Author's Notes: I was going to make this only two halves, but decided against it for reasons you will see soon. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing or a time-travelling wardrobe (Lord do I wish I did, though).

"I'm home!" the girl cried with delight.

Her drawing room wasn't as richly decorated as the Hellsing mansion, Walter thought, but it was okay for the likes of her. It was rather clean and well-furnished, at least; not too different from the furnishing style he was used to, though a little plainer and smaller. It was a nice little room with a sunny feel to it, with nice sunny windows covered in nice clean curtains, nice carpets, nice furniture, and nice family photos hanging on every wall, shelf and fireplace mantle; no doubt the influence of the nice, sunny people who lived there.

Eventually they peeped into the kitchen, which had a bit of a mournful feel, where they found a woman with long blonde hair sitting at the table with her head in her hands, crying.

"Mum!" the girl exclaimed.

The woman's head snapped up, and she looked at Seras as though she scarcely dared to believe she was there.

"Seras?" she whispered.

"Mum!" Seras ran toward her.

"Seras!" the woman cried, and scrambled out of her chair.

They ran into each other's arms; the girl threw her arms around the woman's neck, while the woman scooped her daughter up and fell to her knees, crying. She ran her hands all over her her hair, back and shoulders as though to make sure she was really there, sobbed and kissed her again and again.

"Where have you been?" her mother sobbed, "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"I was locked in the wardrobe all night," Seras answered, "I tried calling for help, but you didn't hear me."

"That's strange, I must have over-looked it in my panic." She kissed her daughter's cheek, then held her more tightly, sighing in relief, "Oh Seras, I was so afraid I'd lost you."

"I'm right here, Mum."

Walter stayed where he was, and watched this sickeningly-sweet reunion with an unreadable expression, his usual snarky attitude now uncharacteristically silent. His eyes were half-closed and his lips were pursed; he looked almost bored. After a few minutes he half-shrugged, turned away and walked back toward the wardrobe.

"Seras," her mom said, "who is that?"

Walter froze. Damn, that woman's eyes were too sharp.

"Who, that?" Seras said, breaking the moment, "That's Walter."

Seras spat the name like it was poison.

"I see," her mother said complacently, "Is he a friend of yours?"

"No," Seras snapped, "I just met him before I got locked in the wardrobe."

Well, that was partly true.

"I see," the woman mopped her face as best as she could and approached Walter sheepishly. "You arrived at quite a dramatic time; we spent the whole night thinking that Seras was lost, or kidnapped, or worse, but just found she was in the closet the whole time. I don't know how she got out this morning, if she invited you over or if you let her out or. . ." when Walter didn't respond, she cleared her throat and extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Seras' mother."

"I can see that," Walter said without emotion. He didn't move to shake her hand.

Instead he took out a cigarette, lit it slowly, and inhaled deeply. There wasn't any particular reason why he did this; he just felt like having a smoke, so he went and had one. If she wanted to stop him, to tell him he was too young, well, let her. To her look of surprise, he glanced at her nonchalantly, as though daring her to tell him to stop.

"I see," the woman pulled her hand away, then smiled briskly. "Seras, why don't you invite Walter to stay for tea?"

"What? No way!" Seras cried, "I don't want him here!"

"Let me rephrase that," her mother said sternly, and a few moments later Seras asked grudgingly if he would like to stay.

"Can't, my master needs me back home, but thanks for the offer," Walter said with a false grin.

"See?" Seras snapped, and threw her hand in Walter's direction.

"Your master?" her mother said, dubiously, "You mean you're working at your age?"

"Yes, well," Walter took a drag of his cigarette, "It helps pay the bills."

"Liar," Seras snapped, "I know you live there."

"Helps pay for the room and board then," Walter said, glaring at Seras. "Is that good enough for you?"

"Making you pay to stay at your own house?" Seras mother asked angrily, "I think I should like to meet this boss of yours."

"Look, it's all right," Walter said easily, the lie rolling off his tongue. "My boss and I have an agreement; I like the work anyway, so we both benefit from the arrangement."

"Liar," Seras hissed, and stuck her tongue at him.

"Well, I should still like to see this boss of yours anyway," Seras' mother said, grabbing her purse, "And give him a piece of my mind."

"You'll be giving more than a piece of that if you meet him," Walter smirked from under his breath.

