Hello, my readers. Welcome to the next chapter of Formative Years. We're coming up on 200 reviews for this fic. Woot! That's so exciting for me. Posting fanfic like this is really the first time I've been able to get what I consider relatively unbiased opinions on my work. (Having your mom tell you it's great isn't the same. She's as biased as they come. Even friends have a vested interest in your happiness.)

That being said, I really value all of my reviews, especially those that let me know what I'm getting right as well as those that point out things that can be improved. I may not agree, but everyone's opinion is worthy of consideration.

To Rut: I'll have to post a response to your review here and hope you see it since it was a guest review. I found your information about architecture fascinating and insightful and I'd love to hear more and/or see an architect student's attempt at creating a floor plan for the Hellsing mansion. If you do make one, please, please let me know.

That being said, on with the next chapter! :D

Great Escape Chapter 4: Learning a Lesson

Jezebel sat in the wood and leather chair in front of Integra's desk, her feet dangling half a foot above the floor. She stared down at the hands clasped in her lap, strands of blond hair hanging down around her face.

A small lamp lit the top of the desk and moonlight filtered through the sheer inner curtains covering the windows. No one else kept her company in the silent, cavernous room. Her stomach sent a growl of protest through the quiet. She had missed dinner and Matheson refused to bring her anything to eat while she waited for Integra to return from the hunt.

So be it. At least he had stopped to retrieve Dark when she had insisted. The butler hadn't verbally reprimanded her, but the narrow looks and cold demeanor were reprimand enough. She knew she had disappointed him, but in a way, he had disappointed her as well. If he had just listened to her and driven her to Ethan's house when she asked, she wouldn't have had to go on her own.

Sighing, she leaned back in the chair and wondered how long it would take Integra to get home. If she wasn't going to get dinner, her empty stomach would be easier to bear if she went to sleep early. Perhaps this, too, was part of her punishment. It made sense.

Alucard showed up first, phasing through the office wall. She hadn't even stopped to wonder what he might think of her escapade. Would he be angry with her as well? That thought actually sent a spurt of trepidation though her.

He wore his hat and glasses so she couldn't see his eyes. His normally expressive mouth sat in a flat, blank line. He crossed the room to look out the window as the door opened behind him and Integra walked in with Seras at her heels. Jezebel resisted the urge to hunch her shoulders. She would face her judgment with her back straight…but why did all of them have to be there?

Integra moved behind her desk and sat. Leaning forward, she reached up to rub the bridge of her nose. Jezebel took a deep breath and fought the urge to stare at her knees.

"First of all, how did you get to Ethan's house?" Integra didn't even open her eye, instead keeping her finger and thumb on the bridge of her nose.

"I took one of Seras's credit cards and ordered a taxi online."

"What?!" Seras's outraged question pierced the air as Jezebel dug in her pocket for the card and placed it on the desk. She'd never intended to keep it, after all.

Integra's hand dropped away from her nose and that single, brilliant blue eye opened to examine her heir and the card on the desk. Seras stalked over and snatched the card up, tucking it into a pocket on her uniform.

"And you used the dog to slip past the guards at the front. I've already received that report and they will be undergoing disciplinary action."

"What? But why?" Jezebel felt her stomach lurch. It was one thing to get herself in trouble, but for the guards to get in trouble because she had tricked them was just so unfair.

"Because what happened tonight should not have been possible. You have already been kidnapped off of Hellsing grounds once. It could happen again, and how much greater do you think that likelihood becomes when you leave Hellsing grounds alone?"

"I wouldn't have been alone if Matheson had just listened to me!"

"No! You will not blame your actions on someone else. You chose to leave, by way of theft and trickery."

Jezebel glared at Integra, feeling wronged for the first time since she came to Hellsing. Matheson couldn't see what she'd had to do. She could accept that. The butler was incredibly blind sometimes, but for Integra to be just as blind… She felt betrayed.

"I had to do something! It's Ethan! He could be anywhere. What if the Vatican had broken into his house and killed him and his family?"

"Then you would have walked right into their hands!" Integra slammed a hand onto the top of the desk, emphasizing her point. "Matheson was right to make you wait for the hunt to end. It had to end before we could do anything about this, whether Ethan was missing or not."

Jezebel bit her lip and looked away, crossing her arms over her chest. It didn't help that Integra was echoing some of the thoughts that had already crossed her mind. Why hadn't she thought of that before she'd left Hellsing? More than that, why couldn't Integra see that she couldn't just sit and twiddle her thumbs while her friend was potentially in danger? What if it was Alucard that suddenly went missing? or Seras? Would Integra just wait around for help to arrive?

And yet…that little voice in the back of her head had to whisper the logical point that Integra was an adult and accomplished at self defense. By nature, the rules were different for her. That just made her angrier and more determined to hold her ground. She wasn't a baby!

"Give me your phone." Integra held her hand out for the device and Jezebel blinked, her heart flip flopping.

"No! What if Ethan is able to get his phone and calls me?"

Integra narrowed her eye at her recalcitrant hair. This was the first time the girl had openly defied her and she wasn't completely sure what to do about it. If the child had been an employee, there would have been a write up for insubordination with termination of employment imminent if the behavior continued. She couldn't exactly do that with Jezebel. If it was one of the vampires…well, she had the seal for Alucard. Seras had never been an issue. She would have to wing it.

"Now. I will not argue with you on this."

With her heart racing in anger and trepidation, Jezebel dug into her pocket for the item. She really, really didn't want to hand it over, but what could she do? If Integra wouldn't listen, she couldn't force them to let her keep it.

Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes as she reached out with a trembling hand to set the phone in Integra's hand. She felt like she was losing Ethan…or betraying him. Without that phone, they might not have known he was missing until Monday. They should at least recognize that.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she sent an imploring look toward Alucard, but he wasn't even looking at her. He leaned against the wall, gazing out the window into the moonlit night. No help, there. Obviously, what she'd done was bad enough that he disapproved as well. That, more than anything, made her feel sick to her stomach.

Integra curled her fingers around the phone and sighed.

"You will go to your room and think about tonight. We will discuss this further when you've had some time to think."

"Yes, ma'am."

Jezebel slid off of the chair, head and shoulders drooping. She looked like the very picture of dejection as she crossed the office and left the room.

Integra glared down at the phone in her hand, shoulders slumped.

"Seras, keep an eye on her with your shadows. Tell me if she goes anywhere but her room."

"Yes, master." The blond vampire sounded sheepish, and well she might. After all, it was her credit card that the girl had used to call the taxi.

Integra reached for the phone on her desk and dialed up Gary Wilson, head of her IT department. A sleepy voice answered the phone.

"Yeah, boss?"

"I need you in my office, immediately."

"Err…what time…no. Never mind. Be there in a second, boss."

The line clicked off and Integra smoothed a thumb over the screen of the phone in her hand. Next to the window, Alucard moved, shifting so his back was to the wall and he could see his master.

"I seem to recall a certain twelve year old that bulled her way through the protests of the council of twelve and killed her own uncle to do what she knew to be right."

Integra glared up at the black haired vampire.

"I was never this reckless."

"Weren't you?" Alucard lifted an eyebrow. "The only difference that I see is that once your father passed away, there was no one that had the power to stop you from doing whatever you wished. Even Walter was your butler, with no power over you but what your respect for him provided."

"And if I'd had any less of a moral base, I would have been an unholy terror."

Alucard grinned, fangs bared, and spread his gloved hands as though she'd just proven his point for him.

"I believe, master, that I have heard you called that before…among other things."

Integra's hand tightened around the phone. This was different! Wasn't it?

"Think, master. When you were twelve, had this same situation happened to you, what would you have done?"

"I never had a close friend like Ethan, and Jezebel isn't twelve. She's ten."

"It's not like you to argue semantics, master."

Integra clenched her teeth and glared at the phone in her hand.

"I would have sent you after him."

"And if I was out on a hunt with the soldiers of Hellsing?"

"I would have been with you."

Integra glared at her vampire. He lifted an eyebrow. She knew what he was getting at. She just didn't want to admit it because she would lose the argument if she did. Still…he had a point.

"Very well. I might have done something similar in her place, but it wouldn't make me right."

"A weapon is forged by fire and hammer against an unforgiving anvil. It is honed against the rough grain of the whetstone. A similar process made you into the leader and master that you are, Sir Integra Fairbrooke Wingates Hellsing. Can you expect Jezebel to become anything comparable if she is sheltered and coddled until the day you drop Hellsing and me into her lap?"

Integra glared at her vampire as he gave her a low, mocking bow and melted through the floor of her office. Damn the infernal creature for having a point! But she couldn't leave Jezebel completely unguarded and free to traipse about the countryside on her own. Not with the number of enemies Hellsing had out there.

"Master? Can I say something?"

She'd almost forgotten that Seras was in the room. She gave the blond vampire a questioning look.

"I…I don't know what you were like before I joined Hellsing, but I know what you became. Jezzie is smart. Look at what she managed to accomplish tonight. It was wrong, but it was very, very smart. If…if she'd been on the hunt with us, she would have been where we could protect her and she could tell you immediately about Ethan's call. Technically, the same is true for when she was kidnapped. If she had been with us in Europe, they wouldn't have been able to take her."

"Seras, are you suggesting I bring a ten year old girl with me on vampire hunts?"

Seras bit her lip and looked away. Put that way, it seemed ridiculous, and yet, Jezebel was the heir to Hellsing. There was nothing normal about that. Trying to raise her like an ordinary child seemed to be a recipe for disaster.

"Well…yes. I suppose I am. She has to learn sometime. She's already shown that she's smart and resourceful. I was thinking of her as a normal kid, but she's not. Master has a good point. If you treat her like a normal human child, she may grow into a normal human adult and the responsibilities that you handle so well would crush a normal human."

Integra's shoulders slumped. Damn it, they both had a point. As a teen, the consequences for her screw ups had cost lives. Nothing had put her on the straight and narrow faster than having to tell the family of one of the Hellsing soldiers that their father, husband, brother or son had died because of a choice she had made. She didn't want Jezebel to have to experience that, but what would she have become without it?

"It's a lot to put on a child's shoulders."

Seras nodded and smiled. "You're right, but unlike you, she'll have someone there to help her shoulder the burden. She's already been through a lot and come out the other side intact. A little strange and distant sometimes, but intact. She didn't even try to lie about anything that happened tonight and she knew she was going to get in trouble. I could see it on her face."

"And when she didn't want to give up her phone, it wasn't for her own sake, but Ethan's." Integra nodded and a knot of worry seemed to unravel within her. "There will still be consequences for tonight, but you have a point and I will take it under consideration."

Seras smiled and nodded. That was the master she knew and loved. Sometimes rash and prone to fits of temper, but wise in her way with an inner strength and loyalty that no one could match.

A/N: Heh. Integra's been lucky so far. Jezebel's escapades have been relatively mild and the consequences clear cut, but raising a child is not really that easy, especially one that will grow into an adult with the strength of will to control Alucard and run Hellsing. And now she's getting lessons from her vampires. Poor Integra. :)