So, finally, here we have it. Let me know what you think, and if you're not reading my new fic, White Blank Page, I hope you'll check it out! It's a bit outside my comfort zone, but people seem to be enjoying it!

Thanks for all the love, and please keep it coming!

Sookie

Before we knew it, the week was up, and it was seven in the morning on Saturday, and I was nursing a coffee, unwilling to pull myself off Eric's knee until absolutely necessary.

We'd really enjoyed the rest of our week, the highlight of which was certainly watching Victor's very quick fall from grace. He was put on leave two days after Indira posted the blind item, and Dawn was given the position of Chair the day after that.

We we were pleased, but we knew it wasn't the end of things back in the States. If anything, it would probably piss Appius off more.

I was sad leaving, but I really missed the kids. A week was a long time to be apart from them, and it made me feel for Eric on that front, being away so much longer.

"I'll see you in two week Sook," he whispered, as I started getting weepy. "We've done two weeks before."

I'd gone to Louisiana to help Jason out with baby number two, his first with Amy, and taken Ceci with me, when she was two. Amy had dealt with postpartum depression, and he'd really needed me. Max and Eric had eaten mac and cheese and pizza for a week, and after cuddling their baby, Carrie, I'd almost decided I wanted another baby.

Almost.

"I know," I whispered, wiping my eyes. "This has been so nice."

"An improvement over your last trip?" he smirked.

"Now, if I tell you that, you'll rub it in and make Bill feel bad." I winked, checking my watch. I really needed to get to my gate. "But yea, it was pretty amazing."

We stood up and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into an embrace."I emailed you our interview. I won't judge you if you read it over sometimes. I probably will."

"You're such a sap," I whispered, started to cry all over again. "I'll call you when I land."

He nodded. "You're picking up the kids tomorrow right? I'll call them tonight at Pam's."

"I want to get them, but it'll be really late when I get back, and you know how they are. They'll be a wreck tomorrow."

"You get some sleep too. We had a busy week," he chuckled. "In all the right ways."

I stood on my tiptoes, kissing him one more time. "Bring me back some croissants? From the place by your apartment?"

"Sure. Let me know if you want anything else. I guess I should do my Christmas shopping."

"You don't have to get me anything. Unless you can find some sort of sexy Santa suit for you, that's tasteful." I giggled. "Wow, that's a bit of a tall order."

He waggled his eyebrows."Red briefs? Perhaps some mistletoe? I'll figure something out. I'll grab Stel something Pam approved here. We're just ordering the kids' stuff online again? "

I nodded vigourously. "Oh, hell yes." That was the best decision we'd ever made last year. "I'll take care of it on Monday at lunch."

"Perfect. And I'll send you a shopping list for our Fuckaversary right before I get home. There's some things you'll need to pick up." He smiled mischievously. "Or we can go when I get back, but it'll be really busy."

I was dying to know what he had planned. Maybe I could figure it out if I had a list of things to pick up. "I'll get the stuff."

"Okay." He wrapped his arms around me again. "I hate dragging out goodbyes. See you in two weeks."

Once I was out of Eric's orbit, and after I let myself get weepy for a few minutes, my mind travelled back to Bones, and how the hell I was going to deal with that situation. I had to make him understand, without making him feel stupid, or damaging our working relationship too much.

I was willing to absorb a bit of the blame. I had liked the attention I'd gotten from him, the flirtatious comments, the company, but that was because those were things I wasn't getting from my husband, since he was on the other side of the world. Had he been here, I was fairly certain that our relationship would have developed quite differently.

It had also been a really hard time, with Sam being let go, and me being promoted into a position that I was insecure about. And then Eric and I had really not reconnected like I imagined we would when he was home for Thanksgiving, and it had all sort of fallen to shit after that.

That, and that God-awful, totally erotic dream I'd had. That had made things awkward too.

But I'd fixed my relationship with Bill, and next to that, this was small potatoes. A kiss and a vasectomy weren't even in the same ballpark. I could find a way to make this work again. I was good at relationships, of all sorts.

