Seras entered the math class timidly, loath to face either of the monsters inside. When she cracked open the door, and gradually widened the gap to peek around the room, she noticed that it was empty besides Father Anderson and her Master. Both glanced at her, but immediately lost interest in her interruption.
Father Anderson was smirking with crossed arms, his suede coat against a portion of the blackboard that lacked the chalky smear that was left by any attempt to seriously apply the eraser. While her Master was – thank god – more than several of his shortened arm-lengths away from the Iscariot, meaning no blows had been exchanged, no report need be written or thought up to be relayed to Sir Integra or Walter… Well. Blows had yet to be exchanged, but judging by the stifling atmosphere and her Master's dead expression…and with memories of the story he had recounted to Sir Integra over the phone… They weren't out of the woods yet.
They were in an empty classroom, all alone, nobody to interfere or get in the way – except her. And no way was she going to step between the two of them, alone, not without a line of disrupting persons in tow. What she'd give to have a group of elderly tourists at hand right about now. But maybe she wouldn't need them.
Big baby-blue eyes roamed the classroom as silence hung over them, and that's when she alighted upon the infamous teddy bear she'd heard (so much) about, but had yet to lay eyes on. It was sitting, solitarily, at the back of the room, and Seras felt sorry for it. It looked sad, all the way back there, being ignored by her Master, and stuck in a room with two intimidating behemoths – well, usually her Master was a behemoth, just for the time being he was a bit of a midget, or munchkin.
Seras masked a snort of laughter, and pressed the back of her hand against her smile, quickly walking away from the monsters to retrieve the bear – so her unexplained amusement wouldn't be spotted.
Munchkin. He was a total munchkin. Perfect. The term was just… so perfect. Sir Integra might get a kick out of it. She'd just have to wait until her Master left for his nightly patrol to tell her, but…
Seras had picked up the bear and was hugging it as she walked back towards the front of the room, when she was suddenly confronted by Father Anderson's gaze. She flinched and halted beside one of the tables, prepared to drop to the floor and use it for cover. (Though the bayonets would probably pierce the wood – they were really sharp.) He watched her, seeming to find something humorous about her fear and reluctance to draw nearer.
Alucard watched the priest as Father Anderson gave his attention to the Police Girl. He grimaced, awaiting what he'd been expecting the Judas Priest to initiate, once the girl had showed up unexpectedly.
"So we're all gathered here, are we? Ready to exchange what we know, or continue to keep it to ourselves? Hm? Or haven't you anything worth sharing." Now Father Anderson looked directly at Alucard, his grin broadening for a moment. "Or have yee been too busy with your new boyfriend to give it much mind? Too busy gettin' dressed up in laces and goin' to fancy dinners with him?"
Seras squeezed the teddy bear, praying that her Master would control his temper. Alucard showed no response, but spoke quietly: "You've found one. One that was situated in another town, with close to an hour's commute to the school. Tell me, how much closer does that bring you to finding the vampire who sired the whelp?"
The grin had receded, but traces of the smirk remained, as Father Anderson took his time responding. "Not much, nothing significant. Being that ah only found a fledgling, a cast-off-"
"A 'cast-off' that was kept around." Alucard corrected, though the priest hadn't put forward a true theory, just words that were carelessly laid out, as if he were preparing to scrape the crumbs that he'd accumulated on his plate, to scatter them over the floor for the vampires to bend over and pick up one at a time, like insignificant grains of sand that were supposed to compose a complete sculpture. "Though he'd been working for the school, you had never come into contact with him before."
"Ah am more of a stand-in, temporarily employed. My not running into him before now doesn't say much. …And then there's the matter that you, demon, haven't smelled the monster out by now. Meaning, yee haven't come across it in the weeks that you've been here. …Yet it doesn't seem to be a transient of sorts. But since the two Hellsing vampires have appeared, this was the first sign of any trouble involving students. There was trouble before your arrival, but next to none after it."
"And would there be a reason why I wouldn't already be aware of this?"
Seras fluttered on the outskirts of the scene, finally breaking in as she fretted over her Master's mood. "We're late for class-"
The priest spoke over her anxiety, "We need to broaden our scope."
Alucard went to the door, and Seras nearly gasped with relief as she scampered after him.
The nosferatu merely passed back a "That's a given," before leaving Father Anderson behind. Alucard and Seras parted in the hall, as Alucard went to the library to access the school computers, refreshing his memory by looking up maps of the local area, then school rosters of staff members and titles. Crimson eyes scanned lines of text, email addresses, phone numbers, the mouse clicked, pages changed, and the vampire read on in complete silence.