Fic: Victorian Contention 3/?

[Carol.Clarke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: Victorian Contention
Chapter Three: Body and Soul
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Summary: In an alternative world, Cordelia Chase, vampire and lady, lives or
unlives under the thumb or the watchers counsel. Cursed forever with her
soul. 
Thanks: Cheryl Hill, Alex who rocked on the knowledge research stuff. And
Sammy the Koala who gave me the idea to play with. 
Warning: Smut, strangeness & lesbians all in a story. 
Note: This story came from an idea Sammy the Vampire Koala and I had. This
story was meant as a prequal to his story. And since Sammy is off being an
adult, I decided to finish up this part of the story.

Body and Soul
10:00 AM Saturday September 1, 1888

Arthur Conan Doyle stood in the cold operating room of the morgue. He had
been studying the body carefully but was interrupted as the coroner, Wynne
E. Baxter, covered the body with a sheet. Baxter was preparing the body for
identification. He quickly washed her face and staged the body in a peaceful
pose. Doyle just stood quietly by as the coroner worked. It was a forgone
conclusion who the woman was on the slab, but the procedure for identifying
a body in a morgue was standard. Baxter finished with his work, went to the
door and waved two policemen in, with a tall thin man. The 'former husband'
Doyle thought to himself.

The man walked in stoically and looked at the body. "Yes that is Polly." It
was clear he was completely detached. Arthur guessed their marriage was not
a pleasant one, and both parties were happy to have gone their separate
ways. 

"Please state her full name for the record." The young policeman on the left
asked pulling out a piece of paper.

"Mary Ann Nichols." William Nichols stated for the record. 

"I don't care let me in." Came the voice of another man from the hall. He
pushed past the policeman and into the room. He looked at the body and then
fell to his knees. "Mother," came out of his lips in a whisper before he
burst into tears.

"Son you should have just let me handle this." William replied showing the
first sign of emotion as he bent down and tried to pull his son off the
ground. The man looked to be somewhere between 20 and 22. 

"Come on John, get off the ground before you catch your death of cold."
William replied still trying to get the young man up off the floor.

"Don't touch me you bastard, you did this. You did this to mother. If you
hadn't cheated on her she never would have left us. Never would have ended
up like this." John screamed at his father before jumping up and running to
the body. Still crying he learned over the woman and kissed her forehead.
"God what did they do to you?" He whispered as he pulled away in horror.
Baxter had covered her body but the young man could make out the slit throat
easily as close as he was to her. He kissed her forehead again, glared at
his father and then left the room, still crying. Everyone else in the room
was silent.

The silence lasted a long time, then Arthur spoke. "Sir. I believe Officer
Roberts will need you to sign a statement. And you will need to disclose
your whereabouts last night. And your sons if you know his whereabouts. It's
strictly a formality. We want to catch who ever did this to your former
wife." Arthur was careful to use the word former. "And giving the Officer
any information no matter how small or insignificant will speed up the time
in catching this demon." 

"Aye sir. Polly and I never were good together, but I never wanted this for
her. I will help all I can." William said carefully.

Several minutes later Arthur and Wynne Baxter were alone with the body.
Arthur had removed the sheet and returned to studying the body in silence.
Baxter stood nervously behind him. He didn't like being watched, or dealing
with the living all that much, having a special visit from a secret Scotland
Yard doctor wasn't making him all that comfortable. 

Arthur picked up a pair of clamps and began looking inside the open wound.
She had been slit open carefully like a surgeon might do and her womb
exposed. He was looking for missing organs. Finding a small area of the
internal wall cut away he continued to examine the deep wound, noting the
smoothness of the edges of the cut. He pulled away from the mid section and
then moved up to the throat. The throat was cut twice, left to right. As he
was looking over the throat-cut he heard Michael enter the room. 

"Good, just in time. Have your notepad ready, Michael, I'll need you to take
notes." Arthur said still looking at the neck wound. 

"The killer, has some knowledge of anatomy. And took a small piece of the
womb wall. She was strangled first. The killer was facing her while she was
strangled. She was probably pulling up her skirt and petticoat readying
herself for sex. Once she was unconscious, she was laid on the ground so we
know she was killed outside. Traces of soil are mixed in with the blood on
the back of her hair. On her left side. Blood pooling in her body tells me
this information. Then her throat was cut. After this the murderer straddled
her legs and mutilated the body. The murderer did not appear to have sex
with her, just cut the hell out of her." Arthur said completely detached. 

"Micheal I need you to look for an earlier murder, go back a year in time.
The victim will be a prostitute, possibly an alcoholic. Possibly married but
separated, or living with another man. It would be an unhappy marriage. The
murder would not be done by the husband so you can rule that out in your
search. She will be strangled possibly not cut at all. Or cut. Narrow your
research to the Whitechapel area. I don't think this is our killers first
victim." Arthur said walking over to the sink to wash his hands.

