Do not own! Not mine!

Jay's POV:

This was a strong, strong vampire. He had broken the wires like string, and the shaking beam of the flashlight wasn't helping much as we came face to face, his teeth gleaming hungrily in a split second of brilliant light before the light danced away again, and I dimly realized Flora must've dropped it and it was clattering to the floor. He grinned viciously at me as he broke the wires again, and I choked as he hit me in the stomach, my bullet wound screaming in agony as the light flickered out. His silent footsteps moved away, and I managed to drag in a breath again, but then agony flared and I hacked, feeling something wet and sticky fleck my wrist as I struggled to prop myself up on my elbows, tasting something metal in my mouth. 'Damn…Flora! DAMNIT NO!' I thought with another wet cough, gritting my teeth as I caught the wires again, breathing heavily. I managed to grin, chuckling to myself as I painfully flipped over. 'Fanger's gonna kill me…if I'm not already dead…' I thought morbidly, then flung the wires out in a long arch.

A screech of pain was heard, and I instantly halted the wires, praying I hadn't hit my best friend. "Flora? You there?" I gasped, and then coughed wetly again, hearing something move towards me. "Jay? You're alive?!" I chuckled again, retracting the wires and dropping my hand on my stomach, smirking up at the ceiling. "Alive depends on the definition of the word." I said flippantly, and I heard a weak giggle. The scritch of a match being struck was heard, and a warm yellow glow sprung up a few feet away, moving towards me. I saw a widening pool of blood at the edge of the glow, left behind as my best friend crawled beside me. I winced as I saw the thin slash marked across her face, diagonal across her cheek and almost having taken her eye. "Damn…I knew I overshot." I managed to cough, and her jaw dropped, staring at me in shock. "You're bleeding! And you're coughing blood!" she squeaked, and I raised an eyebrow, lifting my head slightly to see the dark stain on my vest and shirt, hacking and blinking as I saw red flecks spatter the semi-white fabric. "Fuzzbucket."

Flora's POV:

"Fuzzbucket." she said simply, and I giggled weakly, then stopped as she began painfully attempting to sit up. "Hold on! We need to-" I started off, and she gave me a peeved look, coming to crouch painfully on her hands and knees. "We need to nothing." she interrupted me, hacking again as blood spattered the concrete in tiny droplets. "If I'm coughing blood, then that's internal bleeding. The only hospital we can get access to is in the wrong direction, and if you think I'm letting you go on alone, then get your facts straight. I am your best friend. I am not letting you walk through a hundred miles of undead-infested countryside all by yourself. That's all there is to it." she snapped briskly, coming to her feet and leaning heavily on the concrete wall, eyes closed from pain. I quickly snapped a flare on, letting it paint the tunnel in a lurid red glow. "You are…" I said, shaking my head wordlessly, and she cracked an eye open to glare at me. "Yeah?"

"Something else."

Grin. "I know."

She straightened from her slouch, leaving a smear of blood on the grey stone as she inhaled deeply, cracking her fingers like a pianist. "C'mon then boss. We're losing time." she hacked, and I hurriedly grabbed her arm as she almost fell, breathing deeply and evenly. "You shouldn't even be moving!" She waved me off, standing on her own. "I…have an idea, but it's very stupid. Other then the flares, what do we have for flames?" I blinked at her. "Uh…matches, flint lighter for the incendium powder, silver nitrate-" She nodded. "Good. Do we have any water?" I stared at her, and then looked around at the dripping tunnel. "There's a couple of puddles around here, and we have some water bottles. Why?" She grinned shakily, leaning against the wall and motioning for me to unzip the backpack. "I have an idea."

I instantly stopped. "No offense, but most of your ideas today haven't been all that helpful." She gave me a wounded look, fumbling in the pack for the nitrate sticks. "It's perfectly safe. Doctors used it in the 1800s all the time." she said breezily, ignoring the unspoken question of what the hell are you going to do and pulling her shirt up. "Jay, please tell me you honestly think this is safe." I pleaded, and she paused. "Uh…" I pinched the bridge of my nose. "That's what I was afraid of. What are you going to do?" She was silent, drawing a smooth grey object out of the bag and inhaling shakily. "I'm going to cauterize the wound and stop the surface bleeding. In the 1800s, doctors fused silver nitrate into sticks and called them…uh…it was lunar something or another, and when you dip them in water then stick it on a wound it cauterizes the wound. We have silver nitrate sticks here, and we have water. So…" I stared at her blankly, and she smiled sheepishly at me. "Do I even want to know where you found that out?"

