The panic was starting to set in now.

No sign of Sookie and Hugo, and there was no way she was going to disturb Bill in the day time.

Eric had stirred at one point in the afternoon but Alice hushed him back to sleep, and told him to just let her worry about it - there wasn't anything he could do in the day time anyway.

It was at about four o'clock that Alice decided to something incredibly stupid. She couldn't take it anymore - she had to go investigate for herself…

So she hopped on a bus that would take her to the Fellowship of the Sun.

Obviously, the journey there didn't help with her nerves in the slightest, but it gave her time to think up a convincing enough lie if she was confronted by anyone at all.

It was strange how harmless and welcoming the church actually seemed when she got there. Goers milled in and out, and there was a familiar looking woman greeting everyone at the door; Alice had seen her on television - when she elected to watch the news - and knew it to be Sarah Newlin, wife of Reverend Steve Newlin.

She really did not seem like the vampire-hating type of woman - she was so kind and friendly to everyone she was currently speaking to. Alice knew that it would be the exact same for her, but when she approached there was a nervousness to the woman she hadn't noticed from afar.

"Well hi there," Sarah grinned down warmly at Alice. "I haven't seen y'all around here before, welcome! How are ya doing today?"

Over the top. Very over the top. She seemed even more fretful behind that grin now. Alice smiled back to help put her ease with whatever was going through her mind. "Oh, I'm just visiting the area. I was on a bus, saw the church and just had to come have a look! Could I pray here for a minute?"

"Of course you can!" Sarah gently touched Alice on the shoulder. "Our doors are open for everyone and I mean that. I hope Dallas has been treating you well, ma'am."

"Thank you," Alice then shuffled away awkwardly, feeling guilty about lying in a place of worship. She wasn't religious in the slightest, but it had still felt inherently wrong to say she wanted to pray.

Either way, she wandered through the double doors into the church sanctuary, which was perhaps larger than any regular church she had set foot in. The light streamed in from the glass all the way up at the back by the altar, and the pews wee all cushioned. A few people were littered about here and there, praying of course. Praying for real.

Alice sat down close to the doors so that she could get out quickly, and bowed her head down with her hands in her lap. She closed her eyes and concentrated on what she had seen in regards to Sookie the day before, hoping that she would be able to see something new instead. There was no other way she'd be able to figure out what had happened.

Nothing came to her, and she wondered if it was to do with how Sookie affected her mind.

But then-

Scratching.

Sookie was still there!

Alice shuddered and rose, walking at a quick pace back towards the exit. In and out, simple as. She could get back to the hotel and tell Eric, he would figure something out and they'd get Sookie and Hugo out. Simple. It was so, so simple. She was glad that this quick trip out had gone as smoothly as it had.

Until it didn't.

Steven Newlin himself and a rather strong, tough looking man with large ears came in through the double doors she was about to exit. Alice balked, shocked at seeing the pair right there. Steve flashed a smile at her.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to startle ya! I heard you came in here to pray?"

"Yes… I did," Alice tried to smile back, but it was hard to without it looking fake. The man who was with Steve really didn't look friendly in the slightest. "I'm heading off now," she then said, managing to get past the two men and through the doors. "Thank you for allowing me in, it was wonderful."

She said that last part over her shoulder and then didn't look back as she tried to power walk out of there without looking too suspicious. Her heart was racing and Alice could only hope to get out of the perimeter before anything bad happened.

She kept telling herself it would be fine, but apparently even thinking that kind of reassurance turned her luck.

A rough hand grabbed her on the shoulder, trying to stop her, and the adrenaline immediately kicked in. Alice ran for her life, despite knowing that it was futile as the man was bound to be quicker than she was.

"She's with them!" Steve yelled from the church doors as she sprinted up the driveway towards the Main Street. "We'll toss her with the vampire!"

Alice was grabbed again and she lost her balance, falling to the ground and whacking her face pretty hard on the gravelly road as she did so. Pain exploded from her nose and she knew it was broken. She tried getting up but it was no use - he managed to get hold of her again and flip her over, delivering a few more punches to her face, the final one rendering her unconscious.

Alice came to a couple of hours later, with someone staring down at her in curiosity, wonder, heartbreak and surprise; the amount of emotions she saw in that teenage boy's face was something else entirely. She had never seen such a mixture. Immediately she backed off into the corner of the room, not keen on having him in her personal space.

He held out his hands in surrender, showing that he meant her no harm and smiled at her. Despite the situation they were both currently in, he was smiling?

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said. Alice was able to calm down a little after he spoke; his voice was soft with a European accent she couldn't detect. She couldn't get over how young he looked - particularly with the cropped dark hair, that didn't help. "You… look like someone I know - knew."

It started to click together in her head. "Rosalind. Oh my god, Godric!"

"I believe I know you too, sort of, Alice - why are you here?" Godric slowly approached and sat next to her. His ears were bleeding a little, which told Alice that the sun was still up. "You shouldn't be here."

