Disclaimer: Ow... ow... own... I don't. Do you?
Beta: the one and only Breathesgirl :)
Okay everybody. Since it's obvious my muse for this story is moody, I decided to not let myself get sidetracked by any side-plots and just finish this story quickly. I think there will be only one chapter after this and then maybe an epilogue. You've waited long enough for this one, so without further ado:
Previously:
"You're a coward," Sookie spat. "You're running."
"I would hardly call dying from a disease running away, Sookie," Bill reasoned.
"It has nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with your attitude! It's always someone or something else, isn't it, Bill? It's never you. You never take responsibility for your own actions!"
"It's too late now."
"Shut up, Bill! Just…" she took a shaky breath. "…shut up."
The Viking was ruthless, devious and he didn't have much regard for the law, but he acted according to an inner code the warrior in the younger man recognised and understood. Eric might not be human, but he was the kind of man Mr. Gus could respect.
"Mr. Northman," he said letting a slow smile spread on his face, "I think we might be able to come to an understanding."
"…this way you can live your lives without the past weighting on you. Truly move on."
"What the hell are you talking about, Bill?" Jessica finally said what she'd had on the tip on her tongue for a while. She had joined Sookie and Bill in his room after dark and found them arguing about whether or not he should give up on his life. "Just how could you dying help either of us to move on with our lives? We can do that just as well, if not better, while you are still alive."
Bill smiled patronisingly.
"I know you believe that, but the truth is, you will not."
"And why would you say that?" Sookie asked, crossing her arms. She managed to regain control over her temper, but her mood was still far from happy.
"Jessica needs to be her own vampire, not just my child, and you, Sookie, you have to stay away from vampires and I think we both know that's not going to happen as long as I'm around."
"What?" Sookie was genuinely perplexed.
"You deserve to live the quiet, peaceful life you've always dreamed of. You should have a family, a human family, fall in love, get married, have children of your own… but you won't get it unless I'm gone. This is why I can't be selfish with you. Try as you may, you won't be able to build a life with someone else as long as I'm alive. There is just something… that always pulls you back, that always pulls us together. You know I'm right. You tried with Alcide, but you told me yourself that you couldn't make yourself love him like you should…"
"Stop it," Sookie choked out and blinked quickly to avoid tearing up. Alcide was still a sensitive subject for her and it was unfair for Bill to bring him up. He had no right. "This isn't about Alcide. You don't get to talk about him."
"I apologise for upsetting you, but surely, you have to see what I'm talking about. In order for you to be free, I need to die. That's the only way."
"Well, aren't you full of yourself," said a new voice from behind them and everybody's heads snapped in the direction it came from. They had been so focused on the argument that they didn't even notice the newcomer standing in the doorframe.
"Eric," Sookie said, her shoulders sagging with relief. "You're all right." She stood up to greet him.
Jessica's eyes widened when she took in Viking's appearance.
"Eric," she echoed, her voice coloured with surprise. "You are all right."
"…or are you?" Sookie asked frowning when she took a better look at him.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked crossing the room quickly to stand beside her.
"You're covered in blood," Bill informed him flatly.
Eric rubbed his jaw with a thumb. He had forgotten to clean up after disposing of the assassins, but surely, Bill was exaggerating? He hadn't ripped out any internal organs this time and his favoured black clothes were good for concealing stains.
"You're all right," Jessica repeated numbly, clearly in shock.
"Eric?" Sookie prompted him for explanation. "Are you in trouble?"
His eyes moved to her face and the concerned expression painted on it. He smiled softly.
"Everything is fine," he assured them, "It's not my blood."
Bill only snorted.
Jessica suddenly woke from her stupor and vamped toward Eric. She moved aside the lapels of his jacket to look at the skin peaking above his tank-top.
"You're healed!" she screeched. "How did you do that?"
"I took the cure," Eric deadpanned.
"I thought there was no cure!"
"There is a very small amount of it."
Jessica stared up at him, her eyes big, round and moist and Eric couldn't help but think that she really was but a child.
"Tell me you brought it with you," she pleaded with him. "You wouldn't have come here just to gloat, would you?"
Eric smirked.
