As we came upon the house, Sookie noticed Pam's car. "Whose car is that?" she asked fearfully. She took a step away from me, but didn't try to take her hand away from mine.
Damn! I hadn't thought to warn her about Pam's presence. Just I opened my mouth to try and explain Pam came rushing out of the house from wherever she had to have been awaiting our arrival. "Here as you ordered, Master," she said with a bit sarcasm in her signature tone. "Now will please fill me in on what the fuck is wrong with Sookie?" She paused while she took in the person in question who was currently attempting to hide behind me.
"She said a very bad word," I heard as Sookie murmured in a whispering voice that told me she was close to the border of crying again while she tried to push into my back.
"Eric, what the hell do you have that would be clutched to as if you were some sort of a security blanket… Oh! Were you aware that there seems to be a miniature human stuck to you?" Pam asked.
Sookie had worked her way so she was standing fully behind me. She had removed her hand from mine only to wrap both her hands into my shirt.
"She's very loud and still saying bad words," Sookie whispered into my shirt. If I wasn't a vampire I may not have heard her. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw that her eyes were held wide open. She was terrified of Pam and I couldn't have that.
"Silence, Pam," I told her, and with the tone of my voice she knew it was a command she couldn't fight, even if she tried. I didn't like to resort to using commands on her, but I wasn't willing to have Sookie be frightened any longer.
"Sookie," I said, while my eyes never left Pam's so I was able to make it clear to her just what was going on. Hell, I didn't even know what was going on, but I needed to make certain Pam realized the little person clutching at me was Sookie.
"Sookie," I repeated, dropping to my knees and gently pulling her around before me. She allowed me to pull her after she realized she was able to stay attached to my shirt. I saw the shock in Pam's eyes once she realized I was talking to the little girl who was clinging to me.
"Remember when I called my friend?" She nodded her head against my chest. "She was the friend I called. Her name is Pam. I am sorry she scared you," I said, surprising even myself with an apology. "She was also friends with my friend, Sookie. Pam had been just as worried about her."
Pam, not quite able to say anything yet, took a step toward us. Her face, usually schooled to display no emotion, was clearly showing her shock and terror. Neither of us knew what could do this, and that worried her as much as it did me.
Sookie buried herself further into my chest while she watched Pam walk toward us. With an almost imperceptible shake of my head, Pam stopped her forward movement. I gently pushed Sookie away from me a bit so I could see her. Part of me was astonished that this little girl who only thirty minutes before was terrified of me was now clutching me for protection.
As I looked into those eyes that I was finding all too familiar I said, "Pam would never hurt you. I asked her come to us here so she could help me, as I wished to help you. She was only surprised to see you, and worried about our friend. That's why she yelled and said bad words."
Sookie leaned into my ear and whispered, "She's scary." I felt slight amusement from Pam when she heard the comment Sookie had tried to make sure she would not.
I brought my own voice to a whisper so Sookie would believe Pam wouldn't hear I said, "She is very scary. That's why it's a good thing she's here to help us. She won't hurt you. She was just surprised. As a matter of fact, I believe she might apologize to you if you were to allow her." With those words, I lifted my command for silence.
I slowly turned Sookie around so she could see Pam. She leaned back into me, and held my arm in front of her while I tried to pull it away. When Pam stayed silent, I leveled my eyes toward her. Pam hated apologizing more than I did, but I couldn't fail Sookie. I would not have her be afraid of us. It would only complicate matters in getting her back to how she belonged.
"I am sorry that I scared you, tiny human," Pam said with a voice that was nowhere near apologetic. I could not understand my child's attitude. She and Sookie were, are, or whatever tense I should be using in this situation, close. Why was she behaving in such a way?
Apparently, I was not the only one who didn't believe her apology. "That was not a good I'm sorry voice," Sookie said, putting her hands on her hips in a move very similar to the actions of adult Sookie.
Pam just looked at me while I tried not to laugh. Sookie always said the funniest things! Well, I found them amusing when they were not aimed toward me. "I'm still waiting," said the little voice in front of me. At that statement, I could no longer contain my laughter. The seriousness in my child's face caused me to stop. She said so quietly Sookie probably wasn't able to hear, "It really is her, isn't it?"
The Sookie standing in front of me looked so similar to the Sookie we knew and cared for. The mannerisms were the same and the glare on her face while she waited for Pam's apology; well, we both had seen that exact same look before.
"Sookie, I am so sorry I scared you," my child said sincerely, a blood red tear started to run down her face. She quickly wiped it away so not to frighten the child any more. Having her see Pam cry blood would probably undo all the progress we had made that night.
"That's better," Sookie immediately said, and her face broke out into a smile. It was the first one I had seen, and part of me basked in the familiarity of it. As she turned and looked at the house her smile seemed to grow, and she started to run toward it.
