Were I Young Again

by Megan 74

Pairing: Godric/Sookie

Rating: M

Genre: AU, romance, drama

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I only borrow Charlaine Harris' and Alan Ball's toys before returning them.

Summary: Eric learns of QSA's plans, and sends his depressed maker to find the telepath. Sookie's first meeting with a vampire goes very differently when she meets Godric at Merlotte's. AU. G/S

A/N: This fic is based on both TB and SVM, and will hold elements of both the show and the books. I'm going to pick and choose the things I like to add to the story. Spoilers for both books and TV show.

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Chapter 1

"Thank you, Rasul," Eric said into the telephone. "I will not forget this favour."

Godric sipped his bottle of blood substitute as he watched his child from where he sat on the couch in Eric's office. It didn't taste very good at all, but Godric had lost his desire to feed on humans. Having humans throw themselves at him only because he was a vampire, left Godric rather cold. And thus he stuck to the synthetic blood, no matter its vile flavour.

"Well," Eric said as he put down the phone and stared at his maker. "It seems Sophie-Anne is planning to poach on my turf."

Godric quirked an eyebrow in response, only to indicate that he'd heard his child. He wasn't surprised by Sophie-Anne's antics. She was a spoiled vampire, and she was used to getting what she wanted, whenever she wanted.

Eric stretched out in the chair behind his desk. "It appears one of the queen's pets has a cousin in some backwater town in my area who has a special talent."

"What talent?" Godric asked.

"She's telepathic or psychic or something." Eric got a faraway look on his face. "I had a psychic once. It was incredible."

"Are you referring to that Romanian girl you were obsessed with in the 16th century?"

Eric raised both eyebrows in surprise. "You remember that?"

Godric cracked a smile for the first time in days, possibly weeks. "Her whole town came after us with torches and pitchforks. Yes, Eric, I remember that. Vividly."

Eric chuckled and shook his head in obvious amusement.

"And now there is a new psychic for you to obsess over," Godric mused. "Only this time they'll be coming after you with shotguns and pickup trucks."

Bowing his head, Eric chuckled even louder and then made a dismissive gesture. "That won't happen if you go and check out this girl."

"Me?" Godric asked in puzzlement. The last thing he wanted to do was go to some backwater town and socialize with some poor human girl. He'd only come to visit with his child to see if Eric could bring some joy back into his life, but so far it wasn't looking good. No matter how much he cared for Eric, Godric was tired.

He didn't understand the world any longer. He didn't understand humans, and he didn't understand other vampires anymore, especially now that they were out in the open and they were expected to behave as...as what exactly, Godric hadn't a clue.

"Yes, you," Eric said in a firmer tone. "I'm busy. I've got a dispute to settle in Monroe, and I've got an application for a new resident in my area to review."

Godric sighed and sipped his blood again. He tried not to make a face at the taste, and ignored Eric's snort. Eric had offered him all sorts of willing humans ever since he'd arrived, but Godric just didn't have an appetite to speak of. He knew this worried Eric, but there just wasn't anything Godric could do about it.

"What is Sophie-Anne planning, exactly?" Godric asked. If he was going to do this, he didn't want to walk into any of the queens little plots without knowing everything there was to know.

"She's sending one of her procurers to seduce the girl, possibly glamour her."

Godric stared at Eric. So he was supposed to either glamour the psychic or convince her not to fuck whatever vampire came for her? Godric did not like this plan at all. "Can't you send Pam?"

"Send Pam to some backwater town? She'd sooner stake me than willingly talk to those rednecks."

Godric sighed again and admitted defeat. It wasn't like he had anything better to do besides hiding out in his child's office since he couldn't stomach the actual patrons of Fangtasia. "Fine. What's the psychic's name?"

"Sookie Stackhouse. She lives in Bon Temps, and she works at some bar called Merlotte's."

"And when is this procurer thought to arrive?"

"Soon." Eric got up from behind his desk. "I'm getting something to eat," he said, and eyed the bottle in Godric's hands with obvious distaste. "Are you sure you don't want someone?"

"I'm quite sure, thank you." Godric swallowed the last of the synthetic blood and got up as well. "I'll just go visit Bon Temps and get this over with. I assume you'll want her to work for you if she's useful?"

Eric nodded and then grinned. "Maybe the psychic will let you have a little taste. I remember mine was quite delicious."

Godric wrinkled his nose. "I wouldn't count on that, my child. I'll just offer her employment and leave it at that."

"Suit yourself," Eric said with a shrug, and Godric followed him out of the office, wondering how on earth he was going to find some backwater bar in a backwater town to convince some backwater psychic to work for the local vampire Sheriff.

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Godric decided to fly, since flying was something that still gave him an inkling of joy. Especially flying over unlit areas, which was getting harder to do in this day and age. He enjoyed the darkness beneath him, with only the moon and stars to light his way.

He flew east, at Eric's indication, and stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. The human behind the counter didn't even seem to realize he was dealing with a vampire, and Godric preferred it that way.

Bon Temps, as it turned out, wasn't difficult to find, nor was the bar where the psychic supposedly worked.

