Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

Sookie's Revelation

III.

We had worked out an agreement with respect to my work schedule on the fifth day. Felipe had forwarded my funds for the Rhodes conference the day before. Eric didn't see why I needed to go back to work. I had my money. I look back on it now and think of how incredibly tolerant of me Eric can be at times. He's clearly not used to anyone arguing with him about anything.

We had argued for hours even before getting to his office. Eric had tried really hard to convince me to either get another job in Shreveport or simply not work for a while. He even showed me the LSU Campus in Shreveport's website in the office. Go to college he said. I had to admit, the thought of going to college, even if just starting online, was tempting. But I was not about to quit my job of the past five years because my boyfriend of five days asked me to. I think Eric actually broke something he was holding when I said that. I was getting too angry to pay much attention to it and I was resentful of what really felt like his trying to control my life. It's a good thing the bar was so noisy outside that office.

What had started out as a simple discussion about work and living arrangements was turning into a pitched battle. I tried to calm down, so that maybe he would calm down. When he was calmer, I was able to ask him why he was so upset with the idea of my returning to Merlotte's. I was safe there, with Sam, in my small hometown, where even if they thought I was crazy, I was their crazy girl and those same people had saved me more than once. They'd staked Charles Twining after pulling him off me, for instance. Bill lived there and had protected me again and again. And Sam protected me. He was a great boss.

Basically, according to Eric, it came down to this: "I'm angry at Sam. He didn't do what I asked him to do. I don't trust him. I don't like any brand of shifter in the first place, but he seems to think he owns a piece of you."

The language in Eric's head was far stronger. I guess he was still rehashing some of the "rather harsh things" he had had to say to Sam the night I was such a basket case at Fangtasia. I tried to shield myself from this stuff. It wasn't pretty. There was also the overlay of ownership, mine, on the whole thing that I couldn't quite grasp.

Sam was probably really my best friend. He'd known me for years, loved me as I am, had protected me when I needed it and had even been willing to accept my dating not one, but now two, vampires, and he didn't particularly like vampires. But he accepted that I did.

I tried the easing the jealousy angle first. Eric was extremely possessive and I was beginning to see clearly (or rather hear it) that it wasn't really just the mine issue with him. It seemed beyond the whole vampire mine thing. Maybe he was really possessive in his human life, or maybe it was a deeply embedded cultural thing for him. I couldn't say, but I also couldn't stand it right now.

"Eric, he's my best friend. He knows I'm in love with you. He's probably known it even longer than I've known it. There is simply nothing for you to be jealous of, and you're sounding jealous. He does own a piece of me. He's my friend. He's never said a bad word of you, except in your presence, that time about Calvin. He's always been so supportive, even when he disagrees with me. He gave me all this time off so I could sort things out with myself, with you."

"Sookie, he gave you all this time off because I told him I was going to rip his fucking throat out and feed him to my staff!!! I could have lost you because of his not telling me what was going on with you. He has been repaying his debt to me over the loan of the bartender by watching you for almost a year. He's done a rotten job of it! He let you get involved in that damn Were pack war, and then he let you get practically suicidal because of Niall's 'little mistake'." He then continued on in his head. Again, not pretty. Still not very fond of Niall, either it seems. Ugh! The visions… But now I was drafting off of his anger.

"Eric, Jesus Christ! Charles Twining tried to kill me! You sent him a bartender who tried to KILL ME! Sam owes you nothing. And he didn't LET me do anything, I CHOSE to go to help Alcide and Patrick because it's a free country. And don't you dare speak about Sam that way to me!"

It was obvious this was not, absolutely not, making things better. I got that idea in part because Eric was now standing over me at his full height with his fangs almost fully run down, practically growling, while his eyes bored holes into mine. For once, I didn't need to be a mind reader.

I tried evasion by completely changing course. I'd take a positive position. I was going to work tomorrow.

