This is one of the chapters that I got excited about ages ago and wrote most of which was a good thing because I could definitely not think straight enough to write a whole chapter after meeting DM on tuesday (OK Shoe, stop showing off now). Anyway, I really like this chapter and I hope you do too.

Thanks to 0positiv, Brookesey and Manc Vamp for the reviews and thanks to eyes and teeth, brookesey and little_blue_star (if she's on here) for talking to me about Haunting Hal on Tuesday.

Thanks to anyone who has added me as story/author favourite/alert.

I don't own Being Human

Chapter 8: The Old Ones

11th April 1619

Hal was pacing. He had been doing so for the past hour and a half.

'Hal relax, everything will be fine.' Said Charles.

'That's easy for you to say,' Hal snapped, 'your future doesn't hang in the balance of what happens in the next few days!' Izzy had never seen Hal like this before, he looked positively panic stricken, it was surreal to see him so out of control.

'Who are these people anyway?' Izzy asked. 'Why are they so important?'

'Izzy,' Hal began, pausing mid-pace to look at her, 'the Old Ones are the most powerful vampires on the planet. The fear and respect that people have for them is second to none. And they seem to go on forever as well, some of them are thousands of years old. If I make a good impression now, then one day, in a few centuries time, I could be one of them.' He smiled, imagining his possible future and resumed his pacing.

'Hal, you've been planing for this for months,' reassured Charles, 'you've arranged the biggest dog fight that I think anyone's ever seen as a tribute and London's working like clockwork under your control. You have nothing to worry about.'

'Well, I hope you're right.' He stopped pacing and took a deep, calming breath. 'Izzy, can I have a word?' He glanced at Charles. 'In private?'

Charles stood up, taking the hint. 'I'll wait outside for the carriage.' He said before leaving them alone.

Izzy turned to Hal. 'What did you want to talk about?' She asked.

Hal looked into her eyes, clearly planning his words carefully. When he spoke, he spoke calmly and clearly, putting emphasis on every word to ensure she understood.

'This visit means everything to me, a chance to meet the Old Ones, to make an impression, I've been waiting for this opportunity for decades. It has to go well.'

'I know,' said Izzy, mimicking his slow tone, 'you've been saying so for the past five weeks.'

Hal shook his head, clearly irritated that she didn't understand.

'When they get here,' he continued in the same tone, 'the Old Ones won't pay any attention to you, vampires never do, you know that. But don't try and attract attention, don't make things fly around, don't write things on walls, don't stitch up clothes or recite Shakespeare. And don't sing.' He added as an afterthought. 'Definitely don't sing. Like I said, this means everything, so I'm asking you nicely, Izzy, don't ruin this for me.'

Izzy looked into his eyes and realised that this was the closest he was actually going to come to begging her, he knew she was capable of spoiling this for him and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop her, so he was asking her nicely. He had never seemed more human.

'I didn't hear the magic word.' She said, staring up at him playfully.

For a split second, she thought he was going to hit her but then, 'please' he whispered, barely audibly. Izzy couldn't believe it, she doubted that that word had ever crossed his lips before.

'I'm sorry?' She asked, determined to push him to his limits.

'Please.' He repeated, louder this time.

'Okay.' Izzy said, still reeling from the fact that she had got him to say please. 'I promise I won't ruin things for you and The Old Ones. I'm sure you'll all be very happy together.' She smiled, Hal smiled back. There was a knock on the door.

'Hal,' said Charles, poking his head round the door, 'your carriage is here.'

Hal nodded. 'I have to go and meet them at the docks.' He said as an explanation to Izzy. He strode towards the door 'And, Izzy, remember-'

'No spiriting.' She finished. 'I promise. Cross my heart and hope to - well…' Hal smiled again. 'Good luck!' She called as he walked out the door. Izzy sighed, she couldn't believe how far they had come in just a few weeks, it's surprising how a friendship could grow after you save someone's life. Izzy still had no idea why she had done it but since then she had actually got quite close to Hal. Not romantically. No way. Not a chance. Never. She did have standards, the man had killed her after all and she was always going to be a little afraid of him, she knew what he was capable of but, Charles had been right, as he so often was, Hal was actually a rather nice person, once you got past the fact that he was a murderer. There were times when she felt guilty for feeling this way about him, after what he had done to Maggie but then, she was so sure that Maggie had gone to a better place that she found herself not really feeling guilty at all, in fact she was close to forgiving him. Close, but not quite.

The other thing she was dealing with at the moment was the fact that she had killed someone. Well, Richard was already dead but she had forced him over to the other side through someone else's door without him finishing his unfinished business. Had he gone to the same place that everyone else went to? Was he safe and happy with his family now, as he had always wanted? Or was he somewhere else, somewhere different, somewhere bad? And if he was then it was Izzy who had sent him there, it was all her fault, the guilt of this haunted her every waking moment. She had spoken to Hal about it but he had no clue about where Richard was, he wasn't an expert on the afterlife, he had never been there.

'Charles?' Izzy asked, 'What is a dog fight?' She had heard them mentioned many times and had only just realised that she didn't quite know what they entailed.

