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Chapter 4: We Need to Talk About Eric

Dating Do: Do be clear about what you want. Just because a potential lover could drain your blood and leave you a lifeless shell does not mean you can't put your foot down.

The morning air was dense and infused with the smell of thunder when Sam called the next day to see if I could come in early and help with the cleaning. Storms often triggered episodes for Terry so he'd called in to say he was heading out for a nature day – meaning he was going to bury himself deep in the woods, far from people. Every extra cent would help until I got the bail money back so I quickly agreed and threw a bag together.

I'd pulled on some sweats and an old senior class t-shirt to travel in so I was able to enjoy a minute of standing in the first fat drops of rain when I pulled up at Merlotte's. I was a sun-bunny as a rule but I still enjoyed a thunderstorm. I knew that once it passed, the air would be crisp and clean, and the smells of nature amplified, I loved that. It always felt like God had commanded a spring cleaning.

As the spattering rain got heavier, I headed in. Sam said nothing about the incident with Bill and Eric the night before. He welcomed me with a cup of coffee, asked if I slept OK and then passed me a mop.

Once we'd cleaned I headed over to Sam's trailer for a shower and to change into my uniform. Despite a cheeky comment about me being naked in his home, Sam stayed in the bar while I cleaned up and even had a BLT waiting for me when I got back. I scarfed it down and started to set up while Sam went for his shower.

My boss was on his best behaviour. Though I could tell by the look on his face that it was still on his mind, he never made a single comment about the vampires in my life throughout the whole Sunday lunch shift, earning him another kiss on the cheek before I left. Even when we shared a look right after I'd kissed him, one in which the tingle of sexual tension was soothed by a shared understanding, he just gave me a reassuring smile and remained blessedly silent.

I wasn't so lucky when Bill arrived at my house soon after the sun set about 6pm.

I'd made sure to eat early, actually enjoying the challenge of creating a meal from the random ingredients in the back of the pantry – so long as I didn't think too much about why it was necessary. The extra money from Sam that morning had gone into my gas fund – if I couldn't get to work I'd be really stuck and the price of fuel seemed to be increasing daily. I had eaten first, not for Bill's benefit but for mine, it's hard to enjoy your food when someone is looking at you like you're chewing on entrails – come to think of it he'd probably approve of entrails, ew!

Gran ensured I gave the house a good clean too. Not that it was dirty, but the habit of making an extra effort whenever anyone was invited over was so ingrained I almost felt as if every chore was done with her looking over my shoulder making sure it was done right. I liked that, the feeling that she was still with me so closely.

When he arrived, even Bill's knock was angry. Knowing it would be, I was prepared.

I flung the door open, planted myself to block his entrance, levelled him with my gaze and said, "Don't start on me Bill," all as one swift movement. His mouth had already been open but he closed it and looked stunned. Gran had always said she didn't understand why people worried so much about the last word when a good first one will stop the argument from happening in the first place.

Bill took a deep calming breath and then spoke quietly.

"I'm not angry with you Sookie," I raised my eyebrows disbelievingly. He noted the expression but was unable to prevent himself diving into what he really wanted to say. Clearly he'd been planning this conversation in advance. "I think you need to tell me what happened with you and Eric. He's very dangerous and you cannot trust him. He's proved that many times. He's lied to you before." I kept silent, my face giving nothing away. He was always talking like this when it came to Eric, so much so that it just drifted over me now. I knew that Eric could be devious and wily, I wasn't a complete idiot, but those were hardly traits unique to the Viking. Bill had been less than honest with me a few times himself.

Bill pressed on trying to persuade me with his eyes as well as his words. "His only agenda is helping himself and exploiting others to his own advantage. If he has something on you he won't be shy about using it. It wouldn't be the first time he's manipulated you. You must tell me everything. You need to let me help." I did believe he wanted to help me (not that he could do anything about the fact I'd murdered someone, Eric had disposed of the body and now neither of us knew where it was), but I didn't believe for a second that was why he wanted to know. His long list of 'Evil-Eric' justifications overshadowed any aspect of concern. Besides, the fact that he was more telling me than asking me pissed me off.

"I don't need to do anything. And you already know what happened between me and Eric," I snapped. I was determined to close the subject once and for all. If he pushed I was prepared to threaten him with details (they were fresh thanks to the very explicit dream I'd had last night), that would be sure to shut him up. "And he wasn't using it against me, he was using it against you. In fact I really don't think my presence was required at all for that little scene last night. Perhaps I can provide you all with a photo for next time since I'd rather just skip the whole thing." I put my hands on my hips and remained standing in the doorway. He wasn't coming in if he was just going to bitch and moan about Eric all night. Being scrutinised by those piercing blue eyes again after three weeks of nothing had been unsettling enough, I really didn't want to have to pick the whole thing over with Bill.

