3. This is Me

Or, Part 3 of Prove

I am brave

I am bruised

I am who I'm meant to be

This is me.

'This is Me', from The Greatest Showman

xxXxx

Inspector Jones gave the cell phone picture another long analysis before giving the two women of the Dracula family in general a flat, disbelieving gaze just outside the hotel.

Every monster in the vicinity seemed to be out here for the anticipated arrival, and more than one conversation was being held. But the human officer only had enough patience for the count's wife and daughter at the moment.

"Let me get this straight. This girl," the inspector clarified, pointing at the rather lovely young woman beaming happily from the oil painting inside the cell phone picture, ", saved the Count Dracula by climbing onto the roof of a speeding train car and giving chase to a monster hunter over the other car roofs, in high-heeled boots and a corset no less, and stuck a hat pin in a larger man holding a strange gun at someone she never really talked to?"

Naoko beamed lovingly as she kept her large brown eyes on the open sky. "Isn't she amazing? To think that we're finally going to meet her!" 'This makes two lifetimes with Drac I need to thank her for!'

Mavis was twitching violently from her excitement from underneath her large pink hat and heavy sunscreen to combat the afternoon sun. "I hope Baron waits a few days before carrying her off to the Refuge! I've got so many things I've always wanted to ask her, and I'll finally have the chance!"

Inspector Jones nodded his agreement, though with a scowl. "I'll be very interested to find out how she figured out where Dracula was being held when no one in law enforcement could pin down where that feed was originating from. I wonder how many lives were sacrificed to pull off his rescue," he mused darkly.

Naoko couldn't make herself worry about that as she took her phone back. Not now, not when her sweet husband was finally being returned to her, with the interest of Lucy. "Is her suite ready yet?" she asked the closest set of free-standing armor.

The visor of the helmet shook with his response, the closest equivalent to a mouth that he had. "The maids have finished making it comfortable, my lady, as well as the lord's favorite foods as you requested. The cooks even thought to prepare some human food for Lucy."

"I'm sure she'll be grateful," Naoko thanked him, still almost as giddy as a schoolgirl. She should have needed to brace herself against anything that happened to be handy, since she hadn't slept well since her husband's abduction and this time was a lot closer to when she got up for the night than when she laid down in the morning.

But that latest text from Drac's number had scared off her fatigue, and she was bound and determined not to rest until it was in her dear count's embrace. Her fingers twitched nervously at her sides as she tried to remain calm.

She may not have been a countess for more than a handful of years, but she knew that she had to maintain a dignified front for the other monsters, if not her daughter from a previous life.

"There they are!" Frank suddenly hollered above all the scattered talk, pointing with a sausage-like finger at a black speck coming from the west.

Mavis squealed happily, making her mother certain that it was only the sun that kept her from flying up to meet them. She reached over and grabbed her daughter's hand, carefully keeping it within the shade of her large hat.

Inspector Jones pulled out his radio. "The turtledoves have reached the nest, move in now."

"Roger," was the businesslike response from the other end.

The coordinates from the earlier text had been all too precise. Everyone on that island would be in cuffs before sundown if there were no further surprises.

The other monsters were cheering as well, making the inspector cover his ears with an agonized expression. A large space was soon cleared in the middle of the pavement, and Toto landed after another five minutes.

Naoko gaped at what she saw. Not at Lucy's coloring, of course. She herself had been a brunette in her last life as Martha as opposed to the autumn color that now flowed over her shoulders, so it stood to reason that Lucy would also be color-swapped this time around.

Oh no. What shocked her to the core, was the fact that her husband's rescuer from a Van Helsing was a teenager!

A furiously blushing teenager, at that. Her large brown eyes were startled as she looked at all the monsters cheering happily to see her. Her arms were locked firmly around Baron's neck as if she were afraid of all the attention, though he didn't mind in the slightest. Her face was not yet the luminous beauty depicted in the werecat's many paintings, but there were little hints here and there in her features that it would only be a matter of time. Not even the dark circles of exhaustion around her eyes could disguise the fact.

It was somehow very fitting that the sweet angel was completely clothed in white, although a flowing dress might have been more appropriate than the severe uniform that would have been more at place on a soldier.

She seemed to ask the werecat a soft question, one that couldn't be heard through the deafening cheers. Baron smirked as he answered, making the poor girl blush even harder.

