Deadly and Blonde

Chapter 8: Issues

Seras got them back to Hellsing Manor all in one piece, not even getting lost along the way. As soon as she walked in with the others, Walter was waiting to tell her to go up and see Integra right away. Yawning slightly she led the two weary travelers and somewhat hyper young girl upstairs to talk to her boss. She hoped that Tamsen would be alright, she still had a somewhat wild look in her eyes and she hung back from the others a bit as they walked up to Integra's office.

Seras had barely moved to knock on the door when they swung open and Integra motioned for her to lead the group into the room. She led them in and the doors closed behind them once all of them had entered. Integra gestured at the small semi-circle of chairs in front of her desk, "Please, have a seat." She waited until all of them were seated before starting, "As you know, you are here because we have had an encounter with what you call an ANMC. If the descriptions were accurate, it was what you people have dubbed a mossback. You've already met Lieutenant Victoria, she is one of our two resident vampires.

"The three of you," she pointed to Seras, Aya, and Tamsen, "will be a task force. Your mission is to investigate where this thing came from, and to eliminate any further threat related to this incident. I have been informed of your bounty point system, to keep matters simple we will be furnishing any weapons or equipment that you require for this mission, you can work out the points with your boss when you get back home." Integra paced behind her desk for a moment, "Seras, show these two to their rooms, It's getting past morning and the bunch of you have a long night ahead of you. I'll let you decide what you want to do with the child for now. Dismissed."

Seras led the crew out of Integra's office. "Well, she was…abrupt," commented Aya. "I couldn't get a word in edgewise."

Seras smiled back at her as she led them down towards the dungeons, "She's always like that, you'll get used to it eventually. She never really got the chance to learn how to socialize normally as a child, so she doesn't really know how to act friendly." They walked on in silence until they reached the section of hall where their rooms were. "Well, these are your rooms," she motioned to one door immediately to the left of her own and then to another directly across the hall. "I'm sorry they're not really very nice looking, I had to fix them up on pretty short notice."

Aya nodded appreciatively, "I'm sure they'll be fine. In fact, no matter how bad they are I can almost guarantee you I've slept in worse." Tamsen stood there wordlessly and seemed intent on staring a hole through her feet. Aya put a hand on her shoulder and guided her to the door of the room adjacent to Seras', then entered the room across the hall and closed the door leaving Seras and Shielle alone in the hall.

Seras looked down at Shielle, "I guess you can stay with me for now, we don't have time to find you your own room. Is that alright with you?"

"Oh, gee, I don't know. I think I'd much rather find a sewer pipe to sleep in, or maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to find a nice cargo container down by the river somewhere."

"I'll take that as a yes. Come on, let's get some shut-eye; I'm exhausted," Said Seras as she ushered Shielle into her room. She closed the door and flopped down on the couch, "You can sleep on the bed tonight if you'd like, you probably need it more than I do. I don't know how sharp your senses are, but if it's too loud or light you can close the lid on the bed by pressing the button on that remote."

"But where will you sleep?"

"I'll be fine on the couch, don't worry about me. Oh, there are some clothes in the dresser if you don't want to wear that outfit to bed. There's not much that would fit you, but you could use one of the t-shirts as a nightie if you'd like." Seras lay back on the couch and closed her eyes, she could hear Shielle go rifling through her dresser and change out of her clothes. When it sounded like she had finished, Seras sat up to take a look. Shielle had changed into a plain white t-shirt which reached down just past her knees and was working on folding her dirty clothes. "Oh, don't worry about folding those right now, I'm going to have them washed while you're sleeping."

"Oh. Alright." She paused, "Thank you, you've been very kind to me."

Seras smiled at her, "Don't worry about it. Now get to bed, you've had a long night." Shielle walked over to Seras' bed and got in. Seras helped to tuck her in before starting towards her door, picking up her guest's clothes on her way, "I'm going to be out for a few minutes, will you be alright here alone?" Shielle nodded and Seras stepped out of the room. Seras sighed, this was getting much more complicated than she'd expected, she wasn't really quite sure what to do about Shielle yet, since it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have her accompany them on missions.

Seras continued to let her mind wander while she went about some minor errands. First she dropped Shielle's laundry off, next she went to seek out Walter. She found him sitting in the library at one of the computer terminals. "Walter, are you busy?"

"It's nothing that I can't put off for a few minutes. I probably won't be very busy until your group starts bringing in some information."

Seras nodded, "You know about the young girl I brought back with me earlier right?" Walter nodded an affirmative. "Well, I'd like to see about getting her some clothes. I don't think that she has anything but what she came off the street with."

