Author's note: I do not own Hellsing, X-men, or their characters. This is a sequel to A Year in American.

Working Things Out

Seras wondered if her perception of stupid had changed in the time she had been a member of Hellsing. Maybe she was so used to dealing with people who knew vampires and supernatural creatures existed and how to deal with them that she had forgotten what people who weren’t used to that acted like. It was one of the explanations she could come up with to explain the X-Men’s attitude. Oh, they weren’t all bad, but a number of them just didn’t get it. These people really were rather sheltered in their attitudes. Even when she had been a police officer, Seras didn’t think she had been this naïve.

For one thing, as a group the X-Men did not seem to be able to grasp the necessity of killing ghouls and vampires. They kept harping on trying negotiation and understanding the ghouls point of view. Seras wasn’t sure what it would take for these people to understand that ghouls didn’t really have a point of view. In fact, ghouls didn’t tend to have much of a mind or a personality. She was beginning to wonder if anything short of being tossed into a room full of ghouls would convince these people.

On the other hand, some of the X-Men had rather useful abilities. Seras could think of several ways to utilize things like teleportation and the ability to shoot laser beams. Of course, getting the X-Men to follow her orders and strategies was another story. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Scott and Jean Summers were really the only ones who kept arguing with her. But then they argued with just about every order she or Pip gave. It seemed they were used to being in charge and had a little trouble giving up control. Seras was beginning to considered seeing if she could leave those two behind if she ended up actually taking the X-Men into the field with the Wild Geese.

Pip sighed behind her and rest his chin on the top of her head, his arms wrapping around her waist.

“Rather hopeless lot, aren’t they, Mignonette? Well intentioned for sure,” he sighed again, “but good intentions can get people killed just as surely as bad.”

“They’re not all bad,” Seras felt compelled to argue. “Ms. Rogue and the others who can take orders might be of some use in a fight. They at least make a good distraction. It’s jut the one’s who can’t let go of command that are the major problem.”

She felt Pip shrug. “That doesn’t make them any easier to deal with.”

Seras worried her lower lip with her teeth. Maybe if they took the X-Men out into the field, they would get the idea of what was really going on. They might even be convinced to give up on this whole notion of ‘helping out’. At least, it might make them more cooperative about obeying orders. There was a reason after all that she and Pip were in charge. Seras would run the idea by Sir Integra. If she approved, Seras might actually give it a try. It would probably be one of the routine housekeeping missions that she chose to take them on. No need to take the X-Men to a real battle unless she knew they could handle it. Seras would not risk her people’s lives like that.

She and Pip continued to discuss the training session and its outcome. It had become a familiar routine for the two of them as they wound down from the adrenaline rush that often came with their work. It was also a good way to get another perspective on the way things had went. Seras couldn’t catch everything, and neither could Pip, but together they got a pretty good picture. Working like this had done a lot to improve their field strategies and their working rapport, and it made writing up reports on the training a lot easier. Of course, it didn’t keep Pip from making all sorts of innuendo, but Seras had learned to live with that. If she got really annoyed with him, she could always just break a few bones.

When they were done, Seras headed for Sir Integra’s office to make her report. She knew that the head of Hellsing had watched some of the training session, but Sir Integra always required that Seras gave a report on her own impressions of how something like this had gone. It was easy enough to find Sir Integra. She was in her office, though not at her desk. Instead the woman was curled up on the couch with a thick sheaf of papers. Seras’ master was also present his arm wrapped around Sir Integra’s waist and resting his chin on her shoulder, and once again Seras was struck by how odd it seemed for the two of them to act like a couple. Sir Integra and Alucard did make a rather cute couple in her own opinion, but it still felt a little strange to be confronted with the fact.

Integra looked up from the papers she was reading. “Yes, Seras?”

“I was just going to give my report on the training session with the X-Men. If you’re busy, I could come back later.”

Integra shook her head and smiled. “I’m just going over some old incident reports. Go ahead and give your report.”

Seras quickly launched into an explanation of what the training session was supposed to do followed by her thoughts on how things had actually gone.

“All things considered, it went fairly well. There are a couple of problems that will have to be smoothed out before we can take them into the field on an actual mission. I was considering perhaps having them observe a routine operation. I think if they get an understanding of what we are actually facing in the field, there will be fewer problems overall.” Seras finished her report, waiting for a response.

“Do you think they could observe an operation without doing something stupid?” Sir Integra asked.

Seras sighed. “Truthfully, I’m not sure. But if they’re going to do something stupid, it’s better that they get out of their system in a setting where things are going to be pretty much containable. We’re good enough at these routine missions that we haven’t needed back up from Master at all for the past year. The X-Men will have trouble making a situation like that impossible to handle.”

Sir Integra traded a look with the vampire who was wrapped around her. “All right.”

Seras nodded and saw herself out of the office. It was going to be an interesting mission when it happened.