Title: Dead Lost
Summery: Eric left a year ago, but now Sookie's being pulled back into his life. The initial mystery Sookie is asked to solved is over come simply, but now Eric wants to start over with Sookie, will they be able to get it together, or will the year apart and the changes that came with it drive them apart for good?
Pam/Sookie Friendship, Eric/Sookie eventually-like you had to guess.
Rated: M.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words I write. The characters, themes and products most likely belong to someone else, except for any names/persons not mentioned in True Blood or the Sookie Stackhouse novels.
I feel I should point out that I've never been to Louisiana, or really out on a date with anyone either, so my ideas of where this date goes is limited to things I can find on google, and therefore I'm generally making up crap from the top of my head. But I'm trying to make it good crap. Also, due to the whole vampires being known thing, anything I mentioned that would normally be considered a day time thing is open at night.
Secondly, I edited chapter 9 a bit more, so I'd love it if you could check it out so maybe some things will be cleared up if it had confused you. It confused me too, I wrote all of the outlines of these chapters awhile ago and now I'm just adding stuff to make it more than something boring, and I guess I just didn't really check chapter 9 over well.
I hope this, and my editing of chapter 9, clears everything up. I'm really grateful for everyone that has been reading, reviewing, faving, and alerting. I'm trying my hardest to write these fast, answer questions and reply to reviews. You guys are awesome, and I'm glad you like my story.
By 6:45pm on Saturday I was putting my makeup on; I went light on everything, a little mascara, some light brown eye liner and eye shadow. I stepped back and examined myself in the mirror. I was in a white tank top with a light black sweater with a pair of jeans, I mean we were just going to the movies so I didn't need to get too dressed up.
I pulled my hair half up and down, making sure my ears were still covered, and stepped out of the bathroom. Claude had been staying at his house still with the kids and Dermot was in his room in the attic.
I smiled, having the house to myself for the most part had allowed me to play some music and sing loudly off key, Dermot didn't seem to mind, or didn't say anything, and for the most part I tried to keep it down.
I shut off my stereo as I walked out the door and headed into the kitchen. I located my keys, my phone, my wallet and my purse. After making sure I had everything I was just about to check the clock when I heard the knock on the door.
I pulled open the door and smiled at Eric, he was in a pair of jeans and a lose fitting blue t-shirt, "Good evening Sookie, you look lovely."
"Thank you Eric." I smiled my eyes running up and down his body again, "you look great."
"Thank you, are you ready to go?" he says, offering me his hand.
"Yep. Dermot! I'll see you later!" I yelled back into the house stepping out of the house. I locked the door behind me and took Eric's hand, following him down the steps to his car. He brought his Corvette.
He held the door open for me and closed it once I had slid in, he was in the car beside me I the next second, "so there are a few movies out, did you see one you wanted to watch?"
"I don't really care, just nothing to blood and gore, I've got enough of that in my life." I tell him with a smile.
"Alright, sounds good with me." I smiled, he was scrolling through something on his phone, "okay so they have Black Swan, Sucker Punch, the Hangover part two, Green Lantern, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kung Fu Panda two." He paused long enough to slow down when he spotted the cop car.
"Hmm, well." I said, chewing on my lip, "definitely not Black Swan, or the Hangover, or Kung Fu Panda, I've already had to see that."
"How about Sucker Punch? I don't really know what it's about but it looks weird, but Pam said it was pretty good."
"Alright." He put his phone back in his pocket, the drive to the theater only took like half an hour, and the theater was pretty empty when we got there. Eric bought the tickets and got me some popcorn before while I found us some seats.
My stomach was tangled in a mess of nerves while I waited, my eyes scanning the crowd. It was mostly humans, but I found a few Were brains and Vamps too, I didn't know why I was so panicky I was just uncomfortable. I couldn't say why.
Eric slid into his seat beside me, handing me popcorn, the candy I'd asked for and setting a soda beside me while his own TruBlood rested in the cup holder beside him, "are you okay Sookie? You seem tense."
"I'm fine, just, my stomach's all knotted. I'll be okay." I replied, popping a piece of the butter popcorn in my mouth, Eric chuckled beside me, "what?"
