Chapter 59 – Many Happy Returns
Last time:
When the system fully engaged, the image of the President of the United States was on all of the screens. He started to speak, "hello to everyone attending this wedding tonight, which I'm sure was beautiful. I just wanted to send my personal congratulations to Eric and Sookie on their special night. I know that I will be meeting you in just a couple days, but I wanted to emphasize how much America appreciates the courageous acts you have done to protect us all. Thank you so much, and congratulations from the bottom of my heart. Enjoy your evening!" There was a moment of silence that followed his presentation, and then almost everyone in the room screamed/squealed/celebrated his proclamation. I had to admit that was pretty cool.
Now:
I wondered how the president found out where the wedding was because it must have taken some time and teamwork to orchestrate that video into this specific ballroom. Then it occurred to me, and I looked over at Homeland Security, who was again smiling from ear-to-ear. I raised my goblet of Royalty Blended in salute to him, and he raised his drink – bourbon and water neat, as I recalled – and returned the salute. That crafty devil…
The music started playing again, and many couples went to the dance floor. I was about to ask Sookie to join in just such an endeavor when I noticed Fintan out of the corner of my eye. He seemed very intently focused on something in the midst of the guest tables. That seemed somewhat concerning. I gave Sookie a kiss on her cheek, got up, and walked over to him. I stood next to him, smiling as I looked out on the room, "Everything all right, Fintan?"
He took his time answering as he continued to look over the room, "there is someone here who doesn't belong," he said very quietly.
I continued to smile, "do you know who? Or why?"
He finally looked over at me, "I know that they are mentally celebrating that they 'beat the odds' to get in here. But I haven't yet ascertained which of these people it is…"
"Well, let me know when you do, and then we'll deal with it," I told him. Good gods, what the fuck now, I thought.
Fintan responded, "what the fuck indeed…" At that I couldn't help the little chuckle that escaped. I also noticed the small smirk on Fintan's face.
"Do not worry, Eric, I will find them…" he added.
"Of that, I have no doubt…" I told him. We both chuckled at that. To all outward appearances we were just having a pleasant conversation while looking out at the attendees at the wedding. However, if there were a problem, I wanted to nip it before it became a threat. We didn't say anything for a few moments.
Then, much to my surprise, Fintan said, "Gotcha…" I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that, and I saw him smirking back at me.
"What did you find?" I asked. "Or should I say whom?"
Fintan was smiling. That was just a little bit frightening, if we weren't on the same side. "There is a… what do you call it… paparazzi who has managed to sneak into your wedding. He has been taking secret photographs throughout the wedding and reception. He's mentally calculating the fortune he'll make from this endeavor," Fintan finally told me.
"Which one is he?" I asked through my continuing smile.
"Do you see the table with the human government agents?" he asked and I nodded. "He is at the table right behind them. He is wearing a cheap brown suit. He has on spectacles, er, glasses. Do you see him?
I spotted him right away from Fintan's description. "I'll get this taken care of," I said as I walked over to Colonel Flood at a closer table. I continued smiling as I knelt down to speak softly into his ear, "I don't want to make a scene, but one of the paparazzi has made his way into this wedding." I described who it was, and Colonel Flood chuckled as he looked around the room. "Did you spot him?" He nodded. "Is there some way you could get your guards to get rid of him without drawing attention to it?" Again, he nodded and stood. "Oh, and get his camera… and his phone so that he can't get out of here with pictures." He walked out into the hallway and a moment later two very large, very scary looking Weres came in and looked around.
I decided to talk to our government agents again so I could be nearer any action that might prove troublesome. I sat down with them and quietly said, "Hello again. I don't want to alarm you, but there is someone at the next table who doesn't belong here." Dorothy's eyes got very wide. "We are hoping to remove him quietly, but I wanted to be nearby in case there was trouble. So I will be listening to what the security guard says to him. You guys just go ahead and talk quietly among yourselves while I monitor that little conversation, OK?" All three of them nodded, and Dorothy's entire face reflected how exciting she was finding this. I smiled and occasionally nodded at them while they resumed their conversation.
