Author's Notes: I do not own the characters, they are the sole property of the wonderful Mrs. Charlaine Harris. I am just borrowing them for fun.

**** This story begins after Book 8. Felipe de Castro has recently taken over Louisiana, leaving Eric as the only surviving Sheriff from Queen Sophie-Ann's reign. Eric has promised Sookie that they would "come to an understanding" but since then has been absent from her life.

**** This story was my very first attempt at writing anything. The first chapters are very short, becoming longer as the story progresses. Give it some time to get rolling... I think you'll be glad you did!

Pour Some Sugar On Me

Chapter 1

Sookie's POV

Thank goodness that was over! Sam had installed 2 new flat screen tvs in anticipation of this year's Super Bowl, and it seemed like just about everybody in Bon Temps had turned out to check them out. The bar had been overflowing, and although I had made a good amount of tips, I was truly exhausted. I had been working extra shifts for the last few weeks to keep my mind busy and my bank account afloat. Property taxes and insurance were due soon. After cleaning my station and refilling all the salt and pepper shakers for the lunch shift, I got my purse out of the little drawer in Sam's desk, yelled goodnight, and let myself out the back door of the bar. I could hardly wait to get home and slip into a warm bath and then bed. Unfortunately, as soon as I got into my little car and started home, a feeling of loneliness swept over me.

It had been over two months since the takeover of Louisiana by Felipe de Castro. I had received a couple of calls from my friend Pam at first, but then... nothing. Even my ex-boyfriend Bill had quit coming into Merlotte's. He lived just across the cemetery and sometimes I could still sense him roaming around the perimeter of my house at night, but I never actually caught him doing it. More importantly, my... my... Eric had finally remembered our time together the very night of the takeover; and despite having claimed that we would "come to an understanding," he had been conspicuously missing in action. Well, the heck with the lot of them, I thought. They could just keep all of their secret vampire stuff to themselves. I was much better off without all their craziness in my life, wasn't I?

The drive home from work only took a few minutes, and I pulled into the gravel drive and took a good look at my old farmhouse. I could see that before long it would need to be scraped and painted. I sighed. It was going to take lots of hard work and money for paint that I really couldn't spare. The old place was really quiet tonight, as both of my roommates had left earlier this morning for a few days. Amelia and Octavia had both been really excited about attending a witches' gathering in Baton Rouge. Amelia had sensed my loneliness and offered to stay; but of course, I had told her that I would be fine. Going in through the back door, I put down my things on the kitchen table and went straight to my bathroom to shower away the day's aromas of beer and fried chicken baskets.

After my shower, I donned my oldest pair of flannel pajamas. Eric had once teased me about how hideously ugly he thought they were, but since he wasn't around to complain I guessed I might as well be comfortable. I slipped on a pair of old bunny slippers that had lost most of their fuzz, and went back to the kitchen to make myself a cup of Amelia's special tea. In spite of feeling really tired lately, sleep seemed to elude me. After noticing the circles under my eyes, Amelia had offered to prepare a special valerian tea to help me sleep. I had used it with some success the night before, managing to fall asleep fairly quickly and staying asleep most of the night. My dreams were quite vivid, but upon waking I could not recall very much about them. I knew they had involved a certain Viking vampire I was trying my best not to think about…during my waking hours, at least.

I drank my tea curled up in my favorite old chair, and then rinsed out my cup, placed it in the drainer, and trudged off to bed. I sighed to myself, trying to ignore the sense of longing that I felt. Reluctantly, I reached under my other pillow and dragged from under it a t-shirt. I put it to my face and inhaled, but of course no scent remained after all this time. In my mind's eye I could see Eric wearing this shirt while he had stayed with me, laughing and holding me tightly as we lay entwined in front of my old fireplace. He had forgotten it when he left to go back to his real life. I rubbed it against my cheek, and I felt a tear begin to roll down the side of my face. I pressed the soft cloth against my face to catch the seemingly unstoppable deluge that followed. Luckily, the tea seemed to do its job and sleep took me rather quickly.