Eric lay stretched out on the bed watching me rifle through the closet in Pam's guest room. I'd finally conceded and taken my things out of the suitcases. Since we could never seem to actually meet with the realtor I supposed we were going to be living with Pam for awhile. It didn't seem to be bothering Eric particularly, which I thought was weird because I'd always been sort of under the impression that he valued his privacy. Well, whatever, I'd come to learn that Eric was really a take things as they come kind of guy. Not to say he didn't have a goal in mind, but he rolled with things.

Finally frustrated with my search for the perfect outfit to wear to s supernatural intervention he growled, "Just wear jeans and come back to bed."

I swung around to tell him that jeans were not always appropriate for every occasion and that turned out to be a big mistake because Pam's Laura Ashley top sheet was barely covering anything at all. He looked like he was posing for that damn calendar, although I doubt they would use a pink floral sheet as background. I felt my mouth go a little dry and tried to swallow as I swung back around to look in the closet again, "You did that on purpose," I mumbled into the closet.

He chuckled and rolled over onto his back – he was a beautiful, beautiful man and Lord help me, I loved it. "Why is the outfit so important again?" he asked the ceiling in a resigned voice.

I shrugged, "I've never been to a meeting like this – you know like a support group. I want to look like I fit in. I mean I'm going there to spy on them. I don't want to look obvious."

"Obvious?" he laughed. "You mean by showing everyone your telepathy rocks tattoo or wearing your I heart Vampires t-shirt."

I looked back at him and smiled, "Exactly. But just to be clear, I don't 'heart' vampires, I heart a vampire."

He rose from the bed and strode across the room in all his jaw dropping magnificence. Fortunately, it wasn't that big a room or I wouldn't have been able to contain the drool.

"Yes," he purred. "That Edward Cullen is the lucky one."

I rolled my eyes at him. The Twilight series, a group of historical romances aimed at teenage girls set in times before vampires had come out of the coffin, had caused a lot of problems with minors trying to get into Fangtasia. It was still an ongoing issue. Eric found these fictional vampires intensely irritating and enjoyed making fun of them whenever possible. It was sort of the same way he felt about Bill.

"Pfft," I laughed with him. "Why would I want some sparkly bunny eating vampire when I could have a bad ass Viking?"

"That is an excellent point, lover although I believe he ate mountain lions," he replied putting his arms around my waist and resting his chin on the top of my head as we both stared into my closet. There was a small pause as I thought of an avenue that this conversation could head down, mountain lion and tiger weren't too far apart, but I really didn't want it to take that direction.

"I can't believe you actually read those books," I laughed. It hadn't taken him long – Eric read way faster than I could ever hope to – but still it had been funny to see the books in his hand. I should have taken a picture, Pam would have loved it.

"Market research," he replied distractedly and then I heard him expel a large breath above me and say to himself, although obviously I could hear him, "This is such a bad idea."

Sparkly vampires forgotten, we were back to tomorrow's meeting and how much he didn't want me to attend it. I already knew this, it had been the main topic of the drive over here, well, that and all the things he was going to do to me when we got back to Pam's. But those things accomplished, he was back on the meeting topic. I turned and looked up at him. "Don't you think I can do it?"

He reached into the shelves on the closet and pulled out jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops and handed them to me. "I think you can do anything. I worry though when you do something like this and I can not be with you." He paused for a moment touching my hair and continued, "It's fine if you look uncomfortable. You are supposed to be uncomfortable with the way your life is turning out. You are dissatisfied in your soul." I nodded. Eric had spent centuries pretending to be something he wasn't, he was good at it.

"Amelia is attending with you?" he asked.

I nodded again, "A lot of people know about Amelia and Tray and how unhappy she's been. And you know, with me, I've always been real vocal about the telepathy be a pain in the rear."

He just stared at me. "I can not talk you out of this."

I shook my head emphatically no and really hoped that he wouldn't try because I knew that he probably could if he really wanted to. I was sort of scared and not too sure that I wanted to do it at all and he could be damn persuasive when he really set his mind to it.

He scooped me up Rhett-style and started moving toward the bed, "Do you think then that it might be possible for me to tire you out to the point that you oversleep?"

Oh yeah, I definitely thought that could be possible.

"What time is the meeting? One in the afternoon?" he asked jut to be clear on how tired he needed to make me.

Despite his efforts, and they had been impressive, I made it to the meeting on time. Of course, it had helped that Amelia had called me to tell me she was leaving Bon Temps. I looked down at the piece of paper Quinn had given me and looked up at the older, run-down looking church. It wasn't what I had expected. I'd been picturing one of the modern Fellowship of the Sun type halls with lots of glass and open space. This was just a beat-up old Baptist church and I'd been in plenty of those – nothing to be scared of there.

