#37
While Jason was slowly digesting the cake, realisation finally sunk in. He had managed to flip over the frail woman on top of him, pinning her to the ground beneath as they were descended upon by incensed Supernaturals from all angles.
"She got away!" Ginger shrieked between heavy pants when she finally reached the party holding the sparkly pink confines that had previously kept Sarah Newlin in place in the dungeon of Fangtasia.
"I knew I should have shot you when I had the chance!" Jason yelled angrily. "You ruined my cake!"
"Your cake?" Pam questioned with a raised brow.
"Well, I picked it…," he retorted sadly, while everyone held their necessary or unnecessary breath when they saw his serious contemplation of eating the fallen pieces on the ground before he gave up with a petulant huff.
"Perhaps you should have this conversation somewhere more private," Emer said, with a pointed look when she recognised to whom the sunken face belonged.
"Yes, Mother," Niall answered quickly taking the malnourished and wildly flailing woman in his arms before teleporting them both into the house hoping no one else had recognised Sarah.
"Carry on," Emer gestured towards the orchestra and the stilled dancers who hesitantly started up again. She pushed a startled Eric and Sookie towards each other with a knowing eye as she whispered, "They're in need of a show, go on."
"Sookie?" he asked, reaching for her hand feigning innocence.
"Eric," she gritted out, desperately trying to maintain her composure when he pulled her in close to his body. "What is the meaning of this?"
"It's complicated," Eric whispered back in return.
"That's the understatement of the year," she hissed out at the lowest volume possible. "God, I really am an idiot. 'We derived the formula from a piece of glass with her blood on it.' Horse pucky!"
"Sookie," he pleaded.
"I thought you were better than that," she said, causing him to feel the full force of her disappointment, which made him completely reassess what he had defined as pain up to that point in his existence. She knew Sarah had been tied up in his basement and, at the time, she felt it the best place to be and she had genuinely believed she had escaped. Perhaps it was more wishful thinking than she cared to admit. "Now shut up, we've never danced before."
Tentatively he held her closer imitating the intimacy they held under normal circumstances as Emer regarded them from the edge guarding their children fiercely. When the music started to die down and the crowd returned to their previous engagements, she summoned them both with a gesture of her fingers at which Eric stealthily guided them back. Viggo looked extremely upset while Eva looked downright pissed while their great-great-grandmother did her best to hand them to their parents as soon as possible.
"They don't tolerate the disharmony between the two of you very well," she said slyly. "Now apologise and get over it already."
"I guess I've been an idiot too these past four years," Eric whispered into her ears as Viggo cried discontentedly against her chest.
"At least I was only half an idiot," Sookie teased slightly soothing their son. "What were you thinking?"
"As I said it was complicated," he tried to explain while trying to beckon her back to the house so they could have this conversation truly in private.
"He was thinking she would never be persecuted for the true extent of her crimes with the human law enforcement and their stance on vampire rights," Emer informed her telepathically. "The vampire authorities would have called for her death instantly while he was still trying to distil the cure from her blood and still is."
"You can read his mind?"
"No, dear," she spoke aloud when closing the back door from prying ears. "I am too old now to no longer have an excuse for not understanding how the world works. We can't always make the right choice when we want to. We are all but victims of circumstances."
"That's a rather fatalistic point of view," Sookie noted as Viggo seemed to finally calm from the anxiety he had been carrying throughout the night.
"Fate, chance, destiny; it can be cruel and it can be kind," she shrugged. "It's how we meet adversity and handle fortune that allows us to truly stand the test of time. That is what determines your path."
"I made the best of a bad situation, Sookie," Eric tried to explain, while taking Emer's words as a starting point. "She would have been in far worse hands had I not intervened."
"Maybe," she admitted. "It doesn't explain why you would pimp her out to be sucked dry by the wealthiest fangs of the world," Sookie said crossly, awakening Eva's ire alongside hers. "Or why she is dirt ridden and emaciated!"
He looked at her with confusion marring his face before answering with cool, contained anger, "Those are things I would like the answers for too."
"You're lookin` properly lickable," Spike grinned while pulling Jason up from the remnants of cake and quickly swiping his roughened tongue over the side of his face causing him to shiver with the assault before Jason lashed out and shoved him away in sudden panic. However, his sudden move caused them both to lose their balance when Spike latched onto him causing them to slide over the spilt cake forcing them to both end up writhing on the ground where Jason found himself pinned down by another body once more.
"Mmm," Spike grinned while Jason's eyes widened as his face hovered predatorily low while fingers teased through his hair. "Even better access."
He winced as puckered lips came terrifyingly close to his face, praying his body wouldn't react with excitement to this vampire's attentions. "Lover, is it?" he whispered huskily into his ear causing Jason's entire body to stiffen with fear before Spike fell apart in laughter and helped him up again. "Had an interestin` chat with your wife earlier," he winked while taking in the horrified expression with sheer delight. "Guess withou` tha blonde locks you lost interest in me, yeah?"
"Not cool, man," he grumbled while wiping away the remnant cake from his suit.
"She the ex, then?" Spike taunted with a waggle of his eyebrows. "Los` her shiny blonde hair too, I see."
"Something like that," Jason shrugged not wanting to meet the impossibly deep blue eyes of the probing vampire. "What did Brigette say?"
"She stormed off in a huff with your lil` ones," he returned while Jason was desperately seeking out his phone. "Managed to calm her down a bit. Somethin` 'bout your obsession with the undead."
