A/N: Thanks to all of my amazing readers and reviewers: livesimple, sydkiwi, writergirl89, caffeineXaddict, CeruleanKitten, SuperK4141, foxgodess07, erin1705, TB-Chelyk, xxxbulletxxx, Thorsminion, The 11th Doctors Mermaid Sam, Spygrrl, Cante, Ericsfae, aprilshowers021, StarKiss666, eamurray022980, kerriki, sluggysmom, Anna-Rogue-Marie-Howlett, ap630, tatie87, desireecarbenell, IkeaGoddess, jenifaui, VAlady, ebm1, racecz5, bbet, ArmyGirl2010, Evie, Queen of Night, vikingtrubie, DawnLeon, SVMReaderCH, SassyBR, mrsmars, kardamon, LampPostInWinter, and Wynter89.

Thank you so much for helping me break the 250 review mark!

A point of clarification and explanation: Eric was never human. His beating heart was caused for the sole purpose of making all the little Eric and Erica's moving after 1000 years of being in stasis. His ability to walk in the sun was caused half by Faery magick, half by the blood he drank from Sookie during the exchange.

Thank you to my wonderful, amazing Beta Rachael.

Enjoy the chapter!

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 9: The Talk

Sookie ate her dinner of Easy-Mac in silence, watching Eric out of the corner of her eye. The wild, somewhat numb, look had disappeared and Eric seemed, for all intents and purposes, Eric again. He was drinking his True Blood with an air of tightly-controlled emotion and, she could sense, forced serenity. She could probably use their new bond to discover what his real emotions were, but decided that would be an invasion of privacy – and if he was panicking on the inside, well he had every damn right to. She finished eating and rinsed her bowl out in the sink, wiping her hands on the dish towel hanging from the stove.

She turned to sit back down and shrieked; Eric was standing right in front of her, and had her more or less completely backed up against the counters. She waited for him to make the first move, letting him stare her down. She held firm, even as his eyes lowered from hers and traveled all the way past her chest and came to rest on her stomach. She stood still, letting his mind do whatever the hell it was doing. His eyes flashed to hers as though to warn her before he sank to his knees and clasped her in a tight embrace, his head resting on her navel.

Even though it freaked her out a little – Eric Northman was not a touchy feely sort of person – she let him hug her and kept right on waiting. She could be patient if the occasion called for it. Eventually, Eric's face turned up to hers, wearing a confused expression.

"I can't hear it,"

…Huh? "What?"

"The baby. I can't hear it. Does that mean something's wrong?" His tone, though calm, was laced with concern.

If she were any other woman, Sookie probably would have dissolved into a puddle, but she was not any other woman. Still, she let herself be warmed by it and allowed herself a chuckle at his expense. "Silly," Her voice was teasing and gentle, "You won't be able to hear the heartbeat for a couple of weeks," She paused, frowning. "I think."

"You think? You mean you don't know?" He stood, keeping hold of her waist.

"Well, I've never been pregnant before! I had no reason to learn anything."

"Well, what's normal at this stage?"

"I don't know."

"When do you get an ultrasound?"

"I don't know. How do you know what an ultrasound is?"

"I remember it being invented. It was a very big deal back then, in the late 1950's," he said, dismissively. "I would imagine the machine has evolved since then. What's the next step?"

Sookie gently removed his hands and moved around him to get to the fridge. "Well, the first step is to wait a couple of weeks and make sure I'm actually pregnant, with a test." She poured some milk into a bowl and pulled a box of pistachio pudding from the cupboard. She noticed the frown and answered his question before he asked it. "I need to use a test to be certain, but I am eighty-five percent sure that I am pregnant. The reason she Chose you isn't just because you're pretty."

Now she would have to tell him about the Faery laws. "When she made you promise to abide by all Faery laws as they applied, did she tell you how they would apply to you?"

"Not in so many words." He shrugged. "She explained about the Lunar Cycle, and I assumed that was what she was talking about."

Sookie paused in the mixing of her pistachio pudding and shook her head. "It wasn't. Not all of it, anyway."

"What else is there?"

Sookie hesitated and nervously wiped her hands on her jeans, setting the bowl into the fridge to chill, before turning around to look him in the eye. "According to Faery Law, a child is the most treasured thing in creation. It is in their social construct, and their legal one, that at the moment of conception, the creators of the child are bound together by the magic and blood of creation."

