Hi! First, I'd like to say that you'll recognize a few sentences from Charlaine's book. I borrowed it for this chapter (especially the last sentence of the chapter; I HAD to borrow it)! But I changed some things about the FaeWar and I added this HUGE detail. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! Cheers from Portugal, Célia

Sookie "Novocain"

I wasn't in a hospital. But I was in a bed, not my own. And I was a little cleaner than I had been, and bandaged and in a lot of pain; in fact, a dreadful amount of pain.

I had a few holes in my memory. I remembered being at my house commemorating with David when we were attacked – oh my God! We were attacked! Last time I saw David he was in our kitchen's floor soaked in his blood. God! How was he? I tried to leave my bed – I was going to search for my husband – but both pain and a strange nurse (she looked like a hobbit) prevented me from doing that.

"How's my husband? Is he here? His name is David Brown. He's a were-bear and we were…"

"Schhh… Calm down. You've just wake up. Calm down. He's not here. He's been transferred. But he was here. He was seriously hurt but he'll be okay."

Oh my God! Was David dead? The nurse had said transfered, but what if she was just saying that to prevent me from getting stressed out? Was I a widow? Okay, so call me pessimist but after being kidnapped and tortured for a few hours, I could only think of the worst. I mean: who wouldn't? I had to kno, so I asked her: "Why? Why was he transferred? Is he dying? Is he dead already?" "No. We are transferring everybody. You are still here because you were worst and couldn't be moved."

"Why are you transferring everybody?"

"Standard procedure. Now lay down and stay calm. I'll call the doctor."

I tried to close my eyes and calm down but the pain was too much and so I continued trying to recollect my memories. I remembered being taken, and then I remembered being tortured for hours by two awful beings, two fairies that enjoyed biting, cutting and hurting me in a true sadistic way. I remembered praying for strength for a few hours, but then I switched and prayed for death. But I couldn't remember what had happened between being in the decrepit shack and being here; I could recall flashes of action, the sound of voices, but I had no coherent narrative to connect them. I remembered someone attacking the two things that hurt me. I hoped they were dead. But I couldn't be sure. And had I really seen Bill? What about the shadow behind him?

I was freed from my thoughts when the door opened to let Dr Ludwig in with a "welcome back child." She smiled at me while she walked to my bed. "For a while I thought I had lost you".

She had? Was I that bad? I knew my captive hours had been awful, but would I die? I knew that on the last few hours, I had prayed for death, but now that I was in that strange kind of medical clinic, I really wanted to get better and live. I had too much to live for. I had been married just for two and a half years. And we had just bought our new house. And I loved David so much. It would be a real waste if we died.

And so I tried immediately to bomb the little doctor with questions: where am I? How am I? All of me? Will there be any permanent damage? And where is my husband? How is he? Is he going to recover? And everything she checked in me, I would ask her about it. I didn't however, asked her the most important thing. I didn't have the courage to hear a negative answer. But it didn't matter whether I asked her my big question or not, because all of my questions were answered with either "schh!" or "will you let me work?".

Almost 40 minutes later, she brought a chair next to my bed and sat there. I could see Dr Ludwig's coarse brown hair as she sat. She really looked like the nurse – or the nurse really looked like her. Either way, they both looked like hobbits to me. Really Hollywood movie's type of hobbit.

Then, looking at me, and with her deep voice, she said: "That was close. For a while you could have gone either way: get better or die. But you improved and considering you're human, you're very lucky."

I nodded. Without knowing more, I couldn't say I felt lucky. I tried to scrape together some appreciation of my good fortune. There wasn't any there to gather up. I was all out. My emotions were as crippled as my body. And I really needed to know about my family. All of it. I decided to start with my husband.

"How's David? The nurse said he was transferred. Is he okay? Was he gravely hurt?"

"Your husband had serious injuries. But he's recovering easily. He'll be completely healed in a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. Weres heal really fast and as a born-were, his body recovers amazingly well. We called his hospital saying that you were awake now, but he was the one sleeping. His nurse will have him call here as soon as he's up."

"Where is he?" I still didn't got the "why" behind this transference to another place. There was something both Dr Ludwig and the nurse didn't want me to know.

"He was transferred to a regular hospital." I wondered why. The two-natured were not "out" yet, and David's too fast healing would develop into several questions being asked by the unknowing human doctors. I probably looked at the doctor in a skeptical way, because she felt the need to add some more info. "I'm seriously understaffed here and that was for the best."

I still felt that there was something else, but I was too tired and in too much pain to insist. "Thank you Dr Ludwig." And I still couldn't ask her more.

"Sookie," she said, her eyes appearing at my elbow "is the medicine working?"

"I'm starting to feel a little numb."

"Okay. It is expected. I didn't want to give you a regular dose." She paused and looked at me. "You know you are pregnant, right?"

I felt that my whole world was there, in that room, in that conversation, in my next question and her next answer.

"Am I still pregnant?"

"Yes, you are. And the baby seems fine. I did a few exams and I haven't received all the lab work yet but it looks like your body was able to protect the baby. Actually, that's why you are so fragile and weak. It appears that your whole body concentrated just in your baby and didn't care about you."

Oh my God! Oh my God! I started shaking, and crying and saying "thank you God" incessantly and Dr Ludwig just (kind of) hugged me saying "you're all right" several times.

Eventually, I managed to calm down and she asked if I'd like for Claudine to enter the room. Cleaning my tears, I nodded and then Dr Ludwig left me with my cousin who sat by the bed. Her always impeccable clothes were dirty and looked like she had been sleeping in them for a whole week. Her brown hair was also grimy and badly fashioned. And she sounded somewhat tired. Claudine had been in a fight, that was for sure.

