I'm sorry for such a long wait. I've had computer troubles for the past month or so, and I'm still trying to get my computer fixed, so until then updates will be a little slow. But, I'll try to have another chapter up this week. Thanks for reading, and reviews are much appreciated, too!

Sam waved his hand as he walked away, gestured for us to follow him. Tara stayed close to his side, Sookie to mine. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, a subconscious attempt to keep as much distance as possible between us. We rounded the corner and just as Sam reached out to open the door to his office, a shaky voice called out.

"Excuse me?"

I turned around and faced the person. She stood awkwardly off to the side, her shoulder pressed into the wall. I instantly recognized her as the man's wife. She stared at me with her bloodshot orbs. The trails left behind by her still-flowing tears shone in the fluorescent lights hanging only a few feet above her head. Her heavyset body trembled with each ragged breath, a pale comparison in intensity to the tremors she experienced not long ago. Her movements were subtle now.

"Yes?" I leaned into the wall.

She fidgeted round. "I—I just wanted to thank you. I don't know what you did, but I'm so grateful you did it. I don't know what I would do if I lost him. He means so much to me."

When I didn't respond, she continued speaking. "You're a godsend."

I smiled. "If only everyone thought that, ma'am."

"More people should. Well, thank you again. I'd better get back to him."

I nodded and the two of us parted ways, something I had grown so accustomed to doing as of late. Meeting people and leaving them. I scoffed quietly to myself. I watched her return to her loved ones briefly before I turned on my heel and walked the few steps to Sam's door. I knocked and waited for it to open. To just walk in…I didn't feel like I had the right. Not anymore.

Sharply the knob turned and the door flung open. Eyes downcast, I walked in and shut the door behind me. Tara sat down on Sam's desk. She had a glass in her hand, an empty one. Little droplets of liquid still clung to the insides of the cup. They must have drank a little while I was in the hall.

"Thought you walked out on us again," she said with a bitter tone.

"Now why would I do such a thing like that? What, with you guys being so welcoming and all," I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

Tara glared at me. "You don't deserve anything more than what you're getting, Adrian. You tell everyone to go fuck themselves and disappear, the expect us to jump for fuckin' joy when you show up out of the blue? Bullshit," she was riled up at this point. Seething. All heavy breathing and bulging eyes. Any other time, seeing someone so worked up would have made me laugh. But not tonight.

Sam placed a hand on her knee. "Calm down," he told her, looking somewhat annoyed.

I shook my head. "No, she's right. It was stupid of me to even consider the possibility of any of you even being happy to see me. Coming back was a mistake. All I've done is stir shit up."

"She's not right, Adrian," Sookie frowned. "Don't say that."

"No, Sook, I am right. And she knows it," Tara half shouted.

"Why are you even mad?" I asked, looking Tara in the eyes. "Matter of fact, why do you even care if I left or not, or what shit I did before I left? Because the last I remember, you never even wanted me here in the first place," I fumed. "Look, I'm not up for this shit. I'm leaving. If you want to see me, you know where to find me," I shot Sookie a look.

"Tara!" Sookie growled. I reached for the doorknob. Sam grabbed my arm to try and stop me from leaving.

I ripped my hand away and headed into the hallway. "Adrian, wait," Sam said from his spot in the doorway.

"What?" I snapped. "Are you going to keep me here longer so that I can hear just how much of an asshole I am?"

He frowned deeply at me. "No. Tara gets like that sometimes. She doesn't know how to control herself," he said. "You don't have to leave…again. We've been waiting for you to come back."

My eyebrow raised. "Have you now."

"Yes, we have," Sam took a step closer to me and ran a hand through his hair. "So if you could stay…well, it'd be nice if you did."

"I don't know, Sam," I said. "Now doesn't seem like the right time."

"Just give it a shot," he gave a small smile. "And besides, Delilah says you haven't been all that happy since you left here."

That little shit, I thought to myself.

"You've been talking to her I take it," my lips pressed into a firm line.

He nodded. "I guess that's a yes then?"

"What, that I haven't been happy? Of course it is," I admitted, frowning. "Look at what happened—I know you weren't there, but I'm sure you heard about it. Right? Then you know that I lost someone so dear to me, that I waited for over a hundred years to see," I found myself struggling to swallow the lump forming in my throat. Even now it was still hard to talk about. "And I was the one that killed him. Do you have any idea how shitty that is?"

"I can imagine it must be hard…really hard. But maybe you'll feel better if you're in the company of friends. You won't be alone then, you know?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but now isn't the best time. I think I might just sit outside for a little while."

Sam squeezed my shoulder. "Alright. Just remember, you're welcome to come back here if you want."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," I said and walked off. I paused at the double doors with my fingers wrapped around the handle and snuck a glance back at the table where my victim once sat. It was empty now, dishes removed, table wiped down, cleaned of any trace of them. I pushed open the door and stepped into the unusually cool air of the night, kicking gravel as I walked down to the edge of the parking lot.

I exhaled deeply through my nose and began to wonder just why I even came back here in the first place. Was it really because I was worried about losing my job, or did part of me want to revisit those I left behind? I wasn't sure, so I settled on both being the reason why. Settled on it with another long, drawn out sigh, something I seemed to be doing a lot of lately.