"Eric, we need to stop this. Can we just go home soon? It's late. We can have fabulous makeup sex, but I have to work lunch tomorrow so I have to be in Bon Temps by 10:45 am, dressed and ready for work. I want to be asleep by 5 am."

"I don't want you to work for him, Sookie. I don't want you to." Cold, cold voice. Arms crossed, fangs down, head shaking, sapphire blue eyes with flying sparks.

I swallowed hard. Damned if I was going to let my lover intimidate me out of going to work in the morning. "Well, Eric, with all due respect, I'm going to work at Merlotte's until I don't want to work at Merlotte's and I can tell you right now that you're getting me mad enough to make me want to sign a contract to work for Sam for the next damn year! I've never liked your telling me what to do, and so it shouldn't be a surprise to you that I still don't like it now, either."

I had to pull way back from his mind at this point because there was a whole lot of stuff going on in there that showed precisely why I did not want to be able to read my boyfriend's mind. I was getting slightly better at shielding his thoughts, but I still got some of it because I had come to the conclusion that as vampires go, Eric was probably one strong broadcaster.

I paused for a moment to think about the fact that I was actually arguing with a vampire. A rather large one, at that. Maybe there's more to having some fae blood than I realized because the human side of me should have been scared as hell. Maybe I was just too mad about my job situation to be scared.

We continued like this for another 2 hours or more. I did not get to sleep by 5 am sharp, but I did arrive on time at Merlotte's, dead tired, har har. The only reason I even bother revisiting the entire scene in my mind is because Pam knocked on the door at that point, to bring something in to Eric. As she swept by me, I was stunned to hear,

"Well, you got to give her credit. She really is as crazy as they think she is over in Bon Temps… I'm surprised he hasn't killed her. But she's right, she does better when she's happy."

Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea! Am I just cursed?!

On the positive side, Pam gave me the key. I really do do better when I'm happy. And that was one thing that Eric just couldn't argue about. After hours of arguing, I simply turned to Eric in bed (and we hadn't even made up yet) and asked him if he truly wanted me to be happy or not.

We finally settled on my early days having me coming back to stay with him in Shreveport and my late days having him come to Bon Temps, with days off in Shreveport. I would let him completely light proof my bedroom for the time being and he could renovate the house to create a safe and reasonably spacious dark space, as well as soundproofing some rooms, installing an alarm system. He would let Amelia and Octavia ward his house in Shreveport, including strong wards against fire, since I still hadn't gotten over the burning of that vamp house near Bon Temps.

Eric said I was the most difficult person he's ever had to argue with because he couldn't just kill me. He said that the strongest reason he could think of for not ever turning me is that he wouldn't want to have any one around for eternity with him who could argue as much as I did since that he'd just be punishing me for decades at a time and he'd hate that. I tried to laugh it off.

So I told him I loved him. And then I teased him by calling him Mr. January, which made him laugh.

We made up.

Meanwhile, back in the darkest corner of my mind, I was holding out hope that I could only read Pam because I could read Eric and she was Eric's child. Maybe Bill would come by to say hello when I worked a night shift. Part of me wanted to see if I could read Bill. I knew I absolutely couldn't before. I needed to know how disastrous the situation was. Because Eric was clearly not planning to stop providing me with a healthy dose of his blood, as he'd just done it again only an hour before. Continually having to shield and parse everything to make sure I really heard it out loud rather from Eric's head (and now Pam's?) would be exhausting. I was used to it with humans, but this was much more serious business. For the past two nights I had been avoiding the Fangtasia vamp staff entirely out of fear for what I might find in the crowded bar with all those many voices and the fear I'd slip and make a mistake.

But most of all, I wondered how much longer I could keep this from Eric. Even more than my worries about what he might do or say, I felt in my heart that I was betraying his trust in me. In the midst of all my happiness and feelings of real love, I felt sad keeping something so important from him. He had once said to me that I needed to improve my sense of self-preservation. Perhaps I was. But I wasn't liking it. Or liking myself.