The next night, Eric climbed out of his coffin, naked, and padded out to the kitchen. Tara was out there, wearing jogging clothes. She handed him a bottle of True Blood and stared at him. Hard. Eric took a swig, then noticed her expression.

"Good evening to you too." he said, smiling a little. "Why are you staring at me like that? And why are you wearing that ensemble?"

Tara glanced down at herself briefly, before watching Eric walk out of the kitchen and into one of the front rooms. He sat down on a couch and took another swig of True Blood, before setting the bottle down on a table. He patted the space beside him and Tara walked over and sat next to him.

"I went for a run." Tara answered.

"I didn't realize you jogged?"

"I started it up when I was living in New Orleans. " Tara answered. Eric smiled at her.

"You're still staring at me as if I've grown another head. What's wrong?"

"You're kidding, right? You don't remember all of that crazy shit you said to me the other night?" Tara asked.

Eric sighed and rubbed his face before speaking.

"Tara, I have something to tell you. And show you."

Eric got up and walked into his room. When he returned, he had the vial that Dr. Ludwig had given to him. Tara peered at it.

"What is that?"

"The drug I used to come back to this moment in time." Eric answered, holding the vial up to the light. Tara slowly took it and squinted at the small container. She then handed it back to him.

"What is that stuff in there?"

"I sniff it and go back in time." Eric said, looking at the vial.

"You 'sniff it'? Like crack?"

Eric set the vial down next to his bottle of True Blood and gave her a hard look.

"It is NOT crack!"

"Oh come, Eric! I mean it's vampire crack or something, right? I know you sell V. Just tell me what that shit really is? Were you on it the other night? Is that why you were talking all crazy?"

"How was I speaking 'all crazy'?" Eric asked, mildly amused.

"All of that talk about 'coming here to get me to love you' or something like that. Well, I never said I loved you. So I don't know where you're coming up with that." Tara sniffed.

"Oh, you love me. So I have no intention of arguing about that." Eric said dismissively. "And what I am telling you is true. Things were ruined between us and I came back here to the moment in time, when things went badly."

Tara stared at him for a moment. Okay, she would play along...

"Tell me then: when did things 'go wrong'?"

Eric reached out and began rubbing her knee.

"I did not handle things well when you found me with Nora. I was...I was dismissive of your feelings. You took the reality ring out of my safe and traveled to a time in the 1500's."

Tara burst out laughing! She then stopped when she saw that Eric was dead serious.

"Are you kidding me? Why the hell would I go back there?"

"I don't think you could choose where you went. You ran into a version of me. A prince. You became pregnant with twins. His twins. I forced you to return and give him up. Only you haven't and..."

"Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm a vampire. How am I going to have kids?"

"You were human in the other reality. Once you became pregnant and returned to our time, the babies allowed you to be half human, so you could carry them. But once they are born, you will be a vampire again."

"That sounds kind of messed up." Tara noted.

"You seem to think so. Oh and you've married Bill Compton. He is legally the father of the babies."

Tara blinked.

"Uh, why the fuck would I marry Bill Compton? Tell me I didn't..."

"I have no idea, though you have slept with Alcide. But he was pretending to be Bill."

"What the fuck?! Okay, why don't you hand me that crack there and I'll flush it down the toilet, okay? I hope you're not selling this shit on the street." Tara said and leaned over him to try and take the vial.

But Eric got to it first and enclosed it in his hand.

"Tara, what I told you was the truth. Of course, some things have changed. And I think they've changed because I came here and tried to tamper with past events. Sam doesn't die but Pam does."

Something made Tara take what Eric was saying, a little more seriously. Maybe it was the idea of Sam being alive someplace.

"So what made you come back here? I mean clearly things are going badly for us."

"So badly that I'm practically keeping you prisoner in a house until our children are born. I did not tell you that you would be a vampire again, when our children are born, because I knew it would upset you. It did. And Alcide is everywhere. He's looking to take you from me." Eric whispered.

