AN- All characters are the property of Charlaine Harris. I apologize for the long wait on this update.

Sookie woke up the next day around noon to find that Eric had left her a package on the kitchen counter. She started some coffee brewing and went to see what it was in the rectangular box. She opened it to find a brand new red phone. She flipped it open and saw that he had included the picture that she had asked for on the background. She smiled as she spent a few minutes playing with the features until she thought she at least had a basic understanding of the phone. She saw that he had programed in a few numbers. His being the first one, followed by Pam, and Fangtasia. She fumbled around trying to add her Gran until she figured it and then also added her brother. She realized sadly that those where the only people that she would talk to. She almost considered calling up Sam and trying to patch things up, but his hatred of Eric had been blatant. Maybe after she gave it some time.

As she was eating her breakfast she decided to try out her new phone. She dialed her Gran.

"Afternoon," she heard on the other end.

"Heya Gran, I finally gotta phone!," Sookie said excitedly.

"Wonderful dear lemme get my pencil." Sookie had actually had a hard time finding the number to the phone when she was first playing with it. But eventually she had located where it was under all of the settings and wrote it down on a napkin so she could tell her grandmother.

"Hey listen Gran, I aint doin anything today. You mind if I come visit ya?"

"Of course you can. My goodness, you don't have to ask," Adele puffed.

"I know Gran. I was just makin sure you weren't goin to town or nothin."

"No I'm not, but I should. Do you think you could come take me to the store?" Adele was having a hard time doing a lot of the tasks she used to be able to do. An extra pair of hands at the grocery store would be welcome.

"No problem, I'll head over soon as I finish up here."

"Thank you dear. Bye now."

"Love ya Gran."

Sookie hung up the phone, quickly finished her food, and jumped into the shower. She threw on jeans and a t-shirt. As she walked by the still form of Eric, she bent and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She rummaged around in Eric's office until she found a piece of paper. She left a note for him where he had left the phone for her.

She arrived at her Grans house around two o'clock. Adele was ready to get her shopping done and didn't even let Sookie get out of the car. She came out as soon as she saw Sookie heading down the road and locked up behind her.

"It's good to see you Sookie," Adele hugged her as she got into the car.

"How are you doing all by yourself Gran?" Sookie had been pretty worried about her grandmother. She returned the hug with a slight sigh.

"Don't you worry about me honey. I can take care of myself," Adele patted Sookie's back.

"I can't help it Gran, you know that," Sookie said as she pulled from the hug and fired the car back up.

"Did you hear about that poor Lafayette fellow?" Adele was ever the town gossip.

"I only heard that he was dead. What happened to him Gran? Have they caught the person?," Sookie blurted out.

"They found him dead in the parking lot of Merlotte's you know."

"No! I didn't know that. How terrible, how is Sam takin it?"

"Probably better than you slapping him last night," Adele glanced at Sookie out of the corner of her eye.

Sookie let out a sigh. "So I guess everyone heard about that huh?"

"Well hun, from what I hear ya'll weren't too quiet and he came out with the biggest red mark on his face."

"Oh Gran, I think even you woulda slapped him if you'd seen the things he was picturing Eric would do to me." She shuddered remembering how he had pictured Eric tearing her limbs off and letting the blood trickle down his throat.

"I think he has every right to be jealous Sookie," Adele said calmly.

Sookie shook her head, "It's not that. He's positive that Eric will kill me. Not just hurt me, kill me."

"That's my concern as well dear," she said sadly. "He is a vampire and that is always a possibility. But I saw how he was around you and I know the whole story. Sam wouldn't understand that unless you told him Sookie."

"You are probably right Gran. I just don't know how many people Eric wants knowing the truth is all. I tried to tell Sam that I loved Eric, but that only made it worse..." She pushed those thoughts aside. "Tell me more about Lafayette. I'm outta the loop now."

"They found his body in a car that was in the parking lot. Apparently he had been beaten pretty badly and he was naked, if you can believe that," Adele stated in disgust.

"That must be why Bud said it was probably a hate crime." She suddenly felt a connection to the former cook. He was hated because he loved men and Sookie was hated because she loved a vampire.

"Is that what he told you?" Adele sounded like she was gathering more gossip.

"Ya, when I went down to the station last night. That's terrible, do they have any leads?"

"The car that he was left in was actually Andy Bellefleur's. He had tied one on the night before and left it in the lot. The door hadn't been locked or nothin, but it aint lookin pretty for him."

"That must be why he rode with Kenya over to our house that night. Boy I must be off my game cause I didn't pick up any of that while they were there." Normally she kept her guards up but something like that should have jumped right through them.

"Well you had other things to think about that night dear. I can't believe how terrible that Rene turned out. I wonder if he didn't have something to do with Lafayette as well." In fact everyone was wondering that. It seemed much more plausible then another murderer in such a little town. No one wanted to think that that was true.

