Author's Note: Hey Everyone! First I want to say thank you to all the new followers, people who have fovorited, and alerted. Seriously, it makes me so happy whenever I get the notifications! I Hope that this chapter is enjoyed by all of you. On another note, at the bottom of this chapter I will explain something from this chapter, I don't want to do it here because it would spoil it (: Thanks for reading! As always, Read/Enjoy/Review!


Chapter 12: Safe And Sound

"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down, you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now, come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."-Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars.

Silence.

Sweet, warm, and calming silence.

If I knew dying was going to be like this, I would have stopped being scared a long time ago. A nagging pain in my right arm though tells me that I'm not in fact dead, either that or all of the things I was told about death was completely wrong.

"When will she wake up?" a distant voice trickles through and I can almost smile knowing that voice anywhere.

Payton.

"She lost nearly three quarters of her blood volume…" the other voice slides away. I don't want to hear the rest. Don't need to know what else is being said, I just want to sleep.

Falling away, that's how it feels, as I tumble into the odd mixture of light and dark, strangely being pulled in two directions, and I'm willing to go wherever I'm most warmly embraced.

I'm thrust from sleep, eyes flashing open as the images of my blood filled dreams start slowly fading away. The hospital room is quiet except for the eerie sound of machines humming and beeping. My entire body is stiff and achy. From my toes to my head, it all hurts.

The tube shoved down my throat is just icing to my cake. I gag on it, trying to push it out but it doesn't budge, not even the slightest bit.

"Madi?" Payton's quiet voice rolls through the room and I look up finding her disheveled, eyes rimmed red and shadowed by apparent lack of sleep. I try to talk but can't and I give a frustrated groan that sounds more like a wet gurgle, "It's okay, stay calm, you're okay."

Okay? I'm okay? Somehow I don't think that my current state means that I'm okay. I know that I'm alive and that at least is something.

I think.

My heart shutters a little, aching in my chest when I see the tears sliding down her cheek as she takes my hand and I squeeze trying to reassure her that despite what I must look like in this moment that everything is going to be alright.

"You had us so scared Madi, we thought…." Her voice trails off as she shakes her head before dropping it down so that her face is hidden in the linen of the hospital bed, "We thought you were going to die."

Didn't I though? Didn't I die? That's what it felt like. For one sweet moment I was no longer attached to my body, instead I was floating happily away from all of it. From the pain, the worry, the anguish that has become my life, and instead of being allowed to continue my journey to the beyond, or wherever the hell it is that's waiting out there for us after our lives are done, I was pulled back.

Then it hits me, like the weight of the world falling squarely on my shoulders just how unfair it all is, unfair that I was denied a reprieve from my mortal life, denied the sweet escape of death. I feel the tears stinging the back of my eyes and before I know it they slide hotly down my cheeks.

I feel my hands balling tightly into fists on the bed, and my body moves without me really wanting it too, and I realize I'm fighting. I'm fighting the fact that I'm alive.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Payton's voice is hoarse and full of panic as she shoves out of the chair and flies to the door of the hospital room, and in what seems like just a split second of time I'm surrounded by doctors and nurses in pristine scrubs and serious looks, and with the prick of a needle my world fades away and the darkness once again embraces me.

XXX

"You shouldn't be here…." A quiet voice drifts across me, and I open my eyes slowly, finding myself lying under the hanging branches of a weeping willow tree. Patches of clear blue sky peeking through and I smile as I curl my toes and fingers into lush green grass. I turn my head slowly and find a most welcoming face staring back at me.

"Momma?" I ask sitting up slowly and her laugh is light and easy, dancing on the air around me.

"Madi, you have to go back," her voice is serious and stern and just as full of motherly authority as I remember it having.

"Why? Why can't I just stay? I can stay with you, here. Where's Daddy?" I ask, and she shakes her head at me sadly, "Momma?"

"He isn't here. He's moved on already. He didn't have anything left to do, and I miss him so, but I'll be with him soon. You however, still have time left, and you aren't supposed to be here."

"I don't understand. Mom, my life is so messed up…"

"I know it is my baby, but it will get better. It'll get a lot worse first," she says her voice ripe with pain.

"Worse?" I demand, standing up quickly, "How can it possibly get worse?"

"You carry a worlds worth of burden in you, and it will depend on you…"

"What will depend on me?"

