A/N: The biggest complaints I've been getting are my transcriptions. I guess my reasoning behind them was I didn't want to assume you all had watched the show as often or obsessively as I have, but now I realize that was a really silly assumption. =) Hopefully, the remaining chapters will be more pleasing. While I still use certain scenes, they will no longer remain true to the show or borrow so much dialog—although honestly, I'm sure it will still happen some. Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really appreciate your comments and critiques. Please keep them coming. Take care, Manda
Thanks to my wonderful beta for all her hard work on this chapter and for letting me plagiarize a few lines from her. You're the best, Christina! =)
Legal: Not mine! Thanks to CH and AB for letting me play. Please don't sue.
~xoxo~
It was cold. Too cold. And dark. Sookie was disoriented for a moment as she tried to place her surroundings. The ground was hard. She fumbled in her pockets until she found her cell. The phone lit up when she hit a button but it was scarcely enough light to see more than a few inches from the phone. And no signal to boot meant the phone was pretty much useless.
It wasn't like her to get scared of nothing but not knowing where she was made her very nervous. She wasn't bound, she noted to calm herself as she stood. That was a good sign. She took a breath and tried to remain calm. Panicking would not be helpful. Unless it would. Wherever she was, panicking might bring her vampires to the rescue. Did she want to be rescued?
No, she was in no immediate danger, she reasoned as she continued stumbling along in the dark, trying to find any clue as to where she was. There was nothing. In any direction she looked. No light. No warmth. No sound. It was cold and dark. She was on hard, flat ground. That was all she knew. This couldn't be right. Where was she?
She tried to think back. The last thing she could remember clearly was having a sit down conversation with Bill and Eric. Sookie sighed. That had not gone anything like she thought it might have. Bill had been evasive and Eric, well, he'd been almost too agreeable. It was strange.
Still, Godric seemed to think she could trust the Viking. Sookie trusted Godric. How could she not? He had no apparent agenda. If anything, he seemed to want only to make a positive impact on the world. Maybe the saying could be transferred from "like father, like son" to like maker, like child? Maybe. Or maybe she was kidding herself and being overly naïve again.
One thing she couldn't seem to deny was the physical attraction. Eric was gorgeous. Bill was sweet, handsome, old-fashioned. Sookie liked Bill's southern charm. But Eric… He was too much, too sexy. If she'd had blood from both, shouldn't she be equally attracted to both? She wasn't. Bill was the guy you brought home to meet the family but Sookie didn't have any family left. Eric was the guy you had those kind of dreams about. The tall blond god of a man. The Viking. Ah! This train of thought was so not helpful!
She sighed. She'd been walking for a few minutes now but she didn't seem to be getting anywhere at all. They always say that when you're lost, you should just stay in one place and wait to be found. Didn't they? Sookie sat down again in the cold and the dark on the hard ground.
Some plan of action this was turning out to be. She couldn't even decide if she wanted to go or stay. When had things gotten so complicated? Since when were there so many choices to make? She was tired. She needed to rest.
She needed to find out where she was. She needed to make a choice. If only Gran were here. If only she could truly trust someone. But there was no one. It was only Sookie. She was all alone in the dark. She took a deep breath and thought about that for a moment. She was alone but not scared. Other than the uncertainty of where she was and where she wanted to go, she was mostly at peace. For however long she had been wherever it turned out that she was, there had been no emergencies, no life-threatening disasters, and no need to drink vampire blood. It was simple here, wherever here was. In a weird sense, she kind of liked it.
Sookie lay back against the cold, hard ground and closed her eyes. The ground was very uncomfortable but she tried to relax her muscles anyway. As she felt herself begin to relax, the ground seemed a little softer. The dark on the other side of her eyelids seemed a little brighter. She felt a little warmer. Rolling on her side and opening her eyes, Sookie found herself in her bed in the hotel.
She was disoriented. Had it been a dream? Was this real? It felt more like she was just really relaxed and thinking somewhere quiet. It was too lucid (thank you word-a-day calendar) to be a dream. She stretched and climbed out of bed. She had taken a nap. It must have been a dream but it was too real and too memorable. Normally dreams got fuzzy when she woke, but this one seemed more like a memory of what she was doing five minutes ago. Besides, it didn't make any sense. Why would she dream about nothing?
A huge yawn stretched her mouth wide open and she stretched out her body as far as she could, reaching her finger tips toward the ceiling. Too weird. A glance at the clock told her she'd best get ready for Godric's arrival. She'd have to sort out the cold, dark, calm place later.
Still feeling a bit disoriented, Sookie slipped into a nice soft sundress and pulled her hair up in her usual high ponytail. She straightened the sofa cushions and double-checked to be sure that the minibar was stocked. Her guests would be here soon and she was determined to be the good host Gran had taught her to be, whether she felt like entertaining or not.
Finally satisfied that everything looked nice, she slipped into the bathroom to touch up her makeup. Just as she was reapplying her lipstick, she heard a knock on the door. She clicked the cap on the tube and headed out to greet the first guest.
She hoped Godric would be first to arrive. He might have some insight on this weird not-dream place. She should have known better. Opening the door, it was Bill she found there. Sookie took a deep breath and stepped aside. It wasn't worth the argument to her right then. Perhaps he was a guest of Godric's. If not, she could always ask him to leave later.
