Chapter 21: Moving Forward

Six pm rolled around and Fran reluctantly woke Sierra up.

The doctor could not put off checking the wounds anymore. "Sierra, I need you to wake up."

I was being asked something. I could hear someone calling me. My eyes opened to see Fran laying next to me.

Wait that's not right, was it?

I blinked again and Fran's green eyes came into focus. "Huh?"

Fran was leaning over me one arm holding out against the bed, the other was over my waist as he held me, half twisted, to him. My back was warmer then normal and I realized that his torso was rubbing up against my back. Fran's body encircled mine almost completely and I realized pretty quickly, that I was the small spoon.

"Fran? Wait…"

Fran smiled sadly down at me. "Yes it's me. Where you expecting to see someone else?"

I checked my room with a quick sweep of my head. No one else was in the room besides me and Fran. I answered him hesitantly, my expression that one a question rather then an answer. "No?"

"I have been here all night, just like I promised." Fran admitted, his cheeks flushed at his confession.

"Thank you for staying." I smiled softly at him, still struggling to wake up. "I do not like sleeping alone..." I rubbed my eyes softly with a yawn. "...at all."

Fran chuckled softly as he gazed down at the determined deep blue eyes. Sierra's eyes were becoming more focused by the second. The doctor felt his heart hammering as she smiled at him, just at him. Fran was delighted that he was the only one who could see this. "I can tell. Sierra, can I have you sit up so I can check your wounds, please?"

Fran shifted to his side to allow me to sit up and suddenly I was really nervous as I slowly sat up.

"...alright?"

Fran pulled back the covers to reveal my leg. I made a mental note that Fran's undershirt as a slightly different shade then it had been last night. So...that had not been a dream after all...

Fran reached down and lightly started to undo the bandage wrapped around my leg.

I felt so embarrassed by how much skin I was showing...but I noticed Fran's face was really pink as well. Something had changed between us and there was a tension between us that hadn't been there a few days ago.

"It looks really good. So good in fact I need to remove the stitches." Fran observed as he examined the wound on her leg. "Can I check the one on your arm?"

I unbuttoned Van's jacket slowly, letting the jacket fall slowly off my shoulders, to reveal almost everything to the blushing doctor.

Fran moved to examine the wound, trying to ignore Sierra's glowing chest that was now starting to glow heavily in the moment. The glowing mark was a clear indication of her current feelings for him and the awkwardness of the current situation. Fran carefully unwound the bandages around her arm and surveyed his handy work from the night prior.

His plan, regardless of how upset Van had been, and how awkward things were, had worked perfectly.

"I will need to remove these as well. Stay here until I get back...and try not to move to much."

I buttoned Van's jacket back up as Fran left to get his supplies.

After Fran left the room I looked down at my mark. With no one in the room, the tale-tail marks were barely visible against my skin. The cross however, was quickly becoming more intricate in design and expanding across my chest. I studied it carefully.

Sure enough, the whole design had evolved and two sets of wings were becoming quite elaborate. "That wasn't a dream, it couldn't have been..." I wondered latently how both of men had reacted to the sight of my clearly visible feelings. I ran my hand through my hair nervously. "This is so embarrassing…I was really hoping to not let them know..."

Fran returned a few minutes later with fresh bandages, a knife, tweezers, and some of his signature healing ointment. "I am really relived that you heal so quickly."

I watched as Fran lanced through the strings that held my flesh together with a precise and steady hand. I gave him my thoughts, trying to get information from him without letting him know what I remembered. "I think it had to do with some careful scheming."

The doctor just laughed and offered an ambiguous. "Maybe."

Fran finished removing all of the stitches quickly and with ease. "If you don't mind Sierra, I would like permission to take you down stairs. It is almost dinner time, and there are there are others who want to know how you are doing now that you are awake."

I cocked my head to the side at his proposal, but had no real reason to refuse. "If you like? I would like to wear something less revealing though. Can you grab me a set of clothes? A dress might be best."

Fran's gaze was quickly averted as I pulled Van's jacket back over my shoulders now that he was done tending to the wound on my arm. He quickly jumped to his feet and darted over to my closet. It took him a few seconds to look over what I had to offer in terms of clothing.

"Is there one in particular you want?" Fran shifted through the dresses, unsure of himself.

"Nothing white." I informed him. "Other then that, feel free to choose one."

"How about this one?" Fran pulled out a deep green dress.

I looked it over as he pulled it off the rack and shrugged. "I'll need your help lacing it up."