Except maybe my relationship with Sam. That had DNR slapped all over it.

I staggered into the house at around midnight, calling Eric quickly enough to mumble some pleasantries and fall into bed.

I woke up around ten, to Ce and Max crawling all over me, and Pam leaning in my doorway. "I tried to contain them, but they're like mini you and Erics."

"Wonderful and sweet?" I grinned, burying my face in Ceci's hair.

She looked at me deadpan. "Stubborn and determined. They knew you were going to be here and there was nothing I could do."

I squeezed the hell out of them, before happily taking the Starbucks Pam had been kind enough to bring me. "Pam, I can't thank you enough for this week."

She chuckled. "Oh, Sookie, there will be a time when I will most certainly ask you to return the favour. I'm going to take off though. Leave you folks to your lay in. Alcide's watching Gab, and there's shopping to be done."

I waved her off, and told the kids about my trip, well the appropriate parts anyway. So, I ended up telling them that we ate a lot and then I fished them out the little things I'd picked out for them, a few little cast iron figures for Max, one of the Eiffel Tower, and one of the Arc, as well as a tiny Napoleon, and a very fancy sticker book for Ce. Max was really into little things like that now. Everywhere we went, he wanted a little something like that, and I remembered having a sticker book when I was a kid, and that being pretty exciting.

They ran off, Lil hot on their heels to see all the toys they'd forgotten they owned at their week at Aunt Pam's and I took a minute to go through the mail. A few bills, a couple of irritatingly early Christmas cards, and an unmarked manilla envelope made up the pile in front of the door.

I sat down at the kitchen table, and began opening everything, shredding the bills since they came out of our bank accounts automatically. Finally, I tore open the manilla envelope and I felt my gut lurch.

Pictures of Eric, with Indira at a cafe, in Paris. Eric with a very drawn, disturbed look on his face. Indira leaving his apartment. If I hadn't known all of these things happened, and the backstory behind them, I would have been destroyed.

But I wasn't in that marriage, and I'd met Indira, and I was capable of being rational, after taking a few deep breaths, anyway. Well, about the images. The fact that Appius had left them was a whole other story. I stuck the pictures on top of the fridge, away from little hands, and opened up my laptop. After a few minutes of searching, I found exactly what I was looking for.

A couple of tastefully pornographic pictures of my husband and me, taken with a timer during a particularly erotic adults only weekend in the Hamptons to be shared on penalty of death, and a picture Eric had taken of us at a cafe in Paris and emailed me from his Iphone. The erotic pictures weren't clear enough to really tell who they were, but I figured the nice Paris head shot would clear that up, if there was any question.

The message wasn't obvious, as first, but I knew when Appius thought about it, he'd figure it out. We were together. And we weren't a typical couple. He wasn't giving us enough credit.

I ducked into Eric's office upstairs and printed the three of them, pulling out a similar manilla envelope and stuffing them inside with a note that simply said, "Thanks. Here's a few for you."

I looked good in those pictures. And he'd tried and was continuing to try and ruin my marriage. I'd created the punishment of death rule, and for this, I decided, I'd break it.

I bundled the kids up, and we hiked to NYU, and slid them under Appius' door. We stopped at Tara's quickly on the way home, and her and I had a coffee while the kids played. Her little girl was a bit younger than Ce, but they all got along alright. Ce liked being the oldest.

"So, Paris?" Tara wiggled her eyebrows. "Good times?"

I smiled. "Oh, you know. Of course. It'll be nice to have him back."

"I'd kill to get rid of Benny for four months. You're lucky." She glanced at a pile of his work on the kitchen table. "Although then I'd have to be a single parent."

"Yea, I'll be glad to be able to shower for more than five minutes again on a regular basis."

She smiled, like the cat that swallowed the canary. "So I have news."

I raised an eyebrow, for the first time noticing that she was drink tea. Herbal tea. "Oh?"

