Chapter 30: Merry Hearts

[Jeanette's POV:]

I woke in a sleepy, dreamy state, feeling quite happy and content. For the past week or so, I had been sleeping well and waking feeling refreshed and happy. A glance down at my hands still showed they were bone-white, but that didn't matter at the moment. What did matter was the glittering white gold ring on my left ring finger.

Lance had proposed to me a week ago, and we were engaged.

I smiled down at the ring and rested contentedly for a moment. Lance had truly been more of a blessing than I could ask for in the past three years since Joker had kidnapped me. It was really only thanks to him that my job at the library hadn't been completely lost. He was willing to vouch for everything that had happened to me, and convinced Chantal to allow me to work at night a few days a week so my ghastly appearance wouldn't frighten everyone away. And if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have been able to move out of my apartment.

"But where would you even go?" My mother had asked in shock in that hospital room three years ago. It had struck me at the time as funny that she was worried about my wish to move to a safer, less-well-known location, considering she called and left messages so often out of concern where the townhouse apartment was located. Still, my heart had warmed at the thought; since I had started to patch things up with Michelle, I didn't feel so cold towards Mom anymore either.

"I have a place," Lance spoke up suddenly, and when Michelle had looked ready to make a perverted comment, he had quickly amended, "That is to say; the Pendragon family owns more than one home. There's a large house in a little secluded cul-de-sac neighborhood that is technically meant to be for my younger sister, but I doubt she would mind if you stayed there, at least for a little while."

"Thank you." I had murmured then, feeling my heart give a small flutter.

My heart fluttered again with giddy joy as I looked at the ring, and a knock came on the door to my room. I glanced up, used to this by now.

"Come in." I called. The door creaked open and Gerard Montaine entered, doing his best to look extremely professional. He always did, perhaps a little too well. He drew himself up proudly and importantly, not looking me in the eye. Initially I had assumed it was because of my appearance, but time had taught me that when Gerard was on the job, he rarely looked anyone except Lance in the eyes. And he was always on the job.

"Do you care to have some breakfast brought up, Miss Harker?" he asked.

"Breakfast would be lovely, Gerard. Thank you. Is there anything particular on today's menu?" I asked, offering him a patient smile. This time he did look at me, slender blonde eyebrows raising just a fraction.

"I have prepared some fruit parfaits."

"That sounds delicious."

He smiled back at me, just slightly, and I knew a layer of Hell had just frozen over. As he left the room to get my breakfast, I glanced out the window to my left, still lost in my thoughts. I had stayed in the house in the cul-de-sac up until a handful of nights ago. Between our engagement and Lance's sister Guen deciding she needed some space of her own for a while, we came to the conclusion to move me to Pendragon manor. I didn't mind the move at all; for one thing, I was there all the time, so I practically already lived there. Apart from that, the manor had more than enough guest rooms, and heavens knew somebody needed to tend to the private Pendragon home library. Not to mention, the place stayed rather lively. Rook was over so often enough he had permanently claimed one of the guest rooms, and Eva had started coming over at least once or twice every week. A few times already Killer Croc had accompanied her, and even once his "boys" had come along as well. Sam and Freddie offered me their condolences and even Vic had been able to squeeze out a somewhat heartfelt apology.

Then there was Tygrus, of course. Upon hearing about my condition from Dorian, he had come to Gotham to act as a bodyguard of sorts for me whenever Lance was busy. I had already started to suspect Lance himself was the dark wolf I had seen prowling around at night before, but kept the thought to myself once Tygrus began shadowing me. And with my moving into the manor home, his task became all the easier, for he lived on the manor grounds under Lance's insistence.

Watching out the window, I thought I caught a glimpse of him, leaping between the trees. Another dark shape flitted after the first and I grinned.

