Thanks for the review/PM maroongrad. ^ ^ I hope you feel better soon! I was gunna go to bed but I decided to put this up for you first. Hope you like it! *hugglez*

The music flowed through the air, a cheerful backdrop for the scene that was hell in her eyes. Many couples danced across the floor, laughing, drinking, flirting.

It was a nightmare.

Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. Everyone knew her name at the party and many were too afraid to approach her. They had heard of her cold attitude and that she was as hard as nails. When they made eye contact with her, they felt themselves shiver at the icy look her blue eyes constantly held.

Yes, many were too afraid to approach her. But some had other ideas.

"Miss Hellsing. How lovely it is to meet you." A man said, walking up and holding out his hand, obviously expecting her to give her hand for him to kiss. She grasped it hard and shook it twice before letting go. The man flexed his fingers with a wince; she had quite a hard grip. "Would you be so kind as to give me the honour of a dance?"

"I don't dance."

"Couldn't you make an exception this one time?"

"No." The man sighed in disappointment before nodding and walking away. She glowered after him. He was the son of one of the members of the round table; obviously they were trying to gain some power over her. They had never approved of a woman running an organisation and they obviously didn't want her to be part of the round table.

She didn't care, it was her job and she enjoyed it, she didn't care what those stuffy, strict old men said about her when sat around that table. She could care less. They didn't matter, she had saved their lives on a number of occasions and if they didn't appreciate that, then so be it.

The party finally ended and she internally sighed in relief, getting into the car and yanking off her heels. She didn't wear them often, but when she did; her feet often absolutely killed her afterwards.

"How did it go Sir Integra?" Walter asked, pulling away from the pavement.

"The usual." She sighed. She didn't even see what the point was. But the queen was adamant that she supplied an heir for Hellsing and was sending her to these parties in the hope that she would meet someone that appealed to her.

Yeah, in her dreams.

All she saw in the men were slimy bastards who only wanted her for their desires. They wouldn't love her, they just wanted to try and tame the tigress. 'Let them try.' She thought angrily.

They arrived at the manor and she dropped the heels by the car, walking towards the manor bare footed.

"What shall I do with these Sir Integra?" Walter called after her.

"Burn them. I don't care." She said venomously, stepping inside and walking to her bedroom. She pulled the pins out of her hair and sighed in relief as the painful pulling they created vanished and her blonde mane fell down her back to her waist like a waterfall.

She pulled the zip on the back of her evening gown down and grabbed a pair of her green silk pyjamas and putting them on. She rubbed her eyes and looked out of the window, frowning.

She didn't want to marry, or have a child anytime soon, but she couldn't ignore the queen's request. She just couldn't, think of anyone she would like. All the men she saw, she just saw their desire. She had yet to come across a man that actually liked her for what she was and didn't want to try and tame her and make her the 'good little housewife' that they wanted that catered to their every need.

She glared out the window at the moon and went to bed. She wouldn't even end up as the weak, tame housewife. Not as long as she had her free will.

Alucard sat up in his coffin and yawned quietly, showing his white fangs before his lips pulled back over them and hid them from sight. He rubbed his neck and grimaced at the tense muscles. He was never relaxed anymore. He didn't know when a mission was going to happen and he would have to fight, or Sir Integra would suddenly get annoyed with him, or Seras would start irritating him.

He missed the days when he didn't have to be constantly on guard. But that was before he met the Hellsings. He sighed heavily and climbed out of his coffin, stretching his arms and listening to the cracks his joints made as they loosened from their stiff position.

He noticed with some surprise, that he had slept through an entire day. Then he remembered that there hadn't been any missions that night and Integra had gone to another one of those 'matchmaking' parties. He chuckled darkly at the thought of his master all dolled up and glaring at any man who tried to approach her, looking like she was about to grab one of her heels and start using it as a lethal weapon.

He shook his head to wake himself up as Integra summoned him and phased through the wall, making his way up to her office. He walked in, his signature smirk on his face and approached her desk.

"Yes, my master?"

"If I don't have a child, you won't have a master when I die. What would happen?" Alucard froze at the unexpected question. He tried his best to act innocent and answer her question at the same time.

"Nothing master."

"Alucard, I know when you're lying, tell me the truth." He paused before sighing in defeat.

"I would be free but my mind...would start to deteriorate over time until...I lost my sanity completely." There was silence as Integra stared at her vampire servant with cold blue eyes. She had a lot to think about.

"There's a mission for you and Seras a few miles out. Go and take care of it."

"Yes master." He said quietly, fading into the shadows.

