And I'm back? Sort of? I hate leaving things unfinished, so I'm going to aim to finish this up over the next few weeks. I'm really sorry for the delay; life got really busy, and I got caught up in writing original stuff, which is kind of exciting. Anyway, here you go! There's about 4 chapters to go after this, which aren't written, but that are being mapped out in my brain right now!

Thanks for all your review love, and for your concern. I'm really fine. I post on my blog from time to time if you're looking for me as well!

Eric

The power came back on around ten the next morning, and we bundled up the kids and were home by lunch. Sookie was being unusually quiet, and when we finally got the kids settled, doing their various things, and I made sure none of the pipes cracked, I pulled her into our room and shut the door.

"What is it?" I asked, pulling her down on the bed. I knew her well enough to know when things were weird. She wasn't looking at me.

But that changed quite quickly, as she locked eyes with me. "You could have put Max in danger. Why the hell didn't you call the cops and go outside?"

I'd noticed her tossing and turning at Pam's but I'd chalked it up to her not sleeping well in a strange bed. "I didn't think about it, I guess."

She crossed her arms, and looked at me coldly. "You're a father, Eric. It's part of the package, this thinking thing. You could have both been hurt. You didn't know it was just Bones. You knew we weren't there. There was no reason for you to go in there."

I put my hands on my hips and looked at her hard. "You knew he was here, didn't you?"

"Of course I didn't."

"Really? You mean to tell me that he's been staying here for God knows how long and you knew nothing about it?"

"No, I didn't. It's not as though Bones and I have been as close as we were a while ago."

"When I wasn't here."

"You're really going to go there, over this." She looked at me deadpan. "Jesus, Eric."

It was one of those times in life where I probably should have just shut up. Apologized, even. But I didn't. In fact, I did quite the opposite. "It's nice, everyone keeping me in the dark on the little love nest in my basement. I told you, Sookie, I didn't want him in my house, on my property, in my end of town. And here he is, living in my basement."

Her face grew red, and I realized I was right. She'd known all along.

"I didn't know anything. I knew Cat was seeing someone, as of yesterday, but that's it. It."

"I don't believe you. And if you're lying about that, who the hell knows what else you haven't told me." And at that point, I knew I'd said too much. Gone too far. Way too far, after everything we'd been through, our separation, our earlier problems with Bones.

"I'm not doing this." She whispered. "You can't drag that up again. You trusted me, or at least I thought you did. I guess I was wrong. Why don't you go back to Pam's. Or, here's a better idea. I'll go back to Pam's." She glanced at her overnight bag, and before I knew what was happening, she'd pulled everything out of it from the last couple of days and repacked it, and was out the door, after kissing the kids goodbye.

It's funny, how quickly things completely fall apart. I don't know quite what I was expecting, her to come back the next night after work, but she didn't. She called the kids, but hung up when I took the phone from Max. I got an email the next morning, outlining a visitation schedule for the next two weeks, which seemed to indicate that she would be telecommuting from the Hamptons.

The first week went by really quickly, I guess because I was busy with things, but the loneliness was palpable during the time we usually spent together each day. We always brushed our teeth at the same time, curled up for Jeopardy on the couch, the mundane things that were vital pieces of our lives.

I didn't sleep much when she wasn't there, and for the first time, I got a taste of what it was like being a single parent, which wasn't fun at all. In fact, it was incredibly stressful. And I missed her, more than I had missed her in Paris, because it wasn't like we were just apart physically, there was a very real emotional disconnect as well. I really didn't think, at first, what I said should have gotten the reaction it did.

But she didn't give me the opportunity to ask for further explanation either. She didn't take my calls, and when she picked the kids up on the weekends, she uttered a quick hello for their sake and was gone again. Two weeks stretched into three, and it was late afternoon on a Friday when I decided I'd had enough. I called Stella, who I'd left completely in the dark on the situation to watch the kids, and drove down to the Hamptons.

