I couldn't believe what I saw. I didn't want to believe it. Part of me thought I should just have left and returned to Sookie's house. Surely she would be back there at some point. There was no way the person who dove for the bushes at the very sight of me could have actually been Sookie. No way in hell!

So why was there a part of me that knew it had been?

First things first, she had to come out of the bushes. Nothing could be accomplished while she remained in the fucking bushes!

"Come out," I said, but it was to no avail. The bushed moved a bit, but the person the bond was telling me was Sookie did not appear.

"Now!" I said harshly. She still didn't appear. I crouched down, and bent my knees until I knew she could see me.

"If you won't come out, I will have to come in there to get you," I told her probably a little more harshly than I should have. I was not used to having people ignore me.

That got her moving. She let out a little squeak, and darted out from under the bushes. For the first time, I took a good look at her.

There was a definite resemblance between the girl who stood before me and Sookie. Same shade of hair, same features only a little less mature, but it was her eyes that had me convinced that she was, indeed, Sookie. I had spent quite a bit of time staring into those eyes while I tried to figure her out. Still, I was having a hard time believing the person in front of me was Sookie, however. Why, you may ask?

Because the person I was staring at was the size of a child. Scratch that. I was looking at a little human, a little human that resembled Sookie; a little human that smelled like Sookie. A little human that the bond insisted was Sookie.

Looking her over, I noticed that the Merlotte's t-shirt Sookie usually looked very delectable in as it stretched across her figure, was fitting this teacup human as if it was a dress. She didn't seem to be wearing anything underneath.

The little human had been crying for a long time. Her eyes were red and swollen. Her hair was stuck to her face where the tears had fallen. There was also gross stuff coming from her nose. I hated it when stuff came out of human noses. It was never a good sign of things to come.

I grew impatient and wanted answers, so I grabbed her arm and asked, "What's your name?" as I still did not believe what I saw, what I felt. I did not receive an answer to my question. Well, there was a response, but it was just more crying and only more stuff that came from her nose. It was getting tiring. I wondered if I should just try and glamour the little girl. I knew Sookie was immune to glamour, but perhaps this little human version of Sookie would not be so immune. I tried to catch her with my gaze for a minute or so before giving in that even as a little human Sookie could also not be glamoured.

I finally scooped up the little person and took off flying through the sky. Now, I had flown with Sookie before, I had even flown with her when she was scared. What I hadn't flown with in a very long time was a wiggling thing, and a child is a very wiggling thing. I regretted my decision to fly with her almost immediately as I had to hold her more tightly than I wanted so she wouldn't fall. I hadn't meant or wanted to hurt her.

I quickly landed with her, but held onto her arm so she couldn't run away. I checked the bond in an attempt to find out if I had done any damage to the tiny human I was trying to convince myself was not Sookie. Feeling her through the bond was not helping my denial but I was happy to find I had not hurt her.

She pulled at her arm while she tried to get away, and then started leaking again when she realized she could not. Trying to stop her tears, I released her arm and she started to run off through the woods again! She was limping mildly. The child was barefoot and had probably cut her feet up during her trek through the woods.

I started to run after her, but stopped myself as soon as I came within reach of her. Scared Sookie was different from any other scared human I had come in contact with. A scared Sookie became a defiant Sookie. That was most likely a lifelong trait. I somehow had to stop scaring this tiny human for enough time to gain some answers.

I stopped chasing her and called out, "I will not hurt you."

She slowed and looked back, but continued to run. We were getting nowhere! I was not in the mood to deal with a child. I had enough to deal with; trying to find out what happened to Sookie and how I could fix it.

I used my speed and moved to get ahead of her. When she saw me, she turned and started back the opposite way. I moved in front of her again, and grabbed her arm once more so she could no longer run away. She then tried to bite me! The small child bit me in order to attempt to pull my arm off of hers.

The irony was not lost on me.

I took a few seconds to collect myself. I had not had to deal with children in a long time; however, I remembered they usually did not respond well to fear. I had probably done nothing else but scare this little human since the moment she first set her eye on me.

"I will release you if you promise to no longer run," I told her. She immediately nodded her head while tears filled her eyes yet again. I hated it when adult Sookie cried, but as I looked into this little person's face, I found I disliked it even more. I slowly released my arm and the little girl stood still. Progress.

