"So this is a human thing that tells you of the baby?" Jorah asked turning one pregnancy test over in his hand. "I do not see how. There is no magic that I can sense."

I could barely hear him. I'd taken three tests and all of them had been positive. I'd barely set down the fourth test when it gave me the same result. I stared at it willing what I saw to change. It didn't.

The panic that I had been keeping at bay engulfed me in full. Jorah hugged me and it was such a strange fucking scene. We were seated on my bathroom floor. He had his arms around and my face in my hands as I bawled uncontrollably.

"This is expected. The emotions will be very difficult at first." Jorah said, rubbing my arm. "Thalia cried constantly."

He didn't get it. I wasn't hysterical because of hormones. The idea that there was life growing inside me was too much for words. There was this overwhelming feeling of joy but fear and uncertainty was right there too.

"Eric doesn't want this." I said.

Jorah waved his hand dismissively. "The old ones, they all have this thinking."

"What thinking?" I asked confused.

"Their pasts are horror stories that they themselves barely survived and so they think themselves not only broken but ruined beyond all recall."

I didn't have all the gory details but I knew that that was true for Eric. His mother taking her own life was his greatest pain and his deepest shame. I couldn't imagine every act of abuse that she had suffered that Eric had witnessed. I certainly couldn't imagine finding a home that was free from war and then having it finding me all over and feeling like it was my fault.

"I don't know how they lived through all that for thousands of years." I admitted.

"They have hope." He said. "Arguably you and I are married to the oldest in the Wild. They did not choose us idly. We are the best for them. Their pasts, it is nothing to the future that they can have with us."

I didn't know why I expected Jorah to react with understanding. "You can't just disregard someone's past. It shapes them and more often than not it scars them."

"Agreed but is not their past the very reason they made the Wild home? Is it not the abundance of pain and tragedy within it that propels them to defend it still?" He asked.

Well, he had me there.

After I cleaned myself up, Jorah made tea. He wasn't very talkative but his mood was scores better than mine. It probably had to with all the bad TV he was watching. I was million miles away.

Half of me was worrying about Eric and the fate of the survivors of the Jade Coven. The other half was froth with anxiety over my baby news. It still felt so surreal to me.

"I wish to test drive the automobile." Jorah suddenly announced.

"I don't think that's a good idea." I said. "You've never driven before, have you?"

"It cannot be very difficult." He replied, waving me off. "I have seen it done many times."

"In the car commercials we watched."

Jorah was already up. He grabbed the keys off the table and was out the door before I could stop him. I cringed internally. This wasn't going to end well, I just knew it. There was nothing I could do about it so I gave him pointers as he got into the driver's seat.

"Remember just press on the gas with the tiniest pressure like it's an egg." I cautioned.

I would like to think that Jorah heard me but as the engine purred to life, he stomped on the gas with the gear still in park. The engine roared and tired spun and he laughed delightedly.

"Be careful." I called. "If you kill yourself, Thalia will totally kill me."

He laughed. "This is easier than riding horses."

Having never ridden a horse, I didn't really know if that was the same but I could imagine the comparison. Jorah took off and at first he did 'Donuts' on my rickety drive way and even that was shaky. Seeing that he couldn't hurt anyone, I couldn't be mad. After a little while, Jorah seemed to get the hang of it.

The ancient Egyptian was whipping the SUV around faster than what was normal but having superior reflexes kept the car from slipping and skidding. He was happy as he drove and I was happy watching. Hearing his excited whoops made me forget all our worries. Then he lost control of the car.

He broke off from the harmless circle pattern. The velocity stayed the same. Suddenly, the car turned into a projectile that was headed toward the house and me as I was still seated on the left side of the porch. Instinct moved me to my feet to run from harm's way but it was unnecessary. Jorah was out of the car and had his arms around me. When my eyes opened, we were both watching the car smash into half of the porch. This was a perfect moment to tell him how bad he was at driving. Our eyes met and we just laughed.

"I could not stop." He commented. "Perhaps it was not as easy as I presumed."

That much was obvious but I didn't care about that.

"Not it." I called.

I knew he didn't understand but that was the point. I wasn't going to be the one to explain this to his spouse or mine. He didn't seem at all bothered by the prospect. Normally, I would worry myself sick about the damage to the house and the car. In this instance, I couldn't care less. Jorah was okay and everything else was replaceable.

I knew that most people that knew Jorah thought him to be difficult but I found him comforting. He was the sort of person that bored a telepath. He was unapologetic in all that he was. I knew that he only smiled when he felt it. To see him this okay with Thalia gone was encouraging. We helped each other. There was something about sharing that worry with someone that was living it too that made it harder to fall apart.

Sure it had taken him destroying a car and half my house and my baby news but Jorah was smiling. He was still very proud of himself about his first time behind the wheel when I called Earl the mechanic. He even waved his middle fingers at him much like he had Dawn. After I finished laughing I explained to him how that was okay for Dawn and not Earl.

