I do not own any of Charlaine Harris' characters. I'm simply borrowing them for my own sick pleasure.

Five minutes after his call from Charlotte, Eric had called every vampire from Shreveport to Monroe to raise the alarm. If Mattox had any intention of coming to Bon Temps he'd have to find another route, because all of northern Louisiana was ready and waiting.

"Sookie." He said quietly over an hour later. They were safe for now, as long as he was there; he saw no reason to raise the alarm.

"He's coming, isn't he?" She asked softly, not bothering to raise her eyes from the place that they were looking. She already knew what it was that he was going to say.

"Yes. They recently lost his scent. He won't be here soon, but they do believe he is coming. I've already begun to make calls. Pam is on the phone with Russell now, but I can't promise any help from him. After all, this isn't his battle."

"How long do you think it will take him?"

"A few days, at least. He has a lot of ground to cover, even if he is driving. He'll have to stop at dawn everyday and he might have to search for places to stay."

Sookie sighed heavily and sank her head into her hands. "I don't know how I'm going to tell her. I promised her she'd have nothing to worry about once we moved."

"We don't necessarily have to tell her." Eric offered slowly.

"Are you suggesting that we lie to her?" Sookie asked sharply, turing to look at him with hard, disbelieving eyes.

"Not lie, just withhold the truth for a little while. She is happy here and there is no need to upset her. After all, he might not even get this far. There is no need for her to know, not now anyway."

"And when he shows up on our doorstep what am I supposed to tell her?" she hissed.

"He won't show up on your doorstep Sookie. Not without going through Pam and I first."

"Don't make promises like that for Pam. You can't force her to fight for us."

"Sookie she would fight for you and your daughter even without my orders. You should know this by now."

Sookie looked at him for a minute longer before lowering her gaze to the floor. She sat in silence, thinking about all of her options before she finally made her decision. "Fine. For now we will keep it between us. But, if anything happens, if he gets anywhere near here we will tell her."

"Agreed. But I promise you he won't get anywhere near this place."

"I know."

In the nights that followed both Eric and Pam came to the house, keeping each of the Stackhouse women company. Eric and Sookie found themselves more than once sitting on the couch watching something on TV while Pam and Addie had girl time back in her room. The female vampire made sure to bring plenty of things to occupy them since she was no longer allowed to take her young friend out on the town.

The first night was a traditional girls night. Nails were painted, hair was brushed and styled. Magazines were flipped through and music was shared. It amazed both of them how much their musical taste matched. Surprisingly enough Pam had quite a taste for punk and rock and Adelle was quite fond of classical; and both absolutely adored the woman simply known as Gaga.

It wasn't until a week later that a song sparked a conversation that had been brewing in the back of both their minds. The slow, romantic lyrics that popped up on Addie's laptop made her think of her mother and the viking sitting in the living room.

"My mom and Eric really loved each other, didn't they?" She asked suddenly without looking up from where Pam was painting her toes a bright shade of pink.

Pam paused for a brief moment before returning to painting even strokes. "Yes, they did. Neither one of them would have admitted it back then. Even if your mother had stayed here I don't think they would have ever said anything to one another."

"But why not? Its so damn obvious. I mean, hell, they are cuddling on the couch right now!" Adelle said.

"Shh!" Pam chided instantly. Reaching over she turned up the volume on the laptop before speaking again. "We don't want him to hear you."

"And turning up the volume doesn't make it obvious?"

"It might be obvious that we are talking about something, but he won't know what."

"Won't he just make you to tell him later?"

"No. He might ask but he would never make me tell him. That's the kind of man that he is. No matter how badly he wants something he knows that you get no where by forcing people to do things, or feel things for that matter. That's why, even if he had known he reason, he would have still let your mother go."

Adele seemed to sit on that for a while, turning the thoughts over in her head. Pam could see the wheels in her mind churning, thinking over something important.

"We need to get them back together Pam. This is the first time I've seen my mom happy, truly happy, in who knows how long. I don't want her to loose it again, especially not on my account."

For a brief moment Pam actually looked surprised. She thought she had come to know the young Stackhouse rather well, but she would have never guessed those feelings were brewing beneath the surface.

"Adele, you couldn't possibly blame yourself for what happened. Your mother made her decision on her own, because she wanted to do what was best for you. That is just how much she loves you."

"And now its time for me to prove just how much I love her." Addie said with a defiant gleam in her eye that Pam knew all too well.

"Trust me, my dear, I'm sure she knows that already. Now tell me what you have in mind."

