A/N Okay, I have to admit, I'm kinda bummed. In the first ten hours that chapter 1 was posted, I got a ton of messages saying that several people had added this to their alerts, favorites, etc. I looked it up, and there had been 200 hits! I was psyched! However, OF those 200 hits, there had only been 2 reviews. I'm hoping it's because chapter 1 really wasn't all THAT different from the original oneshot. However, that is NOT the case with chapter 2. This new chapter is 1500 words longer than the same section in the original one shot. If you're enjoying, PLEASE submit a review! It's honestly one of the only ways I know that you're enjoying the story! Okay, I'll jump off my soap box now...enjoy!

The next several years passed in much the same way. Sookie stayed at the house while the men went out to do their various jobs on the ranch. Sookie never quite warmed to Eric, and while they were friendly with one another, they never became friends. Eric continued to spend most of his free time with Jason and Bill. Although the tricks had tapered off, they were constantly teasing Sookie. As always, Eric didn't join it, but he didn't stop it, either.

Things began to change the summer after Eric, Jason and Bill all turned 18. Normally, they were all finished with school around the same time. However, due to a mass outbreak of the flu that shut down the school, Jason, Bill and Sookie still had two more weeks of class left by the time Eric arrived at the ranch.

Because they were graduating, Jason and Bill's teachers were taking it easy on the seniors, so they really didn't have any homework at all. Sookie, on the other hand, was swamped. Almost every evening after dinner, Jason, Bill and Eric would drive into town to hang out with a bunch of Jason and Bill's school friends.

Upon his mother's insistence, Jason invited Sookie to go with them one night as well. Bill and Eric stood in the hallway outside of Sookie's room while Jason went in to talk to her.

"Sook, we're gonna head into town and grab a milkshake. I guess it'd be okay if you wanted to come along for the ride." It wasn't hard to pick up on his lack of enthusiasm.

"Um, that's okay, Jason. I've got a math test tomorrow, and I'm having a really hard time with this chapter, so, I should probably stay home and study."

He didn't even wait until she was finished talking before he started to walk out the door, relieved that he wouldn't have to bring her along. Bill turned to follow Jason down the stairs, but Eric held back.

"Hey guys, I think I'm actually gonna sit this one out, okay."

Jason and Bill turned to look at him, the expressions on their faces clearly showing they thought he was nuts. "Fine, whatever. More girls pay attention to me when you're not around, anyway," Jason said with a laugh, and he and Bill left.

After a moment's hesitation, Eric approached Sookie's open door, and lightly knocked on the doorframe. She looked up, surprised to see him.

"Yes?"

"Hey, I heard you tell Jason you're having a hard time with your math. It was always my best subject. Do you want some help?"

She looked at him in silence for a moment, before shaking her head and saying, "Nah, that's okay. I think I'll be able to figure it out on my own. Thanks anyway, though."

"Well, you know where to find me if you changed your mind."

"Yup."

He went downstairs to grab a soda from the kitchen, and then went back to his room. He had a feeling that if he waited long enough, she'd change her mind.

A little over an hour later, he could hear her growling in frustration. He felt bad, knowing that she really was struggling. This was new territory for him. He'd never seen her attempt anything that she wasn't good at almost from the first try. He began to realize that her pride would not allow her to ask for help. He smiled, coming up with a plan.

Sookie had put her hair in a ponytail, thinking it would be the only way to keep from pulling it all out by the roots! She'd never had this much trouble with schoolwork before. She was beyond frustrated. She'd considered asking Eric for help about 50 times in the past hour, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

She was on the verge of throwing in the towel, when some movement in her doorway caught her eye. She looked up, and saw the strangest thing. An arm (because she couldn't see the rest of the person) was in front of her door, and in its hand was what looked like some toilet paper taped to the end of a pencil. The hand was waving the pencil frantically.

She was about to walk into the hallway to see what was going on, when Eric finally stepped into the doorway, and continued to wave the pencil around. "White flag of truce," he asked?

She laughed, and waved for him to come in. He sat down next to her on her bed, and spent the next two hours making sure she knew the quadratic equation like the back of her hand.

Eric was already outside, putting a new coat of paint on the porch when Jason and Sookie left for school. As they passed by him, he shouted "Good luck!" to Sookie, who smiled at him and nodded. He didn't see her again at all that day, however. As soon as she got home from school, she left with Miranda to go help out an elderly woman who had broken her hip a few weeks before, and still needed help around the house.

