"What is the purpose of this graduation again?" Eric asked as he fastened a tie around his neck. He abhorred ties with a passion and avoided them whenever possible. The fact that it was pastel made him hate it even more. No doubt this was Pam's doing.
Sookie was busy fastening in her earrings and checking herself over one last time in the mirror. "Its a ceremony to celebrate the class' achievement of making it successfully through the basics of their schooling. Now most of them can go off to college to take more specified classes depending on what career they want to pursue."
"So it's like a coming of age ceremony?" Eric asked carefully as he tried to wrap his mind around the concept of celebrating something so insignificant. But, when your lives are as short as a human's, every little milestone was cause for celebration. At least, that's the way that things seemed to be playing out these days.
"Well, yea kinda. It's the end of their childhood. Most of them are going to be moving away from home and heading out into the world on their own for the first time." Sookie said. She was amazed how spot on Eric's comparison was. That would be good to mull over on the flight back to Bon Temps on Saturday.
"Is that why it was so important that Adele 'walks'?" He asked again, the term rolling awkwardly off his tongue. He was definitely a curious kitten tonight.
"For her, yes. She's been looking forward to this day for the past four years. Plus this is the last time that she'll get to see a lot of her friends for a while. I didn't want to take that away from her." Sookie looked herself over one last time in the mirror before turning to Eric. "Ready?"
Eric smiled and offered her his arm. Sookie accepted it, looping her arm through his and letting him escort her from the room.
The graduation ceremony didn't last very long. There were all the formalities that every graduation has. The Mayor, the principal, and the valedictorian all made speeches about how far the class had come and how far they had yet to go. It made Sookie horribly reminiscent of Adele's childhood. Her baby girl really was growing up ever so fast. She was glad that Eric didn't say anything about her watery eyes and only handed her a tissue from his pocket. It made her laugh. Was she really so weepy that even Eric had learned to come prepared?
But with only a class of around a hundred students the actual process of handing out diplomas did not last long. Two hours after they had arrived and taken their seats the program was over. The students had gathered at the center of the field and with one last speech they all threw their hats into the air to celebrate their freedom from adolescence.
Slowly the stadium began to empty as proud parents and families spilled onto the field to congratulate their grads. Eric and Sookie were standing close to the track when Adele ran up to them and threw her arms up around her mother's neck.
"I did it! I did it! I did it!" she chanted happily as she let go of her mother's neck. She was grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm so proud of you Adele." Sookie said with a brilliant smile. It was the happiest Eric could ever remember seeing Sookie.
"I'm kinda proud of me too." Adele laughed. It was obvious that she was trying to avoid the mushy stuff.
"Congratulations Adele. Your mother explained to me that this is a rather big deal." Eric told her when the two women had calmed down.
"Thank you Eric. I know that must have been pretty boring for you to sit through." Addie said with the same smile.
"Actually I found it rather interesting. Pam will want to hear all about it when we get back."
Addie laughed a little. She has already planned on telling her vampire friend about it when they returned to Louisiana. But for now he had other friends whose company she wished to enjoy. "Everyone is going down to the beach for the after party. It's alright if I go, isn't it?" She asked her mother.
"Of course. Go have fun. You're going home with Kate tonight right?"
"Yup. A lot of the girls are sleeping over there tonight. I'll call you in the morning when we wake up."
"You mean in the afternoon?" Sookie teased. "Just remember we have to leave at five."
"Yes 'em." She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and waved good night to Eric before running off into a crowd of her friends.
Sookie watched her go with sad eyes. But at least she hadn't really started crying.
"So now what do we do? Return to the hotel room and wait for her to return?" Eric asked as he led them back to where they parked.
"Would you like me to show you were I've been for the past few years? The house isn't too far from here."
"I'd like that." Eric agreed with a smile.
He opened the door for her and Sookie slid in, glad that they Eric had been picky enough to get a rental car so they didn't have to fly or walk everywhere. It's not like it was uncomfortable out, but walking around the entire city could have gotten annoying quickly, especially in heels.
She directed him through a neighborhood a few miles away from the high school. Sookie kept watch out the window as they passed by all of the familiar, well manicured lawns. She knew the residents of every house hold. They were the other family that she was leaving behind. The people that had helped her raise her daughter.
"Slow down." She told him as they slowly drove down one lowly lit street. Her eyes were focused on one small white house with a for sale sign posted in the front yard. Eric did as she said and slowed down and pulled into the empty drive way.
