Walter was tired.
Seras didn't have to ask. She hardly had to look to know that he was bone tired and that he wouldn't do anything about it until he'd finished what he had set out to do.
The young vampire stood in the shadow that overlooked the garden and watched Hellsing's butler slowly making his way among the hedges back toward the manor. Since he thought no one was looking, Walter allowed himself the luxury of limping – something he didn't do when anyone else was around. Seras suspected that Integra had no idea how much effort he put into appearing hale and whole.
However, being nearly seventy years old and going down in a crashing helicopter was something that even the inimitable Angel of Death could not experience without some effect. Seras was amazed that he'd survived and come through it as well as he had.
Several times a month, Seras watched Walter make the trek out through the gardens and over the hill to Hellsing's cemetery. He inevitably carried a handful of flowers, and he inevitably came back empty-handed.
She wondered what it felt like to know that a long life was drawing to a close. With uncountable years stretching out in front of her, Seras found she almost envied Walter his position – he had served long years and had earned his reward.
Watching the tall man taking his uneven steps back toward the house brought tears to Seras' eyes. Was his reward to die as the lonely servant of an organization that existed to bring death to trash vampires?
The young vampire felt presumptuous to feel such empathy for a man who knew so much more than she did, and who had seen things she could only imagine at this point in her life, but she did. She felt a kinship with Walter that transcended their ages, or even the fact that one of them was human, and the other a vampire. They both served Hellsing, they both were set apart from others, and – Seras thought – they were both lonely.
"Then keep the Angel company while his feathers fall, Police Girl."
Seras jumped and quickly brushed her tears away before turning to face Alucard – her master no more after the Tower, but still her guide to the secrets of being a vampire.
"What do you mean?" Maybe playing innocent would help.
She should have known better. "You, and your human loneliness. Keep him company. He was formidable once in body, still formidable in spirit. It is fitting that a true nosferatu keep the Angel of Death company before his own death." Alucard looked down his long nose at her over the tops of his glasses, "And you must learn what it is to watch humans die generation after generation."
Seras turned to look back outside where she had last seen Walter walking, but he had moved on from there and out of her sight. He would have to be in the manor somewhere.
"But what if he doesn't…" Seras turned around to finish her question, only to find herself alone again. "…want my company?"
Afraid, Seras Victoria drifted tauntingly through her head.
Well, yes, as a matter of fact, but Seras wasn't going to let Alucard get the last word at her expense yet again. The young vampire squared her shoulders and walked toward the wing where the servants were quartered, trying with every step to think of a good excuse to visit Walter in his room.
She hadn't found one by the time she reached his quarters where she could hear him moving around on the other side of the door.
She was afraid, but Seras wasn't a coward, taking a deep breath, she knocked firmly on Walter's door, half expecting to hear her heart pounding in her ears from her nervousness.
The man who opened the door was not the perfectly groomed butler that everyone in the organization saw, but a real person with a few strands of hair escaping from his ponytail, his tie and waistcoat gone, his shirt collar open. Seras stood there for a moment, stunned into silence by her own reaction to seeing Walter as a vulnerable person instead of Hellsing's unflappable retainer.
"Yes, Miss Victoria? Is there a problem?" Even as he spoke, Walter moved away from the door to retrieve his waistcoat and tie.
"No!" Seras put her hand over her mouth at her unplanned exclamation. "No," she went on more quietly. "I…" She shook her head, hands fluttering helplessly. "It's nothing. I'm sorry to bother you."
Walter regarded her measuringly and seemed to come to some conclusion because he stood aside from the doorway and nodded toward his room. "Would you like to come inside and talk for a while?"
Seras ducked her head and nodded before taking the invitation to enter.
Walter glanced down the hallway before quietly closing the door, the words Don't hurt yourself, Angel of Death, echoing in his mind.