Telling Dracula

"Your dad is gonna kill me."

"Johnny, I think that you're over-exaggerating-"

"Have you not seen him, Mavy?! He threatened to suck my blood out before our wedding; what the heck's he gonna do when he hears that we're having a baby?!"

Mavis just leaned against the wardrobe, arms folded and looking amused. "We've been over this before, Johnny: he likes kids, and he'll be happy to hear that he's gonna be a Grandpa...oh, wow, that makes him sound so old!"

"Yeah, and that'll just make him angry!" Johnny insisted anxiously. "Look, it's like in the movies: the dad finds out that this handsome dude got his beautiful daughter pregnant and - BOOM! He gets killed!"

The dark-haired vampiress bit her lip to stop herself from laughing: she may not have grown up with an in-depth knowledge of movies but even she could tell that this was over-exaggerating quite a lot.

"Why are you laughing, Mavis? It's not funny!" He gave a gulp. "He's gonna hate me - marrying his daughter is one thing, but..but getting her pregnant... Oh man, I'm screwed!"

"My dad won't kill you," She repeated, shaking her head again at how silly he was being. "For one thing, it's not like I'm a baby anymore, so he can't exactly tell me what I can and can't do. Secondly, the fact that we're married will make it better to him-"

"Woah, really?" Johnny asked, looking surprised. "Huh."

"He's very much into the old-fashioned 'wholesome happy family' idea," Mavis agreed. "Third, even if he did try anything - which he won't - then I'll be there; if I get in the way, he'll stop in case he hurts me. Johnny, I know my dad: he loves kids of all kinds. Just look at how he is with Winnie-"

"But not the other pups," Johnny pointed out.

She rolled her eyes slightly. "Well, he's not as fond of the others because they're nothing but trouble and mess up the lobby: that's just how male pups are. But I'm pretty sure that most other babies aren't as extreme as them - he'll love this one...I mean, it's his grandchild for crying out loud!"

The red-head seemed to think it over for a few seconds before nodding. "Alright. Sure...and I guess we can't really keep it a secret from him forever, right?"

"Well, me getting bigger and then a baby popping out would be a give-away, yeah," Mavis said wryly. "So the sooner we tell him the better."

Johnny nodded in agreement - it wouldn't be too soon, and so he could relax for the time being.

"TONIGHT?!"

Okay, maybe it had been sooner than he thought it would.

"I thought that we agreed to tell him as soon as possible," Mavis told him in a somewhat confused way. "That way we could give him time to get used to the idea before it happens."

"Yeah, but this is...it's too soon!" Johnny tried to convince her, looking absolutely crazy. "Mavy, I only found out two nights ago about this baby - our baby! I still need to get used to the idea, let alone telling him - Count Dracula, in case you forgot!" Oh man, that sounds even worse than just, 'telling my father-in-law' - Count Dracula.

Dude, if I live to see another night after this then I'll be the luckiest idiot in the world.

"Dad will be fine with it," Mavis said for what felt like the hundredth time. "We went over this yesterday: it's his grandchild, I'm his daughter and he likes kids. The worst he'll do is maybe faint or something - but he won't attempt to kill you. Besides, I won't let him."

Johnny, despite being terrified, gave a small grin. "Aw, thanks Mavy. I love you too."

"Oh no, it's not to do with that," Mavis scoffed, shaking her head. "For one thing, I know Dad would be mortified if the baby grew up without a father being in the picture. Second, it's all your fault for getting me pregnant, so if you think that by letting Dad kill you then you won't have to do anything for me or the baby, then you've got another thing coming!"

While Dracula did love his hotel, not all of the work was fun to do; for example, paperwork was one of the more boring tasks he had to complete. It was even more difficult when guests and friends kept on knocking on his office door and interrupting him.

He sighed as he shut the door behind him; a skeleton guest had been complaining about their room, and he'd had to sort it out for them. He wanted nothing more than to sit down, even if it was to do some stupid paperwork...

Just as he sat down in his chair, however, to finish off the papers, there was a loud knock on the door.

"What?" He shouted, quite annoyed now. "I am trying to work! If you have a problem, please see one of the zombies down-"

"Dad, it's me!"

Dracula knew that voice anywhere. He straightened up, irritated scowl disappearing entirely; moving quickly, he race back to the door and flung it open. His daughter was standing there, smiling at him happily, with Johnny stood next to her looking quite nervous about something. "Mavy!" He exclaimed, clearly pleased to see his daughter. "I'm sorry, my little bat, I didn't realize it was you! Come in!"

The couple entered Dracula's office, and as he turned around he swore he saw them shooting nervous looks at each other.

"What can I do for you two?" Dracula asked, shutting the door behind them and moving to stand in front of them so he could watch them both eagerly. "Is everything alright?"

