-:- Subject 13's Butler -:-
.:A Kuroshitsuji Fan Fiction:.

Author: AoUsagi

Summary: Ciel takes the leap into Oblivion, only to wake into a strange white-washed world of beeping machines and white-coats doctors. The only thing that seems real is Sebastian, who steals him away from the hellhole laboratory to save him from the sick sake of science.

BeforeNote:

Well hello there everyone. I am assuming of course that there's still people reading this story. Of course, if there aren't, it only fuels my theory that I am alone in this universe with nothing but a laptop and the imagination to write this particular tale. But where did this laptop come from? Who made it? Designed it? Filled it with all the little worky parts that make it tick?

Oh no, wait. There's my mother. I am not alone after all.

Which means you must be here too. Welcome in, come in, come in, have yourself some tea and a jolly fancy time. Please read, please enjoy, and please oh please, do review as well.

- Mercy

The reason this chapter is quite shorter than usual is because I struggled to get a start on it for a long time, and when I finally did figure out where it began I was at work. Luckily, it was extremely quiet in the shop I was working in (a side store to our main shoe shop), and so I was able to spend most of my time writing it when I wasn't being nice to customers about shoes they wouldn't buy and talking to one of the most fabulous people on this earth via text and facebook. I adore this guy. So this chapter, even though he knows relatively nothing about Black Butler, but has always been supportive of everything I do even if it's drunk texting him at 11 at night, is dedicated to the one and only redradrussian. He's a badass.


Chapter Forty-Eight: Turned Tables

-:-

This was not how Ciel had imaged a reunion. Especially with her.

"Sebastian, Sebastian, I can't stop the bleeding, help me!" Mey-Rin was gasping for breath, her eyes welling up with tears.

Sebastian was kneeling next to her, his long pale hands lathered in the dark red that coated Ciel's own fingers, the warm wetness of if making his stomach do flip-flops.

"Just keep breathing. Breathe. You can do this," the doctor was saying through gritted teeth, before he looked over his shoulder. "Finni, the freezer – get us some ice!"

Ciel was almost in a sort of a daze; he'd never seen so much blood or such an injury. A bullet hole ripped through the skin and tearing the flesh, the angry redness of the skin around the wound and the blood that stained the clothes. He himself was busy, though he felt numb – Sebastian had given him a thick towel, told him to wrap up the bundle that had been passed off to him in the frenzy of action and keep her quiet. Occasionally the girl in his arms spasmed, as if in fits of a dream that she hadn't truly escaped from, but her eyes stared open and blankly around the room, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

"Lizzie," Ciel murmured, finding himself gently holding her closer, close enough he could hear the tiny whimpers escaping with each of her shaky breaths. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how this had happened.

-:-

They had first been alerted by the sound of the beeping car horn as the landrover had come speeding up the long, winding driveway. Sebastian had been on his feet immediately, Mey-Rin and Ciel shooting to their feet alongside him, their daisy-chains forgotten as they made a dash for the beach house. Already Bard and Finni were pulling out weapons and making ready for an attack – but then Pluto's yelling could be heard – the car came grinding to a halt, and Pluto emerged from behind the car, where he'd followed it at a run – immediately he went for the drivers door, yanking it open and reaching in to help the driver out. Sebastian and Bardroy were out the front door and dashing towards them – words were yelled and words were spoken in hushed voices, but when Ciel had gone to follow, Finni had held him back. Sebastian and Pluto rushed past them, supporting the driver between them, and Bard strode in after them; he was carrying in the other occupant of the car in his arms – and that's when Ciel's heart had caught in his throat; he hadn't recognized the driver at first because of the low hat that covered her hair or the long brown trenchcoat that hid her figure – but the girl in Bardroy's arms was unmistakable – Ciel would be able to tell that mop of blonde curls anywhere.

"Elizabeth!"

"What's happened?" Finni and Mey-Rin were ready to leap into action as Pluto lowered the driver – Paula Landsdale – down on the carpet of the living room; he grabbed one of the couch's cushions to prop up Paula's feet.

