Alright, I have a few things to say. First, Happy belated Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. Second, I am soooo sorry it took me so long to update, but I've not been able to think of a single thing to write. I've made it longer than usual though in hopes of appeasing your appetites. And Lastly, I'm not sure if anyone actually knows what the date is or has a general idea of the date or how long Cat has been at Hellsing. I've sometimes left context clues about what month it is, but just to clear it all up right now Cat arrived at Hellsing on May 1st and it is now October 15 in this chapter. I hope you all enjoy and I will try to get another chapter up much sooner this time!
Ever Yours
Sara

Sir Hunton

Cats eyes fluttered opened to the sound of chirping birds and honking cars. She shivered and pulled the covers up to her chin as a cold draft of air blew in through the window.

"It was so warm last night and now it's freezing!" she quickly jumped out of bed and slammed the window before anymore icy air could get through, "I hate the winter, it's so dreadful."

It was still fairly early so she stood next to the bed trying to decide if she wanted to go back to sleep for a few hours or just give up on laziness and go out. After a while she decided she had been mindlessly standing too long anyway so she headed to the bathroom for a shower.

While she was in the shower she thought she heard the doorbell, but no one ever came to the house so she shrugged and finished washing her hair. When she got out of the shower she swore she heard voices in the hall, but she assumed this was her imagination because no one ever had a reason to be in the hall and the only person who would ever be there at all would be alone and silent. She left the bathroom and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. After she secured her hair into a high ponytail she left the room and headed down the hall towards the stairs. When she turned the corner for the second set of stairs she ran into the last person she would have expected.

"Sir Hunton?" she stopped short as the man who had been descending the stairs turned around in surprise.

"Oh hello Katherine! They told me you were still sleeping. I was just on my way back downstairs to wait in the library," he walked back up the stairs and stood on a lower one so they were at the same height.

"Wait for what?" Cat raised one eyebrow.

"For you of course. I came to spend the day here and look around. I'll be living here soon you know. I thought that Integra would show be around, but she seems to be very busy and I was shoed away rather quickly. She told me to go bother you until at least two o'clock," his face fell slightly.

"Oh, I'm sure she didn't mean it. I mean, she is very busy, but she doesn't mean to brush you off so. She's just new to all of this dating stuff. It isn't even dating really, more like courting with an unavoidable end," Sir Hunton now raised his eyebrow at her, "I'm sorry I don't mean it like it's bad. She's just a different kind of woman from all the rest. You understand right?"

"Yes, I suppose I do. The Queen warned me about her, but I was excited none the less. Are you hungry? I make a mean omelet," he winked and ushered her down stairs to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen Cat sat down at one of the tall center counters and rested her chin on the cold marble.

"How do you take it?" Sir Hunton pulled opened the door to one of the large refrigerators.

"A lot of vegetables and some cheese and some bacon," her stomach grumbled in response to the thought of food, "and a diced tomato on top after it's done so it's cold."

"Just what I love, a girl who knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to ask," he pulled a carton of eggs from the fridge and started balancing ingredients on top.

"Is that why you like Integra?" Cat stretched her arm out on the counter and rested her head on it. She liked Sir Hunton, but she had not expected to be spending the day with him and was a bit put off by so much talking in the early morning.

"Yes, that's one reason. Not the only one though of course," he finished piling ingredients into his arms and carried them across the kitchen to the chopping counter.

"What other reasons are there?" Cat closed her eyes dreamily.

"Do I sense sarcasm?" Sir Hunton turned around and raised an eyebrow at her, but she did not see.

"None what so ever, I'm just making conversation," she rolled her eyes behind their lids and waited for him to answer.

"Well I don't know. There are a lot of things I suppose. Of course I'm attracted to her and I respect her for her accomplishments. I'm older you see, and to find someone who is still young, but has all the appeal of an older and wiser woman is delightful," he dumped a handful of chopped vegetables into a pan and they began to sizzle.

Cat scoffed at his ignorant remark.

"What is it?" he looked at her curiously.

"I hope you haven't said that to her. No women no matter how accomplished or smart wants to hear that they 'have all the appeal of an older women' it just isn't flattering," she gave up on napping on the counter and went to the fridge for a glass of milk.

"No, I haven't said much to her at all actually. I'm planning to take her to dinner tonight whether she wants to go or not. You'll have the house completely to your self. I've told Walter of my plan and he decided that it was time for him to take a night off as well."

