House

At the New York Ballet, the company is practicing and the male dancer, Jeremy, complains that the conductor is going to fast. He continues and makes a lift with Penelope, his more famous female lead. However, Jeremy collapses with a bad back in mid-lift. He appears to be okay, but Penelope's lungs suddenly collapse, leaving her gasping for breath.



At home, House is watching TV while his subconscious, still manifesting as Amber, plays the ukulele to get his attention and generally annoy him. House points out that he's not listening to her because "she" tried to kill Chase. She points out he isn't being completely rational, and they're interrupted when Foreman arrives to tell House they have a case. He tried to call ahead but House had his phone turned off. House isn't interested and doesn't care when Foreman notes that Cuddy has threatened to fire House if he doesn't show up. However, when Amber points out she isn't disappearing anytime soon, House decides to go to the hospital.



In the differential, the team notes that Penelope isn't responding to treatment and can't determine why. Amber suggest dehydration but House ignores her and suggests a pulmonary contusion. Thirteen points out that nothing on the scans indicates a contusion and House reluctantly orders them to treat Penelope for dehydration with fluids and antibiotics. House leaves, ignoring Amber's offer of a high-five. He goes to see Wilson, who is with a cancer patient. House gets Wilson to himself in the hallway outside and admits he's hallucinating. He wants Wilson to sit on his differentials to double-check whatever he says. House insists he's just suffering from sleep apnea but Wilson is skeptical and wonders if he has any other symptoms. House starts arguing with Amber, but when Wilson calls him on it, claims that he's hallucinating Kutner instead so Wilson will sympathize. Wilson agrees to watch him.



Cameron and Chase are at her apartment having take-in when Cameron tells her fiancé she has her dead husband's sperm. They had it frozen before he died of cancer and Cameron held onto it afterward. She wants to hold onto it since she's not sure where she and Chase will end up.



House undergoes a night of sleep at the hospital under monitored conditions to confirm the sleep apnea diagnosis. Wilson suggests there may be another reason and Amber agrees with him. House tells them both to leave. The next morning, House tells Wilson that the apnea test was negative and he's still hallucinating. Amber and Foreman come in and Foreman warns that the antibiotics aren't working on Penelope. House has Foreman test Penelope for pneumonia by cutting open her trachea and injecting water into her lungs. Amber approves wholeheartedly and even Wilson has to admit it's no more radical than usual for House. Once Foreman is gone, House offers Wilson a list of causes for his hallucination. Infection is at the top of the list, but Amber points out House listed it first because it's the only one that's curable.



As Jeremy watches over her, Penelope receives the water injection. She starts to choke and Taub loses his grip... because Penelope's skin is coming off. They take her into surgery where Taub applies artificial skin grafts. House suggests cancer and orders tests of her lungs, since they've eliminated the lungs. He also wonders if they caused the skin loss by administering antibiotics: there's a remote chance they can cause toxic epidermal necrolysis. He has the team test to confirm. He goes to see Wilson and admits he feels guilty for ordering the antibiotic treatment. However, since House doesn't normally feel guilty, he thinks that he has MS, which is affecting the section of his brain causing guilt. To test, he goes to talk to Penelope and apologize. He figures if he doesn't feel better, then it's MS. Meanwhile, the team has found a mass on her liver, indicating cancer. Penelope is eager to make sure that she can dance again. House apologizes but doesn't feel anything.



Foreman is outside and tells House that they can't confirm the liver cancer diagnosis because Penelope's skin is too thin to allow a biopsy. He also wonders why House bothered to talk to a patient. House tells Foreman to conduct a special surgical biopsy to avoid unduly breaking the skin and checks with Wilson, who nods in approval. Once Foreman leaves, House tells Wilson he must have MS, but Wilson suggests a lumbar puncture first to test and confirm. As Chase and Foreman do the biopsy, Chase tells his friend about Cameron's sperm collection. Foreman warns that if Chase forces Cameron to get rid of the sperm, she'll blame him if anything goes wrong in the future. Penelope's heart stops in the middle of the biopsy and they're forced to revive her.



In differential, Taub confirms that they got the liver biopsy but it was negative for cancer. Now they have heart arrhythmia to add to the symptoms. Foreman is more interested in why Wilson is there, but House lies and says it's in case they find cancer. Foreman wonders if Cuddy has put Wilson in charge but House denies it. He then concludes that House doesn't trust himself and brought Wilson in. While Taub notes they can't scan Penelope's heart due to the arrhythmia, Amber tells House that he doesn't have MS, so he's either suffering from mental illness or Vicodin overdose, which means he can't practice medicine. She then cuts a gash in her arm with a scalpel, leaking blood all over the place. Taub notes they can scan Penelope's heart by stopping it, and House agrees. Thirteen warns that there could be complications and it will take four minutes to scan the heart, but they can only keep it shut down for three minutes before possible brain damage. House tells them to do it.



Outside, House asks Wilson if his new idea is normal for him. He inadvertently refers to his hallucination as "she," which Wilson picks up on. House finally admits that he's seeing Amber, then asks if his heart-stopping plan makes sense. Wilson admits it does, at least for House, and then tells him the LP shows no signs of MS. It does show high levels of Vicodin, however. House prefers a diagnosis of mental illness and would rather undergo eletroshock therapy. Wilson points out that it's much more dangerous than Vicodin withdrawal and when House concedes the point, goes off to make some calls for treatment.



Chase explains the procedure to Penelope, who agrees. In the MRI room they defibrillate her heart and begin the scan.



House calls Wilson from his office, and suggests that he induce insulin shock and put himself in a coma. He notes that he's been using Vicodin for years and hasn't hallucinated, so something else has changed. Wilson disagrees, but House tells him he's already injecting himself. In the MRI room Foreman and Taub spot a shadow on the heart at the three-minute mark. However, Chase overrides them and start her heart back up before they can get a clear picture.



