I woke the next morning with my honey draped across me and essentially dead for the day. I turned my alarm off and gave him a soft kiss before rolling out of bed and heading to the bathroom. When I stepped into the shower, I let the hot water encase me and I started having flashbacks to the shower I had last night. A little shiver went from my head to my toes recalling what had been done in this shower the night before. If walls could talk, I thought. Turns out Eric wanted to see if we could spark more memories of our previous sexy bath time. Shaking my head, I thought I better put away thoughts like that until after work.

I had to work the lunch shift today at Merlotte's and while I was there I planned on telling Sam I would need a few days off for my trip to New Orleans. Before walking out the door I wrote Eric a little note and left it on the bed beside him.

Eric,

I thoroughly enjoyed you giving me a good scrub last night in the shower. I went ahead and packed some of your clothes and reminded Bobby to pick up your Armani suit from the cleaners and have it waiting for us to leave tonight. Can't wait to see you and take our first trip. I love you

Sookie

When I got to work there was already a steady lunch crowd and it just got busier as the next hour passed. Finally about two in the afternoon I had served my last chicken finger basket and bud light, so I pulled Sam back to his office.

"What's up Sook?" Sam was glad to have a minute to sit down.

"I know it's last minute Sam, but I need to go to New Orleans and take care of Hadley's things"

"Not that I mind, but what's the rush now when you've been putting it off for weeks?"

Looking a little sheepish, I didn't look him right in the eyes "Well it turns out that Eric needs to go also to meet with the Queen so he's going with me. I figured it would be nice to have company and not have to meet with the Queen alone."

"I thought Bill was going with you?" Sam asked

"He is, but you know it's nice having Eric be able to come too" I must have flushed a little while telling him because he looked me in the eyes and said "Sookie you know that I may not like you getting involved with vampires because of their inherent nature to be violent and you know, drain people, but I know how much Eric cares about you and if you're happy, then I'm happy for you"

"Thank you for saying that Sam. I am happy, really happy actually. Anyways, Arlene said she would cover my shift Wednesday and Holly will take Thursday. Three days is probably plenty of time for me to get done with what I need to do. "

"That sounds fine to me, and thanks for already finding replacements. Just be careful and come back to us in one piece ok cher?" Sam tried to sound like he was joking but I knew he was very serious.

"Don't worry about me Sam, I'll be fine and I'll have Eric with me" I smiled knowing that as long as Eric was around, I had much better chances of coming home uninjured and with all my blood still in my body.

It was just before sunset and I was zipping my suitcase closed when I heard a car come down my driveway. I looked out front to see a black limo come to a stop. My favorite demon lawyer stepped out looking nice in his gray suit.

"Hello Mr. Cataliades, it's nice to see you" I called cheerfully as he walked up the porch.

"Nice to see you too my dear, are you all packed?"

"Well yes, I'm going to New Orleans though, am I forgetting something?" I asked puzzled

"When your vampire sent word back to the Queen that the two of you would be coming to town, she sent me to retrieve you. Her Majesty doesn't want her guests to be inconvenienced by fighting traffic. "

Apparently we would be arriving to New Orleans in style I thought. "That's very nice of you, but you didn't need to trouble yourself" I said.

"It's never trouble to see you my dear, and it's nice for me to get out of her Majesty's compound sometimes." He looked as though he had seen enough vamps for a while and was truly glad to be out on the open road.

"Ok well thank you; I just have the two bags here on the porch." The demon grabbed my bags and went to put them in the trunk. "I just need to call Bill and let him know what's going on" I called out to him.

"That won't be necessary Sookie." Bill had glided up behind me

"Good grief can't you guys make a little more noise when you sneak up on someone?!" I had jumped a foot off the ground when he startled me.

"That would defeat the fun of being vampire Sookie. It would also make it harder to sneak up on our prey" Bill said looking a little fangy at the jolt of shock he had just given me.

"Ok Bill you totally sound like a creeper right now, so let's keep the predator instinct in check ok?" I smiled as though it was funny but I know he caught my underlying tone. Bill put his bag in the trunk and opened the door for me to get in. "Just a minute Bill. Mr. Cataliades, do I need to call Eric?"

"No my dear, Mr. Northman is aware of the traveling arrangements and we will be picking him up shortly."

"What does Eric have to do with the traveling arrangements?" Bill asked tensely.

"Eric is going with us to New Orleans, of course" I was positively glowing at this bit of information I was giving.

"I was not aware that the Sheriff would be going as well Sookie. Is it really necessary?" Bill had his usual icy tone.

