"Are we all ready to go?" Elizabeth called throughout the mansion. Even though there was no way her voice could travel throughout the whole of the immense Collinwood, she hoped that her family could hear her.
The Collins family were planning on going out to dinner to celebrate their business, which was back up and running strong thanks to Barnabas.
David came running out from his room. He was dressed in his little suit, and he pelted down the stairs excitedly. It had been a long time since they had gone out for dinner and not just settled for one of Willie's pot roasts.
"Yes!" He answered and grabbed her hand. Carolyn stepped out of her room warily, wearing one of her mother's dresses. She came down the stairs not looking too happy to have to come out of her room, but even the cranky teenager was excited to eat out.
"Barnabas! Julia!" Elizabeth called impatiently. Julia poked her head out of a room.
"What?" She sounded annoyed.
"Julia, you should be getting ready! We're eating out, remember?" Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She got even more annoyed at the glass of red wine in the doctor's hand.
"Oh, right. Yeah you guys go without me; I think I'm a bit too tipsy for the public right now." This was followed by her downing the glass.
The children giggled. Elizabeth sighed. "Alright, Willie and Mrs. Johnson will be here if you need them."
"And Barnabas? Is he staying?"
David shook his head. "He's coming with us."
"Oh.." Julia's face fell. "I want him to stay!"
Carolyn was getting impatient. "Come on, Mom! Let's go!"
Barnabas came out from his room. "I am ready! Sorry for the wait!" As he came down the stairs, Dr. Hoffman pounced on him, grabbing his arm.
The vampire yelped. "My, Doctor! You gave me quite a fright!"
He shifted his weight, and the psychiatrist nearly lost her balance. "Please stay! We have a lot of work to get done!"
Barnabas was confused. "We do? I thought we had already done today's transfusions..."
Julia's eyes flashed desperately, but her mind was too fogged up with drinks to think of anything better to say then "STAY!"
Elizabeth called. "Barnabas, just ignore her. She's drunk."
Barnabas looked first at his family waiting impatiently at the door then back to the intoxicated doctor hanging on to his pale arm. Her eyes were widened and full of emotion-what kind of emotion he could not tell.
"I think I shall stay with Dr. Hoffman, she obviously requests something from me but is too intoxicated to say outright."
Dr. Hoffman did a strange trill purr thing of happiness. She hugged Barnabas's arm. Elizabeth nodded. "Well, if you insist Barnabas. Come on children, we're already late for our reservation!"
David jumped out of the door and Elizabeth followed. Carolyn went out last but she stopped and whirled around, her wavy blonde hair flipping.
"Good luck baby-sitting." She sneered, and then followed, closing the door behind her.
Barnabas stood awkwardly for about three minutes with the drunk psychiatrist hanging on to his arm. She just hung there, leaning entirely against him, staring at his face blankly, with a hint of smile.
The vampire cleared his throat. "Well, doctor? Shall we proceed to your office?"
She nodded, her gaze focused on his dark red eyes, but she didn't move nor let go of his arm. He took a step forward, and then another, and then practically dragged Dr. Hoffman to her office.
Inside her office, he leaned over her chair and let her slide off his arm and she flopped into it. He then sat on the table where he usually sat, and started to hook himself up to the transfusion machine.
She recollected herself and sat up a little taller. "There's no need for that, Barnabas."
The vampire stopped, confused. "What do you mean?"
"We've already done today's transfusions, remember?" Her tone was sarcastic and her speech was slurred. Her eyes would shift from the glazed, unfocused look, to a sharp stare at his face.
"But..." Barnabas was getting a tad irritated. "Madam, please compose yourself so you may answer properly: Why did you so desperately want me to stay?"
She looked deeply into his eyes, and shook her head, her fiery orange hair falling into her face. Barnabas stood and walked over to her, and gently brushed her hair out of her eyes.
Julia shivered at his touch. "You're skin is so cold..."
"I am vampire, Madam. Remember?"
"Yet so warm..." She ignored him and grabbed his hand with both of hers and held it against her cheek. The doctor closed her eyes for a second, and then opened them, whispering "I think I love you."
Barnabas immediately thought of Victoria. Then he awkwardly tried to pull his hand away, but she just clenched tighter. "Madam...you are under the influence of spirits. Perhaps you should prepare yourself for the bedroom and get a good night's sleep, which has always helped in my two hundred years of experience."
Dr. Hoffman batted her long eyelashes. "Sure...perhaps I will prepare myself..for...the bedroom." Smiling, she let go of his hand and reached down towards her floral-patterned blouse and started to unbutton it. However, she was so intoxicated that her fingers fumbled uselessly on the buttons.
