"It's not tetanus, and it's not Huntington's." Foreman threw a folder down on the table.
"Feels lonely in here, doesn't it?" House asked. He gripped his cane and looked out the window. The sun was setting.
"He's asking to see you."
House looked back at Foreman. "The Hare wants to meet the Tortoise?"
"He says it's something he'll only tell you."
House nodded. "Secrets."
Foreman shrugged.
"Take his blood pressure."
"What?" Foreman leaned forward against a chair. "His blood pressure's fine. We're checking for—
"Take his blood pressure, and make sure you take it for at least," House checked his watch, "four minutes." He stared at Foreman.
"Ok, you've got me, House."
"You ever powerlift? I know it's popular to be the big man on the block. You know, so you can beat up all the other 'homeys.'"
Foreman looked distressed. "Aren't you going to see what he wants to say to you?"
"Our patient likes to prove he's a Greek hero, but the Greeks didn't know about special things like aerobic exercise and electrolytes."
"You think he's overdosed on electrolytes?"
House sighed. "Do your job. Take his blood pressure for four minutes. If his hands start flopping like unhappy little fish—
"Then he's got hypocalcaemia."
"Then he's had it for a while, long enough to present neural problems."
Foreman grabbed the folder. "But if you're right, he should be way worse off than he is now."
House bit his lip. "Maybe he already is, and we just don't know it."
-
Cuddy stopped in her tracks. "What are you doing sitting out here?" She looked down at House who was sitting on a bench next to the clinic doors.
"Oh, I thought I'd enjoy the view."
"You're not scheduled for another hour."
He looked up at her. "I always seem to get these epiphanies when I come in here. Helps me figure out what's wrong with the really sick people."
Cuddy looked at him sideways. "You'd have epiphanies if you were dangling naked from a telephone pole."
House was taken aback. "You think I should dangle… naked from a telephone pole? That wasn't in my job description."
"You're waiting on somebody."
"What if I am?"
She laughed. "You don't wait on people. They wait on you."
"Now if only they'd do it naked hanging from telephone poles. If everyone goes where they have great ideas, then you must have a lot of great ideas while surfing doctor dating websites."
Cuddy spoke through her teeth. "How do you know that?"
House tapped his cane on the floor. "You can see a lot from a flagpole."
She turned to leave.
"I'm waiting on the granny's boy."
She turned around, annoyed. "Why?"
"Because it's a funny story."
"Well you should let him know that you never wait on people."
"Not this time." House smiled. "This is too good."
Some bustling emanated from the crowd of people toward the end of the clinic. The stocky man swung the glass doors wide and looked down at House.
House grinned.
The man looked shocked.
"I'm guessing you saw what granny was doing."
He nodded slowly.
"Let's step into my office. Shall we?" House walked the man down the hall. Cuddy followed closely behind.
-
The athlete looked like a pale giant in the hospital bed.
"Now this is going to hurt a little bit," Foreman said while he pumped the blood pressure cuff. "I need to almost cut off blood to your arm."
"Wh-why do you need to do that?"
"It's a noninvasive way of checking the calcium levels in your blood or, more importantly, any lack thereof which may be doing damage."
"What kind of damage?"
Foreman sighed. "I think we should just do the test first and see what we see. We'll go from there."
"I need to talk to Dr. House. Did you tell him for me?"
Foreman started pumping up the cuff. "I told him, but he's a busy man. And if it's medical, you need to tell me, especially if it's something that could affect a diagnosis."
The man shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that." He clenched his teeth.
Foreman looked at his watch. "Alright, we're going to leave this on for four minutes."
"H-how will you know if what you're looking for is there?" The man sweated.
"Your hands will twitch."
"My hands are already twi—
"A lot more than they are now."