Hi guys, I'm back! So, what did you guys think of Hotel Transylvania 2? Personally, I loved it but I understand that not everyone will have - either way you look at it, it's inspired me to write some more for my Hotel T stories so it's a good thing in that respect.
Before you read on, I'd just like to shout out a fic that I wrote about a week ago: it's called "Loving the Person that He Did" and it's set when Lucy is a toddler where Johnny and Mavis find out that his youngest brother, Jake, has died. So I'd totally love you all if you could check it out! :)
This was prompted by GeneralAndres: "i would like to see jake and that girl he met at the shrinks office when he to sam", as well as floodmaster16 who said in their review of the story mentioned above that they wanted to see more of the relationship between Jack and Allie (I love how some of you are forgetting her name - to be honest, I did too for a moment!)
Oh, and also, I'm going to go along with the novelisation of Hotel T 2 here and go with Johnny's last name being "Loughran". I don't know if anyone else read it or read the draft of the script that was leaked, or even if they found out about it in the art book for the second movie (as someone did) but apparently that's his last name so I'll probably just use it.
Enjoy!
Jack and Allie
For a while, fear put him off of calling the number that she had given him; what if it was a fake number? What if she forgot about him shortly afterwards or something? After all, it wouldn't have been the first time that it happened. The last thing that Jack wanted was to become heartbroken again and to turn back to drinking himself stupid to numb the pain - he knew it hurt his relatives, and it wasn't fair to put that pain onto them. No, he thought to himself, perhaps it would be best to wait it out a little.
Sam, of course, foiled this plan completely.
"So have you called that girl from the doctor's office yet?" She questioned loudly when everyone in the family had gone to the hotel for dinner one night; this immediately ceased all conversation and had everyone staring at Jack in confusion.
Jack ducked his head. "What girl? I have no idea what you're talking about-"
"The one at the office," Sam interrupted innocently, although the mischievous grin on her face gave her away completely. "The one who wrote her phone number on your arm before we left, duh! She looked totally into you!"
"A girl gave you her number?" Lucy asked, raising an eyebrow. "How much did you have to pay her?"
Jack scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "It's nothing, alright? And I didn't pay her anything, Lucy," He added harshly. "She just gave me her number - it's not like we're getting married or anything."
"Dude, if she gave you her number call her," Johnny advised, clapping his son on the shoulder with a wide grin. "She must really be into you if she gave you a phone number...heh, I remember the days when I used to get girls' phone numbers; man, those were good days! In fact, I...uhh..." He trailed off at the harsh look Mavis sent him and decided to backtrack. "Of course, I never called them or anything; nah, I...I just liked talking to them about stuff...yeah."
Mina sent her older brother a smirk that clearly said, he is so whipped. Jack coughed to hide his laughter in response.
"What's her name, Jack?" Mavis prompted, decided to move on from that topic of conversation.
"Oh...erhm...Allie," He answered, suddenly nervous again. "I kinda fell asleep in that waiting room waiting for Sam," He admitted sheepishly. "And when I woke up she was sitting next to me so we kinda started a conversation. That's it, really."
Please, do not ask the question...please don't ask it...
"Hold on," Lucy started, giving her brother a curious look. "Why was she in the waiting room at a psychiatry office?"
Damn it.
Before Jack could answer, Mina slapped her sister on the arm. "Don't be rude!" She scolded, and in that moment it looked hilarious that such a tiny vampire such as herself was telling off her older lanky sister. "It's no one's business but hers!"
"Geesh, sorry!" Lucy muttered, shooting the dark-haired girl a small glare. "I was just wondering, that's all!"
"Well, whatever," Mina muttered, rolling her eyes before turning to their brother. "Jack, you should totally call her up! Even if nothing comes out of it, at least you'll have a friend or something-"
Lucy gave a small smirk. "God knows you need one."
Jack rubbed a hand over his face. "Fine, I'll give her a call or something later; to be honest, she probably barely remembers me."