Bill stepped inside and turned back to her as she closed the door. She was feeling confused and annoyed. He didn't want to annoy her. He wanted to fix this.
"How can I fix this?" he blurted out before he could think.
"Be honest with me," she told him simply before moving around him to sit down.
"I love you, Sookie," he told her as he knelt at her feet.
"It's not enough, Bill. You love the idea of me, not the real me."
"That's not true, Sookie."
"Yes, it is. If you loved me the way I am, you'd understand what's important to me. You would let me make my own choices. It's not 1865 anymore, Bill."
"You're right. I know you are. I'm sorry. I've been a fool for treating you like that, Sookie, but I do love you. Give me a chance. Let me make this right."
"Of course, Bill. I want this to work," she told him, gesturing between them, "but I can't do it alone. You have to be honest with me."
Bill nodded and smiled, satisfied with her answer. He leaned up to kiss her and she was trying to decide whether to let him when a knock at the door provided a welcome interruption. Bill smiled and slid back to allow her to stand and answer the door.
Godric, Isabel, and Eric were at the door when opened it.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Sookie," Godric greeted her as she stepped back to allow them entrance.
"You're welcome, Godric," she answered, leading them into the sitting room where Bill had already made himself comfortable.
"Ah, Mr. Compton," Godric began as he sat on the couch across from him, "How nice to see you again."
"It is an honor, Sheriff," Bill replied with a polite nod before regarding his own sheriff. "Eric," he said simply with a quick nod.
"Bill," Eric returned the greeting as he took a seat in the single chair at the foot of the couches as Isabel joined Godric on his couch.
Sookie, for her part, was relieved at the lack of confrontation so far. She'd be so embarrassed if Bill and Eric had words in front of Godric and Isabel.
"Can I get ya'll anything?" Sookie asked, but each vampire politely refused. "Well, how many guests are you expecting, Godric?"
"I would guess at least three. I am sorry for the imposition."
"No, it's not that at all. I was just wonderin' if we needed more chairs."
"Probably not," Godric responded as the hotel room door swung open violently without even the courtesy of a knock.
Staring at the tall blond vampire that had just barged into her room, Sookie realized it was Nan Flanagan from the television. She was flanked on either side by vampires that were undoubtedly her bodyguards. She marched across the room as if she owned it as Godric stood to greet her.
Sookie slipped quietly to the door and closed it softly before standing unobtrusively against the wall. She wondered for a moment if she should leave entirely. She could just slip over to Jason's room for the meeting but curiosity compelled her to stay. She doubted that many humans got the opportunity to see vampire politics at work and she was too wrapped up in this world to remain safely ignorant.
As Miss Flanagan railed at Godric for creating a public relations nightmare, Sookie couldn't help but wonder what kind of power the woman held. From what she'd gleaned from being around the Dallas vampires, Godric was very old and powerful and very well respected.
Apparently Sookie wasn't the only one shocked by the woman's treatment of Godric. She wondered if this meeting would end without Eric taking the hateful woman's head, quite literally, off her shoulders. She was actually firing Godric. Could she be a queen too?
Sookie wanted to defend Godric. He was her friend. He'd saved her in that church and he didn't deserve what was happening to him. Could Sookie stand up to this queen? If that was even what she was. She gathered her resolve and took a tentative step forward. Bill and Eric both turned to look at her, their eyes pleaded with her as they shook their heads, "no."
Trusting them for now, she leaned back against the wall. Surely if something helpful would have come from her defense, Eric would have allowed it. Whether he'd admit it or not, she knew Eric loved Godric beyond politics or reason. Despite Eric's leveling with her, and his matter-of-fact explanation of how his world works, she couldn't get the other Eric out of her mind, the Eric from her dream, the Eric Godric had told her existed. She looked over at him again. He looked sad.
Sookie listened as Godric retold the events of the bombing, but she couldn't help that her gaze kept drifting to Eric. He looked so lost, scared even. What could possibly scare Eric Northman? She wanted to comfort him, but thought better of it and kept her spot as Godric continued his retelling of the night's trauma. Sadness and regret tinged every syllable. Godric truly wanted peace but he didn't seem to believe in it anymore. He looked heartbroken.
All the vampires became rather solemn as Godric began to apologize and take full responsibility for all the loss. Sookie had never seen humility from any vampire and it moved her heart.
When she looked to Eric again, he looked absolutely distraught and that made her worry. There were undertones to what Godric was saying that she was missing.
Miss Flanagan dismissed Godric's words casually, "Take it easy. It's just a few signatures," and took her leave.
Eric approached Godric and began a tense exchange as Bill approached Sookie.
"May I stay here tonight?" Bill asked, blocking her view of the other two lost in conversation.
"Uh, yeah. Sure, I guess so," she responded noncommittally, trying to make her way around Bill to check on her friend but being easily blocked.
Bill put a hand on each of her shoulders. "Never mind them. They are not our concern."
Sookie gave Bill a cold look. "He's my friend," she told him frankly before shrugging off his embrace in time to see Eric following Godric from the room.
She'd only just heard him say something about the roof before they both disappeared.
"Sookie," Bill called, trying to stop her.
She turned and gave him another stern look. "This is me making choices, Bill. You will not be standing in my way."
With that, she turned and raced out the door to find Godric. He was her friend and she might not understand everything that was going on, but she knew he was in pain and she had to do something about that if she could.