I do not own Hellsing.
This story isn't really plot based, I wrote it for fun even though it isn't really very funny.
It was break time and Heinkel was crying as she usually did by this point of the day. She had bruises and her ears burned from the insults.
"Freak!" a boy called Gary sneered as he pushed her into the mud. It was autumn and the tree's out behind the Orphanage were a tapestry of colours. Unfortunately such beauty also served to hide a good deal of bullying at this time of year and Heinkel wished it were winter instead.
Gary was a new boy here; being two years older than her and with two more years more growth in his height and strength over her he found her an easier target to pick on than people of his own age.
Unfortunately he didn't have to because other boys and girls of his age were quite happy to join in with the bullying when it her being victimised and so Gary had made himself popular by being the one who took it too far.
Some of the ones who joined in had grown up with her, they knew she was different, they knew the names hurt her feelings and they knew that she would take offence and try and defend herself.
This treatment had become almost unbearable of late, the name calling and the verbal abuse had been the norm before now but with the arrival of Gary it had become physical bullying that Heinkel now had to endure.
"Ah!" she groaned and rubbed her chest with a whimper "Gary, leave me alone! Just go away you bully!"
"Sorry, I don't listen to she-males!" the other boy mocked her mercilessly and pushed her face in the mud as she tried to roll over and get up.
"Ahh-! Ah-hah!" Heinkel had scraped her face on a rock when he'd done that and it hurt. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she tried to wipe the mud from her face, she'd lost her glasses now but that didn't matter at this point because right now she was too blinded by tears and anger to see straight anyway.
Gary was now surrounded by some of the older kids who were coming to watch the fun.
"God doesn't love freaks, and that's what this is – it's a freak! She's a monster - and Father Anderson says that it's only monsters and heretics that Catholics should get rowdy with!" Gary gloated.
Caught up in his little moment of glory the boy failed to see a looming shadow fast approaching and accompanied by one of the younger girls.
"So what do we do with the freak?" Gary asked the others "Do we burn her? Or maybe we should stone her!" a glint appeared in his eye as noted the rock in the mud that Heinkel had caught herself on earlier.
"Yeah - stone the witch!" a girl called Abbey crowed.
"Yeah!" Gary leaned down and went to pick it up.
"Whit's goin' on here!" Anderson roared.
The group jumped and Gary's eyes went wide as he turned and looked up… and up… and up into the furious glare of Father Anderson looking as angry as they'd ever seen him.
"Ah asked ye' a question Gary Paxton!" he growled.
"Um…" the boy looked around at his associates for some kind of help, but found they were quickly trying to become invisible before the carer of St Ferdinand Luke's Orphanage. The massive Scotsman glared at the rest of them
"You lot – get into a line. Now!" he barked at them. Obedient as sheep they hurried to form a line behind Heinkel who lay in the mud, as nervous as all of them before Anderson's ire. She had never seen her kindly Father look so furious before and it turned her bowels to water.
But Anderson was focussing all of it on Gary who was now going white faced before the scarred man who towered over him like a giant that eats small children in the stories.
"So! Nothin' tae say lad? Nae explanation fer me? Ye want me tae guess!" he growled.
"It… it was just a game! I was only p-playing around-!" Gary started.
"DON'T YE LIE TAE ME, YE LITTLE GET!" Anderson roared and Gary flinched and whimpered, his legs trembling.
Anderson stalked and circled him like a wolf, his hands behind his back "Yer a wee lair Gary!" he sneered at the teenager "'Oh we're jus' playin' around wi' wee Heinkel Father'" he mocked "'Oh, we're jist a playin' a wee game Father.' Ye've been here what, two or three weeks?"
The boy nodded, unable to talk for his fear of the man.
""Weel I didnae like t' sound o' yer games when your last orphanage telt me ye' played rough, an noo ah see whit yer 'games' are ah like them even less! Ye like tae play games eh? - say 'Yes Father' when I talk t' ye boy!"
"Yes Father!" the boy whispered hoarsely.
