A/n: Thank you to all of my wonderful readers, and reviewers: Sydkiwi, foxgodess07, whitestripes123, IkeaGoddess, StarKiss666, , VAlady, ArmyGirl2010, ebm1, erin1705, Thorsminion, sluggysmom, Ericsfae, desireecarbenell, kerriki, Evie, Megan Consoer, Gina, footychick, KaiaRay, Spygrrl, yummogrl22, OzzykomaKozzy, ncmiss12, Anna-Rogue-Marie-Howlett, Rhiannon-shaxton, and Queen of Night.

So…now you get to see what Sookie was thinking about during the two hours (roughly) that Eric was strong-arming Sam and conversing with Brion. As to the few Sookie/Brion fans out there, I was thinking of (maybe, after this story is finished) writing a fic which highlights what went on in Faery during the year she was absent. Any interest?

Note: This chapter has not been approved by Rachael, the amazing Beta. I felt bad for not updating for three days (shuffles feet) and decided to post it as-is. And then there was a document mishap last chapter where Rachael edited my mistakes and I got the documents confused as to which one was the before/after Rachael and… posted the wrong one…and…yeah….hence the mistakes, lol.

ANYWAY, this chapter is semi-plot heavy if you pay attention to it. Next chapter, like chapter seven, is mostly for comedic purposes but does supply you with information as well.

Thanks so much to everyone for leaping over the 200 hundred review mark! You are all supermegafoxyawesomehot and fantabulisticulous! ^^

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 8: Things to Think About

Sookie dozed in the blankets, her eyes on the wisps of clouds in the orange sky. She hadn't done this since she was a child, a little girl who wanted nothing more than to run around outside at dusk and catch lightning bugs. Her goal wasn't to catch little bugs and put them in a mason jar for a night light as they slowly died (of course, you don't think about that when you're little). No, her goal tonight was to process, and recollect, and focus. She had a chip on her shoulder two miles high, and an elephant on her chest, and she needed to get rid of it all. Where to begin? Unfortunately, there was no clear-cut beginning, middle, and end to her story; the beginnings merged into middles, middles merged into ends, and the ends merged right back into beginnings. She could try and start working through the issues beginning from when she entered Faery, but that was a whole years worth of issues and she really didn't have time for that. Perhaps she could focus on one topic at time? That might take.

It was clear, when that thought occurred to her, the order of the issues she needed to work through: First, her Faery, second, Eric, and third, the possibility of a baby. She hadn't always had a nagging inner voice. Excluding the part about being a telepath, she really was rather sound of mind. No, Faery Sookie showed up during her visit to the Underground (the proper name for the Faery Realm). It wasn't as clear cut as 'one day she had a voice in her head'. No, the Faerys presence had come about slowly. She had always existed, apparently, but never lived until Sookie needed her. And, in the Underground, need her she did. Sookie was too innocent to fit in well among Faery society, too open-minded. It was a very different climate – one that had Sookie yearning to return to the mortal world.

Occasionally, Sookie remembered hearing whispers of advice in her mind – which fork to eat with, which Council member to gain favor with, how to dance a Faery Waltz. It never bothered her, really. Never even occurred to her there was another presence in her mind. She thought it was her lessons, coming back to her memory when she needed them. How silly! Then, when Queen Mab had attacked her, her Faery had taken complete control of her body and fought Mab off. Sookie had never been more surprised in her life. To be sleeping soundly, wake to the sound of sword being drawn from a sheath, and then be tossed into the recesses of your mind was a lot to handle for the space of ten seconds. After the incident was over, and Sookie had taken control of her body once more, her Faery made her presence known. She had thought herself crazy – hearing voices was never a good thing. When she brought it up to Niall, he had looked as puzzled as she, until three days later when he came back with an answer.

She could remember the explanation with perfect clarity.

