The sun had completely set by the time that Sookie pulled into Eric's driveway. As we had both expected, there was a small clan of vampires standing on his porch. They wore varying expressions. Godric looked rather pissed. Eric looked amused. And Pam looked disgruntled about something or other but not quite pissed. Michael, however, was merely lounging in one of the chairs on the porch.

"See? They're fine," Pam drawled as we got out of Sookie's little yellow car. "Can we get back to my problem now?"

"Where have you been?" Godric asked, spinning me around to examine me and make sure that I wasn't hurt or anything. Upon discovering that I wasn't, he seemed to get a little angrier. "Do you know how worried we were?"

"We?" Eric questioned, blond eyebrows raising. "I believe that that was just you. I am, however, slightly worried about my bank account."

"Oops," I grinned, throwing the card back to him. He caught it with ease, eyeing it curiously.

"I had forgotten about this card." That was a lie. Vampires never forget anything. But it was his way of saying that he hadn't thought that I still had it. A rather valid assumption on his part. I probably should have just chucked it when I got it from him a few years ago. But I hadn't. I'm not sure why. Though today was a pleasant reminder of the fact that I should keep more things like this for when I need them.

"You should really remember things like that." Godric frowned at me, clearly unimpressed with how carelessly I treated running away. He opened his mouth to yell at me only to be interrupted by a faint pop. A very angry Nahla appeared with Bahari, who simply looked tired. Which was rather strange for a being such as himself.

"Well, look at that," Michael mused, "I didn't even have to leave this time." Nahla shot him a dirty look.

"This is no laughing matter," she informed him stiffly. "Kaelin is rather angry with you."

"Eh, tell him to take a number," I yawned. "Eric, be a doll and help me take my things inside." He raised an eyebrow. "Jackson said-"

"He said that I was supposed to protect you from danger, not become your personal bellhop. Besides, that's Pam's job."

"Excuse me?" Pam shrieked indignantly. "You want me to lift the bags of some half-blood for the rest of my life? No offense," she tossed back at me.

"Offense taken," I assured her. "But, seriously, I bought a lot of shit. Somebody help me with these bags." Michael and Bahari ended up taking all of the bags from me and taking them inside. Godric and Nahla looked even more miffed by the entire thing.

"There are many who would settle for nothing less than your head on a silver platter, you know," Nahla warned me. I immediately thought of Salome. Something told me that she didn't want my head on a silver platter. At least not yet. She might some day but that day isn't today. Not that I'm aware of anyway.

"And there are many heads I would like on a silver platter," I shrugged. "It can't be that big of a deal. Sookie and I just wanted to go shopping."

"For the record, I wasn't given much of a choice," Sookie interjected.

"But you didn't run away."

"You would have just carried me the other direction if I tried."

I grinned at her. "Still, you didn't even try." She also grinned before shrugging at me. I then sobered slightly. "However, there were some people that were rather unreceptive to us."

"They tried to kill you?" Bahari questioned, concerned.

"No, they just refused us service," Sookie shook her head. "It was kind of cool though. All of the supes there defended Aline."

"I expected something like this," Nahla admitted. "The Fae have been rather uneasy about being exposed. What of your kind?"

The fact that she had turned to Godric and questioned him directly made all of us stare at my godmother. She shifted uncomfortably under our gazes. Godric cleared his throat before replying: "The mainstream agenda applauds us and finds it rather unfortunate that Edgington has retaliated in the manner that he did. However, the extremists feel the opposite."

"And the Weres?"

"Dave didn't seem too upset by it-neither did most of the people that stood up for us. I think they're more afraid of what the humans are thinking, honestly," I answered. "Alcide was just pissed that I was alive and he didn't know about it-again."

"You saw your brother?" Godric questioned, his face softening. I nodded.

"Did I miss something?" Pam questioned Eric.

"Alcide and Jackson still believe that Aline is dead," Michael supplied. "Or, rather, Alcide thought so until this afternoon." He paused, inclining his head lightly. "And he'll be here in about twenty minutes." At my gaze, he shook his head. "He's alone." I nodded, wondering if Jackson knew. Then I realized that that was a silly idea. If Jackson knew, he'd be in the truck with Alcide. And that twenty minutes would have been two-because Jackson would have been driving and he would have been going ninety.

Pam shook her head at me, clearly thinking that anything other than vampires made no sense whatsoever. Eric followed her with a chuckle. Though he usually found us to be senseless, he found us amusing. Pam just generally found us annoying. Sometimes that makes us more annoying. At least that's what it does for me. The rest of us followed them inside, listening to Pam prattle on in Swedish. No doubt she was attempting to understand us. (And failing, based on Eric's laughter.)

Sorry for such a long update delay! ...And this one is rather short. But it's a start. Thanks to everyone who continues to discover/read/review/etc. despite my flighty nature when it comes to these sort of things.

*crosses fingers* There should be more to come...I just cannot guarantee an ETA. ^.^

Enjoy!

~Lynn