For some reason, Alice was sad to wake up alone the next morning. The only reason she knew she was alone was because of the warm breeze floating through her open window, and the gentle rays of the morning sun drifting across her face. For a second, she forgot about the events of the previous night and took delight in the fact that it was the weekend - she had time to herself at last.

Then as she wandered downstairs in a sweet little daydream, the sight of the boarded up front door made last night's events come rushing back to her and she froze on the bottom step, gripping the bannister of the stairway tightly. Clenching her jaw, Alice tried to ignore it as she headed through to the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast.

Regardless of what she did that day, she couldn't take her mind off the door. Alice realised that if she wanted to go anywhere, she'd have to go out the back and walk round to the front of her house. That was a lot of effort she wasn't sure she wanted to put in.

Either way, what if there were wolves after her during the day time? Who would help her if she got into a tight spot? It was times like these she realised that having human friends in the area would have worked more in her favour; all the ones she knew were in Bon Temps.

Her heart rate starting to go up, Alice pushed the thoughts to the bad of her mind and calmed herself. She couldn't get into a state now, there was no point. She should just stay inside, and it would be fine. She kept telling herself that to keep calm, and it worked. Breakfast went smoothly, her morning routine went by without an anxious incident, and she decided it would be best to do something relaxing like sit and read a book up in her room.

There was something at the bad of her mind telling her to keep upstairs for as long as she could, except it made the day pass painfully slowly.

There was no getting rid of the niggling feeling at the back of her mind that something was going to go horrifically wrong today. She didn't even have Eric or Godric to help her in the day if it did go south.

Her foot tapping incessantly on the bed as she read, Alice couldn't focus on the words on the page in front of her. A shame, really, because these Patrick Melrose novellas were pretty good, and she couldn't even fucking concentrate on them. Still, she kept trying her best.

Around six o'clock, something changed.

The breeze drifting through her window seemed to get a little chillier as the sun began to say goodbye for the day. She wandered over to the window to close it, noticing a dog lying at the entrance of her driveway. She frowned, realising that the dog was familiar to her, and grabbed a blanket before heading downstairs and out through the back door.

She came round to the front of the house, where the dog stood up and turned its attention to her, wagging his tail and panting happily.

"Hey, Sam," she said, holding out the blanket and turning her head away as he shifted back into his human form. He made himself look decent enough by wrapping the blanket around his waist, and then they sat on the porch together.

"You're probably wondering why I'm here," he said.

"Eric?" she offered, and Sam nodded, a small smile on his face.

"I owed him one," he explained. "Apparently you had a bit of a break in last night…"

She squirmed uncomfortably. "Something like that, yes."

"You're lucky Eric managed to call me when I was back here, otherwise you'd be on your own."

"Where were you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Arkansas. It's a long story, cher," Sam replied. "But he called me just before dawn. Asked to keep an eye on you today if I got the time - to be honest, I was looking for an excuse to get out the bar for a bit this evening."

Alice nodded, not sure how to digest what she was being told. "I was worried I'd be on my own. I didn't realise Eric had actually thought about someone being here in the daytime."

"As much as I might dislike the guy…" Sam started. "I can't fault him for how he looks out for ya."

"It's a bit more than that now, I think I can safely say."

"And how'd you feel about that?"

She shrugged. "It's complicated for now. There's things going on that… that are just making it harder to be whatever it is we want to be. I just find it strange I was able to fall for him so quickly after… let's just say after the mess that made me leave England."

Before he could say anything else, he became incredibly alert and sniffed the air. That made Alice incredibly uneasy.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Get back inside," Sam warned her, and she didn't need telling twice.

Running round to the back of her house, Alice realised that she should have just broken into her own home via one of the front windows.

There were two wolves and a man in her back garden, and she screamed.

While Sam came bounding through in dog form and heading straight for the man, the two wolves went for him.

