Everly - I agree with what you said about their communication which is why I have made it such a big part of this story – I've been trying to get them to improve and work through it. Don't want to talk about DL too much here incase people are still reading it but feel free to PM me if you want to discuss. Now I wouldn't say Sookie is all forgiving to Sam – but we will see more of that stuff next chapter. Something else popped up in this one.

SPOV

"Northman," Sam says as he walks into the room. "I would appreciate it if you would leave for a bit. I need to talk with my wife."

I am not quite sure if the anger that runs through me is my own or if what I am feeling is Eric's. As I am angry at the way Sam just stormed in here and I am sure Eric is angry at his words, it must be a combination of feelings from the both of us.

As I start to open my mouth to tell Sam just how I feel at the moment, Eric manages to first by saying, "I think you said everything you had to say to my wife back at Freyda's compound."

"Then let me rephrase," Sam bites out. "I need to talk to the woman the state actually recognizes that I am married to."

At that Eric lets out a bit of a growl at Sam's as I say, "Gee Sam, you make our marriage sound oh so magical when you put it like that. Just a girls dream."

"The state may recognize yours however, that does not mean it is more important or meaningful," Eric growls out.

"Yeah yours was so meaningful you left your wife miserable while you married another just to up your damn status," Sam barks out.

"How dare you," I scream at Sam. "You know Eric didn't have any other choice. He could have been put to death if he hadn't and I would not have allowed that to happen. You on the other hand, have a choice and yet are choosing to act like a fucking asshole."

At that, two things happen. I see Sam deflate a bit as his shoulders start to sag and he runs a hand through his hair. The second is my scary but kind nurse comes in. "Do I have to remind you that you are in a hospital?" she asks. "You are to keep your voices down otherwise Ms. Stackhouse will not be allowed any visitors."

"Why am I being punished?" I ask understanding I sound like a three year old.

"Was it not just you calling your visitor a 'fucking asshole' rather loudly?" she retorts.

"Fine," I say sheepishly. "We will keep it down."

As she walks out, I pull Eric closer to me and look towards Sam. When he doesn't say anything else, I ask him, "Well did you have an actual reason for coming Sam? I mean other than just being cruel?"

"There are things that we need to talk about Sook," he says looking over at Eric.

"Eric doesn't have to leave Sam. What you have to say to me, you can say in front of him."

"You can't blame me for not wanting to discuss our marriage in front of him Sookie. It's none of his business."

"I beg to differ Sam. I think it involves him a great deal so I would put that under his business. Eric doesn't have to go anywhere."

"Sookie, our marriage is between you and me. It's not you, me, and Eric. This is something we have to figure out by ourselves."

I don't answer Sam. Instead, I focus on the feelings from I am getting from Eric. He's unsure of something. It's a quick flash but I feel it.

Eric quietly leans down and kisses my cheek before whispering in my ear, "I will go. This is a decision I need you to make on your own."

I grab onto his arm as he goes to leave and he tries to shake me off but has to be gentle so I don't fall off the bed.

"Eric, what are you talking about? I've made my decision. What would make you think that I haven't?" I ask him confused on where his feelings are coming from.

You would never know how he's feeling just by looking at him. On the outside he is the poster child of calm, cool, and collected. But the feelings I am getting from him are anything but. Never taking my eyes off Eric, I tell Sam, "Sam I can't talk to you right now. Can you give Eric and I some space?"

"So I don't get to speak to you alone, but you'll kick me out for him."

"Sam if that is how you want to look at it, yes that is what I am doing."

"Sookie we need to talk about this…" Sam starts off.

"Agreed," I tell him. "But it doesn't have to be right now. Just give us a half hour Sam." Sam doesn't say a word as he storms out of the room. I close my eyes for a second dreading the fact that I will have to talk to him at some point. I then put all my focus on Eric.

"Eric, what's wrong?" I ask him. He gets out of my grasp so quickly I don't even realize he's done it until he's on the other side of the room. He doesn't say a word though. His silence is killing me.

"Say something. Anything. Tell me what's wrong. Tell me you need time. Tell me to fuck off. Just say something please."

He takes a deep, unneeded breath, and says softly, "You pushed me away."

Not what I was expecting. Thinking back to the conversation with Sam, I couldn't think of when he was referring to. Then it hits me. He's talking about when I physically pushed him away when I woke up. When I was worried I had been turned. I knew something had been bothering him at the time, but I was too disoriented to figure it out.

"Eric," I say quietly. "Will you come here please?" He doesn't move or say anything. I am tempted to try to get out of bed as that would get him to come closer, but don't want that to be the reason for contact with him.

