AN: I know, it's been a while but I got sidetracked on other projects. Don't worry because I intend to finish the story, but I might be a month or so between updates.

Chapter 37
Reunited

"How?" Freddy asked still holding Karen's waist so the two were shoulder to chest as they looked at the way Dracula and Margaret still looked at each other. "I mean Drac's wife has been gone for a century, right?"

Karen shook her head at him. "We don't stay dead forever. We can come back."

"Have you?"

Karen shrugged and her arms finished around him again. "We don't remember unless we get our memories restored."

Dracula and Margaret were still lost in each other's face. It looked as if they had been waiting for this moment forever, which really wasn't that far from the truth. Karen and Freddy went to introduce them to each other since it looked as if Margaret and Dracula would have simply stayed as statues if they weren't given a little shove.

"Sis," Freddy uttered as he tried to clear his throat, which did not produce the reaction he expected from her.

Margaret startled, snarled exposing her fangs at her brother which sent Freddy recoiling slightly. If not for the fact he still held Karen by the waist, Freddy might have sprinted back to the car. Margaret blushed when she realized that it was her brother and appeared to return to her consciousness. "Sorry," she apologized highly embarrassed from her actions.

Freddy was smiling his normal dopey smile again. "No problem Maggie, but have you met Drac?"

Dracula growled slightly at the human; a low sound that emanated from deep in the vampire's chest that added to the apprehension that Freddy had towards Dracula, but that had been diminishing. In the past few weeks, Freddy had become much like the nephew that Dracula never had and that feeling was mutual. The two of them saw the other as more than family, since lies had set both of them on a course that neither of them truly wanted to be on any more.

"Not really," Margaret answered to her brother after rushing to his side to hug him in apology for snapping at him. She had figured out by now, from what they had called Dracula exactly who he was though. She walked back to Dracula with her brother next to her and said, "My name is Maggie, and I'm a vampire."

Freddy laughed at his sister, since he greeting sounded more like it belonged in AA than here. Karen followed behind the two and as Margaret went back to Dracula, Karen and Freddy were sharing another kiss.

Dracula chuckled almost silently as he answered in reply, "My name is Dracula, and I am also a vampire." There was something that was so familiar about her to him that he couldn't stop himself from what he did next; he wrapped her in his cloak, and swung her around wildly.

Inside Margaret's head, there was a faint click; almost like the sound of the first tumbler of a lock being slid silently into place.

Karen had understood what she heard in Margaret's mind. It took three triggers to restore the memories back to one who was reincarnated, so this was the first. As soon as Karen heard the click, Margaret returned Dracula's embrace. She was recognizing her zing, her one true love as a purple gleam engulfed her brilliant blue eyes. The same light did not appear in Dracula's eyes though, but it did reflect in his.

"Drac's not zinging with Maggie too?" Freddy asked to his new fiancée.

Karen shook her head. "It's not necessary since they already did once. You only zing once, but that doesn't mean that your zing can't come back to you."

Karen rode in the hearse with Freddy while Dracula and Margaret used to opportunity to fly back as bats. The two of them started chasing each other in a game while they flew rapidly. There was much giggling and laughing during the trip, but it was interrupted when they heard the sound of crying coming from the roof of the hotel.

Margaret and Dracula landed on the roof and changed back as they saw that it was a boy on the roof crying. He had blondish ginger hair and green eyes. Dracula knew who it was and tried to calm him as Margaret rushed at just about full speed to hold and twirl him around.

"What's a matter Troy?" Dracula asked to the boy, who by now was being cradled in the arms of his recently reunited zing.

Troy answered through tears. "It's (sniff) that now (sniff) everyone but me can (sniff and snort) fly. Grandpa Mike changed an hour ago." He lost control of himself and began sobbing uncontrollably.

Margaret stroked his hair gently which seemed to make him feel better. "Don't worry about that young one. You've got plenty of time for that to happen, and besides many of us take a long time for it."

