Deadly and Blonde
Chapter 7: Reunion
Seras peeked into the kitchen and was relieved to find that it was empty. She pushed open the door and walked in, Shielle trailing behind her. There was a blood refrigerator hidden behind one of the cabinets that Alucard didn't know about, she mentally thanked Walter as she pushed aside the cabinet unit and pulled a pair of blood packets from the fridge. She tossed one to the girl behind her and put the other in her pocket. "Wait to open that until we get in the car, it'll make a mess if it squirts while you're walking with it."
"Alright, thank you." Shielle responded, Seras smiled at her and led her down to the garage.
The car that awaited them was what would generally be considered a stereotypical secret-service car, an all black SUV with heavily tinted windows and what appeared to be armor plating under the paint. "Well it certainly looks well armored enough. Hop in the passenger side and let's get going kiddo." Seras put action to words and hopped up into the driver's side seat. "Now let's see if I can actually remember how to get there…"
Shielle started fiddling with her blood packet almost as soon as they were in the car. "Umm, how am I supposed to open this without making a mess?"
"Just tear the tip off the narrow tube, drink it like a juice box." She watched as the girl tried to tear the tab off the end of the tube without squirting blood all over herself. Shielle barely seemed to be able to keep her grip on the packet. Wow, she must have been weaker than I'd thought "Here, let me get that for you." She reached over and easily pulled the tip off of the tube.
"Thanks, I guess I really have become weak due to the lack of blood." She closed her lips over the straw and took a long sip. "Oh, that's so good. I feel stronger already." Shielle quickly drained off the rest of the blood bag. She sank back into her seat and sighed contentedly, "It's amazing how much better human blood tastes than rat's blood." Seras pulled the other blood packet out of her pocket and tossed it to Shielle.
"Here have another, I know it's been a long time since you've last fed so you probably really need it." Shielle had no trouble tearing the tube open on this one, and drank at a somewhat more leisurely pace than she had before. Seras glanced at her a few times while she was driving and was glad to see that a slight flush was returning to the girl's face indicating that she was safe again from starvation for now.
Seras smiled to herself and reminisced briefly on how difficult it had been for her to be able to start drinking blood. She was a bit surprised that this girl didn't seem to have any qualms over the matter, but figured since Shielle had been raised on the streets she was probably a bit more accepting of the vampiric dietary needs then Seras had been initially.
The rest of the trip passed quietly, Shielle engrossed in her feeding and Seras trying as best she could to get them to Hereford without getting lost.
HR
The pilot set the plane down in a textbook perfect landing, the slight bump was enough to shake Aya awake however. She blinked for a moment, trying to remember where she was. Tamsen was still lying down on the bench sound asleep with her head on Aya's lap, glistening salt trails running down her face where her tears had fallen earlier. Aya brushed the girl's hair out of her face and gently shook her awake. "Hey sleepy-head, we're here."
"Hmm? Wha…? No, I don't wanna' go to school today." Aya tried to hold back her laughter, but failed miserably. The stifled giggling was enough to summon Tamsen back to semi-awareness, she sat up and shook her head. "Ugh, how long was I out?"
"About six hours or so. We just landed, let's get our stuff together." Aya stood and looked out one of the small windows. The plane was taxiing towards a large open space where three large, military looking trucks were waiting. She saw a black SUV pull into the area a moment before the plane turned towards the area, obstructing her view. Turning away from the window, she walked over towards the small pile of baggage she'd be carrying personally and pulled on her backpack.
The plane came to a stop with a slight jolt and a crewman came back to the cargo hold to open the rear door. Aya breathed a sigh of relief as the ramp extended; they'd been cooped up in the plane for about eleven hours and she needed to get out side. She started down the loading ramp as soon as the far end had hit the ground, and walked out into the grey London morning. Stretching her arms, she looked around; it looked to be early morning here, she wasn't really sure exactly what time it was since being on the plane for that long had pretty much destroyed her internal clock.
A small woman with short blond hair leapt out of the recently arrived SUV and bounded up to her. The first thing Aya noticed was that she was wearing sunglasses and a hat even in the pre-dawn darkness. She snorted to herself Heh, probably that 'vampire' I'll be working with. She doesn't look very impressive.
