disclaimer: don't have any ownership on trueblood, obviously. and the fact that this is a piece of fanfiction on should pretty much tell you that this piece has been nothing more than an imagination of sorts based on the wonderful characters of the show.

a/n: Lately, I've been watching too much True Blood. And I can't stop watching Allan Hyde's portrayal of Godric. Very intriguing character all on its own. And then, I've been lured into reading a tonne of fanfiction heavily based on him there after.

It's also been a very long while since I've written anything, keeping my own imagination in my own head. Thought I would finally share some of it because I happen to be extremely, and unhealthily unemployed at the moment.

Godric's Propensity

It was on occasion that Godric would venture beyond his nest which was situated well away from the busy city of Dallas, however this evening he'd decided on a spur to take to the streets of said city to observe the on-goings of the humans' society. It never hurt to learn more about the changing scenery of human evolution. If there was one thing that kept him interested in the eternal life beyond the blood lust, it was to watch humanity pass him by.

'Two thousand years, they've gone from donkey carts to electric cars.' he mused as he sat atop a high-rise condominium in the middle of the city watching the bustling streets. The evening was young, just a couple hours after sundown, and it was one of those rare nights where Isabel didn't have any cases for him to sit in on, nor any nest parties he had to be there for. He'd left quickly after feeding on half a bottle of true blood, not wanting to have to deal with any unexpected matters. He filled in his lungs with an unnecessary gulp of air, tasting it, wondering what he would pick out from it. Obviously, every scent within a hundred mile radius hit him fully and he blinked, registering everything and decompressing it all with the immediate release from his lungs.

'As usual, the humans will take to carnal pleasures in the night... and in the open, no less..' his eyes glancing at the closest scent of desire that had wafted up his nose, not quite just a few meters below him, in the darkened alley way. He'd imagined the spike of fear that had mixed in with the drunken, sexual lust had been more akin to the thrill of the couple doing it in public, but his heightened sight saw that the female between the two males was struggling, fighting to wrench herself away. Narrowing his blue eyes, his channelled his focus to listen in on them, half wondering if he ought to intervene; after all, the males in question weren't of his kind - 'They're just the human kind', he mused.

"Let me go! No!" the female protested as she shrieked in panic, her light jacket and thin dress tearing off her body in her haste to pull away from her attackers.

"We'll have you tonight, sugar. You're just making this a little more fun with your struggling, bitch." one of the males sneered back as he back handed the woman roughly, splitting her lip and spilling blood in the process. Godric tilted his head in observation, 'Do they rape women for sport again? Not unlike the romans.. I thought the modern times would've beaten sexual brutality out of the mainstream.'

Having been both the giving and receiving end of a brutal rape culture for centuries before and after his turning, Godric decided he didn't want such an experience to befall on another while he can help it and deftly pushed off the edge of the roof he'd been perching on, landing a little less than lighter than he was used to, just to cause a little theatrical sense to alert the little scuffle of three. He snorted inwardly, as if he needed to, but bloodshed wasn't much what he wanted tonight. He could've just landed silently, snapped the men's necks and be done with it just as quickly. No, the treaty he had imposed on his vampire community with the humans was that all human-caused crimes were to be handled by their police jurisdiction, and vice versa. However, where he saw fit, he would let them off with a good scare - which by his own entertainment, he saw it quite befitting for this night. Call it a job hazard, he couldn't just let an act of violence go.

"Gentlemen, I believe the lady insists you let her go.", Godric said softly, as he approached the trio, as the two men paused briefly due to his sudden appearance.

"Fuck off, vamper. This ain't your party to crash!", the shorter male with facial piercings snarled at him.

Godric quirked an eyebrow at him, his eyes staring blankly at the two men. He shifted his weight on his heels, as if taking a moment to contemplate his options. He could just whisk the woman out of the alleyway, it wasn't too much of a hassle, really. His inner musings zipping from wanting it done and over with, to snapping their necks, to having a little theatrics the way his progeny would've enjoyed, 'Like how Eric likes playing with his food' , he let out a quiet chuckle. The sadistic side that he'd placed a century's worth of hard work and effort to put a lid on was bubbling over with the urge to give a few light jabs to the man's face. That nose looked like it needs some tweaking, and those fingers looked like a good crushing to happen. Perhaps a few broken ribs might shut them up for a while. Really, this flick and slap would be considered rather light considering what he would've done not even two centuries ago. His inclination for violence back then was much too intense for what he'd become comfortable with right now. 'Just because I have all the power in the world doesn't mean I have to wield it like a barbarian...', he thought grimly of his progeny.