Troy was still sniffling, but was beginning to gain control of himself. He still hadn't noticed the new vampire guest that was holding him, but felt a kinship to her. "Will you help me, Uncle Drac?" He begged, jumping out of Margaret's arms and rushing to his side then floating slightly up.

Dracula chuckled at Troy. "You're closer to it than you think," he joked at his in-law. "You're floating now; that tends to come first."

"Please," Troy begged repeatedly, "please? Please? Please?" The barrage of pleases continued for another twenty seconds.

"He's not gonna stop until you say yes," Margaret laughed out at Dracula.

Dracula growled silently. This wasn't meant to scare anyone but rather show his annoyance. "Thank the stars that your parents will be back tonight."

"Mom and dad?" Troy asked in shock. No one other than Dracula really knew that Sam and Brett were coming in this early.

Dracula assumed that Troy thought that they would be leaving for home much sooner than he thought, although there was a reason why they were coming in now. "You're not leaving for another couple weeks, so don't worry about that. I'm sure you'll be all batty by then," Dracula and Margaret both laughed at the bad pun. "It's just there's something that your mom and dad need to do while they're here."

Troy nodded and felt relieved. He wasn't on as tight of a time schedule as he previously thought, but still knew that he needed to learn soon, or he'd never stopped getting razzed by his own younger brothers, especially if he crashed at lot when learning to fly.

"Here's the simple part," Dracula said as he returned Troy to Margaret's arms, "you just have to let it happen. Rushing it doesn't help; if anything it retards the ability. Both of your brothers had their first change to save someone; they couldn't think about what they were doing and it just happened. If that won't be the case for you, you just have to picture a bat in you mind and let your body copy it."

Troy closed his eyes and began to concentrate. "I'm a bat," he whispered in a style similar to Dennis did before he sprouted his fangs. He repeated it over and over growing in volume every time. "I'm a bat! I'm a bat!"

He kept doing it for a few minutes before a brown mist started to surround his body, but he didn't change. "Troy, you're trying to hard," Margaret said rubbing the back of the boy, who was panting from exhaustion. She sat him down, and closed her eyes. "Watch." A blue mist quickly surrounded her and a black furred, blue eyed bat replaced her that flew around for a few seconds before perching on his right shoulder.

Dracula smiled at Troy getting help from, what he assumed was the reincarnation of his zing. Since she missed so much with Mavis's training, Dracula thought that he should leave the two of them alone to practice. He took the chance to prepare the infirmary for Troy's parent's arrival since something had to be tested soon after they arrived since Brett and Sam would only be staying for about two weeks, and the transformation required at least two days, and could possibly take much longer.

"Just breathe deeply and focus," Margaret added to Troy still perched on his shoulder.

Troy began to do as instructed. Within a few seconds, the mist began to surround Troy again but this time when it dissipated a reddish brown bat with red eyes replaced him. As the mist began to appear, Margaret took flight and landed on the floor next to him. "It worked!" Troy shrieked as he looked at his new form. It felt completely foreign to him, as if this was a body he was not familiar with. He began wildly flapping his wings hoping for liftoff, but he didn't move. In fact the only thing that happened from his panicked flaps was Troy became exhausted quickly, while gaining only a few inches of altitude. "Man, this is hard," a defeated Troy soon uttered.

Margaret had returned to her regular form and shook her head. "It takes time, sweetie. When I first learned it took me almost a month before my mom would let me fly alone." Margaret was enjoying herself immensely; helping a fledgling learn to fly. Then there was a black bat with red eyes and touches of white hairs that returned to his regular self, revealing that Mike had seen the whole lesson. Mike's bat form looked a lot like Vlad's was, except for not having quite as many white and gray whiskers.

"Thank you," Mike whispered to Margaret, "and I'm sure Troy says the same thing, doesn't he?"

"Thank you! Thank you!" Troy shouted so embarrassed that he said it twice. "It feels so weird, but man is it cool! Can you help me some more?"

Margaret smiled as she looked at the sky. The sun was beginning to peak through the mountain tops. "Gladly, but it looks like we're outta time tonight. How bout tomorrow midnight?"

