Author's note: Sorry about the delay. I lost my disk with my story on it, but I found it recently. I will try to post regularly. This whole fic is already completed, so I truly hope to be able to post every other day until the whole thing is up. I am currently working on the sequel.

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

CHAPTER 11

Robert followed behind Sera, hoping that she wouldn't see him. He didn't actually want to interfere with her alone time, but even though she didn't think she was in danger from this Dumas character, he didn't want to take any chances.

She stopped first at the stairwell where Foreman was found. She spoke to the people working there and she put on gloves and looked around a bit. She saw a discarded pink rose. Dumas was famous for leaving one gorgeous pink rose at the scene of the crime. The press had a field day with this particular calling card. Some original, creative soul had dubbed him "The Pink-Rose Killer". It was bad enough when the press romanticized these killers by coming up with nicknames. It was even worse when the nickname really sucked.

She saw the footprints that had been sectioned off…apparently someone had stepped in Eric's blood and left tracks. She called the photographer over and had him take pictures of the footprints. She stared at them for a while, then walked away, taking off her gloves and throwing them into the trash. Next, she headed downstairs towards the hospital fitness room. Robert tried to stay far enough back so she wouldn't see him, but he was caught off guard when she suddenly whirled around and glared at him.

"Ok, what part of 'don't follow me' did you not understand? Oh, wait, let me break it down for you so you WILL understand."

Sera shook her hair back and said, with a fairly passable Aussie accent, "Oy, Robert. Mind your own bizzo. Now be a good bloke, hop on the lift, get your bum back to the office, have a cuppa, grab some tucker, and stop being such a stickybeak!"

Sera turned on her heel and marched off, leaving Robert staring after her for a moment with a dazed look of amazement on his face. He thought, 'I think I love this woman' before jogging after her.

Hearing his footsteps, Sera stopped in her tracks again and sighed. She turned to him…again, saying, "I know a lot of NOT nice things I can say, too. Please leave me alone!" Robert took his life into his hands and grabbed her arm as she went to walk away again. She whirled, about to let him have it, but he pulled her to him and kissed her full on the lips. She pushed at him for a minute, but gradually began to lose herself in the kiss. They didn't notice the other people in the hallway stopping to stare at them. They didn't even hear the whistles and catcalls.

After what seemed like an eternity, Robert drew away from Sera a bit. He was supporting most of her weight since her knees didn't seem to be capable of handling the job. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at him in awe. "Holy dooley!", she exclaimed softly.

Robert let out a bark of laughter before stepping away from Sera, holding her arms to give her a bit of support. Once Sera steadied herself, she glared at him. "You know, that was pretty risky. You could have wound up on your butt again." Robert grinned at her. "Well, what's life without a little risk, eh?" He waggled his eyebrows up and down at her.

Sera reached up and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "You are too sexy. You know that? But if you ever grab and maul me like that in public again, I'm going to show you what a kata guruma throw looks like." Robert slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her up against him. "Oooh, sounds kinky. I guess I'll get to see this kata gura-whatsis soon because I'm about to maul you again."

He leaned down to kiss her smiling lips again. Robert was pleased. His spur-of-the-moment plan to calm her down and give her a few happy moments in the middle of this mess had worked better than he though it would. He knew that she was scared to death and worried about Cameron, and he also knew that, even though she didn't show it, she was incredibly distressed about Eric. They had gotten pretty close in the past couple of month, acting like brother and sister most of the time, and Robert knew it must have killed her to not run immediately to his side when he was attacked. He almost envied her ability to compartmentalize like that. He wasn't sure he could handle the job she used to have. He'd go insane.

Robert had barely touched his lips against her soft ones when he heard Eric's voice behind him, "Aughhh! My eyes, my eyes!!" Robert paused only for a second to say, "I guess you'd better close them, then." He went to finish what he started, but Sera had gasped and twisted out of his grasp. She ran over to where Eric was sitting in a wheelchair, but came to a sudden stop.

"Where did he get you?", she asked. Eric grimaced. "Bstard tried to rip my gut open." Sera threw her arms around his neck, half-choking him. "I'm so glad you're okay! Don't ever do that to me again!!" She was a bit surprised by the tears coming from her eyes. She had cried more in the past two hours than she had in the last five years.

Eric saw the wetness on her face and reached over to wipe her face gently. "Hey", he said softly. "I'm okay. I'm not the one you need to worry about." Sera leaned into his hand a bit, taking comfort in the strength she felt there.

Sera felt sudden prickling sensations, as if tiny, hot daggers were jabbing into her. She glanced up and saw the extremely irate gaze of the buxom nurse that was pushing the wheelchair. She vaguely remembered the woman from her brief assignment to the ER. 'Ah, so THAT'S why Eric's been volunteering to help out when they've been short-staffed down there', she thought. Sera had ignored the evil looks she received from nearly every female in the corridor when Robert had kissed her, but she couldn't ignore this blistering look. She stood and held out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Sera. You're…Dora?...Dina?..." "Donna", the nurse said, reluctantly shaking her hand. Sera smiled her brightest, most charming smile. She really didn't need another reason to have to watch her back. "Thanks for taking care of Eric. He's like a brother to me…a pain-in-the-butt, know-it-all, annoying brother." Donna immediately relaxed and gave Sera a genuine smile. "Aren't all brothers like that?" Sera and Donna chuckled together for a moment, then became silent again.

