A/N: I swear I haven't forgotten about this story. Been dealing with a particularly narsty case of writer's block – it's not that I can't write anything, it's more that I don't like anything that I write. Yeah, we're always our own worst critics, but... anyway. I'm not making any promises about how soon I'll be able to get the next chapter out. What with the holidays and some upcoming travel time... we'll see. Thank you SO much for your continued patience and the PMs & emails some of you have sent me. I really appreciate them. :)

Sookie POV

I kept my head down as Godric and I walked into the Queen's greeting room, only looking up enough to make sure I stayed in the proper position in relation to him.

«Should I look at her or not?» I asked him telepathically.

«Not until she addresses you, but bow when I do, and maintain eye contact when speaking with her.»

We bowed almost as soon as we stopped walking, and I admired the lovely marble floors while I listened.

"I heard that you were in my state, Godric, but this is unexpected," the Queen said. Her voice had the timbre of a young woman, but there was a hard edge that attested to her age and position. "Why have you arrived instead of Northman?"

"My apologies if it has inconvenienced you, Majesty. It is at my behest that my child is unavailable, so I am here in his place."

"Most unusual. So this is the infamous Sookie Stackhouse. Fascinating. I understand she already has a contract with Northman, which would imply that her abilities have already been tested."

"Correct on both points; Sookie is able to read humans completely, Weres with minor difficulties, and vampires not at all."

"What about demons and fairies?" the Queen asked.

"To the best of my knowledge, Sookie has yet to meet either of those races."

She hummed and paused for a moment. "She does appear to be well-trained; Northman is good with his pets. There, see? Not even the slightest reaction to being called a pet. How delightful! Tell me, Sookie: are you enjoying working for Eric Northman?"

«That's your cue, Pookie.»

I looked up and saw Queen Sophie-Anne smiling at me. I gave a small, polite smile as I answered her. "Yes, Your Majesty."

Her smile seemed to dim; it didn't fade entirely, but it somehow seemed less genuine. I got the impression that she was hoping for a different answer; I caught a stray thought from one of her subjects, the one that Godric had described as an empath: the girl could sense the Queen's emotions, and she'd also caught that her mistress wasn't pleased.

"Give us the room," the Queen ordered. Once the other humans and vampires had left the room, there were only four people left: Sophie-Anne, Godric, a blond vampire whose name I didn't know, and me.

"What I have to say is sensitive information, and must not leave this room," she said. "I have been approached for a union with Arkansas. I already know that they would be getting the better part of the bargain, but I want the telepath to sit in on the meetings. The advantage it would give me is impossible to ignore."

Godric nodded. "I believe this type of situation is already covered in the contract that Sookie has with my child. If your lawyer is present, we can have him look over the contents to verify this."

"Cataliades should already have a copy of it in his files. I will have him contact you to work out the details."

«Godric, how long will we have to stay for this? We have to get back to Eric.»

He didn't take the time to respond to me silently. "When will your Majesty be requiring the telepath's services?"

"The meetings will begin in ten days," she answered. "You may return to Shreveport until then. Once the meetings have begun, I will require the telepath to remain on the premises for the duration."

I felt a mixture of relief and dread; we probably wouldn't make it back to Eric tonight, but we wouldn't be stuck here long. Then again, in just over a week I would be back in New Orleans for the sole purpose of listening in to hours of political negotiations. There was no telling how long something like that could go on, and I didn't think Godric was about to ask; he would be familiar with it, and would only have to ask for my benefit. I'd have to get it out of him later.

While I understood that the Queen had wanted to run me through her own tests and hoops, I was mildly irritated: we'd come all the way down to New Orleans for something that could have been settled over the phone in a matter of minutes. Godric and Sophie-Anne began speaking in French; whatever they were discussing, I clearly wasn't meant to understand it. I caught bits of it, but I was having trouble with the accent; it sounded like it was in an old or unusual dialect, and they were speaking very quickly.

From what little I could catch, I understood that she wanted to know more about me and my family. Godric claimed to not have the information she was looking for. After a few minutes of their discussion, we were promptly dismissed from the room.

I followed Godric's lead as I had done before, keeping my head down and staying slightly behind him.

