AN: Sorry it's been so long, guys. Time is annoyingly persistent. Anyway, let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Chapter 33

Day 26

Maria had been at the Stackhouse place for little more than three weeks. She couldn't stand it. The smell of fairy was absolutely everywhere. It was engrained in the wood floors, had seeped into the drywall, and saturated every single fabric. Maria swam in the smell and it wasn't one she could get used to.

Most smells, as anyone could attest, faded the longer a person was exposed to it. No matter how strong it was, the nose would grow accustomed. It might not disappear completely, but it would become manageable.

That wasn't the case with Maria and Sookie.

Whether it was because of the innate fear her species had of fairies, or the fact that she hated Sookie, Maria couldn't say. All she knew was the smell never went away. It never ebbed. It always hurt her nose.

Day 44

Maria may or may not have finally stepped over the line.

It was a simple mistake. Sometimes, Maria didn't know her own strength. Was it her fault that she accidently snapped the broom in half, or the mop, or their replacements all in the same day?

Probably.

Sookie retaliated, though. Apparently, Maria was no longer allowed to use mops or brooms to clean the fairy's house. At least, not until she learned how to use them 'properly'.

Fuck Sookie. Maria wasn't her goddamn maid. She'd happily snap a thousand brooms and mops just because.

Sookie wouldn't let her near the vacuum, though.

Day 93

Down in the hold, Maria laid in bed staring at the metal ceiling above her. Sookie had people over, and Maria was told to stay in the wardrobe and not to make a sound. So, that was what she was doing –whether she liked it or not.

Maria was forced down into the cubby more and more when Sookie began dating the werewolf. It was hard for her to keep track of time now, but glimpses at the calendar helped her figure it out.

It'd been three months.

Day…?

Sookie was in one of her moods. Maria had been down in the cubby for some time. She didn't really know how long. She had a clock, so she could at least tell the time, but that served more Sookie's purposes than Maria's. Now that the werewolf was spending more and more nights there, Maria was allowed upstairs less and less. In fact, she hadn't been upstairs in a while. Days she knew, but she didn't know how many.

She was only allowed to leave the cubby at noon and midnight to use the bathroom if, and only if, the house was empty. If it wasn't, she had to wait another twelve hours.

The longer Maria stayed with Sookie, the more hardened the fairy became to having control. Honestly, it looked like she liked it. She certainly acted like she did. There was no more hesitation when she told Maria to do something, just a sharp bark of an order that was immediately carried out.

Bitch.

Four Months Later

Maria had lived with Sookie for little over four months. Perhaps 'lived with' was the wrong phrase. With the main threat of vampires relegated to the night, there was no point in Sookie letting her out, so she didn't.

Although, that wasn't entirely true. Maria was allowed out during the day to clean, do yard work, and whatever menial chores Sookie needed done, but didn't want to do herself. It was nice to write a list and know that everything on it would be done by the time she got home. There was no question, it would be done. Maria didn't have a choice.

Sookie knew at some point she was supposed to feel guilty with what she was doing, that she should have been absolutely horrified with the concept of keeping Maria, but she wasn't. The longer the thrope was bound to her, the more right it felt. Sookie couldn't really put into words what it was like, but having Maria felt more natural than anything –as natural as having two legs, ten fingers, and ten toes.

There was no way she was going to give the thrope up.

Two After That

Alcide and Sookie had been dating steadily and officially for about a month. It turned Maria's stomach for a number of reasons, the main being that he was just another guy to fall into her web. She almost pitied the wolf.

Months had passed since Sookie branded her, and Maria knew that the little fairy bitch would never let her go. She could tell by the way Sookie treated her. In the beginning, she might have been a little mean, but there were times she still attempted to win Maria over. It never would have worked, but she still tried.

Now? Months later? Sookie didn't even bother pretending. There were no more pretenses.

Maria was in the kitchen scrubbing the floor with a dish sponge. Sookie had initially told her to do it with a toothbrush and then apparently decided that it would take too long, so she upgraded Maria to a three-inch by four-inch sponge. And all because Maria told her to fuck off.

She'd made it roughly half-way through the process of hand-scouring the old tile when there was a knock on the door. Maria sat up and felt every vertebrae in her back pop when she had. Before she had the chance to stand, however, the visitor stepped inside.

"Sook, you-"

Alcide rounded the corner and saw Maria on her knees in the kitchen. His brows tugged together. She could tell he was trying to place her, but it took a minute. This was the first time he'd seen her in Sookie's house.