Pam looked at me when I started after Sookie and gently put my hand on her arm. I didn't want to restrain her, but I also didn't want her to be shattered when she discovered no one was in there.
"Eric," she said and pulled on my arm. "Maybe someone's home now."
I looked at her eyes, so filled with hope, and I hated the fact that she was about to be destroyed again. There was no one waiting in the house for her. Her grandmother and parents were all dead. She would not recognize her brother as an adult. There was no one she would recognize in town.
She looked back at me and a bit of apprehension had filled her face. At least it wasn't the full-blown fear it was earlier. "No one will be in the house, little one," I said to her gently.
"No, Eric. They wouldn't leave me!" she repeated with her 'm' sounding more like a 'b' her nose all stuffed up from crying. As I looked at her face, I had no idea how to tell this child that no one was waiting. Her family wasn't coming. How would I comfort this small child? I found I couldn't even find a starting point if I wasn't sure what had happened.
"Sookie, you were very upset in the woods when you told me what happened. I didn't understand it all," I told her. "Could you try and tell me again?" She was calmer now, and perhaps if I knew what happened I could start to think over what might have happened. Pam came a little closer to where we stood even though she would have been able to hear just fine from where she was.
Sookie looked from me to Pam, before she looked back to me. "I don't really know," she said quietly. "I don't remember coming over to Gran's house. It's like I woke up and was just here, all alone. No Gran, no Mommy or Daddy. Not even stinky Jason. "
I thought about that. Spells could cause a person to lose time, but I had no knowledge of any type of spell that could revert an adult back to a child. That didn't mean they didn't exist though. I'd have to contact a witch. Fuck! I hate witches. I needed Pam to call Amelia.
"What was the last thing you remember?" I asked her, attempting to determine where to start piecing this all together.
Sookie's face became serious when she said, "I don't know. I was somewhere where a lot of grownups were eating. There were some people wearing a shirt like mine. I'm sorry I don't remember more than that," she said, possibly because she saw the anger I felt made itself clear in my face.
I looked up at Pam who nodded her head. That sounded more like the adult Sookie with whom we were much more familiar with than how a young child might talk. Yet, at the same time, she had just referred to her brother as 'stinky.' That seemed to be like what a child would say. Just how much of the adult version had this little version retained?
First, we had to figure out what the fuck happened. It sounded as if the last thing she remembered was working at Merlotte's. Sam should have been able to scent anything out of the ordinary. He would probably still be in adult form. I could ask him, unless he wasn't there that night. She remembers being here… So maybe she had come home and something happened then. Damn! There were still too many unknowns.
Looking to Pam, Sookie said, "There's no one else in there, is there?"
Pam shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, sweetheart."
Sweetheart? Pam had never been big on terms of endearments. As a matter of fact, I think asshole was as close as she came these days, and that was to the people she liked.
I tensed while I waited for the inevitable tears that Sookie would cry at the news that no one else was in the house. I was surprised when there were none. Not knowing what to say to make sure we remained tear free, I stayed quiet as I thought.
I was tossed from my thoughts when a little voice said, "I don't wanna stay here all alone."
It's funny how much I wished my Sookie would say that to me. Adult Sookie had too much of an independent streak in her though, at least when it came to me.
"You won't be staying here alone," I told her gently.
"You'll stay with me?" she asked a little eagerly.
"Not exactly," I said. There really wasn't enough day protection here. Plus, with Victor up to who knows what, I would need to be in Shreveport, and as I planned on keeping Sookie close to me, she would need to be in Shreveport as well. "How about you come stay at my house?"
"Like a sleepover," she said excitedly. I glared at Pam, she did not do a good job of trying to suppress her snicker at the thought of Sookie and I having a sleepover. It is something I wish adult Sookie was okay with having more often.
"Yes, like a sleepover," I told her. "One I'm sure Pam would be happy to attend as well."
My turn to sport a big smile as hers collapsed.
"Yay! I never went to a sleepover before."
Children are so damn confusing. An hour ago she was terrified of the two of us. Now she was excited at the idea of a sleepover with us. Why did I get the feeling that my thousand years had not prepared me for this?
"Was there anything you wanted to take with you?" I asked, wanting to get back to Shreveport quickly. I wanted her inside my safe house soon. When the words were out of my mouth, I realized none of her clothes would actually fit her, and she probably wouldn't recognize much. I braced myself for more tears as I had reminded her again that there was something wrong. She surprised me again when she ran into the house to see if there was something she'd like to bring.
As Pam and I followed her inside, I looked on the porch searching for the flowers and note I had told Bobby to deliver. "I took them inside," Pam said as she noticed me looking for something.