Barnabas sat down and patiently watched her, knowing that there was no way she could possibly-
Julia tore her shirt open.
Oh.
She was breathing heavily from the effort, but then lifted her head and stared triumphantly at Barnabas. "My word...there's three of you...how long has that been?"
Barnabas was thinking of how to handle the situation. She seemed like a crouched cat, ready to pounce at any sudden movement.
"Madam..."
She jumped at him and landed on his lap, the force causing the vampire to fall over backwards. Her nails dug into his shoulders as she tried to kiss him, but she missed his face entirely and spluttered into the air, then blinked at him, confused and still very drunk.
Barnabas shoved her off angrily. She let out a squeak and skidded in a sitting position across the waxed floor, eventually slamming back-first into the wall.
Barnabas stood up and glared at her. How pathetic she was, over thirty years old, but with the immaturity and common sense of a teenager! She called herself a doctor, yet she had no sense of responsibility!
Calm yourself, Barnabas. Remember how she is spending some of her precious time, effort, and equipment to make yourself mortal. But still! I ought to straighten her out, this is getting out of hand!
"Look, Doctor...this nonsense has to stop!" He growled sharply.
She looked up at him, startled. Barnabas was surprised to see little tears gathering in the corners of her wide eyes, but he continued on.
"I can't tolerate woman who act sensible in the day and then lose all their morals when night falls! It's simply not proper, in fact it's disgusting to see you consuming heinous amounts of liquor and then throwing yourself on me like some sort of rabbit or tomcat!"
While he said this, she looked up at him, with the sort of expression a child gets when being told off for something they didn't even know was wrong. The expression a homeless man gives you when you walk past them. The look of pure innocence, and sorrow.
She looked down in shame, or was it something else? Tears were beginning to fall, slowly going down her cheek and then dropping, disappearing. She lifted her hands like they were rocks and tried to button her blouse, even though the buttons were ripped out.
Barnabas felt his heart melt. He felt extremely guilty for being so harsh. He knelt down and took her hands in his.
She slowly lifted her head and stared at him in the eye. Her expression was sorrowful and guilty, and even a little fearful. The tears on her face were glistening in the light of the room.
He gently whispered. "Why?"
Without a word, the psychiatrist let go of his hands and crawled closer to him, snuggling up to and pressing her face into his shoulder.
The vampire debated with himself for a few seconds, then rested his cold chin on the top of her head and wrapped her arms around her. She was shaking slightly, and making muffled gulps as she tried to stop herself from crying.
When she did speak, her voice was raspy and laced with tears, shame, and regret. It came out all at once, still a little slurred, but very emotional.
"It's because...well..because..I just am so done right now. With my job. With life. With everything. I just want...I don't really know...I guess I just want a rest. Like, a long rest. I just never get any peace anymore...I mean, everyone is always coming to me with their stupid fucking problems, I'm only here for the kid, but no, Roger won't pay unless I help everyone else, only he just comes to hit on me. David is just...I just can't deal with this family, I can't. They think I'm some great doctor but really, I just don't know how to help...And I need help too...for whenever I get some time to myself I have to torture myself with the wine...it hurts my head and makes me sick! No, not the wine...I make myself sick! I've been no help to David or anyone, I'm a grown woman and I can't take care of myself...and..and.." She hiccupped and lifted her head from Barnabas's shoulder and looked him in the eye. Her own eyes were red from tears and alcohol. They stood out sharply from her pale complexion.
"And I've fallen in love with a vampire I've only just met."
Barnabas was stunned by the outburst. But the last sentence shocked him the most. Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and she pressed her face on his shoulder again. Something in the vampire stirred. He held her closer, hugged her tighter.
Do I love her? Do I even like her? She's interesting, clever, and...attractive, of course. Barnabas thought again of Victoria...and Josette. What about them?
Barnabas knew it was very improper to compare two women, but he found himself doing so with Julia and Victoria.
Victoria was gentle, sweet, and very kind. Everything Josette was-they even looked alike, sounded alike, it was a little creepy. Barnabas had been lost in the shadows for two hundred years, and they shy governess had brought him back into the light (or, at least the moonlight).
Julia, on the other hand, was everything Victoria wasn't. Brash, funny, adventurous, irritating, sarcastic...but there was quite the vulnerable side to her. It certainly wasn't innocence, but it was a sort of sadness on the doctor's shoulders, on how she tried to help everyone but she couldn't help herself.
