It was just after Abraham Van Helsing reformed. Due to the party floor having been destroyed everyone decided to head back to the casino, with the kraken - who's name turned out to be Joe - helping them by providing one of his tentacles as a bridge. Not that anyone wanted to go back to gambling, but going through the casino was the easiest way back to the ship.

"So, what now?" Griffin asked once they reached the deck. "Do we just head home, or stay here on the ship for a while?"

"Well I think I should first talk to Ericka and Mr. Van Helsing about what they want to do." Dracula said.

"In my case I've stayed on this ship almost my whole life, so I could really use a change of scenery." Ericka said.

"Fine with me. Now that I won't be hunting monsters anymore I should figure out a new place to stay anyway." Abraham shrugged. "Which reminds me...there's a lot of old family items I should sort through. Some of them probably wouldn't be appropriate in a new home."

"Like your old monster hunting equipment?" Ericka teased.

"Yeah, exactly." Abraham winced. "So everything I'm not going to keep I'll either throw away or give away. After you go through them as well of course."

"You can throw out the weapons for all I care. Otherwise I would like to go through everything else."

"Right. We should get started, the sooner we get it over with the better."

"Do you mind if my family and I help?" Dracula offered. "It would get the chore done even faster."

"Yeah, and since Miss Ericka is Papa Drac's zing that makes her, and you, family as well." Dennis smiled.

Abraham winced a bit, but shrugged.

"Well, like I said the sooner it's over the better. So I guess there's no problem with you helping."

"Okay, the rest of you just relax, maybe even get ready for bed. It has been a long night after all." Dracula said to the other monsters.

The other monsters had no complaints. Truthfully they were pretty tired.

Abraham and Ericka led the vampire family - even Vlad, who didn't want to look selfish and was curious about the Van Helsing items - down to their secret lair. For once Winnie didn't join Dennis, instead Dennis asked her to keep Tinkles company. He was concerned that Tinkles might take up too much space down in the lair, which would make going through the Van Helsings' things difficult.

"Boy, Drac's not the only one who's had giant family portraits done." Johnny remarked upon seeing the portraits of the other Van Helsings.

"Oh giant portraits were common amongst wealthy families even back during the 1800s." Abraham shrugged.

"That explains why you can afford to own this amazing ship." Mavis realized.

"Yes...and thank you. I admit I've always been proud of this ship." Abraham smiled. "Um...before we get started...so you two are going to be dating now?" He said to Dracula and Ericka.

"Yes, we are." Ericka said determinedly. "Look, I know you've hated monsters your whole life but-"

"No no, it's okay. I mean I admit I do feel awkward about you dating Dracula, especially since I considered him my greatest enemy nearly my whole life, but I'll accept it. Mostly because Dracula saved my life despite my having hunted monsters in the past, and especially despite having no reason to do so. Well maybe one reason..." Abraham gave Ericka a meaningful look. "So I owe him anyway."

"Mostly?" Mavis said.

"Yeah, the other reason is because...well, while I may not have always shown it I do care a lot about my great-granddaughter. Ericka's the only family I have now." Abraham said sadly.

"I know how you feel...I don't even know what my parents were like." Ericka looked sad as well.

Mavis gave her a sympathetic glance.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that, while I wasn't a neglectful father to my son I admit my obsession with hunting monsters caused me to become distant from my grandson. All I know is that he and your mother died in a car crash while they were taking you on a trip." Abraham sighed. "It was sheer luck that you survived the crash."

Ericka looked even sadder, prompting Dracula to comfortingly put an arm around her. This actually made Abraham feel better about Dracula dating Ericka, since he could tell that Dracula really did love her.

"Say, you think some of their personal items could be amongst this stuff?" Dennis suddenly said.

There was a bit of a silence.

"Huh...you know that may actually be possible. After they died I inherited their furniture and other things as well as Ericka, but I never really payed attention to what I received." Abraham considered this. "Never bothered to get rid of any of it either...I meant to go through them and get rid of what I didn't need, but focusing on killing monsters and raising Ericka took up most of my time."

