Holy mother of hamster balls! I think this is the fastest I've ever written a chapter. Don't get used to it. Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier, all of the things I mention about my family are most likely made up, or exaggerated to make them seem more exciting. Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter four: Issues Much
One week later, 9:17 a.m.…..
She could see every movement it made, the hair on its' body shifting with intent. Lina sat still, almost paralyzed with fear as the beady eyes bored into hers. Her body tensing and scooting farther back on the hospital bed as the beast stalked closer. Frantically she looked over at Seth from the corner of her eyes, not daring to loose complete contact with her foe. Its' fangs glistened in the fluorescent light, and it hit her as it crept closer and closer. She would have to save herself. 'I can't do this….it's too much…someone please…Save me!' Clamping her eyelids shut, her voice shattered the calm of the hospital, and her body jerked out of the bed, ripping the IV out and flattening her body against the opposite wall.
Sir Integra and Walter had come to check on Mr. Cargie and Miss Khayam, coming down the hallway when an ear piercing scream rent the respectful silence. The two quickly covered the short space and burst through the room, Walter in front with his wires. When he saw no obvious threat he looked over to where Lina was pushed against the wall shivering in fright and her eyes darting between him, Integra, and Seth. Seth had jerked up when Lina had screamed, his heart rate elevated to dangerous levels for his condition and looking around frantically as he panted for breath.
"What is it?! Is that Thing back!?" One of the nurses pushed her way through and went about stabilizing Seth's heart rate and watching for arrhythmia or cardiac arrest. Alarms and doctors paging where sounding out over the P.D.A. system for what sounded like every floor in the hospital. Integra cursed under her breath and glared at Lina.
"Walter, watch her till I get back. I need to see about getting her discharged from the hospital…" Ice blue eyes looked out into the hallway where the sound of heart monitors and groans sounded out from the other patients, "…immediately." Walter nodded, bowing as Integra left, the nurse leaving the room to help the other nurses. Seth had lain back down, waiting for Lina to explain what her episode had been about. She was still pressed to the wall, her breathing slowly coming back down as the dazed look in her eyes faded. Lina noticed both Walter and Seth staring at her, waiting and swallowed the lump in her throat.
"I'm…sorry. I'm too weak… I'm so sorry Seth." While she spoke, she slid down the wall, sitting there with her eyes closed. Lina's hands clenched her ankles. Seth huffed as he rolled onto his other side, in exhaustion from the painkillers and his own desire to forget why he was there to being with. Walter carefully strode over before crouching next to her. Tapping her shoulder and giving her a warm smile when she looked up at him with glossy eyes.
"Would you care to take break on the roof Miss Khayam, perhaps the fresh air will help." His voice was kind but left no room for argument and she nodded, standing up and grabbing her coat as she followed Walter to the stairwell and up to the gravely roof top. The two stood there silently, Walter watching her carefully as gusts of a soon to be summer storm blew across the roof. She moved to the edge, looking over and staring at the ground below. "You must be happy about being discharged today." He asked, trying to provoke a conversation from her.
"Yeah…I guess so…I just feel so guilty about leaving Seth here. I should be the one that is stuck here for another two weeks…not him." She sighed, turning to look at Walter. "I don't know why I freaked out like that…I know that I was safe in the room. Must be some form of ptsd.". Walter gave her a smile putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry Miss, being out in the real world will help you get back on your feet." Lina looked up and him and quirked an eyebrow, smirking in a way that made Walter feel that he had seen that look before, only in a very different context. He brushed it off as a trick of the mind. "Have you spoken with your family since you were admitted?" She rolled her eyes and he felt the waves of her exasperation.
"They refused to let me sleep for the first two days, and I had to threaten my parents to keep them from hopping on a plane to see me. I know I'm all they got, being the only child and the only one on this branch of the family tree that is old enough to be in college. But still…."
"Why didn't you want your family to come see you? Didn't you want their support?" Walter was puzzled; most victims of any attack were practically begging to be sent home. Lina shook her head, rubbing her arms as a gust brought a strange chill over the roof.
"Of course I wanted to see my family, I love all of them. I just have this bad feeling. I want them to stay as far from me as possible." She looked away from Walter and over to where the door opened, Integra coming into sight. "Your boss is here." Walter stood back up and gave Integra a small bow.
"Is everything in order Miss Wingates?" Integra nodded, glaring at Lina who was standing up and walking over to them.
"Indeed Walter, Miss Khayam is officially discharged and free to go where she wants." The unsaid part of the sentence being that she would be followed at all times. Lina sighing as she got the point of it. "Go collect your belongings and meet Walter in the lobby. He will drive you to where you need to go." Integra said it so curtly that Lina had to stop herself from wincing.
"Okay….I'll be waiting downstairs I guess." With that she dashed off the roof, leaving Integra and Walter alone.
"How will you be getting back to headquarters Sir Integra?" She smiled at Walter and lit her cigar, sighing as she got her nicotine fix.
"I will be going with a second vehicle to Carfax, Alucard has to answer for the man he put in the critical care ward last week." Walter gave her a small grin, his eyes glinting with amusement.
"Have fun with that Sir Integra."
"Your boss hates me." The comment made Walter look into the rear view mirror, being careful to keep the road and other cars in mind as they went down London streets.
"Miss Wingates doesn't hate you. Whatever gave you that idea?" Lina rolled her eyes from the back seat, her bag in the seat next to her.
"I just got that vibe from her…the way she looked at me was like…like…like I was a pimple on her wedding day or something." Walter couldn't stop his chuckle, smiling at her through the rear view mirror.
