Part V: Whiskey-Filled Couch Potato
Wynonna just nodded appreciatively when her sister dragged ginger snap out of the room and out back. Seras simply looked bemused as she surveyed Dolls' pained expression and Wynonna's proud one. Once the girls had left, Seras said, "So, as I was saying, when Black Badge dropped a nuke on an innocent town, my organization took exception to that."
Dolls made a fake coughing noise, almost involuntarily. Seras just gave him some side-eye, "You know what, I'll just wait for the police girl and your sister to come back in." Wynonna didn't argue, and went to the cabinet, searching for some more drink. Seras' eyes followed her with something between disgust and admiration in them. Dolls' eyes followed Seras' eyes following Wynonna across the room; to which his reaction was, 'Well shit, I'm surrounded by useless lesbians.' He didn't even mutter it, as no doubt the Hellsing girl would pick up even the slightest breath. Though from what he heard, he wasn't entirely sure his thoughts were safe from Seras either.
Wynonna had successfully found her liquor, some horrendous $10 bottle of Canadian whiskey, and begun to pour herself a shot. Seras had other ideas; she strode over to Wynonna and neatly plucked the shot glass away from her just as Wynonna was about to down it.
"Give it back." Wynonna's voice was the most threatening Seras had ever heard, despite only knowing this woman for less than a day. This was a fiercer look than when she had her huge revolver pointed at the vampire.
"You're blood alcohol content is basically half alcohol right now, I can smell it in your arteries, not just on your breath. And you may look good, but your alcoholic stench is appalling." Seras stated matter-of-factly, wrinkling her nose for emphasis.
"The Hellsing operative is right, Earp." Dolls chimed in; glad someone else would bear the brunt of the heir's fury for once if she exploded right now.
"Fuck off Dolls." Wynonna muttered dejectedly as she collapsed on the couch, basically falling asleep in midair. While, Seras was impressed with that feat worthy of Morpheus, she walked out into the lobby and tossed the almost full bottle of poison in the garbage, creating the distance so she wouldn't disturb a now slumbering Wynonna, though she was pretty confident nothing could at this juncture.
She walked back over to Dolls and reached up to put a steadying hand on his shoulder, "We're going to work together American, so you've got to understand unless you cross me personally in a really bad way, you've got naught to fear from me, okay?" she finished with a genuine smile, far less predatory that Dolls thought possible. A little quieter she added, "I'm no more a monster than you are, fluffy." The Black Badge agent stiffened, but the vampire just chuckled lightly, "You haven't told the others have you?" His brief expression of guilt was confirmation enough for Seras. Before Seras could unravel him further, Waverly and Nicole both came back into the room, very flushed and grinning like nothing was amiss in the world. Grateful for an opportunity to revert back to the usual dynamics, Dolls made a show of rolling his eyes while Seras just looked bemused.
"Sorry, what did we miss?" Waverly asked, only slightly out of breath. Nicole stood slightly in front of the shortest Earp, still not totally comfortable around Seras, though her expression wasn't confrontational. Seras looked the other police girl up and down, which was not missed by Waverly, who visibly tightened her hold on Nicole's left arm.
Much to everyone's surprise, Seras started laughing, "You two," she couldn't continue due to her having to get her breathing back under control. "You two are so easy to mess with," she said as she sat on the table, "Like in the good way, not the easy to terrify way," she felt the need to clarify because she had been more than a little casually intimidating so far.
"Did Wynonna?" Nicole started, but stopped when Waverly ran over and immediately started playing with Wynonna's unconscious arm, dropping it up and down, garnering zero reaction from the older Earp. Nicole sighed half-exasperatedly at Waverly's totally childish behavior clearly honed from before she hit 6 years old. Dolls just rolled his eyes and wandered over to the coffee machine.
