A week went by, and Seras Victoria saw almost nothing of Walter. He dropped her blood bags off while she was asleep, and when she went to his office he always seemed to be on his way out. He was polite, but he was successfully avoiding her. She wanted to speak to him; she wanted to do more than speak to him, but even when she phoned and told him she needed ammunition he sent one of the troops to deliver it.

Finally she took matters into her own hands and went to his room one evening. She knocked on the door and he opened it.

“I need to speak to you,” she said as firmly as she could, walking into the room. “And don’t tell me you were just leaving,” she added.

“I was, though. I was headed for the living room.” He pointed to an array of cleaning materials.

“You were going to clean at this hour?”

He shrugged. “I find it calms me. But if you need to talk, I will listen.”

“Sir Integra told me the so-called regenerator was captured by Iscariot, and fairly easily. It looks like the cult isn’t much of a threat after all.”

Walter dropped his eyes.

“You must have even more regrets about what happened then. I’m sorry. I couldn’t have known.”

“I know that. But what makes you think I have regrets? I thought I made it clear at the time that I enjoyed being with you.”

“You said very little actually. “

“Some things don’t need words.”

Walter nodded, still looking solemn.

She thought for a moment. “I felt like I didn’t want it to be over, that night. I don’t want to go back to the way everything was with you.”

“Don’t say anything extreme, Miss Seras. You spent hours convincing yourself it would be all right, or perhaps even enjoyable, to sleep with me, so now you still want to feel that way.”

“About the time you took my blouse off I stopped having to convince myself that it would be enjoyable,” she said bluntly. “I’ve had a week to reconsider and I still feel like that.”

She continued, “If you’re avoiding me because you don’t want to be with me, that’s one thing, but if you’re not—“

“I thought you’d just as soon not look at me right after you’d seen me naked, I think,” Walter began to busy himself with his cleaning materials.

“Well as I just said, you couldn’t be more wrong. What will it take to convince you?”

He continued what he was doing and didn’t answer.

“Integral’s sending us out tomorrow to France, to mop up whatever’s left of that cult. It should be a routine thing, with arrests rather than shooting, but you never know.”

“You never know what?” asked Walter with some curiosity.

“It’s a whole new pick-up line opportunity. ‘Give me one last night in your arms, in case I don’t come back.’”

“You will come back. I’d be quite angry if you didn’t, you know.” He paused. “But do you really mean that?”

She knew she had won her case. “How about this line: ‘Put down the feather duster; you’ll need both hands for this.’”

She had never seen him smile in quite that way. As he dropped everything recklessly, she kicked the door shut behind her.



Note: Thank you so much to my readers. I very much appreciate your attention.