House, M.D. is the property of David Shore and his peeps.

CHAPTER 25

As Sera and Mitch got their breath back, Mitch's phone rang. He flipped it open and answered, "Leggit." He paused for a minute and said, "And?" After listening to the response on the other end, he held the phone slightly away from his mouth and cursed vehemently. He got back onto the phone and said, "Get the team in there, Marcus. Go over everything with a fine tooth comb. I want some answers!" Mitch snapped the phone shut with another curse. He turned to look at the roomful of people staring at him expectantly.

"They found the church…" Mitch held up his hand to stave off the questions that started flying at him. "They found the church but it was empty. There was no sign of Dumas or Dr. Cameron. All they've found, so far, is one pink rose in the middle of the floor and a note that Agent Marcus is going to scan and send to you." He nodded towards Dave, who had his computer out.

"Dr. Cameron wasn't there?!" Carmela sounded shocked. Sera looked at her. "Why does that shock you, Professor? I've been the only victim he's left behind." Carmela hesitated for a second, then responded. "Well, he's never switched locations before. No reason to think he wouldn't have left Dr. Cameron behind, just like he did with you."

Sera knew that the explanation made sense, but for some reason, she wasn't convinced. She looked up and saw Mitch frowning in the Professor's direction. He turned and caught her eye for a moment before turning away.

Everyone in the group looked utterly defeated. House was leaning forward in his chair, gripping his cane tightly. Lisa had walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. Chase was sitting on the floor, knees raised and his head bent. Sera thought he might be praying. Eric was clenching and unclenching his jaw while stroking Donna's hair. She was kneeling beside the recliner, her head in his lap. Sera watched as tears trickled down her face and onto Eric's legs.

Carmela excused herself to go upstairs to get her medicine from her carry-on bag. Sera caught Mitch's eyes again and he nodded slightly. She waited a few minutes then went quietly up the stairs. She was still barefoot, so she didn't make any sound as she crossed the living room floor towards the stairs going to the top floor. She could hear Carmela upstairs in the second bedroom. The professor's voice was muffled, so Sera crept silently to the stairs and started up. She could hear Carmela's voice more clearly as she went further up the steps and noticed that her mentor sounded agitated. She heard Carmela hiss, "…promised me!" and tried to get closer so she could hear the rest.

Sera grimaced in frustration when she accidentally stepped on the creaky step. She knew it was there, but never bothered getting it fixed. She heard Carmela's voice pause, then continue talking in fluent French. Sera barely restrained the urge to hit her head against the wall. The professor had always told her she should take the time to learn other languages, but beyond some basic Spanish, she never bothered. She couldn't even make out the words well enough to repeat them to another person to translate.

Sera sighed and kept going up the steps, this time with more noise. She went to her room and pulled out a T-shirt to change into so that the professor wouldn't think she was spying. As she went past the second bedroom, Carmela opened the door and stuck her head out. Sera smiled and waved and kept back down to the kitchen. She grabbed a plate of food (her workout with Dave and Mitch had made her extremely hungry) and went back down to the basement.

When she got downstairs, she noticed everyone (except Eric, who was asleep on the recliner and Mitch, who was on the phone) huddled around David, who was at the computer. Sera slid between Robert and Lisa and looked at the computer, her plate of fettuccini in her hand. She looked on the screen and saw a scanned piece of paper with some writing scrawled on it. It read:

I changed my mind, Sera dear. I think I'll keep Dr. Cameron with me. After all, it's always a good idea to have a doctor around, don't you think? Especially one as bright as Dr. Cameron. That was an excellent clue she gave you, by the way. Her acting performance is to be commended. I had to show her just how much I appreciated her little act. Of course, it was my fault. I should have known that Dr. House wouldn't have any fools working for him. He is, after all, a genius. Any protégé of his would have to represent him well.

Tell the dear Professor I said hello. And tell her to try to stay away from Dr. House. Associating with him never turns out well for anyone.

Winston

There were red splatters all over the letter. Donna inhaled sharply and asked, "Is that…?" David nodded. "The crime scene guys verified that it was blood. They are going to analyze it to see if it's Dr. Cameron's." Sera stared at the screen for a minute. "Print that out for me, then get up. I need to access the Bureau's mainframe." She looked at Dave who was glaring at her, rolled her eyes, and added, "Please."

David shook his head as he printed out two copies of the letter. "No way, Serenity. You don't have clearance to access the mainframe. Heck, you didn't have clearance when you were actively working with us." Sera made a choking gesture behind Dave's back and glanced over to Mitch for help. He was still on the phone across the room, so she took a deep breath and tried again. Dave could be infuriatingly stubborn and straitlaced when he wanted to be, and it seemed like this would be one of those times. "Dave, I need to research something and I can't find what I need on the 'net. It's very important…and confidential." She added the last part to prevent him from offering to help. She felt like grinding her teeth when he shook his head again. She gave up trying to be nice.

