Disclaimer – House is the property of David Shore and the rest, yadda, yadda, yadda

AN – Thanks again to everyone who reviewed. If you continue to like this story, I'll post the sequel, which is called "Serenity's Light". It's also completed, so barring any extreme laziness, I should be able to post pretty regularly. Also, I'm going to start putting the last paragraph from the previous chapter in the beginning to try to somewhat maintain the flow.

Dave looked confused. "So…too much potassium is bad, right?" Robert answered him quietly, looking at Sera as he talked. "Too much potassium can lead to a cardiac arrhythmia. And it can be asymptomatic, so you don't always get a warning…not before it's too late, anyway. It has a 67 mortality rate if not treated immediately." Robert looked into Sera's eyes as he said, "Too much potassium can lead to sudden death."

CHAPTER 23

After Robert's statement, there was an oppressive silence in the room. Lisa looked at Sera. "Why? Why would you risk yourself like this? You know exactly how dangerous this is…why would you subject yourself…your HEART…to this kind of abuse?

Sera started pacing again, twirling the bo. "I knew. I knew that eventually he would catch up to me. I knew that it would come to a final showdown of sorts. I just wanted to make sure I was ready."

Sera looked around at all of the eyes looking at her in sad condemnation. She tossed the staff against the wall in frustration. "Oh, for heaven's sake! I was extremely careful. A slowly rising potassium level can be better tolerated than a quickly rising one. I check my electrolyte levels every other day…I have equipment upstairs. I've been doing this gradually over the past year and a half. I'm also very careful when I expose myself to the curare…"

"WHAT!" Several voices interrupted her at once. Sera rolled her eyes. "Well, how did you think I would test it? It would really suck to do all this only to find out at the critical moment that it didn't work."

House let out a disbelieving chuckle. "Let me get this straight. You…a doctor…have been deliberately screwing with a critical electrolyte, the one that controls the heart, AND exposing yourself to a potentially lethal poison just to see if you can handle it? Why don't you just suck down some iocaine powder while you're at it?"

Sera blinked for a second before getting the reference and rolling her eyes. "Look, House, I know exactly how much curare is lethal and I know how much is on the darts that Dumas uses. I can tolerate two before I start to get weak. Three will knock me out. He doesn't know this, so I'll have some element of surprise when I don't go down after the first dart. I only need 5 seconds to incapacitate him. With this suit that Mum brought, I should have all the time I need."

Mitch looked at her. "You don't expect them to find the church, do you?" Sera shrugged. "I don't expect them to find Winston Dumas. It's never been this easy before, and I don't believe in luck." Mitch looked at her for another minute. His lips tightened. "Then maybe we'd better see exactly what that suit can do."

Sera nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking. I need you to do something for me while I change, though." Sera picked up the "cat suit" and pulled Mitch into the other room with her. When she made her request, Mitch's eyebrows went up. Sera held up her hand to ward off protests. "Mitch, I've never asked you to do anything like this without a good reason. And the only reason I can give you is that my gut is telling me something is wrong. I just need you to check that out for me. Please."

Mitch nodded and pulled out his phone as he walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Sera looked down at the piece of material in her hands. It seemed much smaller than it had when Mum pulled it out of the bag. Sera sighed. She wasn't extremely eager to prance around in this skintight thing. It was even worse than that damnable Catwoman outfit. At least that one had a mask!

Mitch followed Robert upstairs so they could bring down the ottoman for House. His leg was bothering him more than it had in recent months. The ottoman upstairs was big, and awkward for one person to negotiate down the steps. Robert bent over to grab his end of the ottoman. Mitch didn't bend over, but stood looking at Robert pensively.

Robert felt a bit nervous from the older man's scrutiny. He asked him, "Is this the part where you tell me that if I hurt her, you'll hunt me down and kill me?"

Mitch snorted. "She can do that to you a lot more effectively than I can. I would just shoot you. She could make you cry." Mitch paused for a heartbeat, then said, "Just kidding."

Robert wasn't reassured, especially since the agent never cracked a smile. "Look, Agent Leggit, I… I really care about Sera. She's the first person to actually see who I really am, not the person I try to show people. And she likes who I really am. I've never met anyone like her. I am totally falling in love with her and the thought that I might lose her is incomprehensible."

Mitch studied the young doctor for a few more seconds and nodded. "She's never felt the passion for anyone or anything that she feels for you." Robert frowned. "But she was engaged…"

Mitch shook his head. "Yeah, she was engaged, but she wasn't in love with Jamal. She thought she was. She loved him, but it was the love of friendship. She could have married him and been perfectly content. But she would have missed out because Jamal didn't make her feel as alive as she acts with you. You make her let her guard down. You cause her to open up. She knocked another man on his a$$ just so he couldn't humiliate you. She gave you herself, both physically and emotionally…the only man she's ever done that with."

