Hi! Thank you for such a great response to the first chapter! It makes me so happy to see that so many of you decided to give this story a shot!

I can see that some of you think that Eric would handle this better, on the account of lacking Sookie's 'I'll think about this tomorrow' attitude, but some think it might be even harder for him, since he's not exactly known for explaining things. This chapter should answer at least some of your questions.

Of course, this one is beta'ed by Breathesgirl too.

Disclaimer: I don't own any SVM characters. I wish I would. Well... at least... one... Guess which one?

Previously:

"Eric?" I called unsurely.

He looked up at me.

"Sookie," he said. "I remember. I remember everything."

He seemed shaken.

"Well, that's just peachy," I shot back. "You'll have to tell me what happened here then. You see, I don't remember anything."

"What do you mean: you don't remember?" Eric asked after a moment of silence that we used to stare at each other and try to figure out what was going on.

"Oh, I don't know. How about why you're here? Why is there blood on my coat? What was I doing for the last few days. You know, that kind of stuff," I said bitterly.

My nerves were strained so I didn't care that it was dangerous to be rude to a vampire.

Eric stood up and crossed the room slowly. He looked at me very closely. He lifted a hand intending to touch me, but I took a step back instinctively. His hand froze midway. For a split second some kind of emotion flashed across Eric's face but it was almost too quick for me to register and then his expression reverted to the perfectly neutral mask. He moved again, this time slowly, so I could see what he was doing, and reached for me with both hands. He put his palms on the sides of my head and gently turned my face to the light. This time I didn't stop him but I was still wary of his actions and I watched him carefully, uncertain of what he was doing.

He looked at me in silence, as if he was searching for something in my eyes.

"What's the last thing you remember?" he finally asked, his voice quiet and steady.

"I was driving home from Merlotte's after my shift on New Year's Eve," I answered. "Next thing I remember is waking up this afternoon."

"You don't remember me," Eric half-asked, half-stated.

His eyes lost focus and I could tell that his mind drifted somewhere else. I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn't quite sure I understood. I knew him – I knew who he was – if that was what he meant, I did remember him.

"I don't understand," I confessed.

"That night… Don't you remember finding me?"

He traced my cheekbones with his thumbs in a gesture oddly akin to a caress.

"Finding you? What do you mean?"

Eric cursed softly. He seemed angry and a little sad.

"Fucking Hallow," he said.

"Who?"

Without a word he stepped back and started pacing so fast that he was making me dizzy.

"Eric, please, tell me what happened!"

He stopped abruptly and stood still for a moment, with his back facing me. I watched the tense muscles on his shoulders. It was only then that I noticed his clothes – he was dressed in a pair of cheap blue jeans and some random T-shirt. Both looked like something much lower quality than his usual outfits.

He let out a resigned sigh and sat on the bed, making a gesture for me to join him.

Time to talk. I walked to him slowly and sat on the edge of the mattress, keeping my distance. I didn't miss the way his eyes dropped to the space I left between us before looking up at me.

"We fought the witches," he said.

"The witches," I repeated numbly.

Witches were real. Good to know. Eric nodded patiently as my mind digested another piece of information.

"We?"

"Yes, we."

"Me too?"

Another nod.

"Past tense?"

"We defeated them last night in a battle."

I took part in a battle. That explained my bloody coat. My conscience eased a little. A fight sounded better than a murder. It implied self-defence and such things.

"Why don't I remember it, though? Did the witches make me forget?"

"That's what I think."

"Why was I involved at all? Did you hire me to listen to them?"

"No, I didn't. The witches' leader – Hallow – cursed me. I was hiding from them here in your home."

"Why?" it was slowly becoming my favourite question.

"You… found me. And took me in. Then Pam decided it would be safest for me to stay here."

"Pam? Why not you? Why did I have to find you? Why did I agree? What did Hallow do to you? You look fine. What did she want from you? Why did she attack you?" I fired.

"I'm fine now. The curse must be broken. We captured Hallow after the battle. I came back home with you and Pam was working on making her undo the spell right before the sunrise. I assume she succeeded but it looks like not everything is right since you don't remember what happened."

I noted with some unease the way he said 'home' without a possessive pronoun as if it was completely natural for him, but I decided not to bring it up for now.

"What about the rest of my questions?"

"Hallow came to Shreveport with the intention of taking over the Supes in the area and, I suspect, to cure her own insecurities and let out some of her anger. She approached me and demanded a ridiculously high fee and my services."

"Your… ugh," I said when I caught onto what he was saying. "Did she mean what I think she did?"

He nodded. I was appalled. Eric might lead a promiscuous life but it didn't change the fact that I found the proposal degrading.

"You declined," I stated as a fact.

He just gave me a look. Okay, it was a rhetorical question.

"I might have said something insulting."

Uh-huh.

I decided not to dwell on what exactly made the offer unacceptable to him – the amount of money this Hallow wanted him to hand over or his dignity.

"What kind of curse did she cast on you?"

"Amnesia. She wiped my memory. I didn't know who I was."

NOW his story was getting really interesting.

"She took away your memories? And now she's doing it to me?"

He shook his head.

"No, it wasn't like that. You lost a few days, Sookie, I lost everything. I didn't even remember my own name before you told me it. When you found me I was completely lost."

"So it was you who bit me?" I said sounding a little more accusatory than I intended.

Eric looked at me offended.

"I didn't force you to do anything, lover."

I took a deep breath. All of sudden I felt extremely vulnerable.

"Eric," I whispered. "Did you… did we…"

I cleared my throat.

"Did we have sex?"

"That we did."

I don't know if he smiled or what his face looked like when he said it – I was too afraid to look him in the eye.

"How could you do this to me?" I asked, a little stupidly. "I took care of you, and you… how could you…"

I heard his responding low growl and I had enough reason to shut up.

