"No? What do you mean 'no'?" Cuddy argued.
House looked down at Francine then back up at Cuddy. His voice remained turned serious as he asked, "why don't you ask her?"
All eyes turned to the girl who closed her own eyes tightly. She whimpered but didn't talk. House didn't coax her to speak. He didn't move. He stood there, knowing that she would speak soon.
Francine let go of his jacket and House's face fell.
"She wants you to go now," Francine's mother muttered angrily.
"Fine," House retorted. He looked down at Francine, as if to talk only to her. "I'll be in my office."
--
Foreman stood in front of House, his arms crossed and a frown adorning his dark face.
"So, you think her parents are... abusing her?" His tone was exactly as House knew it would be- unbelieving and confused.
"Yeah," House answered, his voice annoyingly loud again. He stood up from his chair and limped over to the white board. He wrote down the words "panic attack" and "seizures".
"Those are happening because she's scared? Is that what you think?" Kutner asked, just as confused as Foreman.
House nodded. "Exactly. I think that she's so afraid of her parents, it's killing her. Ever heard of being scared to death?"
Thirteen was next to speak, "Well, yeah, but-"
House cut her off. "No 'but's." He looked at the ground as he gathered his thoughts. "There are no buts. If she has a bad enough panic attack, her heart could..." He let the sentence linger like a school teacher, waiting for a hand to be raised.
"Stop?" Taub answered.
"Right! As a reward for your right answer, you get to question the parents." House limped back to his chair where his Nintendo DS was waiting.
"Ask them what?" Taub asked.
House made a face. "I don't know. It's your job."
--
Taub walked into the Folley girl's room. She was alone, which seemed strange. Then he looked at the clock to see it was six pm.
"They go to get dinner?" he asked.
"Yes." The ventilator which had been helping her breathe earlier was out, allowing her to speak.
"Well, I came here to talk to your parents. Since they're not here, how about I talk to you?" Taub sat down on the chair near the bed.
Francine shrugged. "I guess."
"Do you want to tell us... anything?" He didn't want to say something like, want to tell us if you've been abused? but he did want to get something out of her.
Francine turned her head away. "Where's that other doctor?"
Taub's eyes widened. "You mean Doctor House?"
The young girl nodded as she turned to face him. "He knows. I want to talk to him."
"Wait a minute. He... knows?"
At that moment, the two were interrupted by Francine's parents.
"Oh. Doctor. W-what are you two talking about?" her mother asked.
"Yes. We'd like to be notified whenever you talk to our daughter," her father added quickly.
Taub pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed inwardly. "Excuse me, Mr. Folley, but this is a hospital, not a police office. You don't need to have a lawyer present. We are allowed to talk to your daughter alone."
"I don't like that," her father shouted.
"Well, then," a voice from behind the door said, "you'll just have to go to another hospital."
Everyone turned to see House who was- very casually- downing what looked like a handful of pills.
"Excuse me?" Mr. Folley began.
House pushed his way through into the room. He turned to the parents and said, "but I'll be forced to do something about those bruises on your daughter."
Taub saw Francine curl into a ball beneath the blankets.
"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Folley asked. She seemed bewildered and nervous.
"You're shaking. It's a sign of nervousness. That's how people in a lie detector test get busted," House muttered.
"Are you accusing us of abusing our daughter?" the girl's father asked loudly.
House turned to Francine, who made a small whimpering noise. She looked up at him with big eyes as she said, "he hurts Mom, too."
House turned back to the parents. Mrs. Folley was crying in Taub's arms.
The father was standing with his hands up by his shoulders defensively. "Look, I didn't do anything! I don't know where those bruises came from, I swear!"
House stared the man down with his bright blue eyes. "I'm calling security."
"You can't call security on me!" he yelled. He turned to his wife, who was hiding her face in Taub's shoulder. "Honey! Honey, please! Tell him! Tell him I don't do these things!"
Mrs. Folley raised her head to look at her husband.
"Baby, I love you," he whispered.
Mrs. Folley's eyes grew wide with pity. "He... he doesn't get violent. He's never hurt us."
"Mommy?" Francine called, her voice small and scared.
"That's right, sweety," her husband encouraged, "I don't. Do I, Francine?" His eyes were hard and frightening, even to Doctor House.
House moved, blocking Francine's view of her father. Then he turned to her mother, who was stifling her sobs. "You'll kill your daughter."
"He. Doesn't. Hurt. Us," she insisted.
Francine let out a loud cry and began seizing, her throat too tight to take in or let out air.
House turned back to his patient the quickly to her mother. "Told you," he gloated with an unhappy tone as the nurses rushed in.
Francine's parents were shooed out of the room. Her father grabbed his wife out of Taub's arms. She was still shaking nervously as she left. Mr. Folley looked back at House with a triumphant smile. They caught each other's eye and the competition had officially begun.