"Being a Faery is more than just being a supernatural creature. You are, simultaneously, a mortal human, an immortal animal, and a divine being. The aspect of you that is human provides your conscience, and your logic. The aspect of you that is animal is your Fae descent. The Fae were primal creatures who cared little for logic or sense and cared only for revelry and other primal urges – they felt very deeply and everything they did, they did in excess. When they fought, it was war. When they had sex, it was orgy. When they mourned, they cried rivers of tears. Human in appearance, they lived abnormally long lives and lived them in total abandon. The aspect of you that is divine, well…"

Niall paused, seeking a way to phrase it without offending his Christian granddaughter. "While there is only one God reigning in heaven, there were hundreds of lesser Gods, and few of those sat on His divine council. If you look in your bible, at Psalm 82, it mentions them, and what happened to them. God was angry with them, you see, for though it was their duty to tend to mankind, they tended to whomever they damn well wanted to – in many cases, not people that deserved it. He was disappointed that for how long they had walked this Earth and eaten its fruit, they understood nothing of their task,"

He paused to take a drink of some mead, seeming to enjoy the suspense he was leaving her in. "And so he cast them down from the heavens and said 'You are 'gods'; you are all Sons of the Most High. But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.' And they were banished from the heavens, and in their place were sentinels – angels, Gods personal army. These once-upon-a-time Gods were no longer immortal, but they still had their powers yet and used them to extend their lives well past that of a human. They fell, they died, true, but not for thousands of years. In their new state of hell, as many thought of it, they succumbed to all that the Earth provided – everything they could not enjoy before. They bred with the Fae, and so born are the Faery – children of an Animal, and a Divine being. If there was every any humanity introduced into the bloodline, it was very little."

"You must understand that we live a very long time, have magic at our fingertips, and have no self-control. We eat what we want, sleep where we want, take what we want, and fuck what we want. Our divine blood and Fae blood have long since reconciled and become one with each other in perfect harmony. You, have not."

"What do you mean?" She asked, not letting his bluntness bother her – it was the way all Faeries were.

"You have a lot of human in you, Sookie, more human than Faery, in fact. Your human nature makes you conscious of your actions, logical – meanwhile, your Faery side is trying to make you let go of all that consciousness and logic and just have fun. The two sides are so at war with each other, in your mind and body, that there are, more or less, two Sookies. Only when you bring your human and Faery together in one state of being will you be in complete control. If you are threatened, the Faery may force you out as she is the primal creature in you – it is her concern that all your needs are sated; food, water, sex, and safety. Faery Sookie's needs will always come first."

So, Faery Sookie had taken care of her needs because she wouldn't. She had locked herself away during her lunar cycle with the intention of not having sex, and Faery Sookie saw two needs that needed to be met: Sex, and safety. Allowing Eric to Claim her would provide her safety from any other vampires, both physically and politically. Faery Sookie didn't care about the repercussions of it – personal sex slave and livestock included – so long as she was safe. And, now that Sookie was thinking rationally, it made sense that Faery Sookie wouldn't care about the repercussions; they both brought on pleasure. Selfish, illogical, primal bitch. The only way to get rid of her was to merge her human mind and Faery mind, and Sookie had no idea how to do that. She'd add that to the list of things that Niall had failed to inform her of before he sold her like chattel.

That issue would be dealt with later – it wasn't a priority, right now. Next issue on the agenda was none other than: Eric Northman, Vampire Sheriff of Area 5, Viking, and…lover? When she had left the mortal world for Faery, it had been with the intention of forgetting Bill and all of the problems he had brought with him – Eric included. It had all made sense the night she left, the reason why Eric kept urging her not to trust Bill. Had things not turned out the way they had, had Bill not tried to murder Eric, Sookie could probably say with conviction that Eric would have told her. He didn't want to be the one to tell her, to hurt her in such a way. He had intended on making Bill tell her, and for it Bill had silenced him – had dared to try and kill his superior, because he was a possessive motherfucker and didn't want his wrongdoings brought to light.

