SPOV

"Pam is near," Eric says quietly. Usually, that would make me feel better however, now all it brings is worry. I don't want anyone else to die because of me. I cannot separate how Freyda's actions have brought this upon them with the fact that they are here to save me. Eric could have gotten out by himself. They are ultimately here for me. And it's a trap.

"Eric," I start.

"I am not leaving you, Sookie," he says taking my face in his hands.

"You would really put that much chance on Pam's life?" I ask him hoping he wouldn't want to risk leaving her in the dark.

"Do not have such little faith in her," he responds. "I made and have taught her everything, after all."

"I have faith in her, but I'm not willing to risk her life because she is walking into a trap unknowingly."

"Sookie," he starts understanding where I am going.

"I'll do it, Eric. I will spend the entire day looking for a way out to warn them while you're dead to the world. I can't let anyone else get hurt because of me."

"Why do you insist on believing it would be because of you? You are not the one who set this all in motion. The blame lies with Freyda. Her actions will have caused whatever happens."

"Who are they coming to get, Eric?" I ask getting a bit angry. I don't understand how he doesn't see that anything that happened would be my fault. "They are coming to get me. If I wasn't here, you may not even be. However, if you still were you would be able to handle yourself. You would not have to worry about me."

"A different scenario then?" he asks. I stay silent. "What if Pam was taken?"

"Wouldn't happen. She's too tough," I reply quickly.

"What if it did? What if someone got the best of her?"

"You would do anything to save her."

"Just like I or any of your friends would do for you," he continues. "If I got hurt while trying to help Pam, would she be to blame?

"Of course not," I reply.

"Then why do you think you would be?"

I hated that I didn't have an answer for him. I understood that it was Freyda that started everything. She's the one that put all these things in motion. That still didn't mean I liked the fact that people I cared about, I loved, were risking their lives for me and they had no idea what they were up against. I voice my opinion.

"I do not like it either when you put your life at risk for me," he says. "I do not suppose you are ever going to stop."

"Not if you're in danger and I can help."

"And that is your decision. I do not like it but it is yours to make. You have to let others make their decisions too. They know more than anyone what they are getting into. They are Supes. They understand the situation."

"That's it," I tell him. "They don't know this isn't a simple rescue mission. This could be an all out war."

"And as I said, they know the risks. They may not know the specifics but they would have been monitoring the situation for a few days now. They would have some idea of how many they are facing."

"You make everything sound so logical," I tell him part of me hating him for it.

"I have had centuries of practice, Lover," he says pulling me down to lie with him on the bed. "You should go to the bathroom," he says with a smirk on his face.

"Why? I'm awfully comfortable," I tell him burrowing myself into his chest.

"I am tempted to make sure I die for the day holding you in a way that would prevent you from going anywhere," he tells me lifting an eyebrow.

"You wouldn't," I say.

"If I thought you would actually go through with your plans, I would not hesitate to do so," he says and I hear the seriousness in his voice. "Do you have any idea how worried I would be if you were not here if I woke up again? Do you really think I would be able to get myself safely out of here and help the others if I did not know you were safe?"

If I hadn't already decided not to try and go out and warn them on my own, hearing him say those words, would have made the decision for me. I cup his face in my hands and lead him into a kiss. "I get it," I tell him. "I'm not going to go anywhere."

He rests his head on mine and says, "Thank-you."

We lay there in the quiet for some time. As calm as he appears to be, I know Eric is going through possible strategies in his head. He would want the truth of the situation known as soon as possible. That's how we stood the best chance. We had to take away the element of surprise. I know he is also thinking about how to keep me out of the line of fire. It worries me because his focus on me could endanger him.

"What's going to happen tomorrow?" I ask him.

He hesitates and I stay quiet. He's not used to sharing all of this with me and I can tell it's a battle. I don't want to make it any harder on him. I trust that he will tell me. I have to trust him.

"Nothing will happen for at least two hours after nightfall. There would be different scouts here during the day to get an idea of the area and guard schedule. They will stay a bit into the night to see if there is anything new to report. This would have been done tonight as well after their arrival."

I almost say that I could try to get the scouts attention. I stop myself, but Eric catches it. He opens his mouth and I lean up to kiss him before he can say anything.

"I'm not going anywhere, Eric," I tell him laying my head back on his chest. I bring up my hand to stroke his chest. "It would be a bigger risk. I understand that. I'm not going to risk them."

