So, this chapter is brought to you by the letters B O N E S. Because he kind of took it over. Anyway, if you're not reading The Night Huntress series, CLOSE THE FANFICTION WINDOW AND GO READ NOW. Because you're missing out. Anyway, thanks so much for all the love, and keep it coming! It makes me squee. Don't you want me to squee?

Sookie

Bones called in sick for the next three days, which I found incredibly irritating, since I was curious how it had gone with Russell. When I got the voicemail on the third day, which he'd left at six in the morning, I decided to finally call him back.

"Are you alive? Do I need to call search and rescue?"

"Just the flu, Lu...Sookie. I'll be back in on Monday."

He sounded put on sick. Not real sick. I'd ponder that later. "I wanted to know how it went with Russell?"

Another fake cough. "Yea, good. He's going to send me a proposal in a few weeks. You can take a gander if you please."

"Okay then. Well, feel better." I hung up, slightly confused. Was he looking for employment elsewhere? Or had he decided to slack now that he was off probation. I didn't think that was the case, but I really didn't know what to make of his mystery illness. I hoped Eric hadn't been a huge ass to him when they'd seen each other at NYU. I hadn't really asked about how their interaction had gone.

I left work a bit early, since it was Friday, and I'd stayed late a lot all week, since Bones wasn't around. I was excited to see Eric's winter boots in the doorway when I got in, and I grinned, as I heard Ce's scamper across the living room floor, and appear in front of me, filthy from head to toe. "Mom, I helped Dad put new lights in downstairs for Cat."

I hadn't even thought of that. Eric emerged from the basement a minute later, hot and sweaty in a way that did a lot for me. I loved him in carpenter mode. "Yea, I probably should have hired someone to paint down there." He lifted up his shirt and wiped his forehead with it. "I started changing lights, and now it looks like it needs it."

"We can do it tomorrow, or let Cat pick out her own color."

He went to the sink and washed his hands. "I have some paint from when Johan moved in, but I didn't dare start with Ce here. She would have been covered with it. It was bad enough, getting her to hand me lightbulbs. I was afraid she'd cut her hands on them. And then it would smell like paint when she moved in."

I did love Eric in daddy mode. "Bones' meeting went well. Russell's going to submit a proposal."

He grinned, setting Ce up on the counter and washing her hands as well. I didn't say anything, but washing her hands before she ran all over the house while he was downstairs would have been a good call. I smiled to myself, imagining the damage she could have done at Pam's. "And I have lunch with him on Wednesday. Hopefully I can sort this extra course stuff out a bit more."

I felt bad for Eric, being saddled with an extra course, but he'd made the best of it, and bitched until he got an extra TA. Luckily one of the students that he knew a little bit had been kind enough to give him his notes and the half assed syllabus that Appius had given them at the beginning of the term, so he was making it work. He'd also argued his way out of teaching a course in the spring, which was a real bonus. "You've already turned it around in your favour, since you won't have to teach in the spring."

He shrugged. "I want Appius canned. He's really let those students down, and this is just another example of how his behavior makes the department look bad."

"Patience, Lover." I winked, drying Ce's hands. "Now, do you want to pick up kid two, or do you want me to do it?"

"I'll go. Can you start dinner though?" He patted his stomach. "I'm starving, and me and Ce just had brunch today."

They'd been in bed, asleep when Max and I left this morning. She'd crawled in with him after I got up, which meant they had sucky time for a couple of hours. Eric had considerably softened on his 'no kids in bed' policy, at least in the mornings. If he wasn't teaching, I had no idea how long they lazed around for. She wasn't in her PJs when I got home, which wasn't always the case. He usually worked in the living room while she played or watched TV, and then they'd take Lil for a walk. I guess they'd been busy today though, getting the basement ready.

"What do you want?"

He looked at Ce, his eyes twinkling. "We want gumbo, don't we?"

She nodded her head. "We have everything. Dad checked."

"So you two had this all worked out, huh?" I put my hands on my hips, and narrowed my eyes at them playfully. "I see."

"Mom, Dad can't make it like you do," Ce whined. "Please?"

I ruffled the top of her head. "Yea, I can throw some together. But you've go to go with Dad to pick up your brother, and pick up a pecan pie. From the Little Pie Company. It's on the way."

The colour drained from Eric's face. "Do we need to have a talk?"

I'd eaten a lot of pecan pie when I was pregnant with Ce, sent him out for pie after pie. I rolled my eyes at him. "You're good, but you're not that good. We don't need to talk."

"It just seems too easy sometimes, you know? After so many years of being careful." He grinned and carried Ce out to get her coat. "Do you want anything else?"

I laughed. "Ice cream and pickles. Wine."

