Note*** OK, Alexander's Invasion of Persia is done, proofed (somewhat more carefully than these have been. Damn, I'm the typo Queen!), and submitted! I reward myself (with the deadline fast approching for the next one) with another chapter! Things are coming to a head now, so the chapter's might get a bit longer... or not... you know, I have no idea how they're going to stop when I start writing them!

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Eric returned, tucking his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. "The Madison has fifty eight rooms. There may have to be some bed sharing, but they have been made aware of the inundation they are about to receive."

"Thank you." Sookie was directing people and looking at a map of the town centre.

"Speaking of bed sharing..." Eric's voice sounded close against his ear, and Sookie turned sharply, not because he seemed to be coming on to her, but because he sounded upset. "You're wearing another man's shirt..."

Sookie looked down at herself, "Oh, it's Sam's."

"I can smell that, what interests me is why," He let her step away, which surprised her, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I thought we had a rudimentary understanding..."

"Eric... now is a really bad time for you to play paranoid." She said sternly, "I didn't have anything else to wear, OK? I had clean shorts but no shirt. It was this, or nothin'!" She mimicked his posture and glared at him. "You gonna start out bein' a big A-hole every time you see me?"

Eric maintained his stony demeanour for a moment longer then dropped his arms and managed to look slightly guilty. "I am... sorry." He didn't move towards her though, just let his arms flop at his sides. Was it possible Eric Northman didn't know what to do next? "I suppose I am... what was it? A big insecure jerk?"

Sookie huffed and let her own arms drop. They stood, two full meters apart and neither was really sure what they were meant to do about that. "Now what?"

"I believe, traditionally, we kiss and make up." He looked at her through his eyelashes, chin tucked in to his chest and a small, boyish smile on his face.

"Eric... I got a whole town full of people I'm meant to be getting' ready for the battle of their lives and you're makin' 'come hither' eyes at me?" She said in exasperation.

"I could make come hither eyes at you in the middle of the apocalypse." he murmured, but he didn't close the distance between them. "I take it you want to maintain... distance, in front of these people?"

"I know you're over there being all touchy about that, but you're just gonna have to cut me some slack here, Eric!" She hissed, "In case you haven't noticed I'm not... I can't... Fuck." she kicked a trash can hard and then swore some more as the pain lanced through her foot and up her shin. "Damn it. I don't know what to do Eric! I don' know how I'm meant to handle... you and... and all this! Bill leavin', lyin' to me. I got a pack of werewolves on my ass and a vampire King want's my head in a jar! I... I'm so fucking lost..." She deflated almost to the point of collapse, and Eric was beside her, his arms around her before she even knew he moved.

"Sookie... I will not let him have you, no matter what happens," he pressed his face into her hair and held her against him tightly. "I will keep you safe."

She sobbed against his chest, the dam, having broken, couldn't be stopped. Everything flooded out all at once and Jason, who'd been watching from a distance, met Eric's eyes over his sister's head. He nodded once, Eric returned the gesture seriously and then Jason turned around and went back to getting ready. He'd given up trying to work out exactly what was going on in his sister's private life, but Eric held her when she needed it and he had to trust she knew what she was doing.

"I can't do this... I'm not strong enough..." she whimpered into Eric's shirt.

"Bull shit." Eric said firmly, though he still held her tightly against his chest. "You rescued a two thousand year old vampire from a church of fanatics. You have personally won the support of two Sheriffs of significant area's. Look at what you've done to these people," Eric looked around. "You are leading them. You no longer have the right to be weak, Sookie."

She looked up at him sharply. She'd been expecting comfort and soft words, maybe even a little smooching, but the harshness in his voice brought her up short.

"You need to have steel in your spine now, woman. I have led more men into battle than you can imagine... if these people see their leader break, they will break." He took her face in his huge hands and held her eyes with his. "I would never have believed that you could do this..." he said quietly, "I underestimated you, and I will not do it again. Isabel will be here within the hour, everyone I trust from Shreveport is probably only fifteen minutes away."

Sookie nodded, her hands shaking.

"Sook? My secret weapon's ready, we're gonna head to main street and set up!" Jason called. He was stripped to the waist and covered in some kind of grunge.

