Chapter 3

…took a human for a wife. That's why. Stirring up trouble.

I heard the nurse's thoughts as clearly as if she'd said it out loud, but I was too exhausted to care. Eric was being cared for and that's all that mattered. Dr. Armatrading explained that as Eric grew stronger, the needle would force its way out of his arm and that a nurse was needed around the clock to ensure that his transfusions continued. When I felt better, I would request a different nurse, a supernatural whom I couldn't hear. But now, I needed Eric to get blood. I had never seen him so inanimate before. Even at the hotel in Rhodes when I'd needed to wake him during the day to save his life, there was a spark there. As it was, if Eric had died his final death, I wouldn't know it until his body began to disintegrate and then it would be too late. Pam came in with a blanket for me. She was being protective and maternal; traits I had never seen her display. I looked up at her with mistrust. She rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip.

"Just take it." She sat down next to me as we watched the nurse hang another bag of blood on the pole above his head. The needle stayed in his arm the whole time, which was not a good sign. I kicked off my shoes and pulled the blanket up to my chin.

"Pam, can I ask you something?" I hadn't had much time to think since this began, but now that Eric appeared to be less critical, I could turn my thoughts outward. "What did Eric mean, when he asked if I was safe?"

"I don't know. The last time I saw him was in his office staring at the phone. He's been really distracted for the last two evenings. We had a crush of underage girls slip into the bar last night and while we were rounding them up, someone threw up on him. He'd gone to shower and change and I didn't see him again until he was on the roadside."

"It just doesn't make any sense. Why would he be out on the side of the road like that? Was he on his way to see me? Why wouldn't he have called to tell me unless he was summoned suddenly? No one has that kind of pull over him." Well almost no one. And sensing what I had just thought to myself, Pam amended:

"Félipe de Castro has that kind of pull over him. And so do you…" She looked at him lying on the bed, so still that you would think we should be looking at caskets.

"You don't think the king had anything to do with this, do you?" I was asking, but I knew the answer was probably a resounding no.

"Sookie, I don't know. I don't know anything except my maker is lying there next to death and I will be lost without him."

I didn't say anything else. I knew that she would suffer a great deal if Eric didn't make it. I thought about my own feelings about the situation and decided that she and I would be the only two guests at the world's largest Pity Party. I decided to reach out to Pam, as I never had before. I took her hand in mine and held it. At first, her head turned so violently that I thought I'd hurt her. But she realized that I was offering her my support, and she gradually sank further into her chair.

"Sookie?"

"Um-hmm?"

"Promise me something."

I felt the fear rise into my throat again, because I couldn't imagine refusing her, but I knew that Pam would gladly trade my life for Eric's.

"I will do my best."

"Stay with him."

I couldn't have been more shocked if she had begun to pirouette in front of me.

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. Stay with him. You've changed him. I have known Eric for a very, very long time and you have made him into something more like what he was when we were younger. If you have any love for him at all, please Sookie, stay with him."

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I didn't think Pam gave a flying fig about Eric's emotional well-being, no vampire would. But here she was playing the good daughter, sister, mother or whatever you could call their relationship.

There were no windows in this place, so I could not tell if it was dawn, but Pam knew. She stood suddenly and walked to Eric's bedside. I could not understand what it was that she said to him, but the way she said it let me know that it was some form of endearment or oath, maybe a bit of both.

She held his hand briefly, something I'd never seen the vampires do. She gave a short bow and looked at me.

"I don't know if you'd considered this, but if Eric does not make it through this day, you will have to help us decide what is best for his assets."

"I have never wanted anything from Eric. I'm not about to start now." Did the vamps really think that I saw Eric as a means to "Easy Street?" "For all I care, you can take it all and divide it amongst yourselves."

"Sookie, do not take what I say as an insult. Eric has made provisions for us. But as his wife…"

"Stop, okay? Stop saying that."

"Has it been so bad being his wife?"

"I'm struggling with the idea, is all. This wasn't a decision that I was part of. Call me old fashioned but I would have expected a hell of a lot more say about whom I chose to be married to. I also might have liked to be--"

"Be what? Swept off your feet? Get over it. You were dating a 1000-year-old man. You think he remembers what it's like to court a human? You think he knows the whims of a 27 year-old girl? Cut him some slack as they say. The last time he courted someone, he offered her father a fatted calf for her hand in marriage. I think you've done significantly better." And with that, Pam slipped out the door.

The nurse smirked at me and this time, I didn't care about being exhausted.

"Get out! Tell Dr. Armatrading that we'd like another nurse."

"Yes, Mrs. Northman."

I watched her leave and crossed the room to Eric's bedside. The room was appointed more like a hotel than any hospital I'd ever seen. More like an Extended Stay with a sofa, computer, flat screen TV. This one had a kitchenette for the human servants of their vampire residents. Bill had told me about these places, sort of nursing homes for sick vampires. I never thought that I'd see one personally. I wondered where I was and if we were still in Louisiana. The location of these hospitals is as closely guarded a secret as where a vamp's daytime resting place is located.

I thought about calling Jason so that he wouldn't worry. I should also probably call Sam Merlotte. Who knew how long I'd be away from the bar, my home, my life. I looked down at my –my what? Boyfriend didn't seem right we'd never really had a dating relationship. My lover? No, that was his term for me, but it felt awkward given that we were now legally bound, at least in the magical realms that he and I frequented. My vampire. I took his hand, leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. He remained unresponsive.

"Eric, I really could use a wink, a smile, anything, just let me know that you're in there and that you're okay." I felt the slightest bit of pressure on my hand.

"Be okay, for me? I hate to admit it, but I can't imagine my life without you now. You just wormed your way in and---just don't die." For the second time this night, I slid into bed beside him. He couldn't move a muscle to encircle me like he did when we'd stayed together before. So, I pulled his right arm across his chest, being careful with his IV, and lay my head down on his shoulder as I held his hand up to my lips and kissed it.

"This will be the only time we are ever together in the daytime, my love."

I wished he could respond, I would love to hear a classic Eric quip right about now, but I would settle for having him still be alive when we awoke this evening. I closed my eyes and began drifting to sleep. According to the microwave, it was 6:10.

"Love……you…….Sookie."

My eyes flew open and suddenly sleep was the last thing on my mind.