Majority of this chapter, the ages are:

Lucy: 162 (around 24/25)
Jack: 149 (around 22/23)
Mina: 89 (around 12/13)
Lily: 57 (nearly 58)
Freddie: 188 (around 30/31)
Charlie: 30 (around 4/5)

I would just like to add that the ages in brackets are approximate as to how I would view the situation if they were human - but vampires age differently to humans, so it's only an estimate to help you envision what they may look like in terms of age.

Sam

It escaped no one's notice that Lily completely threw herself into the role of being an aunt immediately after her older sister had her baby - and, being honest, none of them could judge her on it. After being unable to have children herself, it seemed only right to let her at least be a loving and enthusiastic aunt.

And, boy, did she go for it.

"Hey!" Freddie greeted his wife, stooping to kiss her forehead affectionately. "So, where's Charlie?"

Lucy pointed across the hotel lobby; Lily was playing some kind of game involving wooden blocks and fluffy toys with said baby, making him giggle and squeal with excitement. Freddie gave a small chuckle and sat down next to Lucy so that he could watch with her.

"She sure likes playing with him."

"Well, he likes playing with her," Lucy said, shrugging to herself. "I'm not complaining, really - this teething phase is starting to make me go a little crazy, to be honest." She rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "I'm just glad to see her so happy."

Freddie put an arm around her, knowing that this was a difficult time for her right now; besides their son waking them up pretty much every evening before the Sun went down, Lily was edging closer to forty by this point and looked to be nearing Johnny and Mavis' age. It was yet another reminder as to how little time Lucy was going to have left with her sister - it was in no way easy to comprehend.

"She still has loads of time," He tried to assure her weakly. "Don't worry about it... I mean, remember what your Dad said? Humans can live to be ninety - some even reach a hundred or older! Forty is nothing compared to that."

Lucy sighed, nodding her head in an effort to agree with him. "I know, I know. Sorry, it's just...difficult."

Freddie looked at her before tucking her under his arm and giving her a loving squeeze. "You don't need to be sorry. I'm scared too."

By the time Charlie celebrated his thirtieth birthday, Lily was two months away from being fifty eight. It just didn't get any easier.

Although Lily seemed to love being an aunt (and no one could say that she didn't because, really, it was so obvious), it was also a well known fact that being an aunt and being a mother are completely different things and provoke different emotions. In short, it just wasn't the same.

That morning Lily was helping Lucy put Charlie to bed (by now, the little boy had grown quite opposed to going to bed and instead wanted to stay and look around the hotel every time they stayed) and it was only then that Lucy managed to get what she wanted to say said.

"You're so good with him," Lucy stated, looking quite relieved as Lily held the child against her; this seemed to calm him down and he was rubbing his head against her shoulder for comfort. "How come he does what you say but not what I or Freddie tell him?"

"Because you're not cool anymore," Lily joked. "Moms and Dads aren't cool - Aunts and Uncles are where it's at. Ain't that right, Charlie?"

Charlie grinned at his mother, showing off his fangs. "Nah-uh. Mommy and Daddy are a little cool - but you're the coolest, Auntie Lily."

"There you have it," Lily laughed, pressing a kiss to Charlie's head; of course, being the son of two red-heads, his hair was also red but luckily it seemed a lot tamer than Freddie's curls and instead lay on his head in little tufts. "Come on, birthday boy; you need to get some sleep so you can have a birthday next year as well."

Charlie pouted but allowed Lily to put him down. "Okay. I'll see you in the night, Auntie Lily." He pressed a wet kiss against the human's cheek before she left, and then he obediently lay down so that his mother could tuck him in. "Mommy?"

"Hm?"

"I love you."

Lucy gave a laugh and shook her head at him. "I love you too, Charlie." She pressed a kiss against his forehead. "So, how's your birthday been tonight?"

Charlie nodded. "Good. The yeti girl I was playing with was nice, Mommy; she's from this place called ...uhmm...'tray...lee...ah..."

"You mean Australia?" Lucy prompted, quite amused, and he nodded again. "That's nice. And did you enjoy the party that your Great-Grandpa did tonight?"

He grinned. "Yup. Grandpa calls him Great-Gramps-Drac," He giggled.

