CHAPTER EIGHT
REUNIONS

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Once Renfield was gone, Josie decided that they should take what they found, regroup with the others and finish out the night. They put the file in her case and locked the office back up, heading back onto the streets. Henry was able to communicate with his mother to figure out where they were so they could head in that direction.

They didn't explain what they had found right away, Josie not wanting to have to repeat herself and knowing that it would be better to consolidate everything they learned once the sun had risen and they'd all gotten a few hours of rest. At this point in the night, the others understood. It had been several hours they'd been out already after a full day before that.

It was only a few hours until the sun came up and the blood moon had passed so they dedicated themselves to making it through to sunrise.

Josie couldn't help but feel increasingly anxious as the night went on, waiting to hear or see any sign that Kate had been successful in releasing her father. She couldn't wait to get to see him again even though it hadn't even been twelve hours since he'd disappeared. It felt like it had been ages.

The rest of the night passed quickly, only a few skirmishes in their patrols before everything retreated to the dark of the forests and they saw the deep red in the sky finally break and begin turning orange as the sun finally began its ascent.

Before parting ways, Josie exchanged addresses with the others and they agreed to meet up at Granny's/the White Lion for brunch when they'd all gotten a decent amount of sleep to go over their next steps. Getting some sleep was something that Josie was looking forward to. It had been a long day before she'd had to stay up all night as well.

When Josie, James and Oliver reached the van Helsing home, Nicholai and Eugene were sitting on the front steps, waiting for them to get there. Josie and Nicholai immediately hugged for a moment, ensuring the other was okay and needing the comfort of their best friend.

The group of vampire hunters finally climbed the stairs and Josie unlocked the door, ensuring that everyone was inside before she closed and locked it again. They didn't make it far, all just beginning to take off their coats when the sound of a baby's babbling reached their ears and they all froze, looking at each other in confusion.

"Hello?" Josie called out hesitantly.

"Oh, Josie, darling, is that you?" she heard her mother's voice said.

"What are you doing upstairs?" Josie asked, walking to the door to the sitting room. "You're supposed to be in the bunker with Tori until we got back."

"It's okay, I knew it was safe," Luella assured her.

Feeling confused as to what would prompt her mother into believing it to be safe before she returned on the night of a blood moon, no less. She shouldn't have known that the sun had come up from in the basement.

Turning into the sitting room, Josie first saw her mother standing in the middle of the living room, turning immediately upon hearing her. There was a smile on her face that Josie couldn't help feeling a little suspicious of. That was when she noticed the other person in the room that was standing facing away from her. He — for Josie could tell it was a man from his frame — was wearing a tattered white shirt that looked dirty and his dark hair was slightly mussed as if he'd not been able to properly care for it.

"Don't you see why I thought it was safe?" Luella asked her daughter, placing a hand on the man's arm.

At that moment, the man turned around and Josie immediately gasped as she recognized the man, even though she didn't recognize the baby in his arms. A smile pulled on the man's features as he quickly handed the baby to Luella just in time for Josie to drop her case and her crossbow and run forward, immediately crushing her father in a hug.

Abraham laughed as he hugged his daughter back tightly, leaning down to rest his head on the top of hers. Relief rushed through her system at being able to hug her father again, being in the same room as him. After such a long, long night of not knowing and wondering and missing him, this was better than any hug she'd ever gotten before. Even the victorious hug she'd received when she'd killed her first vampire and he'd spun her around he was so proud.

Though she was reluctant, Josie pulled back from the hug so that she could look up at her father's face. He looked like he'd been through hell in the hours since she'd last seen him. There was a bruise forming on one of his cheeks and a cut that had bled more than a little above one of his eyes. But he looked like none of that even mattered now that he was home again.

Some sound from behind them caused Abraham to look up and his smile widened, stepping around his daughter. She turned and saw him walking towards Nicholai, who looked on the verge of tears as Abraham approached him and pulled him into a hug. For a moment, he was frozen in the hug but then he relaxed into it, resting his head against Abraham's shoulder.

"What happened to you? Did Kate let you go?" Josie asked.

"You know her? Well, yes, she was the one that let me go," Abraham told them.

"And the baby?" Luella asked.

"The daughter of the woman who was captive with me."

"Zelena? She's not here?" Josie asked.

