A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. They are so very appreciated. The crack keeps all of us fic writers, well, writing. And, reviews make Eric happy. Sorry about the delay, but I was crazy sick last week, although I did manage to crank out something. Funny what four days of fever does to your imagination. I imagined I was at Paley Fest . . . oh, wait, I was at Paley Fest. Pfft. Alex gave me a fever. I'll blame the beautiful Swede.

Thanks again to KCP for being my beta. I know my punctuation is awful, but she puts up with me anyway. Thanks to everyone over at the LTEA thread and at ViHOP. You guys rock.

Chapter 12

I awoke to cool fingers gently washing me down, water sluicing down [...] as the sponge coasted over my shoulders. I sighed. Eric. He came. He came for me. I felt fingers [...]. I felt warm kisses on my neck, slowly trailing down to my collar bone. Wait, warm kisses?

My eyes flew open and instead of blue, I saw green staring back at me.

Craig laughed as a shriek came out of my mouth, and his lips curled up at the corners in a smile.

I realized I was sitting, naked, in a small tub. I wanted to lift my arms, to try to cover my nakedness, but they wouldn't respond, and my fingers splashed uselessly in the water. I realized my head was also lolling lazily.

"What . . . what have you done?" I slurred.

"Oh, I just gave you a little something to help you relax. I couldn't have you trying to run off . . . again . . . while I bathed you."

I grimaced at the reminder of my failed escape attempt.

After what felt like hours, days, weeks, I had no idea, strapped into the chair, Craig finally stopped. I didn't even have the strength to scream anymore and the only sounds I was making were soft whimpers. I thought of nothing but tiredness, sleep and pain. My head slumped forward. I felt Craig undo the restraints and I took my chance. My elbow shot up and clipped him in the face, and I lunged for the door.

My hand made it to the handle before my world exploded into a million shards of glass, each one slicing me open. I don't know how long I flailed about on the floor. I do know that I found the strength to scream again. The cries tore from me until I was hoarse and they issued forth nearly soundlessly.

And the entire time, Craig stood over me, his hands carelessly shoved into his pockets, like it was nothing. Then, mercifully, I passed out.

Which brought me back to the present. I could tell from Craig's smile that he was "listening in" while I recalled the day before.

I flinched slightly as his hands skimmed over a painful spot on my ribs. Hell, there weren't many spots on my body that weren't painful. I could feel myself blushing at my nakedness, despite everything. I was mortified. I always hated the fact that I blushed, but I don't think I ever hated it more.

"But you look lovely when you blush Sookie," Craig purred in my ear.

"Get out of my head!" I tried to sound angry, but my words were still somewhat slurred.

"Oh, but it is so lovely in here Sookie. There is so much to explore. You are so much more complicated than at first blush." He made a point of emphasizing that last word.

His hands continued [...] my body, washing it, but he just made me feel dirty.

[...] EDITED SEE CHAPTER 1 NOTE

A/N: I warned you at the start of this didn't I? Don't say I didn't warn you.