Bill understood my point immediately. First he wiped his demanding expression blank then replaced it with a relaxed happy one. His whole body softened and he even put his hands in his pockets, something Bill almost never did.

"I thought we could start by running through the exercises we used to do as warm up," he suggested amiably. "If you haven't been practising I don't want to wear you out on the first night. We can see how it goes and take it from there." He spoke as if the conversation about Eric hadn't happened at all. I waited a moment to adjust to this alternative interaction, then smiled at him and stepped aside so he could enter the house.

"OK, I'll just warm you some blood and we can get started," I said going along with this erasure of the first few minutes of conversation.

I know you might not believe it, I marvelled at it myself, reflecting back later when I was curled up in bed with my book, but just like that it really was like the whole Eric thing hadn't happened. I didn't feel awkward or anything and if Bill did he hid it completely. He asked me about my day at work and I told him about Terry being off and going in early. We discussed the storm, which had been a heavy one but had cleared completely before nightfall. Bill told me how much more sensitive vampires were to the atmospheric changes that even humans could feel before and after a storm. It was just like all the other pleasant evenings I'd spent with him recently. The only concession I gave was that I decided it was not the night to bring up my concerns about our relationship.

We had started my telepathy training like this before, just the two of us. I would practice putting my shields up and down, first slowly then more quickly. When I'd first taught myself to shield, it had been an all or nothing deal and that part I was fairly confident in. We worked a lot on having them at half-mast, so I could listen to specific people without allowing the full hubbub of a room full of thoughts invade my mind. It was easier to get used to the process in the blessed silence of my house with only Bill there. I was familiar enough with the mental effort to do it without any minds to block.

Next we would do the same but with me being active doing other things, such as dancing with Bill round my living room … Seeing Bill doing the funky chicken isn't a sight I'll soon forget but it did remind me how easily I let my shields fall away when distracted. As before I would know when I was getting better at it. When my shield muscles started to strengthen from the repetition we would plan trips out, to small crowds at first, then bigger ones.

After an hour of setting up and picking apart my inner defences I started to get a headache and Bill suggested we leave it for the night. It wouldn't help to over do it and leave me vulnerable the next day. We collapsed on the couch and Bill straightened his clothes reminding me of his dancing. I started to laugh again.

"I wish I had a video camera. Maybe I should borrow one for next time," I giggled, tucking my feet under me and resting one elbow on the back of the couch so I could prop my head on my hand.

"If you do I'll sneak in here and record you singing in the shower," Bill said in a serious tone that didn't hide the spark of laughter in his eyes. He'd twisted to face me also, pulling up one pant leg to cross his legs. I smacked his arm making my hand sting.

"Don't you dare." I knew he was kidding but I was horrified since he must have heard me singing in the shower. I didn't think I'd ever done it when he'd been in the house or I'd been at his place; if you'd ever heard me sing you'd know why, but I must have slipped up some time.

Once I'd settled down I dropped my head down onto the back of the couch and pinched the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes tight shut. I'm not sure headache is the right word for how it can feel when I tire myself out mentally, it's more like my thought muscles are spasming.

"I should have stopped sooner, I let you get too tired." Bill sounded worried and contrite. Without opening my eyes I reached out with my spare hand and patted him, I think on the top of his thigh though I'd been aiming for his knee.

"I'm fine. It's not just the training. I've been worried about Jason so I've not been sleeping well." There was a short silence, not uncomfortable, as Bill allowed me to try forcing my mind to relax (which of course never worked), then I continued. "I tried to call Calvin this morning but I just got his message machine again. I know he has a lot of other responsibilities, but Jason's all I've got, I need to know he'll be OK." I explained in a tired voice.

"Jason is not all you have Sookie," said Bill softly after another pause. He rested his hand on my shoulder. The ease of the night shimmered with a hint of tension as he moved in closer to me. I kept my eyes closed. "You have friends, many of us, who care about you and will always be here for you. What's the saying? Friends are the family you choose."

I blinked my eyes open and sat up to look at him. His face was blank and he'd moved back again as if he was a little surprised at himself.

"Bill Compton, that is the cheesiest …" I cracked up as Bill looked embarrassed. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you're supposed to be a vampire, not some hallmark thank you card!" I giggled harder as he actually looked a bit offended, but then a smile twitched his lips before he let go and laughed too. We seemed to laugh for a long time and in the end Bill had to go and get me a drink. He heated another blood for himself as well.

"Is there anything I can do? To help with Jason?" Bill asked when he returned from the kitchen.

"No, I don't think so. We'll just have to see what the judge says. Maybe they'll let him off with a fine, or a restraining order or something. It's not good that he'll have a record but better than being in jail and it's not like he'll make that mistake again." I hadn't told Bill all the details of Jason's case but he knew he'd been found in a woman's yard in the early hours after shifting. "I wonder sometimes if it would be easier if the shifters came out, like you vampires, but then I'm not sure they'd look any more favourably on Jason if they knew he was part panther." I was thinking aloud more than conversing but Bill followed the thought easily enough.

