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A Lesson with Pip
Cat woke up the next morning feeling more tired than she had before. She tried to remember the dream she had had but it slipped away from her. She tried to keep from getting into a bad mood but she could not help it. Whatever she had dreamt about was very unsettling and she could not drive it from her mind. She decided to just go with the flow and be a grouch all day. She got dressed and headed downstairs to make breakfast.
When she was almost done cooking Lucian entered the kitchen with the food carts.
"Good morning," he said cheerily.
Cat just grunted at him and started filling the trays.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked as he picked up some eggs.
"I just had a stressful day yesterday and I slept badly," she tried to sound nicer but she was in too bad of a mood.
"Well I was told to give you this," he handed her a piece of paper.
Cat laughed a little, "Is it another thank you for cooking?"
"Nah not this time I think it's important or something," Lucian looked happier now that Cat was smiling.
Cat read the letter. It was from the man Pip Alucard had spoken of. He wanted her to come down to the armory as soon as her kitchen duties were done.
"Thanks, tell him I'll be there in a bit," she started washing the dishes.
"Alright. Mind if I ask what he wants you for?" Lucian finished loading the cart and got ready to leave.
"I'm supposed to try my hand at shooting guns I guess. Alucard said Pip could teach me so I could defend myself. So I won't need to be protected," she started scrubbing dishes as a clip from her dream came back to her. Boys running after her and no where to hide.
"Ah I see. Well I'll see you down there then," he wheeled the carts away and disappeared down the hall.
Cat continued scrubbing the dishes. She thought about what had happened yesterday. She tried remembering her dream but it was hard to recall something you truly did not want to. She felt apprehensive about shooting guns. She had a couple times before when her Aunt had dated the cop but it was different then. She had been doing it for fun and not practicing so she could save herself if she needed to. She thought back hard to the shooting range he had taken her to. It had been five years ago. She tried to remember if she had done well but too much had happened since then. She could only pray that she had.
She finished the dishes and started towards the armory. It was a long walk through the mansion and across the grounds but eventually she made it. After she got there she realized she had not really dressed for the occasion. She was wearing a pair of black boot cut jeans and a deep red low cut shirt with a black undershirt. It was a nice outfit to go about the day in but not to stand in an armory full of soldiers shooting guns. She decided it was too late to turn back now and stepped into the armory. After she was inside she realized she had no idea what Pip looked like. She looked up and down the aisle of soldiers but all had earphones on to block out the sound of the guns. She finally decided to walk up to the one nearest the door and tap on his shoulder. As soon as she did he jumped and nearly dropped the gun.
"What are you doing! I could have shot you!" the soldier stared at her in bewilderment.
"Well that's kind of pathetic don't you think? I mean you're in a secure area…why would someone tapping on your shoulder scare you? You're surrounded by people already," the soldier gaped at her.
"What are you doing here?" he pulled off his earphones and relaxed more.
"I'm looking for Pip. He sent a note telling me to come down here," she scanned the room once more.
"Oh yeah you're that new girl, the one that cooks so good! Just go to the end of the line, he's in the last stall," the soldier put his earphones back on and began shooting again.
Cat walked slowly to the last stall. She peaked around the corner and found a man shooting a target with a machine gun. He had a long braid wrapped around his neck like a scarf and he wore a hat pressed tightly down on his head with the flap pinned up on one side. His clothes were baggy and old looking and Cat guessed he was about six feet tall. She cleared her throat between one of the machine gun blasts and he turned around. He was handsome and looked to be about middle aged. Probably not too much older than Integra. He had a strange looking eye patch on his left eye that had little holes in it. Cat thought they were probably for ventilation. Right over the bridge of his nose he wore a Band-Aid, but the strangest part about him was the smoking cigarette dangling between his lips.
"Yeah?" he looked at her and took a puff of his cigarette.
Cat looked down at the name on the note. It had been signed in blocky childish letters, "Are you Pip Bernadette?"
"Why yes I am, and who might you be you pretty little thing?" he eyed her up and down.
Cat sighed, some of the soldiers had stopped practicing and were now watching the conversation. "I'm Katherine Deschain. I'm supposed to be learning to defend myself."
"Oh right right right! The little stray kitten Sir Hellsing took in. I assume you have never shot a gun before little one. We'll start you with a nice girly hand gun," he went over to one of the lockers and pulled out a regular looking hand gun.
"I have shot a gun before but it was five years ago," Cat made up her mind to not let them get under her skin. It would only make learning harder which would mean she would have to stay even longer.
