A/N: Hope you all enjoy! I'd love to hear what you guys are enjoying, or not. Please review. Thanks!

…

Sookie, Bill, and Jessica had been sitting around Bill's living room for a couple of hours now, trying to engage in small talk to keep their minds off of the fact that no one knew where Arabella was. Sookie was relieved that she didn't have to worry about Jason. He had texted earlier that morning that he had to go to Dallas for a couple of days to meet with the Sheriff; Godric was his name, and his people, to get a debriefing on the Fellowship of the Sun and what his role would be. So when Rene said that he was going to stop by Jason's to drop whatever he needed to drop off at Jason's house, she knew he wouldn't be home.

"Bill, maybe we should head over to my house for a bit; just in case Arabella went home or tried calling our home phone." Sookie said after what had been an inordinate amount of silence.

Bill silently cursed himself. They should have went there right after Merlottes. "That does sound like a good idea. Let's go over there now." Bill said, grabbing a hold of Sookie in his arms and darting out the door, Jessica following closely behind.

Once the trio arrived at the house, they noticed a squad car was getting ready to pull away.

"Stop! Wait! Please stop!" Sookie yelled after hurling herself out of Bill's arms and running after the car.

"Oh, miss, we didn't know anyone was home. The lights were out and no one answered when we rang the doorbell." The startled Shreveport police officer replied. 'What's a Shreveport police officer doing here?' Sookie thought to herself, suddenly getting very alarmed.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to have to inform you…" The police officer began.

"Oh God." Sookie gasped as she grabbed a hold of Bill's arm, who was now standing next to her, praying her knees wouldn't give way as she tried to brace herself for the news…

…

After two days in the hospital, the nurses finally gave me my discharge papers to go home. I was injured by the assault, that much was evident, but I thought I looked worse than I actually was. Most of my injuries just needed time to heal, which I could do at home. Wondering why my release was taking forever, I decided to read my doctor's mind during one of his exams. Probing his thoughts, I was able to find out that he had been pressured to keep me 'hidden' at the hospital until after Mudbug Madness ended. Turns out some officials with clout in Shreveport didn't want my attack at a popular hotel tainting the image of a safe, fun-loving festival, or God forbid, cause people to leave early with their money. I never paid much mind to politics before, but I had to say that I was impressed that they were able to keep everything on the down low. It never hit the papers or the local news, not once. It probably also explained the real reason why there was always a cop sitting outside my door.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little glad that I was hidden away from the world for a time. As much as I felt like shit, looked like shit, craved to throw a shit fit that would end up with me breaking shit, being at the hospital, hooked up to all sorts of monitors and being watched like a hawk forced me to reign in those feelings and calm myself down. As immature as I would have liked to have behaved, acting out wouldn't have changed what happened. Maybe for a short time it might've felt good; letting all my aggressions out. But in the end, I would've just looked like a fool and pissed off the people around me who were only trying to help and who cared about me. Being trapped in the hospital with crap cable TV and intermittent visitors obviously gave me an abundance of time to run the gamut of emotions and contemplate my situation way too much. So, when all was said and done, I was glad to finally get out of there, and hopefully leave all those emotions at the door. While my every physical need was taken care of and I was safe, a resort, it wasn't. Not to mention, the food sucked; made up mostly of broth and jello. Because my face hit the floor a few times, my jaw was swollen, so eating was hard to do. Well, what girl doesn't like to lose a few pounds here and there, I thought bitterly?

…

Now, I was laying on the living room sofa in my and Sookie's house, fading in and out consciousness due to the wonderful cocktail of drugs that my doctor had prescribed, or maybe they were from Lafayette… who really cares though where they were from, they made me feel nothing; numb. And right now, numb was all I wanted to feel. Feeling nothing was an absolute good feeling, the best. In my haze, I could hear the voices of my sister, Lafayette, Tara and Jason in the background.

"Hooka, she gonna to be okay. She strong. She gonna get through this." Lafayette said to Sookie while putting a friendly arm around her.

"I know Lafayette, but it's just been so much in a short time frame. Her poor body's been through so much." Sookie replied, looking down at the broken body of her sister. Then she continued, "It's too bad Jessalyn and Owen had to leave this morning. I know how much she's missed them, but I guess they had some stuff they had to get back to in California."

Hearing Sookie's comments made me think, 'yeah, it seriously has been a really bad roller coaster ride of crap lately, hasn't it?' Sookie was right though about how bummed I would be about Jess and Owen leaving. They said they'd be coming back real soon though, so I had that to look forward to at least.

