Disclaimer: I don't own Being Human, and I don't wish I did because it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is, and it would get cancelled when I made sure Damien Molony was in every scene!

So this one has a little bad language in it, but nothing too severe. Thank you very much Amy (mimiXmoo) for your lovely review of chapter 20, it was very much appreciated! :) Enjoy all!

Chapter 21: Exposure

"Kate. What a pleasant surprise."

He smiled at her from his large leather office chair, laying the contrived charm on thick. The chair was positioned behind a dark stained wooden desk, though quite what he must need it for was a mystery to Kate. She shut the door behind her, and suddenly the office seemed a lot smaller.

"I wish I could say the same. You do know all you need is a cat and you'd look like a Bond villain?"

He chuckled, but the laugh was a hollow one. Almost bitter, if she had heard it right.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure? I thought you'd gone for good. Did you miss me?" he asked, his smile turning into a smirk.

"Considering I ended it, shouldn't I be asking you that?" she tested. She felt uncomfortable asking, but outwardly managed to appear cold. Just as she had planned.

"And yet here you are. Come to see if it's true have you? If I've really changed?"

"Something like that."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you." He shrugged animatedly. "But here I am. Back where I belong. So if you wouldn't mind, I'm rather busy."

"Oh, don't be like that Hal. Turning a woman out of your office so quickly, and dressed like this no less. What would your henchmen downstairs think?" she tutted and looked dismayed. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"What do you want?"

"Just a little chat. That's all. Nothing to be scared about."

"Are you purposefully trying to annoy me?" he watched her warily as she walked to a low bookshelf and began looking through the books on it disinterestedly.

"Me? Annoy you? No never. Why would you think that?"

"Oh I see. You're trying to get a reaction out of me, to prove it once and for all."

"Spot on." She turned and smiled at him. This was where it could all go wrong.

"And on what grounds do you doubt me? I'm here aren't I? Isn't that enough?" he asked calmly, rising from the chair and strolling forward to perch on the front of the desk. She was suddenly reminded of the dream they'd shared, well, nightmare really, the night that Marie had first come to the house. It had ended with his teeth in her neck. She was sure tonight wouldn't end like that, but the thought still made her knees a little weak. She put a hand on the bookshelf to steady herself, and hoped he hadn't noticed.

"I'll tell you why I'm not convinced shall I?"

"Please, go ahead." He smiled, actually seeming to be enjoying this.

"When you went to Honolulu Heights, after you'd 'relapsed'," she abandoned the bookshelf and walked towards him slowly, using air quotes to highlight her disbelief, "I think you made a mistake."

"Yes, I left them alive. Did they tell you the trouble they've been causing?"

"Oh that's your second mistake, but I'm getting to that. No, what you did wrong," she stopped a few feet away from him, "was tell your men to wait outside." He frowned, confused.

"Why was that a mistake?"

"The others didn't seem to notice, but I did. My guess is that you didn't want your cronies to be able to enter, just incase they felt like going back one day for some good old violent fun, so you didn't invite them in." She watched him carefully for a reaction, but he didn't give her one.

"Is that what you think?" he said after a moment. "Truthfully I didn't even think about it. I had no need for them at the time, that was all. They would have complicated things." He looked her straight in the eyes as he said it, but Kate wasn't so naive as to believe that he hadn't perfected lying over the years. She believed she was on to something, and it gave her a renewed sense of self-assurance.

"Your second mistake," she moved to close the distance between them, stopping just between his knees, "was that you let them live in the first place. You know them well enough to know that they wouldn't leave this alone. Tom was always going to start killing vampires again, and Allison and Alex were never going to let him do it alone.

"So what you're saying is I should have them killed." He looked down at her and smiled arrogantly, thinking he'd won the advantage.

"Go on then." She said simply, calling his bluff.

He sat back slightly and frowned. "You can't mean that?" she smiled and moved forward again, their faces now only inches apart.

"I believe the correct response would have been to call your heavies in to go and get the job done. You always wanted to keep them alive and safe. And," she continued as he opened his mouth to respond, "there's one more thing. I wasn't completely sure until a few seconds ago, but, this is the best of all." His eyes closed as she brought her lips closer to his, only millimetres apart. She could feel his breath on her face and she wanted so badly to kiss him, but her whole plan hinged on his next response. "You're not drinking blood. Not a drop. I know the signs Hal. Your breath smells fresh, your eyes are bloodshot from the stress, and there's a distinct lack of a decanter on your desk. You're faking all of this." She whispered confidently, watching his face closely. They stood in silence for a minute, neither of them moving, and she could tell he was trying to formulate a response.

