AN: Thank you all so much for your awesome responses! This is betaless, so all of the mistakes are mine. And all characters and probably some plot as I go along belong to Ms. Harris and Mr. Ball.

Chapter 3 – A Helping Hand

"You were never sick before?" Godric asked, his eyes intent and questioning.

"Nope. But in the end it doesn't really matter. I'm much happier as a vampire than I was as a human," Sookie stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

She really was much better off as she now was. Even with all of the vampire crap, she had a mind for some of the politicking. Her shields now happened without a thought. She was able to use her skills to her benefit now. She affected and manipulated her skills, rather than them affecting her.

She looked at Godric closely, still noting the bit of concern on his features. He was a handsome vampire, really. Most were, but his strong jaw, bright hazel eyes, and the way his pouty-lipped mouth was slightly off center from the rest of his face just kind of drew her in.

Maybe it had something to do with their age when turned. They were closer in age. That was a way she and Pam had connected too. Sookie always more mature than others her age still had similar interest and values to her maker.

Eric had always flirted, once he and Pam got over the fact that she had been a fifteen-year-old human. There were times, Sookie knew, that she wished to take him up on his obvious offers. But she was concerned about the laws and didn't want it to affect how he saw her.

Ever since Pam turned her he had joked that he now had forever to convince her. Attraction was definitely there on her side, but since she got a hand from him and Pam out of the grave in which she became a vampire, she had been working on controlling her urges.

Even at almost six years, she still had trouble controlling her impulses. Then again, that was true for her as a human. The one urge she had been able to control more than others were her sexual ones. Maybe that had more to do with her history than any real ability to control herself.

Maybe, she thought, her attention back on Godric, her attraction to the ancient vampire was because she knew how to help him, and he was so in need. The sorrow was so evident in him. But Sookie needed to talk to him about how she could help first. And she didn't think Eric knew about this skill, since it had only developed since she became a vampire and since she learned more about how to control her reading of emotions beyond the turning it off. Not even Pam knew about her experimentation.

Glancing at the clock on the wall that had been slowly ticking away the time until sunrise, she noticed there was still time left. Eric had closed the bar early tonight.

"Godric, wanna take a walk with me?" Sookie asked softly. With his nod, her eyes moved to Eric. She quickly read his emotions to be sure he was okay with everything so far. Worry was evident. A bit of fear. Gratefulness. And jealousy. Wait. Was he jealous of her ability to help him? Jealous of her or jealous of Godric was the question.

Standing up, she smiled warmly at her grandsire and held her hand out to Godric.

Calmly, almost hesitantly, he took her hand in his and they walked to the door.

"We'll be back in a few, Eric," Sookie called over her shoulder.

The had strolled to the nearby park a few blocks away from the gated community in silence, just enjoying the warm night air and the feel of their intertwined fingers.

"I do miss the sun sometimes," Sookie said as they stopped at a bench. "Everything is great now, but I think it's the sky fae in me. I used to love to sunbathe when I had the opportunity. It would drive Pam and Eric nuts when I would see them without showering before hand."

"You still smell like sunshine," Godric said gently, his voice like a soft caress of wind.

Sookie smiled at him and used her thumb to trace patterns on his hand. They were quiet for a few minutes.

Taking an unnecessary breath, Sookie broke the comfortable silence. "I have a way to help you. I can help make you happy. If it's something you want."

Godric looked at her, well closer. He had been looking at her most of the time they had been sitting. But his eyes caught hers and his hazel orbs held her blue ones. "I came here for help from my child. If you are how he can help me, then I'm happy for anything you think you can do. But what is it about you?"

"Well I have this skill. I can–"

"No," he said, interrupting her. "What is it about you that draws me to you?" He turned his body more towards her. The hand that wasn't holding hers reached up, and he trailed his fingers lightly as he traced the side of her face. His thumb reached out to pull her bottom lip out from between the teeth that had caught it.

His calloused thumb gently swept across her bottom lip. And, he thought, looking at it, that it just looked so plump and . . . nibbleable.

A faint smile played across Sookie's lips and her fangs ran out. They no longer startled her, but were the note to herself to calm down. It was how she controlled herself. Her pink tongue swiftly darted out to tickle and wet the tip of his digit, but her free hand reached up and caught his wrist. She gently pulled his hand away from her face after quickly puckering her lips and brushing a soft kiss over the second knuckles of his fingers.

She did not want her to think she was rejecting him, but she wanted to talk so she could try and help him while it was early enough. Holding both of his hands, she turned her body to completely face him.

"We can talk about that in a little. But let me help first?" she asked, almost pleadingly.

With his nod, Sookie leaned forward and pressed her lips against the corner of his mouth. She held his hands, somewhat preventing him from wrapping his arms around her (if he was really determined, he would be able to stop him), but it didn't keep him from moving his lips to hers.

He slipped one hand out from her hold and ran it her back as his lips continued to press kisses against hers that became more and more insistent. His fingers wound themselves into her hair, and he began opening his lips more, his tongue gently pressing against her soft mouth. Her mouth opened slightly, accepting his tongue as it gently brushed against hers.

Her tongue slipped from her mouth and followed his tongue into his own mouth. He tasted like the blood he had been drinking and something unique to himself. But when her tongue brushed against her fangs, the elongated teeth brought her back to reality slightly. While the fingers of his free hand were caressing the back of her neck, her hand came up and pressed against his chest, gently pushing him away. When he released her, she looked at him; his eyes were focused and the need was almost rolling off him.

