You folks have some interesting ideas about where I'm going. Thanks for reading, and remember reviews are like fuel for writers. I know I'm usually a high octane writer with the speedy updates anyway, but I do appreciate the fuel, even though I keep rushing past the part of the process where I tell you that individually. So thanks for that, and if you're a writer reading, you can withhold my review response for my lack of writing one back. Even trade.

Here's the next chapter. I hope you like!

Eric

One more week.

I groaned, as I came against the wall of the tiny shower, somewhat satisfied, but not completely. Jerking off was a necessary form of relief from time to time, necessary to go on with one's day without constant distraction. I had a rather overactive sex drive. In times of drought, not that I'd had too many, I became quite well acquainted with my hand.

And this was a drought like no other. Even when Sookie and I had first gotten together, she and I were masters of cutting the tension in other ways. We'd been doing alright on Skype, but once the novelty wore off, it really wasn't as good as it had been in the beginning.

My work with couples was far more satisfying, because in a lot of ways, I felt like it brought me closer to her, and kept her in my mind almost every minute of the day. Paris was an amazing place to interview couples. They came from everywhere, to wander the cobblestone streets and feel a bit of the emotion associated with the most romantic city in the world. The candid way they spoke, and the way the city affected them was quite beautiful.

We talked all the time as well, which helped. It was nice to hear her voice, and she answered whenever I called, even though I knew at times it wasn't convenient. Alternatively, she woke me up quite often, once she got the kids to bed to chat a little longer. She never cried on Skype, when I could see her face though, only on the phone. I was grateful for that in a way. It was easier to hear the emotion in her voice than to see it on her face. It was terrible either way, knowing I'd caused or at least contributed to any of that.

The kids were better than I'd thought they'd be. They both talked to me every day, sometimes not for long, but at least for a few minutes. Max had asked me to read Moby Dick with him when I got back, which had made me grin like a fool, because he usually hated reading with me, and Ceci kept right on mailing me ridiculous pictures that now peppered the fridge and walls of my apartment. I couldn't wait to snuggle the hell out of both of them. Pam had already warned me that no one liked a sobbing man at the airport, but I'd made no guarantees.

Her and Alcide had come and gone, leaving me with Gaby for a couple of evenings. She was almost two now, and we toddled around the streets of Paris at dusk, her demanding to be on my shoulders most of the time. She'd been good too, only throwing one tiny tantrum when I refused her part of my cookie at a cafe. I hoped for Alcide's sake that she'd develop his usually level temper, instead of Pam's fiery one.

I wondered briefly if there would be any long term effects of having Pam for a mother, but quickly dismissed the thought. Pam was a wonderful mother, and her occasional insanity was par for the course. Our mother had had her insane moments as well, but we'd both survived, and turned into mostly functional adults, although it had taken us a longer time than most to get there. Gaby knew nothing of her parent's sexual habits, and I had the feeling by the time she found out, if she ever did, she would have long since developed her own. I knew their rules from Sookie. They never brought anyone around when she was in the house. I could respect that.

I'd just settled onto my couch with some interviews I wanted to transcribe from the couple interviews I'd done, when I got a call from someone unexpected. Especially when I did the math and realized that was around six in the morning in New York.

"Johan?" I answered in Swedish kind of without even realizing it, seeing his name come up on my phone. It wasn't that we didn't speak, in fact we had coffee from time to time at NYU, and always ended up reverting to Swedish. I liked him a lot actually, and I'd never tell Stella, but in a lot of ways he reminded me of her non-bio Dad, Gus. She had her high strung Northman moments, and he was a great balance to that, down to earth and calm in most every situation. He was her rock.

He sounded kind of uncomfortable in a way. "Hi, Eric. How's Paris?"

I snorted. "Meh. How's New York. How's Stel? She hasn't called this week yet." Stella usually called me on Sunday night, around the time she knew Sookie was putting the kids to bed. I appreciated her thoughtfulness. We usually chatted about mundane things, and I was really impressed with how much she'd stepped up to help out Sookie out with me being gone. She picked up groceries from time to time, and had covered for Claudine when she was off sick with the flu a week or so ago.

