a/n: I know… I owe chapters on my two other stories I left incomplete. I came across some spare time and wanted to work on those but the files of where I left off are on my other laptop. So that meant starting another idea I had.

Sookie's POV

I had been friends with Eric Northman since the second grade. We grew up together in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana and he was the only person that was a real friend to me besides Tara Thornton. I still remember the day I became friends with him all those years ago.

Flashback

"You're a freak Stackhouse, you can't play with us." Little Arlene Fowler demanded out on the small playground of my elementary school.

I had slipped up one too many times with answering questions people were thinking rather than saying, now my classmates were afraid of me. I had no idea why I could hear thoughts but it had always been this way.

"I won't bother anyone I just want to play tag too." My eyes were beginning to burn up with tears but I fought them off.

"Nope, my Mama says to not play with the devil's child!" Arlene pointed at me and the other kids around her all snickered.

Fine, I would spend recess alone. It was better than being with a bunch of kids who hated my anyway. I turned away from their laughter and started walking towards the far corner of the playground. While passing by the sandbox a voice spoke up.

"You can play with me if you want."

I looked down to see a blonde boy kneeling in the sand making a mountain or something. He had floppy blonde hair that was rather messy and had some sand stuck in it. His name was Eric and he was in my class but for some reason we had yet to speak to each other.

"Um, okay, what are you making?" I had no interest in the sandbox but I also had nothing else to do. This was the nicest anyone had been to me in awhile.

"A volcano… I like the explosions they make." He explained while tediously working on his masterpiece.

I sat down on the edge of the sandbox and watched him work.

"Don't listen to what those other kids say, they don't seem very nice. You might be different but you're always nice to everyone at school. I've never seen you be mean to anybody." Eric explained as if this was common sense. I didn't know he even paid attention to me.

"Well my Gran says two wrongs don't make a right. I'm starting to wonder though…" I sighed, I just wanted to be normal and for the other kids to like me.

"She's probably right, old people know lots of stuff. Wanna help me put some sticks and leaves on this to be the lava?" He started gathering up bits of orange dried up leaves and crunching them up.

"Sure" I smiled a little and started helping. I wasn't a huge fan of sandboxes but I was pretty happy to have one potential friend at school.

After that day I met Eric at the sandbox throughout the rest of elementary school. Through him I even made a few other friends and got to participate in regular games like tag and jump rope. But I always knew Eric was the only one who truly accepted me because whenever he was home sick I never got invited to do anything with his other friends. They were nice to me because they liked hanging out with Eric not because they really wanted me around.

Things continued that way into middle school and right through high school. I became friends with Tara freshman year and finally found one other real friend. Eric remained my friend as well and almost always ate lunch with us and her cousin Lafayette. Lafayette was gay and totally open about in by sophomore year which made him an outcast like me. It was unfair but at least we all had each other.

Eric could have been popular but for some reason he avoided it. He would spend time with some of the popular kids at school but usually he declined invitations to their parties. He was also approached by the football coach to join the team but he politely declined. He had a million friends at school but for some reason he chose to spend his spare time with me.

He even let me dig through his thoughts once when we were 17 and I could not fathom why he still hung around me. His thoughts were shocking and flattering to say the least. Eric Northman thought I was the nicest, most genuine person he had ever met. He found it easy to read people and knew most of the people at our school were shallow and not worth having as friends. He thought I was one of the few different ones that would actually be there if he ever was in real trouble. I also heard that he thought I was beautiful but he was worried about anything more between us because of my telepathy.

Now you would think that last thought would hurt my feelings but it didn't. It's hard to describe but I can sense a 'feeling' to people's thoughts. Eric's had not one ounce of fear towards me, he was just concerned about the general awkwardness such a relationship could bring about. I couldn't blame him because that was the same reason I never tried to even ask him to a dance. Just thinking about knowing exactly what Eric was thinking if we were fooling around made my cheeks burn red. There were just some things that should be left to be a mystery and that was one of them.

