I let Amelia drive. I was still too shaken from my fairy attack to drive much, and I was much too nervous about seeing Eric again to try to operate heavy machinery right now. Besides, how was I going to explain this little piece of idiocy to him? I'd be lucky if he didn't throw both Amelia and I bodily out of his office. 

We pulled in to the parking lot just as Pam was enjoying one of her favorite nightly pastimes, ejecting the last of the fangbangers from the bar. I hung back behind Amelia, wishing I was anywhere but where I was.

"Amelia!" Pam's voice sounded almost warm. "I'm most pleased to see you. I didn't think you would be out on social calls for quite some time yet."

"We aren't here to party, Pam, we need to see Eric. Is he here?" Amelia asked, pulling me out from behind her. 

"Sookie. I see you are healing." I rated a much colder tone, I noted. I guess I deserved that. I sighed mentally. "Yes, my Master is in his office. Let me lock up and I will take you to him. Would you like a drink, Amelia?" Oh, I was sooo clearly in the doghouse.

"No, thanks, we actually just need to see Eric, so if you could..." Amelia was clearly a woman on a mission. I hadn't seen her this energized in weeks. Glad my nightly torments were helping someone, anyway.

"I see. Well, follow me." Pam led the way down the hall to Eric's office. She knocked and stuck her head around the door. "Master, you have guests. Most surprising ones."

And she pushed open the door and there he was. The most beautiful man I'd ever seen. So gloriously tall, strikingly handsome, with piercing blue eyes and flowing blonde hair. And inside him, in the place of his own once-beating heart, he held my own. I must've made some indication of pain, because Amelia reached down and took my hand.

And damn him, he misses NOTHING. His eyes had sparked to life when he saw me, but he hissed when he saw my pain, and I felt him, through the bond, tamp down his eagerness, saw him take in Amelia's comforting gesture, recoil that I could need comfort from HIM, and - wait a minute! Where did he go?!?! I probed the bond, trying to feel him, get a read on his emotions.

Blank.

Just like his face.

That bastard shut down the bond!

Fine, two can play this game.

He gestured for us to sit in his guest chairs. "Sookie, witch- I mean, Amelia, what can I do for you?" He looked at me, trying to get a read on me. I pulled on my best "blank" face and shook my head, refusing to answer. I could feel both Pam and Amelia sigh.

Eric tried again. "Sookie, surely you didn't drive to Shreveport at 2 a.m. just to have a staring contest with me? You know you can never win a staring contest with a vampire." He chuckled.

Nothing. Take that, buddy. Shut down the bond on me, I'll shut you right back out.

Amelia had clearly decided enough was enough. "Eric, the reason we are here is because Sookie has been having visions."

Eric actually looked slightly puzzled. "Visions? But Sookie can't-"

"Exactly."

He collected himself. "And these visions concern me why?" he asked lazily, leaning back in his chair. Oh real nice, buddy. Charming.

"Because," Amelia said through gritted teeth, " the visions are of you and she, together, and I suspect they are of when you were human."

"Aren't those called dreams, witch?"

"Nooo, they are visions," Amelia patiently explained, as to a child. I inwardly chuckled and resolved to do something very nice for my friend for baiting him like this. "Sookie can see times she didn't live in, and understand languages she never learned. She can even speak Old Norse in the visions."

"Sookie cannot speak Old -"

"Jag älskade väntar."

Eric's head whipped around to me, Pam hissed, Amelia looked shocked and even I was stunned. Where did that come from?

"Leave us," Eric commanded. Pam and Amelia beat a hasty retreat. No sooner had the door shut then he was around the desk and kneeling in front of my chair, hands gripping my arms.

"Where did you learn that?" the look on his face was enough scare any sane person right out of the room. Unluckily for me, I'd been considered "Crazy Sookie" for too long.

"Open the bond back up."

"Why?" he snarled. "You don't want it. You don't want me. You sent me away when all I wanted to do was care for you! Now, answer me: where did you learn that?"

"Open it." I set my jaw and glared.

"Fine! You want to feel everything I've been feeling?" A tidal wave of emotions swirled over me, literally knocking me backward in the chair. Anger, rage, pain, lust, fear, guilt, love (love?), loneliness, all came sweeping over me and I gasped, almost drowning under their weight. It took everything I had to pull myself together, back upright in the chair, face him.

"Now," he said in a much quieter voice, "where did you learn that?"

"Just like Amelia said. From the visions. Well, dreams, visions, whatever they are. I didn't even know I remembered it until I opened my mouth. What did I say?"

"You said, 'beloved I will be waiting.'" What does this mean, in your visions?"

I sighed. "Are you sure you want to hear this? You aren't going to like it."

"You have got to be the most exasperating woman I have ever met! You show up in my office after not speaking to me for weeks, speaking a language that no one has spoken to me for centuries, calling me 'beloved,' yes! I want to hear it!" he roared.

I sighed. "I don't remember everything. Like I said, I didn't even know I remembered what I said to you earlier. I remember that I was sitting next to a beautiful lake, and you walked out of the woods. You were human. I could tell you had been hunting. You seemed surprised to see me there; I was surprised to see you there. And, it was like, everything just clicked, and everything made sense and we knew, and we talked and you asked me to meet you at the road at dark. We were going to go get married."

"Married?"

"See, I knew you didn't want to hear it -"

"I am sorry, my lover, please continue."

Wow. Eric apologizing. Huh. "Um, anyway, you asked me if I was sure I would meet you, and I said -"

"Beloved, I will be waiting," he supplied.

"Right. But the next thing I know, it's dark and I'm waiting. I can't see you coming, but I can feel you, even though we don't have a bond. And suddenly you're gone. There's a rush of wind and movement in the trees and you're gone and I know something's wrong and I'm running, running, and I can't find you anywhere, no matter how hard I look. And I wake up crying." I suddenly realized I was crying, sobbing actually, in Eric's office, clutching his shirt. 

I could feel him hesitant about how to proceed. "Sookie...? Lover, I am here. I am right here." He lifted me out of the chair, sat in it, tucked me in his lap, wrapped his arms around me. He rubbed small, soothing circles on my back. I threw my arms around him and sobbed for all I was worth. 

"Eric... in that shack..." I could feel him stiffen. "No, Eric, please, I have to say this. In that shack, with Lochlan and Neave, I kept waiting for you and waiting for you. I kept expecting you to burst in the door at any minute and you never did. And in my heart I thought, 'if Eric doesn't come, if Eric leaves you, then you may as well let them finish it.' Then when Bill came in, I just gave up and thought, 'whatever happens, happens. If you don't make it, so be it.' When I saw you come into the hospital, I was so confused. You didn't rescue me, and all you seemed to care about was fighting fairies. Eric, I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out where on Earth you could've been where you didn't hear me, couldn't get to me? I'm going crazy, and these dreams aren't helping. PLEASE tell me."

"Sookie. I - I did not want to tell you this, because I wanted you to have fond feelings for what little family you have left. But, very well, lover."