"Ye like tae play t' bullyin' games, don't ye!" Anderson accused him "Weel it jist sae happens tha' so dae ah!" in a second he'd grabbed the boy and lifted him effortlessly off the floor till he was only inches from his furious stubbled and scarred face "Ah love tae play t' bullyin' game me! I love it where I git tae pick on people smaller 'n me! Ah love makin' weak little children cry – perhap's ah shuild mak' ye cry a bit, eh?!" spittle flecked the boys face as Anderson shook him roughly to illustrate his point.
"No father! PLEASE no!" the boy was sobbing now and he'd wet himself. Heinkel couldn't blame him, as she stared slack jawed and amazed at the man virtually shaking the boy in his grasp.
"BEG ME NO' TO!" Anderson roared.
"P- PLEASE! Please…! D-don't…! h…hurt… me-e-eee…!" Gary whimpered desperately in between sobs, he was almost hysterical now and he couldn't look at the other man for his crying.
Anderson's nostrils flared as he took a massive calming breath and then he dropped the boy none to kindly into the dirt where he curled up into a ball and shivered.
He pointed down at the child like the avenging angel and said in a low threatening voice, "He has made a pit an' digged it, an' is fallen intae thae pit which he made! His mischief shall return upon his own head, an' his violent dealin' shall come down upon his own pate! God judges the righteous, an' God is angry wi' the wicked every day! " Anderson quoted the psalm with deliberate vindictiveness to put as much fear of God in the small child as he could
"You, Gary Paxton, will no' be eatin' wi' us tonight. Ye shall go tae yer room and stay there, ye will pray fer God's forgiveness and for his mercy, an' you will pray hard lad; cause If ah ever catch ye doin' anythin' like this ever again ye'll see neither fra' me! Noo get out o' my sight!"
Gary ran and as he turned away from the retreating boy Anderson seemed to shrink somewhat as his anger drained from him, he turned and scowled at the others and especially Abbey "Le' that be a lesson tae all o' ye! Gin' tae yer dorm's whilst I think aboot wha' tae do wi' ye – an' shame on all o' ye'! Tae think tha' ah had tae come oot here tae stop this when ye were all stood here!"
As the other children left Anderson leaned down and picked Heinkel up, the girl whimpered an he hushed her "Dinnae worry lass, ah'll no' hurt ye. Ah'm jist gonnae take yer in tae get ye clean up. "
Heinkel didn't get her glasses and she mentioned them to him as he carried her indoors to one of the other carers.
"She wis gettin' picked on. Ah need tae go find her glasses, wid ye mind seein' she's alright an' then sendin' her tae my office?" he asked.
"Of course Father." The other man replied.
When Heinkel had scrubbed the dirt off herself and the scratch on her head had been disinfected and cleaned she headed up to Anderson's office, a humble room on the bottom floor of the Orphanage.
As she entered the tall man was fixing her glasses with a screwdriver and a pair of grips.
"Yer fortunate tha' they're well made." He told her as he popped them on her face "The lenses seem okay, but they were a wee bit bent. Is tha' okay? No' too tight?"
"No Father." She replied softly.
"Guid." He put the equipment back in his drawer and leaned back in his chair with a sigh "There's always wan bad sheep in t' flock…" he grumbled "I wis hopin' tha' he might settle doon, but…"
He seemed to recall he'd asked her in and he got down to business quckly.
"Why were they pickin' on ye' lass?" he asked her.
Heinkel shook her head "Don't know…" she mumbled.
Anderson gave her a look "Did ye no' learn tha' I kin' tell when small children are lyin'?" he asked her.
She swallowed nervously "They… they pick on me because I've got…" her lip trembled "got… both things down there…" her face crumpled as she started to cry.
Anderson was around to her side in an instant "Hey noo', whit's a' these tears aboot?" he asked her softly.
"I… I don't like being who I am Father! No one likes me for who I am! They think I'm a freak and call me names!" she sobbed.
Anderson was not a mean man, he pulled out a handkerchief and offered it to her "Heinkel Wolfe" he said gently "Ah want tae help ye lass, but ah cannae understand ye when ye' greetin' like tha', sae dry yer eyes an' take a few deep breaths lass."