He pulled on his coat, and kissed me, as I leaned in the doorway. "Can you look downstairs and let me know if there's anything I need to do? I think it's liveable, but I'm a guy."

I nodded. "We should pick up a new toilet seat and maybe one of those reed diffusers. How does it smell down there?"

"Good. I had the windows open for most of the afternoon. It was a bit musty, but you should close them. Bye!" he shouted, as they left.

I never went into the basement, and as I walked down, I remembered that it wasn't such a bad place. In fact, if Eric had offered me his basement when I first had my housing issues and was trying to professional with him, we may never have gotten together, because I would have been quite content down there. It had a fairly large living space, and a good sided bedroom. It was a little dated, sure, but still pretty nice. Nicer than the place I'd shared with Tara.

He and Ce had done a good job cleaning up too. They'd replaced a few light fixtures, and the floor shone. Johan had done a lot work when he lived down there for free. We'd agreed he'd pay to retile the kitchen area, and we'd split on an Ikea kitchen. The bathroom was a bit dated, with its avocado coloured tub and matching toilet, but she was paying peanuts for rent, and they were clean and perfectly fine.

I pulled the window shut, and headed back upstairs.

Cat arrived around nine with her truck full of things, and both kids were really excited about their new quazi roommate. She brought them each an age appropriate book, which I was impressed with, since she didn't have kids. Eric and Max went off to get the toilet seat, and I sat down on her newly moved in couch, as she took a breather.

"So, I hope you're alright with everything. Eric mentioned that he wished he'd painted, but we ran out of time, and it would have stunk in here, since you won't be able to have the windows open for a few months."

She exhaled, a huge grin on her face, and pulled her fiery red hair back in a ponytail. "Sookie, I don't care about that. Hell, you didn't even have to clean. Another week with Mom and I would have killed her. We have, well, issues. Always have. Always will. It's why I moved away in the first place, and it nearly killed me to have to come back."

"Well then a little distance should do you both good then."

Cat grinned. "God, I hope so."

"So, I know we're down here today, but this is really your place. Lock it from your side, and you won't hear from us. My future son in law lived down here for quite a while, and the only time we saw him was when he wanted to raid the fridge." God, Johan was going to be my son in law. He was only five years younger than me. I wasn't old. I wasn't going to have to wear some matronly dress.

Cat noticed my weird reaction and patted my back. "You're far too young to have a son in law."

"You're telling me. Thank you. I had Max before I was thirty." I shook my head. "Eric was very young when he, well, had a relationship with his daughter's mom. He didn't know about her until she was eighteen."

"It's nice that you have this big, quirky family. I just have my mom, and, well, it's clear how awesome that is."

It was funny that I had a big family, because Eric and I had really had no one besides our siblings when we met. "Yea, we're a bit of a weird group, but it is really nice. For two people with one sibling apiece, we seem to have a lot of people in our lives."

"You're both great. I think you attract them."

I snorted. "I think you give us a bit too much credit. We've both pretty difficult in our own ways."

"I think everyone is. Eric's very smart. I've read almost everything he's written. Even his textbook, but that was for a paid review a few months ago."

I smiled. That's why her name had sounded familiar. "I knew I knew your name from somewhere. You did a very detailed review."

"Well, I'm not far enough into my career to be so lazy," she giggled. "And I probably will want to write a book someday."

"Well, I hope you'll knock on the door up there and ask me about it first," I nodded to the doorway up to our house. "Eric thinks you have a lot of potential and that means a lot to me. He's a pretty good judge of character." I thought of Russell. "Most of the time."

Bones – A few days earlier.

Fuck, she was gorgeous. No woman ever made me tongue tied, but I'd managed to trip all over my words seven or eight times over two lattes.

She reached inside the lid of her Starbucks cup and wiped the frothy milk away, before putting it in her mouth with her finger. I was uncomfortably hard. She smiled innocently. "I wrote a review for the new edition of Eric's book a few months ago. It was a great update."

"Too bad he's such a pompous ass," I said before realizing that that was probably the wrong thing to say, since they were colleagues. He was probably shagging her, for all I knew. Fucking Northman. I still thought Sookie deserved better.

She shot me a look. "He's been very good to me. I have a lot of respect for his research."

Yep, she was probably shagging her. "Well, it's probably solid. His book has made us a blooming fortune. Tell me about your research, Catherine."

"It's Cat." She smiled. "Well, my research focuses on criminal psychology. I do a lot of work with victims and perpetrators of sex crimes, which is where my research overlaps with Eric's. I'd like to do a criminal psychology, or perhaps an abnormal book someday, although the abnormal book would be quite ambitious."

"You're not ambitious?"