"She's been shot, twice – " Sebastian replied as he breezed past them, an armload of towels in hand. He looked to Mey-Rin. "First aid kits from the medicine cabinet upstairs. Now." Then to Finni, "Fill the bath tub with warm water. Smelling salts are in my room. Go." The two of them darted off, both heading for the stairs. Ciel was staring numbly at Lizzie in Bard's arms.

"Is she...is she..." Bard noticed his swallowed attempts at a brave face and gave him a grim smile.

"Yeah, she's all right" the blonde doctor lowered his arms so Ciel could see, before he crouched down. "Sebastian's probably gonna need me for a while – how would you like to hold onto her and just keep her quiet?"

Before Ciel could refuse, Bard was bundling Lizzie up and into his arms – he knelt down to fully support her, and Bardroy wrapped a large towel around her shoulders before moving off to help Sebastian and Pluto as they set to work on Paula.

Of course. That was how this had all started.

Now, Finni was back with a couple of ice packs and Bardroy was already packing them around Paula's limp form, moving carefully around Sebastian as he performed an emergency surgery in an attempt to remove the second bullet that had lodged itself in Paula's side. Mey-Rin had shuffled back and out of the way, and was washing off her hands in the sink in the kitchen. The entire ground floor of the beach house looked like slap-dash operating theatre; there was blood staining the carpet and bloodied towels strewn across the tiled floor. Bloody handprints on the sink taps and trails of red leading down the drain. Three first aid kits lay scattered around Sebastian as he worked, Pluto right at his side handing him whatever he called for. There was a medical bag of Sebastian's at his side, too, open and with several articles of its contents already laying about haphazardly – a small pocket case of surgical scissors and scalpels, a couple of magnifying glasses on long thin metal rods and a few pairs or tweezers. A roll of stitching wire, too, lay close by. Finni and Mey-Rin were busy at work again; they'd dug out from a freezer case in the garage a hand ful of IV bags; unfolding the metal stands that stood next to the chest freezer and uncoiled the drip-tubes and were setting up a stand with a couple of the bags of clear liquid, making ready for the time when Sebastian ordered them to administer the drip via a cathater into the crease of Paula's elbow.

All of this, Ciel watched from across the floor, still nearly and holding the catatonic Lizzie in his arms. She murmured and mumbled occasionally, and sometimes her eyes were shift their focus from one thing to another in rapid succession, but then she'd return to staring blankly out at nothing at all. He found himself rubbing her arm gently, trying to bring an element of comfort to her. How had she ended up like this? What had happened to Paula that she felt the need to try and remove Lizzie from the coma treatment?

"Ciel?"

He was brought out of his daze by Mey-Rin, who came to kneel beside him.

"Yes?"

"Come on; Sebastian had Finni ready a bath for Elizabeth – he thinks it might help bring her out of the shock." she murmured, and she gingerly took the catatonic girl from his arms. "Might be easier if I carry her, but you should come and stay with her a while, it might help her gain a sense of place again."

Numbly, he followed Mey-Rin upstairs to the bathroom, where the bath had tendrils of warm steam rising lazily from the water's surface. Carefully, Mey-Rin peeled the articles of clothing off Lizzie until she was in nothing but the medical gown she'd been immersed in, and then she lowered her gently into the tub.

It seemed to gain Elizabeth's attention – at first, she just looked around her, before looking down at the water. She raised a hand, giving the water an experimental slap. Mey-Rin was speaking softly too her, quieting her and easing her down until she was mostly lying back with her head resting against the edge of the tub. The girl gazed up at the ceiling, rolling her head from side to side every so often. Mey-Rin stood back to join Ciel.

"How will we know if she's all right?"

"I don't know," Mey-Rin admitted softly. "But right now all we can do is hope."

There was a shout from downstairs, Sebastian's voice, Ciel recognized – calling for someone to get him something. Mey-Rin sighed. "I'd better go back down and see what more I can do. You stay here, all right? Stay with her and make sure her head stays above water."

Ciel nodded, and as Mey-Rin left he stepped closer to the bathtub, kneeling down next to it. Lizzie turned her glassy-eyed gaze to him, and it was as if a small light had lit up behind her dull eyes.

"C-Cie..l..?"

"Hi Lizzie," he murmured, taking a deep breath. "How do you feel?"

A look of confusion past over the girl's face, like she didn't understand what she was seeing. She opened her mouth, but the words couldn't seem to get passed her lips.