Lucy rolled her eyes to herself; of course her father would do something like that - and, better yet, get her son to call Dracula that. "Yes, well...don't let him hear you call him that? Let's keep that a secret between you, me and your Grandpa."

I'm sure Mom doesn't want Dad being thrown off of the roof, She added to herself in her head.

Charlie looked up at her with sleepy blue eyes and bit his lip for a moment. "Mommy? You know how I get a birthday wish every year? Can I really wish for anything I want?"

"Of course," Lucy agreed immediately. "It's your wish."

Charlie thought hard for a moment; every year it had always been things like wishing for candy or for his family to all be safe (and there was a lot of them, so he was sure that it took up a lot of wish power each year to use). But now he was getting a different wish in mind.

"Can I wish for two things to happen?" Charlie asked innocently. "Just two, I promise; I really, really want them to happen."

"Sure," Lucy agreed, waiting to hear them. "What are they?"

The little boy took a deep breath and shut his eyes tightly; this was a birthday tradition that he and his mother shared, and he made sure to never waste it. Now he knew what he wanted to happen within the next year, it was more than easy to let it tumble out.

"I wish that I have a little brother or sister," Charlie started, causing Lucy to look at him in surprise. "But only if Mommy and Daddy want me to, because they said that babies are hard work. And I wish that my Auntie Lily and Uncle Damien can have a baby too, because Uncle Jack told me how much Auntie Lily really, really wants one - and I want her to be happy. The end."

When he opened his eyes, he looked at his mother expectantly.

"Was that okay?"

Lucy nodded, somewhat weakly. "Yes. That's...that's very nice of you to wish, Charlie... Did you say that your Uncle Jack told you that your Auntie Lily wants a baby?"

Charlie nodded too. "Yup. He was talking with this Mummy at my party and they were drinking this stuff - he even gave me a sip but it was gross! Then he said that Auntie Lily's sad because she can't have a baby. Is he right?"

Jack, you are going to get it once he's asleep.

Putting thoughts of murdering her brother to the back of her mind, the red-head put a hand on her son's cheek so that she could stroke it gently. "Yes, it is."

Charlie smiled, satisfied. "Great! Now 'cause I wish she can have one, she'll have one, right? And she'll be happy and I'll be happy 'cause I'll get someone to play with!"

Knowing that there was no point in lying to him and causing distress this late in the night, Lucy gave a murmur of agreement. "Yeah, okay then. Come on, mister, you need some sleep."

"So?" Freddie asked once Lucy entered the room. "What's going on?"

She sent him a look. "How do you know?!"

"I dunno," He muttered, shrugging to himself. "Guess you just look...weird. Not like that!" He added hurriedly. "You look, like, you're thinking really hard. What's up?"

Knowing that it was best to try and be positive, Lucy sat down next to him and sent him a look of confusion. "He's onto us."

"Onto us?" Freddie asked, more confused than ever.

"Charlie wished for a baby brother or sister earlier," Lucy muttered. "It's like he knows that he's getting one somehow." When her husband just grinned, she allowed herself to smile too. "It's lucky he actually wants one, isn't it? I thought that he'd take it badly."

"Yeah, very lucky," Freddie agreed, wrapping his arms around her. "Let's just hope that he still thinks that when the baby actually comes."

That day was a peaceful one for sleeping; the rain had taken a break and now the nice spring air was starting to warm up even the coldest nights to some degree. There wasn't a monster that was stirring that day as everyone slept peacefully; the children in the hotel could be found holding toys and snoring gently with small smiles on their faces, the very picture of innocence.

That was until there was an ear-piercing scream about half an hour before the Sun had started to set.

Lily, who had actually begun to wake up already, jolted up in bed and looked around; even with her slightly weaker sense of hearing than a monster's, she could tell that it was coming from the hotel lobby. And, thanks to the amount of baby-sitting she had done for her older sister, she knew immediately that it was a child of some kind.

"What was that?" Damien asked groggily from next to her.

"I dunno," Lily replied, slipping out of the bed. "Stay here; I'll go and look."

Her first thought was that it was Charlie - that maybe he'd been sleep-walking or something - and she pulled on a jumper over her night (or rather, day) clothes before racing out of the room to get downstairs. Out of her and all of her family members, her room was located closest to the lobby, and thanks to her age, she wasn't exactly as agile as she had been thirty odd years ago; because of this, it was about five minutes later that she found herself stepping out of an elevator and into the lobby.

