Sick
No sick child was pleasant, to say the least; one of the perks of being a monster was that if you were sick then you usually healed up faster and spent no more than a day or two suffering.
Lily, however, was not a monster and so suffered more terribly when she got sick.
Shortly after Lily's fifth birthday, she had contracted a bug that caused her tonsils to swell up, her temperature to rise, a nasty cough to develop and her nose to become blocked. In short, she was a very miserable five year old for the next week and did little more than lying in bed or on the couch as she was sleeping off the sickness.
But then again, she learnt that there did appear to be some good to come out of being really ill.
For one thing, she was allowed to watch whatever she wanted on the television; usually she was forced to watch whatever her siblings wanted since she was the youngest and therefore had to do whatever they wanted - but her being sick made them soften up, and the human girl soon got to watch whatever movies she wanted.
And best of all, none of them could complain.
Mina, being a vampire's equivalent to her sister's age, didn't complain too much anyway; in fact, she seemed more than happy to sit with her little sister underneath a warm blanket as they cuddled and watched animal and princess movies."
At first, Lucy had also complained somewhat - but then she'd also given in and joined her sisters underneath the blanket, deciding to be young again and watch movies that she hadn't seen in what seemed to be forever ago.
"Oh, I like this one!" She exclaimed loudly as the opening credits to The Little Mermaid started. "See? Dad used to say I looked like her!"
Mina gave a laugh. "Only 'cause you have red hair - but Daddy says that I'm always gonna Snow White, so you can be Ariel I guess. What about you, Jack?"
Jack, on the other hand, was not partial to Disney's Princess movies - sure, the ones about animals were bearable, but princesses? No, definitely not his thing. "First of all," He started dryly, looking up from his book and at his sisters. "I'm a guy, so there's no way in Hell that I'm a Princess of any kind. Second of all... Do I even need to explain why I don't like Princess movies?"
Lucy rolled her eyes at him. "Sure. So you didn't like it when Dad put on Beauty and the Beast and let you sit in his lap?" Jack narrowed his eyes at her. "And you definitely weren't the one crying when the Beast got stabbed, right?"
"Shut up," Jack muttered lowly as Mina and Lily giggled to themselves. "Yeah, okay, laugh to yourselves, but I was younger than Mina, for crying out loud!"
"What about the others?" Mina asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. "Like the ones without the princesses?"
Their brother shrugged, looking somewhat sheepish. "Well, I guess those aren't all that bad..." He allowed. "Especially not Tarzan or Finding Nemo."
"Oh, I love that movie!" Lucy agreed, nodding her head and grinning. "I remember watching it with Mom and Dad... Heh, Mom started crying, and Dad said it was because it was the first time she'd seen it."
Jack grinned as well as he rolled his eyes. "Mom cries at most Disney movies; do you remember when Dad told us about the first time he showed her some movies when they were in Hawaii? He said that she started crying at Up."
"Everyone cries at Up," Mina dismissed. "Anyway, shut up you two, 'cause The Little Mermaid is on."
In the end, Jack ended up on the couch with his sisters and watching the movies with them (even the Disney ones, much to their amusement).
Another great thing to come out of being ill was having near-constant attention from her parents - and with that came more ice-cream, kisses, cuddles and bedtime stories being read to her. So, yes, it wasn't all that bad having family doting on her.
"I wi'h I coul' read," Lily muttered to herself, pouting as she curled up next to Johnny on the couch one evening after breakfast. "Jack's busy, Lucy is ou' wit' Fre'ie and Mina can' read much either."
"I can read," Johnny muttered, acting somewhat offended. "Am I not good enough?"
Lily gave a tiny giggle and shrugged. "I 'unno: Ja' tol' me he woul' read to me, bu' he can'." She gave a noisy cough that warranted a few thumps on the back from her father before sitting back in her seat again. "I ha'e bein' ill," She mumbled miserably.
"Yeah, no one likes it," Johnny agreed, sending her a small knowing grin. "You're tough though: you'll be better in no time, kiddo."
Lily gave a sniff as he ruffled her hair. "I be'er be," She said seriously. "I don' wanna be ill an'more, Dad'y; the'e's no'hing to do an'more." She gave a grumble before looking up at him. "Can you pu' a movie on?"
Johnny shrugged - he wasn't doing anything better, so why not? "Sure," He agreed, standing up to go and do so. "What movie do you want then, Lils?"
"Don' min'."
Ahh, she's so ill she doesn't even care. Hopefully that means she can only get better from now on. "Let's see," Johnny hummed, scanning the DVDs near the television. "When I was sick, my Mom and I used to always watch Peter Pan...or we could watch One Hundred and One Dalmations, that's always a cool one..."