"She's good. Just finishing up a draft of her thesis. You'll probably get stuck reading it when you get home. I don't understand any of it. It's all music theory. She writes very well though."

"How's your PhD going?" He was doing a great thesis on addiction in society. For a sociology paper, it was quite fascinating.

"Good, good. I ran into Appius last week, oddly enough, and he asked about it."

They'd met when we had coffee once, and he'd randomly stopped by. I wanted to rip his head off, the way he looked at Johan. "What did he say to you?"

"He asked about you, and then my thesis. I remembered what you said about him being a pervert and I kept it short. That guy's really weird."

I shook my head to myself. "I know. It'll be my first order of business to oust his ass when I get back."

Johan chuckled. "You're such a Northman. Listen, on that note, I have a question for you."

And this was it. A moment I'd been waiting a while for now. That pivotal moment where I really became Stella's dad. Which was ironic, because I was about to hand her off to someone else. "Oh yea?"

He was quiet for a minute, before not so much asking, but stating, "I'd like to marry Stel. I think there's some sort of traditional asking involved, but I don't know Gus, and I have the feeling she'd rather have me ask you anyway, if I was asking anyone. She'll probably think it's stupid that I'm asking anyone, because you and I both know she's her own. But I'm asking anyway."

I wiped my eyes. I was turning to such an old suck. "If you're asking, then I'm saying of course. You're a good man, and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to get to know both of you."

"You as well. I think she's a different and better person than she would have been without you in her life. We're both lucky to have you and Sookie in our lives as well."

"When are you going to do it?"

"I thought I'd wait until you were around over Thanksgiving. I figured she'd like that. I still have to buy a ring too. I don't suppose you know what she likes in a diamond."

I grinned to myself. "No, but don't take Pam. Take Sookie. Pam's tastes aren't Stella's, not when it comes to something she's got to wear forever." And Pam would also expect him to spend far more than he had. As a PhD student, he made peanuts in grants. Pam would expect something huge, and Stel would be furious that he'd spent so much. Sookie was more practical.

"That sounds like a great idea. Thanks, Eric."

"Nice talking with you, Johan. Also, don't take her to a restaurant to do it or anything. She'd hate that."

He laughed. "I know."

I had a 2 p.m. class, and then four interviews with people I'd met the following weekend that had agreed to give their perspectives on love, being together, and Paris. I was actually quite excited about the project, having gathered about thirty interviews so far, from a real cross-section of people of varying ages, genders, and nationalities.

As I made my way to my first interview at four, I called Sookie. She was again giggily. "Oh, hey Eric."

I heard her put the phone down and whisper something to someone, and then a distinct, "Right, Luv. I'll see you at the cover meeting."

"He calls you Luv?"

She groaned. "He's British. He calls everyone Luv. How are you?"

I hated Bones. I hated him for having all the women in my life eating out of his geographically convenient hand. "Fine."

I didn't need to see the eye roll to know it happened. "Look. We're seeing each other in six days. Can we not do this? Let's try this again. How are you?"

"I just hate that he gets to be there with you every day, that's all. Johan is going to ask Stella to marry him. He asked my permission, well, sort of, this morning."

"Oh wow!" I could hear the excitement in her voice. "That's amazing."

"I know. He wants to do it while I'm home. I think for moral support. Maybe we can have a celebratory dinner."

"Sure. I mean, your daughter is getting engaged. We'll do whatever. Did he ask Gus too?"

"No. Just me. He thought she'd want him to ask me, if he asked anyone."

"That's sweet Eric. I guess you'll be walking down her the aisle and all that. Wow."

I hadn't enough thought about any of that. "I'm too young to be doing any of that."

"And I'm too young to be married to someone that's doing those things," she giggled. "I have a cover meeting. I have to go. Call me later?"

"I'll email you some of my coupley interviews. I think I want to try and make them into a book."

"That sounds interesting. Not a textbook."

"No, no. A trade book. They're really lovely interviews, very romantic." I knew she'd enjoy them. "I think people love differently in Paris." I stopped myself, thinking about her Paris experience.

