Quick note to everyone. You all think that Sookie was raped in the last chapter, but in chapter 4 when Sookie is describing her torture she never mentions rape as one of them. I am getting a lot of feedback thus far about this subject and I have to point out that so far Sookie nor the doctor have confirmed what level of sexual abuse Sookie has experienced.

For readers uncomfortable with this type of material, while I will clarify what happened to Sookie, I will not describe anything too graphic. I hope to delve more into the psychological repercussions Sookie and Lafayette will suffer from as they come back from this ordeal. I do not want to minimalize the trauma of rape or sexual abuse, but there are some lines I will not cross, which includes any explicit descriptions. Dark writing has never been my thing.

So going on, it will get kind of sad and angsty here, but bear with me please and let me know your thoughts. I appreciate all the feedback and the opportunity to address your concerns.

Chapter 6: Drifting Further Away -Powderfinger

Sookie

She woke up intermittently throughout the next day as nurses, doctors, Jason, and even Lafayette, shuffled in and out of her room to check on her. She was quiet and preferred to be left alone, but that was not going to happen. She found that by closing her eyes and falling into sleep she could temporarily escape the hospital room.

Around three the next day, she woke up and slowly sat up, expecting pain, but feeling none. It was a relief and a painful illusion all at the same time. The pain she felt inside, did not match her now perfectly healthy and healed body. It was a lie and it bothered Sookie almost as much as being torn up and crushed to a pulp by Russell.

Sookie glanced around the room and saw a sleeping Jason in a chair that lounged back. He had his jacket laid over his abdomen and his head tipped to the side. There was a slight snore coming from him. Sookie stood and stretched. She examined the tubes coming out of her arms, which only looked like tubes to keep her hydrated.

Her full bladder told her that she was a little too hydrated. Not wanting to take her own IV out, she saw she had the ability to wheel the pole with her as she walked. She slowly moved to the bathroom, but found every muscle in her body was free from pain and actually trembling from the suppressed energy.

As she finished going to the restroom, she looked at herself in the mirror. Looking at herself, she saw someone she didn't recognize anymore. In the mirror was Sookie: barmaid, friend, Bon Temps resident, lover to two amazing vampires, and somewhat beloved town crazy.

The Sookie inside of her, not reflected in the glass, was a shattered version of this Sookie in the mirror. She began breathing heavily as her eyes welled with tears. The Sookie inside was angry at the Sookie in the mirror though. She was not allowed to cry, that Sookie. Only the Sookie inside was allowed to do so.

Suddenly she exploded, and she found shattered glass in the sink and all over the floor and her hand, cut up and bleeding everywhere. She was crying and screaming loudly at her image in the shattered mirror as the two Sookies continued attempting to tear each other apart.

Suddenly strong arms wrapped around her and an overhead announcement could be heard reading out her room number. Sookie continued to struggle and wail against what she now recognized as her brother's arms, as men and women filled the room, attempting to restrain her.

Soon her body gave away from struggling, and went slack. She was suddenly lifted back into the bed and she felt restraints placed on her arms. She decided that she had had enough of the hospital once again and closed her eyes, clenching her jaw as doctors and nurses attempted to subdue her.

Jason had been escorted out of the room, but she could hear three people demanding to know what had happened to make her act so aggressively.

Sookie felt a pang of guilt for causing Jason so much pain, but then she realized she was being sedated and she let it take her.

Eric

Eric woke suddenly to Sookie going through about every negative feeling and emotion in existence, quickly followed by nothing.

Eric struggled against his daytime slumber, but he needed the rest and right now what he was feeling from Sookie was emotional turmoil, nothing life threatening. It was also daylight. If he went outside, he would die.

He felt the sun pull him back into day rest. When he felt the sun going down, he felt the same level of nothingness from his bond with Sookie, which confused him. He calculated how much time it was before he could rise and found he still had about forty five minutes to go. He grabbed his phone and texted Pam to bring Sookie spare clothing and toiletries. He also instructed her to buy similar items for Jason in case he needed them.

Once he was done checking his email, sending out the important information in his area that needed to be dealt with tonight, he closely monitored his now rejuvenated bond with Sookie. To feel her so numb caused him to feel hopeless. He prodded the bond, hoping that by encouraging it somehow, her spark would respond like it always had. However it didn't.

What he was getting from Sookie was indifference. Emptiness. Turmoil. A sense of being lost.

Each feeling felt like silver to the heart and Eric attempted to localize the feelings, but he couldn't. Sookie's pain affected him everywhere.

When he felt the sun sink low enough for him to leave his safe space, he climbed out of his hidey hole. Eric had many modest safe spaces he could go to throughout Louisiana. One was between West Monroe and Claiborne. He waited impatiently for the last rays of sun to leave the sky before taking off heading directly to the hospital.

He landed in a residential neighborhood a few blocks away where he easily went unnoticed. He zipped to the hospital and to where he knew Sookie was. But her room was being cleaned out by staff. He looked around and assumed she had been discharged and was now heading home.

