Summary: In a world where Uncle Bartlett went too far, Sookie Stackhouse decides to embrace herself rather than bend to the townfolk's perception of normal. Years later, she saves a dense vampire from two drainers. Slowburn Sookie/Eric.
As the day wore on, Sookie ended up juggling three different responsibilities. After the telepath finished delivering the huge amount of food Maryann ordered, Tara asked for the night off for her mama's exorcism, and Sookie had a choice between getting into one of their infamous arguments (with much bloodshed) or agreeing to Tara's pleading eyes.
Between waiting tables and doing a quick check-up on receipts, she tried to call in their back-up bartender, Lisa, but Lisa was out of state which Sam hadn't bothered to tell her. In the end, Sookie was forced to put John, Lafayette's extra pair of hands, on the bar with Terry, leaving Lafayette to man the kitchen by himself.
Lafayette would've been a better bartender with his general awesomeness but he insisted it would mess with his flow.
"Who am I to even dream of messin' with your flow?" she laughed playfully.
It wasn't a busy night but considering Arlene was running late, she ended up managing both of their sections with a skip in her stride, a quip to her lips and a sway to her hips. She was pinning up another order, mouthing along with the song pouring out of the juke box when the doors swung open with a force.
Mind flitting to Jason, her head turned automatically. Four rednecks strolled into a bar, just looking to get their asses kicked for the second time by implying her friend had AIDS. Sookie felt a flare of anger, dark eyes searching instinctively for Lala's reaction.
Perhaps feeling her gaze, Lafayette looked up and his eyes fell on the rednecks as they sat down at a table. A rare emotion flitted across his kind face; anger. Lafayette was pretty laid-back but he wasn't without temper, and that temper had been triggered.
"Oh hell no. Not in my damn bar," Lafayette muttered, stalking out of the kitchen, and Sookie intercepted him.
"Hey," she said warningly, smile turning into a grin, "Are you trying to poach my boxing title right out from under me?"
"This brand of stupid ain't your problem. Move outta the way, Sook," Lafayette replied, looking over her shoulder at the rednecks.
Sookie sobered. She, Lafayette and Tara were all outcasts, too damn stubborn to even think about altering to fit in better. Why should they have to change when there wasn't a damn thing wrong with them? That was the logic but being called on their supposed oddity was a hot spot for them all.
Most people would never admit to being beaten up by a tiny blonde girl, especially in the South where racism and sexism ran ruthlessly through every generation, but even so, Sookie never hit anyone without a reason. If someone groped her or grabbed her, then she replied with a threat of her own but if someone made lewd remarks, she stuck to insults. She rarely started a brawl, and she had never been arrested.
Shame might keep the rednecks from running to the police if Lafayette, a homosexual man, beat them up but the risk worried Sookie.
"The biggest problem with small-dicked rednecks is that more often then not - they're cowards. If you hulk out on them, they'll go runnin' to the police."
With every word, she had been guiding her friend backwards into the kitchen with his reluctance permission. Lafayette's eyes flickered darkly through the hole in the wall but he was too smart not to see the sense in her words.
"Somebody outta smack some sense into those fools," he grumbled. "The whole damn town of crazy motherfuckers..."
The warmth flooded back into Sookie's expression, her grip softened on his shoulders. "Hey, think of it this way - when the beer starts flowing, they might make a play for the pretty blonde waitress who is oh-so-distraught by recent events that she needs a - "
"A fabulous knight in leopard print to beat those crackers down?" Lafayette finished, amusement simmering in his dark eyes.
"I am such a delicate Southern Belle," Sookie demured coyly, her own dark eyes smouldering playfully at him like bedroom eyes.
"You is a pornolicious bitch," he countered wickedly, crooking a finger at her with feigned sensuality. "Come give Lala some sugar."
A mischievous grin curved her red lips as she offered her cheek to Lafayette, who curled his arms around her waist and dipped her like a pro, placing a chaste kiss to her cheek that was at odds with his flamboyant actions. Sookie laughed, delighted amusement bubbling out of her mouth before she headed back to work.
Twenty minutes later, she was forced to dodge one of the rednecks who sprang out of his chair with a loud yelp of pain, spitting soup over the floor.
"Jesus," she exclaimed, startled by the sudden movement. Derision darkened her voice when his head swung around, eyes flickering between her and Lafayette, who was looking through the ceil with a smirk. "Did you try to breath and think at the same time?"
