House

At a concert hall, a performer prepares to play a piano concert with the aid of his father. They go out on stage and the father introduces Patrick and explains he was in an accident and now they are raising money for people with similar neurological disabilities. Patrick begins to perform but then starts missing notes. Patrick then complains of head pains, and his hands are horribly twisted.

Cameron arrives in the staff room to find a bag waiting for her. They've all been called in on House's order to check out Patrick. While Foreman runs initial tests on Patrick, House deals with a clinic patient with bad breath, diagnosing her with bulimia while treating the blister on her foot. Meanwhile he takes a blood sample from himself. Foreman notices the blood sample, when House hands it in for basic tests to be done.

When Foreman's tests of Patrick prove negative, House brings a piano to Patrick's room. After Patrick performs perfectly and beautifully, House orders a MRI to "see the music" and has Patrick pretend to play. They then detect specific brain activity and indications of a heart condition, and House orders surgery. Meanwhile Cameron has checked House's mail and sees he has plane tickets for Boston. They speculate that House might be considering a job at a hospital there, which might explain that he seems to be running a health checkup on himself.

Cameron and Chase go to House's apartment to look for clues while Foreman inserts a probe into Patrick's heart. He has a seizure and they have to revive him. Meanwhile, Cuddy calls Boston but they say he's not offered a job and she figures he's there as a patient. She goes to talk it over with Wilson when she realizes that House is seeing an oncologist specializing in brain cancer. She wonders why House isn't displaying symptoms but Wilson warns that it depends on how far along the cancer is.

They prepare to sedate Patrick for treatment but he panics and then has another seizure. Cameron confronts Wilson who then goes to see House to tell him he knows about the brain cancer. House dismisses his concerns, and Chase comes in, saying they found internal bleeding in Patrick's brain that accounts for his symptoms, but no reason for the bleeding.

It quickly becomes clear to House the rest of the staff know House has cancer, much to House's annoyance. House is more concerned about Patrick and wants to know why Patrick's brain is getting worse. House has Patrick taken off the anti-seizure treatment so they can do a pep scan as he has more violent seizures.

Cameron comes to House with a recommendation letter for her that she's typed up for him to sign, as she's applying for another job. She has no reason to stay if House is not around, she says, and House tells her he's not dead yet. House then wishes her well and she moves forward and they kiss... and then she tries to take a blood sample from him. House catches her arm with the syringe before she succeeds, then tells her he already has a blood sample and scans on file. The staff quickly determine that House has inoperable brain cancer with only a year left to live.

Patrick has another seizure while the staff figure out House is applying for an experimental treatment, something that will not cure cancer, but treat depression in a cancer patient. House still works on Patrick's case and notices that one side of his brain is working more than the other and he wants more tests. When his staff prefer to work on House's case, House goes to talk to Patrick. He asks if Patrick likes his life, but he's unable to answer such a question. House sees small patterns of blood in Patrick's brain and wants to biopsy everywhere to find the cause. That's not possible of course, so Foreman suggests they do an EEG from inside Patrick's brain so they can figure out where to do a brain biopsy. Foreman wants to talk to House personally but his boss shuts him up.

Once Foreman has run the test, he goes back to House and holds the results hostage to force him to hear what he has to say. Foreman admits he likes House although House doesn't believe it. Foreman then tells House that one side of Patrick's brain is brain-dead.

House considers the case and wonders if there is still some brain activity in the dead section. Since Patrick can still play, they determine it's auto-immune and House lets Foreman run tests while Chase decides to give his boss an awkward hug. He then reveals Patrick is starting to respond but House has something else in mind. House then goes to see Cuddy at her home and suggests that they remove half of Patrick's brain to restore full function to the other half. He explains that the part of Patrick's brain that is mostly dead causes the seizures and prevents the other half of his brain to develop and function properly. She says to check with Patrick's father and they then hug, while House grabs her ass, making Cuddy smile.

House then explains the procedure to Patrick's father, saying he might get a healthy son who can take care of himself. But he will also lose his ability to play the piano like he does now. He talks to his son and asks if he's happy. When Patrick can barely respond, his father agrees to the surgery.

Meanwhile the staff has discovered that it wasn't cancer at all, but neurosyphilis, and House reveal that it wasn't his file at all, but someone else's. He did think the patient had cancer, and he wanted the hospital in Boston to think he had brain cancer, to they could insert a device to stimulate his pleasure center in his brain. His staff is disappointed that he'd fake such a thing, but they fail to think about how bad House must be feeling since he was willing to take such drastic measures.

Later Wilson confronts House while noting Patrick's surgery went well. Wilson comments on the irony of how people with cancer push people away, and House faked his cancer to do the same thing. He suggests that House ease up a little and go out with a friend.

House checks up on Patrick who won't be talking for a while until his other brain half has learned to control his speech center, but he can now button his shirt, and is happy. Later House leaves and notices the others at a bar getting together and having a good time. He contemplates this, then takes a step forward and grabs the door handle.