She laughed a little, shaking her head. "I know a lot that's random and weird. For instance…" She tore a strip off her shirt, begging to clean her wound off as the dirty bandages were taken off, breathing in light, quick pants. "Humans can drink maybe a couple teaspoons of blood, and if there aren't any germs or whatever, we don't get sick. Other than that, it's actually toxic. Too much iron." she gasped, gritting her teeth against the pain. "Elizabeth Bathorywas rumored to bath in blood to retain –ah! Her youthful appearance. She witnessed a thief being sewn into the belly of a horse when she was younger, which historians –mm! Suggest lead to her sadistic tendencies…" she gasped, eyes rolling up in her head as she finished cleaning the wound, laying the bloody strip of cloth to the side and picking up the nitrate stick. "You go from blood to Elizabeth Bathory?" I asked, and she grinned weakly, eyes closed. "The Blood Countess after all…and vampires are kinda on my mind." she croaked, and I nodded sheepishly.

"Do you really hate being in love?" I asked suddenly, the thought of vampires leading to Alucard and that thought trailing off into content, and she opened one eye to glare balefully at me. The look softened, and she closed it again. "Nah…not really. I'm actually a wee bit jealous." she admitted ruefully, and I blinked. "Huh?" She sat up, her breathing rate changing just a little bit as she obviously readied herself for the pain. "You seem so happy. I'm jealous because no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to become attached to someone like that. I mean, I can see and tell if a guy is nice-looking, but beyond that, I don't even notice them. I don't even look all that much. Just like when you're in a classroom full of girls and you notice the good-looking ones immediately, but you don't really care that they're pretty, like that. You may want to look like them too, but other than that they're just another person." she explained, her eyes vacantly looking up at the ceiling, then chuckled a little. "It's funny really."

I didn't see anything funny about it. "But…you want to like someone?" I asked tentatively, and she shrugged, a wistful look coming into her eyes as she glanced at me. "Maybe. You seem so happy when you're with Alucard, but sometimes it doesn't seem worth it. The way you were on the car ride here…I don't think anything would be worth being that sad merely because your mate, lover, whatever, wasn't there. And yet it seems like a really good idea sometimes, when I see you two talking or cuddling or whatever." She suddenly dipped the flare in a puddle and set it against her skin, her body jolting at the touch as I heard a scream choke itself off in her throat. I waited for a few seconds, and she removed it with a faint wheeze, dropping the nitrate on the ground as she gasped for air, sweat shining on her skin as she tried to stay quiet. "But you do have friends. That means you can at least like someone." I reminded her, and she grinned at me.

"Yeah…I know. It's like…I'm a wolf I guess. You're my pack…and I protect you…but that's as close…as it gets…" she choked, shrugging at me with a faint smirk as I nodded, accepting her somewhat twisted, but sadly accurate logic. "It must be lonely to be you though." I said softly, and she shook her head with a slight chuckle, to my surprise. "Lone wolf. Live alone…die alone. I like my own company, so technically…I'm never lonely. What about you?" she said, smirking at me in a way that reminded me very much of someone about to. I blinked at her. "Huh?" She coughed again, and I saw the now-familiar splatter of red that flecked the ground in front of her. "Your…animal. I'm like a wolf…you're like a…" she said faintly in explanation, and I frowned in thought. "Uh…I dunno. I never really thought about it before." I admitted, and she snorted, leaning against the wall. "Funny…huh? I mean…to look at us…you'd think…you'd be the…introspective one…not…me…" she panted, and I nodded sheepishly.

We sat in silence, and suddenly she made an effort to move, crouching a little as I stood, alarmed. "I'm fine…the pain's just…no words…" she growled, gasping a little and fending off my hand. I nodded, thinking ruefully to myself that burning a bullet wound shut with silver nitrate after being punched with the force of a F-5 hurricane would probably not be a picnic, watching her lean against the wall. "Raccoon." I jumped, her voice rough and croaky from pain. "Huh?" I asked dumbly, and she chuckled wetly. "Raccoon. I figured it out. You are a raccoon person." she said with a touch of her old spirit, and I stared at her wordlessly. She held up three fingers, beginning to explain. "One, you're shy and avoid confrontation, but you will fight tooth and nail –literally– when you're backed into a corner or see no other way out. Two, you like it dark and can find creative solutions to problems. Three, you may be a little small, you're still admirably cuddly. At least, King Fanger says so." She folded down her fingers with each sentence, then smirked at me. "So then. Raccoon."

