A/N: Happy Monday? :P Still struggling a bit with writing. Shocker, I know. I will promise a 2 update week, though. If I can't make 13 happen, I'll post chapter 1 of Circling The Drain. But I'm pulling for both. But SE will remain the priority. I just like to have two to work on if one gets temporarily blocked. :)

Chapter 12

Eric wanted to leave for Shreveport sooner than later. He extricated himself from Sookie and went into the closet to get some clothes and get dressed. He would have loved to have stayed there with her in his arms a little longer, but he had a few things he wanted to do before they left, and then he had some phone calls to return. When he came out, Sookie was sitting cross-legged on the bed, blinking her eyes sleepily. And it was still an hour before sunset.

His brows furrowed. "You have risen very early."

She shrugged. "I had a bad dream."

That threw him completely. "You mean a daydream? Before the sun rose this morning and you went to your rest?"

"No. Just now. I don't really remember what it was about, except that it was about my mama."

She not only dreamt, she couldn't remember them upon rising? Did she not have perfect recall, or was it only when it came to dreams, or whatever the hell that was? And was she really rising or was she waking? The bond when she was at rest didn't feellike sleep, but it didn't feel like death, either. It shouldn't feel like anything at all.

But when she'd been kissing him last night, that had felt like sleep, now that he thought about it. But she was definitely dead. She had no heartbeat. She was cold. She didn't need to breathe. She had fangs and she drank blood. He had never heard of anything like this before.

Then again, he had never heard of a vampire telepath before, at least one who had been a telepath before they'd been turned. And he knew of no part-fairy vampires, which somehow hadn't occurred to him, either. Her fairy ancestry had been just another part of the laundry list of things that made her a pain in his ass. Whom he needed to protect at all costs. He had no idea how those variables would affect her vampirism. He really needed to call Niall when they got back to Shreveport. And thinking about Area Five brought him back to her dream.

"Does your mother still live in Bon Temps?"

She shrugged again. "As far as I know."

"Would you like to see her?"

Her eyes widened. "No!"

"Do you have more family there?"

"Maybe Aunt Linda. That's Hadley's mama. But she was real sick a few years ago, and I really haven't seen her for a long time." She sighed. "She called DCFS on Mama when I was nine. Those are the people that investigate child abuse. When they came, Mama told me in her head what to say. They said the house needed to be cleaned up, and when I did that, they came back and closed the case. Mama wouldn't have anything to do with my aunt after that. Whenever I tried to see her and got caught, Mama would beat the tar out of me. I could see Hadley at school but she ran away when she was in eighth grade. She's a little older than me. She called when she could, and I snuck away and met up with her a few times when she came back home."

"Anyone else?"

"Daddy and Gran and my brother Jason all died when I was eight. There was a flood and our car got washed over a bridge. Only me and Mama survived. I hit my head and don't really remember it, though." She looked away. "I have a great uncle in Shreveport who always used to babysit, but I don't want to see him."

She felt so much shame and disgust. She had obviously been abused at home, just like Pack Master Flood had said. And it looked like she'd been sexually abused as well. No wonder she'd run away.

Eric nodded and went into the bathroom to brush and braid his hair. Instinct told him that this was not the time for physical comfort. She wanted a little bit of space. He just sent her calm and reassurance through the bond.

He heard the bedroom door open. He ran out of the bathroom before she could go upstairs.

"Sookie! The sun has not yet set. You will burn if you go up there. It is not light tight."

"Oh. I was just gonna go get ready."

"Can you not feel the sun?"

She shrugged. "Kind of? I don't feel anything right now, but I can feel the sunrise and sunset when they happen, sort of. Is that what you mean?"

"No. Are you able to feel the sunrise approaching, at least?"

"I was starting to get a little sleepy a few minutes ahead of time."