"Which means…?"

Sookie shuffled. "In the same way that I am yours by Vampire Law, you are mine by Faery Law. You owe a duty to me and our child. By Faery Law you are required to care for our welfare – physical, financial, mental, or whatever – and…you and I are bound together by blood, Faery magic, and the magic of creation. So long as I am fully functioning in my abilities to…" Sookie struggled with the phrasing. "…provide you with heirs, you and I have to be completely faithful to each other until death do us part." The last part of that sentence kind of just tumbled out of her mouth, causing the words to run into each other.

Eric blinked. She waited for his reaction. When she realized he was probably thinking things through – he had that numb look on his face again – she turned around to pull her pistachio pudding out of the fridge. With relish, she dipped a finger in it and sucked it clean – All Faeries, it turned out, had a sweet tooth. She jumped a little when she heard his fangs click, and turned to see him watching her with a hungry, slightly devilish expression.

"Glad to see you're feeling better so soon," she said dryly.

"Well, I got what I wanted. Who wouldn't be happy?"

"Oh really?" Sookie folded her arms across her chest. "So, you wanted me to get pregnant, and subsequently be bound to me for the rest of my life – unable to have sex with any other woman besides me, or be celibate?"

"Well, those weren't really the terms I had in mind when I set out to claim you, but I'm not about to complain. I never got to have children, while I was alive – after my father died and I became King, I was sent to battle the Irish in order to prove that I deserved my throne. Godric found me in that battle and claimed me," He looked a little wistful when he spoke about the past, she noted, but quickly returned to the Eric she knew – devilishly handsome, wickedly funny, and completely sexy. "As to having sex with no other woman but you… I can live with that, frankly." He grinned. "Especially since it means that, because I won't be having sex with other women, I'll just have more sex with you…"

He began to stalk towards her but Sookie didn't move and, instead, stood with her back to the counter and bowl of pistachio pudding in her hands. "Not so fast, tiger." She frowned and wrinkled her nose a little before moving past him to open the spice cupboard. With her free hand, she pointed to the top shelf of the cupboard. "Cinnamon, please,"

Eric's face seemed to break out into an uncontrollable grin; he was very amused. Biting back a chuckle, he reached up and pulled down the desired cinnamon and snapped open the lid, giving it a few gentle shakes into the bowl. "Is that good, or would you like more?"

She peered down into the bowl and seemed to debate it in her head before replying. "A little more please."

Eric obliged her with an arched eyebrow, seeming to find her desire for more cinnamon fascinating. When she nodded, he snapped the lid shut and put the cinnamon back on the top shelf. She continued to eat her pistachio pudding and gave no warning for her next sentence.

"How do you feel about me? What, exactly, is our relationship?"

Eric's eyebrows shot to his forehead. "Are we taking notes from Faery Sookie on bluntness, or… are you just curious?"

"Neither," she replied. "I'm stuck with you for the rest of my life, and I have yet to decide whether or not to be worried. If I'm going to be miserable, I'd like to prepare myself."

"Miserable?" He flashed her a wide, toothy smile. "Sookie, you're looking at the man you'll be spending the rest of your life with. What's there to be miserable about?"

Sookie gave him a disbelieving look and shook her head. "Answer my original questions."

He stepped forward to close the space between them, only to have Sookie step away from the counter, and back another step further. He tried it again with the same result. The corners of his mouth twitched.

"As you wish," He paused and peered down at her, phrasing his answer carefully. "I care about you. I won't say I love you because that would not be true, and I have a reputation to uphold as having never lied to you."

Sookie nodded. She could accept that.

He continued. "As to our relationship, I do not believe it would be inappropriate for you to refer to me as your husband."

She froze, her entire body going stock still. She swallowed and shook her head. "I don't think it would be appropriate – the term husband is reserved for recognition by God and the Church."

She was not going to let him have this one, no sir. There was no ring on her finger, no ceremony – small or otherwise – with her friends and the local pastor.

