Chapter Eleven- Issues Part 1

'Oh Eric thank you!' Pam squealed as she pulled out the beautiful deep red gown from the black box and wrapping. 'It's beautiful!' She said, beaming a huge smile up at him, as he lent against the doorway watching happily.

'I'm glad you like it. I knew you would.' He said smugly, knowing his child's tastes inside out. She stood up and held it up against her in front of the mirror. Her face was alight with glee. 'It would go lovely with these.' He said, holding out the pair of red pumps he had rescued from the night of Pam's disappearance. Another squeal told Eric that she was most pleased to see her shoes again.

A half hour later Pam emerged from the bedroom, dressed in the new gown, her hair tied up magnificently atop her head. Big elegant drop curls falling around either side of her face. Her make-up was expertly done; she looked like a goddess, albeit a goddess with fangs.

'Perfect.' Eric said when she entered the living room. 'Likewise, top marks.' She said, highly approving of Eric's black tuxedo, with long tails at the back. His blonde Viking hair smoothed and brushed back, showing off more of his handsomely chiselled face. Many a girl would fall weak at the knees tonight laying eyes on Eric.

'So care to share where we're going? If it's Fangtasia I'll kill you!' She joked, raising her eye brow accusingly. 'Nope, but we have to get going, come on.' He said, turning his back away from her. She nodded simply, starting towards the door. 'But...just one more thing.' Eric suddenly said, and Pam gasped slightly as Eric was suddenly right behind her.

'You seem to be missing something.' He said in a low voice. Pam instantly looked down at her dress and purse wondering what she had forgotten, 'What is...' She went to turn towards him, when she felt his cool fingers skate across the back of her neck.

'That's better.' He said simply, stepping away slightly to watch her reaction. Her eyes widened as she stared at the gold necklace resting against her chest. 'Eric...it's beautiful.' She said, awestruck. 'It's got something written on the back.' He said softly, and smiled brightly as she turned the pendant hanging on the fine chain around.

My girl, always

'Oh Eric...' She said, turning to embrace him tightly. He chuckled loudly, 'glad you like it. Come on now.' He said, turning her again to leave the house.

They arrived 10 minutes later at an exquisite theatre, with wide open doors and spot lights moving around outside its entrance. 'The theatre!' Pam cried with happiness. 'Oh thank you thank you thank you!' She said without pause, turning to shine the biggest smile at Eric.

Although he had never really been one for the theatre, he had always known Pam loved it. She was born into a very aristocratic family in London, growing up with an instant love of all theatre, literature and art. It was something she never lost after her turning.

'You ok?' He asked as they stepped out the car. 'Yes, yes I'm fine.' She said absently, dying to get inside. 'Pam, you sure, you haven't been around people in a while. You sure you're ok?' He asked again, taking hold of her arm to keep her from running on ahead. She locked eyes with him and nodded. 'I'm fine.' She offered a beaming smile as extra evidence. 'Alright then.' He smiled back.

She was practically buzzing with anticipation as they walked through the grand hall to the bar placed elegantly up between two mighty pillars. 'Two True Blood's please.' Eric asked the bartender, as Pam looked all around her in happiness. The hall was decorated with gold lace trimming and tall imposing marble statues of Greek origin.

Pam noticed several other Vampires present, most with human dates, and smiled as one met her eye. The human's didn't seem to mind the presence of the un-dead, not in this day and age and after the great reveal.

They sat through the first part contently, Pam with a smile planted on her face the entire time.

...

Come the intermission, as Eric began chatting with an elegant looking red head, Pam wandered off.

She brushed her hand over the marble statue at the tip of the tall staircase, and looked down among the little groups of men and women chatting eagerly about the first part of tonight's performance. Everybody was dressed to the nine's, all drinking champagne or Blood. It was quite the occasion, however Eric got tickets so late it was astonishing to Pam.

Suddenly somebody bumped her shoulder, causing her to spill her True Blood on the floor. 'Oh God, excuse me! Let me help you with that.' A tall, slightly bearded man stuttered, his hands automatically reaching out to steady Pam, as they both stood at the top of the stairs. 'That's fine. Where were you rushing to?' Pam asked, placing her now empty glass on the plinth of the statue and looked up towards the man's eyes.

'Oh I wasn't, I'm just clumsy.' He joked, pulling the two away from the dark red puddle, and then as though he only just realised what her drink was he smiled more admiringly down at her.

'I'm Gordon Morgan.' Pam couldn't help but let out a small laugh. 'That's quite a funny name.' She remarked and noticed his cheeks turn slightly pink. 'Parents had a sense of humour I guess. May I have the pleasure of your name?' He added. 'Pamela, Pamela Ravenscoft.' She said, her old family name sounding funny leaving her lips after all these years.

'Well, it's nice to meet you Pamela. May I buy you another drink, since I ruined your first?' He asked, holding out his hand to her. 'Please.' She said with all the air of a woman used to this sort of treatment, taking his hand gently and they began walking down the stairs.