Licking her lips, she paused for a moment, collecting herself. "So can you tell me why you're so upset? What is making you like this? Even now, under the curiosity and desire, the depression in you is evident. What are you living for?"

"At the moment I'm living for you," he chuckled under his breath. "The only goal in my life at the moment is to know more of you, in every way."

Were she able to blush she would, but he continued. "What made me upset? Well partly I am tired." He leaned back, took his free hand and ran it through his close-cut hair. He retracted his fangs and sighed.

"I've lived for two thousand years. That is a very long time. When I was younger, I did awful things. And then I saw and knew of vampires doing some of the same things now. I see humans who want to destroy us. And when I hear their arguments and think about what I have heard about, what I have seen, what I have done. . . . They're right is all I can think.

"Maybe we are wrong and evil. Maybe we should be smote." He closed his eyes. "I can no longer recall what the sun looked like when I was alive. I sometimes think going to the Fellowship willingly could accomplish something. They will eventually take someone. I have no more desire to live, so why should I allow them to sacrifices a vampire who is still content?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I imagine, what if they took Eric? What if the humans subdued him somehow and took away his life. He loves living. And I think of what he's done an accomplished. I recall how it compared to my first 1000 years. And he's marvelous."

His free hand trails up her arm, over her shoulder, and gently caresses the soft slope of her neck. "And now I imagine, what if they took you? You're so . . . alive." He breathed out the word with an exhale, almost making the term reverent.

His fingers continued up her neck and cupped her cheek. She had been listening to him intently, but she leaned slightly into his cupped palm and took an unneeded breath with her nose against his pulse point.

"If you want it, I can help you," Sookie whispered. "I can't give you the sun or take away what you did, what you've seen. I can, however, help you be happy, and take some of your upset into myself. I guess it's my skill or whatever as a vampire. An extension of my telepathy.

"You'll need to tell me what it's like, since I noticed I could do it to the humans in the bar, but never tried it on another vampire. For all I know this won't work, but I want to try. I'll concentrate on the emotions I read from you and try to siphon off the pain. So what I need you to do, I think, is focus on something else. Focus on what you want to do to me." She looked, up almost startled when his fangs audibly ran out and he took in a deep breath. "Or maybe you should focus more on what you want to know about me."

With his nod signaling his assent, Sookie closed her eyes. She ignored the curiosity and lust within him. Focusing on his feeling of upset, she tried to slowly bring a bit of it into herself while focusing on her own concentration. She wasn't sure if her own emotion filled the void she left, or if the person's emotions just swelled and filled the space.

When she did this on humans at the bar, it was more often tourists than fangbangers. Ones who were too fearful or annoyed even, if they were dragged there by their friends, were her typical subjects. She would pull off a bit of that fear or annoyance. The emotion would flicker through her, and she would quickly brush it aside leaving them more curious and less scared or more interested less irritated.

Taking a breath, not to breathe but to steel herself, she felt the pressure of his depression as it entered her. It was heavy on her mind, and Sookie felt her cheeks dampen as bloody tears rolled down her cheeks. She let out the breath, trying to expel the despair along with the air in her lungs.

She waited, trying to let it flow through her and be brushed aside.

But it hung on. She let out a whimper as the depression overwhelmed her completely and bloody tears ran down her cheeks.

Godric, who had also closed his eyes to concentrate of the feeling as she had instructed, couldn't believe it as he felt himself lighten. Though he knew everything he had done, everything his kind had done, and everything the humans wanted to do to him and his kind, he did not feel the weighty anguish he had felt for the past years.

He knew there were things he could do, and he understood why he was upset. He was even still a little dejected by it all. But he was not suicidal.

"Sookie. . ." he started, opening his eyes. But he stopped quickly at her furrowed brows. The whimper erupted from between her lips and she collapsed her body into him, sobs shaking her torso.

The abrupt appearance of a disheveled Pam did not surprise him. "What the hell did you both do?!" she exclaimed with annoyance. She had been in the middle of a lovely feed and fuck with Fangtasia's new girl when she felt a sudden wave of foreign emotion coming from her Sookie.

She took in the situation and was quickly on her knees before the bench, grasping her child's hand. "Sookie!" she called, trying to feel through the bond what was happening to her friend. "What happened?"

Godric stared at Eric's progeny and at the woman in his arms. "She helped me."

Pam's eyes snapped up at her grandsire. "How? I thought she was just going to spend time with you?"

"She took the edge away. She said something about taking the upset into herself."

"Let's take her to Eric. I don't know what happened."

She stood up and watched as Godric lifted up her child. She would protest and carry Sookie herself leaving her in Godric's arms didn't mean them getting to her master faster.

They ran quickly to Eric's home. Sookie never regained awareness, but remained sobbing.

Pam was flabbergasted. She had never seen Sookie cry.

Eric was in his home office and looked up as the his maker and child suddenly appeared in the space.

His eyes took in Sookie and he cocked an eyebrow, not letting worry mar his features. He could clearly see it in the faces of the two vampires before him. The eyebrow was all that was needed for Pam to spew out a worried explanation of the information she had.

He looked at Sookie, whose fingers were clutching Godric's shirt as her body shuttered with each whimper and sob.

"Sookie," Eric said with a sigh. "Silly girl."

AN: Please review! Impulsive is definitely a strong characteristic of Sookie. Any times when you've been impulsive and leaped before you looked?