Summary: A trail of missing children leads straight into Shreveport, and Eric asks his favorite telepath to help find the latest victim. Potentially E/S. This is post-season two. In terms of the books, this would be after the third book. (But I'm sticking to the True Blood version of the characters and past events…)
Chapter Ten: Departure?
"Wait," she said. "What about Aerial? You've come for her, haven't you?"
"I've made a mistake." He said.
Eric snarled. "So you're going to leave your mistake for us to deal with? I think not."
"She does not wish to join me." Henry replied, his eyes still locked with Aerial's. Sookie felt the connection between their gazes was so strong that she felt sure that if she extended her fingertips she could touch it.
Sookie looked at him sternly. "You can't just make her and then leave her with us. Don't you see? She needs you."
Henry considered this, then stepped backward again. "Your vampire can teach her the ways."
Eric put a hand on Aerial's shoulder and inched her toward Henry. "I don't think so."
At that moment, Aerial burst into very vocal tears, and sat on the ground. Sookie immediately sank next to her, patting her hair, but not quite hugging her. She hardly needed streaks of bloody tears across the front of her winter coat.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" She scolded, looking up at both Henry and Eric. "Making a little girl cry!"
"Aerial honey, it's all right. I want you. These stupid men don't know what they're doin', do they? You can come live with me, alright? What do you think about that?"
Just as Aerial raised her head and said "Really?" Eric interrupted.
"Are you out of your mind?" He asked Sookie in a cold, even voice. "There are so many things wrong with what you just said I don't think you even know all of them."
This made Aerial very ticked off, obviously, because she crossed her hands (just like Sookie had, during Eric's interruption), and shot her mouth off again.
"Hey, mister. I'm eleven, and I can do whatever I want, and I can live with whoever I want to!" She stated. Eric ignored her completely, still focusing solely on Sookie.
"It's illegal. She's illegal. It will never be allowed, even if everything else weren't so… wrong about it." He stated again, adamant.
Sookie was so caught up in opposing him, that she hadn't stopped to actually consider what it would mean to play foster mother to an eleven year old vampire. It would mean staying up most of the night to make sure Aerial wasn't getting herself into trouble… but even then, she could hardly stop her from running off, or glamouring people, or even feeding from them. And she couldn't even imagine what everyone in Bon Temps would say if they found out she had a vampire living at her house. And of course, there were all sorts of vampire things Aerial would have to learn, and Sookie could hardly teach her like Bill had taught Jessica. Eric could feel her doubt, and he nodded at her ever so slightly.
"You know I'm right," he stated simply.
Sookie hated to admit it, so she turned toward Henry, who was still standing a few paces back, watching the scene unfold. Her gaze into his eyes was piercing, so piercing he had to look away.
"She does not want me," He said stiffly, and Sookie realized that he had been hurt by Aerial's outburst.
"Well of course she wants you! Otherwise she wouldn't be upset at you!" Sookie pointed out. "Don't you remember what it was like, to be a child? You get upset at the people closest to you, and you want their approval, even though you would never admit it."
Perhaps this wasn't 100% true in Aerial's case, Sookie thought, but she was sure it would be soon enough, if only Aerial and Henry got to know each other. They obviously needed each other, considering how lonely Henry seemed and how inadequate her caring for Aerial would be. And Eric of course would never take the job of caring for her… And if the Queen found out-well, Sookie did not want to think about that.
Henry seemed to be considering Sookie's words, and walking toward Aerial again.
"Do you accept my apology?" He asked her.
Aerial hesitated, enjoying her power for a moment before she said, "Yes, I think I do."
"Would you like to join me?" He asked, extending his hand to her.
She looked up at Sookie and Eric, suddenly alarmed at the idea of going anywhere without them.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
He shrugged. "Where would you like to go? To me, it does not matter."
"We can go anywhere?" She asked, wide-eyed. Sookie smiled at her genuine excitement.
Henry nodded. "Wherever you would like."
"I want to see Big Ben! And Versailles! And the Amazon!" She said, jumping up.