When they were half way down the flight, Pam was inwardly fighting the fatigue that was beginning to drag her body down. She closed her eyes for a second, unfortunately misplacing her next step, and stumbled forward.

'Oh!' She cried out as she began to fall.

In the other room, Eric heard her cry.

Suddenly, instead of feeling the hard surface of the stairs, Pam felt two strong hands grasp her arms, half turning her, half pushing her towards the banister to stop her decent downwards. Her wide eyes locked on to Gordon's startled ones, and she smiled slightly as she realised he was the owner of the hands. 'Careful.' He said breathlessly, holding Pam against the banister, close to her body. Pam was breathing deeply, startled by the whole thing. 'Thank you Gordon.' She said sincerely, and then suddenly cried out again as, literally from nowhere, a blur of a figure grabbed Gordon before her eyes and slam him up against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. The figure was Eric.

Eric had Gordon around the throat, his feet hanging limp off the ground as Eric pressed him against the wall. His fangs were fully on display and he was growling viciously. 'Eric!' Pam yelled, making her way down the stairs as fast as she could.

Eric ignored her, growling loudly in Gordon's terrified face. 'I'm going to fucking kill you; why were you touching her?' He yelled loudly, his eyes burning with fury. 'Trying to take her away from me again, is that what you were doing?' He yelled again.

'Eric, he was only helping me, please stop!' Pam said desperately, her face shocked at Eric's display of anger in a public place, her voice a little unstable. Eric tightened his grip around Gordon's throat, 'It didn't look that way, he was grabbing you was what he was doing! He's one of them!' He growled, meaning a drainer, whilst Gordon began to gasp for breath. 'No he's not.' Pam cried, her eyes darting to the onlookers just standing by in shock, unsure on how to act. The Vampire police had already been called.

A few men started to try and pull Eric off the choking man, but he shrugged them off easily.

Pam noticed the blue tinge creeping in on Gordon's face and panicked. She ran up behind Eric and grabbed his shoulder, attempting to pull him off. Eric, assuming it was another annoying human, lost his temper even more and swung his arm back, elbowing the person in the face; unaware said person was Pam.

She cried out as she was knocked to the floor. Her cry seemed to bring Eric out of his fury however, as he turned his eyes to search for her, and finally settled on her on the floor.

'Pam...?' He questioned, as slowly the reality of what was happening hit him. With horror he realized the truth of things. That man was not attacking Pam, she wasn't going to be kidnapped again, and he was simply helping her. These other people were not in on the act, they were trying to save Gordon's life. And it wasn't a human he had hit; it was Pam, his child, the one he was trying to protect in the first place! The information burned into his brain, as his hands loosened around the man's neck and he fell to the floor coughing and spluttering.

'Pam...' He muttered bending to help her up, but froze when she flinched. 'Pam?' He questioned, his heart freezing over slightly.

He suddenly felt a burning on his back, and himself being pinned to the floor. Four Vampire SWAT officers were on him in a second, handcuffing his hands and yanking him to his feet. 'What the fuck! Get off me!' Eric yelled. They ignored his protests as they began to march him out to the Vampire proof van. 'Pam!' He yelled as he was pulled away, his eyes wide as he watched two other officers roughly tug her up and force her to stretch out against the wall, as they searched her.

'Don't touch her, don't you dare touch her!' He yelled before the doors were slammed against his face. They drove away a minute later, leaving Pam alone in the theatre, with a room full of startled humans, currently none too pleased with the presence of Vampires.

'Gordon, I'm sorry about that, are you very hurt?' Pam asked her voice alarmed as she walked over to the slightly ragged man. 'That your boyfriend?' He rasped, though he offered a smile which made Pam admire him.

'No, he's my maker.' She said and admired even more when he nodded in understanding. 'Why did he attack me like that?' He asked genuinely curious as they walked over to some chairs. 'It's not his fault, not really.' She said, 'I've recently been through something...something very horrible actually.' She said, strangely feeling at ease with this human guy. 'And I very nearly didn't make it.' He nodded with wide eyes to show he knew her meaning of that. 'Or course I did, but I think it's affected him a little bit.' She finished lamely.

'That's understandable...beautiful girl like you.' Gordon said, instantly picking out his mobile and flipping it open. 'Hello, am I right to believe you have just made an arrest of a Vampire in the Apollis Theatre, by the name of...' Here he paused, waiting for Pam to answer. She took a second to realise what it was doing. 'Eric Northman.' She said quickly, disbelief on her face.

'Eric Northman. The charges against him were for assaulting a human, well I'd like to drop the charge please, as I was whom he attacked in the first place. It was simply a misunderstanding.' A moment's silence. 'We'll be there shortly.' He hung up.

'What?' Pam stuttered, losing all decorum in front of the human guy. 'I have to go sign some release forms to relieve him of all charges. Then he's free, and you two can go home.' Gordon said genuinely kind, standing up, offering his arm to Pam.

'Thank you Gordon.' She said, unable to stop the emotions running thick and fast throughout her body, and certainly unable to hide said fact in her voice. ...