"Are you nervous because of something supernatural or because you're here with me?" he turns and locks those gorgeous blue eyes with mine, my stomach flip-flops, was it because I was on a date with him?
"I don't rightly know." I told him before pointing at the screen, "but the movies starting." I break the stare and turn to the screen, settling into my seat. I move the soda to the cup holder for the empty seat beside me and rest my hand on the now vacant holder, a few minutes later Eric's big hand takes my smaller one, my fingers lace through his and a sensation I can't name shoots through my arm.
But I'm content through the rest of the movie, which was pretty wacky, and when we walk out hand in hand I'm grinning like an idiot, I would have never really pictured a date between Eric and I going this well. I always expected something to ruin it, but not even his guards seemed to kill the fabulous mood I was in.
They surrounded him secretly, and if I hadn't recognized Charles I'd bet it was safe to say I wouldn't have noticed them, Eric had apologized for their presence, but I felt a little safer knowing that nothing creepy would be able to attack us, because usually if we were together there was something after us.
"I know we said a movie date, but I'm not really ready for you to go home, is that okay Sookie?" he asks as we settle in the car.
"It's fine with me Eric, I'm enjoying spending time with you, and so anything we do is really fine with me. Did you have anything planned?"
"Not really, just spending more time with you." He answers, "Is there anything you've seen that you want to do?"
"Well, they opened a new Aquarium zoo kinda thing in Alexandria that does night-tours. Maybe that'd be something to do." I supplied, remembering seeing it in the paper, "but it's up to you. I wouldn't care if we parked somewhere and sat around talking."
"Well, the nights young, so we could always do both. Let me make a phone call." He told me, smiling. His conversation was fast and in another language, and then he made a second call, in English, to the aquarium, and then a third reverting back to another language.
"Well, look like we missed the tour but we can still go walk around ourselves." He gives me another smile. To be truly honest with myself, if he kept smiling at me like that I wouldn't care if we were sitting around watching cows poop, I'd sit there and watch for hours.
I had missed this side of him, the relaxed not so high handed vampire side. During those last few weeks I almost forgot how sweet he could be, "Sookie, you're staring." He said with a hint of laughter in his voice.
"Can't help it." I mumble, he reaches over and takes my hand, giving it a light squeeze before I feel the car pull to a stop. I hadn't noticed how close we were. I got out and followed Eric up to the doors.
I was a little more than shocked when the ticket guy bowed when Eric stepped in the door, he even bowed his head at me slightly, "King." He said nervously, barely lifting his eyes from the floor.
"Good evening." Eric replied, his voice seeming stiff, "how much for two adults?"
"T-thirty bucks." The kid in front of us wasn't a vampire so why he was so nervous about Eric being there, other than the fact Eric was pretty intimidating on his own, I didn't know. Most humans didn't know about vampire politics though, I wasn't in the mood to poke through his head so I just let myself wonder absently about it.
Eric simply pulled out his wallet, handed the kid the money, got our tickets and walked by, once we were far enough away that I didn't think the kid would hear me I asked him why the kid was so nervous, because poking through his brain wouldn't have been nice.
"He's a pet of someone at the court. He wasn't expecting me is all." He informed me, "I don't really know why he was so nervous." He pulls me into past the gift shop and into the hallway that led to something called 'The Tunnel'.
"That reminds me, how is it you came to be King of Louisiana? I meant to ask that night but I was just enjoying myself I didn't even think to ask."
"Felipe had always wanted to get his hands on Okalahoma, I'm not really sure why but after the things with the Queen cleared up and it was proven that I had nothing to do with her death, Felipe and I did a state trade, since I was looking to marry the man. He agreed so here we are."
"Well, that certainly sounds unexpected, wasn't he always looking to get his hands on Louisiana? And he just gave it up?"
"No." Eric answered, "He rules Okalahoma, just as he ruled here, but the state is shared between us. I rule here, but Louisiana is shared between us. If that makes any sense."
"Not really." I inform him.
