Chapter 76
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 75
Arthur arrives back to lunch with his hands thoroughly washed like Dr Seward directed, and in fresh clothes that aren’t damp from fog and don’t smell of horse and gun powder. He’s happy to see that Darcy’s hair is back to its usual colour, after all, when she arrives with her papa, gives her a smile.
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For just a moment, her glance darts away from his eyes and downwards, she’s still embarrassed about having been bad for Arthur in the morning, but she can’t change that. She also can’t help that it was all for nothing. Her drac must have helped her again. Even when Gregory was there, she could feel her drac pace, doing its own thing, helping to distract her from having to do penance.
Then, when she knew her papa was here, it really started running, she could see the greyish red bloom back to red as she washed up. Her drac felt like it was dragging Llew, well, his blood, by the neck deep into the background. Store the blood like any wolf would store a kill in cold water for later. Right, blood! That reminds her of the better part of their discussion, so she turns to Papa and asks him how she could best use a straw for her hunting.
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Pardon? He must have misheard. No, Darcy reiterates and he sits down at the table before giving her a long look, trying to decide what to answer then shaking his head. That would be unsanitary, very obvious on her victim, and really, his Ruby is a strong young dhampir, her fangs are perfectly capable and much more effective than any of his own needles.
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Arthur really isn’t sure about speaking up- it’s not really his business, but Darcy asked him, and, well, he came up with the idea, even if as a joke, and she seemed to be so happy to maybe have a solution, so he dares to point out: But what if she doesn’t want to have to get that close to some random stranger?
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Now Darcy is chewing her lip. Her papa called her Ruby and told her what he expects of her, but Arthur’s also right. How can she be good for both of them?
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John walks back in to Jack telling Arthur that he can see the issue on a theoretical level, but this is about as adaptive for a dhampir as the disturbed eating behaviours he’s seen in some high-society women deciding that food is too dirty to touch the inside of their mouths. Both as Darcy’s doctor and as her father, he will not stand by and enable her developing an unhealthy relationship to her natural diet. What the fuck did he miss? Sitting down next to Darcy, who seems unsure again, he looks back and forth, trying to figure out what’s happening.
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Arthur tilts his head, and admits that, yes, that’s also a good point. He was thinking of it as touching strangers, but also, he doesn’t mind touching food that he hasn’t, well, met before. So his perspective might be flawed, there.
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Jack’s opinion is that If she doesn’t want to talk to them, his rose petal has no reason to engage with them as anything other than bottles.
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That formulation has John snort and whisper at her that she always complains about people feeling off to her. So there, bottles, that’s what they are. Also, and for this part he takes her hand under the table, he can guess why she’s probably pushing herself enough for that debate to have started, so: “Thank you, culver.”
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She’s blushing, of course he could figure her out like that, and of course he’s making her feel all warm about it. So she lifts her head and nods at her papa, declaring that she’ll try her best! Then she adds on quickly, so that Arthur doesn’t feel bad, that she really appreciates his help. “Thanks for taking my concerns seriously… but Papa is right, I’m being silly.”
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Arthur blushes a little at the sincere thanks, of course, but nods, tells her that if there’s any other way he can help- well, she can just let him know, he’s happy to!
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With a smirk, Jack admonishes: “Just no straws, please. And if she tries to get out of eating her vegetables again, I expect better of you than enable that, too.”
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That does it, John starts laughing as he sees Darcy pout so hard that her entire face scrounges up. He so has seen her do that! He even noticed that she doesn’t do it when Jack is around. Her father it totally on to her!
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Arthur nods, but feels- and likely looks- confused. “Um… why? What’s the deal with vegetables?”
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The more he learns, the more Jack understands why Darcy has tasked him with being a good father figure to Arthur, because clearly, a certain Lancaster Sr has nobody but himself to blame for any concerns he might have had with Arthur. Now, Jack has heard of people only reading the bible and no other book on how to raise your children, but somehow he doubts that that is the source of Lancaster Sr ill-fated approach to ‘you shall respect your father,’ despite the obvious intellectual short-comings of the man.
Nevermind, Jack has a task to fulfil, so he puts on his best decisive-but-caring-papa face and looks at Arthur. “A balanced diet is important for health, especially so in still developing young adults. Such as rose petal, but just as much such as yourself, young man. Do I need to monitor both of your nutrition now?”
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John’s about to laugh even harder only for Jack to give him the same look and before John can stop himself he goes “Yes, Sir. I’ll make sure she stops cheating on that.”
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Arthur tilts his head, because… because he’s never considered the idea of a ‘balanced diet’- food is food? Except for some being tastier than others? “…So what makes a diet balanced? What’s being balanced? Like… vegetables and…?”