"Thank you! Thank you!" Troy said repeating it over and over again as he floated up to hug Margaret around her neck, almost strangling her with his newfound strength.

"No problem. I actually like helping you, but I'm getting thirsty," Margaret said looking around. "Think there's some Near Blood around here somewhere?"

"Of course," Mike said smiling as his stomach began rumbling. He led them all down to the kitchen and was surprised to see that Margaret wasn't the only new arrival that night. As they arrived to the dining room, Mike and Troy were surprised to see that Sam and Brett had arrived and were sitting with Dracula.

Troy thought something was off with his mom, but he didn't know that Sam had lost her vampiric abilities. He was surprised to see her sipping on a human soda instead of a blood surrogate. "What's wrong with mom?" He asked to his grandfather.

"Nothing, just she had something unexpected happen to her a couple weeks back. Drac and your dad are gonna try and take care of it tomorrow; that's why they came in now."

"Auntie Maggie?" Troy asked

Margaret was shocked that Troy not only knew her nickname, but was calling her 'auntie'. But that didn't mean that she didn't like it. "Yes sweetie?"

"How old were you when you learned to fly?"

"Oh, that. Well, I was 43," she answered causally.

Mike looked surprised at her. He still hadn't figured out the vampire to human age comparisons. "I know this is rude, but how old are you now?" Mike asked even though he knew better.

"117," Margaret answered not sounding upset at all.

After dinner, Dracula and Mike accompanied Sam and Brett to the infirmary. They had to test something on Brett if he was going to change Sam. Dawn had broken, but there was no danger to any of the monsters inside the castle, since glass was enough to protect them from the sun. Doctor Jekyll met them upon entry. "Greetings master, what can I do for you?"

"We need to see if Brett here is venomous," Dracula answered as he shook the hand of the resident physician.

"Easy enough," Jekyll answered with a grin. He had checked this on the newest vampires several times, and to this point, only Dennis, Jenna, and Johnny had shown any inclination of being venomous. Of them, Dennis's was the most potent although he wasn't sure if it was because Dennis was truly half vampire or it had been more than a year since his awakening. Testing Brett would give more of an indication, since he had awoken almost three decades ago. He suspected that there probably something to this with Brett, since he and Jonathan could have passed for being the same age, rather than Brett being almost ten human years his senior.

"So what do I gotta do?" Brett asked. While he wasn't as squirmish as Jonathan when it came to a doctor's office, it still wasn't his favorite thing to do.

"I'll need a swab of your mouth's secretions and a blood sample," the doctor added in a tone of curiosity for his own personal knowledge more than anything else.

"How long will the results take?" Dracula asked his employee. He knew the transformation worked best on a full moon, and the next night would be one.

"I can have them in a matter of hours. The saliva test is simply a microscopic one, where I see if venom is present. The blood test gives a better indication of its potency."

Brett opened his mouth, and the doctor swabbed what felt to Brett as all around his mouth. Then a blood sample was drawn. Brett hoped that this would confirm that he could change Samantha, assuming she still wanted that. He wasn't as sure as he was earlier, since the two of them hadn't talked about it since the night when her fangs fell out. But he could tell from listening to her in her sleep that she still longed to fly with her whole family.

Also, Brett had pondered what he would do if the test was negative for venom. Could he ask Dracula to change Samantha, and would he even be willing to? Or would Jacob, his eight times great grandfather be a better candidate? And there still was a chance that Samantha wouldn't want anyone other than Brett to bite her.

It was less than twenty minutes after the draws that Brett had his answer. While he was venomous, it was of very low potency. It was possibly for his to initiate the change on someone, but the doctor speculated that it would require a long time to complete. This was something that the two of them didn't have. So that would mean that their best option, assuming Samantha was willing was to have one of the pure vampires change Samantha. That would make things tricky, since she would be completely unable to go outside in direct sunlight just like what was the case with Mike even thought Brett and their children could. But little did Brett know that a chance meeting of Samantha and another who couldn't sleep would set everything in motion.