A few monsters - though none of them her family - were starting to arrive too, and it was only as she was gazing around the lobby that saw what exactly had been making that noise.

A small child was sitting with their back against the front desk, knees drawn up and making sobbing noises that made tiny shoulders shake.

"Oh my God," Lily muttered to herself, and she took a few steps closer to the child. "Hey there? Are you okay?"

It definitely wasn't Charlie, that was for sure; this child had short blonde hair for a start, and when they looked up it became immediately clear that it was a little girl with blue eyes. The little girl couldn't have been any older than Charlie - maybe a year or so younger - and it broke Lily's heart to see her crying like she was.

"Hey," Lily repeated, stooping down to get a better look at the girl - she tried not to wince as her legs creaked in protest. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

The girl just sniffled, drawing in on herself. It was clear that she didn't know what to say.

Suddenly, Damien was next to Lily - when she looked at him, he sent her a slightly strict look. "You really shouldn't be running around like that anymore, you know. I love you and all, but let's be honest, love; you're not getting any younger. You need to be more careful."

She ignored his as she stood up so that they were on the same level. "Just look at her."

He did so; Damien's eyes widened as he realized what was going on and he looked back at his wife in question. "Why is she done here? Where are her parents?"

Lily shrugged, looking back at the child. "I don't know."

Other monsters were starting to gather around; the little girl, realizing that she was being looked at, stuck her head up. Her face had tear tracks running down it, and for a minute one would think that she was about to cry again - but then she stuck out a little pink tongue and scowled suddenly.

"W-What're you l-looking at?" She asked, straightening up slightly.

Dracula stepped forwards - it appeared that he'd been awake earlier than everyone else too, as he was fully dressed in his suit and cape. "What the..." He coughed and composed himself before looking down at the little girl kindly. "Hello," He greeted, getting down onto one knee in front of her. "What are you doing down here?"

The girl tried to back away a little and held her head up high. "I...I don't know," She admitted. "My Mommy...She and my Daddy were down here... I got out of bed and came down here...a-and I was trying to catch up with them...but they flew away."

There was a gasp and some mutters from the crowd; the majority of them were looking shocked and disgusted by what this type of behaviour implied and they all looked around at each other.

"I see," Dracula told her calmly, trying to make sure that she didn't start crying again. "Did your Mommy or Daddy tell you anything at all? Perhaps leave a note?"

The girl wiped her nose on her pink long-sleeved pyjama shirt. "I-I think there's a note on the desk, b-but I can't read yet."

The Count just nodded in understanding and stood up to go behind the desk to have a look. Lily looked at Damien in worry and put her head on his shoulder. "I can't believe it," She whispered to him, and he trained his eyes on her. "Why would someone just abandon her like this?"

"You don't know that," Damien told her - but he also looked quite sick. "The poor kid."

Lucy, Freddie, Johnny and Mavis appeared beside Lily, looking at her in question - they had all clearly only just gotten downstairs. "What's going on?" Mavis asked quietly, seeing the little girl from the corner of her eyes.

Damien looked down at the girl sadly just as Jack and Mina joined their group. "We think that her parents...they left without her."

Mina, who managed to put the pieces together pretty quickly, looked horrified. "What?! She...She's a kid!"

"So are you," Jack muttered, trying to add some humour to the situation. "Until you start puberty, you're a kid." She stuck her tongue out at him but said nothing else.

After a minute or so of waiting, Dracula stepped out from behind the desk again and moved so that he could get in closer to his family. He looked down at the piece of paper in his hands gravely before looking around at all of them. "I found this," He said quietly, handing it to Mavis.

Mavis looked down at it, and everyone else looked over her shoulder to read it.

To Whomever reads this,

I am honestly sorry for what we've done - it's for her own good, I promise. My husband doesn't know that I'm writing this, and I have to finish before he comes back to leave.

My daughter, Samantha, is twenty-nine. Her birthday is January thirteenth, and he favourite food is pizza with mouse slices and scream cheese. When she wakes up, she will probably wonder where we've gone - she's blonde with blue eyes, and she is wearing pink pyjamas. I would like someone to give her a nice home - a nicer home than we can provide.

