So I'm an absolute mental case, and decided to start a canon fic. I'm not sending out any spoilers, well, maybe I will, but I'm not giving anything away before its time. Anyway, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. I'm not going to say that reviews make me write faster, but I do love your feedback!

The title is from a Ben Lee song, which is on my playlist. There's a link on my profile if you're interested.

Thanks to Missus T, for betaing, and to Svmaddict, for making sure I was treating Vlad right.

This takes place during and after Dead and Gone, except, instead of Niall and Bill saving Sookie, they were a bit too late.

The repercussions for Sookie's death were wide ranging. Victor Madden met the sun, for chaining Eric in silver, when he was charged with protecting Sookie for De Castro, Bill met the sun, because of the guilt he felt over involving Sookie in the supe world, and Eric and Pam were left spinning in the wake of everything. Every morning for three years, Eric stood at the door to his house, minutes before dawn, racked by guilt, but he always let Pam drag him back inside, just as the sun peeked over the horizon.

Eventually, Pam and Eric left Louisiana, tired of living under De Castro's thumb; they made their way to New York, and then eventually Italy. After a time, both vampires stopped talking about their time in Louisiana, and instead focused on new pursuits. Pam ran a very profitable fashion line of high quality classic clothing designed for vampires, to stand the test of time, but coveted by humans, and Eric invested his earning from the sale of Fangtasia in Google, and lived the life of a playboy, seducing a series of women of noble blood, and living off his investments.

30 years after Dead and Gone:

"Who is she, Eric?" Sookie nodded at the aristocratic brunette to her left. "She's had your blood."

"Just a pet, Lover," I said, quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd pop by and see how you are. If you're busy, I can come back. Well, maybe not." She gave me a small smile, before tracing my nose with her finger.

"I'd be better if you were alive, of course, but I'm well. And you? How is the great beyond?" I knew it was a dream, although a most realistic one. It was always a dream, and I'd wake at dusk, my head spinning, and the hole where our bond used to be, even larger than before.

"I don't want to talk about that." She rolled onto her back, wedging herself in perfectly, between me and Gilda, who was sleeping soundly, exhausted from an evening of fucking. She was a worthy partner, however, she lacked spunk. Moxie, Pam called it. To put it bluntly, she was boring. Loyal, and delicious, but boring. "Have you bonded with her?"

"No. I do not wish to be bound to her. She serves a purpose."

"Fast food?" She giggled, as I rolled over, and pinned her underneath me. "We don't have very long." Her face took on a somber appearance, as I ran my fingers through her hair, reacquainting myself with her features once again.

"We never do," I whispered, as she traced my fangs with her fingers. "But we always make the most of it."

"Did you love me?" She blinked a couple of times, her eyes glistening slightly.

I licked a tear out of the corner of her eye."Absolutely." I can taste her, although I know it's a dream.

"Gross, Eric." She shook her head. "I miss you. Even your obnoxious, high handedness."

"And I, you, even your stubborn, bossy self." I peeled off her grey Bon Temps Hawks shirt, and the short shorts Dream Sookie usually wore.

"And I miss your gracious plenty." She smiled, before moving her hands a bit lower, and squeezing my ass. "And my most favourite feature, of course."

"No gracious plentys in heaven?" I grazed my lips over her neck.

"I told you before, I don't want to talk about that," and then she nodded at Gilda. "Or that."

"Fine, fine." I rested my weight on her briefly, before flipping us over, so she was on top. I wanted to be able to use my hands as much as possible. "You're as beautiful as ever."

She blushed, slightly. "I guess I should be happy that you remember me like this . I'm like Marilyn Monroe, or James Dean. You remember me at my prime, and not like Elvis. None of the impossible issues that growing old would have meant for us, if we'd ever figured things out and had that talk. How is Bubba, anyway?"

"I have no idea." I hadn't seen Bubba in nearly three decades.

Waking up, after a dream was always odd. It was almost like I could smell her, even though the air was usually just heavy with the smell of sex from the night before. I didn't dream, not of much else, besides of her, and it wasn't all that often, maybe once a year. It was enough though, to keep her fresh in my mind, unlike so many of the other people that I'd crossed paths with over the centuries. Maybe I would have remembered anyway. I had only married two women in a thousand years, after all. I'd forgotten a lot of things about Aude, but Sookie lingered on.

I stretched, and pulled Gilda to my side, tucking her under my arm. She was incredibly beautiful, with her long wavy black hair, dark eyes, and full red lips. She looked almost like a princess from some sixteenth century fairy tale. We'd spent about two years together, and she was what most vampires desired in a companion. However, I prided myself on not being most vampires.

I cared for her though, in a way that was beneficial to both of us. As most parasites and hosts, we had a mutually beneficial relationship. I protected her, from nothing, and provided her with a lovely home, and incredible sex, and in turn, she fed me, almost exclusively. Once and a while, I'd eat out, but the majority of my feeding took place in my chambers, early in the morning.