Cat stood by the fridge sipping the milk and thinking of what he had just said. Having the house to herself might be nice. She could snoop around in the library without anyone disturbing her and she could even run through the halls screaming. She had been feeling very cooped up ever since the last mission. Integra had not sent her out at all for fear she was still traumatized by what had happened, but the fact of the matter was that she felt better than ever. She had slept off the initial shock of it all and that was that. She did not need to mourn and feel apathetic for days, it just was a waste of time. An empty house would be absolutely perfect.

"Cat?" Sir Hunton stood with the frying pan staring at her.

"Huh?" she snapped back to attention.

"Will you hand me the plate behind you?" he looked at her expectantly.

"Oh, right sorry," she grabbed the plate off the counter by the fridge and quickly carried it to the center bar so he could dump the omelet onto it.

"What were you thinking of? You looked like you were completely somewhere else," he slid the plate over to her chair and began putting utensils into the sink.

"Um, nothing I guess. I don't know I was just thinking," she took a bite of eggs and sighed.

"So how are you and your boyfriend doing?" Sir Hunton sat down across from her and smiled.

Cat nearly choked on the eggs and sputtered a mouthful back onto her plate, "What?!"

"Your boyfriend, how is he. Lucian I think his name was? Or was it Colin? I can't remember I'm getting old," Cat stared at him as he spoke. He looked completely serious.

"Lucian and Colin are two different people and neither one of them is my boyfriend. I don't think I said anything about either of them the one time I spoke to you so how do you even know about them?" Cat cautiously took a sip of milk.

"Oh…well, Alucard was telling me I should ask you about it. I guess I should have known to be more suspicious. I'm sorry if I offended you," he twisted his hands together and looked down at the table.

"It's fine I wasn't offended just a little shocked is all. Alucard was still awake when you got here?" she stabbed another bite of egg with her fork.

"No actually he came to see me last night around ten. It was his idea for me to come by today and spend the day here and take Integra to dinner. He said I should bond with you as well," Sir Hunton looked slightly less embarrassed.

"Bond with me? What else did he say exactly," Cat began to eat faster. She wanted to get the morning and afternoon over with soon so she could search in the library.

"First he said that Integra would enjoy spending the day with me and that she had been thinking about it a lot. I found out that was not true when I got here and she shoed me away. After that he said I must make you like me and that it took a lot for you to like someone and if you didn't like me then Integra would not think very much of me and it would be all the harder for me to live here with two women who weren't fond of me. Then he listed things I should talk about and ask both of you and said it would surely win your hearts," he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Wow, that's…wow," Cat chewed thoughtfully, "Well, just forget everything he said to you and if he ever says anything to you again just nod and agree and then ignore it. You really can't trust anything he says about those sorts of things. You needn't worry about getting me to like you and I'm sure Integra could care less if I like you. It wouldn't affect how she feels. Taking her out to dinner is fine I'm sure she'll enjoy it, but whatever you do don't say any of the things Alucard told you. I'm sure they are all things that would severely get under her skin. Stick to whatever it is people talk about when they go out on dates," she took the last bite of egg and downed the rest of her milk, "That was really good Sir Hunton thank you."

"Oh please stop calling me that! It's Alex, just plain Alex and I won't tolerate anything else," he plucked her plate from the counter and carried it to the sink.

"Okay okay I'll try," as she got up to pour another glass of milk the kitchen doors swung opened loudly and Lucian came running in. As soon as he saw Alex he skidded to a stop and snapped to attention.

"Lieutenant General Sir!"

"At ease soldier," Alex saluted him with a dish towel in his hand.

"Permission to speak with Miss Katherine, Sir!" Lucian still stood with his head held up and without looking at anyone.

"Permission granted soldier," Alex waved the dish rag absently and did not bother turning around. After all the complaining about his name Cat figured he was only humoring Lucian.

"Will you come out into the hall with me for a second?" Lucian finally relaxed his stance and looked at Cat impatiently.

"Yeah sure," she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously and followed him out through the kitchen doors and slightly down the hall to the right. She laughed to herself a little when she remembered this was the way she had taken when she had explored on her first day in the mansion.

Lucian stopped abruptly and turned around to face her, "Okay! I don't know if you're going to go for this, but I'm going to ask you anyway." He took a breath ready to ask whatever it was he was so excited about, but then stopped, "Hello by the way. I haven't talked to you let alone seen you in ages. Where have you been?"

"I haven't the slightest idea. I live in the same house that you're at every day. It's been nearly three months which is completely pathetic. I don't count seeing you in the halls and waving either," she smiled widely at him and he laughed.

