After arriving at the hospital, Sookie and Bud checked Alice in, filled out what information they could, and waited for her to wake up. They tried to come up with a story for why she had been there in the first place, but nothing was holding together.
"Everything seems to have obvious holes in it, Sookie," Bud grimaced. "I just don't see how we could possibly explain your presence at the clearing."
"We were looking for the girl," Eric said smoothly as he approached. The sheriff scowled a little at his arrival.
"Looking for her? Why on Earth would you have been looking for her?"
Eric didn't hesitate. "I thought about it on the way here. There are some… politics to it that you won't understand, Sheriff Dearborn, but-"
"Vampire nonsense, I take it," Bud interrupted, his scowl deepening. He hated the constant reminders that the vampires had their own sort of government. If they wanted to be people, they should act like people, he thought. But, there were obvious reasons why that wouldn't work, so he tried to keep his mouth shut.
Eric offered an amused, but stern, smile. "Yes, vampire nonsense. Suffice to say, I am in charge of the vampires in this particular area of Louisiana. As such, since one of the vampires under me lives in this area, and it is his niece that was missing, it would be my job to look for her. So, that is why Sookie was in the clearing. She had met up with me to search for the girl."
"That's all well and good, except you weren't with her when she found the girl, and arrived well after we did," Bud answered, referring to himself and the paramedics. "How do you plan on explaining that?"
"Sheriff, pretty much everyone who was there will have to lie, anyway. Maybe we can get them to say he was there when they arrived?"
The sheriff rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Nah, can't ask them to do that. They shouldn't have to lie, they don't know anything." He looked over to Eric. "Maybe we can say that you had gone off to find a signal. To call her uncle, I mean. Maybe you recognized her from a photo or something he'd shown you to look for her. So, you walked off after you n' Sookie found her, and then didn't get back until after we'd gotten there."
Eric nodded in surprise. "That would work," he said, trying not to voice his shock that Bud had managed to come up with something so easily. Just then, a nurse approached, and let them know that they could see Alice.
When they walked into the small hospital room, Eric grimaced. It was cramped and uncomfortable, and he'd always hated the way these places smelled. Sookie immediately went to Alice's bedside, and took her hand. She'd been asleep when they walked in, but awoke as soon as Sookie touched her.
"Hey, Alice, how're you feeling," Sookie asked gently. Alice started to speak, but Sookie shook her head. "No, just think it, you don't need to be talking yet."
'I feel much better now, they have me on some medicine so I'm not hurting and they said I don't have any real injuries, they knocked me out with chloroform and didn't beat me up or anything so all my injuries are from fighting the chains, my wrists are kinda bruised but not much because I stopped struggling a few hours after they left, and they've given my fluids to make up for any dehydration, but I don't think I was very dehydrated, it rained the last two nights I was there so I was drinking the rain water-'
"What is she saying, Sookie?" Eric asked gently, knowing that he needed something to tell Jonathan, and because he could tell Bud wanted to know, but was too uncomfortable to ask. The sheriff was staring hard at the two, and had a strange look on his face. He'd never been around while Sookie had actually done her mind reading.
"She says that she's fine, they've got her on some painkillers and are giving her liquids, and that she's not injured except some bruising."
"Does she know who did it to her?" Bud asked, and Alice grimaced. She didn't really want to share that information with the sheriff; like she'd told Sookie, it wouldn't do any good. She doubted they could prove it, and she didn't want to cause some big media storm like what would happen if the cops tried to arrest any of them for it. She just wanted for it to go away. Unfortunately, Sookie had had more than enough of the Fellowship, and was glad that they'd finally outright done something wrong. They'd never been able to pin the bombing at the summit on them, since they'd used outside help, but from what Alice had told her, at least one faction of the church had done this, no question about it.
"She told me it was the Fellowship of the Sun people. That they'd held a big service where they'd preached about the sins of associating with vampires and tried to get her to confess to having… relations, with a vampire. When she wouldn't, they bound her to the slab and left her."
The whole time Sookie was relating the events to the sheriff, and to Eric, Alice's eyes were staring hard at her, and she was mentally shouting for Sookie to stop. She'd hoped that she could just say that it was the guys who'd kidnapped her in the first place, and completely leave the rest out, but Sookie wasn't having it.
"So, they kidnapped her so they could do some sick, anti-vamp ritual, and left her out there because they thought she was having an affair with some vampire?" Bud asked. Sookie nodded. "Was she?" he continued, and Sookie shook her head.
"No, the vampire they're accusing her of sleeping with is her uncle, the one Eric called."
"And you believe that for sure? Because I'm going to have to question this guy, Sookie. I need to know that you believe her when she says she didn't. Any lies on her part, or his, can jeopardize the case. It's gonna be hard enough, considering who we're talking about. I need to know for sure." Sookie nodded again, and he sighed. "Great. Just great."