Heinkel did as she was advised and Anderson waited for her to settle down.
"I've got a boy thing and a girl thing down there." She admitted in a small voice.
"Ah ken tha' lass."
Heinkel's eyes went wide "You know?" she gasped.
"O' course! How cuild ye think ah' dinnea?"
"I – I just…" Heinkel felt foolish; he was the man who'd brought her here when she was little, to think that he wouldn't know did seem silly to her now that she thought about it.
"An' fer this they were pickin' on ye?" he asked her.
She nodded.
"Ah see." He sounded sad at that, perhaps she was not the only one who had overlooked what should have been apparent.
"Father?" she asked him.
He looked at her and she mustered up the courage to ask.
"Do you think I'm a freak?"
Anderson seemed shocked that she'd asked "Sweet Mary-! No Heinkel! No ah do not! The Lord makes us who we are Heinkel. He made ye so, an' far be if from me tae question Him!"
She looked up at him with teary eyes and asked "But why do I have both sets Father? Did I do something wrong? Am I being punished?" her lip trembled and she shed some more tears, but Anderson shushed her now and wiped her tears away with his large thick thumbs
"Now, now." He rebuked her "Nae more tear's lass, getting' all upset about yerself will nae help ye tae solve anything'."
Heinkel rubbed her eyes and looked up at him, and the large man rubbed his stubbled jaw with a hand and smiled fondly at her "Heinkel Wolfe, yer the daftest lass ah ever laid eyes on! T' Lord dinnae give ye both sets as a punishment lass, in fact - I think that maybe he was blessin' ye when ye were conceived!"
"How Father?" she asked him hopeful that he might have some answer for her.
"Dae ye remember Genesis, tha' first story o' thae Bible which ah read tae all o' ye when ye were wee an' first came here?"
She nodded dutifully, remembering that Father Anderson had always been sure to read to the new arrivals from the Bible so that they would understand and take comfort in the fact that there was a Holy Father that loved them so dearly as His own children since they had no parents to otherwise show them such love and comfort.
"Ye know that t' Lord is wise, wiser so than any man." Anderson told her "An' ye know he made Adam, thae first o' Man, in His own image. Boot can ye tell me how me made Eve Heinkel? Dae ye recall?"
Heinkel thought about it and she replied "From Adam?"
"Aye, precisely so. T'was from Adam tha' God made Eve by using part o' Adams flesh tae do sae. So it sounds tae me that in order tae make a woman, first ye must have tae have some part o' man in us when we are born. Whit dae ye think Heinkel? Does tha' sound right?"
"I.. I suppose so…" she agreed as she tried to see what Father Anderson meant by his words, but when it dawned on her she was shocked "But – But God hasn't made me right! I'm not like other girls! He's-"
"Hush child!" Anderson scolded her and covered her mouth "I will no' hear tha' sort o' talk! God made ye jist as He saw fit an' here ye are saying he made a mistake! Noo take back tha' blasphemous comment!"
Heinkel swallowed and apologised instantly "I'm sorry Father!"
"Guid and rightly so. Noo listen tae me, ye are blessed Heinkel Wolfe. Ye are God's work given form, an' a reminder tae us tha' God made Woman oot o' Man. T' parts of ye' which confuse others" he indicated to her genitals "Are simply evidence o' the man that ye are as much as t' woman ye were born as."
"I'm a man and a woman?" Heinkel was confused but strangely comforted by the notion, if she was both then…
"Does this mean I'll be able to do boy things as well as girl things?" she asked.
Anderson smiled "Noo dae ye see why I called it a blessing lass? Ye life will be strange Heinkel I won't lie, and it will be hard fer ye as ye git aulder, but it will get better too. There's no' many like ye' aroond tha' ah've met, but ye will always ha' more choices open tae ye than most o' us get being born as only one thing."
Heinkel nodded and Anderson ruffled her hair and left her to dwell on the many blessings that the Lord had presented her with.
R&R
I want no flames saying 'Heinkel's a boy' Kohta Hirano has stated before now that Heinkel 'is genderless' which leaves everyone entitled to think what they want of the character.