"Well I don't really know how to explain it. I guess if anything were to happen to Felipe, or anything were to happen to me, he would take over here, or I would take over there." He answers, "But I'm positive nothing will happen to either of us, because I can't kill him unless I want to find someone else to run the state for me, same for him. There is nobody he trusts enough to run a state without him being there, so he settled for this."
"Oh, so he still gets the power from owning ruling both states, but only has to rule the one?"
"Yeah, kind of like that. Basically the same as it would have been if he married me while I was King of Okalahoma, just without the marriage part. I suppose I could have just said that."
"Ya know what, I shouldn't have asked. Vampire politics always give me a headache anyways." I joked, he laughed softly as we entered the area called The Tunnel.
We were standing in a hallway with those dome glass ceilings so it was like you were walking through the ocean, the fish saw on all sides of us, a shark swam over us and the brilliant blue water was actually glowing.
"Well I'm glad you asked, at least I know you feel comfortable asking me." He says, "if there's anything else at all that you want to know don't hesitate to ask me. I want us to be completely open about everything, okay?"
"I wont hesitate to ask you anything." I tell him, "I learned that keeping my mouth shut and just going along with things wont get me very far anyhow."
"Good, then I have one question for you." I pause and give him a look that says, ask away, "why did you agree to start over without asking me many questions?"
"Because I just…" I pause, trying hard to figure out how to explain it, "I just wanted…" I pause again, "After I kissed you, just after you had fed, I spent awhile trying to figure out why I did it. I still don't know why I did it. I just did, because I missed you. I missed being close to you, connected to you, around you. And I just wanted to. I didn't think about it, I just did it."
I pause and take a deep breath, "after I kicked you out of my house and cried my eyes out I realized how stupid I was to just kick you out. I didn't bother trying, I just shut down like an idiot and then when I saw you again, I was just like "what was I thinking?" I'm not really sure. I've tried to figure out my reasoning but all I keep coming back to was that I missed you."
"Why'd you agree to help Pam?"
"I was bored." I told him simply, because that was really the whole reason I had helped, the whole reason I had wanted to leave simply boiled down to boredom. He chuckles shaking his head, his eyes shift from me to the tank behind me, I turn in time to see the shark break his gaze from Eric and swim off, "Eric, did you really have no other choice then to marry her?"
"If I had another option I would have taken it. I would have done anything to keep you with me Sookie. It hurt me to leave you, but what hurt me the most was that I hurt you when I asked you to come with me. I wasn't thinking clearly, I was just thinking of a way to keep you with me."
"I don't think either of us was, when it comes to us we act, then think." I say, "Much like I just did, I say it then I think about what it was I said."
"I guess maybe we should try and reverse that then. Because I really want this to work. I want us to work." He tells me honestly.
"So do I." we fall silent, watching the fish swim around in the water, the shark circles back a few times, and all the while Eric are holding hands and just watching silently. It's a comfortable silence, and I have a huge smile on my face.
"Come on, more fish to see." He says after a few minutes, giving my arm a light tug, I pull my eyes away from the colorful fish and follow Eric into a new room. This one is darker, it's called the shark room, and I notice the shark in the other tank wasn't in here, which I found odd.
We sat and watched the sharks for awhile, they swam in circles and I made us leave before dinner, because honestly I didn't want to watch it so we wandered away to where they had snakes and other reptiles.
When we entered the snake area we almost walked into a couple getting freaky in the corner, I felt my face heat up at the sight and I pulled Eric quickly out of the room, "you look adorable when you blush." He comments off hand.
"Thanks Eric." I muttered, but the sight in there was enough to make me remember the 'one other person' Eric had mentioned he'd slept with, and now as I watched two frogs chasing there dinner I just wanted to ignore it.
"What's wrong Sookie?" Eric asked, coming up behind me, placing his hand on my lower back.
"I have another question. But I don't know if I want the answer." I whispered, not taking my eyes off of the frogs.
"You mean, you want to know who the other woman was." He says, as if he had read my mind.
"Am I that easy to read?" I murmur.
"Sort of." He replied, "It was Pam."
"I thought Pam wasn't allowed at the mansion."
