Sorry for the stupid cut off point of last chapter, FF editor crashed every time I tried to add more (I wrote the end note before I started the chapter). I meant to have it done in two chapters, but apparently once I wrote a certain amount of letters FF went full scale rebellion.

So, here's the rest of the second half.

-YD-

Done, and barely holding it together, Vlad retrieved his son from Ingrid's arms and begged her to take the things he had removed back to Garside. "I won't be long, but I can't carry him and that and I trust dad as far as this little guy could throw him." Ingrid sighed but complied, taking his things back home. His father was still stood looking at the sleeping humans, his face unreadable.

"I never want to see you again. Do you understand me? Your lies and deception have torn apart the one good thing in my life. I could have been human, I could have been happy. I could have not violated my baby sister. If I see you again, I will dust you. Are we clear?" A stiff nod, a whooshing sound and Vlad was alone with his son, and two sleeping humans. Who also happened to be his mother, and his baby sister. Vlad felt sick just thinking that, realising the baby boy in his arms was the product of... incest. The word twisted in his gut, he felt like slime.

Nuzzling the soft hair on his baby's head, Vlad looked at the boy. He had to call the records office and request the birth certificate be sent to him - otherwise the memory wiped humans would be very confused. That would have to wait until the morning, he had to get home and start preparing to be a father. George had nursed him, so Vlad had to go find out about baby formula. Luckily, Garside had a twenty four hour pharmacy nearby, and he had his wallet on him so that could be done now. Feeling a little like he was on autopilot, Vlad wrapped Adam in a blanket, held him tight as he closed the door behind him and flitted off. Again, lucky he already knew half vampire babies could handle being sped along or this would have taken a long time.

The pharmacy was brightly lit, but luckily Adam stayed quiet and settled in his carrier as Vlad wondered the aisles before approaching a sleepy looking counter assistant. "I was hoping you could help me, my ex girlfriend kind of dropped this baby on me" Vlad felt horrible casting such aspersions on the perfect girl who had carried this little boy "and I don't know what I need all that well. He's only a few days old." Thankfully the assistant clearly knew how to help a clueless father, showing Vlad different things for different aged babies and Vlad catalogued every word of information for his son. Leaving with a bag of bottles, nappies and formula, Vlad felt surreal, adrift as he bolted back to Garside and landed in his room.

Ingrid had gone above and beyond, the baby crib thing already up in his room - even if Piers had helped, it was still more than he expected. Adam settled in it happily, wriggling his chubby little limbs and snuffling his way to sleep. Making sure the blankets were on just so, Vlad started going through the baby things and trying not to just break down crying. There was a hesitant knock at his bedroom door, though naturally Ingrid didn't wait for an answer before sticking her head around. "Did you actually kill him?" "No, but it was close. Told him I would if I saw him again."

Ingrid offering a tentative hug opened the floodgates, and Vlad crumpled to the floor and sobbed. "Loathe as I am to say this, you did the right thing. They can get on with their lives." He knew she was trying to help, but Vlad wasn't sure anything would ever heal the gaping hole in his heart right now. "I love her. I never thought I could dare fall for anyone again after Erin, but George is goodness and light and joy and I defiled my baby sister. Ingrid, how am I supposed to live with that?" Swiping more tears from his damp cheeks, he saw Ingrid pointing at the crib. "Because you have more than just you to live for now."

She was right, his son needed a father. Since he had already stolen away his mother, and grandmother. Swallowing around the lump in his throat, Vlad nodded. "Thanks Ingrid. I kind of... I just want to be alone right now. But thank you, for everything. All of it." She squeezed his shoulders, left a bottle of soya - that gesture meant more than anything, Ingrid was always trying to get him on the real stuff - on his bedside table and peered into the crib. "He looks just like you." Ingrid left him alone then, and he caught Piers asking "is he alright" before the door closed. Checking Adam was sleeping soundly, Vlad set an alarm on his phone for a couple of hours time and crawled into his coffin.

He didn't expect to sleep, but his mind drifted a little in to slumber before filling it with memories of George. He woke up a mix of nauseous and glowing with the memories of her in his arms, warm and soft and loving. Alive. Without her, without that warmth and love next to him, Vlad felt hollow inside. If it weren't for the little boy starting to cry as he clearly needed a change and probably a feed, Vlad literally would have walked out into the sunshine struggling to break through the thick drapes on his window. Holding his breath as he quickly changed the boy and dumped the soiled nappy in the paper bin by his desk - he needed a better system - Vlad swallowed down some soya and took the baby feeding equipment to the kitchen - he had to learn how to do this.