She laughed awkwardly. "Maybe. Okay, I really got to run. We're looking at covers for your book. I know it's a little early, but we have a design surplus that we need to use up. I'll pick a good one, I promise."

"Bye."

Joe and Edna Schmidt were unlike most of the other people I'd interviewed, and was precisely why I'd chosen them. He'd balked at first, and I'd stood back as she'd talked him into it in a matter of minutes. We met at a tiny coffee shop about three blocks from my house, and I asked the question that seemed to be incredibly successful at starting everything.

"How did you meet?"

Joe, a grizzly eighty something year old, glanced over at Edna. "I met Edna in England during the war. I came over in forty-three and met Edna that fall. She was only fifteen, but then again, I was only seventeen."

She gave him a knowing look. "We had our fun, as so many did in those days, and then he took off for Russia, and I never heard tell of him again. Not till ten years later, when I was on vacation in New York with my fiance at the time, and ran square into him at a drug store when I was picking up condoms of all things. He's a big man, so I was sort of stunned. And then I look up, and it's him."

"And she tried to ignore the fact that she'd just ran into me, with a box of condoms in New York in the fifties. I'd just taken a job there..."

"And he was in this suit. Joe was an ad man after the war. And I just looked at him, in the suit, and my heart stopped, even ten years later..."

"And she's still got that accent that she has, and she's stumbling over her words, and trying to make the condoms not so obvious. So of course, like a twenty-seven year old asshole, I grab them right out of her hand..."

"And I'm standing there blushing like a fool, while he's holding the condoms, and we're not saying anything, except looking at each other..."

"And then I asked her to dinner, even though I had a serious girl. And she said no, and snatched the condoms out of my hands."

This was a fantastic story. There was so much history here, including the first widespread use of condoms as birth control after the war. "And then what?"

"And then I walked her back to her hotel, knowing I was taking her back to that doofus, what was his name?" He narrowed his eyes at his wife.

She smiled back at him. "John, and he was not a doofus. He was a lovely man."

"So we're standing at the door to the Gramercy Park Hotel, and she grabs my hand, and gives me this look, and says..."

"This is odd, you and me meeting like this, after so long," She smiled, looking at him with genuine affection. "That's what I said."

"And I agreed. It was very odd, so I thought to myself, maybe this is fate. I'd had a rough go in the War, spent a year in Siberia, and you know, seeing her, as she'd known me before any of that, there was something about it. It seemed like something I should pay attention to. I wasn't sure I'd be able to be that man with anyone else. Not with the things I'd seen."

"So he kissed me, and that was kind of it. We did what we had to to be together after that. I left my fiance and moved to New York. And that was sixty-five years ago."

It was a wonderful story. "Why Paris now?"

He chuckled. "We came when we were young on our honeymoon, and we'd always wanted to come back, but life kind of got in the way. We had our kids, and our jobs, and there was always some excuse. When I turned eighty last year, I decided I was tired of excuses."

She gave him a small smile, and squeezed his hand on the table. "And I have cancer. Don't forget about that."

He smiled back, the weight of her words evident on his face. "Sometimes you just need a push."

I knew that better than anyone.

Sookie

Bones walked in and closed my office door behind him, then moved to the blinds. "God, I love it when you put Calvin Norris in his place."

I giggled, and sat down in my chair. "I'm the boss."

"Oh, Luv, are you ever." He grinned, his dazzling teeth on display as he walked over and stood in front of me. "You can tell me what to do any time you'd like."

I looked at his neck, which was particularly masculine, and let my eyes journey down his chest. "I want you to kiss me," I whispered.

He pulled me to my feet and turned us around so I was pressed against his desk. "Oh, Luv, I'll do more than that."

"What will you do?" I asked breathlessly.

He slid all paperwork onto the floor. "I've wanted to take you on this desk for weeks now."

I wiggled against him, sliding my tights down and kicking off my shoes. "Well then what are you waiting for?"