"Sssh, it's okay," Ciel stroked the back of her head, feeling a little awkward. "You're going to be okay. We'll look after you now."

Suddenly, her porcelain features seemed to crumple, and big fat tears welled up around her eyes, dripping from them like she had no control to try and stop them. Before Ciel could even realize what was happening, Elizabeth was wailing uncontrollably, gasping and howling like her very soul was being torn in two.

"He-hey, hey! It's all right, Elizabeth! It's okay, hush, you're all right – " Ciel's attempts to quiet her were in vain, and eventually he sat up on the edge of the tub and leant over to give her an awkward hug – if there was anything Sebastian had taught him, by example of course, on how to attempt to comfort and settle a distressed child, it was through embrace. So with his heads gently on her shoulders and her head laid against his side, Ciel hushed her as best he could – suddenly, she pulled her arms up and out of the water, turning and wrapping them around his waist – the sudden splash of water made him nearly yelp, but he sighed and accepted the returned hug as Lizzie continued to bawl her eyes out, her face buried into his stomach.

"You okay up here?" Finni had appeared in the doorway, and Ciel half turned to give him a nod.

"I think so," he replied, and Finni sighed with relief.

"Gosh, I'm glad – we all went stone still when we heard the wailing start, we thought something bad had happened." the blonde said, a weary smile on his face. "Sebastian's almost finished patching up Paula downstairs, he says she's not out of the woods yet, but she has a good chance of recovery."

Ciel nodded again, then looked down at Elizabeth, whose sobs had quietened down to near-silent crying and the occasional hiccup. A thought struck him. "Hey Finni, how did they find us here?"

Finni paused in his turn to leave. "Remember when we first arrived here, and Sebastian said we were able to stay here because of a favour someone owed him?" Ciel nodded, thinking back to the day they'd arrived on the beach houses' front door step. "Well the Dr Landsdale's family own this property, and it was left to her in her parents will when they died, and I guess you'll have to ask Sebastian for the details, but something happened and Dr Landsdale felt she owed him something in return, so she told him if ever he needed a safe house, he could come here."

"Oh," Ciel wouldn't have guessed that Paula would have been the one to own this place, of all people. From what he could remember of her from his past life, she had been an almost insignificant figure, but always there, always by Lizzie's side. "I see."

"Well, if you need anything," Finni said, "Just give us a shout," and then he disappeared, back downstairs to help the others. Ciel nodded to no one inparticular, still absently running his hands over Lizzie's hair, which was wiry and oily to the touch – no doubt from the liquid used in the isolation tanks – but it seemed to have calmed her to a point where she was no longer crying. He could feel a soft breeze through the window, and felt a chill run down his spine when his now thoroughly sodden shirt pressed against the skin of his back. In the aftermath of the sudden action, he felt strangely calm, oddly peaceful. And when he looked down to check on Elizabeth, he was hardly surprised to see she'd fallen asleep in with her head in his lap.

-:-

"This." Bardroy said as he proudly held up the bullet Sebastian had removed from Paula's wound. "Is a nasty bugger. Nine millimetre's might be a pretty standard bullet, and to be honest I really expected more from Karnstein thugs and security, but it's still a nasty bugger all the same."

"It's hardly anything we didn't know already," Sebastian sighed as he stepped past him, breaking his moment of pride. "After all, you were the one who removed a bullet of the exact same calibre from my shoulder not so long ago, if you remember."

Bard rolled his eyes as he set the bullet down on the kitchen bench. "Yeah, true." Sebastian, however was in the process of cleaning the blood off the surgical equipment he'd been using to operate on Paula at the kitchen sink, which was full of hot water and dishwashing liquid. He cast a look over to Mey-Rin, who was kneeling next to Paula, whom they'd lifted carefully onto the couch. She was dabbing a cool wet cloth over the Keeper's forehead, and Paula gave her a weak smile in thanks. It was incredible that Landsdale was still breathing, let alone conscious. Soon he'd have to give her another dose of the anaesthetic he'd administered for the emergency operation, to keep the pain at bay. They'd have to wait to hear her story, though – she was clearly in no fit state to recount what had lead to such a wound. Not yet, anyhow. If she pulled through the night, come what may in the morning.