It was now late April, and all the signs that spring was in the air were apparent. Flowers were in bloom, birds were singing, and we should have been looking forward to a rather relaxing summer together. I'd all but been given the job as Chair, pending official announcements in a couple of weeks, and she should have had most of July and half of August off. Instead, I was coping with a crying Ceci most nights and a stoic but obviously sad Max that knew way more than he was letting on. I wasn't sure what she told the kids when she had them on the weekends, but I'd just told them that Mom was really busy with work like I had been in the fall.

No one was buying that though. Stella had been incredibly weird when I left, and had given me a really big hug. I wondered if Sookie had called her. Pam knew, from me, but told me that Sookie hadn't been taking her calls either. We both decided that it would be immature to leave a message pretending there was a problem in the hopes that she'd call one of us back and actually talk to us. Cat had made me dinner a couple of nights, bringing it up and giving me a sympathetic smile when I'd thank her. I didn't ask her about Bones, and she didn't volunteer the information. She wasn't around much though, so I figured she was either at his place, or she was burying her nose in her work, or avoiding me. I wasn't exactly fun to be around.

I hadn't really stopped trying, resorting to leaving a long rambling message after putting the kids together telling her about my day, and apologizing for my running off at the mouth.

As I pulled into the driveway, I noted that Bill was there. A part of me was infuriated about that, even though I knew I had no right to be. They were friends. I was okay with them being friends. Better than okay, even. I'd encouraged it. I knocked, which felt odd at a place I considered my second home and after a few minutes, Sookie and Bill came to the door.

"Gee, Bill, I guess you better go," she said bitterly, shooting him a knowing look. "Don't want people to think anything inappropriate is going on, since I can't be trusted."

Bill looked at me apologetically. "Yes, Mother has dinner prepared. I'll give you a call next weekend and we'll get the kids together again?"

She nodded, and gave him a hug, still not acknowledging me. "Sounds good. I'll cook this time. My best to Selah?"

"Of course." He nodded, and gave me a smile. "Eric."

I nodded back, returning a less optimistic grin. "Bill."

He moved past me, and Sookie walked into the house, leaving the door open behind her. I took this as an indication that I was to follow her. She was wearing a vibrant pink tunic which brought out the beginnings of her summer tan, and she was thinner than she had been a few weeks ago. I didn't like to see that. A pang of guilt hit me in the gut.

"The house looks nice. You've been doing some gardening," I remarked, hoping I'd wake up, and she'd be gracious and genteel like she usually was. She was a great wife. The best wife I could have found. Far better than I deserved.

She sat down at the kitchen table and crossed her legs. "What are you doing here, Eric?"

I sat down across from her. She'd painted the kitchen. It was nice, an olivey shade that I wouldn't have chosen, but it worked. "I came to talk."

"About?"

"Our marriage? Our family? Those things?" I shrugged. "Throw me a bone here, Sook."

Her nostrils flared. "Throw you a bone? You want me to throw you a fucking bone? You spent the last three months going on like everything was fine when you thought I was fucking around on you. You never got over that stupid kiss, which I told you about right away and didn't initiate. After eight years, you think I'm just going to up and take someone else's side and disregard your feelings?"

"I'm sorry."

"You should be fucking sorry," She spat. "We had this perfect fucking life, and then you upped and vanished for four months and left a path of doubt behind. You didn't have to go. We could have figured it out."

I stood up and contemplated leaving, because I had nothing to say to that. I'd been so caught up in making everything perfect, with my schedule and professional life that I'd forgotten that things were already as perfect as they could have been. And it was right then and there that it hit me. I could have lost it all.

So I just said how I felt. "I'm sorry," I whispered, moving closer to her, close enough to see the early tears in her eyes. She was angry, hurt, frustrated, and sad. And it was all completely unnecessary, and my fault, to boot. I'd missed a lot. Her challenges with her new jobs, new responsibilities, all while having single parenting duties thrust on her as well. And an absentee husband, that was needy as fuck. And in a single misplaced line, I'd dredged all that shit up again, ripe for the processing. Because I wasn't over it.