He presses a kiss to my head and says. "I am grateful you understand, Lover."

"Are we going to have any type of warning that they are here or will they just start attacking?" I ask him.

"It should depend on what feelings Pam is getting from me at the time. This would indicate how quickly the rescue should occur. If they can, they would send someone in first probably having the pretense of meeting with Freyda."

"Who do you think they would send in?"

"De Castro. He would make the most sense especially since he has already made contact about an 'issue' in my Area," he says. I hear the change in his voice, which tells me he feels the pull to rest for the day.

I lean up to kiss him before he dies for the day telling him, "Barring any unforeseen complications, I'll be here the entire time you're resting."

"It is the complications that frighten me," he says before the sun pulls him under. I quickly fall asleep myself.

I'm not sure what awakens me or how long I've been asleep, but I don't like the feeling I have when I wake up. I feel like someone else is in the room just watching from the side of the bed. I don't move as I drop my shields and send out my sixth sense. I get the unclear, snarly mind of a Were.

It takes everything I have to pretend I was still asleep as I see what he plans to do to Eric and hopes to do to me afterward. Of course, the fact that I am only seeing pictures doesn't help. And I forgot as a Were he would be able to sense the change in my heart rate as I saw the pictures. Luckily, he has to brace his hand on the bed and as I feel the bed shift, I shift my leg and my knee goes right into his head, causing his head to hit the backboard hard.

I getup off the bed quickly expecting him to come at me again but the attack never comes. I turn around and see that he is lying and not moving on the bed. I carefully take a few steps towards the bed and see that his head is bleeding – must have been from where his head hit the wall. Shifting myself so I can see who it is, it's no surprise to me as I recognize James. Of course it was.

Now what to do with him? I could use the sheet to tie him up. The only thing that I could tie him to that looked like it could hold him is the headboard, which would put him too close to Eric for my liking. I have to move Eric off the bed.

It takes about ten minutes of shifting the sheets and the two unconscious people on them but I finally manage to get James tied to the headboard using some of the sheets and Eric off the bed by pulling the sheet he's on off the bed. I get him over to the opposite wall hoping that it's close to sunset. I still have no idea what time it is.

I'm especially hoping Eric will be up soon as I see James start to stir. I move closer to the foot of the bed so it wouldn't appear like I was scared of him. As he becomes more alert, he starts laughing. "You really think these sheets will hold me for long?"

"Seem to be doing a good enough job at the moment," I tell him.

"Let's see how they do in about ten minutes," he says with an evil glint in his eye.

Crap. He is too hurt to shift now but Weres heal quickly. When he shifted, he would probably be able to slide right out of the sheets. As I am at a loss of how to secure him further he says, "You work quick don't you? Supposedly, you come here for your husband but it didn't take you long to jump in Northman's cold bed did it?"

As a cold feeling runs over me at his words, I decide how to further restrain him so he can't escape as he shifts. Opening Eric's drawers, I find a long sleeve shirt. This will have to do.

Walking over to the bed, I am careful not to get too close. James' eyes never leave me as I move to tie the shirt around his head. Size wise, his head has to be a closer match as he shifts then his paws. I to use a sleeve like a gag and wrap it around his head using the other sleeve to tie him to the bed board. He's not exactly cooperative as I do it, but I manage.

And now I have nothing to do but wait. I can't believe he doesn't even have a clock in here. I debate going out and trying to find someone to check the time but it's my promise to Eric that holds me back. I look from Eric to James who has gotten surprisingly relaxed on the bed. He must be saving his strength, conserving it so he could shift. I'm hoping Eric will be up before he is able to.

No such luck. As James starts to shift, I back away from the bed. I end up on the opposite wall where I left Eric. I try to wake him up but get nothing from moans and sluggish movements. James had manages to get his arms out of the binds as I thought. The tie on his head is holding though. I feel a bit of pride for that. Until he uses his newly freed paws to work at the binds in his mouth. He is working the sleeve to where he can bite through it.

I double my efforts to try and wake Eric. At one point he manages to look up at me and I can tell by the look on his face he understands something is wrong from the look that must be on mine, but he soon falls back into his day rest.

It only takes about two minutes before James manages to chew through the sleeve. I brace myself against the wall expecting him to charge at me and am surprised when he shifts back. I collapse against the wall, falling right on top of Eric as I imagine the reasons why he would want to shift to his human form. As it turns out it's to get a last jab at me.