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Darcy’s had that lecture before, so she does her best to follow the rules, and yes, apparently now has John keep an eye on her for it (he’s sweet like that), while she smiles at her papa, of course, jumping happily into the scientific and medical discourse about best health practises, and then supplements it with his own hypotheses and opinions, as he thinks that many researchers have an illogical framework undermining their research. Namely, morals and the connected ideas about the differences between men and women.
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Arthur had no idea something as straight-forward as food could be so complicated. But apparently it is, so he also promises to eat vegetables, and not too many sweet things. It’s… it’s kind of nice for someone to care about his health and well-being? An adult, that is. Even if it’s just because of Darcy, and Dr Seward being a doctor.
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After that rather enjoyable diversion and lunch, Jack tackles the actual task he came here for. Originally he meant to tell Darcy in private, but after having been reminded how she interacts with John and Arthur, he decides it is more prudent to tell her where she has emotional support. So he explains to all of them, over dessert and tea, that during their investigations into the trap book, they received information from a reliable broker that it appears that nothing has changed in the routines at the castle they hunted their old enemy to twenty years ago. As such, they are forced to assume that the man who murdered Lucy is likely still alive.
That’s the point Darcy interrupts and immediately offers to host the tea party! That’s her, uh, vampire grandpapa after all, he’s family! He’ll listen if she just writes a really nice invitation card.
Jack stares and tries to figure out what all those vague emotions in reaction to that declaration are, none of them good, that much is clear, if only because he can see John’s groan.
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Arthur stares, too, and blinks, then feels the need to point out that, uhm… aren’t vampires supposed to be really nasty to dhampirs? He’s not sure an invitation card would negate that…
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John really thinks he should have seen this coming, that’s exactly the way his girl’s mind runs differently from everybody else’s. He also thinks that Arthur should have seen it coming that now she’s, of course, crossing her arms and pouting at him. “But you even pointed out that I’m a princess because of him! No fair that you don’t back me up now. Also…” Her voice goes quiet and she looks at Jack. “I can guess what you were about to say and I don’t want you to!”
A glimmer of tears is already at the edge of her eyes, making John take her hand under the table again, while Jack sighs and lauds her for of course being smart and figuring him out so quickly but: “Ruby, he is the reason why I ever even started being around the hunters. I cannot simply ignore this and hope for the best.”
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Arthur is back to being confused- what does Darcy’s being a vampire princess have to do with whether or not that vampire is likely to kill her on sight? But, well, she’s more likely to listen to Dr Seward, and he’ll be better at explaining things, so he keeps quiet and listens.
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Jack tries, he tries to explain from several angles why this is the logical and right thing to do, but three sentences in, Darcy has started crying, another few sentences in she threw her chair over with a clatter when she jumps up so she can rush to sit on his lap and cling to him, sobbing only harder and really, Jack isn’t sure why he’s even still talking. He’s seen this before. His rose petal reverted right back to being five years old. Right back to when he for the first time told her he’d be out for longer. She was inconsolable back then, too.
He knows that there are no words in the world that will make her stop crying; she didn’t back then either. He knows she didn’t even after he left. Jekyll wrote him about it, also wrote him about her tantrum a few weeks later. It broke his heart, but the letter from Jekyll had come with one from Darcy and that letter had made all the hardship worth it.
Of course, these days he knows better, he wasted so much time with being away from her. He wishes he could do as she begs him to and never leave her behind again. But he can’t, he has a responsibility to her beyond her immediate emotions.
But for right now, he holds her and tries to get her to do their little singing back and forth routines, she always loved those. He lifts her up, yes, as if she was still five, and she lets him. Maybe he prevented her from growing up fully with how he raised her. He knew it was hard on her, but he didn’t see another way then either. All he can hope for is that he isn’t making an equally grave mistake this time.
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Darcy putting on a brave face is better than the complete tantrum, but it still hurts seeing her like this. Not to speak of it being kind of awkward. His girl is behaving like a little kid, but John can’t get himself to not hover close by. And she’s so often also reaching to take his hand, insists on including him on showing Jack all her latest friends, all the drawings she did of the newest litter of her bunny friends (he’s just glad that she assumed Snowglobe died of normal bunny reasons).
He can guess why Jack asked her to do that, he’s trying to show her that she won’t be alone even when he’s away, but he can see that there is still so much fear underneath his girl’s painted-on cheer. And he thinks he can also see it on Jack, the man’s worried, he’s putting on that typical ‘man of science’ demeanour, but the way he’s holding Darcy’s hand is too tight, his questions about the things she’s showing him too sharp, too needy.
Seeing Jack like that puts John on edge. If he’s that worried, the chance of him coming back must be pretty low and that… frankly, it fucking sucks. John knows that it’ll fall on him to deal with Darcy should it come to the worst. Does he feel honoured and very loving that he knows she’ll come to him? Fuck yeah! Does he think he has any chance of really making it better? Not really. He knows too well that a parent dying leaves a hole that never really closes. And he was nowhere as close to his muttern as Darcy is to her papa. So all he can do is smile along right now and steel himself for the storm he knows is brewing on the horizon.