"It's almost 7 at night, sure you want that?" Nicole ventured in Doll's direction, to which he didn't respond. Nicole just shrugged and looked towards Seras, who put her hands up in a 'fuck it' gesture. Officer Haught took a few steps over to where Waverly was and mercifully restrained her from troubling Wynonna's snoring form any longer. "Leave her alone, Waverly, you're going a little far, the rest of us have to look at her too you know," Nicole said in Waverly's ear as she removed the Sharpie from Waverly's eager hand. Waverly turned around and pouted.
For this, whatever intent Nicole had in resisting Waverly's antics evaporated, but just before Waverly claimed victory and snatched back the marker, Sheriff Nedley entered the room with his usual huff.
For a moment, nobody moved, Nedley was gaping at Seras, Nicole and Waverly were both looking like they were caught in the headlights, Xavier Dolls looked up, then back down at the case file he had on his lap, and Seras took this opportunity to swiftly snatch the offending Sharpie from Nicole's wavering defenses. Seras then proceeded to glide across the room and stopped in front of the Sheriff, whom she tapped on the forehead and said, "You walked in here, you didn't find what you were looking for, and you went back home, I was never here." Nedley just nodded blankly and turned on his heel and leisurely walked back out. Everyone was looking at Seras with wide eyes so she just shrugged and said, "I didn't want him interrupting…" Seras waited for a moment before realizing, "was that your boss?" she asked Nicole.
Nicole nodded and Seras just held the bridge of her nose with two fingers in consternation…Oops. "I'm not evil, just wasn't ready to meet the sheriff." Seras explained weakly. Waverly instantly recognized a kindred soul and empathized with the vampire's awkwardness.
"Okay, how's this, we'll meet tomorrow morning since your gunslinger is ah, unavailable," Seras Victoria said, glancing at the splayed out Wynonna, "then we can discuss our plans going forward, yeah?" Seras finished, looking at the two women and Dolls in turn. They each nodded, Dolls looking considerably more relaxed than when he first met Seras, the women however looked perfectly comfortable with her…well Waverly did, Nicole clearly had some reservations.
Wynonna just snored rather loudly and curled up into a ball, which Seras actually found rather enduring, though with a flash, she realized it was a movement taken out of fear, not comfort. Wynonna's position on the couch reminded her of numerous children she had removed from abusive situations back when she was a copper in Cheddar, before Alucard shot her and changed everything.
Only Waverly noticed the subtle shift in posture from Wynonna, other than Seras. Doll's head went from Seras to Wynonna and back again though, picking up on the sadness tinting Seras' vision. He had a small chuckle to himself as he walked out back to his car, hand raised over his head in farewell salute 'til the morning. With Dolls gone, it was just the ladies who remained. A thought occurred to Nicole, "Where are you going to stay?" Seras looked at her bewilderedly, completely forgetting about how Juliet had been unable to arrange lodgings due to them not knowing which hotels were controlled by revenants. Seras puffed out her cheeks in an adorable if a tad odd thinking gesture.
"Um… could I stay here in the station? I really only need my coffin, and I've got spare bags of blood stored up so I won't need to take a trip to the hospital." Seras thought aloud. "Also, I saw shorty's had a brunch special on Sundays, so I'm taken care of sustenance wise." She saw the girls look at her blankly for a moment before realizing Seras was taking care to not go around drinking random women on the street, Seras was nice like that.
Waverly looked at Wynonna and then at Nicole with whom she communicated something with a few exchanged looks. "You can come home with us," Nicole said after a few moments. Seras raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Besides, you can carry this one," Nicole gestured to the sleeping beauty on the couch.
"You're super strong right?" Waverly asked, at Seras' nod she resumed, "cool, we kinda just assumed, you know, since you've got all sorts of odd powers we've never seen before." Nicole narrowed her eyes a little, at Waverly taking paranormal experiences for granted.
"Wha- yeah, that would be fantastic, thanks! And yeah, I'll carry your sister, how heavy could she be?" Seras said enthusiastically, she didn't even consider people capable of this kindness anymore, but Waverly and Nicole had shifted her worldview a little in a kinder direction.