"Look, moron, you can let me use it now or I hack into it later. Which one will make you look less stupid?" David snorted and didn't even bother turning around. "You aren't that good, kiddo." Sera actually did grind her teeth this time. "Fine. I'm not that good. But I don't need to be that good if I know your password." David laughed this time. "I have changed it since the last time I stupidly let you use it and almost lost my job." Sera turned as Carmela made her way down the steps. The woman looked as white as a sheet and didn't join the rest of the group. She sat by herself over by the stereo.

Sera turned to Dave again. "David, I'm very serious. This is a matter of life and death. Allison's….mine…. God only knows who else. Please…I'm begging you. And you know I've never begged you for anything."

David looked into the wide gray eyes staring back at him and sighed. Even Mitch couldn't deny those eyes, he told himself as he got up and let Sera take his chair. He got one of the copies of the letter from out of the printer and took it to the others. They had a puzzle to figure out.

Sera stayed at Dave's computer for nearly an hour. She had dug in his "magic" bag (so called because he seemed to be able to fit an endless amount of stuff in it) and found a notepad and pen to jot down the weird things she had been noticing. She alternated between tapping away at the computer, checking her notes, and eating her fettuccini. She ignored Dave's comment about eating over his computer and focused on finding…actually, she didn't know what she was looking for, but she'd know it when she saw it.

Shortly after she started searching through the database, Mitch got off of the phone and came over, pulling up a chair. He spoke to her in a low voice. "The blood on that letter is Dr. Cameron's. They found a large quantity of it in the church, too. Some of it is a few hours old, probably from his temper tantrum earlier, and some of it is relatively fresh. We need to find him soon. He's hurt her pretty badly. The lab boys said that she's lost at least 3 pints of blood. Did you find out anything useful when you went upstairs?"

Sera shrugged. "I overheard something…I don't know yet how useful it is. Carmela sounded pretty agitated and I heard her say… "something, something, 'promised me' something." It was muffled so I couldn't hear all of it. After that sentence, I stepped on the stupid creaky step by accident and she heard me. She switched over to French. I couldn't understand any of it."

Mitch frowned at her. "Well, did you hear enough to repeat it so we can get someone to translate?" Sera shook her head in disgust. "No. It would have been hard enough to do that with a foreign language that I'm slightly familiar with, like Spanish. French…forget it. I did hear her say a name, though…at least I think it was a name. Someone named Phil? Maybe short for Philipe, because she pronounced it sort of…French-ish."

Mitch sighed and glanced at the computer. "What are you looking for?" Sera waited a second to see if he would fuss at her for being in the FBI mainframe. When nothing else was forthcoming she turned the computer towards him. "I'm looking for Dumas. We had to have missed something. I'm trying different variations of his name. I'm looking through birth records that have the name Winston, Alexander, or Dumas."

Mitch picked up her notepad and glanced at what she had written. "You think the professor is involved in this somehow." Sera didn't say anything for a few seconds. She stared into the screen. Carmela had taken her under her wing and given her someone to look up to – someone to admire and seek advice from. The professor had filled the emptiness caused by her own mother's lack of interest in her life. And now she was looking for proof that she was somehow connected with the man who had murdered her sister and her fiancé. She turned to look at Mitch. "I pray that she's not, Mitch. I don't think I could handle that." She turned back to the computer. "But I have to know, either way."

Mitch left her to go tell the others what he'd found out about Cameron. Sera continued to look through the names on the computer, not noticing House's presence until he lightly tapped her with his cane. She thought briefly about whacking him with it again, but decided to save her energy. She spared him a glance before scrolling to the next page. "What do you want, House?"

He asked her, "Why do you think Carmela's involved?" Sera didn't look at him. "You were eavesdropping." House shrugged. "It's what I do." Sera made a quick decision. There was a reason she wanted House involved, so she might as well pick his brains since it was here. She tossed him her notepad. He looked over it quickly and handed it back to her. "Is that it?"

Sera told him that she followed Carmela and overheard a snippet of her conversation. House frowned. "She used to call me names in French. I never told her that I understood her. Do you remember anything that she said?" Mitch had rejoined the two of them and frowned at Sera. "You told him?"

Sera rolled her eyes. "Hello? He's a board certified genius. Since we can't get our normal genius on board with this particular problem, we may as well use him. What's she doing, anyway?" Sera glanced over at Carmela, who was still sitting by herself in a corner. Mitch replied, "She claims the food didn't agree with her and is causing her stomach to feel uncomfortable." As if on cue, Carmela stood up, called out to Sera, "Serenity, dear, may I use your bathroom?" Sera nodded and pointed her down the hall.

Sera turned back to House and answered his last question. "I have no idea what she said. It sounded like a bunch of gobbledygook to me. About the only thing I could make out was the word 'bon'. That means 'good', right?" House nodded. Sera took her notepad and wrote. "So we have the words 'promised me' and the word 'good'. There's absolutely nothing we can do with that!" She tossed the pad down in disgust. "Maybe I should just ask her what she said."

House, who had been staring at the door Carmela walked through, said absently, "Cela n'est pas une bonne idée." Sera's head jerked up. "What did you say?" House focused his attention on her. "I said, that's not a good idea. You don't want to tip her off that you susp…" Sera cut him off excitedly. "NO! Say it in French again!" House exchanged a confused look with Mitch then said, slowly, "Cela n'est pas une bonne idée."