She shrugged, a gleam in her eye I hadn't seen up to that point. "I'm very ambitious, but I also know not to bite off more than I can chew."

I practically growled at the veiled innuendo in her words. "But sometimes it's fun to try."

"Ask me about that book in a few years. I could do the crim one now, but Eric didn't think I should until I have tenure, and I kind of agree with him."

Fucking Northman. "Well, he doesn't necessarily know what's right."

She laughed. "Well, he's going to be chair of my department in the next few months, and he'll have sway over hiring decisions, so he kind of does."

"Well, when you decide you want to give it a shot, I hope you'll look me up."

She inclined her head towards me. "Maybe I will. How long have you been in America?"

"Since September."

She glanced at my hand. "No family?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Just me."

She looked up at the clock. "Well, I think I've avoided rush hour. I guess I'll see you around. I'll email you if I'm ever ready to write something."

Fuck, she was gorgeous. "Or you could just send me an email sometime." I winked, pleased with the blush it caused to spread across her cheeks. I wondered how her pale skin would look flushed, writhing on top of mine. Fucking perfection, that's what that would be.

She stood up, a smile on her face. "Or I could email you sometime. Or you could email me."

"I don't have your address."

She gave me a little shrug, which suggested that she wanted to be in touch. "That's no excuse. It's on the NYU website."

As I watched her walk out the coffee shop door, I froze, unsure of what I was feeling in my chest. It was tight in a way, and I was unsure what that meant. But I wanted her, desperately. I wanted to possess her in every way, and have her possess me as well. She was fucking perfect. A smart, incredibly smart, hot, piece of ass. And she didn't seem too crazy, or like a mad slut. Exactly what I was looking for.

I started home, but as I sat in front of my apartment building, I changed my mind. I wanted her. And I wasn't willing to wait until our schedules would allow another coffee meeting, or until she was ready to write something. Who knew when that would be?

I made my way to the office, determined to figure out where she lived. I rooted through a whole fining cabinet, until I found what I was looking for, and then cheered to myself, relieved that everyone had gone home for the day, because I knew our files weren't to be used for these purposes. Sookie would not have approved. But I had it. The mailing address that we'd sent payment for the review she'd done to. Brooklyn. Thank God I had GPS.

It was nearly eight when I finally pulled up to a rather ramshackle house in a shady part of town. I made sure to lock my car, before confidently striding up to the front door and knocking.

She answered, wearing a pair of oh, so tight jeans and a fitted blue sweater that made her hair look incredible. I'd never shagged a redhead before. I couldn't help but wonder if the drapes matched the carpet. I suppose that was something that most men would be curious about.

She peeked through the window beside the door, before opening it a crack, the chain in place. "Well, hello."

"Catherine Crawfield."

"Crispin Arthur Russell the Third," she giggled.

"Lovely evening." I glanced around. I was freezing my ass off. "Want to let me in then, perhaps have a chat."

"How did you find me, Crispin?" She said opening the door slightly and leaning in the doorway.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, I have my ways."

"Are you a stalker?" she asked, her face both playful and curious at the same time. "Because I think I know a bit too much about you for that, since you work with my colleague's wife."

"No Kitten, I'm just a fool for a beautiful woman. What do you say, want to invite me in?"

She shook her head, and snorted. "Kitten? Don't call me that. Oh, no. I really don't want to invite you in."

Maybe I'd been mistaken. But I didn't think so. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know you, beyond having shared a couple of lattes earlier today. Isn't that reason enough?"

"No," I replied bluntly.

"My mother hates the British. My Dad was British," she whispered, a huge smile on her face. "Go. I'll call you later." She reached in her pocket. "I have your card, after all."

That wasn't good enough. I hadn't come here to talk to her on the phone later. "Come with me," I said, glancing over her, to see a bitter looking brunette peering out the front window. "I want to buy you dinner."

"I shouldn't, and I already ate." She turned back, and saw her mum, and groaned. "Oh, what the hell. Let me get my coat."

She came back a few minutes later, and hopped into the front seat of my Mitsubishi Outlander. I hated the thing, but it was what came with the position, and since it was only a year old, I wasn't in much of a position to complain about it. She gave me a devilish look. "What now?"

"Well, you've already eaten, so I guess we can skip that formality." I raised my eyebrows.

She wasn't impressed, as indicated by her crossed arms over that lovely chest of hers. "I could have dessert, or a drink or something. I don't know where you get off, being so forward. We only met this morning. I'm not that kind of girl."

"You're the one that got into my car just now."

Cat raised an eyebrow. "I would have gotten in a car with Stalin if it got me away from my mother."

I looked at her, before breaking out in laughter. "What's so bad about her, Luv?"

