Chapter 11

Life had never looked so grey.

Greyer than his days before the hotel.

Greyer than having to watch his parents die.

Greyer than watching his brothers die, one-by-one.

It was grey, just like Mavis' face.

He didn't understand it, not one bit, and he would openly - happily - admit that for all the world as often as he had to...

Not that it would bring their baby back.

Johnny had never been religious, it wasn't his thing, and yet he found himself questioning God - whatever freakin' deity was in charge - in his head; one question was more prominent than the others.

Why?

Why did this happen? Why to a baby - a baby that was innocent and weak and pure that it couldn't even survive outside of its mother's womb? Why to them?

Why their baby?

Mavis...there were no words to describe how she was feeling; "sad" and "devastated" were nowhere near strong enough. She cried - when she couldn't, when the tears ran out, she was a shell of her former self...emotionless and dull. She did not speak or respond to anything or anyone: not her father, not Johnny, not even the kids. She just...sat there in her bed, eyes wide and red-rimmed, face ghostly pale.

Beautifully tragic.

As for Johnny...he was utterly heartbroken. Destroyed. In the short time he'd known about this child, he had already conjured up an image in his mind: what they would look like, how they'd fit into their lives, how perfect it would all be. He had loved this child without even properly knowing them - and he had suffered the consequences when it all went to hell.

It was wrong - so very, very wrong - that their baby was gone so soon.

Johnny didn't have much time to grieve - in fact, he had none. He was to be there for Mavis, to help her through this; men weren't supposed to grieve, they were solid and tough. They were protectors...they were not meant to have feelings, not about this.

But he did - and he was drowning in them, lost and unsure.

He wanted to curl up and cry; instead, he sat with Mavis and held her silently while she broke inside. He wanted to yell and kick and just scream until he couldn't; he walked around the hotel by himself, ignoring people's condolences, and muttered, "I'm fine" to himself over and over again.

Why? Why? Why?

He would never know.

The thing about it all was that Lucy and Jack's priorities changed immediately: their parents needed time to grieve, to just comfort each other... Mina was now their priority.

Jack, who was younger than his sister by thirteen years, gave up being the protector of his sisters after a few hours; he, too, had no freaking idea why the hell this had happened, especially to them and just wanted to curl up until it was all over. This left Lucy to take over in a mothering role and make sure that her younger siblings were as looked after as possible.

"I want Daddy to tuck me in," Mina had said that morning, sniffling. Everyone - even the guests who didn't know her - had been shell-shocked when they realized that she had actually seen...seen it, and it was clear that she wasn't going to forget it very easily. "Where's Mommy and Daddy?"

"They're...busy," Lucy sighed, pulling the duvet over her little sister's form. "You need to behave now, alright? They're not going to be alright for a while, and you've got to be as good as possible."

Mina wriggled slightly. "I will. Will Mommy be okay?" Her eyes widened. "Is she going to die?"

"No," Lucy assured her quickly. "No, of course not. She just...she's just going to be very sad. Get some sleep."

The younger child gave a tearful sniff. "I want to, I really do...but I...a-a-all that bl-blood..."

"Try to forget it," Her older sister said softly, fighting the urge to gag at the thought of what must have been seen; she had seen her mother being carried up the stairs clinging to her father desperately...she'd seen part of the mess left on clothing, stains that may never come out. "Go to sleep and then the bad pictures will go away."

"Okay."

"Sweet nightmares," Lucy murmured, leaning down to kiss her sister on the forehead. "Try to dream of bats today. I'll be down the hallway if you want someone to cuddle, okay?"

Mina nodded, shutting her eyes tightly and gripping her Martha-bat in her arms. No matter what she did that night, she was going to remember what she had seen.

Jack, who was older and did not need tucking in, simply gave his sister a sombre nod when she came to check on him. "I'll sleep in a minute," He mumbled, clutching a book against his chest as if it were a cuddly toy of some kind. "I just...let me read? So that I can forget, even if it's only for an hour."

Lucy nodded, not too bothered by this method of coping; if he wanted to read, then he should read.

None of the children slept well that day, and when the night fell it was both a blessing and a curse.

