So just lay your head down low
Don't let anybody know
That it's hard to live, it's hard to live
In the city.

SPOV

I allowed myself to be pulled into Eric's hug and just relaxed in his embrace. He smelled just like he did when we were teenagers, warm, comforting, and as I closed my eyes, I could almost believe we were back in happier times.

But I forced myself to break his hold by reminding myself that I had important things to do. I had to take care of Eric. From this moment forward, his wellbeing would be my main focus and my one goal while I was in California.

With that in mind, I turned on my heel and into his kitchen, and began rummaging through his cabinets. Bill had told me about how they'd poured his last bottle of alcohol down the sink, but clearly he'd restocked.

Eric watched in silence as I opened up the bottles and poured every last drop down the drain. It wasn't until I was finished and staring at my work with a satisfied expression that he spoke.

"You know that was 3000 dollars of alcohol you just poured down the drain?"

"I'll pay you back," I replied coolly, though inwardly I was astounded that he paid so much for booze, and wondering where the hell I was going to get 3000 dollars.

"No you won't," He retorted immediately, and cut me off when I opened my mouth to protest- though I will admit it would've been halfhearted at best. "I'm serious Sookie, it's better that it's down that drain, then down my throat. Thank you." As he thanked me, his eyes seared into my own, and I swear my heart skipped a beat.

I gulped, and looked away quickly trying to hide my blush. "It's nothing," I mumbled, and he chuckled at me, which made me glare at him in mock anger. "That's enough out of you! Now grab your coat and your keys, we're going out."

I marched back into the living room to grab my own jacket, but then realized he wasn't following me, and hadn't moved even a step. "What?"

He stared at me with a strange expression on his face. "Have you forgotten so soon?" At the puzzled expression on my face, he elaborated. "The paparazzi."

I smirked at him, and grabbed his hand, tugging him along with me to the front door, barely giving him enough time to grab his jacket and keys before we left, me still dragging him along. "Don't worry; it's all part of the master plan."

I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he asked, "Should I be worried?"

I whirled around and gave him a fake pout, and battered my lashes prettily. "Don't you trust me?"

He gave me another searing stare that had me melting. "With my life."

I suddenly felt tears prick at my eyes, and had to swallow past the lump that had formed in my throat. It was harder than I expected to be around Eric and pretend nothing had ever happened. Maybe this was a mistake. I shrugged off the feeling and instead focused once more on my mission of getting Eric back to who he was. "Well, if you trust me that much, don't you trust me to know what I'm doing?"

He laughed long and hard, and I got the feeling that he didn't laugh like that much anymore. "Sookie, half the time I'm not sure you know what you're doing." He spoke as if there was never six years of separation between us, and once more I got the feeling that this was all a mistake, but then he grabbed my hand, and we were running, down the stairs, out the building and into his car, and I forgot all about it as the flashes from the paparazzo's cameras began blinding me.

We began to laugh hysterically as soon as our butts hit the leather seats of his corvette. "Sweet ride," I said appreciatively, running my hand along the dash admiring its sheen.

"Thank you. So where to milady?" He asked, inserting the key into the ignition and gunning the engine playfully and flashing me his patented panty-dropping grin. Outside the paparazzi were going crazy, plastered up against the car, their flashes lighting up the interior like we were inside of a rave.

Eric rolled his eyes at the commotion and then backed up slowly, giving the vultures outside plenty of time to scramble away and into their own vehicles. I shot him a questioning gaze, and he replied, never taking his eyes off the road, "They're going to tail us." I must have looked alarmed, because he quickly elaborated, "Nothing too serious, just follow us to see where we're going, and take more photos." He shot me a quick glance before focusing on the road once more. "By the way, where are we going?"

"Downtown," I replied easily, looking out the window and enjoying all the sights of L.A. Eric nodded at my command, and turned onto the freeway. I may not know the city, but I knew cities in general, and I knew what I was looking for, and I knew I would find it downtown.

As luck would have it, awful L.A traffic caused us to lose the paparazzi and get to our destination easily ten minutes ahead of them, giving me just enough time to hammer home my point to Eric. He parallel parked with ease, with me watching jealously, as that is a skill I've never perfected; and then inserted money into the parking meter.

The moment he stepped out of the car, people were starting and whispering, and camera phones were whipped out like dollar bills in a strip joint. He donned a beat up baseball cap that I faintly remember me giving to him one year on his birthday, and a pair of sunglasses. I rolled my eyes at his attempt to be incognito. "Of course, now they'll never know it's you."

