Many many many eternal thanks to my beta Murgatroid for all her help with this and the second chapter of "What Happens in Haiti". I know it's cliche but words are really can't express my gratitude.

I hope all of you will enjoy this as much as Dead Wrong. For anyone who is reading this for the first time, this is the sequel to my story "Dead Wrong". Though this and the previous story is canon, you'd be really confused if you hadn't read my previous story first.

As always characters and story belongs to Charlaine Harris and I'm just taking them out to play... blah blah blah.

"C'mon now, we'll do this together."

Like the warrior that he is, he did not show fear; I just know him. He took a deep breath. One that he needed now. Eric or Oberon's lungs had collapsed on the way to the hospital. The paramedics estimate he had stopped breathing for more than ten minutes; his heart had stopped for five. Doctors said it was a miracle that Oberon had survived with no permanent damage. I couldn't agree more.

When Amelia came to the hospital to pick me up she found me crying and kissing a complete stranger and she thought I was having some sort of episode. She walked into the room and nearly peed her pants! She could smell the magic in the air but she herself couldn't identify it with which spell she had cast or even if it was one of hers. Amelia just stood there for the longest time wide eyed and gob smacked before she could collect her thoughts.

Eric let out a tender "Ow" because I was crushing one of his tubes and it jabbed under his skin at the most uncomfortable angle. I finally tore myself away and dismounted the bed. Good timing too, because the nurses and doctors were rushing into the room to check up in him. Amelia and I were shooed away and it was the weirdest drive back to Bon Temps. On the drive home, Amelia wanted to say something but was continuously at a loss for words. I was just sitting there on the passenger side concocting a plan to sneak back into the hospital and back into Eric's room.

I wondered around in haze, went on autopilot and finally showered. I don't even know if I remembered to put conditioner in my hair. When I finally hit the sack, I found I couldn't sleep and not in a good way. Flooded by insecurities, I started to doubt. What if Eric went to sleep and woke up as Oberon again? What if he slipped back into his coma? What if I'd just imagined the whole thing and I just mauled some poor defenseless man at the hospital?

Luckily for me, the next morning Amelia was sitting at the dining table with breakfast and all her paraphernalia welcoming me with a broad smile. So she felt it to right? She's going back to the hospital with me, right?

"Good morning sunshine! How're you this morning?"

Amelia was practically beaming. When she's in such a mood it took every ounce of energy I had to block her out. Both Amelia and I wolfed down our breakfasts quickly so we could go back to the hospital. Though both of us had the same purpose, we each had our own agendas.

To my horror, we found Eric with a bundle of machines hooked up to him and the respirator jammed down his throat. He was awake and gave me a weak smile through his oxygen mask. I went straight to the nurse's station and questioned the hell out of them. They told me not to worry, Mr. Matthews' (who? I guess that's Oberon's last name) lung had collapsed last night and he's now stabilized. The doctors will try weaning him off the respirator again when he's stronger. They're guessing in another two days.

I had never fathomed that I could lose Eric again by human vulnerabilities. He's now susceptible to the same weaknesses I am, disease, war famine, car accidents and getting hit in the head with Blue ice. Consumed with fear and worry, my head was running scenarios of how Eric could die as a human. I walked back to his room, preoccupied with the possibility of the hospital burning down and Eric not being able to escape because he was so weak.

Amelia had set up her paraphernalia and was going through ingredients and spells in her head. She was going to try some spells to see if she could uncover what state of existence Eric/Oberon was in. I instantly felt uneasy but I didn't know why. Eric was awake as he watched Amelia work silently. When I realized what was wrong.

"Stop what you're doing Amelia."

"Why? Eric doesn't mind," she quipped and placed a small dish of mottle colored sand next to Eric's pillow.

Eric furrowed his brow and tried to take my hand to comfort me. He obviously thought there wasn't any harm in whatever Amelia wanted to do. They must have built up a lot trust on their trip to Haiti. Taking his warm hand into mine, I couldn't help noticing how unusual that sensation was, and how I've been conditioned to associate affection with cool contact. I know that Amelia is only trying to magically backtrack what happened with Eric and Oberon. I can read from her that she's actually worried the real Oberon had not passed and been pushed out by Eric's soul and is currently in Limbo.

Regardless, I cannot ignore the fact that something is amiss.

I caught Amelia's hand just as she was about sprinkle some form of dust on Eric's head.

"I said stop Amelia!"

My tone was a lot stronger than I had anticipated, but I got her attention.

"What the fuck, Sookie?!" Amelia whined as she tried to twist her wrist from my grasp.

I instantly felt guilty about my outburst at Amelia, but saying that girl has a one track mind is an understatement, especially when it was about her magic. Eric gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and I loosened my grip on Amelia.

"Jesus Sookie! You don't even know your own strength do you?" She said scornfully as she rubbed her wrists.

"I'm sorry about that. I really am."

Could the effects of vampire blood last that long? I haven't had any since the night Eric proposed; I've been in a coma for three weeks and I'm still under the influence of V?

Amelia let out a disgruntled breath.

"What came over you? I'm not casting any spells you know! I'm just trying to find out which spell worked or what happened. There shouldn't be any side affects or harm…"

"That's the problem Amelia, you know as much about what you're doing now as you did when you cast the spells and that's next to nothing. I can't let you take that risk."

She drew breath to protest and I nipped it at the bud.

"Don't even try Amelia, don't forget who you're dealing with." I said pointing at my temple.

I knew while she was setting up that she had no idea what she was doing and she was just going to try a bunch of spells to see if she could get a magical reaction and I was just horrified. This was the first time I held my telepathy against someone like this. I hated it, but I couldn't take any chances here. What if something went wrong? I couldn't risk losing Eric again. It was selfish, I know, but I couldn't just let Amelia toy around with something so important.