"You two are definitely engaging in a proper courtship, aren't you?" I murmured out loud. Much to everyone's surprise, shortly following my last encounter with the Joker three years ago, Tygrus had found himself a girlfriend. She was a young reptile woman called Adrian, with distinct Gila monster traits. She was skittish and distrusting, and it was turning out to be a long and harrowing process of trying to befriend her, but she hung around and stayed close to the man-cat, who was utterly besotted with her. As I watched, Gerard re-entered the room carrying a small tray, and I could have sworn I heard him chuckle. Then again, it could have just been my overactive imagination.

"Are they out there chasing one another again?" He asked, and without waiting for me to answer, he added disapprovingly, "Twitter pated!"

I refrained from making a comment. He was one to talk! Lance had set him up with a young cop a few weeks ago, and Gerard's stoic demeanor had loosened up, just marginally. It was roughly the difference between a grumpy tiger and a grumpy panther.

Without warning, I started to giggle at my own thought. Laughter rose up from somewhere deep in my chest and erupted before I could stop myself.

"Miss Harker?" Gerard asked, startled. "Are you alright?"

I quickly regained my composure and felt the laughter die away. This wasn't the first time this had happened in the past three years, and dealing with it had gotten easier, but I still frightened people around me when I laughed.

"I'm fine, Gerard. My apologies."

Still he watched me uncertainly, and for that I could not blame him. I laughed at strange things or sometimes nothing at all since my…accident. I always tried to hold it in, but my therapist said not laughing was unhealthy.

That was another thing Lance had helped with. After police questioning, Detectives Yin and Tankinson had recommended I seek therapy for my obvious trauma, and Lance was more than happy to pay for private counseling sessions with Doctor Mona Sullivan. In many ways, her therapy had been helpful; we had discovered that I had panic attack triggers, such as clowns, comedy movies, and even using the bus or any form of public transportation. Avoiding these triggers helped to prevent my condition from worsening, but Mona had also insisted that I loosen up just a little and allow myself to start laughing again.

Doesn't she understand that when I laugh, it rarely sounds natural anymore? Doesn't she realize that now, when I laugh around anyone, they see what has happened to me and fear that I am slowly becoming more like the Joker? I often wondered.

"Well," Gerard's voice interrupted my wandering thoughts, "Don't hesitate to let me know if you need anything further, Miss Harker."

He set the tray on the nightstand next to my bed and exited. I ate the parfait with wavering enthusiasm, and afterward, I merely stayed in bed and resumed reading the book I had picked up and started yesterday.

I always lose track of time when I get into what I'm reading; it is a fault that plagues many avid readers. So it came as no surprise when I heard a knock at the door and glanced at the clock to find it was nearly time for lunch. More likely than not, Gerard was back.

"Come in!" I spoke up. The door creaked open, just a fraction, and someone looked in. But it wasn't Gerard; it was Lance. My heart sped up with love, joy, and warm affection as I looked at him and smiled.

He didn't smile back.

"Uh-oh," I murmured, suddenly remembering he had said he would make a trip out to the island early this morning, and knowing what could make him look so upset, "What did Dorian do this time, love?"

He pushed the door completely open and stepped inside, and I couldn't suppress a gasp.

Asleep in each of his arms were two little brunette children with fair skin and lovely features. Children with large, wolfish ears and bushy little bottlebrush tails. And as I stared, another little brunette head popped out from behind Lance, adjusting the grip his tiny little arms had on Lance's neck.

"What's a love, Mommy?" He squeaked.

I reeled at the little boy's words.

Mommy? MOMMY?!

I looked to Lance for explanation, and he heaved a sigh. The little boy and girl in his arms each fluttered their eyes sleepily before falling back asleep.

"They're an engagement and wedding gift," he said in a tight voice, "From Dorian."
"What's a love?" The boy repeated, ears twitching. Trying to swallow this information was impossible. Dorian was giving us children?

"I-I-I thought you went to Dorian's island t-to see how the progress was coming along o-on his cure for me." I stammered. Dorian had already been able to reverse the color of my eyes back to normal, but that had taken a year and a half on its own, and he still hadn't completed a way to return pigments to my skin or my hair. Lance had gone to the island to see how Dorian's work was supposed to be coming along.