Sera grabbed House's face and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips. She heard an Australian-accented voice say, "What the hell…?" She turned to Robert, who was helping Donna re-situate Eric in the recliner and said, "It's okay, sweetie. House just helped me solve a puzzle. I'll tell you in a minute." Robert frowned at House then nodded to Sera. Both Mitch and House rolled their eyes at the two lovers.

Sera spoke excitedly in a low voice. "That's what she said upstairs…or something close to it. I believe there was another word in there or something, but I definitely remember hearing…uh…what you just said." House looked at her disapprovingly. "You know, you really should take the time to learn other languages, especially…" Sera cut him off again. "Ok, can you spare me the lecture, please? This is good. We just have to figure out now who she was talking to and what she thinks isn't a good idea." She paused as another thought occurred to her. "You know, Winston speaks French." Mitch looked at her grimly. "Sera, this isn't looking good. Are you going to be able to do what you need to do if she is involved?" Sera looked Mitch right in the eye. "If she's involved then she's partially responsible for what happened to Jamal and Faith. I'll do whatever I need to do to see that she pays for her crimes."

After a moment of quiet following her declaration, Sera turned back to the computer. "Now, if only I could find out who Dumas really is." House shook his head as something occurred to him. "Wait a minute. You said you talked to his father. Why hasn't he given you a picture or something? Why don't you know anything about this guy?"

Sera smiled grimly. "Well, I was being somewhat facetious when I said that his father was cooperating with us. He is, but it's not very helpful. His father has dementia. He is aware that he has a son, but that's about it. We were able to ascertain that Winston was adopted, but Father Shaw doesn't really remember anything else. He had no adoption papers that we were able to find, nor is there any official record that he and his wife ever adopted anyone. His wife died 18 years ago, and there are no parishioners at the church who remember Winston. Father Shaw lost a lot of his flock when the dementia symptoms started worsening. I doubt anyone knew what was going on, but I can only imagine what the sermons sounded like. There is another priest there who does the actually work at the church now and he also takes care of Winston's father."

House looked over her shoulder at the computer. "You've tried to find Winston Shaw?" Sera nodded. "What about Alexandre spelled the French way?" "Tried that, too." House groaned and leaned back a bit in his seat, stretching his long arms above his head. He looked at Sera hopefully. "I wouldn't mind some coffee about now. It might stimulate my brain cells." Sera was about to tell him to make it himself, but thought about his leg and the number of steps leading to the kitchen. She sighed and stood up. "Anyone want some coffee?" There was a chorus of affirmative responses.

Robert stood up. "I'll help you bring it down." Sera smiled at him and they both went up the stairs. House watched them go, smirking. "Wonder what they're going to do while the coffee brews?" Mitch glanced up the stairs and shuddered slightly as he got a mental image. "Shut up, House."

Sera finished measuring out the coffee into the filter and turned it on to brew. She turned around and gasped as Robert put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. "Do you know how crazy that outfit of yours was making me? Why on earth did you put this huge T-shirt on, anyway?" Sera was about to explain the reason behind the T-shirt when he swooped down to claim her lips in a sensual assault that literally took her breath away and made her completely lose her train of thought. Her knees immediately turned to jelly, but he easily supported her. His hands slid down her back to her buttocks and lifted her up so that she was sitting on the counter. Sera tangled her hands into Robert's hair as he caressed her body with his hands. They separated, breathing heavily, as the coffee maker let out a gentle hiss, signaling that the coffee was ready. She leaned her forehead on his, taking big gulps of air.

"Robert, you literally make me weak. Is this normal? I've never felt like this." He smiled. "I have a confession. I've never felt like this either, so no, I don't think it's normal. But not being normal is good sometimes, isn't it?" He grinned at her, causing her to grin back. "Oh, I definitely agree with you on that count." They kissed tenderly and Robert lifted her up and off of the counter. Sera looked at him speculatively. "You know, you're a lot stronger than you look." Robert gave her a funny look. "I'm not exactly sure how to take that…" Sera grinned at him. "It's a compliment, just say thank you." He gave her a little bow and said, "Thank you, milady. I'll be right back. I'm just going to run upstairs to the loo."

Sera busied herself with pouring the coffee into the portable electric carafe and putting the cream, sweeteners, mugs, spoons, and some pastries on a tray. After about 10 minutes, she began to wonder where Robert was. She didn't want to embarrass him by hurrying him off of the toilet, but she wanted to get back to work and she needed his help carrying everything down. She heard a slight noise in the living room. "Robert?" She went slowly towards the living room, wondering why it felt like the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. Before she crossed the threshold to the living room, she had a brief thought that she should go and get Mitch and Dave. She shook her head, thinking she was being foolish.

She reached over and turned on the light. The first thing she noticed was Robert on the ground, a dart sticking out of his neck. The next thing she noticed was a sweet-smelling odor in the room. She tried to move towards Robert but the room began to spin. The last thing she thought before the darkness overtook her was, "Oh, crap!"