His eyes flickered slightly, and Sookie could tell he had just barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "Very well," He paused and sly small came over his face. "How about," He moved too fast for her to see. His entire body was pressed up against her, and they were nose to nose. "Lover," he kissed her nose. "Paramour,"he kissed her forehead. "Darling," he kissed her left cheek. "Älskling," he kissed her right cheek. "Mine." He kissed her lips gently, sweetly.

Sookie's mind was in a pleasant, hazy place and for a minute she thought of welcoming the rest of her life by breaking her bed in, but ultimately decided that they were not done speaking yet. She pulled away gently, and gave him a dry look.

He sighed. "We're not done talking yet, are we?"

She smiled. "No, we are not Mr. Northman," The corners of his mouth tilted upwards into an amused smile. He picked her up bridal style, much to her surprise – as was made evident by her shriek of protest – and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom, where he pointed at her pajama dresser. She didn't know if she liked him know where her pajamas were kept – it implied he'd gone through her drawers.

"Eric, we need to keep talking, and I'm not tired," The moment the word 'tired' was spoken, a yawn forced it's way out of her mouth. She ignored the smug smirk that settled onto his mouth and got her pajamas on. Once he was sure she was ready, he picked her up again and carried her back down the stairs. She didn't try to fight him this time.

"Eric," She paused. "Why are you carrying me?"

"You could trip and hurt the baby." Oh, the next nine months were going to be fun.

"Hon, the baby isn't even the size of a bean yet."

"Just because something is very small doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve the same consideration as a larger member of the same family." Well, alright, but did he have to act like she was an invalid? Sookie had a bad feeling that working at Merlotte's for the duration of her pregnancy was about to become far more complicated than it needed to be. He laid her on the couch and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders before lying on the couch, placing himself in between her legs with his head once again resting on her stomach. She gave a mental sigh of exasperation but didn't try explaining to him, again, that he wouldn't hear anything for awhile.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

So warm and comfortable, and his baritone, raspy voice so soothing, Sookie could hardly remember. "Well, I thought that since you're stuck with me, you should probably know a little about what I got myself into in the Underground."

"The Underground?"

"Technical term for the Faery Realm."

"I see," He paused. "Are you sure this topic would not be better discussed tomorrow, after you have had time to rest?"

"Oh, we're not going to finish it tonight. Frankly, I don't even know if we'll ever get to everything that happened to me in the Underground. But you should know the important things, at least the basics of them, as soon as possible,"

"Alright,"

"I'm too tired to think straight, so I'll probably jump around a bit." She paused, trying to decide where to begin. "I was attacked by my grandfather's wife, Queen Mab, because she thought I threatened the status of her children and grandchildren. Granddaddy sent her away to Winter for it, and banished her from Summer for a hundred years.

I was lonely in Faery. I left everyone and everything behind in an effort to move on from the mess that Bill had left behind, and I paid the price for it. My granddaddy got his title and Faery name only ten years ago, so his political position isn't real firm. His official title is High Prince, but right now he's little more than a figurehead. He married Queen Mab and became her consort twenty-five years ago, affirming his position in the courts and essentially stealing the throne out from under her. Though his title is less than hers, as her bonded mate, and simply being a male, he has more power than she."

Sookie paused in her story, becoming distracted by Eric rubbing small circles into the palm of her hand. "What are you doing?"

"My mother used to do this to me when I was little, I think. I remember it being very pleasant and soothing, and putting me to sleep."

"If I go to sleep, you won't find out what you've got to worry about,"

"So talk before you fall asleep." He didn't stop.

"He, granddaddy, that is, noticed I was becoming a little depressed. I think I had been in the Underground for about four months at that time, and I was starting to feel homesick. My granddaddy still looks like he's in his mid-forties, and every time I looked at him I saw Jason's hair and eyes. Well, he decided to take matters into his own hands and set me up with a potential suitor,"

Eric stopped rubbing. Sookie held back a whine in protest, and attributed it to sleeping on the forest floor and being tired. "And?"

"His name was Prince Damian, of Fall. He's a handsome man, I guess, not unlikable. We met a few times at social events and privately held balls, and my grandfather apparently took that as a thumbs up. He arranged a courting between us, even though I was not interested in Damian. I begged him to release me from the courtship, but he refused. He said it was in my best interest. Damian became…manic. Faeries are very emotional creatures and, what's more, they only really feel one emotion at a time. He came around more, tried to get me alone often. I did everything in my power to dissuade him, but he was persistent. At the midsummer's ball, about a month after my mandatory courtship with Damian began, I met a man."