He'd almost completely forgotten about the tutoring session until two days later. He was sitting on top of the picnic table in the backyard with Jason and Bill, listening to Jason go on about some hot date he'd had. Sookie came running up to them, and without preamble, threw herself onto the table next to Eric and pressed a huge kiss to his cheek.

"What the hell was that all about, Sookie?" Jason asked.

"Well, thanks to Mr. Math God here," she pointed her thumb at Eric, "I got an A on my math test!"

Eric smiled, and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a sort of half-hug. "I knew you could do it, Sook."

A moment later, Miranda's voice called out for Sookie to come help with supper, so she winked at Eric, and got up and ran inside. Jason just shook his head and laughed. Bill, however, had a scowl on his face. Eric couldn't quite figure out why, though. It couldn't have been jealousy. Bill had never been anything but downright nasty to Sookie. He shrugged it off, figuring it didn't really matter anyway.

At the end of the second week, Eric attended Jason and Bill's graduation ceremony with the rest of the Stackhouse family, and at dinner the next night, they all discussed their plans for the future. Jason had been accepted at Colorado State University, and Eric would be attending the University of Texas. Bill had opted not to go to college, and continue to work at the ranch with Mike, Peter, and Jesse. However, knowing that Jason and Eric would no longer be around to help, Peter decided that Sookie should start learning some of the easier tasks so she could help out when needed.

There were several jobs that he figured she could accomplish fairly easily, once she'd been shown how. Since their math session had gone so well, Peter suggested that perhaps Sookie would learn best if working with Eric. So, for the first three weeks of her summer break, Sookie spent almost every waking moment with Eric.

The first job that Peter assigned her to do solo was what they jokingly referred to as Border Patrol. At least twice a day she was instructed to ride out to the edges of the property, follow the fence line, making sure that all of the cattle were accounted for, and the fence remained undamaged. There had been several reports of cattle thieves in the area, so they needed to be vigilant.

One hot July afternoon while Sookie was patrolling, the men were in horse exercise pen, working on breaking in two new colts. They didn't hear the pounding of hooves coming, but, sure enough, they heard Sookie's screams.

"Daddy! Daddy! Quick!!"

"What's wrong, Sook?" Jason yelled as soon as she was in better hearing distance.

"There's a mountain lion attacking the herd out by the creek!"

The men immediately jumped to action. Jason closed the entrance to the pen so that the young horses couldn't get out, and grabbed two shot guns from the stable wall, throwing one to his father, and one to Eric. After grabbing another for himself, he jumped on his horse, and they were all off.

By the time they reached the creek, they could see that the cat was no longer alone. It had been joined by two others. They had already taken down three cows, and seemed to be prowling for another. It was difficult to get at a good enough angle to shoot the cats, because the cattle were running frantically, and the horses were uneasy with the chaos. Everyone knew that Jason had the best aim, so the plan was for Eric and Peter to shoot into the air to try and spook the cattle into going a certain direction, while Bill, Mike, Jesse and Sookie did their best to coral the cats together. This worked and Jason was able to take down two of the cats, but the third, and largest, was proving difficult.

Just when they thought they had the cat cornered, it decided to try one last desperate escape attempt. The cat sprung out, lunging at Sookie's horse. Just as it left the ground, Jason fired, finally successful in killing the animal. However, between the near attack and the boom of the shotgun, Sookie's horse had become very frightened. The mare reared up and moved backwards, causing Sookie to loose her grip on the reigns, and tumble out of her saddle. The force with which the mare tossed her propelled Sookie into the waters of the creek. Unfortunately, it had been a very wet winter, and the water was high and fast.

The moment he saw her body hit the water, Eric vaulted from his horse and ran to help her. However, with the fast moving rapids, it was difficult to see where she was. He finally saw her back rise above the surface, and he instinctively knew she had been knocked unconscious. He ran along the bank until he was just ahead of her, and then plunged head first into the frigid water. He had always been a strong swimmer, but he still struggled to get to her. By the time he reached her and pulled her to him, she had been without air for at least three minutes. He was able to keep her head above the surface as he swam with her back to the shore.

