I never knew I had a dream

Until that dream was you

When I look into your eyes

The sky's a different blue

Cross my heart

I wear no disguise

If I tried, you'd make believe

That you believed my lies

Thank you for loving me

For being my eyes

When I couldn't see

For parting my lips

When I couldn't breathe

Thank you for loving me – Bon Jovi

Sookie POV

In the days that had gone by since Mr. Cataliades had come to speak with Eric and I, we still haven't learned much else about anything. I still have not heard back from Niall or Cataliades about our meeting and about Eric being included in it. I am not sure if that is a bad thing, good thing, or if it really doesn't mean anything at all.

We are also not any closer to figuring out who may have been behind Threadgill's attempt on Louisiana. That's becoming a bit of a theme and I know it is one that we are growing tired of. Everything that we are finding out or using to narrow down the possibilities proves that whoever was behind this is a big threat, much bigger than Threadgill was himself.

And that has me worried.

Sophie-Anne is surprised that whoever it was, hasn't already made another attempt on the state. Though we did come out the winners, surviving a takeover would put us at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to surviving another one so soon. Add to that, that we are trying to combine two states and one would think that whoever was behind everything would see us as weak and would want to try for the state sooner rather than later. The fact that they haven't makes everyone believe that Louisiana is truly not the goal of this individual.

And with knowing where Threadgill's aim truly was at, that has everyone a bit more on edge.

I was extremely on edge a few nights ago when Eric had to go to New Orleans to discuss things with the Queen. They were trying to determine if a lead was credible but she also wanted Eric's opinion on which of the Louisiana vampires she could station in Arkansas to ensure that merging the two states is successful. It's very good that she is asking Eric for help with this. It shows that she has a great trust in him and after everything he did for her with Threadgill, she better.

So it was great that he was going down to New Orleans to help her. It was a really good thing. But that didn't mean I had to like it.

And I really didn't like it. I didn't even know how much I didn't like it until Pam had walked in the door, home from Fangtasia a full four hours earlier than she should have been. Thalia had called her concerned that her own attempts to cheer me up hadn't worked. I hadn't even realized she was trying or that I even needed any cheering up. I had felt a little bad after that.

Pam had sat me down and made me talk and I didn't even realize how much I had needed it. But she and Thalia had and they had cared enough to make sure that it happened. I couldn't have found two better friends if I had tried.

I hope that Eric talks to Pam too. I know that he talks to me and I think he knows that he can talk to me about anything but I hope he realizes that statement is true about his child as well. I know he was upset about something when he came in that night after walking Mr. Cataliades out to his car. He had tried to hide it, but I know the fact was not missed by me, or by the other two vampires who had been in the room when he came back in. I am just glad that the picture we had put on his computer seemed to lighten his mood. Pam had gotten a bit handsy in our pose so I am glad it suited our purposes.

I am not sure what had gotten him that upset and I haven't wanted to ask. I know there are still things Eric isn't comfortable speaking about yet or even simply acknowledging out loud. I trust him enough that if it was something that I needed to know, he would tell me. I keep letting him know I will listen when he is ready, but I more than understand the need to work through some things yourself before being able to discuss them with others.

Talking with Pam the night Eric was in New Orleans had centered me. With everything that has gone on and what is going on, I had gotten a little off kilter. I would have felt nervous with Eric going down their either way, but Pam was able to see that him being gone for the night had just given me one thing to focus on, that all of my nervousness from everything that was going on was now wrapped with Eric being in New Orleans.

Once I realized that, I was able to separate everything. The new vampire threat, the potential threat my fairy great grandfather represented, even moving in with Eric, it was all coupled with him being gone. Once I was able to sort through everything, yes I was still nervous but it was a more reasonable feeling and it was something that I could handle.

Then of course, my thoughts go to what happened when Eric returned.

I can't suppress the shiver that runs through my body, as I remember just how Eric showed me how happy he was to see me and to be home. "Cold," a voice calls out from the front of the car I am currently traveling in.

My eyes open and look to the rearview mirror where I can see Alcide's eyes on me. I shake my head, hoping that the blush stays out of my cheeks as he gives me a bit of a nod and turns his attention back to driving. Tray turns around slightly in his seat to take a look at me himself before resuming his conversation of the pack with Alcide. There had been an issue with one of the Arkansas Weres that had decided to stay in Louisiana but the two of them seem to have it under control. Tray is really thankful that Alcide has been helping him so much and has officially made him his second. I know that though Alcide was happy to help, he originally stayed here to keep busy after what had happened with Debbie. He has found himself a home though and I am glad his thoughts are much happier.

