I am soooo sorry for the delay. I'm having some computer problems at the moment and its just been driving me crazy! But I was finally able to get over my block and I hope this is worth it. Enjoy!

It had been three days since Pam had showed up and introduced herself as Adele's body guard. As soon as Sookie had seen the two standing next to each other she'd known that the two would hit it off. She'd had a vision of the two sitting around in Addie's bedroom painting each other's toes and talking about boys. Her vision hadn't been too far from the truth. It was a quarter past ten and she was waiting for Pam to bring her daughter back from the shopping trip they'd gone on.

In the past three days the two girls had become thick as thieves, a fact that both delighted and terrified Sookie. While she was glad that her daughter now had a friend, a friend Sookie knew she could trust, Pam was still a vampire. Even the slightest drop of blood from something as little as a paper cut...

"If you're worried that Pam will snap and drain your daughter, then don't. Pam can control herself, especially now that she's grown quite attached to Adele." Eric said from his place sitting in his recliner.

Along with granting Adele her own personal body guard Eric also decided to give Sookie one as well. And if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. He'd shown up when Pam had come to pick up Addie for their shopping trip, much to Sookie's surprise. She hadn't really expected to see him again, not so soon anyway.

"I know. I know Pam isn't going to do anything to Addie. I trust her, I really do, I just can't help but worry for her, especially now." Sookie sighed. This was the most she had spoken to Eric tonight. They had been sitting in silence for most of the evening.

Eric nodded. "That's only natural. You're a good mother, Sookie. Its your place to worry about her."

That surprised her. "How would you know if I'm a good mother?" She asked him.

"Sookie you couldn't be a bad mother if you tried. You care too much about people you don't even know. I would expect you to be ready to give everything you had for your own child." Eric said certainly. He was looking at her now with slightly amused eyes; it made her smile.

The pair fell back into silence. Sookie flipped through the TV channels until she found something familiar but she hardly paid attention. Too many thoughts, too many concerns, were rushing through her head. This weekend was her daughter's graduation. They would have to leave in a few days if they wanted to be there in time. Of course she would have to okay that with her body guards.

For a brief moment she felt a familiar resentment bubbling up inside of her. She was barely back a week and already they were controlling her life again! No. No. This time was different. This time she had asked for this protection. This wasn't for her, this was for Adele. They could protect her far better than she could on her own. With a heavy sigh she swallowed her old feelings, feelings she had never gotten over, and steeled her resolve. Whatever it took, she'd do whatever it took to keep Addie safe.

Beneath her worries and emotional turmoil Sookie could feel the trickles of something else, the whispers of feelings not her own. She risked a glance at Eric. He was staring out ahead of him, seemingly lost in his own thought. No doubt he was more aware of everything going on around him than she was.

Ever since her return home she could feel the soft sparks of their bond that had been formed so many years ago. Slowly it was coming back to life, flourishing in their close proximity to one another. Although it was still weak she could still feel small hints of his emotions, but it was hard for her to identify them. It was like trying to look at a very blurry image from a great distance away, it was just impossible to tell what it was she was looking at.

He must have sensed her trying to meddle through his emotions because he chuckled. "Are you really that interested in what I'm thinking about right now? If you really want to know all you have to do is ask."

"I'm just not used to it. Its been so long."

"I know. I tried several times during the first few years to call to you through the bond. But by that time it was already too weak. This is the strongest its been since you left."

"Why did you call for me? I mean, even after all those years, when you knew I wasn't coming back."

"Because for the first time in my existence I had hope. I hoped, against all odds, that would you feel my call and come back to me. It wasn't until I could no longer feel you that I finally lost hope."

A heavy silence settled between them again. A dark mass of emotions passed between them via the tiny link of their bond that had survived.

"Eric, I'm sorry. I never intended to hurt you or anybody else."

"The worst mistakes were made on the best intentions." Eric commented darkly.

Sookie looked down at the floor to hide the own pain in her eyes. She hadn't thought about how her hasty decision had affected those closest to her. Not until now had she thought about the loved ones that she had left behind. But what more would she have done if she had known? If she had known how much they were hurting, how worried they were for her, would she have come back? She just didn't know.

