Chapter Notes: This is not the same night, but the next. I am starting with Nan to avoid useless filler.
Chapter Warning: Suicide, Depression. If this makes you uncomfortable, then don't read.
"Do you have any fucking idea of the PR mess you've made? And who fucking has to clean that shit up? Me. Not you, me. I should drain every one of you bastards." Nan was lashing her tongue from the moment she stepped into the room and sat at the chair in the front.
"Stan went after the church on his own. None of us knew anything about it." Eric spoke from his shared seat on the ottoman with Kit.
"Oh, really. Because everyone who met Stan in the last 300 years knew he had a kink about slaughtering humans. But you, his nest mates, his sheriff, had no clue."
"And how were we supposed to know that this time he meant it?" Isobel took the conversation from Eric.
"Not my problem." Nan turned to Godric with an accusatory glare. "Yours."
"Don't talk to him that way." Eric fought to keep the growl from his voice, and Kit put a hand on his thigh.
"Don't talk to me that way." Nan snapped back but turned her attention back to Godric. "Let's get to the point. How did they manage to abduct you?"
"They would have taken one of us sooner or later. I offered myself."
Shock ran through Kit as well as Eric.
"Why?" Nan asked the same question that ran through everyone's mind.
"Why not?"
"They wanted you to meet the sun and you were willing?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you're out of your mind. And then I hear about a traitor."
"Irrelevant. Only a rumor, I'll take full responsibility." Godric was quick to take any blame, not wanting to cause Isobel more trouble from the actions of the human that she had claimed.
"You bet you will."
"You cold bitch." Eric interjeted, but Nan ignored him.
"Listen, this is a national vampire disaster and nobody at the top has any sympathy for any of you. Sheriff, you f*cked up. You're fired."
"I agree. Of course, Isabel should take over. She had no part in my disgrace."
Was it really disgrace?
"Godric, fight back." Isobel spoke out.
"What are you saying? She's a bureaucrat, you don't have to take shit from her!" Eric too spoke out against the decision.
Nan turned to Eric, annoyed with his constant interjections. "You wanna lose your area, Viking?"
"You don't have that kind of power." The cockieness that was characteristic of Eric seemed to have returned.
Nan simply shrugged. "Hey, I'm on TV. Try me."
That doesn't make sense.
"I'm to blame. I should have contained Stan the second Godric went missing." Isobel spoke when it was clear that Godric was not going to come to his own defense.
"Isabel." Godric looked to Isobel before turning back to his conversation with Nan. "I remove myself from all positions of authority."
"Works for me."
Bill tried to hold Sookie back when she moved forward in her seat, intent on speaking. "Sookie, Sookie."
"Godric shouldn't be fired." Sookie wouldn't listen to Bill. "Ms Flanagan, Godric rescued Kath from a really large rapist who probably would've killed me too."
Please don't bring me into this. I would have already spoken if I had thought it would have helped.
"That's nice." Nan brushed off the telepath.
"No, listen…"
"Moving on."
"And then he rescued humans in that church plus a whole lot of vampires. You think it's a PR mess now, it could have been a hundred, a million times worse. You should thank him."
You are making it worse.
"For getting kidnapped? For attracting a suicide bomber? For piss-poor judgment? I think not."
Eric stood suddenly, but Isobel held out a hand. "Don't."
Godric looked to his childe, eyes tired as if they had seen many nights without rest. "Eric, it doesn't matter."
Nan sighed, moving back to the original topic. "Tell me about the bombing, please. Every single detail."
"A boy walked in the lair. I thought he was someone's human companion."
"What a fucking fiasco. You're lucky I don't send you all to the Magister. Godric, come to my suite to fill out the forms." Nan spoke when Godric finished recounting the details of the bombing at the nest.
"Soon. First I have something to say." Godric took a breath, and spoke slowly and clearly. "I'm sorry. I apologize for all the harm I've caused, for all our lost ones, human and vampire. I will make amends, I swear it."
"Take it easy, it's just a few signatures." Nan rose from her chair with a pat to Godric's leg, leaving the room with her two guards.
Eric stood and intercepted Godric on the way to the door. "No."
"Look in my heart."
"You have to listen to me."
"There's nothing to say."