"You need to get a cell phone! You're probably the only girl I know that doesn't have one," he bent over and hugged her.

"Yeah I guess I do, but I don't know who I would call," she hugged him back with one arm and balanced her milk carefully with the other.

He let go of her and gave her a false look of hurt, "Me of course. So anyway, what I wanted to ask you…"

"Yeah spit it out already you're making me anxious," she gulped down the glass of milk quickly just in case whatever he was going to say made her lose her interest in ingesting anything.

"Well, Integra is going to be gone tonight right? And Walter is going out too since there won't really be any need for him here. So Pip got the idea that we could maybe have a little party," he looked at her expectantly.

"Uh, okay…why are you asking me?" she looked at him like he was weird.

"Pip said we had to. He said that since Integra was leaving Walter would be in charge and since Walter is leaving charge falls to you. So it's up to you if we go through with it or not," he clasped his hands together and put them under his chin like a praying child.

"That doesn't even make any sense! Wouldn't the charge fall to Ferguson?" Cat shifted from one foot to the other.

"No, he's in charge of the Special Forces not of the house. Common just give me an answer so I can go back and tell them. We have to start planning now if we're going to pull it off," he started to hop up and down like an excited kid.

"Whatever, I don't care," before she could say another word he was picking her up and hugging her violently. "Okay okay! That's enough of that," he set her down and she rubbed her squashed arms. "Are you having it inside the house?"

"Yeah, its going to be in the back yard and we're going to open the back doors so people can go into the sun room and the foyer and stuff," before he had finished talking he was already walking back down the hall.

"Just don't mess anything up Lucian!" she called after him.

"Shhhh! You have to keep it quiet. If anyone finds out we're dead meat!" he walked sideways past the kitchen door so Alex could not see his face and he help his finger to his lips.

"Yeah whatever…." Cat rolled her eyes at his back and stood looking out the windows that faced the street. She wondered if she should try and get a hold of Colin and ask him to come. There would probably be enough people so that Lucian would not notice.

"Cat?" Alex pushed opened the kitchen doors and peaked into the hall.

Cat jumped a little, "Yeah, I'm finished."

"Is everything all right? That seemed urgent," he strolled down the hall with his hands in his pockets. Cat thought he might be trying to look cool.

"It wasn't. You know boys, they're always so dramatic," she skirted around him and went back into the kitchen to put her cup in the sink. He had washed all of the dishes by hand and put them in the vegetable rack rather than just put them in the dishwasher. She stopped for a minute before she went out the door trying to think of some things she could show him that would take up a sufficient amount of time. The only thing she could think of was the library and the shooting range. It probably would not be a good idea to take him down the halls she had first explored.

"Are you ready to go?" Alex popped his head through the kitchen door.

"Yeah, where are we going?" maybe she could just rely on him to waste time.

"Oh, I don't know I just meant 'go' as a general word. Don't you have some good ideas for a tour?" he smiled and held the door for her.

"No, I've never really had to show anyone around and I haven't even explored that much my self. I guess I could show you the elevator," Cat began to walk to the stair case that did not lead to the elevator.

"I didn't know there was an elevator. Why doesn't anyone ever use it?" he followed her excitedly.

"I don't know I guess it's for emergencies? Walter only took me on it once. I hope I can find it," at the top of the stairs she turned away from the direction the elevator was in and started tapping the walls.

Over the next hour and a half Cat passed by the elevator at least four times. She made casual conversation to pass the time and acted like she had no idea where the elevator was. She even sat down at the end of the hall where the elevator was located and chatted for another half hour, acting like she was tired from searching. She finally got bored and when the reached the spot where the elevator was she dramatically kicked the wall in false frustration and it quickly swung opened.

"Well would you look at that! We must have passed here three or four times! I guess you just weren't tapping hard enough, huh?" Alex peaked into the elevator and laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so. Lets see if it goes anywhere else besides down," Cat stepped into the elevator and waited for Alex to situate himself safely in the middle before she hit an arrow that was pointing left rather than up or down.

The elevator sped off to the left causing Alex and Cat to stumble sideways.

"Is it supposed to be going this fast?" Alex kept a steady hand on one of the elevators wooden panels in case they were jolted again.

