Bill Compton drove up to the front of his house. He was tired, dead tired. He had been up all night, all day and most of this night. Hep V was racing through his body at a frightening rate, sapping his strength and destroying his will. He felt defeated. To have survived so much, the Civil War, his turning, Loren's subjugation, Lilith's blood and a staking, to now circum to a damn virus. He was going to turn into a bloody pool of tissue, and quickly too, if the blue that raced down his veins was any indication.
As he left his SUV and started towards the door, he faltered and had to grab at the fender to steady himself. He composed himself and continued to walk to the front doors and entered. Lifting his head he saw his progeny, Jessica, and Sookie waiting for him on the staircase. Their faces were rife with worry, their cheeks stained with tears.
"Oh Bill," Sookie cried. "I'm SO SORRY! I didn't know! I never meant to hurt you, to bring this upon you." She stood, holding on to the banister. Part of her wanted to run and hold him in her arms, the other wasn't sure if Bill would even want such contact now that he must realize that she was the one who gave this dreaded disease to him.
Bill looked into the deep pools of her eyes. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he just didn't have the energy right at this moment. He dropped his briefcase and took a step towards her. His leg gave out under him and he would have fallen if Jessica had not been there with vampiric speed to catch him.
"Bill, we need to get you into bed. Let us help you," Jessica said with deep concern in her voice. Bill was her maker, he had always been the strong one, someone to look up to and to go for guidance. Now it was her turn to take care of him. With Jessica on one side and Sookie on the other, they helped him up the stairs to the master bedroom.
Sookie was wracked with guilt as she helped carry Bill into the bedroom. Memories of better times flooded her brain, of her and Bill making love in a time that seemed so long ago now. Just last night she felt that Bill was actually "her Bill" again and that maybe they could reestablish at least a friendship, if not something more. Now, as she looked down at his arms covered with the hideous blue veins that designated the terrible advance of this deadly disease, she realized she never would get the chance to make things right. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes once again.
Bill reached up and with a gentle touch laid his hand against her cheek and wiped away her tears with his thumb. "Do not cry, Sweetheart," he whispered.
"Oh, Bill! It's my fault. If I'd known I was infected, I would have NEVER let you feed on me. Please believe me." she sobbed. They brought him to the bed . She took off his shoes, as Jessica unbuttoned his shirt.
"Bill, how long have you been sick?" Jessica asked as she stared at the vicious blue streaks on his chest.
"I first noticed it just last night. There was only one blue vein. For some reason, the disease is affecting me at an accelerated rate." The two women who loved him most, carefully disrobed him and helped him into bed. They exchanged worried glances.
Jessica knew he needed sleep, but he needed blood even more. "Bill, let me get you some blood. We still have an emergency supply in the basement. I think this qualifies." Bill didn't argue, which made Jessica even more afraid. "Sookie, stay with him. I'll be back soon."
"Of course I will." Sookie said, and then more softly. "I will never leave him again."
As Jessica ran to the basement locker and then to the meager kitchen to warm the blood, Bill reached out to Sookie and took her hand. "There is so much I want to tell you. Why I did the things I did. Why I lied to you. And then, when I was Billith...I was not myself, Sookie. It must have been like when a human is high on drugs. I could not control myself. I am SO SORRY. Please, I cannot go to my true death without having you forgive me,"
"Forgive you? Of course I forgive you. Can you forgive me?"
"My love, there is nothing to forgive."
Sookie cupped her hand over his cold one, pulled it to her lips and kissed it. After all that had transpired between them, all the hurt, all the lies, he still loved her. She now realized that she had never really fallen out of love with him. Maybe that was why all the time she was supposedly happy with Alcide, the back of her brain was silently doubting. It knew better.
Jessica appeared with the blood, raised his head and shoulders and lifted the glass for him to drink.
"Thank you, Jess," he mumbled as he finished. "I do not know what I would have done if I had not made you. I may die soon, but at least I will not die a monster. You have saved my humanity." He locked eyes with her and then with Sookie. "You and Sookie both."
Jessica was chocking back another flow of blood-stained tears as she said, "You have to rest now, Bill. We will be here when night falls."
Bill closed his eyes and surrendered himself to his fatigue. His last conscious though was of the two young women sitting on the bed next to him. One he loved like his long lost daughter. The other was his "miracle" love. The one that gave him his first true happiness since the day he had to march off to the Civil War.
"There's GOT to be something we can do!" Sookie shouted after they had left Bill resting upstairs. "Jessica, where's Dr. Ludwig?"
"No one has seen her in 6 months."
"What about the CDC? Bill once told me that Pasteur had been turned. Surely, SOMEONE is working on a cure. Have you heard anything?"
"No, I...well, I haven't been paying much attention to the news. I've been relying on Bill to..." her voice cracked with emotion. She was thinking of James, but all of that suddenly became a non-issue with compared to the health of her maker.
