[I put my A/N at end since they end up being really long. I own nothing.]

Ch.2: FRIENDS

I could smell her before I saw her. I draw a deep breath. Even through the stench of gasoline fumes, burnt flesh and melted plastic I can't mistake it: green fields... morning dew ... sweet hay. I am transported back to pre-industrial England. Jolly good.

"No Hayes: you. You die."

My Sister. My lover. My comrade. And now my savior. As I have been hers. Many, many times, in fact. Of course I never fail to remind her of this when she gets too cocky, which is often. This time though, she's saved me from more than the true death. And I thank the gods when her silhouetted curves appear before me as 'Hayes' disintegrates before my eyes.

"Nora."

Her name sounds a prayer delivered after the divine act. Apparently it's just as fucking effective. I can't get to her fast enough. All I feel is relief. Like I can finally breathe again. But my relief has less to do with the fact that I'm not finally dead and more to do with my current Fairy-induced existential crisis. God, I've missed my sister, and not just the sex.

In fact, it's not the sex at all. Nora may fuck me like Yvetta but she gets me like Pam and she accepts me like Godric. Of course, she challenges me like that fucking Fairy too, only without the pattern of renunciation and retreat.

There's never shame or doubt between us: just something like love... or as close as two vampires can get to it anyways. Hell, maybe what we have is better. Devotion. Trust. For the first time since meeting Sookie fucking Stackhouse feelings feel safe.

Our lips crash together; our faces twisting and turning as our mouths map out the familiar terrain between us. I move more slowly than I usually do, reveling in the familiarity and, admittedly, hamming it up a little too. Godric used to fondly tell us we were a little on the melodramatic side and he was right. We were melodramatic ... and exhilarating ... and honest. Always honest. There's no bullshit with us. No surprises except the next witticism or prank. Exhilarating? Yes. Exhausting? Inevitably. But we had Godric as our rock to ground us while we fought and fucked our way through her first decade as vampire. It was a good decade.

I hear flames and aftershocks of the explosion behind me but I can't pull away. I need this. Something. Someone.

And I don't do this usually. Kiss, that is. No, usually my conquests are seduced before I speak a word ... if I even have to speak. And I don't mean I glamour them either. They don't come to me for romance, after all. Nor I to them. In the end, I'd rather fuck a stranger's pussy with my mouth than put my tongue in theirs. Maybe I should ask Dear Abbey about that one. Or Dr. Phil.

No, until the night that I kissed Sookie in my office, it had been decades since I kissed anyone and I hadn't missed it a bit. I probably wouldn't miss it after Nora was gone either. No, all I would miss is a certain kiss. From a certain mouth.

That kiss between Sookie and I in the office had been different than this one. That night I was saying hello and goodbye all at once. I was begging, pleading and beseeching. No, I couldn't have moved slowly that night if I tried. I had wanted her, all of her. That kiss was desperate, but it was desperate for her, whereas this kiss with Nora is simply desperate. Desperate but also grateful.

I heard Bill clear his throat unnecessarily behind us and his bemused judgment was already implied. So predictable.

"Friend of yours?"

It's a rare moment when Bill Compton's self-satisfied, narrow-minded morality doesn't irritate the fuck out of me but now is one of those moments. Let him judge. After all, my friend just saved our sorry asses.

No, Mr. Congeniality may react without a thought to the repressive bourgeios Protestant moral compass he continues to use, but I was never burdened with that particular set of values. Thank fuck for small favours.

Case in point: Bill judging me in this moment is the very definition of hypocritical considering the nightly 'fuck-suck-n-glamour' routine he had going on in his palace while Sookie in Faery. I guess we both tried to fuck her out of our systems at one point or another: me with Yvetta and him with Lorena. And then him with his staff. Now if that's not a breach of ethics I don't know what is. Not to mention the fact that he was fucking the coven informant. God, he's so hopeless it's almost endearing. He's like an untrained puppy.

