I Write The Songs. CONTEST ENTRY
TITLE: Wherever You Will Go
CHARACTERS: Sookie, Gran and Eric.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything SVM related. I also don't own the song Wherever You Will Go by The Calling. I'm just borrowing CH's toys to play with. I'll give them back soon I promise.
PEN NAME: alyanne1375
BETA NAME: slcurwin
VIRGIN WRITER : NO
MULTI-CHAPTER: NO
TEASER: Sookie spends a day tending to Gran's grave and gets a message from beyond.
A/N: I'd like to dedicate this one-shot to my own departed grandmother, who was as close to me as Sookie was to Gran. I hope I did her memory proud and I know that I will forever keep her 'in my heart and my mind for all time'.
A/N 2: I want to quickly note that I tried to keep this as close to cannon as possible. I have not read the latest book yet, (may not ever) but I did skim the end so I could add a few details. Forgive me if there are any discrepancies. This takes place shortly after the events in the DL. Happy Reading.
Sookie looked down at the wheelbarrow to make sure she had all the tools and everything else she'd need.
Extra dirt – check
Trowel and hand rake – check
Jug of water with fertilizer – check
Garden gloves – check
Portable radio – check
Flowers – check
Jug of Sweet Tea (Well, she needed something to drink while working) – check
After double checking her list, she pocketed her cell phone, grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow, and pushed it toward the cemetery that was nestled between Bill's property and her own. She was in major need of guidance and comfort after the past few weeks and she couldn't think of anywhere she'd rather be than tending to a task that honestly should have been done long before this. When she finally reached her destination, she began to unload the items from her makeshift cart.
"Hi Gran," she spoke softly as she placed the flowers next to the barren plot in the pattern she felt would best suit them. "I know I should have come by before this but so much has been happening since….well pretty much since you…..left." Sookie set the small radio on top of Gran's headstone and turned it on softly. She pulled out her tools and set the wheelbarrow off to the side, and began to turn up the hard dirt on the surface of the burial place. Gran had tried to teach her all she knew about gardening but not much took. When she and Jason were growing up, yard work would be given as punishment to discipline two rowdy teenagers. It wasn't until after Gran passed on that she really began working with the flowers and yard, trying to keep them up to Gran's level of perfection as a sort of remembrance to her. If her Gran's prize winning roses were any indication, she had an epic fail. It was already late July and they'd yet to bloom this year.
After working for a while in the mid-morning sun and working up a bit of a sweat, she leaned back and pulled off her t-shirt to expose the bikini-top underneath. She felt like so much of her time lately was spent awake at night and she missed the sun. She got up to retrieve the jug of sweet tea and took a long sip. Yes, straight from the jug. She wasn't sharing it with anyone and she didn't want the hassle of bringing a glass out here and risk breaking it. It made her feel slightly naughty doing so, especially in front of Gran, well, her grave anyway. She shook it off by telling herself she was a grown woman and if Jason could drink straight from the jug then so could she.
She got back to work and was soon mixing the potting soil she'd brought to help fertilize the ground, with the dirt she just tilled up. She began meticulously planting the flowers as she hummed along with the radio. Sookie loved Day Lilies and always thought that no matter what color they were they looked like they had little faces. So she got one in a deep burgundy color, and four others in pink, planting them around the first. She made these the center piece and panted some Pansy and Petunia's in assorted colors around those. These were all flowers that reminded Sookie of Gran in one way or another.
As she worked, she began telling Gran all the things that had happened since she'd passed. And because she felt no judgment in talking to the ether, she also confessed all her sins, including the lives she'd been forced to take in order to preserve her own. She still felt a certain amount of guilt from the lives lost because of her. It felt very freeing to Sookie to be able to talk and get out all the hurt and pain and confusion she'd been feeling as of late. She told Gran about Bill's betrayal and eventual redemption when he helped Niall save her from Thing one and Thing two. She told her of the problems with Sam and all that had happened with him, and the friend she felt she'd made in Pam and how hard Miriam's death had been on her. Alcide even made it into the conversation along with Amelia, Bob, and finally updates on how Jason was faring since Crystal's death.