Grateful that she was still gripping her daughter's hand, Naoko started moving forward as the inspector did. It took only two reminders for the other monsters to clear a path for them.

When Lucy saw Naoko and Mavis, that future promise became even more prominent as her famous smile flashed like the sun. "Special delivery!" she called to them, carefully removing the strap of her satchel from her shoulders in order to offer it. "He's only had some fruit this morning, so-"

Naoko didn't wait for her to finish. She grabbed the satchel with one hand but used the other to press her face against Lucy's outstretched palm to show her gratitude, since the two were still on Toto's back. "You're not going to leave yet, are you?" she begged.

"We'll follow you inside," Baron promised, giving Lucy another affectionate squeeze by her waist.

Mavis lifted one corner of the satchel's top flap, keeping it and her hand under the shade of her large pink hat. "Daddy?" she asked worriedly.

"Mavie," he responded tiredly, crawling out of the satchel and into her hand as a bat. Since there wasn't enough shade for him to do much more, he stayed on her hand and hugged her thumb tightly.

"Oh, honey, you look exhausted," Naoko crooned worriedly, wrapping an arm around their daughter's shoulders and hurriedly escorting her back inside the hotel.

As soon as they were through the rotating door, Dracula wasted no time shifting into his normal form so that he could wrap both Naoko and Mavis into a desperate embrace, slightly off to the side so that their friends could also filter into the front hall. "I thought I'd never see you again," he whispered harshly, raining kisses on his daughter's hair and his wife's lips.

"How are we going to pay her back now?" Naoko couldn't help wondering as she fiercely gripped her husband's chest and her daughter's shoulders. "We already owed her so much, and now this!"

"We're adopting her," Dracula informed the pair of them in a tone of stone.

Mavis blinked, looking up from her parents' embrace. "She's an orphan?" the young vampire asked with surprise as she handed off her large pink hat to a zombie usher.

"She might as well be," her father muttered darkly as his eyes glowed red with rage. "Even Baron understands she'll need some time to heal before he can court her in earnest, but she'll be just fine if a loving family is around."

Mavis beamed happily at the sudden prospect of having a sister. "Done!"

It was about then that Baron came through the rotating door with the inspector close on his heels, and Lucy still in his arms.

She had forgotten her blush for a serious expression as she spoke into the inspector's radio. "… and the code for the door beyond that is three, seven, seven, five. You'll find Van Helsing strapped to the silver table he was using on Count Dracula, but you'll need a smith or welder to get him out. The computer's password is locked with his handprint and voice key, so he's good and stuck unless you take the table with you. Get a silicone copy of his handprint, I can send you a recording of his voice in case he doesn't cooperate. You're going to find all sorts of files on that computer he doesn't want authorities to see."

Dracula and Mavis shuddered at the words 'silver table'.

"What did he do to you, Dad?" Mavis asked while gripping his wrist, but the older vampire shook his head with a haunted expression.

"Pray you never know," he answered darkly, holding onto his little family a little tighter.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss."

"I will also be available to stand witness at his trial, I have even more dirt on him. You'll find me at Hotel Transylvania whenever it's convenient to contact me again."

"I will forward that to my superiors. Thank you again."

Lucy was grinning as she handed the radio back to Inspector Jones. "Thanks for letting me talk to him."

He nodded, looking a bit numb at how much information she had been privy to. "You know, I don't think you've mentioned exactly how you knew all this," the inspector managed to say without exactly asking as he pocketed the radio.

Lucy flashed a tired version of her famous smile at him as she readjusted both arms to a comfortable position around Baron's neck. "I've been plotting to get off that island since before I lost all my baby teeth. Since I wanted his operation shut down before anyone else got hurt, I made sure to weekly check for updates in case I thought of a good plan for escape but wouldn't have time to check up little things to incriminate him the first chance I got." She turned to Dracula to give him an apologetic smile. "I'm still sorry that it took me three days to set up everything for your rescue."

"I'm not," he informed her grimly while hugging his wife and first daughter closer. "I've seen the consequences of your split-second plans up close, if you will recall."

She gave a small shrug with one arm since the other was still wrapped around Baron's neck. "Not without getting hypnotized by a shrink, I can't."

"Is that how he remembered being Van Helsing?" Frank asked, making the girl nod again, though with a dark expression that was full of resentment.

"Turns out the best time of any life had nothing to do with Mom or me. Not even any family he had back then. Just him trying to kill Count Dracula."

