A few minutes later, her phone rang with a private number. "Hello?"

"Miss Stackhouse, our associates have arrived in Lake Tahoe."

Sookie gave them the information about the hotel, the fake name and which room she'd be in, and hung up. She braced herself for what would come next. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later the phone rang again. She smiled wryly and answered, "Did you really think I would just sit there and wait for you to kill me? Y'all are dumber than I thought. I've been on my way to Vegas for the last two hours. Bye."

With this, she turned off her phone. She'd left messages at the next few hotels that stated 'Did I say Vegas? I meant Phoenix,' and so forth, so she felt comfortable they'd be able to follow her fake trail from there, without her input. She finally allowed herself to rest and fell into a dreamless sleep.

When she awoke, she checked the monitors first thing. There were now six men guarding her house, but as far as she could tell there were still none in the house. She turned her phone back on and saw that she had only one voicemail. It was from the private number so she didn't bother with it. She had no intention to speak with them again, as she believed Eric would complete whatever it was he was doing before they reached the end of her trail. And even if not, she'd set up the fake trail so well they'd probably just keep trying. At any rate, she was reasonably sure they believed she was not at her home.

She got up, took a shower, and managed to force down some of the rations she found under the bed. By the time she settled back into the bed to wait, her phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

"Sookie, it's done. We are leaving Japan," Eric said, briskly.

"What? What did y'all do?"

"Blew up the building," he said, as though she should have expected that. Which really, knowing he and Pam, she should have.

"That's just so, anticlimactic," she finished, truthfully.

Eric laughed, "Only for New Sookie, full of logic and strategy skills. If we were dealing with Old Sookie you'd probably have been captured by now and we'd have to fly back to save you. I quite prefer New Sookie. Saves me a lot of time and money. Also I find her brain extremely sexy," he purred into the phone.

Sookie couldn't even find it in her to act affronted, she was just too relieved. "So you're sayin' I can go sleep in my own bed tonight?"

"Wait until the guards outside your house leave, and they will. All of the people paying them are now dead and they have no loyalties to corpses, only money."

"Well, that's good. But I feel like they're going to be mighty pissed at me for leading them on that chase."

"They'll get over it. I've offered to reimburse all of their expenses if they leave you alone, I'm certain they'll take it."

Sookie watched the monitors and sure enough, within a couple of minutes, the men standing guard outside her home received a phone call and left as swiftly as they'd arrived. "You're right, they're gone. Damn. It feels so….I dunno, easy? Are you sure they're gone for good?"

"I am certain," Eric said, amusement heavy in his voice. "You might have pissed them off, but they had a good time trying to track you down. Sookie, you are safe. We are safe. I must go, but I will be calling you when we land at our next destination. And I might as well just tell you now, as you'll no doubt figure it out soon enough, we are headed to Sweden. The time difference is seven hours ahead. And you, my dearest, are headed to somewhere warm. Pack your bags accordingly."

True to his word, Eric had arranged an all expenses paid vacation for herself, Lafayette, James, Jessica, Hoyt, Keith and Arlene. Keith and Arlene decided to stay home, as Arlene still had a lot of work to do at her bar and had the kids to think of. But the rest of them were free and swiftly en route to a resort in Mexico that catered to humans and vampires alike.

"Now this is the motherfuckin' life," Lafayette said, raising a glass to Sookie and Hoyt the following afternoon as they sat at the swim-up bar.

"Amen," agreed Hoyt. He wasn't quite sure why they were there, but he knew Jess needed time away and he was happy to comply, counting this as their unofficial honeymoon.

"Mmm, I have to agree," Sookie said, happy to be soaking up the sun.

"You tell that man of yours we's happy to be of service, if this is the reward," Lafayette added.

"I sure will, but he ain't my man," Sookie corrected.

Lafayette raised an eyebrow, "Bitch, please. Who you think you's foolin'? That man has got it hard for you and every damn one of us know it except for you. And if I may, you gots a good thing goin'. Don't rock that boat, sweetheart."

"You're only sayin' that cuz he paid for this trip," Sookie grumbled.

"Nuh uh, pretty girl. That man loves you. You just ain't figured that out yet."

"Sookie, I think he's right. Now, I don't know too much about y'all, but I do know what people do for the one they love. And from what Jess has said about what went down at your house, he wouldn't have done that if he didn't love you," Hoyt weighed in.

"Yeah he would, he feels obligated to protect me since Bill and Alcide died. He doesn't think there's anyone else to look after me."

"Don't try that line on me again, Sookie Stackhouse. If that was the case, why'd he call in my man, Red and Arlene's Mr. Dark and Mysterious? He know what's up. He loves you. Now you just gotta let your stubborn ass admit that you love him too, if you know what's good for ya. And his sexy blonde ass is what's good for ya."

"I just don't know if I'm ready. I mean, Alcide and Bill died in the same week. I'm like the fuckin' kiss of death. You said so yourself, Lafayette."

"Girl, you know I didn't mean all that shit. I was hurt, and I was fucked up as fucked up gets. Please don't believe that about yourself," Lafayette said, taking her hand and looking her in the eye.

"And if I can add, maybe Vampire Bill and the other guy did die, but they wouldn't want you to be alone. They'd want you to be happy, not using their deaths as an excuse not to go after what you want," Hoyt interjected.

Sookie laughed, mirthlessly, "Then you don't know Bill."

Lafayette slammed his drink down onto the table. "Enough. Hookah, you let Bill Compton run your life for far too fuckin' long. That man still controls you from the motherfuckin' grave. Enough's enough. He hated Eric cuz Eric was a rival. That's it. There ain't nothin' inherently evil about Eric Northman. And you know, I'm the last person to give Eric credit, but he ain't a bad dude, most of the time. Y'know, when he ain't lockin' me up in his dungeon and shit, and actually pays me for my services. Which he does, now, just so we's clear. You need to start realizing what feelings you have are yours, and which ones Bill influenced. I mean, no offense to Jessica's maker," he added as an aside to Hoyt, "but that man had you on a whole different fuckin' plane from reality and it's time you figured that out."

Sookie could only stare at Lafayette, knowing in her heart what he was saying was not only true, but things she'd been thinking about for a while. "I guess you're right. I was just tryin' to save face. You know how people talk about me."

To her surprise it was Hoyt that jumped in first. "Fuck what people say. Bon Temps is a fuckin' disaster zone. If they ain't got better things to talk about than your love life, then they ain't worth their weight in garbage. What's it matter what garbage thinks of you? You think people aren't gonna judge me for leaving Brigitte and marryin' Jessica the next day? Fuck 'em," he spat, finishing his beer and swimming away to order another one.

Lafayette and Sookie had their eyes widened in surprise, but Lafayette recovered first. "He ain't wrong," he said, swimming off to join Hoyt at the bar.

That night, Sookie found herself feeling empty and alone, despite the excellent company she found herself in. She pulled out her phone, counted the hours and realized it was daylight in Sweden, so she sent a text to Eric.

"I wish you were here."