Johnny trailed off to look over his shoulder at his daughter; she had fallen asleep already, mouth half-open and blanket clutched tightly around herself.
The red-head smiled to himself - as much as he loved watching movies, it was far cuter to see his daughter sleeping (even when she was ill). "It's okay," He muttered, half to himself and half to Lily. "We'll do it later."
Lily was seventy-nine (nearly eighty) when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It had been nearly eighty years of love, laughter and growing up; of a family, of children, of love in so many different forms...and now it was all going to disappear.
At first it wasn't anything too bad; Sam would ask Lily to tuck her in, Lily would agree, and Sam would wait. Half an hour would pass before Sam re-appeared in the Living Room, only to see her mother figure still sitting in a chair and reading or talking to Damien.
"Uhh...Lily?" Sam would say cautiously, causing both Damien and Lily to look at her. "You said that you were going to tuck me in."
Lily would frown, mouth pressed in a thin line. "Did I? I don't remember... Come on, I'll do it now."
At first it wasn't a big deal; it was only when she started to forget more often and forget more important things that she decided it would be best to see a doctor of some kind. The turning point was Sam's birthday the January before Lily's eightieth, and it was clear that she couldn't continue.
"Happy Birthday, kiddo!" Damien exclaimed when Sam walked into the kitchen that evening. "So, what does the birthday girl want for breakfast?"
Sam grinned, showing off her few missing teeth that she'd lost recently. "Wormcakes! Johnny and Mavis always make them for me when I stay at theirs, and they're awesome!"
Up until that point, Lily had been sat at the table eating her own breakfast and drinking some tea (something she'd switched to lately since she could no longer stand coffee); when Sam sat next to her, she looked up from her food and frowned.
"G' Morning, Lily!" Sam greeted excitedly. "Guess how old I am now!"
Lily looked at Sam, still frowning, and suddenly the blonde vampire child had the idea that something bad was happening.
"I'm fifty-one," She added quickly, fearing that the human wasn't quite as able at maths as she used to be.
Damien seemed to notice Lily's silence as well, and he bent down to look at his wife worriedly. "Lily?..."
"I don't know you," She muttered, still looking at Sam with wide eyes. "Who are you? I...Why are you in my house?"
Sam looked surprised but continued on anyway. "Lily, it's me. Sam! You know, you adopted me, like, twenty years ago? What's wrong?"
"I don't remember," Lily stated, still staring at Sam hard. "I...no, I don't remember you. Damien, who is she? Why is she here?" She seemed to shrink in her chair. "She's not going to hurt me, is she?"
Sam looked so hurt that Damien knew he had to do something. "Sam, maybe you should go and get dressed before breakfast..."
"Who are you?!" Lily snapped, looking absolutely terrified. "I don't know you! Go away, get out!"
The older blonde vampire picked the child up out of her chair quickly. "Alright, alright... Sam, can you just wait in the living room? Here," He started when he reached the desired room, and he put her down. The look on her face almost broke his heart, it honestly did. "You know how to use the phone, right? Maybe you could call Charlie's house, see if he wants to come round to play."
Sam bit her lip. "What's the matter with Lily?" She asked, and to his surprise she wasn't actually crying - in fact, she was remaining remarkably calm considering the situation going on around her. "How come she doesn't know who I am anymore?"
"Uhh...I don't know," Damien admitted. "I'm going to go and sort things out with her now, though, and I just need you to stay here."
Sam hesitated but nodded. "Okay. Hey, if Charlie comes around, can we have pizza for dinner?"
"I'll think about it," The older vampire agreed before heading back to the kitchen - what he was going to say to his wife, he honestly had no idea.
Back in the kitchen, Lily was still sitting at the table; her head was bowed low, and it became apparent to Damien that she was crying due to the sniffles he could hear. "Lily," He said slowly, taking the seat next to her where Sam had been minutes ago. "What's going on?"
Lily looked up at him. "I... Where's Sam?" She asked helplessly. "I remember now, I do, I swear but... But I forgot who she was, just for a minute... I...I don't know why, b-but now I remember a-and I'm fine again."
Damien had been putting off the inevitable for years, he really had; he took at look at his human wife, who was crying and shaking her head uselessly to herself, and saw that she was no longer the woman she used to be. Her looks weren't important to him, and that wasn't what he could see now as he looked at her...
She was slipping away mentally now as well; that clever spark was fading, memories disappearing and the things that made Lily the woman he loved were fading away.
"Damien? Please talk to me!"
Damien swallowed the lump in his throat; he hadn't wanted to consider it a possibility that she would disappear like this, but now he had no choice.
"We need to go to a doctor."