"I won't repeat myself a third time, boys. Let. Her. Go.", he replied lightly, as if he were in a coffee shop, conversing about the weather; his demeanour was everything but. He let forth a wave of authority, always just that tiny bit proud he could make his nest of vampires whimper from it in an instant and was satisfied when he saw the taller male take a quick step back, dropping his hold on the woman, fear building in his eyes.

"J-Joe, l-let's go man. She's not worth this much trouble." The taller one whispered fearfully, now tugging at facial piercings to move.

"He's a vamp, idiot. They can't do shit to us." The one called Joe smirked, gripping the woman's arm tighter as she stood frozen in fear, her breath caught. Godric was sure she'd bruise from that later. Upon closer observation, he noticed that she was bruised all over, had they been beating her before dragging her into this corner to rape her?

Godric felt a quiet rage build up in him and took a step forward slowly, bearing two millennia worth of authority down on them, snaking it carefully around the woman, watching the men be forced down on their knees from the weight of it, heaving in difficulty to fight against it. He quickly decided that glamouring them wasn't an option, taking to his sadistic side of scaring them thoroughly like a bad horror movie.

"I could kill you both and made it look like an accident." he mused out loud, his voice still light, "I could do plenty of things you would never recover from... Things that would leave you with nightmares for the next decade.." Godric took another step closer, his pupils dilating as he stared into Joe's eyes coldly as Joe took a shallow breath, shuddering from the weight of fear and authority bearing down on his whole body, "You're lucky you weren't born a century too early, Joe. Or right now, you would be dying a slow death hanging by your guts while I lap up your filthy blood, and make you an example out of yourself." Godric glanced at the taller man, "You're smart to fear me, boy. If I so much as smell either one of your stench on another unwilling female, you will know my wrath, human jurisdiction or not."

He smiled coldly at them, a glimpse of the monster he once was peeking through, as his fangs clicked out, his grin turning menacing as the seconds passed, "Know that you will face ten-fold of this pain the next time this happens."

Godric made quick work of breaking both their noses, carefully fracturing a few ribs, painfully dislocating every bone in Joe's hand that had still been wrapped around the woman's arm. Within seconds, the two men let out painful screams as Godric took off his jacket and wrapped it around the woman's slight shoulders, zipping her in. He inhaled again, this time committing the men's scents to memory, as he kicked at them with human weight, almost a light nudge for a vampire, "You can't run from me any time soon, boys. If I were you, I'd heed my warning. Good evening to you both." Retracting his fangs, he turned to face the woman, her eyes widening slightly as she finally realised she was wrapped up in his jacket, his face softening into a small smile so as not to frighten her any further. "Come, we should get you out of here.", Godric placed a hand on the small of her back as he guided her out of the alleyway, and into the side walk.

It wasn't until they'd turned the corner that he paused in his step to gaze at the still quiet woman, "Are you quite alright now?" he asked gently. He could hear her heart still thrumming away in adrenaline, she still smelled like fear coursing through her veins, and her breaths came out in short pants.

"N-not so.. I.. um..", the woman stammered, clearly trying to gain her wit about her. Godric tilted his head, a seemingly human behaviour he'd observed, in most social settings, it spurred the other party to elaborate their thoughts. He was right, it seemed, she took a breath and let out a quick sigh of relief, as if it calmed her somewhat, but her eyes darting around to the road behind him, "Th-thank you," she looked at him, "for saving me just now. I.. I didn't think I would see myself alive after they beat me up."

Godric nodded twice, in acknowledgement, "I couldn't help but notice the bruises. Do you need to go to the hospital to seek treatment?" He took out his mobile phone, not waiting for her response, and made the call with instructions for his day man to drive over. He glanced over at the woman as he ended the call, noticing she was trying to salvage her modesty by wrapping her torn dress around her body, his jacket unzipped while she did so. He saw that it was opened up like a long robe would, exposing her front to the evening chill.

"May I?" he gestured to her dress. She nodded awkwardly, unsure of what he wanted to do. He tore a short strip of cloth up the length of her dress hem to her waist and nicked two holes by the other side of her waist, drawing the strip through and securing it in a loop to hold the material up. He zipped the jacket up again, there wasn't much he could do with the popped buttons of her dress. He prised the small purse from the hand that clutched on it too tightly and held her small hand in his own and started down the road again, making headway to the location where they would meet up with his day man.

"What do you call yourself, child?", he asked as he gently tugged her along, casting a look sideways.

"Briony. Bree, for short.", she whispered out, still trying to recover from her earlier fright.

Godric remained silent as he paced them quickly over to the next road crossing, where a black sedan awaited their arrival. He was thankful that his day man was somehow nearby tonight. He opened the passenger door and guided Briony into the vehicle, gracefully folding himself into it after her.

"Take us to the nearest hospital, she needs medical treatment.", he informed his day man as they moved off from the curb.