"So you don't believe the Lady Cordelia was involved?" Micheal asked slowly
wondering why the counsel would send them if it were a human killer.

"I never thought she was involved. Vampires kill for sport, true, but they
always kill for blood. It's possible a demon did this, needed body parts.
There is a small piece of the womb missing but demons normally need the
whole organ. Heart, Lung, the womb. Not pieces of it. It could be a witch or
sorcerer needing a predatory act for a dark spell or magic, or a lunatic
playing with dark forces." Arthur replied.

"There are some demons that can posses a human form and drive them mad. It
could be something like that." Micheal said and then made a note. 

"Or it could be something else. Have you heard any news on where they
believe the crime took place?" Arthur asked. 

"Brady Street. A woman, Sarah Colwell, claims to have seen blood on the
street. I was going to ask if you wanted to go there next." Micheal stated.

"Fine, but then I need to see Travers. There is something he neglected to
tell us about. And I intend to find out what it is." 

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''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

12:30 PM Saturday September 1, 1888

Milred Zuimsten thanked Mrs. Fielding for the tea and biscuits. She knew she
made the housekeeper nervous but today she seemed to be even more jumpy than
usual. Milred sipped her tea and opened yet another volume of watcher lore.
Her search seemed to be going nowhere and she was almost giving up hope of
finding the volume with the prophecy in it. She turned a few more pages in
her book when she noticed Mrs. Fielding was still in the room. 

She studied the paling woman who clearly didn't want to leave the library.
Mrs. Fielding knew she was a vatchguise demon and normally tried to stay
clear of her and her daughter Shelia. 

"Mrs. Fielding is there something wrong?" Mildred asked 

"Yes, I don't hold to your kind. I have never lied about it. But I don't
care to see your kind suffer unduly. They should just stake the girl and
move on. There is no need for the whip." Mrs. Fielding babbled on. 

"One of my kind? They are torching a demon here?" Mildred asked carefully.

"The Lady Cordelia. Poor soul. She done killed someone, she has. From all I
heard it were a brutal kill. Not like her I would say, not like her at all."
Mrs. Fielding said paling as she spoke. 

"The Lady Cordelia, the souled vampire the counsel uses as a trained
monkey?" Milred stated letting her disdain of the counsel show.

"She is a vampire, but souled is the question." Mrs. Fielding answered.

"Where is she, let me guess the basement? Every good men's club needs a
dungeon." Milred replied as she stood to go insearch of the vampire. 

:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Mildred had made her way into the dungeon. She was not surprised at all that
it was a fully functional classic medieval dungeon. She followed the sound
of the snap of a bullwhip and a drunken voice.

"Tell me when you lost your soul bitch." Walter screamed before bringing the
whip down on her back. Walter started to bring the whip back for another
lash when Mildred caught the whip in her hand and pulled the drunken Walter
off his feet.

"First Mr. Stephan she has not lost her soul. You on the other hand, need to
get in touch with your own. And second you can't get answers from the
unconscious." Mildred replied in anger, letting her demon presents out for
the first time since she arrived in London. Vatchguise always look human but
have a powerful present when they let their demon side rain free. 

"Bitch, I will have you next." Walter screamed as he tried to get to his
feet.

As he made it to his feet he was punched hard and slid to the floor out
cold. "Not today." Arthur said before tipping his hat to Mildred. 

"Thank you, sir." Mildred said, as she moved over to the vampire, and began
to unchain her. Walter had been torching her most of the morning between
drinking. She was a bloody mess. Two of the bullets David had put in her now
lay on the floor, but three more were still inside. A human would be long
dead but Cordelia was a vampire. 

Arthur and Micheal rushed to her side stepping over the drunken Walter. Both
wondering why he was left alone with a dangerous vampire they believed had
killed so viciously only the evening before. Arthur and Micheal carefully
carried Cordelia into one of the dungeon cells, and lay her on the bed.
Mildred grabbed a water pitcher and left to fill it with water. 

"Micheal get my medical bag and some alcohol." Arthur replied as he
carefully started to remove her torn and bloody dress from her body. 

Mildred poured the water into a washing bowl beside the bed and then picked
Walter up off the floor and locked him into a cell across the hall. Arthur
watched her pick Walter up with ease as he began washing Cordelia's wounds. 

"I am not human and yes the counsel knows. I am Milred Zuimstein. The
Vatchguise demon they hired to do some research for them." Mildred said by
way of introduction. 

"I am Arthur Conan Doyle. Retired doctor whom the counsel hires from time to
time. At present I am looking into the death of Mary Ann Nichols. The woman
Walter believes the Lady Cordelia killed. You said she had her soul, how did
you know this?" Arthur asked as he worked. 

"I can see it. We, my people, see many things, souls included. Are you the
magazine writer that does the Sherlock Holmes stories?" Mildred asked. "My
Daughter Shelia loves them." 




Trust No One, Deny Everything, because All Lies Lead to the Truth.