Mitch held up his hand when it appeared that Robert was going to defend his actions. "Look, Sera's a grown woman. If she decides to have a lover, it's not really my business. In fact, I don't want to know about it. But neither of you fooled me with that little T'ai Chi story. The way you look at her now is different than the way you looked at her 2 hours ago. You look at her possessively now. She does the same to you."

Mitch looked a bit uncomfortable. Robert wouldn't know it, but Mitch never talked this much, especially about emotional stuff. He quickly spoke again, so he could finish what he had to say and, hopefully, never have to say it again. "Dr. Chase, I love Sera almost like a daughter. And I want to see her happy. I haven't seen that enough. She deserves to be happy. And if you keep on making her happy, I'll have no beef with you." Mitch held out his hand.

Robert took his hand and the two men shook. When Robert tried to let go, Mitch tightened his grip…painfully. "But just so you know, Dr. Chase…if you hurt her, this country won't be a big enough place for you to hide." Mitch gave his hand one last good squeeze then let go. Robert shook his hand and flexed it to restore circulation. He glared at Mitch for a second, then grinned a bit, still shaking his hand. He moved over to the ottoman to grab his end. As they lifted it together, he said to Mitch, "Call me Rob."

As soon as Robert and Mitch got the ottoman downstairs, the doorbell rang. Robert went to get it after getting a warning from Mitch to check the video monitor before opening the door. Robert rolled his eyes and went off muttering to himself about not being a complete moron. Mitch hollered after him, "That remains to be seen!"

House was looking at him speculatively as the agent rolled the ottoman in place in front of House's chair. The doctor commented, "You like him." Mitch shrugged. "What's not to like?" House smirked. "Oh, I don't know…the fact that he's doing the horizontal mambo with Sera? The fact that he's a spineless little weasel? The fact that he'd sell out his own mother to save his own butt?"

Mitch shoved the ottoman under House's raised leg with a thump. He watched House use both hands to lift the other leg up. "Well, just the fact that he jacked you up and told you off was reason enough for me to like him."

Donna chimed in. "You are pretty hard on him." Eric put his two cents in, even though the pain was getting bad and making it increasingly hard for him to focus.

"Why are you such a bstard towards him? You acted like this even before the Vogler thing. You never have anything good to say to him. He actually figures out quite a few of our diagnoses and you never give him any credit. Even when he comes up with something creative, you put him down. You treat him the worst of the three of us. No wonder he betrayed you. I mean, would it kill you to say something nice?"

"He treats Dr. Chase the way his father treated him." A woman's voice spoke from the doorway. Everyone looked over to see Carmela walk into the room. House scowled at her. "Nobody asked for your input", he growled. Carmela ignored him and kept talking.

"No matter what you did, it wasn't good enough. You tried. You tried to excel at everything you did and it still wasn't enough. Your father has probably never said the words, "I'm proud of you", has he? Have you ever told Dr. Chase "Well done!"? Have you ever treated him with anything except scorn?" Carmela shook her head. "So sad. Like father, like son."

House was gripping the arms of his chair tightly. "You had no right…I told you those things in confidence! You have NO respect for…" Carmela cut him off with a laugh. "No respect? You mean, like the respect that you show others?" Carmela rubbed her chin thoughtfully as if something just occurred to her. "Hmmm…showing disrespect for others…yet another trait that you and John share."

"I am NOTHING like my father", House gritted out. Carmela bent over and said softly, "Yeah? Prove it." House practically snarled. "I don't have to prove anything to you." They both looked towards the steps as they heard footsteps bounding down. Carmela smirked. "All of that youthful energy and vigor." She leaned closer to House and whispered, "Don't prove it to me. Prove it to him. Or you're no better than your father."

Robert came into the room, slightly out of breath. "I put all of your bags in the second bedroom and…" He trailed off. There was a weird tension in the room and no one was meeting anyone else's eyes. He looked at House and saw that the older man looked a bit flushed. Robert went over to him. "House, are you okay? You look a bit flushed. Is the pain that bad?" Robert knelt by the chair, all of his earlier enmity towards his boss forgotten. "Sera has a heating pad upstairs. I can get it if you want."

House looked at the young man in front of him and felt the unfamiliar feeling of shame wash over him. He glared at Carmela, blaming her for these unwanted feelings. He turned to Robert to say something snarky and was mildly shocked when what came out was actually pleasant. "No, but thanks for offering." Robert's mouth dropped open in shock and House scowled at him. "Well, don't just sit there with your mouth hanging open like a fish out of water. If you want to make yourself useful, get me something to drink. Preferably a Scotch."

Robert snorted as he got up. "Like I'm gonna help you destroy your liver." He went up the stairs two at a time and came back down with some bottles of soda in his arms. He handed them out to everyone and was about to open his when he heard Sera say, "I'm coming out!"