I however, found I needed to collect myself a bit more before I did something else I may have regretted and terrorized this little person. I usually had no problem when it came to my control, but had been finding lately that it was a different story when it came to Sookie. Adding that I knew nothing of this situation was not helping me either. If anything, it was making me more anxious. I decided to call Pam.

I looked at the little girl before me who had been carefully watching me. My thoughts went to my own children that I made when I was human. I shook my head. I could not think those thoughts at this time. One thought at a time.

My unbeating heart clenched when I saw her flinch at the slightest movement of my head. It had been a long time since I looked into the eyes before mine and saw fear aimed toward me. I hated that it was fear that looked out of them even while I tried to continue denying what was standing right before me.

"I need to call a friend of mine," I said, not wanting to scare her by moving unexpectedly again.

"Why?" the little girl asked.

"I thought I could use or might need her help with something," At that she remained silent and I made the call.

"This better be important," she said sarcastically when she picked up the phone. I could not help the smile that crossed my face as I got my first taste of 'normal' that evening. That phrase also told me she hadn't been monitoring our bond otherwise she would have felt all my unease.

I slipped into my native tongue because I didn't want to be understood by the little ears that were standing before me. "I am Master, Pam. Whenever I call it is important," I told her although I kept my tone light.

"I suppose I can give you that," she said in a voice filled with the sarcasm that was my child as she spoke my native tongue herself. "When will you be in? Victor has already called twice trying to reach you."

I looked over at the little girl I was finding harder and harder to deny was Sookie. She was looking back at me in her now too big Merlotte's t-shirt. She shuffled her feet a bit but wasn't really taking any steps. One of her hands was curled in her hair while the other rested on her mouth as if she had recently stopped sucking her thumb. I was surprised at myself that I remembered that childhood habit as I turned away slightly. I wasn't sure with all that was happening at the moment that I would be able to remain calm while we discussed Victor and I didn't want her to notice any anger that might cross my face.

"There's no way for me to deal with him tonight, Pam," I told her. "Keep putting him off and I will do whatever I can to call him back tomorrow."

"I'm not sure that will hold him off," she told me. "If he doesn't hear from you tonight, you know he will be making an appearance tomorrow."

I cursed, still in my native tongue. I did not need Victor coming to Shreveport at all, least of all with the issue I seemed to be faced with presently. I turned around to look at the little girl. She was now twirling, and she smiled a bit at how the shirt swished around her legs. "I won't be able to come in, Pam. When he calls again, let him know something came up and tell him call my cell."

"He won't be happy to know something came up that he was not made aware of, Eric."

"He won't have anything to say once he realizes on just what that the issue I have been dealing seems to be with my wife this evening, not anything that would involve Area 5."

"Somehow I doubt Victor would see it that way," she said before she processed what I said. I felt her attempt to navigate her way through our bond before she asked. "What's wrong, Eric?"

I exhaled an unnecessary sigh as I began to explain, "That would be one of those things you would need to witness for yourself to believe, Pam. Sookie and I will require transportation tonight. Meet us at her house."

"Was she injured?"

Returning my look once more to the little girl who was now looking at the ground while she used her toes to draw in the dirt, I told Pam, "She is unharmed."

"You didn't answer my question."

"No, but it's the best I am able to give at the moment. Please, just make your way here as quickly as possible, Pam," I practically begged, and then hung up. I didn't miss the fear that shot through the little girl's face when she noticed my focus had returned to her once more. I stopped in midstep toward her; no longer did I wish to frighten her further. Part of me was surprised that she didn't run away again.

"You talked funny on the phone," she said with a little bit of a lisp on her 's' sounds. It would be a lie if I said I did not find it adorable.

"I was speaking a different language," I told her, while I stepped back in an effort to make her more comfortable. I wanted to get some answers, so I asked her "What were doing walking around the woods so late at night?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she said. I couldn't help but think that was certainly a rule I wished my Sookie followed. She would get into much less trouble if she would. Although thinking about it, Sookie did live in a town where it seemed everyone knew everybody. It had been me as well as other Supes who had introduced her to all the strangers that had created most of the situations that placed her in trouble, yet another way I had failed her.

"Well," I said, while I took a seat on the ground and tried my best not to look threatening or frightening. My height alone made that difficult whenever I had to deal with children. "How could we fix it so that we were no longer strangers?" I asked.

She took a few seconds to think over the question, and that told me something. If the small child was, indeed, Sookie, it appeared she had a small person's brain as well. Adult Sookie would have had some type of quick retort that she would use to respond in answer over my remark. This little child seemed as if she was truly considering my request.