"I guess so. This is how fast it went when Walter took me downstairs," Cat studied the other buttons. There was an up and down arrow and a left and right arrow. There was also a red button with a hand with its palm out that Cat assumed meant stop. Below that there was a green button with a thumbs up hand on it and next to it was a yellow button with a picture of a stair case. On the other side of the thumbs up button there was another yellow button with a widely grinning smiley face and below the thumbs up button there was a white button with an ambulance. Before Cat could decide which one she wanted to push the elevator came to a terribly quick stop and they were throw into the wall opposite of them.

"Well it gets you around fast enough," Alex brushed off the sawdust that had been knocked loose from the elevators flimsy frame and onto his pants.

"Push the wall and see where we've gone," Cat tussled her own hair to be sure no sawdust had gotten into it.

Alex pushed the wall in front of them and it swung opened easily. They both peaked out to see where they were and found they were still in a hallway only they seemed to be facing another direction.

"Did you feel us turn at all?" Cat looked up and down the hall curiously, but she could not see any turns around.

"No, I didn't. I didn't even know elevators went sideways. Nothing functions normally in this house," he stepped back in the elevator and surveyed the buttons, "Why don't we push the up one and then push a sideways one before we've stopped?"

"Do you think it will let us?" Cat stepped back inside the elevator as well and looked at him skeptically.

"There's only one way to find out," he pushed the up button and they shot upwards for one moment, but stopped again very quickly.

"I think we're as up as we can go," she pushed the wall again and it popped opened with a creak. She looked out into the hall and found it to be a very short one that ended with a wall instead of a turn. It was very dusty and dirty and smelled a bit like mold.

"I guess this is the attic or something?" Alex waved his hand in front of his face as if the smell was overwhelming.

"Okay, well let's try down and to the right then since we've already stopped going left," she stepped back inside and braced herself for the quick movements the elevator made.

Alex pressed the down button and counted to two before he hit the arrow pointing right. Cat screamed as they changed directions almost instantly and she fell onto the elevator floor.

"Are you alright!" Alex leaned down to pick her up, but she started to laugh.

"Hit the up button again!" she rocked forward so she was on her hands and knees and sat down like a dog so she would be more stable.

Alex followed suit then reached up and mashed the up button. They quickly changed direction once again and Cat hollered for him to hit the left button once again.

After they went as far as they could left they began the process of going up and down and sideways in the other direction until they went as far as they could that way. They repeated this process for the next hour until they became quite tired from keeping their balance and collapsed laughing onto the elevator floor. After a half hour of spontaneous giggles and reminiscing on what had only just gone on they finally stood up and pushed against the wall to see where they were.

"You know it really doesn't matter if we look out to see where we've gone. Every single hall in this place looks the same. The only way to know what floor you're on is to make sure you know what floor you've started off at and keep tack of how many times you've gone up or down. It's really ridiculous I think," Cat stood in the middle of the hall and looked back and forth until she was satisfied that it would not help her decide which floor she was on.

"You could go into one of the rooms and look out a window," Alex tugged on a door that was directly in front of the elevator, but it was securely locked.

"You'll find most of them like that I'm betting. One day I explored at least five hallways and each door was locked and when one wasn't locked it was only an empty room or one with covered furniture. If Hellsing ever goes out of business Integra could always open up a hotel. We could give rides on the elevator for extra and do haunted tours where Alucard would jump out from behind things and scare people," Cat laughed at the stupid idea and got back into the elevator.

"Should we just go to the very bottom now and get off where it leaves us?" Alex got back in as well and pulled the edge of the wall hard so that it would swing shut.

"We still haven't pushed some buttons though," Cat mashed the right arrow button without waiting for Alex to be situated and then before they had gone far at all she pushed the stop button. They stopped so quickly that they were both flung into the side of the elevator and fell down to the floor in a pile.

"Wasn't it a bit obvious what that one was going to do?" Alex rubbed his shoulder where it had hit the wall and stumbled to his feet.

"I suppose so, but we still had to push it. Do you think the thumbs up makes us go faster? Or maybe the smiley face does that," Cat pushed the left arrow this time to be sure they had enough time to push another button before they came to the end of the mansion. She hesitated for a moment and then pushed the thumbs up button. As she had guessed it made them go faster and when they reached the end they were stopped almost as violently as the stop button had done.

"What on earth could the smile be for?" Alex sat down on the floor of the elevator while Cat pushed the right arrow. She waited a few seconds and then hit the smiley face button.

"I don't think anything happened," Alex looked around the elevator to see if anything in it had changed.

"Maybe it's broken?" Cat looked at the button and was getting ready to press it again when the elevator suddenly shot upwards.

