Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
- Hippocratic Oath

"Today, we are hunting for the cat burglar of diseases, causes a healthy man's lungs to fail, leaves no fingerprints," House announced to the remaining fellows.

"Respiratory distress could be asthma," Cole suggested.

"No hyperinflation on the x-ray."

"Food allergy," Kutner tried, "Could have eaten shellfish or peanuts."

"No hives, no erythema on the skin," House shot down again.

"Pulmonary embolism," 13 tried.

At that point Cuddy and Foreman walked into the lecture theatre. "Embolism's don't magically dissolve," House said to 13. Then, turning to address Foreman, rather brusquely asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Laryngospasm," Foreman supplied a diagnosis, everyone turning to look at him. "Frosty air hits his vocal cords, they spasm shut, choke him out."

"Good idea," House said, "You've been tremendously helpful, you can leave."

"I just hired him," Cuddy told House.

"Well, I just fired him," House retorted, "To infinity."

Foreman turned to Cuddy, "You didn't tell him I was coming back?"

"She did," House said, "I said no." The fellows followed the exchange as if they were watching a tennis match, heads swivelling between combatants.

Cuddy snapped, "When your extended job interview-slash-reality TV show killed a patient, you lost your veto power." Emily became noticeably dejected at the mention of her mistake. Turning to the fellows, Cuddy announced, "Everybody, this is Dr. Foreman, he will..."

Amber cut her off, "Does this mean there's one less slot for us?" At the implication that only two of them might now get a job everyone turned to look at House who looked to Cuddy, waiting for her judgement.

"It's still Dr. House's department, he decides who stays, who goes..."

"Foreman goes!" House quickly proffered.

"But Dr. Foreman will be my eyes and ears. You do nothing without his knowledge," Cuddy informed everyone before turning to leave.

House stopped her, asking, "Oh, just in case I need them, where exactly will Dr. Foreman be keeping my balls?" Foreman and Cuddy both rolled their eyes as she continued to make her exit. Returning his attention to the fellows, House said, "If you want to keep your jobs, that never happened." Returning to the patient, he continued, "The only way to get the cat burglar is to catch him in the act. Give the patient a methacholine challenge, see if it sets off a laryngospasm."

"You want us to stop his breathing?" JJ asked incredulously.

"Well, only until you can figure out why... After that it'd be irresponsible."

******

Amber was on her way to inform House of the test results when she spotted JJ and Reid by the nurse's station where Chase was bartering with a small mob in a miniature trading pit. "Test was a bust," she informed them.

"Amber has moved down to even money," Chase announced to the room at large.

"We found two new symptoms," Amber added, ignoring Chase.

"Back to two to one," Chase revised.

"What's going on?" Amber asked, directed more to Reid than JJ.

"You're the favorite," Reid said.

"House's?" Amber asked, pleased.

"To get fired," JJ said smugly.

"You can bet against yourself..." Chase said, "Lovely parting gift..."

"What's the limit?" Amber asked.

"Isn't one."

"Five hundred on Jareau," Amber bet.

JJ glared at Amber with all the hate she could muster. "One Thousand on Amber."

Amber considered for a moment, "Do you take cheques?"

******

This time Foreman stood before the fellows, attempting to negotiate them through a diagnosis. "How do we connect abdominal pain and numbness in the extremities with respiratory distress?"

"Dissecting aortic aneurysm," Brennan suggested.

"Doesn't cover all three. What else?"

House walked into the lecture theatre and everyone turned to look at him. "Carry on, he's the boss," House shrugged as he took a seat between 13 and Kutner.

"What about a spinal cord lesion," Taub offered.

"Have to be in the brain stem and it still doesn't explain the lungs."

"Weird, though... That the's the boss. Didn't he quit recently? Was it a money issue?" House mused aloud.

"Lungs, stomach, numbness?" Foreman pressed.

"No, that wasn't it, it was something else... Was it bling account? Med plan didn't cover tattoo removal?" House continued.

"We have to unify these symptoms," Foreman continued to ignore House's jibes.

"Oh, I remember, you didn't want to turn into me, right? You didn't want to become evil."

Finally, Foreman relented, "Can we stick to the medicine here?"

"Absolutely. I'm just flattered; in a few short weeks, seems like I've just turned towards the light. I mean... either that or you've sold your soul."