My husband is not a nice man. For more background on the matter, I would like to say that he's not my zing - my zing is dead and was Samantha's father. I wanted her to have a father, so I married my current husband...It was only when we were married that I realized what he was really like.

I can take him doing it to me, but not Samantha; I never thought that he would, but he has and I want to keep her safe. I could never leave him as I had nowhere to go - besides, I do love him deep down. This is why I agreed to his plan; to leave and not bring Samantha with us.

He's always known that Samantha was not his - and he hates her because of that. That's why he wanted to leave without her; he doesn't want to start a family with a child that's not his own. Although I don't know for sure, I'm sure that an alternate plan so that he could start fresh would have been to kill her - something that I wouldn't have been able to go through with.

Please tell Samantha that I'm sorry and that her Mommy loves her.

It appeared, however, that this woman's husband had seen the note - and rather than tearing it up, he'd left his own little addition to the bottom in bold ink.

There's a belt under the bed in our hotel room - use it on the brat if she starts trying to be smart.

Jack, the biggest bookworm in the family, finished first and let out a low whistle. "That's just..."

Lily looked between the letter and the little girl - Samantha - with tear in her eyes. "This bit at the bottom here... Does it really mean...?"

Mavis looked at Johnny, a tear stinging her eye. "How could anyone do that?"

Johnny put an arm around her, also looking greatly disturbed. "I have no idea." To him, a father figure was not like that at all: his father, while being a very manly and gruff man, had never laid a finger on him or his brothers - he'd always supported them and shown love. In fact, Johnny himself had tried to be as good a dad as his own had been, and the thought of actually hurting on of his own kids - even unintentionally - would have made him feel quite disgusted to the point of hating himself. How a man could ever do something like that... It was lucky for the other guy to have been gone already, since Johnny felt that he would have probably murdered him in a fit of rage or something.

"What do we do?" Lucy asked, looking at her grandfather.

Dracula sighed. "I don't know. I suppose we will have to call the Monster Council to come and pick her up - they'll have to place her with a family somewhere." He turned to all of the other guests, who were looking at him for an answer. "There's nothing to see here! Go back to your business!"

Freddie looked across the lobby at his son; Charlie was playing with a few of the other child guests, the only ones not interested in the whole ordeal. After he made sure that Charlie was occupied, he swallowed thickly and turned around to the rest of his family. "The council... They're gonna destroy her, placing her with people she doesn't know. Can't she just be with relatives or something?"

"There's no name on the bottom of the note," Jack reminded him. "We can't track down relatives without a name - besides, that's still the council's decision."

"And then what happens if no one wants her?" Lucy questioned, folding her arms. "They'll put her in a home or something, won't they? They exist, you know; I've heard about them, Jack, and they're awful."

Mina looked between her siblings and the girl on the floor before taking a deep breath; she moved forwards, causing Johnny's hand on her shoulder to drop back down to his side, and sat in front of the girl.

"So," She started, and the blonde just looked at her. "I'm Mina. You're Samantha, right?" Samantha said nothing. "I have a nephew who's your age... Rabies, I sound like an old woman, having a nephew!" She gave a small laugh to herself. "My brother Jack told me I was a late baby - that I was a bit of a surprise to my Mom and Dad. Now that's information I didn't need to know. Also, my older sister was nearly a teenager when I came along - when she had her baby she was, like, a hundred and thirty-two. Her husband, Freddie, is older you see..."

"Trust Mina to come to the rescue," Jack mused in a melancholy way before sighing again. "I feel so bad for that poor kid."

Lily bit her lip, contemplating something in her head. "Y-You know the council? They'll...you know...put her up for adoption, right?" Her brother nodded, clearly not catching onto what she was implying yet. "Well...maybe..."

Damien, however, knew her inside-out. "Lils," He said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're... Look at you. You can't take care of a kid anymore, not with you getting older now."

"But I wouldn't be alone," Lily insisted, almost in a begging way. "I'll have you, right?" He didn't answer and she took a deep breath. "You know that I wanted to have a baby, Damien."

"She's not a baby."

The human nodded in agreement. "I know. But she's...she's so young! She's just a kid!" She looked at Samantha, her eyes glistening slightly with unshed tears. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but maybe it's like this was meant to happen; that one of the nights we're actually here this happens..."

