Sookie

We'd been married for a blissful two weeks and two days the day we met Bill and little Eric in the park. Bill took a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it, handing it to the boy. He shyly held it up for Eric and then hid behind Bill's leg. I looked down to see a sweet drawing of a stick man and woman, both with lots of yellow hair. I assumed that it was me and Eric, but Bill said that it was actually Pam. She had fed him lunch after all.

Eric squatted down and little Eric came around Bill's leg and tentatively took a step towards Eric. Eric leaned in and whispered into the boy's ear for a long time which elicited a nod and a shy smile. Then he turned and ran to the swing set and climbed into a swing.

Bill pulled another folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Eric. I knew by the size of it that it was a check.

"Thank you." Eric sounded sincere.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry about all this, Eric. Really, I am. And I'm grateful to you for not pressing charges. Believe it or not, Arlene really is remorseful." There was an awkward silence. "Apparently this all started when Arlene contacted the tabloids, hoping to sell information about your relationship with her in college. That didn't get her anywhere, but one of the writers put her in touch with that Pelt woman. I guess she was the publicist behind some of the scandals." Bill looked to me for confirmation and I nodded. "Anyway, Arlene claims that the whole thing was the brainchild of that publicist. She had a sister who worked for a lawyer, and well…you know the rest. I know the sister lost her job at the attorney's office, but I'm sure your attorney has advised you that you have options there…a lawsuit maybe. I really hate to see them get away with this."

"We just want to move on."

"Right. Just be careful. There's no telling what else they're capable of."

We both nodded in agreement. I was afraid of the Pelt sisters.

"Maybe it's wrong that I'm glad Arlene didn't get into any trouble, but she is the mother of my children." I felt a twinge of pity for Bill.

My pity quickly changed to curiosity. "So, did you have another paternity test?"

"No. Arlene had already tested me without my knowledge and those results were switched with Eric's. I suppose I could do another test to be certain, but the science of it is really insignificant. Those boys are my life and nothing will change that."

Eric was watching the boy on the swing. "Did you change his name back?"

"No. Actually, it had never officially been changed in the first place. It's still Eric Compton."

"So it was always Eric?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure why. Maybe she really did always have a thing for you. Or maybe she just liked the name. Doesn't matter now. It's his name."

After a few more minutes, Bill and little Eric said their good-byes and big Eric and I sat on our bench and held hands.

"I'm relieved, of course, that I'm not a father after all, but I have to say, all this has made me realize that I'm not completely innocent here." I turned to him, interested in where he might be going with this. "I mean, I was wrong in the way I treated women in college. There's no question about that. Maybe I didn't produce a child, but I did produce an angry, vindictive former lover. I was too immature at the time to realize it, but by disrespecting her and others, I may have made myself some enemies and deservedly so."

"Okay. I can see that. But Arlene wasn't the only bad guy here. Let's not forget the lovely Pelt sisters. That's my fault, not yours. I mean maybe if I hadn't agreed to have dinner with Alcide that one night--maybe if I had been more forceful in rejecting his kiss…I don't know…maybe Debbie Pelt wouldn't have felt so threatened by me?" I raised my voice in a question, not really sure if I was even buying my own line of thinking.

Eric pondered it for a minute and shook his head. "Nope, sorry. Mine's worse."

"Yeah, you're right. You win." We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. "You know, though, if she really did name her baby after you, that is kind of sad." He just nodded. "I mean, I always hoped to be the only women to name a baby after you."

Eric turned to me, tilting his head, his eyes asking a silent question.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you know, someday…"

"Right. Someday." He leaned in with a soft smile on his lips and gave me a gentle kiss. "I hope so."

And then we stood and turned towards home, hand in hand, heading for our future together.

XXX

A/N: Please enjoy the next in the series—Love Is Hard.