Eric settled down in his office chair, observing the glazed-eyed blonde man sitting across from him with open distaste. Jason Stackhouse was a mere notch above the disgusting vermin who threw themselves at his feet in his esteem, and that notch had more to do with his hellcat sister than the boy himself.
The very sister Stackhouse would have struck had he not intervened. Between attempting to harm his tiny human and the vampire blood Eric could smell in his system, the boy would never know how lucky he was to have survived that night.
It was a curiosity that Stackhouse could be glamored while Sookie seemed oblivious to the attempt. The possibility of his spitfire being adopted was seeming more and more feasible with every regrettable moment spent with the useless bloodbag sitting across from him. Though he had come across no documents to support his theory and Stackhouse denied it, citing a memory of his sister's birth as proof. There was also faint similarity in scent.
Sookie's blood was far more exquisite and vivid, and her wit was certainly sharper. So far he had found few shared traits between the siblings. Their physical beauty was grant. Stackhouse seemed reasonably well-built for a man of this weak century, and Sookie's form was shapely from a combination of wry muscle and curves that would one day - soon - know his touch.
Pam was beginning to notice his visits to the wicked blonde telepath. His perceptive progeny would see through his excuses about gathering information on the telepath within time but he had no intentions of altering his behaviour.
He enjoyed her quick-witted humor and fierce bravery and wild, dark eyes. It was a disgusting yet intriguing concept: his liking for her was equal to his lust. However, his private thoughts were irrelevant and under control.
"Who supplied you with the vampire blood in your system?"
"Lafayette Reynolds," Stackhouse answered in the altered tone of the glamoured.
Eric made a note to find and haul the man in for questioning. "Do you know how he obtains his product?"
"I have no idea," he answered with a spectacularly stupid look upon his face.
"That is obvious," Eric stated coldly before continuing with his line of questioning. "Tell me the quickest way to locate Mister Reynolds."
Pam would appreciate the lack of leg work.
"He works in Merlotte's most nights," Stackhouse responded.
Arching an eyebrow, Eric considered that for a moment. He knew little of Lafayette Reynolds, merely what the boy had told him and his relation to the angry black woman, Tara, who Sookie was close to. The new knowledge was unwelcome.
The shifter was comatosed under a heavy guard of werewolves from Tray Dawson's pack and officers of law enforcement, Compton had more chance of winning Pam's favor than Sookie's, but Lafayette Reynolds could be a problem if his tiny human was unaware of the man's dealings.
Unless a dealer drained a vampire for blood or caught him at the wrong moment, Eric usually refrained from causing fatal harm but if Reynolds was a suitor of Sookie Stackhouse's, he would have to arrange special treatment - such as two weeks in his dungeon until the human decided a change of location and profession was in order.
"What is the relationship between Sookie Stackhouse and Lafayette Reynolds?"
"They ain't together," Stackhouse said dreamily. "They've been friends almost as long as Sookie and Tara. None of 'em fit with anybody else..."
That did not come as a surprise to Eric. As he had told her while she looked even more fuckable than usual with wolf blood on her hands, lips flushed from his own and a heat in her eyes, she was better than those humans. Perhaps better than all humans, but that was hardly a challenge.
"Explain," he barked. It was best to have as much information on those she surrounded herself with as possible.
"Tara has a drunk mama and Lafayette's gay."
The V dealer was homosexual then. Perhaps a single week would do.
"Do you have any intent to harm a vampire?"
"No."
"Do you have any intent to harm your sister?"
"No."
It was a shame an addiction to vampire blood couldn't be glamoured out of a person. The buying and using of vampire blood were minor crimes but it was not something he was willing to ignore, though if he punished Stackhouse, there would be unfortunate complications.
However, if he let Sookie deal with her sibling's bad habits, it would punish Stackhouse and land Sookie in his debt. Perhaps he would save Lafayette Reynolds' fate as a bargaining chip in the future.
Decision made, Eric glamoured the last five minutes from Jason Stackhouse's feeble mind and allowed him to go back to Fangtasia's bar before re-claiming his throne among the writhing masses of a thousand disgusting things. Distaste and boredom settled in his mind.
