Author's Note: Beta'ed by SmokeAndEmber, all typos my own (you get it). And thanks for all the comments, I don't always reply (especially on FF as it's a bit awkward to respond/keep track of which ones I've responded to) but I always appreciate them!

"You may enter."

Eric and I rose in unison and followed Andre into the Queen's parlour. The Queen was splayed out on a chaise lounge in a chic crimson pantsuit. White pointed boots poked out from the bottom of her pant legs. It seemed like the prosthetic legs would be part of Sophie-Anne's uniform moving forward. She was very pale, and I suspected she was less heavily made up than she had been the night before. Andre took his seat in a gilt armchair to her left.

Eric stopped before her and remained standing, so I followed his cue. After last night, I was determined not to draw attention to myself.

"Indiana will be buying Arkansas. Desmond is negotiating the contract with his lawyer as we speak," Sophie-Anne said in a business-like tone.

"He will be a welcome addition to the region," Eric said.

"Certainly better than Felipe," the Queen said drily. "I want you to maintain your daily check-ins with the other sheriffs. Any unknown visitors, any scouts, are to be reported to Andre immediately."

"What of Jonathan?" Eric asked.

"He will be returned to Nevada in due course," Andre said, "after we've made some modifications."

My stomach turned. Jonathan was already short of a tongue and fangs. I didn't want to know what else they had planned for him. I was sure they wouldn't be sending the vampire back, so much as sending a message to Nevada: don't fuck with us.

"And Bubba?" I looked over at Eric. I was touched that he'd asked about the strange vampire.

"I have not decided. Any other vampire would meet the final death for such a betrayal."

"He is a liability," Andre's comment seemed to be addressed towards the Queen. "He needs to be eliminated."

"If I may," Eric said, "Bubba has proven a useful asset in recent years. He is only a liability when he is out of our sight."

"What do you suggest, Eric?" Sophie-Anne asked.

"That he reside in Area 5 for now, perhaps with Compton." There was a flicker of satisfaction in the bond. I suspected I knew why: Bill would hate that. "If he betrays our trust again then I will give him the final death myself."

Sophie-Anne looked thoughtful. "Very well, Rasul will show you to him. I want him out of my Area tonight. And Eric, don't lose him."

Her tone had the unmistakable air of dismissal. Eric nodded his head in a bow, and we turned to leave when the Queen spoke.

"Sookie, you stay. I'd like a word."

Eric paused, his neck stiff.

"I'd rather Eric stay too if it's all the same to you."

"It is not." Wariness fluttered at the bond. The Queen was watching us curiously, her mouth curved and her eyes hard. Eric didn't move. "I will return her in one piece, Sheriff."

We didn't have a choice. I pushed confidence into the bond, more than I was feeling.

A swell of safety and promise and caution rose in response. Then Eric was gone, and I was alone with Queen Sophie-Anne and her Consort and Regent, Andre.

I could feel Eric hovering outside the room; he hadn't gone far. I made sure the bond was wide open and focused my attention on the Queen. I had the feeling I'd need my wits about me for this.

"Sit, Sookie." She waved a delicate hand at the empty chaise lounge. "Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

I sat, folding my hands on my lap. "Some water would be nice, thank you."

Andre rose. I hadn't known what I expected but it certainly wasn't for Andre himself to serve me. It was unusual for vampires to treat humans with any level of regard, let alone fetch them drinks. It was making me nervous.

He returned with a glass of iced water with lemon, placing it before me on the table. I took a sip as he returned to his seat.

"How are you finding your bond with the Northman?"

"Very well, thank you ma'am."

"You may speak plainly Sookie," she said gently. "It is just us."

I didn't like the implied intimacy of that statement, nor was I interested in divulging my feelings to the Queen. "I'm still getting used to it, but some aspects of it are pleasant."

