For those of you that checked out White Blank Page, see, I didn't forget about the Expat! WBP is already mostly written! This one I do on the fly. Totally different. Anyway, thanks SO much for reading, and letting me know what you think!

Also, for those who aren't reading White Blank Page, it's a new fic I started, and you can find it on my profile. It deals with rather mature themes, and I suggest you read the A/N on chapter one before proceeding. With that said, it's been a really fun challenge for me!

Also, I'm writing this with a burnt hand. That's how much I love you guys.

Eric

I woke late, smiling to myself when I found Sookie's body spooned against mine, her hair tickling my face, as the late morning sun streamed in on us. It was really surreal last night, her standing in my doorway. And it meant a lot that she was here, firstly because she cared enough about us to stop a hairline relationship fracture from turning into a crack.

And secondly, because I really needed her, with whatever this Appius thing was turning into. It became evident after talking to Indira that he was really attempting to fuck with me personally, with the hopes that it would get me out of his hair professionally, at least for a while. I had been there longer than him, and although he had more years under his belt, I was certainly more popular. Maybe his reputation was catching up with him, and he was worried about me ousting him.

Five months ago, I wouldn't have entertained the notion, but now it was really on my mind, but I'd never been one to back down from a challenge. I didn't want to go back and work for someone who thought I was so easily manipulated, or who was so unprofessional. Because really, I'd acted like an ass in the past, but this took it to a whole other level. He made it personal, and no one fucked with my happiness. My world.

When I thought back on my week at home, we'd had a few good moments, but so much of the time had been spent exerting energy on other things, instead of making up for lost time between us. I mean, I knew we'd have the kids to contend with, that was nothing new, but Stella and having everyone invade on Thanksgiving had really been too much. If I could have done it differently, I would have flown in and we would have spent the week in the Hamptons, and made people come down and see us, if they wanted to. No one needed to see me when I was home for a week besides Sookie and the kids. I'd just seen Pam, and a dinner with Stella would have probably been fine. We went months without seeing each other besides her laundry drop-ins anyway.

But hindsight was twenty/twenty, and we'd made our mistakes, both of us. And we both wanted to fix them, which was kind of a liberating feeling. I tucked her hair behind her ear, and whispered, "Lover, it's almost three in New York."

She rolled over, a smile on her bare face. "We're not in New York. And it's only ten in Paris. And I was tired. I am tired."

"I know. You passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow last night, and topless, you awful tease." I winked at her.

She traced my chest with her finger, and looked up at me. "My bra was damp, and your sweater was too heavy." She cocked her head at me like she'd been thinking about something all night. "Why did she decide to help you? The grad student."

I nodded to Ce's artwork collage. "You have our daughter, the artist to thank for that. She decided I wasn't an asshole because I had her pictures up, because I'd done nothing to convince her why otherwise." I'd really been a dick to Indira at the beginning, really just because I was bitter about being here. I was lucky she was a better person that I was.

"She is a Picasso in the making." Sookie sat up a bit, pulling the blanket around her. "I can't believe it's just you and me."

I chuckled. "I know. I wish it was under nicer circumstances. You look very Parisian like that, with the light and your breasts, and the apartment."

"Like I'm your lover in some elicit affair?" She grinned.

I traced my finger along the underside of her breast. "If that's the game you want to play, I'm in."

She shook her head. "I don't want to play any games. I think we're all played out."

I nodded. "Then you'll just be my regular lover."

She grinned, dropping the sheet and straddling my lap. "I'll just go with your lover. Regular implies that I'm rather mediocre."

"Neither of us are mediocre at anything," I whispered, stretching my legs out in front of me. "Least of all together."

We fucked, and then stayed in bed until around one, when I had to go lecture. I couldn't contain my grin when Sookie asked if she could come and watch. She'd never sat in on a lecture since the first day we met. The timing was never good, with the kids, or work. After critically examining the size of the shower, we showered separately, each of us taking the time to check into life via email while the other got cleaned up.

