House, M.D. s07e07 Episode Script

Shouldn't they be up by now? I'm sure they're fine.
They're gonna run out of air.
I'm happy to kill my daughter, but I'd feel a little awkward about killing your son.
They're spending time together, it's good.
We're a family now.
They need to bond.
Yeah.
Well, they can bond with full air intake.
Julie, surface now! Help! Shark! Please don't scare me like that.
What? You said we should bond.
Look what I found! You're not supposed to take anything off the wreck.
How cool is this? They kind of look like feathers.
Can I see? Ow! Julie! Get her a towel.
What was in that jar? Why aren't you guys in my office? Why are you in the building? It's 8:00 in the morning.
Where's Chase? He's not here because it's 8:00 in the morning.
Sixteen-year-old girl, high fever, vomiting, bloodshot eyes.
Wow, the case of the really bad flu.
Hmm.
Let me see.
Did I leave anything out? Oh, yeah.
The smallpox.
Smallpox was eradicated over 30 years ago.
So were Hush Puppies.
Did you check out your local hipster coffee shop lately? Smallpox doesn't exist outside of P4 labs and bio weapon plants.
She was in Bermuda Where she was scuba-diving on the wreck of a Dutch slave ship that had been intentionally sunk because an epidemic of smallpox had broken out onboard.
Was the ship sunk in water? Because viruses can't survive contact with water.
And if the virus had been kept on the outside of an airtight jar, that might be an issue.
The jar held old-school inoculations.
They kept the scabs of the infected people.
The virus can't survive over 200 years You have.
Thanks for calling back.
Listen, I'm a screenwriter.
And is it theoretically possible for smallpox to survive for more than 200 years underwater in a sealed glass jar? Well, theoretically, yes, but Thank you.
So who do we believe, the CDC or Dr.
90210? Isolate, get the baseline blood draws for smallpox antibodies, then vaccinate the entire family.
We should test for the Varicella, measles You're free to perform whatever unnecessary tests you want, Foreman.
Slavery was abolished years ago.
Why the hell do you guys have us quarantined in here? We're just taking every precaution.
Against what? What do you think I have? One possibility is tetanus from the glass jar that sliced your hand.
I remember tetanus shots.
That does not look like tetanus shots.
It's really not worth going into, because the odds are astronomical.
Tell me.
Again, it's Smallpox.
Smallpox? Vaccine will protect you if you don't have it, and lessen the severity if you already do.
But it's a billion-to-one, so we don't want you to panic or anything.
How do I not panic with that information? Idiot in exam room one needs anti-diarrheals and a dictionary.
You're not scheduled for clinic duty now.
I had some free time.
I owed four hours Don't you have a case? Yeah.
Then don't worry about it.
Are you a Stepford doctor? If you're busy, you don't need to be down here.
You're serious.
Yep.
Get out of here.
I can't.
I forgot her stuffed animal at home.
It's been with her through all the chemo sessions so far.
I need Lamby.
She doesn't want me to do it alone.
Honey, there's no other way.
You're just gonna have to be brave, okay? What if I get someone to sit with her while you run home and get Lamby? I'll get a nurse.
Then I have to deal with a very sick man.
I think she knows.
Who is she, and what does she know? Cuddy and that I faked a lab test and lied to her to save my last patient.
What did she do? She let me out of clinic duty because I had a case.
She's never done that.
She's also probably never ordered the pasta special in the cafeteria.
Would that also have some special paranoid message to send you? I am not imagining this.
It's an aberration in the way that she treats me.
How do I find out what it means? You don't.
If she doesn't know, all you're gonna do by sniffing around is make her suspicious.
If she does know, you'll find out soon enough.
What if I die of curiosity in the meantime? You were an idiot for lying to her in the first place.
Don't be more of an idiot now.
Say nothing.
To no one.
About anything.
That includes me.
It's not smallpox.
Blood work suggests some other infection.
White count is way down.
Masters, you got a boyfriend? That's none of your business.
Probably just a dry spell.
House, you do realize we just ruled out smallpox? Would you ever be extra nice to a theoretical boyfriend if you were really mad at him? I guess the only reason I would be extra nice is because I'm angry, and I just want him to go away so I don't have to deal with him anymore.
You passive-aggressive bitch.
You just asked me What about Foreman's unnecessary tests? Negative for varicella and measles.
So all of our ideas are off the table.
I'm putting mine back on.
Patient's a diver.
Under increased pressure, everything in the blood gets scared, panics, runs and hides.
Antibodies could be in the joints.
Tap her knee, ankle, shoulder, and any other joint in her smallpox-ridden body.