"Have a little faith," he said, producing a full syringe from his pocket and holding it up triumphantly. Sookie had a ridiculous thought that she wouldn't be surprised if he curtsied. He winked at her as if he could read her thoughts.
"What do you mean?" Bill asked sitting up. "Where did you get It from?"
"Believe it or not, I stole it for you, breaking my word not only not to share it, but to tell no one it exists in the process. Now, don't make me regret doing that. Be a good boy, take the cure, and keep your mouth shut, Bill. That last one concerns you too, Jessica. If I find out that you two are babbling about it, I will not hesitate to keep you quiet by any means necessary."
Jessica let go of him and took a step back. She was much calmer now that she knew why Eric was here. She looked between Eric and Sookie, understanding dawning on her as she realised that it had been no accident that the sheriff stopped by and that the telepath had been the one to ask Eric for help.
"I understand, Eric," she whispered.
"Why is it a secret?" Bill asked, a spark of interest for the first time audible in his voice. "Not that you have it, but the very existence of the cure? Wouldn't anyone who's in possession of it want to sell it to the highest bidder? They could make a fortune on it! Vampires are literally dying to get it."
"Because the cure is located in the living host's body," Eric said bluntly, figuring the truth, or at least part of it, was the best policy. "That's also why it's source is finite. If news about it gets out, the vampires would haunt the human in question down, rip them apart and drain the blood along with the cure to the last drop and then it'll be gone. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Can't it be replicated?" Jessica asked reasonably.
Eric nodded.
"It can, but it will take time and the True Blood's company owners already got their hands on the tests. Trust me, they're not someone you'd like to mess with, and they are determined to get their money back after the last fiasco. They will be ruthless if anybody gets in their way, and it just happens that they are aware that I know about the cure since I had the chance to drink it right in front of their eyes. They made a deal with me to shut me up and I agreed: I'm not stupid enough to cross them when it could be a win/win for me, but that also means that if the word about the cure gets out, they'll go straight to me looking for a leak, and they're be after my head. Forgive me if I'm not looking forward to die if you can't keep a secret."
Sookie felt her stomach drop. It was evident that Eric shouldn't have been sharing the truth with anyone, since it was glaringly obvious that it was putting him in a dangerous position, but at the same time she understood that it had to be that way if he was to help Bill. He could have denied them an explanation as to where the cure had come from, but then they would have kept asking questions and looking for answers, possibly only making things worse. He had to trust them and Sookie felt a growing worry at that thought. Jess had a good heart and she wouldn't have wanted to put Eric in harms way, but she was very impulsive – was it safe to assume she wouldn't ever blurt the secret if someone manipulated her and put her under pressure, or if someone else she knew got sick? As for Bill… Sookie knew that Eric wasn't inclined to trust him and given their shared history, she couldn't exactly blame him. Even with her own lingering feelings toward the younger vampire she knew there was no doubt about one thing: Bill was a notorious liar. While Sookie believed that he wouldn't give away the information that would endanger her, she wasn't sure if the same sentiment was true where Eric was concerned.
She licked her lips nervously. She had known that Eric was putting himself at risk, but she had thought that it only about collecting the cure; a one-time thing, getting in and out. In reality, it was beginning to shape as something that had a potential to loom over the Viking for a long time. She was learning the hard way that every action had consequesnces.
"Save the cure for someone else," Bill insisted. "I made my choice."
Apparently, that was enough to exhaust Eric's patience:
"Oh, for fucks sake," he snapped. "Stop being childish and take the damn cure. This isn't just about you."
Bill stared at him coldly.
"You made your choice. Let me make mine."
"Unfortunately, the decision is no longer yours as your mental capacities are questionable."
Bill scowled at him.
"What?"
"I heard you've been hallucinating. Is that not true?"
Bill didn't answer, only thinned his lips and kept glaring.
"You're forgetting about one thing, Bill" Eric said, slowly closing the distance between the sick vampire and himself. "I know this particular disease: No one talks about it but it doesn't affect just your body. I was ready to give up when Pam found me in France. I no longer cared if I lived of died or about anything, really. I would have slowly withered away there, drowned in apathy, if she hadn't come to kick my ass. I think this is what you need right now as well – and I will gladly deliver… Your Majesty."