Godric touched down in a gravelled parking lot filled with rusty pickup trucks and little, worn foreign cars. He was sure the newest model in the lot was at least five years old.

The gravel crunched beneath his feet as he made his way over to the door, and the moment he opened it, he wrinkled his nose. A wall of scents greeted him; beer and old sweat and cheap perfume and a whole array of human foods.

Once inside the bar, Godric looked around for a moment. The place was crowded but not packed, and it looked exactly like you'd imagine a backwater bar to look. Godric moved towards the first empty booth he found and sat down. Most of the humans around hardly noticed his presence, but one of the waitresses standing near the bar was glaring at him. She had red hair, and soon she was joined by a young, blonde woman.

"Sookie," the red-haired waitress said in a whisper, but Godric heard her just fine from across the room. "Some underage kid just sat down in your section. Go tell him to shoo."

Godric snorted inwardly and then focused his attention on the blonde girl who was apparently named Sookie. There couldn't be that many waitresses with that name, so Godric assumed this was the psychic he was looking for.

Sookie picked up her empty tray and made her way towards Godric's booth with confident steps.

"Hi!" she said with a large, strained smile and Godric stared up at her, wondering what was wrong with her. She seemed very tense yet very cheerful. "Arlene thinks you're underage, but I think she's wrong."

"I'm not underage," Godric said, and Sookie's smile grew impossibly wider.

"I knew it! So, what can I get you?"

"A TruBlood, please."

Sookie's smile fell just a bit. "I'm so sorry, we don't have any. Sam got some last year, but nobody ordered it, so it went bad. You're our first." At Godric's puzzled look, she added in a whisper, "Vampire."

"Ah." Godric kept staring at her, which seemed to unnerve the human somewhat.

"Can I get you anything else?"

Godric shrugged. "Just bring me something a human would drink."

"All right!" Sookie's strained smile was back, and just as she was about to turn around, a voice from the booth next to his interrupted them.

"Don't mind Sookie now, mister. She's crazy."

Godric watched as Sookie deflated, her smile disappeared and a pained look came over her face.

"I'll be right back," Sookie whispered and made her way back to the bar.

"The name's Rattray. Mack Rattray. And this here is my wife, Denise," the human said as he leaned over the booth. Godric barely looked at them but the did inhale deeply. Ah. He smelled marihuana, a few other addictive chemicals, and underneath it all, vampire blood.

These were V-users, and possibly drainers, by the looks of their sudden interest in him.

Perhaps he could be of use to Eric and his area, instead of merely wearing a hole in Eric's couch and drinking all his TruBlood.

"Good evening," Godric said, and managed a small smile.

"Why don't we join you," Mack said, and before Godric could reply Mack was already sitting across from him, while Denise slid into the booth beside him. Godric pulled back a little as the human female tried to worm an arm around his shoulders and bared her neck at him. He did not like contact, human or otherwise. Besides, this human female's blood smelled appalling since there were so many chemicals in it.

But Godric knew if he wanted to catch the drainers he had to play along, at least for a little while.

"Will you look at that," Sookie said as she stood at the bar, clearly displeased by the way Denise was trying to wrap herself around Godric. A few other humans gasped when Sookie revealed he was a vampire, but Godric wasn't surprised by their reactions. Most humans had a difficult time accepting his kind, and Godric couldn't blame them for it.

"Perhaps we should go outside," Godric said to Mack and Denise, just as Sookie approached them with a glass filled with some human drink. Sookie stopped dead in her tracks, the glass on her tray tipping over under the sudden force.

"Don't you go anywhere," she said as she gave Godric a hard look. "Why don't I bring y'all a free pitcher of beer." And off she went back to the bar.

Godric looked after her in bewilderment, unsure what that human wanted of him. Perhaps she was crazy after all, just as the other humans had claimed. It didn't matter. He had located her, and he could deal with her after he took care of the potential drainers.

Mack and Denise were eager enough to follow him into the dimly-lit parking lot.

"Over there is a quiet corner," Mack said as he gestured to the tree line in the back of the lot.

Godric made his way there, and the moment he stopped near the trees he heard the female slip something out of her clothing. He zipped to the side and grabbed her arm hard enough to dislocate her shoulder.

The woman shrieked as a long, thin silver chain fell from her hands.

Drainers. Just as he had suspected.

The male got out a knife and yelled at him to release his wife, but with one flick of his hand Godric knocked him to the ground, the knife flying into the underbrush.

With ease he hauled both humans up and set them down on the ground on their knees while he stared deeply into their eyes, glamouring them.

"Tell me, how many vampires have you drained?" he asked, his fangs clicking to attention before he could stop himself. The idea of these humans killing his kind upset him more than he thought it would.

"We drained one in Arkansas," Denise said in a monotone voice. "But we went to jail for that."

"And we drained one in Baton Rouge. We got away with that one," Mack added, sounding equally dull.

These were active drainers, and they needed to be dealt with. But Godric had no intention of killing them. His days of mindlessly slaughtering humans were over. But he could glamour them into going to the police and turning themselves in. Between the vampire draining and whatever else kind of illegal drugs they used and possibly sold, they'd be gone from Eric's area for a few years, and that was all that mattered.