A small, amused grin took its place in Sookie's expression. "He was a Prince from the Unseelie Kingdom, an ambassador. The Seelie and Unseelie have been on the outs for hundreds of years, but when my granddaddy took over the political movement he bartered a peace agreement with them. The midsummer's ball was to be the first summit between the two kingdoms. As was proper, one representative from each court was obliged to dance with each other and open the ball,"

"You and this other man were chosen," Eric filled in the gaps that her sleepy mind was not having her mouth make.

"Yes. He was very intelligent, quick to laugh, and ambitious. I liked him very well. So well, in fact, that when he asked my granddaddy's permission to Court me, granddaddy accepted. Niall – which is my grandfather's Faery name – was very proud of me having two well-known, reputable suitors. I confess that part of the reason I didn't fight the second Courting was because I was fond of him, and wanted an excuse to make Damian go away."

"Did it make Damian go away?"

Sookie swallowed uncomfortably. "No, it didn't. During one of my grandfather's dinner parties, I snuck off to the library for some alone time – it was too crowded and I was getting a headache – but I wasn't alone. Damian followed me," She hated the way her voice quivered when she spoke about what happened. "He had decided that I was his, and it didn't matter what I had to say about it. He figured that the only way to get my grandfather to stop playing around and agree to wed me to him, and not to my other suitor, was for us to be bonded by magick and creation."

"He tried to rape you, and get you pregnant," Eric's voice dipped an octave lower, betraying the anger he had tried to keep her sheltered from in their bond.

"Yes. He thought that because I had grown up in the mortal world, I wouldn't know how to use my powers to defend myself, and that I hadn't been in Faery long enough to figure it out. Turns out, I didn't have to. Faery Sookie came alive that night – she took over my body and used our powers to fend him off. Granddaddy was furious when he found out, and brought him to court. Damian was released three days later with a heavy fine, and a destruction of our courtship. For awhile, everything was fine. The Unseelie ambassador continued to court me and all was very pleasant, up until about a month before I left. Damian came back in full force – using his money and his family's connections to reestablish a courtship agreement. There was nothing granddaddy could do about it – the territory of Fall is responsible for all metal works in the kingdom. If he lost their support, his soldiers would have no swords or armor."

"We were never left alone, thank God, but he found other ways to threaten me and scare me," She exhaled slowly, the bloody scenes flashing behind her eyes. "It started off with a few threatening words and glances and gradually progressed to strange things happening to people I liked; my maid fell off a ladder when she was dusting a chandelier in my room, only the dusting of the chandelier wasn't her responsibility; my horse got loose from the stables and jumped a fence that was too high and wound up breaking two legs, and had to be put down, only his stall was still latched shut; my uncle Dermot, who is the spitting image of Jason, was grievously wounded in a fencing accident, though all the foils were rounded off."

"The last straw was a ransom note coming from Winter, that told my grandfather that unless Prince Damian and I were wed, they would kill Queen Mab. He had been angry with her, sure, but she was his bonded and he loved her more than anything – so he agreed. I fled soon after that, after hearing the maids talk. I can only assume they sent soldiers to my rooms to find me. So, without telling my new friends where I went, I returned to Bon Temps to get some space from me and the Faery."

Sookie had unconsciously begun running her fingers through his hair at some point, and stopped in the task to get him to look at her. "In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably mention the fact that, had Damian not returned, it's very highly probable I would have married the Unseelie ambassador; I was very fond of him, and admired his cut and dry logic and ruthless ambition,"

Eric looked up at her, and asked "Who was he?"

Sookie didn't have time to respond before another voice chimed in, "Me."

A/N: So, now we have Sookie/Eric fluff, Eric Adorkableness, and Sookie's second suitor!

Thanks again for all of your wonderful comments - I'm so happy that everyone is pleased with the story and thinks this is original enough to be worth of notice.

Also, did everyone see the last episode of True Blood? That kiss made me melt! Bill is such a cockblocker though - he'll totally interrupt them. Anyway, Thanks again! Please review and leave me your thoughts.