A/N: Hi. Me again. BAS 21 is about half done. I took a break from writing it to post this chapter, so it's coming along. But I am kind of SE-obsessed right now.

Chapter 35

Later that afternoon, the wolves sat together in the safehouse living room. Nobody was saying much. None of them dared, really. They were preparing themselves for the worst — at least since they'd been reassured that she wasn't going to die — and were trying to keep themselves in check. It was the night before the full moon and, on any other month, they would have already been headed for the meadow by then.

Sookie was still in the bedroom in her rest. Packmaster Flood had been keeping in close contact and they'd been kept up to date on news from the ball. It wasn't good. Their dread notched up with every conversation. They'd been so worried when she wouldn't wake the night before. Now they were hoping for her to stay unaware for as long as she could.

The doorbell rang and Tray got up to answer. At least they didn't have to worry about it being Eric at three thirty.

"I'm Dr. Ludwig. Flood sent me. Where's the girl and what's the matter with her?"

She was very short with olive skin and coarse, wavy hair and she carried an old-fashioned doctor's bag. She looked exhausted.

Maria-Star stood up. "I know you must be dog-tired and in a rush, but this might take a few minutes. Would you like to come and sit down while we try to fill you in?"

The doctor hesitated but then walked over and climbed into a chair. Maria-Star and Tray sat back down, too. They looked at each other but they all didn't really know where to begin.

Jake sighed and started talking.

"Sunsh-Sookie is in the bedroom at rest. As for what the matter with her is, we have no idea. We aren't even sure what happened. Not really."

Dr. Ludwig said, "All your Packmaster told me was that there was an injured vampire here with a bunch of Weres. She was at the ball, yes?"

They all nodded.

"So, was she burned, attacked, or silvered?"

They looked at each other again, but then Alcide spoke up.

"Well, none of the above."

The doctor raised an eyebrow.

He leaned forward. "Can you guarantee confidentiality?"

"Yes. I'm spelled not to divulge anything, no matter what gets thrown at me. My lips are sealed."

He nodded. "Do you know what happened at the ball?"

"There was some kind of psychic blast and an incredibly powerful — but silent — bomb. The working theory is that witches were somehow involved, but this is something that nobody's really seen before. At least nobody I've spoken to."

Jake said, "It wasn't witches. That was Sunshine."

The doctor laughed. "That would explain the dead vampires but not the rest. This was more than a little bit of sunlight. Plus it was dark outside."

He shook his head. "No, it was Sookie, I mean. Everyone calls her Sunshine. She kind of lost her shit and went nuclear."

Something in Alcide's brain clicked into place. "No, not nuclear. She went solar."

The doctor looked confused. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

Maria-Star had to swallow before she could speak. "God, I don't even know where to start. Sunshine is… special."

"Look, I'm sure she's a lovely vampire, but I need to get on with things here."

Tray cut in. "No, not just special to us. She can do things. She was a telepath when she was human. She smells like sunshine. That's where her nickname came from."

"Ok? And?"

Alcide said, "And she found out that she'd been betrayed by the queen of Oklahoma who was going to start a war last night and take over Louisiana."

The doctor cut in. "That was what everyone saw before the explosion, or whatever it was."

Tray took over. "Yeah, but it wasn't just that one. She saw all of Oklahoma's memories leading up to the ball. She just sort of blasted that last one out, I think."

The doctor frowned. "Sophie-Anne is trying to round everyone up and see who was involved in the attempted takeover, but just about everyone has scattered. At least the ones who were able to."

The Weres all winced.

Dr. Ludwig continued, "So, what about the rest of the story?"

Jake said, "She… shifted. Right, Alcide?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty fucking sure she did."

"She shifted into sunlight, I think. Fuck, I don't know. That doesn't even make sense. Sunshine was standing there, and she was so mad — and she almost never gets mad, but this was crazy. She was losing it — and then everything went bright. It was so fucking bright, right before it went black."

Ludwig shook her head. "Wait a minute. How do you know? Were you there, too? Why aren't you burned to a crisp?"

