The first week was the hardest for Lydia. She felt like a zombie; refusing to eat, barely sleeping and not uttering a word to anyone. It started while they were still on the flight back to Louisiana. After she stopped crying, she simply placed her head on the window and stopped talking. Even as they got off the plane and Pam greeted them, she didn't even smile, just walked past the blonde vampire and slid into the passenger seat of the red Corvette sat waiting in the parking lot. Pam gave Eric a concerned look, and he simply shook his head in response, silently telling her that he would explain everything when they got back to Fangtasia.

As soon as they arrived at the bar, Lydia climbed out the car and made her way to Eric's office, sitting down on the black sofa as soon as she entered the room. Eric stayed outside to say good bye to Sookie and return her car to her.

"Let me know how Lydia is" she said to the tall viking.

Eric said nothing, simply nodded. As he watched the yellow car disappear from sight, he felt Pam come up behind him and turned to greet her.

"So, I take it Lydia isn't coping well."

Eric nodded.

"You guessed right. She's probably not going to recover. I only bought her back here in the hope that it might help her."

It was Pam's turn to nod.

"And you? Will you be okay?" she asked her maker.

Eric turned his back to her, his face momentarily showing the pain he felt. There was a moment of silence before he answered in a quiet, pained voice.

"I will be...fine."

Pam didn't believe him but wisely kept her opinion to herself, deciding that she did in face enjoy existing. She watched Eric disappear down the corridor to his office and shook her head sadly, pained to see her maker in obvious distress.

Eric stood outside the door for a few seconds, debating whether or not to go into the room. Eventually, he stood further upright and pushed the door open, letting it bump against the wall. Lydia jumped and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Eric shrugged.

"Nothing. I just felt like it."

Lydia frowned.

"Jerk" she muttered, but they both knew she barely meant it.

Eric sat in the chair behind his desk and gazed at Lydia for a few seconds. Lydia stared back at him, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"You do know you didn't have to come with me, don't you?"

Lydia swallowed a sudden lump in her throat and nodded.

"I know. But like you said, maybe being away from Dallas will help. I can go back any time."

Eric doubted that. He knew from experience that to move away from somewhere that holds such a tragic memory meant that you would never go back. He knew he would never go back to Dallas again because of Godric's death and he could tell that Lydia would be the same; it would just be too much to bare. He watched Lydia for a few more minutes and when she yawned, he stood up.

"Let's go. The sun is going to rise soon and we both need rest."

Lydia nodded and silently followed him out of the room, not even flinching when he scooped her into his arms and flew to his house. She silently went up to her room and the last thing Eric heard before the sunlight lured him to sleep were the sounds of her muffled sobs coming from her face shoved into a pillow.

...

A fortnight passed and Eric grew increasingly worried about Lydia. She would be awake every morning as he fell asleep and awake when he rose. He didn't see her eat a thing and he could almost see her skin paling as she grew weaker and weaker. The most worrying thing for him however was not her health physically, but emotionally. Ever since that fist night when she cried herself to sleep, Eric had seen no emotion in her. Her eyes were dull and she only spoke if someone spoke to her first. She showed no sadness, but also showed no anger or happiness either. Eric knew that he himself wasn't a good role model after all, to the naked eye, he seemed to be completely over Godric. The truth was that he still felt as broken as before, he just felt that he couldn't not continue on. Something was stopping him from being able to completely accept Godric was dead and so he found he could push his feelings aside to continue as normal.

Even Sookie tried to cheer the teenager up by taking her shopping, but even though Lydia (who usually adored shopping) allowed herself to be pulled along, Sookie knew that she wasn't interested. When Sookie dropped Lydia off at the bar that night, Lydia wasted no time in disappearing into Eric's office while Sookie searched for the viking, finding him in his usal perch overlooking the visitors to the bar. Eric caught her gaze with his and inclined his head, inviting her forwards.

"How was it?" he asked her.

Sookie gave him a sorrowful look.

"I'm sorry, I really tried. She just started into space half the time and I just couldn't motivate her to do anything. I really don't know what to do Eric."

Eric didn't respond but for once Sookie could tell that his lack of response wasn't out of anger with her failure but rather out of worry for the teenager.

"Thank you for trying" Eric said, trying to sound as sincere as he could.

"Anytime. Hey, I just had an idea. Whenever I was feeling really down, I would often ring Sam, my boss, and ask if I could come in as that always cheered me up a bit. Maybe you could offer Lydia a job here. After all, she's over eighteen so can legally serve alcohol to people."

Eric looked at Sookie, surprised she came up with the idea and even more surprised that he hadn't.

"Sookie, you are amazing. I'll try that and see how it goes."

Sookie smiled.

"I'm sure she'll be back to normal before you know it. I gotta go or else I'll be late for work myself, but I hope it goes well. Tell her I said goodbye."

Eric nodded and didn't wait for her to leave before he was out of his chair and inside his office before the customers at the bar could blink. Lydia looked up in surprise at his rushed entrance, but her look turned to confusion when she found a skinny Fangtasia t-shirt being thrown at her. She picked it up in her hand and gave Eric a questioning look.

"Umm, what's this for?"

Eric smirked.

"Work. As of this minute, you are the new barmaid here. You will work a minimum of three nights a week, and one day a week you will be expected to aid ginger with the delivery."

Eric saw a spark of anger in Lydia's eyes and couldn't repress the relief he felt at the emotion.

"What?" she asked, her voice a low hiss.

"You heard me. I've had enough of your moping about. I know Godric dying has broken you, so now it's time to start putting those pieces back together. We're starting with the barmaid job."

Lydia jumped off the sofa, fists clenched.

"You didn't even ask me, Eric! What if I don't WANT to be fixed? You have no right in making me do ANYTHING! I'm doing fine!"

Eric let out a small growl that made Lydia flinch and he stepped forwards. His eyes burnt into hers and he lowered his face so that their noses were almost touching.

"And I suppose not eating or sleeping is your idea of being fine? I'm pretty sure that's called suicide! You WILL work and if you don't like it, you know where the door is"

Lydia stepped back as if she'd been slapped and gave him a hurt look.

"You think I'm trying to kill myself? She asked."

"Lydia, look in the next mirror you see and tell me that's the same fiery spirited girl I knew even three weeks ago. And I do mean it, if you refuse the job, you refuse my care and I will expect you out by the time I return in the morning."

Lydia turned her back to him as she felt a wave of despair hit her. She heard the whooshing sound as he left at vampire speed and as the door slammed shut behind him, a single, hopeless tear slid down her cheek.