Gods, that was dangerous. She was so much trouble! And it was very good that she hadn't spent the day before in the bedroom upstairs. It was the only room up there that was safe. It hadn't even occurred to him to worry; she should have been dead for the day from sunrise to sunset at only a few days old. And she should at least instinctively know to stay away from the sun. "You need to stay in a light-proof area between sunrise and sunset, Sookie. No matter what. If you need to watch the clock at the end of the night and after you rise when you are alone, do it." Or he would just keep her with him. Just in case.

"Ok."

They were able to get on the road an hour after sunset. Once they got on the highway, he offered her his hand. After a few seconds of indecision, she took it.

At this point, he would have been thrilled with two steps forward, one step back. At least they would be getting somewhere. He supposed that swinging from one extreme to another - with a few stops in between - was better than just going backwards. But he didn't really think there was much room left in that direction.

"Would you like for me to turn on the radio?"

She slightly raised one shoulder. "It doesn't matter."

She was so quiet. So nervous. And so very very sad. But then, she'd apparently had a terrible life until she had run away to New Orleans. She'd met the Weres, and they had taken her in as one of their own. Flood had said that they were happy, and when Eric had seen glimpses of who she'd been before she'd been turned, he could see how full of joy and life she used to be.

And then she had been turned Vampire, orphaned, and was being torn from the only happy life and family she'd ever really had to go with a stranger back to the place she'd escaped. He wished that he could make her happy. He hated to see and feel his children suffer. And he greatly regretted that she had been orphaned. For all of their sakes. Especially Pam's.

But, as bad as he felt for Sookie, he couldn't regret the rest. Now she was his. He squeezed her hand a little, and then kissed it.

The closer she got to Bon Temps, the worse she felt. She was so panicky that she felt sick to her stomach. A few miles out, she got light headed (and part of her brain couldn't understand how that was even possible) and her vision got all spotty and her mouth was so dry. When they passed the exit, she yelled, "Pull over!"

He did, immediately, but looked puzzled. She fumbled for the door handle and threw it open. She got out and vomited blood all over the roadside.

Eric looked more than a little concerned, and got out of the car and went to her. She turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist. He was too tall for her to cry on his shoulder, so she sobbed into his chest. And he just held her. Standing on the shoulder of the road, which was pooled and spattered with blood. He stroked her hair and held her close until gradually, she started to calm down. A little, at least.

She pulled away and swallowed and tried to wipe the bloody tears out of her eyes with the backs of her hands. "I'm sorry about your shirt."

"I don't give a fuck about my shirt. Are you alright?"

She took a deep breath and it hitched in her chest. "No. I just… Take me to Shreveport. Please. I need to get away from here. I don't want to be this close anymore."

He opened her door and kissed her head before she got in. He closed the door behind her, got in on his side, and pulled back onto the highway. When he looked over a few minutes later, she was crying silently. He stroked her face and then cupped it, wiping her cheek with his thumb. "We will be home soon, Sookie."

She nodded, but didn't answer. Her misery was clawing at his chest, and he had no idea what would cause her to be sick like that. It was usually some kind of poisoning, but he knew that it wasn't that. She didn't feel ill. She felt... desolation.

When they arrived at his home, she followed along silently behind him. He had a million things that he needed to get caught up on, but this was far more important. He led her downstairs to his bedroom and lay down in his clothes. "Come. Please. Just let me hold you for a while."

She hesitated for a moment or two, but then she crawled into his arms. She was still crying silently off and on, and he held her a little closer. After a long time, she started to talk.

"After the accident, Mama got real bad. She loved Jason more than anything, except for Daddy, and she just couldn't bear the thought of living without them. She loved me too, I guess. Back then, anyhow. But I scared her and she hated that I was different. Sometimes she would just look at me, and I could hear her wishing it had been me instead. I didn't really blame her, though. I wished it was me instead, too.

"She started to drink a lot. She'd always hit some, but it got so much worse. She would go to the bars and bring a different man home every night. Uncle Bartlett always volunteered to babysit. Well, I guess he got paid in his own way." Bitterness had crept into her voice. "Mama was popping pain pills all day and then going out and getting trashed all night. Then she would come home with some guy who just might come into my room after Mama fell asleep. Because one pervert a night wasn't enough for a little kid to deal with.

