House limped back into the hospital no more informed about what was wrong with Cuddy than before. He felt the photograph very potently in his breast pocket but his gaze remained steely as he entered the now crowded room.

"No slips, falls, or car accidents?" Chase was asking Cuddy.

"No." She told him.

"See, this is why I asked for an X-Ray, so we know for sure. But why listen to me when you can just ask the patient whether or not her spine is injured?" House said loudly, his voice irritated.

"We just got her back into bed, House, I thought I'd take some initiative and actually assume a patient would tell us the truth. The X-Ray will be available shortly." Chase huffed and walked out.

"He's just wasting his breath and yours." House explained before following. By the time he hobbled to radiation, Foreman and Chase were looking at the results of the X-ray. By their faces, he could tell they hadn't found anything. His keen eyes scoured the X-ray for any abnormalities, but found nothing as well.

"Perhaps this is just influenza presenting with more severe-" Chase was cut off by House.

"She didn't react to antibiotics." House grumbled.

"She was only on them for a couple of hours." Chase countered.

House sighed, "Fine, give her antibiotics, but when doing that wastes more time and does nothing, do a nerve conduction study."

Foreman's eyes narrowed, "All that will do is determine the damage to her nervous system, it won't tell us what she has."

"If we understand the damage better, we'll be that much closer to a diagnosis." House rationalized, "Do an LP after that."

Cuddy was spent after the nerve conduction study. The tingling from the electric shocks to stimulate her nerves made every position uncomfortable. The sun had set long ago and she was not looking forward to a lumbar puncture.

"Rachel shouldn't be here for this." Cuddy told her mother as House and Foreman walked in to do the test. It was a painful test and Cuddy didn't want to scare her daughter.

Julia had been looking for an excuse to be out of House's presence anyway and offered, "I'll take her to get something to eat." He voice tense even as she was speaking about Rachel.

"No." The tiny voice came out with such command that the whole room turned, "I won't go with her. I want to go with Grandma or House."

House had no idea why he was filled with such self-satisfaction to know that Rachel would choose him over her aunt Julia but he practically glowed with smugness. Trying to hide his amusement, he prepped for the test.

"Rachel, come with me now." Julia demanded, her tone irritated.

"No." Rachel said again.

"Rachel!" Julia was red in the face now.

"Rachel sweetie, I need you to go with Aunt Julia." Cuddy attempted.

Arlene intervened, "I'll go with her, Julia." She offered, "Let's see if the cafeteria has ice cream, Rachel honey."

Julia shot House a cold look as Arlene and Rachel left the room, "You just ruin things wherever you go, don't you?" She stormed out of the room.

House looked sheepish, "I'm sorry, Cuddy."

"She's upset because Julia is upset. No one would want to go with someone so grouchy. It's a new kind of surprise when a child finds someone more grouchy than you, House." Cuddy said, her voice almost taking on a fond tone.

House helped Cuddy onto her side and get into a good position for Foreman The nerve conduction study had shown increased weakness in the hands, and almost complete weakness in the legs. By this time tomorrow, if the respiratory muscles were affected like Foreman predicted, she would be on a respirator. House stood behind Foreman, who crouched by Cuddy's lower back. The needle pierced her skin and she tensed. It was then that House realized that the room had cleared out of Cuddy's family. LP's were extremely painful no matter how much local anesthetic was administered.

She sucked in a deep breath as the needle pushed further in and House could see her wincing and biting her lip. Pulling a chair up in front of her, he sat. When she let out a small moan of pain, House couldn't hold back any more. He took her hand and waited for a disgusted reaction. Instead, her eyes opened in surprise and then softened as she accepted the support. Her weak fingers attempted to curl around his hand and he soothed back some errant strands of hair. The motion morphed into a caress as House tried to take her mind off of the pain. She remained tense and stressed throughout the test but her eyes focused on House. Finally, she let out a relieved breath as the needle was pulled out of her spine.

"Got it." Foreman announced.

House gently laid Cuddy back down on her back as Foreman took the sample for tests. He knew he should follow, but touching Cuddy and having her accept his touch was a powerful drug and he lingered.

"Thank you." She said drowsily, and he wondered I she were thanking him for soothing her during the uncomfortable test or ordering the test itself. It was too late to ask as her breathing had slowed into an even pattern. Cuddy had fallen asleep.