There is also no end to the people who will let Jeff cheat others because it's most advantageous from them to do so, as we cut to nighttime at PPTH, where the Cottages have been forced to stay late for Jeff's lumbar puncture. Very smart of Jeff to piss off the people who will be performing a delicate and extremely painful medical procedure on him. And now he has to endure something that might be even more painful than the puncture: Cameron and her soapbox. She asks Jeff if he feels like a hero, deceiving all his fans. Jeff says he got a letter from a guy whose son "worships" him. And worship, Jeff dictionaries, means to love unquestioningly and uncritically. Cameron accuses Jeff of taking advantage of that, and Jeff asks Cameron if he's supposed to write back and tell the guy and his son that they're stupid for loving a guy just because he's good at riding a bike. Then he goes into respiratory arrest. Way to go, Cameron.

Back from commercial, Jeff is on a ventilator. The air bubble was not, apparently, responsible for Jeff's breathing problems after all. What are the odds that someone would have an air bubble AND something else that put him in respiratory distress? On this show, I'd say even money, actually. Cameron reports that the encephalitis test was negative, and also that Jeff's red count is falling, although not his white. So, either Chase did screw up the air-bubble removal, or there's something wrong with Jeff's body that makes it unable to produce its own red blood cells. And that something is perennial wrong diagnosis favorite paraneoplastic syndrome, caused by cancer.

House reports to Clinic Duty, where his patient has been suffering from very frequent diarrhea ever since he quit smoking. He doesn't get to say much else before Stacy angrily barges into a patient room without so much as a warning knock and smacks House on the shoulder. Nothing says "pissed off" like a rather playful shoulder-swat. Stacy and House get into it over House's visit to Mark and his lingering feelings for Stacy. House says that he just wants to be able to do his job without Stacy's interrupting. Stacy leaves in a huff, and House goes back to his patient, who, of course, wants to more about the fun personal confrontation he just witnessed. House asks the patient how much replacement oral fixation gum he chews a day. The patient responds six, maybe seven PACKS. Stacy comes back into the room to carry on some more about how she and Cuddy are just trying to protect House. From what? Not filing his recertification stuff on time? Shut up, Stacy. And where is Evil Nurse Brenda to take care of this? I would have thought she'd have come in to karate-chop Stacy into unconsciousness in the initial seconds of Stacy's first interruption. House accuses Stacy of being pissy because she still has feelings for him. Stacy does not appreciate the condescension, and asks him at least to try to empathize with Mark, since House does, after all, know what it's like to be crippled. And to have to wake up next to Stacy every morning. "LET IT GO," she growls through her teeth. She leaves, and House tells his patient that the sugarless gum he's chewing contains the sweetener sorbitol, which is also a laxative.