I pushed off the bed and gathered my feet under me. I felt my wounded leg protest loudly at the action, but not nearly to the decibel that it had protested to yesterday.

I walked over and took the dress from a confounded Fran. "If you can wait outside, I'll call you when I need your help."

"Alright..."

Fran waited outside Sierra's closed door for a few minutes, before managing to spot Van as the hunter passed by on his way to his own room.

"Just so you know Van Helsing." Fran addressed the stoic hunter as he passed by the door. "...Thanks to your help, it worked. I just finished removing her stitches."

Van refused to acknowledge the doctor's statement as he continued on towards his room.

"Fran?" I pulled open the door with my request for assistance.

The hunter couldn't help but turn around to look at the sound of her clear, questioning, voice. The woman stood in the door way, looking much more full of life then he had seen her yesterday while she bled out in the car. Van also quickly noticed that she was holding the dress over her chest, the built-in corset strings trailed at her hips.

A sign that she was only half dressed.

I looked at Van's piercing gaze and frowning face, confused as to what I had done to draw his ire. "Good morning, Van?" I smiled at him, hoping I gave him no signals that I recognized him from when he had been sharing my bed earlier.

I turned my gaze back to Fran. "Fran, can you give me a hand please?"

Fran turned around as Sierra opened the door, "Fran? I thought you didn't hear me calling?"

Van watched sullenly from the sidelines as Fran smiled at Sierra, making an profuse apology for not answering her calls sooner. The women's blue eyes beamed up at Fran, renewed with both life and energy. The hunter huffed and turned back around to go back to his room before dinner was served.

Fran entered Sierra's room once more and went to assist the woman with lacing her dress together, not quite believing his luck. Fran's fingers stumbled a few times before finding their stride. Fran's fingers were inexperienced at lacing and unlacing corsets, so took a few tries before the doctor was able to understand what he needed to do. The doctor's hands were steady even as his nerves, and body, were anything but.

"You seem abnormally cheerful." I observed as Fran finished his task and picked me up. "Fran!" I attempted to protest as the doctor stuck his face next to mine. His sudden nearness caused me to stop and loose my breath.

"I am your doctor, what I say goes, so please stop protesting." I rolled my eyes as Fran's half teasing, half serious remark.

"You are almost completely different…" I started expressing myself as Fran halted on his way down the stairs.

"Is that a problem?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Kind of a problem, more of a pain. Between you and Van, I am not allowed to walk anywhere anymore."

Latently, I also decided to include Impey in that calculation as well. The happy redhead was always picking me up and carting me off somewhere, mostly for food, but sometimes just to annoy me. "...And Impey too."

I huffed and folded my arms in irritation. "It's almost like I am a doll you all are afraid will break."

Lupin joined us at the foot of the stairs and happened to overhear my comment. The cheerful thief turned around to me with a grin. "A doll isn't so opinionated, and typically keeps itself on a shelf, away from trouble. Unlike you my dear, who seems to trip and injury herself escaping the confines of the bath."

Cardia blinked up at me as Fran carried me across the foyer towards the dinning room. "Sierra! How are you feeling?"

I answered her truthfully. "Annoyed."

I heard heavy boots behind us and I shot a glance over Fran's shoulder to see Van coming down the steps behind us. I focused my eyes on the sullen hunter and gave him a small wave from the confines Fran's arms.

Van noticed my gesture and returned it with a somber look.

I gave him a soft smile as Lupin grabbed my ear and yanked.

"We need to have a little discussion on how to avoid getting injured!" Lupin's was face half annoyed, half grinning as he toyed with me.

"Ouchhh, Lupin!" I complained as my piercings rattled in his hands.

Lupin didn't relent regardless of my pleas and cries of pain. "You are going to continue your training with Van and me as soon as you get over this. I am so over worrying about you and your stupid antics. You take too many unnecessary risks!"

"Alright! Aright! I give, please let go on my ear!" I pleaded with Lupin and he finally let go.

I grabbed my ear tenderly and pouted at my rough treatment.

Impey heard the commotion and came out of the kitchen, in the maid outfit, to greet me.

"Sierra!" Impey, with no hesitation, approached me, covered in flour, and grabbed me right out of Fran's arms.

The doctor's protests were pointedly ignored as Impey rubbed his face against my hair tenderly The redhead managed to smearing flour all over my hair and face as he did so.

I tried, in vain, to push Impey away as he mauled me.

"If you need me to maintenance you, just let the master engineer and lover give you a tune up! I'll be sure to give you a little repair of my own design!"