"I'm a little pregnant. Just a little."

I gave her a huge hug. And realized that I was really and truly not the tiniest bit jealous. Maybe for the first time that I'd heard someone was having a baby in ten years. "That's so exciting!"

"We've been trying for two years now, so it's very exciting. We aren't telling a lot of people yet, but yea. We're due at the end of June."

"So you won't be pregnant all summer. Good timing. Oh, Tara." I hugged her again. I knew they'd had some trouble, but it was never anything she wanted to talk about. Some things were spousal issues, and some were friend issues. I figured that was a spousal one for them. Lord knows how much I'd bitched and cried and whined to Eric when it took us six months with Ceci.

It was a crisp afternoon, but nice enough to walk home, and by the time we made it back to the house, the kids were beat. I got them settled with dinner, and went in the living room to call Eric. I realized when I dialed that I probably should have told him that I was going to slip erotic pictures of us under his bosses' door.

Oops.

He practically purred when he answered the phone. "Hello, Lover. Thirteen days."

I smiled to myself at his voice, but opted to cut to the chase. "Mmmm. Thirteen days. So I may have done something brilliant, or stupid. I was kind of worked up, so it was a bit impulsive."

He was quiet for a minute. "What did you do?"

"You know those pictures we took of us at the Hamptons, maybe a year ago? You know, the ones where we're..."

"Fucking?"

"Yea."

"I do. In fact, I have them in a folder marked 'taxes' on my desktop."

I took a deep breath. "Well, I found an unmarked envelope this morning with some pictures of you, and Indira, and Indira leaving your apartment, and I may have printed a couple of those, along with the picture you emailed me yesterday, stuffed them in an envelope and stuck them under Appius' door."

"Which pictures?" he asked, curiously. "We took a lot."

"None of the really racy ones, and none where you could see our faces. I think the worst you can really see is some sideboob. I rationalized that since it's on the cover of your textbook. Not my sideboob, but sideboob."

"Hmmm. Can you see my cock in any of them?"

"I think your ass in one, but no, no cock."

"That's unfortunate. And I'm pissed that he would give you those pictures. Really pissed. I hope you kept them." I could hear the playfulness in his voice. "And that you picked a good one of my ass."

I grinned broadly."I did, on both counts. They're on top of the fridge."

"You're a crazy broad, Northman. But hey, if I'm going out at NYU, I'd rather it be with a bang. I'm sure those pictures will freak him out, and probably turn him on, but mostly freak him out. He has to know we're onto him, with the Victor situation. You've got brass balls. I can appreciate that."

I laughed. "Well it's a Sunday. It's not like he was going to be there. He's an administrator."

"If he's got any sense, he'll keep them to himself, because he knows we've got the ones from him. I'd expect something about the abortion too, if that's the game he's playing."

And then I thought of something. "Oh, Tara and Benny are expecting." I froze for a moment. "Wow, that was in poor taste, following what you said with that."

He snorted. "That's great for them, and you're just talking to me. I'm the opposite of politically correct. I think you should go to bed after the kids. The time change is a bitch. I'll call you at work tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry about talking again tonight."

I didn't feel so desperate to talk to him, since I'd just seen him, and he'd be back in less than two weeks. It was a good feeling. "I'll let you know how it goes with Bones too."

"I look forward to hearing about that. Sort of. Stick me on with the little ones, and I'll say goodnight. How are they?"

"Perfect, and wonderful. I missed them a lot. Ceci told me that she's never going to Paris because people kiss there, and Max liked his little figures."

I didn't have to see him to know he was smiling. "I can't wait to see them."

"Thirteen days."

I ran myself a bath while Eric talked to the kids, and as usual when I had a bath, the bathroom turned into a gathering place. Lil curled up on the bathmat, enjoying the steam.

"Can you read me a story, Mom? Aunt Pam doesn't read all the words," Ce grumbled, bringing me the classic Run Spot Run. Of course she knew all the words.