When I got out of the shower, I sat beside her, and looked over the screen into Max and Ceci's smiling faces in their pyjamas. Sookie grinned and patted the couch. "Oh, Dad's here now."

I sat beside her and looked into their smiling faces. "Having fun with Aunt Pam?"

They nodded vigourously. "Dad, Alcide got Duckhunt for his old Super Nintendo," Max exclaimed. Alcide had every gaming system ever sold on the North American market. It was kind of ridiculous, and quite unexpected, until you got to know Alcide a bit. He was really a big kid. A giant, overgrown child. "We're going to play when the babies go to bed."

Ceci punched him, and I saw him wince slightly. "I'm not a baby. Gaby is a baby."

Max rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Ceci narrowed her eyes at the camera. "Where'd you guys go?"

Sookie grinned. "We're in Paris. I'll be home on Sunday, and then Dad a couple of weeks after."

Pam shouted from the background. "They're having adult time, and kissing a lot. You're not missing anything."

They both looked at each other, and wrinkled up their noses. "I hate Paris!" Ceci shouted. "Bye."

Max shook his head. "I'm gonna go play Duckhunt. Love you." And then he was gone.

We smiled at each other, before Pam came on the screen. "Seriously, your kids are hilarious. Ceci just sat beside me while I read a magazine and picked out things I should be wearing. She's not bad. I may take her to Fashion Week this year. Go have fun. They're fine here. I'll just replace anything white that they ruin. Also, you don't have to pay Claudine for this week. I don't want her darkening my doorstep with her cheerfulness. We don't need that shit here."

Sookie glanced at me. "Fine, but I hope you didn't upset her. We still need her when I get back."

Pam snorted. "She's fine. Alcide was very nice."

We said our goodbyes, and got dressed, Sookie in an oversized sweater, jeans, and a pair of boots, and me in my usual professor garb of jeans and a button down. We walked together, her arm linked in mine, as she did quick little steps to keep up with my strides. She stopped and looked up at the ancient buildings with a little smile on her face. "This is fantastic."

I shrugged. "It should have been."

"I'm glad I got to see where you were," she whispered.

My office was empty when we first sat down, but after a few minutes, Victor poked his head in, raising his eyebrows at Sookie spinning in my task chair. "Who's this now?"

Sookie raised an eyebrow in a very Northman-like way. "Boy, you just cut to the chase, don't you." She stood up, and reached for his hand. "Eric's wife. Susannah. And you are?"

Victor looked at her curiously, before shaking her hand. "Victor Madden. Lovely to meet you. In town for a visit?"

She nodded, a gleam in her eye. "Had to check in on this guy. Make sure he was behaving himself."

"Well he's quite popular here with the students." Victor grinned. "Especially the female students, of course."

I shot Victor a look, but Sookie gave him nothing, keeping her best poker face on. "Well that's nothing new. We've been dealing with that for years."

He chuckled awkwardly, not expecting that response. "I'm sure you have."

And then she did something surprising, and ballsy as hell. She leaned in close to him, and spoke, her voice cold as ice. "I trust my husband implicitly, Professor Madden. It's never been a problem in the past, and past behavior is a fairly accurate predictor of future behavior. You'd do well to remember that."

He looked at her for a second, unblinking. I grinned to myself, forgetting that she ate professors for breakfast now. "Well I hope you enjoy your visit. We'll be sorry to see Eric go, but I see you'll be pleased to have him back."

Her grin returned. "Absolutely. Our children have missed him terribly."

"I'm sure," he replied, as he walked out of the office.

I laughed, as she lifted her hand for a hi-five. "You're kind of my hero."

"I'm sure you've been a dick to him too." Her eyes sparkled at me. "What a creep. I thought you were exaggerating on your I hate everyone in Paris thing."

"Oh, he doesn't hate everyone," a female voice said from behind us. Sookie whipped around to find herself inches away from Dawn.

"Sookie, Dawn, Dawn, Sookie." I groaned. I should have known we'd run into everyone at once.