Piers was already in there making tea, noting the things in Vlad's hands and offering to help immediately. "You know how to do this?" "Yeah, I used to take care of my baby niece. Come on, I'll teach you." Affection for the Scottish computer geek surged, and Vlad stood holding Adam as Piers taught him how to sterilize the equipment and make up a bottle. "You have to test it on your arm, I don't know how sensitive your skin is to temperature though." Watching the human splash a little on his inner elbow, Vlad held out an arm and waited. "Feels warm." "Ok, well that's the right temperature for him so remember it." Nodding, Vlad shifted Adam and held the bottle to his mouth.

The little face latched on immediately, suckling at the bottle and it was a powerful feeling feeding this tiny, dependant creature. "You know how to wind him?" "Yeah, I got it." Piers hovered for a moment, watching Vlad gently pat the little boys back. "Look Vlad, I cannot imagine what you're going through" Vlad did not want to have this conversation, not ever "but you clearly love that little boy, and he needs you. Just... Hold on to that." Thankfully Piers left him alone after that, wandering off with his tea to do garlic knows what. The phone call to get his birth certificate almost had Vlad breaking in two again, but he held fast to his son and got through it without breaking down in tears or sobbing hysterically.

"Ingrid?" "Hmm?" She sort of looked up from her copy of 'Transylvanian Times' at the table, Piers was wiring... something together near her and Vlad was fairly sure the man lived at Garside, just unofficially. "I need you to do something for me." "What?" "Go to Council and deliver my request for a months recess. I haven't got the mental energy to come up with what to do with Adam, and I can hardly just turn up with him." She looked at him for a moment, weighing up 'playing the messenger' versus helping him. "Fine. At least write an official memo so I can just drop it and go."

Ingrid already had holding Adam down after a day or so, so Vlad didn't mind so much letting her hold him while he scrawled out his official request and scribbled a signature at the bottom. "Thanks Ingrid, I don't... This would be much harder without you two helping me stay a little bit sane." He hurried off before either Dracula sibling became too uncomfortable with all the feelings in the air, putting Adam down for his nap and changing out of three day old clothes and taking a quick shower. He had shamefully put it off - his clothes had still smelled of George and Vlad hadn't been able to give it up right away. Adam had thrown up on his shirt though, so Vlad had little choice.

Rubbing at the black half of a whole around his neck, Vlad dropped his eyes to the dark marks on his wrist. He had left that white half a necklace on George - so they would always be connected, even though their memories are gone and Vlad could never see her again. "What am I going to do with you little man?" Adam huffed and shifted in his sleep, but that wasn't really an answer. Rolling the sleeve of his all-in-one babygrow thing down, Vlad wanted to see how similiar the marks on his wrist were. A short, hollow chuckle left his throat as he noticed the curve starting to show, the marks more like a birthmark that, if he wasn't mistaken, were close to being the shape of a yin yang symbol. "Of course, you're the real connection aren't you son?"

The old dimidius research was stacked up with various books on his desk, ready for when Vlad got around to filing new laws. Which grew trickier now - the members of the Council were stupid, old and annoying, but even they weren't dim enough to not put Vlad instating a new law together with his new baby son. "If you want" Vlad looked up to see Piers "I can take care of him when you have to go back to Council. I'm good with babies." "Uh, thanks Piers. I'll think about it? I'm just... He's all that's keeping me together right now so I can't be away from him." "I got it. Just letting you know the option is there. Get some sleep, no offence man but you look like death warmed over." Chuckling, Vlad scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"That is usually a compliment to vampires. But to be fair, I feel like it. Thanks Piers." Vlad made a show of heading to his coffin so Piers would leave, lying in the box and remembering that first night he told George. She had accepted him as a vampire with no reservations at all. Hell, she had even seemed to like it. Moonlight walks and star-bright picnics clawed at his insides, the hundreds of times they had been together in every way possible filling his throat with bile. Swallowing it down, Vlad pressed his hands over his mouth to muffle the sounds before screaming in agony. It might be emotional, not physical but Vlad felt it just as acutely. He had to live with this, these feelings, those memories and the constant reminder in the form of his son. For eternity. As he looked down at baby Adam, Vlad wasn't totally sure he could do that.

-YD-

Lets be fair, this was never going to have a happy ending.

I do feel very very bad for them! And poor baby Adam. Oops.