"Briony, child.", Godric turned slightly to look at her, he smelled more than noticed her salty tears rimming her eyes, her chin quivering as she finally broke down from her initial shock. He regarded her for a brief moment as she let out a quiet sob and placed a reassuring hand on her knee, patting it gently.

"It's alright now, child. You're safe now. We'll get you to the hospital and then we'll see you home after that." He saw her bob her head in acknowledgement and left her to sob, knowing that humans usually fared better after releasing their emotions.

'Better tears than nothing, I suppose.', As old as the vampire that he was, he remembered it was awkward to deal with females crying over anything. It was a trait that he found was untiringly everlasting, something that accumulated over the many generations of the overly repressed gender characteristics. 'In my time, the women did more than the men. Crying was never just a woman's trait.', he smiled inwardly, remembering a time before clothes made the gender, before the times when women were objectified rather than be of an equal stature to the opposite gender. Those times were clearly as ancient and as forgotten as his age was. He felt no remorse over it, however, it was just human evolution. Later, rather than sooner, it would come full circle again. His gaze shifted from the shuddering form to the window as he continued petting Briony's knee in comfort, she seemed to quieten from his repetitive action. They were almost at the hospital.

"Do you have your identification card on you, child?" he asked, his hand now on her shoulder, sitting her up from her haunched over position. She dragged the back of her hands over her tear streaked cheeks and nodded quickly, and motioned for her bag. He passed it to her and watched as she fumbled in the dim light from the window, finally brandishing it out with shaking hands, and a stony look. He watched as she took in a deep breath, where she winced as pain shot through her from her bruised ribs. As far as he could tell, they weren't broken, her breaths would smell of blood if it were, she would be gurgling in a bloody mess many moments ago if that were the case. They would leave large angry marks for many days though.

The car slowed down as they got to the emergency entrance, and Godric zipped out even before the car stopped fully, fetching a wheelchair and opening the door for Briony as she made to get out.

"Sit. Relax. The doctors will have you looked over in no time.", he plucked her card out of her hands and wheeled her into the hospital, handing her over to the nurses as they fussed over her. This would take a few hours, at least. He had a recent dislike for hospitals as of late, too much blood. Too much rot. Too much death concentrating in one location, even for his liking. Perhaps a new vampire might be more inclined to the bloody taste in the air, but he'd reached a point in his eternal life where too much was really too much. He schooled his face into one of impassiveness as he handed the identification card over to the registration counter, informing the nurse of Briony's circumstances and that the bill would be tabbed in his name. He was lightly amused as he observed the nurse's reaction as she realised quickly that he was a vampire, in a hospital. It was one of confusion, then shock, and then fear, and finally, an attempt at professional bravado. He would likely be impressed at her bravery, but he reckoned she'd seen enough vampires in her job to freak out at one standing before her. Still, he could smell the fear in her. How could he not?

After a quick plea to her, to have a doctor see to his charge immediately so they could leave sooner, he placed himself in a seat closest to the entrance, hoping for some reprieve from the stench of rotting flesh from the patients within the building. Might as well continue observing the humans while he waited.

It wasn't two and a half hours later that a nurse rolled Briony out in a wheelchair, a paper bag of medication in her lap, and puncture marks on her forearms from where they drew her blood, and fed an IV into her. Quick instructions with regards to her medication that the nurse fired off at her, Godric got up from his seat and thanked the nurse. He saw that Briony was now only sniffling, much calmer from when they first arrived. Pushing her towards the entrance, his day man got out of the car and returned the wheelchair as Godric helped Briony into the car.

"Thank you, Mr...", Briony started, looking at him with tired eyes.

"Godric.", he replied simply.

"Thanks, Godric. Really. How can I repay the kindness you've shown me tonight?", she smiled slightly, finally feeling a little safer and her mood a little better than from almost three hours ago.

"Kindness?", he regarded her in a quiet, friendly stare.

"You could've just left me in the hospital, or just called a cab for me. You didn't have to wait.. or send me home.", she elaborated nervously, "um, just that, I'm grateful you went beyond what anyone else would do, so thank you for that."

Godric gave her a small smile, "You're welcome. I couldn't possibly just leave you while you were feeling out of sorts from your ordeal."

He was used to having people thank him constantly for doing his job, and didn't think what he'd done was too far beyond anyone's standards. If anything, he enjoyed being thorough about the activities he chose to take on. He turned to look out the car window as they entered the thoroughfare of the bridge, taking on the sight of the vast structure.

