Big, big thanks to FDM, my lovely beta. A big Happy Birthday to Meads, who is celebrating across the pond today!

Back in Sookie POV.

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Chapter 12

"What the hell are you two doing?" I yelled. Well, it was pretty obvious what they were doing, but that was the first thing that came out of my mouth.

Bill immediately stopped trying to punch Eric, but Eric didn't release his grip on Bill's neck. They were both looking at me like they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, but Eric's gaze had a lot of anger behind it. Not towards me, but towards Bill. What the hell did Bill do?

"Eric," I said sternly, "let him go." He reluctantly released Bill, and managed to shove him away at the same time.

"What happened?" I asked. Bill decided to speak first, which meant he was probably going to lie. I knew him too well.

"I just came over here to say hello and he attacked me!" Eric rolled his eyes.

"Bill, when have you ever exchanged pleasantries with the neighbors at night?"

"Okay, well maybe I didn't come to say hello, but he threw the first punch." I gave Eric a stunned look. He gave me a slight nod, letting me know that Bill was telling the truth.

"Why?" I asked. I saw Eric take a deep breath.

"He was saying some very…unkind things about you and it angered me," He said gently, and I knew he was holding back.

I could only imagine what 'unkind' things Bill could have said. He was never one to speak ill of me, even after we broke up, so I was taken aback. I gave Bill a hurt look, because that's exactly how I felt. I had cared about him once upon a time and I knew he had loved me. Judging by how angry Eric was I knew whatever he said must have been bad, and I simply didn't want to know.

Bill's head dropped slightly before he looked back up at me and said, "Sorry, Sook."

"Go home, Bill." I said, "Go home and leave us alone." It was a bit harsh, but it was how I felt. I would have to find some time to have a talk with him soon. As much as I disliked him at that moment, I didn't want to leave things bad between us. It hadn't worked so far.

Bill looked sad when I told him to leave and said nothing more. He turned around and walked back to his house. As soon as he was inside I looked at Eric. He was staring at me cautiously. It was like he was worried I was going to cry or lash out or something. I wasn't going to shed any tears over something stupid Bill had done though. I wasn't upset with Eric either. He shouldn't have resorted to physical violence, but I wasn't that mad at him for it.

I walked past Eric to his car and began getting my things. It wasn't likely that we were going to have sex now. I just wasn't in the mood anymore, so there wasn't any reason to wait on getting my things. Eric came over to help me carry everything in, and once we got it all in the house I sat down on the couch feeling a bit deflated.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked.

"I'm fine," I said, "I'm sorry you had to deal with him."

"Don't apologize, Sookie. He's not worth it."

"Did he hurt you?" I asked. Bill was punching him awful hard.

Eric laughed, "I think I'll be fine."

"Okay, tough guy," I smiled, "what now?"

He smirked at me, "Well I can tell you're not in the mood anymore."

I frowned, "And whose fault is that?"

"Bill's," he answered without hesitation. I couldn't help it, I cracked up. Eric laughed with me.

I looked around the room and noticed that he had an extensive movie collection. There was a very large flat screen T.V. mounted on the wall, and below it was a set of shelves filled with DVD's.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" I asked.

"Sure. You can pick it out. The first two shelves are organized by genre, and then by how much I like each one in that genre. Then the next two shelves are organized into my own special groups. They're mood grouped." He said with a chuckle.

"Mood grouped?" I asked as I got up to look them over.

"Yeah, like when I'm in a bad mood and want to be cheered up, I go for the group on the top left." I noted that those were mostly Simon Pegg movies and smiled to myself. I watched Simon Pegg when I was in a bad mood too. Spaced was a must and I was pleased to see that he had it. It also had Monty Python movies and The Princess Bride. "Top right is for when I'm in a really good mood, and I just want to mellow out." I ran my fingers over the cases, The Shawshank Redemption, Rear Window, Casablanca. "The entire contents of the next shelf down are movies to watch when I don't want to think," Those were all comedies. I think he had all of Mel Brooks' movies there. "Then the bottom shelf is all seasons of T.V. shows and mini series sets." He had all my favorites. Oh man, were we made for each other or what?

