Chapter 14: Ever the Same

"You know it's been said that we just don't recognize the significant moments of our lives while they're happening. We grow complacent with ideas, or things or people and we take them for granted and it's usually not until that thing is about to be taken away from you that you've realized how wrong you've been that you realized how much you need it, how much you love it." –One Tree Hill

SPOV

I told the detectives everything I could remember about the robbery. I gave as detailed a description as I could of the two guys who had attacked me and I told them what I thought was missing. I knew they'd taken my earrings and my Gran's ring. I could only assume my wallet and cell phone were gone. What really killed me was finding out my car was gone as well. My heart completely sank. If they took my car that meant they had my house keys and that meant they could have driven out to Bon Temps, ransacked my house and taken anything of value before anyone even knew they had been there.

Detective Colbert made a call to have officers dispatched to my house and it looked like Eric and I would be making a trip out to Bon Temps to make sure nothing was missing. I didn't have a whole lot in the house that was worth much, but I did have Gran's silver. That silver had been passed from generation to generation and had traveled across the damn Atlantic and thousands of miles to make its home in the buffet table in my dining room.

I was furious. It was bad enough my head was killing me with that dull, throbbing ache I had to endure, to say nothing of those fucking stitches, but now they might have breeched my house as well? Little bastards better hope the cops found them first because if I did, I'd kick their asses. But then I looked over at Eric and saw the irate fury etched in his face and I got a little scared. I was talking the talk but I was pretty sure Eric would walk the walk, and I didn't need him to get himself arrested in some misguided attempt at defending my honor.

In all, the robbers had made out pretty well. Between the comics, my wallet and car, they'd gotten away with close to $80,000.00 worth of stuff. Detective Sanders opened a file he was carrying and asked me to look at some pictures to see if I could identify anyone. Immediately two faces jumped out at me and I handed those pictures back to the detective.

"This one," I held up the picture of the taller man. "He's the one who knocked me out. The little one with the tattoo is the one who was yelling at me to get off the phone."

"Can I see those?" Eric asked and reached for the photos. "I know these two. They've been in the store before."

"Do you have names for them?" Detective Sanders asked, his pen poised over a notepad to take down whatever Eric said.

"Yeah this is Felipe de Castro," Eric put a name to the face of the Hispanic kid who had scared the piss out of me. "And this is Victor Madden. I kicked them out of the store on Monday because Victor decided to light up in the back. They weren't happy with me about it."

I saw another layer of guilt shellac itself onto what was already there and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me once the detectives were gone. They stuck around a while longer to ask a few more questions before offering us a ride to Bon Temps. Eric declined and said he would drive us there. With his mood, I wasn't too keen on getting in a car with him but I didn't have the strength to fight.

I excused myself to take a couple of ibuprofen and then try to figure out something to wear other than a securely tied bathrobe. I stood at the foot of Eric's bed and all of a sudden, the weight of everything landed on my shoulders. My knees buckled and I leaned against his bed while I sobbed. Not ten seconds later, Eric was kneeling on the ground next to me.

"Sookie, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" He gently tugged me closer to him.

I couldn't answer him; all I could do was sob. He sat there with me cuddled against his chest, rocking me slowly while I had my little breakdown. As angry as I was over what had been done to me, there was a part of me that was even more relieved that Eric hadn't been hurt, too. I had no doubt that Eric would have preferred the shoe was on the other foot, and he was the one who took the injury but I was actually glad it worked out the way it did.

Eric would have been content to play the tough guy throughout the whole thing and act like none of it affected him. Yes, he was concerned for me and I loved him for it, but he was pushing the rest of it away. He didn't want to deal with the fact that he had been violated too in this whole ordeal. It was his shop that had been damaged in all of this, after all.

I pulled it together, knowing the longer I sat on the floor freaking out, the harder it was going to be for Eric to follow through with what we needed to do. I needed to go home and get some of my things. I needed to make arrangements with Dr. Ludwig to take some time off. I had calls to make to various creditors, insurance companies, a locksmith and probably an alarm company to take care of all this mess.

"I'm okay, Eric. I just got overwhelmed." I sniffled and rubbed at my face. "Can I borrow some of your clothes? The only thing I have here to wear is that gown from Friday."

"Of course you can," he kissed my forehead with relief. "Take whatever you want."

I'd gotten my dress back from the hospital but it was covered in blood and there was no way in hell I ever wanted to wear it again after what I'd been through. I was going to have to go without a bra but at least my panties would work until I could get home for fresh ones. Too bad Eric never got a chance to see them. He probably would have liked them.

