A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, I've now turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. Please ensure your seatbelts are fastened and your tray tables are locked in their full upright position.

(Also, for anyone that's noticed, I've fixed up the chapter numbers since it was out of whack with FF's system. FF counts the prologue as the first chapter, which I hadn't been.)

Chapter 14: Homecoming

The directions Bec gave me to the camp were easy to follow. I drove slowly through leafy and overgrown suburbia to find that the group had camped, literally camped, in a large clearing just at the edge of town. They had pitched an array of tents and were positioned around a central point with a small campfire in the middle. A group of horses were tied to a series of large oaks some yards away. The group, now reduced from eight to seven, were up and about already by the time I arrived. The little girl came bounding up to me.

"I'm Abby," she said, grinning broadly at me. "And my bottom tooth is wobbly." She opened her mouth and proudly demonstrated how wobbly her tooth was.

"Well, would you look at that!" Her finger actually covered the tooth entirely, so I took her at her word. She slipped her hand into mine and I found myself smiling down at her, despite my mood. "I'm Sookie."

"Hi Sookie," Abby said. She was in high spirits. John had let her stop at the toy shop on the way back to the camp the night before. The coveted pony toy was currently tightly stuffed under her other arm. I spotted Bec, she was by the campfire with her hands deep in a bucket of frothy water, washing dishes. She stood and walked over, wiping her hands off on a tea towel.

"Fast recovery," she said to my shoulder. I shrugged. It was tender, the feeling akin to a muscle stretched for the first time after never being used before.

"Too bad they can't replicate vampire blood like they did human blood," I said. I noticed the rest of the group gathering a few paces behind where Bec was standing. They looked at me expectantly, a mix of hopeful, hesitant, and wary.

"I'm sure it would've only been a matter of years had it not been for the great death," Bec said, lifting up the sleeve of my t-shirt to examine the point of entry. "Well, I'll be damned. Not a single mark." She began feeling my nose, which also felt as good as new.

"Was that big man a vampire? The one that came here last night?" Abby piped up.

"You mean Eric?" I shifted my head away from Bec to look at Abby, puzzled. Eric had been at the camp?

"You run along, Abby. Go and see if Johnny or Mabel will take you down to the creek," Bec said in a tone that brokered no negotiation.

Abby pouted and Bec ushered the reluctant girl away to John, who nodded solemnly towards me. His fear in me was gone, but the wariness was still there on some base level. She must be a witch, he thought. But a good one. That vampire of hers ain't half bad either.

"Eric came here?" I asked Bec. The rest of the group dispersed.

"Yeah," she said, slinging the tea towel over her shoulder. "He brought back Barb's body when you were sleeping it off in the townhouse. Said he thought we might want to bury her. I think it was mostly a ruse to check out our intentions."

I bit back a smile. "That sounds about right."

"He's a good man."

"I don't know about good, but he's… honorable." I thought back to the night before, how he used the same words to describe me. The descriptor fit him better.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Bec asked.

"Maybe we can all sit somewhere? Is that coffee I can smell?"

The drive back to River Rock was the liveliest since my whole cross-country ordeal had begun nine days earlier. Abby sang relentlessly in the back seat, and my shields were tested to their maximum capacity being surrounded by humans within such close confines. Just over a week away from home and I was out of the habit already.

The car could only take so many passengers and supplies, so we traveled on route to South Carolina with John in the front seat, Abby in the back sandwiched between the gray-haired Mabel and Robby, the tall man whose leg Abby was hiding behind the day before. He stayed mostly silent, though his mind was running at a million miles an hour it seemed just as a default (from what I could tell).

Bec and the other two (the bald and portly Stephen who I'd disarmed yesterday, and Dan, a seasoned horse rider) stayed behind at the camp and were making their way over on horseback. We agreed on a route, with the plan being for me to drive back in two days' time and check on their progress.

It took slightly over four hours to get back to River Rock. It was an odd feeling traveling back through familiar roads, everything looked and felt the same but was different. Was that normal when you came back from a vacation or a trip out of town? Or was it only when you left because you were nearly dying?

Drizzle followed us for much of the drive back, but it cleared as we drove the over the hilly peak that bordered the town. Some folk stood on their front porches and watched us pass with a solemn wave, mostly I saw curtains twitch. The streets were virtually empty. River Rock had a population of just shy of two hundred, a fair proportion were kids. None of whom were riding their bikes on the street, or climbing on the playground.

