A/N: I was tempted to wait a few days to post this, until the post-DAG insanity subsided, but I've been on a writing groove and just want to move it along. To my darlings here at the Sookieverse, your answer awaits you. Once again, big thanks to Kristin for her beta work, and to all the ladies and gents here and at the LTAE thread over at the wiki. Y'all know who you are! Thanks again to all of you for your wonderful reviews and pm's, and to those of you who have been putting this story on alert. Wow!

Oh, for those who wondered last chapter, I did in fact research (heavily) before writing this to figure out how to have them legitimately jumping time zones. I was trying to make sure that Craig always took off around dusk, and did his dirty work during the day, when Eric could not get to them. To make sure Eric could not track them until they were leaving. I also had to extrapolate travel times from place to place for private jets, so Expedia became a good friend as I looked up flights between the various cities, and then shortened them because these guys wouldn't be having layovers. I've got a current world time zone map tab and sunrise/sunset calculator open in tabs for months now.

As for those who asked about the explanation of the title in the last chapter . . . yes, that is part of the explanation but, surprisingly, not where I originally began it . . . all will be revealed eventually . . . I hope.

Just in case anyone needed a reminder, this is Charlaine Harris' world, I just like to play in her sandbox sometimes.

Chapter 16

Tears were streaming down my face as I stepped aboard the plane, but I wouldn't give Craig the satisfaction of hearing my sobs.

The look in Eric's eyes when he realized I was turning away was unbearable. The pain and confusion evident there, clawed at my heart. My heart. The one thing I had denied him for so long; the one thing I probably would not live long enough to tell him belonged to him.

But the voice, that voice that haunted me day and night, I could not let that voice near him. It wasn't me he was threatening every time he made me step on a plane; it was Eric. Craig claimed that his abilities worked on vampires and when I was being recalcitrant, he swore he would do to Eric what he did to me.

I didn't know if he was telling the truth, but it was a risk I was not willing to take. No. Eric had to take Craig unawares, or not at all. I could not risk a confrontation between them. If I had to suffer this, so be it, but I would not allow Eric to suffer, or worse. I know Eric would survive my death. I'm not sure I would survive his. So I willingly tore my eyes from my Viking and boarded the plane.

I sat down, and Craig sat across from me. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, but after a few minutes, he spoke to me.

"I know you're awake Sookie."

I sighed and opened my eyes. Craig's impossibly green eyes were staring back at me. I regarded him silently, wondering how someone so beautiful on the outside could be so awful inside. I knew it was a shallow thought really, since it's not like ugly people are ugly inside, but still, I couldn't help but wonder what God was thinking by putting something so evil inside such an enticing package.

"You look like you have a question Sookie."

"Don't you already know what it is?"

"It does get tiring digging through there you know. What do you want to know?"

"I want to know why . . . why me? I know you won't tell me who hired you or why they are doing this to Eric, but you said you wanted me. Why?"

I expected him to laugh and make fun of me. I expected lewd comments. I did not expect what happened next.

"Because I'm tired of being alone." He said. The next minute I was bombarded by images of a sad and lonely child, and then they were replaced by horrifying images of that child being abused over and over. It was a flash of images; loaded and intense, and I could not possibly separate out each incident, but the effect remained the same.

Craig had explained himself to me. This was how he came to be who he is. Like me, he lost his parents. Like me, he was raised by his grandmother, only his grandmother had been a cruel woman. Where mine showed me unconditional love, kindness and support, his tormented his body, mind and soul.

I shuddered and flinched as the images played through my mind. Even though I hated Craig for all he had done to me and Eric, a small part of me pitied him, and mourned for the man he might have otherwise become.

As Craig's story unfolded in my mind, I saw myself as he saw me, and I understood. I was someone like him, another freak. We stood out and apart. We were opposite sides of the same coin. I, but for the grace of god, could have been him; and he, escaping god's grace, became what he was. He saw me as his other half, and had determined I was destined to be his.

I leaned forward, touched his hand, and said, "I'm sorry."

He visibly flinched at my touch and growled back, "don't you fucking pity me. Don't you ever fucking pity me." Then, as if to make a point, he began to tear through my mind, dredging up my most painful memories and forcing me to relive them; Uncle Bartlett, children teasing me at school, Bill's betrayals, and, his unwitting rape of me in the trunk of the car, Gran's murder, the loss of Eric after he recovered his memories, my terror at Rhodes, and on and on.

I panicked and ran. I ran back to my secret room. I ran to where I thought he could not follow. I ran toward Eric; toward love and calm and no more pain. It was my biggest mistake and greatest blessing.

This time, I did not fool Craig, and this time he found me. He realized where I was, and what it was, and he went crazy. He began to tear down the wall I'd built to protect Eric, and for the first time since it all began, I really fought back. I had to stop him. I had to protect Eric. I lashed out at Craig, but he was too powerful for me. In the end, it was a losing battle, the wall came crumbling down, and I was punished.

I was punished a lot.

But as I passed out and slipped into the painless bliss of oblivion, I felt myself smile, because I had gotten a glimpse into his head and, I learned a few things.