After dinner Jorah and I were watching more television when the back door opened. Jorah was up and out of his seat as if it was on fire.

"What happened to the house and where is the car?"

Seeing my husband eased something me that I didn't know was aching.

I pointed to Jorah in response and he was already pulling his wife to the door. I sighed. It was only after they had left that I realized how troubled Eric was.

He came over to the couch where I was and laid his head in my lap. I caressed his face but said nothing. I simply let him take all that he needed from me.

"I saw Freyda." He said. "She personally led the attack on the Jade Coven. She wanted me to see what she had done. She wanted to provoke me."

"I'm sorry, Sweetheart."

I held him tighter as if I could squeeze the pain right out of him. I knew I couldn't but I tried. I didn't know how long we were like that.

"Many people do not know this but Freyda and me, we are twins." He said. "She is my elder sister but only by four minutes. I often wondered if I'd been older, if everything would have been different."

"Baby, I don't see how." I told him honestly.

"When my father died, Freyda was to take her place as Queen, I challenged her. I fought her and I won. I should have killed her. It would have saved so many lives. I knew this even then. Yet, as I stood over her, all I saw was my mother. I couldn't kill her and so I banished her instead."

I couldn't fathom such a thing.

"I made my rule one that my mother would be proud of. Freyda came back after a thousand years and in one night, she reduced it nothing. Again, I fought her and again instead of killing her, I let her go with a promise that if ever again, we clash swords one of us would die. I fear that that day will be soon."

That was alarming. Regardless of how much Freyda hated everything the Wild stood for, Freyda was yet to attack it head on. What would it mean if that suddenly changed?

"Why do you think that?" I asked. "Did she say something?"

He shook his head. "This wasn't the first time I have seen her over the ages and easily as I can read her thoughts she can read me. The last time our paths crossed she knew something was wrong with me. Today I think she came hoping whatever that thing was, made me weak enough for her to finally test her might against my will."

"She left disappointed then." I said confidently.

"Yes but in her mind I saw something I've never seen before; fear. She can feel it. Freyda can feel her reign weakening. It is ironic really; the same humans that are deemed worthless are the instrument to her downfall."

"How?" I wondered.

"Human innovation and ingenuity shapes this world, we must all adapt. Over the years, even the most intolerant Purebred houses have evolved to value their wealth and their comforts over spilling the blood of those they deem beneath them. Houses that are allied with her are raising their children to be CEO's, and businessmen not soldiers. I think she believed that striking a blow at the Wild even if only to kill me would rally her supporters. Finding me well has made her desperate. Telling her I was married to a human infuriated her; perhaps enough to risk open war."

"She will lose." I murmured.

He nodded. "Her defeat will be swift, sound and merciless is she brings war to my home." He replied firmly.

No matter how much it hurt him, I knew he would put nothing before his home and his family.

The silence continued but it wasn't as heavy as it had been. After a while he began to relax and soon he was fast asleep with his head in my lap. I knew that he probably hadn't had any amount of rest in the short time that he had been away. Everything I had to tell him could wait.

Hearing about his sister made me wonder if that was the reason why he didn't want children. His child would be her niece or nephew. Was that what he was really afraid of? My thoughts were still in a snarl as the soft groaning of my back door intruded on the silence of the home.

Since my immersion into the world of vampires, the sound had become synonymous with Wildlings coming to call. I was expecting a void but what I got was a mind so full of jealousy, anger and hate that it was barely recognizable.

I heard her mind and all her malicious thoughts. In that instant everything that I had chalked up as accidents had been intentional attempts to remove me from Eric's life.

It had all been her and she had done so thinking she and my husband belonged together. Instead of sheer fury, I felt bad that someone that was normally so level had suddenly become so unbalanced.

The truck nearly running me over at Arlene's wedding hadn't been an accident. It had been Dawn. The reason Jorah had crashed the car hadn't been because it was his first time driving. Dawn had cut the brakes to the car.

Tonight she had broken into the house to poison my favorite beverage, coffee. She had hung around Eric enough to know that he didn't drink it. I hated to do it but I woke Eric. Dawn was after all his wannabe mistress.

"Dawn is trying to kill me." I said.

He frowned and swatted at me. "That is not funny."

He wasn't amused well that made two of us. That was one of the drawbacks of being able to shield your mind if you were a telepath. After the onslaught, you shut out everything. That was why we had both missed this.

I knew when Eric registered the presence in the house. It didn't alarm him. He seemed curious until he saw exactly what I was seeing in Dawn's mind. A cold kind of fury stole the expression from his face. His whole body was vibrating. I took his hand to comfort him but mainly to keep him next to me. His fists balled at his sides and I knew he was thinking about killing her.

"Calm down." I cautioned. "I don't think it's her fault, listen."