"Multiple marantic emboli could..." Foreman brushed past.

"Get a raise? 'Cause then you're a whore. Or didn't you? 'Cause then you're a stupid whore." House's insults were interrupted by his pager going off. "Patient just crashed," he read. Everyone continued to sit there. "Can they go, boss?" House asked Foreman who nodded.

As everyone stood to go attend to the patient, Foreman said, "Oh, Dr. Prentiss, could I speak with you for a minute?" Emily froze in the process of standing up, casting a deer in the headlights look to the team. She slowly made her way to the front of the room, her heart pounding in her throat, feeling like first grader who had just been called to the principal's office. Foreman waited until everyone else had left the room before speaking, "Dr. Cuddy told me about what happened with the patient and his dog..."

Emily sighed, she had a feeling this was coming. She cut him off, "If you're going to give me a lecture, save it, I've already heard it all. If you're gonna fire me, just go ahead and do it..."

Foreman gave a half smile that came off as more of a grimace. He was sure that by now she was sick of the judgement and the fake sympathy and the blame. "No, actually, I wanted to tell you that you should stop blaming yourself."

Her brain ground to a halt, not having expected anything close to that. She stuttered for a moment, not exactly sure how to respond to that.

Foreman continued, "Believe me when I say I know what you're going through." Emily looked up sharply to meet his eyes. "A few months ago we were treating this woman, we diagnosed her with cancer and I wanted to give her full body radiation. She kept getting worse..." He faltered as if reliving the incident were painful. "We found out she actually had an infection and because we killed her immune system, there was nothing we could do for her..."

Emily finished his sentence, "She died..." Foreman nodded, but said nothing, waiting for her to speak. "I should have paid attention, I could have saved him and his dog, none of it had to happen. If I had just..." She faltered, breaking down into sobs. Foreman pulled her into a gentle hug and she cried against his shoulder.

******

"The guy's faking," Kutner insisted, "It's Munchausen's. You notice the EMT run sheet? Paramedic who brought him in is also named Martin Harris."

House scoffed, "Well, if the name was Attila Von Weinerschnitzel, I'd say you might be on to something."

"He's copying his neighbours' symptoms," Foreman said, "Room 406, abdominal pain. Room 403, left-sided numbness. 402, syncope."

House shook his head, "No, Munchausen's patients create symptoms, not names."

"Munchausen's patients have medical histories they don't want us reading," Foreman insisted.

"He was in a lab coat; Munchausen's pretend to be patients, not doctors. He's got mirror syndrome," House said.

"Giovannini's?" Taub asked skeptically.

"Do you know of another mirror syndrome?" he scoffed, "Brain's got no idea who he is, where he is, or what he is. It fills the holes with whatever dirt's lying around. He reads a name tag, he's got a name. Sees a doctor, he's got a job. Sees symptoms, he's got a problem."

"My explanation's simpler," Foreman argued.

"Well, if it's simple, then we discharge the nut bar, but if it's complicated, then the nut bar has got brain damage." House turned to the fellows, clearly ignoring Foreman, "Mirror syndrome patients have no agenda, no axe to grind. They can read you because they have to, moods, attitudes, everything. They're like mind readers, expect they can read your mind."

"I've read that Giovannini's patients mimic whoever they think is in charge..." Reid said.

House grinned, "This is gonna be fun. I need three ways to pinpoint infection."

"Blood cultures," Kutner suggested.

"Blood's clumpy, nothing you can do with it."

"Unless we soak him in warm water before we draw it," Kutner insisted.

"Good, what else?"

"Ultrasound his abdomen, look for an abscess," Taub offered.

"Good, still need one more."

"We need to find out his history," Cole said, "Where he's been, what he's done."

"He has no memory," Brennan argued, "No ID, no wallet, no missing persons report filed for a hundred miles."

"Big Love is right," House said, "History's the key. He had car keys in his pocket when he was admitted. Search the street where he was mugged, find the car and the registration," he ordered Cole.

"There could be thousands of cars!" Cole complained, "Why do I get this assignment?"

"Because if you deal with the patient, he's going to wind up singing Osmond songs and proposing to five nurses at once."

"I'll go with Cole," Emily immediately offered.

