Title: Exchange
Author: Drea Jackman
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Eric/Sookie
Summary: A deeper look at the growing relationship between Eric and Sookie during their attempt to escape the Fellowship of the Sun.
Spoilers: 2x08 Timebomb
Disclaimer: I do not own True Blood or any of the characters therein. It's all just harmless, non-profit fun.
Word Count: 975
Notes: My first little dabble in the realms of True Blood fic – just a little deeper exploration of the events playing out between Eric and Sookie to help me get a feel for their characters. If it sucks, PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK – I need to learn!
EDIT: To make the point of this little ficlet clearer, this is a VERY short exercise in writing for both characters, narrating their thoughts and feelings during the events they experienced in 2x08 as in general, scenes acted out on screen do not have a narrator present. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A FRESH/BRAND NEW FIC FILLED WITH NEW EVENTS & CONVERSATIONS INVOLVING ERIC AND SOOKIE. It is merely a narration of the scenes which took place, I'm sorry to those who missed the point and came into this little trial offering with other expectations and I apologise if the summary did not make that clear.
'Why didn't you bring Bill with you?'
'His attachment to you is irrational, it clouds his judgement. He would kill every child in this church to save you.' Eric's response was calm, explaining the situation at face value without betraying the comparison of her lover's would-be actions to his own.
Sookie Stackhouse had the vampire's number already. The little human that intrigued him so much, whom he found so uniquely different to all the others he'd encountered over the years of his long life.
'Why aren't you?' she countered.
'I'm following Godric's orders and getting you out, that's all.'
'He's your maker isn't he?' The question was daring, overstepping an invisible line she'd never expected to cross.
Eric's eyes flickered slightly, blinking during the short pause he allowed himself to register her forthrightness.
'Don't use words you don't understand.'
Undeterred, Sookie pressed on with still no idea why she felt compelled to do so. 'You have a lot of love for him.'
His eyes lowered briefly as he contemplated her frail human form standing before him, all too aware that her presence was down to love. Bill - a lesser vampire than himself had found something that lay so far outside his realm of comprehension that it managed to unsettle him. A vampire finding love with a human, that in itself wasn't unheard of, but with this human Eric was offset by the gaping chasm that had become apparent in his understanding. The pull of his maker was easy to comprehend, as simple as blood. With Bill's human however, things stirred deep down in the darkness he'd carried inside for over a thousand years like vague memories he couldn't quite place ... but he wanted to.
Gaze rising, his eyes met hers again, but his expression remained passive. What his facade managed to conceal, his sad and forlorn tone did not.
'Don't use words I don't understand.'
The air hung heavy for a moment between them before the noise of voices in the distance drew Eric's attention back toward the hall. Without pause for breath he wouldn't require, he moved to leave their place of hiding.
'Eric, no!' Sookie hissed after him.
Eric turned to her, eyes more feral than they had been only a moment ago. She swallowed and took a half-step back warily with the same trepidation to be expected from someone who's just realised that they're interrupting a hungry dog gnawing on their favourite bone. Slowly his tall figure swept forward and he lowered his mouth to her ear.
Sookie held her breath.
'Trust me,' his whisper seemed to ask with reassurance.
Without releasing the breath she still held, Sookie barely managed to nod her reply. Where he had hovered a moment before now tingled with the tiny pricks of pins and needles. Warmth spreading to her cheeks, flesh millimetres from his radiating fire where she knew there should have been ice. He was strong and she found herself never doubting him.
As she watched from the shadows, heart in her mouth, Sookie didn't have to read their minds to know they weren't buying Eric's attempt at a peaceful exit. Seconds later, when one had drawn a stake on him, she found herself calling out in warning.
'Stake!'
Eric's movements were swift, and most importantly, non-lethal. Still, fighting down his true nature when threatened wasn't easy for him and he pinned the last remaining soldier of the Church to the wall, stake at his throat. The only thing the vampire could hear in that instant was his pending victim's racing heartbeat, and then his name cried from her lips and shattered through the bloody haze impairing his senses.
'Eric! You don't have to kill him!'
A moment longer and he finally released the trembling human, throwing down the crude weapon of insult so hard that it bounced along the stone floor with a hard wooden clatter.
As their attempt at quiet retreat crumbled around them, Sookie stood amongst the Fellowship watching Eric prepared to make a martyr of himself in the name of someone he loved. 'I'll be fine,' he had said, almost as if wanting to offer her some semblance of comfort before surrendering himself to them. Chained to their holy alter, he writhed weakly against the silver bonds restraining him, but never hard enough to escape. She wondered if even a vampire as strong as his thousand years could have fought and won at that point.
'I offer myself in exchange for Godric's freedom,' Eric choked out as his flesh crackled and hissed. He paused briefly and then finished his bold gesture on an exhale of pain, 'and the girl's as well.'
The words stayed with her, even as the Reverend chastised her, as his threats poured from him like venom. They echoed around her head like another person's thoughts even as Bill burst into the room; as her brother saved them both from danger. Bill's arms enveloped her for only a moment before the words drew her away from his embrace and back toward the blonde vampire who had bartered for her freedom at the cost of his own. Her lover calling her name barely registered as she gently removed the silver bonds from across his arms, his throat, and watched him rise.
In the aftermath that followed, Sookie returned to Bill relieved to be in his safe and loving embrace again. As the room cleared, Eric's eyes lingered on the pair longer than they should have and against his better judgement, his next act was perhaps a step too far.
'Are you sure you're okay?'
The vampire's piercing blue eyes held hers as if they were the only two in the room and despite Bill's immediate interjection, continued to be all Sookie thought about as Eric retreated and everyone headed back to Godric's nest to celebrate their victory.