«What was all that about?» I asked.

«She wanted to know what you are. I told her that as far as we could determine, you were human. She didn't press the issue, but you can be quite certain she will do so when you come back.»

Oh, goody. Something to look forward to. On our way out, we passed through security just as easily as we'd done when we arrived. Once we were back in the car, I slumped down and breathed a sigh of relief.

«There now, that wasn't so bad,» Godric teased. «You handled yourself quite well, Pookie.»

«Thanks, I guess? Not looking forward to coming back in ten days. We're not going to make it back to Shreveport tonight, are we?»

«No, unfortunately. When we get back to the hotel, I will call Pam to find out how things are going on their end. After that, there are some things we need to take care of.»

I was guessing he was referring to the other telepath we'd found at the hotel. I also wanted at least a few minutes to catch up with Hadley; if Gran and Jason found out that I'd seen her and hadn't been at least a little sociable, I'd never hear the end of it. For that matter, I wondered if they even knew she was here; Hadley tended to be flighty, and tended to forget to keep contact with us – not that we were much better about it.

Once we were back in our hotel room, I went into the bathroom with a change of clothes. Since I hadn't had time to shower when we got there, I took that opportunity to get cleaned up. Even though we'd driven down in my car, I felt grimy from traveling. After a good scrub, I changed into a pair of yoga pants and a plain t-shirt. Godric was stretched out on the bed, with his arms folded behind his head.

"What's the word?" I asked as I curled up on a nearby chair.

"Pam set up a meeting for tomorrow night, with some of the local Weres. We'll be back in time for it. She figured a way to communicate with Eric using her laptop; I'll let her explain it to you when we get back. I've called the front desk; your cousin will come up for a visit in about an hour, when her shift is over."

Hadley's visit was about what I expected it to be. She was nervous; Godric and I both caught on to the fact that she was more intimidated by me than she was by him. He found that mildly amusing; I tried to not let it bother me too much. She and I had never been all that close, but she was still part of my family.

From what she said and thought, I was able to get a fair bit of information about the other telepath. His name was Lucas Perkins, and he'd been working at the hotel longer than her. He mostly kept to himself; Hadley had her suspicions about him, which I didn't confirm one way or the other. She thought he was weird and slightly sketchy. Godric excused himself from the room, not bothering to offer any explanation.

After he left, Hadley starting asking questions about him; I kept my answers vague. As much as I wanted to be able to talk openly with her about my life, I knew that there were some things she was better off not knowing. If she didn't know something, I couldn't be glamoured out of her. Given how much vampires liked to gossip, I figured it was only a matter of time before it was common knowledge that Hadley was the cousin of a telepath. We might not be close, but I didn't want her getting in over her head with any vampires.

I wasn't sure if I was relieved or concerned to find out that while she wasn't tied to any particular vampire. Hadley was a regular blood donor. She never went through any formal channels, but she had been "sampled" many times: that was how she was paying off her student loans. Even though she didn't say it out loud, she was proud of the fact that vampires seemed to find her especially delicious. Whatever it was that made my own blood so tasty, it appeared to be a family trait. I wondered if Jason was the same way, but didn't expect he would be so eager to find out.

Godric returned and smirked when Hadley barely noticed. «Does she ever stop for breath?»

«Most of this is nervous chatter,» I thought back. «She's never been comfortable around me.»

He interrupted my cousin's ramblings, telling her that he had things to discuss with me in private. As she left, we promised to keep in better touch, something I knew wasn't entirely likely to happen. I knew that next time I was in New Orleans, I'd be staying at the Queen's palace; from the sound of it, I wouldn't be allowed off the grounds until they let me go back home. Even if I wanted to see Hadley when I was there, it might not be a good idea to bring her so deeply into the world of vampire politics. She might have a field day, but I didn't want them knowing any more about me than was absolutely necessary.

Once Hadley was out of the room, I flopped down on the bed, feeling exhausted.

"I was able to find out more about Lucas," Godric stated. "His abilities aren't as well-developed as yours, but he seems less scrupulous with them."

"How so?"

"He uses them for financial gain."

I snorted, thinking about my contract with Eric. "So do I."

"Not in the same way. He listens in on business men for trade secrets, that type of thing."