Apparently Seras was thinking the same thing. "Don't go over there mummy, he's a real big pervert."

"A pervert?" her mother asked, horrified.

"Shut up Seras," Walter hissed under his breath.

"Yeah! He was flirting with the maids when I was there."

"Is that so?" Seras' mother snapped. "I think I'm starting to like your master less and less."

"You don't know the half of it," Walter muttered under his breath.

"That's right mummy," Seras cried, pulling her mother's arm, "Don't go over there, or he'll put the moves on you!"

Well, that seemed to be a whole different matter, for she had been imagining children before that statement.

"Well, I don't know where you've been hearing vocabuly like that," Seras' mother said, a little sternly to hide her relief, "But if Walter would like to go home, I'm obliged to take him."

Walter looked a little shocked. "That won't be necessary," he said hastily, "I can walk."

"No, I insist," Seras' mother said, "You're a guest in this house, and it is my duty to see to it that you get home safely."

"That's right," Seras said gloatingly, "It's her duty to see to it that you get home safely."

"Don't make me gut you," Walter said, but he had good reason to refuse her offer.

"Of course, if you don't want to leave right away, you could always stay for tea."

"No he can't," Seras said sternly. "I don't want him here!"

"That's too bad," her mother said slyly, "Because then we cannot take out the guest china."

"Guest china?" Seras' eyes widened, "That settles it! You're staying!"

"What?" Walter cried, and you could swear you saw skulls all around him, "'That settles it?' Don't I have any say in this?"

"Of course," Seras' mother said, "If you don't want to stay, then I can drive you home. Which will it be, Walter?"

Walter thought about snidely telling her "London," but he half-expected her to give him a blank look and tell him that London had already been destroyed. That, and London was still rather far from Cheddar, and he was sure Seras' mother would demand to know when, how and why her daughter snuck away to such a large city to visit some boy she had never even met? Though that would make trouble for Seras, which would please Walter to no end, the topic might inevitably slip to Hellsing, and the long and short of it was he needed to lie low for a while; though he wasn't familiar enough with the area to give a false address.

Walter forced out a huge false grin. "On second thought, tea sounds lovely."

"Wonderful!" Seras' mother said briskly. "Seras, why don't you show Walter where the bathroom is so the two of you can wash up? I'll call your father and let him know you're all right."

"Okay!"

But the moment the two left the room, Walter stepped right back into the wardrobe, shut the door, and when he opened it Sir Hellsing and Sir Irons were looking at him dubiously.

"Did it work?"

"The mission was a success," Walter said, without emotion. "We stepped into the wardrobe, we wound up in the girl's home, her mom couldn't stop gushing over her, they cried, they kissed, they cuddled, the end."

"Excellent!" Sir Hellsing cried, "Oh, this is marvelous indeed!"

"Upon my word," Sir Irons said breathlessly, "A reliable form of time travel!"

"Yeah," Walter said without enthusiasm, "Looks like you two have your work cut out for you. . ."

"Our work cut out for us? Why, no, dear boy," Sir Hellsing said with a wide grin, "We'll need to study this wardrobe harder than ever. We'll examine it, calculate it, figure out how it works and how to use it. Of course, you'll need to go on to the other side and figure out the exact date, time and location of the wardrobe down to the very second, so we can calculate and coordinate exactly how the time travels. You'll need explore the area to see how England turns out after the war; did we win? (Though I'm sure we did, since ours is the finest country in the world, and the young girl was clearly English.) Exactly how did we win? You'll need to find a few history books (assuming books still exist in the future) with exact accounts and circumstances about the war so we can use it to our advantage. You'll need to travel around London, observe the locals, see how it changes, see if you can find Hellsing. Will we still exist in the future? I have no doubt that we will, since we are the finest vampire hunters in the world. . ."

"Assuming you will live that long or finally get around to producing an heir," Sir Irons interjected.

"Yes, yes, all in good time. But be that as it may, you'll need to go about making sure that Hellsing is still a secret, vampires are still kept under cover, perhaps visit the residence itself to see how everything has turned out. (No doubt they'll already be waiting for you, if time really is like a loop!) Of course you'll have to start immediately and take multiple trips. . ."

Walter was listening to all of this with a neutral expression, but when Sir Hellsing paused to take a breath, he smile brightly.

