Help! My daughter’s a Werewolf!
1 (you are here) : 2 : 3 (coming soon)
Taking a break from the Vampire AU because of a slight case of writer’s block. I’ve had this sitting around half-done for a while so I thought I’d finish it off and post it now that I’ve done a little development on it. The title is a reference to the knock-off knock-off movie “Help! My mummy’s a werewolf!” from Gravity Falls. This is very likely to be continued but I won’t put chapter notes until I add another chapter. Thanks to the TGS discord for reminding me to work on this AU!
Henry was minding his own business, wandering about the Society when suddenly he was faced with his two best friends, Rachel and Lanyon, arms and expressions looking quite crossed. Lanyon spoke up with a dramatic open-handed gesture towards Jekyll.
“Henry, this has been going on long enough, is Hyde your half-werewolf illegitimate son or not?” he asked pointedly, Jekyll just stared at the both of them, first being frightened at the confrontation but then simply being confused at the accusation.
“My… half-werewolf illegitimate son?” he repeated, unsure if he’d processed the statement correctly.
“Yes, there’s no point in hiding it any longer, Doctor, so just be out with it!” Rachel demanded.
“How would that even work? If I were his father I’d have had to conceive him in my teenage years, not to mention that if I knew I had a bastard child I would certainly tell you!” Jekyll protested.
A heavy knock pounded against the front door. The three halted their argument as Jekyll took the liberty of answering the door, not wishing to be left aside to continue a quieter argument with either of his friends. As he opened the door he decided that he was the best person to have answered, since Morcant was standing at the door beside a shorter figure with a deep hood covering their face, Morcant herself wearing a similar cloak that had seen far less care to maintain it than her companion. Upon seeing who it was, Lanyon made a sound that vaguely resembled a high-pitched harrumphh, whereas Rachel had opted for more of a quiet excited squeak.
“Ah, this is… strange” Jekyll said simply, “What brings you to London?” he asked, plastering a clearly fake, shuddery smile on his face.
“I’m here to tell you about your illegitimate child” she responded. Jekyll stared at her for a moment.
“You’re kidding…” he said, slumping against the door slightly, the arm pressed against it being the only thing keeping him from falling over.
“Not at all, Nora, say hello to your dad” she told the figure beside her, who pulled off their hood to reveal a half-werewolf hybrid girl with a fuzz of fur nowhere near as thick as Morcant’s that looked very much in the age range to be his daughter. Jekyll shoved a hand against his face and grimaced through it. He carefully looked back at Rachel and Lanyon and wasn’t pleased to find that Lanyon was staring daggers into his back and Rachel looked fit to burst with joy at her greatest dreams relating to Jekyll’s love life coming to fruition.
“You can’t expect me to believe this is my daughter?” Jekyll finally asked, developing an obvious annoyance at the circumstance.
“Believe it or not, she’s yours” she shrugged.
“So you don’t bother telling me for… I’m sorry, Nora was it? How old are you?”
“Fourteen”
“Fourteen years! Did you just forget that I might want to know I have a daughter for fourteen years?” he said, voice growing louder.
Some of the lodgers had heard the commotion and filtered out of their rooms and strangely enough, Frankenstein had also been intrigued by the racket.
“Look, she wanted to meet you and its her birthday so I figured it would be fine.” Morcant said, raising her hands defensively.
“Good lord, you could have at least sent a letter!”
Murmuring began to grow from the balconies that lined the lobby. “Oi, Jekyll, you never said you bedded a werewolf!” a voice called out. Countless others joined in, asking all manner of questions and inspiring a deep scarlet to form on Jekyll’s face as his well-kept secret was suddenly the most well-known piece of gossip in the whole building. He felt a hand on his shoulder and was anything but relieved to find it was Lanyon.
“Perhaps we should… discuss this… in more private quarters?” he suggested, raising a stern eyebrow at him.
“Er… yes of course” he turned to his guests “come with me, we’ll talk in my office” he said as he gestured for them to follow him to the stairs and through the looming door at the top of them. As they entered and Jekyll shut the door behind himself, the protests of the lodgers were muffled and subsequently died down and he internally grimaced at the looks he was getting from Lanyon and Rachel, who were livid at being shut out of the room.
Jekyll turned to the pair and stared at Morcant, searching for some sign that she was kidding and that this was all her way of asking him for some favour and be on her way. He was unfortunate enough to not see anything of the sort.
“I’m not kidding, you know, she’s your daughter,” Morcant said with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised at him.