He flashed a wicked grin at Bill.
It was Jessica who replied.
"Do it," she said firmly. "For God's sake, Eric, do it, because I can't take much more. Just shove the cure down his throat and be done with it."
"Jessica!" Bill cried, outraged.
"And what exactly would you have us to do, Bill?" Jessica asked. "Just ignore the fact that you're dying and we have the cure?"
"I want you to let my die in peace and with dignity. This about it as you think of cancer patients. They can fight the disease but they can also refuse treatment."
Sookie thought that the analogy wasn't quite right since it appeared the treatment was nothing like chemo judging by Eric's condition, but she didn't have time to comment on that before Bill spoke up again, his eyes misting:
"In fact, I would like to ask Sookie for one last favour. An ultimate kindness."
"You gotta be kidding me," Eric muttered under his breath, guessing where it was going.
"What do you mean, Bill?" Sookie asked, not quite getting what he was trying to tell her.
"I would like you to be the one to take my life."
Sookie stared at him for a few seconds in shock, not sure if she understood him correctly. No one in the room said anything.
"You want me to kill you?" she asked disbelievingly.
Bill nodded.
"Think of it as an act of mercy. You could use your light to do that – and then you would be finally free to live the life you…"
"Okay, that's enough," Eric cut him off and vamped to his side. "Here. Done."
"What… did you do?" asked Bill touching his fingers to the stinging point on his neck and when his eyes widened when he saw the empty syringe in Eric's hand. "You had no right!" he thundered. "You don't get to decide of my life! It was my choice to make!"
"Yes, yes, and you can still make it, anytime you want, once you are no longer suffering from the effects of the Hep-V," Eric said exasperatedly. "Nothing's lost. You can kill yourself if this is what you really want, but without dragging anyone into that. Make your choice, take the full responsibility for it, why not? The sun rises every day, Bill, if you wish to meet it, I'm not going to stand in your way."
Bill inhaled deeply but didn't say anything. He was clearly very upset with the turn in the situation.
Jessica's gasp turned everyone's attention away from the argument. Sookie looked closer and saw in fascination that the black veins on Bill's neck were disappearing.
Just like this, she thought.
"Oh my God, it's working!" Jessica cried out blinking back tears.
"I guess I'm not welcome or needed here anymore," Eric said with a hint of smile. "I'll take it as my cue to leave."
He turned his back to Bill and face the door.
"Bill probably won't say it anytime soon, so I will," Jessica said, stepping into his path to stop him from leaving just yet. "Thank you, Eric. I mean it. I'm really grateful for what you just did and I swear I won't tell anyone what happened here tonight.
Eric acknowledged her with a nod. He turned to Sookie carefully keeping his face neutral.
"Sookie? Do you want to stay or will you be going too?" he asked.
Sookie's eyes wandered hesitantly to Bill who was stubbornly keeping quiet. She looked back to Eric.
"I think it's best if I go," she said sending him a quick smile.
"I'll walk you home, then. It's still not safe for you to walk around after dark."
"Oh, thanks."
She didn't give it any thought; she wasn't making any conscious decision when she took Eric's offered hand without thinking, but all the vampires' eyes were on her when she did. She wasn't aware of making any choice at that moment – or of the fact that the very thing it didn't cross her mind to do any different spoke itself of another choice she had already made.
"I know this is not what you wanted, Bill, but I'm glad this is how it worked out and I'm certain it was the right thing to do," she spoke softly before leaving. "Please don't blame Eric. I asked him to help you, so if it's anybody's fault, it's mine. Goodbye, Bill. Have a good night. Bye, Jessica."
"Bye, Sookie," the redhead returned with a smile.
Sookie turned toward the door tugging on Eric's hand. Bill's and Eric's eyes locked over her head, the former's gaze dark but boiling, the latter's daring the other to say anything. They stood still for a spell, frozen in place, until it suddenly hit Eric that it didn't matter if he looked away first: he had already won – at least this round.
He turned around and walked out of the door into the night, hand in hand with Sookie.
Sorry if I made Bill sound unnecessarily ridiculous, but I got annoyed by him while writing this and it might have made me bitchy toward him.
Anyway, have a great next year!