House had been trying to focus on the case in front of him all morning. Cuddy had pushed it on him. House was paying even less attention than normal. What House had his mind on was Marina. He couldn't place it, but something just didn't seem right about her. He had said flu on a knee jerk reaction, but had started to regret it before she even walked out the door. He had let her go, but only under a promise before she left that she would let someone know if she got worse. House knew that the two of them hadn't left the hospital yet. Marina always came by his office to see him before she left. Lost in his own brain, House briefly drifted off to the first time that he and Marina had met face to face.

House walked into Wilson's office and started to say something, until he realized that Wilson was not sitting behind the desk. In the space of one second, House wondered why the lights were on in Wilson's office but no one was there. It then hit House that someone else was in the office. Instinctively, he tightened his grip on his cane.

"Hi."

The sound of a small voice in the room startled House. He jumped a little; then felt foolish when he saw the little girl coloring on top of Wilson's coffee table. House had never seen her before, but he figured she was one of Wilson's patients. She looked to be about four or five years old, dressed in a pink Winnie the Pooh shirt with a matching pair of pants. She was grinning up at House.

"Hi." House answered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Marina. Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. House."

"Are you Dr. Wilson's friend?"

"Yeah. Why are you here?" House asked. "Where's your parents?"

"They died." Marina said sadly, looking back down at her coloring book.

"Oh. Sorry." House said awkwardly. "Who's here with you?"

"Adele went out to talk to Dr. Wilson." Marina told him.

That's when it hit House who this little girl was. This was the cancer kid Wilson had told him about, the one whose parents had died in a car wreck after he started treating her. Adele Worthington was the social worker who brought Marina to the hospital every week.

"You want to color with me?" Marina asked, holding out a purple crayon to House.

House's first instinct was to say no and turn around and walk out. But something about this kid was magnetic, drawing House into her. House took the crayon from her. He noticed a stuffed giraffe on the table.

"Who's this guy?" House asked.

"That's Hippo." Marina said.

"Hippo?" House asked. "He's not a Hippo."

"He wants to be." Marina explained.

"Oh, I see." House said.

"He gets to pretend he's a hippo and I get to pretend I'm not sick." Marina said, continuing to color as she talked. She spoke softly, almost in a whisper.

House stopped and stared at Marina. He realized that, as young as she was, she knew what was going on with her illness, and for a second he was amazed that she was able to hold it together. But before he could say anything, the door opened.

"House?" Wilson and Adele had walked in. "What are you doing here?"

"Just talking." House said. "Nice to meet you." he said to Marina.

"You too." Marina said.

House got up to leave, but Marina stopped him.

"Wait!" she said. Marina tore a page out of her book and held it out to him. "This is for you."

House took the page from her. It was the one she'd been working on when he'd walked in. It was a perfectly colored in picture of a kid playing outside. House, to Wilson's amazement, smiled.

"Thanks." House said, folding it and putting it in his pocket. "See you later."

House snapped out of his daydream and back to reality when his team walked in. Sure enough, they had cured the patient from earlier. After some back and forth between the team members, Wilson walked back in.

"I'm headed home. House, you want to check in on Marina with me?"

"Sure." House said.

The two of them walked down the hall to Wilson's office, a tense silence between them. Wilson walked in first and was surprised to see Marina sitting up. He turned on the light.

"Honey, what are you doing awake?" Wilson asked.

"My head hurts. Oh." Marina groaned, grabbing her head with both hands. "Turn the light off, please."

Wilson pointed to the light switch next to the door. "House."

House turned the light off and went over to check Marina. He took a closer look at her, which confirmed his suspicions. She was much sicker than she'd seemed earlier. Wilson was checking her forehead.

"You're burning up. The fever's getting worse." Wilson said.

"Yeah." House agreed. "Is the light brighter than normal?"

"Yes." Marina responded painfully.

"Bad migraine?" Wilson asked, secretly hoping that was all it was.

"It's not a migraine." Marina said. "It feels worse than that."

Wilson felt his heart tighten in his chest. From fear, worry, anxiety, he didn't know. Most likely a mix of all three. Marina had suffered migraines before, so he believed her when she told him it was something worse.

Marina looked up at House and her father with tears in her eyes. "Help." she begged.

"Get her admitted." House said. "She's my next case."

Wilson nodded and helped Marina up off the couch. He put his arm around her shoulder. He started walking her towards the door, where he intended to call for a wheelchair before taking her to the elevator up to admitting. Suddenly Wilson felt Marina's body slump in his arms, and he realized she had fainted.

"Marina. Marina!" Wilson almost shouted. "WE NEED HELP IN HERE!" he screamed out the door.

A flood of nurses came in, and Wilson went into overdrive. Marina was taken from him up to the emergency room, where Wilson followed. House went up with them, mostly to keep Wilson focused on the task at hand. When he was confident Marina was about to get into a room, he called his team back.