"Jason wait! Some of the Vampire's should be arrivin' soon and I don't want you guys goin' on your own... secret weapon's no good if you don't get to set it up cuz you're dead. Load up the Ute's but wait till they get here, OK?"

"Oh, right... guess I got a bit excited."

Sookie looked at him wide eyed for a minute and then started laughing. "Oh Jason, I do love you."

Jason beamed at her with his big, dopey smile, "Well I love you too little sister. We'll load up, be ready when you're friends get here." He nodded to Eric, who returned it with an abstracted and confused expression.

"That is a truely simple human..." He said, though he was shaking his head and smiling tolerantly.

"Jason's just... yeah. Yeah he is, but he's strong, and he's fast, and he's loyal." She turned and looked up at him, somehow feeling stronger and more ready than she had all day. "No one can be everything."

"You seem you be doing just fine."

"I'm roller-coasterin' wildly from throwin' up in the corner in terror to barkin' orders and planin' fights and then back again. Been like this all day."

"I know... I can feel you, remember?" He didn't put his arms back around her, there were a lot of people around and even though he wanted them all to know she was with him, they couldn't be thinking about her as a girl for the next thirty six hours.

"You make that sound so dirty..." She breathed.

"Do not tease me, Sookie. My self control is not infinite, and watching you orchestrate this masterpiece is testing me as it is." He reached out and touched the leather strap that held the vial of his blood around her neck. "Do not forget you have this. Remember what it can do."

Sookie nodded and one hand rose to clutch at the vial through her shirt. Eric smiled slightly at the sight and then cleared his throat carefully. Sookie coughed too and took a step back. "OK... Alright. When your friend's get here, I want to get them circulating through the crowd." Eric looked at her, confused. "Well everyone out there is going to be a bit crazy once this starts and they'll be holding silver and steaks and all kinds of nasty things... I want them to know your faces as much as they can... let's avoid any accidents."

"I don't think that will be a problem, I have taken the liberty of ordering a uniform of sorts. Friendly vampires will be in red, with a white belt from left shoulder across their bodies to their right hip." When she stared at him in amazement he shrugged. "It's how we did it in the old days. Musket smoke makes seeing faces... problematic." He looked like he might give in and kiss her then, but he stopped and looked past her. "They are here."

A fleet of dark SUV's had pulled up along the road and a small army of ghostly, graceful vampires was emerging from them. The town's people had all stopped what they were doing to watch as Eric and Sookie made their way down the grass embankment to the road to meet them.

"Chow," Eric nodded and the large native American nodded back.

"I imagine the magister will arrive tomorrow night wanting to know what the fuck we're all doing here." Chow rumbled. "I couldn't get him to let Pam go, but... she's holding up well."

Eric nodded. "She's a strong bitch, and the magister wont kill her on the off chance I manage to bring him something worth while. You remember Sookie?"

"I do. I've been told this is your show," Chow offered her his hand and when she took it he shook vigorously. "I've cleaned out every nest in this part of the state, but I don't think I have enough weaponry for all the humans."

"Isabel is coming in from Dallas, she'll have spare, and a bullet is enough to seriously slow a werewolf. If there is one thing hick towns do not lack, it's guns." Eric told him and gestured to the others. "Keep a tight grip on them. I do not want any incidents, no matter how innocent. Am I understood?"

"Yes Sheriff. We're all fed and ready to go... except the hoplites, they insisted on running. Shouldn't be too far behind though." Chow was grinning as Eric rubbed his temple with two fingers. "You can't deny they're worth having."

"Greeks..." Eric grumbled under his breath. "Make sure everyone understands that Sookie speaks with my voice for the next two days. No fuck ups."

"Understood. Ah... you gonna warn the humans? About the hoplites?"

"Jesus Christ..." Eric looked down at Sookie. "You're going to want to keep everyone very calm. They certainly wont attack, but I imagine having a fully armed phalanx appear in their midst might just drop a few from fright."

"What's a Phalanx?" Sookie asked and Chow laughed.

"A little square made of Greeks, with big sticks." The huge man said.

"Is that really scary?"

"It was devastating in its day." Eric told her. "Of course it's day was before the birth of Christ. Greeks," He spat, "Just can't let anything go."