******

"Heating blanket wasn't keeping him warm enough. Ordered a whirlpool, got his blood flowing; so far, it's keeping his rash at bay," Kutner narrated.

"Rash worse equals cold agglutinins worse, means what was in his liver wasn't fungus," House said.

"Yeah, labs confirmed that it wasn't even pus, just coagulated blood caused by the cold agglutinins," Rossi read off the lab printout.

"Broad spectrum antibiotics aren't working, it's got to be viral or exotic bacteria," Foreman said.

"There are a thousand microbes it could be," Taub complained.

"We could repeat all the cultures, maybe we just missed it," JJ shrugged.

"Or we could get an accurate history," House said as he dialled his phone.

Emily answered the phone with a terse, "We're working on it." She and Cole stood on the outside of the fence surrounding an impound lot, two large Dobermans stared them down from the other side of the chain-link, teeth bared in a vicious snarl. While she talked, Cole hid several pills in a clump of meat.

"That'll be a good solace to the widow X," House replied.

"His car was towed and the tow gate's locked," she explained, "The guys must be out on a run."

"That's why I sent two of you," House said slightly exasperatedly, "One of you breaks in, the other posts bail."

"Getting arrested is not what I'm worried about..." Emily said as the dogs barked and leapt at the fence, trying to reach them.

"Not a problem," House retorted nonchalantly, "You know how to kill dogs, right?" With that, he hung up, leaving Emily staring at the phone with a shocked expression.

Foreman glared at him as he replaced the receiver in the cradle. "That was cruel, even for you," he scolded, "You didn't have to do that."

House shrugged, "What do you care? I'm cruel all the time, to the other fellows, to patients, to Cuddy, to you... Why does this time stand out?"

"She feels terrible about what happened, she still blames herself. She wanted to quit because she was afraid it would happen again, she cried..."

House cut him off, "You love her..."

Foreman huffed and snapped, "Could you save ridiculing my personal life until the patient is cured?"

******

"Did you know there's a pool betting on which of the fellows if going to get fired?" Reid mentioned nonchalantly to the others as they ate lunch.

"Really?" Rossi asked, intrigued, "What are the odds on all of us?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Go ask Chase."

"Who's the favorite?" Morgan asked.

"Last time I checked, it was Amber," Reid said.

JJ smiled and muttered under her breath, "Good, I hope she does leave."

Reid laughed, "Because you bet a thousand dollars on her getting fired." The others joined in the laughter.

"What do you have such a grudge against her anyways?" Rossi asked.

"I don't have a grudge..." she said sheepishly, "Everybody hates her." Some of them accepted the answer, it was true that Amber wasn't well liked, but Morgan continued to eye her suspiciously.

Waiting until Reid, Hotch, and Rossi left the doctor's lounge, Morgan finally spoke up, "Okay, spill."

"What?"

"What's the real reason you hate Amber so much?"

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

"It's because she's been flirting with Reid, isn't it?"

JJ sighed exasperatedly, "She only likes him because he's smart, because she thinks if she can get him on her side then she can use him to get hired. She's a black widow, she just wants to use him for her own twisted purposes and then once she gets what she wants she'll just spit him back out. She doesn't care about him at all!"

"But you do..." he finished quietly.

She gave him a 'don't go there...' look and whispered dangerously, "This never leaves this room."

"But..."

"Don't start what you can't finish..." she hissed before walking out the door. Morgan was left standing there, confused.

******

"His name's Robert Elliot," Emily told House as he walked back into his office, "He's from Hamilton, Ohio."

"Here's everything he had in his trunk and in his glove box," Cole said, handing him a box of old receipts and a half full tube of vapour rub."

House examined the contents before saying, "No need for the heart biopsy, I now know exactly who he is and what he has. You saved his life."

"Really?" Cole asked.

"No, you idiot, it's vapour rub and lunch receipts."

"We have his name, we can find his doctor, get his medical records," Emily said.

House shook his head, "It's 8:00 at night, the biopsy will still be faster. Not fast enough to save him, but that's hardly the point." Emily and Cole both turned to leave, defeated, but House stopped Emily before she could leave, "Prentiss." Both turned to look at him and House snapped at Cole, "Is your name Prentiss?" He continued on his way out. Once he was gone, House asked, "Why did you volunteer to go street walking?"