Cat fell onto the floor next to Alex and before she could situate herself the elevator jerked to the left and then up once again in one quick movement. It traveled up for no more than two seconds before it abruptly stopped once again.

"Well, that was interesting," Alex stood up and helped Cat to her feet.

Cat reached forward and pushed on the wall. It slowly swung opened revealing what the smiley face had to hide, "This is the same dirty attic room we came to before!" Cat frowned and stepped out into the short dirty hallway.

"Maybe there's something behind one of the door? Let's try them all shall we?" Alex walked to the end of the hall and pulled on one of the doors. Cat stood and watched as he made his way back to the elevator, trying three more doors on his way, "Aren't you going to help?"

Cat stepped forward and pulled on the door that was in front of the elevator. With a popping sound and a creak it came opened easily.

"Hm, beginners luck," he pushed the door opened further and went inside.

Cat followed after him and looked around, "Wow, it's like an old tea room."

Alex went across the room and pulled opened the curtains so the sun could get in.

"Wow! It's gorgeous! It's a little dusty and gross, but wow. It's all Victorian style, you wouldn't even be able to tell that it was modern if you didn't know," Cat walked around the room brushing dust off different things and surveying the trinkets that were on the small coffee tables and burrow.

"Maybe it is Victorian. It looks like it's been sitting alone for that long anyway. I wonder if Integra knows about it," Alex went over to what looked like a brown dresser with white paneling and wiped a finger across it, "Hey look at this. This is a glass door bookcase. There's so much dust it looks solid."

Cat skipped across the room and began to look for a knob to open the bookcase doors.

Alex brushed off some more dust and found a small knob that was covered in so much dust it was nearly invisible, "Here it is." He pulled on the knob and the door popped opened to reveal rows of books inside that looked as clean as they were the day they were printed.

Cat started going over the titles of all the books and found she did not recognize any in the first row or in the second row. She came to the third row and saw it contained Wuthering Heights, but that was all she knew.

"It looks like this was a ladies study," Alex went around to the sofa and patted it so a cloud of dust rose up into the air.

"How do you know," Cat continued skimming though the books and opened the middle door to the bookcase.

"The way it's decorated and all those books are ones you would find women reading more often than men," he looked down at his watch and saw that it had already gotten quite late in the afternoon, "Come along, I have to meet Integra at her office at four and it's already half past three."

Cat shut the book case so none of the dust could get inside and walked out of the room reluctantly. After Alex closed the door and they were back in the elevator she sighed, "Will you promise not to tell Integra about that room just yet? I should like to explore in it some more and I'm afraid if you say something about it it may turn out to be something she is hiding or maybe something she doesn't want anyone to disturb."

"I suppose I could keep it a secret," he pushed the down arrow and the elevator plummeted downwards at a dizzying rate.

"Don't tell her we've bee using the elevator either. I don't think we're supposed to be playing on it like this," she looked at his face to be sure she could trust him and was satisfied by his sincere nod.

After a moment the elevator stopped suddenly and they pushed the wall to see where it had set them down, "Well look at that." Alex stepped out and Cat followed him to find they were in the front foyer.

"That's convenient. This is where it set me and Walter when he took me in it the first time. I wonder if it does it on purpose," Cat pushed the wall shut and listened to see if the elevator would go back up to where it started.

"You say it as though it has a mind of its own," he straightened the blazer he was wearing and pulled a tie out of his pocket and began to fasten it around his neck.

"How late do you think you'll be out with Integra?" Cat asked slyly.

"Oh I don't know. I'm going to take her to drinks and then we'll be off to dinner and then perhaps dessert and maybe for a drive afterwards? What do you think?" he shimmied the knot of the tie up to his neck and adjusted it around his collar.

"Have you thought about taking her to the museum? I would say take her dancing, but I'm sure she would be appalled. She's more the museum type and I think they have some sort of exhibit going on now," Cat fidgeted with her feet, ready to leave and find Lucian so he could tell her more about the party.

"That is actually an incredibly good idea and I don't think I would have ever thought of it. In fact if she had not fancied a drive I would have suggested dancing. You are very handy indeed aren't you?" he patted the side of her head and then headed up the stairs and down the hall to Integra's office.

"Finally!" Cat turned and went out through the back door and ran towards the soldiers barracks. She enjoyed Sir Hunton very much, but she was glad to be away from him and was excited to see what kind of party it was that Pip and Lucian were so eagerly planning.

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