The Only Exception

by blueiris

Written for the IWTS competition. Eric is thinking things over and waiting for Sookie to make the next move, fate takes a hand. AU. Book 5 might have been.

I Write The Songs . CONTEST ENTRY

TITLE: The Only Exception

CHARACTERS: Eric, Sookie, Pam

DISCLAIMER: Charlaine Harris owns all SVM, some lines have been taken directly from the books as reference points and are marked in italics.

Song "The Only Exception" owned by Paramore - youtube dot com/watch?v=yz8uvwzHtxk

PEN NAME: blueiris

BETA NAME: elbly

VIRGIN WRITER: NO

TEASER: Eric is thinking things over and waiting for Sookie to make the next move.

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Eric POV

When she had asked for my help to rid her friend of Mickey I had bargained for information. Sookie had explained in the most basic terms what had happened when I had lost my memories and although she stripped the emotion from her words, her eyes told the truth. I knew she was greatly saddened by what she… we had lost because I couldn't remember our time together.

Shit had hit the fan soon after her little revelation and I was too stunned at the time to bother waiting for Bill Compton to leave after she had shooed us from her temporary apartment. Only a few weeks later I had come running to save Sookie yet again from death, but it turned out I was too late. That idiot Twinning had picked the wrong time and place to attack her and was finally killed by a man who had named himself after a fish - and an ugly fish at that.

I confirmed that she was in fact fine and apart from a broken rib; she was much as she had ever been physically, but emotionally she was different. Whenever I was with her I felt something tickling at the back of my mind. I knew there was so much there than the simple facts she had told me.

Before leaving I bent to kiss her and asked if she had responded in kind when I had told her she was the best I'd ever had. Her response was teasing and she returned to work without answering my question. Speeding back to Shreveport had removed some of the frustration, but for the first time in my very long life I had a void where there should be memories and I hated it.

Night after night I maintained my routine, anticipating the clarity of recollection, and the relief that would awaken when the longing for Sookie eased. The sensation of emotion in place of memory was like nothing I had experienced and it was decidedly unpleasant. It had been months since I had taken her blood, yet even at this distance I could feel that she slept fitfully and was troubled.

Rhodes was coming up quickly and I was trying to figure out how to handle the situation between us. I knew she had been slightly interested in the tiger, and I knew I did not want him putting his filthy paws all over her.

I had been sitting at my desk for the last hour staring into space, trying to think of ways to show her despite my inability to remember everything, I knew what she had experienced with me was real. I might hide it well, but the version of events I had heard from Pam made me think I was all I would have been had I been human. I wanted to know if she could have feelings for me as I am and not a brain addled fool hanging on her every word.

In frustration at my lack of progress I pushed out from my desk and flopped onto the sofa , stretching out and pointlessly throwing an arm over my eyes. I saw her every time I closed my eyelids, so that had to mean something …didn't it?

"Eric?" Pam questioned through the door.

"What is it Pam? I'm busy." I growled.

"You certainly look it," was the snarky rebuttal to my complaint. Damn, I thought I had locked the door.

I moved at vampire speed to my desk and glared at my insubordinate child. "What do you want," I ground out.

The brat laughed at me and sat on the sofa, staring right back at me with a knowing look in her eye and a smirk plastered onto her face. "I want you to stop being such a pussy," she laughed. "It happened, get over it."

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration "I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Pam asked "Go out onto the floor, grab a fang-banger and do what you're supposed to do."

"I tried," I confessed with a sigh. "They are unsatisfying"

"Damn it Eric!" Pam said angrily "Who the hell cares! You don't have to like them! They're food and occasionally entertaining, just bite them and get what you need."

I stared at her; how was she to understand? How was I to understand? I had no desire to feed if it was not from Sookie, or do anything else for that matter. I was vampire and this human woman was making me weak.

"Well if you're going to be a pouty bitch, at least do it out on the floor where it could do some good," Pam huffed, standing up and straightening her clothes. "Otherwise go to the telepath and work it out. I want my real Master back, the one who has a pair."

Pam stalked out and managed to close the door before my computer monitor collided with her head, it hit the door and made a satisfying crash as the screen cracked into a few hundred pieces.

"Pamela," I yelled, calling her back.

"Yes Master?" she asked. Impertinence and sarcasm dripping from every syllable

"Call Sookie," I said, defeated. "Ask her to come in; she'll be at the shifters."

"Of course," Pam said with a smirk. "I'm using your phone. It's very noisy out on the floor after all." She added, pretending to be reasonable now she had gotten her way.