"Lily, stop," Her husband mumbled, not looking at her. "Look, we can't just adopt her - she's probably screwed up after what's happened to her. She won't want new parents to come and take her away!"

"We wanted a baby," Lily stated, looking at him fiercely. "That was one thing we agreed on."

"We wanted a baby of our own," He corrected. "She's not ours, Lily."

The red-head's bottom lip trembled slightly but she managed to keep her emotions held in for the time being. "She could be, if you just give her a chance." When he looked at her, she held her head up high in what he regarded to be her proud stature. "All of my family gave you a chance; doesn't she deserve one too?"

Damien swallowed the lump in his throat. "Lily...that's different."

"Are you saying that you won't love her because she's not actually ours?" She continued icily. "Because that just puts you on the same level as the guy in the letter - and that means I clearly don't know you."

"Of course not," He disagreed weakly. "I just... Look at you. You're a couple of years from being sixty: your dad said that sixty is old for a human, like a grandmother's age. You're getting older and..." He looked down at the floor to hide his face. "You won't be able to play and keep up with her...you'll never see her grow up."

Lily could tell that this was clearly distressing him; they usually didn't talk about the age thing, apart from when she brought it up in a few arguments here and there to try and suggest that somehow he...well, he didn't want to be with her anymore because it was honestly a worry of hers.

It upset Damien more than he admitted, that was sure.

"It's going to be fine," Lily told him in a hushed voice, putting a hand on his face and bringing him closer so that their noses were brushing against each other. "Damien, I want to do this, old or not. But I'm not doing it if you don't want me to - this is a joint thing, right? If you don't want to, then there's no point."

Damien looked at her before his eyes flitted across the room to Samantha, who was currently listening to Mina speak animatedly about stories she'd heard. Finally, in a hoarse voice, he said, "Well...I guess she does look like she'd kind of be ours."

"Why, because of the blonde hair?" Lily joked, looking up at her zing's own blonde hair. "Yeah, completely... And did you see that little sassy sticking-out her tongue earlier? Come on, she's awesome."

Damien gave a low chuckle before looking back at her seriously. "Alright," He agreed quietly. "But just remember that it's the Council's decision in the end; we have to pass all of those crappy tests first."

"I can deal with that," Lily laughed lightly, wrapping her arms around him.

It was like a dream come true - granted, a few decades late, but nonetheless a dream come true.

Adoption processes in the monster world were nowhere as long as they were in the human world, as Johnny soon found out; within a couple of nights of the incident, the council were already considering his daughter and son-in-law as prospective parents.

"So, what now?" He asked when he saw Lily that evening. Mavis appeared next to him, also waiting anxiously for an answer as she clutched onto his arm.

Damien shrugged. "All good so far. They did a few background tests - you know, seeing that we weren't criminals or anything - and they want to put her with us for a couple of nights to see how she reacts to being around us."

"That's good, right?" Mavis asked, and she breathed in relief when Lily nodded.

Meanwhile, Lucy seemed stunned by what had happened; it was only when she was having breakfast with Charlie and Freddie that evening in the dining room that it clicked in her head - and then she was just looking at her son in awe.

"Charlie," She said quietly, and he turned to look at her; he had a few worms from his wormcakes wriggling out of the corner of his mouth and he hurriedly sucked them into his mouth before speaking.

"Yeah, Mommy?"

She grinned at him. "You wished...on your birthday..."

Charlie frowned for a few seconds before it hit him. "Oh!" He exclaimed excitedly. "Auntie Lily's going to have a kid now, isn't she?!"

"Well, she and Uncle Damien are going to look after a kid now, yes," Lucy agreed, and she reached to ruffle his hair. "That's what you wished for, isn't it?"

He nodded, looking quite proud of himself. "Yeah! Daddy, did you hear that?!" He asked loudly, looking up at Freddie and bouncing up and down in his seat. "Auntie Lily and Uncle Damien are getting to be a Mommy and Daddy because of me! 'Cause I wished for it with my birthday wish!"

"Yup!" Freddie grinned at him encouragingly. "That's cool, huh?" He paused, giving Lucy a small look. "Uhh... Did you wish for anything else?"

Charlie blinked before he remembered his other wish again. "Oh, yeah! I wished for a brother or sister!" He laughed to himself as he turned back to his wormcakes. "But that's not gonna happen."

"No?"