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Arthur feels really, really very awkward when Darcy starts crying so heavily. Even Dr Seward can’t seem to calm her down, so Arthur certainly doesn’t know how to help. But maybe he could do something else to help with the reason for her crying, he wonders when Dr Seward leaves while carrying Darcy and John joins them. For a moment, Arthur considers joining them, but… but he doesn’t really belong there, does he? They’re friends, of course, but… but, well, that’s a family thing, and he doesn’t know what to do anyway…
So instead, he heads for the library, and asks for whatever magic books it can get him on escape spells or teleportation. Maybe he could make them a device to take them out of danger? That would make him feel a lot better, too, about them going investigating a dangerous vampire.
Unfortunately, it turns out that, of course, such a device is difficult to make, too difficult for him to do it, certainly at short notice. And even if he could get around that… he can’t figure out a way how they would activate it. None of the parents have magic of their own. Well, being a vampire is kind of a magical thing, so he supposes Lucy has vampire magic, but it’s not the kind she could… extend and use to activate a magical artefact. He’s sure there are ways around such a limitation, but that is far, far beyond his skill. Disappointed, he has to give up after a while.
Since he doesn’t want to miss saying good-bye to Dr Seward, at least, he keeps an ear out for sounds of him leaving. That’s not difficult, because it’s first Darcy keening from the entrance hall and then John yelling for him to come help, he can’t hold a dhampir single-handedly. Arthur dashes off on hearing that.
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By the time Arthur arrives in the entrance hall, John has had to quite literally sit down on rose petal, who clearly couldn’t care less about her dignity as she’s still trying to crawl out from under him, claws digging deep into the floor boards and wails and wolf-howls from her throat intermingling.
Jack has the door knob in his hand, stands in the half-open door and can’t make it a step further. His rose petal has been so good over the years. She normally always managed a smile for him. Every time he had to stand in the door and close it on her, she made it easier on him. Why is his little girl howling like that? She… he has to search through his emotions to try to figure it out, but no, he thinks he got it right, she scares him.
He wants to slam the door shut and go back to her. He was against this search in the first place. But as deep as Darcy’s emotions cut him, he can see her mother’s intensity in them. He is caught between two forces impossible to ignore and he knows, logically he knows, which one he has to follow.
The longer he remains in the door, the harder he is making it on John. He knows that. He wanted to make his departure quick. He thought he’d shortly speak with Arthur as well, but so much as getting to the entrance set Darcy off. His sweet, always-so-obedient girl. His little ray of clear emotions. Of having a safe haven in this world that makes feelings seem not so confusing.
He’s done everything for her throughout the years. His life revolved completely around her. And he knows that’s exactly why he has to go. He can’t allow his inaction to harm her more gravely than his action did all these years before. This is harder than all these years combined maybe, but he also won’t be alone. And neither will his rose petal.
Seeing Arthur arrive in the entrance he trains his eyes on him and nods, adds a sincere “Thank you and please watch out. Watch out for each other,” before he takes that one more step lest he falter after all, and closes the door behind him.
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Arthur nods back to Dr Seward- and he really, really hopes that isn’t the last time they see him. Surprised, he realizes that… well, he kind of likes Dr Seward? And not just because if something happens to him, Darcy will be inconsolable. Also because… well, he’s intimidating, but he always answers Arthur’s questions and never gets impatient with him, even though he knows so much more than Arthur. He really wishes there was something he could do to help him come back safely, but… there really isn’t. So instead, he turns his attention to Darcy. Not that he has any idea what to do, gives John a look that’s maybe a bit panicked.
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“Wall. Wall the door off!” John tells him, forced by now to put his full weight on Darcy, push his hands so hard against her shoulders that it hurts (him, he’s sure she’s not even noticing) and still knows that the only thing keeping her from breaking free is her not wanting to hurt him.
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Oh, yes, that’s a good idea, Arthur thinks, and throws up a magic wall to block the door. “Done!” He approaches, a bit hesitantly, crouches down to be more of a level with Darcy. “Um… Darcy?”
She looks up at him, eyes red… from crying, and whimpers, then sniffs and puts both arms around him to pull him in to hold on to and goes right on crying.
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“Um…” Arthur says and awkwardly wraps his arms around her shoulders, where John isn’t sitting and just holds her in return, since he doesn’t know what else to do.
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After several long moments she hiccups and just about manages to press out between sobs that they can let her up, she promises not to run. When John scoots off of her, she sniffles a thanks, mumbles that she’ll be in her pillow-fort and then stalks off, as a rat, a Darcy-sized rat, not her smaller form.
