Red Roses for Your Lover

Seras’ “slight detour” took her back to the lab where this hellish side trip seemed to have begun. The Major had dismissed her and her bearer and sent them off to Doc. Captain Günsche had brought her to the lab, but Doc was not there when they arrived. When he had made to set her on the lab table, she had begged him to let her sit in a chair instead. She just couldn’t stand the memories she associated with the table.

Captain Günsche was undoubtedly as much of a monster as any of the rest of the vampires on this blimp (as much of a monster as I am?) but he had treated her better than anyone else here. He had given her something to wear and he let her sit in a chair instead of on the table. What the hell am I thinking? I’m feeling mushy about a Nazi vampire because of two completely insignificant favors? This is where Stockholm Syndrome starts.

She shook her head at herself and took the opportunity to look around the room. This time from a position other than that of a prisoner chained to that damned table. It was grim, terribly grim. It seemed that a “doctor” who dealt with vampires didn’t feel much need to worry about hygiene. There were bloodstained instruments scattered around, blood on the floor, (some of it’s probably mine) and incomprehensible pieces of equipment assembled on most horizontal surfaces.

The door behind her opened and she heard a man’s voice exclaim in German. She caught her name in the midst of his speech and guessed, without turning, that Doc had just joined them.

A man crossed over into her field of view. He was a bizarre sight in the midst of other bizarre sights – a tall, gaunt man in a bloodstained trench coat cum lab coat open to expose an absurd costume. Seras couldn’t help but gape at him. Why on earth was he wearing some odd midriff-baring zippered shirt and what were those glasses about? He crouched in front of her and flipped his lenses around into some new configuration. He reached out to take her hand.

This is the man who killed the Walter I knew. That thought was enough to pull her out of her bemused state. He pulled his hand back when she bared her fangs at him and snarled. He looked up at the Captain standing behind her and asked another incomprehensible question in German. Whatever non-response he got from the Captain reassured him and he leaned back in to take her hand.

She wanted to jerk away from him, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything beyond that. Better to tolerate it for the moment rather than give him a demonstration of how easy she would be to bully. Seras glared hate at the mad scientist while he looked at her hand, then pushed up the cuff to better see the silver burns on her wrist.

He looked up at her face. The red of his eyes was blurred by the odd lenses. “Am I correct that you have not been fed since joining us, Fräulein?”

“No, you are not correct. I’ve been fed more than once since ‘joining’ you.”

“Then how is it that you have not healed your injuries? I thought you were an original. You should not be in this state.”

“You didn’t ask me how long I got to keep the blood I drank.”

Doc’s brows knit for a moment while he assessed her meaning. Then his face lit up, “Oh clever Butler!” Seras bared her teeth at him again, but he ignored the threat.

“I’d prefer to do my work with a more intact subject.” He turned his attention from her back to the Captain, whom he addressed in German. She felt the looming presence behind her withdraw. “While Hans is away, I will need to take an inventory of your injuries. Please stand and remove your shirt.”

“No.”

“Fräulein, let us pretend that you have a choice here and I will continue to pretend to be polite.”

“No.” Seras knew that this was just going to end in her being forced to take off her shirt, but she couldn’t bear to willingly reveal her body to this freak, especially not in the state it was in.

“Stubborn child.” Faster than she could react, his hands whipped out and grabbed her wrists. He raised them over her head and transferred both of her wrists into his left hand’s grasp. Held like that, there was little she could do. Kicking him was pathetic and he didn’t even bother to evade her weak attempts to hurt him. With no difficulty, he unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing and began to wrestle it off of her shoulders and up her raised arms.

Seras was so distracted that she didn’t even smell the Captain return. Smell, because when he walked around behind Doc to observe, she could see that he was carrying one of those cups that seemed to carry only one thing on this ship of vampires. She went limp in the Doc’s hands and watched to see what the silent man was going to do with the cup.

“I see that you weren’t just trying to protect your modesty, Fräulein.” Seras realized that the scientist was taking in the various indignities that had been wrought on her body. The cup lost its importance as she was overwhelmed with humiliation. Doc tossed the shirt over to the watching giant and let her sit back in the chair. He crossed to a desk and took up a clipboard and pen. He returned and began to take notes, occasionally glancing at her. He said something to the Captain and the large man set down the cup he was holding and picked her up. He turned her so that Doc could see her from behind.

Seras wriggled and cursed and tried to pull herself free of his hands, but that was completely futile. This is ridiculous! I’m a person, not a slab of meat! The unwelcome thought crossed her mind that they likely saw her otherwise.

Doc finished whatever it was he was doing and the Captain put her back down in the chair.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“What would you know about it?” she snapped at Doc.

He ignored her and spoke to the Captain once more. Seras didn’t know what to think when the silent officer handed her the cup he had brought with him. She stole a glance at the watching doctor and he nodded encouragingly. He glanced at his watch as she began to gulp down the blood and made a comment to the big man standing over her.