He chuckled and replied easily, "You never know, people are especially gullible. But past that, what are we doing here? Is there a point to this field trip, or did you just want to see the sights, because I can guarantee I know a lot more places more interesting than this."

"I'm sure you do, but there is a purpose, but we can just go back to your apartment, and then I can go to the airport and catch the next flight to Louisiana. I can, if you're already tired of my company…."

"No!" He shouted, startling me. He seemed to notice that, as he immediately lowered his voice. "No, don't go, I'm sorry, it's just been a while since I've been out and about."

I grabbed his hand and shook my head sadly. "That my friend, is extremely pathetic." I began walking along with him, basking in the gorgeous California weather, and wondering how anyone could stay inside on a day like this.

As we got deeper and deeper into downtown L.A, my reason for coming here began popping up more and more on every street corner.

Musicians.

They were all there, guitarists, harmonica players, fiddlers, I even saw one guy playing an accordion with a lot of gusto, while across the street, a man with a bag pipe eyed him warily. I guess he didn't like a guy with an equally annoying-sounding instrument encroaching on his territory.

I pulled Eric to a stop in front of a guy who was doing a phenomenal cover of Tom Petty's 'Into the Great Wide Open', one of my favorite songs, strumming on an old beat up guitar. "Give me some money," I said to Eric, not taking my eyes off the musician in front of me.

I heard him sigh in exasperation, and him mutter, "Bleeding heart," which I ignored, but he yanked out his wallet and handed me a twenty which I immediately put in the man's guitar case to which he nodded me a thanks.

"You know he's probably just going to go out and buy heroin with that, right?" Eric asked me the moment we were out of hearing distance. I yanked him to a stop and glared at him. "What?" He asked defensively.

"Would you just stop?" I snapped at him.

"Stop what?"

"Stop with the negativity! Stop the poor you crap! I get that you've been feeling depressed and run down, and just plain lost, but would you stop with the pity party?" Eric looked down at me in shock, and even with a little bit of hurt in his eyes, but I was too angry to care. "What you've been going through is horrible, it's true, but would you look around?" I gestured at the sprawling city that surrounded us, with the giant 'Hollywood' sign barely visible in the distance through the smog. "You are in the city of dreams, of angels. Look around you; do you see all these people who want what you have? They are all looking for their big break, hoping to be discovered, but half of them would just be happy to have a roof over their heads! But you, Mr. Sexiest Rock Star, Mr. Grammy Winner, is too caught up with how superficial his life is? Grow up Eric Northman, and get over yourself!"

In the middle of my speech, he had dropped my hand and stepped away from me, looking at me with such pain in his eyes that my heart literally ached at the sight, but I still felt it was something he needed to hear.

"Eric, I'm not going to apologize—."

He cut me off. "I don't want you to. I deserved that." I looked at him disbelievingly, and he offered me a small smile. Not his usual stunner, but I could tell it was genuine, and not forced. He held out his hand to me, and I took it.

I leaned into his body and looked up at him. "We can go now if you want; we still have other things to do and times a-wasting'."

He smirked down at me, and in silence we walked back to his car which was once again barely visible through all of the paparazzi, and as we neared it I heard shouts of "There they are, get the shot!"

Eric pulled me in close to his body and bowed his head to the lights, and I did the same as they kept taking photos of us and screaming questions specifically at me. We finally made it to the car, and instead of having me walk around to the passenger side door, Eric just gently shoved me into the driver's side and I gingerly climbed over the gear shift.

The moment he was in, he started the car and revved the engine loudly and amazingly all the paparazzi back off. As soon as they were clear Eric hit the gas and I don't think he stepped off of it for at least ten miles. I guess when you're a celebrity you don't have to worry about speeding tickets.

"So where to next, oh wise one?" He asked me with a wry smile on his face.

"Let's just drive around for a little. I'll tell you when to stop." I rolled down the window and laid my head down on the door, basking in the sun and the wind whipping my hair around. It was fantastic and hard to imagine how anyone could be unhappy with this kind of weather all year round. "Why don't you have a convertible? You live in California for God's sake!" I admonished him without ever lifting my head or even opening my eyes.

I heard him chuckle as he responded by saying, "Come back to me in twenty years, I'll have hit my mid life crisis by then."