Though she wavered even in thinking it, she knew with absolute certainty that he and Lorena deserved each other. Lying, cheating bastard. But this wasn't about him, Sookie reminded herself, this was about Eric. She had been angry with him too, for being the one to tell her the horrible reality of Bill's presence in her life, but it was a shallow, hollow anger. She had never really been angry with him, but he was an easy scapegoat. Now, Faery Sookie had seen fit to act in their best interest and not only sleep with Eric, and potentially impregnate them with his child, but also let him claim her.

They had their hooks in him – and he didn't even know it yet. He thought he was in control, that he had claimed her, when in reality it was very much the other way around. By vampire law, any human claimed by a vampire was theirs to do with as they saw fit – eating, fucking, turning – no matter what the human wanted. By Faery law, if a woman begets a child by a man they were to be bonded in matrimony, blood, and magic. They were responsible for the well-being of their child and spouse, and were forever more completely unable to be with any other so long as their spouse was able to fulfill their marital duties.

It made women's lives complete hell, if they were raped – to be forever bound to your rapist – or lost themselves in the heat of the moment to the cute stable boy. Faery Sookie had told her, in confidence, that she didn't care who she had chosen so long as they were occupied for their Lunar Cycle. She lied with a grain of truth interwoven in the tapestry. She didn't care who occupied her time during their Cycle – that being said, she would not have allowed any many but Eric to beget a child with her.

The fates had smiled on Faery Sookie when Eric followed their scent through the woods, and Sookie knew it was all over before he even entered the Veil. Eric was powerful, handsome, and wealthy – and literally one of the strongest creatures on the planet. She had made a prison for us, and she had chosen well. We would never escape from him now, couldn't escape from him until death do us part. So, that having been dealt with, Sookie was left with the conclusion that there wasn't much she could actually do.

Internally, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't like being owned, or having her spouse think that she would bend so easily to his whims, but that could be worked on through mutual love and respect. Love? Was he capable of love? For one thousand years his heart had not beat for anyone, or anything, until today when it beat for her – at the whim of a Faery. She doubtless found the irony amusing and was likely having a good laugh at both of them.

Sookie was now faced with the very tangible reality that she was spending the rest of her life with Eric – and perhaps, if he so desired it, the rest of eternity as well. Could she handle that? She would never want for anything, that much was certain, until he tired of her. She was just an uneducated waitress in a little backwater town in Louisiana, of all places – she could hardly hold his interest for long. And what then? He was bound to her now, by Faery law, until death parted them. Part of that law required him to be completely faithful to her, or otherwise be celibate. Would he not just kill her when he tired of her, and break their bond?

That was common enough in Faery. A man gets saddled with a maid he got with child, lets the child be born, and then the mother has an 'accident'. Poof. No maid to hinder his lust. Sookie was scared of what would happen when he tired of her, of what would happen to their child. Of course, this all depended on her having a child. She still didn't know she was actually pregnant – though it could be assumed that Faery Sookie wouldn't take any chances, and may have even introduced a Faery fertility spell into the mix.

If push came to shove, and she hoped it didn't, she could, hypothetically, kill him if he ever came after her. Her heart sickened at the very thought; she didn't like killing and death, and even less the killing of a man who had been kind to her. But she could do it. If the time ever came when he tired of her and decided to rid himself of her, she would not go down easily – she had a year of combat and magic training in Faery, by Faery, who were the mortal enemies of Vampires. She could hold her own.

Her stomach clenched at the turn of thought. She shook herself out of that particular train of thought and moved on to her final topic: Their baby. Her hands unconsciously came to rest on her stomach. She had always wanted to be a mother, had always dreamed of what it would be like to hold a child in her arms that she could call her own. Given her gift of telepathy, human men were completely off limits, and until Bill that meant men in general. Being with a vampire had opened her intimate life up – but still withheld the possibility of having a family.

Then, she went to Faery, and her options opened up once more. She could read a Faerys thoughts if she tried hard enough, but they were typically just as silent as Vampires. She could let her guard down because they didn't. She had to push to get into their minds. During her year in Faery, she had caught the attention of several men, both as a woman and Niall's granddaughter. The prospect of having both a partner and a family had appealed to her so much, Sookie could readily admit to herself that she had allowed herself to be courted.