"Well I'm NOT going to let him die, die the true death, when I can do anything about it!" Sookie spoke with utter conviction.
"You do still love him, don't you?"
"My heart and my brain have been fighting a war over that for the last couple of years. Last night I realized that he was truly was 'my Bill' again. Yes, I love him, and now that my heart has won that battle, I'm not going to let it be for nothing!"
"What can you do?"
"Everything I can," Sookie stated with utter conviction. She thought for a minute while Jessica's tired, red-rimmed eyes stared down at her. "Jessica, you need some sleep too. Can you rest in Bill's room? If he wakes, or gets worse, call me immediately. Here's my new number." She wrote it down on a pad by the phone in Bill's office. "I'm just going out to the cemetery. I've got to see if I can contact Niall. "
"You're fairy great-grandfather?"
"Yes, If science can't find a cure, then maybe magic can."
The sun was rising as Sookie rushed to the Cemetery between their houses. Bill should be sleeping for the next 12 hours, if he even had that long. She remembered looking as his arms and legs as she and Jessica had put him to bed. There were times when she could actually watch the deadly advance of the damn blue veins across his pale skin. It would be so easy to become petrified with fright and succumb to her fear and despair, but that would accomplish nothing. She had lost so many loved ones in the last seven years, she would NOT lose another without a fight.
She stopped by Gran's grave and sent up a little prayer for her help, then she quieted her mind and reached out, hoping to touch Niall's mind in the different dimension where he lived. She stood for several minutes, concentrating, hoping, pleading for his contact. As she felt herself weakening, she dropped to her knees and then sat on the cool green grass. "Please, Niall, Please I need your help! I can't lose him...PLEASE!" It was a mantra she repeated over and over in her head. The shadows around her shortened as the sun got higher in the clear blue sky. Still, she wouldn't stop. Her head started to ache as she finally put her very soul into that cry for help.
"I heard you, Sookie. I'm here." came the strong booming voice of her fairly great-grandfather as he appeared from a shimmering light . The light faded, but he remained. Reaching down to her he took her hand and lifted her to her feet. "What trouble have to gotten yourself into this time, Sookie?" he asked.
"Please help me, I... I've been such a fool. I love him and I'll lose him if I can't do something to save him." Sookie stammered.
"Who, dear one? Who will you lose?"
"Bill."
"Bill?"
"Yes, Bill,... well, my vampire."
"The same one that sent to that Fae-Vampire hybrid that Jason staked?"
"Yes, but..."
"Sookie..." Niall spoke with tenderness and sympathy, "You can't mean that you want to save the vampire that lied, deceived, betrayed and, oh, tried to drain you?"
"He also has saved me more times than I can count." Sookie countered with great conviction. Then as a sob threatened to well up she continued. "Bill has always had a special place in my heart. We have hurt each other so many times, but I realized just last night that I still love him and just a few hours ago I learned he still loves me. I have given him a horrible disease, and he's dying, and it's MY FAULT. I've got to make it right. PLEASE, the science in my world has not been able to cure it, and even if there was one, Bill doesn't have the time. It's racing through his body and will kill him in a matter of hours."
"You know,... he's already dead."
"Don't say that. He's not dead, DEAD. He's animated by another force, and that force is being destroyed. Please, there's GOT to be something I can do. I feel it, but I can't define it. Help me save him!"
"Oh, Sookie, are you sure? How many times have you fallen in and out of love? Is your heart really telling you that this Bill, is really the one to make your soul sing?"
Sookie did have to pause and think, but only for a minute. "True, great-grandfather, I have been blind or confused for most of my life. When Bill entered my life, I finally found my balance and my anchor. Vampire shit has caused us a lot of grief and confusion. But I now realize that Bill the MAN is who I love, and I have to accept the fact that Bill the Vampire is part of that package."
Niall gently put his arms around Sookie, tucking her head under his chin and kissed her golden hair. "You have had so much sadness in your life. Nothing would make me happier than to see you happy, my dear. There is a way, if you are willing to pay the price."
"Yes, anything."
Then this is what you must do.
Sookie raced back to Bill' house, hoping she was in time. Niall had told her what to do and she was willing. She just had to make this right. She prayed the if it did, Bill would still want to have anything to do with her. She took the stairs two at a time and rushed into Bill's room. Her breath caught in her throat as see stared down at Bill's body. In the hours since she had been gone the Hep. V had done its worse. His handsome face was now covered in blue veins and slightly swollen. She thought about trying to raise Jessica, but decided against it. If it worked she'd see the results soon enough. If it didn't, then she was better off not seeing his demise.
Sookie pulled back the covers and sat next to Bill. She was frightened to see his body so transformed from the strong, handsome, muscular vampire that had won her heart and to whom she had given her virginity, to the pale swollen, blue veined corpse that he resembled now. With absolute conviction and determination to be successful she put her palms together and poured her love and her remaining light into a sparkling ball and placed it over his un-beating heart.