I pulled out Spaced because the whole thing with Bill was getting under my skin and I was still a little mad about it. Spaced always cheered me up. I showed Eric my selection and he grinned really wide.

"You put it in and I'll go make us some popcorn," he told me.

"Sounds good," I said, and went about figuring out his system. I didn't have a flat screen yet and I wasn't completely sure how to get everything going, but I figured it out soon enough. The picture quality was amazing. I was sitting on the couch trying to decide which episode to watch, when Eric came back in and sat next to me with a big bowl of popcorn. I picked an episode and set the remote aside. Eric put his arm around me and I got as close to him as I could.

We ate the whole bowl of popcorn within two episodes and I promptly fell asleep on the third. I woke up some time later and the DVD screensaver was playing. I shifted a bit and felt Eric tighten his grip on me.

"Eric," I whispered and looked up at him. He was asleep, and my god was he beautiful. I don't think I'd ever seen anything as beautiful as this man when he was asleep. I hated to wake him up, but we couldn't sleep out on the couch all night. I gently ran my thumb across his cheekbone and said his name again.

His eyes opened slightly and said, "Hi," with a little rasp in his voice and smiled.

"Hey," I smiled back, "We need to go to bed. We fell asleep on the couch."

"But I'm comfortable," he replied. He was like a little kid, and it was adorable.

"Do you really want back issues tomorrow?" I asked.

"No," he laughed, "I'll just let Ansel out again and then I'll be back there."

"Okay," I said and kissed him lightly on the cheek. I pulled myself away from him, and made my way back to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When I went back to the bedroom I heard him come in with Ansel.

I crawled under the covers and waited for Eric. I listened to his footsteps coming down the hall, and my heart sped up and I felt the butterflies again. I needed to get a grip. He walked in the room and stopped when he saw me in the bed. There was a fleeting emotion that I couldn't recognize on his face, and then he shook his head slightly and went to retrieve his clothes. He took them with him to the bathroom, so I slid down in the bed and rested my head on the pillow. I closed my eyes and tried to let everything from the day that was bothering me slip away, so that I could rest. The stuff with Sam was really worrying me. I promised myself to go see him tomorrow and ask him what his problem with Eric was. I still felt weird about it though. Then there was Bill. Just thinking about it ticked me off and I started getting angry again. I may have thought some rather unkind things about Bill, but I never spoke badly about him to others. That he spoke ill of me at all, let alone to Eric, just pissed me off.

I heard the bathroom door open, and tried to calm myself down. I didn't need to push my worries off on Eric. He walked in the room wearing nothing but his flannel pajama pants. I forgot to breathe when I took in his body. He wasn't wearing a shirt tonight. I had suspected that he put that on for my benefit last night. His skin was slightly golden, but not tan. He had a very toned upper body that made me want to drool. It was just the right amount of muscle. Too much muscle was a turn-off for me. Eric was perfect. I saw him develop a quite smug look on his face, and realized that I was ogling him with my mouth open. I snapped my jaw shut, as my face got red with embarrassment. He turned off the light, then climbed in bed and snuggled up with me. As soon as we were touching, I felt all my worries about Sam and Bill fall away. None of it mattered. I was with Eric, the man of my dreams, and at that moment I couldn't have been happier.

When I woke the next morning we were still tangled up in each other. I snuggled with him for a while, until my bladder won out and I reluctantly got up to use the bathroom. I came back with an empty bladder and fresh breath, and climbed back into bed. I fell asleep again and woke up about an hour later. Eric was still asleep. As the grogginess subsided, my brain kicked into gear and I remembered what I had planned to do today. That would definitely mean no showering with Eric, or I'd never leave the house. I was about to get up to go take one, when I remembered how Eric had reacted yesterday to me not being there. I didn't want to put him through any part of that again so I tried to wake him up a bit.

"Eric," I whispered in his ear, "Eric, can you wake up?"