In his office, House sees an upset Amber and notes she's upset because the insulin shock will make her go away. She disappears as Wilson arrives to revive House. He gets his friend into a room and when House wake up later, House is satisfied that Amber is no longer there. Wilson has to admit he seems okay after the insulin shock, and House notes he's disappointed that House won't have to go through detox. House gets called to the differential where Foreman and Chase are arguing over Chase's decision to restart Penelope's heart. House disagrees with Chase since Penelope isn't showing any signs of brain damage. After Chase storms off the team wonders what the spot indicates. Foreman suggests an abscess from an infection but they have no way to confirm. House goes to Penelope's room and watches as Jeremy sits at his girlfriend's side. He concludes that Jeremy is so devoted because he's covering up for something, and suggests he gave Penelope gonorrhea. They only tested her blood, but if it disseminated in her heart then it wouldn't show up there. House tells them to test Jeremy, which will confirm if he gave it to Penelope.



Hosue goes to a bar, alone, to celebrate. Foreman calls to tell him Jeremy tested positive for gonorrhea, but Jeremy insists he never cheated on Penelope. He insists that Penelope gave him gonorrhea. House realizes he wasn't right, he was just lucky. He then looks up to see Amber on stage, singing mockingly at him. He calls Wilson to pick him up. They go back to House's apartment and House starts to pack for the treatment his friend has arranged. Foreman calls to say that Penelope is septic due to infection and her blood pressure is too low to operate and remove the abscess. Wilson tells him that House isn't available and hangs up. He lies to House, who doesn't believe him. House wonders why he isn't scared given how his life is going, and realizes that he'll just figure out a way to cheat and get around the detox. Amber agrees, and House tells Wilson it won't work which is why he's been resisting the idea. Instead he comes up with another idea and leaves.



The next day, the team tries to come up with a way to treat Penelope. Foreman suggests they give her dopamine to close her blood vessels, which will raise her blood pressure enough to operate. Taub warns against it but Foreman notes they don't have any other choice. Thirteen wonders where House is and Foreman notes that House is apparently gone and they'll need to treat Penelope on their own.



House goes to Cuddy's office and tells her that he's quitting. She figures it's a negotiation ploy and ignores him to head home to be with her daughter. House insults the baby and Cuddy walks away, but House finally tells her that he's hallucinating. Cuddy figures it's because of the Vicodin and agrees to call her sitter to tell her she'll be late. She suggests he check in at the hospital but House warns he'll figure out a way to cheat. He wants Cuddy to help him, since she's wise to all of his tricks. Amber warns against it but Cuddy agrees to help.



After administering the dopamine, Chase is able to remove the abscess. However, a nurse point out that Penelope's fingers and toes are turning black.



At House's apartment, House is vomiting violently as Cuddy tries to comfort him. When she goes to get him tea to drink, he looks for pills in all of his secret stashes but discovers Cuddy has cleaned them out. When she comes back, he tells her he has some pills hidden in the kitchen, but she points out she already found them, so she figures he's being sincere. Amber congratulates House on convincing House he's telling the truth now, so he can trick her later.



Chase tells Penelope that the dopamine saved her life but they'll have to amputate her feet and hands. Penelope refuses, insisting that her dancing is her life and she can't live without it. Chase meets with the team and Thirteen suggests they get Jeremy to convince his girlfriend to agree to amputation. However, Jeremy has left after discovering Penelope gave him gonorrhea. Foreman decides it's no longer there problem since they removed the abscess, but Taub suggests they save her hand and feet as well, and Chase notes that if they fail it'll prove they aren't as smart as House or can get by without him.



House is throwing up into the toilet and Cuddy gives him some ginger to calm his stomach. He notices a pill half-hidden on the floor and asks Cuddy to get him something to sweeten the ginger. When she leaves, he crawls over to the Vicodin pill but Amber point out that House is torturing himself rather than admit defeat to Cuddy. However, he also can't stop himself from taking the Vicodin. House continues crawling while Amber notes that if he takes the pill then it means he doesn't think he deserves Cuddy. But if he does and lies to Cuddy, then he doesn't deserve anyone. House pauses and Cuddy arrives and flushes the pill down the toilet. House tries to get it out of the toilet bowl without success.



Taub comes up with a way to save Penelope's hand and feet using vasodilators used to treat burn victims. He and Chase are able to save Penelope's extremities.



The next morning, House wakes up feeling better, but complains about Cuddy's loud breathing. She tells him he's supposed to feel lousy. He wonders what he's supposed to do once he overcomes the Vicodin and has to live with the pain, but Cuddy tells him he'd be surprised at how much pain he can live with without the Vicodin. He points out she has no evidence of that so her reassurances are meaningless, and accuses her of only helping because he's the hospital's biggest asset. Cuddy denies it, saying she hasn't lied to him in 20 years. House figures that means she wants to tell him something from 20 years ago she did lie about. Cuddy finally admits that she lied about enrolling in his endocrinology She only sat in the to see House, who she thought was an interesting lunatic. House notices that Amber has disappeared.



Penelope wakes up to discover that Jeremy has left. Taub tells her that her boyfriend gave up on her and left.



Cameron wakes up to find Chase in her room. he tells her that he won't marry Cameron while she's still holding on to her dead husband's sperm. He figures it means she has doubts about them, but he insists that he doesn't and he's willing to wait unitl she doesn't either.



As House and Cuddy prepare to leave, House thanks Cuddy for her help. As she opens the door out, he leans in close and she jokes that he must want to kiss her. House seriously notes that he does, and Cuddy kisses him. They pause for a moment, and then start kissing.