Seras walked out to where the plane had come to stop, over to the tall blonde woman that she figured had to be Aya Brea. "Hello Ms. Brea, I'm Lieutennant Victoria but you can call me Seras; I'll be your partner for the duration of this mission." She offered her hand and Aya took it. "Now, let's see about getting the rest of your gear unloaded." Before Aya could stop her, she'd already ascended into the plane's belly hold. Aya waited for her to return, there wasn't really anything left in there that she'd be able to carry; most of the gear had been packed away in large equipment cases probably weighing around three hundred pounds apiece.
A minute later, a blood curdling scream echoed out of the cargo hold, shattering the stillness of the night. Without thinking, Aya drew her service pistol and sprinted up the ramp into the cavernous fuselage of the cargo plane. She froze there, Tamsen was backed up against a large crate and was pale as a sheet; she was staring at Seras who was holding two of the equipment cases and looking puzzled. Tamsen was stuttering, "Y…y…yo…you…but you're dead."
Seras, not really sure how to respond to this simply shrugged, "Well, yes I suppose I am if you want to be technical about it."
"No, I…I mean I know you, or I used to know you. You can't be here, I…I went to your funeral, I remember." She was looking confused and terrified all at once, her feet scrambling to find purchase on the floor as she tried to push herself further back; away from this specter of her past.
Seras closed her eyes and thought. "Tamsen?"
Tamsen nodded, but didn't get up.
"It's been so long, I didn't recognize you. The last time I saw you, you were maybe fifteen years old? You've changed a lot since then." Seras put down the two cases she was carrying and walked over to where Tamsen was cowering. She kneeled in front of the younger woman and embraced her. Tamsen struggled for a moment, then started to cry.
"Why did you leave me? I missed you so much," she sobbed.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you, but it was something I had to do at the time. I had to disappear since I was supposed to be dead." She stroked Tamsen's long hair with one hand and continued the embrace with the other. "Thanks for coming to my funeral by the way, it meant a lot to me to see you there."
Tamsen laughed, "Well that's not something you hear every day. 'Thanks for coming to my funeral,' spoken by the guest of honor."
"Well, I mean, it's not like I wasn't dead."
"But you're…"
"Dead…technically. No pulse, no breathing unless I need to talk, low body temperature. Kinda' happens when you get turned into a vampire." She flashed her fangs, "See? Anyway, I think we'd better get going, your partner is probably getting impatient and we can talk more later."
"Okay." She let Seras help her to her feet and grabbed her pack from where she'd dropped it. Seras picked up her crates again and led the way out of the cargo hold over to the black SUV she'd arrived in. Aya had walked back out to stand on the landing field once she saw that her friend and partner was in no danger and followed the two over to the car when she saw them descend the ramp.
Seras walked around to the back of the car to put the cases and packs in the trunk, leaving the two MIST agents alone for a moment. "So I take it you two know each other already?" asked Aya.
Tamsen nodded, "She's the police woman I told you about; you know, the one who died right before I left?" Aya nodded an affirmative.
Seras walked over to the pair and opened the rear doors of the car. "Well, I think we'd better get going. I'm sure you two would like to take a nap to help with the jet lag, and I'd like to get back before the sun rises."
Tamsen and Aya got into the car, finally noticing the small figure sitting in the front passenger seat. Seras got in a moment later and turned in her chair to face them, "This is Shielle," she said gesturing towards the child in the front seat, "I met her earlier this evening."
Shielle turned around to face the other two passengers and smiled at them, "Hi, it's nice to meet you." Aya and Tamsen both greeted her in turn and Seras started the car.
"It's about half an hour from here to Headquarters, the rest of your equipment should be following us in just a few minutes when they finish unloading," said Seras as she started driving. The car passed back through the security checkpoint without any problems and started off towards Hellsing Manor.
HR
Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, it took me forever to get the dialog to sound how I wanted it to; well, that and some general writer's block. I've already started on the next chapter now so I hope it won't be as long between updates as it was last time. I'd like to thank everyone who's sent in reviews, they really help keep me going when I start getting frustrated with the story.
I've also been working on writing and revising a piece of original fiction I had started back in high school. It's posted on my website at if you'd like to read it. Feel free to post any thoughts you might have on either of these pieces on the message board there, or e-mail me (the link is at the bottom of the page above all the web comic links).