The man went for Alice, who kicked and yelled and tried to break out of his grip but to no avail - it only took a few punches for him to subdue her, and it made her vision go all fuzzy. Her head was pounding.

As she was dragged out to the front of the house - where someone had pulled up in a car - the last thing she saw before blacking out for a second was Sam desperately trying to run after her. The only thing was that the wolves overtook him easily, and soon enough they were in the car with her. Crying, she tried to get out, but they were all back in human form and much bigger than her. It was easy for them to shut the doors and lock them.

Once they had set off they didn't even bother trying to restrain her, because she was in and out of consciousness for the entire car ride anyway. Sometimes she'd feel one of the werewolves trying to grab at her to scare her and it would rouse her enough to cry and panic all over again - all of that pent up from the entire day of trying not to panic. She had no energy to try and beat them away anymore, though.

Eventually the one driving told the ones in the back to stop, and they left her be for the remainder of the journey; a journey that was far too long for her liking.

Her breaths came short and fast, and she passed out again one final time before they had arrived at wherever it was she'd been taken.

They were handling Alice roughly as the pulled her out of the car and up the steps of the ornate mansion, where they were granted entry immediately. She couldn't stop shaking and kept her eyes downcast, surprised that she was able to keep herself upright; she supposed it was because the men had an iron grip on her.

Then came the next shocking part.

Lorena was there, waiting in the entrance hall.

"Good lord, we said to collect her not beat her up!" she snapped at them. Alice still hadn't looked up, but recognised her from her voice. She froze completely, and if anything that made her trembling worse.

"What's all this?" Came a new, unfamiliar voice. "Let go of her, she was meant to be a guest here you absolute imbeciles!"

They did as they were told, and Alice's completely buckled and she fell hard to the marble flooring. She grunted as she hit the floor, not really registering how hard she had hit it. Then she was lying on her side, staring at four pairs of feet.

One heeled pair (Lorena), two were wearing smart dress shoes, and the third pair… she recognised the black converse and cuffed jeans immediately.

Those came rushing towards her, and were shortly replaced in her field of view with Godric's face as he lifted her into a sitting position. She couldn't even bring herself to say a word, her entire body was hurting and she wasn't even sure if she was even taking in what was going on.

"I am very sorry for how the boys treated you," the first man - vampire - said. Alice looked up to see someone who looked to be middle aged, and had stayed that way for goodness knows how long. He had neatly groomed hair and was wearing a beige suit. "Clearly they can't follow instructions. Godric, take your friend to get cleaned up and settled in."

Godric didn't take his eyes off Alice. "Yes, your majesty," he said, scooping Alice up into his arms. For some reason that surprised her - he was only a little bit taller than her, but then she remembered he was over two thousand years old and she probably weighed nothing to him.

He walked up the rather fancy staircase and down a winding hallway, right to the end of it. He entered a room that had a large four poster bed, and the deep red walls were adorned with odd and ancient memorabilia. It was certainly a stark contrast to the rest of the house. He had to kick the door closed.

Godric lay Alice down on the bed, and began to assess her injuries; her head was throbbing at this point, on top of her stinging lip and aching jaw. The vampire sighed when he saw that certain areas of her face were changing to green as the bruising settled in. He sat down on the opposite side of the bed to her, propping up a pillow to lean against comfortably.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" he asked, and she nodded, patting her ribcage lightly and wincing as she did so. The moment she did that, Godric's fangs dropped down, and he pricked his finger, holding it cautiously by Alice's mouth, where she eyed it cautiously. "Only if you don't mind."

Carefully, Alice brought her lips to his bleeding finger and allowed the blood to flow into her mouth. She blinked in shock - it tasted different to Eric's. Richer, thicker, and she didn't need to take very much at all before her head felt like it wasn't going to explode from the throbbing anymore.

She released his finger and he retracted his fangs, happy to see the cuts and bruises heal up.

