Forever Yours

By Galatea

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Author's Note: A slightly longer chapter this one, but we start to get into some of the more meaty stuff. The mystery thickens.

Thank you to the reader who informed me of my slip up. Alucard is, of course, a 'No Life King'. I have made the necessary changes. Oh, and I changed 'Jack Stetra' to 'Philip Stetra'.

Rating: PG for a little swearing.

***

Chapter 3 ~ Old Flames

Darkness had long since fallen when Galatea stepped off the train on to the platform at Reading station. She felt tired from her travels and smoothed the creases in her suit jacket and then adjusted her red silk tie. The night air was chilly, and she clutched her briefcase and her laptop close to her side as she walked past the unfamiliar faces. Of course, she knew the ticket collectors and the platform workers, but most of them had already gone home. Night watch had started.

The young woman didn't notice the worried glances she received from the station staff as she walked past them. After all, she had been in Durham for quite some time, reporting on an influential star who had been born in Reading. Things had changed to a surprising degree since the last time she was there.

She looked up as she arrived at an extra ticket barrier, her eyebrows furrowing in surprise.

"Like the new décor?"

Gally looked up into the blue eyes of her fellow reporter, then back down at the large, black painted metal barriers. "When did they bring these things in? I've only been gone about a month. Did something happen?"

Philip Stetra folded his arms and leant back on the wall, pretending to think, "Hmm, well, let's see…" he said, in his usual smug way. He had the personality of one who truly believed that he knew everything. He had fixed opinions on almost every topic known to man. Galatea had had to listen to it many times. Of course, it was hardly her place to point out that quite a few of his philosophies had rather a large number of substantial loop holes…

"It might have something to do with the Vampires."

Galatea didn't even flinch. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and her shoulders slumped about half a millimetre. "You called me all the way home from Durham… do you want to know what kind of day I've had? I took a train from Durham to King's Cross, which lasted ooh, say… 6 hours or so. I then changed to the tube, but my train was delayed so I ended up waiting over an hour and a half before I arrived at Paddington, where I changed train again in order to arrive here nearly 2 and a half later than I hoped. And now," she growled through gritted teeth, "you're telling me that I've been called back for some teenage prank??!!"

"And the joy of seeing me of course," he replied with a grin.

If it hadn't been for the barrier, Philip would have ended up with a substantially fatter lip when he went home that evening.

The guard came out with his metal detector and ran it over Galatea's shoulders and pockets before waving her through. She didn't even look at Stetra, but instead pushed her way past him and strolled out into the street.

"Hey babe! What's your hurry?" the reporter called from behind her. She didn't turn to look at him, but walked a few paces into the quiet road and waved her arm in the air as a taxi passed. It didn't see her, and she glared at it as it rounded the following corner, then gestured rudely.

"Leave me alone!" she said as Stetra came up behind her. "I don't want to talk to you. I can't believe you called me back here for nothing."

"This isn't nothing!" Stetra replied, for once being serious. "This is business! I'm telling you, Vampires are alive and well and living in Reading!"

Galatea rolled her large brown eyes and turned to face him at last. Why was it that this man could never be serious about anything? Not even when they had been going out. He was almost famed for being a complete waste of space. What had she ever seen in him? "What are you trying to tell me, Stetra?" she groused, knocking him back with her laptop case and heading back to the pavement. "Vampires have moved in along with the student community? They're living on mass in Whitley? Hell, I knew the area was a dive, but I didn't think standards had sunk that low."

Philip grabbed her shoulders to prevent her clouting him again, "Listen Gally, I know that I'm not always as serious as I should be…"

The young woman made an exasperated snort and shook him off, "Don't call me Gally."

"Galatea Fircroft, this isn't about me, or you, or us!" he growled darkly, once again gripping her shoulders, this time a lot tighter. "This is about Elena. I don't know exactly what happened that night… but I'm sure it had something to do with… with Vampires. I'm sure of it."

The female reporter looked down and shook her head. "You have no idea how this sounds. Vampires? I mean, they don't exist, Philip. Do you know what would happen if I went on television and said that my partner had been killed by Vampires?"

"Just listen," Philip insisted, his expression revealing none of the light-hearted humour for which he was famed. "I went to the hospital today. I wanted to see Elena's body, but I was escorted off the premises," he said. "I went back to the station to get a warrant as a member of the press, but when I came back her body was gone. Somebody didn't want me to see her corpse."