Her grandfather had seen this desire, and decided to take matters into his own hands by pushing an arranged courting between her and Prince Damian. He had all but sold her, and caused her to flee Faery. And then, of course, there was Brion. But this wasn't the time to worry about him.

Now was the time for her to consider the fate of her child. Would it be a boy, or a girl? Would it have her eyes, or his? They would be blonde. That was one thing she knew for certain. Would they be more Faery, or human, or Vampire? Would they be cursed with Telepathy as she was? She just didn't know. The Faery had royally screwed things up biologically by choosing to mate with a Vampire. The baby wasn't quite tangible yet, anyway. She would cross that bridge when there was actually a bridge to cross.

Now that all of it had been sorted through mentally, she and Eric needed to have a chat. Sookie stood up and brushed herself off, packing everything back into her duffel. Though her lunar cycle technically lasted seven days, she had Chosen and was therefore safe, as well as, possibly, pregnant – so mission accomplished, Faery. She left the Veil and returned to the mortal world feeling a little bit of a headache and dizziness, as one sometimes gets during a change of atmosphere or turbulence.

She began her trek back through the woods towards her home and felt Eric's presence closing in on her location. She kept moving, knowing that he would find her and keep pace with her. He didn't feel particularly angry, which surprised her. Rather, he felt highly amused. That emotion was less surprising; the man lived to amuse himself.

"Hello, Sookie," He was right next to her before she could blink, and she barely stopped herself from jumping.

"Eric," She replied cordially, waiting for him to begin the conversation. He would want to comment on her dropping him out of the Veil.

"That was a little rash of you, wasn't it? Dropping me out of the Veil like that?"

For as much insecurity she had about his interest in her life, she knew him fairly well. "Maybe a little, but I was safe enough,"

"I thought you were vulnerable during your Cycle."

"Only so long as I don't Choose. It doesn't matter if the man I Choose isn't present after the first consummation, because the magick of the choice still lingers."

"I see," He paused and forced the duffel off her shoulder and on to his. She let him; the damn thing was heavy as hell. "So, what did you need to think about that you couldn't do with me around?"

Blunt, as ever. "A few things that needed to be dealt with internally before I dealt with them externally. I had a lot of stuff dropped on my mental porch in the short time that I've been back from Faery." He looked at her expectantly. He wanted blunt honesty, well fine. So be it. "Including, you, my alter ego, and…our baby."

He stopped walking and stood stock still. "Come again?"

Oh, dear. So Faery Sookie hadn't explained that little part of the deal – no wonder he agreed to abide by Faery Laws.

"Did you say baby?"

"I did." And she kept walking. She had only just had this conversation in her head – She wasn't ready to have it with him yet! Sookie had intended for them to talk about their potential relationship, not a baby that was likely on the way. Maybe even more than likely, if the magic coiling in her womb was anything to go by.

"I don't follow," He hurried to catch up with her, even tripping.

Sookie resisted the urge smile. She hadn't seen this side of him before. "I wasn't really planning on having this conversation with you yet."

"As I've been dead for over a thousand years, I hadn't planned on having this conversation ever," He countered.

Good point, and a fair one at that. "Why don't we go inside," They were now standing at the back of the house. "And sit down and talk about this while I make myself some dinner, ok?" She didn't know why she felt the need to be gentle and mothering – maybe it was the confused, lost, look on his face – but she brushed it off and continued on inside. This was going to be a long, awkward conversation, and she wasn't going to be able to get through it without some food in her stomach. Eric looked like he was about to pass out – a True Blood might do him some good, as well. She just hoped he would handle this as well as she thought he would, and wouldn't be furious at her Faery's trickery.

A/N: So what'd you think? Reviews are like…applebutter to me. Next chapter is two of the most dreaded conversations a male could ever have (as I understand it) – the 'where is our relationship going?' and 'I'm pregnant, and you're the father. Surprise!' conversations all rolled into one. Poor Eric. MUAHAHAHAH!

Please review! You're comments and squeals and everything in between are much appreciated.