Sera looked at Eric, all traces of laughter gone. "Are you okay to do this? I know you're in a lot of pain right now, and you're going to have to answer a lot of questions. It may take a while. I'm surprised Dr. Tintagel let you go."

Eric looked back at Donna, who had one hand on his shoulder. "Well, she's only letting me talk to the Feds. I have to stay overnight for observation. And she only let me go talk to them if I had one of the nurses with me at all times." Sera raised an eyebrow. "What…sending you to a room with four doctors wasn't good enough for her?"

Eric shrugged. "Anyway, I'm okay. I want to do what I can to help save Cameron…" Eric's voice broke a bit. Sera was going to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Diana was already there. Eric reached up and squeezed Diana's hand gently, smiling a bit at her. Sera stepped away, wondering why she felt slightly hurt, when a hand slipped into hers and she received her own gentle squeeze.

Robert tugged her towards the elevators. "Come on, guys. Let's head back up to the war room." Diana followed Robert and Sera, pushing Eric, who started frowning. "Wait…four doctors? House, Chase, Dr. Cuddy…who else? Is Wilson there, too?" Robert and Sera glanced at each other, then back to Eric. Sera winked at him. "That's right. You missed the big denouement. Wait'll you hear this. I'll fill you in on the elevator." They all piled onto the elevator as Sera started talking.

Sera was still talking when the four of them stepped off of the elevator.

"So, I packed up my things and the FBI helped me relocate. I've been jumping from place to place for the past 5 years. I'd been avoiding the fields of medicine and forensics, but I found that I missed it too much, so I called Lisa and here I am. Now, I guess I'm back to work. The man who hurt you and snatched Allison is Winston Dumas, the…"

"…the Pink Rose Killer!" Eric interrupted her, his voice escalating a bit. "I saw the rose he tossed at me while I was bleeding on the floor, but I was losing consciousness, so I didn't make the connection…wait a minute! This is because of you! He grabbed Allison and stabbed me because of you, didn't he?"

Eric looked up as Sera stopped suddenly. He saw a pained look cross her face before her expression hardened and she said to him coldly, "No, he grabbed Allison because he's a psychopath and he gets off on hurting women." She turned and stalked off towards the diagnostics department. Robert followed her, stopping briefly to frown at Eric and say, "Niiiiiice."

Eric opened his mouth to speak, but closed it with a sigh as Robert walked away. He put his face in his hands and groaned, "I shouldn't have said that!" He glanced up at Donna, who gave him a sympathetic look before grabbing the handles of the wheelchair to push him down the hall. "No, you shouldn't have, but I'm sure a sincere, heartfelt apology will work wonders. And some chocolate. Definitely chocolate."

Sera walked into the "war room", as Robert had dubbed it, and sat down at the table. She tossed her cell phone to David, who had returned during her absence, so he could attach it to the recording device on the table. She then stared at a spot on the table, a frown marring her face. House watched her brood for a few seconds then turned to Robert, who had just come through the door. He jerked his thumb in Sera's direction, saying, "I thought she was leaving to blow off steam, not get even more riled up."

Robert shrugged and glanced up as Donna pushed Eric into the room. "Hey, don't blame me. Blame Mr. Big Mouth over there." House knew that whatever Foreman had said to Sera was bad because the neurologist didn't roll his eyes, shake his head, or make any sarcastic response to what Chase said. House turned to Foreman to ask him what he'd done, but Sera, without even looking up, said "House…don't."

Sera stood up and went over to the board, which Mitch had filled with information about the previous cases. Someone, probably Lisa, had gotten a second whiteboard to write on. Actually, it wasn't a "white" board; it was the old clear board House used to use. Sera muttered under her breath, "I hate these stupid things". She ripped a piece of chart paper off the pad and taped it to the back of the clear board. She nodded her satisfaction, then looked at what Mitch had started writing on the second board.

Mitch had written the word "MOTIVE" on the top and underneath had two names – hers and House's. Sera frowned at the names. "Why isn't Cameron's name listed?" House spoke up. "I can't imagine Cameron of Sunnybrook Farms pissing someone off enough for them to want to kill her."

Sera turned back to the board and wrote "Cameron" next to the other names. "House, assumption is the mother of all screw ups. You know that. Plus, you've only known Allison for a little over two years. Dumas is a firm believer in the "revenge is a dish best served cold" school of thought. She could have turned him down for a date ten years ago and he's been biding his time since then. We need to do some investigating into Allison's background to see if we can find a connection. The place he takes his victims usually has some relevance to how he knows them, so if we find out why he took Allison, we might be able to figure out where he took her. And, if he sticks with his usual pattern, we only have about 20 hours to figure this all out before…well, before he starts to make her life a living hell."