Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Southern Vampire Mysteries Universe.

A/N: Wow! We've reached the one fifth mark. I'd like to thank everyone who is reading this for all your support and great reviews. Really, it's overwhelming (in a good way, of course). I hope you continue to enjoy the next 80 chapters as well. This chapter is a scene from Dead and Gone from Eric's point of view.

Theme 20: Fortitude

POV: Eric

Rating: T

Proud of You

I stood, staring at the door to her room, trying to determine what would be the best course of action once I entered. I didn't have much time to contemplate my actions, because the door I was staring at suddenly swung open and I was assaulted by the divine scent that is fairy. As Claudine stepped away to collect her things, Sookie became visible to me and I to her.

The fairy moved past me out the door and I moved beside Sookie's bed to gaze down upon her. Her face was a terrible mixture of colors, bruising mainly purple with patches of blue, green and yellow. The cuts added shades of red and brown to the mix. Though I tried hard to contain it, I'm sure the rage I felt showed clearly upon my face. Unable to help myself, I snarled, "Fucking fairies."

Though I could tell it cost her she whispered, "Dead now."

I knew that I should take some satisfaction in that fact, but I could only wish that I had been the one who had killed them, "Yes. A fast death was too good for them."

I expected some resistance to this statement but Sookie merely nodded in agreement. That told me all I needed to now. They had hurt her so much more than any of us could see. She had received injuries that I would be unable to heal. Others, though, I could at least help with, "I'm going to look at your wounds."

"Okay," she winced as she said it, though I could tell it was not from the pain of her wounds this time. She did not really want me looking at her. She felt unattractive and undesirable now. It was with some relief that I noted she was willing to trust me enough to see her in such a state.

I pulled down the sheets and blanket and asked her to pull up her hospital gown. Before she even attempted to move, I realized she wasn't capable of even that simple action and I did it for her.

If I were human, I would have sucked in a breath at the sight before me. The bruises and cuts were just the beginning. Among these were a scattering of deep bite marks and areas where chunks of flesh were missing. Oddly enough, the rage disappeared with the sight of all this damage. What I felt now was pride. I was proud of Sookie for hanging on, for surviving. If she had been an ordinary human, she would have surely died, maybe even killed herself. However, even without fairy blood, Sookie was a rather remarkable human being. Her will to survive and endure was so vastly beyond any other human of my acquaintance.

After I had taken a full inventory of her injuries, I covered her up. I needed to heal her, but I would need to replenish afterwards, "I'll be back in a minute." Once I was out of the room, I moved as quickly as I could to fetch the bottles of TrueBlood I would need and returned to her room just as quickly.

When I reached her side, I placed the bottles on the floor and instructed her to move over. In response, she gazed up at me in confusion. More impatiently than I meant to, I repeated my instructions. For the second time that night, I realized that, extraordinary or not, she was still mostly human and much more fragile than any supernatural being. She didn't have the strength to move herself. As gently as I could, I slid an arm behind her back and one under her knees and slid her to one side, before climbing onto the bed next to her.

Now was the time to be blunt, "I'm going to feed you."

"What?" she still had that confused look upon her face.

"I'm going to give you blood," I clarified, "You'll take weeks to heal otherwise. We don't have that kind of time." Finally, it seemed, she understood. In any case, I felt her start to relax next to me. I tore into my wrist with my fangs and held it up to her mouth, "Here."

I raised her up so she wouldn't choke as my blood slid down her throat. She drank more greedily than I have ever known her to. If the circumstances had been different, I would have been elated. As it was, all I felt was a sense of urgency. At one point, my wrist healed, and I reopened the wound. At this point, Sookie momentarily pulled away and asked, with effort, "Are you sure you should do this?"

"Yes," I said, "I know how much is too much. And I fed well before I came here. You need to be able to move." I was only being partially honest. I did know how much was too much, but if she needed it, I would gladly have given her every drop of blood in my body. She would surely be the final death of me.

Sookie, meanwhile seemed to have no idea what I was actually thinking, she was fixated on what I had said. Anxiously, she repeated, "Move?"

I knew she was worried that she would still be too weak to move. She had also thought she was safe here and was frightened to learn she might not be. As much as I would have liked to protect her, she had to know the truth, so I explained to her that the fairies would now be able to track her by the scent of the fairies who had tortured her and that their knowing of Niall's affection for her would make them only too happy to track her down and finish what had been started.

In the middle of my explanation, she pulled her mouth away from my wrist and broke down in tears. Her tears hurt me almost as much as the sight of what the fairies had done to her, but I had to remain practical to keep her alive, so, stroking her cheek, I used a firm but gentle voice, reserved only for her, "Stop that now. You must be strong. I'm very proud of you, you hear me?"

I had never been more honest in my life. Her resilience made me more proud of her than I think I had ever been of anyone before in my existence. She didn't seem to believe me though, for she asked, pleadingly, "Why?'

"You are still together; you are still a person." I answered her honestly, as she began to drink from my wrist again, "Lochlan and Neave have left vampires and fairies in rags – literally, rags…but you survived and your personality and soul are intact."

She straightened up long enough to retort, "I got rescued," before returning to my wrist.

"You would have survived much more." I answered as I reached for one of the bottles of TrueBlood, and I knew that I spoke the truth.

"I wouldn't have wanted to," she pulled completely away from me now, to look up at me, "I hardly wanted to live after…."

I interrupted that train of thought by placing a kiss on her forehead, "But you did live. And they died. And you are mine, and you will be mind. They will not get you."

I had to believe that. I had to believe in her will to live and my ability to protect her from now on. I had to believe in the fortitude of our combined strengths, now more than ever because the future had just become more dangerous than I was willing to let on, and the alternative was something I couldn't stand to think about. No matter what happened now, I had to believe that we would endure it. Together.

A/N: Next theme is "Vacation."