Our senior year of high school Eric suddenly decided my telepathy could be something to work through and adapt to. He had spent the second half of our junior year dating a cheerleader named Isabelle. She was nice enough to me and not a total ditz which was nice. However I could only like her so much since I was insanely jealous. I'd like Eric since we were old enough to have a real crush and now she got to have him. It felt unfair but I did not blame Eric. Neither one of us was daring enough to ruin our friendship by trying a relationship involving telepathy.

But the day after he broke up with Isabelle he kissed me on our walk home from school. I had never been kissed before but I seemed to be a quick learner. Unfortunately our make out session against a tree was rudely interrupted by Eric having a very loud thought about both of us naked and him behind me….. well you know… and for my little virgin mind that was far too much to take. I pushed him back a few steps and tried to will my face to not be on fire.

"Sookie? What's wrong?" He was confused and I just felt terrible.

"I-I heard…" I stammered to try and explain but it only made me blush more.

"Shit, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about my thoughts I was just…caught up." He seemed to remember what he had been imagining. "This could work though, I just have to take it easy on the dirty thoughts. I didn't mean to freak you out." Eric words were rushing out of his mouth. It was as if he could see this was his chance slowly slipping away.

"But you shouldn't have to do that Eric. That's the whole point! I'm not mad about your thoughts that's what you're supposed to think I guess… but I can't block everything out 24/7 and you shouldn't have to be controlling every thought all the time. It's not fair to you." Maybe if I was in my thirties and a sex expert this would not bother me. But I was 18 and had never been kissed up until ten minutes ago. Therefore Eric's graphic thoughts were enough to make me want to go crawl under a rock and hide my blushing face.

Eric sighed and stepped back. He did not seem happy with this resolution but he could not argue against it either. It was a very strange situation and we had no other real life examples on how to handle such a thing.

So that left us as friends once more even though neither one of us was completely happy with that.

End Flashback

I'm now twenty seven years old and since my Gran passed away I live alone in her old farmhouse. My parents passed away when I was young so my brother Jason lives in their former home just up the road. He's in my kitchen right now sitting at the table with Eric while the both of them inhale turkey sandwiches and soda. It's a Sunday so neither of them have work to rush off to.

Jason works on the road crew for the parish while Eric is helping to run his father's automotive shop. He's a mechanic but also in training to take over the family business. He went to a local college for a business degree and has plans of expanding the business once he is in full control of it. I'm sure it will work out for him, Eric has quite the mind for business and a charming personality to persuade anyone.

"Can you believe these fuckers?" Jason said with a mouthful of food as I sat down at the table with a diet coke.

"Jay you can't be so negative about it, not everyone is the same." I turned the volume up on the tiny TV sitting on the edge of the table that is pushed against the kitchen wall. We've never needed more than three seats in the kitchen so one side has always been against the wall to save space.

"Sook I know you're all sympathetic because you're different, but trust me you ain't like them." He shakes his head.

A lot has changed in the past five years. Vampires came out to the human race as being real. It's pretty crazy but true. They now walk among us at night and are trying to become a part of normal society by drinking TrueBlood instead of people.

I'm the most accepting of them out of our little group of friends, Eric being second since he is fairly open minded, but he does have some reservations about them. Tara and Jason are on the opposite end of the spectrum and refuse to believe a vampire could be anything but a killer. Of course none of us have met one yet so who knows if any of us are right.

"I don't care what they do as long as they don't hurt anyone. I will say this Nan chick is annoying as hell though." Eric rolled his eyes at the TV screen while Nan blabbed about some amendment for vampires.

I pulled my eyes away from him in order to not get caught staring. I had a tendency to just watch Eric because even though we had never dated I was still head over heels for the guy. He had grown up into a very handsome man. Eric was over six feet tall with broad shoulders and nicely tanned skin from being outside all summer. His blonde hair was cropped very short in almost a military style haircut but a bit longer. There was always a layer of blonde stubble on his face which I found extremely attractive along with his perfect blue eyes.

Luckily he was single right now so I did not have to tolerate a girlfriend coming around to drool over him. Deep down I knew if I just said the word Eric would give us a shot but I felt like it was bound for disaster with my telepathy.