I found a pair of drawstring pajama pants and after tying them, I rolled the cuffs at the bottom until they were Capri pants. I grabbed an old Lynyrd Skynyrd concert t-shirt and slipped that on as well. It wasn't the best outfit ever but it would have to do. The detectives were already gone by the time I got downstairs.

"Hang on a second," I reached for Eric's hand when he headed for the garage door.

"What?" He asked in a hurried tone.

I stepped toward him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I squeezed him tightly, just needing that little bit of reassuring contact between us. I wanted him to know that even though I was on shaky ground, I was going to be okay. Mostly I wanted him to know I was still there and he could lean on me just as much as I would be leaning on him.

"I love you," I whispered and made a promise to myself I would tell him that every chance I got.

What was it about coming close to losing something you loved that made you appreciate it that much more when you didn't? All it would have taken was a gentle squeeze of Victor Madden's finger and I would be dead. God I could only imagine what it would have done to Eric if they had killed me. Just the thought of him walking into the shop to find me sprawled out… No, I couldn't think about that. It hadn't happened. I was hurt, but I would recover. I was alive and that was the thing I needed to focus on and so did Eric.

"I love you too," he whispered back and when he kissed me, I could feel it.

"We better go," I said after breaking the kiss. If we got started on that, we would never leave.

"Yeah," Eric sighed and opened the garage door for me to go first.

o.O.o.O.o

By the time I got to Bon Temps there were cops everywhere, along with my brother, who had a spare key. It just so happened he was at Merlotte's when Andy Bellefleur got the call to run out to my property to take a look around. Since Jason had a key and was already aware of what I'd been through the night before, he'd let Andy into the house. The place was being dusted for fingerprints and I was asked to take a look around to see if anything was missing.

The first place I went was to the dining room where the silver was kept. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was all there. Then I checked the electronics and that was all there too. If there were DVDs or CDs missing, I didn't notice it, but those were easy to replace. None of Gran's other jewelry had been taken and nothing appeared to be out of order. Thank God.

According to Jason the house had been locked up tight when he got there and I doubt that if those kids had come through they would have left things untouched and they sure as fuck wouldn't have taken the time to close up the house when they were finished. I was standing on the porch with Eric, leaning against him for support when Bill appeared out of the trees to the left of the house.

He marched toward me with a look of concern. "Sookie, what happened? Were you robbed?"

I really didn't want to deal with Bill at the moment but I didn't have a whole hell of a lot of choice. "Last night, but the house is fine. It's a long story, but I'm okay."

Bill was staring intensely at Eric, trying to figure out who he was. Eric didn't make a move to introduce himself and I was perfectly okay with that. Bill, on the other hand, wasn't.

"Bill Compton," Bill reached a hand out and Eric shook it firmly.

"Eric Northman," he answered and I straightened up.

"Eric this is my ex. Bill, this is my current," I gestured between them and the tension radiating off of Bill was exactly what I didn't need right then. I was in no mood for a pissing contest, especially given that Bill's girlfriend, or whatever the hell she was to him, was carrying his baby. "Look, Bill, the police have everything under control here and nothing is missing. As soon as they give me the all clear to grab some of my things, I'm going with Eric."

Bill glowered and said, "You have my number. Call me if you need anything."

Pass.

"Thanks," I said instead, seeing no reason to start an argument. I just wanted him to go away.

Bill shuffled off toward the woods and a few minutes later Detective Colbert came outside to give us the all clear to go in and get the things I wanted to take with me back to Eric's place. Eric went up to the attic to get one of the suitcases down for me while I raided my closet and dresser. My phone rang while I was waiting and I wasn't the least bit surprised when it was the local TV stations trying to get some sort of statement from me. What they really wanted was to interview me on the morning news. I took a pass.

I didn't know why those boys had attacked me but I wouldn't reward them with any more screen time than they were already getting. Besides, they turned out to be minors so their names couldn't even be released to the public. The whole thing was tragic but it wasn't really the sort of crime where a lesson could be learned by the masses.

Eric came down with the suitcase and a pissed off look on his face. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had gotten a phone call and just like me, he had denied the request for an interview. If Chow wanted to go on TV, there was nothing Eric could do to stop it but he wasn't about to talk about my ordeal on the morning news.

He helped me pack up what I needed and promised he would bring me back anytime I wanted to come. Andy promised he would be sending Kevin and Kenya to watch the house and make sure no one was in it while I was gone. I would be having a locksmith out the next day to change all of the locks. In the meantime the house was going to be sealed up like a crime scene in the hopes that if the boys did decide to come out and see if they could score anything, they would be deterred from it. You know, assuming the squad car wasn't deterrent enough.