“You’ve had plenty of time to tell me, why now? Why not contact me first? Do you have any idea how bad this could be for me if word gets out I have an illegitimate child? Let alone a werewolf?”
“And do you have any idea how little I care? You know I’ve never been one for all of those strict rules of society that you people insist on keeping to.”
The girl, Nora, stepped closer to Morcant and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at Jekyll pleadingly, “I’m sorry, uh, dad? Can I call you dad?”
Jekyll contemplated it for a moment, “Fine, but it’s Dr Jekyll should you ever need to address me in public, which I hope won’t be happening”
Her face lit up slightly, “Well, uh, Dad, I just… wanted to meet you and it was my birthday recently and I thought that I could find out about my human half. I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me, but I just wanted for you to at least know I existed…” she trailed off and held her arm to her side, looking at him expectantly.
Something tugged at Jekyll as he looked at her. The more he looked the more he couldn’t deny it. The way her nose stuck out like his own, the kink in her hair as it reached her shoulders, even the crook in her eyebrows were unmistakably features that insisted on showing up in his family’s features.
“I… suppose we can spend some time together… but the full moon is tomorrow, and the exhibition is coming up, you’d have to take a wolfsbane potion if you intend to stay.”
Morcant cocked her head slightly, “You know I don’t touch that stuff, Henry, if you’re gonna make us take wolfsbane I’m leaving,” Nora glanced at her from behind with alarm.
“What? I don’t wanna go home!” she quickly looked at Jekyll, “I’ll take wolfsbane, I promise, I’ll be on my best behaviour, mum even taught me about how humans act!”
Jekyll smirked despite the situation, “Knowing her what you’ve been taught is bound to need some tweaking.”
“I’m standing right here.”
“So you are. Fine, she can stay, but you have to go home if you’re not going to take a potion and you,” he pointed to Nora, “will have to let me do my work every day before I’m able to spend time with you.”
Nora’s face was simply glowing with excitement, “Oh! Thank you! I can’t wait!”
-
The room was eerily silent as he led the two out of his office and marched solemnly towards Lanyon, who was at the foot of the stairs on his own. The room was clear but something about how quiet it was told him that everyone who had likely been shooed off were watching from hidden spots, but they were doing an awfully good job of it if they were. Lanyon just gave him a look of such annoyance that Jekyll was thankful for the silence.
“Robert! Our friend Nora is going to be staying with us for a bit. I’ll take care of everything, though!” he said, desperately trying to be as cheery as possible, but the lack of change in Lanyon’s face made it clear that he was seeing right through it, Jekyll dropped his facade and pleaded “Look, I know we need to discuss this but I promise I’ll take care of everything.” he waited expectantly for an answer.
“I’m going to be calm about this, but you’re right, we’re going to have a very long discussion.” He didn’t seem to want to continue the conversation, “Do what you need to, I’ll be in your office,” he walked up the way Jekyll had come without another word.
The walk across the lobby was brisk but it took an eternity. Despite Morcant’s utter lack of being being impressed by the vibrant displays strewn about the room, Nora was glancing about with such pure awe that Jekyll couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride blossoming within him. It felt nice to know that to some degree, his love of science had been passed down to his daughter without any of his influence. The door seemed to creak more than usual and he pulled it open and let Morcant pass. She took the offer and turned back to Jekyll and Nora, paying more attention to the latter. She stepped forward pulled her into a big hug, making sure to use her abnormally strong muscles to squeeze her tight.
“I trust you’ll only do what I would do, behave yourself,” she pulled back and looked at her with a mischievous grin, “but not too well, when I come back I don’t want to find you’ve been turned into one of these posh fuddy-duddies.”
“Oh, mother, I wouldn’t dream of it!” Nora exaggerated, placing a dramatically ginger hand to her chest.
“I’ll be back in about a week, Henry. Any past connections we may have will be ignored if I come back and find something has happened to my girl,” she said sternly.
“Of course”
“Good! Until we meet again, Henry Jekyll,” she said with a grin that inspired a nostalgic blush on Jekyll’s face as she turned and walked away without a care in the world. The fond moment was lost the moment the door creaked shut again and Jekyll remembered the encounter he had waiting in his office and the very real problem of a 14 year-old half-werewolf bastard daughter staying with him for the next week to add to the 5 course meal of misery he was being served by the wonderful struggles of London life. The howling laughter of Hyde from the back of his thoughts was anything but reassuring.
What on earth had he just been talked into?