"Lives, my baby, so many lives will depend on you. Payton's, Sookie's, Bill's….Eric's…" My heart catches at the mention of his name, and with a knowing smile on her lips she reaches a hand out to me, brushing fingers I always thought were beautiful and elegant down my cheek and I see the shimmer of tears in her eyes, "You love him."

"I don't," I counter, stubbornly turning my face away from her, and she tenderly takes my face between her hands, her soft, soft hands, and turns me to look at her.

"You do. You're stubborn, and scared, but you do, even if you aren't willing to admit it yet. You have to go back now My Baby," she says and I hug her tight. Breathing her in, willing her scent, and her feel to memory, "He's a hard man Madi, but you hold the key to what he is capable of becoming. I love you My Baby, and I'm always watching you. Always…."

XXX

"Mom…"I jolt awake, blinking sluggish eyes around the room. It's different. Different then the first room I woke in. Instead of the sterile smell of hospital, the air has the light scent of roses, and lavender. I turn my head, find that I'm definitely not in a hospital, and if I am, then it has to be, hands down, the nicest hospital I have ever seen.

"Morning," a deep voice rolls through the room, calling my attention away from the mini mountain of flowers decorating the window sill, and find Bill standing by the door, arms crossed over his chest.

"Time is it?" the words come out slightly slurred and I realize my mouth feels like it is full of cotton as I try to sit up.

"Hang on, let me help you," Bill says lightly, and in a blink of an eye he is by my side, helping me sit up, "You must be thirsty."

"Very," I say, finding that the small act of sitting up has left me winded, "Where am I?"

"Your safe," he assures me, and I feel like he's holding something back from me, but I decide not to push him as he holds in his hand a glass of water, and my I desperately want it, "Here, small sips." I take the glass from his hand and drink slowly, reveling as the cool liquid slides down my throat, quenching my thirst, "Eric should be here soon."

"Why?" I ask my eyes searching his face and he smiles, a soft kind smile as he sets my empty glass on the counter by the bed.

"It's his shift."

"His shift?" I ask biting back a laugh, "What am I a nine to five?"

"More like a dusk to dawn." I laugh. Loudly and freely. Bill Compton has one hell of a sense of humor.

"Don't you have your own human to entertain Bill?" that voice, that sweet sarcastic voice I thought I would never hear again, and swore I wouldn't miss fills the room and I find Eric standing in the door, a dark look on his face.

"I was merely keeping your guest entertained Eric," Bill spits back at him, and in a most unsettling movement Bill hugs me, lightly and delicately, before leaving the room.

We stare at each other, measuring each other, and before I can open my mouth Eric's across the room, his lips crushing down on mine, one hand cupping my face the other tightly wrapped around the back of my neck, and rather than trying to shove him away I find myself returning the kiss, feverishly.

"You. Are. Mine," Eric's words are hard and punctuated with kisses between them, before he rests his forehead against mine, "Do you understand the danger you put yourself in? What were you thinking leaving Fangtasia?"

"I don't know…" I answer truthfully, and when he pulls away enough to be sitting on the edge of the bed, I really look at him. He looks tired. Like he hasn't been sleeping, or eating. As impossible as it is, he looks as if he's aged.

"I should put you on a leash," he mumbles and I roll my eyes to the ceiling shaking my head.

"That won't be necessary."

"Good, then you should know I've made the arrangements for you to move into my house." It takes a moment, just a moment, for his words spoken so nonchalantly to sink in.

"Absolutely not," I stammer but he holds a hand up effectively quieting me.

"It's not up for discussion Madilyn," he all but growls at me, "It's the only way I can be sure you'll stay put and stay safe."

"I'm not yours to order around Eric!" I scream out, wincing when my throat protests and begins burning.

"You are!" he rages, flying around the room, pacing madly, "When are you going to get it through your thick skull that you are mine! You were mine before you were born! You were promised to me!"

"What?" I say, trying to process the words that just came out of his mouth, and I watch as he realizes what he just said, and as quickly as he was in the room, he's gone. Leaving me to stare after him and try to keep up with the swirling thoughts in my head.


Author's Note 2: So the twist at the end, with Eric telling Madi that she was promised to him before she was born, was an idea I had come up with before even beginning the current season. I just thought it was funny that Sookie found out in the current season that she was promised or "sold" in her words to Warlow lol. Complete coincedence I promise lol. Okay enough of my ramblings! Remember, review, pretty please with Sugar on top?!