The two menacing guards crossed to behind the man. One stood on his left, and the other leaned down on the other side, very, very closely to the man with his mouth right by his ear. He whispered and no one but me would have heard it, "You don't belong here." The man started to object, but the guard put his hand firmly on the man's shoulder. "Don't do that. Do you feel that thing poking into your shoulder? That's the barrel of my gun. Now, here's what we are going to do. You are going to stand up, without making a sound and walk out with us. What happens when we get out of sight of all these wedding guests depends entirely on how you behave in the next few minutes of your life, but make no mistake, you are leaving this wedding right fucking now. If you cooperate, you will be peacefully escorted out of this hotel. However, if you struggle and draw attention to yourself, I will kill you. If you say a word to anyone on our way out, I will kill you. If you utter even a sound on our way out, I will kill you. Do you understand? If you do, smile and nod."
The man attempted miserably to smile and nod. The guard continued, "Very good. Now, I'm going to back up, but don't think for a second that because you can no longer feel the barrel of my gun that I am not prepared to use it." He backed up, and the intruder stood on shaky legs. The guard stood by his side and threw an arm around his shoulder and laughed as if he had just heard something amusing, and the three of them walked quietly out of the ballroom. I was impressed at how that guard had handled the situation. Well done. I turned back to the agents, and they had both raised their eyebrows while watching the guards escort the intruder quietly out of the room.
"You are going to have to tell me how they pulled that off," Homeland Security said.
I smirked, "they are very good at their jobs." That was as much as I was willing to say. The last song had just ended and a new one was starting. "Mrs. Langford, may I have this dance?" I said as I stood and extended my hand to her; I had a feeling this would become the best part of her story to her friends 'back home.'
She giggled for a second, and then she took my hand and accompanied me to the dance floor. As we passed Fintan on the way there I nodded at him, and he smiled back. Mrs. Langford and I danced to that song, and I noticed that FBI had walked to the edge of the dance floor and taken a few pictures of us with his phone. Good, she would have something pleasing to show her friends 'back home.' When the dance was over, and as I was accompanying her back to her table, I stopped off at the head table. "Sookie, may I introduce Dorothy Langford. She is the wife of our friend, FBI Agent Langford."
Sookie gasped and said, "oh, Mrs. Langford, your husband has been so kind and gracious to us through our whole ordeal. I'm grateful that he was the agent assigned to our case."
Dorothy replied with a slight blush, "oh, I'm glad, too. Paul is so very kind-hearted that it's almost hard to believe that he has been successful as an FBI agent all these years. And may I add that you are almost the most beautiful bride I've ever seen." She smiled and leaned forward a little, "I only say 'almost' because we have two married daughters," she winked.
Sookie giggled merrily, "I appreciate that. Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the reception."
I returned Mrs. Langford to her party, and on my return, I took Sookie's hand and led her to the dance floor. I felt it had been too long since I'd held her in my arms. When the music started again, I let out an involuntary, "ahhh…"
Sookie looked up at me, "what was that big sigh about?"
I shrugged and smiled, "my arms were missing you…"
"A+ for sweet talk," she tilted her head down and to the side and smiled wickedly up at me, and I chuckled at her antics. Then she asked, "did something, uhm, unfortunate just go down in the banquet room?"
I smiled back her, "not unfortunate at all… Your grandfather caught an interloping paparazzo at our reception, and he was quietly removed." She looked askance at me. "Sookie," I continued innocently, "we did promise an exclusive to Ms. Peveto, after all…" I waggled my eyebrows.
"Uh huh," she nodded. "Is he going to be all right?"
"Yes, I believe he will. He cooperated with the security guards, so I'm sure they will just escort him to the perimeter of the property and send him on his way."
She let out a sigh, "thank goodness. I would hate for anyone to get hurt because of our wedding."
Something occurred to me, "Sookie, do you know there is a mass of media people across the street from this hotel? They figured out that we were getting married tonight, and they are all camped out there. That's why I had guards on hand to deal with our intruder."
"What? Really? Well, that's crazy!" she exclaimed.
Just as I thought; she had no idea. "Oh yeah, you should have seen the news coverage this afternoon. They were calling this the 'wedding of the century'."