We both watched Dawn through her own mind as she poisoned my coffee with eye drops. She thought that removing me even if only for a little while would make Eric want her. Her actions felt justified because she had seen me in town with Jorah. She knew what I had bought…

"This is my fault, I think." Eric said.

He walked into the kitchen to face her and I followed. At first Dawn was panicked to be caught red-handed. There was no anger or even judgment as Eric went to take her hand and led her to the table. I watched and listened as he attempted to reason with a crazy person.

"Dawn, we are suffering a severe lapse in understanding." Eric began gently.

Dawn clung to Eric's hand and shook her head vehemently. Her coppery brown hair swung and it did nothing to ease the manic almost desperate expression on her face. I just stood off against the door jamb wondering why I wasn't fighting the urge to hit her over the head with my heaviest pan.

"No, we can be together." She said. "You want to be with me. I can make you happy. I wouldn't be unfaithful to you with anyone, not like Sookie. Everyone knows she was in love with Sam and then the other Fella she went to the general store with. She was buying pregnancy tests and the baby isn't yours. It can't be."

I've never had the urge to kill before but I was mighty tempted in that moment. It spoke of the trust and faith that Eric had in me. He didn't even seem to hear Dawn. I could see the look of concentration on his face as gently but her under his thrall.

"Why do you believe I want you?" he asked.

"In the car, the way you kissed me was everything I ever wanted." She replied with a dreamy smile.

I could see the truth in her mind. I could even see the gaps that glamour had caused. In Dawn's mind she was indeed kissing Eric but the memory was almost too bright as if to blur out the truth.

Before biting her he put her under thrall to make sure she was calm and thinking happy things. The happy thing she had been thinking about was him. Even after he compelled her to forget the bite that memory of being happy with him had stayed. It had grown like a virus that had infected her mind. If I saw that I knew Eric did as well. He seemed genuinely remorseful.

"I have not fed from a human in a very long time." He said frowning. "I did not bury the encounter properly."

"What about me?" I asked.

"Love bites." He replied. "I bite you and share my blood when we make love it isn't painful and we are both very much aware."

Oh.

"The fixation must have been driving her mad. This behavior is strange for her, no?"

I nodded. Dawn was a lot of things but this level of depraved was not one of them.

Just like that I went from wanting and wishing I could punch Dawn to feeling sorry for her. I sat quietly as Eric tried to undo the damage a single interaction had caused.

"She will need to sleep here so I can be certain she is well." He said.

I nodded. As Eric finished up with Dawn, I made up the guest bedroom. I was still making the bed when I heard Dawn laugh and she sounded like the Dawn I had known. Her mind was conveniently mirroring that of an inebriated person but she was still her. The venom and jealousy that I had witnessed, the same one that had driven her to want to do me harm was gone.

"Sook don't gotta make me a bed." Dawn giggled. "The sofa woulda been plenty fine."

"You know that she would never." Eric said, as he helped her toward the room.

"I know. She's so nice." Dawn inserted.

When she saw me, she greeted me with a great big hug. "Sookie! Thanks for coming to pick me up, Hon."

"Sure thing, Dawn."

Together Eric and I laid her down and waited for her to fall asleep. It didn't take long. Her obsession had affected her sleep which only made things worse. When we were finally in bed, I wanted to tell Eric I was pregnant but the moment didn't seem right with Dawn here. I promised myself that I would do it the morning when she was gone and we were alone.

"What's wrong?" Eric asked, turning me around in his arms.

"Nothing," was my hasty reply

"Liar."

This was the point where I would usually smile and give him a sarcastic reply. I just couldn't manage it. I was happy that we were going to have a baby and I wanted him to be happy too. I didn't know if I would be able to handle it if he wasn't. Facing him now and feeling how much he loved me it quelled the worse of my anxiety.

"When you told me that you didn't want to have children because you didn't want to pass on your name, I don't think that's true at least not entirely."

"Why does this trouble you now?"

"It troubles you." I replied. "I honestly don't see how someone like you doesn't want children. I just think that you're afraid because of Freyda."

His expression closed off and I knew I was right.

"I don't get it. Why?"

"We are twins. Whatever turned her into this murderous thing is in us both."

That was what he was afraid of not himself or his name but having a child that was like his sister. My heart hurt for him. Pressure either created diamonds or dust. Under the pressures of the time and father and life that he had had Eric turned into a diamond and his sister turned to dust. She had crumbled and gave into hate. That wasn't hereditary.

I hugged him.

"I love you and our baby couldn't ask for a better father."

He pulled away and stared at me in confusion. "Our baby?"

"I'm pregnant."

If I had to put a label on his expression it was excited and nervous and somewhat confused. "I don't understand…how? You are human…the odds—"

I kissed him.

"I couldn't be happier." I said. "Shut up and be happy with me too."

He smiled. "I am. I will always be happy with you."