You will find that this chapter somehow has a better flow while you're reading it. I have to thank murgatroid for all the work she's put in to beta this. Without her, Eric and Sookie would be grunting like trolls.

The niggling feeling I had in the back of my mind after my conversation with Claude had me working for hours on Hadley's computer. With my limited computer skills, I was proud of the progress I'd made. Though I was far from a definitive answer, I knew I was onto something.

My finger paused on the enter button. If I pressed it I might be opening up some old scars for Eric, maybe something he wouldn't care to remember after all these years; and how would he deal with it? But that would only be the case if my theory panned out. If the answer came back as something totally different, then my theory was wrong and I would be none the wiser. I was just gathering facts at this stage and wouldn't have a problem until I knew more.

With a click of the button, the email was sent. The reply would turn my world upside down – or not.

The ringing doorbell startled me and I looked up at the clock. Shit! I had totally forgotten about going with Eric to the Red Ladies. I wanted to go into town to see if my telepathy was in 'normal' mode. As much as I hated my disability my whole like, having it work on and off, and on selected species, was a royal pain. It reminded me of an even bigger pain I had to deal with, a pain who was six foot five, blonde, and not ten feet away.

Luckily, I'd already taken my shower and had my hair combed out. All I needed to do was hop into bar/club appropriate clothes and I'd be ready. Of course, that meant nothing I had would fit. Shit. I opened the door and left it ajar for Eric, and went into my room. I made him wait while I picked out something to wear. I thought he deserved it after the way he left the night before. Eventually, I found a pair of jeans that were a little too big when I bought them, but were now snug. I added a black, loose, sleeveless top that was currently in fashion and dressed it up with jewelry and some make-up. Like it or not, I was as club ready as my pregnant self would ever be.

Eric was pacing slowly by the doorway. He knew better than to bug me at a time like this. He always knew what to do, even before we had the bond—a bond that was now diluted.

Eric's eyes widened but only nodded with approval when I walked out of the room. Gee, talk about tension.

"You ready?"

"As I will ever be."

I knew I should warn him that my telepathy might not be reliable, but I hadn't heard a peep from the critters during the day. I could only assume things were back to normal—well, back to the way they were. All I planned to do was scope out the place to see if it needed further investigation. Eric, or Oberon, couldn't show his face there because we didn't know whether he'd be welcomed or killed. We also couldn't risk any vampire, were or human who owed fealty to Pam finding out about the link between Eric and Oberon. It was up to me. This was just a fact finding mission; there shouldn't be any danger. It was nothing compared to the witch war or the Long Tooth pack master contest. In fact, it's totally harmless by comparison.

We were halfway to Dallas where the stretch of road looked longer in the dusk. The sunset was orange, burning into almost teal and then indigo before turning into night. It had been a long time since I saw something so beautiful, and I wasn't in a mood to share it with Eric.

A shadow scuttled across the road in front of us and Eric hit the brakes. Hard. Goddam desert and its armadillos!

"Are you ok?" Eric said.

Yeah, I'm alright," I answered, my heart pounding. I waited for the car to start again. It didn't. A semi-trailer thundered by, blasting us with its baritone horn.

"Are you sure you feel ok?" Eric asked quite sternly. It was then I understood that Eric was concerned about my condition, being a month or two pregnant – you know.

"I'm fine Eric, nothing's dropped out. Can we start moving before somebody rear ends us?"

Eric shifted the car into gear and we were on our way again. He drove notably slower than was his habit. If that wasn't an opening for me to broach the subject, I didn't know when I'd get another chance—so, what the heck.

"So, how do you feel about becoming a father…?" I was about to say 'again' but decided to drop it at the last minute. Unless some of Eric's human children had become vampires, they were nothing but ghosts in the memory of one very old vampire. Meanwhile, Oberon had a child for whom he should be paying child support. 'Again' could imply any number of things fitting no modern social standard. Our situation was unique and 'again' did not apply.

His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. He took a deep breath and waited.

Alright. We were keeping silent.

After a few minutes of further silence Eric suddenly blurted "I don't know. I didn't plan for this."

My first reaction was to say, "You think I did?" But knowing Eric and how hard he seemed to be taking the situation; I understood that he literally meant he had no plan to deal with it. For someone who'd had a plan for everything in a thousand years, I guessed it would be like asking USCIS to deal with a Martian invasion.

The only sensible thing was to ask him what he had planned for our bizarre situation.

"I didn't plan for you to bear a child, Sookie. I've been meaning to tell you this as soon as things were finalized. Pam and I finally came up with a viable plan to kill Felipe."

I was a little surprised that if he came up with a plan to kill Felipe and Victor that he hadn't already told me, but I just kept my mouth and listened.

"Actually it was you that gave us the inspiration." Eric grinned that funny grin of his that still left a little room for his fangs.

"I did?"

"You brought our attention to COD, the strange vampire disease that's been sweeping the nation. Pam went to New Orleans for an emergency meeting with Felipe about it yesterday and of course, he's absolutely paranoid about it. Pam said he doesn't show it, but from the wards around the compound and the disinfectant that Pam could smell when she was there, she could tell he's scared. That was when we came up with the idea that we could weaken his security, strong vampires around him by bringing in some infected vampires."

That just sounded evil.

"Do you know anything about this disease? How contagious is it? Is it only vampires who get infected?" I also had touchier questions, like if humans could get infected. And what about all the innocent vampires in Felipe's compound? Would we kill any of our friends?

