Disclaimer: the Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

V.

Eric headed toward me, looking me over carefully before swooping down and wrapping me in his arms. "You look delicious, Lover" he said with a smile. He kissed me gently and then, as if first seeing how that went, more firmly and passionately. I moaned a bit, and he chuckled. "You smell good enough to eat."

He pulled away from me and regarded the remaining magenta juice. He picked up the flute and sniffed at it hesitantly, shaking his head a bit. Then he stood back and looked at me as if studying me. "Claudine seems to take her work quite seriously" he said.

I suddenly remembered myself. Gran would have been shocked. "Can I get you a drink?"

Eric laughed and tousled my hair. "Sure, my Love. That would be good while we wait."

"Wait. For what?"

"For that charming grandparent of yours…" he intoned with quite a vein of cold sarcasm.

"Niall is coming? Whatever for?"

"I have requested that he come and explain a few things to you. Before the apology…"

"The apology?" I said, more puzzled than ever. "What would he be apologizing for?"

"My Love, when was the last time that you saw Niall?"

"On Christmas Day. In the afternoon. I made an early supper for us. He stayed and talked to me for several hours."

Eric hesitated. I got the feeling he was worried he would upset me. "What else do you remember of your holidays?"

I paused and thought. I remembered working the day before Christmas Eve. I remembered Christmas afternoon with my great-grandfather. But…. Everything in between seemed… out of focus. Amelia and Octavia had been out of town with their families. Sam had been out of town. I hadn't seen Bill. Or Pam. Or Eric. I had a vague recollection of speaking to Jason on Christmas Day. But everything else… it was as if it was simply missing time. I suddenly felt a chill in the core of my being. I trembled a bit. Something was very wrong…

In an instant Eric had his arms around me. "Just breathe, my Love. Don't go back to that place. You're here with me." He handed me the flute with the remaining magenta juice. "Drink up my Love. Every drop."

I hesitated and looked up at him. "What happened to me?" I looked suspiciously at the drink. The 'fae concoction' as Bill had called it.

"Trust me Lover, Claudine means you no harm. Drink up."

I did trust him. And Claudine. But what had happened to me? I thought back over the past few weeks. It was like looking back into a chilling dark vortex that just wanted to suck me into its wake. I felt as if I was kept from spinning back into the vortex by the thinnest of glass walls. I shivered. Looking up for a moment at Eric I nodded, then downed the last drops of the juice. I felt suffused again with warmth. And I felt Eric's warmth and pleasure looking at me through the bond.

"Eric, what happened to me? I really need to know."

"Niall will explain it, Lover. At least if I have anything to say about it."

Eric distracted me for a while with some expert kissing. He seemed hesitant about going too far with anything. Okay, we were expecting my great-grandfather, so we did have to be careful. But he finally paused at one point and told me,

"Lover, we still have to have our conversation, our understanding. I hope that over the next few days we can explore things." He looked at me with great seriousness in his eyes. "Sookie, I want you to promise me that if you ever get as depressed as you were, that you will tell me. You gave me such a fright. And Pam, too. Promise me."

"I honestly don't know what was wrong, Eric." Which was true. "I wouldn't have known what to tell you, if I'd talked to you."

He leaned forward to kiss me. With his finger under my chin he looked deep into my eyes and I just felt like I'd melt… "I think the best solution is to never let you get too far from me, Lover. But we'll have plenty of time to discuss things." More kissing. I had to say, I felt far less inclined to push him away than I had in many months. I felt secure. I felt loved. Even if he wasn't saying it. Was it Claudine's drink? The bond? Was it real? I turned these thoughts over in my mind, while seeming to float in the passion of his embrace.

A firm knock on the door brought me out of my reverie of questions. Eric stiffened and did not look happy. I straightened myself out a bit, and walked to the door and opened it to my great-grandfather, Niall Brigant. He was almost as tall as Eric, beautiful, glowing, breathtaking. But right now, he looked both tired, and somewhat annoyed.

He stepped in and regarded Eric, who was standing a mere foot behind me with his hands on my shoulders, carefully. Eric bowed his head to Niall, but as I glanced up, I saw that he looked at Niall in a not too friendly fashion. The last time I had been in the presence of these to men together, things had felt far more cordial.

I stepped forward to kiss Niall. "Grandfather. Can I get you anything to drink? Wine?"

Niall's eyes flashed on the flute in my hand, which had held Claudine's drink. He narrowed his eyes and he observed me carefully. "Well," he said, nodding to Eric, "it seems that Claudine has already put things right."

