Do not own! Not mine!
Jay's POV:
My body was one huge ouch, a great big collage of bruises and scrapes and god knows what else as we stumbled into the first town, the bullet wound and the grey-black scar the nitrate had left adding its own little inferno of agony to the rest of my general ouch. So considerate of it. Even my nose was generously adding to the pain, whacked by a low-hanging branch in a more rural section of the road before I could duck. Flora wasn't much better, but I bet I still had more ouches than her. "Are we…there yet?" she whispered, and I grinned at her, patting her back as we stumbled weakly through the streets, taking a walking break instead of the as-fast-as-we-possibly-could, flat-out run that taken up most of our time thus far. "Not even…close grasshopper. We've still got…at least three…towns to pass…before it should…be safe…to call in Fanger." I panted back, shakily tying my hair away from my burning face as sweat dripped down my temples, soaking into the open scrapes to make them sting more. Her face fell sharply, despite her gasping, and I smiled at her, gripping her shoulder encouragingly.
"On the plus side…I don't think…the vamps know we're gone…yet." I added cheerfully, wincing and lowering my voice at the last word. She painfully raised an eyebrow at me, and I smirked happily at her. "They can't have more than a couple vamps patrolling the sewers, the stench in there is suffocating enough for us dumb humans, it must be intolerable for them. With a pinch of luck and by dint of awesome, they won't know we're out until morning." I reassured her, giving her the thumbs up as we stopped by an outdoor water fountain, refilling our water bottles and drinking from them greedily, so as to leave as little scent trail for the vamps as possible. We poured several bottlefuls over our heads to cool ourselves down and get rid of our scent (probably a mix of blood, sweat, and aches) even more, all of which I sincerely hoped would at the very least delay pursuit when pursuit finally did come.
The morning.
If we could just make it and stay out of their hands until the morning, we were basically home free. Ghouls would move too slow that unless they had some lying in wait for us, there was no way they'd catch up. A vampire would burn to ashes before they got more than two steps. All we had to do was make it the three or four hours until morning and call in Alucard and Hellsing in ASAP for the people of Rome. Iscariot too, but…mostly Rome. Although Heinkel did kinda help us out…bah, too much thought, not enough planning. As long as no more than…maybe three weak…very weak vamps came after us, and all separately, I should be able to get Flora home without too much of a scuffle. Myself was somewhat doubtful, after all, I wasn't exactly at full strength and nice shiny wires aside, I was a young adult, little more than teenager at the tender age of 18 and one month. Flora was younger, not shot, not cauterized, and also in love with (psychopathic and nutty as he was) a very powerful vampire. All nice little survival bonuses in such a tricky situation as this.
Me, I was shot, I had rough- cauterized myself with silver nitrate, I was coughing up blood at fifteen minute intervals, bleeding slightly from scratches on my forehead (aforementioned tree branch had something against my face it seems), my legs were on the verge of telling me they were going to go ahead and rest now, thank you very much, and it didn't matter what I was running from, they needed a good long recovery phase, say, five hundred years. My grip on the wires was shaky and ragged, and one good yank would have them out of my hands, maybe even slipping off my gloves too, which would be tantamount to a fatal blow to the chest, and one that I wouldn't be limping away from. In short, I needed a doctor really bad, and there was most likely going to be some very negative and long-lasting repercussions of all this running around in such a wounded manner. I could hear Integra now…
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU SEALED IT SHUT WITH SILVER NITRATE?!"
"YOU RISKED THE LIFE OF MY HEIR ON A SUICIDE RUN ACROSS ITALY!?"
"YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN BOTH YOURSELF AND FLORA KILLED!"
"BLA BLA BLA FUSS BLA BLA BLA SCREAM BLA BLA BLA LECTURE!"
And then she'd totally switch gears in that weird way she did.
"And get yourself looked after, I don't want blood all over my carpet. An increase in salary will be in order since you did go overboard on our contract, but don't let it go to your head, Walter knew better than to boast when he was younger and…"
"Jay? Jay? Uh…Jay?" I blinked, looking down at my friend as we reached the edge of town, and she smiled nervously at me. "What were you thinking about?" I looked down at my hands for some reason, squinting to see the reassuring glimmer of my wires as I tightened my hands, looking up. "Integra is going to royally chew me out for this, you realize that?" I asked her flatly, and she blinked for a second, then giggled. "Yeah…not as much as Alucard will." I shuddered. "I'm staying behind you until everything is explained and then I am going to pass out dead on the floor. I might not be even kidding about the last part." I said seriously, and she shook her head rapidly, her bright blue eyes concerned and a little frightened. "Don't say stuff like that Jay, I don't even want to hear you joke about it…" she said worriedly, and I waved flippantly at her, inhaling slowly and sweeping my grimy hair back as I prepared to start sprinting again. "C'mon grasshopper. Let's get you back to Fanger." I muttered, streaking by as she followed, the ground starting to wear at my feet once more as I heard her panted breaths behind me, assuring me all was well with my best friend.