She just looked at me stunned for a moment before she cracked up laughing. "Oh my God, Eric. That is so ridiculous. Why does anyone even care?"
"EXACTLY what I thought when I was watching the news this afternoon," I answered and then thought about it for a moment. "Although, how many weddings have the President of the United States deliver personal congratulations at the reception?"
She asked nonchalantly, "you mean he doesn't do that for all weddings in America?" Then she laughed at her own silliness. I couldn't help but smile. In fact, smiling seemed to be my default setting this evening. Sookie continued, "you sure are smiling a lot tonight, and that makes me very happy." I swear to all the gods who ever existed that sometimes she read my mind! My face must have reflected my slight shock. "What, what is it?" she asked.
"Are you sure you can't read my mind?" I asked.
She closed her eyes for a moment, "Nope, totally silent. Why?"
I shook my head, "there are times when you say out loud exactly what I'm thinking."
She thought on that for a moment, "maybe I unknowingly intuit things from your feelings in the bond." She shrugged and cupped her hand to my face, "either that, or we are just that much in sync with each other…" Her statement earned another smile from me which she beautifully returned.
"Oh, and by the way, they also have, or at least they had, reporters stationed at both Fangtasia and your church in Bon Temps," I added. She paused at the new information, and then she just cracked up laughing, and I joined in. I looked up and saw the people standing around the perimeter of the dance floor and looking at us while we danced and laughed together. They must be thinking of what a good time my bride and I were having, and they would be right. They also all had smiles on their faces. I saw Cecile Peveto mixed in with them, and I nodded and smiled at her. She returned the smile. She probably had no idea of the instrumental role she had unwittingly played in getting us to this point.
When that song ended, the DJ made an announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for the cutting of the cake!" The crowd applauded, and Sookie took my hand to walk me over to the cake. She had not filled me in on any kind of cake ritual, so I didn't know what exactly we were going to do, but I thought I would just go with whatever it was.
She must have sensed some confusion on my part because she squeezed my hand so that I would lean down so she could whisper in my ear, "the tradition is that we both put our hands on the knife and cut the cake together. Normally, the bride feeds a piece of the cake to the groom and then the groom feeds a piece to the bride. More often than not, they end up sort of smashing the piece of cake into each other's mouth and face." I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Don't worry we aren't going to do that because it's gross. I have an idea of how we can do this tradition in our own way," she winked at me. I nodded to her because I trusted her all the way.
When we arrived at the cake the photographer was there waiting for us, and the crowd either returned to their seats at their tables or formed a wide, loose circle around us. I thought maybe they were wondering if they were about to see a vampire eat food. Sookie grabbed the knife and placed my hand over hers poised to cut the cake for the sake of the photographer. Then our hands slowly descended making the first cut, then over and angled a little to make the second cut. When we were done with the cutting, Sookie took the knife, grabbed a small saucer, and placed the cut piece of cake on it.
She paused for a moment before she turned and addressed the wedding guests, "It's no secret that Eric is a vampire, and vampires can't eat food. In fact, it has been more than a thousand years since Eric has had human food." There were several gasps around the room, and I wondered for a moment where she was going with this little speech. She continued, "A lot of foods that we take for granted today hadn't even been invented or discovered when last he could partake of them. For example, it nearly broke my heart when I discovered that he had never tasted chocolate." There was a collective 'awwww' of pity around the room, which made me snicker. I guess humans really loved their chocolate.
Sookie continued with her oration, "well, I thought that this could not stand!" she added emphatically. By now I was chuckling at her flair for dramatic delivery. She handed me the saucer with a napkin under it, and continued, "so after careful deliberation and speculation, I devised a scientific experiment to see if I could find a way for Eric to taste chocolate. Just a few weeks ago in this very ballroom during the children's hospital charity ball we conducted this scientific experiment, and I am happy to report that the results were conclusive, and Eric not only got to taste chocolate, but he also loved it!" By now I was smiling, and the response from the crowd at that statement was split between gasps of shock and cheers of 'yay!' Sookie again picked up her narrative, "So tonight we invite you to observe as we continue our experiment to discover if Eric also likes wedding cake." At that, I had to throw back my head and laugh. She whispered to me, "now you feed me the cake."