Sookie looked up slightly when she heard a slight yell from her daughter's room, followed quickly by the raised acoustics of that female singer who she hated so much. The woman was weird, but Sookie guessed that was the draw; at least that was why he daughter liked her so much.

"They are talking about us you know." she said as she turned her attention back to the TV, resting her head back on Eric's chest.

Eric chuckled a little. "You don't say?" he replied with a grin as he continued to trail his fingers through her hair. Originally they had started on opposite ends of the couch, as they did every night. And, like every night before this, they somehow found themselves wrapped around the other. It made him happier than he had been in a long time.

Sookie just rolled her eyes at his sarcastic remark. "Can you hear what they are saying?"

"Why, my darling Sookie, are you suggesting we eavesdrop on our darling little girls?" He asked with an even wider grin. It was so easy for him to think of this as his makeshift family.

"No," Sookie replied matter-of-factly, "I'm just asking if you can hear anything other that ridiculous music of theirs."

"Unfortunately no, I can't. Our hearing might be good, but I don't think there is a creature alive that could hear over that high pitched racket they are listening to."

"You don't like that Gaga woman either I take it?"

"Not at all. Ever since Pam heard her gambling song on the radio she's been obsessed. I haven't heard a decent piece of music in ages."

"At least they aren't listening to rap."

"Pam has already been warned that if she brings that into my bar she will find herself without a maker."

A sharp laugh rang from Sookie's lips. "That's almost exactly what I told Adele."

The two of them shared a laugh before settling into a comfortable silence again, focusing their attentions back to the movie they were watching. It was some romantic comedy that they had stumbled upon while flipping through channels and with nothing else on it was all they had to settle for. Personally Eric wasn't paying much attention, rather watching the woman resting against him from the corner of his eye. It was like they were twenty years in the past. Things were as they should be.

'Not exactly love.' He remembered the words from so long ago, words that had taken him too long to remember. But he knew it was more than that now, the day she left he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had loved the human more than he had ever loved anyone before.

Leaning down he placed a gentle kiss on the crown of her head, causing her to look up at him and smile. Their eyes connected and Eric knew that she was thinking the same thing. He smiled back down at her for another moment before they both slowly turned their attention back to the TV.

The nights continued to pass uneventfully as the last until nearly two weeks had gone by. Their strange family bonding time became something of tradition. They had even attempted a movie night for the four of them, but, apparently, they all had different taste in movies, and Twilight didn't fit into any of them.

Slowly the tension around the home eased too. The Stackhouse vampire guardians were no longer at their doorstep twenty minutes after dark, and now, more often than not, it was only one of them. With no immediate threat in sight Eric opted to let Pam stay at the bar (much to her and Addie's displeasure) while he stayed with the girls. No matter the combination things usually ended the same way, with Addie in her room and the adults in the living room.

It was on one such night, while they were sitting next to each other, that Eric noticed Sookie's skin was held more of a bronze tone to it that it had in recent weeks. "Is that a new southern tan you are sporting?" he asked as he lifted her arm up to examine it closer.

Sookie just laughed. "The beginning of one yes. Adele has spent every waking moment out by that pool and I can't resist joining her. Its nice to just spend some time together, especially now. Usually I was working when she got home from school so we never really got a chance to actually sit and talk. But now that all of this has happened I've tried to do more things with her. I know she doesn't always act like it, and having Pam helps, but I know she still misses Florida. That was her home after all."

Eric nodded his understanding, moving his hand to intertwine his fingers with hers. "She is a strong young woman, but I can't say that I'm all that surprised. You have raised her well Sookie, as I would have expected from you."

Much to his enjoyment blood rushed to Sookie's face, coloring her cheeks in a soft red blush before she looked away. Nearly twenty years had passed but in his mind she was still the same. Her youth still shown brilliantly in her eyes and she had lost none of her personality. He gave her hand a light squeeze, which she returned without hesitation.

"Not that its any of my business, but will you be able to afford to stay at home with Adele for a few more months without having any steady income?" Eric asked carefully a few minutes later. Her financial situation was one that had always been in the back of his mind when she was around before and now it was no different. He knew she wouldn't want to leave her daughter alone, but he wondered how she was going to pay the bills.

She turned to him in shock, examining him as though he had just confessed his undying love for Bill Compton and was planning on carrying their love child to term. Although he didn't show it, inwardly he shifted under her gaze. Apparently it had been a little too soon to bring up the finances.