"I didn't do anything you didn't agree to," Eric said coldly. "Is your opinion of me really so poor? I would never bite you or…"

He paused and I cringed expecting him to say something vulgar that would ultimately humiliate me.

"…touch you against your will," he ended his sentence phrasing it in unexpectedly polite way.

I looked up at him surprised. Oh my, he was mad, that much was clear. His fangs were fully extended. It looked like I managed to insult him. Deep down I knew that Eric wasn't a rapist and I couldn't even picture him as one, but I felt tricked and I was trying to protect myself by lashing out.

"Are you happy now?" I snapped.

He hissed.

"Stop it! Don't act like I somehow hurt you! Unlike me, you were of sound mind and memory. If anyone was using anyone, it certainly wasn't me."

I laughed bitterly. Maybe he didn't use me but it didn't change the fact I felt used.

"Seriously, Eric?" I asked. "Are you suggesting that I used you? No one's going to buy it. With your memory or not, I will not believe that I traumatised you by hooking up with you."

"What do you want from me? To say I'm sorry? I won't! I'm not sorry and I don't regret it! If you remembered it, you wouldn't blame me!"

"But I don't remember what happened!" I shouted.

I was screaming using the full capacity of my voice. I was on the verge of hysteria.

"You know what? I don't care! You got what you wanted! You got laid and you're safe. I don't remember it so I can just pretend it never happened! Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's for the best! You can go back to Fangtasia and forget all about me now that you fucked me. I can forget about this conversation and everything will go back to normal! You won't have to pretend that you care and I will simply think about all of this as some kind of a weird dream! You'll get in touch when you need something from me again!"

There was a tiny part of me that was afraid that this was how it was going to be and that Eric would start to ignore me now that he got what he wanted from me and that would make me feel… cheap.

Cheap and dirty.

Eric blinked. He retracted his fangs.

"Is this what you think?" he asked.

He looked less angry, but intrigued – and maybe a little hurt.

"What am I supposed to think, Eric? Did you ever give me a reason to think differently?"

I pulled my legs up in front of me and hugged my knees.

"It's not like that," he said, quietly and stubbornly.

"Then how is it?" I snorted.

He didn't answer.

"I feel robbed," I said abruptly, not even sure why, because I didn't think he wanted to hear about my emotional turmoil.

"By me?"

I made a vague gesture.

"You, the witch, I don't know. I've lost five days of my life during which I've been doing God knows what! For goodness sake, I slept with someone and I don't remember it!"

"Not with someone," Eric interjected. "With me."

I closed my eyes. I could feel the approaching migraine.

"Yes, I slept with you and I don't remember it! Eric, maybe you don't get why I'm so upset because it's no big deal for you, but consider the fact that I don't do things like that. I suppose you don't keep track of the number of women you had sex with and you probably don't pay much attention to it but up till now I've been with only one – literally ONE – man. For me, it is a big deal."

I felt a tear escaping from between my shut eyelids and making its way down my cheek.

"Why can't I remember?" I whispered.

I didn't open my eyes when he brushed my tear away nor when I felt him standing up and kissing my forehead.

"I'll call Pam," he said and this time his voice was soft. "Maybe she knows something more."

He walked out of the room quietly and I spent a few minutes getting a grip on myself before I followed him. Apparently he didn't have his cellphone with him because he went straight to my phone. I could hear his leveled voice in the background when I went to the kitchen to warm up a True Blood for him. I realized that I needed to leave for work in a few minutes if I didn't want to be late, but I wanted to know if he managed to learn something new. I placed the bottle on the coffee table in the living-room and squeezed myself into the corner on my couch. Eric, still on the phone, joined me – unlike me before, he didn't keep any distance and he sat right next to me. He picked up my hand absentmindedly, without even looking, and started playing with my fingers. I stared astonished at our linked hands and at his thumb moving slowly and stroking my skin in a soothing way. The most shocking thing about it was that he didn't even seem to realize he was doing it, as if it was something habitual. What exactly happened during those five days?

Finally he hung up.

"And?" I asked.

Eric sighed heavily. He turned to me.

"Hallow is dead," he said angrily - I guess because it meant he couldn't kill her. "She removed the curse before she died, or at least it seemed that way at the time. Your memory loss is either a side-effect or Hallow planned it as a posthumous gift of sorts: The last bite."

"Like some sort of revenge? Why would she want to get payback on me, though? Did I step on her toes so badly?"

"No, I don't think so, it was more about getting back at me."

"I don't see exactly how erasing my memories could serve as revenge on you."

Eric took a big gulp of blood from his bottle. It was odd, but I decided to ignore it, seeing as I had a few more pressing questions.

"What now?"

"The good news is that the coven is dissolved and there shouldn't be any more problems caused by the witches, so it doesn't look like your memory loss is a sign of something more coming. The bad news is that now that Hallow's dead we don't know exactly what she did and how to reverse it. Maybe your memories will come back on their own at some point but there isn't anything we can do to speed it up, unless you find another witch willing to try and undo the spell, but from what we gathered when I was cursed, it's usually a lot harder to break the spell for someone else than the person who cast it."

"So there is a possibility that I won't get my memories back?"

"It is possible, yes."

I sat in silence for a while, digesting the information. Eric was still holding my hand.

"Is there anything else I should know about?"

Eric fell thoughtful for a moment.

"Your brother is missing."

"Jason?" I asked, alarmed.

"He stopped by the first day of the New Year and nobody has seen him since. You were looking for him."

I did some quick math and my stomach dropped: He had been gone for too long to dismiss it. Jason wasn't the brother of the year but that didn't mean I didn't love him.

"I think I have an idea where to look for him," Eric said unexpectedly.

That's all for today. Next time: we're going on a trip.