"I brought your sword sir," Chow said with a shit eating grin. Eric's eyes brightened, "On the back seat."

Eric had the good grace to look slightly ashamed. "The less guns the better," he said defensively. "And beheading kills anything."

Chow just held up his hands and said nothing, while Sookie snickered into her hand as Eric took a massive long-sword from the back seat of the SUV and started strapping the complex arrangement of belts around his waist and thigh to keep it from bouncing around when he moved.

Sookie tried out her new command powers on the Vampires, asking them to mingle a little and make nice with the people, while picking out a few to go with Jason to help set up his special project. By the time that was all moving and she was scrambling back up the grass embankment towards Eric and Terry, a hush fell over everyone as a rumbling vibrated up through their feet.

"Hoplite's are here," Chow said, without looking up from polishing the hatchet in his lap.

From across the sports ground came the heavy, rhythmic march of feet. Eric shook his head, and they called him theatrical! They'd obviously slowed down so the humans could appreciate them in all their 'glory'. Eight line's of eight vampires, each carrying a fourteen foot long-pike held perfectly vertical at their sides. At some unknown signal they stopped in the precise centre of the field, the front three lines of pike's lowered, perfectly between their comrades to form bristle of pike-points before them, while the rear lines lowered their points to defend the flanks and rear. "HOAA!" They all said sharply.

"Show-offs," Eric grunted in irritation. "Will you get up here, tiny conquerors? You are embarrassing me!"

The phalanx showed no remorse what-so-ever. They raised their pikes and trotted forward in formation to halt before Eric and Sookie and salute sharply. "HOAA!"

"Sookie, meet the Greeks." He said flatly.

"You always were blind as a china-man, Viking!" Came a woman's voice from the heart of the phalanx, and Eric's eyes widened as a short but broad woman vaulted out of the formation, using her pike for leverage and landed before him, then jumped again, her legs wrapping round his waist, her arms around his neck, before she head-butted him soundly, smashing their foreheads together with a dreadful noise of cracking bone. "Hail, brother!"

"Still a psychotic midget, I see." His eyes sparkled in amusement however, and he took her weight with his arms. "What the hell are you doing with a troop of Macedonians?"

She laughed and shrugged. "I heard you were in trouble. Again. And they were a man down. Seems no one thought to make someone else to fill out the phalanx. I always told you they were special down there."

"You knew about this I presume?" Eric asked Chow.

"Bo convinced me you'd like the surprise... she'd very persuasive."

"Yes... I don't imagine that's changed either." He hefted her a little and threw her up in the air. Still holding onto the pike she used it to spin herself and land two feet away with a beaming smile in her pie-plate round face. "Sookie, may I present princess Bodicea, of the Icenii. My... sister, for lack of a better word."

Bo bowed deeply, her long, dark ponytail flopping forward over her shoulder. "The Bodicea...?" Sookie hissed.

"She was one of my ancestors." Bo said proudly. "Though on occasion I have allowed people to believe otherwise." Eric was grinning at her, "Anyway, when Isabel told me what was going on, I had to come see. I'm surprised at you, Eric. Trying to start a war without me!"

"I was under the impression you were still in Australia..."

"Nice place, actually." She handed her pike back to another vampire in the front row of the phalanx and brushed down her red tunic and black pants. "When Godric sent me there I thought I'd find it over run with backward little people... would you believe they hardly notice us at all? I'm invited to at least one human party a week, as long as you bring your own drinks and know all the words to 'thunder struck', they really don't care what you are."

"You've given up your position there, then?" Eric asked, "Bo was sheriff of the entire continent." He said to Sookie.

"Oh, no. But to be perfectly honest it'll probably be months before they really notice no one's in charge. Winston is handling things while I'm gone."

Eric choked on that a little, "Winston...? Bo, he's... he's a human!"

Bo shrugged. "You seem to have found some capable one's here, America doesn't have the monopoly on them, you know." She held out her hand and Sookie took it. "Don't let him get away with any shit, darling. He just gets himself into trouble if you give him to much slack."

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OK, this one got a little away from me, and there was a bit of set up and no major battle (which I know you were waiting for). Anyone who's be reading my notes will understand that there was a little bleed-over from my assessments into this chapter but I couldn't help myself.