"If she hadn't killed that son-a-bitch, I sure as hell woulda. I can't believe I was friends with that guy." Jason chimed in. Once he had heard about what happened to Arabella from Sookie, he asked the sheriff in Dallas, Godric, if he could come back home to see his sister. Godric allowed him to leave immediately.

"Yeah, you went and made a few bad calls lately, haven't ya Jason?" Lafayette said, glaring at Jason. Lafayette still wanted to bitch slap Jason for ratting him out to Eric, but knew this wasn't the exact time.

Jason eyed Lafayette uneasily before responding, "Yeah, I guess I have, but I've owned up to what I've done and plan on making things right. It's all I can do now. You know I'm sorry Lafayette, really, about telling Eric about the V and all. I hope we're okay." Lafayette eased his glare at Jason, rolled his eyes and let out a deep breath upon hearing Jason's words. It was hard to be mad at that fool for too long. He knew Jason meant no malice in his actions. And, of course, Eric was not one to be trifled with. There would have been no way Jason was gonna keep that secret in an Eric interrogation.

"Yeah, I know Jason. We okay; just don't fuck me over again bitch. Where is that crazy hooka Amy anyway?" Lafayette asked curiously.

"You know, I don't know. I gave Eric some leads of where he might could find her, but I don't know what ever happened her. I don't know that I want to know, to tell you the truth." Jason said sadly. As crazy as Amy was, he really did care for her, at least before she went totally psycho.

Tara chimed in, trying to switch gears, "Maybe Arabella needs to get away from all this crazy. She should come and stay with me at Maryann's for a while. She's got such positive energy and her place is amazing. Arabella could definitely use an escape after all the shit she's been through."

Sookie glared at Tara for a moment. Maryann may have charmed Tara, but she certainly didn't endear herself to Sookie; and there was certainly no way in hell that she was going to let her baby sister near that odd woman. "Arabella will be fine right here, at home Tara. She needs her family."

"Well, it's just an option, Sookie. And besides, Arabella may feel differently." Tara replied in a slight huff. She didn't want to piss off her best friend. She and Sookie had not been seeing eye to eye lately, mostly because of her living at Maryann's. However, Tara knew what it was like to feel like you're at the end of your rope, needing to feel like someone is there to pull you out of your funk. She had a feeling that Arabella may be there right now.

Just as it seemed that Sookie and Tara were about to have yet another disagreement about Maryann, there was a knock at the door. Sookie walked over to see who it was. Looking through the screen porch door, she saw none other than Eric Northman. 'So he finally shows up.' Sookie thought to herself as she asked with an air of spitefulness in her voice, "So Eric, what brings you around?"

….

Earlier that night…

"I can't believe that bitch forced us to stay there for days. I didn't even have my own wardrobe or shoes. Granted, the outfits she gave me were fine; I plan to put those to good use. But the shoes; they were horrific. And don't even get me started on those fucking games she made us play non-stop. If she made me play one more fucking game of Jenga, I would've taken one of those little wooden rectangles, whittled it down to a point with my own fucking fangs, and staked her with it." Pam complained to Eric as they arrived at the cell phone store at the mall near Fangtasia.

Eric chuckled a little at Pam's rant. 'Nobody messes with my Pam's shoes.' He thought to himself before responding to her comment about the games, "Not before I staked her myself;" as he was looking over the new i-Phones, trying to decide what he wanted. He hated 'game nights' with the Queen as well. It wasn't the games themselves he hated, but rather the obsessive nature the Queen had in playing them to death. You couldn't play once with her, you had to play to oblivion. It didn't go unnoticed by Eric that it seemed like she was keeping them there on purpose. He made a mental note to have Fangtasia swept for bugs. It would be just like Sophie Ann to plant listening devises at his place of business, especially now that she was making him sell V. She was neurotic that way. Also, she liked to get blackmail material on her sheriffs when she could. She wasn't the oldest of queens, but what she lacked in age, she made up for in shrewdness.

"At least she's paying for these new phones. I probably have a gagillion messages though. It's going to be work going through all of them." Pam said grimacing as she waved a salesperson over to take care of them. If there was one thing that Pam hated, besides stupidity, it was work.

Eric nodded in agreement. He knew he probably had a ton of messages and things he would need to take care of as well. Being sheriff, he had lots of underlings who reported to him and the such. Thankfully he had Chow to take care of Fangtasia in his absence. Chow was if nothing else, dependable, and so far loyal. The one thing that bothered him the most at the moment though, was not knowing what was going on with Arabella. He knew that she should be at the Holiday Inn with her friends, but she was human. Humans tended to not follow through on things; tended to get themselves in trouble; tended to get hurt.