"Eric brought me along - he didn't want me to come here, but I thought it was odd Sookie didn't come back last night, so I came here today."

"You shouldn't have come."

Alice shot him a look as if to say she had figured that out. "I keep doing stupid things because I worry about my friends. Apologies on that front," she said, almost bitter about her own personality. "Eric won't be too happy."

"If he has sense, he'll realise that he's being irrational," Godric said. "Besides, if he has sense, he'll be here after the sun goes down."

"You should rest; you shouldn't even be awake!"

"I had to see who had been put in here with me," he told her gently. "The scent was too familiar and strong for me not to wake up. I really cannot fathom how you look so much like Rose."

"Don't. We're not in a good situation, this isn't the time to get nostalgic. Please," Alice said, beginning to worry. She patted about her pockets and pulled out her phone. "They didn't do a good job. No signal, but… we've got about an hour until the sun sets. Please sleep."

"What if they come back? Alice… you're not exactly in good shape right now."

She frowned, and as she did so, finally noticed the pain around her eye and hissed a little. How did it take that long for her to realise? Perhaps there was still some adrenaline left in her body from the altercation earlier, or she was functioning on anxiety again. The latter was more believable to her, except it was all wearing off since she could feel where she was hurt now. Her jaw and neck hurt, which wasn't surprising - she probably had whiplash from that punch.

"If you stay awake, you're not exactly being clever. You won't be at full strength to fight anyone off!"

"I'm over two thousand years old. You'd be surprised at what I can do when not at full strength," he admitted, chuckling slightly.

Alice pulled down the sleeve of her cardigan, keeping tight hold of it in one hand and shuffling closer to Godric. "At least let me help you look a little more presentable," she said, and he tilted his head upwards ever so slightly so that she could wipe away some of the blood from his ear.

"Has Eric been touched by your kindness?" Godric wondered as Alice moved to the other side of him.

She paused for a moment and shrugged. "Sort of. He wasn't keen on the idea, but he… he accepted it nonetheless," she then murmured, starting on his other ear. "He's worried about you, Godric."

"I know he is."

"You could have easily gotten out of here yourself - why haven't you?"

He shifted uncomfortably as she finished up and sat back on her haunches. "Once you leave here, you cannot tell Eric what I'm about to tell you: I offered myself to the Fellowship in the hopes that I could prove something - that it would make things right."

Alice fell silent, trying to process what he was saying; she was unable to formulate a proper response to that. She couldn't keep that a secret from Eric - how could Godric ask her to? She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill out; when one did, Godric tentatively wiped it away with his thumb.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Keeping things from Eric should be my choice," she murmured, a faraway look on her face. "Don't ask me to keep your secrets, Godric. That's not fair on me. You need to tell Eric that."

"I know."

"What were they going to do to you, here?" she asked him quietly.

"Burn me."

Alice's face went taut. "Why would you willing hand yourself over if that's what they were going to do?"

"Two thousand years is a long time to be alive, Alice, and I fear for the rest of vampirekind. I believe it's my time to leave this Earth."

She was shaking her head, not having it - this was too much to be taking in at once, and she had to stop herself from fully crying. Alice kept herself calm, not wanting her now overwhelming sadness to find its way to Eric and worry him.

"I've only just met you," she said. "I have so many questions."

"And I will answer them all for you before it happens. I promise," Godric reassured her. "We have all night."

"If Eric has sense, he'll be here when the sun goes down," Alice pointedly repeated Godric's earlier words. "And he does have sense - if anything happened here when he's awake, he'd feel it because of me. He'd be here. We'd get out. You won't have to burn at the hands of the Fellowship."

"Rose was always that hopeful," he remarked. "I'm glad that trait has passed to at least one of you."

"Are you saying you've met my siblings?"

"I met all of you; you were about three though, so you won't remember. It had… been some time since I had last seen Rose. I had respectfully kept my distance after she and I parted ways, but she reached out to me," Godric began to explain. "Perhaps some bonds never fade - I felt her call to me one night. She needed help figuring out which of you four were going to be like her - well, she knew it wasn't Arthur. Unfortunately the three of you girls all looked far too similar, it would have been hard to tell for Rose which one of you would grow up to be like her."

"She was able to see that far ahead? But why ask you to help?"

He nodded. "The reason she asked me to help figure it out was because you smell different to a regular human. She must have kept up the practise over the years, probably to keep herself reassured about her own life. That side of your family want nothing but quiet lives."

"And look where I am now: in a basement of a church, talking to a vampire who is clearly still in love with my dead grandmother," Alice said dryly. She clapped a hand over her mouth, looking at Godric apologetically. He only raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Have you been picking up Eric's way with words by any chance?"

Alice lowered her hand. "Maybe a little. He was my first friend when I moved here," she confessed. "But in all seriousness… you still love her, don't you?"