For my part, fucking someone other than Sookie was never some passive aggressive excuse to justify leaving her. I never hid it from her and I never flaunted it in her face either. Both of which Bill managed to do. Unwittingly perhaps but, again, totally unnecessarily.

No, I would never pull a move like Bill pulled at Russell's palace with his maker. If that wasn't a sign that repressing one's impulses is dangerous, I don't know what is. And I sure as fuck wasn't having sex with my staff only days after Sookie returned either!

Now? Bill might be celibate, sure. What's it been? A few days maybe? Does he want a fucking medal?

Is he a decent guy? Sure. Is he well intentioned? Without a doubt. Is he a world-class hypocrite? Fuck, yeah.

And let's not overlook another key adjective: forgetful. Not that I blame him for wanting to forget that he screwed his fifth cousin or whatever that stuck-up-and-bland-as-paste lawyer turned out to be to him. Hell, then he glamoured that one too. Like I said: he never quite does the job right. There's always a loose end. I had to re-glamour her to make undo the trauma he'd drilled in after she started causing problems for the supe community. Un-fucking-necessary.

And then there's the fact that he missed the point entirely. Bill wanted to forget about his little brush with 'incest' because of his culturally-imposed moral code rather than an actual ethical position.

Needless to say, if it had been me, I would have been equally ashamed - just not for the same reasons. No, I would have felt shame for having flaunted those moronic women under Sookie's nose in the first place. And a day after she returned, no less.

So, no.

No, I'm not irritated.

I'm too fucking relieved to bother being irritated by Bill Compton's smug rhetorical query. Perhaps it's because the answer to his question is so fucking simple:

'YES.'

'YES she is a friend of mine.'

YES, she is a true friend; perhaps she is the only one I have left.

I glance at Bill, "My sister, actually" as turn back to her again. I can barely tear my eyes from Nora's face. We haven't seen each other for over a century, after all. In 100 years we have spoken only once. Briefly. I had to tell her of Godric after Dallas. It was a risk to do so, but a necessary one.

God, seeing her here I realize how much I've missed her... how much I need her now. And not just to deal with my impending final death at the hands of the authority. No, I need a 'sure thing' and not in the way I usually mean it.

I need someone who is just... sure. Sure of their own mind. Sure of their feelings for me. Someone confident. Someone strong. I thought that was the Fairy, but it wasn't. And no, Nora may not be 'mine' forever as I wanted Sookie to be, but that's not what we are to each other. We'll have each other's backs forever and that is all that I want right now.

That may be all I'll ever want.

I readjust the block I have on the bond, making sure I can't feel a thing that could distract me from this moment. I want to enjoy what I have in front of me.

Hope.

[A/N So, a little history: his story came about when I shamelessly hinted to my FF soul mate CaliforniaKat that she should "fix it" after watching the season premiere of Season 5. Realizing the error of my ways I decided to take a note from SMV Sookie, and so I pulled on my big girl panties and tried to do some 'fixing' of my own. Low and behold, CaliforniaKat took pity on me and now after reading her new chapter of "Inner" I've realized that "Undone" isn't fixing anything really. CaliforniaKat really brings the Eric/Bill dynamic to life beautifully and is reflects much more comprehensively and favourably on S/E relationship too. So far "Undone" is more anti-Bill and anti-Sookie than I prefer when reading. (I've never gotten to spout off at Bill in 'public' and apparently I had a few things to say 'to' Sookie too when given the chance.) I just hope that I've kept things complicated enough to do the characters justice. And, of course, this is just the first episode. So much can happen.

Speaking of so much happening ... I have one more (short) chapter drafted for episode one. I am currently away travelling for work and my internet connection sucks so I can't rewatch episode one. It's hard even to post. All to say that I'm sorry if the dialogue taken from the show is slightly off. More importantly I won't be able to watch the new episodes as they come out until I'm back in July. GASP! I know. SHOCKING. So unfair. Anyways, I plan to continue this project when I'm back to my regular wifi connection in July, as long as I still have opinions. And that's not likely to change soon.]