"Of course it is Bill. The Queen asked Eric to come to her on business and it just made sense for him to go with us." Even if Bill was icy cold, I was as chipper as ever! It was a beautiful night, my Viking would be with me soon and we were on our way to our first mini vacation. Not even Bill was going to dampen my mood tonight. Bill obviously didn't see what a delightful night this was and just turned and got in the limo.

"Are you ready Ms. Stackhouse?" Mr. Cataliades was grinning, obviously enjoying Bill's tantrum.

"Yep, let's go get Eric!" I got in the car and off we went to Fangtasia to retrieve my honey.

An hour later I was sitting in the limo enjoying a cozy ride with my Viking vampire boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend Bill. Yeah I know, sometimes my life seems ridiculous. Eric and Bill were being cordial; well as cordial as two vampires that don't like each other can be and I was sitting back enjoying the ride and the mini bar. Turns out there are all kinds of bottles of liquor that they stick in tiny bottles! They're like real liquor but miniature! I figured since this was a new concept for me I should sample one…or seven.

"Lover I have a little gift for you" Eric said handing me a black velvet box.

I threw my miniature Absolut bottle down and opened the box. "Oh Eric it's so beautiful!" I pulled out a beautiful diamond and sapphire necklace. It looked like something that should be in a museum, not on a barmaid. "I can't accept this Eric it's too much!"

"Don't be silly dear, this is but a small token of my affection for you" Eric said with a cheeky grin.

"Did you buy this at like a museum or something? Oh no, you didn't glamour some security guard into giving you some precious jewels did you?" I barely got the sentence out before I started hiccupping.

"Of course not Sookie! You might want to slow down on those little bottles lover" Eric was pointing to a small pile of empty bottles.

"Oh it's ok baby they're small! You can't get drunk off something so little" (hiccup)

"He's right Sookie; perhaps you should have some water" Oh great now I had another protective vampire on my case. Bill was looking at me with a constipated look. Ha ha that's funny because vampires can't get constipated! I started giggling at the idea and both of them looked at me like I was crazy.

"I think I can handle my lover Bill" Uh oh now Eric was getting all icy like popsicle Bill. Bill would be so funny as a popsicle, I started snickering again. I bet he would be vanilla flavored. BORING! Eric would be like a mint chocolate chip mixed with cherry and rocky road goodness. Yum. The thought of what flavors of ice cream my only two lovers would be was starting to crack me up and the laughter was picking up. Only from me though, damn vamps aren't very good with humor.

"Sookie, are you alright?" Eric was looking at me all concerned.

"I'm fine you big Viking chocolate chip!" I was giving him a seductive look.

"Dear are you in pain? Having female troubles? You have an odd, pained look on your face" Eric was rubbing my cheek now.

"No, of course not. I would never let Aunt Flow get in the way of what I'm going to do to you over the next few days!" I wiggled my eyebrows at him to make sure he understood that I meant I was going to get nasty with him, but good nasty not nasty nasty. At that thought I started rubbing my hand up his thigh.

"I'm glad to hear that lover but I believe you've had a few too many of those little bottles" Eric said

"No way! I was just thinking about you and how I want to lick your…" Eric cut me off by pressing a bottle of water to my mouth.

"Sookie please drink this. We will have plenty of time for that later but I don't think Bill wants to hear about it. Or perhaps you do Compton?" Eric was giving Bill a slightly fangy grin.

"Don't flatter yourself Sheriff, she is just drunk" Bill shot back

"Oh I don't think so, she is quite a feisty little thing in the bedroom" oh boy now I was getting all kinds of fangy grinning. Ha ha this was a fun car trip, maybe we could do charades.

"Yes I know that Eric, as you may recall Sookie and I spent many evenings never leaving the bedroom"

Oh wow this probably wasn't going to end well, but it sure was fun! "Ok ok before you two whip out your junk and have a pissing contest, why don't we talk about something else? Sheesh you bloodsuckers are so much trouble!"

"Sookie vampires don't piss." That was Bill, always logical.

I shot him the evil eye and pulled out another tiny bottle. "We should play a car trip game! We could play like the alphabet one, or the song game, or…"

"Actually lover how about you open the second part of your gift" Eric was smiling at me and reached past me to grab the garment bag beside me.

"What do you mean the second part? Oh Eric you are so bad!" I giggled at him and unzipped the bag

"Oh my God it's fabulous!" I was holding a gorgeous sapphire blue, strapless, silk dress that looked like it would take six months of slinging chicken finger baskets to pay for. Maybe it was the dress or the fact that I had polished off that last little bottle of vodka, but I threw myself onto my Viking and attempted to molest him with my mouth. When I finally came back up for air, Mr. Cataliades was standing with my door open and Bill was gone. Eric was just smiling and attempting to rearrange his big sword before we stepped out.