The placid nature of his existance was driving him to the brink of madness. He had never been particularly fond of human beings before the Revelation but his opinion had only worsened in the past two years. Before his mind could drift far, Pam appeared at his side.
Eric's attention was captured by the uncharacteristic gravity in his childe's mood. "What troubles you, Pam?"
"That snivelling coward accountant has something to stutter about," Pam said in Old Norse with a distasteful look at the breathers surrounding them.
"Important?" Eric asked, already dismissive until Pam responded.
"I believe so."
The night carried on, and Sookie rolled with the punches, managing to get in quite a few snide shots at Royce, the leader of the rednecks, without any of them realising it. As predicted they were getting more and more creepy with every pitcher of beer, but Sookie was starting to get irritated enough that if one of the idiots did try to grab her, she might have to swing for them herself.
Hearing them laugh drunkenly at her jokes wasn't half as amusing as watching them miss them by miles.
"How," Sookie began, directing her voice of deep contemplation to Lafayette as she dropped off another order, "Am I supposedly the stupid one in this town?"
Lafayette snorted, stirring the bubbling pot of chowder, looking over at her. "Because you is the stupid one, Sook."
"Hey, now, what happened to pornolicious?" she wanted to know with a quirk of her eyebrow, drawling out the word sweetly.
"All the crazy ones are pornolicious," Lafayette said in a tone of great wisdom. "They're all twisted and creative between the sheets, you know what I'm sayin'?"
"Not even a little bit," Sookie said cheerfully enough. Sometimes she felt all twisted up about her lack of sex life but today wasn't one of those days. She had bigger things to worry about, like Sam, Jason, Eric, the bar and not showing her hand when it came to Gran.
"That's cause you ain't let me hook you up with somebody," Lafayette drawled out with that fantastic flourish of his in the words.
Sookie leaned her elbows on the ceil, bending over slightly, quirking an eyebrow at him flirtatiously. "I'm already hooked up with myself."
Lafayette chuckled lecherously, and she smiled at the sound. No matter how much she joked or playfully flirted, she didn't feel comfortable really talking about sex with anyone by Lafayette. Sometimes it felt like he had seen and done all and accepted everything with a stunning grace. It was comforting.
"I heard that shit makes you go blind," he bantered back. At the same time, they said, voices overlapping, "But what a way to go."
The moment of friendship and amusement was ruined as the door was flung open with an attention-catching force. Sookie turned her head sharply and froze, adrenaline bursting through her veins in an anxious and fearful rush. It was the three vampires from Bill's place - the tall black woman, Diane, and the crazy-eyed bald one, and Malcolm, creepy and dark as ever.
A sense of alarm rippled around the bar. People trailed off sentances, Arlene stiffened, Lafayette stared at them with fear sparking deep in his eyes, the rednecks looked around with a dumb kind of curiosity.
"Well hey there," Diane purred, sex sleezing sickening through her voice as she prowled up to a terrified man with dark-hair, ducking her head to leer into his ear, "Sugar."
A sinster giggle left her mouth, a terrible mockery of amusement, at his discomfort.
"You," Malcolm said to John. "Get us three True Bloods."
Her heart thrummed fearfully in her chest but Sookie hardened herself to her emotions and straightened her spine, composed. She moved gracefully from the ceil into plain sight and said, "Hold your horses, Johnny boy."
Heads swivelled to where Sookie stood, golden hair glowing in its braid from the light, dark eyes glinting with a very strained light, an unworried expression hiding her true thoughts.
"Oh," Malcolm crowned, a sickly delight sparking in his dark eyes as he drew closer to her. "Hello there. Sookie, was it?"
"If I say no, will you fuck off?"
There were small sounds of shock and astonishment through the bar but Sookie's attention was focused on the blur of movement as Diane and the bald one crowded around her. Her stomach boiled with bile at the three hungry stares, fear pricking at her limbs, but she controlled her flinch and kept her face cool.
Eric was far more dangerous than these three could dream to be but he had a reason to keep her alive. They did not, and she was highly aware of that but she couldn't back down. Things were crazy and beyond her control, but this - her stupidity and bravery - she could control.
"How delightful," Malcolm drawled. "Still as spirited as ever, I see."
"This is bullshit," said Sookie, rolling her wrist around in a circle to gesture around the whole bar. "I hate small talk." She slumped her posture, looking up at them through her eyelashes. "What do y'all really want?"
