"I know I'm getting a needle." Five-year-old Maggie puffed out her cheeks and glared smugly at her parents. "I know you're lying."
"Perceptive girl," Cameron said with a smile. She, Taub, and Kutner had spent much of the afternoon taking blood samples from fifty-two of the children in the neighborhood where three unrelated infants had died of sudden respiratory failure. (House had told Cameron she was to make sure that Kutner didn't accidentally set a kid on fire.) "Well, Maggie," she continued, eyeing the veins in the girl's left arm, "guess what? Everybody lies."
As she applied a cotton ball and Dora the Explorer Band-Aid to Maggie's arm (pediatrics had lent them three boxes), Cameron noticed a sore on the girl's upper lip. She leaned in closer and saw that it wasn't an average canker sore.
"Has Maggie had the chickenpox vaccine?" Cameron asked.
"No, I had chickenpox," Maggie said. "When I was only three."
"She caught it from some of the other children on the block," Mr. Colaccio explained.
"Look," Cameron said trying not to wring her hands or clench her jaw, "I have to follow protocol and let social services know" – here she lowered her voice so that the patient examining her Band-Aid couldn't hear – "Maggie has what I believe is a herpes simplex breakout on her upper lip."
Mrs. Colaccio covered her face with her hand. "Do you think she's being … molested? We never let her out of our sight, ever."
"You'll need to consent to an exam not in your presence. I can stay with her if you'd like."
"There's nothing funny going on, I swear to God."
Mr. Colaccio glanced at his wife, then at Cameron. "Dr. Cameron," he said, "I think I may know how this happened."
"Okay …?"
"Can herpes sores be transmitted from drinking glasses, spoons, or forks?"
"Rarely," Cameron said, "but the risk would be increased with regular exposure. Is one of you being treated for herpes?"
"We've both been treated for several STDs," he admitted.
"Yes. Things happen."
"I have to order a complete exam for Maggie anyway. Excuse me for a minute."
She had a nurse wait with the family while she called pediatrics and told them to contact child protective services immediately.
After Maggie and her mother were taken downstairs, Cameron stopped Mr. Colaccio in the waiting room. "I have a question for you that will sound like I'm prying where I shouldn't be," she said, "but it's very medically relevant in terms of what's going on in your neighborhood right now. How do two people married for more than five years contract multiple STDs?"
"You're a doctor. You should know the answer to that."
"If everyone in that neighborhood has the same STDs, I know what happened and we can save some lives. You have to tell me."
He hung his head. "We never thought it would do any harm. There was a sort of open marriage arrangement between all the couples on the block. The idea was supposed to be that if we all had sex with each other, no one would get hurt. But then Miranda and I got sick, and we realized that somebody must have brought in STDs from the outside. We got out. We should get some credit for that."
"Wash your dishes better," Cameron said, and immediately went to find House.