"Hey," He finally said as he approached. Thankfully, he saw what she was doing and paused at the entrance to the kitchen. "Maria, right?"

"Yeah," She nodded.

"What are you doin' here?"

She arched a brow. Clearly, he saw what she was doing.

"I mean, do you live here or somethin'?"

Maria's answer was automatic and reflexive. She parroted that answer Sookie told her to give when someone asked her that question.

"No. I'm just doing Sookie a favor."

"Oh," He slid his hands into his pockets. "Last time I saw ya, it didn't seem like you two got along all that well."

"We don't." Maria replied. Her mind raced with a way to tell him the truth, but Sookie forbade her from telling anyone she was a slave. Still, she could dance around it. "I don't have a choice."

His eyes narrowed. "Favors generally mean ya gotta choice."

"It's not a favor. That's what I was commanded to say whenever someone asked why I was in her house."

His confusion deepened. "What's that mean?"

Maria rose to her feet and met his eye. "Your little girlfriend owns me." He flinched. "What, she never told you that she branded me with her Light, that I'm forced to do whatever she says, and that I have no free will of my own?"

She noticed his jaw tense slightly and the muscles of his shoulders follow suit. "Bullshit."

Maria glared at him. "You're kidding, right?" He didn't reply, but she could tell he didn't believe her. "Christ, how blind are the people in this fucking town?" She shook her head. "Then again, I'm not really surprised someone like you don't want to see the truth."

He bristled. "The fuck does that mean?"

Maria was filled with rage, a rage that she couldn't dump on Sookie, but Alcide was there now. He was a free target to unleash at least some of it.

"It means you're a fucking moron." She told him bluntly. "And it doesn't surprise me that you can't see her as anything but some sweet little girl. But hey, correct me if I'm wrong, Sookie killed your last girlfriend, right?" Alcide flinched. "Probably the love of your life, too, given how you wolves are. You know she died right there?" Maria pointed at the spot on the kitchen floor currently hidden beneath a light layer of bubbles. She knew because she'd gleaned it from Pam months ago, and Pam had seen the body. Alcide's eyes drifted. "So, not only are you fucking the woman who killed your ex, but you're living in the house she died in, too." His gazed met hers again. Maria couldn't help herself and began to clap sarcastically. "Bravo, man. Bravo. Left your pack to shack up with the girl who killed the love of your life in the same house it went down in. Yeah, I don't expect someone that goddamn blind to see anything."

Alcide's eyes flashed with yellow. She saw his wolf struggle and fight, but without a word, he left. She grinned to herself. For whatever reason, Maria was a little proud of that. She didn't have time to enjoy it, however. While Alcide left through the front door, Sookie emerged through the back seconds later. It happened so fast that Maria knew she must have heard the whole thing and the anger written across the blonde's face was only further proof.

Sookie kept her gaze on Maria as she slinked into the kitchen. She slid her purse off her shoulder and dropped it and the keys onto the table. Maria could practically smell how furious Sookie was. She just didn't care.

Sookie finally looked around and spotted something.

"Pick up that knife." She said, pointing to a butcher's knife that was resting on the dish rack. Maria had no choice but to comply. She picked it up. "Put the point to your chest, right here." Sookie pointed to a spot just above her heart. Maria complied. "Push, slowly."

Maria, again, complied.

She fought the urge, fought against the command, but there was no point. Her arms didn't listen.

The tip of the blade pierced her skin and began to gradually glide deeper. It hurt. It hurt so goddamn bad, but Maria wasn't going to show it. The most she'd give Sookie was a tight jaw and heavy breathing.

"Keep goin' till I say stop." Sookie told her calmly.

So she did.

Sookie, still blank and emotionless, approached the thrope. Maria's arms kept pushing the blade deeper and deeper into her body. When it hit her sternum, she wished to hell it would have stopped, but it didn't. It couldn't. She wasn't allowed.

With a hefty shove, the blade broke through the bone. Maria cried out then. She couldn't keep the sound hidden behind closed lips. As the knife went deeper still, Maria could actually feel it scrape along her sternum. She forced herself to meet Sookie's eye, to look at the emotionless fairy.

"From now on, I don't wanna hear you speak." Sookie said. "And every time Alcide or anyone else is over here, I want you out of sight. You understand me? Nod if you do." Maria nodded. Still the blade went deeper. "Good. I know you hate me. I don't like you either, but I'm the one in charge. Don't forget that."

