Chapter 5

Tara POV

"She's fighting against me. . she doesn't wish to return." Niall moaned, as Sookie's chest bowed up off the bed, like a puppet whose strings were being jerked. A sheen of sweat glistened his brow, and Niall swayed on his feet tiredly. Tara was forced to look away, she simply couldn't watch anymore.

"Is it worth puttin' her through this? Are we being selfish draggin' her back to all the misery and heartbreak that's waitin' for her?" Jason squeezed Sookie's cast covered hand in his. A stubborn expression, so like his sister's, on his face.

"Don't talk like that. I know my sister, Sook. wouldn't choose to leave us, ain't no way!"

"Jason, Tara's not sayin' Sook don't love us, she's sayin' that she might be sufferin' a whole lot less where she is!"

"No Goddammit! Stackhouse's are fighter's, no way Sookie would rather roll over and give up!" Their dispute was cut short as a series of chilling shrieks tore from Sookie's throat. Sookie's thrashing grew even more frantic, and suddenly it was like a flash bomb went off, the room exploding in a blinding light. Tara was thrown from her feet, the wind knocked out of her as she smacked against the wall behind her. She slid down the wall in a daze, before she came crashing to the floor. Tara panted in a few breaths, her ribs screaming in protest as she tried to get her bearings. Her eyes scanned the room, and she noticed that only Niall had remained standing. Jason had landed across the room on the floor, and while he looked pissed, he didn't suffer any injuries. Lafayette hadn't fared as well as the others though, he'd struck the back of his head on the sink counter, and it was bleeding profusely. He'd stayed slumped where he'd fallen, and Tara painfully scrambled over to him.

"You alright?" She asked at the time a gasping and raw "NO!" rang throughout the room. All eyes turned to the bed, to see that Sookie's eyes were now wide open, and filled with a frenetic derangement that caused Tara to shudder. Sookie began clawing at herself, and Jason and Niall were instantly at her side, trying to keep her from yanking out the I.V., oxygen and other assorted tubes that engulfed her. Tara was torn between helping Lafayette or trying to aide with Sookie. Lafayette saw her indecision.

"I'll be fine, just need some gauze or something to put pressure on it with." He dismissed as he began opening the drawers next to the sink, and rummaging through the various items within. Seeing that he seemed to know what he was doing, Tara picked her aching body up off the floor, and made her way to Sookie's bed. Jason and Niall had, for the most part, managed to keep her from hurting herself or them, but she was still far from calm. Tara sat on the edge of the bed, and began to stroke Sookie's hair.

"Ssh it's alright, you're okay." She crooned over and over, until Sookie's thrashing lessened to a violent trembling. Tara then climbed into the bed next to her, tugging and shifting, till finally Sookie was lying on her side, and they were facing one another. Niall and Jason let Sookie go, watching in hushed anticipation. Sookie hadn't fought Tara, but she was still clearly overwrought. Tara began humming an old hymn, one Gran had often sang to them when they were sick. Jason and Lafayette joined in, and after a few moments, Sookie's eyes blinked owlishly.

"Godric?" She asked her eyes flickering from face to face. She scanned the rest of the room expectantly, her expression changing to one of a bone deep sorrow when she didn't find what it was she was looking for. "Just a dream." She mumbled against her hands as she pressed them to her face, and began weeping.

"Sook. you alright?" Sookie didn't reply just mashed against her hands even tighter, like she was trying to shut them out. Tara tugged Sookie's hands away in frustration, and only managed an inch or so, but it was enough for her to see the blonde was looking at her.

"Sookie are you alright!" She remained silent, and Tara realized that Sookie was staring at her hand, not at her as she had thought. "Sookie!"

"Blood." Sookie said, turning her palm to show Tara.

"They probably just missed it when they cleaned you up earlier. I'll just go get a wet rag and we'll wash it off, no big deal." Tara shrugged nonchalantly, though a feeling of apprehension coiled in her stomach as she turned in order to get up.

"No!" Sookie said while roughly seizing Tara's arm and yanking until Sookie's hand was smack up against her face. "It's Godric's!" Tara's eyes warily darted around before falling on Jason, who was looking at his sister like she'd suddenly sprouted a second head.