Sookie looked at her curiously. "Hello. You're not what I expected."

Dawn raised her eyebrows, an amused smirk on her face. "What did you expect?"

She shrugged, a small grin on her face. "I don't know. I couldn't quite picture you from what Eric said."

She looked at me, and then roared. "Did you tell her I was hideous, to make yourself sound better?"

I shook my head. "No, no. I did tell her that we were terrible at the sex, but that was it, really."

She looked at Sookie. "I think Sookie, you and I would have more chemistry than me and your husband here did."

She snorted. "He didn't say you were so charming. Or from Texas. Maybe you're right."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, well, I have a lecture to give, so if you two want to get a room, go to it. Sookie, I'm done in an hour and a half."

Sookie pulled me up out of my chair. "Let's have dinner while I'm here, Dawn. I'm dying to hear about Eric's PhD days."

Dawn looked at Sookie and then back at me. "I didn't even know you were coming. Eric, why didn't you tell me she was coming?"

"I didn't know she was coming. She kind of surprised me."

Dawn nodded. "Smooth. To help with the problem, perhaps?"

I'd explained a bit of it to Dawn, over dinner the night before I went back to the States. "Yea. Let's talk about that at dinner too."

She leaned in, a wicked smile on her face. "I want Victor gone. Let's take them both down."

Sookie

Sitting in the back of Eric's packed lecture hall reminded me what I'd seen in him the first day we'd crossed paths. Watching Eric talk about sex, was, well, hot, and knowing that I'd probably be having sex with him in a few hours amped it up even more.

There was something about watching all the student's listening to his lesson on pornography addiction, and the unrealistic expectations that it gave people about sex, especially young people, or people with

limited experience, that also made me remember why I'd been so keen on having him write the book. He was an incredibly engaging lecturer, articulate, confident, and so intelligent. I was pleased that I'd had an eye for that, so early on in my career.

It wasn't that I forgot what Eric did, but I hadn't thought about it much in a while.

"Forty-seven per cent of prostitutes express some discomfort at requests they receive which they believe stem from pornography. And that's it's for today." His eyes searched mine out, and he gave me a little smile. I waited about ten minutes while he cleared away the students gathered around, before I walked down.

"Good lecture, Professor Northman." I winked, hopping up onto his table while he gathered his things.

He grinned. "I was going to point you out, but I didn't want to ruin the mystique so close to the end of term. Gotta keep them guessing about what kind of woman could make me less of an asshole."

"What are we doing now?"

"Do you want me to lock the door, and we can have lecture hall sex? I've never had lecture hall sex."

I looked around, before sweeping a rather long line of dust off the table with my finger. "Uh, I'm going to pass, in favour of sexy Parisian apartment sex. After you feed me. And I want it to be something French. No le hamburger."

"French toast? French fries?" He winked. "I'm sure we can find something."

And find something we did, about three blocks from the apartment. An adorable bistro. We sat down at a table by the window. "Have you been here?"

He nodded, a huge smile on his face. "I've been doing interviews here from time to time. It's been the part of Paris that I've really enjoyed."

"Feeling the love?" I reached across the table, and he wrapped his hand in mine.

"Oui oui," he said, a playful tone in his voice. "I'd ask you to sleep with me, but that phrase is kind of overused."

"And you don't have to ask." I squeezed gently. "This is like a real deal adult vacation."

He chuckled. "An impromptu one, but yea, it is. I don't have to teach tomorrow, so we can do some sightseeing, if you want."

I shook my head. "I don't want. I just want to be here with you, and walk around, and drink wine, and talk, and have sex until we pass out. That's what I want."

Eric put his hand on my knee under the table. "I think we can do that. I'll give you the 'things I wished I could show you' tour. There's a great park by the apartment, and this coffee shop that makes the most amazing crepes, oh, and the store where I got your ring. Pam also dragged me to this vintage store when she was here that you'll love."

