Master ideas
"But I also have a problem with letting patients die," Martha mourned.
"Well, you probably just need to learn to lie!" Erebus suggested.
"Easier said than done," Martha pointed out. "I don't think lies come easily to me no matter what I do."
"What is so wrong with lies?" Erebus wanted to know. "Lies saved your last patient!"
"I didn't know it at the time," Martha said. "And I have no way of knowing when truth won't serve better. Just because this time things turned out fine, doesn't mean that it was ok. Means do matter. People do have the right to be informed and not to be lied to."
"He once had a patient who refused to lie to her daughter," Erebus pondered. "He called it child abuse."
"How would that be child abuse?" Martha didn't understand the idea even.
"Actually, personally I didn't think that was child abuse," Erebus agreed. "The problem really was that she never refused to answer any of her daughter's questions. And surely you know that children have no way of knowing what answers are age appropriate."
"I'm not sure I get what you mean," Martha was still a bit lost.
"Think: how old were you when you first wondered about what your parents were doing in their bedroom at night?" Erebus suggested. "And would you really have wanted a detailed, honest answer to your question?"
"Eww!" Martha's reaction was instant. "I get what you mean. There is such a thing as too much honesty. But that's not same as telling lies. You can refuse to answer. My parents did! Or actually they told me that they would tell me when I was old enough."
"Did they?" Erebus wanted to know.
"Not in detail," Martha was quick to assure him. "But I got the point. When I was old enough."
"But they have never lied to you?" Erebus asked.
"Not to my knowledge," Martha stated.
"Aha!" Erebus reacted. "So you accept the possibility that they might have lied, you just don't know it."
"I'm sure my parents have never lied to me," Martha insisted. "But, yes, the possibility does exist. I mean, I do trust them, but then I trusted House, too. Not that he is anything like my parents. Or that I really had any reason to trust him. I just did."
"Because you're used to trusting," Erebus concluded. "Maybe Dr Cuddy was wiser than at first appeared when she assigned you to House. Even if you don't learn to lie yourself, surely you at least need to learn how not to trust."
"There aren't that many people like House," Martha pointed out.
"True," Erebus agreed. "He usually does let you know when he has lied to you. And though he will steal your food, he will not steal your work. Mainly, though, because he can't be bothered as he thinks most of it would not be to his credit anyway. And also because his experience with stealing intellectual property hasn't been that good."
"What do you mean?" Martha frowned puzzled.
"He got kicked out of medical schools for cheating," Erebus explained. "Yes, the rumours you have heard are true. He copied answers from someone else, got busted and then expelled."
"I never gave any credence to those rumours," Martha denied.
"Sure you did," Erebus countered. "You just couldn't understand how he could still end up as the most respected diagnostician in the country if not the world."
"He must have mended his ways," Martha tried feebly.
"Does it really look like he has?" Erebus raised an eyebrow at Martha.
"I… I haven't known him long enough," Martha evaded.
"Yes you have," Erebus stated. "The reason he is still respected is because he saves lives. The proof is in the pudding. No matter what his reputation may be as a human being, people have seen him perform medical miracles too often not to believe in him and his skills. As for his dishonesty, everybody of his peers lives in the same glass house and can't start throwing stones at him. Especially as he is sure to know more about them than they know about him."
"That's a terrible thing to say!" Martha protested.
"Really?" Erebus wasn't fazed. "Why did your parents agreed not to lie to each other or you?"
"Dad said that he had enough dishonesty at work," Martha muttered.
"Exactly," Erebus confirmed. "Come on, girl! Think for yourself. Unless you want to be a run of the mill doctor, you end up being in a competition for the rest of your life. Everyone is after the same tenures, the same grants, the same donations, the same money! Without money, you can't do anything. And the way to get money is to have more credibility than your competition. You cannot trust anyone completely, because their life may depend on sticking the knife into your back."
"That's a horrible way to look at things," Martha cried. "And I won't accept it."
"Boy! is there going to be a scramble to get you into research teams once you become a real doctor," Erebus shook his head at her.
"You lost me now," Martha frowned. "You think I'm good or bad?"
"I think you're very good," Erebus reassured her. "But you also have 'I'm gullible, steal my work' pretty much tattooed on your forehead."
"I do not!" Martha denied emphatically. "Besides, I'm still sure you're wrong. Nobody would steal other people's ideas! Sure you share and build on them; that's what science does. You can't do everything from the start yourself. But actually stealing original ideas and presenting them as your own, no way."
"Yep, gullible," Erebus confirmed. "You really need to spend some time with House so that he can open your eyes to the real world. Because he really isn't that different from everyone else you're going to meet in the course of your career."
"You mean he will steal my ideas?" Martha scoffed.
"Actually, no," Erebus stated. "He is exactly where he wants to be so he doesn't need to scramble for position and money anymore. Unless, of course, he thinks you'll benefit from the lesson. Then he may do it. But I don't think so."
"No," Martha stared at Erebus angrily. "You are definitely not from my subconscious. I would never think like you."
"Maybe I'm from your unconscious mind," Erebus ventured. "I may be a manifestation of all sorts of things that are boiling away in the darkness of your mind and you're just unaware of them. Even on a subconscious level."
"No," Martha was firm. "You are a stupid dream where things that I have heard about House just mix strangely with my worries over this last case and possibly my fears. But you are not, in any way, representing my real thoughts and feelings."
"But aren't your fears your real feelings," Erebus asked.
"Maybe," Martha had to concede. "But they are irrational."
"Aren't all feelings irrational," Erebus queried.
"Yes, but some are more irrational than others," Martha explained. "Some feelings are reasonable responses to what is going on."
"So if you're feeling paranoid," Erebus pondered. "It doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"Exactly," Martha responded quickly. "I mean, not quite exactly, but sort of."
"What if they are out to get you," Erebus wanted to know, "but you reason away your paranoia because it just doesn't fit your idea of the world that they would be out to get you?"
"If they are out to get me, then they are," Martha stated. "But that does not mean I have to live my life in fear. In fact I'd rather see the world as a better place than it is, than fear for the worst every time I meet someone new – or old. I believe that the way you look at the world, the way you behave affects the outcome. If I trust someone, even someone untrustworthy, he or she may end up being trustworthy just because someone trusted them at last. I believe that the way I behave matters. If I'm dishonest, how can I expect anything but dishonesty from others? I can't lie! I just can't, because I don't want to be lied to myself. I try to be trustworthy, so I need to trust. It matters. It really matters how you get the results. Not just the results."
"Your last case would seem to refute that statement," Erebus pointed out.
"Maybe," Martha agreed. "But it was just one case. There needs to be a lot more cases like that if I'm to change my view of the world and my beliefs."
"You know," Erebus mused. "You have a lot more in common with that patient than you'd think. He, too, refused to let one incident to affect his belief in God. Sure, he changed his view of God and His wishes, but he still refused to let go of his beliefs."
"Didn't you just point out that he gave into House's lies rather easily," Martha muttered.
"He did," Erebus confirmed. "But once he found out that he had been lied to, he got right back to his original view of the world – with an adjustment. And I suspect that is what you're going to do as well. You will still refuse to lie and you will still keep on trying to make House tell the truth as well. You just won't change."
"Even though you're saying it like it was a bad thing," Martha insisted. "I still refuse to think that it is. Besides, even if I wanted to, I don't think I could change. I'm me. I can't be somebody else."
"And you just need to figure out how to be a doctor as yourself," Erebus observed.
"Exactly," Martha concluded. "There is no other choice."
"Not for you, I don't think," Erebus agreed. "This will be interesting, I'm sure."