"I thought I could help that way," she shrugged.

"A black Mormon could help that way, there's no reason for you to want to be there. Which means there's a reason you didn't want to be here. Didn't want to look in the mirror?" He shepherded her towards the patients room and pushed her inside. She snapped on a pair of rubber gloves. "Talk to him," House instructed.

"Um... You might feel a little tug when the catheter's in the heart."

"Come on, make him feel comfortable."

"I've done this procedure dozens of time," she lied, "It's completely..."

The patient cut her off, "My God, you are incredibly hot."

House sighed, frustrated that the patient was mirroring him, "I'm not here, deal with her."

"Are you an idiot? Do you not think she's hot?" the patient embellished.

"I'm not the alpha here, she is. She's my boss," House lied, trying to make himself seem less powerful so he'd mimic Emily.

"The rash is back," Emily noted.

"Increase the drip," House instructed, quickly revising, "If you think that's the right thing to do."

"This is so frustrating," the patient sighed.

"I don't think that's me," Emily said. House left the room and, through the glass doors, Emily could see him talking to Kutner, no doubt trying to get him to come and spy on her so he could report what the patient mirrored of her.

Luckily, using the catheter to take a sample of heart tissue was one of the procedures they had been taught to perform so Emily managed relatively well without help. "Got it. Pink, good size, nice specimen," she narrated.

"I'm scared," the patient said quietly.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay," she comforted awkwardly.

"No, no, it's not," he said. That's when she remembered that he was reading that fear from her.

House was still arguing with Kutner when she left the room and walked over to them. "Nothing on the biopsy," she told them.

"And how is he?" House asked, obviously not referring to the patient.

"His fever's at 106..."

He cut her off, "I know, but how is he? Bitter? Sexually frustrated?"

"He's delightful," Emily retorted, "Loves the smell of freshly baked rhubarb pie and isn't afraid to love. Also, his rash is back."

******

House stood before the fellows, lecturing them, while what seemed to be the entire hospital looked on from the back of the room. "You all suck," House told the fellows, indicating Cole and Emily, he continued, "The two of you took fourteen hours to find a car." He pointed to Kutner, "You forgot to mention that the guy with no memory had memories." Brennan, "You keep on thinking that insane guys have hidden wisdom, you're going to wind up shooting people on the subway." He looked over the rest of them and finished lamely, "Something..."

"So, which one of us sucks the most?" Taub asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"It's a tie."

"Between?" Amber urged.

"All of you."

"We're all fired?" Amber asked. dismayed.

"None of you are fired." Everyone let out a sigh of relief and there was a large groan of disappointment from the back of the room where people started handing money to a celebrating Chase.

******

Once again, as the last of the fellows filed out of the lecture theatre, Foreman cornered Emily. She looked up to see him standing nearby and she gave a start. "Sorry, you startled me."

"Sorry," he smiled slightly, "I just wanted to apologize for House, his earlier comments were uncalled for..."

She smiled, "Don't worry about it, I'm used to it."

"How are you doing?" he asked quietly, they both knew what he was referring to.

She shrugged, "Been better... How did you deal with it?"

"Sometimes, I need to think there's something out there paying attention. So, when I can't talk to anybody, I talk to God and pretend somebody's listening."

She grimaced, "I think I've given up on getting any sympathy from God..."

"Well," he said quietly, "You could always talk to me..." She felt an involuntary shiver run the length of her spine. Without a cognitive thought as to why, she slowly leaned in towards him until her lips brushed against his. He very gently returned the gesture, pulling her closer with a hand on her cheek.

Neither heard the creak of the heavy door on its hinges as it opened to admit Morgan. He stood there for a moment, rooted to the floor, an expression of disbelief on his face when he saw Emily and Foreman kissing. After the momentary shock passed, he seemed to regain himself, choking out a breath that had caught in his throat.

Just as quietly, he left the room. Once out the door, he turned on his heel and headed for the door, leaving JJ and Reid in his wake, shocked and confused at the unexplained 180 degree turn in his mood. He had been his standard cheerful, playful self when he went into the lecture theatre to ask Emily if she planned on joining them that day...

A/N: And now you see (hopefully) why it had to be Emily that killed the dog... And as I'm sure you can also see, I'm building up to some great conflict...