Despite her plan going like clockwork, it still took her by surprise when he finally snapped and brought his lips crashing down on hers. She returned the kiss instantly, running her hands up his back and through his hair. He pulled her against his chest almost roughly, his desperation for the contact between them obvious. They broke apart panting for breath, foreheads resting together.

She pulled back and slapped him hard around the face. He stared down at her in shock for a moment, then looked at the floor defeatedly.

"Well I suppose I deserved that."

"Too bloody right you deserved it! What did you think you were doing? Why Hal?" she cried, tears of relief running down her cheeks steadily.

"It's complicated. It seemed like a good idea to begin with, but the longer it went on, the more I realised I'd made a mistake." He cupped her face in his hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs, bending to kiss her again, tenderly this time.

"What happened?" she asked, just managing to control the tears.

"I may as well tell you. You'll only find a way to get it out of me anyway." He smiled cheekily at her and she smirked back. "A man came to see me. Mr Rook. It turns out he works for some sort of organisation that tidies up anything we leave behind, not just vampires, all supernaturals. You remember I mentioned once that Tom transformed by accident in a club full of people, it was them that buried it. They visited everyone who took pictures or videos and confiscated their phones, they took down anything that had already spilled onto from the internet, they even managed to interfere in the police investigation and cover up any mention of what happened. It was him who came to take Alex's body away from the cellar the next morning. I didn't see him clearly at the time because I was hiding, so I didn't recognise him, but the second time we met, when he explained everything more clearly, I realised I remembered his voice."

"Are they human?"

"Yes, though he seems to be able to feel the presence of ghosts. Our neighbour across the road, Geoff, works for them. He'd been spying on us for months, and he has a similar talent. That's how he could see Alex."

"They were spying on us! Why?" Kate asked anxiously, hopping onto the desk beside him.

"To get to me. They'd noticed the increased vampire attacks in the area and were concerned that they wouldn't be able to keep a lid on the secret for long. One gruesome murder every so often is just bad luck, but a spree is much harder to cover up, especially with all the technology that's around these days. They knew about me somehow, that I'd headed a group in the past and that I'm sober. They wanted me to take charge of the rogue vampires here, form a community and take control. Most of them are young, the products of plots by a few vampires lower down the command structure who wanted to impress the Old Ones, the same as Cutler." His voice only faltered slightly as he mentioned the dead vampire, but it was enough for Kate to notice. She took his hand and he gave her a grateful look. She knew that Cutler was behind Alex's murder, and that he had been partly to blame for Hal's most recent relapse, but despite that, Hal was still saddened by his death, and had even told her Cutler had been like a son to him once, albeit a long time ago. "By the time they arrived the Old Ones were already dead, so they abandoned their recruits and left them here with no one to guide them. There are some older vampires too, but thankfully none that seem to know much about me."

"How did Mr Rook convince you to do it? Alex said you left while she was away. Oh. Geoff." She said, remembering that he had been the one to tell Alex to go to see her family.

"Exactly. They took their chance while I was alone. I refused at first, told him it was a ridiculous idea, but... I wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time. He knew how to get to me. He told me it would help to pay back my debt to society after all the people I've..." he swallowed and looked away, unable to finish the sentence. Kate stroked his arm encouragingly. "With that, and what you said about never really being able to trust me completely, I made up my mind to do it. I realised how completely stupid I'd been within the first few days, but by then it was too late."

"Yea, about that. You weren't the only one who realised they'd made a mistake." She said sheepishly. "I'm sorry I left Hal, it was probably the most idiotic, selfish thing I've..." he kissed her, cutting her off.

"I don't care. I understand why you did it, I'm just glad you came back. I have to admit, I only just managed to hold it together when Bill came to tell me you were here."

"You knew it was me then?" She smirked.

"Who else would do something so... bold. What you did was risky to say the least. Did you plan this from the start?"

"Sort of, but I had to improvise a bit. It hit me when I was at the bookcase that any physical contact between us would take away your bloodlust, and that you would want to avoid that at all costs, so I came closer to you. When you didn't move away, I was hoping it was because you didn't want to and not just that you'd forgotten."

"You didn't consider the danger in that? If I hadn't been faking and you'd served as an unwelcome reminder of my humanity I would have killed you."

"Yes well, I took comfort in the fact that you left our friends alive. Not that that's the only reason I'm happy about that." He looked away again ashamedly.