It was the first night of trying to cope, trying to get over this tragedy...and it wasn't going to be easy in any way.

Breakfast was a very quiet affair.

Freddie sighed as he looked out over the dining hall; very few guests had ordered anything to eat, instead choosing to sit in groups and just talk quietly about the ordeal last night. This also meant that he didn't have to serve anyone drinks - he was therefore unable to do much more than stand around and think.

He didn't know a lot about Lucy and Mina's parents, but he'd served them a few times in the past week and they had seemed like genuinely nice people...besides, the two younger vampires were rather polite and obviously thought of their Mom and Dad highly.

Even so, no one deserved for that to happen to them though...no one.

"Still thinkin' about it, huh?"

He felt tears form in his eyes and blinked them away furiously - he had to stop being so emotional, he really did. "N-No..."

His Uncle gave a light chuckle. "You always were an awful liar..." His smile disappeared immediately and he leaned against the buffet table next to his nephew. "I didn't get as good a view as you did, thankfully, so I don't know how bad it was. To be honest, I don't really want to."

"It was...terrifying," Freddie said in horror, shaking his head. All he could remember was Mina sobbing out what she'd seen in the bathroom and then a small group of the bravest monsters (including Dracula and Johnny) going to the bathroom to try and fix the situation.

Of course, nothing would have fixed it.

He himself hadn't gone - he wouldn't have been able to, it made him ill to think about - but he'd seen the cleaning witches running around that area earlier that night, obviously trying to clean up the mess... You didn't have to be a genius to see the tears glistening in their eyes.

"I know you're friendly with the little one," His Uncle stated, reaching up and scratching his ear. "Maybe try and help take her mind off it?"

The red-head gave a nod. "I would, but it's just...the shifts..."

"Don't worry about your shifts," The older vampire snorted, waving a hand. "No one feels much like doing anything right now - something tells me we're gonna be working the bare minimum for a while." He leaned closer to his nephew and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I can see that you're just as upset by this incident as everyone else is; I mean, it's a very sad issue...take a little time off and go play with that little kid you're so fond of."

Hmm...I guess that's a good idea. Besides, maybe I can see Lucy and figure out what's going on. No sooner had he thought it he felt guilty; the girl's mother had just...just...he couldn't even think about the word in his head. Lucy had lost a prospective sibling, she wasn't going to be interested in him or going out on dates!

"Alright," He agreed slowly. "I'll wait until she comes down for breakfast or something."

None of them wanted to go downstairs that evening - Lucy and Jack because they knew that everyone would be waiting, maybe even to ask a few questions, and they didn't want to deal with that. Mina simply didn't want to go because she wanted to see if their Mom and Dad were okay but wasn't able to; her sister and brother had decided to give their parents some space to let it all sink in, to let everything calm down.

"But they need to eat!" Mina argued, tugging uselessly against her older siblings' hands as they lead her towards the dining hall. "I mean, Mommy lost all that blood so she's gonna be weak! She needs something to eat!"

"They'll get something to eat," Jack assured her quickly, his grip tightening on her so that she didn't escape. "Just not now...You know Grandpa will look out for them, right? No need to worry."

She gave up and reluctantly stopped struggling. "Well, why couldn't we go and see them before breakfast?"

"We told you," Lucy sighed tiredly - like her younger brother and sister, she hadn't slept one bit that day. "Mommy and Daddy need to be left alone for a little while...we know that you don't get it, but we'll explain it to you later."

Truthfully, she'd been to see her mother and father earlier that evening, before Jack and Mina had woken up - and it had been the scariest thing she'd seen in her one-hundred and four years. Mavis had just been lying in bed, and while she wasn't crying her chest was heaving with dry sobs...Johnny had looked no better, like he hadn't slept the entire day, and when he had tried to smile at his daughter in greeting it had come out as a horribly twisted and false smile.

She shuddered at the memory and hurriedly pulled her siblings over to a nearby empty table. "Look, we can go in a few nights or something. Right now, the last thing they're going to want is to have to look after us."