As it turned out, Jack was actually wrong about something for once. When he rung her up, she not only recognized his voice but recalled his name and what he had been doing there when they met - much to his amazement. Since it had been rather close to morning when he called Allie up, they agreed that they'd meet up the following month at Hotel Transylvania so that they could talk more appropriately - some things were better done in person than on the phone.
"So, how's your niece?" Allie asked when they sat down at a table together in the dining hall.
Jack, who was becoming more and more nervous since the setting was nearly identical to an actual date, gave a small shrug of the shoulders. "She's fine.. I don't really think she needs all of that counselling crap, but, hey, what do I know? How about you?"
Allie gave a derisive laugh. "Fine, I suppose, apart from the doctors trying to give me more and more medicine to try; I can't even feel sad anymore without them thinking I might snap."
"I know the feeling," Jack mumbled, thinking back to when he'd briefly been re-living with his parents after his alcohol problem; Johnny and Mavis had been extremely worried that the smallest thing might set him off into a drink-binge again, and so they'd been somewhat over-protective (Mavis especially, he noted).
"You know," Allie said, her smile fading slightly. "For a while I thought you weren't going to call; it wouldn't have surprised me much, to be honest - not the first time either. I'm glad that you did though," She admitted, suddenly becoming more shy again. "You seemed like a nice guy when we met before."
"Oh...really?"
She gave a nod. "Yes; nice, if a little shy. It's actually kinda great to see a guy who isn't all cocky and full himself - I've been around enough of them to know just what they're like."
"Oh man, that sucks," Jack agreed. "You know, when I used to come here as a kid there were a few guys who were older that used to pick on me; I don't get how people can be like that at all."
It soon became apparent that Jack and Allie had the same interests in common; Jack was rather excited when he learnt that she was a keen reader like himself and always had been, and it was rather endearing when she ducked her head out of embarrassment as she admitted that she still read quite a lot of 'fantasy' and stories set in other worlds.
"It's stupid, I know," She continued, giving a small good-natured laugh to herself. "But I like the idea of being able to escape into another world - where things are kind of simpler."
"No, I totally get it," Jack agreed eagerly. "What kind of books are your favourite ones?"
Allie grinned, rather pleased by the interest he was showing. "I've always loved Alice in Wonderland; ever since I was little, I thought it was so wonderful and different from all of the other books out there. It's definitely my favourite."
Somewhere in Jack's brain, a memory triggered from years ago.
Jack was sat at the kitchen table with Lily: he held up a card with a word written on it and studied his little sister's face.
Lily beamed, gaps showing in her teeth. "That's 'rabbit'... Like in Wonderland!"
No, he did not need this now...he did not need to be reminded of his baby sister in this moment, not when it was all going so well...
Lily smiled mischievously. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
"Lils, that's a riddle from a fantasy book," He informed her. "It's not got an answer: even the Hatter himself didn't know. How the heck am I meant to know?"
"'Cause you said that you're the smartest," Lily stated, looking pleased to have asked a question her brother didn't know the answer to. "And...well, it was kinda bugging me. I mean, what does it mean?!"
"I don't know," Jack admitted honestly, patting her hand with his. "But here's a tip: don't ask me anymore questions related to 'Alice in Wonderland' because I won't know the answer at all."
He knew the answer now, of course, but he himself had never told her...did she ever get an answer to that question?
"Are you okay?" Allie asked, interrupting him from his thoughts and looking concerned. "You look as if you've seen a ghost."
"I'm fine, I just..." He swallowed thickly, trying to push the memories away to the back of his mind again. "Alice in Wonderland was..." Lily's favourite book too. "It's a great book."
Alice in Wonderland had been the story he read to her to get her to go to sleep; he could see it in his mind, him reading aloud to her until she fell asleep next to him, dreaming of her own Wonderland. He could still see Lily, aged six, dressed in a blue frock and white pinafore with her hair held back by a ribbon on Halloween, when their Grandpa Dracula had thrown parties to celebrate the evening. Hell, he could even hear her laughter as she ran around the forests outside, pretending to look for a while rabbit while he flew overhead to keep an eye on her.
