Foreman, Chase and Cameron were already seated in House's adjacent conference room when House ambled in; Wilson at his heels. House beelined for the whiteboard, "What did you find from our now comatose kid?"

Chase answered, "Test showed he has low hematocit and anemia."

"Did you find the cause?" asked Wilson who had taken a position leaning against the wall.

Cameron shook her head, "It looks like iron deficiency but his iron levels are in normal range."

"That's great," House said, "What else did you find?"

"Nothing," Chase said.

House popped the cap off his marker, "Well, that makes three symptoms." He wrote 'L. Hematrocrit' and 'Anemia' down.

Cameron lifted her head, "That only makes two."

House tilted his head Foreman's way, "I take it you found nothing?" Foreman shook his head. House turned back to the board and wrote 'Hallucinations'.

"Where did you get that from?" asked Cameron.

"Wilson's call," said House as he recapped his marker and watched him expectantly. "Was it real or was he lying?"

Wilson shrugged and held out his hands as if to say 'I give up'. "I'm convinced he was trying to help."

House turned back to the whiteboard. "Works for me."

Foreman frowned. "Help?"

"Help find a kidnapper."

"Do we have anything else that goes up here?" House asked.

"We told you everything we have." Cameron said.

"This kid's got a very real problem but since there's no big arrows pointing next to it, let's go for subtle. Everything's a clue. Let's put everything on the table." House pointed the marker at Wilson, "You're gossip sit-though with Cuddy and Grandma, what'd that tell you?"

Wilson frowned, "She told Cuddy he acted up in class, his grades are dropping, he's claimed to always forget to do his homework."

House nodded and scribbled on the board. "Alright, we're having memory problems."

House turned to Chase. "You've said he was confused during one of the tests."

"And you ignored that." Chase answered.

"Because you weren't insistent enough."

Chase shrugged, "Only one person in the room that was sick and he didn't know who the test was for."

House nodded. "He's been acting up more since he's been with his grandma." He wrote "Altered Mental Status" on the board and stepped back as he pointed to it. "Now you take that, along with the confusion, seizures, anemia, and low hematocrit and what do you have?" His tone left no question that he already had an answer formulated in his head.

"Porphyria?" asked Chase.

"But there is no family history of Porphyria," said Cameron

House shook his head, "There doesn't need to be. I'm thinking Acquired Sideroblastic Anemia. It explains everything."

"It still doesn't explain the calcium levels," said Cameron.

House paused on that as he absorbed the writing on his dry erase board again. "You're still watching that? What'd his last blood work say?"

Cameron pulled out the lab printout before answering, "Still lower than normal, but rising."

"He's still clearing ethylene glycol out of his system." Chase said.

"That exposure was before his last hospital admittance," Cameron said. "He was originally admitted for low calcium."

House grunted as he turned back to the board. "Thank you, buzzkill." He settled back into a chair. "Every test we run, the norms are designed to fit for ninty-five percent of the population. He may just have low calcium."

Foreman pointed out. "Fine, you've explained the calcium. But this porphyria points to an environmental cause. I've already been to his place; it's clean."

The silence in that wake finally followed with House turning to face Foreman. "You idiot. You searched at the wrong place."

"What?" Foreman interjected.

"Where was he before he was sent to live with his grandmother?"

"He was practically living on the streets while his mother was looking for her next hit."

"So," Wilson asked, "He got into something months ago and is now showing signs?"

"What if there was a tipping point?" House pulled himself off his chair and paced, "Kid's spent years moving from one crappy place to another. What would they all have in common?"

"They're homeless shelters, abandoned areas, rundown buildings, garages?" said Foreman.

"They're probably old," quipped Cameron.

"He'd have to have been accumulating it for over a year before this tipping point." Wilson pointed out.

By that point House had fully faced away from the group and was staring at the symptoms on the board when he heard that last remark. As if on cue, he turned and exited out the door giving only a small head tilt for his team and Wilson to follow.

As House directed his way to and in the elevators, he began to speak. "It's lead poisoning. He's probably been getting it from the paint off the walls, the crap in the garages." He pressed for his patient's floor. "It was a domino effect, his lead levels were the first to hit the tipping point and the first domino fell."

"The hallucinations; the seizure; the coma." Foreman grimaced.

"And the low calcium. Lead was roaming around his system, but it wasn't testing as calcium." Wilson said

House nodded. "And that would have been all that fell when he moved to grandma's house, but as any teenager goes he had to go and do something stupid. The ethylene glycol lowered his actual calcium levels, and his body responded. Lead has an oxidation state of +2, same as calcium. He's been accumulating it in his bones for years."

Cameron caught on as they all filed into the elevator. "So his bones released calcium and lead to compensate for the sudden serum concentration drop."

House nodded. "It bathed his system in lead."

"But what about the anemia?" asked Chase.

"The same oxidation state matches the iron core of a heme. When it came time for the main molecule in his red blood cells to form, it would be as if lead had taken a pair of scissors to it. He has acute and chronic lead poisoning. That was the sine qua non." House pushed himself out of the elevator.

"Then why are you going here?" asked Wilson following behind the others, "You need to confirm for heavy metal toxicity."

"Because this is faster," said House as he entered Jason's room and put on a latex glove. He walked over to the teen lying on the bed and pulled back his lips. "See that?" His team leaned in closer and quickly found what he was referring to. Along his gums was a line of blue. "Start him on chelation therapy."

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House strolled into Cuddy's office several hours later. "I know why you're wearing yellow today," He said as he opened the door.

Cuddy frowned from her desk. "Then I know what you're going to be doing one evening next month. How's your patient?"

House sat opposite of her and propped both feet up on the table. "He's had his first chelation. Going to need to stay here a while. Juvie lawyers like having good evidence for judges; Grandma's not so mad, so that makes everybody happy." House stared a Cuddy for a long moment before announcing, "Kevin Yurks is so not for you. And I know you know it."

Cuddy didn't even attempt to hide her irritation, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking a little duck that's on his way to administrator A little bit of wine? Conspiring with the enemy hospitals?" From his reclined position, he took his cane and used it to rummage through her waste bin beside her desk, "Sex."

Cuddy jerked the trashcan away from House; then she closed her eyes as the disgusting realization came to her, "You followed me."

"I'm surprised you went for the home run when you don't even like the guy."

"There was no sex, House!"

"He couldn't do it? Is that why you're breaking up with him?"

Cuddy gave House a long angry look before facing back to her computer. "I didn't like his personality." She admitted softly.

"Fair enough." House said as he stood and walked to the glass double doors and paused, "So, for agreeing with you, can I not be taking coats at that endocrinology dinner?

"You will be sober the whole time as well."

"I figured as much." He walked out.