"She wasn't. Didn't mean I never left." He answered, "Pam and her girl friend were having issues, and we both had itches that needed to be scratched. It was convenient and nothing more."
"You're not lying?" I ask, he turns me so I'm looking into his eyes.
"No. I've wanted to, I've had thoughts about it, but I never really did. It was just easier to have the no strings attached thing with Pam, attachments weren't really something I was looking for."
"Thank you for being honest." I say.
"What about you? Really nobody? No sex? Nothing?"
"No, mostly because at first I only had vampires as an option, and really wasn't interested in barking up that tree. And then with all of the Fae stuff that happened I was busy dealing with that and then it ruled vampires out as people I could be with, as well as other Supes because my powers amplified and then when Claude came back with the kids, I made myself busy. I thought about it sometimes, I always wondered if I should try to find someone, but I just didn't want to."
"So the last time you had sex…" he trails off.
"Was the last time we had sex." I finished, grabbing his hand, "come on I heard they have otters and I wanna find em!" I demand, tugging him behind me, he chuckles but lets me pull him along.
We spend the rest of the trip talking about lighter subjects, there were lots of smiles from him, and they all made the butterflies in my stomach flutter. He smile, rare as it was, was gorgeous.
"Are you hungry? Ready to go home?" he asks as we walk out the front doors around 2am.
"I'm kinda hungry." I admit, "But if you're ready to take me home so you can beat the sun I won't blame you."
"If you're hungry I can get you dinner. I'm kinda hungry too, I could use a TruBlood." He says, "how about we stop at an IHop on the way back to your house."
"Works for me." I reply with a smile, sliding into Eric's car once more. We drove in silence to the IHop and ate with a little small talk, "I've really had fun tonight, I'm glad we did this."
"Me too. I hope to do this more often. Maybe with less guards." He gestures to the three Weres and the vampire sitting at a few other tables.
"Honestly, I don't mind them. At least I know we're protected, right? I mean when it's just me and you we're always getting into trouble, at least there's a small chance of protection for both of us. I know you always throw yourself into danger to protect me, but now I have insurance you'll be safe even if you do that." I say sheepishly.
"Well, if you're having peace of mind them maybe I won't mind as much. But still it's rather annoying to be followed around. You should have seen what I had to go through just to get them to let me go to your house alone."
"Their compromise was to sit at the edge of my property." I informed him, "I noticed the car sitting on the edge of the road that started moving in front of us. Do all supernatural creatures drive like they're immortal?"
"Pretty much." He laughs, taking the last sip of his TruBlood.
"When did that start?" I say gesturing to the bottle of TruBlood.
"Well, vampire king and all, kinda have to make it look like we want to mainstream. Honestly I think of it like a child would water. It's not what I want, but it does what I need it to."
"Do you have donors at your disposal?"
"If I want them. I don't need blood that much, unless I'm around you. You make my cravings worse. I only need real human blood twice a month at most." He informs me, "and usually it's one of the donors that stick around the castle."
"Well. That's nifty news." I take a bite out of my waffles.
"Speaking of nifty news, are you ever going to tell me your abilities that you've found out? Like can you read vampires now?"
My eyes go wide, "no." I snap quickly, even though I had heard, possibly, Pam's thoughts, "I can levitate, and my eye sights better, I can heal minor wounds, I can shut off my telepathy and I can glamour people. Which I'm guessing is why you couldn't glamour me, because you can't glamour each other right?"
"No, we can't." his eyes had been boring into mine since he'd asked me if I could read vampire minds, right too hasty of a reply. I felt bad sort of lying to him.
"I lied." I said flatly, "I can't exactly say it out in the open. Not with." I gesture vaguely to the guards, "but it's only after an exchange."
I hope that wasn't too cryptic, or stupid, of a way of saying that I could read vampires after I drank their blood, "and it doesn't last more than a few seconds. If that's really what it was."
"I see." He says, he finally stops staring at me so intently and sits back to relax against the booth, he doesn't stare at me while I eat, as we talk he makes a little eye contact and scrolls through his phone. I'm not sure if it's because he's bored, annoyed, or just so he has something to do other than watch me eat.
