EPOV

All was quiet in the room for a few minutes. Both women sat, holding hands, leaning towards each other, eyes closed. Eric watched from the couch as Sookie's eyes moved underneath her eyelids, as if dreaming. Suddenly she gasped slightly.

"What do you see, dearest?"

"There you are, Eric! You're alive! Oh, look at you - I can see you in the sun. I'm sitting by the lake and you're standing over me. The sun is shining in your hair and it looks like gold. Your cheeks are flushed and your skin is lovely. You're wearing a tunic and leather pants and carrying an axe. We're talking and you're asking me to meet you by the road at dusk."

"I wish I could see it, lover. I wish I could see you in the sun, too. I'm sure you are even more beautiful than you are by moonlight." Eric's voice was wistful. 

"I'm waiting for you by the road. I can hear... whistling?" 

"Whistling? Eric whispered. "Oh. I had forgotten."

"Yes, you're whistling and coming around the bend and I can hear a rustling in the trees and there's kind of a 'whoosh' sound and then a thud and more quiet rustling and I'm running and I can't find you and I'm scared, so scared to go in the trees and I want to go look for you but I'm scared." Tears squeezed out Sookie's eyes.

"Sookie, love, whatever you do, do not go in the trees! Do not go look for me! Run the other way!" Eric's voice was fierce. "Mary, can you make her see something else? Another vision now? I don't want her to see what happened next."

"I can try." Strain showed on Mary's face and she gripped Sookie's hand harder. "Ok, here's another one." Sookie relaxed a bit. 

"What do you see now, Lover?"

"I see people searching for you. No one can find you. No one ever found you. I see two older people... maybe my parents? They are angry with me, for going out to meet you, I think. They want to punish me. They are sending me to work. In a... in a... what looks like an alehouse of some kind? They are telling me that I will never find a husband. I told them..."

"You told them what, dear one?"

"I told them... I would never marry if I couldn't marry you."

"Oh, Sookie..."

"Oh, I see something else, Eric! This is different, a different place..."

"What, love?"

"It's cold! It looks like Russia. I'm wearing clothes that look like maybe the early 1800s? I'm at work again in what looks like an alehouse. Can't I do anything else? Sheesh. I'm serving vodka mostly, though, so I guess it's not technically an alehouse. It's late and almost time to go home. Someone has come in, great, and I was just about ready to go, too! I'd better see what they want. It's a group, actually. It's a group of... very pale men, strange looking. And a bull? And you! You're there. They must be vampires then." 

"A bull? Russia? Sookie, it's the St. Petersburg massacre! You have to get out of there!"

"You are looking at me. It's like you recognize me. You're across the room faster than I can see. There's going to be trouble and I need to leave. But I don't want to leave you. I've just found you!" 

"Sookie you have to leave! There's going to be a maenad! Phryne was even worse than Callisto!"

"Put me down! I want to stay with you!" Sookie's entire body had tensed up, gone rigid. Her expression was one of supreme indignance. 

"You're telling me to go home, stay safe, you will see me again. You locked the door to the alehouse from the inside. I... I don't know what happened after that, but now I'm arguing with what looks like my parents yet again. They want me to marry a horrible looking Russian man."

"You don't want to know what happened with Phryne, lover. It's not my greatest memory." Eric replied.

"I'm telling my parents that I've already met my husband, he's coming back for me. He's tall, with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes. And even if he doesn't come back soon, I would rather wait. I can work and keep bringing in money, I don't need a husband."

Eric chuckled. "Always my independent Sookie."

Mary shifter in her chair. "I'm getting something else. Something different."

"Oh, I see it! I see gray skies and narrow cobblestone streets, and women in Victorian dresses. I see a great river, and barges, and lots of smoke coming from chimneys. This must be London! I'm walking down a street with lovely houses. There are lovely young women out for a stroll. One of them looks so familiar. It's... it's..."

"Pam." Eric said flatly. 

"Sweet Jesus, Shepherd of Judea it IS Pam! She's lovely! Well, I mean, even lovelier than now, because she looks like a living doll. So alive! Sparkling eyes and pink cheeks and lips. She looks like she's up to something, though."

"She was." Eric said, again flatly. "But you know that, she told you what happened the night she was turned. Pam was very vibrant and alive, and indeed up to no good, as you said. Sookie, please, don't watch what happens."

"But Eric, I wish you could see my clothes! I'm a well born lady this time! Like Pam! It looks like my house is just a few doors down from hers. I'm dressing to go to the theater and I have a lady's maid! I'm going down the front steps to our carriage. I see something out of the corner of my eye. It's a well dressed blonde gentleman standing in the shadows. He's very tall and his face has a sort of glow. He has long golden hair."

"You SAW me?" I was doing my best to be inconspicuous!"

"Well you weren't doing it well enough, sweetie. Nice top hat, by the way." Sookie giggled.

"It was the fashion of the times." Eric growled. 

"Uh huh. Sure. Anyway, you looked quite striking. I was very taken by you. At the theater my parents introduced me to a young man they thought might make a nice suitor. He was typically terrible. After we got home I got a lecture on how I should be seriously thinking about marriage - after all, I'm not getting any younger." Eric laughed at that. "The next day there was news that Pam had taken ill and died during the night. This made my parents more determined than ever that I should marry. And me more determined than ever that I should look for the handsome blonde stranger in the silly top hat that caught my eye."

Eric breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't seen what happened when he turned Pam. "But let me guess - you never saw me again?"

"Seems I was destined to be a spinster with a cat, sweetie." Sookie smiled, eyes still closed.

Mary shifted in her chair. "I see one final vision."

Sookie jerked upright, causing Eric to almost come off the couch in alarm. "Lover? What is it?"

She started laughing so hard she could hardly hold on to Mary's hand. "Sookie? What is it? What do you see?" Eric asked. 

"It's... it's Bill," she gasped, wiping her eyes with her free hand. 

"Bill COMPTON?" Eric was stunned.

She nodded. "I see the living room of my house, only it's furnished much differently. And Bill, well, he looks exactly the same, except alive. And he's wearing farmer's clothes from around the Civil War. I'm wearing a calico dress from the same time. He's asking for my hand in marriage. Oh, Eric, you should hear him. He's saying, "Miss Sookie, I may not have much, but I will love you for eternity." At that, she and Eric both burst out laughing. 

When they recovered, Sookie said, "I know it's horrible to laugh, but it's just so ironic. I mean, I can see in his head. He only wants to marry me so he can join our properties together and farm them both in one big plantation. I know he does love me in his way, Eric, but he's never been able to do it without an ulterior motive, it seems!" 

"What did you tell him, Lover?" 

"I told him that, while I appreciated his offer, I had to decline because I just didn't think he'd be a good husband to me. I'd rather be alone and take care of my property myself."

"Well done, Lover, I'm proud of you. Anyone who can survive everything you've survived in this life alone could've taken care of one small farm easily." 

Mary let go of Sookie's hand and they both opened their eyes, leaning back in their chairs. It had been a tiring experience for both of them.

"Well," Mary asked, "are you ready to piece it all together?"