"Well here you go then. You just point it at that wee paper man and try to hit him. We strive for the head or the heart. Never to maim only to kill," he guided her into the booth and plunked a set of earphones over her ears.
Cat examined the gun. The safety was still on so she switched it off. She then checked the chamber for bullets. Her Aunts boyfriend had taught her these things first. It was dangerous to handle a gun if you were not familiar with all of its parts. The cylinder was fully loaded so she flipped it back closed and took a deep breath. She slowly raised the gun with her right hand and rested it on her left wrist just below the trigger to steady herself. She took careful aim and pulled the trigger. Her hand was knocked back a bit but she did not let it faze her when she heard some of the soldiers' chuckle. She took aim and fired once more then took off the earphones.
"There you are, check it," she turned around and looked at pip.
"What do you mean check it? You haven't hit it you're only getting used to the feel of the gun," he put his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Well I've aimed to hit it so check and see if I did," Cat had seen the paper move when she fired the gun. She was pretty sure she had hit the target if not dead on then very close. It had felt natural firing the gun. She suspected she had practiced five years ago more than she could remember.
"Yeah alright, but if you haven't you'll bake all of us a cake," he walked up to the stall to bring the target in.
"And what if I have hit it? What do I get," Cat grinned at him innocently.
"I won't tease you ever again. Is that fair?" he pressed the button and the target skimmed towards them on the zip line.
"I guess that's fair enough," Cat smiled as he snatched the piece of paper off the hanger.
"I don't believe this! Look at this boys! She's shot him right between the eyes! And in his heart as well," Pip looked up at her and smiled ear to ear. "They didn't tell me they were sending talent. I thought I was in for months of girly complaints and wasted bullets but this is great!" Pip shoved the paper at one of the soldiers and ran over to Cat. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and picked her up in a bear hug. He even shook her back and forth a bit before she started to yell. "You won't be needing this sort of practice. Once I've familiarized you with how all the different guns work its straight to sniper practice!" Cat's smile faltered a bit when she heard this.
"Don't fret love you'll be brilliant at it. You haven't held a gun in five years and you've already hit this guy dead on," he started pulling different guns out of the lockers and stuffing them into a bag.
"Yeah but he was just hanging there. What about when someone is running at me to attack?" she put the safety back on the gun and walked over to him.
One of the soldiers spoke up, "You mean something, not someone."
"What do you mean something! Alucard said I should know how to defend myself. I assumed he meant from attacking boys in back alleys," the soldiers gave her an odd look. "I just mean I thought he meant people. Why would I ever be shooting inhuman things? Why would I even be around them?" Cat was becoming frustrated. She felt like she had been misled.
"Well you know who your parents were right? Did you think you would only be making food forever? You're destined to be great love you just have to give yourself the chance," Pip finished packing up the bag and stood up.
"So what then? I'm going to be Alucard's henchman or something? This is crap what if I don't want to go out risking my life for England? It isn't as though Alucard needs or wants any help," Cat tossed the gun in one of the lockers.
"It's the principle of the thing. You're gaining a great life skill for free! You're learning to defend yourself too, most likely you'll never have to though," he took hold of her sleeve and started leading her out the back door.
"I guess you're right. I doubt Integra would send me out to fight crime. Where are we going?" Pip had led her into a grassy area.
"We are going to sit down here and I am going to teach you about each of these guns. I'll show you how to take them apart and clean them and put them back together," he looked up and saw the doubt in Cat's eyes. "You worry too much already love, you're much too young for that. It sounds daunting I know but they all have the same basic components. You're a natural you'll learn in no time," he set to work spreading out a tarp and laying all the pieces of each gun out on it.
Pip taught Cat about the guns until 1 o'clock when she had to go make lunch. She ate with the soldiers and then went back out with Pip to practice more. She did this until 5 o'clock when she went to make dinner and then practiced more until about eight. This ritual went on for about two weeks when she finally knew each gun by memory. She could take them all apart and clean them then put them back together again. Pip had shown her how to shoot them as well and there were some she was better with than others.
After learning the guns he had taken her to a different shooting range that had targets set at different distances. Cat gasped when she saw how far away they were.
"How am I supposed to hit those! The closest one is miles!" she looked at Pip angrily.
"It's actually 500 meters. The next one is 1,000 then 1,500 all the way up 3,000," he started fitting a scope on one of the sniper rifles.
"You really expect me to hit that?" Cat sat down on a bale of hay.
"I do," he handed her the rifle, "You had better make it to at least 2,000 meters or I will have failed as a teacher."
Cat peaked through the scope, "Oh! Well it doesn't seem so far with this. I can practically see the woods grain on the first guy and the second one looks like he's standing right in front of me."