Good talk.
You know.
Of course I know.
Oh, thank God.
I thought I was just being paranoid.
Why didn't you say something? 'Cause I wanted you to come to me and apologize.
I can't apologize if I haven't done anything wrong.
You lied to my face.
To do my job.
To save the patient's life.
Look, I don't wanna go all Godfather on you, but this was business.
I wouldn't lie to you about something personal.
You don't get to lie to me about anything.
I can't compartmentalize my life like that.
Well, maybe you should practice, 'cause it comes in handy.
I think you should go.
Ow.
- Sorry.
I have to get the needle behind the bone.
I'm running out of bones.
If this is a waste of time Last one.
We just have to be What? What is it? I'm sorry.
I have to call the CDC.
I think you do have smallpox.
Am I gonna die? I mean, this is what terrorists want to use to kill everyone, right? Like, there's no cure.
There are treatments.
We can give you cidofovir I don't think you care about the drugs' names.
Bottom line, it's 30% fatal.
Which means your chances of being okay are about the same as a basketball player's chance of hitting a free throw.
Unless she finds dark, purplish skin blotches.
What would purple blotches mean? Hemorrhagic-type smallpox.
In which case, her chances are more like Shaq hitting a free throw.
Well, no purple skin, but take a look at this.
What is it? There's a rash under your daughter's arm.
What, like, more of those gross bumps? No.
It's just a regular rash.
What does that mean? It means it's not smallpox.
Are you saying you see House's side? It's not even a side, it's a fictional construction.
She's expecting House not to lie? If she's using the relationship as a rationale to try to change things Wait, wait.
Are you saying it's okay for us to lie to each other? No.
We have a different relationship.
I think a better one.
Lying was never part of it.
Theirs is built on it.
I'm sorry.
I have to go.
Oh, come on.
I have to leave in, like, five minutes.
Can't it wait? There's a little girl.
The nurse watching her got called away.
It's a long story, but I've gotta babysit.
I'll see you tonight.
- Attention.
- Effective immediately, all hospital entrances and exits will be restricted until further notice.
Center for Disease Control has ordered Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital locked down.
Well, I guess I can stay.
Please, step out of the room.
I'm Dr.
Broda, Head of Infection Control, CDC.
And your protective suits are not adequate.
Turns out they don't have to be.
Rash under the arm means it's not smallpox.
False alarm.
Sorry, hope the traffic wasn't too bad.
Rash is consistent with smallpox.
Not if it presents after pustules.
She's probably just allergic to the bed sheets or the hospital gown.
Or you simply didn't notice it.
We're gonna airlift blood and tissue samples to Atlanta.
We'll have the DNA results in 18 hours.
In the meantime, please, step out of the room.
You brought the plane? Cool.
When we left, Julie's fever had climbed over 103.
It's not smallpox, she's not dying, and it's not our case.
Need any other reasons to forget it? You know how you can tell there's nothing to be done? Chase showed up.
I was here at 9:00.
So you guys just want to do nothing for the next 18 hours until they tell us it's not smallpox? Can't we spend the time discussing what looks like smallpox but isn't smallpox? Molluscum contagiosum.
You have to compare lesions to differentiate.
But we don't have access to the patient or any new information.
We do have access to the other patients.
The ones who died of the same thing in 1793.
The captain's log from the Sotos Ooslerzoon.
Maritime Museum in Bermuda graciously sent over a PDF.
Problem solved.
I assume at least one of you speaks fluent Dutch.
It's the middle of the night in the Netherlands.
Nobody's working.
Oh, you can always find someone.
Oh, yes.
My name is Geerte.
Are you handsome sexiest American man? Well, you know, some people I would say that I am, yeah.
I want you to translate something for me.
- Why you want - I translate? I do topless, toys, and Just do the translation.
She can translate however she feels most comfortable.
Whatever.
You put in credit card.
House, the hospital has translators on call Shut up.
Honey, could you e-mail our new friend the captain's log? Sure thing, sexiest American man.
"On morning of 14 July, "I boarded Sotos Ooslerzoon with two trunks and my cat.
" Aw.
The Captain had a cat.
Isn't she adorable? Go ahead and skip to the part where people get sick.
Mmm.
Ah, here.
"The passenger has a fever, shaking and red eyes.
" Ew, also, African man make go in his pants.
What about the captain, the crew? No.
It say only African men sick.
It can't be smallpox.
Airborne transmission means it's an equal opportunity killer.
We're looking for a disease that discriminates.
Sickle cell.
The disease doesn't have to be racist, it could be classist.