"How are they doing? Apart from the vampire hunting, which, I might add, has been a nightmare to conceal."

"Not too bad. Sticking together. I was a little concerned that they would decide to..." A loud crash and shouting downstairs interrupted her, and they turned towards the door, "...follow me. Shit." They ran for the door and down the stairs, pausing at the bottom.

"Quick, grab my wrists and push me through the door." He gave her a confused look. "It's the only way to cover this up, your guys can't know about our little chat. I'll tell the others later, but for now, let's just keep it quiet until I can get them out of here."

"I wanted to avoid telling them."

"Hal! I can't know and not tell them!" she hissed impatiently. He sighed and took hold of her arms behind her back, opening the door and giving her a small shove through it.

"Well well, what do we have here?" he asked irritably, getting straight back into character flawlessly.

"We were closing up sir and..."

"Let her go Hal." Alex practically growled the command.

"I'm fine, let's just get out of here." Kate reassured them, pretending to stumble forward to exaggerate his gentle push. "He's made himself perfectly clear, he's with them now. Let's not cause a scene."

"Yes, you heard her, go. And if I catch you here again, I won't be so lenient. Clear up this mess!" he snapped at the small group of his henchmen who had gathered behind him.

They scrambled to do as he said with a mumbled "yes sir" as he turned to go back up the stairs. Kate looked at Tom who was breathing heavily, more angry than she had ever seen him, and she wondered for a moment if he was going to try to follow Hal. Luckily, Allison laid a hand on his arm to calm him.

"Come on Tom, let's go home." He turned to look at her, the anger disappearing from his features. They picked their way to the door, keeping a wary eye on the vampires cleaning up the broken glass scattered over the floor which she assumed was how Tom, Allison and Alex had got in.

"So, what happened?" Alex asked as they walked down the street away from the bookies.

"There's something you should know."

"Oh? He's a massive dick?" Alex muttered. Kate fought the urge to smile.

"Well I wouldn't put it quite like that." She looked over her shoulder to check that they were far enough away from the shop and that no one was following them. "Of course, if he wasn't faking the whole thing I'd agree with you completely."

"What did you say?" Alex asked disbelievingly. Kate realised the others had stopped walking a few paces back and turned to face them.

"Shh, keep walking. We can't draw attention to ourselves in case they notice and come after us." She said grabbing Alex's arm and pulling her along. Tom and Allison followed, sharing confused looks.

"Look, Kate, I know this has been hard on you but, you saw what he was like." Alex protested quietly.

"Yes, in public. But I managed to see him alone in his office before you arrived and he told me everything. With a little coaxing." Alex stopped again and stared at her. Kate grabbed her arm again and pulled the ghost along while she shook her head, unable to speak.

"But, why on earth would he be doing this? And why wouldn't he tell us?" Allison whispered, just loud enough for Kate to hear.

"I'll explain in more detail when we get home, but the main thing is, he's not drinking blood." Kate took a deep breath, the relief washing over her again.

"What did you do to get him to talk?" Alex asked after a few minutes of silence, giving Kate a sly smile.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Kate winked at her and laughed.

"Now tonight, let's see if we can make it to morning without someone fucking up! If you're going to make a kill, make it, no pissing about chasing people down the middle of a street at three in the morning! I'm fed up with having to cover up your incompetency, and my patience won't stretch much further, is that clear?" He glowered at the group of a few dozen vampires menacingly, letting his gaze fall on one particularly ashamed looking man longer than the others. A few nights before, the moron, Elliot Hal thought his name was, had bitten his intended victim only to let her escape and run screaming down a thankfully scarcely inhabited street on the outskirts of the city. Luckily, knowing the young vampire was rather incapable, he had sent Mark along to shadow him and he had finished the job swiftly. Mark appeared in his early forties, but at seventy-two he was one of the older vampires in the group, and was fortunately mellow and competent, at least compared to most of the others. Hal was thankful for the support.

As well as Mark there was John, also in his seventies, Anna, who was close to ninety but refused to tell anyone her exact age, Hugo who was only in his forties but knew how to handle himself, and the vampire that worried Hal the most, Lewis. He was older than the others, though at just over one-hundred, he was still young compared to Hal. He was shrewd, clever and above all else cruel. He had joined the group only a few days after Hal had taken over, and from the beginning he had been difficult. He wanted greater savagery than Hal would allow, and he had made his feelings clear on a number of occasions. Fortunately, there had been no threat to Hal's leadership from him as of yet, but he was certainly one to keep a close eye on.