With that said Cat started to practice on the sniper course every day. On the day of the second week she hit the 2,500 meter target. She had been so excited she ran onto the field to retrieve the target and she rushed off to find Pip with it tucked under her arm.
She found him sitting in the back yard of the mansion smoking.
"Do you know what this is?" she held up the target man with the perfect hole through his plywood head.
"Looks like a target to me," he snuffed out his cigarette and stood up.
"Yes, and do you know what spot this target came from?" she gave the target a shake to urge him on.
His eyes widened slightly, "No! You didn't."
"I did! I hit the freaking 2,500 meter target!" she threw the target in the air and let it land behind her.
"Amazing! Absolutely amazing!" he grabbed her around the waist and spun in circles in the yard. Cat in turn wrapped her arms around his neck. She could not stop laughing or smiling. She had never really done anything amazing in her life and she thought this was a great accomplishment. She had never had anything to be proud about until now.
"I could just kiss you!" Pip stopped spinning and let her down.
"Let's not get carried away," she laughed at him.
"Oh maybe not today, but some day love I'll get you when you aren't paying attention," he ruffled her hair and took out another cigarette.
"Should I tell Integra?" Cat looked at the target on the ground.
"I would guess she already knows. Her window is just up there," Pip pointed up to the third row of windows.
"Oh. I wonder what she'll have to say," just then Alucard stepped onto the porch and called to Cat.
"Sir Hellsing would like a word with you," he then quickly stepped back inside.
"Well love that was short lived. She already wants you to go out and hunt monsters," he laughed and turned to go back to the armory.
"Do you really think so?" Cat walked inside and looked around for Alucard. She felt like she had not spoken to him in ages. When she thought about it she really hadn't. She had been practicing so much and she only saw him when she brought him blood packs in the evening. She walked up the stairs to the third floor but he had already disappeared.
"He's gone back to bed I guess," Cat took her time getting to Integra's office. She anticipated what she was going to be told and she was not excited about it.
She reached the office door and knocked.
"Come in," Integra called.
Cat walked in and closed the door behind her. She was glad to see Alucard standing at the edge of the desk. She hoped he would be proud of her as well, but she did not expect much. She walked up to the desk and sat down in one of the chairs.
"These chairs are terrible you know. It's like sitting on a rock," she wiggled in the chair trying to get comfortable.
"Really? Well I will have to take care of that wont I?" she peered down her nose sarcastically. "So you have hit the 2,500 meter mark I hear. You've gotten very good at the sniper rifle," she shuffled around some papers on her desk.
"I guess I'm okay at it," Cat looked down at her shoes. She knew what was coming.
"You don't need to be modest Katherine it's quite an amazing thing to be so good at such a young age," Integra put the papers down and looked at her.
Cat looked up at her and then she looked over at Alucard. She let her eyes linger on his for a moment then she spoke to Integra, "You want me to help out with things?"
"Yes, it would be admirable if you did help out with things. No one is forcing you though. It is your choice," Integra watched as Cat's eyes flashed again to Alucard, "and only your choice."
"I will help," Cat twiddled her thumbs, "It will be more interesting target practice anyway, right?" she smiled weakly.
Alucard let out a booming laugh, "Atta girl. Finally she shows some more character and skills other than cooking."
"Alucard you may leave. Go to bed there is a mission tonight. You should be well rested," Integra swatted at him and he phased through the floor after one last evil grin towards Cat.
"Don't worry it will be fine. Alucard will be taking care of most of it and I will be sure Ferguson stays with you the entire time," Integra picked up a paper and wrote something down.
"What! You want me to go on tonight's mission?! I thought you were talking about in the future! The distant future!" Cat sat on the edge of the stony chair.
"Tonight's mission is perfect for you to start out. It's going to be quick and easy, it will give you an idea of what we are up against. You don't have to go if you don't want to," Integra looked disappointed.
"No, I'll go. I guess I'm just overreacting. I haven't been sleeping much," she leaned back in the chair.
"Why don't you go and take a nap. I'll have Walter make dinner. I'm sending everyone out at 10 o'clock and it could take all night so you'll want to get as much rest as you can right now," she picked up the phone to dial Walter.
"Okay. I've only been here a month and I'm already picking up undead sleeping patterns. That can't be a good sign," Cat got up and left Integra snickering at her desk. She walked back to her room dragging her feet the entire way. She switched the light out and set her alarm clock for 9 pm. A five hour nap sounded wonderful and she quickly fell asleep dreaming of plywood men attacking the soldiers and her shooting them down and saving them all.