He murmured something and shifted slightly but did nothing more so I kissed his lips softly. That did the trick. He opened his eyes a little.

"Eric, you don't have to get up, but I'm going to go take a shower, okay?" I said.

He nodded slightly, closed his eyes with a smile, and rolled over. I chuckled faintly and got out of bed. I went to the bathroom and took another very unsatisfying shower, which definitely gave me some incentive to get this talk with Sam over with. I couldn't shower without Eric again.

I got dressed and dried my hair and when I stepped out of the bathroom I knew that Eric was up. I could smell something cooking. I walked out to the kitchen and patted Ansel on the head on my way past him. Eric was standing in front of the stove, and he was already dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a blue and black long sleeved flannel button up shirt. His messy hair was pulled back into a knot at the base of his neck. He heard me come into the kitchen and turned around to smile at me.

"Good morning, beautiful." He said.

"Morning," I replied, feeling a slight blush creep into my cheeks, "what are you making?"

"Homemade waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, and bacon on the side." Now that just sounded amazing.

"It smells delicious." I said as I sat on a stool at the island, watching him cook.

"Just wait until you try them. The waffles are from my mom's recipe. She used to make them all the time when we were kids." Eric hadn't ever really talked about his childhood. He always seemed to close off when it came up.

"How many siblings do you have?" I asked hoping he wouldn't close off again.

"Just a younger sister, Pam," he said, then turned around with a plate and set it in front of me. "Dig in," he said, and I knew that was all he was willing to share for the moment.

Everything looked delicious. He had arranged the sliced strawberries perfectly on the giant waffle. It was so sexy to me that he could do that. I took a bite of the waffle and moaned it was so good. It was perfectly crisp on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside. I was about halfway done when he came to sit next to me with his plate.

Despite me being halfway done already we finished at the same time. He took my plate again, refusing to let me help him clean up, but I did anyway. It felt so nice being in this kitchen side by side with Eric, doing dishes and putting things away. I felt so at home, and I didn't think it was just because I was literally home. I was beginning to think that Eric was home to me.

We finished with the clean up and Eric asked me if I had anything planned for today.

"I want to go see Sam," I said and watched as his smile faded away and he looked down slightly. "You don't have to go with me."

His head snapped up, "You don't want me to go?"

"Of course I want you to go," I said. "I just don't want you to feel like you have to. I can tell you two don't like each other."

"I'll go with you." He said firmly. I wondered if it was his way of showing me that he would be with me through thick and thin, no matter how uncomfortable the situation was for him, or if he just wanted to keep an eye on what was going on. I preferred to think the former was the real reason.

"Okay, we should stop in for lunch and I can talk to him then." I said. Eric looked a little apprehensive then nodded his head in agreement. "But for now, would you like to go for a walk with me. I want to go to the cemetery to put flowers on Pat's grave." He offered me a warm smile and said, "Sure."

We got our shoes on and grabbed our jackets, and then we were out the door. When we stepped outside I told Eric to hang on for a second and went over to the side of the house. There used to be some flowers over there that bloomed for a couple of days at the beginning of spring and I was pleased to see they were still there. I picked them, and went back to Eric and took his hand in mine.

As we walked I told Eric some of my childhood memories from certain areas in town. I pointed out where I wrecked my bike, and showed him the nasty scar on my knee that I received from it. I showed him the spot where I fell in a ditch while playing and cut my arm on a drainpipe. It felt good to share those things with him, no matter how insignificant they were. When we walked past the City Hall and Post Office I got a couple of strange looks from people. I didn't know if they were recognizing me, or if it was Eric that was getting the looks. He didn't really seem like the type that would socialize with the people in this town. The weird looks reminded me of the look Sam had given him.

"Eric?" I asked tentatively. I didn't want to push him.

"Hmm?"

"Is there anything you think you should tell me before I talk to Sam?" I could see him tense up.

"Sookie, I don't even know if what Sam is going to tell you is the same thing I think he's going to tell you."

