A/N - You guys are great! Thank you for all the feedback. I have big plans for this story and I hope I will be able to bring those ideas into fruition and that you all enjoy this journey! :)

I went to bed that night feeling cautiously hopeful. Something that had been bothering me since I started dating Eric-the real Eric-his fidelity, had finally been cleared up. Knowing that not only had he been faithful, but that he'd wanted no one else, well that was enough of an ego boost to keep me going for the next decade. A girl's gotta appreciate the little things in life.

So when I woke up the next morning, it's probably not too surprising that I found myself humming a happy tune as I got ready for work and ate breakfast. It wasn't until I was on my way to my early shift at Merlotte's that the meditative rhythm of driving poked a thought through the happy-haze in my head. I was so upset I hadn't considered it before, I nearly swerved off the road.

Pam.

With a single-minded determination, I knew where I was headed once my shift was over tonight. I just hoped I knew what to say.

"Sookie!" Pam's tone of voice when she answered her door that night told me two things: I hadn't been expected, and Pam was taking a break from grief. I could understand the former, I'd only been to Pam's a handful of times before, and I respected the latter. For someone less than 30 years old, I'd had far too many occasions to grieve for lost loved ones and I was well aware of the fine the balance between honoring the loss of a person who meant the world to you and not losing yourself to that grief.

"Hi Pam!" I smiled, marveling in my friend's resilience.

"Please, do come in. Heidi, Thalia and Indira are all here and we're just playing a few games and having a little girl talk." She led me into her den where, sure enough, those three vampires were seated around a table, holding cards in their hands.

Poker. Why do adults have to play poker at their game nights? I'd never bothered to learn the game, even with my shields up at full force, and a table full of weres, it was impossible to not cheat. While that wouldn't be a problem with this company, I'd think having to interrupt the game to check on something like if a full house was higher than four of a kind would sort of ruin any chance I had at being a competitive player. A bit dismayed, I still managed a bright smile as I took a seat in the empty chair between The Castrater and Pam's place at the table.

"Hey, Indira." I did my best to not wince as my mind involuntarily replayed the scene from the other night.

Indira gave me a wide smile, "Hello, Sookie, it's a pleasant surprise to see you."

Pam interrupted our greetings to play the proper hostess, "Sookie, would you like something to drink? I have iced tea, diet soda, and of course, water."

The reason Pam would have human beverages in her home was not lost on me, but we were playing Pretend Life is Hunky Dory, so I didn't bat an eyelash as I asked for a glass of iced tea. As Pam scurried to her kitchen, I turned to the other vampires in the room.

I'd never seen Thalia outside of Fangtasia, and it seemed almost surreal to see the ancient vampire in Pam's very modern and chic home. Real Simple had nothing on Pam's style. Thalia wasn't smiling as she had been the night of the bloody battle, but she also wasn't wearing her usual deep scowl. Her statuesque beauty was undeniable as she sat stoically with a hand full of playing cards. Heidi had her hair in braids again and unlike the tiny vampire to her left, she looked perfectly in place in the den.

By the time I had said my hellos to Heidi and Thalia, Pam had returned with a glass of iced tea that looked perfect enough to photograph for an ad.

"Thanks so much, Pam!"

"Of course, my friend. We're almost done with this round of Sequence, why don't you watch us and then you can join in on the next game." I looked down at the table and noticed that in addition to the piles of poker chips and playing cards, there was a board with pictures of playing cards on it. Pam explained the game as I watched; the game was a combination of luck and strategy, and I was eager to play by the time I was dealt a hand. The game was simple but a lot of fun, and we were all pretty evenly matched.

After we played quite a few rounds, Thalia and Indira left, mentioning something about getting some dinner. After they were gone, Pam turned to me, "Felipe has invited us to Narayana's summit in San Francisco. If Eric doesn't invite you, I will take you as my guest."

If Heidi was surprised I knew about the vampire territories, her face didn't show it, "Yes, Sookie, after what happened at Rhodes, I'm surprised Felipe didn't invite you specifically, but he probably did not want to appear to be so weak as to need a human telepath to protect him."

I thought about the last time I was invited to a vampire summit. I thought about Claudine's chat with me in my kitchen, trying to convince me to not go, that it was dangerous. I shut that train of thought down before my grief over losing my cousin overwhelmed me. After all, it was Pretend Life is Hunky Dory night.

"Okay. When is it? I'll need to ask Sam for the time off of work." With business being so slow lately, I didn't think any of the other waitresses would mind picking up my extra shifts and the tips that came with them. Now that Felipe's human establishment, Vic's Redneck Roadhouse, was closing, Sam gave me the good news at work today, I had a feeling those shifts would be extra lucrative for my subs.

"It's next week. Eric and I were just invited yesterday, no doubt after Felipe heard of Victor's demise."

"I was already going," Heidi added.

Since I was scheduled to work every day, a week gave me just enough time to buy clothes to replace the ones that were lost at Rhodes, pack, and do all the other little things that were necessary when leaving one's house for a few days.

I nodded at the two vamps, "Alright. Let's do this thing... And hope it goes better than last time."

The next week flew by, between taking on a few extra shifts, (India had come down with a horrible flu), and getting ready for the trip, I felt like I was running on fumes. Of course it didn't help that every night I found myself ruminating on things out of my control.

Eric hadn't invited me, hadn't even contacted me or returned my calls. According to Pam, he didn't know I was to be Pam's guest. In my mind, that could only mean one thing: Oklahoma was going to be at the West Coast summit. I wasn't looking forward to meeting her, but more than that, I couldn't help but irrationally wonder if Eric was ignoring me because he was planning to get married there. I consider myself a pretty strong woman, but I don't think I could bear to see Eric marry someone else.

