The tension in the room was heavy and oppressive. Sookie stayed as quiet as possible and tried very hard not to be in anyone's way. Bo alternated between staring at the documents Lern had brought in and having to be physically restrained from breaking the furniture. Eric watched her closely, he seemed able to see the tension building inside her and was always ready when she snapped. Adam nibbled on his thumbnail seemingly unable to fix his gaze on any one thing for more than a few moments. Finally he twitched and turned to look at Sookie as though noticing her for the first time.

"Sookie... how far away can you hear?" He asked.

"Ah, I'm not really sure, we've never tested it... to be honest I'm usually tryin' harder to keep people out than let 'em in." She said shyly.

Eric moved to her side and Bo turned regarding her hopefully. "When the Fellowship of the sun were holding you hostage, you called out for help, didn't you?" Eric asked her gently. "To the boy who came to tell Bill where you were..."

"I... I didn' know you knew about that..."

"I had no interest in the boy then, and none in him now. If all I wanted was to read minds, there are easier, more... controllable ways than to chase a southern girl." He gave her a small cheeky smile.

"But then why...?"

Eric shrugged. "Because I liked you."

"Please Sookie," Bo said urgently, "please, will you try to hear him?"

Sookie looked at the frightened Sheriff helplessly. "Of course I'll try I jus', I don't want you to get to hopeful, OK? I've never done anythin' like this before."

"I understand."

"I don't know how to do this." Sookie said with her eyes closed and an intense frown, " I don't know how to separate him out from everyone else..."

"He'll be thinking about me," Bo told her quietly. "He'll be wondering where I am, why I haven't found him yet... just look for someone thinking about me." Adam put his hand on her shoulder as she blinked back angry tears at her own uselessness.

Sookie took a deep breath and pushed outwards with her mind, trying to screen out all the drunk people in the night club, all the taxi drivers and convenience store clerks... everyone except... -Boisgoingtokickyourassyoustupidback-birthhick.Whatthefuckareyouthinking,man?-

"Oh my God!" Sookie gasped. "I can hear him!"

"Is he hurt? Is he scared?" Bo demanded, starting towards Sookie, but Adam held her back gently.

"No, he's... he seems to know who has him. I think he feels sorry for them." She held up her hand trying to keep the others quiet while she listened.

-Thisisthedumbestthingyou'veeverdone.Sheissogoingtokillyouthistime,she'sgonnagiveyoucementbootsandthrowyouintheharbor...JesusChristMilton...-

"Milton! That Milton guy has him!" Sookies eyes popped open.

"I'll kill him!" Bo hissed.

"That's what Winston's thinking..."Sookie told her gently. Bo gave a soft sob and leaned against Adam's side. "He's not scared, Bo... he knows you're coming for him."

"Can you see where he is?" Eric asked.

Sookie shook her head, "I can't get images from him... It could be the way he thinks or it could jus' be because he's too far away, I dunno. I'm gonna need him to think something that give it away."

"Can you talk to him like you did he boy in Dallas that Eric mentioned, can you at least give him the impression that we're coming?" Bo half begged.

"I'm sorry, I..." Sookie shook her head sadly. "Barry was like me, but I can't talk to normal people, it jus' doesn't work..."

"It's alright Sookie, You can only do what you can do." Eric squeezed her shoulder. "Just keep listening, we'll get something."

"Aldis, start searching for property that Milton owns, maybe something will stand out." Bo said, but the big man was already limping towards a wall of filing cabinets.

"Got's a file on 'im Boo. That little bitch all nothin' but trouble." He pulled out a manilla folder and handed it to her.

"You're brilliant, you know that?"
"Yeeeah."

-Ican'tbelieveyouboughtthisplace...whatakitschydenofemaciatedbimbotwinks...-

Sookie screwed up her face, "what is it?" Eric asked.

"He's arrived somewhere, it's somewhere he knows. He called it a kitschy den of... of emaciated bimbo twinks. What the hell does that mean?"

Bo snapped her fingers, "Club mud! It's a gay bar on the other side of the river, the whole place stinks of cheap cologne and lube. Milton bought it last year, he likes looking at the half naked young men who frequent the place trolling for ass." She was already heading for the door when Aldis moved to bar her way, filling the doorway with his massive misshapen body.

"It be mornin' Boo. Too late to go now. Still gotta run down the politics too..."

"I don't care about politics, Aldis... move..." She said carefully.

"Stand your ground." Eric moved between them and looked down at her. "What good are we to him if we burn? Do you think he wants to watch you die?"

"I have to get him back Eric, you don't understand, I'm responsible for him!" She made to barge past him, but Eric was bigger and stronger and he grabbed her arms and held her still.

"Like hell I don't." He took hold of her face with one hand and forced her to look him in the eye. "Iamresponsibleforyou,littlesister..." he said to her in Welsh. "Fromthefirstnightyouwoke,gaspingandcryinginGodric'sarms,tothetruedeath.Iunderstandperfectly..." Bo looked up at him helplessly. "It will be alright."