I trudged over to the side, out of the way of a car attempting to pull in and leaned my back against one of the numerous trees. I slid down to the ground, bark scraping my back the entirety of the way down. There is still one person I haven't faced yet, one person I'm dreading the most.

"Eric," I whispered.

Over the past seven months I have tried, and failed, time and time again to keep the centuries old vampire out of my mind. But he plagued my every waking thought and dreams more than Alistair ever had. And with each though, each dream, each mentioning of his damned name, brought with it the most painful abysmal feeling I had ever felt. Without Eric, there was a hollowness within me and it scared me that a vampire could have such an impact on me.

A frown settled on my face and I wondered if it were possible that I had fallen for the Viking. Or if it was just the blood we shared that made me feel this way. And if there was a chance he could be feeling the same thing, too.

Probably not, I groaned. I was only muscle to him. A guard. Someone to make sure his ass didn't wind up staked or kidnapped. What was there to fall for anyway?

"Hey, Adrian," I looked up to see Sookie standing next to the tree. "Sam told me I'd find you out here. I was worried you'd really left again."

"Still here," I said bitterly. "Whether you like it or not."

She gave an awkward smile. "I'm glad you're here. And…"

"And what?" I asked.

She looked hesitant to continue. "I called Eric.."

"That's nice," I said dismissively.

"And told him you were here," she finished quietly.

I shot up, surprising myself that I could even move that fast. Especially now. My body hasn't been kind to me.

"You did what?"

"I'm sorry, Adrian, I just…I knew he wanted to see you. He hasn't been the same since you left us, and I thought it would be good to let him know…in case you decided to bolt again. At least he'd get to see you one more time."

I felt my skin grown hot and fought to keep my temperature down and my emotions under control before my body went up in flames. I trembled visibly as my anger grew more and more with each passing second.

Why couldn't she keep her little fairy nose out of my goddamn fucking business!

"Don't you think that's something I should have done, and not you?"

"Would you have even done it on your own? Cause I'm sure you didn't even want to come here," she said.

"No, I didn't want to," I said truthfully. "Not at first. Delilah convinced me to. Said it would be good for me. Closure. That sort of thing."

"Why would you need closure? Are you just never showing up again after this?"

"I don't know. I really don't," I folded my hands behind my head. "Wouldn't you all be better off without me here? I mean, it's not like I did anything good for any of you."

"That's not true. You kept us all safe."

I frowned. "Merlotte's almost burned down, Eric was attacked, and you were kidnapped. Tell me how that's keeping any of you safe."

Sookie made a face. "You couldn't be everywhere at once, Adrian. You did your best."

"My best wasn't enough," I said.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. No one is perfect."

I shrugged and averted my gaze to the ground, the patches of grass beneath my feet. I guess in a way she's right. I did what I could to help them. There was no way I could have protected them all on my own. Powerful as I may be, I couldn't be in five places at once. It's impossible. Even for me, a three thousand year old demon.

"Yeah, so…you told Eric that I'm here?" I asked, still staring at the ground.

"I did. He sounded…well, like he didn't care, but I know he misses you. Any time that I brought you up, I could see how sad it made him. Adrian, you really need to go see him," she said. "He hasn't been the same."

"At this point, I'm not even sure if he'd even want to be bothered with me. All I was from the start was a bodyguard, nothing more. What reason would he have for wanting to see me?"

"You two did spend a lot of time together, didn't you? So what makes you think he couldn't have started to feel something for you?" she stayed quiet for a minute. "I haven't seen him like this since his Maker died."

I sighed. "Considering the amount of blood he drank…"

"The blood doesn't last forever," she said. "You should know that. I think it's more than just the blood with you two."

"Stop thinking then…it'll get you into trouble."

She smiled a little. "Trouble's nothing new to me."

"Yeah, no shit," I rolled my eyes and exhaled. "So what have you been up to since I left?' I asked, hoping she would be nice and talk about something other than Eric. I couldn't be bothered to hear it right now; I was starting to feel sick again.

She shrugged. "Working, you know…going about my normal routine. It's actually been pretty quiet around here. I think everyone's more than happy about that. What about you?"

"I've been busy with work as well…had quite a few jobs. And a lot of Tetris. Things get boring," I explained when she looked at me as if I had ten heads. "Gotta get some sort of entertainment."

"So you play Tetris?" she giggled.

"Mhm. It's not like I'm gonna go and club baby seals when I get bored. I'm all about safe fun," I said, and flashed my fangs at her.

Sookie cracked a grin. "You? Safe? There's nothing safe about you; you're a walking fire hazard."

I smiled. "I guess you've got a point. Jessica seemed pretty pissed at me before, though," I said randomly, remembering our little encounter earlier.

"I noticed that. She'll come around."

"In time, yeah. I just came back after all. Anyway,—fuck!"

I lost my balance and dropped to the ground, my hands clutching at the sides of my head, willing the pain to stop. A white hot pain ripped through my skull, through my whole body. My eyes welled with sulfurous tears, nose dripping with warm blood. I glanced up at Sookie briefly through hazy eyes. Panic and confusion struck her features as she struggled to speak, to move. She seemed tuck in a series of stutters and twitches.

"Adrian, what the hell is going on?"

I growled, low and deep, through the pain. "I need to go. Now."