"He seems quite taken with you." Her comment didn't necessitate a response, and I was sure more was coming, so I waited. She watched me thoughtfully, and when she continued her voice had softened. "If you ever find that you do not wish to be bound to the Northman any longer, you need only ask."

I kept my face perfectly blank. Maybe I wouldn't need to go to Mississippi to have it removed after all.

"I thought blood bonds were permanent?"

"That is true, but they can be overtaken by a blood bond with an older, more powerful vampire. I am older than Eric, as is Andre. If you ever wished to end your association with him, either of us would do that for you."

This was not an insignificant offer, from the Queen herself. I swallowed, considering how to handle the offer without causing offence.

"That's a very generous offer. I'll keep it in mind."

She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. I waited for her to speak again, wondering if this was the end of our conversation.

"I think you know, Sookie, that I am fond of you. As is Andre."

I kept my eyes fixed on the Queen, although I could feel Andre's eyes boring into me.

"You are insightful for a human. You possess a certain ingenuity as well. And more than that I feel you are a kindred spirit. Have you ever heard this term, 'kindred spirit'?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Her gaze seemed to move beyond me. "Hadley would say that, that we were kindred spirits. She also said that everything happens for a reason. Do you believe that? That everything happens for a reason?"

"I'm not sure," I said honestly. I had at one point. I'd thought that God had a plan, but somewhere along the way that belief had wavered.

"She used to say all the bad things that had happened to her were necessary for us to meet."

I was touched. Hadley had never been particularly romantic when she was young. She'd fooled around with boys, but she'd never really been sweet on any of them. It was nice to know she'd gotten to experience love in the end.

"After Hadley's death, I felt that there was no reason for it. It seemed proof that she was wrong, but now I wonder. Perhaps her death was necessary after all."

I waited, sensing she was building up to something too great and terrible for me to fathom.

"I would have you as a child."

A thrill of fear went down my spine. I opened my mouth, unsure of what to say, of how to fix this. Sophie-Anne raised a hand before I could utter a word. "This is an offer, it is not something I would force upon you if you truly did not want it." Relief washed over me. "I only ask you to think on it.

"You would have a family again. One that truly understands you. Not only I, Andre as well. We understand the pain of being taken against your will as a child. We remember the helplessness of being human. We would protect each other.

"There is no feeling in the world like being vampire, being bound to your maker, your child, your siblings." She looked at Andre for a long moment, before turning back to me.

"Despite your words I see that you are enjoying the bond. The closeness, the sense of one. It is a shadow of a true blood bond: the bond between a maker and their progeny. With us you will always have family.

"You would never be alone, never be afraid, always be loved."

She paused, waiting for me to respond, her brown eyes unblinking. I was vaguely aware of my pulse fluttering at my throat, like a moth against a lamp. In that moment I felt very human, and very vulnerable.

"I appreciate the offer, your Majesty, but I have a family and more to the point, I don't want to be a vampire. I never have."

If she was surprised by my response, she didn't show it.

"You feel that way now, but you are still young. You will change your mind." Her voice was gentle, understanding of human foibles. "You'll see."

I couldn't think of how to respond to that, so I didn't. "Is there anything else, ma'am?"

"That is all, and Sookie, you must call me Sophie when we're alone."

I rose, not trusting myself to speak, and left the room. Eric was on the phone when I emerged, he spoke some final sentence into it and hung up as I approached him.

"Do we need to go get Bubba?" I asked.

"Bill is taking care of it."

I nodded, too tired to say anything, and we made our way to the car in silence.

We'd barely spoken a word to one another tonight. Well, I'd barely spoken a word, and Eric had taken my cue, only speaking to tell me that we were required to stop by the palace before we left the city. We'd packed our bags and checked out so we could get on the road as soon as we were done.

I didn't speak again until we'd passed Baton Rouge.

"She wants to turn me." There wasn't even a flicker of surprise from Eric, just a cold determination. "But she said she wouldn't do it against my will."

He looked over at me, that had surprised him. "And what did you say?"