"How's Ciel doing upstairs?" he asked over his shoulder, and Finni piped up as he carried an armload of towels fresh out of the washing machine, now clean of bloodstains.

"He's been keeping Elizabeth quiet upstairs for a while now, and once she seemed to regain more sense of her surroundings we moved her up into the bottom bunk of one of the beds up there. He's still with her now." The blonde replied, and Sebastian nodded.

"Good. I was hoping he'd be able to handle this."

"I think he'll do just fine, yes I do," Mey-Rin appeared at his elbow with a smile as she dipped the cloth she was carrying back under the running tap for a moment. "It doesn't matter that they might not have known each other much outside the experiments; he cares for her so much all the same."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Bardroy called from by the front door. "But there's someone 'ere to see you, Sebastian."

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder, caught the serious look in Bard's eye, and nodded. He knew exactly who it was. Briskly, he dried his hands on a tea towel and excused himself, giving Paula a reassuring smile on his way past. The afternoon was beginning to wane, and the long shadows were beginning to stretch across the front of the driveway. At the edge where the parking area grew narrow into the gravel driverway itself, Grell Sutcliff was waiting for him.

"Something exciting happen today, Bassy dear?" the redhead cooed as he admired his polished nails. Sebastian narrowed his eyes.

"You know exactly what happened."

"Only some of it, I swear!" the agent looked genuinely offended. "I mean, you can't honestly expect me to not notice some of the goings on on the main highway...especially when there appears to be a chase of some sort."

"What happened to those pursuing Paula Landsdale?" Sebastian asked, keeping his voice low. "Did you intervene?"

"Whatever gives you that impression?"

He gathered as much patience as he could, before taking a breath. "Because if there hadn't been interference, then how did she get here without being followed?"

Grell's flirty smirk died for a moment before resurrected itself with an evil flare. "Well. Now you bring it up, there was a few people I took care of today..."

"Took care of?"

"In the most humane way possible, darling. Honest."

It took Sebastian a second to catch the hint of sarcasm in the Dispatch agent's voice. "How did those men die?"

The redhead cocked his brow and shifted from one hip to the other. "I don't know. Maybe they died after their tyres were punctured and they drove straight off a cliff in an out-of-control vehicle. Maybe they didn't."

"You realize if anyone finds their remains a forensics report of the vehicle can identify the weapon you used and bring all manner of hell down upon you, right?"

Grell shrugged. "You realize if you're a great shot, you can hit the road and the amount of chipped tarmac and flak produced can do the same sort of job a bullet can?"

"There's no way you could have pulled that off, not with your gun arm in a cast." Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the heavy white cast that Grell bore, and the agent snorted.

"Didn't I just say I was a great shot?"

"You got lucky."

"I did not!"

Sebastian sighed. "Look, thank you for taking care of things. It's appreciated – we might've lost Paula if we'd had to take care of things ourselves."

"No hassle; now I know where you're hiding out I might actually be of more use to you," Grell replied, and he raised his hands in a defensive gesture when Sebastian raised another eyebrow. "Hey calm down it's not like I'm going to tattle to Will or anything – just upholding my end of the bargain, that's all. You do me a solid, I do you one."

"There hasn't been an awful lot we've done so far to earn such help, but it's appreciated nonetheless," Sebastian nodded in thanks, before stepping in and giving Grell a brief Judas Kiss.

"Just means you owe me one," the redhead breathed with a smile. "Anyhoo, you know my number, Bassy, don't forget to call."

With that, he turned and began to stride down the driveway, waving over his shoulder until he'd disappeared from view. Sebastian waited until he heard the rumble of an engine start and take off, before heading back inside. The others were finishing cleaning up the last of the mess caused by the chaos from earlier, and as Sebastian moved by the couch, he felt weak fingers grasp at his jeans.

"Paula,"

"Sebastian," she whispered as he knelt down to take her hand gently. "Where's...where's Lizzie...?"

"She's safe, Ciel's keeping her company upstairs,"

"Oh, Ciel...brave boy," the Keeper murmured. "S-something went...wrong...when we were r-removing her from the tank...I was so scared, Sebastian – I just...I just ran, I didn't know what to do..."

