All I can say is WOW. Thanks so much for all the review love, really, you've rocked my mind and my inbox with your wonderful notes and support! I've been a bit fail with responding to reviews, because I've been writing, writing, writing, but if you have a specific question about the timeline, or something besides WTF, I will totally respond!

Thanks to Missus T, who fixes my stuff up and makes it shiny grammatically, and tells me when I've left out something major, and to tvgirlsvm, sallydoodleff, and svmaddict, for their mad pre-reading support. Honestly, writing canon makes me a bit spleeny, since I've been an AH girl for so very long, but their support and encouragement has been amazing!

Enough rambling...on with the show.

90 years after Dead and Gone

I sat in my throne at Fangtasia, feeling as unfulfilled as I had when I used to do it, for real, not just in my dreams. In she walked, wearing that vampire bait red and white dress, the one she'd worn on the first night, when she'd come in with Compton. Just as then, she sat in a booth, and watched me for a while, and then, with the flick of my wrist, I summoned her.

She sat in the smaller chair by my side, her face tense. "Eric, I need your help."

"Deja vu, again? What are we finding this time, Lover? More dead fangbangers?" I grinned, brushing my fingers against her face.

She pulled away from me, and shook her head. "I know, that you know. It's a dream. Of course you know. I make up the rules."

I raised my eyebrows. Were we actually getting somewhere? "Let's go to my office, shall we?"

She nodded, and followed me into the dank pit, where I'd once spent so much time. I watched as she opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to speak. I quickly found a pen and paper, and handed it to her. "Write it down."

She gasped, as she was easily able to write everything she wanted to say on the legal pad I'd handed her, and I watched, from the other side of the desk, as she wrote, for ages, as an endless stream of tears ran down her face. Finally, she ripped the page out, folded it in half, and handed it over. "Don't read it out loud. They might hear."

I nodded, carefully unfolding the paper, my worst fear being that it would dissolve in my hands, or something, when I held it. It didn't though, and her words hit me, right in the gut, like a silver stake.

I'm in Faerie. It's hell, and I need to get out. It's the same thing, as last time, with the bloodline war, and I'm still not fae enough. There are lots of us though, and we're trying to get back to where we were taken from, away from the full-blood fae. They won't let us leave. We're practically slaves.

Help me.

"How?"

She shrugged, a sad little shrug. "I don't know. It's not as though it's really you, but I just hoped, you know, that maybe you'd be able to tell me what to do. I should have listened to you before, and stayed with you, when you asked." Clearly I wasn't the only one that still had some residual guilt from that night.

I grabbed the pad, and wrote her a note.

It is really me. Is it really you?

Her eyes narrowed, as she examined my face, and nodded. "Yes."

I wrote some more.

How can I know, for sure?

She bit her lip, thinking hard, trying to pull out something that would distinguish her from my memories. She grabbed the pad.

You never saw these.

She stood, and pulled her dress up, over her hip, revealing a series of crescent-shaped scars, presumably from that night, when I'd lost her. I'd never seen them, in other dreams. "We're in the now, somehow."

"How?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe we always were. I think we just figured it out."

"Why weren't they there before?" I knelt down beside her, running my fingers over them. They were, as Compton had described them, appalling, and they looked to be incredibly painful.

"They weren't a part of us. Only me. How do I know about you?"

I thought about it. "I don't have any scars to show you."

"Obviously." She gave me a half smile. "Riddle me this. In the beginning, in Dallas, and with the orgy, did you actually care for me, or was it more about taking me from Bill?"

"Taking you from Bill."

She looked hurt, for a split second, and then nodded. "I think I always knew that, but I don't think you would have said that in my dreams."

That made sense, as much as anything did, in a dream. "How do I help?"

She shook her head, grabbing the pad.

I don't know how this works. Who is in control? Don't say too much. They could be listening.

I nodded. She was either paranoid, or the fae had done a real number on her. "Well, this isn't very useful then."

"That's probably why we usually just fuck." She winked.

I grabbed the pad again.

You need to open the door.

She sighed, her shoulders slumped. "Can't."

"Someone can."

She shook her head. "He's unwilling." Niall.

"Why?"

She grabbed the pad.

Because it would start a war. An even worse one. He's weak, now.

This was a lot of information to process. I groaned, as I felt myself being jerked out of sleep. "I have to go."

"Don't," She squeaked. "Tell me what to do."

"I'll see what I can find. Come back again."

"I don't decide when."

"I don't either." I reached across the table, and grabbed her hand, just as I was awoken by Pam, poking at me. I opened an eye and glared at her, before looking at my bedroom in Sydney, and feeling a bit irritated about being there. "You have great fucking timing, you know that?"

"I heard you, from the other room. It's 10 p.m. You were doing lots of 'oh Sookies'. She sat on my bed, and shook her head. "It's really time you move on."

I understood that she was concerned, but she'd never been in a situation like this. Pam never formed attachments, and in a lot of ways, that was what made her a perfect vampire.

"Fuck you. I think she's really alive, well, she's something, and in Faerie."

"Didn't you always think that?" She cocked her head at me.

"I wasn't so sure, but I am now. We need to find Corrina."

Two months later, I sat at Vlad's huge dining room table. "If you've come back for her, you can't have her." He looked up, nonplussed, his dark hair over his eyes, slightly.

"That's fine. I have some issues to discuss with her, regarding the fae."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "You really want to drag that all up again? She's finally just let it go."

"If Sookie is out there, I need to find her."

He nodded, a solemn look on his face, as he tugged at his long dark hair. "Have I ever told you about when I was turned?"

My inner fanboy, as Pam would have said, was ecstatic, at the idea of hearing something so personal from such a great vampire, but I played it cool. "No."

