Title: One Last Battle

Fandom: Dracula

Pairing/Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing

Rating: FR13

Disclaimer: Dracula belongs to Bram Stoker and company.

Prompts: Written for Yuletide 2008 for calliopes_pen (request at the end.)

Notes: Set post-novel.

Summary: Van Helsing has nightmares about Dracula seven years after they have laid the monster to rest.

Word Count: 2602

At first he thinks that it is simply the vapors of an old man. An old man who does not want to let go of the past, who instead wants to relive his glory days once again. So he doesn't say anything to the young Harkers at first, especially since they had recently travelled to Transylvania and have seen with their own eyes the castle as it was before, except this time devoid of life. Instead he finds that he would rather watch them enjoy their freedom from the horrors of the recent past than discuss the possibility of the past coming back to haunt them.

* * *

Van Helsing finds himself often in the drawing room of Mina and Jonathan Harker where he not only delights in their company, but also in the company of their young son, Quincey, who he bounces on his knee and whispers tales to him of his Mama's bravery when Jonathan and Mina are absorbed by the trivialities of the tea table.

Yet no matter how hard he pretends or wishes it otherwise, the evidence of what he fears the most is not simply the vapors of an old man who merely wishes to recapture the essence of his last grand adventure before his retirement into idleness and old age starts to show. Van Helsing finds that he can no longer deny the fact that the nightmares that grasp him in their cold claw-like hands so that upon awakening he is filled with terror and dread are not something that he can continue to ignore. However he finds himself loathe to disturb the tranquil peace of the Harkers' drawing room so he bites his tongue for a while longer, delaying the inevitable.

* * *

The beginning of the end begins rather simply enough, he is in the Harkers' drawing room on a cold and grey November afternoon to partake in tea with the lovely Mina and the brave Jonathan. And to see how big Quincey has grown since he has last seen him, which was only a few days prior but as a proud god-father he delights in every stage of his godson's growth. He is bouncing Quincey upon his knee while Jonathan and Mina perform their rituals at the tea table and everything appears normal on the surface even though he knows in his heart that it is not.

There are too many unspoken words that seem to be ringing in his ears and when Van Helsing looks up sharply, he sees that despite the fact that Mina should be blooming in motherhood, she looks pale and drawn. Her skin seems stretched taut on the bones of her face and the shadows under her eyes are more like bruises than a sign that she has been kept up late at night by her son. On his last two visits, she has claimed that she has not slept well because Quincey is cutting a tooth and she cannot bear the sound of her child crying so she will often dismiss the nurse to care for him herself.

He knows that this is normal behaviour for her, yet at the same time her appearance tells him the truth that he has desperately tried to ignore since their journey to Transylvania. This is more than just young Quincey cutting a tooth and keeping his Mama up late at night while he cries. Van Helsing's eyes fall upon Jonathan and he can see the strain that the nightmares have had on the younger man for Jonathan's appearance mirrors his own.

Instead of immediately addressing the issue, he goes through the motions of having the typical afternoon tea with the family. Yet when it is over and he has handed Quincey to his nurse, Van Helsing stares into the fire for a few brief moments before he turns to Mina and Jonathan, sorrow and guilt written upon his face. He knows now that he should never have kept quiet for so long.

“Have our old friends been plagued with the same nightly terrors?”

He blames himself for not speaking sooner, for not telling them his fears when they stood before a castle in ruins where he could still feel the malevolent presence of a slumbering monster. Yet he had stayed quiet for he had no proof other than an odd feeling that prickled along his spine. He had written it off as seen the place where they had faced such horrors, where he had almost lost Mina to the monster as he had lost Lucy.

* * *

Later that evening, after Jonathan has assembled them all in the drawing room, Van Helsing is relieved to find out that Arthur and John have been free of nightmares. He suspects that it is because the monster never touched their lives as he had touched Mina's, Jonathan's and even his own life. He is grateful that their old friends are free of the terrors that the monster sends their way in the form of nightmares.