Vitamin D deficiency from lack of sunlight weakens the immune system, makes the slaves more vulnerable to malaria or dengue fever I don't know how you get pustules from any of those.
The captain and crew got clean drinking water.
The slaves drank whatever they could.
Scrofula.
That's what they called cervical TB lymphadenitis in the 1700s.
Scrofulicious.
That's what they called annoying in the 1700s.
Is she wrong? They died for nothing.
Those slaves could have lived long fulfilling lives mowing my ancestors' lawns.
Foreman, can I speak to you outside for a second? We need to test for TB.
TB might fit, but it's too slow-moving to kill her anytime soon.
There's no way that CDC's gonna give us access.
That's why we don't think it's TB.
We think it's meningococcal disease, which could kill her before the results come back.
And once I gain access, I run the TB test.
You could've said all that in there.
In front of the narc? As if.
Are you so afraid of this new girl, we have to take elaborate measures every time you want to skirt around ethical boundaries? Elaborate measures? We took a walk.
A walk you would have taken anyway.
Actually, I saved you from the horrible post-differential traffic jam.
Meningococcus? We believe the rash under Julie's armpit is actually petechial spots.
When added to the high fever, the vomiting and There haven't been any seizures, no stiff neck If I could just gain access to the patient, I could investigate the rash further.
All right, I'll take a look.
I can wear your gear.
I'll take every necessary precaution.
You come to me with a weak diagnosis.
I even offer to investigate.
But that's not good enough for you.
What's really going on here? Sir, are you feeling all right in there? It's just a headache.
Baby.
Baby.
Dad, you're bleeding.
Somebody, please, get in here now! This is not meningococcus.
You're not getting in here.
Cool.
Not really.
Not for them and not for you.
The dad's new symptoms are consistent with them having smallpox.
Would be, if he had a headache.
He does have a headache.
No, he just said, "Ow" and held his head.
Actually, he said, "Ow" then he said, "It's a headache.
" Which could be indicative of head pain.
Headache is caused by muscle tension or vascular stretching.
Head pain is caused by trauma.
Which would include such events as a bleed in the brain from TB.
- We're back to TB? - We never left.
We'll need to do a CT.
And I sort of have a hunch that the CDC is not gonna approve of us moving the patient.
Chase, can I talk to you outside for a second? We just tried this.
I'm not a better liar than Foreman.
Sure you are.
You're descended from convicts.
Plus, there's no lie this time, just a bait and switch.
You propose that we don't have to move him if we do a pneumo-encephalograph.
That's 60-year-old technology that killed patients.
Exactly.
He'll compromise on the CT This isn't Cuddy.
Your Jedi mind tricks won't work here.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
You don't trust me.
Going behind your back works better when you're not facing us.
Instead of whatever lie you're gonna tell Broda, why don't you just tell him the truth? If we're honest and reasonable Then people of all races and creeds will live together in peace and harmony How did your first plan work out? Permission granted.
Thank you.
After she gets denied, do the bait and switch.
They won't let your mommy back in the hospital because of an emergency downstairs.
But we have to get started.
I can't do it without my Lamby.
Who is she? I'm nobody, I'm leaving soon.
Her name is Sam, and she's a friend of mine.
What does Lamby usually do while you get your treatment? She holds my hand.
Well, you could hold my hand.
That won't work.
Well, sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do.
You have to go to school, you have to eat your vegetables, and you have to take your medicine.
You have to.
I want my mommy.
Yeah.
I'll be right back.
You know, I'm pretty sure Lamby has a cousin down in the gift shop.
Hold off a minute.
I'm in overtime.
Broda agreed to CT the dad's brain.
Well, that sucks.
But I thought that's what you wanted.
I shouldn't have gotten it with the truth.
He's a hypocrite.
His position ever since he's been here has been I pointed out that either we're right, and he's the hero for ending the crisis, or he's right, and he gets to be the first person to look at a brain infected with smallpox.
CT scans weren't around 30 years ago.
Good work.
So I guess honesty is the best policy.
Why'd you say that? Seriously, to establish your viewpoint, as if I didn't already know it, or to demonstrate some weird cross-generational female solidarity with Cuddy? Actually, I was just trying to fill the awkward silence.
Why have they stopped? You can't go out there! Why did you stop? Get out of the hallway.
He does not have smallpox.
Yes, he does.
It itches.
He's just developed pustules.
He's now too dangerous to transport.
Get out of the hallway.
Dad's vitals are in the toilet.
He's got full-blown smallpox.
What about the daughter? Pustule count is way up , her vitals are way down.
Means I was wrong.
Well, to be precise, I was right before I was wrong, so So we just give up and go home? Actually, somebody locked the front door.