As he lay her still body on the bank of the creek, he noticed a trail of blood running out of her hair, and thought she'd hit her head on a rock, which would explain the loss of consciousness. After a quick assessment, he knew she wasn't breathing, and he began CPR, thankful he'd learned how in school. He continued to push on Sookie's chest, and blow into her mouth, willing her heart to beat and her lungs to breathe. He could hear the other men yelling and coming toward him, but he was entirely focused on her. "Come on Sookie, breathe damnit!" He yelled as he continued. "Breathe. Come on Sookie, you can do it."

Just as Peter reached them, Sookie's chest rose as she coughed hard, finally taking in breath on her own. Eric rolled her onto her side as she continued to cough the water up and out of her lungs. Once her coughing calmed down a bit, Eric lifted her into Peter's arms, and he took off for the house, in order to get her to the hospital. Eric stood, dripping wet and freezing cold, watching them ride away from him.

The minute they were close to the house, Jason got off his horse and ran inside. He yelled for his mother to come quickly, and he grabbed the keys to the truck, and several blankets. Sookie was breathing, but she was still unconscious. Jason and Miranda wrapped her shivering body in a blanket, and Peter climbed into the backseat of his pick-up with her still in his arms. Jason got behind the wheel, and Miranda was in the passenger seat. Jesse yelled to them that he would follow with Bill in his truck, and they left only a moment later.

Mike stayed back at the house, making sure to put the horses back in the stable while he waited for Eric to return. He looked out across the land, and saw him making his way back to the house slowly, and figured he was trying to calm himself down.

When he finally arrived, Mike told him where everyone else was, and insisted that he take a hot shower to warm up before they did anything else. Once he'd showered and put on dry clothes, they drove to join everyone else at the hospital. They found everyone but Miranda in the waiting room.

"They won't let more than one visitor back there with her at a time," Jason explained as they approached. "Mom's with her right now."

Eric turned to Peter, not sure how to ask what the prognosis was. "You got her out in time, Eric. The doctor said she's got a concussion from hitting her head on a rock, and she needed three stitches to close the wound. They're a little worried about infections from all the germs in the creek, so they want to keep her overnight and pump her full of antibiotics. Other than that, she's gonna be okay." Eric felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders, one he hadn't realized he'd been carrying.

Mike and Eric took a seat, and everyone waited in silence. After an hour, Jesse and Bill said that they were going to head home, since she was alright, and that they'd visit her tomorrow, and the silence returned. Peter, Mike and Jason had each picked up a magazine, and were reading to pass the time. Eric, however, just stared down at the tile floor beneath his feet. Even knowing she would be okay, he knew his nerves would only calm once he saw her for himself. After another hour had passed, Miranda entered the waiting room, and placed her hand on Eric's shoulder.

"Eric," she said, and his head snapped up to look at her. "She's asking for you, Hun."

Eric was surprised, but, pleasantly so. He nodded, and stood to follow Miranda down the hall to Sookie's room. Once they reached the door, Miranda smiled at him, leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, and simply said, "Thank you, Eric, for saving her life." Before he could respond, she turned and walked away.

He knocked softly on the door, and then pushed it open and entered. Sookie had been resting, but when she heard him enter, she opened her eyes and looked at him. A bright smile lit up her entire face, and she said, "Eric."

"Hey there, Sook. How ya feel?" He sat down in a chair next to her bed, she reached out and he took her hand.

"I'm okay. Sore as hell, but, it could've been much worse, so I really can't complain." She tried to laugh, but it made her cough painfully. After she composed herself, she smiled at him again. "Eric, I can't even begin to thank you for what you did. You are the only reason I'm still here."

He shook his head. "Nah, Sook, you're still here cause you're stubborn as hell and wouldn't let a stupid cat ruin your future." He chuckled a bit at her smile. "Besides, if anybody else had been closer to you, they would've done the same."

"I know. But it wasn't anybody else. It was you. And I'm grateful." She squeezed his hand, and he saw a tear trickle down her cheek. He absently ran circles over the back of her hand with his thumb, and eventually she went back to sleep. He stood, laid her hand on her stomach, and leaned in to place a kiss to her forehead. Then, he left the room and went to join the others.

While he had been with Sookie, it had been decided that Miranda would stay the night here, and the rest of them would go home. Mike and Eric drove back to the Stackhouse place, while Peter and Jason stopped to pick up a couple of pizzas. Once they'd eaten, Mike left, and the three other men went to bed. Lying in his bed that night, all Eric could think about was how wrong the world would've felt without her in it.

