AUTHORS NOTE-This is a new series unrelated to the other stories I have written. This series will start after the end of season seven and will go how I wish it had gone. I found myself stuck for ideas with my other stories and though I will return to that series, I thought I would make a kind of a season 8. As always read and review. Thanks!

SEASON 8-Episode 1-Broken Bridges

PART ONE

Chapter 1

She was groggy as she awoke. The smells of the hospital quickly overtook her as she came to and she felt the aching in her body. Even her magic could only do so much to heal her up and certainly, she thought darkly, a vamp would sure be good to have here on hand now. Three months had passed since she had divorced Ryan and yet it was still painfully fresh, that wound he had inflicted upon her. Along with the physical wounds he had, this night, put upon her. Of course he had managed to get away from the cops and had fled to parts unknown. Her brother was all over the case, wanting justice for her. Justice for the first child that she had been expecting. The first one she had had had only made it to 14 months before an aggressive cancer had stolen him from their lives. And back in the present, the doc was expecting to come in at any moment to speak to her and even in the woozy state she was in, she still felt something was terribly wrong. And so the balding, middle aged doc had just now entered the room.

"Glad to see you awake…how are the pain meds working?" he asked her. Doctor Alderson was one of the best docs and had delivered her first child. A girl. Who was now almost two. Jason was caring for the girl while she was in the hospital and with his new wife Bridgette, Jason was able to leave his niece Madison with her so he could get justice for his sister. That she knew there were those on the hunt for Ryan made her feel a little better but she feared he would come for her again. As it was, she had been forced to kick him out of their house weeks ago. Ryan had threatened her once before and yet it had only been recently that the physical abuse had gotten worse. She had come home from work last night to a dark house, to a pair of fists that had beaten her horribly and though she had screamed and tried to fight back, she had hoped her cried reminding him of the baby would stop him and it had. He had fled the scene but not before calling for a ambulance for her. "Sookie…" Alderson broke her from her painful memories of the night before. "I have to tell you something and it breaks my heart to do so…you've been a patient of mine for years and you are something like a daughter to me. But the baby…..we ran tests and…..there's no longer a heartbeat."

There came a cold icy pain through her. Her worst fear realized. She had been five months along and had already decided on names. And now, those dreams, like her body, were shattered. "No….." she started to tear up, her head against the pillow and staring at the ceiling. And it was then she lost it, thrashing around angrily and trying to get out of bed Pleading with her, the doc was forced to have nurses come in and help restrain her, leather straps to her wrists and ankles. And she felt a prick in her arm as she fell into a dreamless sleep. A reprieve from the nightmare her live had devolved into. And it was not long after the doc and nurses left her room that the window of her room-already cracked open to give her fresh air-opened fully.

Chapter 2

The cool air wasn't what woke her up. Rather, it was the eclipse of the moon, a shadow obscuring the light. She felt the scars from what she knew had been a surgery, one needed to remove the life lost within her thanks to her dastardly ex. She couldn't even reach down to feel the scar she knew was there, still strapped to the bed. Blurred vision made her think she was imagining things but as she blinked, the figure blocking the moonlight came into focus. She couldn't move her head much but she was able to get a single word out of her dry mouth. "You?"

"I would have expected a better greeting that that…..circumstances being what they are….." pulling a chair over, the well dressed figure sat as close to her as he could get, the soft light giving his face a glow. It was a face she hadn't seen since the night he had flown her home. She hadn't expected that to be the last time she would see him. And now, three years later…here he was.

"Eric….what…..why are you here? I never expected-"

"There were rumors about someone being beaten …..I found out through the grapevine I suppose you could say and at first, I didn't believe it. Nor did I believe you would settle down with some…human." he almost sneered that last part, as if stung once again by her constant rejections. But his voice softened. "I came to check on you and help you if you want me to. I know your brother and the police are trying to find the guy but lets face it, I could bring him to justice far faster. And I think you deserve to get your revenge on beating you. On taking that light from your eyes."

"It wasn't the only thing he took from me. " she replied quietly as her eyes trailed down to her middle and it took only a moment for him to get what she was not wanting to say.

It was not often the Viking was left speechless but as he understood what was taken from her, he remained as such for several long moments. "I don't know what to say other than if I get my hands on this guy, I don't think I would leave much, if anything, left."

She could look at him, but rather looked at the ceiling. "Why are you here, just so you can get him and then disappear from my life again? I missed you and you stopped coming around and-"

"I wanted to give you the chance for a good life, to be happy. I stepped aside to give you that chance. As much as it pained me to walk away. I thought I was doing right by you. Leaving you that night, I thought it would be the last time I would see you and lets face it, with you rejecting me…I figured at best we would only remain friends. Or acquaintances at best….."

Deep down, she had to admit that she had been wrong to do what she had, to treat him as she had in the past. So much history between them but she really didn't want to go rehashing things. This was certainly neither the time nor the place and she didn't want to admit her feelings to him, not after these few years apart. Finally she spoke but it wasn't what he was expecting to hear. Or wanted to. "I need you to leave." she paused, not looking at him but at the ceiling. "Please."

"You could be healed up and out of that bed in a matter of minutes and you would rather stay as you are, in bed. Weak….hurting…all the while that bastard is out there-"

Finally she interrupted and was unable to restrain her emotions. Emotions of relief, happiness and sadness at seeing him again. Coupled with the past, it was confusing as all get out but still, she couldn't deal with it any longer. "I took and took from you and you come here, wanting to do something for me? You think I don't know why you left before? I know it was about me and probably other things to. But I was responsible and if I had treated you better, you wouldn't have run off, you wouldn't have gotten sick…you nearly burned to death…Pam told me what you never did. I know she was guilting me. She's always been good at that…I have never wanted to see the truth and kept pushing you away. The pain I caused you….I deserve to suffer because of how I was. I don't deserve to have you here after all the wrongs I made towards you." she managed a sad smile. "And yet, here you are, once again coming to try to save my ungrateful neck….." she felt the send him warm tears down her battered face, which was still looking away from him. "I even went back to….HIM, after the terrible things he did to me, even after I knew he had set me up to meet him. Yes, in the end, I saw there was a decent person there but the night he asked me to…..the true death, yeah, I was upset. But upset more for the mistake I made not choosing you."

Chapter 3

He sat in his seat, face unreadable as she revealed her truths to him. He had thought at one point that she would wind up with Bill. That she kept going back to him after the things he had put her though had disgusted her but he too knew that there was, towards the end, guilt and remorse in Bill that showed that even through the bad, there was decency in him, that the family man he had once been was not entirely buried. Still, he still hated the fact she had gone back to him once more before meeting the true death. And even though he himself had never been a saint, Eric had admittedly done some terrible things. But at least he ad dome them in trying to save her, to keep her safe. "I will leave if you want me to. I know I am not perfect. But I think you've always known deep down, through your anger and blind love for him, that I was always the one that truly cared about you and your well being." he stood up and paced before her bed. "Seeing you like this hurts me more than you can ever know and I will leave if it is what you want. I respect your wishes…."

There was a long silence and he turned to leave out the window before he heard the words he had desperately wished for, not that he would ever admit it. To anyone. "Please. don't go."

TO BE CONTINUED