I know everybody is focused on season 5 right now, but for these of us who still can't get over the disaster of the season 4 final, I have a new chapter.

Remember I'm changing things, so there was no Debbie-Tara drama in this story!

Huge thanks for my beta, cokecrazy!

I own a dog. Two cats. A couple of books. No True Blood.

"What happened?", I crocked.

"Baby girl, I ain't exactly the best one to tell ya."

I suppose, between me being possessed by Antonia and him by Marnie, we really were quite a pair.

He passed me a glass of water, which I downed gratefully. Surprisingly enough, I felt physically great, but I was thirsty and my skin was sticky, as if cowered in dried sweat.

"You blacked out", he offered.

No shit.

"Is she -", I stopped mid question, when it hit me.

All I could do was sit there gaping and staring at confused Lafayette with terrified eyes, frozen with panic, as a sudden thought – the one, that should have been my first thought after waking up – exploded in my mind.

Oh God.

"Sook?"

"Laf", I choked. "Are they... did she... what..."

But I couldn't get it out.

I closed my eyes in futile attempt to calm down, when all I could see under my shut lids was an image of the burning stake.

It was morning. Hours later. What happened after I passed out?

"Did Antonia stop Marnie?" I finally managed in a strained voice.

"Yes."

I breathed long sigh of relief. Suddenly I felt like crying.

"Is Marnie still a threat?" I asked after a pause.

"Not sure, but don't think so. Looks like Antonia kicked her looney ass outta the land of the living. Can you tell if she's still floatin' round here somewhere?"

I closed my eyes again and concentrated searching with my mind around and inside me. I couldn't feel anything strange, but was it enough to know she was really gone? Was she still somewhere there, hidden and waiting? But I sensed nothing unusual, just old me. If she was there, I couldn't detect her presence. Eventually I shook my head.

"I don't think so."

Lafayette tossed his arms in the air looking relieved.

"Ding-dong, that crazy bitch finally gone!"

I actually cracked a smile.

"Amen."

"Hooka, let me tell ya, I ain't build for all this supernatural shit happenin round here lately!"

I sobered quickly when I saw the sadness written all over his face.

"Lafayette, what happened here last night? How did I get home, not to mention to my bed?"

"Looks like Antonia went a bit overboard when she took over you and used all her hocus-pocus. From what I know, pretty girl, were out like a light for the rest of the night."

"There is more, isn't it?"

"Sure there is", he nodded. "Tara tried to wake ya, but to no luck. Them vamps started comin aroud an' got all worked up over you layin' there pale and quiet on the ground."

Vamps. Plural.

At least they were well enough to worry about me.

"They tried to give ya blood, but you didn't take it so well".

Laf had already woken up by that time, so I was able to watch the flashes of the story trough his eyes. It really looked ugly. Vampires, burned and bloody, and me, involuntarily tossing on the ground. I remembered the shaking, choking and the burning.

It was Bill ('that mother-fucka') who insisted on feeding me vampire blood, I could see it plain as a day. I was shaking so violently, that they needed to hold me down. When Bill stopped giving me blood, or rather was stopped by a very pissed off 'hot, tall, blond and scary' vampire, my spasms eventually subsided to shivering, but it didn't stop. Eric then took me home and called doctor Ludwig, because I was still unconscious and running on high fever. I hazily recalled him carrying me.

What Lafayette told me next shocked me. Apparently, doctor Ludwig's diagnosis was that I was allergic to Bill's blood. Words 'anafilactic shock' flashed in Laf's mind.

"But I had Bill's blood before and nothing happened!" I exclaimed confused.

"Well..."

Lafayette hesitated.

"Spill it out Laf!" I huffed out.

"That ain't exactly true."

"What? Explain!" I took a second there to worry about where the hell that came from.

Confronted, Bill admitted my body initially rejected his blood the last time he'd given it to me, too. Accordingly to the impish doctor the allergy developed gradually, after regular exposure to big doses of Bill's blood.

"How'd they fix it Laf?" I asked, because I certainly no longer felt like dying.

There was a strange look at Lafayette's face before he answered me.

"Another vamp's blood."

I'm sure I was catching flies at that point. Until the implications of what was required and who was present caught up with me. Somehow, I knew who offered to donate without Lafayette's input.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me?", I squealed out. "It's like I can't catch a break with these two!"

I didn't even want to imagine how smug Eric must have been.