"This happened yesterday. What made it bother you now?" I ask him trying to figure out what's going on in his head.

"Would you go back to Sam?"

"No," I say truthfully and without hesitation. "Why would you think that?"

He finally heads over to the bed and sits on it while saying, "Something Sam said about you two figuring things out. He said it as if there was a chance the two of you would get back together."

I sigh, and swing my legs off the bed so I could sit next to him. I put my head on his shoulder and say, "Things with Sam haven't been right for awhile. As much as I wish we could have come to the decision differently, like not when we are being held captive, it's a decision we would have reached soon anyway."

I can tell that he has found little comfort in my words. "What else is it, Eric."

"Why did you push me away?" he asks in a voice I can barely hear.

I take a deep breath and start to explain, "I woke up disoriented and thinking I had been turned. Having you hold me, knowing that's a step in the process, added to my panic. You were holding me down I just needed to be able to move."

"You love me," he states. I am glad it's not a question.

"You know I do. You can feel it again," I tell him, not entirely sure where he is going with this.

"That is where my confusion comes in. How can you love me if you are disgusted by what I am?" he asks.

That's why he thought I didn't want to be a vampire? Thinking about it, I guess it makes sense from his perspective, but he couldn't be further from the reason. And now I dreaded the conversation I was going to have to have.

My back is starting to hurt from sitting up for so long and I move to lay and pull Eric down with me, facing me. As happy as it makes me, part of me is surprised when he lets me. I bring his hand to my lips and kiss it before saying, "I am not disgusted by you or what you are. That is not why I panicked and that is not why I haven't wanted to be turned in the past."

I take a deep breath and tell him, "I don't like it when I don't have a choice in things. When things feel forced on me." I feel him tense next to me and take it to mean he understands where I am coming from.

"The last thing I remembered when I woke up is Sam telling you to turn me. Then you apologized and leaned over me. When I woke up, I couldn't see anything. I couldn't move. I thought this was just one more thing done to me – before I was ready to choose it. I didn't get a chance to choose it. That's why I panicked."

"But if you choose it," Eric starts but I keep him quiet by kissing him. I meant it to be quick and chaste, but he must have other ideas as his tongue slips in to battle with mine. I pull away and tell him, "Even if I choose to be a vampire, I'm scared that would be my last choice for a while."

"What do you mean?"

"Well without even getting into the political headache of it all," I pause before continuing, "Makers get to control their children."

"I would never," he says sounding certain.

I shake my head and tell him, "You would if it was to protect or teach me. You would and I would expect you to."

"If you understand that, that it would always be for your protection, then what is the problem?"

"Do you understand that if I never say yes to being a vampire that I will die?"

He stiffens into to me and slowly nods. "Does knowing that, understanding that, help?" He shakes his head. "It's like that for me too. Knowing something, understanding the why of it all, doesn't make it any easier to accept."

Eric stretches out his arm, I turn to face him resting my head on his arm right below his chin. We stay like that quiet for a few minutes then Eric asks, "This fear of not being able to make a choice, it is because of your uncle correct?"

I nod into him and respond, "I believe everyone likes to make their own choices but not being able to stop him, not having my saying no make any difference to him, I'm sure is a part of my feelings."

"You are far stronger than I give you credit for," he tells me. I look up at him questioningly. "I have had centuries to come to terms with certain events of my vampire upbringing," he said. "And I have yet to fully understand how it has affected me. You have had far less time and seem to have a better grasp of the impact it has had on you."

"I had my Gran. I wish there was someone like her for you, Eric," I tell him. He went through it alone. I didn't have to.

"I do," he says placing a kiss to my hair. "It just took me awhile to find you."

I smile at him and mutter, "Quite the charmer," before leaning up to kiss him. He responded in a heated, needing way. Kissing down my neck, he starts to gently roll me on my back, but I resist remembering my injury. That seems to remind him and he quickly shifts to his back, pulling me on top of him.

I bring my hands down his chest and slide them under his shirt. As his teeth find the flimsy knot holding my gown together, he manages to undo the knot, his mouth never leaving my neck. With a bit more freedom from the open gown, he starts to kiss his way down my chest, as I ignore the slight pain in my back as I arch into him.

Suddenly I hear, "I suppose I could always come back later, but of course where would the fun it that be. Well, for me at least there would be no fun."

EPOV

As much affection as I had for my child, she has horrible timing. "Mind your manners, Pam," I tell her as I fix Sookie's gown and retie the knot."