Eric looked at him coldly. "Yet I think you're going to tell us exactly what you did, so we know there's no chance of it ever happening again."

Niall looked at Eric with disdain in his eyes. "I don't see the need Eric. She's fine now."

Eric started to anger. I could feel it growing through the bond. He stepped closer toward Niall, who held his ground and shone brightly. I really did want to be caught between these two, over a thousand years old, men if they started a fight. The prospect was rather frightening.

"We had an agreement, Niall. When I agreed to introduce you to Sookie, you promised me that you meant well. Whatever you did, however it was intended, you drove her to the edge of despair, cut off the positive ties in our bond to each other, and left a web of magic and lies around this house that took two fairly adept witches several days to eliminate. They have no idea what had happened here. And I'd like you to explain." Eric was almost seething and his fangs were starting to run down. I felt quite alarmed. (Wow, so Amelia and Octavia had sensed something was wrong?)

"Grandfather, I want to know what happened. I need to know. I've spent two weeks feeling like I was being sucked into a vortex. I've been crazy depressed. And I do mean crazy. I've forgotten an entire day of my life." And boy, I could really feel for Eric right now having lost even more time than that…

I stood in between them, and gently pushed Eric back toward the couch, while motioning Niall into a tall backed chair opposite. Suddenly, my grandfather looked old. Then his eyes flared as if he was angry, though at who or what I couldn't say. He sighed and settled himself into the chair. I sat on the couch, close to Eric, feeling sheltered and safe with him.

Niall looked at me gently. "Sookie, my child. I gave you a gift for Christmas. A gift of companionship."

I felt Eric stiffen and a cold chill of anger ran through the bond. But he waited, as I put my hand on his arm, signaling that I wanted to hear Niall out.

"I created some circumstances that would allow you to have some companionship for the holidays, since," and here he looked coldly at Eric, "you were alone without friends, and without loved ones or family for your holiday."

I tried to steel myself. "What kind of companionship, Grandfather?" I was dreading the reply.

Niall regarded me carefully. For the first time he appeared to grasp something. "Sookie, when you and I discussed your bond with Eric, you did not tell me the extent to which you were bonded. Since you claimed involvement with another, I did not surmise the depth of…. the affection that you bore for Eric." I felt myself turning bright red. I felt like I was naked at a party where everyone was well dressed. "This was perhaps a mistake on my part. On," and here he glanced again at Eric, "all our parts."

Suddenly, the corner of a memory began to flow into my mind. Something I had somehow suppressed. A man. A Were. A… I gasped. I had been tricked. Magicked. And something in that magic had damaged my emotional connection with Eric enough so that it felt horrible, negative, depressing. Instead of the warm, whirring background that I had grown accustomed to whenever we were apart, even for any length of time, I had felt a black emptiness that stretched out almost infinitely. I had felt the complete absence of the person on the other side of the bond, as if he wasn't there at all, but the bond still trailed out from me. I shivered.

Eric put his arms around me, holding me closer. "What's wrong?"

I stared coldly at my grandfather. "There was a man. A Were. You sent him?" I pondered for a moment, grasping at shreds of memory. A fast changing Were. Like nothing I'd ever seen. But how? Suddenly, I knew. "He wasn't a Were at all was he? What was he grandfather? What?" I was filled with a sense of horror or anger or anguish or fear or embarrassment. It was really hard to tell because it was all mixed together. I had been tricked, and seduced, by a man. Again. And at the behest of my great-grandfather?

I was surprised that rather than reacting aggressively with Niall, Eric's focus was more on keeping me together. With an arm around my shoulders, he tenderly held my hand with his free hand, whispering words of comfort in my ear as I tried not to cry. He seemed to really grasp the impact that this was having on me.

Niall sighed. "He was a fairy Sookie. A fairy with a gift for changing shape. And before you go any further, yes, there was magic. And I did not intend to harm you or bring you anything other than pleasure. He used his own magic to light a spark. My magic was intended to suppress your bond to guarantee your privacy. I didn't not count on its lingering effects on you, or on the effect that the entire situation might have had emotionally on you. I miscalculated. I made a mistake."

"A mistake?!" I squeaked out. "A mistake?" I was breathing rapidly but trying to stay calm. "Why on earth would you think of trying to give me… such a gift. How could you assume that I should not choose for myself what I wanted and who I wanted. How could you employ trickery to get me to do something that I wouldn't do of my own accord. Why!?" A chill ran down my spine. A fairy? "What if I had conceived a child? How on earth could you have done this knowing what sorrow something similar had brought our own family?!"

