Chapter 4: Frosty Mornings

The next morning the vampire hunter slowly woke up to the creeping morning sun hitting his pillow. As Van groaned softly and rolled over he came to the cold realization that the other half of his mattress was cold.

The hunter scrubbed his hair back and forth calling out softly. "Sierra?"

When no answer was forthcoming the hunter reached over for his glasses and sat up. Van searched around his room, but did not see any sign of his angel. Van slowly pulled the blankets away from him and found a note sitting on his night stand.

The hunter read it quickly and felt his unease grow.

Upon entering the dining room, Van was increasingly irritated to find that there was a hot breakfast waiting for him just as the note promised. Van's hard eyes glazed over the note once more and didn't bother with the proffered breakfast as Impey wandered out of the kitchen and into the dining room.

"Woo hoo, I forget how much I love staying here! My angel and my princess are both amazing women...hey...Hey! Why are you pointing that at me?!"

The redhead eyed the barrel of Van's shotgun uneasily as the hunter loaded it with the long ease of practice.

"Hey, now...can we just…not season me this early in the morning?!" Impey ducked as Van went to squeeze the trigger.

"You wouldn't be thinking of firing your shotgun in my house, now would you Van Helsing?" Saint's voice drifted down from the stairs as the count descended into the foyer. "You seem a little hot and bothered this morning. What could be vexing you this early in the morning, hmm?"

Van, never a morning person, ground his teeth and holstered the shotgun as he got ready to take off after Sierra. "You don't need to concern yourself with it, I am headed out."

Impey, impetuous as ever, got in front of the irate soldier. "I don't know what's going on, but it would be a crying shame to let a hot breakfast cooked by such a beautiful and talented young lady go to waste. Come on Van, why don't you just cool your feet here and tell us what is going on?"

The hunter shot a scathing look at the engineer and the count and pulled his coat on. "Sierra is missing."

I huffed irately and continued walking down the deserted London streets.

"Why today of all days did they decide not to deliver the milk on time?!" I laminated softly under my breath as I hauled my heavy burden across town.

I had waited and waited for the milkman to deliver the morning's milk and cream. The ingredients were critical for this morning's breakfast table and to make the cakes I needed for later today. As it finally drifted steadily closer to the time that I normally served breakfast, I decided to leave the house with a hasty note.

"Ahh! He is so going to be so upset with me and think something's wrong after last night!"

The heavy steel milk canister was starting to grow heavily as I continued to carry it. I had been hauling the full milk can more then halfway across London and I was really starting to wish I had just waited for Impey to wake up. The other early riser of the household, the cheerful redhead, loved any excuse he could get to drive the steam engine.

I was pretty confident my morning would have been less hectic had I just asked the engineer to go fetch the milk with the vehicle instead of going on foot.

"But...no! I didn't want to bother anyone and I just had to have milk the morning breakfast table!" I sighed as I was forced to put my burden down and rest my arms for a minute. I looked around and found a snow covered bench to sit and rest on. Tentatively I watched as my frosty breath caught the cold morning air while I rubbed my arms numbly.

"You can't be serious. This is what you left the house for this early?"

I closed my eyes as an irate voice washed over me and I smiled softly. "Good morning to you too, dearest."

"Here I was thinking you were in trouble…"

I opened my eyes to see Van tucking the morning's broadsheet into his coat as he approached me with a shaking head looking more then slightly agitated.

"Actually, you have impeccable timing love. I was kind of in trouble. The milkman never came this morning, so I just had to step out and get some. I was really hoping to be back before everyone got up, but I ended up traveling a lot further than I expected..."

The hunter eyed the large milk can I was hauling skeptically.

"Hmph, I see. Give it here." The hunter held out a hand and I took it in mine gratefully.

"I just need a minute…"

Van snorted and gently pulled me to my feet as I protested.

"Honestly, you should have just asked for one of us to go pick it up." The hunter growled as he stared me down.

I pursed my lips and protested softly. "Van, really it's not a big deal really. I can carry it!"

The hunter signed, apparently already exasperated with me as he proceeded to picked up the milk canister. "Tch, says the one who walked across London for a can of milk."

I stared at Van wordlessly, unable to think of a better argument as my hunter looked back at me. "Well?"

"Ah, I'm coming!"

Back at the house Van set the milk can down with a severe scowl and I promptly scooped out a saucer full for Puck.

Sisi has apparently taken a liking to the kitten, was following him around the house like some kind of overprotective father. Van waited for me in the kitchen. He seemed to be waiting for me to finish putting everything away as he scanned over the mornings newspaper he had picked up earlier, abet absently.

"Van, you really should go eat breakfast before you go to work." I gently chided him as I watched our kitten attempting, with no measure of success, to wash his milk covered face.

"Hmm..."

I rolled my eyes as Sisi stepped in to help clean the kitten's face.

My hunter really wasn't a morning person at the best of times, so I set another pot of coffee on the burner and checked on the dining room.

Everyone was else was up, eating and making light early morning conversation, though I caught see more than a few absent looks in our direction.

"Van Helsing!" I scowled in the hunter's direction and he looked over top of his paper to look at me it see what I was upset about. "You need to eat something!"

The hunter shrugged and stuck his nose back down into the paper muttering. "So should you."

I pulled down another bowl and started adding any leftovers I could find onto a plate. "I ate while it was cooking."

I set the plate down next to him and turned to pour us both coffee feeling a little upset.