Integra sighed and leant back in her chair, closing her eyes and rubbing the side of her face. She didn't want to marry of have a child at the young age she was at now, but could she really do that to Alucard? Could she really be the reason for the complete loss of his sanity just because of her own selfish wishes?

She worked for a few hours, getting distracted from time to time as she thought about what to do. She was become increasingly frustrated with herself as she took twice as long as usual to fill out reports. She jumped as her bond with Alucard flared to life and flinched as something came through.

Pain.

It was a strong wave of pain that had slammed through into her mind. She froze. What could have possibly hurt him like that? She waited for another hour, panic starting form and rise as the soldiers failed to return quickly. She practically ran to the window when she heard the sound of engines and then ran downstairs when she saw that it was the armoured vehicles that had arrived.

She composed herself as she came into the soldier's line of sight and it took all of her will not to sprint forward and check on her vampire. She had never panicked about him like this before, ever. Pip stepped out of the back of the van and his unpatched eye widened as he saw her.

"Where's Alucard?" She said calmly, fixing her icy blue gaze on him. He looked behind him and then motioned for her to step forward. She held back a gasp as she saw the Hellsing trump card.

His red trench coat, cravat, hat, glasses and vest were missing, leaving him in his white shirt. Or what had been a white shirt. Blood soaked a large space of the shirt, thickest around several bullet holes, and a puddle had formed underneath him, growing steadily.

"What happened to him?" Pip's eyes narrowed a little in curiosity when he heard a slight quiver in her voice, but he didn't comment.

"The ghouls were armed with silver bullets. They were about to shoot Seraz but he jumped in front of the bullet's path." Integra felt a strange wave of jealously stab through her at the mention of the blonde fledgeling, but she quickly crushed it. Since when had she been jealous of the other vampire?

"He's been unconscious ever since. I think he's gone into a kind of healing sleep, to conserve energy." Integra stayed quiet as she stared down at her always faithful servant. He had gotten himself injured on a mission she sent him on. It was his fault for jumping in front of the bullets, but she had sent him on the mission. She sighed guiltily and turned away.

"Just take him to his coffin, he should be fine."

She sighed and put down the last report of the night. She had finally finished her work, thank God. She spun slightly in her chair, moving it with her foot as she thought about Alucard. Maybe she should go and see him.

Yes.

She got up and headed for the stairs that led to the lower levels of the mansion and shivered at the colder air that filled the basement. She didn't know how

Alucard could stand to live down here. It was bloody lethal. Dark, damp, cold.
She walked down the hallway, thinking about the first time she had come down these corridors, looking for a knight in shining silver armour and had instead found a starved vampire, tied up in a dungeon.

What she wouldn't do for that knight now.

She pushed open the door and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting before stepping inside the room and heading over to the coffin. The lid was down and the room was silent apart from her own breathing. She gently grabbed the side of the coffin lid and lifted it cautiously, looking inside.

Alucard was lying on his side in the coffin, still in his blood soaked shirt. He looked...dead. That was the only was to describe it. She scowled and lifted him up, doing her best not to wake him. They just dumped him in the coffin, the idiots.

She sat him up, leaning him against the ajar coffin lid and carefully unbuttoned the white shirt. She pulled it open and slid it down his shoulders, wincing as she saw the bullet wounds. They were still open and steadily leaking blood, making thin red rivers down his chest. The skin around them was red from the impact, singed from the blessed silver of the bullets and there were some bruises forming around them.

She pulled the shirt down his arms and completely off before using a clean part of the shirt to dab at the wounds, cleaning away some of the blood. She apologized quietly when Alucard winced and hissed in discomfort as his wounds were prodded.

Integra stroked his hair gently, breathing in his smell. He had that 'been in the back of the closet for a few years' smell. She smiled fondly, she loved the smell. It was just so...Alucard.

She looked around the room and found a clean shirt and a blanket. She bit her lip and ripped the shirt into strips, feeling guilty for destroying his things, but feeling that it was necessary. She tied the strips tightly around his chest, covering the wounds and then lay him back down, pulling the blanket over him and smiling again, leaning on the coffin edge. She reached down and affectionately flicked some strands of midnight black hair out of his eyes and pressed a light kiss to his forehead.

"Good night Alucard. My servant."

She spent the rest of the night in the basement, wrapped in a blanket, refusing to move. Walter brought her food a few times and kept her supplied with tea and more blankets and some pillows to keep herself warm.

Two whole days later, Alucard finally awoke, completely healed. He looked around for a moment, dazed, before looking at her. "Hello master. Is there any reason why you're having a sleepover on my floor?"

She glowered at him and sat up, cleaning her glasses on the edge of her suit jacket. "Well since you decided to get yourself shot and go into a healing coma, I had to make sure you were alright didn't I?"

