A/N. I didn't forget about her, I just thought she deserved a moment all to herself. I've got to imagine my girl having some kind of happiness before S5...

I own nothing.

True Blood S4

A Moment For Sookie

"Oh my God, Eric?"

"That would be me," he said as he smirked at her.

Sookie stilled her heart and took a deep breath before she spoke again.

"I thought you were done with me, Eric Northman."

"How could I be? You are not done with me." He sat down on the porch rail in front of her.

"My party was beautiful."

"I know."

Sookie sat in silence again, looking beyond his fine form as he sat, still directing his piercing gaze at her.

"Eric, I love you," she managed at last.

"I know. What else?" he demanded.

"I always loved the killer in you, right from the start."

"Now, Miss Stackhouse, tell me something I do not know," he asked her with the hypnotic seduction that was his voice.

"I love the killer in me. She fascinates me."

"I said tell me something I do not know." His tone became subtly threatening.

"Do I have to give you an answer about being turned right this moment?"

"No."

"Thank you," she said with a sigh of relief.

"Before sunrise would be acceptable."

"Eric! I...I..."

"That's hours from now. Enough time for me to...enlighten you...educate you...Eternity 101—now in session."

"Eric, this is not a joke."

"Do you see me laughing?"

Sookie tried to ignore his threatening tone and the thinly veiled anger in his eyes. "I don't want to be convinced. I want to be sure."

He looked away from her then and spoke to the night. "You are sure. Just say it and get it over with, either way."

"It's the only way I can have you? Really?"

"You already have me. It is the only way that I can have you."

"I can accept you, all of you. I can love you. But I can't be a vampire. I'm sorry to be a disappointment to you and I won't waste your time anymore. But I have to be true to myself. And I just can't do it."

Eric looked at her then as he stood up, registering a look of cool resignation that was fast becoming full-on detachment.

"Never apologize for being true to yourself, Sookie Stackhouse. I will have the contractor here in the morning that originally installed the cubby to come and seal it up. But the house is still mine—transfer of title to you or your heirs will only occur in the event of my demise. In the meantime, should you ever have any concerns that need to be addressed regarding the house contact Ginger and she will put you in touch with the appropriate party."

"Eric, I..."

"There are no more words left to be said." His words silenced her.

The first of Sookie's choked sobs erupted from her and she tried to blink the coming tears away. When she opened her eyes Eric was gone.

Alcide sat in his parked truck twenty minutes up the road. He knew when he left her that he would go back. He didn't know if he'd find her in the arms of Eric Northman or not, but he didn't care. Where that little blond firecracker was concerned he knew that he was just a glutton for punishment.

Alcide was the kind of man who simply needed to see tangible proof that he must give up on anything; he just had to know for sure, no matter how much such definite confirmation might hurt him. It had been that way with Debbie. He knew that many people thought he was stupid to let her run over him the way that she did, but they didn't know the Debbie he knew, the scrappy slip of a girl he'd known since they were children or the sweet girl he had fallen in love when they were teenagers. It was hard for him not to give her the benefit of the doubt and even harder not to care about her. When she went behind his back with Marcus it had been the absolute last straw; the point where he knew that she would never turn away from the darkest part of her nature which had taken over and consumed her.

And so it was with Sookie. From the time they'd first met he'd only known her to be heartbroken and in tears over some vampire and his drama. It had been gut-wrenching to be in the room the night she spoke to Bill Compton when he broke up with her over the phone. And as if that relationship hadn't been disastrous enough now she was in love with Eric Northman. As was to be expected, there was some rift between them; Alcide didn't have the particulars but he didn't really require them to know that Sookie's heart was breaking, yet again. And there he was, in the middle of the fallout, again. But this time it was because he loved her, had fallen in love with her. There were some who would say he was crazy to allow himself to get mixed up in her vamp drama, but until he knew for sure that he couldn't make her see the light of the recognition of his love for her, that's exactly where he vowed to be. As he turned on the engine and put his truck in gear to head back to her house he knew that he could be on the collision course to his own heartbreak, but he had to confirm it—one way or the other.