"Don't be ridiculous Sookie! What you're thinking about can work both ways. Even if tampering with spells could reverse whatever I've done, what's to say that this won't last unless I find out exactly how it happened so we can maintain the spell?"

"I can't hear his thoughts Amelia." My heart dropped to the floor as I said it out loud and I found myself holding even tighter onto Eric's hand.

"Isn't that the more reason for me to find out what's going on?" Amelia was almost yelling at this point.

"Do you really know how to go about doing that? No experiments on him Amelia!"

This caught her full attention.

"But that's ridiculous Sookie! Everything about this is an experiment. He is here as the end result of experimentation!"

"I know this is extremely selfish of me. I haven't even thanked you for the miracle you have helped perform and I'm crazy to doubt your abilities. But please, I beg you to understand how important he is to me and I just can't take any risks at the moment. I can't hear his thoughts Amelia! To me that feels like something's not right with him. Shouldn't we prefer to err on caution, instead of going in blind folded?"

"I know what I'm doing Sookie! I'm just going to perform some of the spells again to see which one will give a reaction! That might clue us in on which one actually worked!"

"That's your plan? Trial and error?!"

It was what I feared and felt from her thoughts. It's why I couldn't let her go ahead with it.

"It's a little more than that. You just don't understand that magic is not an exact science Sookie!"

"What is this really about Amelia? You helping Eric or you stroking your own ego as witch?"

I'd never seen Amelia so angry before. There was nothing wrong with Amelia feeling proud, after all, she managed to bring a vampire back to life all by herself; although it was by accident. Of course she'd want to find out what happened. I'm ashamed of what I'd just said and how I'm using what I hear from her head against her. But I would do whatever necessary to protect what was mine and in my mind I felt justified.

Obviously, Amelia didn't think so.

"Are you going to side with her on this?" She asked Eric quietly.

She exuded an icy kind of calm, the kind that masked cold fury. Eric just looked at her apologetically, glanced over to me and nodded, giving me his consent.

"Okay. Fine."

In one clean sweep, Amelia tossed all her stuff back in her bag and stormed to the door. Judging by the clinking noises I think she smashed at least one bottle in there.

She paused just before the stepped over the threshold, she spat, "Don't come crying to me for help when anything goes wrong."

That was the last time I've seen or heard from her.

It was a testament to Eric's sensibilities that he never mentioned the argument I had with Amelia again. I guess he could see both sides of the story and didn't see any point in bringing it back up again.

Eric was successfully weaned off the respirator two days later and started treatment on the incentive spirometer a few days after that. It was a totally different experience for me to witness his recovery. It went against the image that he was the all powerful, indestructible Sheriff of Area Five, but I was glad that Eric was here with me in any shape or form. I went to visit him every day and even organized my work schedule around visiting hours in the evening. I know I didn't need to work with the money Eric left me, but since he was back I wasn't sure if he has other plans for it. It was his money after all.

We hadn't tackled any of the serious issues in our conversations. Both of us were very focused on him getting better. When his wound had healed sufficiently for him to get out of bed, we went for walks to improve his capacity. On those evenings, we just talked like we used to about my day, about his day and which nurse he's sure is a were but can't know for sure because his sense of smell isn't as acute anymore.

Another thing that got Eric talking was food. Humanity had taken monumental strides in gastronomy since Eric was human and there are ingredients that we use everyday that weren't even heard of a hundred years ago, let alone a thousand. It had also been a thousand years since Eric exercised his taste buds on anything but blood. He was on cloud nine the first day he had Jell-O and his eyes sparkled when I told him the different colors were different flavors. If bland old hospital food got him this excited, I couldn't wait to see what it would be like for him to try chocolate, fried chicken, Chinese food; amongst other things. Heh.

Eric had to fake amnesia (well not totally fake, he really had no idea who Oberon Matthews was) and his doctors easily accepted it as a consequence of brain damage from the lack of blood flow to his brain when his heart stopped beating. Everyone at the hospital assumed we had formed a bond from the traumatic experience we shared. They've seen people hook up for less reasons and thought we were kind of sweet together. However, there would be a lot more explaining to do when you've recovered from a coma and assumed a totally different identity altogether. I'd been calling him sweetie to avoid the getting the name wrong and he reverted back to calling me Lover in a tone that made me blush whenever someone was within earshot.

Before we knew it, Eric's wound had healed enough and his lungs were strong enough for him to go home. When Eric had to sign his discharge papers he started signing a large looped E before he stopped himself and told the nurse he forgot what his signature was like. It was evident to the both of us that the honeymoon was over and we had to address not just the elephant, but the elephants in the room. Who was Oberon and should we make an effort to find out who he was? How much in Oberon's life did we want to get tangled? Who, if anyone at all should know that Oberon was really Eric? How would Eric cope as a human? More importantly, was he really human? I haven't heard a peep of his thoughts, but he was human for all scientific purposes as far as the doctors and nurses were concerned. Last but not least, was the spell permanent? Fact of the matter was, no-one including the witch who most likely made this possible, had a better idea than we did. There was no way to find out.

As we walked along the corridor to the main entrance of the hospital, Eric paused and his whole stance tensed up, straightened his shoulders and stared straight ahead, never taking his eyes away from the entrance to the hospital.

It was ten o'clock in the morning and the sun was shining brightly through the sliding glass doors.

"Sweetie? Did you ever leave your room without me here?"

Eric just shook his head.

This was the first time he'd seen the sun in a thousand years. Discounting that time we had to escape the hotel in Rhodes, this would be the first time he would be touched by the sun without being burnt or fear of erupting into flames. Understanding that he was steadying himself to conquer a thousand year old nemesis I took his soft hand into mine.

"C'mon now, we'll do this together."