He pushed me up, so I was sitting on the desk and pressed his lips against mine, fisting his hand in my hair, as he kissed me firmly. "Just waiting for the right sign, Luv. You're hard to read at times."

"You're so fucking gorgeous," I groaned, as I whipped through the buttons on his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders, as he shoved my skirt up.

"Black lace panties, Sookie." He tisked at me, before biting his lip deliciously. "God, if I'd know that earlier."

I leaned back, clutching the far side of my desk, as he hooked his thumbs around them and tugged them down, leaving them around my ankles. God, he was even smart when it came to office sex. I didn't have time to hunt for those later.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, as his hands gripped my legs, his breath hot against my thighs. "Oh, God, Bones," I whispered.

"Look at me, Luv," he said, his voice dripping with sex, as my eyes met his. "That's better now."

God, I'd missed sex, and real orgasms from other people. Why had I waited so long to do this? He was right under my nose, and I was sure Eric would understand. He understood everything about sex, and he knew how much I liked it. He wouldn't be mad at all.

He'd probably approve if it meant I wasn't such a bitch on the phone sometimes.

Bones was amazing at this, and it had been way too long. I felt my orgasm begin to build in minutes, and he seemed to know just what to do. He held my place in legs, as I came, screaming his name.

Screaming Bones after sex was kind of weird. Maybe I should have screamed Crispin. That wasn't much better. Not really.

"Wow," I said, as I adjusted my skirt, and stood up. "We should make that a mandatory part of the day, like lunch."

Bones smirked. "You're the boss, Luv."

I winked at him. "I'll make it so, then. On to the next order of business?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, as I dropped to my knees. He had a gorgeous cock. Perfectly in proportion, long, thick, smooth, and hard. God, it had been too long. He leaned back, his hands gently tugging at my hair. "Oh, Mom, it's time."

I pulled away and looked up at him curiously. "What?"

I opened my eyes to see Max blinking at me. "It's time to get up, Mom. Your alarm has been going off."

I shook my head, trying to get my bearings. "Sorry." I looked at him. "Oh, you're all dressed and ready to go."

He rolled his eyes. "Yea. Remember, I have to be there early. We have a field trip to MOMA."

"Shit," I looked at him, and he raised a very Northman eyebrow. "Shoot, I mean."

I threw myself together, and had just finished pulling Ceci out of bed when Claudine arrive.

"Hello?" she said, in her usual sing-songy voice.

"We're in here. Max and I will get something to eat on the way. Ce is watching cartoons. Gotta go." I waved on my way out the door, with Max in hand.

I stopped and got us both a breakfast sandwich, before taking him into school. "Stel will pick you up. Give me a kiss." I was going with Johan to look at engagement rings. I had to admit, I was kind of excited about it. Who doesn't like jewelery shopping?

He obliged me with a kiss, a smirk on his face. "Three more days."

I nodded. "I know. Are you excited?"

Max nodded. "Yep. Dad's not going to like Bones though."

I gave him a look, the kind that said that this was not the time. "Your dad will like Bones fine. He'll meet him at Thanksgiving."

Max shrugged, grabbing his book bag. "We think he likes you."

Great. He and Eric had been taking about that. That was just what I wanted to hear. "Have a good day."

If I thought that was the last awkward conversation I was going to have for the day, I was terribly mistaken. Just like in my wildly inappropriate dream, Bones came in my office and dropped the blinds. "You didn't get any weird emails, did you?"

I turned my computer on, avoiding eye contact with him, the thought of his head between my legs far too fresh. "I've been here for five minutes. I don't know."

He sat down opposite me. "I think that my ex, Annette may have gotten the wrong idea about you and I. She, well, she googled you, and got a bit miffed that I was working for such a pretty bird."

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow at his word choice. Bones wasn't much for workplace word choice. "Who cares. You broke up."

He sighed. "Well, she's kind of a bit mad. Crazy. And angry. She's British and American mad."

I tapped my pen on the desk, as I often did when I was irritated. "I can't have this conversation right now. Tell your cougar to leave me alone. I'm a happily married woman, in case you forgot," I snapped at the end. Good work, Sookie. You're yelling at him because you dreamt he went down on you. Because that was rational. "Sorry, I just had a rough morning."