"You know her as well? Making friends already, are you? Good girl," Abraham told his daughter, making her flush with pride. "But no, my fellow prisoner was taken away. I was lucky to be able to take the baby with me."

"Taken away?" Nicholai questioned. "Where was she taken?"

"No, no, no," Luella said. "You are all exhausted. I don't know when Abraham last got some sleep and I know that the rest of you only got maybe a couple of hours and that was eight hours ago. You are getting some rest before you start figuring all of this out."

"You're right, of course, my love," Abraham said, crossing to his wife and kissing her cheek. "We should all get some rest."

"James, Oliver, Eugene, you three don't have to remain here. You can go home, sleep in your own beds," Josie told them. "You know where we're meeting after we've slept. Be there for brunch, get some rest in the meantime."

"And thank you for looking after my family," Abraham told them, putting a hand on both Josie and Nicholai's shoulders.

"She was really taking care of us, sir," James said. "Did a good job of it, too."

Abraham smiled and kissed the top of his daughter's head again.

Abraham smiled and kissed the top of his daughter's head again. They all chorused goodbyes as the three men headed out of the home to go back to their own. Luella continued bouncing the baby — Marian, Josie remembered, the baby's name was Marian — as Josie hugged her father once again, just happy that he was back. Abraham smiled as he hugged his daughter with one arm, using the other to pull Nicholai into a hug as well.

"Alright, to bed with you three," Luella instructed. "Your rooms aren't made up, but you'll survive for one night. And you, love, are going to bathe before you get in our bed and dirty our sheets looking like you are."

"Whatever you say."

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After a good long rest, Josie, Nicholai and her father were woken up by Luella and a very excited Tori. When Josie had dressed in one of her normal outfits, a long patterned skirt, the matching coat and one of her blouses. She took a couple of pins from her vanity and used them to pin her hair back out of her face.

Down in the dining room, she came in to see her father sitting in his usual place at the head of the table with Tori in his lap, eating her lunch. Abraham looked better after some rest and a bath, the dirt washed from his skin and hair, which had also been combed properly. The cut above his eye had been cleaned, some ointment put on it and the bruise on his cheek that would help the healing process.

"Afternoon, Father," she said as she took her seat next to him and across from Nicholai. "You are looking better after some rest."

"As are you, my dear," he said.

"I knew you'd do it, Josie!" Tori said, smiling up at her big sister. "I knew you'd find Daddy and bring him home."

"Well, I would not give myself all of—"

"Your big sister saved me indeed," Abraham quickly said. "She's becoming quite the hunter, isn't she, Victoria?"

"She's the best! One day, she'll be even better than you, Daddy!"

"I do not know if—"

"Very astute observation. You need to start giving yourself more credit, Josie. Self-confidence is key and I couldn't be more proud of how you handled things in my absence."

Josie flushed at her father's compliment and looked down. While her father had always told her when she had done a good job on a hunt, it never felt like a high compliment. Sometimes she'd known that she'd done a good job and sometimes just completing the job was enough and in those cases, she didn't always feel like it was the best way to describe how she felt about what she'd done. This was the first time she'd heard him say it in such a genuine way.

"So, tell me about these allies of yours," Abraham requested.

"Residents of the land we collided into, they call it Storybrooke. Henry says that they're all fairytale characters that were transported here in a curse."

"Henry?"

"The son of one of them, Emma. He is about our— well," Josie said, looking up at Nicholai with a smirk. "He is about my age."

"Hilarious, that joke never gets old," Nicholai said.

"You really are writing the jokes for me at this point."

"Well, you come to me when you are my age and we shall see if you look this good."

"I hope I am not still inhabiting my body when I am your age, it will be incredibly difficult to carry the weight of these dresses when I am just bones."

"How old do you think—"

"Alright, alright, you two," Abraham said, laughing at them. "As much as I have missed your banter, we must try and focus now."

"Two of them are witches," Nicholai began. "Emma and Regina. Snow is an archer but she is not particularly fond of fighting. David, her husband, is very handy with a sword. Killian is a pirate and he has a hook for a hand. Robin is also an archer, quite an exceptional one. Marian is his daughter."

"Speaking of, where is the baby, we must bring her when we go to meet the others," Josie said.

"With your mother. I think she quite misses having a baby in the house," Abraham said.

"Father, I do not need another younger sibling. I already have the perfect sister in Tori and if Nicholai is anything to go by, I do not want another brother," Josie said.