"Can't. The girl's mother invited me over for tea."

Before Sir Hellsing could object, he closed the door and opened it back in Seras' drawing room.

The mother and daughter were exactly where he left them. The mother was boiling water in the kitchen, and talking on the phone. "Yes dear, she's safe. Apparently she climbed into the wardrobe and locked herself in by mistake . . . She claims I didn't hear her, I suppose she gave up or tired herself out and fell asleep, you know how our daughter is . . . I could have sworn I checked, but it's so full of heavy coats that I suppose she must have been sleeping under one when I looked in, and. . ."

The girl in question was in the next room, washing her hands. She was just a little too short to reach the sink, and so she stood on a colourful, plastic stool to reach the water more easily, scrubbing in that disgusting way that only little kids with jam hands could do.

He observed the clothes they were wearing: the mother had on some pink dress suit, and the daughter wore a blue turtleneck with green shorts. He secretly wondered if this was the fashion of the future, and was determined to make sure that no such ugly styles would ever penetrate the Hellsing Organization while he was around.

The girl came bouncing into the kitchen when she was finished, sat at the table next to her mother, and accepted the phone when it was offered to her.

"Hi daddy! . . . Yes, I'm fine. That stupid wardrobe just locked on me when I climbed in . . . I was playing hide and seek. . . Well, I tried calling for help, but no one heard me. I think mommy needs to have her hearing checked. . ."

Only Walter seemed to realize that the wardrobe in her house was fine, but the one on their side was locked from the outside because nobody ever used it. (It was just a plain piece of furniture in a spare room, after all.) Seras was transported to their time the instant she closed the door, but could not go back until she opened it in their time and closed it again; and since it was locked, that was impossible. She was kicking and screaming in that spare room all night, but it was far enough out of the way that nobody heard; it was only a coincidence that Walter needed to straighten up that room that day. If he hadn't discovered her as soon as he did, she might have died in that wardrobe.

Though he had seem much death and destruction in his short life, Walter was surprisingly chilled by that morbid thought.

He was snapped out of his revere when her mother asked him what sort of crumpets he wanted.

"Buttered. . .?" he answered hesitantly, vaguely wondering if they had anything worth eating.

The woman nodded, but went over to get the phone when Seras was done talking. She came bouncing over to Walter, but he had no time for her; instead, he looked over to where the tea was stored. He was very good at preparing tea, having served it at least three times a day since he first joined Hellsing, and felt a sudden desire to show off. While her mother was busy talking, he made his way over.

"You aren't supposed to do that," Seras said snottily over his shoulder. "You're a guest here."

"All the more reason why I should do this," Walter said easily, getting all the leaves out.

"You really are a snooty jerk, you know that?" Seras snapped, her face turning red with anger.

"And you really are a dumb little kitten, aren't you?" Walter said.

He glanced at her and smirked, causing her face to flush all the more.

"Now watch the master," he said.

And he began preparing the tea, using his skilled hands to blend artfully yet efficiently. Seras Victoria was visibly impressed by his movements, and soon forgot her anger as she began shamelessly gawking over his shoulder. Walter was very gratified by her rapt attention, since no one had ever been impressed with the mundane things he did, and even began to show off, in his own way. He offered her the first taste of his concoction.

She blushed, and glared furiously when he offered her a cup.

Being a sadist, he was very satisfied with this reaction as well.

"This doesn't change anything," she grumbled before accepting it.

Walter smirked. She had her pride, after all, and was determined to hold on to a grudge as long as possible.

When Seras' mother was finished talking on the phone, she came over.

"Oh Walter, you didn't have to do this," she said when she saw the tea, "You're the guest, after all."

"That's what I told him," Seras grumbled into her tea.

"You don't have to worry about it," Walter said amiably, "I wanted to."

"All right," her mother said warily, "But that doesn't mean you have to do it again, you hear?"

But she relented a little when she tasted Walter's tea.

The afternoon passed by rather smoothly after that. Seras helped her mother bake the crumpets, getting flower and dough everywhere, then she cheered when it was time to take them out of the oven. Seras was such a stupid creature; it was amazing that such an ugly child could have such a sophisticated, educated, devoted mother. She was very classy, polite, and kind to Walter, and tried to include him in all their family activities. This aggravated him to no end, but he kept it to himself, and was outwardly polite to her, though insincerely.

