I'm so sorry for the late update and shortness of chapter. I had to work a few days when I was supposed to have vacation and lost a lot of writing time. I thought you'd prefer a quick update instead of a full week's wait. Thank you so much for the kind and wonderful reviews. I'm so behind I didn't get chance to respond individually, but I hope to do so on future updates. (Expect a few this weekend.)

- Eric Northman: Off the wagon

Eric Northman has allegedly fallen of the wagon and into bed with Evelyn Orr, a Josephine County woman.

"They had sexual relations," reveals a close friend. Orr, a high school teacher, is apparently neighbours with the sexy Swede at his lakeside vacation home in Oregon.

"They've hung out a few times, getting pretty hot and heavy," the source tells Celebrity News exclusively. The source went on to add that the pair had been drinking pretty heavily at a local watering hole, until Sookie Stackhouse - the blonde we've previously reported as being seen with Northman - arrived to take him home.

"He left with the blonde, they looked pretty cozy. Evelyn was hurt to discover he had a girlfriend. I guess once a cheater, always a cheater."

~0~

Voicemail of Eric Northman:

9:38 a.m. What the fuck is going on up there? I just got off the phone with Celebrity News. They were looking for verification about some Eeyore woman you've allegedly been having an affair with? Sookie already filled me in on the drinking snafu, I'm not going to say anything... but you need to call me back about the depressed donkey... we have to do some damage control STAT! I'm thinking you'll owe me some Hermes after this one, dipshit!

Eric calls Pam back as soon as he's finished listening to her voicemail. Donkey, WTF?

~0~

Voicemail of Sookie Stackhouse:

9:36 a.m. Sookie? This is Pam. Call me back immediately... please.

10:17 a.m. Hey sis, it's me. I thought you said you weren't dating that guy? How come I'm getting a call from some reporter askin' if he's been cheating on you? You need me to come kick his ass?

~0~

By the time Eric gets the voicemail from Pam and has a chance to call her back, news has reached Sookie. It's the only reason Eric can think of to explain why she is in his room looking like she wants to murder someone. She'd invited herself up to his loft, her jaw set and her eyes hard.

"Sookie, I'm so, so sorry..." he starts to explain, but she cuts him off.

"Don't!" she says, making a 'tell it to the hand' gesture. "I've had it up to here with this! I'm about ready to slap a bitch!" Her southern twang is coming out with her anger.

"I didn't mean for..."

"Which house is hers?" she demands.

"Wait, what, who?"

"That Eeyore bitch! Is it the old house or the newer one?"

"Eeyore?"

"Evelyn Orr as in E. Orr," she explains, rolling her eyes in a manner that eerily reminds him of his manager.

E. Orr = Eeyore. Now the depressed donkey comment makes sense. "You're not mad at me?" he clarifies.

She stops. "What? No! I mean, I'm mad as hell, but at that psycho bitch for selling her story to the rags."

"Oh," he says. "I thought you'd be angry at me."

"Well, I'm kind of ticked at you too, but you're a grown-assed man who can make whatever fucked up mistakes he wants. That bitch crossed the line when she dragged me into it!"

"How do you know it was her?"

"Sam and Arlene and the staff at the bar wouldn't sell you out, I know that much," she explains. "No one else there was paying you a lick of attention. So either she called herself, or she's been yapping off her big mouth to one of her friends and they sold her out."

"How can you be so sure it wasn't Sam?"

"First, I doubt they'd sell a fake story about you."

"What do you mean fake? I was drinking at their bar."

Sookie smiles. "Nope, you weren't."

"Um, I'm pretty sure I was. I ordered several rum and cokes. You saw for yourself how drunk I was."

She laughs. "Oh, you were drunk... but no one saw you drinking alcohol at Merlotte's... they'd been serving you plain cokes since you arrived!"

"I knew those drinks sucked!"

"Sam and company wouldn't sell you out like that... not after all these years. They would have refused to serve you drinks even if you'd arrived sober."

That must have been what Sam and Sookie had spent so much time talking about.

"The only person who knew you were drinking for sure was Evelyn. She's the only one who had anything to gain from this story getting out."

~0~

"I'm not letting you go over there and get yourself in trouble," Eric says, putting his hands on Sookie's shoulders to emphasize his point.

"I'm not really going to go over there," Sookie says as her anger deflates. "I'm just mad as a wet cat."

"I can see that," he says, looking at her thoughtfully.

"What?" She asks, blushing under his attention.

"Nothing," he says, shrugging slightly. He brushes a stray hair off her cheek. She's really beautiful (and slightly terrifying), even when she's angry. He wishes he wasn't to blame. If he'd just kept it in his pants with Evelyn. If he had talked to his father or Sookie, or just gone for a run, anything other than knocking on that woman's door and picking up a bottle, none of this would have happened. Yeah, Evelyn, is a bitch, or one of her friend's is a total shit... but she's not alone in that. It takes two to tango. He also knows better. He's well aware of the power of celebrity and how it messes with people. Hell, it messes with his own head. He's genuinely sorry that this is happening. He didn't feel this bad when it got out that he'd been cheating on Yvetta. He knows that says something, but he's not ready yet to delve too deeply into what that is exactly.

Instead, he steps back from Sookie and gestures for her to take a seat. He decides to start at the only place he knows: the beginning.

"I went to her house, but nothing happened, I swear," he says.

"If nothing happened, why is Pam all bent out of shape?" Sookie asks.

"You spoke to Pam?"

"Yeah," she says.

"Oh... well, nothing happened last night, that's true," he admits.

"But that time she was at the house?"

Shit. Eric wants to lie, he really does. Somehow he knows that Sookie is too smart for that. She totally has his number. He tries a new approach: honesty.

~0~

"What stupidity has my son got up to now?" Jack asks as Sookie sits next to him on the deck.

She snorts. Jack knows his son pretty well.

"Not much," she answers. "Some woman - or one of her friends - went to the media with a story about him drinking and having 'sexual relations' with her."

"Is it true?" he asks.

"They've messed around." There's no sense in lying to Jack about it.

"Wonderful," he says sardonically. "It's unfortunate, but nothing he can't survive."

"True."

"And how are you faring in all of this?"

"Well, the woman claims she had no idea he was cheating on his girlfriend, who is me, according to the magazine."

"Ah."

"Yeah, I keep telling my brother there's nothing going on but he's one of those types who believe everything he reads."

"I see."

"Dumb ass can barely read, mind you," she jokes.

"I'm glad you can find humour in this situation," Jack says. "Just a week ago your private life was your own. It must be strange."

"Out here I'm not all that affected by it, I won't know how much of a problem it is until we get back I guess. My friends are more bothered than I am right now."

"It is good to have protective friends," he replies. "I wish Eric had such people in his life."

Sookie sighs softly. She wishes he did too. He probably would have made some different choices. "That's up to Eric."

"True enough," Jack agrees.

The two sit silently for a bit, enjoying the scene.

A/N: Shit's about to get real...