"We could assign some shifters to finish ferreting out the gap in the prime ministers itinerary during the day, and make the decision when we wake about how the approach everything." Adam suggested.

"I hate this," Bo breathed. "I hate it."

"Everything will be alright, Bo... Come on, try to get some sleep..." Adam led her after Aldis who took them down into the basement.

Eric looked at Sookie carefully. "Can you still hear him?"

"Not clearly... I think I'm only getting' it clearly when he yells." Eric raised an eyebrow, so Sookie tried to explain. "All the, the background stuff that goes on in someone's head, that's like talking. If I'm in the same room with people, it's all mushed up together an' it's hard to keep it out. Sometimes though, you think somethin' really clear. Like you'll see something you want and you'll think 'I want that'... that's more like yellin'... am I explainin' this badly?"

"No, I think I understand." He slid his arms around her shoulders. "I sometimes think things might be easier between us, if you could just read my mind." He said softly as he gazed down at her face. "Then you'd know..."

Sookie swallowed hard, unable to tear her eyes away. "Know what...?"

He shot her a small smirk. "That I think about you constantly. That even when I can't speak plainly with you, even when I have to be hard and distant... I am always thinking of you. Of what will keep you safe..." He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. "If you could hear me, then you'd understand..."

"You could always just say it," she suggested softly. Truth be told she wasn't sure she was really ready for him too though.

Eric shook his head. "Anyone can say anything they like, in the past we've both been told any number of things that weren't precisely true." Sookie couldn't argue with that.

.

Trying to flex his wrists to get some wriggle room in the cable ties that bound his hands behind his back, just left Winston frustrated and bleeding. He'd managed to tear his skin with all his fidgeting but the ties were no looser for his efforts. He sat on a plain wooden chair with each foot tied to one of the front legs.

"I feel like 'gay kidnap victim 2' on fucking CSI." He hissed to himself.

"Don't wriggle around so much, I'm not going to hurt you, so relax." Milton had apparently been leaning against the wall behind him, silently, for the past twenty minutes just watching him struggle.

"I'm not interested in your little BDSM fantasies Milton! What the hell are you thinking? You know there's no way I'm going to be able to talk Bo out of killing you now, you know that right?" What surprised him most was that he did actually care. Milton was a stupid, spoiled mummy's-boy with self control issues, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Bo's not going to be a problem for much longer."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Winston demanded and began struggling again.

"By this time next week it's all going to be over..." Milton sighed and moved into his line of sight. He looked terrible. Huge dark purple bags swelled under his eyes as though he'd been beaten, but the rest of his skin was sallow and hung loosely from his skull. "You're probably going to be pretty pissed at me by the end, but there's no avoiding that now. Bo was part of the deal..."

"Deal? What the hell are you talking about? What are you doing?"

"Oceania is going to have a new sheriff. Someone who's ambition goes a bit further than just keeping the peace..." Milton sighed. "It's a get on board or get ploughed under sort of a situation, Tony."

"I swear to God Milton, if you hurt her I'm gonna kill you! I'll tear your disease-ridden corpse apart with my bare hands!" He was struggling hard now, bleeding freely from where the ties cut into his wrists and ankles, but he barely felt it. Winston had never been particularly brave, and never even vaguely strong, but before Bo, he'd never been loved either. "Let me go," he ground out. "Whatever it is you're doing, we can still stop it, let me go. Letmego!"

"I'm sorry, Tony. Really. But there's no way to overthrow her without killing her, and I wont get paid until she's gone."

"Paid? Milton you're rolling in God-damn money!"

"I didn't say anything about money..."

.

Sookie spent the day alternating between trying to sleep and trying to stay awake. It seemed that once she'd managed to find Winston, her mind was automatically trying to seek him out the moment there was no other noise to occupy her. She gave up trying to sleep and instead sat in Aldis' office with a pen and a pad of paper, frantically scribbling down every clear thought she heard from Winston's mind. For the most part it was all variations on a theme; Milton is an idiot, Milton's going to die, the club was a dump. Then, about an hour before sunset...

-IsweartoGodMilton,ifyouhurtherI'mgonnakillyou!-Sookie clutched at her head and let out a short scream as the full force of Winston's sudden fear and rage broadsided her. -I'lltearyouapartwithmybarehands!- It became indecipherable after that. Incoherent impressions of rage, random expletives and oaths on various idols that if anything happened to Bo, he'd kill Milton. With effort, Sookie managed to pull herself together and start to sift through the mess in Winston's head until what she heard changed sharply. -Oakeshott?Whatthe,-then it stopped.

"Eric!" She screamed as she ran barefoot down into the basement to hammer on the dark hardwood coffin Eric had gone to rest in. "Eric! Wake up, wake up, wakeup!"