The new paper rustled and I was pretty sure he was sulking that I didn't eat with him. I smiled faintly to myself and brought our coffee cups over to where Van was sitting in the breakfast nook.

"Coffee dearest?" The soldier looked at the coffee cup I sat down in front of him with contempt and I realized he was going to be stubborn.

"Are you really going to waste food?" I scowled at him as I sat down next to him.

The hunter lifted his coffee mug to his lips and took a sip from it with eyes that promised me trouble if I didn't comply.

"Alright, would you eat if I take a few bites as well?" I leaned over and pecked him quickly on the cheek, then I turned my attention to my own coffee. Reaching forward I added some sugar and creamer to my cup and stirred it gently as I heard the chink of china next to me.

"...What are you going to do with the leftovers on the table?"

I responded absently as I took a drink. The warm liquid had just the right amount of sweet to bitter and I smiled in bliss. It was worth the trip to get milk already. "I am sure Delly or Raphael will eat them, don't worry about it."

There were some minor crashing sounds from the dining room as Van held a fork with eggs up to my lips with a raised eyebrow. I blushed heavily and shyly accepted the offering as the hunter proceeded to pull me into his lap.

I heard Van let out an small sigh of relief as I relented and he watched me eat something.

"You haven't been eating much…" He muttered in a low voice and I felt my breath hitch. "This all makes so much more sense now. Your incoherent clumsiness these past few weeks, the distant feeling that your never totally here..."

The hunter scowled darkly at me and I fidgeted as he offered me another fork full of food. "I should have noticed something was bothering you sooner."

I shook my head as I chewed. After I swallowed, I protested. "No! I was hiding it from you on purpose. I-I didn't know how to tell you...Your always working so hard and some days you just look so exhausted. I didn't want you to worry..."

I leaned in to him as he took bite of food. "It's my problem, I can handle it."

Van raised an eyebrow to me as a faint chuckle came from the doorway. "Haha, Van Helsing what have you been teaching her? She sounds just like you did a few months ago."

The hunter was still chewing but he still managed to glare fiercely at the people crowding around the doorway.

Lupin's cheerful voice interjected the conversation between Fran and Van. "Oi oi, I believe I heard that the lady is in distress?"

Van looked at me and then at the group as I bit my lip and nodded hesitantly. The hunter folded his arms over his torso as I stood up, swiftly vacating his lap as the others entered the kitchen.

Van's breakfast was quickly abandoned again as he explained what was going on. There were a few instances that I had to expand on based on someone's questions, but for the most part my hunter lead the conversation.

At the end Fran was the one looking most distressed, as usual. "How could you have hid this from us? We would have helped you in a heartbeat."

I leaned down and picked up Puck up from the floor and started to pet him. "I didn't want anyone to worry about it. You'll all so busy…"

The group immediately started protesting. The hunter next to me flipped open his pocket watch and checked the time. "I need to get to work. Are you free for lunch?"

The hunter asked me casually out on a date and the rest of the group looked at one another in shock.

I shook my head gently has my soft silver hair swept across my shoulders. "No, I am sorry. I am not available for lunch today, my apologies dear. The concave is meeting from 10 until 2, per my request…"

Saint shook his head knowingly. "What quaint hours...I wonder perhaps why that is?"

Van scowled at the count as I offered my next best solution. "I should be home for dinner though. I mean, I have everyone over visiting, so I will try to keep this conclave meeting shorter then normal..."

The hunter snapped the pocket watch closed looked extremely peeved as he got up to go get his coat.

"Van…!" I hurried after him. "I am…"

I shook my head as the hunter wound his scarf around his neck and strapped on his harness with his normal stoic expression.

"...Don't worry about this at work, ok?" I put my hand on his arm. "Please? This isn't worth being distracted over."

Van's hand touched my cheek and stroked it softly as he broke out into a small smile. "I can't promise you that, but I'll be careful nonetheless."

I leaned into his touch and the hunter kissed me softly. I clung to him for a few minutes before the hunter broke off our kiss with a slight chuckle. "I need to get going now and the peanut gallery back there looks like they might faint if we continue."

"Have...have a good day at work!" I blurted out as the hunter opened the front door to a freezing cold blast of air.

Author's Note:

Hello - Hello again! Welcome - or welcome back? So just a quick update here - sorry for the late release - I got caught up in another chapter and have been working on that what Sierra is doing with a riding crop...Van and Saint would really like to know... X.x

Maybe you were expecting more in this chapter?

Really, its just a cute little chapter about an early morning mishap where Sierra is looking for milk for Puck and for a few other things... Van's all upset because of last night - he thinks something is really wrong. I really can't fault him for it - the hunter's intuition is telling him something is wrong/is going to happen - and he's starting to be on alert...

...I really don't think this chapter needs a summary...

A point of interest though - the milk can Sierra is hauling is a heavy metal milk can. It typically requires 2 hands to grab and can hold roughly 11 gallons (40 liters) milk + the weight of the metal canister itself. (FYI- that's around a 100 pounds / 45 kg and Sierra only weights about 52kg - think about it)

She must have looked quite remarkable, as a woman hauling this more then half way across all of London in the dead of winter. All so her kitten has some milk and she can bake Van a birthday cakes... lol...

One more interesting point - I am trying to get the chapter titles to line up with seasons - so we are in the winter season right now.

Remember if you like the story favorite it or follow (or both!) - and comments are also appreciated since it lets others know if the chapter is good or not! ^_^ (I also greatly appreciate the feedback!)