A/N - This is a little story inspired by Nickelback's Never Gonna Be Alone. The last two lines of the story are the first two lines of the song. Enjoy!

PART I

Sookie slowly woke from what had been blissfully dreamless sleep. She grudgingly opened her eyes but the rest of her body remained perfectly still, weighted down by the day-death heaviness of the arm and leg Eric had thrown over her in his sleep. She loved waking like this every afternoon, nestled close to her Viking. She relished the cool comfort of his naked body next to hers, the peace he brought her by his mere presence.

The bedside clock read 4:17. The little red dot beside the numbers was the only indication she had that it was p.m. and not a.m. The lightproof panels on the bedroom windows made it impossible for her to tell otherwise.

After lifting Eric's arm off her waist and shrugging out from under his thigh (and what a gorgeous thigh it was), Sookie rolled toward Eric and kissed him softly, once on the forehead and once on the lips. She lifted the covers off him long enough to quickly admire his glorious nakedness, then she tucked him back in, grinning wickedly to herself.

Donning the robe of navy blue silk she had retrieved from the foot of the bed, Sookie pressed the lock release mounted on the wall and opened the lightproof bedroom door. She stepped into the small antechamber and pulled the door closed behind her. The click-click that followed told her the door was secure and it was safe to open the outer door that led to the rest of the house.

Sookie padded to the kitchen, yawning heavily and rubbing her face with her hands. She needed coffee – badly. For one silly moment she thought about just tossing a handful of coffee beans in her mouth and chewing on them, just to see if the caffeine would work faster that way. She could definitely use it this afternoon. Instead, she put the grounds into the basket, poured the water and flipped the switch of the warming plate. The Bunn was great – three short minutes and her joe was ready.

It had been a short night (OK, day) by Sookie's usual standards. She and Eric had been up until almost six a.m., until the pull of the rising sun had forced him into his daytime slumber. It was the third week of December, the meaty part of winter when the nights are longest. This was Sookie's favorite time of year because there were more hours to spend with her Viking. She had been a sun worshipper for the first twenty-six years of her life, but in the eight years she had been with Eric she had done a complete about-face. She was now like him, a child of the night. Well, almost like him.

Sookie carried her cup of coffee to the den where she wrapped herself in her "truly hideous" quilt and curled up on the end of the soft leather sofa. She thought about how she was going to approach Eric. She wondered how he would react to her request. A part of her feared his rejection; a part of her dreaded his compliance.

It had been almost six years since she left Gran's house in Bon Temps to make a life with Eric in Shreveport. It had taken over a year of constant hounding on Eric's part to convince her it was a good move. In the end, he had been right, of course. But, then again, he usually was.

Gran's house, Jason, and her job at Merlotte's were all she left behind in Bon Temps. Leaving the house was hard, to be sure. Nearly all of her childhood memories revolved around that old house. Amelia had been more than happy to rent it. A couple of her witch friends from New Orleans were glad to leave the city and move in with her after Octavia left. Sookie knew the house was in good hands, and if someone other than her had to live there, she was glad it was Amelia.

Leaving Sam had been much harder. She had worked for him for seven years when she told him she was leaving. They had held each other and cried in his office, both promising to call and visit whenever they could. And they did keep in touch, phoning every week or two and visiting every couple of months or so.

Jason...her wild, beautiful, were-panther brother. Her heart lurched in her chest as his memory tore through her mind. She nearly choked on her mouthful of coffee and it burned like hundred-proof going down. Jason had been savagely gunned down five years ago while roaming the woods during a full moon. It had been after the Were Revelation, but there were still humans who hunted the two-natured as if they were fair game. On most days now she could think about him without tearing up; that was an improvement, anyway.

Her life with Eric proved to be all she could have imagined, and then some. It hadn't been easy in the beginning. The first six months she wandered aimlessly through the days when Eric was asleep, slept at night when he was awake, and hated herself for not having a job so she could help pay her own way.

That had really been their only point of contention. Eric came from a world where men were the providers; she had never really had a man in her life, and all she knew was fending for herself. Many arguments had ensued, followed by lots of great make-up sex, and in the end she had agreed to "tend the nest" while he "brought home the bacon." She still considered the idea archaic, but it was a concession (albeit a large one) she had made to keep peace with Eric.

Thirty minutes of musing and three cups of coffee later, Sookie headed back toward the master suite. She pressed the heel of her thumb to the scanner on the wall by the outer door and heard the locks click as they slid open to grant her access. She repeated the process with the inner door and entered their bedroom, securing the door behind her.

After six years she still wasn't used to all of the added security measures, but she knew they were necessary to ensure Eric's safety. Being the oldest and most powerful Sheriff in Louisiana made him the second most powerful vampire in the state, second only to the King himself. With power came enemies, and in her mortal state there was little she could do to protect him while he slept during the day.

Sookie walked quietly across the room to the adjacent bathroom and closed the door behind her. After taking care of her "human needs," as Eric so eloquently referred to it, she washed her hands and brushed her teeth. She decided to wait on a shower until Eric rose, figuring she would need one if he woke today wanting her the way he did most days.

Leaning close to the mirror above the sink, Sookie inspected herself closely. She could see tiny lines forming around her eyes, and a little of the youthful fullness was gone from her face. She was still a knockout by anyone's standards, but every day she could see little changes in her appearance. She was only thirty-four, not old by any means, but not getting any younger, either.

She and Eric had hoped that the combination of her fey heritage and regular doses of Eric's blood would slow her aging, but it appeared that wasn't going to happen. They had discussed the situation at length with Niall who said that being only one-eighth fairy wasn't enough to significantly extend her lifetime. Not even his magic could help her, he had been saddened to report. Ingesting Eric's ancient blood had always enhanced her appearance, but it was only a temporary state. A few days' time and she would be back to regular ol' Sookie.

Sookie looked long and hard into the mirror, past her eyes and down deep into her soul. She saw the struggle there, the indecision that had been tearing at her for nearly a year. The war she had waged with herself on a daily basis would soon end. Not by a truce, like the one she and Eric reached over money, but by out-and-out annihilation. Pragmatic Sookie had conquered Ambivalent Sookie. She now knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to be satisfied with anything less.

Time, is going by, so much faster than I

And I'm starting to regret not spending all of it with you...

TBC