House

Matty prepares to see his brother Nick, who is receiving chemo for leukemia in isolation. He and his mother go in to see him. Wilson is preparing to take bone marrow from Matty to give to Nick when Matty sneezes, indicating he's not healthy.

House wakes up at his house in the morning to discover Wilson's dog Hector in his face and his belongings chewed up. Later staff meets to talk about Matty's infection because there are no other donors available and Nick only has five days to live. However, House is more concerned about Foreman's whereabouts. They track him down him in the chapel where he is considering the patient he killed. House prods him into getting involved then suggests that they weaken Matty's immune system so they can advance the infection so they can diagnose it. House and Wilson go to the parents who reluctantly agree.

Chase and Foreman go to the family's house to check for environmental sources and discuss their concerns over patients they've lost. Chase then takes a sample from an outdoor water pump.

At the hospital, they lower Matty's temperature to advance the infection and Chase and Foreman ask him about the pump, but he says he hasn't drunk anything from it in over a year. Matty now has a swollen scrotum and muscle pains. House lets Foreman go look for donors while Chase gives Cameron his weekly reminder he's interested in her, then suspects that the swollen scrotum indicates they drove the infection into his heart causing injury there.

They find a growth on the heart valve and House proposes they remove it but Foreman believes antibiotics would suffice. However, there's no way to clear his system in time but House suggests it will let them get the bone marrow. Foreman objects and goes to Cuddy with Wilson and House. House pretty much sits out the argument and after she tells them to explain the situation to the parents, he admits to her that he's giving Foreman a little slack because of his lack of confidence. He's giving Foreman four days to get over it.

Wilson goes to the parents and convinces them to agree to the heart surgery, even though it will cripple Matty. They agree and Wilson is guilty that he persuaded them to do, and the parents feel guilty that Matty's love is driving him to undergo the operation. However, Wilson does a biopsy to determine the growth on the heart is fibrous, not a tumor, so he called off the surgery. He calls House who is more concerned about the fact Hector has eaten half of his Vicodin.

House comes back in for a differential and they try to determine what would cause the fibrous growth. Cameron suggests it might be autoimmune, which would mean the bone marrow is uncontaminated. Foreman reports they've come up with a donor who is a four-out-of-six match but House wants to diagnose the autoimmune and orders tests. Cameron prepares to administer the test when Nick starts bruising on his arm, indicating he's getting worse. Wilson wants to know how Hector got hold of the Vicodin and House admits that he's getting tired of the dog that is chewing everything up. Cameron reports to House that Matty's tests are negative, but they're unaware that Foreman has secretly gone to the parents to tell them of the donor that are available.

House and Wilson end up talking to the parents who want them to go with the donors despite the risk that they may not match exactly. The parents insist on going with the donor and Wilson isn't happy that Foreman undercut them. House defends Foreman for at least standing up for what he believed, and attacks Wilson for not being direct with the parents and telling them what to do.

House arrives home after leaving his door open "accidentally" but Hector is still there. Unfortunately, somebody took off with House's stereo. The next day Matty wants to see his brother but can't due to his infection, and believes Nick will die. Matty is itching and Cameron sees that he's bleeding out of his ear.

House meets with Wilson to buy a new cane then apologizes to him for his earlier attack… then claims he didn't mean it. Cameron calls him with the news that Matty's bone marrow is crashing. House decides to stop the treatment to determine what's responsible… then buys a new cane with flame trim.

The staff goes back to differential but they can't diagnose Matty because the parents are trying to treat him so they can't figure out the symptoms. House then suggests they give Matty's infection to Nick, because he has no defenses and they can observe the rapidly spreading infection and figure out what it is. They have no choice and go back to the parents, explaining that Nick is going to die either way but at least they can get a diagnosis and cure Matty. The parents refuse and Foreman suggests they start testing for all the thousands of possible infections. As Foreman goes to start testing, House goes to see the suffering Nick and convince him to save Matty by agreeing to take on his infection.

Wilson and Foreman check the tests and Wilson notes that House will probably fire Foreman. Foreman is more interested in finding the source of the infection, but Wilson then wonders why they have a water pump when they live in the suburbs. Matty tells his parents he wants to save his brother and they agree, but then Foreman bursts in to reveal they've figured out Matty's infection is the result of chicken feces in the dirt he used to make a baseball mound. However, Matty is too low on bone marrow. Foreman talks to Matty who still wants to go through with the transplant. Foreman painfully extracts the bone marrow from him sans sedation.

Later Wilson has to face the parents and suggests House should talk to Foreman, but he isn't interested now that Foreman is back to "normal." House has Hector in his office and has figured out a way to keep him calm: giving him Wilson's stethoscope. Wilson announces that his ex has convinced her apartment board to allow pets. Wilson suggest that House keep Hector but he's having nothing of it. House then goes to talk to Foreman as he watches the parents meet with their sons and Foreman admits he did what House would have, but he doesn't like it… and gives his two weeks' notice.