After a short while, Eric and Pam got their news phones activated and were on their way out of the store, each checking their voicemails and text messages.

The first few voicemails Eric received were the normal kind, from vampires needing his advice or assistance in various issues. Then he got to the following one…

"Eric, It's Arabella. We've had a change of plans. We're going to be at the Hilton now. Oh, and by the way, we're planning on hitting up room service and the minibar. Should've never said your treat, but if you're real good, maybe I'll make it up to you, in some way I think you would appreciate."

Eric smiled to himself when he heard the message. He enjoyed seeing this side of Arabella; fun, carefree, flirty. He started to think of all the ways that she could make it up to him indeed.

After a few more voicemails, he finally got to another familiar voice. This time it was Bill Compton. Now usually Eric cringed when he got a Compton call, but this time, Bill actually had pertinent information.

"Eric, it's Bill. The Bon Temp killer is Rene Lenier. Where are you two? Call either me or Sookie."

'Well, that saved a lot of time and energy.' Eric thought to himself. Now he just needed to get a hold of Arabella and make sure that she was okay. If memory served, Rene was the groom to be at that party at Merlotte's. 'So he was the bastard that tried to attack you.' Eric thought. 'He's going to pay severely for attempting to hurt what's mine.'

Eric immediately began to dial Arabella's number, but it went straight to voicemail. He left a message to call him and then decided that he should probably text her as well.

Seeing that he had some texts, he decided to check them quickly before sending her one. That's when he came across the following messages:

Rene is Drew Hes here Im scared please come

And then…

Help me Pls!

"Shit!" Eric said out loud. Looking at the time stamp on the messages, he saw that they were from a couple days ago. 'If that bastard so much thought about hurting just one hair on her head, I'm going to pull his tongue out and shove it up his ass.' Eric thought as his next move was to call Compton, who seemed to know what was going on, since he couldn't get in touch with Arabella.

"Bill, where's Arabella?" Eric asked once Bill answered his phone.

"She's at home…" Bill said slowly, but finally added, "Recuperating."

"Recuperating? What the hell happened, Bill?" Eric asked trying to hide any sound of panic in his voice.

"Did you get my message about Rene Lenier?" Bill asked.

"Yes, but what happened to Arabella?" Eric asked impatiently.

"It's kind of a long story, but here goes…" Bill started, not wanting to be the one to relay the information to Eric, but he had no choice now.

Eric stood there in silence for a moment. 'Shit.' He thought to himself again. 'Fucking Queen. None of this would've have happened if I wasn't made to be her fucking playmate for the past few days.'

"Eric?" Bill said, bringing Eric out of his internal rage.

"Yes. I'll be in touch soon." Eric responded quickly and then hung up on Bill.

Since Pam was still nearby checking her own messages, Eric called her over. "Pam, I need you to get a copy of the security footage from the Hilton from two days ago."

"Why?" Pam asked, agitated that her work was already starting up.

Eric quickly recounted what happened to Arabella. Once Pam heard the story, she knew better than to question his command again and simply left to get what Eric requested.

…

"Eric?" Sookie asked again, annoyed. Even though Bill had explained to her that Eric was called away by the Queen, and once summoned, a vampire is at the mercy of their monarch; Sookie couldn't help but feel pissed at Eric for not taking his vow to protect her sister more seriously. He was supposed to watch her at Fangtasia. She was his. If he had to leave, he could have made arrangements for her. He was supposed to protect her. He didn't.

It took everything Eric had not to roll his eyes at Sookie. While he didn't expect a warm welcome, given the circumstances, it didn't mean that he wanted to be verbally bitch slapped, least of all from this Stackhouse. "I came to see Arabella. May I come in?" Eric calmly asked, his face betraying none of the annoyance or impatience he was feeling; noting that this was not the circumstance that he wanted in order to gain entry into their home, but if would take it if offered.

"No you may not. Now I know that you were called away by the Queen, but you didn't even have the decency to call. Arabella was knocked around like a ragdoll, and YOU WEREN'T THERE!" Sookie yelled at Eric loud enough that now everyone in the living room, including Bill who had come by after his call with Eric, was looking to see what was going on at the front door.

Bill walked over to Sookie to try to calm her down. He knew that yelling at Eric wasn't the best of moves on her part. You never knew if Eric would play along, or rip your throat out with that type of insubordination. "Eric." Bill nodded hello in Eric's direction and then turned to Sookie and said, "Sookie, let's not let our emotions get ahead of us. This really is between Eric and Arabella. We don't need to get in the middle. She is still his."