It all sounded great. We both got the special, the most amazing pork roast with local vegetables, and followed it up with the most amazing chocolate mousse I'd ever had, along with some wine that really blew my mind. "God, how have you not gained eight hundred pounds?" I moaned, leaning over to have a bite of his mousse once mine was gone.

"I've gained a bit. I do quite a bit of walking." He patted his stomach. "Brie is my weakness though. It was all I could do not to order the cheese plate as an appetizer."

It was funny. After a few hours of people watching and watching each other, I kind of got Eric's thing about Paris and the romance. It wasn't that we'd lost our romantic feelings for each other, far from it, but they'd been overwhelmed by other feelings, like simple happiness that we were still good partners, and joy at seeing him with the kids. Things like security and responsibility took precedence. That sort of fire I felt in the beginning had turned to embers, but being here without a care in the world was like someone had thrown another log on the fire. I'd really needed to just forget about things for a bit, and focus on him. He deserved a week out of four months. Hell, normally he got several hours a day.

I decided right then and there that I wasn't checking work email. Bones would feel bad enough about what happened to keep things going while I was gone. And I did trust his judgment on work related matters, even if he was a bit of a problem personally. I'd think about that later. Maybe on the flight back.

And even if it was just for a week, it was nice to be able to focus on Eric exclusively. "Let's go back to your place," I whispered, after we paid our bill. "We can walk around more tomorrow."

"I won't argue with that," he replied, somewhat playfully. "Cheese plate for the road?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

We got the cheese to go, and walked back to Eric's apartment in the crisp night air. I leaned into his shoulder, as he grabbed my hand. "Why wasn't Dawn like you expected?"

I thought about it. "I don't know. I just had a hard time picturing a woman that you had no chemistry with that didn't look like Pam. She's really quite beautiful."

"She's okay." He shrugged. "I think we're too similar personality-wise. I mean, if I wanted to have sex with myself, I'd masturbate, and it would be a hell of a lot less work."

I giggled. "You're ridiculous."

"Whatever. Someone has to be worth the effort. I guess neither of us thought the other one was." He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Remember how much effort I put in with you in the beginning? You were like a full-time job."

"Well after Bill and how awful that ended up, you can see why I might have been a bit hesitant. But you swayed me, with your amazing sexabilities." I waggled my eyebrows. "And maybe some other stuff too. I don't remember. It was a long time ago."

"I liked that you said no and I had to convince you," He looked at me devilishly. "and that you were bossy. I like when you're bossy. Sometimes I used to slack on the book just so you'd get bossy with me."

I'd know that all along. I stood on my tiptoes and whispered in his ear. "Get your sweet ass up those stairs."

He looked at me for a second, frozen like a deer in the headlights, before practically pulling me up the stairs. I shoved him against the wall when we got to the top of the stairs. "Yea, I'm into this," he whispered, as I pushed my mouth against his. "Are you going to be bossy all night?

I kissed him again, fumbling for his key in his pocket. "Yes."

We almost tripped over the girl with the huge sad eyes sitting outside his apartment door. We parted and Eric knelt to help her up. He looked at her curiously. "What are you doing here?"

She wiped her eyes. "I got a letter. I'm getting kicked out of the program. They're claiming it's my grades, and that I've been missing deadlines, but that's not true."

Eric pursed his lips, thoughtful. "It's your word against theirs."

She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "It's my life. God, my life is such a mess."

Eric glanced at me, and then back at the girl, who I'd figured out was probably the grad student. "I'll fix this. Let me talk to Dawn."

She looked up, at him, surprised. "You'd do that?"

He nodded. "You kind of saved my ass Indria, even if I didn't do anything wrong. This is my wife, by the way. Sookie."

I gave a little wave. "Hi."

She smiled at me. "You're really pretty, and your daughter looks just like you."

It was odd, being so friendly with a woman that two weeks ago had tried to entrap my husband. But she'd really made up for it. Even if it was in a twisted way. "Thanks. And thanks for not selling Eric out. I know it probably would have made things easier for you."