"FUCKING BITCH!" Jason screamed sprinting towards the house in panic with Spike following at a leisurely speed behind.
"Wonderbitch has his phone," Spike smirked when Jason couldn't make out a coherent sentence through the enraged panting as they barged in on Eric berating his eldest progeny for her secret dealings. The phone was instantly snatched from her body by Pam in an effort to appease her Maker who had yet to lose the angry scowl on his face.
Jason tried desperately to reach Brigette on all the phone numbers available to him after reading the insane text messages a delusional Sarah had sent out of 'their' supposed happily ever after. Willa slipped in, highly embarrassed that she had not prevented the interruption to the wedding reception.
"I'm so sorry, Pam," she whispered tentatively, trying desperately to avoid the scornful look of her Maker. "I don't know where she came from."
"This is Pam's own doing," Eric spoke stoically when it appeared the blonde vampiress was about to go off on Willa. "How could you leave her in the care of Ginger of all people? I asked you to do one thing, Pamela, keep the cure safe till it is fully synthesised. Instead you feed the cure to any willing vampire with the cash. How stupid can you be? You have endangered the safety of all of us, of our children!"
"Now-" Niall attempted to interrupt in defence of his bride.
"It is your wedding," Eric amended with a bit of sympathy when Sookie squeezed his hand with a worried nod to Eva's rising temper. "This is as generous as I'll be with you. The festivities will continue as planned while I ascertain the damage control. You shall go on your honeymoon and enjoy yourself."
"And when we return?" Pam asked in a very small and terrified voice.
"When you return you will plan Willa's wedding," he finished with a smirk.
"What?" Pam balked. "She's not even engaged!"
"Yes," Eric grinned. "You'll be catering to her every whim till she decides to get married."
"How `bout it then Willa, Luv," Spike taunted beside her with a leering look, wanting an immediate in on the tormenting of his cousin. "Wanna walk down the aisle with ol` Spikey here?"
Had she still been human a flabbergasted Willa would have blushed profusely with the proposal; however, the memories of Pam's insane demands had her answering coolly, "You know what? I'm still young. Maybe in a century or so."
"Ta, pet," he grinned with an equally cheery glint in his eyes. "You play the long game well."
"What about me?" Jason whimpered when another call was rejected once more.
"What about you?" Pam sneered. "If you hadn't been standing there sneaking bites at my cake there would have been some for the rest."
"Pamela!" Eric growled out in reprimand. "One more word and you'll be his bitch too. You can thank your lucky stars for Jason! Everyone assumes the girl is a jealous ex rather than the highly sought after Sarah Newlin."
A small grumbled apology escaped Pam's lips till all those present fell to silence.
"I had a backup cake made, just in case," Willa smiled kindly, causing Jason to cheer up slightly until he received another text message from Brigette instructing him to leave her alone. "They're replacing it as we speak."
"Come on, let me buy you a pint, mate," Spike offered consolingly to a sullen Jason.
"You realise it's an open bar, right?"
"Tha's why I'm buying," Spike returned while patting him on the back before catching Willa's eyes to deliver an exaggerated wink her way. "Come on, pet, we have an engagement to celebrate. Don` leave me hanging too long. I was promised a dance."
"I'll be right out, dear," she grinned back knowing the 'Big Bad' would be her perfect accomplice in giving Pam as good as she gave. "I'm thinking sea-foam green and orange as our colours."
"As long as I get ta wear my leather duster," he called out before leading Jason to the bar to drown out his misery, managing to see the look of horror on Pam's eternal face. "An` I want chicken wings and bloomin` onions at the reception."
"You're a cruel, fucking bastard, Eric Northman," Pam accused with a pointed finger to his chest that Eva instantly grabbed onto with a giggle allowing the vampiress to feel the charge of her light.
"But you still love me?" he taunted.
"Fucking right I do," she huffed. "I'm sorry about Sarah. We needed the cash to stay afloat when everything was invested in New Blood. Leaving her with Ginger in charge was probably a stupid call. I'm not as on point since giving birth to the little fuckers. I've been nothing but a fucking milk dispensing machine since they've been born."
"Understandable," Eric replied with a small sigh before kissing her softly on her forehead. "Go enjoy your wedding now; the guests are beginning to wonder where you are."
"I shall see to it she is properly contained," Niall offered gesturing to the still feral Sarah struggling against her restraints. Eric gave a brief nod of agreement before they all moved back to the wedding party.
"Am I forgiven too?" Eric whispered to Sookie's ear as they watched the happily married couple dance the night away as if nothing had occurred, the incident long forgotten by the attending guests.
"I may have been quick to judge," she admitted. "Telepathy can do that to a girl."
He cupped her face to meet his gaze before kissing her softly. "Let us have a real first dance then?"
"I'd like nothing more," she smiled back brightly.
A/N: Poor Jason has some explaining to do with his wife… poor sod. In case you missed it through all the holiday cheer I posted two outtakes for this verse where the kids are a couple of years older on Thanksgiving Day where they put on an adorably cute performance in Fangsgiwin' and experience shopping vampire style on Black Friday with Pam and Spike in Into the Black. Next chapter will be the last of the epilogue. It will only be outtakes for this giant family, most likely around holidays etc. from here on out :(
Special thanks to MsBuffy for fixin` my messes again :)