"What did Alucard say about me?" I asked worriedly, and she rolled her eyes, painfully started to walk forward as I picked up the flare, following her. "Chill. The only thing I quoted from him was the cuddly part; I just know you're small. Tichy little dwarf half-pint." she teased me, and I glared at her wordlessly, then blinked as a thought occurred to me. "You keep sounding like you spend time with him, but I've never seen you two interact." I said curiously, and she shrugged wordlessly, as if the subject was touchy for her. I began to get nervous, and as I was about to freak out she spoke again, somehow sensing my tension. "If you must know, Walt switches me off to him on random occasions, keeps me on my toes. I just don't like to talk about it 'cause he always insists on these weird conversations mid-spar." she muttered stiffly, igniting my interest.

I blinked though, surprised. Why was Alucard talking to her? "What does he ask? Is it about me?" I asked frantically, and she shook her head, chuckling a little. "No Flora, nothing like that. Your relationship is safe from evil ol' me." she chided me, and I flushed, rubbing the back of my neck. "Sorry." She shrugged again, brushing the ugly suspicions off like a duck shedding water. Nothing seemed to bother Jay. "I don't blame you for worrying. I just find it weird because he told me once I'd make a great fledgling. Its creepy when this several-hundred year-old dead guy is simultaneously trying to take your head off with his foot and telling you he wants to change your species." I made an "oooh" sound and rolled my eyes. Now it made sense. Jay did have exactly the kind of personality that I personally thought would fit vampirism, but the one time –long before Hellsing– that I asked her about being something other than human, she had flippantly responded that although humans sucked, being anything else would suck more. Also something about humans being able to die and not just keep on going.

"He likes your spirit. He said once that only certain humans are worthy of becoming immortal like him, and you kinda fit that preference." I said in explanation, and she was silent for a few moments. I glanced towards her face, surprised to see that she was thinking hard, her lip caught between her teeth as she hummed low in her throat. "Vampirism…I'm flattered. No way in hell, but flattered." she said after a moment, and I raised an eyebrow at her. "You still don't want to?" She shook her head silently. "What if it happened to you anyway?" She looked surprised at that, but sighed heavily, reaching into the pack and bringing out another flare as the one in her hand began to flicker. "I'd keep going. But if given a choice, it's not the choice I would make." she explained softly, and I nodded. "If I may ask a question of my own, if someone offered you vampirism, would you take it?" she asked me quietly, and I blinked. "I…" Her eyes swiveled to the tunnel ahead of us, calm, collected. "It's a question you're going to have to face eventually. You aren't going to outlive Alucard, its basic math. Hell, you aren't even going to live a fraction of the time he will. According to what I knew and know of vampire lore, he's just going to get stronger and stronger with every year that passes, until every priest in the Vatican and every soldier of Hellsing won't be able to exterminate him with a nuclear bomb thrown from each."

Before I could collect my thoughts and answer, she jumped, her hands finding a manhole cover as she pushed it slightly to the side, coming back down with her eyes glued on the faint crack of brighter blue against the pitch black of the tunnel. She nodded in satisfaction, turning to look at me again. "And before you do anything stupid, remember what Alucard will want. Does he want you to abandon being human? Or does he want you to stay as you are?" she asked me pointedly, then jumped again, scrambling up into the air with little gasps of pain, scooting around and offering a hand to me as I grabbed it, feeling her pull me up. "I hate you, you know that?" I asked her, and she chuckled. "I know. But it was a question someone was going to have to ask eventually." she reminded me, and I looked behind us, seeing the city of Rome dark and quiet, the countryside stretched far ahead of us, the highway all around our feet.

Jay brought the map out of her pocket, quickly checking the area around us and extinguishing the flare. "We're…here." she said, pointing to a spot barely out of the red zone that was Rome." I looked at the long, crooked yellow line that was the road we stood on now. "How far until we can call Hellsing?" I asked, and she frowned, tilting the map a little and muttering to herself as she calculated. "We can run about…oh, how many miles an hour? For an hour?" she asked me, and I bit my lip. "Maybe…twelve?" I asked, thinking of Walter's bullet-dodging training, and she nodded. "Then I'd say…about seven hours. Solid running all the way." she said apologetically, and I winced. "Well…let's get running." she said briskly, tying a firm knot in her shoes, and I nodded, breathing deeply and then letting it out as we began to run, away from the famous city of Rome and into the anonymity of the countryside.

PS: "Flora" had me write out some chapter names so she knows where each scene she put in is. I dunno. *shrug*