I looked down at the slice on the saucer, "don't I need some sort of utensil?"
She smiled, "no, it is tradition for the bride and groom to feed each other with just their hands. I don't know why…"
"Ah," I replied as I maneuvered the saucer to pick the cake up with my hand. "Give me a signal when you are ready to move the cause of science forward," I smirked and she chuckled. I held up the piece of cake and she moved closer to it and took a good-sized bite.
While she was chewing it, I put the saucer down on the cake table and wiped any residual cake off of my hand with the napkin. When she had finished, she nodded to me, and I swooped in for the mother of all kisses. The crowd went wild. When we finished, I nodded my head and said, "yes, I like wedding cake very much." Again the crowd went wild with cheers and laughter, and they applauded. Sookie laughed with abandon and threw her arms around me, and I hugged her back, with, once again, a smile on my face.
We returned to the head table and took our seats as another song started for those who wanted to dance. During that song, Sookie and I laughed and joked together. When the next song was starting, Rasul came up and asked Sookie to dance. Good, very good. When they walked away to the dance floor, I noticed Fintan summoning me from the side. I joined him and we turned and walked back behind the ballroom to the conference room I had used before the wedding.
When we walked in I saw Niall seated at the head of the conference table, surrounded by ten armor-dressed fairy warriors. Uh oh, I thought, was he mad at me? He smiled at me, "relax Eric, they aren't here for you." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and I guessed that he must have at least some of Fintan's gifts.
"Yes, I do," he answered. "They are passed down through the generations. Please have a seat," he gestured. I sat down. He continued, "Eric, I am pleased for my great-granddaughter. She seems very happy with you." I smiled and nodded, alerted by my thousand plus years of experience that I was still very aware that I was surrounded by ten fairy warriors as well as two princes of the sky fae. Niall continued, "seriously, relax Eric, we have not asked you back here for nefarious purposes," he chuckled. I nodded to him. "I understand that you have my other son, Dermott, in your custody, as well as two vampires who have been threats to my great-grandchildren," he paused and I nodded. "Very well, I am particularly interested in punishing this former queen of O… O…" he turned to Fintan.
"Oklahoma," Fintan and I said simultaneously.
"Yes, Ok-la-ho-ma," he pronounced very carefully and chuckled as if he found that name especially funny. "I understand that she has shown serious disrespect to the house of the Sky Fae." Fintan nodded, and I began to wonder what the endgame for this meeting was. Niall continued, "the endgame, my great-grandson-in-law, is that we want to retrieve these miscreants and take them to Fae."
Well, alrighty then. I didn't have a problem at all with that idea. "What do you want from me, your highness?" I asked. Unlike Fintan, Niall didn't invite me to call him by his name.
"It's really very simple. I have summoned these warriors here for the sole purpose of accompanying these reprobates back to Fae. I need you to take us to where they are being held to accomplish this," he stated with a stern look in my direction.
I smiled, "no problem. I will happily hand them over to you with one stipulation." Niall raised his eyebrows. I continued, "that I never, NEVER, see any of them ever again."
Niall laughed at that, "not a problem. The vampires will die very soon. As for Dermott, I will find a way to keep him away from both you and Brendan. Will that work?"
I nodded. "Can you hold on for a minute?" I asked. Both Niall and Fintan nodded. "I'll be right back."
I walked back into the ballroom and looked around until I found him. "Maxwell Lee," I said just above softly. I didn't have to wait long until I saw him walking up to me. When he got to me, I simply turned and walked back to the conference room, and just as I expected, he followed me every step of the way. We re-entered the conference room, and I introduced Maxwell Lee as the manager of the club with the keys to the cells. They all acknowledged him.
"Good. Now shall we depart?" Niall said as he stood. Fintan walked over to Maxwell Lee and put his hand on his shoulder while Niall did the same with me, and in the next blink of my eye we were all in the basement of Fangtasia. The three prisoners started at our arrival, but, of course, they remained silent. Their brains must have been screaming because Niall bellowed, "Silence!" And then after a moment, "that's better. Now, we will lift your silencing spell if you will refrain from making a, what would Jason call it? Oh yes, if you will refrain from making a 'ruckus'."
