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

Understanding

IX.

Smashing! I am thrilled. You marvelous girl. You were born to it.

I need downtime Pythia. Can I please get some? I need to have something to eat. I'm famished. I kept him on that wall for well over an hour surrounded by fire. It's kind of draining.

I will let you rest and amuse yourself. You have confirmed my every faith in your ability.

As I entered the elevator the guards blocked people from entering after me. The doors closed as I saw Eric and Bill in the group trying to enter. I nodded to them, then shook my head.

I got to the room, thanked my guards for their work and closed myself in. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and several bottles of water. Eithne thought it very important for me to have water after my work because I wielded fire.

I got undressed, removed my makeup, washed my face, put on my PJs and snuggled up in bed with my book, waiting for room service.

About five minutes later, one of the demons knocked on the door. I scanned the exterior. Victor at the front, Bill, Eric and Pam waiting in the hall behind him.

Wearily, I asked who it was.

"It is I, the King of Mississippi," Victor crowed proudly.

I rolled my eyes and was pretty sure Eric, Pam and Bill were doing the same.

"Royal business is next door only," I said. "And you need to speak with Zelda first for an appointment."

"Oh Sookie, come on! Fine, it's your cousin."

"I'm supposed to be resting and I'm not dressed for company, so all of you go away and come back tomorrow evening. And Victor, stop hanging out with your neighbors. It looks bad, politically speaking. For them, I mean. Good night."

I crawled back into bed and waited for them to go away. Everyone left except Eric. He just waited, silently, in the hall. I had a vision of him leaning against the wall, across from the door, arms crossed.

Room service finally arrived and short of telling them to bring it in through Pythia's suite I would be stuck having to open the door and look at Eric still standing there. There was no way around it.

Dressed only in my PJs, I opened the door and nodded to the demons to let the server pass. One guard trailed him into the room, his knife drawn. The tray was placed on the table in the room by the terrified server, who was clearly unused to fire demons. I signed for it, the guard went back out. I stood in the doorway looking over at Eric, who was standing just as I'd seen him in my mind. I finally just walked away leaving the door open. He came in, closed the door and sat down on the couch.

I sat on the edge of the bed and ate my grilled cheese sandwich. The bread was nowhere near as good as homemade bread. I missed baking. When I was done, I put everything back on the tray and sat back on the bed looking at Eric.

"It seems like you made a lot of progress in ten months," he said finally. He seemed a little nonplussed.

"Six months. For the first four months I was too weak to do anything other than garden or weave."

"Why do you have to go back?" he asked softly.

I looked away. "I want to go back. I need to learn more. But mostly I need the restorative time. It was very peaceful. I didn't speak at all for the first two months. It allowed me to forget that dark voice in my head. And to try to forget your voice, your words to me."

He wasn't prepared to handle that last part, so he just ignored it and moved on. "How long will you stay this time?"

"Eric, I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know that I can live here now. Live a normal life again. I don't know, even if I could live here again, if I could live with you again. I think you should really consider what I offered."

He stared at me and set his jaw. "Let me spell it out for you again, clearly. I will never consider what you have offered. I am bonded to you and I want to be with you. I will wait."

I shook my head and gestured with my hands as if I just didn't know what to say.

"Eric, I don't think that we could ever go back to the way things were between us."

"Then they will be different. But we will still be together. We will be. I know this." He said this with complete confidence.

My mind went back to the afternoon at the Lia Fáil. In the stream of images and thoughts, the last thing I had seen was Eric's eyes. And he saw mine according to Niall. I felt dizzy with confusion. The Stone of Destiny. Did I even believe in destiny or did I think we choose our path? How many times had I discussed that with Eithne? I closed my eyes and focused on the loom, the sound of the shuttle sliding through the shed, the feel and sound of depressing the pedal, shifting the warp to form the second shed. The smooth transition, one shed to another. The rhythm of the shuttle flying back and forth. It soothed and steadied me. My eyes flew open to find Eric on his knee in front of me, holding the chain with my ring. My guard was completely down and I had not even sensed him move off the couch and pick up the chain around my neck. Disgraceful. I breathed rapidly.

"You still wear it. You hide it, but you still wear it," he said in a whisper. His eyes shone. It was the happiest I had seen him look all night.

I pulled it back from his hand. "You should go, it's getting close to dawn."

He put his hands on the bed, on either side of me and looked me in the eyes. "I don't want to go. I want to stay with you," he said, still in a soft whisper.

The way he said it took me back almost two years, to that moment when Hallow's coven was broken and he'd still wanted to go home with me. The soft, vulnerable Eric. My heart was racing and my ears went cold as they do when I start to panic.

"Impossible. You should leave. Now."

He stayed in front of me, fixed. "I won't touch you. I swear it," he said in a hushed voice. "Don't make me leave."