A/N Thanks to all for the reviews!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

EPOV

I was fast asleep when I felt something jab into my back. "Eric!" Amelia whisper-shouted. "It's up time! I want breakfast."

"Huh?" I asked. I tried to roll over, but stopped when I realised I was nearly over the edge of the bed.

"Breakfast!" Amelia said again, getting a bit louder. Sookie and Felicia were still asleep and I wanted them to stay that way, so I eased myself out of bed and stood up.

I followed Amelia out to the kitchen, nearly tripping over Bob in the process. He just looked at me. I guess the queue for breakfast was forming.

"So, uh, what do you want?" I asked Amelia.

"Um…" she thought for a bit. I would have thought she would have figured it out by now. "Toast" she said finally.

"What do you want on it?"

"Peanut butter and jam. But my peanut butter, not Mummy's. With no lumps. And raspberry jam, not strawberry."

OK. I thought I could probably manage that. I stepped over Bob again and grabbed the bread to put it in the toaster. After moving a few things around in the fridge I finally managed to find the right jam and peanut butter. After the toast popped up, I put it on a plate and started to spread peanut butter, almost immediately Amelia was pulling up a small pink stool so she could stand and watch me. Yeah, she was so obviously Sookie's kid sometimes.

Once I'd made the toast to her satisfaction, Amelia carried her plate across to the table, leaving me alone with Bob. I looked at him, wondering just how many more fucking presents he had stashed around the house overnight. Hopefully nothing that was going to start smelling soon.

Sookie and Felicia appeared just as Amelia was finishing her toast and I was pouring coffee for myself. She came over and kissed me. "Thank you" she said. "You're being so great about all of this." She smiled up me.

"Oh, yeah. No problem" I said. It was nice being appreciated, especially when it was Sookie who appreciated me.

"Eric made me toast. He used the bread with lumps though." Amelia had obviously decided to join in the conversation. I turned to look down at her.

"You didn't tell me what bread you wanted."

She shrugged. "I thought you'd know." Then she wandered off. I sighed. I guess not everyone appreciates me.

Sookie laughed. "At least she still ate it. If I stuff up her toast she refuses to touch it. Hey, have you seen Bob?"

"Yeah, he was here. I fed him."

"Oh, thanks for that." She kissed me again. "You really are the best."

I wondered if I was still the best boyfriend, or if she just said that stuff when she was half-asleep. I wanted to ask her, but didn't want to risk her denying it. I waited to see if she'd say anything else, but she was busy sorting out breakfast for Felicia so I figured I'd go and shower, which was no fucking fun alone.

Today I had to take the hire car back, as this should have been the last day of my holiday. So we had to head out to the airport to return it to the car rental lot. Sookie suggested we all go to somewhere called Butterfly Creek, which was apparently nearby. It sounded a bit lame, but I was willing to go along with her suggestion. I think at that point I would have gone along with anything she'd suggested, just because of the way she'd smile at me. I was totally fucked.

SPOV

I was so happy that Eric had stayed. He was such a sweetheart with the kids. It was lovely to have someone to help with them again. You don't realise how much you've been doing by yourself until all of a sudden you're not alone. All those sleepless nights I had when Felicia was a newborn, and then I'd get up in the morning and spend the day entertaining Amelia. No wonder I was so numb when Bill died; I simply didn't have any energy left over for grieving.

One of the best things about having Eric around (well, one of the best things outside the bedroom) was that as I wasn't the only adult, it was easier to take the kids out and do stuff with them. So today, after we dropped off his hire car, we were going to Butterfly Creek. I'd tried to explain what it was to Eric, and he'd looked a bit dubious. Amelia would love it though. It had everything – an aquarium, a butterfly house, crocodiles (god knows why), a petting zoo full of bunnies and guinea pigs, a few farm animals (tucked away behind fences) and a train.

Sure enough Amelia did love it, although I was the only one who liked the butterflies (Felicia cried and Eric and Amelia looked nonplussed). Everyone liked the train, and Amelia had fun poking various rabbits and guinea pigs. I felt kind of sorry for them, Bob would probably sympathise.

After dragging everyone around the farm part of the complex, where Eric eyed the sheep and goats over the fence, and no one else wanted to pat the pigs with me, we had lunch at the cafe and let Amelia run wild through the playground.

"See, this place is great!" I said to Eric, who was sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, it's a bit…odd though. I mean, what's it meant to be?"

"Well it started with the butterflies I guess, but now it's just one of those places you take kids." I guessed these sorts of places weren't somewhere Eric went before he was here. I wondered exactly what his life was like. He was young, single. It occurred to me this had to be a huge shift in lifestyle for him.

