(A/N: I've been called a sadist for the things I do to my characters. This chapter was written at the muse's request that her character "suffer more". I guess that makes her a masochist. What can I say? Misery loves company. Hope you all in enjoy.)

I Promise

The wound at Lucy's middle burned and ached. It had closed up on the outside but the silver was already circulating in her veins. She felt dizzy and weak. Lights and faces swirled around her as she was carried from the car to a bed. By the time her head hit the pillow her body told her that it was near sunrise. She fell into a feverish, restless sleep.

Time flew by in an endless parade of light and sound and pain. In her light-tight room Lucy lost track of night and day. Some times she felt arms around her and smelled someone of her own blood lying next to her. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. Had they made it in time to save Penny? Was she really their beside her? Was she in a safe place with friends or was she in the clutches of the fellowship herself?

When she finally woke the moon was shining in her window. It was almost full. It had just reached its half on the night they infiltrated the fellowship church. Her body had not changed in that time. She'd woken to the same burning, the same pain. It had spread over her entire midsection, up into her chest. The poison was spreading. She felt someone holding her hand and opened her eyes to see it was Penny. The child sat quietly as a ballet of people moved around her.

"Pen," she whispered.

"I'm here mommy."

"Where are we? How long have I been asleep?"

"We're at a safe house, Eric and the Queen brought us here so the fellowship couldn't find us. We've been here three days."

"What's going on," she said weakly.

"Shhhh," Penny said. "You need to rest. You're sick, silver poisoning. They're gonna make you better."

"They who?"

"Other vampires," Penny said, "and a few others who aren't human but aren't vampires. Weres, I think. They said they have to get the silver out. Just stay still, they'll start soon."

The bed sank, announcing someone else's presence.

"You shouldn't be here," Eric's voice said softly. "You don't need to see this."

"I'm not leaving her," Penny said.

"Pen," Lucy called. "Do as Eric says. He knows what he's doing. I'll be fine."

Penny kissed her cheek then stood up.

"If anything happens to her I'll feel it," Penny said half way between a statement and a question.

"Yes you will," Eric replied.

"Make sure there is nothing for me to feel."

"I promise," he said kindly. "We will heal your mother."

Eric too received a kiss.

As she left, Lucy could see red tears through the haze in her eyes.

"If anything does happen," Lucy said. "I want you to take her."

"Lucy," he started.

"Eric I'm serious. I know what silver poisoning can do to us. If you can't get it all...If I meet my true death…I want you and Pam to take her. You're the only ones I'd trust to keep her safe. Promise me."

"I promise," he said, "but it won't come to that. She'll be back in your arms soon and you'll go home together."

"We're ready," a voice called from the other side of the bed.

Lucy turned and saw a tall, dark man, with long black hair. In her daze Lucy couldn't make out his face, but she sensed that Penny had been right, he was neither vampire, nor human. He smelled different. Not a were, not a shifter. Lucy thought maybe some sort of Fea. Not a Fairy, surely, but something. Lucy had never met a Fea so she would never be able to tell a Brownie from an Elf or a Sprite.

"What are you going to do," Lucy whispered.

"We have to drain the poison out," Eric said. "And replace it with healthy blood."

"You can't drink it," she said. "You'll be poisoned too."

"We have to do it the human way," he replied. "With tubes and needles. You'll be weak, but don't worry we're here to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Lucy nodded.

"Who's blood am I getting? Not a human."

"No," Eric insisted. "It wouldn't be strong enough. There are some weres here who are willing to donate, some vampires too, to replace your healing enzyme."

She winced as the needle entered her skin. Over the next few hours she drifted in and out. Noises and visions morphed together into frightening nightmares. When a voice told her it was time to drink she was too weak the drop fang. She heard the telltale sound of fangs piercing skin and assumed that Eric had done what she couldn't. Then a flood of warm blood trickled over her lips and into her mouth. She closed her mouth over the skin and drank. When the second donor came he too had to be bitten by someone else. It wasn't until much farther down that line, the fourth or fifth by Lucy's count, that she was able to produce her own fangs. This entire time the dark man watched. He called each of the donors up in turn and told Lucy to stop when she'd reached her limit on each. He was the doctor, Lucy guessed. He'd heard there were doctors for the differently natured, but she'd never had a reason to go to one. In total she drank from seven weres, followed by three vampires, one of which being Eric. As she released her hold on Eric's wrist the bite had already started to heal.

The doctor stepped forward and sat on the bed. Without asking permission he lifted Lucy's shirt, exposing her stomach. Lines of gray and purple covered her stomach like a web. She cringed.

"This is actually an improvement," he assured her. "The poison is gone and the new blood is taking its effect. May I," he asked reaching towards her face. He lifted her upper lip exposing her fangs. "Color is returning to your gums nicely. Can you retract your fangs at will?" She flexed a muscle, admittedly with some effort, and her fangs vanished. "Very good. You should mend quite nicely. No lasting effects from the injury that I can imagine."

Lucy sat up quickly, causing a stabbing pain at her middle.

"Easy now," he warned. "I said you should mend, not that you are mended. You need to take it easy for a little while."

"When can we go home?"

"We? Oh, you and the child. Not for another week I would think. You are too weak to travel and the child is recovering from sleep deprivation and starvation. She would heal faster, but she refuses real blood. The synthetic will take longer. Simply put, you're both too sick to be any help to each other. You need to be with others who can protect you, see that you're properly fed."

"That place is here," Eric said. "They'll be cared for as long as they need to be."

"Good. Ms. Bloom is to stay in bed until tomorrow night. She's had enough to drink for now but a day of rest should be enough to jumpstart things. Tomorrow, if you take it easy, you may walk around but nothing strenuous. The child should drink once every hour while she is awake. Every three if you can get her to take the real thing. Make sure she sleeps through the night; the cleaning staff said there was a mess in here this morning again. That's almost a week straight without proper rest. If all of these steps are followed the two of you may leave when the marks on your stomach have completely healed. It should be a few days."

"Thank you," Lucy said. "I'll do everything you said, I promise."

He nodded and left.

Penny ran in the door before it could close.

"Are you okay?" she said crying. "Did it work?"

"It worked," Lucy said kissing her forehead.

"I was so scared. I thought you were going to die."

"I'm fine. I'm going to be fine."

"You both are," Eric said. "but you have to do what the Doctor says. You have to sleep when you're told," he told Penny. "And drink when they tell you."

"I won't drink human blood," she said indignantly.

"I'm not asking you to," he assured. "You can drink Tru Blood, you just have to drink more of it. One bottle an hour while you're awake. Understand?"

Penny nodded.

"I'll leave you to alone then," he said standing. "You have a lot of time to make up. I'll see you back in Alabama."

"You're leaving?" Penny said jumping up. "Really leaving?"

"I have to. Pam can't be trusted to run things any longer than a week or so. I'll see you soon," he said rubbing the girls bald head. "I'll bring you a present when I come, I promise."

He hugged her and kissed her cheek. Then he took Lucy's hand and gave it a squeeze.

She wanted to say something to him. Something to express how much she appreciated everything he'd done for her, for Penny. Somehow 'thank you' just didn't cover it.

"Eric," she started, but he shook his head.

"Don't mention it. Just take care of each other."

Eric closed the door behind him, leaving only Lucy and Penny in the room.

The child moved from window to window closing the curtains and the shutters until the room was light tight, then returned to Lucy's side. She snuggled closer as her mother's arms draped around her and, though the moon still shown brightly through the window, they drifted off to sleep.