"It's not you; it's the stress of having to do her job." Leaning forward she looked down as the belt jammed, sitting back and trying to loosen the belt only to have it tighten with her struggle.
"Great, no matter what country I am in someone has to make me their punching bag." She took off the belt and let it reset as Walter took a left, slowly making their way to the nightclub her friends owned.
"What do you mean by that Miss Khayam? If you don't mind the inquiry."
"Back home, if the family member I was with had a bad day they would take it out on me. Yelling, screaming, threats to disown me, or my personal favorite, just bitching nonstop for three days straight." Walter was amused by the sarcastic way she stated her claims.
"Surely you are exaggerating." She looked out the window, putting on her sunglasses and crossed her arms. He pulled over in front of a plain looking building, the windows were blacked out, and the neon signs were turned off. Lina looked at it and texted Matt to let him know she was here.
"No I'm not Walter. They aren't horrible, but they aren't perfect. Love in my family comes with strings attached, except from mom and dad." With that she undid her seat belt, scooped up her bag and got out of the car. "Thanks for the ride Walter, I know you guys will be watching, have a nice day." With that obviously faked cheer she waved and went through the door.
11:15 a.m….
Integra wished that looks could kill; it would make her life so much easier when it came to dealing with Alucard, may not be so good an idea for her human work staff through. She didn't touch the tea tray as he sat across the table from her, the crows in his semi-dead foliage cawing every so often. He wasn't wearing his hat or coat, just the black suit that was underneath; his hair brushed back and shoulder length. She had half hoped that the sun would make his skin melt, but she knew that he was immune to that rule of vampirism.
"Integra, please do excuse the state of the yard, I simply haven't had the time to hire a groundskeeper, nor a contractor to help me fully restore the building to truly livable standards. Oh, and do help yourself to the tea, wouldn't want you to feel unwelcome in my home." She eyed him suspiciously as he poured the tea into her cup. She sipped it hesitantly, when it hit her tongue she nearly choked, the flavor foreign to her and much stronger then she was used to.
"I hope you don't mind that the tea is from the Middle East. I'll make a note to keep some of your favorite in the pantry if you plan on visiting often. But a hint on proper manners, call ahead of your arrival so your host has time to prepare properly." Oh how she wanted to leap across the table and strangle him. There they sat, out in the garden with two cups of tea and a tray as polite society demanded filled with milk, honey, sugar and everything else that was associated with tea time, and she was the only one partaking.
"Look Alucard, I didn't come to make pretend like we are friendly acquaintances, I came here to discuss the incident last week. It was unprovoked and comes very close to breaking the terms of the contract you signed." He arched an eyebrow and leaned in, a small amount of danger in his voice.
"I understand the terms of my contract Integra, but you and I both know the man is a confirmed thief. Should I remind you that in section 4, paragraph 3, it clearly states that any person that is a confirmed threat to society and ruled to be legally sane is a valid source of prey." His eyes started to glow red.
"What if he had been innocent?" He paused for a moment, and then closed his eyes while leaning back comfortably in his chair. When he opened his eyes again they were back to just a hint of red swirled in with his dark brown color, a sinister smile spreading slowly across his lips.
"We are all guilty of something my dear." She had to suppress the shivers that look managed to stir up. Standing up from the table she took a deep breath before she trusted her voice to not show emotion.
"I think I should be going now. It's getting late and I have work to do. Thank you for the tea." He nodded, standing up and the guards moved closer, unsure of his intent.
"You're welcome Sir Hellsing; please allow me to show you out." Integra didn't know what infuriated her more, that he was being a perfect gentleman or that she had personally seen him shred a person to pieces while using that same tone of voice.
Lina hugged Matt when he opened the door to his office. He looked down at her and noticed the black jeans and purple wrap shirt, two black necklace strings leading to the pendants that were down the v-neck of her shirt. She wore a pair of black flats that reminded him of dance shoes.
"Um...Lina, why are you hugging me?" She stopped hugging him and stuck her tongue out, pushing past him and laying out on the couch against the wall.
"Because you are my friend and I missed you." He rolled his eyes and went back to the desk, his laptop open and a file on his desk. He looked semi-professional dressed in black slacks and a burgundy shirt. "What'ca doing?"
"I'm trying to do payroll. Then I have to pay the bills, and order what we are out of or running low on." Sitting up, Lina had pulled out a hairbrush and started to undo her braid. Brushing her hair free of knots, she twisted and clipped it up, the ends curled over the clip.
"Sounds like a blast, do you want my help?" He gave a laugh and then just went back to work.
"No, I don't have time to show you how I want it, maybe next week." She closed her eyes and wriggled on the couch, looking around the office. There were a few boards with memo's and business notes pinned up and then posters of their favorite bands. There were four desks around the large office, all with name tags to tell the boys apart. Kyle walked in, a clipboard in hand, looking similar to Matt except that he wore a black shirt.
"Hey Lina, nice to see you out of the hospital, and you may want to get off that couch. Steve had a girl up here last night. Matt I have the inventory list for you. And Steve is on the way so we can discuss upcoming events and promotions" Lina jumped off the couch to the other side of the room, her whole body twitching as she seemed to sense the filth on her.
"Ewww…I think I need to take a shower…ewww….I can just feel the grossness on me."
"Thanks Kyle. Oh, why don't you give Lina a tour of the place and introduce her to the staff, make sure they know who she is." She was still twitching, starting to try and wipe the imagined grime off. The two guys gave a half chuckle at the image and Kyle nodding.
"Sure thing Matt." He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her twitching. "Don't worry; we already burned the blanket that was on the couch this morning. Now let me show you around so you get familiar with the joint before the Saturday night crowd comes in."
Chapter End