"This is it. Its not Gran's but its been home for a long time." Sookie explained as she looked into the night at the small white house. It was two stories but so small that it couldn't be big enough to house more than two people. The front door was painted blue and the porch extended several feet into the yard. It looked cozy, with beds full of flowers blooming all over.
"It looks like you." Eric commented.
"Addie used to keep a easel out on the porch to paint. She's always loved to paint, ever since she was little. I'm glad that she has a talent that isn't supernatural."
"To the contrary. She doesn't really seem to have quite a talent for her supernatural powers at all." Eric chuckled. If he had not been so angry the night she disappeared he would have laughed at her return.
Sookie gave him a very unamused glance. "I did my best to try and teach her not to pop in and out like that. Claudine wanted to teach her how, but I didn't want Addie to become dependent on her magic. I wanted her to know some semblance of a normal life. But you see how well that worked out."
Eric reached out and gently placed his hand on Sookie's cheek, turning her to face him. "Sookie, you are not to blame for this. You have done everything you can to protect your daughter. While I'm not happy about it, I can respect your reason for leaving. And now that you are back I'm going to do everything that I can to protect both of you."
Sookie smiled. "Thank you Eric. I know you don't owe me anything, that's why I'm glad you agreed to do this for me. For us."
Eric said nothing. He continued to look at her for a minute more before looking back to the windshield at the house. "Was there somewhere else that you wanted to show me?"
"Only if you want to; I mean we can drive around and then I can point out different things to you. Or we could just drive down to the beach. The kids are only going to be in one spot and not a lot of people go down at night."
Eric snickered. "Why Sookie, if I didn't know better I'd say you were trying to get me alone somewhere." He purred slyly, mischief gleaming in his eyes.
Sookie just rolled her eyes. "We are already alone. If I wanted you really alone I would have said lets go back to the hotel. I just thought you would like to see the beach. Its really lovely at night."
"It has been a long time since I've been near the ocean. I suppose a short visit couldn't hurt." Eric smirk as he put the car in reverse and pulled out of the driveway.
Five minutes later they had parked the car and were taking the small path out onto the moonlit waters. They had abandoned their shoes in the car and elected to walk barefoot through the sand. There was nothing more annoying than having sand in your shoes.
It was a peaceful night; the sky was clear and the moon was nearing its full stage. The roar of the waves as they crashed against the shore helped to dull out the music and noises of the party going on further down the beach. For a brief moment the two stood at the bottom of the dune and just watched as the water retreated back into the ocean only to come storming back a moment later.
As they watched their hands found each other and their fingers intertwined. Without looking at one another they began to walk down the beach, taking their time to enjoy the scenery. It was easy not to talk but to let the night do the talking for them. They were both buried deep in their own thoughts.
After walking in silence for five minutes Eric pulled them to a stop as he looked out at the dark ocean. "I had forgotten just how beautiful the water is in the moonlight." He said softly.
Sookie looked up at him and felt her heart flutter for a moment. It had been a long long time since she had seen the Viking bathed in moonlight or noticed just how brightly he shined. He really was beautiful.
She looked down at their entwined hands and felt herself frown. He was still just as she had left him eighteen years ago, sex on two legs. His arms were still strong and his shoulders just as broad as they had ever been. When he wore a t-shirt it still stretched out just perfectly.
But she wasn't the same. Every morning she woke to find that her skin was just a little more looser than it used to be and her hair was loosing its glow. The bags under her eyes were darker and the body that had once been so well toned now was starting to fill out in several unwanted places. While it was true that she didn't look as old as she was she knew that she no longer had the beauty of her youth.
Obviously their bond was regaining its strength because a moment later Eric was looking down at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"
"Seeing you reminds me of how old I am. Its been nearly twenty years. I'm old Eric. Every morning I wake up and I find a new wrinkle! I've been plucking white hairs for years now. I'm almost fifty. Another twenty years I'll be like my Gran was. I just hope I can do half the things she was doing at her age."
Eric frowned slightly as he cupped her face in his hands. "Sookie, your looks aren't the reason that i fell in love with you. I love you for who you are and everything that you believe in. No matter how many decades past that pars of you will never change. You will always be the same Sookie."
Sookie could feel herself smiling at his words. But despite the tender message it was his admission of love that took her by surprise.
