Disclaimers annoy me. House, M.D. is the creation of David Shore and friends and they just won't give him to me!
Robert … 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!"
CHAPTER 24
Sera had actually been ready for ten minutes, but she couldn't work up the courage to walk out the door. She actually felt more naked in the cat suit than she did without any clothes. The black material was surprisingly soft against her skin, although the outside surface of it was tough. It has a sheen to it that made it shimmer in the light. The suit covered her from head to toe. It was long-sleeved and even had a mock turtleneck. Yet, because it was skin tight and emphasized every curve, she still felt like covering herself.
Her hair had dried to slightly fluffy curls from her shower, which just didn't mesh with the Emma Peel image she was projecting, so she wet her hair and slicked it back. Although she knew that her high heeled black boots went perfectly with the outfit, she had never learned the skill of performing martial arts in stiletto heels, so she remained barefoot. She had moved her winter clothes downstairs when the weather became warmer and she dug around in her closet until she found a sparkly 5-inch belt that usually went with a holiday sweater she owned. She wrapped the belt around her waist, where it draped, perfectly setting off the shimmers in the outfit.
She ran her hands down her body as she looked in the mirror. She looked good, but unfortunately, every eye in the room was going to be focused on her when she walked out there. Robert she could handle, but Dave? Eric? Oh, God! House?! She could only imagine what that horndog would say! But that wasn't really what was giving her the willies. She realized that Winston probably had some lustful feelings for her ('Probably? Try definitely!', her subconscious jeered at her) and if she showed up wearing this, it might be like waving a red cape in front of a bull. She squared her shoulders and tossed her head. 'Well, I'll just have to make sure he never gets a chance to act on his sick little feelings!', she decided. She called, "I'm coming out!" and walked out the door.
She stepped into the room and immediately felt all eyes on her. She saw that the Professor had arrived and gave her a little smile. She refused to meet anyone's eyes as she searched the room for Robert. His back was to her and he was putting a can opener down on the table against the wall. He turned around and immediately his eyes widened. His skin went pale and he dropped his soda, causing the glass to shatter and soda to spill all over her floor. He didn't even seem to notice the mess as he stared at her.
Robert couldn't believe his eyes. He had seen Sera naked, for crying out loud, and he didn't know she was built like that. He looked around the room at everyone else. Donna was frowning at Eric, whose eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open. House had leaned forward in his chair with a gleam in his eye, unaware that Cuddy had narrowed her eyes at him. The Professor and Mum looked mildly amused. David was practically leering at her and Mitch…Mitch was looking at him with one eyebrow up. He looked expectant, as if he was waiting for Robert to do something. He looked back at Sera and noticed that she was chewing on her lip nervously, and her dark skin appeared flushed as she looked at the floor.
Robert went over to her and stood in front of her, effectively shielding her from the room. He lifted her chin so that she was looking at him. Her eyes were wide and she seemed extremely uncomfortable. He kissed her nose and said quietly, "You are among friends here. I know some of them are acting like complete morons, but you are safe here. And, I might add, you are the most amazingly sexy and brave woman I've ever seen in my life. I'm so very honored and blessed that you've allowed me into your life." He kissed her gently on her lips. He swore he heard a couple of feminine sighs in the background, but he couldn't tell who it was.
When he pulled away from her, her eyes slowly fluttered back open. Robert was pleased to see that she had that spark back in her eyes. She smiled at him…that mischievous smile that he loved. "Well, I guess I'd better test this baby out to make sure I can move freely in it. Is Dave still giving me that lecherous look?"
Robert glanced over his shoulder and turned back to Sera. "Yep. Want me to go defend your honor?" Sera smiled at him and patted his cheek. "Nah. I got this covered." She took a deep breath and stepped around him. "Oh, Daaavvveee…"
What followed was 20 minutes of Agent David Dukovsky getting his butt kicked. Back in her FBI days, Sera usually sparred with either Mitch or David. If she was practicing with weapons, she worked with Mitch because Dave wouldn't know a bo from a sai. But for hand to hand combat, she enjoyed working with Dave because she never felt guilty throwing him all over the mat. And he was good enough that she didn't feel like a bully. Of course, she had been actively training for the past five years and Dave hadn't. So…it wasn't pretty.
"Augh! Do you have to slam me to the mat? Isn't merely throwing me enough?", Dave groused from his position lying on the floor. Sera ignored him and jumped up, ready to stomp him while he was whining on the floor. Dave said, "Uh, oh!" and quickly rolled out of the way, as she knew he would. He quickly got to his feet, just in time to catch a spinning kick to the gut. He ducked the next kick and dropped down, his leg shooting out and sweeping Sera's, sending her to the floor. She quickly did a backwards roll to her feet and blocked his kick.
Robert watched them spar, his fists clenching and unclenching as he looked on. He almost jumped in at one point, when David had Sera in some type of headlock, but a cane shot in front of him, blocking his way. He looked down at House, who shook his finger at Robert and said, "Ah, ah, ah! You don't want to do that." Mitch spoke up. "Dr. House is right. Sera knows what she's doing. She's going kinda easy on him. If he gets the upper hand, it's because she's letting him. Sometimes, in sparring, you need to let the opponent get you in a tight spot so that you can learn to get out of it. Trust me, if you go charging in there, you'll be more of a distraction than a help."
So Robert watched the woman he loved toss and be tossed all over the mat. He could tell she was enjoying herself. He was truly amazed at how she moved. He had seen her in action briefly, but that was nothing compared to what she was doing now. She was so quick; she was like a blur at times. And Dave, who was a pretty big guy at 6'3" and about 225 lbs, was impressive as well. Robert started to feel a little bit better about Sera's chances with Dumas. Until he saw Mitch take off his shirt and go over to the wall and pick out two of the throwing knives.
