Chapter Twelve: D runs around, Hellsing rebuilds.
When Alucard walked through the wall of Integra's makeshift office, he didn't expect to see all the Geese and half the domestic staff there. He was surprised that they even fitted but apparently Walter had upgraded the tiny demountables they'd been using for some kind of giant tent. Integra was frowning sadly, though stoically, at him. Pip was leaning on her desk, his lone eye suspiciously red. It seemed he'd been keeping a lot of people waiting.
"So, Alucard, what of Seras?" asked his Master.
"She's stuck where she is." He replied, seeing a pregnant woman standing near the back of the crowd, sniffling along with some of the secretaries. "Even if you released me to level zero."
Pip swore loudly and the Geese erupted into a cacophony of despairing cries. Some of the typists started crying a little.
"I can only open doors between dimensions, so I made one for D as soon as I was able, when he sniffs his way back she'll at least have someone looking out for her." Alucard didn't want anyone pestering him about dimension hopping, he wasn't a travel agent, "You're all Protestants, have a little faith."
"I'm Catholic, actually," said James, who was wearing skivvies and holding up a very bruised looking Jareth.
"Yes, James, the baptisms were giving it away but we are all pretending that we do not know because of our rather tumultuous relationship with the Vatican." Said Integra levelly.
"Oh, sorry."
"She's a vampire, she will be more than fine. There's not much more I can tell you, I'm afraid." Alucard projected so those at the back could hear him, "With your permission, Master, I would like to avoid the daylight so much as I can."
Integra knew that something as trivial as daylight was not going to be an issue for him but she let him go regardless. He phased through the tent wall, away from the human din and directly into the cool darkness of Hellsing's basement. He could still smell the smoke, heady and fragrant to the warrior in him. He walked down to Seras' room and lingered for a moment at her door. He touched the handle with a passing reverence before twisting it slowly. Her bedside table was cluttered with pictures, mostly of the Geese but also of Integra, Walter and two people who were surely her parents. One stood out from the rest, a small print of a dark-haired man wearing a severe expression and regal attire.
Oh, that was a picture of him.
Alucard plucked the framed image from its brethren and gave it a critical eye. It wasn't half bad, really, although clearly it hadn't been painted by anyone that knew him. He put it down again and took another, a graduation shot of Seras and some other policemen. He smiled wryly back at her grinning face and sat down on her coffin. He breathed in, still able to smell Seras, a blend lavender soap and copper, in the small room. He lent his head against the stone wall and exhaled deeply. Then he let himself rest for a little while.
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It took Pip days to get Alucard alone.
"James and Lily went for an ultrasound the other day," He said casually, "It's a petite fille, they're naming her Seras."
Alucard pretended valiantly that he was not pleased at this eventuation.
"Integra has almost finished with the architects…"
"Are we going to be experiencing a classic redesign or is she going to go all modern on us?"
"No, I mean she's about ready to fire them." Pip smiled, "She might even let you eat one."
"After what happened with that shonky accountant, I doubt it."
Pip laughed jovially but he lacked his usual enthusiasm.
"Alucard, I have some questions to ask you about this immortality deal, if you don't mind."
"I hate to break it to you but you're about as close to being virginal as a flatworm is to self-propelled flight."
"I would hope so…" Pip frowned, "But I want to see our Seras again, even if I have to wait a thousand years."
Alucard looked off into the distance. He frowned grumpily. A hundred metres from the main gate he could see Integra's Tent of War (one of the Geese had graffitied the slogan onto all sides of it one morning) and Jareth doing his physiotherapy on the lawn with the help of Sarah the secretary. Walter was keeping a watchful, though slightly pointed, eye on them. Pip fidgeted after a minute and opened his mouth. Alucard shushed him with an index finger. Statistics danced behind his eyes.
"I'm thinking about it."
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Integra was almost to the point of banging her head against a wall. The idiots that she'd insured the manor with were being most reluctant in their duties of handing over money for repairs. It wasn't her fault they hadn't considered exactly why she would want coverage from tank damage on her contract. She was about a day away from sending Alucard after them. She was now down a vampire, one that she had been fond of, down a headquarters, down a home, the men were all in poor spirits and worst of all she was completely lacking in cigars.
Oh, she was willing to kill someone for a smoke.