He checked the bond, but she was numb and deeply sedated, which was not typical of a discharged patient. Eric paused and inhaled deeply, smelling faint traces of Sookie's blood and her salty tears. Eric also smelled men and women's sweat, stress, and even fear. He looked around and went into Lafayette's room.

Lafayette was no longer there, but he was able to follow his scent from his room, to Sookie's and then down different corridors he had never been to. He eventually spotted both Lafayette and Jason, talking to a physician in quiet tones. Bill was also there with Jessica. Seeing Bill here inflamed him with rage and a blinding possessiveness.

Bill turned to look at Eric and walked over to him.

"You gave Sookie your blood? You healed her?" he said, rage clear in the jerk of his jaw and his eyes slit almost entirely shut. "You will stoop to any level, Eric," he sneered.

Eric growled at him and his fangs clicked down. "I healed her because she needed it. Jason asked me to. How many times have you "healed" her Bill? Let's see, there was the time when you had her beaten almost to death, then the maenad attack, then the time you attacked her and drained the blood from her putting her in the hospital, then when you swooped in and fed her blood after she had been shot in the cemetery. Interesting, though that Sookie never even knew where that shot had come from, don't you think? Especially since the only people with guns that night, that I can recall, were your own guards and Tara Thornton, who would never shoot Sookie."

Bill tensed, "What are you suggesting, Eric? That I ordered my own guards to shoot at Sookie so I could get my blood into her again?"

"That is exactly what I am suggesting. Especially taking into consideration that after your new infusion of blood into Sookie's system is when she started feeling conflicted about her feelings for the both of us again. Can't win her back without that blood in her system? It's two and a half years ago all over again, Bill. It worked for you the first time, why not try it again? And you accuse me of sinking to every level? You couldn't be more pathetic if you tried, you majesty."

Eric expected Bill to fly off the handle in rage at the accusations spewing out of Bill's mouth. But Bill's stony silence only confirmed Eric's suspicions. Eric growled low at the knowledge. "You piece of shit."

Suddenly Pam was there holding his arm, not knowing whether or not Eric was going into attack mode or not. Bill gave Eric a pissed off and pleased expression all at once, because Eric would never be able to prove it.

Eric suddenly calmed, realizing he needed to compose himself. He would get nowhere and fast on the track he was on and he had never been one to lose his calm demeanor. He needed it now for Sookie. He stiffened and slightly wriggled his arm out of Pam's grasp.

Eric then gave Bill a slight bow, and walked past him to Jason. Jason and Lafayette turned to him, and Eric wasted no time in asking, "What happened?"

"Sookie is currently being admitted into adult psychiatric ward. Earlier I woke up to her screaming and crying in the bathroom while punching the mirror, cutting her hands all over. The doctors sedated and subdued her. Because of her behavior the doctors said she will need to be monitored for at least twenty four hours. They are waking her up now."

The doctor approached Jason and said he could come and see her now. She would need a familiar and comforting face. Eric looked at the doctor, who quickly apologized to the rest of the group, consisting of a gay witch, two angry vampires, one indifferent vampire, one confused and inexperienced vampire, and several of Bill's human body guards.

"I am sorry, but I can only allow Mr. Stackhouse, as he is family. Once we establish Sookie's condition we will revisit this decision based on her progress and what she would like."

Jason and Lafayette nodded, but Eric didn't understand. He belonged to Sookie. Sookie, whether she would admit it to her stubborn self or not, belonged to him. He was tempted to glamour him into letting him see her, but he didn't.

Eric watched as the doctor led Jason behind a door that would be frightening to most humans.
It was grated and caged. The nurses' station behind it was covering in plexi-glass. Eric did not like the look of this place for Sookie. Pam called out to Jason before he was through security for the unit, who turned to her in confusion.

She held the bag of clothing and toiletries out for him and he walked back to her and looked inside it, nodding. "Thanks, I didn' even think about it," he admitted. Eric looked into Jason's eyes and saw the fear he himself felt at having Sookie feeling so unstable and in a place like this.

It did not reassure Eric. He felt Sookie becoming aware and he felt his bond with her, trying to compartmentalize the feelings coursing through her. She was waking up confused, scared, now aware, followed by the indifference and defeat that made his breath intake sharply.

He heard a similar noise from Bill, and Eric fought to suppress the urge to kill the young Louisiana king. "Lugna ner dig, Eric. Han kommer att ha en fullmakt för din död." (Calm the fuck down Eric. He will have a warrant for your death.)

Eric fought to gain control for himself. Eric sat in a chair in the hallway, studying the same carpeting he had the night before. Sookie had been on the verge of death then. Now she was healthy physically, but he felt her mental status on the same perilous level he had found her in when he arrived at the hospital.

He mentally clicked through his options. His blood could not heal the part of Sookie that needed healing. He had to have faith that she was strong enough to come out of this. It was hard for him. He felt her drifting from him, and he could do nothing but let her, hoping that she would come back to him.

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