The vampire looked down at the doctor, who almost seemed to be asleep in his arms with her head on his shoulder, curled into a ball on his lap. He had a perfect view of her fiery coloured hair.
Her hair, the bright waves with the subtler streaks had a hypnotic effect on him. It was almost as if her heat was scorching through his skin, infecting his blood and settling in his heart. Her heat mixed with her hair colour triggered some sort of revelation, a revelation with fire...
Collinwood was burning. Not in some ordinary kitchen fire. A huge inferno that was no accident. It was consuming the whole mansion, destroying everything Barnabas had ever knew, everything the Collins family had ever known was dying in the clutches of the red, raging waves of heat.
Not only that, the Collinsport official building for the fishing business was burning, nearly done actually, all that was left was ashes, a whole sky full of smoke, and of course tongues of red-pink flame jeering at the Collinses.
His family was left homeless, jobless, with the whole town never wanting to see their faces again. The whole town convinced that Barnabas was a murderer. And let's not forget the intense house fire had burned all the artefacts that might've been used to get them some more money. What Barnabas had loved most, his family, were on a path with no predictable end.
But where was Doctor Hoffman?
Barnabas found himself racing towards Widow's Hill, and saw Victoria on the end. He felt his heart jolt with fear for her.
But she was gone. He was too slow.
There was another there, waiting for him. Dressed in black, revealing a lot of skin.
He slammed right into her, but she held her ground and didn't move an inch. They stared at each other...and she slowly smiled, her smile full of malice and her eyes full of ice.
"Your sweet little Vicky is gone" She whispered triumphantly, savouring the expression on his face. "Now you only have me!"
"Angelique.." He croaked. His non-vision self was wondering were Dr. Hoffman was, she wasn't huddled with the rest of his family.
The reality Barnabas forced his way into the mind of vision Barnabas.
"Where is the doctor?"
Angelique looked surprised. "Don't you know?"
The vision was fading...Angelique's flawless complexion was starting to morph and fade, her eyes and grin still piercing him.
"Your poor little Julia is like a little fire...And I choose to fight fire with water!"
Barnabas let out a little yelp and his body shuddered. He never had a vision before, not even a dream this detailed.
Dr. Hoffman woke up with a start. She looked dazed, and then looked at her clock. "Ish...only five minutes have passed." Her throat was still tight from tears, and she let out a little whimper and closed her eyes again.
Hard as it was, Barnabas pushed the vision to the back of his mind and focused back on Julia. "Madam, I am greatly flattered to know that you posses such feelings for me. I must say, you are an interesting character and a great friend, I cannot say I express the same for you. However, you must know that even though you feel as though you are worthless, that is far from the truth! I cannot speak for the others, but you are a great help to me with your knowledge, and your transfusions you give me, and your determined spirit."
Julia at first had the most dejected look you would ever see, but then it changed to a look of nervousness. "I...uh...about the transfusions...I'm not exactly helping in that either...you see..uh"
Barnabas felt something in him melt. She lay curled up in his lap, fumbling, looking like she was about to cry again. Barnabas realised, it must be tough for her, having to deal with everyone's problems, not getting anything back but money in return, feeling like no one actually cared for her, and then having to turn to a beverage for support. He admitted, to himself, that perhaps he did have a soft spot for her. True, she was frustrating, but no one else truly frustrated him as much as her. She attracted him, irritated him, made him laugh, fascinated him.
Maybe, just this once, it wouldn't hurt to give her a little gift, to make her feel better.
He shifted his weight again. Dr. Hoffman lifted up her head and looked at him, still with that ashamed expression.
He leaned in and kissed her, not long, but certainly not quickly. Just enough to let her know that he cared for her, he was there for her, and he forgave her.
At first, the woman was startled, but then she kissed back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, and they sat there, holding their stance. Barnabas was about to pull away, but then thought, why? It's making her feel happy, and as for me, well... Something inside the vampire was stirring, perhaps it was the warmth of her lips, perhaps it was the way she clung to him like he was life, perhaps, maybe, just maybe, he did love her with a special and wonderful kind of love.
As for the vision, well, that had to be caused by something. Indeed it was caused by something-something trying to warn him, to threaten him...
That something just so happened to be looking in through the office window, her gaze resting on the pair, still kissing. Barnabas was relaxing and had stopped trying to pull away long ago. Julia was starting to use more force.
Angelique could tell. She was staring at Barnabas without blinking, as her nails scored deep scars in the stone and her face started to crack with sheer rage.
