"Where's Taub?" House asked as he entered the conference area.

"He had to go home," Foreman told him.

"What for?"

"Didn't say why and he didn't seem to really care what you thought about it," he raised his brows.

House cocked his jaw and squinted for a moment, "Oh well. He's been pretty much useless anyway."

"And it's been 24 hours since any of us has been home," Chase added.

"Like that's never happened before," House mocked. "You've all had nap time, so tell me what good it did; we're running out of time. We need more ideas."

"I still stand by the idea that the MRI could be missing something," Remy stated.

"We could do a biopsy," Chase suggested.

"You wanna go into this guy's brain?" Foreman questioned. "It's almost morning; he's got a matter of hours left. Do you really wanna take that away from him on a hunch? There are people flying in to see him..."

"If it means it could be the difference between them saying goodbye, and us actually finding something and keeping him alive, I think it's worth it, yes," Remy argued.

"He could die on the table," Foreman retorted. "There's no evidence showing a biopsy would even find anything."

"Pretty sure if there's a chance we could save him, they'd all be willing to give it a shot," Chase said.

"Maybe if we waited until his friends got here-" Foreman started.

"He doesn't have anymore time," House interrupted; his eyes darted around the room in thought. "Not to mention he's lost consciousness. Not that that matters, since a conversation wasn't really plausible to begin with." He took a decisive breath, "Thirteen...get permission from Agent Gibbs to do the biopsy. And see if they can figure out what's taking the patient's girlfriend so long to call back. Seems a little odd there's such a lack of concern for the fact that he's in the hospital, dying."

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"You wanna cut into his brain?" Gibbs questioned Dr. Hadley in the hall where she'd pulled him aside.

"If there's something in his brain causing this that we haven't been able to detect with the MRIs, this is how we can find out," she explained.

"And if you find nothing?"

"Then at least we tried everything," her eyes darted back and forth between his. "This could be the last chance we have to try and save him, Gibbs. You've gotta let us at least try..."

After a few long moments of contemplation, he met her eyes again, "When are you gonna do this?"

"We're prepping to take him in, now. We'll be ready for him in about twenty minutes." Gibbs nodded in acknowledgment, but inwardly cringed at the fact that Abby wouldn't be there for at least another hour. "I just need you to sign this," she handed him a paper on a clipboard and a pen. He took both, hesitating for a moment before signing and handing it back. "Oh...by the way, Dr. House said the girl Tony went camping with hasn't called yet. Is there any way one of you could get in contact with her?"

Gibbs narrowed his eyes, "She never called?" Remy shook her head. "I'll take care of it," he turned and went back into the room. "McGee, find that Tracy girl. She never called the doc."

"On it, Boss," he stood and pulled out his phone, making his way out of the room as Gibbs turned to Ducky.

"They're gonna biopsy his brain," he told the M.E. "See if they can't find something that way." His statement was one requiring affirmation that his decision to allow the procedure was valid.

"I do hope they plan to do it soon, then."

"Twenty minutes," he replied. "Abby will be pissed..."

"I'm certain she'll understand. She would be more upset to learn that they'd held off from doing whatever they could to try and help him," he tried to assure him.

"If they can help him."

"Now, Jethro..." the doctor started, but decidedly ended there. Instead, he stood, "I'm going to join Ziva in the cafeteria for a few minutes. I'll bring you some more coffee." With that, he left the team leader alone with his senior field agent.

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House lazily set his desk phone back on the hook as Wilson entered the office. "I hear Chase is doing a brain biopsy on your patient," he said as he crossed the room to sit in the chair in front of House's desk. House nodded, mutely, distracted as he leaned back in his chair and propped his legs up on the desk, looking absentmindedly at the x-ray up on the wall. "You don't seem to have much confidence in a positive outcome."

"It's not a positive outcome unless I figure it out before he dies," he said as he picked up the tennis ball from its place on his desk. "He and his girlfriend didn't do anything unusual on their one-night camping trip last weekend. Unless sleeping out under the stars is unusual."

"Well you checked him for parasites..."

"Not so much as a mosquito bite amongst all the battle scars he's received on the job," he sighed.

"Lucky bastard...ah...well, aside from the obvious reasons why he's not. Last time I went camping I pulled three ticks off of me. I was paranoid for a week about getting Lyme disease."

"And I probably would've never let that go," House smirked. But then the smile faded as he looked back up at the x-ray and stood.

"I know you wouldn't have. That's why if it had actually happened, I would never have told you," he said with raised brows. Wilson watched House as he stared hard at the image on the lit-up board. "There's nothing there, House. We checked it over and over." House said nothing, but the corner of his mouth turned up almost imperceptibly before he turned to quickly rush out of the office. Wilson narrowed his eyes and took his place in front of the image, squinting in efforts to find whatever it was that gave House the 'I just figured it out' look on his face...

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Lisa Cuddy stood in the observation room towering over the O.R, watching the medical staff prepare Tony for the procedure. Dr. Chase glanced up at her before picking up the drill. After giving him a nod, he turned the machine on.

Cuddy wasn't surprised when House entered the observation room. But when he brushed past her and reached for the speaker phone, she cocked her head in curiosity. "Stop the procedure," House called out, and Chase looked up, turning the drill off.

"House?"

"Look in his left ear," he instructed.

"What'd you find?" Cuddy asked House.

"You're about to find out," he told her, then looked back at a confusion Dr. Chase. "Are you just gonna stand there, or save this man's life?" he asked sarcastically.

Chase set the drill down and moved to Tony's left side. Foreman joined Chase's side and observed with curiosity. "I'm not seeing anything..." Chase said as he pulled a magnifier down in front of Tony's ear.

"Look harder," House said with a hint of sarcasm. Chase shot him a glare before continuing. "You definitely missed something in the initial exam. Funny thing about bug-spray; ya never think to put it in your ears..."

Chase's eyes went wide and he grabbed for a pair of tweezers, then carefully extracted the discovery...

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tbc...