Malcolm played innocent. "Why, three True Bloods, of course."
Die in a fire, Sookie thought darkly, barely able to stop herself from ordering him to do so out loud.
His minions chucked and snickered, a stereotypical soundtrack to a scumbag full of sleeze.
"You ain't welcome here," the redneck - Royce - drawled, attracting the attention of three sneering vampires. He tried to stand up but Sookie shoved him back down into his seat without looking back.
"Yeah, well, neither are you, buddy," she muttered under her breath.
"You shouldn't be so harsh," Diane hissed in a husky voice at him. "We're official citizens of Lousiana, after all. The American Vampire League - "
"Would be estatic to hear that some of their own have been terrorizing a small bar in the middle of nowhere in such a critical time, of course," Sookie said brightly, smiling sardonically.
She wasn't sure if the three had thought about that before or if they were intent on screwing with people anyway. Either way, it didn't surprise her when Diane let out a hyenas' cackle and the crazy-eyed one sniggered laddishly. Malcolm continued to stare at her with an unnerving glint in his eyes that made her feel filthy and exposed.
Like he was trying to decide what to do with her before he ripped her throat out.
"Mainstreaming's for pussies," the bald one jeered.
"How does a little girl like you know so much?" Malcolm purred.
"How does - " a creepy bastard like you sleeze so much? popped into her head but before she could decide how to edit her thought, something happened.
Her cell phone rang, blurting out a cheery tune into the horrified silence that had fallen over the bar. Sookie felt her mouth pulling up into a slightly crazy grin at the startling contrast. Malcolm blinked slowly in surprise while Baldie and Diane traded dark looks. Casual as all hell, she dug her cell out of the tiny pocket in her uniform.
"We didn't say you could answer that," the bald one rumbled in a poor attempt at menacing.
"Wow, good thing I didn't ask then, wasn't it?" Sookie's eyes widened a fraction as she looked at her cell. The caller ID read Eric Northman.
It seemed like not only did he have the physical body of a god but also the timing of one.
"Which doesn't really matter either way, since I think it's for you," she finished, sounding as nonplussed and innocent as possible, offering the phone to Malcolm, who looked briefly puzzled before he seemed to come to some conclusion.
In a blur of movement, he snatched the cell from her and went to answer it. Then he caught sight of the caller ID and froze, strain tightening in his face. He made an effort of looking coldly amused and nonchalant but she could sense the tension rolling off his form. He was afraid of Eric, and trying to save face.
"Well, somebody has...friends in high places," Malcolm drawled out, trying to save face. He thrust the cell phone at her, eyes glinting disturbingly. "Answer it."
Sookie held his gaze steadily, unwavering in her determination. "Leave."
Malcolm's eyes flared with fury, trying to bore into her head, trying to crush her will beneath his own. "Answer it."
"Leave," Sookie gritted out, echoing his force with her own ferocity. Malcolm growled at her lowly, angered by her refusal. He wasn't willing to back down in front of everybody but he seemed aware that unless she answered her cell and gave the Viking whatever he wanted, Eric would track her down - and he would be pissed.
Especially if she ended up dead if he wanted something from her.
"Or maybe I will answer it," she added, a threatening flourish hidden in her voice. "Isn't it his job to...deal," she drawled the word out, imitating the way Malcolm had said friends, "with little incidents like this?"
She tilted her head, giving him the Dumb Blonde look of curiosity.
"I ought to rip your throat out," the bald one growled at her, making as though to advance forward but Malcolm stopped him with a tut.
"Now, now, Liam. We ought to be polite to the locals - we just closed on a place up the road." His smile came thick like oil and twice as slick with nasty implications. "We're practically neighbours."
The cell phone cut off abruptly and then began to ring again.
"Looks like he's getting impatient," said Sookie with an icy note in her voice. Her heart beat in her chest, stomach clenching with panic and disgust at the thought of the three vampires nesting in Bon Temps. She needed to tell Eric - and Bill would have to be warned as well.
"We best be going then. Maybe I'll be visiting my good friend, Bill Compton," Malcolm added as an ineffective parting shot at Sookie but a ripple went through the bar. People would jump at the chance to use this against Bill, and maybe they wouldn't be totally out of line.