Gally shook her head tiredly, "Okay, fine. We know there were some strange circumstances surrounding her death, but for Heaven's sake, Philip, that doesn't mean she was bitten by a Vampire."

Stetra finally relaxed his hold on her shoulders and turned away to look up into the cloudy night sky. "I was there the night he died," he said.

"I know."

"No… no, you don't," Stetra replied solemnly, his gaze falling to ground and fixing on a damp drain cover, still clogged with dead leaves from the autumn. "I saw her just minutes before she was announced to be dead. I didn't… I didn't understand. They said that she'd been caught in the crossfire from a sudden scuffle with an officer over some videotape he had confiscated. I tried to get back into the room to see her, but some guy hit me over the head and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the way to the hospital."

Gally's brow relaxed slightly. This was a side to Stetra she wasn't at all used to seeing. Who would have thought that beneath that sarcastic façade was a sensitive guy? "Philip…"

"Something happened to her Galatea. I never heard any bullets. There was no blood all over the floor aside from what had already been spilled that evening."

"But… Vampires?"

"There's been some strange shit going on since you left," Stetra continued, sitting down on a street sign and folding his arms. "The streets aren't safe to walk at night anymore. That's what the whole business back at the station was about. There have been a lot of strange murders recently. The police haven't been dealing with things the way they used to. It always happens at night too. This strange military force always shows up… I thing they call themselves, 'Hellsing'."

Gally raised an eyebrow and turned back to the street to look out for a taxi. "Hellsing, eh? I hate to burst your bubble, but the more you tell me about this Vampire business, the more it sounds like a hoax. A sick prank that has got out of hand, perhaps, but a hoax nonetheless. 'Helsing' was a character out of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'. Just because you can't explain what is happening, it doesn't mean that the paranormal comes into play. It just means that there's a rational explanation we're not seeing."

"Well, is it?" Stetra rounded on her suddenly, running a hand through his faintly russet hair, which had become mussed up from the damp atmosphere. "Is it really all rational? Is there a reason we're not seeing? I can't see it, Galatea, can you?" He gave her a hard stare, which forced Gally to look away again.

"I don't have all the answers," she replied shortly. "I'm a reporter, it's my job to find the answers."

Stetra's expression softened once more, and he went back to staring at the drain cover. "Deaths at night… not being allowed to see the body… a new Institution turns up designed to deal with these incidents? Someone's trying to cover something up, and I think we need to find out who," he said firmly. "If not for our own sakes, then for Elena's. She deserves that much. Whether you help me or not, I'm not going to rest until I find out what happened to her."

Gally knew it was all bullshit. Not what he was saying necessarily, but she had never known Stetra to show an interest in any case for more than 10 minutes. It would take all her ingenuity to follow this story through to the end. All the same, Stetra had sparked her interest. What was this 'Hellsing Institution'? It certainly hadn't been in operation when she had left just a month ago. The place to start would be the Internet of course, a few of her own more private sources working in Reading. One could learn a surprising amount about the dark side from those who actually operated within it.

"I'll think about it," she said, turning her attentions back to trying to get a taxi.

"Gally, why don't you just stay at my place tonight?" Stetra said tiredly, and not a little bit hopefully. "It's getting late and the taxis are all going to be out taking the students to The Matrix."

"I left my car in the car park at 'The Oracle'," she complained loudly. "I intend to fetch it tonight, before the ticket I bought for it runs out."

"And you're telling me that your ticket is going to expire before you go and fetch it tomorrow morning?" Stetra replied with a grim smile, walking up behind her as she went to summon another taxi and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I have a really comfortably couch," he murmured into her ear.

"Stop it," Galatea objected, pushing him away and putting her hands on her hips. "If I did agree to sleep on your couch, you'd have to sleep on the bed. Away from me. You know what happened the last time."

Stetra sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "And was it so bad? I mean, really?"

"That's not the point," Gally grimaced, trying not to remember what had happened the last time she had ended up in Stetra's flat. Personally, she blamed the bottle of wine as much as anything else. "It shouldn't have happened. We called it quits a long time ago, and there was a good reason for it."

"Why don't," Stetra replied, sauntering over, "we just head on back to my place tonight. I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do. You know that. We're friends, right?"

"Work colleagues," Gally replied coolly, though she was now allowing herself to be ushered in the direction of Stetra's car. "Fine, but I'm leaving first thing in the morning."

"Whatever you say," Stetra replied with a smirk, gently leading her. "I won't cross any boundaries."

But that night, he did. And for a short time, Gally enjoyed it. A very short time.

***

To be continued.