Broken

Chapter 1

SPOV

Leaning against the door I sighed with relief, after taking a few deep cleansing breathes and willing my heart to stop pounding, I dropped my purse and wearily trudged through to the kitchen. Not for the first time had it crossed my mind that I really needed to stop with the double shifts, it's not that I didn't need the money but the phrase 'burning the candle at both ends' flashed like a neon sign at the fore front of my mind and I was fast approaching the line where something had to give, my health was starting to take a dive and no matter how many hot herbal baths I had taken, the aches in my muscles were deep and steadily getting worse. If I was being honest with myself I was barely functioning as a person anymore, I was a shell of my former self, had pushed all of my friends away and thrown myself into work as an excuse to try and forget. Oh what I wouldn't do to be able to forget what happened to me at the hands of Thing One and Two.

Moving round the table and perusing the contents of the fridge, nothing took her fancy, not that there was much in there to begin with. Glancing up at the clock on the wall I thought, another night and another meal missed.' The loss of appetite was beginning to show in her clothes, her 8-10 on a good day was beginning to becoming a 6-8 on a good day and today Sam had even mentioned the weight loss. Walking out of the kitchen, giving the answer machine a cursory glance on the way past and noticing it was flashing, indicating more messages. Stopping just for a second to hit the delete button and carrying on down the hall and into the bedroom where I flopped onto the bed face first and let the darkness take me.

Tap tap tap... tap tap tap... 'Urgghh, go away' she moaned into her pillow burrowing her face deeper and ignoring the annoying tap that had disturbed her blissful nothingness. The tapping got more persistent and eventually she dragged her head out of the pillow and glanced towards the window.

'I'm not letting you in, I don't want to talk to you and if you don't mind I'm trying to get some sleep.'

Dropping her head back down and rolling over to face the door, sending what she thought was a clear message to support her words. But now she was definitely awake and thinking, which was not good. Well her poor brain was fried and the constant stream of thoughts that came from outside the window pushed all of her own out of her head.

Why is she closing herself off from everyone? Why won't she talk to me anymore? So worried about her, she doesn't look so good and Sam mentioned he's starting to worry too...

The endless drone lasted a few hours while Bill hung around outside her house keeping watch over her. Her telepathy had certainly gone a bit haywire, but she was so scared and worried others would find out how broken her mind now was; no longer able to hear humans it appeared she could now only hear supes and she couldn't turn it off, her shields had been obliterated. So true to form she refused to think about it and buried her head in the sand, throwing herself in her into her work and trying desperately to ignore the fact that if anyone found out she wouldn't make it to the next sunrise. That morning was different though, as Bill's thoughts drifting off as he walked back to his house for the day, her own thoughts came rushing back to her. 'Something had to give', the phrase went round and round in her head like a mantra, 'Something had to give and it turned out it was my mind'. Just as the words floated to the front of her thoughts, she was once again swallowed by the blackness; both her body and mind no longer able to stay awake, after her frightening epiphany.

SPOV

I awoke with a start; there was a hazy mind at the front door, dragging myself out of bed, snagging my robe on the way to the door and trying to probe the hazy mind on the other side of the door as I walked to answer it, didn't shed any light on who the visitor was. 'Cant be too cautious', opening it just a crack I peeked out and was surprised to see Diantha on the other side. Today she was sporting a lime green leotard, orange tutu and hot pink tights; her hair was as pink as her tights with jet black chunks weaved through her choppy cut.

"", she thrust a letter at me, turned and dashed off into the woods.

Closing the door on the empty porch, I inspected the envelope, just my name was on the front in big elegant swirls, turning it over and grabbing the letter opener from the side table I began opened the letter while plodding to the kitchen, all the while my poor brain chanting, 'coffee coffee coffee' on the way, after all who could deal with something obviously supe related without a much needed caffeine injection. Glancing at the clock on the wall before flicking on the coffee pot, I sagged into a chair at the old wooden table and began to read.

Dear Miss Stackhouse,

I have several legal issues I would like to discuss with you. Would you please contact me on this number to arrange an appropriate time to meet.

Yours

D. Catalides

Leaving the note on the table and filling a cup with warm liquid goodness I went out to sit on the porch swing to take in the early morning air and do some thinking. The gentle swing back and forth on the old porch swing while dragging a foot along the worn boards soothed something deep within the soul, reminding me of simpler times. It always seemed to help with centring myself and I allowed my mind to drift for a moment before it inevitably found the path that led to Eric Northman. Something had happened to our bond that fateful night with the fairies, the strong hum in the back of my mind was now more of a whisper, no longer did I feel the ping of energy that used to tingle down my spine when Eric woke up for the night. Something had broken and I had no idea how to fix it, where to start fixing it, or even if I wanted to fix it at all, I felt lost. Well more lost than I usually felt anyhow. I never really knew where I stood with myrelationship with Eric, but before she could linger too long on thoughts of the tall blonde and very lethal vampire she pushed them aside and began to focus on what the legal issues Mr C could want to discuss, while she waited for a more social able hour to make an appointment.

A/N. This is my first dabble into writing, this idea has been bugging me for a while and I finally got it down. Please be kind in your criticism and let me know if you want more.