As it happens, Dr. Kaufman doesn't really feel like taking House on as a silent partner. He doesn't care what his boss says; his patient specifically requested that House have nothing to do with her care and he knows that if House does interfere, it will be a losing proposition for him: if Murphy recovers, House gets all the credit. If Murphy dies, Kaufman gets the blame. He won't even let House sweet-talk him by saying he's a "perfectly competent, bordering on good" doctor. "Please stay away from my patient," Kaufman says, naively thinking that will work.

House brings his listening devices out of Season Six storage and has Murphy's room bugged so he and his team can keep track of her case. Martha, of course, has to comment that this is illegal, to which House cites the Supreme Court case of "Bite vs. Me." Ultimately, though, House decides to turn the audio off when Murphy starts in on Cuddy about dating nice, Jewish, Harvard-educated Kaufman instead of House. Murphy Brown is really mean to her daughter and stuff, but that is good advice. That's not good enough for Martha, who demands that House stop bugging the patient's room or she won't be able to work with him. House exasperatedly says he'll take the bug out and just get a recap from Cuddy twenty minutes later instead.

Whatever. With that, Chase diagnoses Murphy with leukemia. House says it fits, but he's disappointed because that's already Kaufman's diagnosis and he's doing a bone marrow biopsy on Murphy to prove it. WHAT! Kaufman is running tests to prove his theories???? No wonder Cuddy wants House to stick around and make sure that bozo doesn't screw something up.

House says that's it for Murphy, then, and sends Martha down to admitting to find a new patient. She takes his word for it and leaves, and House calls his remaining Cottages into his office for a special secret diagnosis session. He says what they just did was a fake session, designed to test Martha's ethicalness and see if she can be trusted not to be trusted. She can't. House's working theory is not leukemia, but a thiamine deficiency, which is apparently closely linked with alcoholism. House tells the Cottages about his recent dinner date with Murphy and how easily she believed that her passing out was the result of too much to drink and not her daughter's boyfriend being a sociopath with access to prescription knock-out pills. This makes House think that Murphy has alcohol-induced blackouts fairly often. That's his only evidence, and now he wants the Cottages to test it by sneaking some thiamine into Murphy's IV and seeing if she improves. Foreman isn't opposed to it, but says they have to ask Cuddy for permission first. Which means convincing her that her mother is an alcoholic. Enh, I think I'd rather my mom be a secret alcoholic than secretly sleeping with some married guy named Jesus for five years and telling my sibling but not me.