All three of the prisoners slowly nodded their heads. Niall turned to Fintan who then removed the silencing. They all just looked at him, probably afraid to make a sound lest they be unwillingly silenced again. Niall looked at Dermott, "Hello, son, I understand that you have been a very naughty boy… yet again." He then looked at Freyda and Clancy, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Niall Brigant, high prince of the sky fae." Clancy and Freyda's eyes went impossibly wide at his introduction. Niall looked first at Clancy, "you are the spy Clancy. Hmmm… Yes, I can see why you would have been chosen for this task. There is nothing very remarkable or noteworthy about you at all, is there?" Without changing the expression on my face, I mentally chuckled as Niall gave Clancy the most back-handed compliment of all time.
Niall shifted his focus to Freyda, "and you must be Freaky Freyda…" At that I couldn't help chuckling aloud. She cut her eyes to me as he continued, "yes, Eric, I see very clearly what you loathe about her." He must have spent several lifetimes mastering the art of the insult. He knelt down to talk to Freyda since she was sitting on the floor, "you, my dear, have insulted, disrespected, and through the water fae physically attacked members of the Brigant royal family. MY family. Which, by the way, now includes Eric Northman who married my great-granddaughter earlier this evening." Freyda gasped and looked at me with raging hatred. I just smirked in return and held up my left hand for her to see my wedding ring. OK, I may have waggled my fingers a little just to torment her further.
Then she surprised us all when she started laughing. The shocked look on all our faces must have made her laugh even more. Then I heard Fintan and Niall quietly chuckling. I looked at them with confusion obviously on my face. Fintan was the first to speak, "she is still fixated on what Sookie – and we – must have offered you for this marriage to our loved one."
That caused me to chuckle a bit, "you are the biggest moron who ever lived. They have offered me nothing." She looked dubious at that response until Fintan and Niall nodded in agreement. "And I have asked for nothing. Let me repeat this to you one more time, though I doubt it will penetrate that imbecilic brain of yours: I. LOVE. SOOKIE. She is the beginning and ending of every thought I have, of every decision I make, of every action I take. She is my own personal goddess. I will spend the rest of my existence protecting her and making sure she is happy. In short, she is what I now live for."
Freyda looked at me as if seeing me for the first time, and I just stared right back at her. After a moment, big wet blood tears started rolling down her cheeks. Fintan nodded, "finally… she gets it. Good, now we must return to the wedding reception." The ten fairy warriors lined up in front of the cells, and I nodded to Maxwell Lee to unlock the doors. In the blink of an eye the warriors had stormed the cells and then they were empty.
Niall put his hand on my shoulder, as Fintan did with Maxwell Lee, and we were back in the conference room at the hotel. Maxwell Lee looked up at me with a grin, "thanks again for including me in your wedding. That was awesome!"
Niall rubbed his hands together, "well, that was fun. Shall we return to the festivities?" All of us, including Maxwell Lee, snickered at that and proceeded to return to the ballroom. When we were inside, Niall turned to me, "I'm going to ask my great-granddaughter to dance, if I may?" I nodded and returned to my seat at the head table. I watched as Sookie danced with her great-grandfather. At one point in the dance I noticed that his hand on her back was glowing. I looked around to see the reaction of the rest of the guests, but it was as if they weren't seeing anything unusual at all. Hmmmm… I wondered what that was about.
I tilted my head to the side as I looked at Sookie off dancing in the distance. Gods, but she was beautiful… and she was MINE! I didn't think of the 'mine' in the traditional vampire possessive way, rather in the 'be mine' Valentine way. The happiness I was feeling was so enormous that it had almost become too much to bear. Godric slid into the seat next to me.
"Min son," he started. "Thank you for letting me share in this day with you. I feel how… ecstatic you are feeling, and I'm also very glad to share in those feelings," he smiled.
"Godric, I hope that someday you meet your own Sookie. You deserve this happiness, too," I shared. "For over a thousand years you have been the most important person in my undead life. I hope you don't feel sad that I have found someone even more important to me?"
