Sookie

I had just gotten home from work when Eric called, clearly very upset. He had been fired from Paramount. I told him to come over and we'd talk about it. As I hung up, I realized that he hadn't been over to my apartment since regaining his memory. The few nights we had spent together were at his place, and I thought about how much I had missed him as I slept alone in my room almost every night since the old Eric had returned.

Eric came into the apartment very agitated and upset. He explained what had happened—that Felipe had insisted on adding a character to the film and wanted to schedule re-shoots and then essentially staged a takeover of the film when Eric wouldn't comply. Eric was pacing when his phone rang. It was Pam and I listened as he told her to stay with Felipe and assure him of her loyalty. No matter what happened to Eric, he didn't want her jeopardizing her own career.

After that call, Victor called, but Eric let it go to voice mail. He said he didn't want to talk to Victor right now. I was curious what Victor might have to say about all this, but I guess Eric wasn't. Within minutes, my phone rang as well, and yes, it was Victor. I answered it and told him that Eric was busy and couldn't talk. Eric stood and shook his head and then went back into my bedroom and closed the door. I spoke briefly to Victor about what had happened and told him that I'd tell Eric that he'd called.

I walked back to the bedroom and opened the door. Eric was sitting on the bed with his face in his hands. He looked up at me with shock on his face. "Sookie, sitting here on your bed, in your room…I remember everything."

I hit my knees and took his hands in mine. "Tell me."

"I don't know, maybe it's your scent in here, maybe it's the bed. I sat right here and said 'I'll never be happier than I am right now.' You were on the floor just like that."

"That's right sweetie." I could feel the tears coming. My Eric was back.

"Why didn't you tell me? We talked about getting married. You never told me." He was still holding my hand and his other hand was wiping my tears away and caressing my face.

"I don't know. It just seemed like you already had enough to handle."

"We were together every night. I never wanted to be apart. I wanted us to get married. God, Sookie, and since then I've hardly seen you. I'm so sorry, love. I had no idea. I must have hurt you and you didn't say a word. I'm so sorry, baby."

Before he had even finished that last sentence, he was pulling me up off of the floor and he crushed me to him in a passionate kiss. He turned and pushed me back onto the bed and was on top of me in a flash in a bone-crushing embrace. My own lust was overwhelming me as our hands frantically fumbled to remove our clothes. I heard the buttons ripping off of my blouse and then he hungrily sucked my breasts through the lace of my bra. I somehow wriggled out of my panties and pulled my skirt up to my waist. I cried out as his fingers roughly found me and plunged in. He kissed his way up my neck, sucking and biting and I vaguely thought that's going to leave a mark as I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and then pushed his pants and boxers down to his hips. He entered me with a loud grunt and we were both out of our minds as he pounded into me. It was frantic and wild, as if he couldn't get deep enough inside of me. His mouth found mine and we both moaned mindlessly in rhythm with each powerful thrust. I felt the tears streaming down the sides of my face and held him as tightly as I could as we both came hard, trembling and shuddering together. When he was still, I stroked his hair while his face was buried in my neck and I cried quietly at the joy of having my Eric back.

Eric

Sookie was on the phone with Victor when I went into her room and closed the door. I just wanted to be alone for a minute. I sat on the bed and suddenly my memories of her and this room flooded back to me. I closed my eyes and put my face in my hands and remembered everything—running down the street, staying at Sookie's apartment, discovering her in the shower, falling in love with her as if it was all new—because it was new to me at the time. Then I thought of that article about her and Victor and how upset I was and then Hallow shooting the gun, and I jumped in front of Sookie. Then I remembered being in the hospital and wondering why we weren't married. I wanted to be with her every minute of every day and we made love all day long some days and planned our future together. In just a minute, weeks of memories filled my mind and then Sookie came into the room.

I told her that I remembered and then realized how much it must have hurt her when I couldn't remember. She'd had a boyfriend who couldn't get enough of her every single minute and wanted nothing more that to spend the rest of his life with her, and then suddenly she got her old boyfriend back—the one who was work-obsessed and far less attentive. And yet, she'd never said a word to me. She sacrificed her own happiness so that I could pick up my old life with no regrets. Suddenly, I loved her more than I ever had and pulled her to me and we made love with a fevered urgency that consumed us both. I couldn't get enough of her once again.

Sookie

Over the next few days, Pam kept us informed about what was going on with the film. Felipe was moving forward with his new idea of re-shoots and casting Sigebert in the new role. But then Paramount pulled the plug on his plan and suddenly there was no money in the budget for the new scenes. Eric and I wondered what that would mean for the film. We were kind of waiting to see what happened before we called an attorney, but one way or another, Eric was going to get credit for his work. I promised him that.

A new piece of the puzzle emerged within days of learning that the re-shoots were cancelled. Felipe DeCastro was on the cover of every tabloid one morning and every headlined declared him gay and finally out of the closet. I had no idea what was going on but I became determined to find out.