"Every now and then she would find a guy who would stick around for a while. She really had a type, too - loser assholes with anger issues. They'd beat her up a few times. The cops would come. There would be a big scene out on the street with screaming and cursing. And all the neighbours would think even worse things about us than the time before. Then she would go on a bender for a week or two, and then we'd just go back to the status quo until the next guy.

"When I was thirteen or so, Mama found a biker bar out near Ruston, I think it was. The guys she brought back were even meaner and scummier than the ones before. And they introduced Mama to meth. Shit really went downhill from there. Mama got hooked and couldn't afford her habit on Social Security survivor benefits, so she started to deal, and eventually started hooking.

"I tried to stay away from home as much as I could. I hated sex, because I couldn't block out thoughts at all while I was touching people, but it was better to fuck on my terms than going home and getting fucked on theirs. Plus I could usually get something to eat and sometimes a place to stay for a night or two.

"I had a teacher who took me to Planned Parenthood in Shreveport to get an IUD. He didn't want to take any chances. He was mostly really nice to me, though, and lied about my age and told them he was my daddy so he could give consent. I couldn't take the thought of bringing a baby into that kind of hell.

"Anyhow, when I was fifteen, Mama's boyfriend started kissing me and stuff when I was trying to do the dishes, right there in the kitchen. Mama came in and saw and kicked him out, but then she took a knife and tried to cut up my face. She got my arm instead. She'd been thinking about making me deal or hook or both for a while, too. That was the day I ran. I was hitching and The Wolves picked me up right past the Bon Temps exit going in the other direction, towards New Orleans. They took me in. They saved me. They've been my everything ever since."

He thought she was finished, and he kissed her forehead again and held her a little tighter. He was trying to just lie there and offer comfort, but he was so angry that he wanted to go on a rampage. She had been a child!

A few minutes later, she said, "Other than wanting to find Hadley, I hadn't thought of my old life in months. I was finally really happy, and that part of my life was over. I was hoping to never come back this way again. I liked not thinking about it. When we got close today, it all just came flooding back, I guess. I panicked."

A panic attack. He had never heard of a vampire having one, of course, but she certainly wasn't a typical vampire. He would have thought that the fairy blood would have made her more formidable but, if anything, it seemed to have made her much more vulnerable. More human, almost, even though she had been less human to start with.

He hoped that she would appear non-threatening rather than weak. Either way, he would make it known that to harm her would incur his wrath. And he would keep her with him so nobody could use her against him.

She had strong defenses against humans - her telepathy, of course, along with her superior glamour and ability to pass - but against other vampires, Supes, and hell, even the sun, he was afraid that she would be in constant danger. And not only was she his child, she was all he had left of Pam. He could not lose her.

"I can kill them if you like. Your mother and great uncle." He very much wanted her to say yes.

She sighed. "No. I don't want to think about them unless I have to. If their deaths are on my conscience, I won't have a choice."

She snuggled into him a little closer, and he just held her and thought about everything that she had told him. He was very glad that she had confided in him. He hoped that maybe they had turned a corner but, if not, he would keep trying. Her life and turning had been very traumatic, and he was prepared to be patient. For as long as it took.

After a time, he realized that she had fallen asleep again. And it definitely was sleep. It was still more than an hour before sunrise, and he had so much to do, but he figured that it would wait until the next evening. He just wanted to watch her a little while longer. His hair tickled her nose, and she twitched it and then rubbed it with her hand. He wondered if she went in and out of sleep throughout the night, or only at the beginning and end.

When the sun rose, her brows furrowed, and then smoothed out and she slipped from sleep into her almost day death. He wished that he could stay awake and watch her all day long. To keep her safe, but also because he wanted to. She fascinated him.

He nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck and smelled sunshine as the sun carried him away.