Sookie thought about it as she pulled into the store. "I don't think he did. I mean I saw a lot of twisted thoughts that he had been hidin from me before, but I didn't see Lafayette in there."

"Oh dear," she gasp. "I don't want to think that there's another murderer out there..."

"Gran, I'm sure that Eric would let you come live with us... I mean his house is really big and he only uses like a third of it."

"I don't think I could leave the farmhouse Sookie. I wouldn't wanna come between you and Eric either." Adele patted Sookie's hand. "I appreciate it though hun. I really do."

"I feel bad for leaving you." She looked down, not wanting to make eye contact.

"Honestly Sookie, it's about time it happened. I'm not gonna be around forever dear, and you needed to start your own life." Adele got out of the car and noticed that Sookie hadn't followed her. She glanced back in to see that Sookie was crying. She moved around the car and opened up the driver's side door. "Sookie it's okay, come on outta there."

Sookie obediently stood up and hugged her Gran close. "I would take care of you Gran. Just like you took care of me... You know that right?" She said between sobs. She didn't want to think about her grandmother dieing anymore. Every time she saw her now it became more and more evident that her body was giving out on her.

"I'll make you a deal Sookie." Adele whispered, running her hand down Sookie's back. "If I get to the point where I need help doing everything, I'll let you take me out of the farmhouse. How's that dear?" Adele suspected that she would not last that long, which was the only reason she even made the deal in the first place.

"Okay Gran," Sookie reluctantly agreed. "No more talk of you diein though..."

Adele nodded, "Alright Sookie. Now let's get that shoppin done."

It was getting close to sunset when Sookie finished with her grandmother. She sped down the road in an effort to return to Eric. Suddenly her car started lurching and sputtering. She barely had time to get to the side of the road before it completely gave out on her. She tried unsuccessfully to get it to start again. It wasn't even making a sound. She cursed and got out of the car. If she knew something about cars she might look under the hood. She glanced up at the sky, it was close to dark. She decided to call Eric and at leave a message.

It went straight to his voice mail. "Hey Eric, my car gave out on me on my way back from Gran's house." She paused to look around for any landmarks. "I don't know, I guess I'm only about ten minutes from her house. Looks like I didn't get very far...Wait a minute here comes someone..."

Sookie looked up to see a lady walking toward her accompanied by a giant razorback. She had long snarled hair and she was next to naked with just a dirty old shift on. As she moved closer, Sookie saw that she was holding what looked like a stick with a tuft of something on the end and she was barefoot.

"Who are you?" Sookie asked, still holding the phone open in her hand.

As she smiled, Sookie could see that her mouth and teeth were stained with blood. She moved closer to Sookie and she was starting to get worried. "I have to tell you ma'am, your pig is kinda freakin me out." The hog had been moving forward with the strange lady the whole time and it had ferocious looking tusks.

"She'll do what I tell her." She reached down and scratched the animal's neck like a friendly dog. Sookie recalled what Eric had said about Sam being able to turn into an animal and wondered if that was what this razorback was. There was definitely something odd about this woman, aside from how she looked. Sookie couldn't get a clear read off of the woman's mind. It reminded her of how she could sometimes only pick up feelings from Sam.

"What are you?" It suddenly seemed like a better question.

She smiled and moved even closer to Sookie. "I'm a maenad."

Sookie plastered on her fake smile. "Okay. And you would be out here because?..."

"I need a message taken to Eric Northman," she said, moving closer. The smell coming off of her and the razorback was indescribable.

"What's the message?" Sookie looked up just in time to spin around as the maenad clawed at her. Her nails caught on Sookie's skin and tore deeper. All the way down her back like a heavy rake. Sookie pitched forward and landed on her stomach.

She heard the maenad laughing and the pig snuffling. Then they were gone, leaving Sookie suffering on the side of the road. Through tears, Sookie looked at her phone. She saw that Eric's voice mail had hung up on her long ago and she struggled to dial him again. It still wasn't dark enough for him to leave his house, but it would only be minutes now the sun was sinking slowly.

"Sookie! Sookie! What's going on?" Her pain had jolted him out of his slumber, even if he couldn't leave yet. He paced around the house like a caged animal.

"Maenad," she whispered weakly. "Oh god...Eric...It hurts so bad..."

"I will be there as soon as I can my love. Can you hold on?" He cursed the minutes and the distance.

"Said it...was a …message...for you," she stuttered.

"Alright Sookie we can talk about that later. You need to conserve your energy," he said as he flew out his door faster than he had ever flown before. He could feel exactly where she was and he headed straight toward her. He could hear her crying on the other end of the phone and through the bond it felt as if the maenad had raked his back. The pain was excruciating even for him, he didn't know how Sookie was enduring it.

"Bill?..." He heard her ask.

"NOOOO!" Eric shouted into the headset.