"Always mind the ones you taught me, Master," she says. I give her a look as I carefully roll Sookie off me.

The look seems to do its job as Pam says, "I know you are eager to know what happened but I can always tell you tomorrow."

"No, now is fine Pam," I tell her, getting off the bed. "It certainly did not seem like the war Freyda was planning and I would like to know why."

"We were lucky to suspect what her plans were before Sookie confirmed them on the phone," Pam explains. "Which is a big part of why her plans were not fulfilled."

"How did you suspect her plans?" I asked curious about how they would know just how much power Freyda was after. I had the most contact with her as her husband and I had no idea.

"After you called me, I had started rallying our people in Shreveport in case we had needed to get in quick. You felt relatively calm but who knew how long that was going to last. Then the shifter came. I have to say he was quite annoying. It took all of my self control," Pam says.

"And you have oh so much," Sookie cuts her off with a grin.

"Easy there, my dear fairy, otherwise I just may forget about how much I have missed you all these years and cancel our shopping trip."

"Oh no, Pam. Not the shopping trip," Sookie says placing her hand over her heart in fake horror.

"Ladies," I interrupt them with my own smile at their playful banter, "can we get back to the task at hand please? I do need to know of any repercussions to our little situation."

The two share a glance, and I discover I certainly will be missing them not being together to gang up on me. With me having Sookie be the trade off though, it is something I will easily live with.

"Anyway," Pam starts to continue with her story. "The shifter showed at Fangtasia and was about to have him escorted off the property until I got close to him."

"And you smelled Eric on him," Sookie supplied.

"Under the strong, horrific scent of wet dog, yes I managed to smell Eric on him. He explained Eric wasn't with Freyda by choice and Sookie was there as well. Which was when I contacted Niall," Pam says giving me a pointed look.

"Niall helped with this whole thing? Where was he then? Why wasn't he helping at the battle?"

I sit back on the bed and tell Sookie, "He was there, Lover. He was helping the best he could."

"Well then where is he? He wouldn't have helped to get me out of there and then not come see me."

I hesitate before starting to tell her, "He was trying to keep the Fae out of the fight fully. He understood that Freyda wanted both side to wipe each other out. This would eliminate a great deal of Fae in her Area and allow her to take some sort of control due to their small numbers. He also managed to hold off Marcus for a time to allow me to get to you when Freyda took you back to the library."

I see it start to dawn in her face what happened to her great grandfather. "Eric, it was just the three of us in there and you killed Freyda. How did I get stabbed?"

I look quickly at Pam who moves to sit on the bed. "Marcus is the one who stabbed you Sookie."

Hearing it, Sookie closes her eyes and brings her knees to her chest. I wrap my arms around her and Pam places a hand on her shoulder. Niall and Sookie may not have been the closest of relatives but to her he was family and family was beyond important to her.

"Did anyone see how?" Sookie asks not opening her eyes.

"Unfortunately not," Pam says.

A tear slips down her face as Sookie asks, "Dermot. How is he?"

"He has seemed fine. He has been busy dealing with everything with Niall's passing," I tell her. "Both Dermot and Claude watched over you during the day when I could not. They then had to go back to start handling Niall's affairs."

Sookie pauses for a few seconds before asking Pam, "What happened after you contacted Niall? Freyda told us the two of them were involved at some point."

"Sookie I can talk this out with Pam after you fall asleep and then explain it to you tomorrow. We do not have to do this now."

"We may as well," she responds. "I want to know what happened."

Pam looks at me and I give her a nod to tall her to continue. "It appears Freyda had grand plans for control even back when she was with Niall. She tried to use him to help with the Fae to further her own agenda. Apparently, it was why he stayed out of the war for so long. He had grown to care for her and didn't want to leave her. On top of knowing she has had plans to use the Fae before, Niall was also aware of the current issues Freyda had with the Fae in her state. It was enough to have us think Freyda wanted to use Sookie to get the Fae involved. Especially, when Niall felt a blood offense occurred."

"Freyda knew the Fae would not have a choice to try and avenge a blood death. Especially one of the royal line.

"Exactly," Pam continues. "We also knew Freyda dealt extensively with werewolves. She has more on staff and in her retinue than vampires. So we knew she would most likely be using several packs, bringing them into a battle. Then of course, vampires. She had to have known Felipe would come after Eric with once he realized what was truly going on. Once we knew how many factions were involved, it wasn't too difficult to figure out what her goal was."

"When did you involve Felipe?" I asked her.

"I contacted him after you called me to warn him I thought there was something wrong."