Inside the coffin, the hollow thudding couldn't have meant less to the sleeping vampire. He was far beyond the reach of sound or vibration, such things had no affect on him... but he could feel her heartbeat and her fear. The lid flipped up when he pressed the catch and he sat up smoothly.

"Sookie?" He wrapped his arms around her when she clutched at his shoulders.

"They knocked him out! Eric they... I think they hit him with something, but he said a name, he saw someone before... we need to wake Bo."

"Alright," he jumped out of the coffin an gestured towards the far end of the room. "Stay back, blood can wake blood but she'll be disoriented..."

Sookie nodded and watched in fascination even through her terror, as Eric forced the lid of Bo's coffin open and leaned over her cold, stiff body. It didn't even occur to her to question the fact that she'd been able to wake him... He seemed to breathe into Bo's mouth and hissed something in a language Sookie didn't understand.

"ComebackBodicea." He called softly in Welsh, "comebacklittlesister." He grabbed her shoulders when the Sheriff sat up swinging her arms, looking for something to hit. "Hey, hey! It's me! Bo!" She blinked at him stupidly for a moment and coughed a few times.

"What...? What is it?"

"Sookie heard something, a name."

Bo looked to Sookie expectantly. "He said Oakeshott, an' he was surprised. Really surprised to see them there... then I think they knocked him out."

Bodicea started swearing and was up, out of the coffin and up the stairs faster than Sookie could see. Eric went after her only slightly slower, leaving Sookie, dazed and confused, to bring up the rear. When she got to the top of the stairs she could hear Bo in the office. She was swearing and it sounded to Sookie like she was tearing the room apart.

"Son-of-a-bitch! Nessa! Get me Abbott on the phone and do it now!" Bo ordered in a shrill voice bordering on hysteria. "It's all connected, Christ it's all tied up together somehow."

"Bo, stop. Talk to me." Sookie heard Eric say. "Who is Oakeshott?"

"He's an independent! A politician, there's no way this isn't all connected. I've got two glamoured prime ministers in a row and now an independent who's in on the kidnapping of my personal assistant. Fuck knows what Milton thinks he's doing... he must know I'll kill him for this, what could they possibly offer him...?" She was rambling.

When Sookie peeked around the door, Eric had backed Bo into a corner and was gripping her hands tightly. "We know where they are, we can leave as soon as the sun sinks... Nessa, put down the phone and go wake Aldis." The tiny red-headed woman slipped past Sookie in the hallways, her eyes wide and frightened. "It's alright Sookie, come in."

One small step at a time, Sookie slipped into the room. "I... I wrote down everythin' that I heard him think while you were asleep. He dozed for a while, but he wasn't scared at all until about twenty minutes ago..." she pointed at the pad.

Bo's eyes flitted over the pad, Eric stood close behind her and read over her shoulder. Unlike Sookie, he was prepared when Bo's hands flew to her mouth and she spun, sobbing into his arms. He held her tightly while she screamed and sobbed into his chest, shaking with rage and remorse. Sookie bit her bottom lip and wondered if perhaps she'd made a mistake writing everything down.

"Sookie, go to the basement and get Adam, he'll be waking up now. Tell him what's going on." Eric said over Bo's head. "We'll be leaving in just a moment."

Sookie fled.

"He wants to protect me," Bo sobbed once Sookie was gone. "Jesus Christ, Eric, he actually wants to protect me..."

"You inspire it in people. We all want to protect you."

She looked up at him, her face smeared with blood. "I have to get him back, Eric."

"We will. Within the hour he'll be back here, painting your nails and making me want to strangle him. Now, talk to me about Oakeshott..."

.

Rob Oakeshott stood with his hand's on his hips and his usually handsome face set in an angry scowl. One expensive shoe tapping in agitation on the hardwood flood. "You sodding idiot!" He hissed at last, glaring in turn at the unconscious man tied to the chair, and Milton who couldn't meet his gaze. "now you'll have to kill him!"

"What? No! Why?" Milton stammered.

Oakeshott crossed the distance between them at vampire speed and grasped Milton by the throat. At this distance Milton could see that the MP had covered his sallow skin and red-rimmed eyes with make-up. It seemed he wasn't immune to the bleeds, he just covered the evidence... "He's seen my face. He knows I'm here and he will run screaming to the Sheriff at the first possible opportunity. That woman is hundreds of years old, and God only knows about that great hulking monstrosity she brought back with her from the states! Everything depends on taking her by surprise, Milton. Without surprise, I'm vampire jam, and you're dinner." Milton trembled under his hands in a way that made Oakeshott cringe. "Ungh, you're a disgusting little coward." He dropped him negligently and wiped his fingers insultingly on his jacket. "You're only use lies in the fact that this poor deluded little bugger once thought you were worth something. That gave you an in... without the fickle finger of a fairy's fancy, you'd be a nothing, nowhere..."