My eyes widened. I couldn't lie and say that the thought had never occurred to me, but I could honestly say I wouldn't ever do that sort of thing. It just seemed like too dangerous an occupation, and that was coming from someone who worked for vampires. The figurative blood-suckers were more frightening to me than the literal ones.

"Does he smell different at all?" I asked.

Godric shook his head. "No. As far as I can tell, he's entirely human."

"Do you think he's any threat to us?"

"Not at the present time. We might put a bug in the Queen's ear, though. If she can have a telepath of her own, she'll ask less of you."

I nodded and yawned. "Why don't you get yourself some sleep?" Godric suggested. "I'll be up a few hours yet, but we'll be leaving at first dark tomorrow evening. There's no telling how busy the next few evenings will be."

I nodded again and got up long enough to get under the covers. Whatever the sleeping arrangements were, I was too tired to care. Godric switched off the lights, and I was soon fast asleep.

Pam POV

I hung up the phone and turned to Eric. He'd heard Godric's half of the conversation perfectly, so there was no need to tell him what was said.

"Fucking Sophie-Anne," I grumbled. "All she wanted was a meet and greet."

Eric let out a sigh of frustration. Whatever it was he wanted to say, it must not have been important enough for me to run through my little translation setup.

"I'm sure we didn't get the whole story, but they'll be here a few hours after sunset tomorrow. They should be back in time for the meeting."

Eric nodded absently, then stood up. I watched as he heated up two bloods in the microwave. "I could have gotten that, Eric."

He shrugged as he handed one of the bottles to me. I frowned; I hated seeing him like this, especially since there was nothing I could do to fix it at this exact moment. He rarely ever got into a funk; when he did, it was never too difficult to pry him out of it. In the pre-Sookie days, I would have simply brought him a fangbanger or three. He hadn't been this down since meeting her; no doubt she would be able to distract him, but she wasn't here. Fuck, he couldn't even call her.

Godric had told me that Sookie would be going back to New Orleans in just over a week, but didn't say why, or for how long she would be there. It was imperative that we get Eric back to normal before that happened.

I turned back to my laptop and opened a new browser window. "Eric, give me your card."

He gave me a look that was simultaneously irritated and disbelieving.

"Oh, get over it. This is something for Sookie, and you can write it off as a business expense. I can't believe you haven't done this yet."

Ignoring his curious expression, I surfed through some of my favorite technology sites. It didn't take me too long to find what I was looking for. Since Eric wasn't ponying up the plastic, I typed in the information from memory. He was a damn fool if he thought that I hadn't memorized those numbers years ago. It wasn't like I'd ever abuse them; it was helpful to know that kind of thing, just in case.

"There. I've had it shipped overnight, so it'll be at the club in a day or two. I ordered a netbook for Sookie. I would have gotten her a laptop, but I've noticed she hates carrying stuff with her. This thing's smaller and lighter than a laptop, but we can get her larger one if she wants. She can use it for e-mail, taking notes, all sorts of stuff. See, if you'd done this already, you'd be able to Skype with her and actually see her, even if you couldn't talk exactly."

Eric smiled. I wanted to hit him; he wasn't even bothering to talk at this point. My Google Translate workaround wasn't that much of a pain in the ass. He was just in a mood.

I let him know that I was going to check his email, to see if there were any Sheriff-related things that needed to be taken care of. He nodded, got up, and left the room. I heard the television turn on, but stayed in the kitchen, figuring that if he'd wanted me to join him, he would have gestured or something.

For the next hour or so, I went through his inbox and made note of anything that required his attention. In that time, I'd gotten a call from the Area tracker; he'd been able to locate Hallow's whereabouts and said that he had acquired more intel on her. He knew better than to relay such things over the phone; he would be at the meeting with the Weres, we'd just get the information from him then.

Eric and I sat quietly in the living room until just before dawn. He seemed more thoughtful than depressed; the television was more for background noise than anything else. I wondered why he'd bothered. When he got up, he picked up Irina and carried her into his bedroom. I went off to my preferred guest room and turned in for the day.

Disclaimer: All of the characters contained in this story are property of Charlaine Harris. I don't own them; I just like to play with them a bit.