The Hellsing Estate; home to the Hellsing family for generations, and the home base of the organization of the same name. The members of this household protect the United Kingdom from creatures that go bump in the night, and this duty has been passed along accordingly. It started with Abraham, then Isaac, then Arthur, then currently, Integra.
The current head of the household is a courageous, charismatic woman whose very presence is said to be powerful enough to make monsters quake with fear. Lord knows where she got this power, but a certain Phantomhive gentlemen suspects it may come from the Midford Family crossing over into hers. She didn't treat Elizabeth like family, however. The woman was interrogated just as harshly as August was for their association with the Cerberus bomb threats. After a few hours of this, both women were lead to the basement of the H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. estate and guarded closely.
Elizabeth was shocked at how drastically things had changed. The estate had not only grown in size, but had visually changed as well, with linoleum tiles and chrome finish around the entrance to the base, a front desk, and people moving left and right, some of them carrying absurdly intimidating guns! The uniforms had changed, but the crest remained the same. Elizabeth was certainly surprised at the amount of supernatural personnel on staff. A good portion of them guarded both her and August as they sat in their rooms. The only ones who were absent were Audrey and Dafydd, who were assigned to different departments.
Two vampires and a werewolf stood before the detainees' doors. The vampires were pleasant and friendly, while the werewolf was quiet with a bored expression seemingly stuck across her face. All of them were women, which was also new to the wife of a former Hellsing head. There weren't many women in H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G; even before she died and there certainly weren't this many supernaturals, and they certainly weren't like the one that she knew.
Hours passed without anything to do in that small room. Occasionally, Elizabeth would make small-talk with the guards, who seemed more than happy to accommodate. She learned their names; the one with black hair pulled back in a short ponytail was named Charlotte and the other vampire with blonde hair and the only one wearing a skirt was called Seras. The werewolf's name was Amelie, although she wasn't the one to say so. It was Charlotte who told her name.
A lot was learned in that time about the organization itself, and apparently, Seras worked closely with the current family head as she seemed to know a lot about her. From what Elizabeth was told, she was a rather intimidating woman, although she was not at all "heartless". Supposedly, she was a lot like Ciel.
There was a thought. What was she going to do about Ciel? The expression on his face when they first set eyes on each other was unlike any expression Elizabeth knew he could make. He seemed very keen to pass her off on Hellsing. Perhaps he didn't really want to see her. Perhaps he was simply shocked. It didn't matter. Elizabeth truly did wish to see him again and speak with him, but it has been a while.
Anxiety and doubt sank in further as time went on. Truly, the former Midford had no idea what she was going to do or what was to be done with her. She didn't know what she was going to do about Ciel, she didn't know where she was going to go, and she didn't know what H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. had planned, either. Everything was a mess. She actually jumped at the sound of the knock at the door.
Before she could say anything, it opened, and in walked a young man with a cart of boxes. Just from a glance, Elizabeth could tell he, too, wasn't human. Only, instead of a vampire, he was most likely a Grim Reaper, judging by the eyes. Somehow, he seemed a bit nervous while speaking.
"Sir Integra has decided to disclose these documents to you." He stated. "She says that she would like to meet with you some time tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, mister…" Elizabeth's eyes scanned the patch on the man's uniform with his name on it. "…Baines. I'll be ready." She added with a friendly smile.
With a nod, the man left, leaving the entire cart in the room with the angel and closing the door behind him. How strange. Very strange. Perhaps someone had convinced the angel's granddaughter that she was indeed legitimate. Regardless, she needed to look over the documents before the meeting, so she started on that. Walking over to the cart, she reached into the box and pulled out a stack of files before placing them on a table in the room.
"Specimen V-001, Specimen V-002, Specimen L-001…. What is this?" Elizabeth said aloud. After opening one of the files, she discovered that they were on the supernatural members of H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. She found the information on all of the guards watching her, as well as the man who had given her the files. A lot of her hypothesis were correct about them, give or take a few details.
Other than that, she found the research records on each individual, discovering a lot about their personalities and such. So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary, however, the fact that Charlotte and Amelie were revealed to be involved romantically was a bit of a surprise. A blush formed on the Hellsing woman's face as she read that part. It seemed incredibly inappropriate, but it was said that they were otherwise in a healthy relationship and even seeked to marry. Now that was a foreign concept. This time period sure was a wild ride.
She tore through file after file, understanding almost everything perfectly. Soon, Elizabeth was done with that stack of folders and stretched her arms over her head before working on the next. It had taken a while. According to the clock in the room it was past one in the morning. Despite this, Elizabeth stood up from her chair and made her way over to the box again for more files.