I'm not entirely sure how these two ended up driving me back to my house in Bon Temps today, though I have a pretty good idea. Eric and I had planned to move some of my things to his house tonight and I decided that I wanted to make dinner for some friends beforehand. My excitement for moving in with Eric for more than my safety has been growing in me ever since we had that discussion. Leaving my childhood home though, that idea was sad no matter how excited I was to be living with Eric.

I had planned on driving into town and getting started on dinner and having everyone just meet at my house. That's why I was surprised when I had a call from Alcide that afternoon explaining that he and Tray heard I would be coming back to Bon Temps tonight. They would be in the Shreveport area and would have no problem driving me back to Bon Temps if I wanted.

Yeah, more like Eric called them and told them to play bodyguard for me for the day.

And I will admit that part of me wanted to simply scream, "No," and slam down the phone. I don't like the idea of having bodyguards but I find that it's more that I don't like the situations I find myself in that make having bodyguards safer. I could get very angry with Eric for doing this behind my back and will admit that part of me was. But I know that Eric arranged this because he cares and because he's worried. That's what I keep telling myself in my head. And I did go to sleep early last night so he easily could have arranged this after I was asleep. He could have found out more information after I had gone to bed. So I have decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Part of me still doesn't like it though.

After a quick stop at the supermarket to get supplies, as the house isn't too stocked since I haven't been living there, we pull up to my house. "I'm sorry you guys have to waste your whole day."

"I wouldn't call being with you a waste, Sookie," Alcide says. I don't want to look to far into his words but can't help 'hear' when his thoughts flit through his usually snarly mind. That's when I can feel myself smile because he means nothing but friendship with his words. In fact, there is a female Were in the pack that has caught his attention and I can't help but hope it works out for him.

"Anytime a free meal is offered, it's never a waste," Tray says jokingly.

"Yeah, I love you too Tray," I tell him and he gives me a wink. The two Weres help me carry in the supplies, well carry them in for me, and I get to work on cooking, so dinner will be ready when everyone gets here. The boys are kind enough to ask if I want some help, but aren't eager enough to keep the hope that I will say no from their voice. Having pity on them, I pop open two beers and tell them to go ahead and go find something to watch on television.

They can't get out of the kitchen fast enough.

Cooking is very therapeutic. I am making Gran's chicken, which is a recipe I know very well so cooking it has me walking through the motions, giving me time to think. But now I am thinking about good things like Gran letting me help her in the kitchen for the first time. My eyes tear at the thought but there is a smile on my face too. That's how I want to remember my Gran. Thinking about the last time I saw her is too hard.

So I cook and remember because sometimes that's all we can do.

As dinner is almost ready, I hear the front door open, which is probably announcing Jason's here. When I don't hear any movement from my bodyguards that only adds more evidence that it's my brother coming through the door. My thought is confirmed as he comes into the kitchen and says, "Hey, Sookie," while wrapping one of his arms around my waist. I turn and wrap my arms around his neck, accepting the hug from my brother.

I am more than surprised when I see what Jason has in the arm he hasn't wrapped around me. As I pull away, he shoves a bouquet of flowers at me. That earns him another hug and I say softly, "Thanks big brother."

"I love you, Sis," he says wrapping his other arm around me. As he does so, I get hit in the face with the flowers but I don't even care. Both of us have been in danger recently and the fact that we are both standing here is something that I don't want to take for granted.

"I love you too, Jase," I tell him giving his neck a squeeze.

"It'll be different with you not living here," he says. He knows that I am moving in with Eric and he also knows that I am not selling the house. I just can't. He has already promised to check in on it.

"It will be," I tell him. "But that doesn't mean it will be bad." I pull away and say, "You'll come visit me, right,"

"You won't be able to keep me away," he says as I take the flowers from him. I quickly get a vase, cut them, and put them on display. Jason, just like Tray and Alcide, asks if I need help all the while eyeing the doorway into the living room where the sounds of a game can be heard. I give him a shove toward the room and tell him to go. He stops at the fridge for a beer on his way out.

It's not too much longer before the food is done. Eric told us not to wait, as the three vampires can't eat anyway so I call in the boys and tell them the food is ready.

We are just sitting down when my front door slams open and I hear, "Party's here," being yelled through it. I simply shake my head as Pam walks through the door and heads into the kitchen putting away the bottled blood she brought for the evening. She's followed by Thalia who comes in simply shaking her head and Eric who is at my side picking me up in his arms before I can even register that he came in through the door.

I move to give him what I intended to be a quick kiss but his hand on the back of my head says he is thinking otherwise. I feel something bounce off my head and hear Jason say, "I don't need to be seeing that."