As if that weren't enough, I also couldn't shake the thought I had that not everyone at the summit would be as happy as us that Victor Madden was no more. Added to my general anxiety about ever attending another vampire summit-a perfectly natural response if you ask me-and jumpy didn't even begin to describe how I felt about the whole debacle. A part of me, a very, very tiny part, couldn't help but wish that I'd made a strong enough impression on the Britlingens that they'd agree to be our guards at a severely discounted rate. But I decided in the end that even with Claudine's inheritance, I still wouldn't be able to afford them.

With so much on my mind, it wasn't too surprising that I was awake at four in the morning when Bill Compton knocked lightly on my back porch door one night. I got up from the kitchen table, where I'd been, very unsuccessfully, trying to induce sleepiness with a cup of chamomile tea.

"Hey, Bill. Come on in."

"I noticed your light was on when I was going for a walk through the woods, so I thought I'd see if you were alright." His voice conveyed that he was hoping I'd be in the mood for more comfort than just talking could ever confer.

I barely managed to stifle the sigh that I'd felt rising in my throat. Bill was the very definition of desperation sometimes. I loved Bill, I always would, but not in that way, especially since I knew he and I would never work together. For whatever reason, I'm guessing a combination of guilt, competitiveness, and rose colored glasses, he seemed to believe we could be happy together. I had no guilt over my actions with Bill, no competition, and an altogether painfully, brutally, honest memory of what our time as a couple had actually been like. So I had no delusions on the matter, though I couldn't seem to dissuade Bill from his vigil for my affections.

Forcing myself to the present moment, I asked, "Are you going to the summit?"

"Yes. It's really an ideal opportunity for me to sell disks and collect more information. I already secured invitations to the Zeus and Moshup summits this coming fall and next spring."

It looked like Bill was winding up for a big one and him getting excited about his database did what a double shift at Merlotte's and two cups of chamomile tea hadn't managed, I suddenly felt sleepy. The epic sized yawn that popped out before I could cover my mouth only solidified that truth. Yet another reason Bill and I would never work.

"I'm so sorry!" I gasped out, embarrassed by my unintended rudeness.

The right corner of Bill's lip quirked up for a moment before he replied, "No, it is I who should be apologizing. Get a good night's rest, Sookie. I'll see you when I return from San Francisco."

Well I knew he'd be seeing me a lot sooner than that, but my body was ready to fall asleep standing up by that point and telling Bill that would raise more questions than I had the energy to answer right now. So we exchanged our good nights and after locking the door tightly, I went to bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, I was woken up at an inhuman hour, 7:00, by my phone's blaring ringtone. (Yes, this week I may just have gotten into the habit of turning up the volume on my phone's ringer before I prepared for bed so I wouldn't sleep through Eric calling me.) The light streaming through my curtains meant my husband was not on the other end off the line, so I was really tempted to just ignore the call without bothering to check the caller ID. But the sudden thought that it might be the hospital calling about Jason having an accident on his road crew job-very improbable, I know, but I'd lost too many loved ones recently, so my mind seemed to always jump to the worst possible news nowadays-made me check. It wasn't. It was Amelia. I thought a few very uncharitable things and decided to let it go to voicemail and fall back asleep. I'd had less than three hours of shut eye and unlike Jason, I wasn't her keeper.

When I finally rolled out of bed it was 11 am and my alarm clock was ringing. I certainly didn't expect to sleep in this late, but I was glad I had set the alarm just in case. I had less than 90 minutes to get ready for the airport shuttle bus.

I was emptying out the fridge of any food that would go bad while I was on my trip, with my hair sopping wet and only a bathrobe on when Dermot walked into my kitchen. I looked up at him in total surprise.

"I'm-I'm so sorry," he stammered. "I thought you were already on your way to the airport, I would have knocked otherwise."

I noticed his blushing face wasn't looking at the ground in embarrassment, but at my-thanks to the satin robe-mostly revealed right leg. I yanked the robe shut and have him a censuring look.

"Next time, please knock, even if I'm supposed to be on the other side of the world." I almost went on, but the look of deep guilt on the fairy's face made me stop. "Sorry, I overslept so I'm a bit grouchy."

Dermot gave a weak smile, "I understand. But you truly have no reason to apologize, it was I who was in the wrong. This is your home and it is so generous of you to let me work on your attic. I ask for your pardon." If it had been anyone else in the world I would have thought they were being a smart ass, but Dermot had a way of taking chivalry up to a whole 'nother level.

"Uh, don't worry about it, just don't let it happen again. I'm going to finish getting dressed. If I don't see you before I leave, I just wanted to say thanks for agreeing to pick up my mail for me." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek before I even thought about what I was doing and there was a palatable shift in the air. He nestled his face against mine and whispered into my ear something so quiet I didn't think I was even suppose to make it out. Altogether too aware of the lack of bra underneath my robe, I swooped away from him and scurried into my bedroom to get dressed and pack up my toothbrush and the few other things I hadn't been able to pack ahead of time.

I was ready just in time for the shuttle's arrival, and to my immense relief, I didn't run into Dermot again. The shuttle ride was uneventful which was good because I was able to use that time to prepare my shields for the onslaught of people's minds at the crowded airport.

As I waited in the security checkpoint line, I was mentally patting myself on the back for my shields being so strong when a stranger's single stray thought pierced my telepathic walls.

Finally. My chance to have revenge on that Viking.

A/N - I'm sorry it took so long to get this second chapter posted, I had a lot of planning and plotting to set up. My goal is for this to be a 30-50 chapter story with updates about once every week. I will be keeping this story rated T, putting all the scenes of lemony goodness into chapters of an addendum story. (That way those who love citrus will still get their fill, and everyone else can still enjoy the story.)

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! I love reviews as much as True Blood's Queen Sophie-Anne loves the (pure-luck) game of Yahtzee!