A few weeks later, the results were in; Lily had Alzheimer's - an incurable disease that would stay with her until death and get worse as time progressed.
By the last stage of Lily's life, one would not have recognized her; her Alzheimer's had progressed to an advanced stage and left her bed-ridden at the age of eighty five, unable to do much but sit there and look around.
It was heart-breaking for Johnny and Mavis to see: they knew, thanks to both Johnny's knowledge from being human and Jack's research, that it wouldn't be long now until she passed.
Because of this, they had wanted to take her back to their home, where she'd grown up, and spend time with her before it was too late - but Damien was insistent that she stay where she was.
"She can't even walk anymore," He told them, rubbing at his eyes to hide his tears. "How the hell are you gonna get her to your place?"
Mavis looked away, also in tears but being unable to hold them in. Johnny put an arm around her and looked at their son-in-law tiredly. "She's our daughter. No disrespect, man, but...maybe it's better if she stays with us."
"No parent should have to deal with something like this," Damien argued firmly. "Look, I've been taking care of her for the best part of a year now and moving her might cause her to get upset or something... She can't remember a thing, you know. She barely remembers who I am, you know... Yesterday she saw my wedding ring and started asking who the lucky lady was." His eyes watered and he wiped at them fiercely. "I can't just...let her go..."
They understood - and that was why Johnny and Mavis ended up moving temporarily into the Stoker household. Since Mina was a hundred and sixteen, so therefore not a small child needing attention, she had decided to stay with Lucy and Freddie until...well, it was all over. After a couple of weeks of this arrangement, Sam was sent to stay with Jack (he lived alone and therefore had more than enough room - besides, Sam seemed to like the idea of staying over at his) - this was purely because Damien didn't want her to see Lily so ill.
Taking care of someone with Alzheimer's Disease was, in short, difficult and upsetting; most days, Johnny and Mavis would sit with Damien and help him take care of their daughter in any way they could. It pained all of them to see just how co-dependent on others the human had become; she couldn't even feed herself anymore...and then there was the issue of cleaning her up. Lily had gotten so bad that she'd lost of most of her bodily functions - including waiting to get to a toilet.
On the one hand, none of them wanted to see her go - but on the other, they also didn't want to see her suffer like this for much longer.
One evening, Damien had to go and see Sam (after all, he couldn't just leave her without any word on how Lily was doing) and so Johnny and Mavis were left in charge of caring for their daughter. To say the least, it was a very upsetting night for the two of them and they decided it would be best to try and get through it together - a testament to how strong their zing was.
"She looks so peaceful when she sleeps," Mavis observed quietly, putting her head on Johnny's shoulder as they sat down on some chairs near the bed. "It's almost like none of this happened...you can still see her as a baby when she sleeps."
Johnny gave a small nod. "Yeah... Mavis? You do know that..." He hesitated cautiously. "That she probably hasn't got all that long left, right? My Grandpa died after having it for seven years and his body just...it shut down."
"I know," She said, closing her eyes. "What I don't know is what we're going to do after that happens; how we'll get through it." She gave a small sniffle, clearly wanting to cry but not allowing herself to - it was not the time nor the place in that moment. "Eighty-five years...and she'll just be gone, Johnny, like she was never even here."
"Don't think like that, Mavy," Johnny tried to assure her but not sounding too calm himself. "Of course we'll remember her; I mean, we have pictures and stuff, right? And..." He paused. "And we'll always remember her, you know?"
Yes, Mavis knew, but that didn't make it any easier on anyone involved.
I would just like to say, yes, Mavis crying at "Finding Nemo" is my headcannon - it's about a father who loses his son (and vice-versa) so I can kinda see her crying since she's probably really close Dracula (well, and I suppose having kids of her own would kind of help her see it from Marlin's perspective)... And she'd probably cry at the beginning too, what with the barracuda attack (come on, that's one of the most depressing moments in a Disney film I've ever seen... I re-watched Finding Nemo last week and couldn't shake that scene off), especially after being married and having kids, so that part would be rather upsetting.
And my exams are half over! XD I'm on half-term now - and, admittedly, did not write as much as I should have... Yesterday afternoon I went and watched Adam Sandler's Blended (not Oscar-worthy but I personally thought that it was heart-warming and a nice family movie...just my opinion but still), and before that I was shopping/playing PC games on my Dad's laptop so... I relaxed in other words :)
I look forwards to the next time we meet via me posting a new chapter everyone! Hopefully not too long a wait - like I said, half of my exams are done: it's now English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, two Maths exams and two Media exams. :/ (Yeah, and this is after two History exams, two other English exams, a first Physics exam, a first Chemistry exam, a first Biology exam, and a French exam.)