Seras kept darting her eyes back and forth between her two captors. It was too much to hope that they were actually going to let her get stronger. Doc leaned forward and took the cup from her hand when she had emptied it. She could feel her body distributing that light meal through her aching tissues. Healing always brought a slight itch, and Seras could feel the itch spreading across her skin. She looked down and could see her skin repairing itself. That was one of the best things she’d seen in days. When she looked up, both men were still watching her, but Doc was simultaneously taking hurried notes. I’m some sort of experiment for him.

Seras could feel strength returning to her limbs as her body healed. She knew she wouldn’t be at full strength from this, but hoped to conceal just how much better she was feeling. The healing was slowing and the silver-inflicted wounds were taking much longer to heal than the more mundane injuries. She had a passing thought that Walter would be pleased to see that his handiwork wasn’t completely gone and was still recognizable.

Doc stood up to get a closer look at her, but thought better of getting within her reach. A quick word to the Captain had him taking her wrists in his hands to keep her from attacking as Doc put his creepy face far too close to her body. He flicked through his lenses and took copious notes. Seras’ happiest moment came when she was able to jerk her knee up and catch him under his chin with a blow that tossed him back several feet. Her grin faded a little when he gave her a look that promised that he wouldn’t forget that.

“That, Seras, is why you are attended by two of the Letztes Battaillons’ senior officers. We don’t underestimate you.”

“You must trust Walter quite a lot to count on him to take care of me all by himself, if I’m so special.”

“Oh, we do, Fräulein. The locks on his mind have had enough time to stabilize and he has taken to his new role perfectly. You’re both a final test and a reward.”

A final test? Why would they need to test him if they’re so sure of him?

“So what is it that you want from me? It’s not like I have much choice here, but I always did better in hospital when I knew what the doctors were going to be doing.” Tell me what you’re going to do to me. It might give me more nightmares, but I might find some way to work it in my favor.

Doc flipped through his lenses again and stared intensely at her face. He seemed to be giving her question serious thought. “It is my opinion that you are potentially too dangerous to know anything beyond what is immediate to you.”

He turned away from her and began rummaging in a drawer nearby. Seras tried to bolt out the door when she saw what he removed, but the Captain was a wall that was faster than she was. He caught her and brought her, fighting and kicking, back to the waiting Doc.

“I need some blood samples. This will hurt less if you’re still. You don’t want this needle broken off in your body when we both know your regeneration is at its limit until you feed more.” Doc spoke in German to the Captain and the large man carried the struggling woman over to the lab table. Seras was unable to stop fighting, even if she had wanted to, her fear was overwhelming. The needle that Doc was holding was clearly too big to draw blood from her arm, she was terrified of where he thought he was going to stick it.

Doc switched to English, but still directed his question to her captor, “Do you think she’s strong enough to need the silver?” Seras found another burst of energy to fight the arms holding her and was still unable to make any progress. She missed whatever sign the Captain gave, but Doc didn’t. He pulled heavy straps from under the table and began arranging them for use.

With more struggle, the two men were able to get her restrained on the table. Seras was silent, still, and furious. She was angry with herself. She had given the Doc exactly what he needed when he asked his question. She had fought the Captain with all her strength and he’d been able to accurately judge it from that. Why else had he spoken in English when everything else he’d said to the Captain had been in English? He\'d manipulated her easily.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! What happened to your clever plan to conceal your strength? He has your number now.

“This is going to hurt. The more you struggle, the worse it will hurt. Since you refuse to be cooperative, I don’t care whether you struggle or not.” Doc was standing near her shoulder with the huge needle in his hand. The Captain was nearby, ready to catch her if she found some way to break her bonds. He adjusted his spectacles yet again and abruptly shoved the needle into her chest. Seras had a shocked flashback of an American movie she’d seen, called “Pulp Fiction” before the pain caught her and she screamed. Her strength drained out of her as the syringe filled with blood that was darker than any she’d ever seen come from her body. By the time he pulled the needle from her chest, she didn’t have enough energy to scream again at the pain of its withdrawal.

Doc walked away with his prize and Seras stared blankly into the face of the man she had yet to hear speak. How long they were there, silently staring into each others’ eyes, Seras couldn’t begin to guess, but she had a feeling it was a very long time.

A voice broke their mutual meditations, “Has my Seras been giving you two problems?” Walter.

“I am not your bloody Seras,” she mumbled with what little anger she could summon.

His amused face hove into view. “I could correct that, Seras mine.”

“Not too much trouble, Butler. You will have to share with me how you get her to cooperate with you.” Doc’s voice floated from another part of the lab.

Walter’s smile broadened enough to show a flash of fang at that. “I’m afraid it’s a butler’s trade secret. You’d need years of training to be able to use it.”

Walter ran his fingers over one of her mostly healed roses. He made a quiet tsking sound. “Doc, do you need her physically whole for some reason?” Seras shook her head at him, which made him smile more.

Doc’s tone was careless, “Do what you want, but try not to kill her. I have use for her.”

Seras closed her eyes. She clung to the positive aspect of that response, which was that they wanted her alive…well, at least, not dead.