"Stop him." Tara answered.

"I don't know how. I keep messing up. I can't do anything right and I'm losing you. Once the babies are born..." Eric trailed off. Tara now gaped at him! The raw emotion she heard in his voice, suddenly made her believe him. She tentatively reached out and touched his face.

"You haven't lost me. I'm right here."

"I can't stay here. I've been gone too long already. And I don't know what to do, still, when I get back..."

"When WE get back." Tara told him. Eric frowned.

"Tara, you can't come with me. I mean..."

"I'm coming with you, to let 'myself' know, just where I stand." Tara said, running a finger down his face, before touching his lips. Eric kissed her finger, before sucking it slowly. Tara pulled her finger from his mouth, to remove her clothing quickly, before seating herself on Eric's searing length. Then, using vampire speed, Tara boosted herself up and down at a furious pace on his manhood. The lovers yelled out, clinging to one another after the quickie, their bodies still vibrating furiously.

Eric whispered against Tara's lips.

"Come with me."

Eric had been gone a little longer than he had anticipated.

The babies had been born. And Tara had actually named her son, Alexander. Her daughter's name was Ilsa(Prince Eric had said that was his mother's name. Tara assumed it was the same for the Eric that had abandoned her...).

When Dr. Ludwig told her that Eric had left and went back someplace in time, to fix things between them, Tara hadn't wanted to hear it! She was close to giving birth and she had been kidnapped to a strange house! She called Alcide and Sookie, who came to pick her up.

Then Eric never came back.

The babies were now three months. Bill had actually offered a solution. Alcide and Sookie moved into the mansion, along with Tara and the babies. Sookie could see to them during the day(Sam helped as well), while Alcide, Tara and Bill watched them at night. And for the first couple of months, the babies kept the household up, screaming at night. So Tara could actually spend quality time with them. But she knew they would one day sleep through the whole night. And she wouldn't get to interact with them much...

Tara did not think about Eric at all. Or at least she tried not to. The living arrangement was strange, since she was technically married to Bill, but slept with Alcide now, who had taken to the babies as if there were his own. Watching him with her children made her decide to give him a chance.

And things were going well until the dinner party...

It had been Sookie's idea to celebrate Alexander and Ilsa's three month birthday. The twins sat in their little highchairs, while presents were sent from far and wide, since the common assumption was that Bill Compton was their father. Sam and Arlene were talking to Alcide, while LaFayette fed Ilsa some baby food. Sookie and Bill were by the bar and Tara was just coming downstairs when...

Eric and someone that looked a lot like herself, appeared in the hallway! Bill was about to call security, when Tara watched herself talk.

"Don't you fucking dare call security on us, Bill Compton! What is this shit? Eric, our babies have been born!" Tara cooed, walking into the room LaFayette and the children were in! She saw Sam briefly and waved at him sadly.

The REAL Tara hurried down the stairs but Eric blocked her!

Alcide hurried to her side and Bill hit a button, bringing a security team in anyway. LaFayette and Arlene were freaked out to see TWO Tara's!

"What is this shit, Northman? Where the fuck have you been?!" Alcide snapped.

"You brought another me back here?!" Tara hissed. Eric smiled coldly.

"Does that bother you? Why are my children living in this house? Why have they been born? The last time I saw you..."

"Fuck you!" Tara snapped. "You ran off and left me so you could go and fuck some other version of me! One that doesn't know what you're really like!"

The 'other' Tara left the babies and hurried to Eric's side.

"Look heifer, I'm just here to tell you that Eric..."

"HEIFER?!" Tara yelled "Eric? Eric, have you lost your fucking mind!"

"I could've asked you the same question when you ran off with 'Prince Eric'." Eric countered.

"Get out of here, Northman," Alcide said gruffly, "Tara and I are together now."

Eric looked at him, then spoke.

"As your maker, I command you to go to the ends of the Earth and STAY THERE!"