Feeling she was on a roll, she even fussed at her dead grandmother, for never telling her about Fintan in person. She explained about the treachery done to her by Claude and his band of Fae miscreants and how Niall had taken them and Dermot back to their own realm and sealed things up for good this time…at least she hoped. She talked for hours, while digging, planting, patting down and watering up the new flower bed. She had been finished for a while when she finally got most of what she'd wanted to tell Gran off her chest. There was just one person she hadn't mentioned and she was just so confused about him and their current situation. She felt the sudden need to lie down, so she spread out her t-shirt next to the grave and using the leftover potting soil as a temporary pillow, she laid down beside the small flower bed she'd just planted and dozed right off.
So lately, been wondering, who will be there to take my place, when I'm gone you'll need love to light the shadows on your face….
The words and faint tune echoed around her as she walked down the misty morning path through the graveyard.
If a greater wave shall fall, and fall upon us all, then between the sand and stone could you make it on your own?
She emerged from the sacred ground, onto her front yard slowly gliding toward her front porch. She was wearing a white, light cotton dress with eyelet trim that came down to her ankles. She walked barefoot among the cool grass and though she remembered it being well after noon it felt more like just past dawn. As she rounded the corner putting her front porch in full view, her heart stopped.
And maybe I'll find out a way to make it back someday, to watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days.
"Gran?" she sprinted for all she was worth, straight into the loving warm embrace she felt certain she'd never feel again. "I must be dreaming." She mumbled into her grandmother's shoulder.
"You are, but why should that make this any less real?" Gran said in the same sage way she always had about her. After a few more moments in her arms, Gran led Sookie to the porch swing.
"Now, my dear, I felt like you needed a little pep talk, you sounded so forlorn and lost back in the cemetery."
"Y-you heard all that?" she choked out in a mournful sob.
"Well of course I did, silly girl. And that's not the only time either. Wherever you go I am with you, always. I thought you knew that?"
"I always hoped, but…I am ashamed to say I just haven't felt it lately. So much has happened….."
Gran frowned a bit, "Yes I know, and trust me I had more than a few words with that so called fairy godmother of yours when I last saw her."
"Claudine? You saw her? How and why would you be angry with her? She helped me out of a few sticky jams."
Gran snorted, "She was a lousy guardian, and the one I sent to you is much better suited to your protection and well-being, on several different levels." Gran nodded to emphasize her point.
Sookie shook her head in confusion, "The one you sent? Gran what are you on about? And Claudine wasn't lousy; she saved my life twice and died protecting me from that psychotic Fairy."
Gran wasn't backing down on this issue and Sookie could see it. "If that twit had been paying closer attention to her charge instead of flitting about shopping for baby things when you were taken, none of that awful stuff would have happened and she would not have died defending you. Besides the one I sent to look after you in my stead did a much more reasonable job at caring for you."
Sookie was stumped. Who was Gran referring to? "Bill? You sent Bill to watch over me?"
"Heaven sakes girl, will you open your eyes and look around you for a change! I would never send that lying, cheating, and general snake-in-the-grass, to look after you. Why must you be so obtuse?"
Sookie huffed out in frustration, "Then I don't know who you're alluding to Gran, and if you're not going to tell me, why do you keep bringing it up?"
"I would say his name if I could but I can't," Gran snapped. Then in a slightly calmer tone, "Besides I don't need too, you know whom I speak of. You just refuse to say it, just as you refused to talk of him earlier in the cemetery. You're not the only one that has some insight now. I can hear what's in your heart, and yours cries out for him. Can't you feel how much better you are with him than without him? There is a reason for that."
"Eric," Sookie breathed out the word like a sigh. "You're talking about Eric aren't you?
Gran's smile was dazzling, "See, I knew you'd catch on, just needed a little shove, always did."
"But, Gran, he's…he's…he's…" she just couldn't make herself say it. All the little lies she'd told herself after Bill broke her heart, she did in order to keep herself safe. Safe from the hurt, the pain, the loss… but here in this place, wherever that may be, she couldn't lie to Gran, or herself, anymore.
Gran waited patiently while Sookie came to terms with her emotions. When Sookie looked in her eyes with such pain, Gran took her hand and spoke tenderly, "I can feel the love you have for him, dear. Let go of the pain you've wrapped yourself in, Sookie. Trust in him, but most importantly trust in you. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you made, and especially the ones you didn't make. Let go of your guilt, sweetheart, it does nothing but bring you misery."
Sookie was quietly weeping, and as she leaned on her beloved grandmother's shoulder, Adele slowly stroked her hair and back in the soothing way parents have on their children. With each caress, she could feel herself lighten. The heat from the sun on her back felt so good. It felt as if all the pain, hurt, and other negative feelings were being pulled out of her and evaporating into the air around them.