After dinner, or breakfast as it seems, he drives me home, once again his guards wait at the property line, but as we go through Eric seems to grip the steering wheel harder, "what is it?"
"Why is there magic surrounding your house?" he asks, a hint of annoyance seeping into his words.
"Because when I returned home from Okalahoma there had been some baby vampire stalking my property and then the Sheriff of Area 5 came around and harassed me so I had Alexsandra put a spell on the property, nobody can enter my property with malicious intent and if I tell them to scram they have to. Much like the invitation into my house, just wider. I need to feel safe, and my family needs to be safe."
He nods, "that's very smart Sookie. Could you do me a favor though?"
"What?"
"If we ever get into another fight, like the one before, don't rescind my invitation to enter your property. I would only do so to protect you, I'd like to know that if I needed to I could come help you if you were in danger."
"I wouldn't do that." I tell him in a whisper stepping out of the car, "after Pam left my house that night I invited you back into my house. You just weren't around to hear it."
"Thank you Sookie." He says, standing in front of me so suddenly I almost jump, "No matter what happens between us, I will always be around to protect you."
"Thank you Eric, that means a lot to me." I whisper, "I never want to see you get hurt, and no matter what happens between us, I'll pretty much always be around to help you while I'm alive."
He smiles once more, my stomach once again flutters and he brushes a kiss across my cheek, "I'll be sure to call so we can have another date. Goodnight Sookie."
I didn't even notice that we were on my porch until he stepped around me and went down the stairs. I smiled to myself, fishing my keys out of my purse, "good night Eric!" I called after him before I unlocked my door and stepped inside, locking it behind me again.
I went to my room and changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top before heading back into the kitchen to get some water, I found Dermot sitting at the kitchen table reading a news paper, "Hello Sookie." He said, looking up long enough to smile at me and then turning his attention back to the paper.
"Hey." I reply, "Anything interesting happen?"
"Not really, Claude dropped the kids off here though." He says off handedly, "he said he had some business he needed to do and that I owed him or something like that."
"More like he owes you for baby sitting." I pointed out, pouring water into a glass, "how long have they been here?"
"Since an hour after you left." He answers, "They're getting ready for bed now."
"Now? It's like 5 in the morning!" I yelp, "Are you crazy?"
"They were having a Winnie the Pooh marathon that they just had to watch." He says sarcastically, "I figured the later they're up the more hell Claude will have with them tomorrow since I won't be here and you have to work."
"You're evil." I laugh, sitting down at the table.
"How was your date?" he says, setting down the news paper and turning his attention to me.
"It was good." I said, "We went to the movies and that new aquarium and to breakfast."
"Sounds like a fun time. Was the Aquarium interesting? The kids said that they wanted to go."
"To be honest, I was really mostly looking at Eric the whole time. But it was big; there were lots of animals and things to do. We spent awhile there. I'd suggest going at night, because I mean, nobodies there. But either way, worth crowds to go. They'd love it."
"Who'd love what?" Max asks, appearing in the doorway.
"Hey Max!" I smile; he smiles and walks over to give me a hug. Genie is right behind him, wrapping her small arms around my neck and squeezing as hard as she can, "I was saying that you'd love it if your dad took you guys to the movies tomorrow and maybe shopping."
"That'd be cool." Genie says, "But he'd never do it. He's been spending most of his time with that Linda chick."
"With Linda? The big mouthed one?" I ask, why the heck would he be hanging around with her?
"Yeah, the one that talked about the vampire stuff." Well, that wasn't good. The kids were quick to say goodnight to us before they ran upstairs.
"Did you know about this?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at Dermot suspiciously.
"No. I thought he had a boyfriend." Dermot says, "From what I heard he never really liked Linda."
"He told me she was bad news." I said, more to myself then Dermot.
"She was bad news. Claudine hated her." Dermot says, "And that girl loved everyone."
I nod, sipping at my water, "Well, I'm going to head to bed. Can you wake me up before you leave?"
"Yeah. See you later." I nod and put my glass in the sink before going to my room and crawling into my bed, after changing of course, I was asleep a few minutes after I got settled.