Author's note – Thanks again to everyone who reviewed. We're getting close to the end of the story. I just want you to know that I made a change to Chapter 25. I had gotten some misinformation about the French language and I messed up, big time. It was pointed out to me when I posted this at another site, but I totally forgot to change it before I posted the previous chapter. So if you notice something in this chapter that seems a bit different from something that was said in the previous chapter (vague enough for ya?), just go back and skim through chapter 25 until you get to the changed part. Then this chapter will make sense. Or not…
Oh, and by the way, House and Co. still aren't mine. (sob!)
CHAPTER 26
Everyone in the basement was milling around, waiting for Sera and Robert to return with the coffee. After about 20 minutes, Mitch frowned in the direction of the stairs. "Maybe someone ought to check on them." House looked gleeful. "I'll go!", he said, standing up and limping towards the steps. Donna intercepted him. "Hold on there, Hop-a-long. I'll go check on them." Donna went up the stairs to the first floor.
She saw the carafe and tray sitting on the counter. She frowned and called out softly, "Sera? Dr. Chase?" Unlike House, she didn't really want to interrupt anything, but she just wanted to see if everything was okay and get the coffee. She headed towards the living room, calling their names again. The living room was dark and she felt along the wall near the door, not wanting to hit her shin again on the stupid coffee table. She couldn't find the switch, so she moved forward slowly. She sniffed. "What is that smell…it seems familiar, almost like…" What it seemed almost like flew right out of her head when she suddenly tripped over something on the floor.
Donna landed hard on the floor. After taking a second to get her breath back, she pulled herself to her knees, using the little table by the stairwell for support. She felt her fingers brush something metal and remembered with relief that there was a lamp there. She slid her fingers up, clicked on the light, and turned to see what she tripped over. She gasped in horror at the sight in front of her.
Downstairs, everyone froze when they heard Donna's shout, "Quick, I need some help up here! DR. HOUSE, I NEED YOU UP HERE NOW!!" House, Mitch, and David shared a brief look before House pulled himself out of the chair and made his way quickly to the stairs. Mitch and David came up on either side of him. "May we?" Mitch looked at House for permission. As much as it burned him to need help, House knew he had no choice. He nodded and said, "Hurry." David and Mitch each grabbed House under the arm and helped him to quickly hop up the stairs. Mitch called back to Dr. Andrews, who was about to follow them up. "Stay down there and guard the bathroom. Don't let the professor leave!" Mitch ignored the shocked look on her face and continued helping House. Lisa followed closely behind them with House's cane.
House quickly limped over to where Robert was sprawled on the floor. Donna had removed the dart, touching it as little as possible. She was talking to 911, but handed the phone to Lisa so she could relay the details. House sniffed. "Nitrous oxide? Sevoflurane?" Donna nodded. "Probably a combination of those with the curare dart. His pulse is at 30, breathing shallow and intermittent. He needs O2 immediately." House took Robert's pulse himself and cursed. "Dammit! The combination of the poison and the anesthesia is going to kill him if we don't get him to the hospital soon!" House looked around. "Where the hell is Serenity?" Donna didn't say anything, but she pointed to the floor by the door. There lay a perfect pink rose.
Sera slowly opened her eyes, blinking in the bright light that was shining in her face. She was lying on a bed with her arms and legs shackled. She immediately felt panic. "Oh, God, no! Please, no! Not again!!" She saw images of every nightmare she'd ever had about the last time Dumas had captured her. These visions were intermingled with thoughts of Carmela and the memory of Robert lying on the floor, unmoving. She took several deep breaths and allowed the rage and betrayal to sweep through her, driving the panic back. There was no doubt in her mind that Carmela was working with Dumas. She had no idea why, but there's no other way he would have known that curare didn't work on her anymore. She would have kicked herself for her own stupidity if she wasn't practically immobile.
She heard someone moving behind the door in front of her. She assumed there was a hallway outside of the room. She tested her bonds and realized that she had a bit more give in them this time. Her head wasn't free, either. The wrist shackles were way too tight to slip her hands through, unfortunately.
After determining that she wasn't strong enough to break the chains, Sera's thoughts returned to the professor. The only question that still confused her was why. Why would someone as successful and brilliant as Dr. Carmela Ling suddenly join forces with a psychotic murderer? She snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed the doorknob turning. Hopefully, she would get some answers.
House was leaning back in his chair in the diagnostics office, alternating between calling Wilson, who had come in and was keeping an eye on Chase in ICU, looking over Mitch's shoulder as he continued to look for Winston Dumas on the computer and looking at the white board, where he had transferred Sera's notes from her notepad. Since they had no idea exactly what year Dumas was born, or even where he was born, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. "It would have been nice if we had Carmela. I'm sure she could have shed some light on her cohort's whereabouts."