I pull away from Eric to see a dinner roll on the floor. He threw a dinner roll at us! I pick it up and throw it back to him saying, "It's not like I haven't seen worse from you." It's good not to be the one blushing for once.

Pam comes out of the kitchen carrying three of the bottled bloods for the vampires in the room. I would say that Pam playing waitress is a shocking sight itself, but that has nothing on the fact that Tray still has his arm attached to his body after he smacks her ass when she walks by. In fact, she gives him a bit of a wink.

I think I have entered the twilight zone.

Eric, probably on seeing my confused look, leans into me and whispers, "They have common interests."

But in a room full of Supes, he may as well have been screaming. Thalia lets out a snort at his words and says, "More like one common interest."

Suddenly it all clicks in my head. "When will Amelia be getting back," I ask Pam, unable to keep the teasing from my voice. I know she had been seeing, or whatever she had been doing with, Amelia. Tray had also hooked up with Amelia before she left with Octavia to go to New Orleans to help Sophie-Anne. I guess I just hadn't realized there might have been some overlap that the three of them may have enjoyed.

"I hate you all," Pam says, sitting down at the table. With the look on her face, I am glad she didn't need any silverware at her seat.

"Family dinners, huh," Eric says as everyone else dives into their food. Well, the ones that eat at least. "Be careful what you wish for."

I shake my head though and say with a smile, "It's perfect."

I start putting food on my plate when Eric suddenly grabs my hand. "Alcide and Tray," he starts out awkwardly. I sit back in my seat and rub his hand with my thumb, encouraging him to continue. Well, I may have given him a look told him he better explain himself.

But he does and probably would have done so without the look since he's the one that brought them up anyway. I was right in thinking he simply arranged it after I was asleep. He's worried that if there is another monarch eying Louisiana for whatever reason that they would send spies or scouts out beforehand. He doesn't have to add that because I was one of the targets in Threadgill's plan, these scouts could easily be after me.

I nod at his explanation and lean over and give him a kiss, letting him know that I accept what he did. He growls when I pull away before he can deepen it. Focusing back on dinner, I see that Pam, Alcide, and Tray had been listening to our conversation. Alcide and Tray at least have the decency to look away once they saw it was over.

Pam not so much. And that's why she gets hit in the head with a dinner roll. But it wasn't thrown by me. Eric gets another kiss for his troubles, from me at least. He gets a glare from Pam.

What gets my attention more though, is that Jason and Thalia seem to have talked through our conversation. Generally speaking two people having a conversation at dinner wouldn't be too abnormal. But Thalia is actually talking to someone who isn't Pam, Eric, myself, or someone she is barking orders at. And Jason has been focusing on one female for more than two minutes of a conversation.

That's what's impressive.

The rest of dinner goes on without anything else flying. I mainly just sit back and take it all in. Though I wouldn't give up my time with Gran and Jason for anything, this was something I missed growing up. Our dinner table should have been full like this. My grandfather should have been here. My parents should have been here. Aunt Linda should have been here and as we got older, Hadley should have continued to be here too. And Bartlett never should have done anything that got him kicked out of family dinners.

Looking around at everyone's faces, I sink into Eric's side as he wraps his arm around my shoulder. I kiss his cheek and whisper, "Thank-you," into his ear. He looks down at me in confusion and I look around the table in explanation. If it weren't for him most of the table, most of these people who had become my friends and family, wouldn't be here.

"No," he says shaking his head. "It is I that has to thank you. You have opened my eyes to what all of this means. Though I may still be learning, I know that it is great. And it has been you that has given me all this. So thank you."

I know that my thank-you to Eric was much more than simple thanks for introducing me to most of the people around my table. It means so much more. It's a thank you for everything that he is done for me, everything he is still doing for me. I can see the same it true for his when I look into his eyes. He may not have the words yet but as I have been telling him, words are meaningless without anything to back them up. I'd rather have what Eric does for me to prove his feelings any day of the week, even if I never hear those words come from his mouth.

I don't think that will be the case though.

He nuzzles into my hair so he doesn't see when Pam too mouths, 'thank-you,' to me from across the table.

I know she has wanted nothing more for Eric than this for a long time. She has wanted him to see his worth and to realize that there are people who care for and love him. I'm just glad she gets to see it.

Soon after dinner, everyone except Pam and Eric leave. Thalia is meeting with some other vampires to see if they have any information about what we may be dealing with. Tray and Alcide have pack business tonight. I am not sure what Jason has going but I don't miss the look he throws Thalia as she leaves. It just has me shaking my head with a smile on my face as I walk him to the door.

As I walk back past Eric after closing the door he pulls me into him and kisses me. "I have wished to do that all night, without the danger of flying objects aimed at my head," he says breaking away only to pull me back impossibly closer, coaxing my mouth open with his.