He chuckled, "what kind of parent would I be if I were jealous of my own child's happiness?" We both chuckled at that. He continued, "Eric, since I came to Louisiana a few weeks ago, I have felt re-energized. I hesitate to tell you this, lest you think less of me or become alarmed, but there have been times in the past when I was tired, so tired, of walking this earth and had actually contemplated meeting the true death." I had thought as much, but hearing it didn't stop my heart from seizing at the thought. "Then, by simply coming here, everything has changed. I am actually looking forward to working with the American human law enforcement system. I think I will do well there."
"They will be very lucky to have you. I hope it turns out to be all you need to feel fulfilled," I nodded at him. "And hey, not that I have to warn you, but don't take any crap…" I smiled. He threw his head back and laughed.
"Have I ever?" he asked. We both chuckled together.
Rasul joined me in the empty chair on my other side, "I am having fun! It has been many centuries since I've been to a family wedding." I threw my arm over his shoulder.
"And that is exactly what this is for us," I added as I threw my arm over Godric's shoulder as well. "My father, my brother, and my child were all here for me. Not only that, but they all played instrumental roles in the most important event of my millennium- long life. I feel like I have as much family here as Sookie does. I think I am very fortunate. Did either of you ever think that in 800 years or more than 2000 years, you would still be here? I know I didn't. Fate is a powerful bitch." For a moment, my comment was met with contemplative silence, and then both Rasul and Godric started laughing.
Godric raised his goblet, "to fate…"
Rasul raised his, "to powerful bitches…" I also raised mine, we toasted, and drank.
Just then Sookie returned to the table. Both Godric and Rasul rose to give her a seat next to me. "Y'all sit back down, I'd like to visit with you," she said as she sat on one of my legs and hugged me. They both sat down. "Now, Godric, what is up with you performing the ceremony?" I wondered when she would ask. "Are you, I don't know, licensed?"
Godric smiled, "yes, Sookie, I am. Both Eric and I got ordinances from the Church of the Loving Spirit on the Internet several years ago. We did it on a whim. When Eric asked me if I would officiate at your wedding, I simply applied, with my ordination, to the state of Louisiana. It only took a week to get the license."
Sookie let out a sigh, "excellent, so we are legally married?"
He chuckled, "indeed, you are. I have a marriage license for you to sign within the next 72 hours."
"Bring it on!" she responded.
"I'll be right back," he answered, as he rose to fetch the document.
Sookie looked over to Rasul, "are you having a good time tonight?"
He smiled, as he ever did, at her, "Holy goats, I am having a most excellent night." We both chuckled at his response. "Now, I am going to find Pam…" he said as he stood, nodded to us, and walked away.
Sookie looked at me and placed her forehead against mine with her eyes closed, "Eric, I am so, so deliriously happy. It almost seems like it can't possibly be real." I hugged her to me tightly in my arms, and my eyes were also closed.
"I've felt like this all fucking night, my Sookie," I whispered into her neck. We both just let out simultaneous sighs, which led us to snicker together. She pulled back, and we each placed our right hands against each other's face and stared into each other's eyes. I didn't mention to her the soft click of smart-phone cameras around us that I could hear. I spoke softly so that only she could hear, "the night we first made love was the best night of my life, my Sookie. But this is by far the happiest night of my thousand years of life," I smiled at her. I felt her emotions swelling inside her. She understood and appreciated the fine distinction I was making.
She smirked at me, "you know, it's getting pretty late, at least by human standards…" She paused and let that statement just hang there for a moment. I raised my eyebrows at her, in question. She grinned at me wantonly, "I was just thinking that maybe… we might want to call it a night. At least in this location… Wedding receptions do often go on even after the bride and groom have departed." Well, alrighty then.
AN: Three chapters in a little over a week?! Holy cow! Thank you so much to those of you who reviewed since the last posting – as of 9/26/20: Lbot1979, Sooty85, princessspot5, Asami's clown, VamMad50, Perfecta999, EricFan71, Duckbutt, Coloured Raine, FanFicGirl5000, bttrflybelle, ciasteczko, jackie69, Amy, Ophelia.