He waited long enough to hear the chorus of apologies and farewells after he waved them away, before making his way out of the crowded meeting room, longing for the solace of his office. As he reached it he ordered his two sentries to their usual place infront of the door at the bottom of the stairs and hurried inside, shutting the door behind him and leaning back against it wearily. He swore under his breath as someone knocked on it, startling him.

"What?" he asked tersely.

"It's Mark Sir. I wanted to go over tonight's plans with you."

Hal sighed at the muffled reply, then walked to his chair and sat, composing himself before he called Mark into the room.

"Thank you Sir. So at the moment I have seven vampires on my list of those hunting tonight but that will undoubtedly change as the evening draws closer. I've arranged for chaperones for the youngest and least experienced, and you'll be glad to know there are extra old hands on standby, so tonight should be fuck up-less. I'll have a word with Hugo about that twat Elliot. This is the third time he's failed to make a kill, and that's just the times we know about. Michelle's known him for a while, and she says he's always been useless, never killing them when he should, drinking until he can barely stand and then digging the shallowest graves you've ever seen. Little shite needs a good talking to." He finished with a sneer.

"Fine. Anything else you wanted to discuss?" Hal asked uninterestedly.

"No Sir, that's all. Oh, will you be joining us this evening Sir?"

"No." It took more effort to refuse than Hal was comfortable with.

"Very Well Sir, I'll leave you to it then." Mark gave a small bow before heading out of the office, closing the door behind him. Hal closed his eyes and banged is head on the desk, a little harder than he had intended to. Mark was a former steward, and though his impeccable organisational skills were of great use to Hal, his tendency to list and record everything seemed to be making some of the others anxious, as if they were being controlled a little too much. He had already had to reign Mark in once, when he had begun to make a rota for what he called "killing parties", pre-organised groups of vampires who would go out to hunt on scheduled nights. Mark had settled for the current system quite easily, eager to please the new boss. Vampires came to him and put their names on a list, almost a register, of who was active on that particular night, and he would make provisions for them should they need anything. It pleased him and allowed Hal to keep a close eye on the least trustworthy vampires, and best of all, he hadn't even had to set the system up himself.

He hated addressing the group as a whole, and discussing specific details about killings and excursions was difficult. He had managed to stay away from blood only by taking regular walks out every few nights by himself, a luxury he would never have been afforded in the old days. He had always had at least two henchmen nearby whenever he went hunting. Not that he had really needed to go out at all at the height of his power – his "meals" were brought to him on request and he had drunk most of his blood from a glass. Now, he did everything he could to avoid being in contact with blood, and so far, mercifully, he had succeeded.

He heard a dull thud from the corner of the room and frowned curiously, standing up and peering over the edge of the desk at the cupboard the noise appeared to have come from. Suddenly, the door opened, and a lavender scent flooded the room. Hal shook his head in consternation, but couldn't help but smile as Kate practically fell out of the small wooden door.

"Ouch." She muttered, rubbing her head. "Are we alone?"

"It'd be a bit late if we weren't. How did you even get in here?" he asked, walking over to her and putting his arms around her, relieved to see her again so soon.

"I'll have you know I'm pretty handy with a lock pick." She grinned up at him.

"So I see." He kissed her, and she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. He walked over to the desk and sat her on it without breaking the kiss.

"Stop stop stop." She said, pulling away and putting a hand on his chest after a few short minutes. "I'm not here for that. This is strictly business." She pushed him back lightly and he grunted his disapproval, but walked around the desk to sit in his chair again without argument. She spun around on the desk to face him in one fluid movement. "We need to figure out what to do next."

"Honestly, the faster I get out of here the better. I'm not sure how much longer I can last Kate." He admitted, his expression suddenly solemn, his eyes sad. She smiled understandingly at him.

"Can you just leave?"

"No, but it's not just the vampires I'm worried about. We have a system in place now, and even the youngest are getting much better at concealing their kills. I'm more concerned about who would take over if I left. A sadistic bastard called Lewis. If he takes control, he's bound to come up with some idiotic plan or other. And I'm talking dog fights and farming humans being the tip of the iceberg, that kind of idiotic. He's not exactly subtle either, so he'd more than likely create havoc and the whole idea of us laying low would go out the window. But it's Mr Rook that worries me the most. I got the feeling that this wasn't something he was going to let me walk away from easily. He threatened the others when he first came to me. It was one of the reasons I agreed to all of this."