"Sook. you talkin' about that nice vampire boy who died in Dallas?"

"He didn't die!" She shouted.

"Now Sook., you watched him burn up in the sun remember?" Jason held his hands out pleadingly.

"I watched him disappear, but he didn't die. He somehow ended up in a little pocket of another realm. I was there too, I saw him!" Niall stepped up to the bed, placing both hands on the side rail, and looking down at his granddaughter indulgently.

"That sounds like some dream you had, but I assure you that if there was a vampire in our realm we would be able to sense it."

"Who are you?" Sookie asked momentarily distracted by his presence.

"Oh sorry, I should have introduced ya'll sooner. Sook. this here's our great granddaddy Niall." Jason explained. Now it was Sookie's turn to look at Jason like he was the crazy one.

"What?" Sookie was silent, squinting her eyes in concentration for a few moments. "Jason Stackhouse you big dummy! Some random person comes, tells you that he's your great granddaddy, and you just believe him? You just accept that our great gran had some affair? What's wrong with you? And then like icing on the cake, you let some stranger give me his blood!" Sookie said ripping the I.V. tube from Niall's arm dropping it carelessly to the floor. "What in the world was going through your mind?"

"I was thinkin' that I wanted it to be true, 'cause then there might be a chance you wouldn't die!" He shouted back, and Sookie instantly looked contrite.

"I'm sorry Jason," She paused and thumped her cast free fist against the mattress. "Actually I want to say sorry to everyone. I realize now that I've been a little hard to get along with lately. I got so lost in my relationship with Bill, that I didn't see how it was changing me. Anyway, thanks for puttin' up with me." Sookie dropped her head unable to meet any of their eyes.

"It's okay Sook., actually Granddaddy Niall, already kinda explained what was goin' on with you." Sookie turned to Niall.

"Explained what exactly?"

"As you just said, you haven't quite been yourself recently. By Bill giving you so much of his blood he was able to influence your emotions. This is only speculation on my part, but I believe he was trying to separate you from your friends. If you were, well difficult to be around that made it easier for him to isolate and thereby control you. We call it being under a vampire's sway, and it was one of many reasons that we fled this realm." Sookie scrubbed at her eyes.

"So he can control how I feel?" She said tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"Not anymore, I washed away his darkness with my light, it's fortuitous that he had already removed a lot of his own blood when he. . ." Niall held his hands out, his gesture encompassing the hospital bed Sookie was lying in.

"I'm free from him!" Her voice was full of gratitude and relief. Tara grasped Sookie's hand.

"There's something else you should know though Sook., when Bill . . .did what he did, it gave him access to their realm." She said pausing to nod her head in Niall's direction. "While he was there. . .well he killed someone." Niall snorted derisively.

"He did not just kill anyone though, he killed your cousin, Claudette." Sookie's head jerked back, and she gasped.

"My cousin?" She whispered. "Was she the only other family that we have?"

"No, you have three uncles, two surviving cousins, and my mother."

"Wow, our great, great gran is still alive? Ya'll must live for a long time! Do you think that someday we'll get to meet her?" Sookie perked up interested.

"She is, we age much more slowly than humans. But Sookie. . ." His eyes got a hard glint to them, and his voice was grave as he continued. "I hope that you never meet my mother, Queen Maab, she has lost her inner light, and become someone I no longer know. She has an abhorrence for those with human blood, and has recruited your cousin Claudine to her cause. They wish to eradicate those of less than pure blood." Sookie's eyes glazed over, as she was lost in thought.

"Your mother is a queen? Does that make us like princes and princesses?" Jason said in awe, but before Niall could answer, the door swung open, and the nurse came bustling in. She came to a jerking halt just inside the door.

"What in the world. . ." she stammered as she took in chaos of the room. She collected herself, rather quickly though, and plastered a false cheerful smile across her face. "Look at you!" She cooed dulcetly at Sookie. "We've been wondering when you were gonna wake up!" Tara untangled herself from Sookie's many accessories, and climbed off the bed, coming to stand on the other side, partially obscuring the nurse's view of Sookie.