"Did you really love me Eric?" She asked him quietly, almost afraid to hear an answer. This reminded her of a night so many years ago when they had confessed their feelings for each other. It wasn't quite love then, but something close. Of course Eric's memory was absent at the time and once he regained it he didn't remember making the confession. It took him months to remember the few nights they had spent together. She'd left him before they'd ever had a chance to talk.
Eric's face steeled a little at her question and she could feel his resistance to answer it. She was about to tell him to forget it when she got the answer she had been hoping for.
"Yes, I did love you Sookie. I still do. I don't think there has ever been a time when I didn't love you. But, that being said, I don't think I can find it in myself to forgive you yet. I know that you had reasons for leaving but that does not excuse you from not saying anything. You could have told me Sookie. I would have done everything in my power to keep both of you safe."
A thousand stakes in her side couldn't have hurt her as much as his words did. Her heart sank into her stomach and she felt a part of herself die; the part that had always held onto some secret longing for the Viking that she was standing next to. But she couldn't blame him for his decision. In the years that followed her escape from Bon Temps she came to regret the way she had gone about it. After all of the bullets he had taken, the lies that he had told, the people he had killed, the least she could have done was left him a letter explaining the reasons why. He, of all people, deserved to know why she was abandoning him.
But she hadn't been thinking and this was her punishment.
"Eric you know I never meant to hurt you. I was so scared; I wasn't thinking. By the time I came to my senses I was already settled here. I was on my way to building a home for Addie and me. It was too late to turn back. I never meant to hurt you." She said again quietly. Amelia's voice began describing Eric's depression to her again. Sookie knew that was what Eric could not forgive her for. The pain that he could never admit he felt for a lowly human woman's departure. He had hurt more than he had expected. Apparently it was possible for a heart to break once it had stopped beating.
"I know Sookie. I know you did not do this on purpose, but the worst mistakes are made with the best intentions. I hold no grudge against you, but you understand that it will take time for me to be able to forgive you for what you have done." He spoke without emotion and Sookie knew that the time for healing for both of them would be long and hard. But she prayed that there would be a chance.
"I understand. And, until that time comes, I just hope that we can continue to be friends."
Sookie thought she saw the faintest of smiles tugging at the corner of Eric's mouth, but it was gone before she could be sure. "For now, yes. But our first priority is keeping Adele safe." He turned to look in the direction of the party going on further down the beach. "Are you sure she is in no danger there?"
"Oh yea, she'll be fine. Her best friend's parents are were-lions. Their pride is chaperoning the event. At the first sign of danger they'll act. Adele is practically their other daughter; they love her almost as much as I do." Sookie said certainly.
Eric seemed to accept that and turned away to stare down the rest of the abandoned beach. Silence fell between them again and it was only then that Sookie noticed that Eric was still holding onto her hand. She took that as a good sign. Forgiven or not there was still something there and she was just going to have toward working to gain it back.
"We still have much talking to do, you and I." Eric said a moment later as if he was reading her mind. "But this is neither the time or the place."
"I agree. After we get back home and get settled in then we can talk."
The Viking nodded his agreement and the two continued to walk hand and hand down the beach.
"There is something I should tell you before we make it back to your house." Eric said quietly as they drove down I-20 toward Bon Temps. They had flown back in to the Monroe air port and had only an hour drive left ahead of them.
"What?" Sookie asked, keeping her voice down too. Adele was curled up in the back seat catching up on the sleep that she had neglected to get the night before. She had barely been conscious as they got off the plane. It would be amazing if she even remembered getting back into Louisiana.
"While we've been away I've had Pam oversee the instillation of a pool in your backyard for Adele. I know what it feels like to be far away from your home. I thought having something familiar would help her feel more at home here." Eric explained without taking his eyes off the road.
If it was physically possible Sookie's jaw would have hit the floor. "You did what?!" Sookie exclaimed as quietly as possible. "Eric you didn't have to do that!"
"Yes, I did. After all, we have missed eighteen birthdays and this was her high school graduation. Isn't it customary to give the graduate a gift of some kind?" He asked with an amused expression.
Sookie just stared at him. She had spent all of Friday evening explaining the reasons behind graduations. How had he known that presents were involved?
"Besides, I wasn't the only one who went in on it. Pam is the one who has ironed out all the details and picked everything out. She was just as eager to do this as I was." Eric added as if sharing the blame would help him any.
"Well thank you, in advance. I'm sure she's going to love it."