"I'm sorry." She whispered again as she felt tears bubbling up in her eyes.

Before she knew what was happening Sookie felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her and pull her close. Eric held her to his chest tightly and buried his face into her hair; she heard him inhale her scent.

"Just promise me you won't leave again." His voice was soft and more vulnerable than she had ever heard it. "Promise me you won't go anywhere that I can't follow."

"I promise." She replied instantly as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hid her face in his shoulder. "I promise."

~*~

"So what is the deal with my mom and Eric?" Addie asked as she speared a spoon into her frostie. There was a stack of bags in the back seat and the two girls were sitting on the hood, enjoying the night air.

"What do you mean?" Pam asked as she twirled a glass of TruBlood in her hand.

"There is obviously something between them. I mean, now that I look back at it, all of the guys that Mom dated when I was younger looked just like him. Tall, blond hair, blue eyes. I don't remember a lot about them but they all looked the same. I don't think it was just a coincidence either."

Pam chuckled. "You're smarter than you look."

"I know. Its part of my charm." Adele flashed Pam a bright smile, but it quickly faded. "I barely know anything about my mom before she moved to Florida. I didn't even know the reason that she moved until we were on our way here. She doesn't tell me anything until she absolutely has to and I'm tired of it. I want to know what happened."

A small, devious smile twitched at the corners of Pam's lips. This is what she had been hoping for.

"So, your mother hasn't told you anything about her adventures with us?"

Adele gave Pam an uncertain glance. "Mom certainly never mentioned anything about adventures."

"You know about her gift, correct?"

"You mean her telepathy? Yea, I know about that. Its kind of hard not to know." Adele laughed a little.

"Well when we first met your mother we didn't know of her talent, but it didn't take us long to find out. That very night she warned us of a police raid only moments before it happened. She heard the thoughts of an undercover cop in the bar so we were able to get out in time. Only a few weeks after that did we use her to discover the identity of a thief who was stealing money from us. It turned out to be our business partner and when that vampire tried to attack Sookie, Eric staked him. I believe that is when his infatuation with Sookie began. No human had ever stood up to Eric the way she did that night and many nights after. She fought against him simply because she was, at that time, involved with another. Eric both admired and desired that loyalty from her.

"Many months he spent trying to seduce her but she fought him every step of the way. As long as I have known Eric I have never known anyone to resist him for so long. Her resistance infuriated him and, ultimately, is what led him to fall in love with her. Of course he neither realized it or admitted it to himself. It took a curse from a group of filthy witches to make him discover it, and even then he had a hard time believing it."

"Wait wait!" Adele said suddenly, "He was cursed?"

Pam nodded. "Yes. We didn't learn the details of the curse until later but it should have been obvious to us at the time. He was cursed with having what his heart desired most but without the knowledge of it. He ended up at your mother's house with amnesia, unable to remember who he was or why he was there. She kept him safe for a few days while we sought a cure for him. Apparently many things transpired while he was there although I don't know all the details myself. He didn't either, for a while. After we reversed the curse he had no knowledge of the days that he spent with Sookie. It took many months for him to remember. And when he did, well, lets just say he wasn't too happy about it."

"Why not?"

"Eric is over a thousand years old, Adele. Even for our kind that is quite a long time. You don't live that long by falling in love with a human. Already he had gone out of his way to help her when he did not have to. She was a liability. Sookie made him do things that he would have done for no one else. She was his one and only weakness and, above all else, he feared what would happen if he lost her. He feared the pain that it would cause him. He feared what others would do to her to get to him. There were many things that he feared for your mother and he detested that fear. It took him weeks to sort it all out."

"And what happened when he sorted it all out?" Addie asked quietly.

"Nothing. Your mother left before they ever got a chance to talk things through. He was never given the chance to tell her how he felt."

Addie turned to Pam with wide eyes. "They never talked about it?" she asked in disbelief.

Pam shook her head. "No. This is the first chance he's ever gotten to speak with Sookie since then."

The two girls were quiet for a minute, taking time to gather their thoughts.

"We have to get them back together." Adele said certainly.

Pam grinned. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

~*~

"We have to go back to Florida this weekend." Sookie said later on that night. It was getting close to eleven and the girls still hadn't returned yet.