"Something's wrong," I muttered quietly to John, hoping not to alert Abby. He nodded and patted his rifle, which he had resting against his leg. It was reassuring.

I gunned the car across to where Jessup and Donna were living. It was a white weatherboard ranch style home. The gardens were neatly mowed, Hunter's bike was still leaning against the porch railing - but the house was empty; doors locked. My panic escalated. River Rock wasn't a door locking kind of town.

I drove straight for the community hall. There were multiple bikes parked outside, and several horses were tied up around the side of the building drinking from the trough. Word had traveled fast, or maybe they'd just heard my car coming because Jessup was already waiting out the front with Owen, the two men looking grim. I told the others to stay in the car and jumped out.

Owen ran up to meet me and swept me into a hug.

"You're alive!" His arms surrounded me from all sides. "We were praying, but days had passed…"

"What's going on?" I asked, gently pushing at his arm, disengaging from the embrace. "Why is there a town meeting? I brought some newcomers with me." I could hear the din from behind the wooden doors of the hall. Owen's thoughts were erratic, at first awash with relief at seeing me again and then swinging across wildly to fear and trepidation.

Something had happened, I realized skimming across his mind. He was devastated, but whatever it was he couldn't bear to think about.

"C'mon Sook, come and sit for a spell. We need to talk." Jessup stepped towards me, hands raised in supplication. His face was beaten up. His eye swollen, blood vessels burst.

"What happened to you? Where's Donna? Where's Hunter? There was nobody at the house."

Owen wrung his hands and looked across to Jessup. Should I tell her...? Or should Jess?

"Where's Hunter?" I repeated hoarsely. I turned back to Jessup, his snarly thoughts turning dark. I felt my knees weaken.

"No, no, no, no, no…" I shook my head desperately.

"Sookie, you need to sit. Owen, go fetch her a glass of water."

"No!" I shouted. I pushed past Owen and placed my hands either side of Jessup's head, pressing them hard against the tight dark curls of his short afro, trying to latch onto his mental stream of consciousness. "Where is he?! I need to see! Tell me!"

Jessup's face morphed with surprise. I'd never told anyone in town about my telepathy. Jessup and Donna suspected as much but this was as much confirmation as he'd ever had. His eyes turned steely with understanding and he cupped his dark hands over mine, doubling the connection again and his mind opened like a book.

"Vampires came though, Sook," he said softly. I saw it. Every horrid detail. Hunter wrenched from his bed in the night, Donna bleeding out on the floor, a young brunette vampire seeing to her grisly end. Blood everywhere. Hunter sobbing and crying out, Jessup being mauled at the neck by another vampire, left virtually incapacitated.

A low, keening sound burst forth from my throat. He pulled me gently down to sit across from him on the steps of the hall. I pulled down the collar of Jessup's shirt. There was a white bandage at his shoulder. I sucked in a breath. The bandage was huge. It wasn't a bite underneath, it was a tear. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be true.

"Two vampires passed through here a few days back," he said. "An old calculating one with his child, some badly-turned sick looking fuck. They said they were travelers, looking for willing donors before moving on."

"They killed Hunter? Where's Hunter?" I wanted to shake him by the checkered collar of his stupid button-up; I needed answers, not the storybook version!

"They didn't kill him, but they took him. Donna's dead, Sookie. I was out for the evening, a town meeting to discuss the projected crops and yield for next season. I got back… They'd glamoured Donna to let them in. Cathy over the road heard her screams and came running to find me and when I got back to the house..." His voice broke.

"I tried my best, Sook. It wasn't enough. I don't know where they went. Where they took him. They flew right outta here with Hunter and Joey Brown, that seventeen-year-old kid living next to Cathy."

"How many nights ago?" I choked out.

"Two nights ago. Today's the first day I've been well enough to be useful. We're getting a group together to ride and fan out searching for them. They've been heading out every day."

"Oh my God. Oh my God." I cupped my mouth. This was a horror movie. This couldn't be real. My sweet boy. Jessup held me as I cried painfully, my heart feeling like it was ripping through my chest with every gasping sob.

"Hush. Come on now," he murmured, rubbing my back. "The whole town is here to help Hunter, Sook. We will do everything we can."

"And what if he's dead?"

Jessup was quiet for a long pause, perhaps deciding on a tactful way to answer.