We'd had a couple arguments over the years about thoughts I had overheard from him that weren't exactly nice. I know he did not mean them because at the time we had both lost our tempers about something or other… but that's thing… normal people can think whatever they want then go apologize and smooth things over. With me I can hear all those nasty things a person might not mean but at the moment they can't control their anger. It sucked and it forced me to lead a lonely life.

We eventually changed the channel and watched some sitcom and chatted for awhile until Jason decided to head home.

"Later Eric, don't steal all my beers!" He hollered as he went out the back door.

"Those are not even his I bought that beer for myself." I shook my head and cleaned up the few dirty dishes from dinner.

"Really I thought they were mine, I know how you like to get me drunk and take advantage of me." He wiggled his eyebrows as he started washing dishes for me. Eric was as comfortable here as he was in his own home.

"Oh yes, that's definitely the plan." I winked at him as I started drying the plates and putting them away. We practiced harmless flirting on a regular basis. There also had been a night of drunken fun once or twice with him but things never got very far. When I was drunk it was very hard to block out thoughts so I ended up getting a rush of all of his thoughts and it was enough to kill the mood.

The dishes were done in minutes and I offered Eric that beer. Surprisingly enough he declined.

"Sookie… we need to talk, like a serious talk." Oh boy this was not going to be good.

"Okay, about what?" I knew where this was going but I wanted to avoid it. I just wanted my best friend and if that was all I could have my entire life I had decided I was okay with it.

Eric did not sit down instead he paced around my tiny kitchen running his fingers through his hair. "You know what, us."

"I can't keep doing this Sookie. You know I want you, I always have, but you keep me at a distance. I can't imagine being in your shoes and hearing all of my thoughts. But don't you think it scares me to know you can hear anything I think? You could know all of my thoughts about you good or bad. You could end up hating me or thinking I'm a creepy pervert. Who knows… but I'm willing to take that risk." He stopped in front of me, his eyes on mine.

"I want to be with you and I think it would be worth risking everything."

Oh god, this was the kind of thing that happened in a romance movie. I had a perfect guy in front of me asking me to just let him in… but part of me could not let go and do that. I was too worried about losing him or not being able to handle one of his thoughts.

"Eric… I can't…" How could I explain that I was in love with him but this wouldn't work?

"Forget it Sookie" He muttered and started to walk out the back door.

"Eric wait!" I grabbed his arm to stop him.

He half turned back and the hurt look in his eyes killed me. "No, I've tried multiple times to tell you how I feel, but every time I get shot down. If you can't try then I can't do this anymore."

"Do what? Be friends?" My heart was pounding, was I going to lose him without ever taking a risk? I thought by not taking the risk I would get to keep him in my life.

"I don't know… I need to think." He pulled away and walked out the door to his red truck.

I watched him sit in the driveway for a few minutes just staring at his steering wheel. He looked so upset and I knew I was to blame for it. Then he pulled out of the driveway and disappeared into the night.

I hoped things were going to be okay between us. Eric had never approached me so blatantly since our first kiss in high school. We flirted and he certainly made his interest
in me known but in much more subtle ways. This was a big deal for him to just come out and say everything like that. It made me worry he might not show up after work everyday anymore looking for free food and a friend to talk to.

I might have lost him without ever giving him a real chance.

I went to bed with this horrible thought in my mind and could not sleep. I rolled over a million time but could never get comfortable. Finally I sat up and got out my old photo album. It was full of pictures of Gran, Jason, Tara, Lafayette and mostly Eric. I had pictures from freshman year of high school and up since that year I got a film camera.

As I flipped through the pages there were pictures of Eric and I fishing in the summer at a pond in the woods. There were some of Eric and his first car which was a beat up Beetle that he could barely cram into. There was a picture of us at prom dancing together that Tara had taken. I was not Eric's date that night but somehow he spent the entire night with me and my friends instead of her.

I slammed the book shut. Eric was right. He was worth the risk and I refused to lose him before I had even tried for something more. I picked up my cell to call him and realized it was 1AM… okay I could wait until tomorrow morning to tell him. I was still worried things would not work out in the end but I had to give it a shot. I fell asleep with pleasant dreams of Eric and little blonde babies in our future.