"Sometimes when you fall for someone, you fall incredibly hard. It doesn't matter how long it could be without you seeing them; it doesn't matter how long it has been since you broke up with them; it doesn't matter who you may be in a relationship with at the present time, but there's always something in your heart - an everlasting love that will never go away. That person stays etched into your very soul forever. Rose is etched into my soul forever."

Again, despite the less than ideal situation they were in, Alice found it in her to smile at that. Godric had over two thousand years behind him - of course he had a way with words. He had explained it in a way that she understood, even though it was something that she hadn't personally felt yet.

"I want that," she ended up saying, and Godric lightly cupped her face.

"You do, but you just don't know it yet."

There was confusion decorating her face, and the vampire waited patiently as he lowered his hand until her expression changed to realisation.

"I'm not - I do not have that with Eric," Alice told him, her cheeks burning as she aggressively shook her head.

"Whenever you've mentioned him in our conversation your eyes sparkle. It's so very human of you."

"We're just friends. Really good friends."

"Who have shared blood, I presume?"

"For my own safety."

"So you don't deny that you've given him your blood? In what sense was that for your safety?" Godric teased her.

"I - well - we might have - wait - hold on. Aren't I meant to be the one asking you questions?" Alice managed to recover without confessing that she had had sex with his progeny. Either way - the fact she had started to suggest it was enough for Godric to make his guesses.

"Do friends usually partake in those kinds of activities with each other?"

Alice groaned. "Some friends do! That's why it's called friends with benefits… but that doesn't mean I love him - or will end up being in love with him. He's not the type, and I'm definitely not ready for love again."

Godric shrugged. "Not all love is romantic," he pointed out. "All the better for you to remain having a strong platonic love for my progeny despite being very aware of how good in bed he is."

"Wait… have you and Eric-"

"Of course."

"I probably should have guessed that by now," Alice laughed, and then caught herself as she remembered where they were. She checked her phone again. "Not long until sunset. What happens next? What do we do?"

"My first priority would be making sure you're out of here safe. Try and call out to Eric as much as you can - feel for him."

"That shouldn't be too hard… after we shared blood, I was able to feel what he was feeling."

"For someone like you, that was bound to happen. I'm not surprised - it happened with myself and Rose - I can explain it to you, when we're safe. That's a good thing for you, Alice, because it means he could call to you in a similar way a maker would call to their progeny," Godric said. "Use it to your advantage."

His energy seemed to be growing, and Alice knew the sun was almost down. She could wake Eric up and not feel too bad about it; before he woke up and realise she wasn't back. It was better if she somehow let him knew that she was in a sticky situation.

So Alice closed her eyes and thought of him, and thought of how worried she was to be in the basement under the Fellowship's church. She didn't want to be there, she was scared of what might happen to her and Godric.

A few moments later, she felt an overwhelming sense of calm coming from Eric; he was trying to soothe her. It was so powerful she clutched at her chest and took a deep breathe, doubling over.

"Are you alright?" Godric asked, putting an arm around her. She nodded and waited for it to pass before sitting upright again.

"Sometimes he sends everything in a large wave..." she said, still mildly breathless. "I can't deal with it when he does that, but I think he's on his way."

"Good." Godric then stood up, and listened out for something. "Alice, I think Sookie's in trouble."

"What?"

"I'll be back shortly, I promise." He headed towards the door and she got up to come after him.

"Don't leave me here-"

"Alice," he cut across her. "You're already hurt, and I don't want you to be any worse off. Please. I'll be back, alright?"

She backed off and nodded.

Godric smashed the door open and ran off, leaving Alice on her own. It was stupid, but maybe she could make her own way out. Nobody had come to check if Godric had drained her, because she knew that's what they had been hoping for.

Cautiously she made her way to the door, and peered out into the dimly lit hallway. There was nobody around, and so Alice creeped down the hallway towards a staircase.

That's where she got unlucky.

She was about three feet from it when Steve Newlin came down.

They both stared at each other, not entirely sure what to do.

That was when she started running with the man hot on her heels. He was marginally taller and faster than Alice, and managed to catch up. He grabbed her by the collar of her cardigan and she fell to the ground.

Alice leaned up on her elbows as Newlin crouched down to talk to her.

"Oh, you ain't getting away that easy, Miss Carter."

She froze, absolutely petrified that he knew her name on top of everything else. He knew he had frightened her, and hauled her up by the arm to lead her out of the basement. Alice went with him crying silently, wishing she had just stayed put.

Yeeeee boiiiiii Godric! An unconventional way for him to meet Alice, but... I preferred it this way.

anonymouscsifan: I'm glad you think what I'm doing with Eric/Alice is natural! Sometimes I feel like Eric can be a little OOC, but then I remember he only shows intense loyalty and kindness to someone he likes. And he likes Alice. Godric has like 70% of the answers in regards to Alice's ability and side effects etc. which will all be explained in due time. :) Hope you're having a nice week!

Comment?

-OL.