Sookie

Over the next few days, most of that first shipload of vampires healed and left. They were replaced by the remaining survivors. Ships went back for the next ten nights and in seven of those nights additional vampires were plucked from the water. Sixty four vampires in all survived the sinking of the Mina.

Eric healed quickly with my blood supplementing the donor blood, and by the second night, he was well enough to travel. Bloodline's representatives had been generous—they gave us cash and rides into Long Beach to buy clothes and toiletries. They had paid for our rooms and food until Eric was well, and then they offered to pay our airfare home if we couldn't change our original tickets. I told Jason, Quinn, Bill, Amelia and Tray that they should go home and that Eric and I would stay with Pam until she could travel, but no one would leave. I was touched that our whole group wanted to stay at their own expense in order to protect Pam. Eric and I wouldn't let them spend their own money though—we were happy to take care of them. You can't put a price tag on your friends' loyalty. I knew that we would all most likely receive a settlement from Bloodline at some point anyway.

Four nights after her rescue, Pam was well enough to travel but she was self-conscious about her appearance and didn't want to fly commercially. I bought her a big floppy hat and gloves to cover her hands and we chartered a private jet to take us all back to Shreveport.

In spite of Eric's injuries, which would have normally prevented me from taking any of his blood, I wordlessly agreed to a blood exchange the first night he was back. I was anxious to reaffirm our bond. It did feel instantly stronger for both of us, but it was still confusing. We would have to re-learn how to read the bond, to re-adjust to our new set of circumstances. It seems like only yesterday we were trying to find a way to get through his fang re-growth. And now we had a new challenge. I suppose human marriages have ups and downs as well, and really our problems are no different. Of course on paper, they sound pretty crazy I'm sure, but we're just trying to find happiness like any other couple.

As we flew home, I looked around the plane at our little rag tag group of humans and non-humans, and thought: this is my family. Eric is my husband and these people are our family. It's not what I would have expected in my life—a vampire husband, my brother and friends supernatural beings. But what we all have is a closeness that is the same as in any family. We take care of each other. We love each other. All in all, I'd say I'm a pretty lucky girl.

XXX

A/N: Please enjoy the next story in my series, Payback.