"Well, then let's get looking." Johnny smiled.

They split up a bit, Abraham deciding to get out all his weapons in preparation to throw them out. After dismantling them of course, so that no one else could use them as weapons. The others separated the items into certain piles to make it easier to go through them later. One pile of furniture, one pile of clothes, etc.

"Geez, building these things was easier." Abraham grumbled.

"Here, let me." Dracula came over.

He used his powers to make the rest of the weapons break into pieces and fall into a pile.

"Oh. Duh, should've thought of that. Thank you." Abraham facepalmed upon remembering all the times Dracula used his powers to escape him.

"No problem...it was fun." Dracula smirked.

Abraham rolled his eyes, but couldn't help being a little amused.

"Hey, what's with these two suitcases?" Vlad said.

Confused, everyone else went to him and looked at the suitcases. There weren't any tags or stickers, so they had no idea why they were here. After all Ericka did say that she spent nearly all her life on the ship...

"There's only one way to find out." Abraham opened one to find dresses. "Okay..."

"Maybe that will explain what these are for." Ericka noticed an envelope sticking out of a pocket in the suitcase's lid.

She took the envelope, but widened her eyes upon reading the writing on it.

"What's wrong?" Mavis asked.

Ericka teared up a bit.

"It says 'For Ericka, to be opened on her 18th birthday'." She said.

Everyone was stunned. Mavis teared up too, recognizing the significance of the envelope.

"These must've belonged to Ericka's parents." Abraham said quietly, looking at the suitcases almost nostalgically. "Well...you're over eighteen so..."

"Right..." Ericka still hesitated.

Mavis put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know how you feel, my mom made me a present for my hundred and eighteenth birthday before she died." She said gently. "I also was a bit nervous to open it, but I knew it had to be important so I did. It was a good thing too, it turned out to be a story about how she and dad zinged. The story was basically her wish that I would someday find my zing as well, and I did. So whatever your parents got for you also has to be important, maybe even their wish for your future."

Ericka gave her a grateful smile, and opened the envelope. Inside was a birthday card and a letter. Ericka opened the card first, which just contained a simple birthday greeting apart from adding that she's now free to make her own choices...except when it comes to drinking. That part made everyone chuckle.

So she opened the letter next:

Dear Ericka,

Since you are now old enough to make your own choices, we've decided to tell you our family's secret. You and I are actually descended from monster hunters. I too was raised to hunt monsters, but unlike my father and the rest of our family I had been introduced to movies and books that portrayed monsters as people rather than evil creatures. I was worried that the real monsters would turn out to be nice as well, which would make our family nothing more than murderers.

Unfortunately my dad wouldn't listen, and after I married your mother and had you he wanted you to be raised as a monster hunter as well. This made your mother and I decide to run away with you, so that you wouldn't be forced into the mindset that monsters are evil.

However, you are now free to decide whether you want to become a monster hunter or not. It's your choice, and your mother and I will always love you no matter what you choose. We just want you to be happy.

Love,

Father and Mother

Ericka actually smiled after reading the letter, comforted by this tangible proof that her parents loved her. Not that she ever doubted the fact, but sometimes when you don't remember someone your mind wanders when thinking about them. The vampire family smiled as well. Abraham on the other hand started crying.

"I can't believe I dishonored my grandson's wish to stop hunting monsters." He sobbed.

"Well, you didn't know he wanted the family to stop hunting monsters so technically you didn't dishonor him." Johnny said. "I'm sure he isn't mad at you or anything. In fact since you've now decided to stop hunting monsters I bet he's real proud of you."

Abraham sniffled, but smiled gratefully at Johnny. Then he looked surprised

"Wait- Are you human?" He asked.

"You mean you didn't notice earlier?" Dracula chuckled.

"Well I was focusing so much on killing all the monsters that no I didn't." Abraham said defensively. "Besides, with the mindset I had at the time can you blame me for not expecting a human to join in on a monster cruise?"