"If she wakes up long enough to see it." Eric chuckled, looking into the back briefly where Addie was still snoozing.
"Oh I'm sure she will. It might take her a minute to figure out what she's looking at, but she'll notice it."
Eric smiled a little, pleased with her response. The drove in silence for the remainder of the trip, which wasn't long. When a vampire is driving trips that usually took an hour or more sped by. They were pulling up the winding drive way to the house only thirty-five minutes after they'd left the air port.
"Adele, honey, wake up. We're home." Sookie called into the backseat, giving her daughter a little shake.
Addie gave a muffled noise and whined a little before curling up even tighter. Sookie just rolled her eyes. "Addie, come on babe, you can't sleep in the car. Besides, I think there is a surprise waiting for you out back."
The girl rose a little at the mention of a surprise. She shuffled around and climbed out of the car a moment later and began to stumble alongside her mother toward the front door. Sookie unlocked the door and turned on the lights, followed closely by her daughter, who immediately sought out the couch to crash on.
Eric followed them in a moment later with their bags, setting them neatly on the floor. He gestured for Sookie to follow him as he led her to the back of the house. It was still dark in that part of the house so it took Sookie a minute to recognize that anything had changed. But a moment later Eric flipped on a light switch that hadn't been there before and Sookie gasped.
The entire back yard had been transformed. The back porch had been extended into a deck that surrounded a long, oval shaped pool. The clear water was glittering under the new spotlights that had been placed around the deck for optimal lighting at night. There were even potted plants scattered about the deck and two beach chairs that would be perfect for sun bathing.
"Oh Eric its perfect! She's going to love it! Thank you so much!" Sookie said with as much gratitude as her voice could convey.
"You're welcome but I did it for Adele. Like I said, I know what its like to be so far from home and know that you can never return."
"What are you two talking about?" Adele asked, her voice heavy with sleep.
"Addie, close your eyes quick!" Sookie said as she rushed over and held her hands over her daughter's eyes to make sure she wasn't peeking.
"What? Mom, what're you doing?"
"We have a surprise for you." Sookie told her, unable to keep the happiness from her voice. She couldn't wait for Adele to see this.
Eric held the door open as Sookie led the blind Addie outside. She moved her around to the front of the deck so that she got the full view of the pool before removing her hands. "Alright, open your eyes."
Addie's eyes blinked open and as soon as she saw the pool she froze. She stood staring at the pool in disbelief as a wide grin slowly began to pull onto her face. "We got a pool?" She asked her mother cautiously.
Sookie shook her head. "No, you got a pool. This is a graduation present from Eric and Pam."
Adele turned and looked at Eric, who was lingering in the background. She didn't say anything to him but instead launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck in an attempt to hug the life out of him. "Ohmigosh! Thankyou!Thankyou!Thankyou!Thankyou!Thankyou!" She chanted over and over again as she hugged him tightly.
Eric chuckled a little and patted her on the back. "You're very welcome, Adele. Really this was all Pam's handy work. I just supplied the credit card."
"Thank you soooo much!" Addie beamed as she let him go, but that didn't stop her from bouncing around and looking at the pool and everything else. She was certainly awake now.
Sookie followed after her to look at the newest add on to the old house. Eric began to follow them when suddenly he felt his cell phone buzzing in his pocket. In vampire speed he pulled it out and flipped it open.
"Yes?"
"Eric, its Charlotte, from Area Fifteen. How are you tonight?"
"Well. How are you and your sister?"
The female on the other end sighed. "We've been better. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I knew I needed to call you as soon as we confirmed it."
Eric's eyes narrowed and his voice instantly drew cold. "What is it?"
"It's Mattox Shelly. He didn't report in to us tonight as he is supposed to. We've searched his home and the surrounding area's but he's nowhere to be found. We're still searching but I believe you need to be on your guard. We think he's on his way to Louisiana. He's still after the girl."
I know its been a while since I've updated so I wanted to give y'all a little something extra. I think this is the longest chapter so far and it was definitely fun to write. I don't know how many people will agree with Eric's feelings with Sookie, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.
And I know this isn't as romantic as I promised, but I promise there is a reason for my madness! Everything is going to work out in the end. No worries.
I'll be starting work and school soon so I can't promise exactly when I'll be able to update again. But I've started working on Chapter 8 and Chapter 4 of A New Life. So we'll see how long this takes.
Reviews are love, as always!