I got a heavy feeling in my chest when I realized that my Sookie would never even get to see the flowers, never get to see my regrets in our situation. No, my regrets in what I had done to her over the last two months.
That gave us an idea of the timing though. Bobby would have delivered the flowers first thing. If they were still outside, Sookie had never seen them. That meant it probably happened overnight. What was still unclear was where it had happened.
Oh yes, that and what the fuck happened. That was still pretty unclear.
I continued inside the house and sat in the living room, resting my elbows on my knees, and put my face in my hands. Pam came in and sat next to me, resting her head on my shoulder. She gave me a minute of silence as we heard Sookie banging above us.
"What are we going to do, Eric?"
"We will need to determine what could have done such a thing to her. You will have to call Amelia to get a witch's input. We'll continue as we would normally so no one suspects that nothing is anything other than the norm."
She hesitated, and then asked, "What will you do, Eric?" I didn't miss the change in her pronouns. I knew what my plan was when I had been going to prove to Sookie that she did not simply hand me a knife, that it was more for me as well. I knew what I was going to try to do.
All of that just went out the window when I found this little Sookie in the woods.
"I will make certain she's protected. I will deal with Victor and Felipe. I will…" but I trailed off, no as I no longer trusted my voice to remain steady.
"Eric, that's not,"
"Enough, Pam," I said, my tone a warning to her. Just then, we heard a large bang from the kitchen followed by a louder cry.
I was in the kitchen before I could blink.
I found Sookie on the floor next to an overturned chair while she clutched her knee. I lifted her up and sat her on the counter before I realized what I had done.
"What happened?" I asked, only then realizing I sounded harsher than I meant when the tears started to fall. Damn! I had been doing so well too. I again asked her what happened, but I used a much softer tone this time.
She was able to calm herself down enough and said pretty calmly, "I was trying to get a cup for some water, but the chair felled. Then I felled."
I got angry when adult Sookie would get hurt and found myself getting even angrier at this Sookie even in her present form. I tried a counting exercise Pam had been telling me about. It's supposed to help you calm down or something before you react. I got to 10 and told her, "Ask for help next time," through clenched teeth. Counting didn't necessarily help, and I hated the fact she was hurt.
I pulled her hands away from her knee and saw that it had a little cut on it. Her knee didn't look swollen, it was just the little cut.
"Will you kiss it all better?"
My head jerked up to look at the little girl's face. "What?"
"A kiss can make booboos feel better," she told me.
"Really?" This was not something I had heard before. It did make sense in my world though. I wondered if this whole superstition happened because of vampires.
I got a nod with a smile in response. Hmm. I might have to remember this one for the future.
As I leaned down toward her knee, I pierced my tongue on my fangs so that a little of my blood would get into the cut, healing it right up as I gave the cut a little lick. I could still feel the bond between us so I knew the little exchange wouldn't hurt her.
Maybe I was wrong when she jerked her knee away from me, but she was giggling as she did so. "You licked it," she said in between the small laughter. "You're not supposed to lick, just kiss. It tickled."
"I made the cut go away though," I told her.
She looked down at her knee and said, "You did. You're magic!" As she said that, her eyes took on a peculiar look. I knew that look. It was the look Sookie made when she was trying to use her telepathy. I stayed quiet, not knowing what to say that wouldn't upset her.
When she got a confused look on her face, I asked her, "Did you find anything you wanted to bring?"
"Just that," she said pointing to a pillow. "It smells good."
I took her off the counter and set her on the floor. "Let's go then," I said while picking up the pillow. My own scent caught my attention when I picked it up. My scent was even stronger than hers on this pillow, and she thought it smelled good? After two months, it was faint, but it was still there. I shook my head, not at all ready to think about how I had failed her in those two months or what the damn pillow possibly meant.
I looked at the little girl who was picking up all the characteristics I had grown familiar with in the past few years. I couldn't do it anymore so I told Sookie and Pam I would be in the car and went out to wait for them. I filled my head with thoughts of how to get back at Victor, of how to determine ultimately who is in control between Victor and Felipe, and anything else possible to keep Sookie out of my thoughts.
I was joined in the car two minutes after I got in. Pam had to help Sookie with her seatbelt before she could get in the driver's seat. She took one look at my face and knew to leave me alone. She took my hand as she drove down the driveway though.
Five minutes into the drive, my cell phone rang. I look at the Caller ID.
"Fuck," I said. Just what I needed to make this night even worse, Victor Madden.
Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed this next chapter. Having to deal with a young Sookie will certainly complicate things for Eric. Maybe just maybe, it will help him in other ways too. Many thanks to MsBuffy who has edited this chapter.
Linda - So glad to see you are enjoying and I hope you continue to and hopefully I'll be able to upload files here to keep you updated.
Milla - The answer to that comes up in a later chapter.