"Then we bring Hunter home and give him a proper, respectful burial," said Owen. He set a glass of water down next to me. I looked up as Owen moved to stand opposite us. My head spun with the meaning of his words. Burial. Oh my God. Owen looked pained and rubbed the back of his hand self-consciously across the dark stubble growing on his cheeks before stuffing it deep into the front pocket of his Levis. I was sure the ground had just fallen clear from under me and that I was free-falling straight into nothing.

"And we kill those vampire fuckers," I choked out, slamming my fist down on the cement step. They killed Donna and if they'd killed Hunter too, I'd make sure they'd never live to see another undead night again.

Jessup nodded back at me in cold determination, his eyes glowing yellow, the were in him stirring. "I'll tear them to pieces myself."

I wiped my eyes, my cries easing. I liked to believe I was a God-fearing woman – and perhaps I was most days of the week – but family was everything to me and nothing would stand in the way between me and my child. I didn't care if that made me a terrible Christian. In fact, I didn't care at all anymore if I was a terrible Christian, period. I was beginning to doubt if God was with me at all anymore these days, or with any of the folk left behind after the great death. He sure seemed to have flown the proverbial coop for the last two years.

Flown.

Something tugged at my consciousness. I frowned, following the train of thought. It was something that Jessup had said… About flying.

"Did you say they flew out of here?" I asked Jessup suddenly.

"Yes. They literally flew. The boys were under their arms."

Eric's words came back to me, playing back on a reel within my head. He'd said flying was an uncommon ability in vampires - one he had inherited from his maker.

"Ocella," I stated. "One of the vampires was Appius Livius Ocella." I wasn't sure I was saying the name right. Jessup's responding snarl was my confirmation. I stood up.

"Where's the map?" I asked. "The one you've been marking off locations people have checked?"

Jessup nodded towards into the hall and Owen looked surprised, understandably since I'd pulled the image of the map right from his head. I pulled my hair back into ponytail with the band from around my wrist. There were possibilities here. Trails to follow. A vampire lover who could lead me straight to my child.

I pushed open the doors to the hall, the chatter inside quietened. I turned back to the men.

"Come on, then," I sniffed. "We have work to do if we're gonna find them, and I think I have an ace up my sleeve."

I opened the door to number 10 Lake Crescent with lead in my legs and whiskey burning my belly. I could feel Owen's presence lingering further down the street in the idling car, wondering if he should have followed me in after all. I closed the door quietly behind me. My fingers trailed along the wall as I walked down the hall, over the rain coats, big and small, over the gray loose knit cardigan I kept there, over the small backpack Hunter wore when we went hiking.

I dumped my bag on the couch next to the ugly crocheted afghan I'd brought with me from Gran's farmhouse. I moved deeper into the house, down the dim corridor to Hunter's room. The curtains were pulled wide open, afternoon sun peeking out between rain clouds. It felt falsely cheerful.

The room was still tidy, but even in the week I'd been gone, it smelled musty and unused. It clawed at my composure. Before too long it would be like any other room in any other abandoned house in any other abandoned town.

I lowered myself onto his bed. I'd let Hunter pick the quilt cover, a bright array of cartoon fire engines, police cars, and ambulances. He had a thing for anything with a siren, funny seeing how it wasn't like you ever heard them anymore. There definitely wouldn't be any helping him out right now.

I picked up his pillow and breathed it in. I had failed him, hadn't I? Promised to look after him, promised to be his mother. One dumb mistake, a stupid, rookie risk by climbing that damned rotten fence was all it took to threaten my health and safety and for him to lose his.

I slept there on his bed and Jessup shook me roughly awake after nightfall. I gasped desperately when I woke, like the first lungful of air after plunging into icy waters.

The lamp beside him was switched on, meaning it was sometime between 7 pm and 9 pm, the daily allotted time for power. It was all the hydro power station could manage staffed at quarter capacity. Jessup looked worse in the low light. The dark rings under his eyes were nearly black, and behind his eyes it was like there was a feral man caged, waiting to be let out.

"The newcomers are settling in well," he said gruffly. It was a better opening than 'my wife is still murdered and your son still kidnapped'.

I nodded and wiped the sleep from my eyes, sitting up. The whiskey I'd had back at the hall with Jessup and the others while we discussed what to do had left my mouth tacky and dry. I'd almost forgotten about John, Abby, and the rest of the newcomers since getting back. They were probably happily settling in somewhere in town. Surreal that what could be the best day for some could, at exactly the same moment, be the worst for others.

