"Pam, I'm not feeling so good," Ginger said.

"Do I look like a doctor?" Pam asked, not turning away from the shelves in front of her.

"No, really. Could I go lay down for a bit?" Ginger asked.

Pam finally paused in her task to turn to Ginger. As she was about to remind her how much restocking they had to do, she saw the look on Ginger's face.

"You look green," Pam said. "It's not an attractive color. Go lie down before you fall down."

"Thanks, Pam" Ginger half-smiled. For Pam that sounded downright concerned. She took advantage of the moment of kindness to head to one of the offices where there was a couch present. She had the headache from hell.

She curled up on the couch and let her eyes drift to the framed photo of Eric and Pam. There was no better thought to fall asleep to than that of Eric Northman.

TRUE BLOOD

Pam continued with the housekeeping of Fangtasia for another hour. Though they had made a killing off of New Blood, Pam and Eric had decided that they enjoyed their little bar. Besides nostalgia, they also needed a place to keep Sarah for sale.

She organized the shelving and cleaned some of the clutter their idiot staff had left behind. Pam had to admit that while Ginger may be a shrieking banshee and had lost half her mind through repeated glamouring, she had been with them so long and knew them so well that she was almost the perfect employee. She did what needed to be done, usually before one of them even noticed that said thing needed doing. It was hard to believe that she had been around them for nearly 30 years, 10 of which had been in the horrendous video store she tried her best never to think of. Even then Ginger had taken care of all the daily needs.

Pam finally had enough of the grunt work when she chipped a nail on one of the boxes.

"I don't see Eric chipping any nails over this shit," Pam grumbled to herself.

"Heard that," he said, being only a couple of doors away and having vampire hearing.

"It's true!" Pam called.

"I'm looking at receipts!" he said but they both knew he was playing on his phone.

"Ginger!" she called. "Get your ass back out here."

Pam waited a moment but did not hear any movement from Ginger. Normally she came running, still a little afraid of what they might do to her. It always amused her when she did so, as did the memory of Ginger's reaction when she learned that Pam and Eric were vampires. Although she could have done with less screaming.

"Ginger!" she yelled, heading to the door to drag the girl out if she had to.

Eric was indeed playing games on his phone and ignored Pam hollering at their longtime employee. It was a fairly common occurrence. He could not, however, ignore what he heard next.

"Eric!" Pam screamed, a shrill panicky tone he had unfortunately heard several times from her in the past. He sped into the room to find Pam sitting on the floor beside Ginger on the couch.

"What's wrong?"

"She's dead," Pam said, panic faded away and resignation taking its place.

"Did you try giving her some of your blood?" he asked, not quite comprehending what his progeny was saying.

"Well I would have," she snapped, "but she was already dead."

Eric reached out to Ginger's neck to confirm what Pam was saying, too surprised to just take her word though he knew she must be correct. Sighing when he felt no pulse, he removed his hand and squeezed Pam's shoulder.

"I will call the appropriate authorities," Eric said.

"Oh, great," Pam responded. "I'm sure there will be questions." She moved to get off the floor and Eric helped her up as she sought for balance on her ridiculously high pumps.

She exchanged a look with Eric before turning and leaving the room. She continued with the stock until it was all over.

TRUE BLOOD

Pam spent the next week trying her best to ignore anything having to do with Ginger's sudden death. She claimed that she was busy due to now having to do her own job as well as Eric's and now Ginger's (to which Eric rolled his eyes) but he knew she was upset by the loss.

Later the second week Eric stood in the doorway of Pam's bedroom. They each had their own, although more often than not they would share his. Still, sometimes they enjoyed being able to get away from one another and Pam was now taking full advantage of the square footage of their mansion.

"I heard from the coroner," Eric said as she moved around her bed to pull the covers down.

"What was it?" she asked.

"Aneurysm," he relayed. "Apparently it started leaking and she slipped into unconsciousness and died."

Pam snorted as she moved into her adjoining bathroom. He followed her and watched as she took her makeup off.

"Humans are so fragile," she said.

"Why do you bother to take it off before bed?" Eric asked. He'd been meaning to ask her this for about twenty years but always forgot. "It's not as though it will clog your pores."

She rolled her eyes in the mirror. "It will get in my eye and irritate me, though," she explained. "And tomorrow I will do it differently so I may as well remove it now."

Eric shrugged. Mystery solved. "Good reasons."

"Thank you."