"Live, Bill. LIVE!" she said as she poured all her love into the ball of plasma that slowly entered Bill's chest and disappeared into his body. Niall had said that she had just enough power left to destroy a vampire. What she wanted was to destroy the "Vampire" in Bill and leave the Human untouched. For all its deadly consequences to vampires, Hep. V was, after all, benign to Humans.
Sookie scarcely dared to breath herself as she waited to see if her sacrifice would save this man who meant so much to her. She would never again be able to use her light. Any trace of Fae would be gone. She would no longer be able to hear anyone's thoughts. All this and more would be money well spent if Bill would be able to come back to her. Then a tiny frightened whisper from the back of her mind wondered if he would even want to have anything to do with her after this.
She blinked. The blue veins were receding. Clasping her hands together, she sent a silent prayer to God to save this un-dead man and let him live again. Was she asking God to work magic, or a miracle. She couldn't tell, nor did she care, as long as He listened .
All the blue veins and swelling were gone now. Bill's chest expanded in a huge intake of breath. As he exhaled he started to cough violently and curled up on to his side. Sookie smiled as she noticed that his white skin had a pinkish glow. She laid one hand on his shoulder, the other on his forehead and his coughing subsided. He was warm to the touch! It worked! "I'm here, Bill. You're going to be OK." she whispered in his ear.
Bill groaned and opened his eyes. "Sookie?"
"Yes, my love. I'm right here."
Suddenly Bill looked confused and there was a touch of panic in his voice. "What...what happened. I feel so different. By God...God, I'm breathing. What have you done?"
"What I had to do."
"I don't understand. Have I met the true death? Am I in Heaven,...with you? Are you all right, Sookie" Bill pushed himself up with his hands, then embraced Sookie.
"I'm fine, Bill. We're both fine."
"I was dying, I know, I felt it."
"I saved you, Bill, at least part of you."
"What do you mean?" Bill questioned as he placed his hand on Sookie's shoulders and held her out at arm's length. Her eyes were so beautiful. The love he felt for her would make his heart flutter. "That is if I had a working heart." he thought. "Wait a minute..."His right hand flew off of Sookie's shoulder and his fingers pressed into his neck feeling for a pulse.
Sookie smiled at him. "Yes, it's there. Your heart is beating."
Bill's eyes widened in astonishment. The muscles holding his jaw in place slackened making his mouth drop open. Sookie leaned over and pressed her lips to his, gently at first, then with more urgency. She broke off her kiss and stared into Bill's face. Tears were dripping down both of his cheeks. This time it was her turn to wipe them away.
"Bill, I did what I had to do to save you. The Hep. V was spreading too fast. You were dying and it would have been my fault. I couldn't live with myself if...if you'd died, because of me. I... just couldn't. So I used up the last of my light to kill just the vampire part of you. That part of you is dead, really dead. You're Human now. You'll be a Hep. V carrier now, just like me, but you are alive!"
Bill didn't move. Sookie was suddenly frozen in fear. What if he was angry with her? What if he didn't really want to give up the power of being a vampire? What if he hated her?
"Please Bill, say something."
Bill took a deep breath, and then another one. His smile melted her heart all over again as he said, "Years ago I said you were my miracle, Sookie. Little did I know how true that statement would become. Thank you, my darling, my sweetheart, for not only saving my Humanity, but bringing me back something I have been without for over 140 years,... my life. " He got out of his bed, what had almost become his "death bed," and stretched his whole body, muscles rippling down his arms, torso, and legs.
"You're not mad at me then?"
"Mad at you!? Never! I will never be able to thank you enough. I don't even know where to start."
"I can think of one way," said Sookie coyly as she sat up from the bed too, wrapped her arms around Bill and brought his mouth down to hers. "Kiss me, Mr. Compton."
"With the utmost pleasure, Miss Stackhouse."
They made tender love together on Bill's bed as Jessica lay resting on the floor, dead to the world. Afterwards, they talked and nuzzled each other, speaking softly of their feelings for one another. Two weeks later, Eric came by to say he had been cured by Sarah Newlin. He immediately saw the change in Bill and swore to make both Bill and Sookie "off limits" to any vampire and for them both to be under his protection. Two months after that, Pasteur did develop a cure for Hep. V which became commercially available and saved many un-dead lives. The next Spring, Bill and Sookie were married. Three children followed in regular succession. Two boys and a girl. Aunt Jessica was the best aunt anyone could possibly ever want, spoiling their children as aunts are supposed to do. . As they aged gracefully together, their love only grew stronger for one another. Twenty years passed. Bill wrote more best sellers. Sookie excelled at being a Mom and a wife to her beloved husband. Then one night, their daughter, Adelle, meet a tall blond Viking of a man with the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.
...But that's another story.
9
My True Blood Story