"Of course," Mavis said quickly, not wanting him to panic too much. "No, it's just that...that Johnny and I have some news that we want to share with you." At this, she smiled at her husband and wrapped an arm around his waist; he smiled back nervously before looking at the older vampire.

Dracula's welcoming smile disappeared. "It's not bad news, is it?"

"No! It's actually pretty good news," Johnny answered, grinning slightly as he remembered what they were about to tell. Then he remembered that this was Count Dracula that he was talking to, and that it was his wife's father who could rip him to pieces.

"Well, what is it?" Dracula questioned, somewhat impatiently. After all, he didn't have all night to stand around, even if it was to talk to his precious Mavy-Wavy.

Mavis smiled radiantly, baring her fangs at her father. "Well, we're having a baby."

"You're gonna be a Grandpa, Drac!" Johnny added in case he didn't get the message.

Dracula froze on the spot, blue eyes widening with shock. "A...a baby?" He repeated, eyes trained on his daughter entirely. "You?"

She rolled her eyes slightly. "Well, duh!"

The famous vampire blinked and slowly lifted his finger to point at his son-in-law. "And you? It is your baby?"

"Well, I hope it is," Johnny laughed, nerves getting the better of him once again. "'Cause that'd be weird to explain."

"Aren't you excited?" Mavis asked, sounding slightly disappointed at her father's lack of enthusiasm.

Dracula's eyes snapped to her as he regained his thoughts and straightened up on the spot. "Of course, Mavy!" He agreed quickly, flashing her a quick smile. "I'm just...surprised, especially since you two are so...so young. You've only been married three years, after all!"

"Yeah, well, it was a bit of a surprise," Johnny admitted, and Dracula glared at him slightly. "I mean, we're both excited! Definitely!"

"Look, Dad," Mavis started, drawing her father's attention back to her. "What he means is that we know we're both young and at first it was...a bit of a shock. But after we thought about it, we just...we can't wait!" She smiled at him hopefully. "Are you happy?"

The Count thought about it hard and started to shift through all of his feelings. It wasn't that he wasn't happy, it was just...thinking about how grown up his daughter was, now having her own children, made him feel quite old for a start, and emotional at how much she'd grown up over the years. Oh, he couldn't help but glare at Johnny even more - after all, for his daughter to get pregnant...

"I totally think he's gonna rip me apart," Johnny whispered in a not-very-quiet-at-all whisper.

Dracula cleared his throat, trying to rid all unpleasant thoughts about how this child came to be out of his head. "No," He lied, not even trying to hide the fact he wasn't being exactly truthful. "The thought, it never occurred."

"So, you're happy?" Mavis checked, raising an eyebrow.

At the hopeful looks on both of the younger vampires' faces, he had no choice but to give in and smile. "Of course, my little ghoul! A baby...that is...wow." He started to imagine after this child would be born; reading them bedtime stories, chasing them while they giggled around the corridors loudly, singing to them and making them laugh... "But you will let me help, right?"

Mavis laughed, throwing her arms around him joyfully and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. "Of course you can help, Dad!"

Johnny grinned at his father-in-law and nodded in agreement. "By the way, dude, you're gonna make an awesome Grandpa!"

Although Dracula wasn't quite sure he liked being called an 'awesome Grandpa', he knew it to mean a compliment and gave a small smile to the former human. "Thank You, Johnny."

Even if Johnny had gotten his daughter pregnant, he supposed that he wasn't all that bad; now he had another little child in his life to help look after, to teach new things to. Yes, he decided, hugging his daughter back and smiling even more: he was positively ecstatic to have another little bat in his life.

I would like to apologize for my lack of updates - I owe you all an explanation (this will be posted on all of my other stories when I get around to updating them too):

For those who don't know, I suffer from (what I perceive to be severe) depression and self-harm. It's been a very stressful time lately for me: trying to find a job to keep my dad happy, having a lack of sleep, worrying about my results, worrying about dance, worrying about college, wanting to update but having writer's block and many other things. My parents are also under the impression that I have some kind of body dysmorphia because I can't bear to look at my own body or face, which can make it quite difficult to get through the day. I'm currently on 40 mg of Fluoxetine a day (anti-depressants, two 20mg pills a day). I think it's important to also mention that I'm at the point where I have to keep my interests under lock-and-key because I'm scared of being judged for them: these include Hotel T, Toy Story and many other things, for example. To make matters worse, I am no longer seeing my counsellor weekly (or at all for that matter) and the lack of support from her has definitely made me feel much more down.

I want to thank all of you who have been supportive either of me or of my work over the past years: I'm trying hard to become a better writer and keep posting updates, but sometimes it's just too much and I have to go away for a little while to calm down.