Henry smiled, and for the first time it was not menacing or bitter, but genuinely amused, maybe even with a flicker of anticipation.
"Can we swim there?! Since we don't need to breathe?" Aerial asked, and Sookie laughed. Henry looked taken aback with the question, and all he said was "We'll see."
"Where do you think you're going, exactly?" Eric asked suddenly.
"London, I think, first!" Aerial replied happily grinning, her flicking her long dark brown hair.
Eric glared at her until she had stopped moving and her face had fallen.
"What? You asked," She said defensively.
Eric turned to Sookie, ignoring her. "They're going to the Queen. I already sent the note, informing her of Aerial's existence, I can hardly say "Nevermind, I didn't find a child vampire."
Sookie stared blankly at him. She had forgotten completely about the note. Shit. She looked at Henry, who had slipped his arms protectively around Aerial, holding her in front of him.
"You will not take her from me. She is mine. I have waited six centuries for her." He said. His face was set in a determined expression of stone. Aerial gasped at hearing his age, but Eric's intimidating voice kept her from commenting further.
"She is not what we were originally after," He said. Sookie grabbed his arm, suddenly, realizing what he was implying.
"Eric, no." He looked toward her.
"And why not?"
"Because," Sookie mutter feebly. What would make him let them go? The whole Godric subject wasn't likely to help much, certainly. It would definitely work against her point.
"Because it would be such a hassle, wouldn't it, having to go over this, telling the Queen all the details. I mean-What if she makes you keep her? Aerial?"
Eric laughed. "Really, Sookie? That's how you are trying to convince me? Didn't you say last night, that the Queen would applaud my efforts? Honor me, if I found the killer?"
Sookie dropped the fake argument.
"Fine then. Please. I know you think I'm overly emotional and all that, but Jesus Eric, have you no heart?" She looked at Aerial and Henry, a pair of thin, pale children, one of them covered entirely in dirt. They looked like siblings, orphans, clutching at each other as though they were the only thing each other had. Even though she knew Henry was far from helpless, she also knew he was hopelessly childlike and lonely, despite his vampirism. And Aerial was only eleven, in human years, and not yet a vampire for three days.
"I know they're not children, Eric, I understand. But that doesn't make it any less… horrible. And-Well, maybe they're not supposed to exist or whatever, but they do already, so why not make the best of it then?"
Eric watched Sookie's eyes fill with tears throughout the speech, and then considered Aerial and Henry, who really did look atrociously pitiable, standing there together. He thought of Godric again, and anger flared through his body, but seeing the fear in Henry's face, he realized that destroying one of the factors that had added to Godric's death would not bring him back, it would not make it any less painful.
And it would make Sookie very grateful. Possibly grateful enough even to let him take a sip of her-possibly even—
"Go," He said. "Before I change my mind."
Aerial pounced instantly on Sookie. Tears poured out of her eyes, getting blood on Sookie's front. Sookie sighed. So much for the coat.
"Promise you'll come back and visit!" She insisted, and Aerial nodded. She pulled away and pounced on Eric next, which he was certainly not expecting. While they were having their moment, Sookie turned to Henry.
"I don't know what happened, when you were— made. But he was kind, and wise, your maker, when I met him." She said quietly, even though she knew Eric could hear her perfectly.
Henry nodded at her, as Aerial bounded back toward him.
"Thank you," he said, and nodded at the both of them before he and Aerial became a blur in the trees and disappeared in the dark night.
Author's Note:We're coming to a close... There will be one more chapter, an epilogue. After that, I'll be starting on the original piece about Henry. I'll be doing installments, Charles-Dickens style, both on here (in this category) and on my fiction blog, www serialfictions blogspot com (insert dots in the spaces). I've posted a synopsis of Eternal Childhood, and I'm planning on publishing in installments, and posting bonuses like playlists and photos/illustrations to accompany the chapters. Check it out, follow, and subscribe to it! Each chapter will then end up in your inbox as soon as it comes out. :)