"No, probably not. Accepting that supernaturals exist and accepting supernaturals are not the same things. I'm not sure many other people can do it as easily as you do. You are quite amazing in that respect." Bill's gaze made me want to blush and I avoided his eye by tucking my feet more firmly under me.

"Well I guess I've always known that what people are underneath and what they seem on the surface is rarely the same thing," I explained. As I saw it, my 'acceptance' was more a by-product of my disability than any special virtue, though Gran had always raised me to be tolerant and sympathetic to all. "It's easier for me to deal with the idea that someone grows fur and a tail a few nights a month than that someone beats his wife or cheats their neighbour out of their life-savings." I shrugged. I'd accepted long ago there was nothing I could do about these things. "Besides I can empathise with people that have to hide who they are. It can be lonely."

"Especially if you are the only one of your kind." Bill brushed his hand over my hair sympathetically.

"Yeah, I suppose it's good that Jason has Calvin and the rest of the pack. I'd love to be the one to help him but at least he's not alone in it." Bill pulled me into his arms. I stretched my feet along the couch and snuggled my head into his silent chest.

We were still for a while. Of course we both knew I wasn't the only telepath. If Barry was out there there were probably more too. But before I'd met Barry I'd often thought that maybe I was the only one and however many of us there were, there weren't any others around here. Despite our topic of conversation I didn't feel forlorn cuddled on my couch, I felt comfortable and comforted. The silence was truly golden. I relaxed completely and listened only to the sounds of the night that brushed against the windows with not even a heartbeat to disturb them. My headache still hadn't shifted so after a while Bill insisted I enjoy a bath and he would 'take his leave'. I'd giggled again at his old fashioned phrases but a bath did sound good so I conceded.

[~~~]

Two days later I was again working the lunch shift when Sam called me into his office.

"You should sit down," he said. He was avoiding my eye and moved some papers from one pile to another. Sam's office was usually quite cool at this time of year, as shifters run a little warm he liked it that way, but he'd put on the little space-heater in the corner which told me he was expecting this conversation to take a while.

"Why?" I knew from his tone of voice that whatever was going on was something I wouldn't like. I stayed standing and folded my arms defensively. Still avoiding my eye he lifted the same papers again, waving them over the desk looking for somewhere to put them and eventually set them back where they had been originally. I stood silently just watching him. When he could think of nothing else to move on his desk he finally looked at me. I looked back steadily.

"Don't look at me like that Sookie," he sighed.

"Just spit it out Sam." He watched me for a moment longer then nodded.

"I had a call from Eric Northman last night." This was not likely to be good. It was the verbal equivalent of pulling off a band-aid. I suspected there was going to be an ugly 'owie' underneath.

"What did he want?" I was already tense, expecting a blow of some kind. I hadn't seen or heard from the Viking in weeks, hadn't even heard from Pam, though I'd constantly felt like one or the other would appear any minute. Now Eric seemed to be popping up everywhere.

"His payment in kind." My boss was finally looking at me, a little too steadily to be comfortable, as he said this.

"Huh?" Whatever I had expected Sam to say, it wasn't that. Despite his meaningful gaze, I didn't understand what he was talking about.

"For the bartender," he explained. Uh, oh. I remembered this was what Eric had said when I'd asked, on Sam's behalf, to borrow Charles as a substitute. I'd asked about the money and he'd said he'd take his payment in kind. I started to run through the implications in my head, praying that the old duck and dodge would get me out of whatever this was.

"He wants you to try and kill a member of his staff?" I said savagely. "And burn down Pam's house?" I had a terrible feeling about where this was going and it made me lash out. Instinctively I had started to gear myself for a fight. Sam could see my reaction and rushed on. If I was going into battle he wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was up against.

"He wants a member of my staff, one night a week for ten weeks, the number of days Charles was here." He was looking at me meaningfully but I wasn't about to make it easy for him. Oh, I knew what he was getting at, what he was expecting.

"OK, so whoever is supposed to work on the nights he wants covered can do it," I said in the most reasonable voice I could manage. "I'll do my share and help cover here if you need it." I tried to speak firmly, as if this were the only way it was going to go, but neither of us were fooled.

"Sookie." Sam looked at me apologetically. We both knew the arguments; What I'd say, what he'd say, that it didn't really matter what either of us said, in the end.

"Sam, that's not fair." Oh boy did I feel like pouting.

"You brokered the deal." He wasn't accusing me of anything, just pointing out that I knew how this had come about so had no business being so surprised by it.