Flora's POV:
Jay seemed uneasy, and that made me frightened. Jay was never, ever, in all the time I had known her, honestly and truly uneasy. She was very good at faking it to worry me, but this was quite honestly the first time I had seen her unflappable self ruffled, and that was frightening. I could tell from how drawn and pinched her face had gotten, her eyes going blank and dead and cold as she ran beside me, staring off into space like a robot and listening hard, as if it was her only defense. It was something else too, something I could more sense than see. She was edgy and nervous, like a cat with its hair on end, and it was almost a tangible scent of…of worry about her that made me wonder if I was picking up on Alucard's mind-reading powers. I shook it off, concentrating on running as hard as I could, sweat dripping off my face and arms as I tried to eat the ground with my feet, gain as many miles as I could, getting closer to Alucard with every step.
That thought alone encouraged me instantly, and it seemed like I got a fresh burst of energy, almost outpacing Jay for the first time since she had started training with Walter, her eyes flicking to me in a startled glance, then a slow, sly smirk, as if she knew –or guessed– exactly what motivated me so. I grinned at her, my mood lifting as her nervous energy disappeared, and suddenly, it was all over. We topped a hill, and I saw the city down the road, right next to us. We had left it as we got closer to the important cities, cars possibly being able to run us over or capture us with the vampires driving inside. I ran down with renewed energy as Jay struggled to keep up, seeing a payphone by a bus stop and frantically rummaging in my pocket for the Italian coins Heinkel had given us. Jay laid a hand on my shoulder, giving me a look that quite clearly meant slow and steady before lifting it.
I nodded, my lips thinning in a determined frown as I carefully counted out the money, put it in, and dialed the cell phone Integra had given Alucard for emergencies concerning myself. It rang once, and he instantly picked up. "Sweet? Is something wrong?" he asked worriedly, and I shook, tears pouring down my face as I heard his deep voice once again. "I-it's so awful, vampires took over Rome and we had to run out of the city and-" His anger washed over me in a wave, and Jay elbowed me aside to take the phone. "Hold up Fanger, this is not a one-man mission. Vampires and ghouls in their dozen have overrun the Vatican and some of Rome in loose patrols. Iscariot is keeping them away from the citizens but they won't last more than a few days unless we come to help. The vampires want Flora and one that we ran into said it was because she was your…mate." I weakly giggled at the disgust in her voice.
"We managed to escape via the sewers and hightailed it past their blockade, which includes both mental and electrical signals sent from within at least a hundred miles from Rome. We had to run all the way here, and I at least need a doctor ASAP. Flora hasn't got anything worse than one big cut on her cheek and some minor scrapes, but I'm at my last gasps and she really isn't much better. We're in Farniole, and you should know where that is, we followed the highway all the way here. Got all that?" He had been growling steadily throughout my speech, and I caught murmurs, as if we were on speaker. "Young woman, what is the status of Rome? How many undead are running loose?" Some man with a fancy British accent, probably one of the Round Table members. "I don't know and at this point it doesn't matter, they're after one person and that one person is standing right behind me. Alucard is extremely fond of her and if she gets hurt there is going to be more carnage and mayhem than all Hitler could produce in the Second World War going down, and don't think there won't be." Jay snapped, and there was a grumble.
"Your tone borders on insubordinate." She growled impatiently, slamming a fist down on the telephone box. "YOU WANT INSUBORDINATE?! I'LL GIVE YOU INSUBORDINATE YOU HIGH-HEELED BRITISH SON OF A MANKY GIT-FACE! I HAVE A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL WHO'S GOT AT LEAST TEN VAMPIRES HUNTING HER DOWN FOR FISH-FOOD WITH ALL THEIR GHOULS AND YOU TELL ME I'M BEING INSUBORDINATE?! F#$% INSUBORDINATION, GET YOUR FACY ASSES OVER HERE AND START SAVING LIVES! YOU ARE THE ONLY CHANCE EITHER OF US HAS OF SEEING ANOTHER SUNRISE, HELL, EVEN THIS ONE! AND YOU SIT THERE QUESTIONING ME ON HOW MANY ENEMIES ARE COMING AFTER US AND CALL ME INSUBORDINATE?!" Jay seemed to be very fond of that word right now, and I stifled a giggle.
"Madam, please, calm down." Jay fumed, tapping her fingers rapidly against the metal box as she listened to them confer, and finally there was another voice. Integra. "Jay, tell me exactly what happened and how badly you two are injured." Jay took this seriously and began pouring out the details of our day thus far –had it really only been a day? – as she turned to keep an eye on me as she spoke, her tone softening after a while and becoming mechanical as she reported in. I heard Alucard snarl several times as she reiterated what had happened to me, what the vampire we found had said, and how Jay had accidentally slashed me with her wires across the face. The sounds continued after a while, and eventually there was silence as Jay finished explaining what had gone down thus far, folding her arm across her stomach as she glared at me, not having anything else to glare at. She blinked, then smiled, handing the phone to me. "Alucard wants to say hi. They're coming along ASAP." she said happily, and I grabbed the phone, cradling it to my ear. "Alucard?"
"Hello my pet. Please hold on, I'm coming for you."
Urgent, worried voice.
But…but Alucard was never worried, was he?
Wasn't he?!