Please forgive any errors in this – I'm not a counsellor, and nor have I ever been to one!

Sookie

"So tell me, have you two been intimate together?"

I felt myself blush as Dr Claude Crane – our couple's counsellor – addressed Eric and me. We'd already given him the extensive story of our past, along with the more recent events, and he'd been furiously scribbling down on his note pads as Eric and I relayed the facts to him. I was certainly glad we'd paid for a two-hour session, as at this rate, we were going to need it and it was only a few days until we went to Colorado.

I looked to Eric, not really knowing what to tell him. "We've kissed and hugged," he squeezed my hand which were joined between us on the leather sofa. "No more than that." I shifted uncomfortably on the leather sofa.

"Are we talking French kissing here? Tongues?" I felt myself flush bright red, and Eric smirked at the question. "I am asking this for a reason," Dr Crane scolded.

"No tongues," I said quietly without looking at Eric.

"Okay," he replied thoughtfully. "Sookie, you've been back in Louisiana for around four weeks?" I nodded. "But during that time, you haven't done anything more than what you've just told me despite the fact that you have both said you wanted to give your relationship a go."

"That's correct."

"Is there a reason for that?"

I looked to Eric before answering. "Honestly, we haven't seen too much of each other. I've been settling in here, we've both been busy with work and Eric's been busy in the evenings."

Dr Crane raised an eyebrow. "I find this strange. You both told me earlier that part of the reason you split before was because you didn't make enough time for each other; that you didn't see much of one another to have a relationship. You seem to be making the same mistakes."

He had a point.

"Eric," he continued. "Is there a reason you haven't seen much of Sookie since she moved back? You were the one who asked her to move here."

I watched Eric closely, and he shut his eyes momentarily while running his hand through his hair. "I … I've been having some issues dealing with the split from Isabel."

"Okay, explain that to me."

Eric sighed. "I've been feeling guilty about hurting her."

"Do you still love her?" I watched Eric, anxiously awaiting the answer to the question I really wanted to ask him.

"It's complicated," he answered, and I felt my stomach bottom out. I'd been hoping for a flat 'no'.

"How so?" Dr Crane asked for me.

"It's difficult. It's difficult in that I understand how she can feel about me. I hurt her; I left her for another woman, so she has every right to hate me. But Isabel has never done anything wrong to me. She's always been there for me; she's been patient with me. So I guess that it's a little hard to let go of kindness and friendship she's always shown me."

I could understand that to some extent.

He turned to face me, and I wiped a tear from my eye. "But Sook, the love I have for you – it's so much more. And I don't think I ever stopped loving you. It's always been there, even when I was with Izzy. You coming back … seeing you again … it brought it all back. It made me realise that I love you more."

"But you still love Isabel." It was a statement rather than a question.

"A little," he replied honestly. "But not in the way I love you."

The doctor cut back in. "I understand, Eric, that you have seen Isabel recently?"

"I have."

"For the sake of your relationship with Sookie, I suggest that you don't see her again for a while. You told me that you needed to know that she was okay, and that is understandable. But now you know she's okay, if you want this to work, you need to make sure it's only the two of you in this relationship."

"I can do that." Eric took my hand again and ran his thumb across the back of it. "Sookie is more important to me."

"Sookie, what is your opinion of Isabel?"

That was a hard one to answer, but I wanted to be truthful. "Honestly, I wish that she was easier to not like. If I'd have come back to find Eric in a relationship with a complete bitch or with someone who was cheating on him I'd have found this a lot easier." I didn't look at Eric to see his reaction, but kept my eyes trained on Dr Crane. "I guess I tried to avoid her when she and Eric were together over the summer, mostly from a jealousy point of view. I didn't like see her and Eric together, but on the other hand they seemed so happy together. I have no reason not to like her."

"Okay, so you have no reason not to like her, but do you?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't," I said quietly.

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm scared that Eric still loves her; that he'll realise he's made a mistake with me and go back to her. She just seems too fucking perfect at times, and I wonder what the hell he sees in me."

"Sookie…" Eric said from beside me, but I didn't turn to him.

"You appear to have some self-confidence issues, Sookie. Do you normally react like this?" Dr Crane's voice was strangely calming.

"No. In every other situation I normally am fairly confident and strong."

"Every other situation to what, exactly?"

"This … with Eric. I just feel helpless at times, and I keep on screwing things up. I love him, and I know he loves me, but sometimes I wonder if that's not enough for us."

"What more do you expect?" He glanced at us from across the office as he sat in his large chair, one leg crossed over the other.

"I don't know," I cried. "When we were first together and at college it was so easy for us. Our relationship was so light and we never had any problems despite the fact that we saw each other all the time. We never got bored of each other or felt we had to do other things. I want that back."

"You say you saw each other all the time?" I nodded, and I assumed that Eric did as well when Dr Crane turned to him. "And you get along now when you're together and alone?"

