The last chapter was kind of short, so here is another. Enjoy!

And, thanks again for the reviews!

The moon was nearly full tonight and caused shadows cast by the limbs of the trees to stretch across their bodies like boney fingers that held them to the ground where they lay. Their own limbs stretched out, Bill's arm held Sookie's waist as his head gently rest on her breast and Sookie absently ran her thumb back and forth over his back as she stared up at the sky. As they listened to the night serenade them, felt the warm breeze caress their skin, they both became lost in their own thoughts.

I could listen to her heart beat for the rest of my existence. The thump as it pushes and pulls her blood through her body, the endless sound of it rushing by; it is such a soft, steady sound. It is unbelievable how well it relaxes me, comforts me, and beats for me.
My own heart died so long ago and left me with a void where it used to be. Over time I stopped longing for it to beat again, to prove that 'this' life was all just a terrible nightmare. I prayed I would wake and find myself next to Caroline as she embraced me, shushed me, calmed me, saved me from the Hell I was in. …I learned God did not listen to the damned and that it is no good to long for something that will never be.

As I lay here, feeling the gentle rise and fall from every breath she takes and the beat of her heart, I realize that I was wrong. Every time I am near her, hold her, kiss her, make love to her the void is gone and there is life in me again. I know this because I felt my heart break and die all

over again when I thought I had lost her.

It is amazing…as I lay here listening to her heart, I can feel mine beating.

With no lights around for miles to drown them out, the number of stars in the sky is breathtaking. You can barely make out any empty space from one to the next. Even without the moon, they could light up the heavens all on their own. As Sookie stared at them, watched them twinkle as she thought over the night's strange events and her own revelations, she happened to see a shooting star and made a wish.

Please, let me be strong enough to understand and accept Bill for what and who he is. To embrace all of him and all that I become.

"Sookie?"

"Hmmmm?"

There was a long silence before Bill spoke again as he tried to find his voice.

"I…I am no longer the vampire I used to be…"

Sookie's thumb stopped moving mid-caress, not saying a word, prompting him to go on.

"I ceased to be that 'person' the night I met you, even if I did not know it then."

He forced himself to leave the serenity he found within her heartbeat and raised himself up onto one elbow to allow him to look down at her. She wanted to be equal to him as she spoke, so she lifted herself onto her elbow as she turned to face Bill.

"And I'm no longer the naive, awe-struck girl you met that night."

"I know that." He said timidly.

"Do you Bill…Really?" She asked with a slightly worried tone. "I might have to agree, if I am being honest with myself, that I don't always handle everything the best way possible, but I have been thrown into a world of danger that apparently comes with being with you, and I have had to learn how to survive it. Before you, my life was safe, albeit boring, but I had 26 years to get used to it. However, since I met you, I have been forced to grow up in a really short period of time and see the world for what it is. I am not the virginal, innocent girl anymore, you changed that. I have had to learn about myself all over again because all that I thought to be true was just a shadow. I would have never have guessed it, but I now know that I have a dark side myself, and I've learned just what I am capable of, all in the name of love."

"I wanted you to keep your innocence and not ruin your view of the world around you. That was my only intention for keeping you in the dark, for making the decisions I did."

"I don't want decisions made for me, especially without even being aware of it. I told you before, I am not a 'thing' to be protected, I'm a person. I'm supposed to be the woman you loved and wanted to marry. How was that supposed to happen if there is no trust by both of us? If you don't trust me enough to share your life with me, then how would we build our life together? In the process of sheltering me from what was going on, you kept me from truly knowing and accepting you, for who and what you are."

"If you truly knew who and what I was, I would have lost you. There is no way that you could love me for the person I was when I met you." Bill replied somberly.

"How can you be so sure about that? I did seem to find out an awful lot lately, things that I'm sure you would have never thought I could accept, but I did, because I love you. I never gave up on you or our love, even when you so blatantly told me you f*cked someone else to drive me away."… "When you admitted what you did when the Rattray's were beating me. That was the last straw, the one that broke me."

"Sookie, how could anyone ever tell the person they love more than their own existence that they allowed for that to happen? If I could have found some way to go back and change that night I would, believe me. I did not have any way of knowing that night…"

"I know. Neither of us knew what fate had in store for us."

Sookie had cut him off not wanting to continue with this conversation right now and ruin the bliss they had found tonight. There were plenty of questions to be answered, emotions to work through, and this evening…the events of the night and the possibilities were by themselves enough to keep their minds busy. Taking the hint, Bill let it drop for now and changed the subject.

"I knew that night that there was something special about you, but I certainly could never have known that you could perform miracles." He said equivocally as he smiled at her.

Sookie gave him a questioning look.

"You have made the impossible happen…you made my dead heart beat again." He answered sincerely.

Sookie lifted her hand and placed it on Bill's chest over his heart, then leaned in to replace it with a warm, tender kiss and then placed the same on Bill's lips.
Her kiss was all it took to release his anxiety and get him to stop talking. He lay back on the ground, this time he pulled her with him and she rested her head on his masculine chest as they fell silent again.

Bill thought back over this oddly cathartic night, and he could not help but smile to himself as a thoughtful look came over his face, as lifted his arms, laced his fingers together, and rested them behind his head.

"Did you really call me out on the theory that you were 'too fragile to f*ck like a vampire'?" He asked with a bit of amazement to his voice.

"Why yes... Yes I did." She said matter-of-factly.

Pondering that for a moment Bill replied, "I am EXTREMELY glad you did."