A/N: so, this idea came to me in a dream, and it was so strong I literally got out of bed at 6 a.m. to get it down. And I NEVER get up at 6, peeps! You're going to see some characters in ways you might not like them in this one... just a warning. It's been a while since I've written - the creative muse done up and left me - and I thought that when I did start writing again, it would probably be a little snarky, funny one-shot. But I got this instead... Rated M for language, and later, lemons.
...
Sookie was exhausted. She'd worked a 12 hour day, and when they finally called it a day on set, she got in her car and headed home. It was about 7 o'clock in the evening, and all she wanted was to slip on one of her bikinis and hit the pool.
She loved her job, she really did - hell, it was where she'd met Eric. She worked as a property master on films, both independent and major blockbusters. Right now, she was doing props for Harrison Ford's latest film. It was, without a doubt, one of the top 3 films she'd ever done - the top slot being the job with her husband, of course. Harrison Ford was her very first crush, as Han Solo, and working with him was like a dream come true for her.
She got in her car and hit the highway - everything in L.A. took almost an hour to get to from the set, and most of it was highway driving. She usually passed the time listening to mindless pop music and singing along at the top of her lungs. It was a good way to decompress and let off the steam and stress of the day.
Soon, she pulled in to her apartment complex parking lot, noting with her tired brain that Eric wasn't home yet. His flashy red Corvette was nowhere to be found, and that could only mean one thing - he'd gotten the part.
Smiling, she ran upstairs to their small 2-bedroom apartment and quickly changed into her favorite polka dot bikini. It had boy short bottoms, meaning it was better to swim laps in than some of her string bottomed sets. She threw on her giant, fluffy pink robe and a pair of flip flops and headed out to the complex pool.
Once there, she threw off her robe and dove into the deep end. She swam over and took off the rope that marked the deep from the shallow, and began swimming laps. The pool was where she went to work off the stresses of her day, let her tired muscles loosen up a bit. When she got out each night, she felt cleansed somehow.
She was on another countless lap when she heard the gate to the pool area squeak. Looking over, she saw her husband, Eric. She called out, "Hi Baby! I'm almost done, let me get out and-" when he cut her off.
"Sookie..." he said, his voice strangled. Startled by his tone, she swam over to where he was crouched at the side of the water. His face looked grey, and there was an expression on it she'd never seen before - fear.
Eric was never afraid of anything - losing out on a part, going for a really big part when he was still mostly unknown, hell even when cut open his head in a minor car accident he didn't look afraid. And his looks were his job, his career - SHE was panicked when she got to the E.R., not about his looks but just worried about HIM - but he was stoic throughout the stitches it took.
So, something must be really wrong for him to look so ashen, with fear in his eyes. She immediately worried that something was wrong with one of their family members - her Gran, or maybe his sister Pam. She looked up at him from the water expectantly.
"Sookie..." he choked out again.
"Eric, what's wrong?" she cried. "Whatever it is, just tell me."
Wordlessly, he held out his cell phone and hit the button for voicemail, then speakerphone. A woman's voice had left him a message, and she sounded barely in control of herself.
"Come to Mount Sinai hospital. We'll meet you there." Abruptly the call was ended.
The caller wasn't anyone she recognized. "Eric... who's that woman? Who's "we?"
He said nothing, looking anywhere but her. "Eric..." she started to ask again, when an idea, so horrible, hit her straight in the chest. Her hand shot out and knocked the phone out of his, right into the water.