"You get all the supplies?" I asked. He followed me into the kitchen and I switched on the light, pouring myself a glass of water from the faucet.

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded to a black duffel bag sitting beside the couch. "That big fella, Johnny, he insisted he come along too."

I set the glass down, considering this. "Is that wise?"

"Someone's gotta drive us back if we're worse for wear. Owen and the big fella nearly scuffled over which of the two should ride along." He cast me a knowing look. "But Johnny wouldn't take no."

"Alright," I sighed. I didn't have the time or mental resources for dealing with any torch Owen still carried for me. Not that I had any idea what John's intent was either, though I knew it definitely wasn't the same as Owen's.

Owen and I had begun tentative relationship not long after I arrived in South Carolina which was nearly eighteen months ago now. It was a weird situation, I wasn't really sure what I was thinking. Owen was a good man, great with Hunter. Maybe a part of me was trying to create some normality for Hunter. Or maybe I was to trying to erase some of the pain I'd experienced back home in Louisiana by trying to make myself fall in love. It was wasted effort. Pre or post-apocalypse, I couldn't have a relationship with a human male, regardless of how good or how sweet he was. Owen and I slept together twice, both times equally awkward and mostly unpleasant for me, before I conceded defeat and broke up with him.

"Let me change and then we can hit the road," I said to Jessup.

After getting ready, Jessup and I found John sitting on the steps of my front porch waiting for us, his meaty arms resting across his knees. He had changed outfits too, dressed now in typical biker attire. Black tee, black jeans, leather vest with multiple patches hand embroidered across the lapels. He really was a walking stereotype, down to his bald head and gray bushy beard.

"Why are you willing to do this?" I asked him.

"You stuck your neck out for us. Your vampire too." His gravelly voice bottomed out with emotion and he cleared his throat, his gray eyes communicating the gratitude his words couldn't. I felt Jessup's gaze on me, pulsing with curiosity. I ignored it. I wondered what John meant about Eric sticking his neck out. Maybe because he went out of his way to bring them Barb's body for burial? I had seen that morning the wooden cross where the group had buried her under a tall oak.

John continued, "If some sick dead fuck has your kid then it's only right that I'm there to help you."

We chased the moonlight out of River Rock and headed back along the mountainous road towards Tennessee. I had the back seat to myself and reclined flat against it, hugging my pack. My eyes were closed, my body relaxed as much as I could will it to be. I steeled myself and cast all thoughts of Hunter from my mind. Instead, I worked at a firm pace building up shields and blocking the world around me. My mental movements were quick and sure, like the little ants in my garden who consumed themselves wholly with each and every task they performed. Never pausing, never skipping a beat.

Soon it was like I was alone within myself, holding only the barest awareness of the prickly upholstery under me, of the whirring of the road under the wheels, or of the rumbly sounds of conversation exchanged between John and Jessup. It was like the world around me was a soundtrack turned down so low it was almost mute.

I explored within myself until I clasped what I was looking for. A bond. One I had brushed against once or twice in the preceding days for only a brief glimpse. My need, or maybe my method of approach, had made it easier to find the faint link forged with blood between Eric and I. I had it pinned now, though it was as slight as a whisper from my end. Still, I could feel it as if it were a real physical presence within me. A literal string. I focused on it and it pulsed in response. A sort of recognition. I wasn't sure if that was Eric sensing me or if the bond was responding to my manipulations.

I leaned against the sensation. My emotions began to crack, like a deep fissure spreading across the arid plain of tight control within me. Was Eric involved in Hunter's disappearance? The thought devastated me. That I might have invited a devious man into my bed. Trusted a vampire who was working against me. That I had played a hand in the disappearance of my own son.

But it didn't seem likely, no matter how I turned it over in my head. I hadn't even told Eric about Hunter's existence until the night before. Eric didn't even know where I lived.

Maybe Ocella had indeed been passing through, as he'd told the townsfolk, and was simply drawn to Hunter, or rather to Hunter's portion of fairy otherness in the same way Eric was drawn to me lying on that cold marble floor of the mansion. There was no way to know. Eric and I had come so close to crossing paths before the modern world had ended. Maybe this was fate's cruel way of throwing us together again and again.

But I was one of the lucky ones. I was probably one of the only people alive who survived the great death with an actual family member by my side. I'd fight tooth and nail to get him back. I'd kill to get him back. Even if that meant killing Eric. I tugged hard on my end of the bond and I felt a strong ripple in response. Acknowledgement.

Eric was listening.