Three hours later, Eric was released. He stepped outside the buildings gates and there Pam sat on a wall, the wind blowing through her hair, her pale face glowing in the moonlight. Her eyes looked far off, as though seeing a different time and place to where she was now.

'Pam.' He broke the silence, walking over to her. She was instantly up on her feet.

'I've escaped' He joked lamely, and then was completely taken back as Pam ran at him, pounding her fists angrily against his chest; tears of red falling down her cheeks. 'How could you!' She cried, hitting him with all her might. It didn't hurt one bit.

'How could you be so...so pigheaded! He was helping me! That's all, and you fucking attacked him! You ruined the whole night. You got yourself arrested and I had to watch you being dragged away!' She cried louder, her energy rapidly departing, as her hits began to fall clumsily against his chest. 'He was really sweet you know, just trying to help me!' She shrieked hurt and upset was clear in her voice.

Eric gently brought his hands up to pull her into a tight embrace. She fought like a wild cat against it, trying her best to pull away. 'No! No you can't just give me a hug and make it all better!' She accused, trying haplessly to loosen his grip. He had a feeling she was referring to something more than tonight's events. He held on anyway, determined to calm her down. And after a few more moments of fighting against his arms, she did, her cheek collapsing against his chest and her hands hanging limply at her sides. 'Tell me why?' She begged through her tears.

'I don't know.' He replied lamely. And she just sobbed in reply, her emotions in shreds at what was meant to be a beautiful evening.

After a while of silence bar Pam's hushed sobs, Eric broke the quiet once more. But not with his voice, instead it was a badly stifled cry. Pam pulled away slightly; her face blotched with red and her eyes puffy and sore. 'Eric...?' She said unbelieving. Eric turned his head up out of her view, grunting slightly. 'Eric, are you crying?' She whispered, placing a delicate hand on either side of his face to look in his eyes. When she saw the two red tears she audibly gasped.

'I just couldn't help it.' He said defeated, running his hands up her arms. 'I thought he was attacking you. I thought you were going to be taken from me again, and I lost it.' He admitted, as a few more tears fell from his eyes.

'Oh Eric...' Pam said sadly, her little hand coming to wipe away his tears. 'I don't know how to react anymore. I thought I could handle it, handle you being out in public again after what happened.' He said, referring to Frank and his sick little gang. 'But I can't. It's tearing me up just thinking about it. What if something happens to you again? And next time I'm not as lucky to get you back!'

'Eric, you mustn't think like that. Nothing's going to happen to me, you have to let me be my own person at some point.' She replied softly, her heart blooming with love for her maker.

'But how do you know!' He yelled suddenly. 'You didn't know you'd be taken the first time round, and even if you did, you couldn't have stopped it from happening.' Pam's eyes widened in understanding.

'Eric...' She said sternly, pulling him down to her level. 'Eric, listen to me. You can't think like that, you have to just live like you normally did. I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself...usually, and you have to trust me and trust yourself and forget all this overprotective bullshit. As sweet as it is, it's not going to work sweetie.' She said, a coy smile finding her face at the end of her little speech.

Eric nodded, laughing despite himself. 'I'm sorry I ruined your night.' He said sincerely. She laughed, 'Forget about it.' She said, her hand coming to finger the pendant delicately. Eric smiled. 'Still.' He said, tilting her head up to see her eyes, 'I'll make it up to you.' She just rolled her eyes and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. Eric pulled her legs up, holding her tightly, like routine, then without word, flew up in the night, leaving a desolate car park in their wake.

...

Arriving home, they were sat together in the bath, Pam leaning up against Eric's chest.

'How about we try again tomorrow night?' Eric suggested with his eyes closed contently. 'I don't know...' She said, causing Eric to open his eyes in concern. 'You didn't enjoy tonight?' He brushed his hands up and down her arms, resting his chin atop her head.

'I did, of course I did!' She exclaimed, then gathering her words again continued. 'It's just, I thought I was ready, I thought I was ready to be out and about again.' Eric listened intently.

'But you weren't?' Eric finished her sentence for her.

'I wasn't. I felt worn out come the intermission, I stumbled on the stairs, if it wasn't for Gordon I would have fell.' She confessed, 'And in all honesty, if you weren't there, I'm not sure how I'd cope on my own.' She whispered lamely.

Eric instantly pressed a kiss to her head, shaking his own in defiance. 'It's to be expected Pam, it takes time, we have to expect some repercussions emotionally from this. Think I proved that tonight huh.' He laughed and smiled when she chuckled in response.

'So now what?' She asked, turning slightly to look at him. 'We just take it slow, and we'll go at your own pace. You're not ready yet, fine, that's perfect for me, because in all honesty, I don't think I can handle you anywhere else but my arms at the moment.' He confessed seriously, and chuckled when she rolled her eyes at him.

'You big softie Eric Northman!' She chided, splashing a tad of water at him.

'Shut it or I'll drown you.' Pam's laughter filled the room, blissfully unaware that a few miles away, the brother of Frank Barretter was knee deep in the remains of the drainers shack, planning for revenge most sweet on Eric and his child.

Chapter twelve coming soon…