Diane cackled with laughter, and Liam leered at a blonde girl - Randi Sue or something - before the three of them headed for the door and left. Her cell continued to ring but she shoved it into her pocket and looked around the bar.
Everyone was staring at her, some with awe, some with pity. Terry's face was white but his cheeks were flushed red, a sheen of sweat on his face. He looked awful enough for her heavily veiled compassion to flare up hotly. She wasn't feeling too steady either. Adrenaline gushed through her veins, her mind span wildly, and she went with her usual method of dealing with things.
For once, public opinion was on Sookie's side and she used that as damage control for Sam's business.
"Anyone else need a beer?" she said, weaving an almost glib weariness in her voice. It wasn't hard. She could feel exhaustion stabbing at her mind but it was overshadowed by the buzz of frantic anxiety and stress. "Half price for everyone who thinks I should've closed the bar for another week or so until all this bad luck ran out."
Sookie ducked behind the bar as large groups of people went to the bar in serious need of a stiff drink. She bumped her hip lightly against Arlene's, who flinched violently out of her stunned, frozen state and stared at her with wide eyes, face white with horror.
"Sookie," Arlene said, trying and failing to smile. She was trembling with fear, freckles stark on her face.
"Take Terry back to Sam's office," Sookie told her, filling up a pitcher of beer for a clump of pale-faced college kids who thought that she was scary as shit and hot as hell. She pointed at her with mock warning, accepting the money one of the college kids silently shoved at her before taking the pitcher back to his table, "Be gentle with him."
"Yeah," Arlene agreed jerkily, moving jitterly from behind the bar and approaching Terry's frozen form with a kind, but wary, air.
"Don't ever ask me to cover for Tara again, Sookie," John grumbled as they served the masses.
"You only have yourself to blame," she called back from him. She felt her limbs and muscles begin to tremble as the adrenaline began to fade from her blood. Her dark eyes flickered to the doors, and she squared her jaw with determination. With one hand, she pulled her cell out and texted Bill a quick warning about Malcolm and his brood.
To Eric, she texted - Shit hit the fan. Need to wash my hair. Can it wait til tomorrow?
It took awhile before the crowd around the bar began to die off. Through a gap in the crowd, Sookie saw Royce and his rednecks talking and gesturing. The atmosphere in the bar was bad and very anti-vampire. People were pissed and scared and drunk, filled with false, deadly bravery.
If someone planned to do something, it would be during daylight hours. The bar closed at one in the morning.
"Do me a favor?" Sookie said to Rene, who hovered close to her at the bar, drinking from his mug of beer heavily.
"Sure, Sook. What ya need?"
"Keep an eye on those idiots, make sure they don't get themselves liquefied," she said, tempted to add a joke about bodies around the bar but that made her think about Sam. When - not if, no matter what the doctors said - he woke up, there would be one hell of a story to tell.
From them both.
Her main focus was on surviving the day-to-day things but it had crossed her mind that Sam must have seen the killer. The monster who killed her grandmother and left him in a puddle of blood for her to find.
A raging fire of fury broiled under her skin, lava hot and deadly with its hardened simplicity - an unquestionably murderous undertone.
"Big favor," Rene grinned at her, white teeth flashing. Sookie smirked back, the motion more practiced than it had ever been before.
Gossip was gold in Bon Temps, she mused as she left John to return to her actual job as a waitress. It would be easy to give into anger and blame someone for what happened to Gran. If Arlene had kept her mouth shut, if Sam had kept her personal life from becoming bar talk, if Bill had never come to Bon Temps, if she had let Bill die or came home earlier or listened to Tara about Bill instead of trying to be fair.
Gran wouldn't have blamed anybody but the man who hurt her, and Sookie couldn't ignore what she knew Gran would've wanted. Her life was so wrong without Gran in it. It was wrong to wake up in an empty house. It was wrong to sleep in Gran's bed, searching for the scent of her perfume that calmed the frightened child in Sookie's head like nothing else.
All because of a bunch of actions that lead to one man reacting and taking one of the last genuinely good people in the world away.
How long would it have been before the killer started killing everyone with a difference? Like Crazy Sookie Stackhouse, or Tara, or Lafayette.
How long until he comes after me again? she wondered with a dulled acceptance. She should be frightened but instead, she felt...
A dark, slivering wrath blackened Sookie's heart. Something evil and utterly furious moved through her, alarming her with its inhumanity.