That was pretty much the end of story. Marnie was gone, the massacre stopped and I was still breathing. After doctor Ludwig's departure Bill reluctantly left, having no excuse to stay and a royal mess to clean up. If I wasn't mistaken, apart from the dead guards, he needed to assign almost all new sheriffs aside from Eric. Speaking of which, Eric ordered Lafayette to stay in my home and take care of me in the morning, when he realized I wasn't going to wake before dawn – not that he needed to give that particular order to Laf, he would have done that anyway.

"Well, at least we all made it out in one piece this time", I said, but Lafayette didn't return my smile.

Oh hell.

"Lafayette? What's wrong?"

But I knew before he answered and immediately regretted my poorly chosen comment.

"Jesus is dead"

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

My insides turned when I discovered how he died. If hell existed and Marnie was in there, I didn't pity her one bit. I tried to do what I could to comfort Lafayette, even if there wasn't really much to say or do and he kept blaming himself. After assuring him I was fine (big understatement – I was pumped up with thousand years old vampire blood) I made us late breakfast with fresh coffee and let him go to take a nap. He was running on entirely differently chemical substations than me and numb with grief.

I didn't, however, miss the quick flicker of his eyes, when they darted for a split of second toward the certain wardrobe's door on his way from my room. My heartbeat sped up as I understood the meaning behind that glance – there was a vampire resting underneath my house.

It took me cooking and eating my meal, tucking up Laf, taking a shower and changing my clothes before I mustered courage to cautiously open the doors to the cubby. I'd checked on Lafayette's mind to make sure he was asleep before I stepped down the ladder. I tried to move as quietly as possible, not to wake resting vampire. I didn't want to disturb him, but I had to see him.

My movement activated automatic lights and I closed my eyes for few seconds, blinded by the brightness. When I opened them again, my breath caught.

There he was, dead to the world, but as magnificent as always. Laying on his back, eyes closed, silent and unmoving. He didn't stir as I came closer, hungrily drinking him in. His hair messy and soft, unstyled; his head turned to the side on the pillow. He was shirtless and barefoot, dressed only in the same shorts he's been using while staying with me – his cloths from last night destroyed in the fire, he probably just picked up the first thing he found.

He looked peaceful.

He looked as if he'd never left.

My eyes traveled anxiously along his legs and arms, chest and face, searching for any signs left from the last night's ordeal. I needed to make sure he was really all right.

God, he was beautiful.

I carefully took few steps and sat on the edge of the bed. His skin was smooth and white, unblemished. He was healed.

Only then I allowed myself to feel completely relieved. It was overwhelming.

I reached with my hand to his head, lightly smoothing back his hair. My arm was shaking. He still didn't move or open his eyes. I wanted to trace his hole body with my fingertips and kiss every inch of it.

My hearth clenched painfully. As much as I wanted to believe in happy ending, I knew I still wasn't out of the woods were Eric was concerned. I had no longer doubts that my feelings for him hadn't change when he got back his memory. If last night proved me anything, it was definitely that I cared for him deeply. The thought of him dying or even being hurt was unbearable.

But it still didn't mean things between us would work out. Out of our bubble, reality was not rosy. Let's face it, he was a millennium old vampire sheriff and I was twenty-something, mostly human, not educated, small-town waitress. What were the odds it would work?

I wasn't even sure if he still wanted to try. Yes, he gave me his blood (possibly saving my life) and he risked his own at MoonGoddes, but he hasn't talked to me since that night in Bill's mansion. I'd known it even before, but only now that Eric's blood was fighting Bill's in my system, dulling each others influence, I realized with full clarity how horribly I hurt him when I tarnished his confession of love.

Stupid, stupid Sookie.

What would I give to hear it now. Because, no matter if I thought we stood a chance together, or not, the bottom line was, I loved him. It was simple, undeniable and scary as hell.

I knew we needed to talk and the least I could do was giving him the courtesy of speaking for himself instead of making any damning decisions for both of us and running away (not that I was really still looking forward to running away, because after yesterday I was so scared of loosing him, that, God help me, if it hadn't been painful to him, I would have probably considered using silver chains – still laying nearly – on him). But right now I couldn't bring myself to leave the cubby just yet, despite the fact he was still sleeping.

So, for now, I curled next to him on the bed and covered us both. I snuggled gently against his side, inhaling his scent, and put my arm over his waist. After a few minutes of me not moving the lights turned off. I was lying there in silence and darkness, simply soaking in the feeling of being close to him. Trying to memorize it in case it's the last time I'd get to do this.

I didn't plan it, but I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was past sunset and he wasn't there.

Please don't hate me.