He raised his eyebrows at me, obviously confused. "Right then. I'll leave you to it." Bones turned and headed out the door, stopping briefly at my door. "Am I to bring anything for Thanksgiving?"

I shook my head. "Just bring yourself."

He nodded. "I'll bring some wine."

We were all going to need at lot of wine to get through Thanksgiving. That was for sure.

I managed to hunker down in my office and work my ass off, which was good because I'd taken a couple of days off while Eric was here. In order to avoid any awkwardness for the rest of the day, I skipped out at four thirty to meet my new step son-in-law.

I adored Johan. He was almost like a cuddly teddybear of a man, with his dark curly hair, brown eyes and usually smiling features. He also had this sort of calmness about him that I could really appreciate when I was trapped in a house full of Northmans. We met at Tiffany, but it was obvious after about ten rings that this wasn't what he had in mind. "They just don't look like her, you know?

I shrugged. I didn't disagree, thinking about Stel in ring form. She wasn't really a Tiffany girl. Not in the classic solitaire sense. She was more Soho than fifth. "She likes vintage stuff. Have you thought about a vintage ring?"

He thought about it. "No, but it's a good idea."

Fifteen estate jewelers and pawn shops later, we wandered into a tiny store that we almost passed. It had a great rating online, and was run by the most adorable and ancient old man. We peered over the case, examining his wares. "What do you think?"

And there it was, I knew, from the look on his face, looking up at us from the dusty display case. "That one, with the blue stones," he said, more excited than I'd ever seen him. "Can I see that one?"

The man behind the counter pulled out his loupe, and the case. "This one is very nice. From the thirties. One carat stone, very few inclusions, good colour. The sapphires make it very unique. I've never seen a setting quite like this." He handed it to Johan, and then looked at me. "It's for you?"

I laughed. "Oh, no. I already have one. It's for my stepdaughter."

He nodded, a slightly playful look on his face. "Wonderful. You like? There's an appraisal office two blocks down. You can take it and get it checked out."

Johan hadn't said anything else. He just kept turning the ring over in his hands. "I'll take it."

I cut in, as the voice of reason. "Once we get it appraised. And then we can talk price."

The old man smiled at me. "Of course missus. We can finish this tonight. I don't do sizing here though."

We got it for five hundred under Johan's budget, after an insane about of dickering. He tucked the box in his coat when we finally got on our way. "I owe you one, Sookie." He smiled.

I patted him on the back, as we got into my car. "You watch my kids all the time. In fact, I may need you to watch them so I can go take care of some things before Eric gets back. Are you free tomorrow evening?" I desperately needed a wax. It was so overdue, but I hadn't really had any reason to take time out of my schedule to take care of it.

He nodded. "Sure. Do you think Stel knows anything's up?"

I shook my head. "You'd know if she did, because she'd be bugging you every five minutes to tell her what you're hiding. You'd pretty stealth though. I'm sure she doesn't suspect a thing."

He snorted. "After six years, I'd hope she'd suspect something. I'm thirty in a few months. When did that happen?"

I shrugged. "I don't know where time goes."

We went back to our place, picking up some Chinese food on the way for the adults. The kids should have long been in bed, since we'd been longer than I thought. I gave Johan one more pat on the back as we pulled up. "I'm going to wait a minute so she doesn't know we were together." He winked.

"Good plan. So where were you?"

He thought about it. "Working on my thesis."

"And I was getting waxed." I laughed. "God, I didn't need to tell you that. Better yet, pretend I didn't say that." I knew I was red as a beet. "You don't need to know about my grooming habits. Shit, if I use that excuse today, what will I use tomorrow when I really need to go?"

"It's fine, Sookie." He was also blushing. "Tomorrow you can be working late."

I nodded. "Right. I'll be glad when she just knows. I'm terrible at keeping secrets."

I walked in quietly, listening for the kids. There was mumbling upstairs, and I left the food on the table and crept up.

I rubbed my eyes, as I took in a sight I was not expecting.