"I apologize. I shouldn't have brought it up." he said softly.

"No no, its not that." Sookie said, still staring at him. "Its just...you admitted that it wasn't any of your business. I don't think I've ever heard a vampire admit that something wasn't their business."

Now it was Eric's turn to stare at her. He did so for only a brief moment before bursting into a laughter. "Well, to our credit, we vampires do learn a thing or two every few decades. Not much, but it gets us by." He said with a brilliant grin. Sookie just laughed with him until they fell into another comfortable silence before Sookie spoke up again.

"After we moved to Florida I told Niall I didn't want anymore to do with him or his kind. After all, he was the one who tricked me into sleeping with Preston. It was the worst feeling I'd ever had in my life, when I found out the truth. He at least had the decency to tell me himself instead of asking Claudine to do it. He realized that it would only make things worse if he stuck around. So he agreed to leave, but he made sure that we were well taken care of first. Since it was his fault I had to move. He bought the house, paid for the first few months of the bills, and all of the other expenses that needed to be covered to prepare for Adele to be born. Because of that I was able to squirrel some money away. There's enough here to keep us going for a while. Plus, before we left, a check came in the mail for fifty thousand dollars. I don't know who its from but I can only speculate its from Niall. He's the only person who would know about something like this and have that type of money to just give away."

Eric listened to her carefully, nodding his understanding. It certainly did sound like something like Niall would do.

"What about the fairy, Adele's father?" he asked carefully, unsure how sensitive she was bout the subject.

Sookie shook her head. "It wouldn't have been him. I've never spoken to him. I don't even know if he knows about her or not. A few times I wanted to ask Claudine but I figured it was for the best. He was under orders, he doesn't owe anything to me or to her."

"Adele is his daughter and you are her mother. Whether it was his intention to impregnate you or not he still owes it to both of you to be there, to support you. That is what fathers are supposed to do. And he also deserves to know that he has a daughter. I'm not saying that that responsibility lies on you, but Niall should have told him. After all, he was following orders." Eric said sternly with a cold look in his eye that Sookie knew wasn't directed at her. He was taking this personally.

"Besides, Adele is too special of a girl for him not to know about her." he added with a small smile.

"He said that!" Addie exclaimed with some excitement when her mother told her what Eric said about her the night before.

Mother and daughter were out enjoying the bright summer day. Adele was laying on top of her raft, drifting along the pool, soaking up the sun, while her mother copied her in one of the lawn chairs.

"Of course. Why wouldn't he?" Sookie asked as she looked at her daughter from over the top of her shades.

Adele shrugged a little. "I don't know. I always just got the feeling that he didn't like me very much."

Sookie couldn't help but laugh a little. "Adele of course he likes you! If he didn't why else would he be spending every night over here?"

Now it was her daughter's turn to stare at her mother. "Because he likes you. Come on Mom, don't play dumb. Nineteen years might seem like a long time to you, but its nothing more than the blink of an eye for a vampire."

"You've been spending too much time with Pam." Sookie said as she looked back down at her magazine, completely avoiding the topic.

"I have not! I haven't seen Pam in nearly a week! I'm getting bored." Addie pouted as she lay back to soak up the sun.

"And God forbid you get bored." Her mother teased.

Adele just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You know I'm right."

Sookie eyed her daughter briefly before returning to the book that she had left abandoned on her lap. Adele's words drifted in and out of her mind, mixing with her own thoughts and feelings. Maybe there was some truth to what her daughter had been telling her after all.

Her eyes drifted up again when she heard her daughter singing a familiar love song extremely off key. She was just trying to annoy her now. Out of the corner of her eye Sookie spotted on of the water guns that they had brought with them. As subtly as she could she reached out and grabbed the gun, aiming it at Adele when she knew the girl wasn't looking.

'Ready. Steady. Fire.' Sookie thought as she shot at her daughter.

Adele shrieked as the cold water hit her and instantly jumped up. Unfortunately, thanks to gravity and several of Newton's laws, she promptly flipped over. Sookie laughed as she watched her daughter flip up and swim toward the surface.

"That wasn't funny." Adele told her mother flatly as she tried to detangle her sunglasses from her hair. Sookie's only response was to keep laughing.

Sookie was in the kitchen that night when Eric appeared. He stepped up behind her, looking over her shoulder as she chopped ingredients and fed them into a giant mixing bowl. "What are you cooking?"

"A hamburger quiche with sauteed asparagus. It's Addie's favorite." Sookie replied calmly.