But just as Godric wanted to glamour the humans, a loud yell sounded from behind him.

"Get away from him!"

Godric turned at once and saw Sookie standing there with a thick, long chain in her hands.

Great. Now he'd have to glamour her as well, as she was clearly trying to save the humans from the wicked, evil vampire. Godric shook his head. He knew this mission would be trouble, and now he was proven right.

"Oh. Sorry," Sookie said as she lowered the chain in her hands. "I thought they were draining you."

That got Godric's attention and he turned around completely and stared at her in confusion. "You came here to save me?" he asked in pure astonishment.

"Yeah," Sookie said, a blush rising up her cheeks. "I thought they were draining you, and I couldn't let that happen if I could save you."

Godric released a bark of laughter. Never in his long existence had he been this surprised. "But why would you want to save me? You don't know me. I have slaughtered thousands of your kind."

Sookie shrugged, though she did seem a little uneasy about his last statement. "Because what the Rattrays were planning on doing to you is wrong, no matter who you are or what you might have done at some point."

Godric stared at the girl, seeing her in a whole new light. Here was a human who would risk her own, short life to save his, even though she did not know him.

"Were you going to...er...eat them?" Sookie asked softly.

"What?" Godric asked, shaking himself out of his quiet contemplation of the girl.

Sookie gestured at her own mouth, making a face, and Godric realized his fangs were still out. He put them away at once with a click.

"No, I have no intention of eating them. I was going to make them go to the police to turn themselves in."

"Oh." Sookie took a few hesitant steps closer. "How were you going to make them do anything?"

Godric looked down and he couldn't stop a smile from tugging on his lips. This girl was unbelievable! Here she was, standing in the dark with a vampire who had admitted he'd slaughtered her kind, and instead of running away from him in terror, she actually stepped closer because she was curious?

"It's called glamouring," Godric explained, while the girl listened attentively. "I suppose it's a form of hypnosis."

"Can all vampires do that?"

"Yes." And with that, Godric turned his attention to the humans on the ground and looked them deep into their eyes. "You will go to the nearest police station at once and confess all your crimes. You will tell them about the vampire you have drained, and about all the drugs you use and sell, and any other illegal things you might have done."

He broke the connection to their minds and stepped back as the humans scrambled to their feet and hurried away towards their car.

"Wow," Sookie said and furrowed her brows. "I can't hear you," she said in surprise.

"I didn't say anything to you," Godric helpfully pointed out, but before he could stop her the girl was standing in front of him and placed both her hands on his cheeks. Godric froze, her warm hands searing hot against his cold skin. He hadn't been touched in such a long time that he was unsure what the make of this strange sensation.

"No, I mean, I can't hear you," Sookie whispered, staring at him in wonderment.

Godric looked at her for a moment before it dawned on him what she was talking about. She wasn't a psychic. "Are you telepathic?" he guessed, and the girl dropped her hands at once and looked at him in shock, her mouth falling open.

"How...you..."

Godric chuckled at the girl's obvious loss for words. "I've known a telepath once."

"Really?" Sookie actually bounced on the balls of her feet a few times. "I've never met anyone like me."

"Telepaths are rare," Godric agreed. "But not unheard of."

"Could I meet this other telepath?" Sookie asked, biting her lip.

"No. I met him in the 17th century. He was a monk in an Italian monastery." What Godric didn't tell her was that the local vampire king had learned of the telepath's existence, and when he'd had him taken from the monastery, the telepath had eventually killed himself because he refused to work for Satan's agents.

"Aww, shoot," Sookie said, trying to hide her disappointment with a bright smile. "What's your name?"

"Godric."

"Godric?" Sookie giggled for a moment, much to Godric's confusion. He didn't think his name was funny in any way. "Were you ever a knight?"

"A knight?"

"Yeah. Your name sounds like a knight. Sir Godric." Sookie giggled again.

"No," Godric said and he couldn't hold back a smile. "I was never a knight. And that is probably a good thing, since knights were an unfriendly lot."

"Really? How about knights in shining armour?"

Godric snorted in derision. "A Victorian invention, just like the modern understanding of chivalry. Actual knights were mercenaries with a lust for violence, and they cared little whom they slaughtered as long as they got paid."

Sookie stared at him with wide eyes. "I had no idea."

"That's not your fault. History has been rewritten so many times over the years," Godric said with a shrug. He'd long given up the hope that humans would ever know their own, true history.

"So, how old are you, if you've known actual knights?"

Godric frowned. He usually didn't like revealing his age to humans, but this girl amused him. "I do not recall my exact age, but I know I'm over 2000 years old. Probably close to 2100 years."

Sookie gaped at him, much as he'd expected she would. "So what are you doing here?" she asked, gesturing around them. Yes, why would a 2000 year old vampire visit a backwater bar in Northern Louisiana? Godric realized he'd better reveal the truth to the girl. She had done him a service after all, with her attempted rescue, even if he hadn't been in need of saving.

Godric inhaled in unnecessary breath. "I came here to look for you, Ms Stackhouse."

"What?" Sookie's eyes widened in confusion and possibly fear.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you are in grave danger."