"Nuh-uh," Charlie continued, shaking his head. "'Cause Uncle Jack told me that there was no way that would happen."

Lucy raised an eyebrow, already getting a bad feeling about this. "Uncle Jack?"

"Yeah," Her son agreed, mouth full of food. "He tol' me tha' you and Daddy won', 'cause you didn' do the magic hug."

Freddie choked on his juice and Lucy nearly spat out her toast at those words. Jack, you and I are going to have a very long talk about what you say while you're drunk...maybe a couple of bites will keep you reminded.

"So, this is Samantha," The tall flesh-golem woman in charge of the meeting introduced. "Samantha, this is Lily and Damien. Say hello to them."

Samantha looked up at the dully, tracing patterns on the table with her fingers. "Hullo."

"Right, well...I'll leave you three to get started," The woman decided awkwardly, nodding to Damien and Lily. "Take as much time as you need."

"Yeah, thanks," Lily muttered, trying to be polite. Once the woman was gone, she looked at Damien nervously. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..."

Damien squeezed her hand tightly. "Of course it is. We just need to...take this slowly." He let go of her hand and took a step towards the table where the little girl was sitting. "Hey," He greeted, pulling up a chair so that he could sit opposite. "I'm Damien."

Samantha just looked at him silently as Lily took a seat beside him.

"So... You're Samantha," Damien continued, somewhat unsurely. "That's a pretty cool name; it's pretty and cool, actually..." He looked at Lily and gestured to her. "This is my wife, Lily."

Lily awkwardly raised a hand as a way of drawing attention to herself. "Hey there, Samantha."

Still nothing from the girl. Damien took a deep breath before starting to speak again. "You actually met Lily's sister at the hotel; her name's Mina. You know, the one who was talking about all those adventures their dad went on? Yeah, well, Lily is her sister; they're actually pretty close."

That was half true, really; while they were close, Lily had actually grown closer to Lucy as she aged - she supposed it was one of those things that was bound to happen as she grew up early.

"What do you like, Samantha?"

Samantha looked up at him, resting her cheek on her hand. "Don't call me Samantha."

Damien raised an eyebrow at his. "Why? That's your name, isn't it?"

"I don't like it," She told him firmly. "It's a stupid name." She looked down at the table, as if not wanting to admit something. "Look, I just...I want people to call me Sam - it's so much cooler than 'Samantha'."

And then, suddenly, she flinched. It occurred to Lily that she was probably expecting a blow or something to strike her, and her heart caught in her throat.

Damien also noticed and tried his best to not wince. "Okay then - we'll call you Sam if you want."

Sam looked up, intrigued as she cast her eyes between the two of them. "O-Okay...great...thanks." She hunched her shoulders. "My Daddy didn't like that; he said that I can't be Sam, 'cause Sam's a boy's name." She gave a tiny shiver. "He asked me if I was a boy and I told him no - 'cause I'm not, and I don't really want to be 'cause they suck. No offence," She added, giving Damien a fleeting look. "And then he'd...well..." She stopped talking. "I'm not allowed to talk about it."

Lily put an arm on Damien's shoulder and shook her head - a signal to let her speak. He sat back and nodded at her, letting her take control; it was clear that maybe this girl wasn't really in the mood for new fathers just yet.

"That's fine," Lily said softly, feeling nothing but sorry for the child in front of her. "If it helps, my Grandpa always used to call me names I didn't like - and he'd do it in front of all of his friends too so that I was embarrassed." She smiled to herself as she remembered some of them. "When I was little, he called me 'Lily-bear' for some reason. Guess it's just one of those things."

Sam's lips twitched a little, a sign she was wanting to smile but wasn't allowing herself to yet. "My Mommy used to call me "Samantha the Panther", 'cause I was always climbing trees and stuff... I'm real fast too." She looked at the two adults properly before frowning to herself. "I...can I..."

"Go ahead," The red-head assured her, nodding.

Sam took a moment to gather her thoughts together. "You and your...husband...you look...I mean, I don't know..."

Ah. There it was. Lily nodded again, this time in agreement. "Yes, you're right," She said, giving Damien a slightly sad look. "I wasn't always older than him, you know." She shrugged, trying to let it go. "It's fine now. It's because I'm human, though - but not the kind that hurts others!" She added quickly at the terrified look on Sam's face.