Maria-Star took over. "She can send us her thoughts and have conversations with us in our heads. We can even hear each other. She was showing us what she saw and what the humans in the room saw, but it all happened so fast. She was at the end of a hallway in the monks' quarters, just outside the bedroom where Oklahoma was. We found Sunshine naked on the floor no more than three or four minutes later. Everything else was just… gone. Turned to ash. We picked her up and went out a back entrance."

Alcide looked at the doctor. He spoke very quietly. "We haven't heard from Flood in a while and he's getting all of his news third hand. How bad is it?"

"Four vampires and seven humans confirmed dead so far, plus about half a dozen more who got their brains scrambled a little. There are many more missing. I'm sure those numbers will go up."

Maria-Star stood up. "Oh, Sunshine."

Sookie was standing there, frozen. She was wavering between abject horror and complete devastation. She shook her head a little, begging for it not to be true. Looking in their eyes and silently pleading with them to tell her that it was a mistake.

They all went to her. She collapsed into their arms, wailing in guilt and sorrow. They'd always said that she would never hurt a fly. Now she was a killer eleven times over. At least.

Dr. Ludwig was surprised into silence for a moment or two. Then, "Holy shit. A daywalker."

The wolves held her while she sobbed into Alcide's chest.

The doctor's cell phone chirped and she looked at the screen and then pulled a syringe out of her bag. She filled it with some kind of narcotic and jabbed the needle into Sookie's backside. Sookie started to slump to the ground but they caught her in time and held her tighter.

Tray yelled, "What the hell, Doc?"

"Look, this stuff will only keep a vampire out cold for a few minutes, if that. I just got a text. Is this Eric Northman's child?"

Alcide picked her up and carried Sookie to an oversized chair and sat with her in his arms. He had his hackles up a little. "What's it to you? Does she have an inheritance coming to her or something?"

"Well, no. First of all he isn't finally dead. He is, however, gravely injured. She needs to come back with me to my clinic so that he can feed from her. We'll take a good look at her and take care of whatever's the matter while we're there."

Tray narrowed his eyes. "There were four vampires there other than Sunshine: Oklahoma, the bitch that was with her, Creepy Bill, and Eric. Everything except her was obliterated. You said that there were four dead vampires."

"The fourth was another vampire from Oklahoma. He got staked right after the mass hallucination or whatever it was. If they catch any more of the Oklahoma vampires, they will be ended too, I'm sure. As for Eric, somehow, he survived. He will probably wish that he hadn't as soon as the sun sets, but that's neither here nor there. His child's blood will speed up his healing considerably."

Jake's voice was cold. "Would he recover without it?"

Ludwig paused. "Yes. I mean, I'm not going to speak in absolutes here, but he would almost certainly survive. However, it would be a very long and very painful recovery."

Alcide grunted. "He deserves long and painful."

Maria-Star said, "She can't see him right now. There is no way. It's already way too much. She's the sweetest person in the world and he's betrayed her terribly. Please don't make her do this."

Jake nodded. "And she isn't really Eric's child, anyway. Eric's child Pam was Sunshine's maker, but Oklahoma had Pam killed before Sunshine rose. Eric lied and told everyone that she was his. Registered them as maker and child and everything."

Ludwig thought for a moment or two. "Usually I would say that I wouldn't expect much from that kind of connection, but she is a daywalker and he should never have survived in the first place. He's had her blood, yes?"

Tray clenched his fists. "Yeah. They swapped blood all the damn time before that piece of shit broke her fucking heart."

Alcide sighed. "Look, I'm sure she'll give you blood if you ask. As much as you want. I hate that she will, but that's Sunshine. Just… just for fuck's sake, don't force her to see him. Please. Don't let him get to her. And, whatever you do, don't take us away from her. She needs us right now."

Ludwig looked at him for a long time. "And what exactly are you going to do with her for the next three nights?"

He shrugged. "We have a place we always go to. We'll watch her in shifts."

After a moment, she nodded. "I guess that will work. As far as I can tell, she seems to be fine physically, whatever the hell happened. But I need someone to consent before I take a donation."

Tray crossed his arms. "Well, you aren't going to get it from us."

Alcide felt her nod against his chest. He wondered how long she'd been conscious. How much she'd heard.

"Fuck. Go ahead. And do it quick before I try to change her mind."