"Why?" Eric asked carefully, trying to maintain his temper.

"Adele's high school graduation is this weekend. I've been talking to the principal and he's agreed to let her walk during the ceremony. Its the last chance that she'll get to say good bye to her friends and I'm not going to keep that from her. Besides, with the move I haven't been able to afford a graduation present for her and I don't know if I will be able to for a while. Its the least I can do."

"You aren't going alone."

"I know. That's why I'm telling you. You've got to decide who you want to send with us."

"When are you leaving?"

"The ceremony is Friday, so we'll leave on Thursday and come back on Saturday."

"Good. Then I'll make reservations to fly out Wednesday evening. Finding a place to stay may be a little difficult."

"We're going to be staying with some friends of ours but there is a small hotel that you can stay in for the weekend."

"I doubt that this little hotel of yours would be what we consider vampire friendly." Eric said dryly.

"No, but its better than sleeping in a cemetery." Sookie countered.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." He countered.

The two stared each other down for a brief moment before the sudden ringing of a cell phone interrupted them. Too Sookie's surprise it wasn't some creepy gothic ballad or ancient hymn that Eric had set as his ringtone. Instead it was some poppy satire about vampire bars. Sookie would have bet money that it was Pam's doing.

Too busy being amused by Eric's ringtone Sookie didn't pay attention to the brief conversation that he had with whoever was on the other line. For a minute she didn't even realize that he had started talking to her again.

"What?" she asked as she snapped out of her amusement.

Eric gave a brief sigh of annoyance. "That was Pam. She and Adele are catching a late movie before coming home. Your daughter would have called but her phone is dead."

"Oh." Sookie looked at the clock again and wondered what kind of movie would be playing this late. She really wanted Adele to come home before three in the morning, but as long as her daughter was having fun she wouldn't demand her home any earlier. "She and Pam really seem to be hitting it off."

"Yes. Its been a long time since Pam has become so attached to a human, almost twenty years."

Sookie sighed a little. Great, now not only did she feel bad about leaving Eric and Bill without saying anything, now she had to feel guilty about Pam too. At least Pam hadn't given her a hard time about it. Yet.

"Of course, it helps that Addie is closer to her age, appearance wise anyway. Pam has been in need of a playmate. She's been quite sulky these past few years."

Sookie gave Eric a disbelieving look. It was hard to believe that Pam could ever be sulky.

"Its true." He went on to say. "Without anything to tease me with she had a hard time amusing herself. She became a lot colder than normal as she became even more bored."

"Well I'll have to apologize to her for not being around to keep her amused." Sookie said darkly.

"Sookie, you are the one that left. Don't act as though we are the ones who did anything wrong."

"I know I'm the one who left Eric! I know it and I've said that I'm sorry! I'm tired of everyone trying to make me feel guilty about it."

"No one is trying to make you feel guilty Sookie. You are doing that all on your own. We are simply telling you the truth. If you can't face it that's your fault, not ours."

The two of them seethed in silence for a minute, glaring each other down with as much anger as they could muster. Sookie was the one who broke first.

"Get out." she said coldly.

"What?" Eric asked in indignant astonishment.

"I said get out!" Sookie yelled at him, pointing towards the door. "You can keep watch from outside."

Eric's cold eyes were as frosty as ever. He stared her down the entire way out the door. He didn't look away until he walked out onto the porch, slamming the front door behind him. When he was gone Sookie sat back down on the couch and cried herself to sleep.

~*~

It was almost three hours later before Pam and Adele came driving down the graveled driveway. The two girls were laughing and singing along with the radio as they parked in the front yard, but their cheerfulness came to an abrupt halt when they saw a very angry Viking sitting on the porch swing.

"Uh oh." They said in unison.

"Mom must have kicked him out." Adele sighed as she unbuckled herself and began to gather her shopping bags.

"I'm sure he did something to deserve it." Pam commented as she began to get out of the car.

"I can hear both of you." Eric called gruffly, making both girls wince.

Bags in hand Pam and Adele made their way up to the porch.

"Sorry about Mom." Adele said sheepishly as she searched through her purse for her keys. "She can have a pretty fierce temper when she wants to."