Her gaze dropped and Maria knew she was surveying the depth of the knife. Sookie took in a slow, deep breath before finally telling Maria she could pull it out. The thrope complied instantly and relaxed when it was gone.

Before she left, Sookie told her to clean up the mess, then she disappeared through the door. Maria assumed she was on her way to talk to Alcide, to try and smooth everything over. Maria hoped it didn't work, but it probably would.

If revealing that she was Sookie's slave in front of a group of people hadn't done a goddamn thing, then this probably hadn't either.

Maria was down in her dungeon as she always was. A few nights ago she heard Sookie and Alcide arguing about something that happened at their little get together. Apparently Tara was dead. Maria didn't care. She didn't even know the woman, so why would she?

Alcide didn't listen to Maria, but as she said before, she hadn't expected someone that fucking blind to see how twisted his relationship with Sookie was. Did she actually have a magical vagina? It seemed that way.

He'd moved in some time ago. Before, he slept over nearly every night and had brought a number of his things to her house, but whatever Sookie said to him worked, because he moved in not long after. Ever since, she was only allowed to leave her hole whenever Sookie and Alcide were gone. She couldn't even come out at night anymore because the werewolf would hear her.

Fucking bitch.

Season 7 Episode 4

On a plane heading toward Louisiana, Pam and Eric shared a smile.

"Pamela," Eric grinned. "Such a bitch."

Her smile broadened just a bit. "But you still love me."

His began to falter. "Always," He said on a breath. And he meant it. He would always love Pam.

Another tense silence fell between them, one weighted with reality. Both of them had spent their entire time together rising above such trivial things. They chose to live beyond reality, above everything and everyone. From the clouds, nothing could touch them.

Until now.

"Why do we have to go back to Shreveport, Eric?" Pam's voice was soft and filled with the need to understand. He heard it.

"For Willa." He repeated, though without the anger from before.

Pam cocked a single brow and stared at him skeptically. "And Sookie?"

He took a breath and let it out slowly. Eric didn't want to fight. He didn't have the energy for it. "And Sookie." He repeated. There was no need to lie.

Pam nodded softly as though she was accepting his answer, but he knew the truth. A moment later, she spoke again.

"And Maria?"

Eric felt a small twinge, one he'd felt before when thinking about the young woman. He hadn't seen her in a long, long while –not since Moon Goddess.

"Almost a year," He muttered. The words barely left his lips as little more than a breath, but the weight of them was substantial. It hit him hard and caused his face to twist into a slight scowl. "It's been almost a year."

Pam's brows tugged together. "Since when?"

"Since Moon Goddess." He told her.

He watched Pam's gaze drop to the floor while she thought it over, too. A second later, he saw that she'd reached the same conclusion. It was true. He'd spoken to her once in that time, but he hadn't seen her since he told her that their deal was done. Shortly after, he spent a couple of months underground with the Authority. After that, he was locked in the governor's hideaway for another month, month and a half. After that, six months traveling the world.

Time was a little tricky and he couldn't be entirely certain how long he'd been with the governor, but at the very minimum, Eric could safely say he hadn't seen Maria in roughly nine months. That was a long time.

It all went by so fast. It felt like a flash. So many things had been thrown at him that he'd only looked to the next night. There was no looking beyond that, not forward or into the past. He had to deal with the current problem, and as a result, time moved by faster than he realized.

How could he have gone nine months without seeing Maria? It felt wrong to think. He hadn't even gone nine hours without seeing her when she was his. Fine, perhaps that was an exaggeration because sleep was a necessity, but the point remained.

Why did it feel like he let her down?

"Eric,"

Pam's soft voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked at her and saw that she was staring back expectantly. He gave her a small twitch of a smile that faded just as quickly.

"And Maria." He said, finally answering her question. "Have you seen her?"

Pam shook her head. "I left to look for you the same day we escaped."

"Hm," he mumbled.

"I'm sure she's still at her place."

Pam's tone made it sound like she was trying to placate him or give him hope. It caused him to smirk a little. She didn't want him to try and search for yet another person when they had more important business to tend to. He wanted to tell her he wouldn't, but he couldn't make the promise, so he didn't bother lying.

Another silence filled the cabin. Even though he wasn't looking directly at her, Eric could see Pam watching him. She was probably waiting to speak, or looking for some kind of sign to cross his face. He'd like to think she was wasting her time.

"Do you love her?"

The question seemed random, as though conjured out of thin air and it caused him to eye her skeptically.

"What?" He was sure to lace the question with a slightly sarcastic chuckle. He doubted it fooled his Progeny.

