The following day found Taub and House were starring at the white board as Remy and Larry stared at them.

"Are we going to talk about the patient?" 13 asked.

House, not taking his gaze off of the board shrugged, "Which patient?"

Larry looked at Remy, puzzled, "Uh, the guy who's dying in Room 312."

House motioned for Larry and Remy to sit together, "You two…keep talking about it. Taub, what's do the labs show with Maia?"

The entire team turned to stare at House. It was Taub who said something, "Maia? You called the patient by her name…her first name."

House tried to look nonplussed, "Maia is her name, isn't it?"

They all grinned at each other.

House shook his head and looked at Larry, "You two need to biopsy his frontal lobe, the guy in Room 312. Now, Maia has an E. Coli infection that's running a fever." When Larry and Remy still didn't move, House waved his hand at them, "Come on you two…skiddadle while Taub and I consider the marvel of a fever without a name."

The phone rang. Taub went over to the phone and picked it up, "Taub." He paused and looked up at House, puzzled. "Okay, sure, I'll tell him." Taub hung up and looked over at House, "Did you have a box analyzed?"

House said nothing, but gave Taub a look of expectation.

"They have the results…it has both E. Coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA."

House looked away and down, appearing to concentrate on a coke stain on the carpet. Taub wasn't sure if he should interrupt, but he was curious, "At least now we know what she has House. That makes sense. The fever is from the Staph infection –which is antibiotic resistant, the E. Coli is getting stronger from the antibiotics. We need to find out what will kill the Staph … we need something specific enough that we can kill the Staph as quickly as possible, take her off antibiotics, and then the E. Coli infection will get better. This isn't a big mystery."

House snickered and looked up, "Big mystery? Yes it is."

Taub shook his head, "I give up…why?"

"Her apartment…what did you think of it?"

"Bare."

House had a devilish look, "Bare, but clean."

"Okay."

"Two relatively rare bacteria show up in a clean apartment?"

"Okay, I'll bite…no, not likely. What was the box that you sent in?"

House felt a smile cross his lips, "Pears. It was a Pear gift box."

"So we need to find the farm where the pears came from."

House shook his head. "The problem isn't the farm or the company. We would have heard if there had been an outbreak of the two diseases from contaminated pears. We need to find the person who sent the pears."

Taub looked puzzled, "Why?"

"Whoever did, wanted Maia to get sick, maybe die."

Taub stopped in his tracks, staring out the window he slowly started to nod his head as he thought it through, "You're right." He put his hands in his pocket, "Should we call the police?"

House shook his head, "Not yet. Not until we know more."

Maia, had been hooked up to intravenous antibiotics for over twenty-four hours, the nurses changing the bag as soon as the buzzer went off letting them know it was empty. House hadn't been in to see her, just Taub. He told her that the odds that she would get these two bacterial infections at one time were extremely low.

"The pear box indicated evidence of both bacteria which means you probably got the infections from eating the pears."

Maia was good at putting two plus two together, it was part of being a lawyer. "You're telling me that my friend or my former friend, did this deliberately?"

Taub nodded, "Maybe."

"House thinks that too?"

"He's the one who suggested it."

She looked out the window into the cold gray sky and felt the chills go down her spine.

Taub could see her disappointment and sadness, "It might not be him. He may just be a patsy. Does anyone have a reason to want you sick or dead?"

Maia looked over Taub's shoulder as House entered the room and leaned against the cart in the back of the room. Maia turned her attention back to what Taub had asked and started chuckling at first. It quickly grew into a hysterical laugh. She was holding her stomach; it hurt when she laughed.

"I have a box in my closet filled with the names of people who wished they tar and feather, quarter or hang me. I screwed over a lot of people. I went bust making them financially whole, but I couldn't give them back the other things I caused them to lose, their time, their opportunities, their destroyed relationships. I took away their faith, their hope, their optimism. Believe me, doctor, it would be easier trying to find someone who knew me that didn't want me dead."

Taub walked over and touched Maia's hand, "Well, start out by telling me who sent you the pears?"

"I had eight people working for me when I flipped out. One was Michael Cole, a brilliant, young attorney with a new wife. He had baby just when it all began to fall apart, a little girl. Of course, when I screwed everything up, he lost his job, his health insurance, and because of my outburst, people were reluctant to hire him. His daughter had health issues and they had to declare bankruptcy to get the government to step in and give her medical help."

Taub winced, "Sounds like someone who might have a grudge."

House left the room and Taub followed.

"Well, what do you think?" Taub asked, clearly excited about the prospect of hunting down the person who did it.

"I think she can go home. Her fever broke, she's not throwing up, and she's eating applesauce without crapping her pants."

"But if there's someone who wants her dead, should we really send her home?"

House furred his brow and smirked at the same time, "This isn't the witness protection program. She's okay. She's not stupid. Now that she knows someone is after her, she'll be on her toes. Send her home."

Taub frowned and gave House a curt nod.

House saw Maia out on the curb waiting for the bus as he drove by. He pulled over and rolled down the window, "What's up?"

"My starter went out. I'm going to have to have the car towed."

"Get in."

Maia grabbed her bag and slowly got into the car. Her head was throbbing and she still felt weak and tired. Every limb felt heavy, "Thanks."

House said nothing, but pulled out of the space. He glanced over and thought about the plaques sitting in the cardboard box in the back of her closet, wondering what it must have taken to knock her off that pedestal and down into the gutter.

About half way to her place House turned on the stereo. A CD of Miles Davis played. He took a deep breath, "You and I are going to go have a talk with Michael Cole tomorrow. I'll pick you up at ten in the morning."

She frowned at him, "I'm not going anywhere with you." She paused, feeling guilty that she had accepted a ride from him. "Look, I appreciate the ride and what you guys did for me. But, you really don't want to get involved with me. I'll be careful, no more pears for me."

House chortled, "We either go see Michael Cole tomorrow or I go to the police. I'm sure you'll enjoy having them poke around in your business.'"

Her face fell and she turned towards him, exasperated and clearly annoyed. "Ten o'clock…fine." She sat stewing over things and then blurted out, "Why are you so interested in what happens to me?"

He lifted an eyebrow and said, "Who said I was interested in what happens to you? I'm just interested in solving the puzzle. It's what I do best."

"So you want to find out who wants me to suffer?" She chuckled, "Let me save you the time, everyone wants me to suffer. End of story. Puzzle solved."

"You know, you say that, but before you went on your coke binge, you did some good deeds, you were at the top of your game. A lot of people respected you."

"Yeah, well everyone loved O.J. Simpson too. "

He cracked a smile to himself. They pulled up to her apartment building and he let her out. "See you tomorrow."

She stood on the curb watching him as he pulled away into the traffic. She didn't understand him and she didn't trust him. She could feel in her bones that there was something more to Dr. Gregory House; her lawyer radar was twitching like mad.