When he arrived at Sookie's house she was sitting on her porch in the dark. He could see her wiping at her eyes with the back of her hands as she saw him drive up. She rose from her chair to greet him as he got out and made his way up the porch steps.

"Alcide, what are you doing here?" she asked him through her sniffles.

"I was worried about you and thought I should come back and check on you. Looks like I was right to be worried—what's wrong? And don't say 'nothing'..." he warned, his brow furrowed over his dark brown eyes.

"It's over between me and Eric," she said simply.

"I thought it was over a while back, when he got his memory back."

"Well, it's really over, now. Really, officially, finally over. He wanted me to join him, become...like he is. I love him, Alcide...loved him. I just can't do that."

"Look, Sookie, I'm sorry for you about you two not working out, but I'm glad you're not going to be a vampire. I've never been in love with one before."

"What?"

"You have to know that I'm in love with you, Sookie. If you'd have gone through with it...well, I guess there's a first time for everything, huh?"

"Alcide, my heart is broken..." she began uncomfortably.

"Join the damn club. My heart's been broken over you since the first day we met."

"Alcide, I can't just take up with you at the drop of a dime..."

"I'm not asking you to, Sookie. I'm just asking that you let me be here for you and give us some time to see where your feelings may go."

"Well, that's sweet and all, but I'm kinda on the rebound, here, Alcide. You know that's never a good way to start off another relationship and I can't make any promises."

"I don't want promises, Sookie. I just want to be with you."

"Alcide, I'm not even gonna lie: if I spend too much time around you we both know that at some point we'll end up in bed. And when that day happens, because I know it will, I don't want to be crying my eyes out over someone else."

"That's easy—stop crying over him. Seems like you'd be tired of crying over vampires right about now," he said angrily. Sookie took the verbal hit with a physical shuddering of her soul.

"Well, if I'm gonna be with you, even if it's just for sex, then I want it to be about me and you, not me you and Eric Northman," she shot angrily back at him.

"Just for sex?" Alcide asked her incredulously. "Did you not hear what I said? I love you, Sookie Stackhouse. I'm in love with you. I don't want you just for sex."

"Don't you?"

Alcide gave her a look like she should know damn well better than to say such a thing.

"We've been keeping it all above board for quite some time now and for the first time we're both free people. I mean, it looks like Bill and Eric are finally out of your life and Debbie is definitely out of mine." He stepped closer to her, his huge tall frame overpowering her short petite one. "We're free. Free to do whatever we want. But I 'm not asking you to do anything you don't want to do, Sookie. I'm just asking for the chance for us to get to know one another better at whatever pace you want to take it. If you really don't want that just say so. And don't say that we can be friends, because I would like more than that with you. So you just tell me what you want, right now, and if you don't want me I'll never bother you again," he said finally, ready to hear the worst and already angry about it.

Sookie had more than enough ultimatums issued at her for a lifetime and especially in one night. She stepped even closer to Alcide.

"You know, I'm kind of working through some other issues besides Eric. My head's in a real messed up place right now, Alcide. It's really not a good time for me to try and make any major decisions. About anything."

"What things, Sookie? You still pining over Bill?" he growled at her.

"No, not Bill, other things," she trailed off absently.

"What is it, Sookie?" Alcide was incited then to a new level of worry over her as he saw real pain behind the faraway look in her eyes. "Talk to me, Sookie..." he pleaded with her.

"I can't right now."

"Sookie, I'm a real good listener," he said softly.

"Thank you for that. I promise that when I'm ready to talk I'll remember that."

"I'm gonna hold you to it," he smiled at her reassuringly.

Sookie looked up into his eyes wistfully. "This is not going to end well."

"Don't say that," he warned her, his smile fading away.

"I'm not in love with you, Alcide," she said, testing the water.

Alcide responded first by pulling her gently into his arms. "Yet," he murmured as brought his chin to rest on the top of her head.

Sookie dared to place her hands upon him and rested her head upon his warm, broad, rock-hard chest.

"I could get used to that... just so you know," he said softly to her then. Sookie could feel his smile emanating from his whole body.

"So could I, Alcide, just so you know..." she said, desperately trying to hold back her tears as she gave in, finally, to the warmth of his embrace.