Mitch gritted his teeth. House had been making comments like that ever since they had discovered that Carmela left the house through the small window near the ceiling in the bathroom. "I had never been to Serenity's house before, I hadn't used the damn bathroom since I arrived there, AND, up until she shimmied out the back window, Dr. Ling wasn't an active suspect. What the hell do you want from me?!" Mitch stopped and took several deep breaths. He had already blown up when he discovered the professor was missing. He had sent David and Dr. Andrews, who wasn't even a field agent, out in Serenity's car with instructions to find Carmela Ling and don't show their faces until they did. He had every agent he could get searching the area for her. He had no idea how a woman on foot could elude them.
Mitch sighed and frowned at the computer. "This is pointless. I wish Serenity had caught more of the professor's conversation. Maybe we could figure out what Carmela thought was a good idea and what this "feast" is she was talking about."
House frowned. "Feast? What feast?" Mitch rolled his eyes. "I just said we don't know what that's about." House shook his head in annoyance. "No, I mean, where did you hear about a feast? Why would Carmela be planning a feast now? She's a good cook but it doesn't seem to be an appropriate time for it." "Serenity said that she heard Carmela say something about a feast in the conversation. She wasn't exactly sure, though, and I really didn't get a chance to investigate furth…" Mitch stopped because House was banging his head on his cane.
"Both of you are complete morons!" House glared at the FBI agent, who looked taken aback…and angry. "Did you just call me a moron?" Mitch started to get to his feet. House got up as well, nearly shaking with anger. "Why the hell didn't you tell me about this "feast"? What, you didn't think it was important enough to share this information?" Mitch looked confused, his annoyance at being called a moron temporarily forgotten. "It didn't make sense…we figured she heard wrong…it seemed like a dead end, so…"
"So you made an assumption. Do we really need to discuss how stupid assumptions are at this point?" Mitch's jaw was clenched and he stepped closer to House. "Why don't you make your point, Doctor? Or would you like to insult us some more?"
House rolled his eyes. "Remember when I said 'That's not a good idea' in French and she told me that she heard that, but it might have had another word in it? It was probably your "feast" that she heard. Only Carmela probably wasn't saying "feast". She was saying fils, which sounds similar. Carmela probably said, Cela n'est pas une bonne idée, un fils." Mitch felt a sense of dread come over him. He was getting a vague flashback from his eighth grade French class. He had to ask anyway. "What does that mean, House?" House looked at him with such raw anger and rage that Mitch almost stepped back. "It means, 'That's not a good idea, SON.'"
Mitch sat down and looked at the whiteboard. All of the dots connected into a big guilty arrow pointing right at his former colleague. He heard a voice say quietly behind him, "I can't believe she betrayed Serenity like that." Donna was standing behind him, looking at the board. Eric was next to her, one hand on her shoulder for support. He still felt slightly dizzy, and had a lot of pain, but the anger that was coursing through him seemed to give him the energy he needed to get up.
Mitch's phone rang and he answered with a sharp, "What?!" He listened for a moment and gritted out, "Well, keep looking!" He slammed the phone shut, barely able to refrain from throwing it across the room. Everyone looked at him, wanting to ask him for an update, but somewhat scared to do so. House finally piped up. "Any luck?" "No", Mitch bit out, turning away from the group and pacing back and forth across the exercise mat. He stopped when they heard Eric's voice from behind him.
"How old is Dumas?" Mitch walked over to him. "We aren't exactly sure. We estimate late 20's to early 30's." Eric looked at him, then at House. "Maybe about 26 or 27?" House narrowed his eyes at his oldest duckling. "What exactly are you trying to say, Foreman?"
As Sera watched, a man walked into the room. He stood close to the lamp that was shining in her face, so Sera still couldn't see him. For some reason, this angered her more than anything else that had happened to her that day. "Are you still too scared to show your face?! You bstard!! You cowardly excuse of a human being!!! Let me see you!! Stop hiding, you son of a btch!! SHOW ME YOUR FACE!!!"
Dumas had the audacity to chuckle at her. "As you wish, my dear Serenity." He reached over and dimmed the light. Sera blinked a few times to clear away the bright dots dancing in front of her eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light in the room, Winston took a step closer to her and, for the first time, looked directly into her eyes. As Sera stared into the familiar, brilliant blue eyes, all of the puzzle pieces fell into place with a chilling, sickening thud.