AN: Thank you to everyone who has alerted, favorited or reviewed this story. You can tell from my profile that I am new at fan fiction. Your kind comments and attention to my story make me very happy and provide wonderful encouragement to keep going. As always, Charlaine Harris owns it all. I am just privileged to play in her garden for a while.

Previously…

There was very little I could say to counter or deny her words. Throughout her heated response I had looked carefully at her. She was stressed, angry and a little afraid. As I thought about this, I wondered if I should even ask to have a place in her life again. Nothing that she said was incorrect. Given all of that, I could not stop myself, "Will you please allow me work toward being a part of your life once again?"

As she considered this we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. As I drove to the valet station, she turned to me and said, "In the whole array of stupid things I have done since I got mixed up with y'all, this is probably the stupidest. Let's see how this evening goes and then we might be able to take it from there."

Pulling to a stop at the valet station, I looked at her and said, "Thank you."

I walked around the car to meet Sookie as the valet was helping her out. I offered her my arm and escorted her into the restaurant hoping that what I had to tell her would not be our ending and that we could start again. Alexander Pope said, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Though I am no longer human, I was certainly grasping for hope.

We were greeted at the hostess stand by a perky brunette clutching two menus. She walked us to a table by the window overlooking a garden with lighting in the trees and candles lining a winding walkway. It was a peaceful setting that seemed to echo Sookie's silence as we made the walk and took our seats. Her reservations about this evening and being with me were now clearly evident in the set of her mouth and the furrow between her eyes as the waiter came to take our drink orders. Shaking her head slightly and bringing herself into the moment, she looked at the waiter and said, "I'll have a gin and tonic, please."

"I'll have a True Blood, "O" negative." The waiter looked only slightly startled as he looked quickly back at Sookie and then at me again. I asked, "Is there a problem?"

"No sir, not at all. I will be right back with your drinks."

Leaving her menu untouched, Sookie continued to look out the window at the garden beyond. After a few minutes, she turned to me and asked, "Why did you choose a restaurant for this little get together, Bill? You never liked to watch me eat when we were dating."

Recognizing this question for the delaying tactic that it was, I replied, "Over the years I have had to get over many things that have bothered me on levels far greater than watching a human eat. I decided that if I was going to live in the world, I would have to get over my aversion to this particular human habit. Besides, being with you dispels any distaste I might be tempted to feel. "

She smiled slightly and considered that a moment as she studied my face. "Bill, tonight is about more than just wanting to catch up and reconnect isn't it? You have things you need to say to me and I have the feeling that I am not going to like them. So much has happened in my life these last three years that I don't think I can sit here and make pleasant conversation until you get around to telling me what I need to know. I have found out that not knowing what is going on around me and about me is not in my best interest. I think you had better cut to the chase and get on with it."

As she finished her accurate assessment of tonight's agenda, our waiter returned with our drinks. After seeing to our satisfaction with our drinks, he asked if he could take our order. Opening her menu and taking a quick glance at the offerings, she ordered a filet mignon, grilled asparagus and caesar salad. After making all the appropriate waiter noises, he departed, leaving us with the elephant in the room.

When I didn't start to speak immediately, she got the conversational ball rolling, "Have you seen Eric?"

That question was the first of the many items I would need to discuss with Sookie tonight and over the next several days. I had just hoped that it would not come up so quickly, but given their previous relationship I supposed it wasn't too surprising. Virtually everything I needed to share with her tonight and over the coming days was going to make her run the gamut of negative emotions from disturbed to volcanically angry. While my ultimate hope was to win back her heart, I knew that what I had to say would break it. Again.

"Yes. Pam called me several days ago and asked me to come into Fangtasia to meet with him in his office."

"How is he?"

"Sookie, do you know why Eric was summoned to Las Vegas?"

"Yes, Felipe de Castro wanted to know what happened to Victor Madden. Eric had said that he might have to stand trial. He has been gone for two months."

"That is correct. According to Eric, he explained to de Castro what Madden had been doing in Area 5 and throughout Louisiana. Eric also explained how he ended Madden."

With growing fear in her eyes, Sookie asked, "Eric told him the truth about the whole thing?"

"Yes, he only left out your involvement in Madden's final death. Felipe de Castro knows about you and the other humans being in the club at the time of the Madden's ending, but nothing more than that. In his eyes, you and the others were innocent bystanders caught in the middle of a vampire brawl."

