Sacred Lineage

Sacred Lineage

Manga-based fanfic after disc 4.

Disclaimer: I didn’t start it. I don’t own it. I only wish the owner would use my plots. Call it a fantasy, but there ya go.

Ummm….AU, sorta. Nothing naughty in this chapter, sad to say. We’ll get to that later, but I won’t know until I write it. Definitely a spot of WAFF in this one. I’ll guess and say M/F with a twist of lemon. I did write an original female char in, but it’s not self-insert, just the joy of trying to carry on the line….

**~~**

It had been a long and dreary winter. There was a fire cracking in the fireplace, but cold rain pounded on the windows incessantly. If there was anything more than grey for colour to the outside world, than Integra wasn’t sure what it was. She didn’t know if she could take much more of this, Candlemas had only just passed, and it seemed aeons until Easter.

She’d been ill for weeks. At first, she hid it well. A little less work done, a little more rest, these things had been easy to come by. She had employed a couple of clerks since Christmas to take over some of the work, and her daughter was bearing up under the strain well. Quite the prim lady was the seventeen year-old daughter of Integral Wingates Hellsing.

Deirdre Mab Hellsing showed all the signs of the same fortitude and strength of will and character as her mother had. She had been running the field operations for about six months, lately without the assistance of Walter, but with the assistance of one of Hellsing’s now-oldest field operatives, Seras Victoria. Alucard had been helpful, however, he was, as always Sir Integra’s.

Integra smiled to herself, thinking of her daughter. If anyone could deal with that willful, capricious, dangerous vampire at least as well as she did, it was Deirdre. Named for the Princess of Ulster who committed suicide rather than leave the man she loved, and the Queen of the Faeries, Dierdre was dark where her mother was light. Sunlight and shadow often worked late together, their heads bent close over the desk under the watchful eye of that most faithful (if not most respectful) servant of Hellsing, Alucard.

Integral coughed, and could not stop. It was these episodes that made her so tired, lately. There was a knock at the door, and Walter, looking very frail, came in.

“Sir Integral, are you all right?”

She made an effort to stop coughing, but could not. Walter saw the slight trickle of blood at the side of her lip before she could swallow.

“Sir Integral, I am calling the physician right now. You may be able to keep some things from some people, but I have no idea how you have managed to keep this from all of us for so long.”

She would have blushed at the scolding that she was taking from her elderly butler, but even if she had it wouldn’t have shown anyway. Her face was too red from the coughing fit. She opened her mouth to protest, and he looked at her severely.

“Sir Integral. I would suggest that you don’t try to dissuade me,” Walter spoke in measured tones. “I would hate to have to awaken Alucard and risk what short time remains in my life.”

She gasped for air, and took a swift drink from the brandy snifter that was sitting in front of her.

“Fine.” She snarled, eyes flashing. “Call the physician. Call a chemist as well. Surely the physician will prescribe some vile potion that only a chemist could concoct.”

Walter nodded seriously. “Yes, Sir Integra. I will call a chemist as well.”

He backed out of the room, and shut the door quietly behind him. Integral glared at the door for a moment, than turned her chair and looked out the window. She wondered what the physician would say, and was concerned that she knew already. She reached into her humidor and pulled out a cigar. Lighting it, she inhaled deeply. The cigar helped her feel more relaxed almost instantly. Perhaps she should have had Walter call the physician earlier. What harm would it do to get a checkup anyway? This cold had been hounding her for weeks, and it seemed that she could barely rest, she hadn’t been able to rest lying flat for a month.

A slight knock on the door alerted her again, and Walter re-entered the room.

“The physician will be here at seven tonight.” He said, simply.

“I’ll be in my office, as usual,” she replied.

“Of course, Sir Integral. I can’t imagine that you would be anywhere else.”

He stepped outside the door and brought in her afternoon tea.

The sharp scent of peppermint and the warm scent of chamomile permeated the room. She looked at Walter questioningly.

“Sir Integral, these herbs have been well known since the dawn of time to help with such things as headaches, coughs, and people that need rest.” He tried not to look severe, but it didn’t work very well. “It appears that you need a dose of these herbs for your own good, and believe me, a little honey to sweeten it won’t hurt your cough either, unless you are trying to preserve it?”

No one but Walter could scold her in such a mild tone, yet leave no doubt that she had been scolded. Alucard was obnoxious, sarcastic, and his cutting remark and the tone of his voice left no doubt that she had been scolded on occasion, but Walter could speak as if he was describing the weather and leave no doubt that she had been chastised. She thought back over the course of the years that she had led the Hellsing Organisation. To the best of her knowledge, she was the only person who shouted. Odd. The males in her life never had to raise their voices.

She pondered that for a while. Perhaps she should have developed some other method, but then, perhaps not. The fire of her temper had stood her well over the years. Deirdre was just as fiery as her mother, though her rage was darker, subtler, and quieter. The dark flame to the bright, Integral had never told Deirdre how proud she was of her. She thought that the girl probably knew, but tomorrow night she would tell her for the first time.