Everyone had to admit he had a point.

"Let me officially introduce you two then: Mr. Van Helsing, this is my husband and zing Johnny Loughran Dracula." Mavis smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you...gotta admit, that was impressive the way you used your music to defeat my music." Abraham said.

"Well I couldn't let my family or friends get killed." Johnny smiled, shaking Abraham's hand.

"So, what should be done with everything else in the suitcases?" Vlad asked.

Dracula gave him an irritated look, but decided to say nothing. Sometimes it was impossible to teach Vlad how to be more tactful.

"Well I'll go through my mom's clothes, maybe some of them will be my style and fit me." Ericka said. "Dad's clothes...well, great-grandpa obviously has no use for them." She chuckled.

"Ha ha." Abraham snarked.

"I guess I'll just give them to charity." She decided before smiling: "You know, I've often wondered how much I had in common with my parents. It looks like I may have had more in common with them than I ever thought."

"I'll agree to that." Abraham smiled.

So they finished going through everything else. Ericka ended up liking all of her mom's clothing, and so decided to take the whole suitcase to her cabin to try them on. The throw away pile was shrunken down so that it all could simply be tossed in a trash can, while the keep and give away piles were stored in opposite sides of the room.

"Um, Ericka..." Dracula blushed, following her to her cabin. "We didn't really have a real first date so...I was wondering..."

"Of course. In fact I was thinking about us having an official first date myself." Ericka smiled. "How about tomorrow night?"

"Sounds perfect." Dracula smiled back.

Ericka then drew closer to him, causing his heart to start pounding.

"You know, even though it technically wasn't a real first date we still were going to have a first kiss before Mavis showed up." She smiled flirtingly. "Maybe we could have it now?"

"Um..." Dracula gulped, feeling warmer than normal. "I mean..." He kept stopping himself, not wanting to start babbling again

"If you're feeling to nervous to do it now that's okay, we can do it after our date tomorrow instead." Ericka backed away a little, not wanting to make Dracula uncomfortable.

"No, it's not that." Dracula took a deep breath. "It's just that...well, I guess I'm still getting used to being in love again. I am enjoying it, and I'm more than happy about it, but... Well, I guess it's sort of like when you're forced to stop doing something you love for years, and then you finally get a chance to do it again. Your body simply needs time to catch up with your joy."

"I think I understand...I've got a feeling I'm not going to have an easy time being on land again." Ericka chuckled.

"So...you're coming back to the hotel with us?" Dracula hoped that's what she meant.

"Oh definitely, I'm tired of being on this ship. I mean I suppose I could captain the Legacy every summer or something, but otherwise I'd like to spend the rest of my life on land." Ericka nodded.

"You don't know how much of a relief that is to me." Dracula chuckled. "I never wanted to leave the hotel and especially never leave my family. Plus, to be honest, I'm not fond of boats. I'll tolerate them for my friends and family's sake, but otherwise..."

"Guess we both will be happy to leave the Legacy then." Ericka chuckled back.

"Very much so. But I'm still going to ask that we take the Legacy all the way to Romania. I think that everyone else will be grateful for the extra-long cruise after what happened, plus it'll also be safer."

"Safer?"

"We took Gremlin Airlines to the Bermuda Triangle. And trust me, the stories didn't exaggerate those guys." Dracula winced. "And when we were heading back to the ship I overheard Johnny begging Mavis to not have us use Gremlin Airlines to get back home. Didn't hear her response, but I'm sure she agreed."

"Ah, in that case no problem. It would be better for us to dock the Legacy in Romania instead of the Bermuda Triangle anyway, especially since it's not exactly the safest spot for ships."

"No kidding. I'm not sure I want to know how it does that to planes and ships." Dracula chuckled.

"Me either." Ericka chuckled back.

She then surprised him with a kiss. Dracula was really caught off-guard, but returned the kiss. They both were overwhelmed by the amount of love they felt.