"I said no, of course." I was surprised he even had to ask. "But that didn't seem to matter. She thinks I'll change my mind."

Something flickered in the bond, too light and quick for me to catch. I had a feeling I didn't really want to anyway. I looked out the window, into the tall trees that lined the highway.

It had been a long few nights, and it wasn't over yet. My thoughts drifted to what I needed to do tonight. Cold resolution settled in my stomach.

"What did Russell say to you last night?" Eric's eyes were on the road, but I knew he was paying close attention to my responses. "When you danced together."

The passing trees flickered by, too dark and deep for my eyes to register. "He told me what being bonded means. That it's a marker to say you plan to turn the human into a vampire. That, or you claim them as a renfield."

"You're angry with me."

I didn't say anything, my silence confirming his suspicion.

When Eric spoke again his voice was hard. "I told you I wouldn't have chosen this. I bonded with you so that Andre wouldn't."

"Don't you think I know that Eric," I said furiously, unleashing the anger that had been building inside me since Russell's revelation. "I'm not angry about you stopping Andre from giving me his blood. I'm not even angry about this claim everyone thinks you have on me, as either your renfield or your future child.

"What I'm angry about is the fact that you kept this from me. You talk a big game about trust, about how we need to work together, but you still keep things from me. Things that affect me. I keep telling you this again and again, and you keep doing it. I feel like I'll never get to the bottom of this well of secrets of yours. And I can accept it when it's something that doesn't have anything to do with me. But this does."

"There was nothing to be done about it. It would only upset you. And now it has," Eric said coldly.

"I don't give a rat's arse if I can't do anything about it. That's not the point! The point is it's my life, and I have a right to know what's going on in it, good or bad."

Tears prickled in my eyes, and I brushed them away, looking out the window. My voice wobbled a little with my next words, "I don't get why you don't understand that."

We drove in silence for some time while I fumed about Eric's high-handedness, the bond simmering between us. After a while I felt the bond reaching out to me, it had turned thoughtful and, not remorseful exactly, but maybe understanding.

"After the spell, when I could not remember our time together, I felt the way you are describing. I should have told you about the meaning of the bond." It wasn't quite an apology, but it was probably as close as I was going to get from him.

I glanced over at Eric. His face was pensive.

I hadn't told him about our time together for weeks, months after it. I'd never really considered that maybe I'd been high-handed in doing that, that maybe Eric had a right to know.

"I'm sorry too," I said. "I should have told you sooner about what happened when we were together. I was just afraid, I guess."

"Of what?"

I shrugged. "That you would taunt me with it, use it against me. I was worried you would leverage Debbie's death to make me do something I didn't want to do." The bond swirled with emotions, too mixed and ambiguous for me to hold on to or identify.

"But I didn't."

"No," I sighed. "You didn't."

My heart snagged as I thought about how things had gone after that. I'd barely heard from him in the months that followed, only seeing him when I'd sought him out or heard second-hand orders from Pam or Bobby. If I'd been expecting a confession of love, I'd been sorely mistaken. Quinn's appearance on the scene had probably been one of the only things that could have pulled me out of that rut.

The silence stretched, pulling taut between us before Eric spoke again.

"When I was at your house last, I remembered our time together." I looked over at him, I could just make out his profile in the darkness. His face was impassive. The bond was silent. "Parts of it."

My mouth was very dry.

"The memories are…untethered, just fragments. I remember talking in front of the fireplace," he continued. I thought back to that time. We'd spent a few nights in the lounge room, talking, some evenings more intimate than others. "I remember how I felt for you. The promises I made."

My heart sank. Eric was still talking, but I couldn't hear him anymore. Instead, Eric's words from that night echoed within me.

I would bring you to my side. I will share everything I have with you. Every vampire who owes me fealty will honour you.

"I don't want you to keep the promises you made when you weren't yourself." I was going for a matter-of-fact tone, but my voice held a hardness I hadn't intended.

