A/N: I skipped the resolution of the Mary Ann storyline, imagining it was resolved simply and with minimal damage to Sookie's home before Sookie even returned from Dallas.
I must have done a pretty good job cleaning up because when sunset comes and Bill wakes up, he looks at me, smiling. "Sookie," he says my name with such vigor and passion, I know what he wants but I'm just not interested tonight.
"Evenin' Bill," I say smiling down at him-trying to make my smile as un-nervous as possible. "I want to go back to Bon Temps tonight. Sam is probably going crazy at Merlotte's without my help and as nice as it has been to see the bright lights of Dallas, I'm ready to go home."
Bill nods, noticing that at some point during the day I'd packed up our suitcases and that I had them right by the door. "Of course," his Southern gentleman's accent rings crisply, "I will arrange for a flight back to Shreveport tonight."
I nod briskly and smile, but a part of me is screaming, "That's not fast enough!" I want to leave this confusing place right this second. The overwhelming grief from last night has faded and I'm feeling swept up by a torrent of different emotions.
A year ago I'd been Crazy Sookie who no one would touch with a ten foot pole, and now two handsome men are (literally) fighting over me. I need to get home right away so I can start to think straight. There's a knock on the door and after Bill calls for the person to enter, Jason walks in. Jackpot! I stand up quickly and turn to Bill, "Actually, I think I'll drive back to Bon Temps with Jason, I want to spend some quality time with him."
The two men in the room look at each other, confused at my sudden need to leave. I hope that given everything that had happened in Dallas, (With, oh, I don't know. My attempted abduction, being kidnapped and locked up with a traitor, nearly being raped, nearly being killed by that vamp-ho, Lorena, to only then nearly be killed by shrapnel. Being conned by Eric, and then watching Eric show more emotion, depth and love than I'd seen any man display…) they wouldn't question my sudden urgency.
A wide smile stays plastered to my face as Jason agrees and we leave the hotel room.
The next evening...
It has been a busy night at Merlotte's. It's a full moon and I'm exhausted as I lock the door to the bar and start walking towards my car. But I stop once I see what's waiting for me by my car: tall, blond and dead.
I look around for his car, but my car is the only one in the lot. "Eric," I sigh while walking to my car, "This is really not a good night to blackmail me into using my curse for your purposes."
I've been trying to forget what happened that morning in the hotel room. It just seems simpler that way. Just pretend that things are the way they've always been. Eric is a self-serving, conniving bastard and I'm in love with Bill Compton.
Unfortunately, simple is not what Eric seems to have in mind tonight.
He steps in front of the driver side door, blocking access to my ride home. I roll my eyes, fold my arms over my chest and glare at him.
"You have something I want." His words are dripping with sex and his eyes are full of the cocky smirk I've come to expect of the Sheriff. A moment of lust envelopes me, but I keep my poker face on.
Maybe things really are back to normal...I think I'm relieved. I stand there, tapping my toes impatiently onto the gravel parking lot, "Well, come on then, spit it out." All I want is to climb under my covers and fall fast asleep…or maybe climb in there with company.
Eric looks more than a little disappointed that I don't want to play along, and his eyes drop to the ground before he says, in a far more neutral voice, "Do you still have Godric's shirt?"
I'm a bit taken aback. This is not how I expected seeing Eric for the first time since we slept in the same bed to go. I find myself stuttering back, "Ye-yes I do. Would you like to have it?"
He raises his head to meet my eyes and his eyes are vulnerable as he softly replies, "Yes."
I'm not going to let him get to me. His puppy dog eyes are not going to win me over. This is Eric, big, bad, manipulative, Eric. I sigh loudly, shooing him with my arms, "Well, will you get in the car already? I'll drive you to my house-that's where it is."
We both fold ourselves into my car and the silence as I'm driving along the road is unbearable. Finally, he breaks it, "Did you tell Bill about what happened?"
Okay, silence? Waaaaayyy better. "Uh… With Godric?" I fall back on the old dumb blond routine, but Eric's not buying it for a second. I keep staring at the road straight ahead, looking out for any deer that might be around-it's a great excuse to not meet his eyes.
His voice drops and is husky as he replies, "With us."
I feel wet as I hear those words roll across his tongue, and the intimacy of what he and I shared hits me like a plow truck all over again. Ever since Dallas, Bill has seemed more and more distant. Even before we left for Dallas, most of his nights seem to be eaten up by some secret project that he refuses to tell me about, but I hadn't seen him since we got back to Bon Temps. At first I'd wondered if he knew, but he'd never said anything about it, and he's not the type to keep quiet when it comes to matters of jealousy.
"No." The word comes out easily enough but the silence that follows it gives me time to reflect on all the implications of that answer.
After a few moments, maybe to think, maybe to give me a chance to babble as I tend to do when I am nervous, he asks, "Why not?"
I blush, and glance over at him nervously before looking back at the road to pull into my driveway, "It didn't seem like anything that he needed to know."
He nods.
"Wait right here, I'll be out with the shirt in a jiffy." And I am. I do my best to not look at him and just hand him Godric's shirt then turn and run back into my house, hoping that he won't notice the tears that are streaming down my face.
Eric's POV
I smell the salt of her tears as she scampers up her back porch and into her house. I yearn to run after her, but I'm not exactly sure why.
There are a lot of reasons I could want to do that… She's a very valuable resource, I want to get back at Compton for that cheap sucker punch, her blood smells so tasty, I want to hold her again... Wait. What did I just think?
I mentally shake myself as if there were some foreign debris in my head I need to get rid of, a shoe with a pebble stuck in it. I lean against her car and watch her. After a few minutes I hold Godric's shirt up to my face and inhale deeply-it smells like him… and Sookie.
I take off in flight into the pitch black, midnight sky.