"So" I said, "when you were back in the States, what exactly did you used to do? You know, when you weren't working?"

Eric shrugged. "Um, dunno really. Go out, go to the gym, hang out with friends."

"So do you miss them? Your friends?"

"Not really. There was no one I was really…close to. Mostly just guys I knew from work." He took another mouthful of coffee.

It all sounded a bit lonely to me. No wonder that was one of the first things I'd sensed about him. I guessed that maybe the loneliness hadn't just been due to him being stuck on the other side of the world. Maybe he'd been this way for a while.

I reached over and grabbed his hand. "Well we're glad you're here now." I smiled at him, and Eric smiled back. And then Amelia came stomping over and demanded Eric push her on the swings and he was off with her. Yeah, we were all glad he was here.

EPOV

Butterfly Creek was the oddest fucking place I'd ever been. But they'd hit on a winning formula and had to making a fucking fortune, judging by the amount of moms and kids that were paying through the nose to go in. Watching Amelia run around though, I could kind of see Sookie's point about it being set up for kids. She'd even enjoyed patting a baby crocodile, which had worried me at first, but it seemed tamer than the feral swans.

Once we got home though, the afternoon dragged a bit. I was starting to feel a bit lost without something to do every day. I never thought I'd fucking miss working for a living, but I guess I needed the mental challenge. I didn't know what I could do about it though, if I was going to look at businesses in New Zealand I needed to sell my condo to free up the cash, and that hadn't happened yet.

So I spent a bit of time surfing the net, looking at franchises I could buy here. I thought about a Subway franchise, but quickly calculated that I'd have to make the fucking things to make any money from it, and that didn't seem appealing at all.

I stared out to where Sookie was sitting on a picnic rug with Amelia and Felicia. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were all laughing. Sookie was tickling Amelia and Felicia was probably just laughing because everyone else was. They all looked so happy, and, well, perfect.

I thought about my freak out on Saturday. I didn't want to do that again. I turned back to the screen on the laptop and started looking for counsellors in Auckland.

Felicia had been happy most of the day, but I suspected it wouldn't last into the night. The amount of drool pouring out of her mouth suggested there was something fucking nasty going on in there.

So when Sookie put her to bed I was prepared for another night of broken sleep and no sex. Sookie came racing into the bedroom though and said "Right, she's down, but I don't know for how long. So we have to be quick."

"Quick?" I asked.

"Yeah, quick. Come on, do that thing where you get naked really fast."

"Oh, OK" I said, pulling off my t-shirt. Sookie decided she'd help me get the rest of my clothes off. Then she started stroking my cock, but obviously decided that wasn't working fast enough for her liking, as she bent down and took me in her mouth. That got me very hard, very fucking fast.

When she decided I'd obviously had enough foreplay, she released me and reached across me to grab a condom out of the drawer. "Put that on" she said, handing it to me. Then she started pulling off her own clothes.

I did as she'd asked, while trying to enjoy watching her get naked at the same time. She was obviously going for a world speed record too.

She straddled me and grabbed my cock to put it at her entrance. "Um, Sookie, are you even..?" I started to ask, but she obviously was ready because she eased herself down and I was fully inside her. "Oh" I said.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about this all day."

Fuck. She had? How the fuck do I miss these things?

She started to move. "Just remember, we have to be quick" she said again.

"Yeah, yeah. I can be quick. I'm just not sure you really want me to be as quick as I can be." I reached up to massage her boobs. I loved this view of them.

"No, quick is good."

"Fine, just remember you said that."

With that, I grabbed her hips and rolled us over so she was underneath me. Sookie giggled. "Wow" she said, "that's, like, better than Disneyland."

"Disneyland?"

"Yeah, you know. The rides. That was waaaay more fun."

OK. I was officially better than Magic Mountain. It was probably the weirdest compliment I'd ever been given during sex, but I guess it meant she was enjoying it.

I started moving so that I was rubbing her clit with each thrust. Sookie was grinding against me. I felt her inner contractions as she moaned "Oh Eric" and pressed her forehead against my chest.

I grabbed one of her legs and hooked my arm under her thigh and started to thrust in and out with increased speed. It wasn't long before I came as well, burying my face in Sookie's neck.

We lay like that for a minute, breathing heavily. "Wow" said Sookie "you are great at being quick."

"I don't think anyone's ever used that as a compliment before" I said.

"Meh, well, they don't know what they're missing." Sookie said laughing.

As I was in the bathroom getting rid of the condom I heard Felicia start crying. Thank fuck she'd waited for us to at least finish. When I got back to the bedroom, Sookie had gone so I put my boxers back on and got into bed to wait for her.

