part 5

Hours later, when the results came back, Jason, Natasha and Scott entered House's office carrying the stool sample and their boss looked up from his computer and remarked, "Sorry, all out of free samples."

"You could've caused a heart attack," Gabe told him evenly.

"Blame your surrogate father, he didn't stop me," House said turning to them and adding, "Or rather maybe the blame should fall on you three, considering the fact that we already had this discussion yesterday."

"You had no way of knowing for sure if this would have an adverse reaction. What you did was reckless and-" Vale began but he stood up and remarked coldly, "Madeline has been taking increased amounts of stress medication for the past several months since her husband left her as a single parent. Her heart rate was already thru the roof. What I just did probably saved her life, even if it did cause her to get all woozy."

Scott crossed his arms and said, "What makes you think we won't go to Cuddy?"

"Well let's see, does this day also end in y? It's like your gallant leader declared, you all know I'll do what I want anyway. The point is she's here now, so it's time to treat her for what's really going on," House countered.

"If she had taken the stress medication before you gave her this it could've caused her irreversible liver damage or worse," North stated and added, "You claimed you had a level head yesterday. Now I can see that you don't know what's right and what's wrong anymore." "If you go to Cuddy now, you won't have any proof," House pointed out and then pointed toward Gabe and stated, "He already had his chance to lie and he didn't, so did Mother Teresa over here. Wilson kept quiet because he knew one of his close friends was being stupid. She's sick, possibly dying. It doesn't matter what I did because obviously it didn't kill her, so let's figure out what is. Or would you rather cause both her death, your career to implode and this hospital to be held liable because that's the only other alternative here."

For a moment, none of them spoke; each daring to defy him in some new way until finally Gabe admitted, "He's right. She was stubborn when she was here at first because she didn't want to lose her daughter. So the only good we can do now, is to see to it that doesn't happen."

"What about you?" North asked, turning to Vale. Sighing she remarked, "It's got to be environmental. We should go to the clinic, check the medical records of every animal within the last week or so."

"Do an LP to make sure it's not a clot in her spine or anywhere else in her nervous system, and I'll talk to Cuddy about getting the files from doggy day care," House said with a nod. Vale and Jason walked out, leading North alone to confront him and he sighed and asked, "What was I supposed to do? Because if you have another suggestion I'm all ears."

"I was wrong about you. I thought you put patient care above all else, I knew that meant breaking the rules sometimes; but I didn't realize you would use even a close friend to be a test subject just so you could solve a stupid puzzle," North remarked.

"The greater puzzle here is why you haven't decided to rat me out," House said, his eyes narrowing as he took a step toward him and then adding, "The answer is simple, you know by doing so that you'll just wind up destroying yourself. So you have no choice but to lie. You'll hate yourself for awhile, and in the meantime I'll save a life. In the end it all evens out doesn't it?"

Scott stood there for another moment, and then sighed in defeat walking out of the office. As he watched him go, House couldn't help but to wonder what sort of trouble might happen because of his actions.

A few hours later, after performing the LP and before she clocked out for the evening Doctor Vale entered Honors' room and said softly, "I'm sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"No, that's all right. I wasn't really sleeping. After you get your spinal fluid taken out it's kind of hard to rest," Madeline said with a soft chuckle. "The test results will probably be back in the morning," Vale said as she sat down beside her and Honors remarked, "I take it then you didn't come here to give me any good news."

"I couldn't help but to figure out the connection between you and my boss," Natasha admitted and then asked softly, "How long have you known him?" "Long enough sweetheart," Madeline said with a smile and then added, "I trust him."

"I suppose my tone of voice has given away that I don't. This is only the second case I've been on with him, and needless to say I'm not impressed," Vale admitted. "Did his first patient die?" Honors asked.

"No, but that's not the point," she began but Madeline commented softly, "Then what is it that doesn't impress you? He's not putting on a show with anyone. He's to the point, even brutal sometimes; but he's… he's always right. I can tell from the look in your eyes that you realize that too."

"What if he manipulated you? Forced you to make a choice you didn't want to make?" Vale countered to which she shrugged and answered, "I'm sure he's probably done that already."

"You don't care?" Natasha asked. "I think that falls under the category of patient doctor confidentiality," Madeline said with a smirk and then coughed slightly and remarked, "I don't suppose you could reach into my purse and get me my inhaler?" "Sure," she answered and then paused and remarked, "You have asthma?"

"Yeah, why?" she wondered. "Does House know that?" Vale asked.

"Like I said that's-" "Does he know," she said coldly cutting her off to which Honors replied seriously, "No. In my new house there's a bit of asbestos. Nothing serious but it's hurting my breathing. I had a checkup about two to three months ago, right after I moved in. The inhaler is just a precaution."

Passing it her, Vale watched as she breathed into it and then remarked, "I don't suppose I could take this to the lab?" "Have a hunch huh?" Madeline said with a smirk and then nodded and said, "Yeah, I should be okay."

"Thanks," Vale said scooping up the inhaler and preparing to leave. As she did so, Honors remarked, "Hey." Turning about she looked at the veterinarian and Madeline remarked, "If you're busy rationalizing something that he's making you do, then trust me; you already know he's right."

"Mesothelioma," Vale announced as she slapped the document down onto his desk. Removing his glasses, House glanced at the file and commented, "I can big words too, for example downsizing is another word for fired."

"We caught it early, she has asbestos in her house. We might be able to get her into surgery. But the problem, the real problem here is that you might've damaged her liver with your little stunt," Vale remarked and added, "Which means we have to do a biopsy and if there is liver damage, then she won't get surgery and probably won't get a transplant."

"Lung cancer wouldn't have caused the initial reaction at the clinic," North commented.

"Doesn't really matter what she had," Vale pointed out. "She's perfectly healthy besides having a little liver trouble, right?" Gabe asked from the doorway.

"As far as we know," Natasha said in exasperation.

"Pump her full of steroids, run a biopsy to show to the committee and prove that she's ok to have a portion of her lung removed. Once the steroids wear off we can claim the liver failure was a complication of the cancer. She'll have one problem eliminated and we can put her on the transplant list, this time for a liver," Gabe said.

"That's a very risky gamble, the steroids might not even eliminate the fact that House screwed up," North growled.

"I didn't screw up," House replied defensively as he stood up and remarked, "Get a CT of her lungs, run the steroids and get her into the OR by this afternoon." "Where are you going?" Vale asked in surprise. "To find some asbestos, obviously," he answered quickly as he left them behind.