This batch was going to be interesting, she could tell just by skimming through. "Specimen D-005" was the lesser-demon that had been involved with the Cerberus case with her and "Specimen D-004" was a child. The woman stopped dead in her tracks through skimming through the stack as she got to a particularly thick folder labeled "Specimen D-003". She recognised the face in the photograph. It was the blonde gentlemen that Ciel was with earlier that day. The woman quickly looked at the next file and almost dropped it.
"Specimen D-002; Name: Sebastian Michaelis" it said. There was a picture of the butler and everything. If this was the case, then surely, without a single doubt in her mind, when Elizabeth looked at the next file it would say:
"Specimen D-001; Name: Ciel Phantomhive"
With that, Elizabeth placed the folder back on the table. Her face was in her hands, propped up on her elbows resting on the table. Whether or not she was mentally prepared for this, she knew that she had to read the file. Not just for the sake of this meeting she had in the morning, but for herself. Even though her heart was racing and her face felt hot; even though her eyes watered slightly and that she was afraid of what she might see, she had to read it.
Leaning back in her chair, staring at the ceiling before closing her eyes altogether, the angel drew in deep breaths in order to calm down. She had to do this. In that absurdly thick folder was almost everything she needed to know about Ciel currently. Everything she wanted to confirm was inside, and all she needed to do was open it and start reading.
Scooting her chair forward a bit, she got to work. There were the experiments performed using his DNA samples, which she only glanced over in order to get to the parts that she wanted to look at. Ciel still owned FUNTOM, it seemed, and was still doing detective work and H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. work, too. He was still rather serious, but had seemed to have lightened up. She soon found another case study within the file labeled "Experiment 66-B", which surprisingly held everything she really wanted to know that she didn't think a formal document would tell her.
According to the file, this experiment was geared toward "humanizing" the demonic residents of the Phantomhive household, Ciel, in particular. They were going to use an unauthorized summon that the bluenette performed as a tool to use in this effort, as Ciel seemed to have grown attached to the summon, much to everyone's surprise. That summon was called "specimen D-003", or "Jim Macken". Elizabeth made a mental note of the name before continuing.
Ciel had made a friend whom he cared about deeply, it seemed. Elizabeth couldn't help but smile as she read. It was more than a relief to see that the Phantomhive had made at least one good friend. According to the file, he made several, including Specimen G-001, a mister "Audrey Baines". Jim, however, was always his closest. More members of the household joined, including Jim's younger brother, Luka, whom Ciel permitted to stay.
The woman's smile grew wider and wider with every little out of character act of humanity that Ciel did. Ciel was happy. It was such a relief to the woman. All of this time she had been afraid that Ciel was miserable, but clearly, this wasn't the case. She was smiling uncontrollably as she read the document, but then it suddenly faded. Instead, it was replaced with a bright red blush across the woman's features upon reading the words "romantic love".
Now, it had been a long time since they had been engaged, so it shouldn't have been surprising at all that Ciel might have found someone whom he was interested in "in that way". Elizabeth paused for a moment to regain her composure. In this time, she also speculated as to what this woman would be like, or who it was.
Was it August? Ciel was indeed helpful toward her after freeing her, but they spoke with such formality toward one another that it seemed impossible. Was it Seras? No, somehow, that didn't seem right, either. In all honesty, Elizabeth really couldn't imagine what kind of woman would be a good match for the grouchy watchdog. Without any further ideas to speculate on, she had no choice but to keep reading.
When she did, however, her blush darkened and spread to her ears. Elizabeth nearly fell out of her chair at reading this, and had to take another break just to let the concept sink in. She knew who it was, or rather, recognised the name from another file.
"Jim Macken." That is who Ciel was romantically involved with. A man. Her former-fiancé was involved with another man; his friend; his assistant and partner. She couldn't believe it. Surely it was a misprint or something.
Elizabeth knew that the Phantomhive hardly showed any romantic interest in her while they were both engaged, but she had assumed that it was merely because he was immature, or more likely because their marriage was arranged. Never in her wildest dreams, would Elizabeth had thought that Ciel might be interested in men. While having a homosexual lover was not something unheard of, it was still incredibly shocking for her to discover that Ciel might have one, especially over a woman. Then again, those two guards were supposedly engaged, and they are both of the same sex, so perhaps it wasn't as depraved as she thought.
Either way, to say that she was merely "shocked" would be an understatement in this case. Now, she also needed to confirm this as well. If the files said nothing more about it, then she might have to ask either man herself, and knowing the bluenette, it might be a bit difficult to find the opportunity. Thus, Elizabeth started by searching in the blonde gentleman's file.
As it turns out, the pair did have a lot in common. Similar histories, interests, and expertise; and while their personalities were different, they were complimentary. On the surface, they seemed like a decent match. Elizabeth couldn't be so sure, however. She needed to make sure that Ciel was alright. Just like this, the task of examining the Phantomhive's lifestyle was added to the woman's list of things to do.