I sat back listening to both sides of the conversation. Pam was taking too much delight in Sookie's refusal to come in. Pam used the word summoned when I had said for her to ask her; a tactical mistake which resulted in Sookie hanging up on a giggling Pam.

"Why must everything be a fight with her?" I asked, speaking mostly to myself.

"I believe she thinks she is asserting her independence when she refuses you, Eric," Pam said, as if she knew. "Dear Abby says women like to feel like they have a choice and you should always give them to one you are interested in."

"Thank you for that advice Pamela," I growled. "Now get out."

She left quickly, knowing I was close to breaking point, but cackled gleefully as soon as she had closed the door. She was anything but dull, a good companion and an obedient child as well as a fantastic vampire; she put others twice her age to shame in many areas and I was proud to be her maker.

Although we had started her life as lovers it dwindled quickly. I often wondered what would happen if I turned Sookie. I wanted to convince myself a relationship with her, deeper than the one of child and maker, would not last longer than a few decades, but deep down I knew it would last a lot longer than that. I had been alive for a thousand years and she had been the only one to capture my attention so intensely.

Vampires do not dream; when we die for the day we are dead. However, at least once a week for the past few months I had been rising from my death with memories of dreams of her. I looked forward to them, although they contained nothing interesting to anyone apart from me. We sat in front of her fireplace wrapped in her horrible quilt and talking about her life, her favorite things. The firelight lit her as I imagined the sun would, warming her skin and making her eyes sparkle.

That night the dream came again, but it was a little different…

"Eric," Sookie said gently, caressing my hair as I lay on the floor with my head in her lap. "What would you be giving up if you left everything for me?"

"I could say something sappy and tell you I would have everything if I had you," I teased, making her smile and pull my hair a little as a rebuke. "I would be giving up a little power, but unless I knew the person taking over my position it would not be safe for us."

"I thought as much," she sighed. "That's another reason why I couldn't let you give it up when you didn't have your memories. I have to admit I was scared for myself as well as you. When I was with Bill you could have demanded he turn me over to you, right?"

"That is correct," I said hating that I couldn't give her the answer she wanted.

"So if I want to stay in my house, it's best if you stay Sheriff," she said, sighing again.

"Yes," I said sadly. "If you asked it of me I would leave it all, we could go to Europe where the vampire hierarchy is not so unsettled. We might be safe there."

"Where ever you are is where I want to be," she said sweetly, dropping her face to mine and kissing me gently.

"I am right here, Sookie," I said, sitting up quickly and pulling her into my lap. "I will always be here for you. I will share everything I have with you. Every vampire who owes me fealty will honor you."

"You've made me very happy." She said and snuggled herself under my chin, wrapping her arms around me. I could feel her breathing deeply, taking in my scent as her nose traced across my skin.

"We don't have much time, Eric," she whispered, reaching down and making me gasp as she touched my aroused flesh. "Let's make it good."

I removed her clothes reverently, not once daring to remove my lips from hers. She tasted of the sun, and something wild, not like herself at all, strangely I didn't mind; I would make her smell like me soon enough.

She purred at my touch as I caressed her curves. I couldn't look at her enough. Even in my dreams she was modest though and kept a hand over her breasts as I traced my fingers over her body, chuckling with her as I inadvertently tickled her ribs and stomach.

"You have the most beautiful breasts I have ever seen." I said, gently removing her hand from her chest. My obvious delight and feather light touch made her giggle softly until I leant down to lick and nibble at them, turning her giggles to moans.

Her hands clutched my head to her chest, encouraging me to pay more attention to her nipples. I pinched and rolled one with my fingers as my tongue and teeth did the same to the other. Sookie's moans getting louder the more aroused she became.

I captured her lips again, smoothing a hand down her body to her mound, slipping a finger between her slick folds, making her gasp and shudder at the sensation. I circled her clit a few times before moving further down to tease her.

"Please, Eric," she panted, grabbing my cock in her hand and pumping a little to urge me on.

I eased my finger into her molten core and circled her clit with my thumb, causing her to grind against my hand and pump feverishly at my cock, squeezing slightly; making me wish it was the muscles of her pussy instead of her hand.

She whimpered faintly as I removed my hand and rolled us over. She was wild as I helped to position her on top of my hips; it was as though I was the air she needed to breathe and faster than I would have thought I was sheathed inside her while she came, screaming atop me.

She collapsed, squeezing me unintentionally and making me growl with unfettered want. I rolled us over again and wrapped her legs around me, moving us a little so that I could see the firelight reflecting on her sweat dampened skin.