"Oh. Is there a particular reason why you are trying to get on your daughter's good side?" He asked with an amused smile.

"Well, I might have caused her to flip over in the pool today and ruin her tanning." She replied innocently as she pulled the browning meat from the stove to drain.

Eric laughed. "Dare I ask how you managed to do that?"

"I might have shot her with a water gun while she wasn't looking." Sookie confessed with a shrug, causing Eric to laugh harder.

"And why would you do a thing like that?"

Sookie shrugged again. "Do I really need a reason?"

The two laughed and continued to talk while Sookie finished cooking. Adele only appeared briefly, getting herself a plate of food and quietly saying hello to Eric before returning to her room. By the smile on her face, however, it was obvious to see that all of Sookie's grievances had been forgiven.

Things fell back into their usual pattern. Sookie ate her meal in the living room while she and Eric watched the season finale of a vampire reality show. Eric handed over a twenty dollar bill to Sookie when the winner was announced, although Sookie had a feeling he had known who was going to win all along.

The night slowly eased by with the two of them talking about old times, both dancing around the edges of the topic that neither of them were willing to admit to just yet. Things were still business, they would have time to take care of their personal lives later.

As a storm started to roll in Sookie turned down the volume on the TV so they could listen to the rain hit against the tin roof. It was a sound that she had always loved to hear.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I missed the rain. It was always so damn sunny in Florida." she confessed in a quiet voice as they sat back and listened to the storm.

Eric chuckled. "And here I thought that was the reason why you chose Florida."

"Yea, well, I never realized just how much I like storms too."

"Some people might take that as a metaphor. They might call you a little masochistic." Eric said with a small grin.

"Maybe I am. It sure would explain a lot."

Eric was about to say something further when he stopped, trying to listen to something. Sookie looked at him curiously and was about to ask what was wrong when he raised a hand to stop her. He continued to concentrate for a minute longer before he stood quickly.

"What's wrong?" Sookie asked, standing with him.

"Something is wrong with Addie." He said before turning and disappearing down the hall.

Lightning lit up her room as her heartbeat hammered in her ears. She didn't know why she'd waken up, she could only guess it was the storm outside. But now that she was awake she knew better. Her heart was pumping blood and adrenaline through her veins. The tips of her fingers were tingling, the same way they did when she was ready to pop off somewhere. Her body was in panic mode and she had no idea why.

She sat completely still in bed, every sense on high alert. Something was close, something that wasn't supposed to be there. And it was getting closer.

The adrenaline made her body shake in desperation. She wanted to run, wanted to scream, wanted to get away. But there was nothing to run from, not yet.

Her body told her it was getting closer. It was running now, it knew she was close. Her eyes were trained on the window, straining through the night and the rain to see anything. Her mind was screaming now, telling her to run, but it was too late. Fear had her frozen in place, she couldn't escape.

Another bolt of lightening lit up the yard, revealing it to be empty, save for the wind ravishing the trees. Slowly she began to will herself to calm down. There was nothing out there. She'd had a nightmare and was over reacting now that she was awake. Slowly she laughed at herself, she felt like some bad actress in a horror movie.

Another clap of thunder and bolt of lightening and her heart stopped.

"Hello Adele."

She screamed.

"Addie wake up! Adele!"

Addie's eyes snapped open and she stared ahead, looking for the man who had just been in her room. She paid little attention as her mother wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close. "Shh Adele, it was just a dream. You're okay. You're safe."

Her heart was racing and she swore the drumming in her ears was thunder. She looked around but the only vampire she saw was Eric. Even though he had his back to them she could tell he was on high alert. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn he had an axe in his hand.

"I saw him." Adele said as she looked back at her mom. "I saw him. He was standing at the end of my bed. He's coming, isn't he? Why didn't you tell me he was coming?!"

"Adele calm down, its okay. You're safe." Sookie assured her as she began to rock her daughter gently, smoothing her hair away from her face. "I promise you, you're safe."

She looked back at Eric and they exchanged a brief look that confirmed their fears, Mattox was back on the hunt.

I'm sorry this took longer than expected. I've started school and been having to deal with problems with my friends. I had intended to make this chapter much longer, but I think I'm going to extend it over another chapters as I had originally planned to. This was simply getting too long for me to keep up with and I fear I was coming up on another block. But don't worry, I still have plenty planned out for the next chapter, including lots of Eric/Sookie fluff.

As always read & review. And Happy Mother's Day to all of my readers!

~ Miss Southern Belle