Jack nodded in agreement glumly while Mina just looked somewhat confused. None of them said anything else, instead just glancing around the dining room to see how many people were in their company; just about everyone had finished eating and talking, so the room was empty except for a few old gremlins who were talking loudly amongst themselves.

"Uhmm...hey?"

All of them turned in their seats and saw, with somewhat surprise, that Freddie was smiling down at them half-heartedly. Mina sent him a small smile back. "Hey!"

"So, how are we doing?" He asked politely, just like he did every morning with the guests - seconds later, his smile disappeared when he realized what he'd said. "Oh my God, I didn't mean it like that! Of course you're not okay! I'm so stupid!"

"It's fine," Jack brushed off, shrugging to himself. "We've done better, but I suppose it could be worse."

The youngest child looked up at her friend eagerly. "Can you hang out today, Freddie? There's nothing to do around here... Grandpa's too busy, now that Mommy got hurt, and we've got no one to play with."

"A-Alright," He agreed, nodding a few times. "Sure. I've not got a lot of work today, so I suppose it should be okay. So...do you guys want anything to eat?"

Jack shrugged again, resting his head on the table. "I'm not hungry."

"Me neither," Lucy agreed miserably, avoiding the waiter's eyes and staring down at her lap.

Mina shot them confused glances but returned her attention back to Freddie. "Can I have some wormcakes? And can they have extra syrup on top?"

"Sure thing," Freddie told her, giving her another half-hearted smile - it was obvious he didn't feel much like smiling at that moment. "I'll be back in a minute with them."

As he walked away to head to the kitchen, Mina turned to her older siblings and frowned. "Why are you being weird? Why aren't you eating anything?"

"Eat your food and stop worrying about us," Jack muttered, not lifting his head.

She huffed and crossed her arms - she really didn't understand teenagers sometimes.

There was a brief moment where Mavis woke up from a short nap that evening...she hadn't been able to keep her eyes open, and then the next minute she was opening her eyes and yawning as she woke up. For a moment, all she could sense was that her husband's body was pressed up against hers, and it was just like any other night. Johnny was frowning softly in his sleep, and she briefly wondered if he was having a bad dream or something.

But then she'd reached down to rub at her stomach, expecting to feel a small curve of some kind developing...and when there was nothing, the memories of everything came flooding back violently.

That was when the tears started up again, and she could do no more than curl in on herself and sob brokenly into her pillow.

After Mina had eaten her wormcakes, she requested to go upstairs and visit Dracula. While neither of the older vampires were sure if he was in his room or in his office or anywhere for that matter, they agreed immediately - it would distract them, even if it was just searching for their Grandpa.

"You start looking without me," Lucy mumbled to her brother. "I'm going to help clean up a little."

Jack didn't protest, just grabbing his little sister's hand. "Come on, Mina. Let's check Grandpa's office first...maybe he's doing paperwork or something."

For a moment the red-haired vampire watched her younger siblings walk out of the room, and the gravity of the situation suddenly hit her full-force; she had to look after them now, she had to keep an eye on them for her parents until everything was better again. If anything happened to them, she'd be held responsible...and after everything with Mina in the past few days...

"Lucy? Are you okay?"

Lucy turned around and immediately locked eyes with Freddie; he was standing a few meters away, watching her with wide eyes sympathetically as she tried to figure out all of the thoughts in her head. And then, out of nowhere, she suddenly remembered him dancing with her before the incident, the feel of his arms holding her; it had made her feel something then, but she hadn't been able to put her finger on what it was.

And now she realized: he'd made her feel safe.

"Lucy?"

The sound of his voice jolted her out of her thoughts again, and that was it. Before she could even think about it, Lucy had practically ran across the distance between them and flung her arms around him. Freddie blanched slightly at the sudden contact but nonetheless wrapped his arms around her too.

For the first time since the tragic ordeal, Lucy let herself cry.

First of all, thank you guys so much for the support and reviews!

Second, I'd like to thank Sondardo for the idea...I was going to put this little thank you note in the last one, put I thought that it might take away some of the impact of the chapter, so...

Third and final note: I'm really busy right now with school and exams and college but I'll try to keep the chapters coming! (For any of you wondering: I GOT INTO COLLEGE!)

Thanks Guys! :D