"So. Getting you away should be a piece of cake then. I don't know Hal, I leave you alone for five minutes." She smirked at him jokingly. "Well first thing's first. You've managed to stay away from blood so far but if I can tell you haven't been drinking, it's only a matter of time before they figure it out too. And we have to make sure you stay safe. So I had an idea..."

"I can't wait to hear your suggestion." He raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Just hear me out."

"No."

"You don't even know what I'm going to say yet!"

"Yes I do. And the answer is no. No way."

"But if we could get me in here somehow, legitimately I mean, it'd be so much easier for you! It would take the pressure off, and I wouldn't have to hide in sodding cupboards or sneak in to see you. I could act as a go between so you can keep in contact with Tom and the girls. They want to help Hal." Kate pleaded, trying to make him at least consider it.

"I'm sure they do, but that's why I didn't want any of you to know in the first place. This is my mess, and I should be the one to sort it out, without putting any of you in any more danger than I already have."

"Ok well first of all, this is not your mess. You didn't cause it."

"No, but I made things ten times worse when I agreed to do as he said." He leaned his head back in the chair and sighed.

"You were trying to keep your friends safe. And if that's your theory then that just proves that I should be here too, because it's partially my fault for messing with your head."

"Don't say that. It's not."

"It is. And secondly, to be frank Hal, you're not going to be able to do this alone. It's only a matter of time before you come into close contact with blood and however good your intentions, you won't be able to say no. It's a miracle you haven't been put in that position already."

"I know." He said sadly.

"At least if I'm here I can stop you being tempted when the time comes."

"Even if they accept having you here, which, by the way, I have no idea how we are meant to accomplish, what happens if they find out what you can do? At the very least they won't like it, at worst, it would blow my cover."

"Blow your cover? This isn't bloody MI5! You've gone from Bond villain to Bond in less than twenty-four hours." She chuckled.

"This isn't a joke!" he managed to stop himself from raising his voice, aware that someone might hear them arguing.

"Sorry. Look, at least it's a start. We can't just sit and do nothing. Do you have a better suggestion?" she folded her arms and scowled at him.

"If I did, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Well that's settled then." She said matter-of-factly. He sighed in defeat and put his head in his hands.

"You know you can be very domineering when you want to be."

"It's great isn't it?" She smiled at him with mock pride and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Well if you're going to bully me into this, it's going to be on my terms."

"I'm all ears."

"As some of my guys saw you last night, we'll just have to say you decided you'd had enough of pretending to be human and that you've defected to our side. Which means you're going to have to do your best to pretend you're evil. Given your performance yesterday I'm not sure that'll be a problem." He grinned at her and she laughed sarcastically. "You can't be part of the hierarchy. The fact that you've come in out of the blue and that you're not a vampire would not go down well if you started giving orders. We have to be together at all times, and never mind you having to keep me out of trouble, it's you I'm worried about! Which means we're going to need to define our relationship as far as they're concerned..."

"If you say whore I'm going to slap you again." She threatened.

"I was thinking more along the lines of concubine. How does that sound?"

"Not great!" she protested. "But it'll have to do. I suppose in our little ruse there would have to be some sort of benefit to you personally if you were going to agree to me staying, and that will certainly be a good excuse for us spending a lot of time together. Funny how things change. It wasn't that long ago we were hiding our... physical relationship. Now we're flaunting it."

"What about us? Where do we stand?" he asked hesitantly.

"Let's just get through this first. But I came back so that should give you a clue." She smiled. "Are we really doing this? Uh, and I'm going to have to dress the part." she grimaced, thinking about their plan again.

"Well you suggested it. And I suppose it will give us more time to figure out what to do next."

"I'll have to sneak out of here again soon. I'll go home and tell the others what's happening, and don't worry, I've already told them to stop their little hunting trips. Not that they'll listen. I can't help but be proud of them though."

"You're not the one who's had to jump through hoops to cover it up." he grumbled.

"Don't pretend you're not just a little bit pleased with them too. They're just trying to protect people. You'd probably be doing the same if you were in their position. Now, I've missed you a lot and you really are far too good looking for me to concentrate any more. Come here." She instructed. He stood up and she pulled him down on top of her by his tie.

"See, domineering." He kissed her neck as she pulled his jacket off and began undoing his shirt buttons.

"Are you complaining?"

"What do you think? What happened to this being "strictly business"?" he smirked, imitating her earlier words.

"Oh, shut up."

(Hope you enjoyed that, and please review if you feel like doing so! Thanks! x)