He didn't answer, merely staring at her with those stunning red eyes. She coughed, embarrassed as she realised that she was staring. "Well, you're fine now, I think I should go."

She collected her things and left the room, missing the pained look on her vampire's face as she left.

Alucard sighed as his master left the room; he untied the makeshift bandages from around his chest and grimaced as he saw the deep black, blue and purple bruises marking his chest. 'The police girl had better be grateful.' He snarled internally.

He sighed as he thought of Integra again. He had been listening to her thoughts and she frequently thought about getting married and supplying an heir like the queen wanted her to. She knew that she wouldn't be happy with any of the men she had met at the parties, but she didn't want the Hellsing family to die out anytime soon.

He frowned as he looked into her thoughts and saw the men that had been at the parties. Greasy, slimy men that only wanted her to satiate their desires. He growled at the thought of anyone using his master and treating her like anything but the powerful individual that she was.

She deserved better. Much better.

He vaguely remembered Integra's emotions when he had told her that he would lose his sanity without another master. Sadness, despair, guilt, they had all run through her before she had slipped the mask back on, probably realising that he could feel her emotions just as strongly as she could and didn't want to seem weak in front of him.

She would never be weak in his eyes.

Ever since he had met her in the exact dungeon he was in now, using as his personal room in the manor, he had a strong sense of respect for her. She had been so strong despite the fear that her uncle was attempting to drill into her and had faced him with the cold and icy look that she always wore now. Every father's dream, a daughter as cool as ice, packing a hand gun and a vampire bodyguard.

He chuckled darkly, leaning his head on his hand.

She had grown from a little girl who had just lost her father and had a great responsibility and an extra vampire package thrust upon her, into the strong, responsible woman they all knew now. She had turned from a weak little kitten, into a great white tigress.

His visits to her, annoying her day after day, were just for fun, to have at least some excuse to speak with her. He didn't feel right walking in there to just...talk with her. It didn't feel right. He knew his place. She was the master and he was the servant. She was a higher status that him and there was nothing he could do to chance that.

He was lower down than Seras even. She had a higher status because she chose to be part of the organisation. He didn't, he was bound to the family and made to follow their every order, no matter how bizarre. He knew that the bond was something strange. It bound him to the family and made him loyal to him even if they hurt him. Abraham had exploited this gleefully and had frequently abused him, nearly to the point of a bloody mess, and then watched, smirking as he crawled in front of him, the bond making him do so. Making him want to please his master even after the brutal beating.

But Integra wasn't like that. She didn't see the appeal in torture at all unless it was needed. She understood torture for vampires who killed for fun and completely understood why he had snapped when confronting a vampire that had captured small children and put them through a series of filthy and degrading acts. She knew of his past and said nothing when he came back from the mission, fuming and covered in the blood of the enemy vampire.

She hadn't punished him even when the soldiers had spoken to her, still quivering in fear after witnessing the shocking display of rage. She sat perfectly calm as they described him ripping the vampire apart slowly, tearing off his limbs so he couldn't run and breaking his bones, making him scream in pain as he was slowly killed and then left him to bleed out of the forest floor.

She had sent the soldiers away, promising that it was unlikely that it would ever happen again, and that she would speak to him if it ever did occur in the battlefield again, and had left it at that without another word. They never mentioned it again despite their memoires of the incident and got on with their lives, not dwelling on the past even though the Hellsing recruits still had nightmares about the show of violence a few times.

He wouldn't want to change anything now anyway. Life before had been thrilling but frightening. Always having to make decisions for himself, and never knowing whether they were going to end in disaster or victory. Unfortunately for him, due to his apparent lack of luck, they often ended in chaos and disaster.

He preferred being the servant. It was a comfortable position. He had a place to live, a job he liked doing and plenty of blood.

Speaking of blood...

Integra yawned and stretched, getting out of bed and putting on her glasses. She headed towards the bathroom and took a quick shower before getting dressed in her usual attire. She looked up at the evening sky and rolled her eyes. She practically slept like her vampires now, staying awake during the night and sleeping in the day because the missions were usually in the evening because of the vampires' low tolerance for sunlight apart from a few strange cases.
Light Alucard.

She shook her head and walked over to her desk. The vampire had been taking over her mind since he had gotten injured. There wasn't a moment in the day that she didn't think about him. Think about his dazzling red eyes, his silky midnight black hair, and his pale white skin that glowed in the moonlight.

She furiously shook the thought out of her head and started work. It wasn't good for her to be thinking like that. She was mortal and he was immortal. She was human and he was a vampire. She was the master and he was the servant.

She just had to keep that in mind.