Come hell or high water though, I was going to find a way to be.

She pushed my hand away as reached for her cheek before standing and looking up, way up at me, the anger still flashing in her eyes. "I want you to go."

In her voice though, there was the slightest bit of hesitation. And like the last dead leaves that held onto their trees through the winter, I clung to that as I forcefully picked her up and set her on the table, and pulled her into my chest.

"No. I'm not going anywhere."

"Fuck you," she said, with even more hesitation. "Go home."

"I am home," I replied, as my lips found hers.

Sookie

I hated that I'd married such an attractive man sometimes. Hated it. I wrapped my legs around his hips, and without a word, our lips still stuck together, he carried me to our room. After he set me on the bed, I stood up again and roughly undid his fly and pushed his pants down. I wanted him, so badly, I had for weeks, but I was just so angry. Angry about everything that had happened in the last year that I'd shoved down, deep down, but was still bubbling away, threatening to spill over each and every day. I'd known he wasn't over it. Eric Northman wasn't the type to get over someone else coveting what was his.

And as he slammed me against the headboard and pulled me down onto his face, I reaffirmed what I already knew. No one made me feel the way did. Not just sexually, either. No one frustrated me the way he did, made me furious I thought I was going to explode, or made me as happy. And right now, those were hard things to reconcile.

We didn't look at each other, as he repositioned himself and pressed his chest against my back, pushing into me a little rougher than he did when we were being sweet, and not as hard as he did when we were fucking. There was a bit of hesitation in his movement, as if he expected me to change my mind at any minute and tell him to get the fuck out.

The inclination had been there earlier in the evening, but as he wrapped an arm securely around my chest and kissed my neck, whispering how much he loved me, and how sorry he was, all while making me shiver with his cock and well placed other hand, my resolve to never ever speak to him again faded and I began doing what I knew deep down I wanted to do, which was work things out and move forward.

But we needed to do it right.

He came with a shudder, moments after I did, and I sat back on his knees, as he shrank inside me. We sat there for quite some time, not saying a word, his arms wrapped tightly around my chest. I could the familiar rise and fall of his chest against my back and his breath on my neck.

"I think you should go," I whispered, climbing off his lap and walking to the bathroom, locking the door behind me when it all became too much.

It hurt like a motherfucker, when I decided I couldn't go back that first morning at Pam's. I'd started off wanting to make a point about his jealously with Bones, until I realized that it all ran far deeper than that. His willingness to up and leave us in the hopes of furthering his academic career, his lack of trust in me, and my ability to not only be faithful to him, but to be honest with him about things that were important. Bones living in our basement, after everything? That wasn't something I would have lied to him about.

He was a good dad, and I knew his lapse in judgement with Max had been just that, and I knew better than to do something rash like leave my family over a hypothetical situation. But this wasn't that, and our kids deserved two parents who were honest with each other, not two parents that simply paid lip service to the building blocks of a relationship, like trust and honesty. Right now, Eric and I weren't those people. We had been, sure, but somewhere, maybe in Paris, or maybe even in the Upper East Side, we'd lost that, and had been going through the motions, relying on our chemistry to keep us going.

But there was more to being married than chemistry.

He was dressed and sitting at the kitchen table when I emerged from the bathroom, flipping through a proposal I was approving before he came.

"I'll be back, you know," was his reply to my earlier statement.

"I know," I said, pulling my robe tightly around me. "But I'd like you to go now."

He stood and nodded, locking eyes with me as he walked past. "Answer the phone when I call please? I worry about you, out here by yourself."

"I'm fine."

"Neither of us are fine, Sookie. Send me a text, or something if you don't want to talk. But we need to talk."

"I know," I replied, as he walked out the door and I fought every urge I had to ask him to stay so we could wake up together, go for a walk on the beach, make pancakes like we did in the summer. Be us again. The us of less than a year ago. It was amazing how quickly things could go to shit.

He gave me a little nod, and a sad smile as he climbed in his SUV. "Goodnight."