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I don't have enough time to explain. Next time you faux kidnap me, I'll invite you in to meet her."

"I can kidnap you another time?" I looked at her and bit my lip.

She practically purred. "Well, we'll have to see how this round of captivity goes. I might run next time."

"I'd catch you. I'd find you wherever you went."

She smiled, before cracking up. "You know, if you weren't so charming, I'd probably be scared. I think it's the accent."

"That goes much further here than it does in the motherland."

"I bet it does. You've probably got a professor at every school on the eastern seaboard."

I'd shagged my fair share of professors, but not recently. Things got muddled when you had to work with people, and maintain some sort of professionalism, when all you wanted them to do was blow you. And then there was Annette. She had made shagging anyone hard, for a long time, with her batshit crazy behaviour. "Nah. I don't spend as much time with professors since I got the job here. In fact, the day I spent at NYU was my first on campus in nearly a year."

"I should be honoured then, that you chose me to break your one year academic fucking vacation?" She winked.

"You should be honoured because I like you enough to buy you dinner. The coffee was purchased with my expense account. I won't expense our dessert. Well, your dessert. I'm famished. I need a steak."

"How dreamy," she giggled. "And then what?"

"That, Kitten is up to you."

She looked at me thoughtfully. "Let's have dinner, and then we'll talk.

I listened intently, as she told me a bit about herself that she hadn't gotten into over our rather professional coffee earlier. We had some drinks. Eventually the conversation shifted to the two people we mutually knew.

Cat shrugged. "I think they're great together."

"Why?"

"Sookie's totally hot, and I heard that she slipped Eric's old boss nudy pictures of them when he tried to pin a mistress on him in Paris. That's a ballsy chick."

I shrugged. "I know. Sookie's great. It's him."

She shook her head. "I think you're wrong about him. He'd kill for her. Like I think he'd literally kill. You should have seen his office when I took it over in the fall. I found all these little bits of notes she'd written him, and he gets this little smile on his face when he gets to leave at the end of the day, like it's prison being away from them. Like he's busted out. He's got like eight pictures of her and the kids in his office, in all these weird little spots. And he's a really hands on dad. He's a hard ass at work, sure, but they're lovely together. Witty, and honest. It was refreshing. I don't think I've ever known a couple like them."

"I don't see it, but each to his own." I tipped back my Guinness. "So you missed last train, and I'm too drunk to drive you. I guess you'll have to be my captive a bit longer."

She looked at me, and it was apparent that she was hammered. "Maybe I will?"

We stumbled home, after I sent myself an email reminding myself where my car was. We made up two flights of stairs before I stuck my tongue down her throat. She didn't react badly, pushing hers back down mine, as we tried to move forward up the stairs. When we made it to three, I managed to pull my keys out of my pocket, and we both collapsed on the couch, and she pulled back slightly, when I pulled her onto my lap.

"I'm not sleeping with you," she slurred, slightly, before running her hands over my chest.

I kissed her again, before carrying her to my bed and tucking her in. "Not tonight. But you will. I'm a patient man, Kitten."

She glared at me, as I stripped off my suit and climbed in next to her. "I said, I'm not."

"Go to sleep. You're going to be hurting in the morning after those drinks. I hope you don't have an early class."

"I'm not teaching tomorrow," she whispered. "I'm going to go sleep on the couch."

"Do what you please, Luv." I couldn't resist. I kissed her again. "Goodnight."

She didn't move.

My alarm woke me up at the regular time, six, and I practically hurled it across the room. She was gone. I hadn't even heard her leave.

"Watch it." She growled, from the floor.

"What are you doing down there?"

"I told you I wasn't sleeping with you, but the couch was too far," she groaned.

I peered over the edge of the bed at her. She was a hot mess, her hair everywhere, clutching the extra pillow my from my bed. "No wonder I got some of the blankets back. I'm not going to work. Don't you dare tell Northman I was hungover. Sookie would have my hide."

"You don't tell Sookie I slept over. Eric wouldn't approve, and I want that full-time tenure track job."

I called in sick, and then looked at her, and shook my head. "You may as well get back in bed. We'll sleep it off together."

She stood up, and I tossed her a bottle of water. I always kept one near bed, from my former whoring days. Sometimes you just needed a drink, and were too spent to get out of bed for it. I moved over, as she crawled in. "Just sleeping."

"For now, Luv. For now."

It was nearly four in the afternoon when I woke up to her in my robe straddling my lap, her hair wet from a shower. I looked up at her, curiously surprised. "I won't be able to sleep with you sitting on me like that. I can't believe you got the drop on me. I'm usually much faster."

Her lips curled up into a smile. "Shut up, and fuck me."