"Shh, hush," Sebastian said gently. "Just rest for now, let us take care of things. We'll see what we can do about Elizabeth, and we'll keep a close eye on you until you're well on the road to recovery. Don't you worry."

Paula's eyelids fluttered, and she shook herself a little, trying to stay awake. "I just...just want...all this to be over..."

Sebastian sighed and stroked her perspiring brow, gingerly brushing a stray lock of sweat-dampened hair away. "One day it will be," he offered in a whisper as she let herself fall into unconsciousness. "One day it will."

-:-

"Say that again?"

"Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford. From Oxford."

Ciel nodded with a sigh. "I thought that was what you said."

Lizzie gave him a pout. "And you're not my fiance."

He looked up. "W-what?"

The blonde girl had finally begun to speak; she was sitting up in bed looking around at everything in wonder, and Ciel had sat with her the entire time as she had slowly emerged from a catatonic state. Now, she was in denial. At least, that was as much as he could gather.

"My Ciel died. He passed away on the thirteenth of August, Eighteen-Eighty-Nine." She proclaimed, and Ciel wanted to bury his face in his hands. This was definitely going to be harder than he thought. Was this really what it was like for the others when he'd just woken up? It seemed like an eternity ago.

"Lizzie, please just listen to me, I didn't actually die..." he began again, but there was a hard slash to the blonde girls brow.

"Then you lied! And my Ciel would never lie to me!" she looked almost as if she was about to start crying again, but her deteremination to stay mad and indignant won out.

"...No, I mean, well, sort of, yes, but Lizzie – " stumbling over his words was not the way to go about this, apparently. The more flustered he found himself getting, the more he realized Lizzie wasn't going to take him seriously at all. She was getting childish now, pretending she couldn't hear him and that the wall was far more interesting. How the hell was he supposed to help her understand?

Then, he had it.

"Elizabeth." Ciel put the hardest edge to his voice that he could possibly muster, and suddenly she whipped around to stare at him as if he'd just barked at her. "This is not the way for a young lady to be acting, and I will not tolerate it."

That was it. The look of bewilderment in her eyes disappeared, and suddenly she seemed to melt into a puddle of tears and insecurity.

"I-it is you!" she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight. "Oh Ciel I'm so sorry I just don't know where I am and what's going on everything looks so strange and all I could think about was – wait." she drew back and looked him in the eye. "Where's you eyepatch?"

Ciel took a deep breath, keeping his shoulders squared. This must have been the exact same feeling of knots in his stomach that Sebastian must have felt when he'd exaplained to Ciel the lack of Faustian contract markings. And...well, everything else. But he had to do this carefully.

"Will you listen to everything I have to say, Lizzie?" he asked solemnly, and the blonde haired girl nodded furiously. "Everything, no telling me I'm wrong and no interrupting?"

"Everything," she promised, swiping a finger across her chest in an X gesture. "Cross my heart."

"Okay," he let his stern look drop a little, and offered her a smile. Taking her hands in his, he slowly began to tell her everything. Absolutely everything.

-:-


AfterNote:

Oh yeah a big shout out to all your nerds out there who remember when Ciel supposedly "died" at the end of Kuroshitsuji II and remember the date written on the little card thing Sebastian passed out to everyone and made everybody cry about, yeah I know I probably got the date wrong. But because I wrote this while I was at work, I didn't have readily available access to my DVD's to check and the Kuroshitsuji Wiki is absolutely useless when it comes to small details like that. If it's there, I didn't find it. SO. That's the date I think I remember seeing in that episode, but I can't remember if it was the actual date or not.

On a slightly different note I had a really sweet person track my Tumblr down just to say how much they loved this story, and to be honest that's a fucking feat within itself because I don't remember every posting more than maybe two or three things to do with Subject 13's Butler on Tumblr but apparently I must have because that lovely lil' person traipsed back and forth through thousands of tags worth just to see if it was on Tumblr at all. Sadly it isn't but you all can still follow me there if you want *hint hint* also, there's a teeny tiny review box down there below this that wants your love. *hint* *hint*

i'm just kidding. It doesn't want your love. I do. I crave it, I need it. Tell me you love me and I will be yours. But you best do it in a review, k? ;)

- Mercy