"Sure."

She plopped down on the floor next to the tub, and I read to her, word for word while she listened intently. "You're a good reader, Mom," she grinned, scrambling to her feet when I finished.

"Thanks, Ce. Can you go get your Pjs on, and tell Max to get his on too?"

She ran out, and I could hear her barking orders at Max, who would undoubtedly ignore her.

I got everyone to bed early, including myself, which made six-thirty a little bit easier. Claudine showed up at seven-thirty, and I dropped Max off on my way to work, making it in the door at a little after eight.

I thought about the best way to handle Bones, which ranged from ignoring anything had happened, to emailing him my Paris interview with Eric, and never speaking of it again. Neither solution seemed right though. It would have been easier to slip some tastefully erotic pictures under his door, but I didn't work in that kind of environment. I smiled to myself, at the ridiculousness of Eric's world sometimes. Academia was like high school with higher stakes. I couldn't believe that Appius had had the nerve to leave those photos in my mail slot. I was furious just thinking about it.

So I decided on a very upfront variation. At about ten, after I'd had my coffee and waded through the important emails from my week away, I sent him a meeting request. He arrived at my door about a half hour later, right on time.

He smiled uncomfortably in the doorway. "Hello Lu...Sookie."

"Crispin," I smiled, really hoping we'd be able to sort this out like adults. "Have a seat, please, and close the door."

He did as I asked, and when he'd taken his seat, I handed him the interview Eric and I had talked through. "I think this will be the introduction, or at least part of the introduction of the book Eric wants to do, the trade book. Let me know what you think, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have."

He took the sheets, and I worked through some more emails while he read the couple of pages. When he sat them down, on my desk, I turned to face him. "I don't really know how to explain he and I, beyond that, except to say that I love him, and he's good to me, and I'm sorry if I gave you any idea other than that. He's not what people around here might think he is."

Bones chewed on that for a minute. "I think I certainly had a different idea."

I nodded. "I think you did too. Do I look like the kind of woman that would let someone walk all over her? You've seen me around here. He works hard for me. We work hard for each other, and we always have."

"Sam said that your relationship was parasitic."

I laughed. "Of course he did. He wasn't saying that when I was bringing in a book that helped him make his bonus in a terrible economy. Look, I know we got married when I was pregnant, but we'd been together for a year before that, I just kept work and my private life separate. For obvious reasons, since you've now experienced the gossip mill around here."

He furrowed his brow at me. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"No, you shouldn't have, but I'm willing to accept that I was probably putting some mixed signals out there. It's been really hard, him being gone. We're not long distance people. And he didn't want to leave us, but it means he should be able to get ahead at NYU, which will be beneficial for us. Short term sacrifice, for long term gain."

Bones gave me a nod. "Alright then, where do we go from here now?"

I'd given this a lot of thought. "I'd like us to continue on like we were, but you've got to stop calling me Luv, and we need to tone the flirting down. Eric knows what happened, and you should probably stay away from him as well. He's a caveman when it comes to me."

"I did kiss the mother of his children. I suppose that's quite understandable then."

I smiled. "You're alright, Bones."

He stood up, a genuine smile on his face. "Thank you, Sookie. I'll see you for lunch, then? We'll catch up on the week around here?"

I nodded. "Sushi?"

He grinned. "Of course."

I closed the door behind him, and called Eric.

"So, I did it."

"Hello, Lover. Did what? More dirty pictures?" He chuckled.

I snorted. "No. I gave him our interview, and we talked about it, Northman style, all open and honest. I think we're good, Bones and I."

He made an approving, cavemanesque grunt. "Good. I still don't want him in my home."

"He understands that."

"Then we're fine. Twelve days."

"Twelve days. Now let's get that Christmas shopping done. I'm doing a catch up lunch with Bones."

Eric was quiet for a minute, but then he was okay. "I do trust you, you know. Implicitly."

I smiled to myself. "And I, you."