"Yes," Eric answered. I nodded in agreement with him.

"Well, it sounds like if you want this to work, you have to devote time to each other. You two seem to be deeply connected, but you obviously don't do well when there is any kind of distance or misunderstanding between you. You've told me that you're due to spend a week together alone in a ski lodge, and I think that it is what you both need. You need to reconnect on many levels, and reconnecting sexually is an important one. I'm assuming that when you were at college together you had a healthy sex life." I could help but smile in agreement. "Then that is what you need to go back to."

"You're telling us that we need to have sex?" Eric asked the doctor with a slightly incredulous tone to his voice.

"All couples work differently, Eric. People connect on different levels, and what's right for one couple will not always work for another. You have told me that you two worked well when you had no outside distractions, so that is what you need to aim for. But you also need to accept that this isn't going to be as easy as it was for you in college as you have different and greater responsibilities now. But if there is one thing I have established from talking to the two of you, it's that you need to reconnect both emotionally and physically, and you need to focus on your relationship as your sole priority. I think that if you don't then this isn't going to work between you."

He'd certainly given us a lot to think about, and I had to agree with him. Things had been easier when we were younger, and our problems started when we stopped finding the time to see each other. But the problem was that there were other things we needed to overcome before we could get to that stage.

"Sookie, you have a look of concern on your face." Dr Crane was obviously very observant and good at reading people.

"Sookie?" I turned to Eric and smiled, but took a deep breath. He looked worried.

"I do agree with you, Dr Crane. I just feel that there are some hurdles we need to overcome before we can even get to that stage."

"Okay. And what hurdles do you feel those are?" The doctor lightly chewed on the end of his pen.

"I guess I'm referring to some of the fuckups we've both made recently. Me, in particular."

"I can assume you're referring to the events of the last week."

"Yes."

"It is certainly something I planned on bringing up. So let's start with you Sookie." I swallowed nervously. "Would you agree that you have a tendency to run?"

"I can't disagree with that," I told him.

"And from my reckoning, you have run from Eric at least four times and I'd imagine there are more instances you haven't thought to mention to me." He was right there. "Why is that you feel you do this?"

He was the doctor here; I was hoping he could tell me. "I don't know. Maybe because I'm scared about what will happen if I stay … I don't know. It's not intentional … it's a gut reaction."

"You feel safest if you run away?"

"I suppose."

The doctor paused for a moment before turning his attention to Eric. "Eric, what is your opinion on Sookie's tendency to run at times of stress?"

"I wish that she didn't. If Sookie hadn't been so quick to run from me seven years ago we might not be here right now, or if she had stayed and spoken to me when she came back …" I felt my annoyance spike at his comment and I pulled my hand away from him. However, he turned to me and gently retook my hand. "Sook, I'm not blaming this on you. I know this is equally my fault for pushing you away at times. I've let you run from me, and I haven't fought for you when I should have."

"Can you blame her for some of the times she has run from you?" Dr Crane asked. "Like the recent example?"

"Not really," he said with a sigh. "I overreacted, I know that. But I wish that Sookie hadn't ignored me."

"If she had have told you where she was going, and you were able to speak to each other, would you have gone to see Isabel?"

I turned to Eric with interest. "Possibly not. I'm sure she would have called me anyway as her friend reported our argument. But I might not have gone to her house."

I closed my eyes as I realised something. We both had jealousy issues: Eric over me and Alcide, and me with him and Isabel. We were probably as guilty as each other were there, and we weren't good at considering each other's feelings.

"You both realise where you are going wrong?" the doctor asked us both.

"Yeah," Eric answered. "And I am sorry, Sook. I promise to not bring Isabel into this again. I'm grateful to her for how she's helped me, but our relationship is over. You're my future."

We spent the rest of the session talking about recent events and opening up to each other. Dr Crane talked us through the mistakes we made the first time around, and I think we both realised that it was probably inevitable that it wouldn't have lasted back then without something changing. Something would have happened eventually, and it could have been worse than it actually was.

I hadn't realised how much my leaving had hurt him the first time around, and I understood that it was my actions that led him to sleep with so many other women. So me seeing him chatting up three women in the club that night when I came back – that was as a result of my actions.

But Eric also understood my point of view that we didn't seem to be going anywhere. Neither one of us had really been happy in our relationship at the time, and I did have itchy feet to go and explore other opportunities. But the fact was that I had done – we both had done – and to some extent, we probably both needed to. Yet somehow, we were here again together. We had been granted a rare second chance and in recent weeks, we'd been doing our best to screw things up again.

"So," the doctor concluded at the end of the session. "We will meet again after your break together?" I think we both accepted that this holiday probably was make-or-break for us. If we couldn't get along together and make it work while in Colorado, there really seemed no chance for us.