Alcide suddenly turned and walked up the stairs. Tara gaped after him, then whirled around to face Eric.

"You take that back!"

"And as YOUR maker, I command you to pack up our children and leave this house with me." Eric told Tara. The other Tara pulled on his hand and over into a corner.

"I don't know if that's the way to handle this. But, I think 'I'm' upset enough about seeing you with another version of me, to say that I THINK you'll be okay." Tara said, giving him a warm kiss. Eric pulled out the vial and Tara sniffed the contents, before disappearing!

Tara watched that event, then turned and ran up the stairs to stop Alcide! He was in their room packing!

"Baby, snap out of this! Snap out of it! Eric is just fucking with you! No one even knows where the 'ends of the Earth is'! We can leave this place! Snap out of it!"

Meanwhile, Bill and Sookie confronted Eric.

"Eric Northman," Sookie began, "if you think you can just come in here with some other version of Tara you were with, and order her and Alcide around..."

"I've just done it." Eric replied.

"Countermand that order to Alcide." Bill ordered him.

Eric eyed him.

"But not the one to Tara?"

"Yes." Bill bit out. Sookie gasped and swatted Bill's shoulder! Even Sam joined in.

"Tara has worked hard to build a life without you," Sam said calmly, "and I think you're a fucking bastard to come back like this and fuck up things for her and Alcide."

Eric looked at him.

He then spoke.

"You were dead where I was. I preferred you that way. And Tara isn't meant to have a life without me."

Lafayette and Arlene decided it was time to leave! He kissed the babies, while Arlene slipped out of the house. LaFayette then eased over to Sam.

"Let's go. Tara and Alcide will just have to deal."

"Yes, they will." Eric remarked. He then walked over to the stairs.

"ALCIDE! AS YOUR MAKER, I COMMAND YOU NOT TO GO TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH! TARA, GET DOWN HERE! WE'LL COME BACK FOR THE REST OF OUR CHILDREN'S THINGS!"

Eric then turned and slowly walked into the room HIS children were in. The sight of them was overwhelming. A bloody tear slipped down his cheek and he swiped at it quickly, before picking up Ilsa out of her highchair. He looked back at Sookie, Bill, Sam and Lafayette.

"Sookie, Tara is dragging her feet. Pick up Alexander and bring him out to my car."

"You just popped into the room! You didn't bring a car!" Sookie snapped.

"Tara has one, does she not? Well we'll put my children in there." Eric said stubbornly, smiling at his daughter. She stared back at him, but did not cry as he began walking out of the mansion with her.

But when he opened the door, the security team was in place. Tara and Alcide hurried down the stairs. Alcide took Alexander from Sookie and Tara moved so that she was standing in front of Eric.

"Give me my daughter!"

"She's our daughter." Eric corrected her.

"Eric, I have a new life! You just left me!"

"I didn't just leave you, Tara! I went back in time! I wanted to fix when things went wrong for us. That is all. You can't keep me from my children."

"You can see them whenever you want."

"That's not good enough. And I want them to have my last name. I want them under MY roof!"

"We're vampires," Tara said sadly, "our babies need to be someplace where humans can look after them during the day. TRUSTED humans. Don't do this. Don't make me do this. You changed your mind with Alcide...just...don't..."

Eric just looked at her. He did not hand her back Ilsa. Tara turned and walked over to Alcide, who reluctantly handed her Alexander.

Tara Compton, Vampire Queen of Louisiana, then left the King of Louisiana's mansion, with her three month old babies, Alexander and Ilsa Northman, with their father, Eric Northman. But the struggle for Eric and Tara to truly find their way back to one another, still lives on.

END OF TARA COMPTON: VAMPIRE QUEEN OF LOUISIANA

In the third, upcoming story, Northman vs. Thornton, a vampire court battle begins, to decide which parent Alexander and Ilsa Compton will live with. But something unexpected happens in the 'battle' to win Tara's heart...and it is in Eric's favor.