"And you had him call once you felt all the pain Eric was in," Sookie says.

"I did. He was with me at that point having spoken to Merlotte himself. He was quite upset to hear you were taken as well, Sookie," Pam says.

"I am sure he was," I say softly still not liking the contact he had with Sookie through the years. Needing to know some more information. "What happened with the Weres? Most of them backed out of the fight."

"And you were able to sneak the one spy in," Sookie added.

"The spy was one of Alcide's pack. Alcide wanted to send someone in, and I had hoped Eric would recognize Colin from working with us before. As for why most of Freyda's Weres backed out of the fight – Alcide called them about an hour before we were set to attack and spoke to the pack masters. We didn't want them to have too much time to talk to Freyda. He said you were a friend to his pack and he hoped the situation could be resolved without starting a war to get you out safely. They were not exactly pleased they had been used. Freyda is lucky they didn't turn on her completely. Only some Weres refused their pack masters order to stand down. They were taken care of quite easily."

I take that in. The war Freyda had hoped for had not happened because of quick planning behind the scenes. Pam did her best to eliminate the other factions before the battle happened once she understood what was going on. There was just one more bit of information I needed. "The Arizona vampires. You said they were not a problem. Why?"

"Short answer is Felipe," Pam said.

I take that in. "And the long answer?" I ask her confused on how Felipe was the solution.

Pam gives me a look. "Felipe was concerned once he found out that Freyda was probably using you for something. His concern grew once he knew Sookie was there and had to call Freyda to stop your beating."

"Exactly how concerned, Pam?" I asked.

"You really don't give him enough credit," she says to which Sookie elbows me in my side. "He was concerned enough to contact the clan elders," Pam explains giving me a sharp look.

"I'm guessing that's a big thing huh?" Sookie asks.

I nod still stunned Felipe took it that far. Pam keeps talking through my silence. "Felipe knew the odds of getting you out safely were slim if there was an all out war. He also knew of Arizona's interest in the territory and his allegiance with Freyda. He wanted more help to get you out. He contacted the Amun clan elders knowing they would not be pleased with a plot that would take quite a few states under their control and add them to Zeus."

"The Amun elders then contacted Zeus to inform them of the clan wars that would erupt if this plot wasn't stopped. A state under Zeus had technically kidnapped two of Amun's retinue. Highly important revenue as it is. Zeus wasn't the most eager to step in but with a little not so gentle prodding, Felipe managed to get them to tell Arizona to cease and desist. He knew with the other planned precautions if the threat of Arizona was eliminated, Freyda's chances of winning were very low."

"And the cost to Felipe for the clan's help?" I ask, wondering how much it would cost me.

"He wouldn't say. You have to talk with him about what you are going to do here, Eric. I have been doing my best but there needs to be a permanent solution made soon," Pam says.

I walk around to Pam and embrace her, letting her feel just how proud and thankful I am to her. Releasing her from the hug, I place a kiss to her forehead and say, "I could not be more proud of you. You have exceeded my high expectations for you. You have done very well."

"I learned from the best, Master," she replies.

"Even I cannot take credit for all that you did. I give the credit to you."

Sookie then says, "Yes Pam. We wouldn't have gotten out of there without you. I very much appreciate it."

Pam quickly thanks us for our words and gives and excuse for why she has to leave. I know however, that she just doesn't want us to see how much our words affected her.

I get back into the bed and pull Sookie to me. "I am sorry about Niall," I tell her.

She nods into my head and whispers, "Thank-you. He was fighting for me. Yet someone else who died because of me."

"I am sure you were a great motivating factor in Niall participating in the battle," I tell her. "He would have anyway to save his people. Freyda was setting them up for decimation."

"Doesn't make it easier to accept."

"No I suppose it does not."

"I guess Sam isn't coming back tonight. It's been about two hours since he left."

"Are you that eager to talk with him."

"To talk with him? Not when he showed up here like he did. Need to talk to him? Yes. The sooner I do, the sooner we can settle everything."

"Sookie?" I want to ask her a question but I am hoping it does not start a fight.

"Yeah."

"Is your choice still no?"

She sighs and starts to say, "I just need time," but she's cut off with a pop and suddenly Dr. Ludwig is in the room.

"That, my dear, is something you may have more of thank you think," she says.

Lots of information in this chapter. I was hoping to get the stuff with Sam out of the way but insecure Eric wanted to come out and play. Couple more things to wrap up. One or two chapters left than the epilogue. It all depends how the edit of the next chapter goes. As always thanks for reading and taking the time to review for those who are.