Damien jumped back into the conversation hurriedly. "Yeah, don't worry!" He assured her. "Lily's Mom and Dad - and brother and sisters - are all monsters. She's just...the special case."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. Really? Special case?! Thanks.

Sam nodded once, still looking quite wary. "Okay." She looked over them both, cocking a brow after a few seconds. "Are you here to be my new Mommy and Daddy? I don't want a new one. I...I want mine."

Good God, we must look evil at the moment to her - sweeping in to take her away so quickly, Lily thought.

"Look, you're both nice and all," Sam continued, voice surprisingly steady. "But you're not my Mommy and Daddy; my Mommy had blonde hair and blue eyes, like me, and my Daddy was big and fat." She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the table angrily. "I don't want my Daddy or any Daddy - they're mean and they hurt people."

Lily opened her mouth to say something (what, she didn't know) but Damien beat her to it. "I know," He said simply, causing both of the girls to look at him. "My Dad was like that too."

What on Earth?! Lily sent him a look, wondering why he'd never told her - she would have thought that something like that would have been a pretty important one to mention when you're married.

"But I'm not here to be your Daddy," Damien continued, voice going quiet and soft - the only time it ever did was around people he cared about or children. "And Lily's not here to be your Mommy either. You already have those, and that's cool - we understand that. We just... We want to look after you."

Sam gave him a wide-eyed stare. "But... Why? What about your kids?"

Damien looked at Lily sadly as he replied. "We don't have any. We want them but...we can't have them."

The blonde child looked between the two. "Oh...oh..."

"We want to adopt you," Lily told her, somewhat nervously. "We want to take care of you - we saw you in the hotel lobby and..." She hesitated before continuing. "We didn't want to adopt, you know; that didn't seem right. But then we saw you in the lobby, and we talked about it..."

Sam was silent for a moment, looking utterly astonished by this piece of information. "You really want to look after me?"

"Yeah," Damien said sincerely. "But only if you're okay with that, Sam."

Sam paused, looking at the couple in front of her seriously. "If you do," She stated seriously, although there was a definite worry in her voice. "Do I have to call you Mommy and Daddy?"

"Not unless you want to," Lily promised - and she meant it. Sure, someone calling her, 'Mommy' would have been sweet and all, but just getting to look after her would have been enough.

The blonde girl stared at them for another few seconds: and then she started to grin. "You mean it?" When they both nodded, also starting to smile, she laughed. "Awesome! Can I tell that creepy lady that I wanna live with you? Is that how it works?"

Yes, the future certainly looked bright.

This certificate is to officially certify that on February 28th 2183, Damien and Lily Stoker adopted the child now known as Samantha Stoker (D.O.B: 13/01/2154, according to documents left by the birth mother). They are to have full custody of her and assume the role of her parents in her upbringing.

There were names signed on the bottom from the Monster Council and then the adoptive parents themselves - it was legal and official in every way.

This document hung in the hallway of the Stoker home, proudly on display for all to see - a reminder of a truly amazing event in all of their lives.

Wahh...I literally wrote all of this in the last three hours. This chapter was one I wanted to be Chapter 10 and I'm so proud that I stuck to it :D

I feel sad that in this Lily is, like, 57/58 and Damien still looks in his 20s :( I'll have to write an angst-filled chapter about dealing with that, I think... And then there's the totally awesome thing in my head I've got going on with Charlie and Sam in my head! :D Cousins are awesome playmates, after all.

I'm really sorry about the whole Stoker thing - I love referencing the original Dracula story in Hotel T fanfics, I think it's hilarious and a nice touch (maybe not so much when it's done by myself, but a lot of the time when others do it 'cause it's all so clever) XD

And, aha, we all know who Sam is now! I don't have to keep her under wraps anymore :P If anyone is wondering, she's kinda based on Edith from the Despicable Me series - she's my favourite of the three girls even though she's so underdeveloped. And, not to worry, we WILL look more into her character as the story goes on.

OH! Sorry, but I have to say this: I am working on a NEW Johnny/Mavis drabbles thing. It will be like "A-Z of a Life" and be more about Johnny/Mavis than the kids - they'll still be in it, of course, but I want a story of them just working together as a couple. I really love their relationship :)

Please leave reviews! Love you all! :D