"I think I have to go," He said abruptly, jerking into a standing position and not looking at Allie. "I-I'm sorry, I just...I can't do this...maybe another time?"
With that, Jack quickly left the table, leaving Allie looking dismayed and hurt - but he couldn't focus on that now: what he needed was a stronger distraction.
"...So, as you can see, the bar area has also been upgraded so as to include more technology," Dracula pointed out to Mavis and Johnny; he was showing them the new advances that had been made, thanks to suggestions from Johnny, and he actually looked rather pleased with himself. "There's the TVs and the screens and the WiFi in here; very useful, so I've heard, and-"
"Hey, Drac!" One of the monsters working at the bar called, interrupting him completely. "We need some help over here!"
Dracula raised an eyebrow, somewhat annoyed by this interruption. "Oh yes? Can't you see I'm busy? Whatever it is, I'm sure you can handle it-"
"I think you're gonna want to help us," Another monster said nervously, eyes also flickering over Johnny and Mavis. "All of you."
Dracula rolled his eyes but moved across the room to see what was going on with his daughter and son-in-law close behind, both of them curious to see what was such a big deal that the workers needed help - although they immediately wished that they hadn't followed afterwards.
"Oh no," Johnny muttered in horror.
"Jack!" Mavis cried, immediately stepping forwards to put her arms around him. "What have you done?"
Jack, who had been sitting on one of the chairs at the hotel bar, lifted his head groggily; on the counter beside him there was a pile of bottles starting to build up, and one side of his face was squashed from where it had been pressed against the metal surface - presumably from falling unconscious at one point.
"'m fine," He mumbled groggily. "...head hur's..."
"I thought he had stopped doing this?" Dracula said to Johnny quietly, leaning closer to him.
Johnny rubbed a hand over his face. "He has...at least, he did...I dunno what happened, Drac..."
"Jack Loughran, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Mavis scolded half-heartedly, although she was still holding him close. "Why are you down here drinking? We thought that you stopped this years ago - do you not understand how dangerous this is?"
"Mavy, maybe we should do this somewhere more private," Johnny tried to say, putting his hands on her shoulders to steer her away. "You know, so that no one else hears?"
Jack looked up at Mavis sadly. "Miss her, Mom...can' feel anything..." He gave a groan and clutched his head. "I' hur's."
Mavis let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, fine!" She relented, struggling to heave their son up off the stool. "He won't understand anything I say to him until he sobers up anyway, so we'll let him sleep it off - but then I am going to rip so hard into him-"
"Ugh, I think maybe I should handle this," Johnny interrupted nervously, awkwardly trying to help her. "I did it last time, so...maybe you should just let me-"
"Yeah, and then look what happened!" She snapped, absolutely outraged. "What he needs is for someone to talk some sense into him - you won't! I know that you won't, Johnny, because you're too soft on the kids and that's not what Jack needs!"
"Yelling at him won't make it any better," Johnny argued, frowning at her seriously. "In fact, it'll probably just make him want to drink more, Mavis, and then we'll still be stuck here with this problem!"
Clearly their arguing wasn't very quiet, for quite a few guests had arrived to see what all of the commotion was about - and among them were Lucy and Mina, both looking at their family with wide eyes.
"Stop arguing now!" Dracula interrupted fiercely, silencing both of them completely. "For goodness sake, you are married and he's your son; the last thing he wants to hear is you two arguing about him!" He stepped forwards and easily lifted a now-sleeping Jack up with a twist of his hand, so that he was floating. "I will take him upstairs to sleep, and you two will stay here to decide what you're going to say to him - together."
As he left, Johnny and Mavis shared a look; neither one of them was looking forward to that conversation at all.