It was probably pointless, but I wondered about those boys' mamas. What kind of families did they come from that this sort of thing was acceptable? Now I never would have done the kinds of things those boys did, but if for some strange reason I did, the police wouldn't have stood a chance in holding me accountable. Gran woulda skinned me alive before they ever caught me. Somehow I doubted the same was true for those boys.

I grabbed the important financial papers and other records I needed so I could contact my bank, credit card companies and insurance adjusters. A notice had been put out that my car had been stolen but Detective Sanders told me not to get my hopes up. If nothing else, it would be stripped for parts and I would probably end up having to get a new car.

While we were driving back home I used Eric's phone to call the bank and report my debit card stolen. A quick check of my financial records showed that no charges had been made in my name since I paid for the Chinese food the night before. I breathed a sigh of relief on that and they promised to issue me a new card immediately. Unfortunately, I would be without one for the next seven to ten business days. Wonderful.

After that I called the credit card companies and canceled all of those cards. No charges had been made there either and new cards would be issued on those accounts as well. My next call was to the insurance adjuster for my auto insurance. What a fun conversation that was. I had full coverage on my car, and thank God I did, or I would have been completely screwed. They wouldn't really give me any numbers until my car had been recovered, assuming it was even recoverable. For all I knew, it was on its way to New Mexico or something. But they had some sort of waiting period and since the car hadn't even been gone for twenty-four hours yet, they weren't willing to write it off as a loss. Fuckers.

The only bright side to that I was able to find was that I couldn't drive for the next couple of days anyway. Anywhere I wanted to go, I would be relying on Eric to get me there. I guess that worked out since he was going to have some clean up work to do. If nothing else, there was my blood to wash off the wall and floor at his shop.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up what we needed for the next couple of days. If I couldn't work, at least I could entertain myself by playing housewife. That meant I'd be cooking meals and cleaning the house, regardless of what Eric thought. I wasn't an invalid and I had no intention of milking my injury. Besides, cooking dinner wasn't like training for a marathon. If I got tired, I'd sit down, no big deal.

By the time we got home it was after dinnertime. Eric called in a pizza order while I unpacked upstairs. He'd cleared some space in his dresser for me and told me I was welcome to use any of the other closets upstairs if I needed more space for my stuff. He was being eerily quiet and it was starting to get to me.

"Is this how you're going to be the entire time I'm here?" I asked Eric when he sat on the bed to watch me unpack.

"What do you mean?"

"All sullen and crabby. Look, I'm not really in the mood to dance a jig or anything, but all this negativity that's pouring off of you is really starting to suck up what little energy I have left," I explained to him as I hauled out my stack of clean panties.

"I'm sorry. I'll give you some space," Eric got up off the bed.

"Hey!" I shouted after him and he stopped. "Don't shut me out. Whatever is going on in your head, you can talk to me about it."

He slumped against the door and said, "I feel responsible for what happened to you. I know it's not my fault and I know you don't blame me for it but that doesn't really matter. In the end it was because I wasn't there that you got hurt. I was careless and I shouldn't have been. I feel like I should be doing something to make this right and I have no idea what that thing is."

It dawned on me then that Eric and I were the sorts who weren't comfortable with not being in control. We'd kept walls around ourselves because it meant we could keep the chaos away. I'd been going after guys I knew on some deeper level I could never really have. He went after girls he'd known he didn't really want. Our combined history made it look like there was no way things between us would ever last, but I happened to think it was the mistakes in our past that made us a better match. We understood each other in ways that other people might not because even though we handled it differently, we started out in the same place.

"Come here," I said, figuring a snuggle session might help get his head on straight. Eric turned and I waved him toward me. "Come on, get in bed with me."

I pushed the suitcase onto the floor and climbed up on the bed. I stretched out on my side, careful not to put too much pressure on my stitches. Eric lay down next to me and gathered me up in his arms. I sighed against his chest and held onto him as tightly as I could. Maybe this wasn't going to fix him but it was the best I could offer just then.

"It's going to be okay, Eric. I'm not going to let this get me down and you shouldn't either. The important thing is that I'm here with you and I'll be fine. Everything that was taken is replaceable." I ran my nails up and down his side.

"Will you tell me what happened?" He asked me quietly.

He'd heard the story I'd even the cops but that was all facts, no emotions. Eric wanted to know everything and I couldn't blame him. If I were in his shoes, I would want to know, too. I took a deep breath and started talking.

So how do you like that? An Eric and Sookie who communicate like normal people. I didn't think it could be done, I really didn't. Thanks for reading!