"There haven't been any reports about human contamination while vampires are dropping like flies. There's already been a mass exodus from the heavily populated cities like New York and Los Angeles but that only makes it spread faster. Mexico has reported an alarming rate of infection in the last week."

"Oh my God Pam!" I couldn't keep the horror out of my voice, as sheriff Pam probably met with dozens of vampires a day. Especially those petitioning to live in the area.

"She hadn't been admitting any new vamps in the past month. It seems Shreveport is not the first place anybody flees, so we're safe for the time being."

It didn't take me long to figure out Eric's role in all this. "You're the human who's going to introduce the new vamps to Nevada!" Nooooooooo way. This plan sucked. Big time.

"I'm just going to befriend them and offer them money to stay in the compound a few days, that's all it takes."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? What if they EAT you?" I realized I never had to worry about him like this before.

"Pam already has two targets in mind, new vamps who had just started to show signs of the rash. They're so young they still have immediate family alive. I'll approach them offer them money for the family they leave behind and we'll fly them to Vegas to work at the compound."

"As what? If Felipe is freaked out about the new disease he can't be admitting new vamps into his work or home."

"But Victor is. These two vamps fit his taste perfectly." I hated to think what that could possibly mean, so I didn't. Hold on one minute, even if I didn't find this plan repulsive and fraught with danger on Eric's part, what did this have to do with my pregnancy? Eric dying would be bad, but that would be bad regardless. Of course, Pam and Eric would have thought of the possibility of him getting gravely hurt, but she couldn't send any of her vamps with him because they'd risk infection. They obviously couldn't risk sending Weres on a mission to basically implant a biological weapon in the King of Nevada's camp. Word spreads so fast in the supe community that Pam, and in turn Eric and I, would be dead before sunrise. Knowing Pam, and especially Eric, they wouldn't just send him into such danger without an exit plan. Somehow my being pregnant had thrown a wrench in it.

I gasped so I had trouble catching my breath. This was just plain crazy. "You were going to let Pam turn you if you get hurt in this plan? Are you insane?"

"It was always the plan," Eric said, matter-of-factly.

I stared at my shoes while I gathered my thoughts. It was so stupid of me to have never contemplated this at all. I was so happy at having Eric back that I never thought any further. Of course being human wouldn't have been Eric's end game. Why stay human when you could have super speed and strength, and be able to glamour people again? Heck, he'd probably be able to fly again, too.

And, where did I fit in all this? Why would I have a problem with it? I was with him when he was a vampire. I mourned the death of a vampire. I could see why Eric would think I'd rejoice in getting a vampire back. Why didn't I think of this earlier? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"And now there's the baby," I said. For the first time I acknowledged out loud that I was going to have this baby. I was pregnant with the man I love and saw no reason why I shouldn't bear his child. The timing wasn't the greatest, but there are always bad times in life. What were we going to do then, ditch the kid whenever there was a crisis? But, all that was before I found out Eric was going to be turned back into a vampire.

Eric took my hand and rested it on his lap while his eyes remained on the road. "You could keep the baby you know – if that's what you want. I know you like children, the child Hunter, you really enjoy his company."

"And how do you propose you're going to be a father to the baby?"

"It's been a long, long time."

My frustration had reached a pinnacle. It was so unlike Eric not to think things through; in fact, he'd over-thought things to the nth degree before. I knew he'd been a vampire much, much longer than he'd ever been human, but could he have genuinely become so detached he couldn't remember the differences?

"What kind of father would a newly turned vampire can be? The blood-lust, the sex-drive – I can't even trust you around me, let alone children!"

"I think… I would be able to control it."

"Are you going to bank your family on that?"

His eyes flickered at the word family. Yeah Eric, that's what we're going to be when I have this baby.

Eric slowed the car and veered into the left lane. After a big sign that said "Tattoo", was the neon glow of the Red Ladies. The sign had the red outline of a woman kicking her leg into the air. It was nearly ten in the evening when we pulled into the parking lot. A few trucks were parked outside, but I didn't expect things to get swinging until around midnight. Since we had several months to discuss the topic at hand, and I didn't think it would do either of us any good to bicker in the parking lot, I opened the car door to do what I was there for.

"Wait a minute Sookie."

I turned and stared what I hope was daggers at him; I never took him for a sissy.

Eric just let that slide like water over marble. "We have to wait. Pam and I had to get in touch with some Weres in the Dallas area to go in with you. There's no way I'd let you go in there alone now."

Oh, okay.

It was only a few moments until we saw a middle aged man of about fifty with dark and leathery skin like he was out in the sun a lot his whole life. Next to him was what I could only describe as younger but lesser version of the older one. His chin was weaker and covered by a pathetic goatee to compensate. Where the older man was lean but weathered the younger one was soft and pudgy. I can safely assume that they're related but very different people.

"Sookie, that's them." Eric nodded over to the two men, "Horace and Dwayne Newbridge. Father and son. They're from the Dallas wolf pack and they're here just to keep an eye on you. All you have to do is nod at them when you walk past and they'll know it's you they're suppose to protect tonight. You won't even need to talk to them. Do you have any questions?"

"None." This whole thing should be simple. As I left the car for the second time Eric grabbed my hand.

"You're just here to see if you can pick up anything about Oberon. You get out of there the minute you think something is wrong."

I couldn't help feeling something in my heart melt. Love wasn't a problem in our relationship, it was everything else. Having my disability my whole life I wondered why I ever thought anything would be simple for me. I gave Eric's hand a little squeeze and headed into the Red Ladies strip club.