I began moving inside her, slowly at first working her gently and relishing the panting and moaning I was caused her to release. I wanted to pound into her roughly bringing her to another screaming climax, but I also wanted to make this last – who knew when I would get the chance again.

Her hands moved over my skin like she was using her fingertips to remember every inch of my body. Her fingers clutched at my ass, her nails digging in slightly as she pulled me closer. It was almost as if she wanted to bring my body into her own so that she didn't need to be without me again.

I felt her walls clamping against me as she neared another climax. I caressed her face gently getting her attention.

"Don't close your eyes. Look at me, Sookie," I said, putting as much emotion into her name as I could manage.

The eye contact seemed to suck us into a world of our own. There was nothing but the beat of her heart and her eyes. I felt other things around me, but nothing mattered more in this moment than the emotion I saw in her eyes.

We came together, she screaming and I with a triumphant shout. I wanted to live here, in this little bubble of contentment.

However being that it was a dream the scene soon changed and I was fully dressed in the middle of a fight. I could barely see because I was surrounded by fog and rain. I had a partially transformed were in my hand. I was choking her and I didn't know why, so I let her go.

The scene changed again, we were back at Sookie's house and the same woman was sitting at the kitchen table with a gun pointed at Sookie. My entire body screamed to get her out of danger, but there was no time. I jumped in front of the bullet and gasped in pain as it ripped through my flesh.

I heard a shotgun being pumped and a thunderous bang. The woman was dead and my Sookie had shot her. After a few seconds pause while she seemed to realize the result of her actions, Sookie grabbed a bottle of True Blood and heated it, holding it to my lips while I panted at the pain of the bullet working its way out of me.

"Why not you?" I asked sadly

"I know you earned it, sweetie. But I have to have all my energy. I've got more work ahead." She said apologetically.

The scene changed to her bedroom where I was watching her sleep. She was dressed in a disgusting pink synthetic nightdress I wanted to rip off her. She looked tired though so I curled myself around her instead and snuggled. This was where I wanted to be, this was best, this was right.

I woke up that night with dried bloody tears on my face. I had the strangest sense of déjà vu that some of the things that had happened in the dream had really happened, but there was no way to confirm it as Sookie was reluctant to tell me any details of us sleeping together.

There was obviously a reason behind the information my dream had held and over the course of the evening I thought it over, trying to figure it out and make sense of the empty feeling I had in my chest when I woke without Sookie in my arms.

I tried to work, to enthrall the vermin, to admire the Louisiana scenery as I flew through the cool night sky, but nothing helped. Sookie was the answer. I made my way to Bon Temps and watched, unnoticed, as she worked in the shifter's bar, treating each redneck like they were royalty and generally being the caring person she was.

The feeling that filled my chest struck me as I gazed up her. It was love. There was no doubting she had won my heart. Bill Compton's repeated declarations of love were laughable; I never really thought love existed. It seemed I was wrong.

I kept my distance and observed her for the rest of the night; taking pleasure in her smile, watching her laugh with the other waitresses and charming everyone. I loved her; now I just had to make sure she felt the same.

Waiting on her porch while she showered and prepared for bed was difficult, listening to the water rush through the pipes and the creak of floorboards as she moved around her room. When her heart slowed and her breathing regulated to the normal rate of a sleeping human I made my move and crept in through her window.

She was curled up with a Bon Temps sweater pressed to her nose. I could smell myself on it; I wondered if she could too. Sitting in the chair in the corner of her room I watched her sleep; her eyes moved rapidly under her lids and occasionally she smiled or chuckled. Whatever she was dreaming about was making her happy. That was enough… for now.

I could feel the sun getting closer; I still had to make it back to Shreveport so I could rest. I would come out again tomorrow, even though she said she had a date. I was sure she was only making it up to annoy me. She was so much fun.

I placed the note I had written on her pillow and kissed her so gently I wonder if she felt it at all. I wasn't going to hide it any more. I had feelings for her; deep and lasting feelings I wanted to share with the only person that mattered, but I would have to wait for her to be ready.

Narrator's POV

Eric bent to kiss the sleeping Sookie, placing a note on her pillow before he turned and climbed out the window. He took the time to close the window, leaving just a small gap to let the evening air flow into the room. Catching one last glimpse of Sookie, he smiled and took off into the night sky; heading for Shreveport and home.

Unseen, the note was caught by the breeze, skidding off the pillow and under the bed.

Sookie,

Up until now I was content to be alone, keeping a comfortable distance from everything and everyone, because none of it was ever worth the risk. You are the only exception. Please call me.

Eric.