Title: Somewhere A Clock is Ticking
Author: Blue Chance
Rating: I'm not quite sure where I'm taking this rating wise yet, but this is a True Blood story, so... Well, that should be a rating in itself.
Author's Note: I never do this, but the title of this story was taken from the title of a song, that I feel is particularly fitting to this fandom. I have a few other stories that I am working on at the moment, but I felt creative enough to pull this out of thin air, so I had to post it. It stands well as a one shot for now, but I'll definitely be continuing it. As per my MO, it may be a while before its completed, but I always get around to it eventually. Since I feel very inspired by this fandom at current, I think updates will come quickly. I hope you guys like it!
Part 1: Bad Things Happen
She shivered as she sat up in her bed. She took a long, deep breath, and then another... and then another. It was all about staying alive now. Staying alive through the pain. She stood slowly, and grabbed her fluffy bathrobe from the floor, where it had lain discarded for the night, and wrapped it around her body.
He was here.
She didn't want to face him. She didn't want to talk to him, or to explain. She didn't want him to be here. But he was here.
She walked from her room, and down the stairs as though in a trance, and then to the front door.
She opened it.
"Miss Stackhouse." The tall blonde vampire said in his usual deep, whispery way, staring down at her with eyes that were both full and empty at the same time.
"I thought I'd never see you again." Sookie said truthfully, not knowing what else to say, not even really knowing how she felt about him standing there. "Why didn't you just come in?" She asked, remembering that the last time he'd stood in front of her, she had invited him to come inside.
"I didn't feel it necessary."
She took a deep breath.
"Bill's dead." She could barely choke out the words, but there was no point in leading up to them.
The vampire swallowed.
"I assumed as much." She was in his arms and sobbing. "I felt your grief. I came as soon as I could."
For a good few minutes, there were no more words between the two of them. At some point, Eric must have carried her inside to the couch, because that's where the two of them sat as she cried relentlessly in to his cold chest, her wet face pressed up against his skin. He ran his hand over her head in a soothing petting motion, but otherwise did not move, and did not question her.
"I feel so guilty." She said finally, clinging tightly to the man as though she were afraid he would disappear at any moment.
"You have nothing to feel guilty about."
"Yes I do." Was all she said. She didn't feel like prancing out all her offenses for him to hear. She didn't want to bring up how most of the hardships he and Bill had suffered over the years had been due, in no small part, to her... And she certainly didn't want to bring up how she didn't feel a fraction of this pain over Alcide's death, and how that made her feel like an awful human being.
"I killed him."
His arms tightened around her.
"This was not your fault."
She felt the same shiver from earlier run through her again, and realized what it was.
Fear. She was afraid to tell him what had happened.
His arms tightened again.
"You're frightened." He said. "Why?"
She swallowed.
"I..." She pulled away from him and looked him the eyes, fear and tears making her chest tight. She stood up.
"I staked him." She said. He was up and staring down at her in less than a moment.
"You what?" He asked calmly, but she knew him better than to think he was actually calm.
"He wanted to die."
"He was dying." He responded with punctuated words.
"He wanted me to kill him."
"And you agreed to it?"
"No, of course not. Not at first, but..." She quickly wiped away a tear. "I could hear his thoughts, Eric. He was in so much pain..."
"How is that possible?" He asked suspiciously, imposing his height over hers.
"I don't know. Maybe it was because... because of my blood. Because I'd made him sick."
Eric turned away from her.
"He wanted to die."
He turned back to her, and had her by the arms.
"Yes, but he should not have made you do it." He said, angrily. "A selfish prick to the end."
"Eric!"
A crack rang out through the quiet house. She'd slapped him without thinking. His face remained cocked to the side as he spoke his next words.
"Did it occur to you," He started slowly, and then turned his face back to an angry Sookie. "That if he really was so determined to end himself that there were countless other ways to do it? Ways that didn't include making the woman who he claimed to love so much stake him?"
Yes, it had occurred to her. She said nothing.
"When Pam found me, I was ready to die. I'd given up..." He blinked. "Don't you think that I wished I could see you one more time? Hold you one more time? To have you there with me in the end?"
Sookie let out a sob.
"The difference is," He continued. "I would not have wished that on you."
He stared down at her for a long few moments, watching her cry silent tears. It seemed that he was about to reach out for her, but he didn't.
"This was a mistake." He said with a shake of his head, and began walking away. "I should not have come here tonight."
She followed him.
"Why did you come?" She asked with the kind of confusing anger that one only feels in the deepest throws of grief.
Eric stopped short of the door, his hand reached out for the knob.
"Because I love you." He responded simply, and then turned to her. "Which is why I shouldn't have come."
"You're right." She said, reaching past him to the doorknob, and opening the door. "Bad things happen to the men who love me, so you should stay away."
Eric was still for a moment, before moving his already outstretched hand to her face. He moved his finger over her damp cheek and caressed it so softly that he almost wasn't touching her at all.
"No, Sookie." He said. "The men who love you do bad things to you."
She closed her eyes just for a moment, but when she opened them again, Eric was gone.
She stood in the open doorway, shivering in the cold, feeling so sad and alone... and suddenly wishing she had asked him to stay.