"Oh, you love me, admit it," Nicholai said.

"I despise you," she told him with a warm smile.

"Aw, I despise you, too."

"What did I say about focusing?" Abraham said.

"He started it," Josie defended.

"I absolutely did not!"

"We are focusing," Abraham repeated.

"Whatever you say, Father," Josie said. "Marian is Robin's daughter, though he is not Zelena's husband, he is in a relationship with Regina. Henry assured me he would explain, but we have not really had time for that so far."

"I see," Abraham said. "Everything about this world seems complicated."

"You would not believe how much of an understatement that is, Mr van Helsing," Nicholai said.

"So, where shall I be meeting our new allies?"

"Well..."

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Standing on the sidewalk outside of the tavern, Josie watched her father's expression carefully as she carried baby Marian. While her father was not a man that was averse to change, he had always adapted rather quickly, this new world was full of change and even someone who could adapt to change easily would have a hard time with how much was being presented at once. At that wasn't even to consider what the building they were standing in front of now looked like.

When they'd last been by, they hadn't had much time to really look. Josie was quite familiar with the White Lion despite not spending much of her time inside the establishment. It was an older building in their city, with aged and dirtied brick on the outside, three storeys high, the top two being rooms for rent. Ivy climbed up one corner of the building, curling around window frames and into cracks and crevices.

Now, it looked like it had been forced into another building, a shorter one, white in colour with glowing letters in the windows that read, "open", "soup & sandwiches" and "cafe". The door that now led into the building was not the one that Josie was familiar with, looking to belong to the other building, Granny's, as well as the small seating area that was outside and enclosed by a small wooden fence that was green in colour with a similarly wooden archway that was white in colour.

"Remember, Father, complicated," Josie said.

"Yes, quite," Abraham said.

"Let's go in," Nicholai suggested. "I can hear them gathered already."

"And we don't even have our punctuality anymore." Abraham sighed. "Truly strange times we find ourselves thrust into."

Without another word, Abraham straightened his coat and picked his case up from where he had put it down when they'd arrived. He nodded once and then strode forward to the door, leaving Josie and Nicholai to hurry after him. Inside, not only did the sound of idle conversation reach their ears, but above all of that, distant shouting. One of the voices was familiar to them; the voice of the owner of the White Lion, Verne Macks.

As they listened, looking around for the people they were meeting in the strange room, they were able to discern what the distant argument was about. Verne was arguing with someone about not only who was in charge of the establishment, but who got to decide how to do anything— make meals, how much to charge customers, what was even on the menu. Any and every decision was being argued about.

"Josie!" a voice called excitedly, causing her to turn and see Henry standing up and waving her over to a table.

"Henry," she said with a smile, leading the others over. "Everyone, this is my father, Abraham van Helsing."

Everyone chorused out a series of greetings, each of them introducing themselves to him as they went around.

Those that her father didn't know chorused out a series of greetings, each introducing themselves to him as they went around until they reached where James, Oliver and Eugene were sitting at the opposite end of the table.

"Is that...?" Robin asked, standing up and looking at the bundle in Josie's arms.

"Oh, yes," Josie said, meeting the archer halfway between where she'd been standing and his seat. "My father was able to bring her with him when he was let go."

"And my sister?" Regina asked as Robin sat back down with his daughter.

"I presume you mean my fellow prisoner, Zelena?" Abraham asked. Regina nodded. "She was taken away by our captor, to where I do not know. I could not see the entirety of where we were kept from our cells."

"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Regina questioned.

"Regina, let them sit down first," Snow said. "Please, we saved some seats for you here."

The three of them thanked Snow as they went to where the three open seats were, Nicholai pulling out Josie's seat for her before taking the seat next to her. Once they were all seated, Regina repeated her questioned, this time a little more impatiently.

"She was taken out of her cell, the baby taken away from her. The other witch, who I now know to be called Kate, she was given the baby. Once my captor, Morgana, and Zelena were out of sight, Kate unlocked my cell, gave me the baby and told me to run," Abraham explained.

"So we're no closer than we were before."

"Not entirely true," Abraham said. "As far as I know, they are still there."

"How does that help us?" David asked.

"Because I know where I was being held. I could lead you all back there with relative ease."

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an. next chapter, we stage a rescue. any bets on how you think it will go?