I tried to get away as Saint appeared on my other side, near Cardia. "Well, it is so lively over here. I trust you are doing well then, my dear?"

I managed to get my hand under Impey's chin and pushed up with enough force that I slipped out of his hands. My feet almost touched the ground, but Saint collected in his arms me seconds before my feet even had a remote chance of hitting the ground.

"I can't catch a break." I muttered as Saint's slight smile and polite laugh sounded in my ear. "Actually this works. Count, since I am going to be stuck being mother-henned by all of you, can I borrow your violin again after dinner? I wish to escape the confines of my room for a bit."

The count thought about my request for a second before responding. "You may borrow it if you wish, but I have a better one that came in yesterday. If it would please you, perhaps you can use that one in its stead?"

Saint carried me into the dining room with ease that I wouldn't have believed from his slight frame.

"Delacroix!" I called out at the sight of the young vampire.

The king of vampires looked up from playing with his tiny servant of darkness at the sound of my voice. "Sierra!"

The boy raced up to me, still secured in Saint's arms. "I was really worried about you!"

The pint sized vampire proceeded to lectured me as well. "Lupin informed me that you had been hurt in the attack yesterday. Are you alright? Are you being well cared for? Do you need anything? Are my lessons canceled?"

Lupin peaked around as Saint stepped into the dinning room. "What lessons?"

I didn't pay Lupin any mind as I pleaded with Delacroix "I am really sorry Delacroix! No, I plan to continue them soon! I don't mean to skirt your lessons!"

The young king sniffed and crossed his arms in an attempt to look regal and displeased. It was fairly clear to me that he was just putting on airs and he was silently pleased that he didn't need to worry about his lessons for a few days.

"I thought we were working on that." I frowned at him causing Delacroix to unfolded his arms.

"I accept your apology, I hope you will continue to teach me."

I put my hand over my heart since I couldn't bow to convey my respects to the young king. "I hope that you will continue to allow me to teach you."

Delacroix smiled up at me. "Just concentrate on getting better, my lessons of small importance compared to your health and safety."

Saint set me down in my normal chair, located on the left of his table as the Count took his seat as the table head. Impey went back into the kitchen and started serving food as the rest of the household took their respective seats.

Lupin started the conversation back up. "So, now that we have our newly acquired freedom, what is our next agenda? Does anyone have any leads?"

Saint replied to Lupin's offer. "I have something of interest that I have been looking into the last few days. I heard that the annual Black Gathering will be in held in a week."

Lupin finished chewing, swallowed, and answered our unspoken question. "Those are the famous airship races."

I looked at Cardia and she gazed back at me.

"Airship races?" Carida asked the question for me.

Saint locked his hands together on the table. "Yes, and the prize this year is rumored to be the posthumous writings of Sir Isaac Beckford." Saint let the bombshell drop as the rest of the group struggled to comprehend how we could obtain the prize.

Lupin was quick to jump to his normal methods. "I will just steal them before the race commences!"

Saint let a smug smile reach his lips before he replied. "The rumor also states that the prize is being guarded by Herlock Sholmes."

I pointed my fork at Lupin to get back at him for earlier. "Say Lupin, I bet you would be really attractive in black and white stripes, but perhaps you fancy the brilliant orange jumpsuits instead."

We all laughed at Lupin's expense as the master thief turned bright red and changed his tune quickly. "We will just need to win the prize legally!"

Fran's logic brought the laughing to a halt. "How are we going to get an airship? Even with Saint's financial assistance, we lack enough sufficient funds to do so!"

Lupin waved his hands trying to make light of Fran's worries. "Let the dashing gentleman thief worry about the airship!" Lupin grinned at us with confidence mere seconds after he had been worried about Sholmes capturing him. The master thief made it seem like stealing an airship wasn't going to be a problem for him.

I scowled at Lupin's nonchalant attitude but resolved to set it out of my mind as breakfast turned to other topics at hand. I was lost in my own thoughts and was not paying it any attention to the chatter at the table.

"So, is my special love potion working yet?" Impey leaned over from the seat next to me with an overly cheerful expression.

His comment made my drop my fork as I sputtered a response. "Whhhatt?"

The rest of the table leaned over to grin at my reaction to Impey's teasing.

The redhead ruffled my hair in fun as he laughed at me. "That got your attention, cutie!"

Saint was silently observing Sierra's reaction as she batted Impey away and tried to straighten her hair which Impey had sufficiently knotted and encrusted with flour.