Quinn said that there was a back entrance that led into the basement. I didn't love that. Baptist churches might not hold much for me to be scared of, but back entrances usually led to nothing good. I looked at Amelia and she looked at me. Oddly, the whole scene felt out of whack to me. I was used to this kind of thing when I was in a junker of a car somehow looking at Amelia over the dash of my Mercedes didn't feel right. And the car really didn't fit in the neighborhood. I wondered what Eric would do if the car was stolen or vandalized?

Mostly, I was thinking these things to drown out Amelia; her brain was coming at me so loud I could barely hear myself. I wanted to tell her to shut the hell up, but from experience, that tended to freak people out. She was wondering if we were going to get killed or abducted? She was wondering why she had agreed to come along? She took a deep breath and said, "Sookie, I know you can hear what I'm thinking anyway so let's just get it out there. I'm scared to death to go in there. But I'm willing because Sam's a shifter and I can't let anything else happen to a man I love while I don't even try to do something to stop it."

I tried to tell her that she couldn't have done anything, but she just held up her hand. Besides, I'm sure lots of people had told her that. What did it really matter what people said, she was carrying that around with her forever.

"Even though I want to go in there. Want to help. I'm scared to death," she finished.

I took her hand in mine, "I know. Me too."

This had been a bad idea. And why the hell hadn't I overslept, I was exhausted that was for certain and probably walking funny to boot. I tried to think of something to say that would make her want to go inside, make either of us want to go inside, "You know," I began. "Sam is a real brave man. He would have come, if I'd asked, but I didn't want to him to be a target. But I know he would have. He does stuff like that all the time."

She nodded.

"Sometimes," I continued. "When I'm real scared, I feel for Eric and then its almost like he's with me and I don't feel so scared anymore."

She snorted a little and said, "That's the blood bond though. And you know that's not a shifter thing. Only vampires do that."

I shrugged at her and said quietly, "You can still feel Sam's courage though if you concentrate. That's not a blood bond thing. It's a love thing."

It took a moment but that seemed to penetrate her fear. We headed inside.

It looked like a standard church meeting inside – folding metal chairs set up in a circle and a table with coffee and doughnuts in the back - and I'd been to church meetings before, nothing new there. Amelia and I as if by mutual consent headed over to get coffee. It gave us something to do other than just standing there feeling awkward. It was one of the many reasons why coffee was a beautiful drink.

As we stood by the coffee, Quinn spotted me and crossed the floor to greet us. He looked way too pleased that I had come. He hugged me close, "I'm so glad you came."

I had to will myself not to pull away. I kept thinking about how I was going to stink of tiger when I got home and how annoyed Eric was going to be by that. But, we had agreed, Eric and I, that I was the best person to get the information, so I hugged Quinn back and tried to act like I was really happy to be there.

When we pulled apart I asked if he remembered Amelia. He gave her a nod and said he would introduce us around. As he led us from one person to another he said softly to me, "He let you come."

I wanted to tell him to go to hell. I hated his statement on so many levels –the idea that I was some sort of prisoner begging to go out or that Eric wouldn't let me do something that I wanted to do, well, I guess maybe that was the same thing, but it really pissed me off. Instead, I gave him a sideways glance and gestured toward the window, "It's day." I figured that covered all my bases.

Quinn laughed seeming really happy about my answer. "Well, that makes sense. If he had agreed to your coming he would have risen significantly in my estimation. You know, if he actually cared that you hate being a telepath."

It took everything I had not to smack him. How did he think he knew anything about what Eric cared about? And, I felt like I was betraying Eric by letting Quinn insult him. If Eric had been awake I could have thought about how much I loved him and it would have helped me handle this knowing that he could feel it. I knew that the role I was playing and that I should probably say something about vampires using me for my telepathy, but they hadn't recently and I just couldn't bring myself to say anything bad. I knew that was what Quinn wanted to hear, but instead I said, "Can we not talk about Eric."

Quinn nodded. He seemed pretty okay with that answer too. "Fine with me, babe. I'd be okay if we never had to mention him again." And then he was thinking about the time we'd had sex at my house and how great it had been. Ugh.

Fortunately, a woman caught his eye and he was steering me toward her. He wanted me to meet her. She was tall with stylish blonde hair. She was pretty although she looked sort of unfriendly. When we arrived next to her, she gave Quinn a huge smile and then looked at Amelia and I like we were something she needed to scrape off her shoe.

"Sookie, Amelia," Quinn said belatedly remembering my former roommate. "Let me introduce you to Madeline. She started this group and I have her to thank for saving me."

