Top Secret (House)

"Top Secret" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of House and the sixty-second episode overall.

The episodes opens with a US Marine Humvee being hit by RPG in Iraq. One man drags out a Marine with a severed leg into a clearing and then the Marine is shown to be House. The whole scenario turns out to be House's dream, and when he wakes up, Cuddy presents him with a new case. House recognizes him as the man who dragged him out of the burning vehicle from the dream. House treats the man, whom Cuddy reveals to be the nephew of a hospital donor and a recently discharged Marine, who complains of Gulf War syndrome. The fact that House had a dream in his office just before being given the case that included this patient causes House to try to figure out how he could have possibly met this man before. House sends his team to investigate the patient's identity as well as his condition.

During a test, the patient is left alone in an observation room during which Cameron "seduces" Chase into having sex next door. Foreman casually comes in to check on the patient, who can smell a bad smell, which turns out to be bacteria in his mouth. Foreman questions Cameron and Chase later about why they were absent. Cameron admits having sex with Chase, keeping a deadpan face, which Foreman takes as a joke. While this is going on, House is unable to urinate and is having trouble sleeping.

The patient eventually loses his hearing. The team decides he has cancer, and a scan proves this by showing 6 or more tumors. This does not fit as all the patient's previous scans show no tumors and so many tumors could not possibly develop so fast. Wilson says it must be brain cancer, but during an operation on his brain, no tumors show up on the imaging. They stop the procedure. House suggests it is not cancer. Meanwhile, the patient develops paralysis in his legs, which ascends to his stomach and then his diaphragm. House ultimately relieves his urination problem by inserting a catheter in himself. Following this relief, he is able to sleep, leading him to have another dream.

House manages to figure out some facts about the near future, such as the team treating the patient for a diagnosis House dismissed, but also learns that he is dreaming. House wakes up and correctly diagnoses the patient with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, surprising the team. House later approaches Cuddy for lying to him that the patient was the nephew of a hospital donor. House realizes where he met the patient before, one of Cuddy's dates, and confronts Cuddy who responds that House only remembered the man because he was Cuddy's date. Cuddy tells House to get over her.