As the evening grows later, the five of them have a war council of sorts, plotting what they should do. Should they return to Transylvania and ensure that their work of the past is complete? Or should they ignore the nightmares, write them off to some disorder that John Seward can treat them for, and pretend that there is no possibility that the monster may have survived Jonathan and Quincey's brutal attacks?

They have more concerns now and none of them are free to just run off to Transylvania to hunt down a monster as they once might have been. Arthur and John both have wives and children who do not know the secrets that both men keep. As for Mina and Jonathan, not only do they have young Quincey to worry about but another child on the way.

Van Helsing is sadden that Mina's announcement must be made to a group of grim-faced men who have always done everything to protect her from the evil that is Dracula. Faced with the possibility that the monster has survived and the sacrifice of their friend Quincey was for naught, none of them no what to do. The impromptu war council continues well into the evening until the grey, cold dawn finds them sitting in the drawing room full of steely resolve but uncertain on how to act. They all know that they would walk through fire to protect their families but they are not sure what course of action they should take.

* * *

In the end it is Mina who makes the decision that Van Helsing, Jonathan and herself will return to Transylvania. They are the three who are plagued with the nightmares and it is only fitting that they return to the desolate castle to prove whether or not Dracula is still alive, whether he lays in some slumber or not. They will finish it for once and for all.

Van Helsing finds that he is awed by her strength. When most women would be afraid to tread her path, she is willing to throw herself to the lions once again in order to protect her loved ones. He is awed but not surprised, after all this is why he has remained quiet for so long because he knows that Mina would be willing to sacrifice everything to protect her son and her friends.

* * *

The journey to Transylvania seems familiar and the closer they become to the destination, the more mocking the nightmares become. And Van Helsing fears that he is leading Mina and Jonathan to their deaths on nothing more than a whim. Yet whenever he looks at Mina when she rests against Jonathan, he knows that this is not just a whim. She refuses to talk about the dreams unless they contain some clue for them to decipher but he knows that they are taking their toll on her. The closer they become to Transylvania, the more drawn her appearance becomes.

On their final leg of their journey it is almost impossible for them to hire transport that they will take them to the castle. It only serves to increase Van Helsing's fear since their last journey was not this difficult. The last time that they had found themselves in Transylvania, their journey had been easy for all of them, there had been no nightmares, no worried looks when they mentioned where they were going, no suspicious looks and muttered prayers for their souls. It only served to intensify their fears and worries.

None of them spoke in the coach as it wound its way through the curves of the passage. Before Van Helsing knew it they were back at the site of the castle and sunset was only a few hours away. He could not think what would happen if Dracula still roamed the earth and he fervently prayed that it was not the case. That the nightmares that they had all recently suffered from other source and not a result of the monster's awakening.

* * *

The castle was still terrifying in the late afternoon sun as Jonathan, Mina and Van Helsing stood outside of it. The three of them looked upon the castle with fear in their hearts. They had thought that this battle was done only to perceive that it might not yet be done. And although neither of them spoke aloud, both Mina and Van Helsing wondered if their fight with Dracula would ever be finished or if they would be plagued with his presence for an eternity.

It was Jonathan who moved first and in the direction of the castle towards where the gypsies so many years ago had prepared the Count's boxes that contained the barren soil that had allowed the vampire to travel to London. When Mina and Van Helsing catch up to Jonathan, he is already in the process of purifying the soil with holy water and crosses. It is an important task and one that they had come prepared for.

* * *

Sunset is only moments away now and they still have not found the Count. Jonathan pries open the door to what once held the family chapel in the castle. There on what had once been an altar to God, they find a coffin and they know it contains their enemy.

It is Mina who takes the first steps forward this time with Van Helsing and Jonathan following her. Time is running out and they have only the one chance to destroy the monster or at least stop him from rising once more.