"How did de Castro take it? Is Eric going to be punished? What about Pam, you and the others of Eric's retinue there that night?

"Eric has claimed full responsibility for Madden's ending, telling de Castro that all of the vampires present at the club were under his order. Eric alone has borne the punishment for Madden's ending."

Questions began pouring frantically out her trembling mouth. "Wait, she said, Eric "has borne" the punishment? Does that mean that he has already been punished? What did de Castro do? Is Eric alright?

Expelling an unnecessary breath, I said, "He is recovering. His punishment was not as extreme as de Castro had the right to make it. He could have ordered him staked. Instead he ordered him hanged in silver chains for thirty days and he was not allowed to feed during that time. In addition, he has to pay substantial reparations for Madden's death and the inconvenience and potential loss of revenue to the kingdom. Sookie, I know that this feels extreme to you, but this was the vampire equivalent of a slap on the wrist."

As I recited the list of punishments, Sookie's eyes widened and filled with tears. I reached for her shaking hand, and said, "There was one more condition of Eric's punishment."

Gripping my hand, she said, "Tell me."

Wishing I could say anything other than this, I replied, "Eric has been ordered to dissolve his marriage with you and honor his maker's marriage contract with Freyda, the Queen of Oklahoma."

With a sharp intake of breath, Sookie snatched her hand from mine, stood up abruptly and walked away from the table. I stood and watched her walk to the Ladies Room and go inside. As I sat back down, the waiter came with Sookie's salad. Feeling that she probably had lost all appetite, I handed him my credit card and told him to box up her steak "to go" and to bring it with our check. As he walked away, I could not stop feeling like my whole function in Sookie's life had been to speak words of pain that only served to break her heart.

Ten minutes went by, then fifteen, then twenty. Finally, Sookie came back to the table and sat down. "Bill, I don't think I can eat. I am sorry. Can we…can we just go?"

Wanting to do whatever it took to ease her suffering, I said, "Yes. I have had the waiter box up your meal for you." As I looked at her, emotions rippled across her face in waves: pain, horror, grief, anger, resentment, loss. Finally, her faced looked as if she had borne too much pain and that she was weary with the weight of it. Looking around for the waiter, I saw him come toward us with Sookie's meal boxed up and in a bag with the restaurant's logo. I quickly signed the check, left the tip and offered Sookie my hand.

She stood and we walked out of the restaurant and into the night.

As we waited for the valet, she turned to me and asked, "When will I be able to see Eric?"

Again, having to be the instrument of Sookie's pain, I replied, "The King has ordered Eric to stay away from you until he comes to preside over the dissolution of your marriage. He is not content to take Eric's word that he will do as ordered. Eric returned to Louisiana with guards that escort him to and from Fangtasia and who go to rest in his home each morning. They rise when he rises. Also, by the King's orders, Eric is not to be left alone at any time until your marriage is ended and he becomes Consort to the Queen of Oklahoma. "

Standing rigidly beside me, Sookie asked, "Who sent you to tell me all of this, Bill?"

I could only respond with the truth, "The King of Louisiana, Arkansas and Nevada, Felipe de Castro. Before I begin my other duties at his pleasure, I was sent by the King to let you know of Eric's changing circumstances and to prepare you for the dissolution of your marriage. The King still intends to honor his pledge to protect you. He considers you one of his kingdom's greatest assets."

Looking at me in disbelief at my words and with growing distrust and anger in her eyes, she said, "Well, isn't that just great, Bill? You get a promotion and Eric gets sold off to Oklahoma. That works out just swell for you doesn't it? Do you think this is your opportunity to dash in and sweep me off my feet? Do you think you have a prayer with me?"

I knew that Sookie would be angry and I knew that she would probably begin to take her anger, grief, and hatred of the treacherous and unforgiving world of vampire politics out on me. However, her anguished accusations were not wholly false. I did hope that now that Eric was not allowed to be in her life I might stand a chance. Unfortunately, there was much, much more that I was going to have to tell her and any chance I would have to be important to Sookie again would lay in how well I could help her navigate her new reality. She will hear nothing but truth from me and I plan to rebuild her trust in me by not shielding her. I want to be and will be her ally, protector, guide and friend. My hope to be her lover again will take a long time to bear fruit, but I am a patient man.

The valet pulled up with the car and as I touched Sookie's elbow to guide her, she jerked away striding toward the car and letting herself inside. I went around to my side of the car prepared for a long, silent ride to Bon Temps.