"I don't get it," he says slowly getting up off the bed. "He left you. Left you for a chance to rise up in power. And you run back to him expecting him to give it all up for you."

"You don't understand anything about it," I bite out at him.

He shrugs and says, "The way I see it I'm doing you a favor."

With that, he shifts back into his wolf form and lunges at me, well us really since I am still sitting on Eric. Just as James is closing in, Eric's arms shoot up around me and catch James by the head, mere inches from my face. As James struggles against his hands, I hear a loud snap and watch as James falls limp.

Eric lets out "You are okay," and presses a kiss to my shoulder before falling back into his day rest.

EPOV

I rise from my rest and am shocked to find myself on the floor against the wall and not on the bed. I am shocked yet again when I see James lying on the floor dead mere feet from me. Then, what happened comes back to me.

I jump up and look around the room for Sookie. Panic fills me when I do not see her. "Sookie," I scream but get no response. I worry that James may not have been the only one sent in here today.

I call her again but for a second time there is no response. I force the panic down so I can think. I look around the room once again and notice the bathroom door is closed. I am relieved as I realize her scent is strong in this part of the room, telling me she's probably just behind the door.

I knock but still get no response and again I am filled with worry that perhaps she cannot respond. I call out a warning that I am going to break the door and am filled with relief as I hear shuffling in the bathroom away from the door.

When I get through the door, she is sitting on the edge of the bathtub looking down at the floor. She does not acknowledge me as I come in and I do not like the look on her face. She looks lost. "Sookie, what did he do to you?" I ask her fully aware I had asked her the same thing a few days ago. Her response is to slowly shake her head not looking up from the ground.

I want to get her out of the bathroom. Moving slowly as to not frighten her, I pick her up gently and carry her out to the bed. She buries her face in my chest and her arms come up encircling my neck I am happy to have some sort of response from her and instead of placing her on the bed I simply sit and hold her in my lap. I stroke her back and arms knowing, or maybe just hoping, she will talk to me and let me know what happened.

After, a few minutes she sighs and begins to tell me what happened from when she woke up with James in the room. She sounds despondent though. She is not acting like herself and this frightens me, especially with the impending war that could be starting in mere hours.

When she is done with her tale, I press a kiss to her forehead and tell her, "Your resourcefulness astounds me. I am so glad you were not harmed. But I can tell there is something else."

She does not say anything, but because I am still holding her I can feel her body tense at my words. "Sookie, please talk to me," I tell her. "If you stay quiet, I can only assume the worst."

Hearing me say that, she sits up and takes my face in her hands. "I'm okay, Eric," she tells me.

"You can say that all you want. I know you and you are not."

"I am, Eric. James didn't even have the chance to touch me. He just said some stupid things that I had too much time to think about."

I reach up to stroke her hair behind her ears and ask, "What did he say to you?"

She looks down at the floor again and says, "Logically I know it's not true, but how often does our logical side win out?" I stay quiet hoping she will continue. She hesitates but then says, "He said you left me for a chance to get more power."

I tense up and say, "And you believe him?"

"Oh no, Eric. I really don't. I was there. I know that's not why you left. I know you really didn't have a choice."

"I would have chose you if I did."

"I know that. I really, really do," she tells me.

"Then why are you upset?"

"What he said did bother me even though I know it didn't have any truth to it, especially when Sam was thrown in my face."

"What about the Shifter?"

She sighs and says, "He pointed out that I came here to help Sam but it's you I ended up with. That with what he said about you leaving me just left me unnerved."

"That is what they wanted. They know at some point people will be coming for us. They want to keep us distracted and having discord between us will do that."

"I know. I figured it was something like that. I'm angry that I let Freyda win."

"She only wins if you continue to let it bother you. You know the truth. That is all that matters," I tell her.

She smiles before giving me a passionate kiss. "I may need a distraction then," she whispers to me before kissing me again.

I kiss her back doing my best to distract her. I have to break the kiss as she gets my shirt off. She places kisses down my chest and just as I am about to relieve her of her shirt there is a knock on the door.

"The Queen wishes to see you both."

I hop everyone's week was a bit more relaxing than mine. Between work stuff and giving myself a minor concussion (cause I'm just that talented) I had a bit of a hectic week.

Thanks for reading and especially those taking the time to review. Thanks to jrme5759 and aggie for leaving reviews.