So far, this story is fun to do, staying true to Lovecraft's story and multiple references I don't have in me to change for obvious reasons, and Barbara is a really interesting character by far. :) The battle of Flanders in part five "The Horror from the Shadows" set during the first World War is brought up to date even though Canada has had no recent troubles, but it seems befitting given today's events. Barbara dwells briefly on it before it will be expanded much later on. She also brings Herbert to meet her mother in this chapter, and it is during this time their relationship begins to expand, though it will take some more time before it's more than just friendship.

Chapter Three

More Than Friends

Present Day

I finished the last of my Scotch by the time Mrs. Jensen finally brought out the papers from her purse. Her eyes narrowed slightly as they surveyed me. "Do tell me again: why do you really wish to return to this house following the event of your husband's disappearance?" she asked suspiciously.

I chewed my lip nervously as I took the pen and papers to read over first. "To find closure," I stated simply.

"That's what you said. But really."

Her persistence snapped my patience thread. "I've told you exactly. What more do you need to know?" Herbert taught me long ago that arrogance keeps people from asking anymore questions, even though very few are able to sense something amiss without solid proof, yet it also distanced people from you. And I was nervous about things blowing up on the first day back. My agent looked at me reproachfully.

"The moment I first laid my eyes on you both, I thought there was something rather fishy. So to learn about last year when the maid came here and found you unconscious in the basement and your husband missing, not one trace of him as though he was never there. No sign of forced entry, no DNA traces, no known perps. Nothing. Rather questionable, don't you think?"

She was so close to being right, but I wouldn't give her the satisfaction. "It certainly is, but I really don't remember what happened much other than before that, it was midnight when I'd set up the security of this place, and for all we knew, it could have been late night trouble; it scared us both that we retreated to the basement to hide afterwards." But the truth was far more hideous than that. And the police would never know because they would never have believed it.

Nor would they ever have believed the true story of Dr. Herbert West.

~o~

16 years ago

After the experience with the corpse from the potter's field, Herbert did drop his researches for some months that passed by, but that didn't stop him from obsessing as always and planning. And then out of the blue, by the twentieth of March which was the first day of spring, he made the decision to return to Dr. Halsey to plea for the use of the university dissecting room and return to his shunned experiments. I was on my way to the dean's office to discuss the scholarship when I heard the shouting match once more.

"Mr. West, I warned you -"

"Warned me against illegal experimentation, but I've really made a breakthrough, Doctor!" Herbert countered. "I had help from a friend outside the school and really need to use the dissecting room so I can further develop it. If only you, the revered dean and kind benefactor everyone knows, would just listen and see what's really in front of you -!" I held my breath when Halsey lashed out and sent Herbert stalking out furiously.

"ENOUGH! I know exactly what's in front of me, and it's nothing more than an immature young man whose delusional state can't see the limitations of the professor-doctor type. If you were in my position in more years to come, which lies on the line at the present with your insanity, you would understand. I'm surprised you even made it this far and will be graduating this year. Now get out of my office before I write you an expulsion letter."

I almost decided to turn on my heels and run because I knew that I hated Dean Alan Halsey at the present for his treatment of Herbert, whose blue eyes were burning and his mouth in a tight line as he left the dean's office and wanted to take his frustrations out on anything in front of him. I would calm him down myself after I left this place. I knocked on the door, the dean calling me to come in, his voice tight. He'd been scowling, now smiling when he saw me. "Ah, Barbara, just the one I wanted to see."

"About my scholarship," I answered sweetly, angrily wishing I could shoot him myself for talking Herbert down the way he did.

"I have the letter of recommendation written for you given how great you've been in such a short amount of time and your exceptionality in the ER. We have very few every year or any time who do that. I can see you standing on the podium on graduation day walking away with that scholarship in hand, doing great things with your career." His eyes darkened then. "But I worry about your friendship with Herbert West."

I was tempted to reach and finger my cross again, but he would notice my anxiety. "I assure you, my friendship with Mr. West hasn't affected me in any way."

He nodded. "Just keep an eye on him, then. The reason I let him stay is because he's one of our few best and brightest by far. But in all my years, I've seen the best and brightest take a fall off the cliff when they start to act like they're better and fresher than us."

The way he spoke was so egotistical, and I hated those people. I decided to change the topic. "Well, sir, now that we have this aside, I would love to move on talking about the scholarship."

He was pleased that I boldly moved on from the unwanted Herbert West topic, but when we were finished, I was more than ready to find Herbert and discuss with him us going to meet my mom during Spring Break. He wasn't exactly excited, but I wanted him to go. "Family business is our own," he said coolly.

"It is, but Mom has been wanting to meet you," I insisted. "She keeps saying 'Barbara, when are you bringing your new boyfriend over?'" He glowered at me when I laughed. "Come on, when was the last time you were doing something not work-related?"

He didn't answer me at first. "Since the end of high school," he said vaguely. Herbert lost his mother and sister at an early age, so what about a father? "We don't get along," he answered when I asked him. "He took to drinking and no more mass afterwards. I would be away at the hospital with my aunt, his sister, who was a doctor there and took me under her guidance. She helped me get into medical school, but then she moved away before I finished high school. And I haven't seen or spoken to my father since."

