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

CHAPTER 8

Dr. Chase had been about to go into exam room 3 when he heard the nurse calling Sera's name. He paused so that he could get a look at her before seeing his patient. He had been wanting to talk to her all day, but the team's patient had been highly unstable and there had been no time to catch her.

Robert realized that he may have been a bit too harsh with her on Saturday. She was trying to open up to him and he pushed her too far, too fast. 'Great way to get her to trust you', he thought ruefully. His eyes lit up when he saw Sera walk over to the desk, then narrowed when he saw her reach for some flowers.

"What the bloody hell!", he muttered. He felt his anger begin to grow. 'She sure didn't waste any time moving on, did she?', he thought as he watched her and Cuddy exchange some words before she opened the card. As she read it, he could see her face grow paler. She looked up at him and met his eyes and for a moment he saw terror in them that he'd never seen before. He moved towards her, speeding up when he saw her eyes roll back in her head. He caught her before she hit the floor.

"Sera!" Lisa was immediately on her knees next to her friend. She took the card out of Sera's grasp and read over it quickly. The blood drained from her face and she gave Robert a scared look. He grabbed the card from her hand and read it, ignoring Cuddy's protests. He looked at her in confusion then back down at the woman in his arms. He could tell her breathing was normal and from what he could tell, her pulse rate was slightly elevated, but not ridiculously so. As he carefully lifted Sera in his arms and went to stand up, he started to ask Cuddy what the hell the card meant about doctors playing golf and why it would make Sera faint when something clicked in his memory and all of the pieces fell into place.

Robert stopped in his tracks and stared at Sera, who was stirring in his arms. He turned his shocked face to Cuddy. "Gray eyes. Pink roses. Oh my God! Is this who I think it is?"

Cuddy hesitated only a second before nodding. "Yes."

Robert looked at the card that Cuddy had taken back from Robert. "So those flowers are from…"

Cuddy had moved in front of Robert, leading him to her office instead of one of the exam rooms. She turned back to answer him. "YES! So we have got to get her into my office so I can make some calls."

Robert was stunned, but he realized his questions would have to be answered later when Sera suddenly jerked in his arms and woke up, screaming, "Robert! Robert…no, not Robert…" He quickly reassured her.

"I'm here, Sera. I'm alright. I'm here." Sera stopped screaming and began to cry, putting her arms around his neck and holding him tightly. They got to Lisa's office and stepped into room. Robert sat on the sofa and gently held Sera on his lap while Lisa locked the door. He rocked her until her sobs diminished.

Lisa had called the police as well as the FBI agent who worked the case that Sera was involved with. She also called hospital security and had them send a couple of guys to stay near her office. She sat on the sofa next to Robert, who was tenderly wiping the tears off of Sera's face. She watched them. Even though she knew Robert must be burning with curiosity and probably a bit of anger, he was being very gentle with Sera and seeing to her welfare. Seeing this, Lisa felt more comfortable about confirming Sera's identity to Robert. She was rather impressed that he figured it out, actually. All that time working with House had definitely improved his deductive reasoning skills.

Robert carefully cleaned the tears from Sera's face. She was much calmer now, and even took the tissue from him to wipe her own face. She gave him a tiny smile. "Thank you, Robert."

He looked at her thoughtfully and without smiling. "You're welcome, Dr. Blair."

Sera's eyes widened and she looked at Lisa accusingly. Lisa held up both hands in defense. "He figured it out. The eyes, the flowers, and the note kind of gave it away."

"That, and he's been working under the master for over two years now." The chair at Lisa's desk spun slowly around to reveal House sitting there. Ignoring Cuddy's irritated "Get out!", he limped over to where Sera was still sitting on Chase's lap and tilted her chin up with his forefinger. He took in her red eyes and tear-stained face before asking her, "You okay?"

Sera nodded, slightly bewildered that he was acting concerned. She had to ask him, though, "How long have you known?"

House pretended to think. "Oh, since last week. You were just a little too good during differential. Besides, your eyes have been bothering me since I met you. They don't fit your face. They're too dark."

Sera looked at him incredulously. "House, they're brown. I'm African-American. How can my eyes be too dark?"

House shrugged. "I'm sure I've seen pictures of you before. My subconscious must have remembered you. Besides, after you came up with the disease in differential, I looked up some research on it. Nice job using information from your own article. You must have wanted me to figure it out."

Sera rolled her eyes. "I wrote the article using my real name. I didn't think you'd make the connection."

House smirked. "It's easy to make it when they have a picture of you at the end of the article." Sera gasped, "They do not! They didn't tell me they were using a picture!"

Lisa and Robert couldn't believe they were listening to such an inane conversation. Lisa interrupted her two friends. "Hello! Have you forgotten that we have a major situation here?"

Sera sighed loudly. "Well, thanks a lot, Ms. Killjoy. I was actually trying to take my mind off of the fact that, once again, a psychopathic serial killer is after me." Sera got off of Robert's lap and began to walk around the office. She took a few deep breaths and gracefully dropped onto her knees. She began to breathe in slowly and deeply, dropping her chin down to her chest, placing her hands on her thighs and closing her eyes. House went and stood next to her, looking at her with amusement. "Is this the part where we start to chant?"

Lisa walked over and shoved House towards a chair. "Look, when you need to work something out, you play with your yo-yo, your balls, or your video games. She meditates. She says it centers her, or something. We need to just stay here and wait for the feds. They should be here soon."

Robert leaned back on the sofa and let his head drop back so that he was looking at the ceiling. He thought about everything he knew about Dr. Serenity Blair, which wasn't much. He had never even heard about her until her last case, which went international. She had a degree in forensic psychology, but went on to become a doctor in forensic pathology. She helped with some criminal profiling on difficult cases, which is how she wound up working serial killer cases. Robert shook his head. He never understood how people could get into the minds of murderers and not lose their own sanity. He felt the sofa dip next to him and looked to see Lisa.

"You're not angry with Sera, are you? None of this is her fault and it's been so hard for her to trust…" Robert held up his hand. "No, I'm angry at the situation, not her. I'm angry because there's some madman after her. I'm angry because she's been hurt by this person before. I'm angry because there's not a dmn thing I can do to help her!"

"That's not true." Sera commented softly from the floor, still kneeling with her eyes closed. "You see, I've just decided something. I decided that I'm not crying anymore, I'm not hiding anymore, and I'm not running anymore. I want to say that I won't be scared anymore, but that's a lie. I'm scared now, but I refuse to let the fear run my life." Sera opened her eyes and, with one fluid motion, jumped to her feet from her kneeling position. She walked over to Chase and kneeled down on front of him. She ignored House's gagging noises and "Ew, get a room!" comment as she moved forward so that she was kneeling between his legs.

Sera reached out and gently stroked Robert's face, pushing his hair back out of his face and running her fingers along his sexy lips. "You're really not mad at me for lying to you?", she asked him. Robert leaned forward so his forehead was touching hers. "No, I'm not mad at you. I understand why you had to hide your identity." Sera smiled and kissed him softly. Behind her, House was making retching noises. She heard a noise and realized Lisa must have slapped House on the arm or shoulder or something. The "Ow!" she heard immediately following the noise confirmed her deduction. Sera and Robert grinned at each other.

Sera jumped slightly when her cell phone vibrated. So few people called her, so whenever it did go off, it never failed to make her jump. She pulled it out and answered. Her eyes widened and she mouthed to Robert, "It's him!"