"Seras would have done something charming by today and everything would have picked up," She told herself.
Then she reminded herself that self-pity was a emotion for commoners and that it was a poor reflection on her mental health that she had started talking to herself. Really, what would her father say? Integra called up a Swiss bank that had, among other, more interesting items, a set of floor plans for the manor. She decided that she may as well keep those details as they were. Perhaps the Queen would know of some suitable builders…
Walter came in bearing tea service, a silver flask of scotch and a packet of cigars.
"Walter, don't you ever defect on me." She said, laughter hiding under her weariness.
"Of course not, Sir." Walter replied, deadly serious.
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D fell into his home dimension with a grunt and an ungainly somersault. He was stopped rather abruptly by a tree stump. His delicate nostrils were assaulted with a charming mixture of dust and sulphur that was endemic to monster-rich corners of the Frontier. Ahhh, he thought, home. He opened his eyes carefully to see his horse staring at him and decided that something was just a little wrong, although he couldn't quite put his finger on what it could be. He lay back on the dry grass for a moment and used a hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
The sun!
D scrambled to his feet, sending clods of dirt flying and spooking his horse into a prancing jump. He twisted on his heels, furiously scouting the terrain for any sign of Seras. He saw a dead dimension ripping beast spread out on the dry plane that encompassed most of the region. She wouldn't have headed into that wasteland on her own though, so he ignored it. He scanned around the few caves that hid around the vampire stronghold, then saw scuff marks trailing up the hill, leading towards Castle Iocus. He quickly touched his fingers to one and they came away damp. She had passed by not long ago… He could only hope that he was being mislead by morning dew, it was barely past ten, if he was lucky…
But dhampires are not known for their luck.
D ran up the hillside towards Castle, shouting as he went.
"Seras? Seras, can you hear me?"
He sprinted towards the entrance hall as soon as he hit level ground, wrapping a bandage around his left hand as he went. If she'd gotten caught by the traps inside, if she hadn't been fast enough, if he wasn't fast enough. He barrelled into the doors and kept moving.
"Seras!"
"Ow!"
D stopped and asked himself if turning around would just lead to one more disappointment in his rather tragic life. He looked over his shoulder, just in case. He saw Seras glaring lightly and rubbing her nose.
"You pushed a door into me!" She complained, lips turning downward as she pushed it closed again to keep out the light.
"I'm sorry." D whispered.
"You really need to slow down a little Harry, at least sometimes." She chided, "Although I am very glad to see you, say, is this your house? It's very big."
"Um, no." D was finding it very hard to move so he decided to try apologising again, "I'm so sorry."
"For not having a giant house?" She replied, "That's a bit of a relief anyway, I'd be worried if you lived in a scary place like this on your own."
"I mean, Seras, I, I want to say I'm so sorry, for everything…" Seras cut him off.
"It's ok, shh, I'm fine, I'm not blaming you…" She surreptitiously looked towards his left hand and he quickly held it up so she could see that he'd bandaged it.
"I'm sorry for that, I should have told you all but I didn't think something like that could ever… I'll never let it happen again, I promise you!" He gushed, heavily embarrassed but too involved to stop himself.
Seras hugged him. He couldn't find words after that.
"I forgive you, you didn't mean for it to happen," She soothed, "We're going to be fine."
D pulled back a little so he could take her letter out. He handed it to her. She looked at it quizzically then looked up at D again. He gestured lightly at the note. She pulled off one of her gloves and opened it with meticulous care. She read it quickly and by the end her hands had lost their usual steadiness. One surprised tear fell from her eye and D caught it with his thumb.
"He called me Victoria," She whispered, a little awed.
"He said he was proud of you and that he's going to take care of the Geese," He coughed out, "He said he'd visit someday when the option opened up, if you don't make it back first."
Seras smiled again, at what she saw on the creamy paper and then she smiled at D.
"I think we're going to have to get me a new gun."
D laughed, relieved and overflowing.
"Oh, by the way," Seras pulled a bright blue pendant out of her shirt, "I found this on the carpet when I got here, is it yours?"
Just the epilogue to go... NB Once I post the epilogue I'm going to change DDDA's category to Hellsing, until I change my mind again about who the main focus is... I ended up spending more time on Hellsing than I anticipated...