Briony fidgeted in the seat next to the vampire. Why he kept calling her child was beyond her. He looked more like a freshman in college, rather than his weird mannerisms that had an old world charm about him. She felt a little weirded out by that. She swallowed down her puzzlement and convinced herself that the vampire called 'Godric' was probably many, many centuries old. She idly mused the background of his name was quite telling to be something from Arthurian times or older. Despite the fact that her evening could not have been any worse the way it started out, she felt like she could finally take a breather.

She'd been forced by her aunt to go on yet another blind date, only to find out she'd been stood up - yet again. So she had to get out of the restaurant after the quickest solo dinner she'd ever had in a fancy Italian place, face red with embarrassment as a kind waiter brought her a few glasses of red wine, compliments from the manager, to ease her situation. She then had the misfortune of making the wrong turn as she hurried away along the streets, and had been met with her attackers. They had brazenly rained punches on her to knock the wind out of her, her head colliding with a wall somewhere along the way, earning her a throbbing head and ringing ears. To make matters worse, they'd dragged her into that godforsaken dirty, dark, dead-end alleyway and as she tried to struggle with them, they'd torn her favourite dress apart. If not for Godric somehow appearing out of nowhere from above, she would've been a raped out rat feed for the next three weeks at the rate the two men were treating her. The fact that he'd not only taken her to the hospital, he'd even paid for her medical bill and stayed to wait for her was beyond her. Plus, he didn't talk much. Based on hear say from her more adventurous girlfriends, she'd heard most vampires were opinionated, crude, and really loud. The fact that they were physically more superior than humans gave them the leeway to speak their thoughts without filtering them first.

"Um, so..." she started awkwardly, a niggling thought that vampires being really quiet creatures was probably a rare find crossed her mind, "perhaps I could, I don't know, do something to show my thanks.."

She sneaked a glance at him shyly, wondering what a vampire could want from a human, beyond sex and blood, as a means of thanks.

"I'm not sure what vampires like beyond blood and sex, b-but, if that's what you want in thanks, I suppose it's not too much for me to offer that." She continued nervously and was a little surprised when Godric chuckled lightly at her offer.

"I have little need for blood, child, and I wouldn't want to put you in a situation where you would be uncomfortable. I did just save you from one just a few hours ago, haven't I?"

Briony blushed hotly and felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment and what felt like a hint of shame from her earlier ordeal. Nope, of course not, she really didn't want to be uncomfortable about the sex bit. In fact, she could keep away from it for a while. In fact, she didn't want to go out for a while if she could help it.

"Perhaps, you could provide me with your company, one based on intellect instead. One evening is all, if that is what you can spare me.", he looked at her with earnest eyes, "I am constantly surrounded by my kind, and the humans that I am in contact with have little to say to me beyond work, or the common politeness of interaction."

She nodded in quick agreement, chit chat she could do, she liked talking most days, "However many evenings you desire, I can be sure to provide you with." She smiled, relieved that she could thank him in this regard.

The car drew up to the curb just right outside her apartment block, and Godric helped her out once again, and walked her up to her apartment door. He handed her a card as she turned around to thank him again for everything.

"This is my number, do send me a message as to when you'll be available. Would you be available next week?" he stood outside her door, a respectable distance away as she hadn't invited him in verbally.

"Yeah, sure. Some time next week, I'll text you soon." She smiled gratefully and watched as he zipped out of the building at vamp speed after bidding her a good night.

She finally locked her apartment door and sighed as she went into the bathroom, peeling off the remnants of her clothes as she stepped into the shower, a damn long, damn hot shower was the exact thing she needed right now. She glanced at the bathroom clock, it was barely past midnight, and as exhausted as she was, with the attack still fresh in her mind, she doubted she would get much sleep tonight.

'This night really couldn't be long enough. I just want to bury myself and never surface up for air again.' she thought as she lathered and scrubbed at her skin where they'd touched her. She shuddered in slight disgust, her skin raw and burning slightly from the hot water cascading over her. She let out a loud sob and sank down along the shower wall, pulling her knees to her chest as she cried, naked and raw, inside and out.

Unbeknownst to her, Godric had been perched on her building roof, his keen senses picking out her cries from a few floors below him. He sat there observing her cry for another hour, his vampire senses merely curious at her reaction to the aftermath of her evening. He couldn't exactly feel compassionate, he supposed he would if he were more human. He'd watch plenty of humans cry over many things over the past twenty one centuries, to listen to this human cry was yet another experience he would file away again. He was only glad that instead of being the one to cause her sorrow, he was the one who helped stop it from being any worse than it would have been.

With that, he stood up from his spot and took off into the night, making his way back to his nest. Dawn was still a few hours away, but he suppose he could read in his library for the rest of the night, his propensity to be out of the house for tonight had waned off.

a/n: fear not, I shall update with another chapter soon enough. :) thanks for reading!