After dinner I managed to escape out into the garden without anyone following me.

Something about working on gathering information in town and working to obtain an airship had me oddly uninterested. Saint had yet to procure the violin, as he was heavily involved in the conversation, which, while it provided an excellent opportunity to actually walk out of the room, was also a minor inconvenience.

My limp was getting worse with each step I took so I had to stop frequently and rest.

Finally, I was forced to sit down on a stone ledge of a very overgrown planter. I sighed as I surveyed the dying vegetation. It was too crowded in the planters and Saint didn't hire any help to keep the garden maintained.

I thought about it, and then realized that was how I could help repay him for letting me stay.

"I am not really even that useful." I started pulling the weeds out with quick flicks of my wrist and set the unwanted plants in a pile next to me. "Cardia, at least isn't getting hurt all the time."

I ripped out another weed in anger. "Here I am, every time I go out, I end up getting hurt and just being a bother to everyone."

Delly had been playing with Sisi nearby and overheard my ranting.

"That's quite uncharacteristic of you." The young king commented as the dog raced around his heels.

I looked up at Delly feeling a bit lost.

"Is it that out of character?" I laughed sarcastically as Delly reached down and picked Sisi up.

"You have been working with me since I got here, helping me train as both a king and a knight. I don't like humans...but your not a human. So, I don't mind being around you.." His lofty manner melted as he sat down on the edge of the planter. "...I haven't heard of any angels surviving the holocaust either, so I am really happy you're still alive..."

I ripped out a rather large weed in anger. "Last time I seen you, you were just a little toddler. I have no notion of how you remember me at all."

Delly was absently petting Sisi as the dog tried to lick his face. "Your kind are rather difficult to forget."

I was thinking this conversation needed to head another direction, so I jumped on the young vampire. I used my speed to tackle him to the ground, careful to not hurt Sisi in the process. The dog wiggled free of Delly's embrace as I started to tickle him. "So, you think so?"

Delly's fresh peal of laughter filled the garden. "Stop! I command you! Stop!"

I was grinning as I stopped at his request. I let myself fall into the grass next to him. "Delacroix, what do you know of the angel holocaust?"

Delly sat up and started pinching nearby blades of grass. "Not much. It predates the vampire wars by a year, but…"

I put my hand on Delly's back. "I am sorry I wasn't around."

Delly huddled closer to me. "I have been alone for so long!"

"I am here now. We are all here for you now." I ruffled his hair causing him to squeak in displeasure and pull away from my embrace.

I sat up, leaning back on my hands. "I want to work towards a better future, Delacroix. One where our kinds work in harmony with humans."

Delly got up looking extremely upset at my confession. "I don't think it is possible."

I tried to get up, but my leg wouldn't let me. "That's not the kind of thing a king should say!"

My sharp retort shocked Delly and he took a step back, away from me. "Kings can do almost anything they put their mind to. Don't limit yourself to that kind of thinking."

Delly scowled at me as I glared at him. "That is a bit much coming from the queen of the house of Azrael."

I licked my lips at Dellys comment, he wasn't wrong. "Queen...of...Azrael..." The realization of my position had not been one I had been considering. It was a grounding thought.

I used all my willpower and pushed myself up with a struggle, biting back pain and discomfort. "We both have experienced terrible things, but I don't think we can dwell on the past as we can look towards the future. We need to look towards building a better future for our kin!"

Delly clenched his hands in rage. "I won't forget what happened and I won't forgive Van Helsing for it either!"

I stumbled back to my ledge, my leg barely supporting my weight. I settled down next to my weed patch and started ripping them up once more. "I am not asking you to forgive, or to forget. I am asking you what your plans are when you get older. Your future vision."

I pulled out several long dead blooms from deep within the flower bed and took a deep breath. Slowly, I released my breath over them.

The faded color of the yellow blossoms slowly came back to life. At my touch, the grey feat of death retreated to revival bright yellows. I gazed softly at the blooms, I was starting to get a better hang of this. Turning, I struggled to walk over to Delly who looked furious with me.

I held out a improvised bouquet of yellow daffodils. "You are free to do what you want, but I am so tired of blood and war. I just want to live peacefully."

Delly accepted the flowers, unable to resist flowers from lady with good manners. "..."

I let Delly think about my words as I returned to ripping out weeds once more.

Delly left me alone with my thoughts, taking Sisi with him.

Alt Chapter on Silver Dribbles: Cruel Mistress - Features Saint