"I did," he confirmed, walking over to the edge of the bed and sitting down, adjusting the sleeping children in his arms, and the lively little boy who was awake let go of Lance's neck to bounce on the bed, "And he gave me these three. He is under the impression that we shall never have children on our own, and said something to the effect that he is unsure how your body would handle pregnancy in this state, if you could get pregnant at all."

Air let my lungs and my stomach clenched as though I had just been assaulted.

What?

Tears began to form in my eyes as I looked down and watched the hyper little werewolf boy, rolling around and wrapping himself in the thick blankets in delight.

"Dorian thinks we wouldn't be able to have children?"

"Not without help," he replied bitterly, "I should have known from the start he would do something like this. We shouldn't have allowed him to run tests on you or take DNA samples directly."

I didn't know what to say. I just watched as the little werewolf poked his head out of the blankets and beamed up at me.

"Jeanette," Lance continued, his voice tense, "They're ours."

"What?" I asked, stunned.

"They're ours. Our DNA. They're our children."

"Dorian takes playing God too far. Does he honestly think we would just be okay with this? He had no right!"

"I know, but they're still ours. All three of them."

"I'm a triplet!" The little boy announced proudly. My glare fell away as I turned to look at him. Furious though I felt that Dorian would dare do something like this after what I had been through, the little boy was not at fault. He didn't know what we were talking about, and he had no malicious intent. It wasn't his fault that Dorian was playing God.

"What's your name?" I asked him, and he stared up at me with eyes the same shade of green as Lance's.

"I don't know," he answered, completely nonplussed and innocent, "What is my name?"

I looked to Lance, whose face fell sadly.

"We're to name them." He explained. "Test tubes and genetic engineering aside, they are ours. Dorian insisted."

I'm sure he did, I thought, irritated.

"Can I have a name, Mommy?" The tiny werewolf said excitedly, smiling at me in unbridled joy. In that moment, something in me melted a little, and my heart softened.

"You're certainly a merry little fellow, aren't you?" I said with a weak chuckle, trying to indulge him. No sooner had the words left my mouth than something clicked in my head. "Yes…yes, I think you're Merry."

"He's a boy." Lance protested.

"No, not M-A-R-Y," I answered, "M-E-R-R-Y."

"You're naming our youngest son for a hobbit?"

"Not a hobbit," I shook my head, "And certainly not the name Meriadoc."

"What's a hobbit, Daddy?" Merry asked him.

"Well, not you, for one thing," I answered, pulling him onto my lap and ruffling his hair, making him giggle, "You're much too cute to be a hobbit. And for another thing, you need a better name."

"But I like Merry." He said in slight disappointment.

"No, no, you misunderstand. We'll still call you Merry, for short. It can be your nickname. Your full first name will be…ah—" It took me a moment of thought, but I suddenly remembered Lance's tendency to slip into Shakespearean dialogue when upset, and inspiration hit me, "Your full first name shall be Mercutio. Merry for short."

He grinned, eyes twinkling and tail wagging.

He really is adorably sweet…

"Thank you, Mommy!" He said, bouncing a little and hugging me. I nearly cried.

"Mercutio?" Lance said, as though testing the sound of the name. "Well, it's better than Meriadoc by far. But I hope the other two don't need Shakespearean names to match."

"They don't have to; there is plenty of other good literature in the world to draw upon for any inspiration we need."

He gave me a flat look.

"Oh, joy," he said in a faintly sarcastic voice, though his smile gave him away, "Aunt Eva and Uncle Robert are going to have so much fun with that."

I couldn't help it; in spite of everything, I began laughing again. And this time, I felt and sounded more like myself than I had in ages.

A/N: Finally finished! And man, has it been a crazy ride to boot! But all in all, in spite of all the flaws and things I need to fix with this story, I'm very happy to be completing it, and I'm very proud of how it has turned out. For more of my writing (and possibly the hope of seeing more Lance, Jeanette, and their abrupt surprise in the form of three triplet werewolf kids, please don't forget to check out my deviantArt account as well! (Yoruhoshi is my username on there.)