She shrugged. "Yea, it would have, but I've already made so many mistakes, sleeping with a married man, all of that. I thought this would fix things, but it wouldn't. It would just make them worse, because it's already hard enough living with the things I've done. I didn't need to add breaking up a marriage that was otherwise fine to the list."

I smiled up at Eric. "Well, we appreciate it, more than you know. I know he's an asshole, but he's a really good husband and dad."

"And I don't know what I would have done if I lost that," Eric said, moving his hand to my lower back. "I'll help you out. Go get some sleep. You look exhausted."

She nodded. "Okay."

He patted her back. "I'll call you tomorrow."

She smiled weakly, walking down the hall, as Eric pulled his keys out and opened the apartment. "Remember when not even Bill could kill the mood?"

I sighed. "Yea."

He held up the little box from the bistro. "At least we have the cheese."

I was in Paris. I was not trading cheese for sex. Maybe we could have cheese after sex, but it was not a substitute. "Take off your pants and get on the bed."

He looked at me for a minute, his eyes smiling, before complying. "Alright," he said, with a chuckle, before dropping trou, pulling his shirt over his head and laying down on the bed, socks and all.

"You're so silly." I grinned, before pulling the sleep mask I'd been given on the plane out of my purse. "Take your socks off at least."

He gave me an impressed look. "Are you going to blindfold me?"

"Did I say you could ask questions?" I raised an eyebrow.

"So bossy," He smirked, tossing his socks aside, before sprawling out on the bed. I stripped down to my bra and underwear and straddled his lap, moving around as much as possible as I pulled the sleep mask over his eyes.

I laughed, at him sprawled out on the bed in a tiny silky sleep mask and his boxers. "You look ridiculous."

"Too ridiculous to blow?" he grinned, his mouth turned up in a perma smile.

I sat on his lap, grinning back, even though he couldn't see it. "Who says I'm blowing you?"

He shrugged. "Wishful thinking?"

After making him guess for a half hour or so what I was wrapping around his cock, I pulled the mask off and pushed him against the headboard.

"I can't believe you can't tell the difference between my boobs and my mouth most of the time," I whispered, before lowering myself onto him.

"Me neither. We'll have to practice that more often, Lover." He wrapped his hands in my hair, pulling my mouth to his.

The cheese afterward was the icing on the cake. We sat in bed, eating it with crackers until we ran out of crackers, and then we just used our fingers.

"Best vacation ever," I giggled, as he put a piece of Roquefort in my mouth.

"Cheesecation?" He said, eating a huge chunk of brie. "Who knew sex and cheese went so well together?"

"It's not rocket science," I giggled, picking a crumb off his chest. "We're disgusting."

"In the best possible way." He broke off a piece of Munster, and popped it in his mouth. "So this Appius problem. What do you think?"

I looked up, thinking. "We need to find his weakness, and pick away at that."

"His weakness is grad students. Pretty male grad students."

I nodded. "So how do we turn that into a career killer?"

"A sexual harassment charge will kill a career pretty quickly. But he's got a good eye for people who are buying what he's selling. Research misconduct. Selling drugs, having a bigoted public viewpoint, that kind of thing."

The research thing seemed the most likely. "What's he research?"

"Cognitive behavioural theory. That sort of thing."

I snorted. "Go figure. So we need to start there, maybe? Do you know of any projects he's working on?"

Eric's eyes lit up. "No, but he suffers from anxiety. Do you think we can use that?"

Probably. "Is that kind of cruel?"

He looked at me, deadpan. "Oh yea, because he deserves consideration on that front, after all he's tried to do here."

I shrugged. "Fair enough."

Eric finished off the brie. "So we need to give him a nervous breakdown, then. That shouldn't be too hard."

"Or it'll be really hard. How the hell do you give someone a nervous breakdown?"

Eric had never sounded colder. "You pull the carefully placed pieces of their lives apart." He kissed my forehead.

And in that moment, I actually felt bad for Appius Ocella.

I had the feeling that wouldn't last long though, and I was right.