Eric gave a small, bitter laugh. "Child this is not the first time I have been on the receiving end of your mother's temper. And I highly doubt this will be the last."

"You probably deserved it too." Pam commented as she looked her master over.

"I did not. I simply told her not to blame us for telling her the truth about what life was like after she left." Eric explained.

Addie and Pam looked at each other and then back at Eric. "You deserved it." They informed him.

"Mom already feels like shit for the what she did." Addie began to explain as she opened the front door and motioned for them to come inside. "She might not regret leaving but she does regret not telling all of you first. She's punishing herself enough, you don't have to do it for her. You're right that she does need to know what it was like without her around, but you don't have to rub it in her face."

"I didn't rub it in her face." Eric said.

"Apparently you did, since she kicked you out." Pam commented. When Eric turned and gave her a hard look she just smiled humbly and added "Master" as sweetly as she could.

Adele walked into the living room and turned on a lamp before disappearing down the hallway to her room to deposit the spoils of the evening, leaving the two vampires in the empty room.

"But she didn't rescind your invitation, that's a good sign." Pam said as they waited on the younger Stackhouse to return.

"Only because she knew that I would need to enter quickly should something happen to sneak past me and get into the house."

"Yes, I'm sure that's the reason why." Pam said sarcastically but didn't elaborate further.

"Where is my mom now?" Adele asked as she came back into the room, now dressed in bright green pajamas with yellow bunnies on the shirt and a carrot at the bottom of the capri bottoms.

"In bed. After she fell asleep on the couch I came in and took her to her room."

Adele and Pam exchanged small smiles. "Can I get you a blood, Eric? Mom has kept the fridge stocked." She offered a moment later.

"No thank you. I'm fine for the moment."

"Alright. Well Pam said she'd help me put up my clothes so I guess we're going to be back in my room for a while. You can stay in the house if you'd like. You can watch TV or do whatever." Addie shrugged before yawning a little. The late hour was beginning to get to her.

"Thank you, Addie, but I think I'll sit outside and enjoy the night air." Eric said, making sure to give her a grateful smile.

"Suit yourself. Pam, you coming?"

Pam began to follow her but caught a slight signal from her master to wait. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay." She said before walking back off to her room.

Eric waited for Adele to enter her room before he confronted his childe. "What are you planning, Pam?"

Pam looked up at him innocently. "Why Eric I don't know what you mean. All I wanted to do was take Adele out for a fun night on the town since she knows no one here. And since she is so tired I thought I'd help her pack the clothes away so she can get to bed earlier. I'm not trying to take her to bed, if that's what you are thinking. She's still a minor."

Eric snorted. "Actually, she's not, but that's not what I meant."

"You're being paranoid Eric. You think everyone is out to get you, even me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to put Sookie Jr. to bed." Pam said before she began to walk out of the room.

Eric reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder. "I'm going to be gone this weekend to escort them back to Florida Adele's graduation. I trust you'll be able to take care of Fangtasia by yourself."

Pam smiled. "Of course, Master. How long will you be gone?"

"Three days. And I want a pool installed as well. It needs to be completely finished before we return Saturday night. Money is no object."

Pam's smile grew even wider. "I'll make the arrangements tonight."

"Good. Now go so the girl can get some sleep. You kept her out longer than you needed to tonight." Eric told her.

Pam gave him a little bow and disappeared down the hallway. Eric stood silent and stoic for a moment, regarding the room with little emotion. He had many memories of this room, some good, some bad, but all of them with his Sookie.

Okay, I know this took me forever to write and I'm sorry. I had a huge block for almost a week, added onto several other things going on and this story just got put on the back burner. But I'm glad that I've finally been able to finish it.

But I really want to thank everyone who wished me luck with my family ordeal. I really do appreciate your understanding. My family will always come first and I'm glad to know that all of you understand that.

I also have some amazing news! I got to meet Charlaine Harris over this past weekend! It was the best moment of my life! Lol! I'll add the story to my profile so you can check that out and read. Also, I've added a chapter status updates there as well so you can check out the progress of the chapters. I try to update it every time I work on chapters so you'll be as caught up as I am.

Thank you SEOrwin for being a great beta!

Reviews make Eric want to do romantic things.