with Cuddy isn't working. Chase and Taub show up and say that Della's problem is neither rejection nor injection. Though she's tested positive for LAM it doesn't appear to be LAM.
Hugo tells House that Della's never been sick. This gets House to immediately ask Della whether that is actually true. She admits for a year she's had aches and chest soreness. It first popped up in Denver. Outside the room, House tells Taub she must have a sickle cell trait and they could have better helped her if she'd been honest with them. Without a donor lung, she will die and Taub knows the committee will never approve another one.
House tells Cuddy an option is for Hugo to donate marrow and half of a lung to his sister. The result would be Della would live but Hugo would die sooner. Cuddy thinks it's irresponsible to even give the parents such an option. House agrees and admits he's deferring to her because they are in a relationship. Cuddy says she needs to find someone else to supervise him.
House initially lies about the elderly father being sick, then diagnoses him as having zinc poisoning from using too much denture cream. He will be fine if he gets dentures that fit and House gives each of them back their cash.
Della's father comes to House's office and emotionally pleas for him to give him every possible option. House eventually tells him about the Hugo option and tells the father they must decide by morning. Cut to Della's parents arguing back and forth through the night.
Della asks Taub why she saw her mother crying but he doesn't tell her the real reason. Later we see Della has removed her tubes and climbed down the stairs, seemingly to try and kill herself.
Cuddy tells House nobody in the hospital will supervise him. She says it is okay for him to give the parents the Hugo option and he tells her he already did. She doesn't get angry.
Della's parents tell House they won't take the lung from their son. This sets off House who thinks they're making the wrong decision, choosing a few years of their son's life over decades of their daughter's. This causes Cuddy and House to get into a heated debate, all of which Hugo happens to hear.
Hugo goes to Della and convinces her that he doesn't want to live without her, convincing her to take his lung.
Afterwards Cuddy and House agree their argument was the first honest debate they've had since returning to work. They seem to commit to trying to make it work.
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