There was a limitless, wild rage in the pit of her stomach, burning long and steady, without an ounce of compassion or mercy.
When the time came, Sookie would defend herself and those she loved fiercely.
Sookie locked her front door behind herself with a click, and leaned back against it. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Tina meowed and padded out of the kitchen to nuzzle her ankles adoringly. The soft brush of fur against her bare skin tickled, bring a smile to Sookie's face.
"Hey there," she said, scooping the gray cat up into her arms and walking back into the kitchen with her. She fed Tina before gulping down a glass of cold water.
All the windows were locked tightly. It was lucky Tina was more of an indoors cat because Sookie wasn't comfortable leaving any possible entry in the house open, and she hated the thought of letting Tina roam around outside in case something happened to her. These days, that was far more likely than the possiblity of rain.
Despite herself, Sookie found her thoughts flickering to her brother. She was glad he'd had the sense to stay away from her today. After this morning, his questions were inevitable, and there was already too much shit in her life without having to dodge Jason's questions about what she'd let slip.
She wasn't ready for Jason to know - for anybody to know.
It would change how people looked at her, like a poor little victim and not a person.
Her phone buzzed. Assuming it was from Bill, Sookie sighed and checked the message.
Upstairs, E.
Sookie stiffened, paying a sliver of attention the the choas swirling around her ears. If she paid too much attention, all of Bon Temps would be in her head. There was one void mind within five miles. Bill wasn't home, and Eric was upstairs in her bathroom.
Her weariness from a double shift and vampire-baiting was replaced by a bubbling amusement. Listening with her ears, she picked up the faint, soothing sound of music.
"What, no kiss?" Sookie asked the ceiling mockingly. She headed for the stairs, braid bouncing against her back with every step. "Gosh, Eric, it's almost like you don't care about my feelings."
She followed the music to her bathroom and froze in the doorway. Her heart smacked against her ribcage twice, staggering at the sight that greeted her wide eyes. Eric was in her bathtub, long, muscular limbs overflowing in a way that was anything but amusing. His legs were propped up at the top egde of the tub and his head was resting against the opposite edge of the tub where he could see the door better.
The water was cloudy enough to conceal much from her eyes but Eric Northman was naked in her bathroom, arms thick with muscle glistening with droplets of water resting against the sides of the tub, blonde hair glowing faintly in the light.
She had never truly been able to appreciate how extremely well build he was. It seemed almost unreal.
Within an instant, the shock turned into a violently charged lust that shot down her spine and coiled low in her stomach.
"One day, I will fuck you into a quivering mass of speechless pleasure on every single surface in this house," Eric promised in a dark rumble of a voice that scraped over her nerves like rough stubble on smooth skin, like sex. His blue eyes peeled open and stared at her with a hungry intensity. "Now that I have stroked your ego, join me," he suggested, a rasp to his voice.
It was incredibly tempting to do just that. Not simply because Eric had to be one of the most beautiful men to ever exist, but she felt even more reckless than ever before.
"I have a strict policy about not sleeping with men who would eat me alive literally and metaporically," Sookie said, missing dry by a few marks. "Which I'm pretty set on keeping, even against you my dearest vampire."
Eric looked at her, amusement curling in his eyes, ancient and mischievous, though a darkness lurked in his eyes like a caged beast. He was impatient in his want for her but unlike she had with Malcolm's stare, she didn't feel threatened. Eric was a ruthless killer of thousands but he was unquestionably better than those vampires.
"You will yield to me eventually," he rumbled, sounding both unconcerned and impatient for that day.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of unyielding," said Sookie.
A smirk curved the corners of his pale pink lips as she watched him from the doorway. Deciding to do something, she closed the door and approached the tub.
"Since you're in the way, I guess I'll just have to wash your hair."
Eric stared at her, cool blue blazing up at her intensely before he came to a conclusion. His wrist twirled in a graceful movement of inclination and closed his eyes. "Very well, my tiny human."
While Sookie hadn't expected him to take her up on the offer, she wasn't one to back down. The blonde telepath sat on the counter connected to the large (but not Viking sized) bathtub, folding her legs under her.
I love cliffhangers of every kind, and you must agree this is far kinder than the last few I dealt you - even if this chapter is far lacking in quality. I have no idea what happened with that, I swear.
Thoughts on the Eric POV, please?
