DISCLAIMER: Hellsing belongs to Kouta Hirano.

~ The Darkness That Surrounds You ~

She wakes up screaming. She calls for her servant, her protector. Once. Twice.

Before his name can exit her mouth a third time, he is there, kneeling beside her bed.

"I'm here, my master."

She throws herself into his arms, not sparing so much as a single thought for matters such as decorum or social standing. Those things don't exist here in her bedroom in the middle of the night, where there is nothing but darkness, and her mind is still half-caught between reality and nightmare.

He cradles her against his chest. She clings to him, trying to explain between sobs, but her words are so garbled he can't put together what she's trying to say and looks into her mind for the answer instead.

Although he knows the images are false, what he sees there rattles him to his core.

His arms tighten around her.

"That didn't really happen. It's just a nightmare."

More than the sound of his voice or the words that he's saying, the strength of his embrace grounds her more firmly in reality. Even as the nightmare still plays at the forefront of her mind, her true memories rise up beneath it, breaking through her panic.

"I was there. I would never let anything like that happen. You are still pure," he reassures her, "as the driven snow."

Her sobs gradually quiet as the terror drains away. She's safe, here in the arms of her savior. While partially based on her memories of what she considers the worst day of her life, most of the events of her dream did not happen that way in reality. Because he was there back then, too.

"You protected me," she whispers. Her memories have won, although the nightmare doggedly lingers around the edges of her mind.

She presses herself closer to him, still seeking comfort. He gently rubs his cheek against the top of her head.

"I will always protect you."

~end~

A/N: While I don't want to directly state what the exact contents of the nightmare were, you can probably figure it out from the context.