"Get in the middle? Bill, Eric was supposed to protect my sister; said he would. Look at her. Does she look like she was protected? You would have never let that happen to me." Sookie spit out at Bill.

Bill knew that now was not the time nor the place to give Sookie the tutorial in vampire politics that she so sorely needed, but at the same time was at a loss as to how to get her off of her high horse without pissing either her or Eric off, so he just gave Eric a look that registered like, 'I tried'. He'd talk to Sookie later, alone. Besides, Eric knew how Sookie could get. This was nothing new.

Not wanting to hear any more yelling, I shakily got up off of the sofa and staggered over to Sookie.

"Oh honey, you shouldn't be walking around. Here, let me help you back to the sofa." Sookie said to me, grabbing a hold of my arm to help keep me upright.

'Wow, those drugs really make you feel loopy.' I thought to myself with a small but sad smile, before saying to Sookie, "Sook, I'm tired… of all this (I said with a wave of my hand around in the air). I want to go to my bed. I don't want to be down here anymore."

"Oh. Okay sweetie. Bill, can you take Arabella upstairs?" Sookie asked Bill in a much sweeter voice than before. She knew that it would be much easier and quicker for him to do it.

Bill looked over to Eric, who if he wasn't a vampire, would probably not have caught the look of shock and anger that quickly washed over Eric's features, but just as quickly went back to a blank stare.

"Of course. Arabella?" Bill said and turned to get my approval.

I nodded my consent. So with that, Bill picked me up, gently, and was about to take me to my room, when Eric stopped him.

"Bill wait. Arabella, I would like to talk to you." Eric said, looking blankly at me.

"Eric, I'm tired. I'm really not up for this right now." I said honestly, not meaning just physically, but mentally as well.

"I would have come if I could have. You have to know that." Eric said, wanting to try to salvage the situation.

"You still could have called, I'm sure." Sookie interjected bitterly.

"The situation was….complicated." Eric responded, never taking his eyes off of Arabella.

"Well, as it turns out, all I needed was a bottle of Bud. Look, I don't want to get into it right now Eric. I really am tired. But to tell you the truth, I don't know when I'm going to want to see you. I… I just need some time to myself. It just seems like with every corner I turn, I find myself in some sort of shitty situation. I just need… a break. I hope you can understand that. Bill, I'm ready to go up if you are." I said, done.

Eric then watched as Bill took Arabella up to her room. As he did, he still was having a hard time registering just how battered she was. He arms were bandaged up from wrists to elbows. Her knees also were bandaged up as well. What wasn't bandaged up, was black and blue. He was pretty sure she had at least two broken ribs and her face, her beautiful face, was swollen and discolored as well. 'That asshole got off easy with her killing him. I would've tortured that son-of-a-bitch to the point of madness for what he did to her.' Eric thought, beyond angry, but betraying nothing to those in front of him.

"Well, you've seen her now, and it looks like she doesn't want to see you at the moment, so I guess you'll be off then, right?" Sookie said triumphantly at Eric, but taking little actual pleasure in it.

Knowing there was nothing to say to anyone here at the moment, Eric simply shot up into the air and returned to Fangtasia. He would have to figure out something to salvage this situation, as he had now succeeded in pissing off not one, but both Stackhouse sisters.

…

Bill gave me a small smile before he left me in my room with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. To say that I didn't think about Eric while all this was going on would be a lie. I did, against every wish I had to the contrary, I couldn't help it. While in the hospital, whenever I was alone in my room, I would stare at the door, as if staring at it long enough would magically make him appear; make him come to see me; make him care. But of course, he never came. Maybe he had a good reason why he never came. Maybe he was saving the world. Okay, now I know that wasn't the case. Bill had mentioned something about a Queen, but I just didn't care; didn't want to know why he didn't come, at least not now. Somewhere in my mind I knew I was being kind of a bitch about it, but again, I couldn't find it in me to care. I knew in my heart that Rene was to blame for my situation and solely him. He was the crazy ass who attacked me, but somewhere, in a small back corner of my mind, I felt like Eric had let me down in the process. And now, now that he had been standing there at my door, with that damn blank look on his face, I realized that I didn't want to see him. How could he stand there, no emotion whatsoever on his face? That blank look stared at me as if it were verification of his lack of concern for me. You would think that he was looking at paint dry on the wall and not at the face of someone who had been beaten senseless, someone who I thought at the very least he was friendly with, and at most, well…. I couldn't go there now. I was too beyond thinking about that now. I just wanted him to go away… for a little while. Thankfully sleep overtook my senses quickly.