Sookie was released from the hospital just after lunchtime the next day, and arrived home to see balloons and a big 'Welcome Home' banner hanging from the front porch. She instinctively knew that Mike, Jesse, and her father were responsible for this. She couldn't imagine Jason, Bill and Eric doing anything that sweet…or that corny.

She paused for a moment, her mind returning once again to the tall blonde boy who'd saved her life. No, that wasn't right. Eric was no longer a boy. He was a man. He had been in her eyes for quite some time, now. She thought back to that first summer he came to the ranch. She was so certain they'd be friends. But, when faced with the choice of backing Jason or Sookie, Eric had chosen Jason. She was mad at first, because she got punished for lying, when in fact she was the only one telling the truth. She had convinced herself that she hated him for it. And, at the time, she had. But, once he returned the next year, she knew that was no longer the case. She couldn't blame him for what he'd done. Even if she could never admit it out loud, she'd understood his reasoning. She'd wanted to try and make amends and be friends, but, with the way that Bill and Jason still treated her, she knew that he would ruin any progress he'd made with them if he befriended her. So, rather than torture herself with being around someone she so desperately wanted to be friends with but couldn't be, she'd opted to stay at the house with her mother, seeing Eric as little as possible.

But now, that had all changed. They would be short staffed around the ranch once Jason left for college in the fall, so, her father decided to have her start working with them, again. After only a few weeks of working with the men everyday, she came to realize that she'd developed a very large crush on Eric. But, she also knew that she didn't stand a chance with him. He was 18, he was a man. She was still just a little girl, or, at least in his eyes she was. Not that she blamed him. She was slow in developing, and still had a fairly stick straight figure, and not much of a bust. But, he had saved her life. And, when he thought she had been asleep, he'd pressed a kiss to her forehead. She knew he'd never see her as more than a friend, but, she'd definitely take his friendship over nothing.

While she was recovering from her injuries, her father had insisted that she stay at the house again, and they'd worry about getting her trained later. She tried to spend as much time around Eric as was possible. She'd overheard Jason and Bill talking once, and they said it was 'hero-worship' because he'd saved her life. She hoped that was what Eric thought as well. She would be mortified if he knew the truth.

They grew very close that year, and it hurt her badly when he left for college. His Grandmother had suffered a stroke early in the summer, and was now living in a full-time care facility, so, he'd agreed to come back again next summer, as long as he could leave for a few days at a time to go and visit her. Sookie tried so hard to hold back the tears she knew would come when he left. But, in the end, they flowed down her cheeks, anyway. Everyone just attributed them to the fact that both Eric and Jason were leaving at the same time. Sure, she'd miss her brother, they'd never been apart for more than a week at a time. But, she knew deep down that all of her tears were for Eric. He promised he'd email her, and said he'd talk to her on the phone at Christmas time. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him close, and he tilted his head down and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Be good, little one!" He said, and then was gone.

Bill watched him leave with contempt in his heart. He and Eric had been friends for years, but, no more. Bill refused to stand aside and let Eric simply take what was always meant to be his. He'd known, deep down, that Sookie was meant for him. He'd been annoyed by her when they were children, but that was no longer the case.

She had been raised well. She obeyed her parents, and never spoke out of turn. He was relieved that he wouldn't have to take the time to train her to be a good wife. He also knew that, even though he was not physically attracted to her now, he would be someday soon. She had a pleasant enough face, and she'd always had lovely hair. She was still stick straight, and her chest was flat as a board. But, from he knew it was only a matter of time. He'd spent years finding the best places and time to spy on Miranda, and had been rewarded with seeing her naked, or close to it, several times. She had a very delicious body. He'd pleasure himself many a time thinking of Miranda Stackhouse. He had no doubt that, given a little more time, Sookie's body would be just as delectable.

He thought back to the day that she was almost lost. Everyone else had been so frightened that Sookie would die that day with the mountain lions. Bill hadn't been afraid though. He'd been furious. If Sookie had been taken from him, there would've been hell to pay. His hands clenched into fists as he remembered riding his horse to join the others, and seeing Eric lying on the ground, performing CPR on Sookie. His Sookie. He had barely been able to contain his rage. He knew he'd rather have Sookie die than have another put their lips on her ever again.