Waiting until she’s out of sight, John sighs heavily, then punches Arthur’s shoulder. “Thanks for the help.”
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That’s… a very big rat, Arthur thinks- he didn’t know she could also be a rat that big. So his smile at John is a bit distracted. “Um… of course. You’re welcome. …D’you think she’ll be okay?” He bites his lip, looks back at where Darcy vanished down the corridor.
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“Not any time soon. I’ll check on her later.” Shaking his head, John gets up from the floor. “This fucking sucks but at least we got through it without Gregory showing up.”
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Arthur gets up, too, but scuffs the heel of his boot on the floor for a moment. “…I really, really hope Dr Seward’ll come back…” He doesn’t know what to say to John’s comment about Gregory, but… well, yes, he doesn’t think Gregory would’ve been much use.
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“Same here.” With a nod, John sighs again. “He’s a good man and there’s no fucking way I can console Darcy if anything happens to him. But I can’t do anything about that now, so I guess I’ll just finish the barony work so Darcy doesn’t have to think about it. You wouldn’t be inclined to help me out, would you?”
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“Of course I will!” Arthur says immediately. Something concrete he can do to help sounds like just the thing right now. “…I was trying to see if I could do something to help keep them safe with magic, like a teleport artefact to get out if things go bad or something, but…” He sighs and his shoulders slump. “Of course that’s actually really difficult to make and way beyond me.”
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“But you tried. You should tell Darcy when she’s feeling a bit better. It’ll make her happy.” Even as John tells Arthur that, he smiles after Darcy. “That’s what Jack said if I heard that right over the howling. We’re to take care of each other. I’m sure it’ll cheer Darcy up if we do as her papa said. She’s a bit clingy after all.”
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“Trying isn’t worth much if you don’t succeed, though… But I’ll tell her, if you think it’ll make her feel better.” Thinking of the very literal clinging to her father Darcy did, he wonders: “…I guess if you have a good father, being a bit clingy is fine?”
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With a grunt John shrugs. “I wouldn’t know, but…” He bites his lip, hesitates, and gives Arthur a side-glance, but then says it anyway because fuck it, his girl knows it and keeps calling the puppies their kids, too, and he doesn’t need to mention what he’s willing to do for it. That way he’ll seem less suspicious of maybe not being seen as manly enough. “Once I’m a dad, I hope my kids love me that much.”
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Arthur can’t help a surprised look at John. “You want to be a father?”
He gets that look right back when John sounds just as surprised. “You don’t?”
“I… never really thought about it until just now?” Arthur admits. “I mean… I kind of was more worried about not starving, until recently? And, well, since then, more worried about…” He waves a hand to encompass the castle and the barony and all the weirdness and new things that come with it. “But, uh… no, not particularly…?” He listens inside himself, but the idea of being a father to some child just feels strange and alien.
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Well, fuck. That is exactly why John doesn’t normally say much, now he fucking talked himself into a corner. Okay, maybe he can turn this around. “Barony. Exactly. Nobles need heirs and do you see Gregory being a good dad? I don’t, so I’m going to be there for Darcy’s kids and for Darcy.”
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“…Gregory? A father?” Arthur’s not sure if he looks as disturbed by the idea as he feels, because if he does, it’s very disturbed. “Uh. How about… not?” Gregory might be his friend, but that doesn’t mean Arthur isn’t aware that he’s not the most responsible of people. “But, um… surely that has time?”
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“You realise it’s Darcy’s duty, right? The only bit of respite she has is to dodge all the rumours about her only marrying him because he knocked her up.” Crossing his arms, John growls. He knows that’s not it, but he still can’t figure out why the fuck Darcy married that arse. He doesn’t think he’s just being petty if he allows himself to say that, he really doesn’t think she loves Gregory. So why? Why the fuck? But then again, he’s clearly being petty, so he focuses back on the more important topic. “And I’ll fucking be there for her.
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Arthur shivers a little at the idea of it being Darcy’s duty and, really, this conversation brushing far too close to that topic- but surely Gregory wouldn’t have, either way, what with him giving Arthur what he called ‘the talk’ back then precisely so no… accidents of that sort happened to him. But he really, really doesn’t want to remember that, or think about it, and anyway… “…I guess I’m glad I’m not a baroness, then… But, um, yes, I’m sure it’ll be much better for her with you being there for her.”
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John notices the way Arthur is unconsciously playing with his sleeves, the near rubbing of where John has spotted some scars before, and it tells him that Arthur’s far more uncomfortable than he tries to let on. John’s not an arse, so he redirects the conversation. “I sure could have done without all the paperwork having a girl who’s a baroness brings, but that’s why you’re helping me. Ergo, less us chattering and more grumbling over yet another dolt of a tenant.”