"I guess you could tell me your name," she said finally. Her very simple answer confirmed that I was, indeed, dealing with the mind of a child, not just Sookie in a smaller body as if the running, crying, and stuff coming from her nose hadn't already clued me that to the particular mystery, but now it was decidedly settled…

"My name is Eric, and I have enjoyed meeting you, little one," I said, throwing in the last bit in the hope we might make it through the stranger shit quickly. "What's your name?"

She hesitated, and looked away from me, not exactly ready to divulge that information quite yet. I continued to speak, and then said, "I was actually in search of my friend. Perhaps you would like to help me find her?"

Adult Sookie was never able to turn away anyone who might need help. I hoped child Sookie was the same. I found I did not like having to make a distinction between the two. "Her name is Sookie," I added, and watched her gauging her reaction. The child was not nearly as practiced in hiding her reactions when her eyes grew wide at the very mention of the name 'Sookie'.

"Was your friend in woods, too?"

"I was planning to meet her at her house, but when I got closer I felt that she was in the nearby woods," That was close enough to the truth. Hell that was the truth! "Why were you in the woods?" I asked once again as I tried for an answer. I was desperate in trying to piece together all that had happened.

Tears began to fill her eyes again though none fell as she said, "I was trying to get back home."

That confused me because when I found her she had been walking in the opposite direction of her home. "Where was it you coming from then?" I asked having made the connection just as the words left my mouth.

"My Gran's house," Of course she was! If this tiny human truly was Sookie as she was as a young child, her home would not be the current one. She would have been living with her parents in the house where her brother currently resided.

I remained silent while I pondered over what I had just learned. "What did you say your friend's name was?" while she looked down at the ground.

"My friend's name is Sookie, and I worry something might have happened to her," I said. I felt my eyes start to tear, but I blinked them away. Something had happened to Sookie. I had no idea what it could have been or where to begin to look to fix it. Not knowing made me feel weak, and I placed my face in my hands.

A few seconds passed when I felt a small hand touch my arm lightly. "My name is Sookie."

Shit. Although the evidence had been pointing elsewhere, I was hoping that the small child standing before me was not Sookie. What the hell could have done this? I had never heard of any witch being powerful or capable enough to have done anything of this magnitude.

"Why are you running in the woods at night, Sookie?" I asked her. "It's very dangerous."

If I thought Sookie was fragile before, I didn't even want to imagine how fragile teacup human Sookie might be.

"You said you were going to help your friend."

I couldn't help but think how different her voice was. It had a higher pitch with a whiny edge to it that somehow kept it from being whiny itself. It was also softer.

"Yes," I said softly. "I thought my friend was in trouble. I thought she was very scared, and needed my help."

"I was very scared all day," she told me, her voice becoming even softer.

"I am sorry to hear that," I told her while I struggled to keep my voice quiet. "What had you so scared?"

She looked me in the eye, and I watched her face crumble before me. Her words came out in a jumbled mess and I couldn't understand all of them. I heard words like mommy and daddy, Gran, Jason, house, and alone.

I watched while the little girl took a step toward me, but then she hesitated and she decided to turn around. I could feel her fear and sadness pouring through the bond. However, for the first time tonight, her fear was not aimed at me. I take two steps to close the distance between us, and slowly placed my arm around her shoulder. She started to pull away at first, but then she finally pushed herself into my side.

I stayed silent not wanting to frighten her again. After a few minutes, Sookie began to cease in her fear, and then began to wipe the tears off her face. I had enough self-control to not lick them off myself. I doubted the small child would appreciate that. I knew her adult counterpart had never been too thrilled with it, but they do taste delicious.

"How about we get you back," I almost said home before correcting myself, "to your Gran's house? We can try to figure out what's happened."

"What about your friend?" she asked. I couldn't stop the smile on my face. Even as a small person, Sookie wanted to make certain everyone else was OK before worrying about her.

"My friend would want me to help you. I will not leave you alone in the woods."

She thought about that for a second before replying, "OK, Eric," We then started the walk to her house because I wasn't about to risk frightening her with flying again. I wasn't exactly sure when it happened but as we walked up to the house, I had a little hand held tightly in mine.

Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter. I enjoyed you're guesses to what Eric had stumbled across in the last chapter and a few of you were right. This will certainly complicate things.

Many thanks to MsBuffy who edited this chapter. She's been a big help!

I am having difficulty updating here again for some reason. The chapters will be added here when I can.