"But do you think there's anything that he could to tell me that I might be upset about because I'm hearing it from him and not you?" I wanted Eric to be able to tell me anything and if Sam was going to tell me something bad, I wanted to hear if from Eric first.

"Yes, but I don't want you to think less of me." What could Eric have done to make me think less of him?

I stopped walking and turned to look him right in the eyes. He looked apprehensive and vulnerable. "You can trust me with anything, Eric."

"Okay," he said and we started walking again. "Not long after I moved here I started going into Sam's bar a few nights a week. I felt like something was missing, like there was a hole that I needed to fill with something. I chose to fill up that hole with alcohol and women." Now it was my turn to tense up. I didn't want to think about Eric with other women. He continued. "Sookie, none of them meant anything to me and I'm ashamed that I was like that, but I'm not anymore. I haven't been to Sam's bar or any other bar in four months. I was getting restless with that lifestyle the same way I did before I left New York, and I didn't want to leave here because I loved it, so I stopped. Then I started having the dreams." He stopped walking and looked me in the eyes. "Sookie, in the two days that you've been here you've made me feel whole again. I don't want my past behavior to ruin what we have."

I thought that over for a second. I would have been fooling myself if I tried to think that Eric hadn't had many sexual partners. A man as gorgeous as him, around here? Forget about it. I'm surprised he didn't have to fight them off. How could I find fault in him for having a sexual history? Everyone does. I may have only been with two men, but it easily could have been more. At least I couldn't put a face on these women. Eric knew one of the men I had been with, and he lived across the street. What must that do to him? When it came down to it, it just didn't matter to me. I looked into his eyes and noticed that he looked really nervous. I was taking too long to answer. I threw my arms around his torso and hugged him tight. I think I surprised him because it took him a second to wrap his arms around me. I held onto him for a minute, then pulled back and looked him in the eyes again.

"It doesn't ruin anything for me." I said honestly. He relaxed and hugged me to him.

"Thank you," he whispered in my ear. He held me for a minute, and then we continued our walk to the cemetery.

When we got there I headed to the back corner where Pat's grave was, but I didn't see a headstone. I was instantly pissed off. Instead of a headstone there was a small grave marker that had sunk into the ground a bit. It was so covered with mud and weeds that you couldn't even read the name. Her family was supposed to get one years ago. People even donated money so that they could buy her one. They probably took the money when they moved away.

I dropped to my knees and set the flowers to the side as I began pulling at the grown over weeds, but they were tight and covered in mud so I couldn't get a grip on them. My eyes welled up with tears as I kept trying to clear it. I felt like I had abandoned her. Her family certainly did. All that was left for anyone to know of her was this pathetic little grave marker, and it was covered in mud and weeds. As the tears began to fall I felt Eric get on his knees beside me. I watched as his hands came into my view and began pulling the weeds away from the marker. He cleared them easily, and helped me wipe the mud away until you could read her name clearly. I was so grateful that I had him there with me.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"I'll just wait by the entrance," he said, then kissed my temple and got up.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her. I wanted to tell her what I'd been doing for the last five years. I wanted to tell her that I was living my dream, and that I had found the man of my dreams. I wanted to tell her that her father was still in prison, and that he would never be able to hurt anyone again. Mostly I wanted to tell her that I was okay, that I was happy. That's what she would have wanted to know, and somehow I felt that she did. My Gran used to tell me that those who love us never really leave, and I was beginning to think she was right. I liked the idea that Pat was still around, watching over me. I looked back at Eric standing by the entrance patiently and stood up. I looked at the marker again.

"I'll get you a good one Pat, I promise."

I walked back to Eric, and when he saw me coming he smiled warmly and held out his hand for me to take. I put my muddy hand in his and we walked home.

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Okay, I swear that was originally supposed to be much longer. It was going to go all the way into their trip to see Sam, but when I typed that last sentence I just felt like I should end it there. *facepalm* This is what happens when you write organically.

I promise the nookie is soon! Probably not the next chapter, but I swear it's soon!

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing!

I'm going to go make some banana bread now, yurms...