"She just woke up a few seconds ago, thank you and the doctors so much for saving her! I don't think we can ever repay you for bringing her back to us. My cousin was so overwhelmed he actually fainted, can you believe it? And darned if he didn't hit his head as he fell." She babbled, laying it on thick. The nurse tilted her head slightly, before shaking it, a genuine smile forming.

"We're happy to have helped let me just pop out, and go grab the doctor." She was gone in a flash, a jubilant spring in her step. Tara glanced at the door, they didn't have much time until the nurse would be returning. She hurried over to the I.V. stand and quickly reattached the tube that Sookie had left dangling to drip on the floor. Her eyes combed the room rapidly for anything else out of place.

"Lafayette close those drawers!" She said as she straightened the chairs. "Sook. could you hear her? What was she thinkin'?"

"She believed you, mostly she was just surprised to see me awake is all. But she's seen a lot of people defy what the doctors thought, she believes it's just God's way, and we're not always supposed to understand the how." Tara nodded agreeing fully, thinking she would prefer to live in blissful ignorance to all the supernatural shit that seemed to surround her friend.

The doctor came rushing in just a few seconds later, her eyes trained on Sookie, and her mouth fell agape. She hurried to the bedside without a word, to begin poking and prodding at Sookie. There didn't appear to be a single area she left unexplored, a look of astonishment clearly etched on her face. When she finally ran out of things to check, she tugged off her rubber gloves, and tapped her fingers against lips. She stood silently, her eyebrow furrowed in thought, before finally turning to the nurse, and ordering a barrage of tests. Sookie had submitted to the extensive examination without fussing, but flat out refused the tests.

"I'm just a waitress, I don't have any insurance, and I sure don't have the money to pay for all that out of pocket!" Sookie folded her arms across her chest with finality.

"Miss Stackhouse, please be reasonable! You may want to act as though nothing happened, but you were on death's door when you first arrived here. There are anomalies in your blood that we can't explain! That's not to mention there is no logical justification for your recovery. I don't mean to frighten you, but there have been documented cases showing that there can be a false rallying in dying patients!"

"I'm not dyin'! A little sore yes, but I'm fine! Look." With no shortage of wincing and grimacing, Sookie managed to sit up. Sookie took a moment to allow the pain to fade a bit, before gesturing as if to say ta-da. Tara couldn't help but chuckle at her friends antics. "See I told you. Now, I could really use some help to the bathroom. Then I'd really like to go home."

"Miss Stackhouse, you can't be serious! As your doctor I can't in good conscious allow you to just walk out of here." Jason stepped forward.

"Look doc, my sister's real stubborn, you ain't gonna be able to convince her different, once Sook's got her mind set to somethin' it's like talkin' to a brick wall. If it makes ya feel better, I'll stay with her for the next few days to make sure she don't go overboard." Jason gave her his best good 'ole boy smile. "I'll take real good care of her, promise." The doctor got a glazed look, and blushed.

"Mmm, al. . .alright Mr. Stackhouse, if I have your word. But if there's any sign that something's wrong please bring her back." She cleared her throat, her fingers toying with her necklace. "Tess, can you help Miss Stackhouse to the restroom? I'm going to take Mr. Stackhouse out to the hall to sign the paperwork, and to go over her care instructions. Mr Stackhouse. . Shall we?" Jason bowed gallantly, extending his hand out to indicate for her to go first.

"After you Miss." The forty something doctor giggled like a tween, before heading through the door, Jason following all the while keeping up his flirting. Tara rolled her eyes. I swear that boy could charm the panties off a freakin' nun. Tara slumped down in the chair next to Lafayette, exhausted. She loved the Stackhouse's, but man they sure could wear a person out.

"How's the head?" She said pulling his hand away, getting a look at it for herself.

"Got one hell of a headache, but I got's me somethin' at the house that'll knock it right out." He assured smiling playfully. "Why don't you come over, take a break from the crazy." Tara opened her mouth to decline, but Lafayette stopped her with flick of his hand. "We don't need to talk 'bout whatever's been goin' on with you tonight. But believe me hooker, we will talk." Tara bumped her shoulder against his in silent agreement.