After time, the guilt I'd been consumed with, after Sookie's death slowly dissipated. There was nothing I could have done. I sent her everything I had, through the bond, since my physical assistance was an impossibility. Feeling her life snuff out, was one of the most painful feelings of my long existence, and that very night, I swore I'd never again bond with another.

I'd just dressed for the evening, when I felt Pam approach. She stalked in, wearing the clothing of the time, which were rather similar to what Lady Gaga had worn thirty years earlier. Pants were very passé, for women. It was all short shorts, and mini dresses, so mini that really, they just showed off the short shorts. I wasn't complaining.

"Eric, where's your human?" Pam was not a Gilda fan. No one had really measured up, after Sookie. However, she bit her tongue now. Eternity was a long time to hold attachments.

"Showering."

"Is she accompanying you to Vlad's?" We had a weekly date with Dracula. Honestly, it was part of the reason I stayed in Italy. He was fascinating, and a wonderful host. I'd waited centuries to meet him.

"No." I'd told Gilda to stay in for the evening. She'd pouted a little, but like the good companion she was, soon enough she was curled up in front of the computer, playing some sort of online game. She barely looked up when I breezed past her.

We got into Pam's Ducatti, which was far too small for me, and arrived at Vlad's palace shortly thereafter, finding him sitting under the stars with a lovely blond catering to his whims. "Northman, and Pamela. Lovely to see you as always." He nodded at the blond, "Look what I found."

Pam purred at Vlad. She was enamored with him, slightly, probably from all my years of Dracula worship. "She's lovely."

"She's part fae." He raised an eyebrow. "I haven't seen one in nearly twenty years."

He was right. It had been a while. "Where are you from?" I smiled at her.

"Cleveland." She grinned. "I met Vlad in Hawaii."

"Do you know what you are?" I narrowed my eyes at her, trying not to be overwhelmed by her smell.

She curled up in Vlad's lap. "Kind of. I know when all the fae left, I was just a child, and my mother practically sold her soul to the Vampire king of Ohio to protect us, so I wouldn't have to go. My father was half fae."

"What's your name?"

"Corrina."

Vlad looked slightly irritated, with the attention I was paying his companion. "Pam, Eric, help yourself to whatever you'd like outside. Corrina and I will return shortly." He rose, tossing the petite blond over his shoulder, and went inside. A few moments later, a slew of attractive men and women wandered out into the courtyard.

Pam glanced at me. "He's going to hold onto her. You might as well give up now."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not interested in a replacement. I was just curious."

"I'd like to taste her, but I doubt Vlad would allow it." Pam grinned, before selecting a feminine looking young man, and sinking her teeth into his neck.

I fed on a lovely redheaded woman , before making my way into Vlad's study. Corrina was gone, somewhere, but he smelled like her. I sat down across from him. "You looked like you'd seen a ghost when you saw my new friend."

"I had a part-fae once, decades ago. I was just taken back there, for a minute."

Vlad nodded. "I remember tales of the brave Ms. Stackhouse, from Rhodes. It's a shame. The fae are such animals, and they have the nerve to think us savages."

I shrugged. "It doesn't much matter. She'd be nearly sixty now, and probably married to the shifter that she used to work for. They'd probably have had a couple of puppies, or whatever they have, and she'd make cookies on the weekend. She never wanted to be turned. It was only a matter of time, and even if she'd been willing, you know how child and maker relationships are. They're never romantic for long."

"I may turn Corrina. I haven't turned anyone in three hundred years." He glanced out into the courtyard. "She reminds me of Pam."

"Pam is a good companion, although a bit petulant at times. I don't regret turning her."

"Corrina is well adjusted to our ways. Her mother was the king's consort for many years. I think she is worthy."

Time went on, as it always did, slow and steady. I fed, fucked, and fed some more, attended a couple of fashion shows with Pam, and even modelled her new spring line for her in her runway show. Gilda had come along, and gotten quite jealous at the amount of female companionship I'd received. It was the most passionate I'd seen her about anything, in ages. She'd possessed me in a way I didn't think she was capable of that night. I'd thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was three weeks later, when I found myself alone with Corrina. Vlad had vanished, off with some other woman, and she sat across from me, frustrated, drinking a glass of red wine. "You vampires have no concept of monogamy."

"It doesn't really have a place when you live forever. Perhaps you'll find out someday."

She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps. Tell me about yourself."

I went on to tell her as much as I wanted to share, the cliffnotes of a thousand years of existence. She listened, slightly engaged, part of her mind still on Vlad, and whatever he was doing. After I'd described my decade in New York, and then Italy, I asked her a question. "Did you know your father?"

"Yes. I remember bits and pieces of him. He left, when the others did, and went back to Faerie." She looked around, and leaned across the table. "I still see him though."

Great. She was nuts. I humoured her. The door was long closed. "Oh yea?"

She nodded. "It was him that told me to seek out Vlad. I see him in my dreams, every so often."