Charles' eyes lit up and he started explaining, excitedly. 'Basically, we get a werewolf, put it in a cage at full moon, let it transform and fight whatever we put in there with it. Wether that be a human or vampire or another wolf.'

'Yes, because werewolves exist too. Of course. How silly of me not to think of that.' Said Izzy sarcastically, this world just kept getting stranger.

Charles laughed. 'Then we bet on the outcome.' He finished. 'Hal's actually quite good at it.'

'I bet he is.' Said Izzy, slightly to herself. 'So what makes this dog fight so special?'

'Hal's been planning this for months.' Charles replied, with clear admiration for his maker. 'He's managed to round up six werewolves, which isn't easy, they're rare. All dog fights in London have been banned so that the wolves aren't harmed, Hal wants them all in top fighting condition, they've been starved for the past week, they're viscous. Tomorrow night, we put them all in a cage and bet on how many survive. If the Old Ones aren't impressed by that then nothing will impress them.'

Charles had said all of this with a look of absolute glee on his face. Izzy has had to get used to the bloodthirsty jokes that vampires come out with, they still made her sick though.

'What are the Old Ones actually doing here? What do they want?'

'I don't think they want anything, they're just on a tour of Britain. You have to understand that some of these people are thousands of years old, they need a change of scenery every once in a while. They're docking in London, then going all the way round the country, stopping anywhere there is a colony of vampires, checking that systems are in place, that everything's running smoothly, and basically flaunting their authority. In a few months time, they will return to London to sail back to wherever it is they came from, which is one of the reasons Hal is so nervous, he has to arrange both their arrival and their departure.'

'He really wants to be one of them, doesn't he?'

'The thing with Hal is that he's ambitious, he wants to be better than everyone else, it's somewhat of an obsession for him, I don't know why. I asked him once…' Charles shuddered 'never again.'

Around an hour later, five carriages pulled up outside the hotel that Hal had "acquired" for the occasion. He said that he had chosen it for its expensive decoration, luxurious accommodation and plentiful cellar space which was currently being occupied by the former owners, guests and staff of the hotel. And six werewolves.

Hal got out of the first and significantly shabbier carriage and ran to each of the other four in turn, holding the doors open so that the Old Ones could get out. Izzy watched from the window of the hotel.

There were eleven of them and they were the most mismatched looking group of people that Izzy had ever seen. Men and women of every age and nationality, all with rather strange dress sense.

One of the younger looking men, the one with red hair, seemed to be in charge of the others, he was the one whom Hal was paying the most attention to. As they got closer to the hotel Izzy noticed some strange things about his appearance. He didn't look healthy. His skin was white and you could see hundreds of tiny purple veins through it At that moment, Hal had obviously told him a joke of some sort as the red headed man smiled to reveal blackened teeth. The one thing that was common with all of these strange individuals was the way they held themselves. Like they were the most important people in the world and knew it, like they were gods among men.

Hal had been right, they didn't pay any attention to Izzy, which suited her just fine. It ment she could watch them.

She was right about the vampire with red hair being the leader, his name was Mr Snow and apparently he had been around for over two and a half millennia. When Hal and Charles had said the Old Ones were old she hadn't really thought about it that much but watching them, the way they were, you could really see the history just dripping off of them, the age in their eyes, they made Hal seem like a child. Izzy wondered if one day, if she never found her door, she would be like that. So aged, so wise, so tired with life, or death as the case may be, she didn't think she could cope with that, but she wasn't ready to leave yet.

The most interesting thing that Izzy found with watching the Old Ones was seeing them drink blood. They did not drink straight from the vein like Hal did every few days. Instead they drank from crystal decanters and expensive looking goblets. The most interesting thing was how much they seemed to enjoy it, like the blood was everything to them. When Izzy had asked Hal why he drank blood he had said 'because there is no greater feeling.' Izzy had assumed that it must be good but the idea of drinking it day in, day out for thousands of years, surely you'd get tired of it. Izzy wondered how something could feel that good, she wondered about it a lot.

The following evening, the dog fight took place. Izzy had thought that after being dead and living with vampires for two and a half months, nothing could surprise her. She was wrong.

Seeing a werewolf transform would have been a truly unique experience. Seeing six of them do it was something else. It repulsed her but at the same time intrigued her, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the spectacle unfolding in the cage. It was barbaric.

The Old Ones seemed to be enjoying themselves though. Izzy knew this boded well for Hal, she had kept her promise and everything was going exactly according to his plans.

Two days later, carriages arrived outside the hotel to escort the Old Ones to the next city that they were visiting. Izzy stood with Charles and Hal as they saw them off. The second the carriages were out of sight Hal hugged Izzy. It caught her a little off guard but in a moment it was over, Hal was laughing and patting Charles on the shoulder, a permanent grin plastered on his face, everything had gone perfectly. Izzy had never seen him so happy and she couldn't help but be happy for him. In that moment, she forgot everything, she forgot that she was dead, forgot who killed her, forgot what Hal was. It was just the three of them, Izzy, Hal and Charles, three immortals sharing a happy ending.

Aww... Ok, enough with the halpy endings now! Next chapter, things kick off.

It might be up early because I'm on study leave now so I might release it on Monday as a treat for you on my birthday :)

Thanks for reading, reviews very welcome!