Dr. Ludwig drew a pint and stashed it in a soft-sided cooler in her medicine bag. "I'll be back tomorrow for more. I can do it while she's at rest, so no need to worry about that."

"Hey, Doc?" She turned around and Tray's face had softened. "I know you said that you had to keep your mouth shut, but…"

Tray tailed off and Maria-Star finished for him. "Nobody can know what she did. No one can know it was her. Please. If they think it's witches or aliens or who knows what else, then please just go along."

The doctor gave her a wry smile. "By all rights, she should be the new queen of Oklahoma."

Alcide growled.

The doctor put her hands up, palms out. "As I said, my lips are sealed. I'll see you around this time tomorrow."

After she left, Sookie clung to Alcide while the others got ready for their night. Tray wished that the circumstances were different and that he could enjoy running with his new friends, but the mood was more than somber.

Alcide kissed her forehead and then spoke softly.

"We were planning on going to the meadow tonight. One of us will always be right there with you. But if that's too much, I can go downstairs and hunker down with you in the dark, just as long as I don't see the moon. Happily. Whatever you need."

She shook her head against his chest. He was glad that she wasn't insisting on staying there alone. She needed them. And Eric might just show up, although it seemed unlikely. He cursed the bad luck of this all going down so close to the full moon.

Sookie didn't want to let go and Alcide didn't want to put her down. He held her on the way to the meadow, lying on the bed in the back of the van. He carried her to the spot where they had played together, both in their wolf forms and human ones. Where they had all made love so many times. Where they had welcomed her into their pack.

Everyone was silent. Sookie hadn't been back in their heads since the ball, either. It felt almost like a funeral procession, devoid of any celebration of life. The others undressed and shifted and left the meadow to run with the moon. Alcide stayed behind for the first shift. He had to put Sookie down to take off his clothes, but then he lay down and gathered her into his arms.

The moon was still low in the sky and it was a cloudy night, but Alcide knew that it was inevitable that he would shift at some point. He hoped that it wouldn't be until after Jake came to spell him, but he doubted it. When he did, he would just curl up with her and let her stroke his fur or cling to his side. But first he wanted to talk. He didn't care that she wouldn't say anything back. He didn't expect her to.

"At least it is a nice night and isn't pissing rain. I don't mind so much when I'm Wolfy but it isn't much fun when you're human. No guard hairs. I guess the temperature doesn't even bother you any longer.

"Hey, remember that guy who flashed you outside the soup kitchen in the Lower Nine? He got popped again for indecent exposure."

He talked to her for another half hour, telling her whatever came to mind. When he felt the change coming, he kissed her forehead and moved just a few feet away. He supposed that shifting so close wouldn't have hurt her, but she was so fragile. And, even if she wasn't, he didn't care. He wanted to treat her like she was, anyway.

She stiffened up but didn't say anything. After the change, he curled up right next to her and she relaxed a little again. He couldn't continue his monologue but the silence was just more natural in this form.

Eventually she did stroke his fur a little. He thought that it was for her benefit more than his, but he certainly didn't mind. Normally, they would have all played together for a little while before the hunt. He would be licking the side of her neck, right behind her ear, because it tickled, or begging for belly rubs, or sniffing her where he shouldn't, making her pretend to be angry. He was afraid that it would never happen again.

He was restless — the moon was calling to him — but he didn't mind that, either. He'd left his watch nearby and kept an eye on it. After about two and a half hours, he slipped away from her and howled. When he heard all three replies, he cuddled back up against her again. Jake arrived a few minutes later and took Alcide's place and curled up beside her.

They made it through the night. Each of them had taken a turn staying with her. She hid her face in the fur on Tray's back when the sun was just about to peek over the horizon. The others had already shifted and gotten dressed. When Alcide picked Sookie up and took her to the VW, she was already in her daytime rest. Jake and Maria-Star jumped in, too. Tray got up and stretched before shifting back. He had somehow become the wolves' designated driver, but that was fine with him. He found the keys in his jeans pocket and they headed back to Eric's house.

Tray went in first to confirm that the two light tight rooms were still empty, and then everyone went inside. They were all exhausted and just went straight downstairs, undressed, and snuggled up together in Eric's huge bed. Soon, the wolves were all at rest, as well.