She looked at her desk calendar, and realized that tomorrow was a very important day. Tomorrow was the day that Deirdre would be knighted into the roundtable. Integral had put it off as long as she could, knowing that as soon as she did allow the knighting that she would be ultimately, immediately replaceable. She didn’t want to be replaced, she was too young to be replaced, too necessary to be replaced.

Like your father was?

The thought came to her unbidden. In her childlike mind her father had been irreplaceable. When she was forced to replace him at the age of thirteen, it had only been the constant help of Walter and Alucard that had kept her from drowning in work. Well, the help of those two and her indomitable will, her will to be what Hellsing and the Queen needed her to be.

How much and how little things changed. England still needed her as much as ever, but now there was a king. She, whom people believed at one time would be an eternal virgin, had borne a child. The Knights of the Roundtable still thought at times that she would be a vacillating female, and easy to sway, and she still astonished them with her strength.

Lost in thought, she did not notice the passage of time. The knock on the door startled her.

“You are forgetting the time, Sir Integral.” Said Walter, smiling at her almost in the shadow. “It is time for dinner.”

Integral was instantly furious with herself for forgetting to work. Ice blue eyes looked up at Walter, but she knew that it wasn’t his fault. Or was it? She had originally started thinking because he was calling the physician. She considered blaming him for her lapse, but decided not to.

“Very well, Walter. Bring it in.”

She couldn’t have said what it was that she tasted. It was good, of that much she was sure, but there was so much she was turning over in her mind that she just didn’t notice. Fifteen minutes later, she’d eaten, dismissed her disturbing thoughts, and was hard at work once more.

Time flew by, and she forgot everything except the paperwork in front of her. A shape separated itself from the shadows, and walked toward her.

“Alucard.” She took a deep breath, and reminded herself to not cough.

“Your orders, Master?” He’d asked the same question every day for more than twenty years.

She took a breath, getting ready to begin briefing him from the papers in front of him when there was a knock on the door. Blood suffused her face with understanding. They physician was here with Walter, and now Alucard would know that there was something wrong with her as well.

Bother.

The door opened abruptly as always, and Walter and the physician came in.

“Sir Integral,” Walter began, “This is Doctor Stebbins. I know that you have not seen her before. I have discovered over time that you do not respond well to male physicians, as you seem to have a tendency toward dealing…harshly…with males.”

She opened her mouth to protest, and another coughing fit came on.

Alucard, who had seen untold numbers of humans die from tuberculosis, also known as consumption, stepped forward with concern. Dr. Stebbins stepped forward as well, and interestingly enough, Alucard didn’t taunt either Integral, nor challenge the physician. He did, however, watch the physician closely throughout the entire examination.

After the physician ended her examination, she wrote a few things on a prescription pad and handed the paper to Walter.

“I’ll expect to see you at Cromwell Hospital at 9:00 tomorrow morning. You will be there, won’t you?”

The physician’s tone booked no argument, and Integral knew that between Walter, Alucard, and Deirdre (after Alucard or Walter told Deirdre) that she would be there.
Still, though, it was difficult to submit. The familiar blue ice flashed in her eyes, but she finally acquiesced.

“Yes, Doctor Stebbins. I will meet you at Cromwell Hospital at 9:00 tomorrow morning.”

“Very well.”

“Walter, will you show the good Doctor out?” Integral managed to say without choking on the words.

“Yes, Sir. Of course.” Walter left the room, closing the door gently behind him as was his habit.

Integral reached into the humidor and pulled out a cigar. Putting it between her lips she lit it and inhaled deeply. Alucard looked at her, but unusually, didn’t remind her that the cigars would kill her one day. Finally, she looked at him.”

“So. Why don’t you say it?”

“This day brings me no joy, Master. I have teased you about those cigars for years, but there is no reason for me to try to teach you a lesson now. I was just thinking of the consumption, and how many died then, not trying to make you feel guilty.”

Integral felt slightly chastised. She’d intimated that he was trying to make her feel guilty, but had no idea of the reality. It must be interesting to be able to read minds, she thought. Perhaps it made people better able to understand one another.

“It doesn’t,” said Alucard. “There are still misunderstandings, there are still disagreements. There is nothing that can change humanity that much.”

He sounded philosophical, not derogatory.

She thought about that for a few moments, but soon enough, concentration left her for the need for sleep.

“Will you stay with me?” She whispered?

“Yes.” He answered her immediately.

He tucked her hand into the bend of his arm and solicitously escorted her to her bedroom where he gave her a few moments of privacy to change. He then walked through the door and picked her up, carrying her to the big four-poster bed.

“Master,” he began, not holding out much hope, but knowing that she could at least rest if she’d allow him to help her.”
“Yes.” Said Integral, shocking him for the first time in a long time. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep any other way.”

“Well,” said Alucard, “there is another way, but after all this time I doubt that you’d allow me to-“

“No,” Integral sighed, and laughed. “But I surmise that you must ask.”

The last thing she heard before she dropped off to true sleep cradled in his arms was: “That man is a lucky bastard.”

She had no doubt at all who he meant.