The following day I tried to call Eric several times but he never picked up. I assumed he was ignoring me and let him be for now. However by the end of my shift at Merlotte's I decided to just stop by his work. Yes… I never went to college and was stuck being a waitress. My telepathy did not get along well with lecture halls full of students.

"Hey Jack, is Eric here?" I walked into the automotive shop and Eric's father had quite the frown on his face.

"No… he didn't show up for work today and he hasn't answered his phone all day. I was actually going to call you in hopes you knew what he was up to." He checked his cell phone and shook his head before replacing it in his pocket.

"I'm getting worried. Did you see him at all yesterday?"

"Yes he was at my house until about nine, I thought he went home after." I was getting worried now. It was unlike Eric to miss work.

"This isn't good…." Jack called Eric's cell again but got no answer.

"I'll go stop by his apartment maybe he just skipped out on work today." I offered since I was getting really worried.

"Okay, call me when you get there. Maybe he'll show up here in the mean time." Jack attempted a smile but failed.

I booked it out the door and sped towards Eric' apartment which was on the edge of town. He could have been pissed off enough at me to get drunk and blow off work. Maybe that was all that happened and he was throwing up in his bathroom.

When I got to the apartment my heart plummeted. I found Eric's cell phone laying on the driveway with a cracked screen and what appeared to be blood on it. His keys were on the ground just outside his door. So he never made it inside…. I didn't touch them in case of fingerprints but luckily I had a spare he had given to me. I unlocked his door and went inside to be sure.

"Eric? Eric?!" I checked every room but he was not there and his belonging seemed untouched. Something happened last night right outside his door.

I quickly dialed 911 then called his father. Police arrived on the scene right after Jack and they quickly started investigating. They asked both of us a few questions but we could not provide too much information. They took the cell phone and informed us they would test the blood and also the entire scene for prints.

We ended up at the station answering more questions until just after 9 PM, when we officially filed a missing persons report. Eric's father was devastated, his son was the only family he had left after losing his wife to cancer three years ago. I dropped Jack off at his house since he was in no condition to drive then drove myself home in tears.

What if Eric was dead? What if he was being held hostage and tortured? And I was too much of a wimp to take a risk and be with him. I felt like an idiot and full of regret for not telling him how I felt.

For the next week Jack and I printed up missing person posters of Eric and put them up all over Bon Temps and in neighboring towns. The picture was one I had taken of him three weeks ago. He was standing in my backyard smiling. Right after that he had stolen the camera from me and decided to try and take pictures of my ass. I smiled at the silly memory and stapled the poster to another telephone pole.

That Friday night I curled up on my couch to watch television, hoping it would distract me from worrying about Eric. The police had no leads and each day my hope he would come home grew dimmer. At some point I fell asleep on the couch and my mind finally got some rest.

There was a loud rapping on my front door that startled me awake. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I clicked my cell phone to check the time. It was just after midnight. Who was here? As my brain started to focus I jumped up and my heart raced. Could it be Eric? Had he somehow made it home? Was he kidnapped and got free?

I raced to the front door and yanked it open without even checking through the curtains to be sure it was not a killer. The person standing there was Eric and a rush of relief went through my body.

"Eric!" I jumped forward and wrapped my arms around him. "You're okay, we were so worried about you." I hugged him even tighter, not wanting to let go. "What happened?"

I stepped back when I realized he was not responding at all. I looked up at him and realized his skin was covered in muddy smudges of dirt and what looked like… blood? Someone had to have done something to him and he got free. I put grabbed his hand to lead him inside and it was ice cold.

"Oh my god, you're freezing! Come on you can take a shower and warm right up. Then we can talk." I started to walk but Eric was not budging. "Eric? What are you doing?" Was he in shock?

"Sookie.." His voice was completely smooth despite his disheveled appearance. "I can't, you have to invite me in."

After a couple seconds the words sunk in and a turned to face him with my jaw hanging open. Eric was a vampire.