There had been excited little noises and side conversations from the other monsters, but that simple statement made the main hall turn as silent as a graveyard as the implications set in.

Naoko's heart broke for this sweet angel. 'That… horrible example of a human being? Lucy's father?' Her expression became as hard and unforgiving as stone. 'No. Just her sperm donor.' Without thinking, she released her hold on her husband and walked up to the werecat with a stern expression. "Baron. I understand you've missed her terribly. But I think my new daughter needs rest before we bother her with anything else." She held her arms out with that familiar expectance that most parents had where their children were concerned.

Baron did not want to obey, that much was clear. But one glance at the tired, beaming smile on Lucy's face was all he needed to reluctantly set the girl on her own two feet.

Naoko gave her second daughter a big hug to welcome her home. "Come with me, Sweetheart. Your room is right next to Mavis and Johnny."

Lucy gaped in surprise as Naoko loosened her hold into a one-arm position, leaving the other side open for her first daughter to also loop arms with the girl. "You knew Dracula was planning to adopt me?"

"Nope!" Mavis assured her with a big grin as the three of them started moving towards one of the impressive stone staircases, sneaking in a hug of her own. "We were just hoping you'd stick around a while before starting a life with Uncle Baron."

The newest member of the Dracula family snuck a heart-filled glance over her shoulder to see the werecat explaining to the baffled inspector about what was going to be done with Lucy until she came of age, with the count coming forward to confirm his intentions. She blushed again with a foolish smile as they began taking the steps carefully. "I think we can manage that," she admitted shyly, tightening her own grip on the women on either side of her. "Where are Johnny and Dennis?"

"Sleeping," Mavis explained as they inched up the staircase like a three-headed monster. "Johnny didn't sleep for two days trying to help track where Dad had been taken, and it's past Dennis's bedtime." They were only halfway up the stairs when the young vampire couldn't resist the urge to wrap both arms around her new sister's neck. "They're going to be so happy to meet you!"

Lucy grinned a bit foolishly at the thought, tightening her own grip the best she could. "So I'm his aunt, now, right? I definitely get cuddling privileges with Dennis?"

"You get all the cuddling privileges," Naoko assured her, joining in on the hug before encouraging her girls to keep moving. "If that man's as cold as the feed showed him-"

"Worse," Lucy growled under her breath, her beautiful brown eyes turning frosty at the mention of the man.

Her heart broke for her new daughter all over again. "-then you've got a lot of love to catch up on. That's what we're here for. You."

Her new daughter's eyes lost their frostiness to became as warm and familiar as hot chocolate. She tightened her grip again, almost like she was afraid that letting go would make them disappear.

They didn't talk for a while after that, though there was the chorus of shrunken heads hanging from doorknobs to echo 'Do Not Disturb!' as they moved past each one. The three women still walked as one down a mostly vacant hallway, holding onto each other and grateful for the opportunity to do so. Lucy stared at everything she could with a strange mixture of recognition and wonder, as if she had seen the hotel before. But Naoko and Mavis could barely keep their own eyes off her face, almost with the same amount of recognition and wonder.

It was all either of them could do to keep from asking how this girl-child managed to outwit her undeserving father and pinch a vampire out from under his nose in such a way that the island had almost no warning when authorities would strike. They were prepared for a monster rescue, not a police raid. Even though the island didn't have a specific country affiliation, steps were going to be taken about Van Helsing.

But at least Lucy would be all right. No matter what.

Naoko finally reached out to the one door that didn't have the head scream 'Do Not Disturb'. "This will be your room, Sweetheart. I hope you'll like it."

"After all the work the maids put into it, she better like it!" the shrunken head on the doorknob griped as the door opened.

The young teenager inhaled softly with appreciation, walking in almost as if under a spell. Mavis forced herself to let go so that her new sister could explore her new home.

The accommodations weren't so much a room as it was a small apartment, just like Mavis and Johnny. Stone walls were a soft grey color like the rest of the hotel, but it provided a lovely contrast to the canopied bed that was covered with one of Naoko's most prized quilts. There was a tall, fully stocked bookcase lining one wall, and a very comfortable couch close to a fireplace that was only cold because it was a hot summer day. Thick green rugs covered the stone floor almost like grass, and all the furniture was a warm honey color of wood.

Lucy said nothing. It was all she could do to slowly turn, taking in every detail like she couldn't believe her own eyes.