"Sookie,"

Eric hadn't expected that to be the name.

"Do you love her?"

Eric relaxed marginally and let himself sink deeper into his chair. "I care about her, yes."

"We're passed coy, Eric."

His gaze focused on her. "Yes," He said plainly. "I do."

She wasn't overly enthused by the prospect, which he expected.

"What about Maria, hm?"

There it was, that little stab in his chest again. He didn't like it because he couldn't identify it immediately. That annoyed him.

"I don't know." Blatant lie. He tasted it.

"Hm, right." Pam practically cooed the word. He could tell she wasn't fooled, either. "Well, I can tell you who I'd pick if I were you."

Eric grinned wickedly as thoughts of Pam with both Sookie and Maria entered his mind. It felt good knowing the lecherous part of him hadn't been eaten by the virus.

"Oh, Miss de Beaufort," He mused. "Do tell."

"You know me," Her voice was deliciously teasing. "Always a fan of pussy."

Eric laughed and Pam did, too. He couldn't help it. Pam always knew how to make him feel better.

"Besides," She continued. "There's something to be said for a woman who goes through Hell just to save the Devil."

Eric let himself muse about her comment on the outside, but it forced him to think about all of the times Maria had turned around and saved his life. It may have only been twice, but each time mattered quite a bit. With the Fellowship, there had been a chance he could have been freed or escaped. It would have been difficult given he was silvered and there were gun toting Jesus-freaks everywhere, but still possible.

With Rasputin, on the other hand, there had been no chance. Whatever the sorcerer had thrown on Eric, whatever mixture of powders they were, they took the Viking to his knees within seconds. In less than a minute, everything the powder touched had been gnawed and chewed and melted. But Maria had saved him, in spite of everything, and when she woke up that night, they 'celebrated'.

They celebrated nightly for months, in fact. He'd been happy then because there was no chaos. He had Fangtasia. He had Pam and Maria. He had the devotion of the people who visited his establishment. He had everything he could want.

And then Sookie returned.

Eric's internal smile faded at the thought of the blonde. How could one person, so small and seemingly sweet, cause so many life-altering problems? Eric wouldn't go so far as to say Sookie was cursed, however. No, he'd known people in his life who really and truly were. What Sookie Stackhouse was, was a curse to those around her. Nothing fell back on her that wouldn't wash away shortly afterward, but the people in her immediate vicinity tended to suffer greatly before they died. And nine out of ten of them did die.

How the hell had her brother managed to live as long as he had?

Sookie had spent the day dealing with everyone. She talked to Arlene's kids, talked to Holly about where the others were hiding, talked to Bill –basically talked to fucking everyone.

And she didn't want to. She didn't give a shit about any of it, if she were being honest. She just didn't have it in her to walk around with her big doe-eyes, that look on her face that told the world she needed protecting, or that sweet exterior she generally kept.

At one point they were real. Back before she knew vampires existed, she was that Polly-Anna girl, that sweet Southern Belle that made the guys swoon. After? She'd been through too much. Polly-Anna died a few years back, and Sookie knew that the woman left in her wake was the real Sookie Stackhouse. That was how it felt, at least. Sookie didn't feel like she had to hide anymore.

She'd survived too much death and too much pain to care what other people thought about her.

After she berated Jess for being so weak, she met Bill in the den and fed him. She probably should have been more compassionate when she spoke to the still-traumatized redhead, but she wasn't. She meant what she said.

Those dead fairy girls are just the tip of the fuckin' iceberg. Truth is, I don't give a shit why you won't eat. So what if they're dead? Alcide's dead. Tara's dead. Almost everyone I've ever known or cared about is dead.

So I'm sorry, but I don't give a fuck about you or your problems. Three of my friends are being held captive in Fangtasia right now, and whether you want to admit it or not, I've been good to you. So are you going to help me or not?

She'd yelled at Jessica, and was downright cruel, but she didn't care. It was a freeing feeling.

After she spoke to Bill, Sookie made her way across the cemetery to her house. She walked through the floor plan and to the cubby. Sookie yanked open the door.

"Get up here." She snapped. Sookie stepped back and a moment later Maria emerged from within the cupboard. "You're comin' with us to Fangtasia. We're gonna kill the H-vamps that are hangin' out there, and you're comin' with me. You got that?"

Maria didn't reply, and Sookie didn't really expect her to. Through the last few months, she knew how to handle the thrope.

"Come on,"

Sookie made her way back to Bill's with Maria in tow.