Madeline took me in like I was an exhibit at a museum. And then finally said, "So you are the Sheriff's human mistress. You certainly have caused a lot of fuss over the years." She looked at me as if expecting a response. I had no idea what I was supposed to say to that. Especially because the tone of her voice made it pretty clear that she couldn't understand what the fuss had been about. "And Quinn says you can read thoughts too," she said as an after-thought.

Again, since I couldn't figure out what to say I just let my manners take over, "Thank you for having me." And I smiled at her until my cheeks hurt.

She looked at me coldly, "We welcome all, but not all can be saved. I told this to Quinn when he spoke of bringing you in."

Well, okey-dokey then I was apparently not savable.

There was a little more socializing and then we took our seats. I'd never been to any kind of support group meeting, but I suppose it was like any other. People told their stories and their stories were sad. I try to be somewhat optimistic so I tried to think that it was great that they were all here getting the help they needed, and it was! But, there was a part of me that just ached for them. Ached for myself because I looked at these people and wondered if that's how I had been. Had I hated myself? Had I wished I could shut off a part of me that was a natural to me as breathing or having blonde hair? Had Eric kind of saved me from feeling that way by putting Sookie Stackhouse, barmaid in front of Sookie Stackhouse, telepath and then showing me that there was no difference between the two?

But before I could explore any of this too deeply, Amelia was on her feet. It took me a few minutes to absorb the shock of hearing her voice before I started to listen to her talking about Tray and all the pain that what had happened had caused her. She was also talking about how she was going to give up magic, but I could hear from her head that that part wasn't true. She just needed a reason to be talking. And the talking was helping her.

Well, if it was helping her to pour out her sad story then bringing her to this meeting was a blessing and for that it was worth it. I guess if I could help Amelia find her footing with Sam and really love him the way he deserved I would feel like maybe it would make up for all the pain she had suffered just because she knew me.

My mind was wandering, no longer listening to Amelia, but not wanting to seem overly interested in any of the people. I listened for a voice that might be trying to determine who its next victim might be, but mostly heard people thinking the usual array of thoughts. One guy was thinking that since Amelia was cool with dating Weres that maybe he'd ask her out, she was real pretty. A woman was making out her shopping list. Another woman was wondering if her sitter would clean up the playroom this time and wondering if coming to group was worth the mess she found every time she got home. Quinn was thinking that blue was a great color on me, but wondered if that t-shirt was free from Fangtasia. I had to stop myself before I glanced down at my t-shirt to see what it was.

And then I heard my name in my head, "Sookie. Can you hear me?"

I didn't look around but gave a slight nod to indicate that I was listening. "If you can hear me, cross your ankles." Huh, smart voice. I crossed my ankles

And then the voice thought an address and time over and over again. Well, alrighty then.

Amelia had sat back down and I realized everyone was looking at me. I was the only one that hadn't said anything yet. Oh crap.

"Sookie," Madeline said. "You could at least introduce yourself. After all, we've allowed you to listen to our very private heartaches."

I blushed hotly and thought savagely that she'd already introduced me. I looked at Madeline and thought how much I hated her for making these people feel that they had something to apologize for -- that they needed to be saved. It was wrong. I could hear around the room that a lot of the people here recognized me anyway, vampires had their own gossip magazines. Eric had won "Louisiana's Sexiest Vampire" a couple of times and we'd been in it a few times even before we'd run off. Now, we were probably in there every time they could get a picture, which was undoubtedly too infrequently to suit their tastes. I pulled a picture out of someone's head of us laughing in a restaurant in New Orleans and another one of us kissing outside Fangtasia so we'd been in there at least twice. And we'd only been back in Louisiana a couple of weeks.

I waved at the group, 'I'm Sookie. How y'all doing?"

A few people murmured back polite responses. I tried looking at Quinn for comfort, but found I couldn't stand it because he was looking at me so eagerly that I couldn't handle his puppy dog excitement, not when I knew I was about to stand up there and…well, if not exactly lie, certainly not tell everything I knew. That thought struck me and I could almost hear Eric, "What I tell you is true."

You could tell a lot of truth without being completely honest, couldn't you? Okay then, let's give that a try, "A lot of you know who I am."

People nodded and I continued, "I have an extra ability. It's made my life difficult and scary. It brought me into contact with the Supernatural world and that has changed me forever." People were really nodding now and I was warming to my subject, "I've been hurt. Sometimes it's been bad. And I supposed I'm lucky to be alive. I think that if something like this group had existed years ago, maybe it could have helped me through some pretty dark times. And I think that's all I want to say today."

I sat down firmly and was a little surprised when a few people clapped. Quinn looked proud as a new papa and it hurt me that he was going to be hurt by me again. And as I slunk down a little lower in my seat I thought, Oh Eric, you were right this was an awful idea.