"There's some hotel-issue pajamas on the bed," Mavis pointed out a little nervously to the closest corner of the quilt. "They should fit, and we can take you shopping for regular clothes tonight after we all get some sleep and answers. I really can't wait until you tell us how you saved Dad this time."

"I got away," Lucy breathed as she started to sway from side to side. A wild smile, full of the joy and love that they all knew, overtook her features until she was almost glowing. "It worked. Home. Home," she repeated, tasting the word happily as tears began to flow down her tanned cheeks.

"That's right, Sweetheart," Naoko assured her, taking the girl into her arms for another deep hug before she toppled over. "You're home with your real family, and you're never going back to him. We love you too much to allow that to happen."

That's when the poor teenager began crying in earnest relief. She buried her face into Naoko's shoulder, only loosening her grasp on the older woman when Mavis insisted on getting in on the embrace, nuzzling that soft brown hair and humming a melody the way she usually did when her son was upset or needed a little help falling asleep.

By the time Lucy calmed down, she was already half-asleep on Naoko's shoulder. It was about all the older woman could do to talk her into switching her white uniform for the magenta silk pajamas that had been lying ready. Despite the fact that the girl had to be close to sixteen, Naoko didn't resist her impulse to tuck her new daughter into bed and kiss her brown locks after removing the hairband.

The efforts were rewarded with a sleepy smile full of love. "Thanks… Mom. Sis."

Mavis had to fight back a squeal at her new title. "Sweet dreams, Lucy," she bade her childhood hero as she gripped their mother's hand to back out of the room.

"Haru," the girl corrected sleepily.

Naoko stopped dead in her tracks, her large brown eyes turning even wider with shock behind their glasses.

That. Name.

Naoko had chosen it while still a young girl. Long before she met her first husband. Long before finding out that her current body couldn't function properly for childbirth. Long before she quit her job and came running to Transylvania after she had mourned her mortal love long enough to be ready for Dracula.

There had been nothing about her life in Japan to hold her back from him, or the daughter she hadn't remembered losing. She loved Mavis, there was no question of that, but the human woman had never been able to fully banish the disappointment of never getting her very own little Haru. She and Dracula had talked of adoption many times since their glorious wedding day, but something had always gotten in the way before now.

She slowly turned to look at her first daughter now that her new girl was out cold.

Mavis was just as shocked, but she still managed to recover first. "Let her sleep," she insisted, pulling her mother out of the room and gently shutting the door behind them.

"… Mine," Naoko was eventually able to mouth, her pulse racing a mile a minute as her head and heart began to spin with both rage and excitement.

"Come on, Mom," Mavis encouraged worriedly, pulling her some distance from Haru's room before wrapping her tiny arms around her reincarnated mother. "It's okay. We have her now. She's ours. I know you would have been happier if she were younger, but-"

"That pig!" Naoko snarled, gripping her older daughter tightly. "My Haru! He didn't even appreciate her, and he had her! That's just not fair!"

"Naoko?" her husband called, swooping from the stairway and down the hall to them in a flurry of purple mist before reassembling himself in front of his beloved wife.

"Mine!" she cried while throwing herself into his arms and burying her face into that familiar chest. "She's mine, now!"

Thankfully, Dracula was familiar enough with her way of thinking that he did little more than wrap both his arm and cape around her for a deep embrace. "Ours, dear. A little later than I would have liked, but she's ours now. The Inspector doubts anyone worth worrying about will challenge our claim."

"We can deal with anyone who bothers," Mavis growled as her teeth and fists clenched.

"Well, other than Baron," Dracula laughed, hugging his wife deeply before kissing Mavis's brow. "But we'll have a few years before they get serious, I think. Get some sleep; I have a feeling tonight's going to feature a wonderfully long family discussion."

His older daughter beamed happily at the thought before kissing her parents and retreating to her own family.

Dracula gave his mortal wife a smile full of adoration before offering her his arm with a courtly bow. "Shall we, my love?"

Despite sneaking up on their fifth wedding anniversary, the red-haired woman could still feel her heart skip a beat at his gentlemanly manner with her. Now even more emotionally drained than she had been before her husband's return, she eagerly linked her arm with his so that they could finally rest in each other's embrace, as real Zings were meant to do.

Naoko beamed with pride and love as she passed by her new daughter's room. "Sweet dreams… my little Haru."