But yeah, we give up.
We might as well keep We have our diagnosis.
If you're eager, you can go find us a new case.
I guess she's eager or has a blind spot for sarcasm.
I just wanna look at the rash under her arm to see if it's matured to match the You can look through the glass.
I need to be closer.
If the pustules are at a different stage She's comfortable.
We're gonna have our results back in eight hours.
If it's not smallpox, you can be the first one in there.
Why are you just standing out there? I'm just trying to help.
If you're feeling up to it, can you sit up and show me the rash under your arm? Wait.
The soles of your feet There aren't any lesions.
Who cares? They're everywhere else.
This is torture.
Eve.
Guess who came by the hospital for a visit.
Hello, Eve.
Oh, no.
All right, I'm gonna get a couple of nice nurses to come in here and get you two ready for the treatment, all right? Okay.
How come Lamby can be here, but Mommy can't? Lamby was dirty.
We gave her a bath.
This isn't Lamby! Julie doesn't have smallpox.
Did I just dream the part where I finally agreed it was smallpox? Well, if what I thought was reality was actually a dream, then the reverse - Oh, my God.
- I had a threesome with Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.
She doesn't have pustules on her palms or the soles of her feet.
But Dad does have pustules there.
So how does he get smallpox, but it skips her? If I leave like that, you should follow.
We gave it to him.
Where's Chase? You do realize we don't all live together, right? Well, then just We gave it to him.
No pustules on the daughter's palms, so So, therefore, your theory is you asked me to take the dad's blood, but I accidentally injected him with smallpox.
Exactly.
Although, technically, it was the vaccinia virus.
Which is what the smallpox vaccine is made from.
Same symptoms as smallpox, but only half the calories and almost none of the lethality.
You sound like one of those anti-vaccine cranks.
You can't develop full-blown symptoms from the vaccine this quickly.
You can if you're immuno-compromised.
Am I the only one who reads these things? Dad had kidney cancer.
Six years ago.
He's been in remission.
Well, it's obviously back.
It shot his immune system, made him vulnerable to the vaccinia.
Which will get better on interferon.
So if he responds to the treatment, that proves he doesn't have smallpox.
Then what does the daughter have? Damn.
I was hoping you weren't gonna ask me that.
Can we please just focus on the disease we've just diagnosed and we can treat? What's more likely? He got smallpox the day after we immunized him for it, or he's sick from the vaccine itself? You got any proof the kidney cancer's back? Well, let me give him this.
When he gets better, that will be the proof you need.
I'll put on one of your fancy space suits, and I promise I won't kiss him on an open sore.
You know who Janet Parker is? In 1978, she was working at a university in England.
Someone in a research lab on the floor below screwed up.
Some smallpox virus managed to float up through the vents into the room where she was working.
She died four days later, the last known person to die from smallpox.
And the person in charge of the lab was so destroyed, he killed himself.
Now that he's shedding, I can't open that door for anyone.
Hey! Look.
There's the proof you need.
There's blood in the urine bag.
His kidneys are shutting down.
He's in the final stages of the disease.
If smallpox was causing the kidney failure, the blood would be brown.
It's red.
Because the kidney cancer is back and this is not smallpox.
I'm not opening that door.
Well, that makes one of us.
Hey! Hey! You're insane! But I'm right.
I hope you are.
Because I can't let you out now.
This is what happens when you have no respect for authority, no respect for anything.
You don't think it's a little much to use the threat of death to win a totally separate argument with your boyfriend? You think this is about the other thing? It does seem to track suspiciously closely.
I don't care right now that you lied to me.
I want you to stay alive.
And if I do, does that mean I win both arguments? Put the suit on.
It's unnecessary, Mom.
This is why I didn't want them telling you.
It's why I'm glad they didn't tell Wilson.
Dr.
House.
I'm getting worse, aren't I? Interferon takes a little time to work.
Don't worry.
Tell Broda that I'm increasing his oxygen.
And get my team down here.
Hi.
You're mad at us, aren't you? Yeah.
Well, you have a right to be.
We weren't honest.
You might not know this yet, but sometimes adults mess up.
Can I tell you something and you'll keep it just between us? I'm not great with kids.
I love them, but I get scared that I'm gonna do the wrong thing, and then, I usually do.
That's what I did with the lying.
And I'm very sorry about that.
But the reason why I did the wrong thing was because I was trying to get you to do the right thing.
Your mommy and your Lamby both really need you to get better.
So, do you think that you could be really brave and do the right thing? I'll try.
Great.
Great.
Fever's way up, sats are way down, pustules still spreading.