Later when it is over, Van Helsing can't quite accurately recall those precious moments after the three of them push off of the heavy lid to the coffin. He suspects that after they had left the first time, the Count's gypsies had returned and had moved his body to this area. He will wonder for years later, if it was the fact that the chapel had once been consecrated to God had been why the Count's resurrection had been slow.

What he does remember is straining against the heavy stone lid with Jonathan and Mina as they struggle to push it off of the coffin. Under the coffin, they are greeted by a sight that should be impossible. The vampire is laid upon a bed of soil, his face is somewhere between ancient and youthful with a puckered scar around his neck from Jonathan's knife. The stench of rotten blood and decay sends Mina stumbling backwards with her hand covering her mouth.

Van Helsing finds himself momentarily entranced by the peaceful visage that is at odds with the rust-coloured blood stains that stain his clothes, the scar around the neck and the unholy stench rising from the coffin. If not for those factors, he would assume that this was not a corpse but merely a man who was sleeping. As the shadows lengthen in the chapel, Van Helsing notes that the face seems to be changing even as the day fades into night. He can't be sure but he is certain that the Count is becoming younger in appearance.

It is Jonathan's urgent voice that interrupts his scientific musings about the vampire before him. Van Helsing turns to Jonathan as if he is in a dream; he notes that Jonathan has a wooden stake and hammer in his hands. Mina hands him a sharp knife to sever the vampire's head from the neck once again.

He turns back to the coffin and once again he pauses at the sight of the face. It seems as if in the brief time that he turned to Jonathan and Mina, the Count has aged even younger. It does not seem possible but he cannot deny what he is seeing. For a brief second, Van Helsing wants to stay Jonathan's hand so that he can watch the process even longer, to see what happens when the night completely falls in this forsaken place.

As Jonathan places the stake against the Count's chest and raises the hammer, Van Helsing is certain that the eyes are starting to open and that beneath the eye lids are a pair of glittering eyes. Before he can tell if it is merely a trick of the fading light or something more, Jonathan has hammered the stake home to the dead heart. Blood sprays up, covering Jonathan's face, something that should also be impossible.

Van Helsing strikes once with the sharp knife and manage to sever the head and the neck with more blood spraying up at them. Mina rushes forward and pours holy water into the coffin before placing a heavy cross on the chest.

After, he's not quite sure how they managed to get the heavy stone lid back on top of the coffin but somehow they had for he remembers taking one last look in the chapel before they move back to the coach. The sun is low in the horizon and the light in the room is blood-red. The coffin appears undisturbed and hides the fact that they have just desecrated the grave. The only difference from when they first entered is that there is a cross on the coffin with a wreath of white flowers.

Mina quietly urges him away from the doorway and he follows her as if he were sleep walking. He is strangely numb and he wonders what he has sacrificed by giving up the chance to study the monster. Perhaps in the right conditions, the monster might have held the secrets to disease and death. Yet as he sits across from Mina and Jonathan in the coach and he watches a tender moment pass between the couple, he realizes that he has done the right thing. No matter what secrets he might have unlocked by studying the Count, there is no way that it would have been justified.

* * *

Two years have passed since their last visit to Transylvania and once again Van Helsing finds himself in the drawing room of the Harkers. Young Quincey is sitting on his Papa's knee while Van Helsing bounces young Lucy on his knee. He whispers in her ear stories about her Mama and Papa and their bravery. She gurgles in delight at his stories and he feels complete.

There have been no more nightmares and they have all put the past behind them once and for all. Dracula has been laid to rest and none of them will make a pilgrimage to Transylvania to verify what they know in their hearts to be true.

**END**

Request: Bram Stoker - Dracula (Dracula/Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker/Professor Abraham Van Helsing)
Details: Follows the end of the novel. What happens if Van Helsing believes Dracula might not be dead after all? Remember that he could turn to dust, and that knives weren't supposed to do damage. Please have some elements of humor to it as well, as I don't want it completely dark and devoid of hope.

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