"I see. Very well, I'll go shopping for some clothes later."

"Thank you Walter, I appreciate it. I'll pay you back tomorrow night, just tell me how much it came to."

Walter grinned and bowed, "As you wish."

Seras laughed, then turned and left the room to head back down to the dungeons for some well deserved rest. She paused for a moment in front of Tamsen's door, she could hear faint sobbing coming from within the room. Seras sighed, she knew she'd have to confront this eventually, but she was tired and she'd been hoping for a little more time to figure out just what to tell the only person left who knew her from her former life. Steeling herself, she knocked softly on the door.

"Come in," a soft voice said from within the room.

Seras slowly pushed the door open and walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. Tamsen was curled up on the bed in a fetal position, hugging her pillow to her and sobbing into it. Seras walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, unsure of how to proceed she started rubbing Tamsen's back to try to get her to calm down. Seras tried to think of something to say as she tried to soothe her friend. At least I hope she's still my friend Finally, as Tamsen's sobbing began to subside, Seras got up the courage to say something. "I…I'm sorry I had to leave without saying anything; I had no idea you'd be so hurt."

There was a long moment of silence before Tamsen replied, sounding like she'd been deeply wounded. "Why did you have to go? I missed you so much, I thought I'd die."But I didn't, though not for lack of trying, she didn't say; it might not be a good idea to tell the older woman just how deeply she'd been hurt and why it had been so bad.

Seras took a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing, "Well, I didn't really want to have to leave. I was stuck in a tight situation and was given a choice; I could either die and stay dead or die and be reborn as a vampire." She grinned sarcastically, "not really much of a choice, was it? Anyway, as you can see I opted not to stay dead. What I didn't have a choice on was disappearing, we try to keep the public in a state of blissful ignorance about vampires and other matters that we deal with. I understand that your agency has a similar policy."

Tamsen nodded and sat up on the bed. "Yes, we do. It's just that suddenly seeing you here was something that I was completely mentally unprepared for. It took me a long time to come to terms with your death." She said as she worked on rotating herself on the bed to face Seras.

"Yeah, it took me a while to come to terms with my death too. You'd laugh if you knew how long it took before I could even drink blood. I was a very hungry little vampire for a couple of weeks there at the start. It's taken a lot of getting used to; I'm not really cut out for a life of killing and drinking blood." Tamsen was facing her now, so Seras pulled her into an embrace, "I'm so sorry. You know I'd never want to hurt you like that."

Tamsen started to cry softly into Seras' shoulder. "I know. I only wished that I had been able to tell you how I felt before you had to go," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. "I won't make that mistake again." She paused for a moment and pulled back to look Seras in the face, "I love you."

Seras wasn't quite sure what to think of that, she had remembered that Tamsen had mentioned that she was a lesbian sometime before, but she'd had no idea of her feelings. Her brain froze for a moment as she sat there motionless, "I…I…" she started to say, but she was interrupted as Tamsen leaned forward and kissed her. Without thinking, Seras returned the kiss, but Tamsen broke it a moment or two later.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," said Tamsen as she tried to pull away. Seras however wouldn't let her escape and once again enfolded her in a hug. Seras' thoughts were whirling around in her head like a tornado. She'd never been kissed by a girl before and didn't really know how to feel about this.

"It's alright, I'm just a bit confused right now. I'm flattered you feel that way about me though, it's sweet." After sitting there for a few more minutes in silence, Seras released Tamsen from her hug, "Are you going to be alright now?" Tamsen nodded yes. "Well, I guess I'll get going to go to bed then. We can talk about this more tomorrow okay?"

"Alright. I'll see you tonight then."

"Count on it." She stood, then leaned down and kissed Tamsen's forehead. "Now get some rest. You'll be needing it before long." Seras walked towards the door while Tamsen slid into bed. "Sleep well." She turned off the light and walked out into the hall, shutting the door softly behind her. Almost staggering now because of fatigue, Seras made her way back to her own room and walked in. The lid on the bed was open, so she decided to check on Shielle before she went to bed herself.

Shielle was asleep, curled up against the far wall of the coffin bed. Seras reached down and brushed away a few stray hairs that had fallen into her face. Shielle's hand reached out and managed to get a hold of Seras' wrist, which she hugged to herself like a stuffed animal. Seras sighed, she didn't really want to have to wake the young girl who was sleeping so soundly in her coffin. Sighing, she kicked off her boots and climbed into bed next to Shielle and pressed the button to close the lid. By the time the cover sealed itself against the base, Seras was asleep.