Interferon's not working.
Means this is smallpox.
Right, because there are only two diseases in the whole wide world.
What else could it be? There's got to be something.
No, there doesn't.
There are still no pustules on her feet.
All the reasons you thought it wasn't smallpox still exist.
- Forget her feet.
- Forget all those other reasons.
Look at him now.
The pox are dome-shaped, they're on 80% of his body, and they're not scabbing over.
This is textbook smallpox.
DDx-ing at this point isn't gonna make a difference.
Don't say that.
I'm sorry.
House, you screwed up going in there.
You have any fever? Not yet.
But when it does come, I assume you'll see the pettiness of being mad at me for lying.
Shut up, House.
I'll be right back.
I'm not gonna make it, am I? You should say goodbye to your family.
I love you.
Just hold on.
Fight this.
You gotta take care of my boy.
No.
Promise me.
I promise.
I love you.
I love you, too.
Get Roger closer.
Come closer.
Come on.
Dad? You're my baby boy.
Dad, please.
It's gonna be okay.
Lulu's gonna take care of you.
I don't want to, Dad.
She's not you.
I will always love you, Rog.
Dad? Dad! You're killing me.
The suit will protect you if you haven't already been exposed.
My air supply's almost out.
We'll give you another canister.
Yeah, and when I change it, I will be exposed.
Just move him.
I wish I could.
Well, that's great, because you know what you can do? You can move me.
You don't know that I have smallpox yet.
We have to assume.
There's another isolation room on the fifth floor.
The problem is getting him from here to there.
So it's inconvenient? My having a fighting chance at life is inconvenient? I'm sorry.
We don't know that he'll catch it.
We don't know that it's definitely smallpox, not until we get the DNA results back from the CDC.
What do you think the dad just died of? Would it kill us to talk it through? Kill us, no.
Save House, also no.
Even if by some miracle it's not smallpox, there's nothing more for us to go on.
There's no new data and there isn't going to be any Where are you going? To get more data.
"Gerritt seems distant, preoccupied.
" Who's Gerritt? Is he a slave? Gerritt is the captain's kitty.
The captain's cat is preoccupied? Skip the cat.
"One goat slaughtered for dinner.
"Broke out the next barrel of wine" Skip the food.
Can we go back to the cat? Did the cat get sick? Smallpox is exclusive to humans.
Ship captains didn't have pets.
Nothing and nobody went on those ships if it didn't have a purpose.
Hunting mice and rats? For the crew.
The hold was probably infested with mice.
What if that's the difference? What happened to Gerritt? Ah.
Is that a sad "ah" or a cute "ah"? Gerritt, he died.
It's a sad "ah.
" Before he died, did he lose his fur? How did you know? Mice don't carry smallpox, but they do carry rickettsialpox.
Which is treatable.
Just start them on doxycycline.
Based on a bald cat? You never heard of shedding? What's the downside? If we shove her full of antibiotics plus the antivirals, it'll suppress her bone marrow.
That girl's about to die.
She probably is.
And I don't want to risk pushing her over the edge.
At least look at the dad's body.
Small patches of black dead tissue will prove I'm right.
Eschars appear with rickettsialpox but not with smallpox.
If he had developed eschars, I would've noticed.
You haven't been within 20 feet of the guy in hours.
Have them check.
Their job is to bleach the body, kill the virus, and get it out of there for Dr.
House's sake.
Bleaching the body will destroy all evidence of rickettsialpox.
There is no evidence.
I'm not trying to hurt anyone here.
I'm not lying to you.
This is smallpox.
House, you have to examine the body.
I'm not going anywhere near it.
Look for eschars.
Hurry.
You think it's R-pox? The Captain had a cat.
He lost his fur and then died.
Step back, Dr.
House.
It's kind of hard to do an autopsy in oven mitts.
Take them off.
Says the woman standing behind two panes of glass.
Do you believe me? Forget me.
Do you believe you? You think it's rickettsialpox, don't you? If it is, it's curable, and she's gonna die unless we can prove it.
You really are annoying.
Come on, House.
Come on.
Eschar.
Eschars.
Start the girl on doxycycline right now.
Mommy! - You were good with her.
- Yeah.
Only after being bad.
It takes practice.
Maybe I should get a puppy.
Yeah.
Or pregnant.
Hey.
You're gonna be okay.
Hey.
Hey.
Buy you breakfast? No, thanks.
You can pay if it's starting to feel like I'm carrying you.
House, stop.
When I was dying, you realized that a little white lie between co-workers wasn't such a big deal.
Yeah, and that was true, when you were dying.