SPOV

Felicia had another unsettled night on Monday. Not as bad as the night before, but not great. Eric was pretty understanding though, I felt that surely the novelty of the crying baby would wear off at some point, but he didn't complain. We had at least managed to have sex though before she'd really started in for the night. That had helped. Well it had helped me at least; I'd been feeling horny all day. It was just a good thing Eric didn't mind being asked to be quick.

We did manage to have a shower together on Tuesday morning, but, once again, it had to be quick before everyone else woke up. So there wasn't any time to do anything but wash each other. Eric does tend to get a bit carried away with washing me though. Sometimes you'd think he'd never seen boobs before.

He also decided to nuzzle me, which caused me to yelp. "Ow! Scratchy!"

"Oh, sorry" he said.

"When did you last shave anyway?"

"Um, Friday…maybe Thursday…" he obviously couldn't remember.

"You are a scruff aren't you? Is this what you're always like on holiday?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Also I ran out of razor-blades."

"Oh, you should have said before I went to the supermarket."

"Yeah, it's OK. I'll just get some today." He got an evil look in his eye at that point though, and I had to fight off another round of scratchy-nuzzling.

After we delivered Amelia to pre-school I asked him if he wanted to do anything for the day. He shrugged and said "Lunch somewhere?"

"Where? Do you want to walk to the village?"

"Ummm, maybe somewhere else. What's that place next to the office that the bank's in? The one with all the restaurants?"

"The Viaduct?"

"Yeah, we could go in there and have something."

"OK"

So we headed into the city and enjoyed some fish and chips on a balcony over-looking the water. Felicia seemed happy with a couple of chips in her high-chair.

We chatted for a bit, and then Eric looked a bit serious. "So, yesterday afternoon I sent a few emails, to, some…um, counsellors…" he said, looking down at the table.

"You did?" I was really impressed. I wasn't sure he'd do anything about it on his own and was fully expecting to have to drag him off somewhere myself.

"Yeah, I thought I should, you know, before anything else…happened…"

"That's great Eric. I'm really proud of you." I smiled at him, and he looked up and met my eyes. I was really proud of him. I just hoped saying it didn't make me sound like his mum.

"Thanks" he said, and then we changed the subject. I felt all sort of warm and glowing though. I guess technically he hadn't actually got as far as going to counselling yet, but this was a first step, and it was at least one step further than Bill had ever managed. I couldn't believe that Eric, gorgeous Eric, would actually do this for me. I felt more special than I had in ages.

After lunch we were walking back to the carpark when I remembered the razor-blades, and suggested we head over to the Downtown mall to get some at the pharmacy there. So I was sitting on the bench outside the shop, picking up the rattle Felicia kept throwing out of the push-chair, when I heard an all too familiar drawl.

"Sookie" said Sophie-Anne. Oh joy, I thought.

"Hi Soph! How are you?" I guess having discovered my inner bitch with Lorena, I now had a chance to put it into practice.

"Good. What brings you into the city? Shouldn't you be somewhere in the suburbs?" She eyed Felicia distastefully. Felicia just smiled at her, none the wiser.

"Oh, well we just came in for lunch. We're just out here waiting for Eric." Hah! I thought. Suck on that you stupid barren cow!

Sophie-Anne's eyes widened. "Eric Northman?" I nodded. "Oh, I didn't realise he was still in the country…" she looked over her shoulder obviously trying to spot him, or maybe checking whether I was making it up.

"Yeah" I said, "he's living with me."

"Really?" Sophie-Anne looked like I'd just said I had a tribe of fairies living at the bottom of my garden.

"Yep."

Sophie-Anne eyed me for a bit then said. "Well, I guess you solo mothers have to work fast. I'm surprised you hooked Eric though. I would have thought he'd have more sense. But then for all I know you're just really good at sucking cock or something, and god knows, that's all most men think with."

I had absolutely nothing to say to that. I'm pretty sure my mouth was just hanging open.

"Well, I have to get back to work; some of us have to earn our own livings. See you Sookie" and with that she was off, her heels clicking across the floor.

I was just stunned. I'd thought I'd channelled Sophie-Anne really well when I had to, but it was blatantly obvious she was more of a bitch than I'd ever be.

Eric arrived just then, and said "OK?"

"Yeah, fine." I stood up and kissed him, hard.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"Oh, just for…everything." Yeah, I had Eric and Sophie-Anne had a foul mouth and a bitter, twisted mind. I was pretty sure I was winning.

However, when Eric's phone rang in the middle of the night, I wasn't that sure.

Thanks for reading!