"Like so many, I was turned on the battlefield. It was near dawn, and my maker, quickly dragged me off the field, but my men saw me fall, and my wife was told. She threw herself off a cliff, before I could explain what had happened. It was many years before I came to terms with that guilt. I tried to meet the sun many times. Don't let this hunt for Sookie be your only reason for living. There has to be more than guilt."

He was right. "If it was only the guilt, I think I would have let go of it long ago, but I dream of her, and they aren't normal dreams. They're in colour, and I remember every word when I wake up. Corrina has had the same dreams, of her father."

Vlad nodded. "I am aware of these dreams, and they have certainly influenced her life in many ways. I knew her father, for a time, many years ago."

"She said that it was him that directed her towards you."

He chuckled. "Given her situation when we met, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. The king of Ohio had just discarded her mother, and was planning to bond with her. She despised him. He was very inappropriate with her, when she was young."

I'd heard the stories. If I wasn't so uninterested in North American politics, I would have staked him myself. As the king, he had no need to take liberties with a young girl. There were plenty of willing donors. "Do you think he intended for you to turn her?"

He shrugged. "I think he intended for me to protect her. However, turning her was the only way to do that, really. Her ties to Ohio were quite strong, and as you know, the child maker bond overrides everything. She can take care of herself now."

"Where is she?"

"I've called her. She should be here by tomorrow evening. I'm not sure what you expect from her though. She hasn't dreamed of her father in decades."

I wasn't really sure what I expected, either. "I'm hoping she can think of something."

Vlad narrowed his eyes at me. It was the first time I'd received any ill will from him, and despite him being younger than me, I could feel his strength. "You'll not lay with her here. She is mine."

I nodded. "That's understood."

His face transformed and relaxed. "Good. Now that that's settled, let's go have a drink, shall we?"

When Corrina arrived the next evening, Vlad took his leave. "I trust you'll behave?" He said, kissing her tenderly on her way out.

She nodded. "Of course."

It was after he had left, that she leaned across the table. "We've decided to attempt to be exclusive, besides feeding, of course."

"Interesting." I smiled across the table at her. "I won't interfere."

She winked. "We'll see how long it lasts. I'm sure I'll be beating down your door in a hundred years or so." She leaned back, hooking her arms around the back of the chair. "So, what are you here for?"

"I talked to her, in a dream, a couple of months ago, and I had her write down what she couldn't say. I think you were right, there are problems in Faerie."

Her eyes went wide. "I knew it. Tell me everything."

I did, and she nodded along. "And then Pam woke me up. I'd been asleep for part of the night as well."

"Have you seen her since?"

I shook my head. "And I have no idea how to help her." I hated feeling so powerless. It was kind of like that night, all over again. "Maybe we should consult with a witch."

She snorted. "Have you ever known a witch that was able to override Fae magic?"

She had a point. "Is there anyone?"

"I don't know. I've thought about this a lot. Did you ever know of a door? I know there's one in Ohio."

"There's one in Shreveport, well Bon Temps, where Sookie was from. Near her old house." That was how all this had begun, with her damn halfie grandfather, although I knew that without him, she wouldn't have been the Sookie I knew. The Fae were irritating, but she was part of that.

Corrina nodded in agreement. Her gestures were still so very human at times. "So maybe we try and pry it open."

Good plan, however, it was flawed. "With what?"

"Ah yes. That's the problem." She tapped her chin. "Did you ever see the door?"

I shook my head. "No. But it was in the woods." I hadn't even considered going back and checking there, but then again, I didn't have much interest in visiting Bon Temps once Sookie was gone. "We could go look for it."

"I don't know what else we'd do." She had a point. "It's worth a try anyway. They are doors, after all. There must be some way to open them. They're just closed."

A month later, and after some very heavy promises to Vlad to keep my hands to myself, Corrina and I landed in Shreveport at dusk, which, after nearly a century, hadn't changed much at all. Sure, technology had taken over, but a lot of human efforts had been funnelled into maintaining the environment, so they would be able to survive, as a species. There were a lot more trees, everywhere. Corrina glanced around, as we walked into the much expanded Fangtasia, which was now run by Thalia. "This place is a real dive," She whispered.

"She hasn't done a lot of upkeep." And she hadn't. The same tacky vampire shit was all over the walls, and it was filled with the same pathetic fangbangers. Different faces, with the same purpose. "We won't stay long."

"Thank God."

After a brief meeting with Thalia, about the state of things in the area, which was, oddly enough, quite peaceful. We checked into a vampire hotel, and then flew out to Bon Temps. Corrina had inherited Vlad's gift of flight, but not his fire hands, which was probably a better talent to inherit. We'd had a lot of fun for a time, flying here and there, watching the Northern Lights over Sweden. I shook my head as we landed at Sookie's family home, which was now just a foundation, with a lot of rubble. "I should have repaired it. Compton, the vampire that burned it down, did so much damage though."

"You didn't need to hold on to her in that way. It was only a house."

With a ratty afghan, a squeaky bed, and a shower that was burned into my mind for all eternity. "I suppose so. Now what?"

"I guess we go looking and see what we can find."

It turned out, we found more than we were expecting.

A couple of things of note: I'm cohosting an AH contest for newbies and AH newbies! Check it out! www(DOT)fanfiction(DOT)net/u/2507718/A_New_Chapter_Contest

I also have a blog now, and I'm planning to start posting some original fiction, which I'd be ever so grateful if you checked out in a couple of weeks. The link to my blog is on my profile page, and The Expert is hosted there exclusively now. It also includes some rambling and ranting from me, so if you're interested, check it out!