"Whoa!! What the hell are you going to do with those?" Robert grabbed the other man's arm. Mitch looked at his arm where Robert was gripping him and raised an eyebrow at him until the younger man let go. "Well, I'm going to try to stab your girlfriend, Rob." Robert shook his head. "No, I don't think so." Mitch sighed. Although he could easily get around the man, he didn't think Sera would appreciate it. So he took a moment to explain.
"Would you rather find out that the suit works now, or later when she's in front of Dumas?" Robert thought for a moment. He looked Mitch in the eye. "You've been trained with weapons like she has?" Mitch gave a humorless smile. "Well, my knife training came from being in a gang in my youth. The rest of my training, though, was more formal." Robert was dying to ask more questions, but knew there was no time for his curiosity. So he just said, "Be careful." Mitch nodded once and went over to the mat.
Sera felt rather than heard the presence behind her. She quickly did an evasive cartwheel to the side and whirled to face her new opponent. She was absolutely shocked to see that Mitch was holding a knife. "Mitch, what the hell…?!" she yelled at him. Mitch shrugged. "Are you going to yell at Winston?" He swiped at her again with one of the knives. She evaded with a back flip. Mitch looked impressed. "That's new." Sera grinned. "Yeah, it took me a while to get it right. Lots of headaches! I can only do one, though. I need to learn to do several in a row." She dodge out of the way as he arced the blade in her direction and spun and landed a kick on his back, which sent him off balance stumbling across the mat.
Sera ran over to the wall to grab a weapon. Mitch, who had recovered, stopped her. "No! Dumas is not going to let you waltz in there with a weapon. You're probably going to have to fight him empty handed." Sera put the sai back on the wall and cautioned Mitch, "I'm not going easy on you, Mitchell. You're armed and I'm not. I'll let you land one, just to make sure this suit can take it, but all bets are off after that. I can't promise that I won't hurt you." Mitch simply smiled that enigmatic smile at her and replied, "You won't hurt me."
Robert found himself once again standing helplessly on the sidelines while Sera dodged and evaded Mitch's strikes with his knives. At one point, Mitch threw one of the daggers and it hit Sera right in the stomach. Everyone in the room gasped, even House. Sera's hands grabbed the spot, her eyes wide. Even Mitch looked a bit worried for a second. Then, Sera moved her hand and the knife fell to the ground. She rubbed her stomach in wonder. "It didn't go through!" she panted. "I felt like I'd been struck in the gut, but it didn't pierce my skin! Mum, you and Z are amazi…whoa!"
She quickly dropped to the floor and did a scissor kick, catching Mitch in the side and giving her a chance to jump to her feet. She glared at the older man. Mitch looked at her sternly. "Don't let anything distract you! You can compliment Hilary later!" Sera took a second to say snidely, "Oh, so it's 'Hilary' now, is it?". A few seconds later, she was wishing she'd kept her mouth shut, because Mitch was coming at her twice as fast. It was all she could do to avoid his attack. She could barely mount any offense at all. Finally, she saw an opening. She spun and struck a blow to Mitch's outer thigh, similar to what she did to Robert in her kitchen. He dropped like a stone. She quickly struck several spots on his body, disabling his arms. She straddled him, took the knives out of his hand, twirled them both, and stabbed downward.
She heard more gasps and a couple of shouts. She stopped the blades about a centimeter above Mitch's heart. They stared into each other's eyes, breathing hard. Mitch glanced down at the knives then back up to her. He surprised her by grinning at her. "Dmn, you've gotten fast. You were still holding back a bit, weren't you?" She grinned back, leaned over, and kissed his nose, knowing he couldn't do anything about it. She ignored his glare and answered him. "Yeah, well…for some reason, I can't bear the idea of hurting you."
Dave called from the side of the room, where Lisa was putting ice on his eye, "You sure as hell didn't have any trouble hurting me!" Sera shout back, "That's because I actually like him!" In reality, Sera loved Dave to death, but he was a royal pain in the tuckus. She got up and offered a hand to Mitch, who was slowly moving his arms back and forth. He got up, holding his thigh and wincing a bit. Mum came over to him, offering him her shoulder to lean on as he made his way over to a chair.
Robert came over to Sera, who was twirling the daggers in her hand. She stopped when he got closer. She was kind of wary. He hadn't really seen the extent of what she could do and she wasn't sure how he was going to react. He looked at her in awe. "Wow! That was amazing. You know, you're kind of scary!" Sera looked down, disappointed. She said quietly, "Most men are intimidated by what I can do." Robert slipped his arms around her. "I didn't say I was intimidated. I just said you were a bit scary. I know now that I definitely don't want to get in your bad side." He leaned closer and nuzzled her ear, whispering, "Actually, I thought it was kind of hot, watching you move like that. It made me want to…" Robert proceeded to tell her exactly what he wanted to do with her.
Mitch looked over at the couple, noticing the way Sera was giggling and particularly the way her skin was flushing over whatever the Aussie was whispering to her. He had been worried that Dr. Chase…Rob…would back off from her after seeing what she could do. But the man had proven tougher than he thought. Probably tougher than anyone thought. It seems that Rob's co-workers, particularly Dr. House, underestimated him. He smiled to himself. After Rob knocked Sera on her butt and especially after his blow up at House, Mitch doubted that too many people were going to underestimate the young doctor again.