Eric didn't respond.

I looked out the window again, wishing Eric had never brought this up. Not right now, anyway. I thought of Quinn and couldn't stop myself from wondering what would have happened if Eric had told me this back when it had happened, before Quinn had even arrived. It didn't matter, it was too late. I'd made a commitment to myself, and I intended to keep it.

As the silence stretched the bond grew cold and quiet. I looked over at Eric, his expression was neutral, but the set of his jaw was hard.

As we made our way north, I found my mind increasingly drawn to Quinn. Before I knew it we were passing the outskirts of Bon Temps.

Eric pulled into the farmhouse and popped the trunk.

"I got it," I said, scrambling out of the corvette before he had a chance to get my bag. I pulled my bag out and lugged it up the stairs, not looking back, my mind fixed on the were mind in the house. Quinn was inside.

I heard the corvette pull away once I was inside. I let out a sigh of relief, the last thing I needed was Eric's presence for this.

Quinn padded out to see me. I had woken him.

"How did it go?"

I gave him a weak smile. He was bare-chested in just his pajama pants. "It's a long story."

"One that can wait until morning."

My stomach clenched, but after a moment I agreed. I was exhausted. So was Quinn. This conversation needed to happen when we both had clearer heads.

Once we were in bed he pulled me against him. After a few minutes his mind tumbled towards sleep, and I wiggled away from him. I lay there, my stomach churning, until exhaustion took hold and I fell into a deep sleep.

It was well after midday when I woke. I lay in bed putting off the inevitable. Finally, I dragged myself into the shower. When I made my way into the kitchen I was dressed and felt ready to face the day.

Quinn was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the local newspaper. Usually at this time he'd be out at the gym, and I was grateful that he'd hung around waiting for me to wake up. I wanted to get this over with.

He looked up as I entered the room. "She finally wakes. Come sit down, I'll get you a coffee."

"That's alright, I don't really feel like coffee this morning."

He raised his eyebrows, coffee was normally a requirement for me. The truth was, my stomach was churning too much for it.

"So, how did the ceremony go?"

I sat down across from him, folding my hands in front of me. "Usual vampire weirdness for the ceremony. Then the Queen made Andre her regent."

"For Arkansas?"

I shook my head. "For Louisiana, she said it was a wedding present."

Quinn looked thoughtful. "So what does that mean for Arkansas?"

"Well, funny you mention it. She ended up selling it to Indiana. She thought it made her too vulnerable." Something flickered across Quinn's face. "But you already knew it made the state vulnerable, didn't you?"

Quinn sighed. "I was going to tell you today. It didn't seem wise to mention it over the phone, especially not while you were there."

"So, have you been working with Nevada this whole time?" Despite myself, my voice rose in pitch. The thought of being betrayed by a boyfriend yet again was almost too much to bear.

"No, babe. I swear." Quinn's eyes were wide as he leaned toward me. "It only just happened on this trip. I was approached by one of the vampires with an opportunity. I decided to meet with them, hear them out. You know I don't like vampires as much as the next guy, but I saw a way out of that bond for you and I took it. If they take over Louisiana, you'll be free of the bond and they'll let you go."

I could sense the truth of his words, at least, he thought they were true.

"So you asked your buddy to let in Bubba and whoever was with him."

"They already had Bubba, they knew about the wedding. They probably would have gotten in anyway. All I did was make sure no one got hurt in the process." His face was serious. "Did you tell anyone about Mike?"

"No, but I probably should have." I didn't know if I really meant that. Quinn's colleague had been doing a favour for a friend, even if the friend was up to no good.

"That's good babe, that's real good." He smiled at me, relief evident on his face.

"It didn't matter anyway, they caught Jonathan. They found out he was working for Felipe and from what the Queen said they're sending him back with a few less pieces than when he arrived."