"She left us some things," he said. "Apparently she didn't have any family."

"That explains why she clung to us. Like mold. What shit did she leave us?"

"Some letters," he said. "One for each of us and some for the other staff."

"What did yours say?" she asked, finally finished and leaning with her hip against the sink.

"Haven't read it yet," he said. "Care to join me?"

TRUE BLOOD

"Eric," Pam read aloud, "you are the sexiest hunk of a man I have ever seen in my life. If you're reading this I am probably dead and I can only- oh jeez," Pam broke off. "This is just a level of pathetic I never knew existed. If you're reading this I am probably dead and I can only hope that you made me your vampire lover for all eternity. If not, thank you for all you have done for me over the years. My house and car are awesome and I have more money than my friends who actually finished school. They laughed when I dropped out to work at the video store, but they never laid eyes on you or understood. If I am just dead and not undead then thank you for the best fuck of my life. I hope you continue to live forever because the world should not have to go without your amazingly sexy body and voice. Love, Ginger."

Pam finished and tossed the letter down next to her on Eric's bed. "That was a work of poetry that'll live on," she said, referring to the poorly composed letter.

Eric was smiling throughout the reading. Ginger was a nutcase, but she had been a fun constant for the last couple decades.

"What's mine say?" Pam asked.

"Dear Pam, Like I told Eric, I'm probably dead. I had hoped to be your vampire sister, but if you're reading this then that probably didn't happen. I just want to thank you for your company over the years. You are the best friend I've had and I am so grateful I walked into y'all's store that day. I know that underneath your cold and unfeeling exterior is a person who has coped with a lot of shit in her life, and I've always respected your strength. Eric may be the sexy beast but you are the glue that keeps everything together and running. Thanks for letting me be part of it for so long. Love, Ginger." Eric finished and glanced up to see Pam tearing up. He looked back at the letter and noticed a bit more. "PS, I know that I am your favorite human. You don't let anyone else use your precious pens or the mirror in your office."

Eric laughed aloud at this. Pam did have a crazy thing about office pens. She said that they were the only brand that didn't suck and that after decades of searching for them she wasn't going to let just any stupid fucker borrow them and take off with them. When he had reminded her that she could simply buy more she had declared that he was one of those stupid fuckers and that he better not touch them. Apparently Ginger had privileges he didn't.

He heard some sniffling and looked up to see Pam about to lose the battle with her tears. "Awww," he said, reaching out to put a hand on her leg. "I'm sorry." He bit back a comment about how insightful (for Ginger) the second letter turned out to be. It didn't surprise him, though. While Ginger had a crush the size of North America on him, she did spend much more time with Pam.

"It's fine," she brushed off. "It's good she's dead now before she got too old and we had to put her down."

"Come here," Eric said and she allowed him to gather her up so that she was sitting with her legs across his lap and her face in his chest. "I know you liked her," Eric said.

"I didn't like her," Pam persisted, a few tears leaking out. "I was just kind of fond of her. My parents gave me a purebred pug when I was a little girl. It annoyed the hell out of me but it was always around yipping at me, no matter how much I neglected it. It's kind of like that."

"What happened to the dog?" Eric couldn't help but ask.

"My father killed it," she said but didn't explain further.

Eric didn't know why he was always surprised by these disturbing glimpses into her past; he knew she hadn't become as cold as she was on her own, but the insights still surprised him when she brought them up on the rare occasion. He reached up to stroke his fingers through her hair in a way he knew she found comforting but was too stubborn to admit to.

Pam was thinking about the similarities between her dog, now over 125 years dead, and Ginger. She hadn't treated either particularly well, although they had both kept coming back for more. She had been upset when the dog was killed, and although she hadn't mistreated it, she had still wished she could be nice to it a final time and regretted not giving it as much attention as it would have liked. She felt similarly about Ginger, though she could take comfort in the letter and the fact that Ginger obviously cared about her anyway. Hell, she'd called her her best friend!

Pam turned her head further into Eric's chest, enjoying his presence even as her tears were stopping. Finally she pulled away and closed her eyes as Eric kissed her cheek. He handed her a tissue from the bedside table, normally used to clean up when one of them could not fall asleep and got the bleeds.

She wiped the blood from her face and tossed the tissue back onto the table.

"Stay with me today?" he asked and she nodded, having had enough space away from him.

She would miss Ginger, but life would continue on. With a little less screaming.