"Yes," Eric took my hand as we stood up. "You've given us both a lot to think over, but I know we're on the same page, and we both want this to work." I smiled up at Eric letting him know that I agreed with him.

"Well, I wish you both the best. It's obvious to me that you do deeply care for and love each other, but really the only advice I can give you is to be completely honest with each other. Don't run from each other, and don't push the other away when things get difficult. You need to fight together, not against each other." I couldn't disagree with him there.

We thanked the doctor and walked slowly to Eric's car. My ankle was still painful following my accident, so Eric let me lean on him so that I didn't have to put my full weight on my right foot. Otherwise, I was mostly okay. The bruising on my head was going down, and although my neck was a little stiff, it was better than I had expected it to be. In reality, considering how bad my car was, I'd come off very lightly from my accident.

"Are you okay?" he asked once I was safely inside the car and buckled up.

"Yeah … I feel a little mentally exhausted though."

"I'd agree with that, Frasier was a little intense at times." I smiled widely at his name for our doctor. "But I meant more your injuries… you're not in pain?"

"I'm fine, Eric. And you need to stop with the guilt. It wasn't your fault. Don't make me drag you back inside to see Niles."

He smiled a little. "I can't help feeling guilty about it, Sook. I let you leave knowing you were upset. You could have been killed."

"I wasn't. Please stop it, Eric. I want us to move on, not look backwards. It's another thing that we need to put behind us, but learn from. Dr Crane was right in saying that we have to work together, and we can't do that if you're feeling guilty all the time."

He took my hand and brought it to his lips. "You're right, Sook. I'm sorry."

"Forgiven." I said with a smile. "Now how about we get some take away, as I'm starving."

Eric agreed, and as we were in Shreveport we picked up a take-away of Thai food before heading back to his house in Bon Temps. In the couple of days that I'd been staying at Eric's house, he'd done his best to look after me, but as we'd explained to the doctor, we hadn't gone any further with the physical side of our relationship.

I supposed that was partly because we were both afraid of ruining things, but after talking to Dr Crane, I was sure that things were going to be different, and there was definitely a sexual tension in the car between us. When we got back to the house, he helped me inside before reheating the food that had cooled on the journey and tucking into the veritable feast of Thai food. We finished with a mango sorbet that Eric already had in his freezer before we relocated to his living room.

Eric pulled me down onto the sofa next to him and wrapped his arms tightly around me as he flicked through the channels. It was still a little strange being in his living room again considering what had been said between us less than a week before. But this time was more relaxing and we were certainly closer each other.

But I can't say I really look much notice of what was on the TV as Eric's fingers were gently running through my hair in the way I'd always loved him doing, and my head was resting on his firm chest with my right arm wrapped around his abdomen and playing with the bottom of his t-shirt.

"Aaahhh!" he yelled out as I gently tickled his side with my fingertips, and I smiled widely remembering how ticklish he was. Of course his reaction only made me push my hand up under his top to tickle him more. "Stop it, woman!" he whined, but I was enjoying myself too much. I moved my left arm underneath me so I could assault him from both sides.

He shrieked again and tried to push me off, but it was only a half-hearted attempt and instead he tried to tickle me on my sides.

"Northman, you know I'm not ticklish." I could hear the amusement in my own voice.

"Really? I seem to remember your feet being very ticklish." He moved quickly to grab one of my feet, and I screamed blue murder as he grabbed my non-injured left ankle.

"Noooooo!" I yelled out. "Please don't! I'm sorry; I won't tickle you ever again!" He had my ankle firm in his hand and he ran a finger painstakingly slowly down the sole of my foot. I shrieked loudly as he hit a particularly sensitive spot, and I launched myself at him, tickling his sides in an attempt to get him to drop my foot.

He did just that, play fighting with me to stop me from tickling him before pinning me to the sofa, using his superior weight and strength to keep me in one spot.

Only as soon as we were in this position the humour disappeared and our eyes locked on each other's. "Eric," I whispered gently as he let go of my hands and I moved them to his sides. We laid there, staring into each other's eyes and both panting a little, his strong arms acting like a cage around me and his knees were either side of my legs.

I was silently begging him to kiss me, and my eyes shot to his lips as he moistened them with his pink tongue. I raised my head a little and I was met my Eric's lips gently kissing my top one. We both pulled back and regained eye contact once more, before mutually restarting this kiss at precisely the same time.

He tasted just as I remembered as our lips danced together, kissing gently at first before we started to claw and pull at each other. I moaned loudly as he ran his hands down my body, and he took the opportunity to use his tongue to meet mine, massaging it gently. He moved his body to allow more of his weight to rest on me, and ground against me as he involuntarily thrust his hips.

"Fuck," I moaned, my fingers digging into his back as I pulled him closer still.