They settled at the table to have tea and crumpets, then proposed to watch a movie when the conversation lulled. When they learned that Walter had never seen a film, not even Gone With the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, which were "timeless classics" and had come out shortly before World War II (Walter said he was unfamiliar with anything after that era) they were shocked and insisted on rectifying the problem at once.

Walter knew that films existed, he just worked full time and never left the mansion to go see one in theatres (he heard it was mostly just cartoons and news broadcasts from the war. He was unaware that one could see films in their own home, and was rather impressed with the television, which was like the radio, except it broadcasted moving pictures as well as sound.

They ended up watching The Wizard of Oz, a film about a sickenly sweet and impossibly clean American farm girl who whined and cried when she didn't get her way, ran away from home then came back only to have her house lifted by a tornado. Ignoring the physics-defying way the house stayed fully intact and fell to the ground without shattering, the girl emerged and found that she "wasn't in Kansas anymore." No shit, Sherlock. Considering she came from a world of black and brown and everything was now in Technicolor, it was pretty obvious she wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Still, he could see why they would like a film like this. Ignoring all of its other flaws (and there were plenty), it was about a young girl who got sucked into a new world and needed to find her way home. Walter looked over at Seras, who had her arms around her knees and was watching the movie intently, and wondered if she was smart enough to notice the similarities.

It was a rather long film, though, and halfway through Walter was itching to get up and do something; clean, spar, go vampire hunting, something. He wondered if all people became like this, rapt zombies staring lethargically at a coloured screen, and was determined to make sure that no television ever made it into the Hellsing manor to dull the senses of future Hellsing generations; Arthur was bad enough.

Eventually the movie ended, and Seras' mom insisted on doing the cleaning herself, so Walter went out front to stretch his legs, with Seras Victoria quickly in toe. They played cricket, and Walter won easily; the clumsy movements of a human child were almost ghoul-like for the boy who was used to hunting vampires. She got so red and flustered when she was angry.

It was such a happy, normal afternoon; it struck a chord more deeply than any of his wires could slice.

Eventually the day wound down, and Seras' mother told Walter she could drive him home at any time. It wasn't that she was trying to get rid of him, but she did seem tired and no longer in the mood to entertain him as a guest; it was her way of kindly offering an alternative to hanging around her house, bored, with nothing to do, since she could sense his discomfort.

When her back was turned, however, Walter took the WWII book and climbed into the wardrobe.

"If she asks," he told Seras, "Just tell her I already went home."

"Of course she will. . ." Seas began, but he shut the door on her.

Sir Hellsing and Sir Irons were still in the drawing room when Walter emerged from the wardrobe. They saw him and stood, waiting breathlessly for an answer, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he slapped the World War II book and slapped it against Sir Hellsing's chest.

"Here, a complete dictionary on the Second World War," Walter said emotionlessly, "Read it, study it, memorize it; I'm going to bed."

For the first time in his life, perhaps, Sir Hellsing was flabbergasted. "But what about your mission?"

"Later," Walter said, and exited the room without looking back.

It was so out of character. Sir Irons and Sir Hellsing looked at each other dubiously.

"Did I miss something?" Sir Hellsing said.

Walter didn't sleep well that night. He walked into his empty room, kicked off his shoes, crawled into his empty bed, then stared at his empty ceiling for hours. Sleep didn't come to him, so he lay on his back, with his hands propped behind his head, and stared for hours.

Seras didn't sleep either, though for a different reason. She cuddled with her mother till her father came home in the evening, then jumped for joy when he walked through the front door and was lifted into his arms and spun around like a plane. Since he had spent the whole night and day before fearing he'd never see her again, he was even more of a loving, attentive father and husband than he ever was, and they spent the whole evening together as a family, planning their next outting and what they would do during daddy's next day off, once he was finished with this important case.

Seras reveled the way only a child secure in knowing she is loved by both her parents can be; but she still thought about the wardrobe that led into the WWII mansion, and thought about climbing in again after her parents had gone to bed. She wanted to explore, to possibly torment Walter to get even for being a jerk, and to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous Sir Irons.

While she was preparing for bed, she heard the front door open and loud voices with Cockney accents demanding to see the copper. Her father went to see who it was, and just as she peeped through the hallway door to see what was going on too, she saw one of them take out a gun and shoot him in the face.