….

As Eric returned to Fangtasia, he couldn't shake the vision of Arabella, so damaged, nor could he shake the uncomfortable feeling he had. Anger of course was there. That was to be expected. His pet was injured. The other part of the unease he felt though, that was some other emotion. Feelings were horrible in and of themselves, but the way he felt now, this was particularly disturbing. It wasn't guilt, no; he hadn't felt that in centuries. He wouldn't, no couldn't allow himself to feel that emotion. There was no use for it in his existence. No, it had to be disappointment in himself, maybe with a twinge of regret. Eric never failed. His many years of existence had groomed him to be a master at manipulation, a champion of strategy, and the like. He knew how anticipate an opponent's next move, and plan accordingly. And yet, with this situation with Arabella, he had failed. Humans were far more unpredictable in their actions. He should have taken more care with Arabella; took her to a safe house; perhaps even his own house, where he never took anyone other than Pam and Godric. She would have been safe there. Woulda, Coulda, Should… these didn't help now. He had offered her his protection as his pet, and she was still harmed. He would not fail in the future. He couldn't as he still needed to exact his revenge on Bill with Sookie.

So, as Eric sat at his desk, leaning back in his chair, feet up, lost in his thoughts, he contemplated on going back to the Stackhouse residence and offering Arabella his blood. Seeing her in that condition made him want to fix her; make everything better for her again; make them better again. He knew she was probably aware of what the blood could do from Sookie. Him not offering his blood may be why she also didn't want to see him. He didn't know for certain, but it was a possibility. Unfortunately, giving Arabella his blood wasn't part of his overall plan; in fact, he didn't want to give it to her at all. If he were honest with himself, the thought of that kind of bond with her was, for lack of a better word, frightening, for the vampire. Blood bonds drew the two involved closer, intertwined them for a spell, at the very least. They could be further strengthened by continued interchanges of blood. However, if there was more under the surface already between the two individuals, mutual attraction, adoration, or more, well, the bond could be very strong indeed, even with just one exchange. But, as it turns out, Eric was not feeling so honest with himself today, so he just chalked up his not offering up his blood to 'not fitting in with his overall revenge plan, instead of being chicken shit scared about forming a bond with Arabella. After all, Eric Northman was not scared of anything…

An hour before dawn, Pam finally returned to Fangtasia, a video in hand. Heading towards Eric's office, she could feel a rush of emotions. Try as he may to deny it, he cared for that human. She suspected it before, but knew it for certain now. She could feel him trying to keep them in check; to bury them. Pam knew his feelings had to be strong, as he was having a hard time hiding them from her. She finally felt him get those emotions in check. Knowing she was expected, she walked into his office.

"It took some finagling and a whole lot of glamouring, but I got a copy of what you wanted." Pam said to Eric as she placed the video in his hands with no smirk, no insolence, no attitude; knowing that he was not in the mood to put up with that right now.

"Thank you Pam. That is all. You may leave." Eric said, quietly dismissing her. He didn't want to watch the tape with her in the room.

He then walked over to his player, put in the tape, and watched the security recordings from the Hilton. He saw the stairwell footage of Arabella running in her undergarments, with Rene/Drew eventually following behind. He saw the look of terror in her eyes as she navigated the stairs. Then he watched her, seeing the look of determination on her face, as she deliberated a place to hide before the first assault in the common area in front of the indoor pool. Seeing her attack made his fangs pop out in anger. Then, he finally saw the horrific assault in the pool area. While he was beyond angry at what he saw unfold, he also was impressed at her strength. She never looked like she was going to give up or wait for someone to come rescue her. She was a fighter. She wanted to survive; to live. She was quick, cunning, resourceful, and beautiful in her fight against the crazy man who attacked her. 'Wait a minute.' He thought, as he rewound the tape to view the last part of the fight again. As he played the tape back, he caught something that appeared, ever so quick, that he doubted the police had picked up on it in the video. It looked like Arabella's hand glowed for a moment, just a quick moment, but a moment none the less, just before she was to thrust the broken bottle in Rene/Drew's neck. 'Well, that's interesting.' He thought. His next thoughts were to make sure that no one would see that part of the tape again. Tomorrow he would make Pam go back and have every copy of that video erased for that split second of footage. While the chances of the police catching the glow was slim, he just couldn't risk anyone else seeing Arabella be anything other than ordinary, because that would no doubt put her in even more risk of harm. And, if he got a copy of the attack, certainly someone else could in the future. No, he had to take care of this, the sooner the better. He would not fail again.