I tried to sit but the pain prevented me and the painkillers couldn't disguise the fact that all my body was too sore to move, even for a millimeter.

"They are all dead, if that helps." Claudine said.

Yes indeed, that helped quite a bit. I'd been hoping I hadn't imagined that part; I'd been a little afraid their deaths had been a delightful fantasy. "How?" I asked.

"When you were taken, your neighbor heard the noise and called 911. They found David unconscious in your kitchen but they managed to wake him in the ambulance. He then called Pam."

"My David? He called Pam? The vampire Pam?" There was no other Pam than the vampire Pam. But David calling her? That sounded so off character. David and Pam had met a few times but they were just able to tolerate each other for my sake. They were like olive oil and water. She hated that I was with a were-bear and worse, that I had chosen him above her maker. And he hated that she was a "filthy vampire with vampire bullshit and vampire problems that you shouldn't have to deal with" – David's words.

"Yes, he figured she would know what to do. And he was right. She immediately called Niall and we all met at the portal in Bon Temps, behind your house."

That damn portal. It was that portal that brought my biological grandfather to my Gran Adele and that was how everything started. Damn portal! I decided to focus my mind into something more recent than my Gran's love affair 50 years ago. "And then what happened?"

"Then we traveled to Fairyland and divided into two groups: group one had to kill as many water fairies as possible to create a distraction while group two, that is me, Niall and Bill had to retrieve you."

So that was why I thought I had seen Bill. The shadow behind him had been probably Niall. And... water fairies? I decided to wonder about it later and instead just asked: "And is everyone all right?" I could see that Claudine looked unharmed (and even though her clothes were unclean, there didn't seem to be no blood on them) but what about Bill? And Niall? They both had been there as well. And Pam? Was she in group two? And who else?

"Niall's good. He went to meet group one who are still fighting our enemies. They are all waging war," she said grimly, "there's no more negotiations, no more jockeying for advantage. There's only killing now."

"And Bill?"

"He was badly hurt." The little doctor who had come back said. "One of the kidnapers got him with a blade and they bit him back. There was silver in the knife and silver caps on their teeth. It's in his system."

"Is he going to get better?" In spite of everything, I'd been considering Bill a good friend for a long time now.

She shrugged. "Let's wait and see, shall we?" She said. "Your baby, on the other hand, is strong and healthy. I've just received a few more exams' results and everything looks all right. We are still missing a couple of results but I'd say that you have a warrior in there". And with that she left again.

"Are you pregnant? When were you going to tell me Sookie?" Claudine asked. She looked sad that I hadn't trust her my secret.

"We had just found out. Actually, David and I were celebrating the "plus" sign in my pregnancy test when we were attacked." I paused and put my hands in my stomach.

"What is it Sookie? The baby is all right. The doctor just said so."

"That's just it. I still can't believe that we are both okay."

"You know that I'm really happy for you, right?"

I knew that the fairies were not a very fertile race, and the huge amount of iron in the world had reduced their birthrate. But I didn't know if Claudine herself had ever tried to become a mother. Her eyes however, told me so. "Thank you. Will you be the baby's fairy godmother?"

She showed me a big smile and said: "Of course. It would be my pleasure."

And then we stayed like that, in silence for a few moments. Minutes later, I asked: "Why is it that I was kidnapped?" I knew that those two who had hurt me and kept me captive were fairies. So I thought Claudine would be able to shed some light into all this. "Why? I'm not a fairy."

"But your great grandfather is. And he's a prince of the sky fairies, the rullers of Fairy. His enemies, the water fairies, want his throne so they can close the passage between both worlds. If Breandon, our enemies' leader, has his way, Faery will be sealed off. As a part human descendant of the fairies with your telepathic skills, you could be like our "poster-girl". You could be the example that we don't lose anything mixing our race with human blood. I mean: you are just 1/8th fairy and you have the essential spark and you are telepathic." Claudine said, accentuating all the "and's".

"But Niall said that my telepathy had nothing to do with being part fairy." I still remembered the night when I had asked him that. Eric had kissed me that night even thought I was dating Quinn back then.

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Either way, it doesn't matter. If you are telepathic because you are part fae that means mating with humans doesn't make you lose your gifts. If it has nothing to do with being part fae, that means mating with humans can give fae extra gifts, like telepathy."

I didn't know what to answer so I just said "oh".

Then, all of a sudden, she became tense and alert. I heard noises in the hall, as if people were moving around the building in a hurry. Claudine got up and went over to the room's narrow door to look out. After the third time she did this, she shut the door and lock it. I asked her what she was expecting.

"Trouble," she said, "and Eric."

(Oh, no you didn't! Oh, yes, I did! My first real cliffhanger! Hehe! )

So… First of all, in my mind CH never truly explained us why Sookie was kidnapped. "She's part-fairy" isn't reason enough. If so, why wasn't Jason kidnapped as well? And so, I changed a little bit that part of the story. What do you think about it? Was it too much? Did I exaggerate?

Secondly: Sookie's baby. Well, one of my best friends had a baby last December, and now she's always saying how her son changed her life and that I don't know what I'm talking about when I say that I don't want kids. And so, because of Susana (that's my friend), I thought that I should add a baby to the picture! But… now I'm scared. Super scared. Really super scared. I mean… what do you think about this baby?

Finally, "Novocain" is in Bon Jovi's album "Have a Nice Day".