So we just cruised around, not talking much, just soaking in each other's presence. It wasn't until I was finally back in Eric's company that I realized just how much I'd missed it. Before he'd left Bon Temps for good, even through our bad times, Eric and I were practically inseparable. And then one day I woke up, and he was gone, and I was like and addict going through withdrawal symptoms.

But now, I'd been away from the drug for so long that I could remember the jitters, the crashes, and those were enough to have me swearing off the drug also known as Eric Northman.

"So are we ever going to find what you're looking for? I'm beginning to think you've just been baiting me this whole time, and when we get back to my apartment there's going to be a surprise party for me."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't flatter yourself buddy."

"Buddy?" Was that my imagination, or did he truly sound offended by the term?

"There, pull over there." I gestured to my chosen destination and internally giggled at his confused expression and furrowed eyebrows. I guess he was expecting something a little more high brow than the tiny little park I'd chosen.

"A park."

"Yup."

"I drove around for over two hours so we could come to a park?"

I sighed and flopped back into my seat exasperated. "Fine. We can leave."

He was up and out of the car, and opening my door before I could blink. He held his hand out to me invitingly. "No, don't do me any favors Northman."

"It's not a favor Stackhouse, I want to stay." I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, but as he stood there looking earnest and waggling his fingers at me, I reluctantly took his hand.

I noticed that even as we walked away from the car, he still didn't drop my hand. We walked through the small area, through the bright green grass, under tall oak trees, and past little kids playing random games, still lightly holding hands.

There was nothing romantic about it. It was just one friend innocently taking comfort in that of another friend.

Eventually we stopped and sat under a gorgeous oak tree on a quaint little wooden bench. "This is nice," I said appreciatively, and Eric just hummed in agreement.

"So Stackhouse, care to divulge the hidden meaning in our location?" He asked, stretching out on the bench easily, his long legs splayed in front of him, and his arms stretched out on the back of the bench, giving me a nice little pillow to rest my head on.

"It's your slice of Louisiana." I replied, sitting up on my knees and looking him dead in the eye.

"It's what?"

"A little slice of Louisiana." I looked around the tiny park and snorted. "Very little." At his puzzled expression I explained. "You said that you missed the green grass of Louisiana, and the hills, and so whenever you feel like the city life is just overwhelming you, I want you to come here. Just relax in the peacefulness of it all." However right as I said that, a hoard of the paparazzi came swarming in out of nowhere completely shattering our happy little moment. We looked at each other and just burst out laughing.

Wiping tears from his eyes, he stood and helped me to my feet. "Ready to run?" He asked.

"Wait. There's something else I want to say. Turn around, look at all these people around us, taking photos, trying to find out what's going on with you. They wouldn't be doing this if you weren't popular, and you're popular because people out there care about you. They care about what you're doing in life, what music you're making, if the girl you're dating is good enough for you, they care. Don't you think they'd be saddened upon hearing of the death of the Great Eric Northman?"

He brought his hand up to my face and gently brushed hair out of my eyes. "And what about you, the Wonderful Sookie Stackhouse? Would you be saddened to hear of my death?"

In that moment, there could've been no photographers, no screaming fans, no eager reporters, because in that moment, there weren't. Because when I looked in Eric's eyes it was just he and I.

"I would be devastated," I whispered, and then took his hand and let him lead me through the chaos.

A/N: many apologies and many thanks to be had! First off, my apologies for taking so long to update, I can honestly say I did not realize how much time had passed, between work, school, and moving back into my parent's house. This leads into my thank yous. I want to say thanks to all of you for still reviewing, and for PMing so much. But for more than that, for leaving me polite reviews and PMs. The respect and consideration you guys gave me were heartwarming and made it easier for me to write this chapter, just thinking about all of you.

Shameless self pimping ahead: Follow me on twitter! My name there is my name here. Look out for a contest I'm hosting with Aredheadthing soon! It should be up in a couple of days, link will be on my profile. I have recently posted a smutty one shot entitled Hey, Batter Batter!

Heist will be wrapping up in the epilogue coming out soon, and so I have began writing a new AH story. If you would like to get little hints and sneak previews about what it could be about, the link will be on my profile. Or, just go right now to www(dot)talesfromohfortuneslost(dot)tumblr(dot)com. Just replace the (dot) with actual dots.

Thanks for reading!

The Playlist
Hard to Live (In the City) -Albert Hammond Jr.