We were kissing deeply, both of us panting and trying to get much needed friction. I knew I was certainly horny, and considering the bulge in Eric's jeans, he was too. I pulled at the bottom of his t-shirt and started to yank it upwards. Eric took the hint and pulled it off in one swift move to reveal his perfect torso.

I was almost slack-jawed as I took him in. He was the perfect specimen of a man, with rippling abs, toned pectoral muscles and perfectly muscular neck, shoulders and arms. I nearly came from the sight of him alone, and I couldn't have stopped my hands from wandering over him if I had tried.

"You are so hot," I muttered, leaning up to kiss him on the neck as I remembered he always used to like me doing.

He moaned aloud and started pulling at my own t-shirt, almost ripping it off me and somehow managing to unhook my bra at the same time. He always did have a knack for doing that. He threw my upper garments onto the floor and palmed both of my breasts, squeezing deliciously before taking my left nipple into his mouth and running his tongue around it as I almost leapt of the sofa in delight.

He resumed kissing me, holding my hands above my head with his other hand plunged into my hair. With my lack of arms, I resorted to using my feet to push his ass closer into me, but instead ended up yelping in pain as I over-exerted my injured ankle.

"Are you okay?" he asked concerned, pulling back from me, letting go of my arms and meeting my eyes.

"Yeah … I just used my ankle when I shouldn't have. I'm fine. And happy to continue this …" I trailed off and placed a kiss on his neck.

"You have no idea how much I want to."

I was sure I did. "I do. But you're thinking we should slow down a little before we hop straight back into bed?"

He nodded. And as much as I would happily have carried that make-out session on to its natural conclusion, he was probably right.

"But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves…" Eric had a smirk in his eye. He climbed off me and gave me my t-shirt back, but not my bra, which I pulled on over my head. I was pleased at least that Eric didn't put his top back on.

Eric let out a contented sigh as he pulled me into his side once more. We kissed lazily while watching an old James Bond movie on the TV and kept it relatively PG rated, although my hands did spent a lot of time roaming his torso.

"Bed-time?" he asked once the movie was over. I looked over at the clock to see that it was past half-ten and Eric had to work the next day.

"Sure,"

I had planned to stand myself, but Eric scooped me into his arms and carried me upstairs. However, he took me into his room instead of the one across the hall that I'd been sleeping in.

"You're sure?" I asked as he gently placed me on the bed.

"I'd like you to."

"I'd like to as well. Although, I could probably do with getting my toothbrush and nightdress."

I smiled as Eric rolled his eyes and I went to get my things. I didn't know whether he wanted me to formally move into his room, so for the time being I just picked up what I needed, and got changed in the main bathroom.

When I came back, Eric was only wearing a pair of black and red boxer shorts and was lying in a provocative position in the centre of the large bed.

I stood in the doorway and raised an eyebrow, glad that I'd changed into my more attractive red satin nightie.

"You're such a poser," I admonished, but he didn't look at all ashamed.

"I just thought from that way you were feeling me up downstairs that you'd like to see all of me?" He hoicked an eyebrow up at me in challenge.

"You're incorrigible."

"Problem?"

"No … not really."

I went over to the side of the bed that had always been mine before and laid down without thinking any more about it. I rolled over to face him, my eyes travelling down to his boxers once more.

"Hey, I recognise these!" I gently fingered the edge of his silk boxer shorts, immediately recognising the ladybug pattern I'd bought for him probably ten years earlier. I was hugely surprised he still had them.

Eric's expression was a mixture of kindness and a little sadness. "I couldn't get rid of them when you left. I kept a box of gifts you'd given me and when I moved here I couldn't throw them out."

"I take it Isabel never knew?" I asked gently.

He shook his head. "No."

I placed my hand on his chest. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, Eric. I never meant to. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing."

He pulled me close to his side and breathed in deeply. "I think in retrospect maybe you were doing the right thing. We both needed to do our own thing for a bit. All I care about right now if that you're here with me."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "I'm where I want to be."

"Good. Are you looking forward to Colorado?"

"Yes … hugely, actually. I think a change of scenery would do us both good. But we're going to talk some more, right?" I sat up a little to meet his eyes.

"Yeah, we probably need to continue what Dr Crane has started, but I think we're on a good path." He leant down and kissed me before I broke into a yawn.

"Sorry!" I said once I'd finished yawning, although I only seemed to set Eric off.

"It's obviously sleepy time. Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm good thanks. Night, love."

"Night, Sook. I love you."

"I love you more."

I curled up on my right side while Eric turned off the lights and wrapped his long, hard body around me. I felt so safe and secure in his arms, and more importantly, completely loved.

So… progress, and they're in bed together even if it is partly clothed (in ladybug boxers). What do you think of the counselling? Are they in the right place together? Do they need more sex?

Colorado in the next chapter.

I'd love to know your thoughts.