"I'm so sorry," Godric murmured. "They got to you before sunset, didn't they?"

"Yeah. They did," she barely got out.

"I will do my best to get you home," he told her sincerely. "You and Miruna."

She frowned. "Who?"

"The girl just like you," he replied softly. "She's been here a while, now. You wouldn't believe how old she was if I told you."

"I probably would," Alice murmured, glancing up at him with big, frightened eyes. "I don't want to be here, Godric."

He shifted so that he was lying down next to her, and pulled her towards him in a comforting embrace. Godric knew that he was no Eric, but the fact he could feel Alice relax against him was enough to let him know that he was valued by her, and trusted by her. She didn't necessarily hold him back, but she was beginning to tremble. He could feel her beginning to cry again, the tears dampening his shirt.

Godric didn't want to see her suffer, and Miruna's cryptic nature about everything made him feel like there as nothing he or Eric could do to help - not in this current situation, at least.

"Eric will come for you, I can promise that, but he and I are trying to play Russell," Godric said in such a low voice that Alice almost didn't hear him. "If he doesn't come tonight, it's because he'll be trying to find an excuse to come tomorrow. We have to be so careful - we can't arouse suspicion. There's so much at stake here, and we can't lose you among that."

"Do I have to speak to Russell tonight?"

"No," Godric said. "If he wants you to, he's going to have to wait. You're not talking to him in this state, nor without Eric." He paused a moment. "I'm going to go and let him know that you're overwhelmed and upset, and that I need to look after you."

He pulled away from Alice and sat up, who really did not look like she wanted him to go. She tried to grab hold of him by the wrist, but he shrugged out of her grip.

"Alice, I'll be five minutes. I know - I know this seems to mirror what happened the last time I left you alone, but I'll be back. I'll be five minutes. Okay?"

Eventually she nodded and relented, curling up into a terrified ball on the bed. Her eyes were fixed on the door as Godric left, worried that he wouldn't come back like he said he would. But sure enough, a few minutes later he came back; albeit, he looked grave.

"He's not happy, but he's dealing with it," he murmured. There was a throw at the end of the bed, and he covered Alice with it before sliding under it next to her. "I've text Eric, too. He's not seen it yet. I've told him to come up with a plan for tomorrow night, especially if he's dealing with something else right now."

Alice nodded and came to rest her head on Godric's chest, so he wrapped an arm around her again. It still felt strange to be so close to a human again, let alone one that belonged to someone else.

"I want Eric," she whispered, and it made him go still for a moment, his heart almost breaking. Alice meant no harm to him with those words, but the feeling of being valued by her evaporated for the briefest of moments; Godric had to collect himself. This wasn't about him right now, nor did she say she didn't want him there.

"I know," he eventually replied, if not a little stiffly.

"But…" her voice was small and beginning to sound sleepy. "I'm glad I've got you here. It just feels…"

"Weird?"

"Yes," she agreed."

"You're Eric's. Of course it feels weird to be held like this by someone else. It's not the same, but it's enough. It… it is enough, right?"

"Always. You're part of the same family. Even Pam would be enough right now."

Godric couldn't help but let a small smile come to his face at that. That flash of humour was enough to send her to sleep in slightly better spirits.

Unnerving that his blood worked quickly like that; he could feel traces of her emotions. Not fully, but there was something there. Perhaps that would be useful further down the line.

A buzz in his pocket switched his attention to his phone.

Godric awkwardly pulled it out and saw the response he expected to see from Eric.

I'll end him.

Sorry for the long wait! Things are getting busy at work (delivering a film!) and I moved flats recently too!

I found this chapter kinda messy and hard to write - it just didn't want to work the way I wanted it to, and just ended up flowing really quickly? Sorry if it all seems a bit jarring, but... I didn't want to keep on stripping and re-writing it, because I did that several times and it was exhausting. So yeah, sorry for this being so subpar :(

Hope you're all well!

Comment?

-OL.