Quinn's face paled. Finally, he nodded, sitting back in his chair. "Damn, but still, the idea is solid. If someone else takes over the state, that wipes Andre out, Sophie-Anne, and anyone else who is trying to claim you."

"Like Eric, you mean. That's how you intend to get rid of the bond. Not by killing him yourself but by having him be killed off in a takeover."

Quinn's face hardened. "Babe, I know you think you care about him, but it's just the bond. It's not real."

"I cared about him before the bond. I cared about him in Rhodes. I cared about him when he stayed with me. Heck, I even liked him before then," I said angrily. "And I know I need to get rid of this bond, believe me, I know that now more than ever. But I will figure out a way to do that without killing Eric."

I shored up my walls. It was time. And whatever his thoughts about me were going to be, he was allowed to have them without my witnessing it.

"The thing is Quinn, I want to break up."

He looked incredulous. "Because of Nevada?"

"No, it's not because of Nevada. I don't condone what you did, but I know you were planning on telling me and you were trying to help, in your own way."

A muscle in his jaw clenched. "This is about Northman, isn't it? Did he put you up to this?"

"Eric doesn't even know I'm doing this. And even if I was never going to see him again, I'd still know this is the right decision."

"Then why?"

I sighed. This was the part I'd been dreading. I didn't know how to explain the myriad of reasons I knew this was the right decision. I decided to start from the beginning.

"The whole point of you staying here was to give this a real shot, to see if we really had something," I said.

"And it's been good. We're good together. We make sense."

"Yeah, we make sense," I agreed. "We get on. But I don't want to be with someone just because it makes sense.

"Don't get me wrong, Quinn. You're sweet, and smart, and considerate. You're hot as all hell, and you cook a mean steak. But I want more than that. And you should too."

He was studying the kitchen table while I spoke, like he'd find the answer in the aged wood. Finally, he rubbed a hand over his head and looked up at me. "So you're saying you don't love me."

"No, I don't." I said softly. "And I know you don't love me either."

For a second I thought Quinn might disagree, but he seemed to realise there was no point.

"I'm not saying that love can't grow between two people over time. I know it can, but," I hesitated, wondering how to word it, "I'm not in a place to let that happen right now."

"Because of Eric?"

I sort of shrugged. I was only just wrapping my head around it all myself.

He eyed me. "Even if you don't want to be with me, I still don't think you should be with Northman." He looked like he might say something else, but seemed to change his mind.

I reached over and squeezed his hand. "You've always looked out for me, Quinn. I'll always be grateful for that."

He stared at me, long and hard. I didn't know what he was looking for, but finally, he nodded and rose, leaving the kitchen.

I sat, feeling out of place in my own home, while he moved through the house. When he reached my bedroom, I heard him begin to pack. I made myself busy tidying away the coffee and plates. I felt a tremendous relief, but also some sadness. Not for Quinn and I necessarily, but for another relationship lost, for the unlived potential of it all.

After Quinn packed his bags into his truck, I met him by the door.

"I never asked you about your mother, how is she?"

"She's doing better. She escaped from the nursing home, but we caught her in time."

"I'm real glad. She's lucky to have you."

He nodded at his boots, then looked up at me, his eyes earnest. "I still think this is the bond talking, you know."

"That might be part of it, but it's not only the bond."

He gave me a long stare. "Promise me you'll find a way to get rid of it, no matter what."

"I'll get rid of it. You can count on that." The words came easily, but when I got rid of it, I knew I wouldn't be doing it for Quinn, I'd be doing it for me. I leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek, allowing myself to drop my shields before we parted.

Quinn's emotions were a swirl of ambiguity. He felt a simmering anger and resentment. He also felt relief. Disappointment. But no heartbreak. Just the sting of rejection.

I pulled back, leaning against the doorframe. "Don't be a stranger, okay?"

He nodded. "You too, Stackhouse."

My eyebrows flew up. That was a new one, but I appreciated that he didn't call me babe for once. I'd never really liked the pet name.