"Because you asked me to," I defended despite not being under attack. "You knew I didn't even want to see Eric, but I went anyway as a favour for you, and this is the thanks I get." Talk about no good deed going unpunished. I glared at him as if he'd gotten shot on purpose just to do this to me.

"I thought you guys were friends now. After …" he started coaxingly. I gave him a death stare and he shut up, snapping his lips together deliberately. It felt like I'd been played, though I wasn't sure that was a fair assessment of the situation.

"I haven't even spoken to him in weeks, other than Saturday night. He's only doing all this to annoy Bill or something," I thought aloud. My voice was less strident than it had been as I tried to figure out why Eric was doing this now.

"I don't think that's it Sookie," said Sam with some exasperation. I went back to glaring at him.

"I still don't see why you expect me to do it," I said when he met my glare straight on. "You could at least share it out." Sam stared at his desk again for a moment before answering, shifting that same pile of papers from one spot to the next.

"You've been to Fangtasia a few times, and you know the vampires." He was trying to sound offhand but his thoughts were vibrating so hard it was making my head buzz. "You already have a working relationship with the devil and his spawn." His gaze flicked up from his desk on this one and he grinned at me hoping I'd laugh at his joke. When I didn't, he straightened his face and went on. "You don't have kids like the other girls. Plus, I know you can handle yourself around them. If I try to send someone else …" He was scrambling for more reasons why it had to be me and it suddenly clicked. I kept my glare steadily on him, waiting until he met my eye.

"He told you to send me."

Sam opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he finally said, "Not in so many words."

I put my hands on my hips. "In what words?" I demanded, but the look on Sam's face made it clear he wasn't going to tell me exactly what Eric had said. He gave a theatrical shrug, hands out, palms up.

"You and I both know it's you he wants working for him. What can I do? When Eric Northman calls in a favour you have to pay." There was an edge of fear to Sam's thoughts, though he was trying to hide it. It was because of that I started to give in. It occurred to me that Sam probably didn't like this any more than I did. He didn't have a choice.

It made sense that Eric would do something like this. Sam had been right when he'd implied I shouldn't be surprised. When I'd met Alcide it was because Eric had called in a favour and commanded him to accompany me to Jackson. I did know this was how it worked and it had been me that negotiated the debt with Eric. He'd hinted at the time he was only agreeing because I was the one asking – of course he was still trying to get information out of me at the time. I knew it was the right thing to do, to help Sam even things out again but …

"I hate this Sam, it stinks." I slumped into the chair facing his desk and dropped my chin on my chest. I didn't want to work for Eric, there were too many mixed up feelings attached to the Area 5 Sheriff.

I still often missed the gentle stranger that had stayed with me, the one to whom I was the whole world. The real Eric on the other hand brought out a whole mess of different emotions: I was scared of what he now knew about me; Confused by the way he blew hot and cold, the way he'd threatened to kill me but then rushed over to save me from Charles; Hurt that he had made no effort to contact me since he'd kissed me in Sam's office, it had only been a brush of his lips, but I remembered it just the same; I was insulted by the cold shoulder routine when I'd been in Bill's car at Fangtasia, and by the games he'd been playing on Saturday night; Angry that he was basically manipulating my boss into making me work for him; And I was furious at the tingle of excitement I felt at the prospect. Damn vampire.

Sam was giving me pleading puppy dog eyes (which naturally he was very good at) and I huffed at him.

"I'm not going to get out of this am I?" I folded my arms and gave my best little sister scowl (it was an exaggerated gesture to combat the puppy-eyes), which made Sam soften his gaze to something more understanding than begging.

"He'll just find some other way to get what he wants if you say no. And it's only a few weeks. Please Sookie. Officially you'll still be working for me, you'll just be working at Fangtasia, it won't be so bad." I wasn't sure who he was trying to convince.

"Fine, but I'm not wearing that ridiculous get-up they dress in," I sulked. "And I'm not doing that stupid bow." A horrifying thought suddenly came to me and I dropped my childish act. "And I'm absolutely not calling him master," I said in all seriousness. My voice had gotten a little too loud and Sam held his palms up to calm me.

"You'll have to take that up with him. I'm just supposed to provide a member of staff every Wednesday night until the debt is paid. He said you should call Pam if you had any questions."

"Right." I scuffed my feet on the floor. I felt like I'd just been had. This was why Eric called Sam, not because technically the debt was his, but because he knew I'd let Sam talk me into it.

"I'm sorry chère, I swear I did ask if he'd accept anything else, I got a pretty adamant, 'no way, José'." From the flash in Sam's eye I realised he'd argued vehemently against this and lost. I gave him a small forgiving smile. I wasn't going to hold this against him, that smile said. No, I knew just who to hold responsible for my new employment terms.

A/N: OK, I know I know, I'm a terrible tease putting Eric in the title then not having him show up in the chapter but as you just heard, Sookie (and consequently us too) will be seeing much more of him soon. xx