I was too stunned to answer; what could I say? I grew up with a single mom who loved and supported me, and that was different from an alcoholic father. I worried that the then innocent and young Herbert suffered bruises and broken bones until he was free to be on his own. I moved closer to him, in spite of myself, and wrapped my arms around his neck for a hug, drawing him closer to me.

"Barbara?" He was surprised and bewildered, like he'd never had anything like this happen to him before, not since his mother was killed, so his arms clumsily wrapped around my waist in an attempt to return it. He turned his face into my neck and gently whiffed my perfume, which had white peach tea, honeysuckle and musk. I thought it really sweet that he was new to all of this, but it also hurt to know he had no idea how to love anyone. I'm talking about the way my mom loves me and I love her...and me wanting to love another the way she and Dad used to.

~o~

My mother was Catherine Kane. She was forty-two years old, brown-haired and blue-eyed like me, though years of raising an only daughter and few boyfriends who came and went did things to her once beautiful face and her high spirits. I've done everything I could to support her since she could barely take care of herself on her own nowadays, and she was recently laid off from her job at the department store.

It was the first day of Spring Break when I, in a refreshingly sherbet-colored dress, arrived to the home where I was born and grew up. It was two-story, no words to describe its perfection on the outside and inside. The garage door opened up for me to drive in front but not go inside because of Mom's Porsche in the way. Herbert regarded it with a simple "Mmm, not bad. Certainly better than my birthplace." That was the first time he spoke since we left the house. Herbert obviously was never looking forward to anything else besides obsessing over the work. I was disappointed in him at the moment; all he ever cared about was the work he regarded overwhelmingly important above anything else, which he could have conducted in later years but which he wished to begin while still in the university. We were near the end of our undergraduate terms, and I was surprised Dean Halsey didn't expel him sooner despite numerous threats.

"Life's not all about the work, you know," I told him as I shut off the engine. "There's so much fun out there."

"Oh, is there?" He raised a thin blond brow at me. "Do tell me your definition of fun. You hardly go out as I don't."

"I might not leave for parties, but that doesn't mean I don't know what fun is," I said. "We're going to be here all week, so might as well take some time off from dead bodies, hypodermic needles, and a certain life-giving green serum." Oh, now he looked at me, giving me a sideways glare.

"Fine," he said simply. "But I'm only doing this for you."

I laughed and got out of the car with him. "Oh, if you pretend having fun, you might have some by accident," I said just as my mother was coming out of the house through the opened garage. "Hi, Mom!" I yelled out. I hadn't seen her since the holidays, since I was too busy with Herbert to see her much anymore, but then again growing up meant not seeing your parents much anymore.

"Barbara, my baby!" she squealed, hurrying over and taking my face in both hands. "I haven't seen you since Christmas. I think we're finally growing apart now," she said sadly.

I couldn't believe she would say such a thing. "Mom, I'm growing up now, but that doesn't mean we're not a family anymore. This is what growing up is about. I know you did that when you left home and met Dad."

She sniffled and nodded, trying not to cry. "Yeah, you're right, baby." Then her attention moved past my shoulder. "Oh, you must be Herbert. I'm Catherine, and please call me Catherine," she said with a light-hearted laugh. "Mrs. Kane is too formal."

He cleared his throat and smiled. "Catherine it is. Pleasure to meet you." He accepted her hand and shook it gently.

"Please, come in, you two. I made lunch for everyone. I know you both have a lot to tell me, and graduation coming up." She burst into proud giggles when she led us both inside. It was so wonderful and surreal being home. I sometimes wondered if I still did the right thing in leaving my mom to fend for herself. But if she were dead by now, I'd truly regret it then.

She made grilled cheese and tomato soup for us all, and Herbert and I were having a great time telling her everything about school - except a certain secret no one would ever know but us. And it was then on the radio that I heard a certain song that Mom had been gushing over a new release over and had to convince me to listen to that I immediately fell in love with, and made her laugh when I convinced Herbert to dance with me to.

Sometimes I run

Sometimes I hide

Sometimes I'm scared of you

But all I really want is to hold you tight

Treat you right, be with you day and night

Baby, all I need is time

We both stopped laughing - well, I was laughing mostly, and he was disbelieved that I'd made him do something he wasn't into. Mom was laughing at the table; Herbert's cheeks were flushed red with humiliation, though I could see he was trying not to smile. "Not bad for my first time, but this does NOT mean I'll be doing this all the time," he promised me.

"It reminds me of us," I told him softly, so Mom wouldn't hear, however I knew she was detecting something about us she would wait until Herbert wasn't around to pester me over, but what do you expect from a mother? The song really did speak to me, in so many ways which paralleled to what I felt. I felt a little unnerved around Herbert at times, but really, I wanted to be with him and do this one thing with him: conquer death, and once that was done, maybe there was a time for us.

Conquering death, in reality, would require a lifetime of research.

Barbara's mom is named after Jeff's daughter, Catherine Combs. :) She's an actress, though I'm unsure if she's still acting today, and I remember him mentioning in an interview she had a scene with Jennifer Garner in "13 Going on 30", a film I haven't seen in years but loved. Dad must be proud. :)

The song is "Sometimes" by Britney Spears. One of my childhood favorites. :D