I don't own the Characters (Except Sara and Stan). Charlaine Harris does.

I just own the new plot, but Ms. Harris is welcome to it if she ever wants to use it.

There just aren't enough "Sookie loves Quinn" stories out there, so this is dedicated to all you Quinn lovers.

For you "Sooke-N-Eric" lovers... there's a little Eric goodness in here to.

Spoilers: Set after From Dead to Worse

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CHAPTER 1

Frannie showed up at my door, frantic and out of breath. Come to think of it, she had been frantic and out of breath the first time that she showed up on my porch. This was getting to be a habit.

"Sookie. You have to let me in! We need your help!"

Here we go again, I thought. And it had started out to be such a nice, quiet day off.

There was a surge of pain in my chest as I let in the sister of her former lover. I still carried a torch for Quinn, and the wounds were still raw. I hadn't realized just how raw they were until the possibility of seeing him again was drumming at me with the pounding of his little sister at the door.

Quinn. My big, bald hulk of a Weretiger ex-boyfriend. That handsome man of perfection who didn't care that I had fairy blood… who just cared for me. Nope can't start thinking like this. It's over. Over's good.

"Come in," I sighed. I was going to have to face it sooner or later. I pulled out two coffee mugs and started the pot brewing. Partly it gave me something to do with my hands, and partly because anything involving Quinn was going to take all the focus I could muster.

Frannie plopped herself down in an overstuffed chair and collapsed like a wet bag of groceries. "We need your help… he needs your help." She didn't have to quantify who the "he" was.

"I don't know what I can do for you. We're over, as much as it pains me to say it. I don't know if I have the strength to get involved with anything involving Quinn right now."

"Look," Frannie was on the verge of exasperation, and her voice started to betray her edge. "I know you two had your differences, but he risked his life for you, he would do anything for you… and you should do the same."

"I know," I said, softly. Usually I would be up in arms at someone telling me what I should or should not do, but Frannie was right. And hard as it was to admit it, I knew that I too would do anything for Quinn. "Tell me what happened."

"Well the last time I saw you, Mom and I were demanding why you broke his heart. You didn't say. You just said that it was none of our business, and that your heart was broken too… well…. Mom wouldn't let it go. She kept plotting on how to get even with you, even after Quinn put her back in that 'home' for the mentally deranged weretigers."

I bristled. I remembered my conversation with Quinn when he admitted that his and Frannie's mom was mentally insane. Granted it had happened due to some very unfortunate supernatural circumstances, but she was crazy all the same. In fact, it seemed that it was her lack of sanity that was the bane of Quinn's existence. Whenever she showed her insanity to the world, Quinn was stuck with cleaning up the mess.

"So, our crazy Mother…" Frannie continued, " she, um… well let's be frank. She tried to have you killed. You know, for hurting Quinn."

I was shocked. In fact, I was speechless. It wasn't often that I found myself at a loss for words, but here I was; coffee in hand and mouth agape, waiting for the punch line.

"Well, after you and Quinn broke it off, he wouldn't talk to anyone. He just worked, and did his thing but he was distant. He's never had a real cozy relationship with our screwed up screw up of a Mother, but now he wouldn't even speak to her. With me he was okay, but he was really distant. I've never seen him like that. He's never been totally distraught over a girl. No offense, but it's usually the other way around."

I had been a wreck over Quinn. As much as I hated to admit it I still was. But there was no way I was going to let his little sister see that I was just as much of a flunkie as the other girls he'd dated.

"So Mom met this guy in 'the home'; you know the Whispering Palms, and it turned out that he had some vendetta against you too… something about his cousin Sandra Pelt and you ruining her life and killing one of their relations named Debbie?"

"Yeah," I sighed, "it was self defense. Debbie was Sandra's sister." Although you couldn't quite call it an accident. I had almost, sorta-kinda dated Debbie's ex-boyfriend, and for that she thought I deserved to leave the living.

Frannie just wrinkled her nose and shrugged it off; as if killing a person was as easy as cleaning a litter box. "So this Pelt guy, well, he and Mom spent most of their days together planning how to kill you. Apparently, after talking about it enough, they actually got up the stones to do it. They hired an orderly; with the money Quinn had left for Mom, to sneak them out and call them a cab. Pelt and Mom shacked up for a few days as they made their way across country from Vegas to the some homestead the Pelt's hung at in the back woods of Mississippi."

I remembered the "homestead". Actually, "shack in the woods they borrowed from a friend" was more like it, but I had spent a less than favorable night there fighting off the Pelt family as they had attempted to kidnap me in retaliation for the "disappearance" of Debbie Pelt. In fact, Quinn had been with me so they kidnapped both of us. Quinn also had less than favorable memories of that night.

"Quinn and I were attacked by the Pelts," I stated. "We tracked them to the cabin, and…" I didn't know how much Frannie knew and I wasn't sure how much should be said.

Luckily, Frannie answered the question. "Yeah, after we found out about mom, Quinn told me about the whole them-kidnapping-you-guys thing, and how you and he kicking their butts with some vamps. That's why I'm here. When he found out what Mom had done, he went ballistic. He said that regardless of her reasons; or lack of reasoning, she had betrayed him. He said he'd lost everything because of Mom, he'd lost his youth, he'd lost his freedom, and he'd lost you."

I remembered the last conversation I'd had with Quinn. I told him that I understood that his mom and his sister would come first, and that was okay… just not okay for me. I knew it was selfish, but I wanted to be first in someone's life.

"Once he found out our deranged mother had fallen in with Sandra Pelt, he disowned her. He swore vengeance on the Pelts regardless of the cost. He said that it was because she had taken up with his sworn enemy, but I really think it was because of you. Because of the Pelts and you. Because of what happened at the cabin and you. And because he blames our good old Mommy Dearest as the reason for losing you."

I was already beginning to feel uncomfortable with the conversation—too close to truth and all that jazz, when Eric wandered in. Check that, Eric never really wandered. He always had a purpose, but he tended to make it seem as if it was aimless.

"Oh gracious heavens!" I stated, when I saw Eric. "Eric go home. Whatever it is, it can wait. I don't need your drama right now."

Frannie looked at Eric and snorted. "Figures a vamp would drop by."

Eric just eyed the two of us quizzically, and then he addressed me. "I'm here because of your drama, not mine."

Well, aren't blood bonds convenient. Pain in the rear is more like it.

I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to have a thought about Eric that didn't end in sarcasm. I'd settle for an emotion that Eric couldn't feel.

Eric studied Frannie for a moment, clearly trying to place her. Dawn of recognition crept over his face, and his eyes narrowed.

"Quinn," he said under his breath. The way he said it made it sound like a swear word.

Frannie ignored the fuming vamp and continued. "So after he disowned her, he went on a rampage. He left for Mississippi and I haven't seen him since. I've heard rumors that some locals are going tiger hunting because one got loose from the zoo. He went to kill them all…" she looked at me with sad pleading eyes and then quietly added, "… maybe Mom to."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" I knew exactly what Frannie expected me to do. Go to Mississippi and drag him out of there. I really just asked hoping to hear another answer.

"You've gotta find him! You may be the only one who can get through to him. Lord knows, I couldn't." Suddenly she looked up at me with rage and fear. She yelled, "He's doing this because of you!"

Eric put his hand on Sookie's shoulder. "I'll go with you."

I glanced up at him skeptically.

Eric shrugged, "I can feel there's no use talking you out of it. You'll need help to track an enraged tiger." Then he leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Someone needs to keep an eye on you, Lover."

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TBC

This is my first time posting fanfiction, so bear with me as I figure out how this format works.