Trapped

3

Pam was getting annoyed. Eric was pacing, and it was more than a little disturbing to her.

"Why does she not call?" he growled at her as she moved – this was why she didn't like on-edge Eric. He over-enunciates everything, growls and paces, more than normal, she thought, all of which I hate when he does.

She smiled at him. "Maybe she is protecting you?"

"Protecting me? HA!" He scoffed and muttered under his breath, "-would be absurd! Me – I'm – me is the one of the two of us who is stronger," he said, stumbling over the words and the sentence coming out a jumble that was mostly right. She shook her head, thinking about how this blonde had gotten under his skin in the strangest way Pam had ever seen.

Eric had been riveted by Sookie the moment he saw her, and there had been plenty of blondes in the past that had held a certain fascination to Eric – herself included. But Joanna Beth, she had been different. He had seen beyond her blond hair and pretty eyes and he had seen something in her that he shared. Something he once upon a time had changed Pam for having.

A killer's instinct.

"So call her."

Again. But that part was an unspoken teasing.

Eric on-edge did not need any kind of provocation. And teasing would be provocation in his mind. She almost wished she was somewhere else.

"How can I? I have called her twice already," he said, and he was sounding as if it would be inappropriate for a man to call a woman so many times. He really was of the old world. Still.

"You dial the number," Pam said, and before he could snap at her, she left the room.

oo

Eric was a wreck.

In every language he knew, he was a wreck.

He had been so upset at finding Jo gone when he came to, he'd been a loose canon for days. Weeks. Still was. If he hadn't been sheriff, someone would have considered him a danger and taken him out by now. He would have taken him out if he'd been a vampire he came in contact with, he didn't doubt it one little bit.

He picked up his phone, knowing Pam was right after all. He might still think that pursuing a woman quite so openly was inappropriate, that he had played his part and that he now should wait for a little while before calling her again. But somewhere in the midst of all this, he knew he should call her again. He should call her until she answered or someone answered.

What was with him?

He shook it off and dialed her number. One second, two...

"Eric?" Her voice came quickly and despite him not having breathed in almost a thousand years, he let out a breath.

"Jo! Var fan har du varit? Vet du hur jävla orolig jag har varit? Kan du bara försöka förstå vad jag trodde hade hänt dig-"

"I don't understand a word you're saying!" Jo shouted at him, interrupting him as well as trying to make herself heard over his loud rant. He took a breath again. Trying to calm himself. He was failing. Miserably.

"Where the hell have you been?"

There was a loaded pause which made him think there was probably more to the story than she was going to tell him. He wondered how he would be able to get it out of her, and what he should say to make it easier...

"Home."

He rolled his eyes, something he rarely, if ever, did. "Home? Why does that sound not right?"

"Does not sound right," she corrected him and he snorted into the phone.

"You and your silly grammar, would you forget my phrasing for once and just tell me where you were?" His voice raised and the last bit came out as more of a growl than anything else.

"I don't know where I was before that. But I'm home now."

"And you are all right?"

He kept pacing, and he almost felt himself wear a hole in the rug.

"Yes. Fine," she said, but there was still that pause. She was lying.

"You might be a hunter, Joanna Beth, but you are a very bad liar."

"No I'm not!" she huffed, sounding really offended. "I am the best damn liar in a 50 mile radius, but-" She swallowed loudly. "I have some cuts and bruises, nothing that won't heal in time."

"Do you, in any way shape or form, have any idea how worried I have been?" he asked, closing his eyes hard and pinching the bridge of his nose. "All that blood, Jo..."

He heard a sob on the other end. That's when he knew she'd been worried too.

oo

Pam was listening to Eric screaming, ranting, huffing and even his voice breaking, through the door and she was smiling the entire time. Somehow she knew this would change things. He had finally realized that he cared for someone other than himself and his business. He cared for someone he should, by the laws of nature, despise. It made Pam giddy to think of him finally, after all these years, in love!

She even made a little dance, as she was all alone, where she almost clapped her hands and danced around. All the while she listened to the conversation on the other side of the door.

Eric had settled. He was sitting down. His voice was calmer. He was almost reasonable she thought. It seemed to be going well. She sat down on a chair and leafed through a paper when she heard him say goodbye and come towards the door in a much more behaved manner.

"You..." He pursed his lips and then he started over. "You were right."

"I should get this in writing," Pam whispered and offered a smile. He smiled back, closing his eyes as he shook his head. "So, Joanna Beth is all right? She is in fact alive?"

"Yes," he asked, as his lips quivered in the oddest way.

"Are we going to see her sometime soon?"

He didn't answer. He just went upstairs to his bedroom. She heard the door shut and the faucet in the bathroom running. She narrowed her eyes and glared at the stairs.

Something was definitely up.

oo