"There is."
"On the roof."
They spoke lowly, but Kit was near enough to hear it all. Their heart ached for Godric, for Eric. Eric stood, looking at the door for a moment before turning to Kit.
"Go. I'll catch up." Kit spoke without needing any explanation from Eric.
Eric gave a single, solemn nod, and disappeared from the room to find Godric.
Kit made to follow after him, but a hand on their arm stopped them.
"Kathleene." Sookie's voice kept Kit's eyes forward, not wanting to engage her more than necessary.
"No. Leave me alone. I don't know why you keep chasing after me and ignoring what is clearly in front of your face. I am happy with Eric. The person you thought you knew is dead. The me you thought you knew was an illusion of your own creation."
Sookie's hand seemed to lighten it's grip, so Kit took their chance to wrench their arm away, and exit the room.
Kit made it to the roof as Eric knelt before Godric, red tears streaking down his cheeks.
"Snälla du. Snälla du. Snälla du. (Please. Please. Please.) Godric." The language was known to Kit, but not understood, but the tone was clear.
Eric begged for Godric.
"Fader. Broder. Son. (Father. Brother. Son.) Let me go." Godric placed a hand on Eric's shoulder.
Eric raised his head to look at Godric with a new determination. "I won't let you die alone."
"Yes, you will. As your Maker I command you."
Eric felt the compulsion set deep in his bones, unable to fight it, he rose to his feet, more tears flowing down his face as he took forced steps to the rooftop entrance. Kit reached out a hand that had been clutched to their chest, brushing it against Eric's, but he could not stay long. Kit brought their hands up again, approaching Godric as the sky lightened around them, the approach of the sun not long off.
"Godric?"
He turned away from the horizon to face them. "It won't take long. Not at my age."
"Come down off the roof." Kit's glassy eyes met Godric's.
There is so much pain in those sad eyes.
"I wish for peace."
"You may think this is peace, Godric, but it's not. It's just eagerness for there to finally be a break from the pain. I should know." Kit's voice wobbled with their lower lip, tears leaking out from their eyes. "I've been there.
"These thoughts fill your head, thoughts that tell you that the world would be better off if you weren't there to pollute it. But those thoughts are wrong."
"Look at Eric, as soon as you are gone, and the maker's command fades, there is nothing to stop him from joining you. You are his everything and I don't doubt that he will follow you into death."
Kit stepped forward, closer to Godric. "There is so much to live for, even though it doesn't seem like it right now. You asked Eric to look into your heart. I may not know you as well as he does, but I too am looking and see a reflection of myself. The world is too big, too bright to deal with, and you feel that you don't deserve what it offers you. But you do, you deserve love, dersvere life, despite what you may think."
Kit brought their hands up to cup Godric's face, and he leaned into them. "Please, come down off the roof."
Godric slumped, bringing up his own hands to grip onto Kit's, red tears making their way down his cheek. "It hurts."
His voice was no more steady than Kits, weak and ready to break like the man that owned it. Life had been so tiring in the recent decades, and he had so much time already lived. The calmness of the decades had allowed him to think to reflect, to regret his past actions. He saw the possibility of a future, and it didn't include him, why should it? The world had no place for such a monster. Yet the human in front of him, his childe were ready to hold tight to his burning skin without hesitation.
He slowly opened the bond that he had closed between himself and Eric, and it flooded through his senses. The pain, the sorrow, but most of all the endless love that couldn't be described in human terms, but felt beyond belief in the soul. Red blurred his vision as new tears found their way down his cheeks, and he took comfort in the human that freely offered it. In his mate. He allowed himself that comfort, that glimmer of hope.
"It hurts."
Kit glanced at the light shades taking over the sky.
"Be done with this now and get off the roof. Come back down with me, back to Eric, please. I know it hurts, and all you want is for the pain to end, but suicide won't do that."
Godric gave a weak nod, and Kit took his hands in theirs, leading him back down into the cover of the hotel. The door to the roof closed behind the pair just as the first ray of sun peeked over the horizon.
End Notes: I knew that I wanted to have Kit get Godric off of the roof, but I wasn't sure how. I was listening to Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths, and I ended up looking up the background on it, and that is what drove this chapter.