Disclaimer: Fox owns House, Md. and all of its characters. Sera and anyone else you don't recognize belong to me!

CHAPTER 7

The next week passed very slowly for Sera. Robert was still pleasant and nice to her, but in a somewhat distant and aloof way. She didn't think Cameron picked up on it, but she was fairly sure Eric did and knew for certain that House did. For some miraculous reason, neither of them commented. Foreman didn't want to get in between his two co-workers. He was getting to be really good friends with Sera and he and Robert's relationship had grown a bit closer. House had been so busy trying to avoid Cuddy that they rarely saw him. Apparently he had gone back to shirking clinic duty since Sera wasn't there as often to keep him on task. He was behind on his quarterly billing and the annual performance reviews were due. So he was staying out of the team's hair for the moment.

Sera had started to call Robert about a dozen times during the week, but something held her back. She was afraid of getting too close to anyone. People that got close to her wound up getting hurt, and she would just die if something happened to Robert, too.

The team got a patient on Wednesday and spent a few frantic days struggling to diagnose her. She coded twice and Sera couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in Robert in the calm and assured way he ran the code team and brought her back. Even as she was following his instructions, Sera couldn't help but notice how sexy and capable his hands looked as he resuscitated Mrs. Adams. She found herself in Lisa's office by Thursday evening, crying on her friend's shoulder. Lisa handed her a tissue and let her get it out of her system.

"Peace, you know I can't tell you what to do. But it simply boils down to one thing. Do you trust Robert or not? Now, he's done some stupid things in the past, but I've seen how he looks at you. If he's not already in love, he's getting there. And it's time you stopped running scared. You need to live, sweetie. It's time."

Sera looked at her with red eyes. "But…he is still out there. What if something happens? I can't go through it again, Lisa! What happened to Jamal…I can't go through it again!" Sera broke down again and Lisa simply held her and rubbed circles on her back. After Sera had calmed down a bit, Lisa forced her to sit up and took her face between her hands and forced Sera to look at her.

"You need to let go of the 'what ifs'. You can't let fear run your life. That sshole stole your life from you and you need to take it back! You are the toughest, strongest woman I know. Not only can you kick anyone's butt in this whole hospital, but you've dealt with more pain and more…crap…than anyone I've ever met. I've seen you hurt, I've seen you sad, I've seen you joyful, I've seen you angry, but I have NEVER seen you defeated!" Tears were streaming down both women's faces as Lisa continued.

"Don't you DARE let that man steal your joy! There is a hot doctor out there who is falling head over heels for you. He just wants you to trust him and let him in. You gotta live, Peace! Take. Your. Life. Back. Don't let him win!"

Sera nodded slowly, tears still flowing. She looked at her friend sadly. "Lisa, he could still kill me, you know. He could kill the people I love…he could kill you."

Lisa waved off the comment. "He doesn't scare me. Bullies never do. And he already has killed you. I just think you're past due for a resurrection." Lisa got up and pulled Sera to her feet. "Come on. Let's go to the cafeteria. They have some cheesecake that's actually pretty good and I'm dying for something sweet." She got a couple more tissues out and handed one to Sera while wiping her own face.

Sera smiled at her and cleaned her face. She then got to her feet and followed Lisa out of the office. As they were walking through the lobby by the clinic, she caught a glimpse of Robert as he came out of an exam room. She was about to go ask him if he wanted her to bring him a piece of pie when she heard someone call her name.

"Sera! You have some flowers up here." Sera walked over to the nurse's station and saw the beautiful bouquet of pink roses. A sudden chill went up her back. She turned to Brianna, the nurse, and asked her, "Who brought these?" Sera heard Lisa come up behind her and gasp as she caught sight of the flowers.

Brianna was looking at the delivery log. "I don't know. They were just sitting here when I came on duty about 30 minutes ago. I didn't even know they were for you until I happened to see the card with your name on it. There's no record of anyone taking a delivery, though. They sure are beautiful, aren't they?"

Sera's hands trembled as she pulled out the card. Lisa stopped her. "Shouldn't we call the police? Or the Feds? You shouldn't even touch this…"

Sera shook her head. "He's long gone by now. And he always uses gloves…always. It's one of his OCD habits. Besides, I need to be sure it's from him before I call in the troops." Her hands were still shaking as she opened the card and read:

I didn't know you were any good at golf. But I guess that's a requirement of all doctors, huh? Tell your little Aussie I think he cheated on that last hole. And it's not nice to cheat.

Sera dropped the card. Her eyes instinctively found Robert's on the other side of the nurse's station. But she didn't see him. Instead, she saw a man sprawled across the bed in her old house in Florida. She saw the blood pooling around him from multiple stab and slash wounds. And she could smell the scent of the dozens of pink roses that filled the room mixed with the scent of blood.

Sera's only thought before everything went dark was, "No…God, no!"