I know now, just quite how my life and love might still go on. In your heart, in your mind, I'll stay with you for all of time.
The haunting melody floated through the air once more.
Gran pulled back slowly and wiped the tears off Sookie's cheek. "Sweetheart, our time together here is ending, you'll be waking soon, and it's nearly dark."
Sookie looked around her with confusion, "It looks the same as when I got here a few minutes ago. It's nowhere near dark."
Gran chuckled, "No its twilight here, the time just before dawn or just before dusk, however you look at it, and it's the time of day that holds the most possibilities." Gran stood from the swing and walked with Sookie over to the steps. "There is one more thing I need to tell you before you go. I appreciate the flowers my love," Sookie looked down and saw herself sleeping on the ground next to the grave site, "however, you need to stop thinking of me as being here." Her hand moved to encompass the cemetery they stood in. "I'm here," Gran placed one hand over Sookie's beating heart, "and here." Her other hand cupped her cheek as two fingers tapped her temple. She gently placed a loving kiss on Sookie's forehead as she stepped back from her slightly, but did not remove her hands from their positions. "I will be here with you always Sookie, you'll never be alone."
Sookie woke to the sound of her radio playing, 'Wherever You Will Go', by The Calling. She sat up and listened to the poignant refrain as the memory of her dream floated peacefully through her head. She smiled despite the tears running down her cheeks, and took no notice of her surroundings until her phone began to scream at her.
"Hello?"
"Where are you? I'm at your house and you're not here."
"Eric, I'm sorry, I fell asleep. I'm at Gran's grave….." before she could finish her sentence Eric was standing in front of her.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "This is an unusual place to start a garden."
Normally, Sookie would have snapped at him for his smart comment, but after her dream and conversation with Gran, she realized this was a defensive move. Strike at him before he could strike at her, and she was done with that. "She grinned widely and said, "Yes I suppose it is. Will you help me clean up?"
Eric was floored by this sudden turn about. But he refused to let it show. If they'd still had their bond she'd already know, but then he also wouldn't have panicked when he found her missing from her home. They worked in a peaceful silence as they picked up her things and headed back to her house. They left the wheelbarrow by the shed, she'd put up the things tomorrow, and as they walked into her house, she took his hand in her own.
"Eric, I know we were supposed to go to Fangtasia tonight but would you mind if we stayed here. I wanted to tell you about today." She led him toward the couch after he nodded his ascent. Truth be told he was completely confounded by this…change inside his Lover. He couldn't entirely put his finger on exactly what this change was, but he thought he could see a fire lit behind her eyes. He couldn't remember seeing this in quite some time. The more she talked about her dream, the more she opened herself to him fully for the first time since his amnesia. He felt bolstered by her words and actions as they began to caress each other. Each touch burning away the doubt, resentment, and pain the past few months' events had brought to their relationship. They made love to each other with a reverence and passion that neither had felt as intensely before.
Just before dawn, during twilight, Sookie looked deeply into Eric's eyes, as she stood next to him in front of the closet in the spare bedroom, "I want our bond back. I miss it; I miss feeling you, all of you. But most importantly, we need it if we're going to kick that bitch back to Oklahoma." Eric didn't hesitate; he bit into his wrist and then her neck as he offered it to her. Their mutual consumption, brought an equally mutual climax, and as Eric began to sink into his day death, tucked safely in his 'cubby' a few moments later, he heard Sookie whisper, "I'll go wherever you will go," as she secured him inside.
Sookie slept until, almost 2 pm. After she took care of her needs, dressed, and ate lunch, she returned to the shed to put away the tools from the night before. She found that she couldn't keep the smile off of her face. She felt lighter and freer than she'd had in a very long time. Forgiving herself and trusting in Eric, as well as herself, did exactly what Gran said it would. As soon as she was finished with her task, she vowed to go write down her dream so that she'd never forget it, not that she thought she ever would. As she rounded the corner of the house, she spied Gran's roses she was sure she'd killed. Instead, they had bloomed and were full of blossoms. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the flowers, "Thank you, Gran, for everything. I think I'm going to be just fine now."
If I could, then I would. I'll go wherever you will go. Way up high or down low, I'll go wherever you will go. I'll go wherever you will go.
The End