"So have I," Pam says with a laugh in her voice. I take one of my hands from Eric's shoulder and give Pam a one-fingered wave. I pull away from Eric to breathe and am about to tell Pam that she can keep wishing, when Eric's phone rings. All four of us let out a groan hearing the ringtone.

Sophie-Anne is calling.

Eric pulls away from me and I hate the guilty look I see in his face. Does it suck? Absolutely, but it's not his fault. It's his job and he can't help it. I press another quick kiss to his lips right before he answers the phone. I whisper to him that I'm going to go upstairs and start going through some things so hopefully we can get home at a decent hour. He nods and presses a kiss to my hair before turning his attention to the Queen.

I head upstairs and enter my Gran's room. I still can't think about calling it anything else but her room. I will miss living here but as I told Eric, the idea of an empty house isn't one I find too exciting anymore.

I start going through my Gran's jewelry box looking to see if there is anything that Jason would want. I don't know if anything from our human grandfather was in there or maybe something he would want to give to a girl – if he ever finds one that can keep his interest.

Though with what happened throughout dinner, I am wondering if he might actually be closer to that than I think.

As I continue to go through the jewelry, I pick out a few pieces that Hadley may like. It took a vampire intervention, but from all I heard she had gotten her life together before she was turned. Granted she sold me down the river while she was at it but I'm sorry that Gran never knew that Hadley was okay. We had thought she was dead all these years and though we were technically correct, I am sure Gran would have done anything to see her, even as a vampire.

Eric comes into the room and takes a seat on the bed, just watching me work. "Did you talk about everything you needed to," I ask him.

"Not nearly," he says with a sigh. "We have plans in place but can do nothing until we have more answers. But the more we talk the farther away from the answers we get. We just keep getting more questions."

I feel him up and behind me milliseconds before I feel his arms come around me as he pulls me back into his chest. "I am sorry," he says softly, nuzzling his face into my hair.

"For what," I ask, confused at his apology.

"This was a nice evening, a fantastic evening. I am ruining it."

I turn around in his arms and pull his face down to mine. Or I should say I try to pull his face down to mine. He resists and I don't push, knowing that all of the unknowns right now are really bothering him. And they are just compounding everything else going on in his little head about his maker.

And about me.

I don't want to push him, but I can't let him carry on like this. I know he is feeling the weight of everything but he has plenty of people willing to help him carry it. He's not used to not being alone and relying on others. Even with Pam, he's always felt the need to protect her. I know he has come to know that he has something special with me, Pam, and even Thalia. Now I am just hoping he realizes what we can do for each other.

I wrap my arms around him and lay my head on his chest. "You ruined nothing, Eric. Absolutely nothing. This was a fun night. You can't ruin that. Would I like it if there weren't any dire situations to discuss? Absolutely, but that isn't our life right now unfortunately. Remembering that there are things we have to deal with out there, that's what's going to get us through it. We can't just sit back and forget or not deal. As much as we would like to, we can't." I pause and look up at him before I say, "But I can't wait until we can."

I don't know how to take it when Eric brings his hand down on my Gran's desk. The bang is soft so I don't think it was in anger. I really don't know how to take it when he does is again, this time tapping softly. I do feel his tension leave his boy though as he asks curiously, "Do you know this spot is hollow," he asks looking down at the desk at the desk in inspection. "There is something like a slit here," he adds.

I will take his word for it because I see nothing but wood when I look at the spot that has gotten his attention. It's not a drawer space so it shouldn't be hollow. I shake my head and tell him that maybe it's just age. He takes a step back, allowing me to take a closer look. He takes my hand and moves it to the spot and I can feel that there is an area where the wood feels different. Manipulating my finger trying to see if I can see if there is anything special about the spot, I hear a pop and suddenly a piece of wood comes off revealing and hidden space in the desk.

Looking to Eric, I reach my hand in really expecting not to find anything. I hadn't known anything about the secret cubby. I am more than surprised when my hand closes around something. I wrap my hand around it and am even more shocked to feel how warm it is but attribute it to the heat in the closed space. I start to pull out my arm, not having any idea of what I am going to see when my hand is free.

Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed the chapter. In these first three chapters we have really seen what the group will be dealing with in this part of the tale. Of course there will be some complications thrown in along the way.

Headaches seem to be in a holding pattern currently, fingers crossed they stay that way. This week is a crazy one though so the next chapter may be delayed a few days rather than go out next weekend.

To my one guest reviewer, thank you so much for giving my little tale a try. I am so happy you enjoyed it enough to work through it in days. Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know you did.