At that last part, Niall closed his eyes and bowed his head. He simply had no reply to that. I was too breathless to even think further.

Throughout the conversation Eric had been silent. I felt, at that moment, many emotions flowing through him. Anger, jealousy, protectiveness, regret, guilt, love. Love. He looked over at Niall. "While your mistake, as you wish to call it, was a terrible one, I have made my own by not speaking clearly before now. I realize that Sookie is your kin, and I know that the Fae have no great regard for vampires. Nonetheless, well before you came into Sookie's life, I can firmly tell you that she was mine. She is mine. She is staying mine. You know what that means among my kind. I do not take what you have done lightly. But because you are her kin, I will assume that you meant no harm to her. Any further attempts to manipulate her, or me, through yours or any one else's magic, will be regarded as badly intentioned. Am I making myself quite clear?" His fangs were run down even more now and I could see that he was quite angry, but still managing to keep himself under control. Nonetheless the basic message was, do it again and I'll rip you limb from limb even if I die in the process of doing it.

Mine. I felt so tight in my chest that I could hardly breathe. His? Always the possessive? Just as I was cringing while thinking that, an odd thing happened. I was wearing the same sweatpants I had worn earlier in the day. I suddenly was very aware of the card from the floral arrangement, still in my pocket, almost like a source of warmth. Yours. Really. I glanced at Eric and saw his strain as he tried to be civil and not think about getting into a fight with my great-grandfather. I realized that the Eric I had loved a year before, the gentle Eric, the passionate Eric, was still there, inside this fierce man. That he was tempering his anger for me, because family was important to me. That his concern of a day before, and apparent dropping of everything in order to safeguard me, was the same that I had seen again and again. How many times had he been there for me? Taken even crazy risks to keep me safe? I had once told Quinn that I wanted to come first. And I had told myself that Eric would never put me first and that all he cared about was his business, and vampire politics. I had been naïve. I had been so wrong. I clasped his hand and looked at my grandfather.

"You've asked me what I wanted so many times but you could not give me what I need, which is simply love and family. I would have been happy if you had just come to visit me, and if I was still sad you could have sent Claudine and Claude to make me laugh and feel less lonely. Or if you had reminded my friends and loved ones to call me. I want simple things, grandfather, not grand schemes." I hesitated. No, I had to forge ahead. I had to. "And for the record, I love Eric. We love each other. I hope you accept it, because I really don't think it's something you can change unless you want to really damage me irreparably."

I felt a swell of great emotion on Eric's part through the bond. He did not stir, however. I couldn't bring myself to look at him because my own feelings were so intense.

My grandfather once again looked old, and weary. "My child, I never intended you or your lover any harm. I will leave you. I hope that you can forgive my mistake. I have known few telepaths. I had no way of predicting how your mind would absorb the magic I wrought. Claudine appears to have given you a sufficient remedy. She is very adept at judging these things." He hesitated, but rose and walked to the door.

I rose and walked with him. I looked up at him, trying not to blink as the full brightness of his glow shone onto me. I thought oddly of Bill and then of Sophie-Anne, whom I had liked in spite of everything she had done to my life. I could not hate my grandfather. I could not bring myself to hug him and kiss him goodbye, however.

"Grandfather," I said slowly, "I think we will have to begin again. From the beginning. With an emphasis on really listening to one another. With your respect for my choices, my wishes."

He seemed very surprised by this. "My child, it would be my greatest wish."

"I'll call you," I said. "You will have to give me some time, however."

He shone brightly as he gazed down on me. I felt a wave of genuine affection from him. He glanced up at Eric and nodded, as if acknowledging something.

With that, he crossed the portal of my home, and disappeared in a brilliant flash and a quiet pop.

The instant he disappeared, I heard a hushed voice behind me. "I love you Sookie Stackhouse. I love you."

I turned to look at my Viking, his arms open wide to grab me in a hug. And with one deep breath, I stopped running from Eric Northman, from my memories, from myself. I allowed myself to be folded into his arms, and passionately kissed. And when he looked into my eyes questioningly, I could say with all my heart that really and truly I was his, and he was mine. The joy that flooded my heart was mixed with not a small bit of confident lust.

"Ah," he sighed, "and you even smell like fairy!" With a rumbling laugh, he said "I'm really going to have to have my way with you, Lover." And with that, he picked me up and off we went.