This is my first attempt at fanfiction. Please be gentle. I love reading and I do enjoy writing. This story has been floating around in my head for almost a year. I own nothing! Charlaine Harris owns them all. I would like to own a certain Viking.. But wouldn't we all! Hope some of you like this. It will take a while to get going, but I have a happy ending planned.

Chapter 1

It has been four years since our time together. We both knew that it would come to an end. We would never truly be apart but to try to function together as a couple had become more and more apparent to each of us of the impossibility of it. After the fairy war we had settled into a comfortable routine. Things in the vampire community had finally settled down. I had finally recovered both emotionally and physically with the help of Eric. His blood and patience help my wounds and damaged psyche. The years prior had taken a toll on us both. It all had begun for me with Rene killing my gran and his efforts to kill me. My ability to attract danger continued with Bill's unfaithfulness, betray and finally him raping me. As I look back at the long list of situations I have been in. I wonder how I didn't end up a very young corpse. Debbie Pelt had tried to kill me while Eric was cursed and I'm pretty sure that Chow would have done the job as well. I tried to save a bunch of weres and shifters only to end up shot. I had saved a bunch of vampires and humans from a dreadful bombing in Rhodes only to be then hunted by the FBI. I was in dire need of long overdue vacation. I realize now that I never truly worked through all of my issues prior to heading into a relationship with Eric.

We were very comfortable for six months after the fairy war. My days were spent working at Merlottes and my nights were spent with him. At the time I had not occurred to me of how much the lack of sleep and prior years of stress had been working on my body and mind.

As with most relationships the changed had been subtle. It wasn't like we could enjoy the simple things most couples could. Sure we go on the occasional date at a supe restaurant or club owned by one of Eric's associates, but we could never escape the politics of his world. I wanted to travel and enjoy the little things in life. We continued to try to have a somewhat normal relationship but things would come up and I would end up sitting home alone. I had been to more than my fair share of vampire functions and started avoiding them any chance I could. Eric never complained but I wondered if this was making him look bad in his world. I had also refused to leave my family farmhouse to move in with him. So our time together was limited during the week. He had his sheriff and Fangtasia duties. He himself often complained that it was like he was working three jobs. Of course he only had from sunset to sunrise.

He always made an effort to be attentive and considerate of my needs. He remained faithful to me in his feeding and sex needs. Yes, I admit at first I was shocked, as was Pam. But, sex and desire between the two of us was never an issue. In fact, if a relationship survival was based on sex alone; we were indestructible. Communication had never been a problem unless the topic of "us" came up. We could talk about most anything but feelings and hopes of a future or what was to become of us seemed to be an off limits discussion. He had asked me once if I wanted to know how he felt about me and I had declined. He never asked again or offered up any thoughts on it. I knew he assumed that I loved him and I think that he assumed that I knew that he loved me. The words have never been spoken between us. It had become a wedge that began pushing in between us; another was my short mortal life. It was a shadow in a corner that we both chose to ignore. We talked about it once, he knew I did not want to be turned and agreed never to turn me. It was never spoken of again.

All the distance that was growing between us was becoming more and more aware to the both of us. One afternoon I finally sat down and talked to Amelia about having the bond broken so that I could separate what I felt and what the bond was to me. I knew that the bond only increased what we felt and it did not create feelings but let's face it; I'm stubborn. When the bond was broken, it changed everything. I had informed Eric of what I was going to do and it led to the biggest argument we ever had. He of course loved our bond and to him it was sacred. He had never entered a blood bond with a human in his thousand year existence. After hours of me trying to explain my reasoning and him trying to convince me that I was being irrational, he told me if I ended that bond he would never forgive me. Again, what can I say? I'm stubborn. I think that day I broke his heart. He had never trusted another human like this before. He trusted me with his life. I had gotten to know the man behind the sheriff; the real Eric. He trusted his child or shall I say children (yes, children) but never another person, not human or vampire before me. I found out that Eric had sired another vampire but this was only known to very few vampires. His older child was very high up in the world of politics. I never admitted to Eric that Bill had come to me with this information he discovered while away on one of his database trips. Bill had still been out trying to gather as much information to complete his little project. He had inquired this information while in Africa from a very old vampire he had snuffed out of the dark. He was not even aware that Bill had put two and two together and connected Eric to his child. Bill had said that the old guy just liked to gossip about old times. I made Bill promise to take this information to the grave so to speak and we both agreed it would be for the best.

The day our bond was broken was a day I hope to never repeat again. If I were to combine all the hurt and sadness of all the men who had hurt me combined with the death of gran and my parents it still would not compare to the heartache I felt when Eric had woken up at sundown. I never had realized how much we both had loved each other. Amelia had worked the spell so that neither of us would be physically ill or hurt when the bond broke but emotionally there was nothing she could do. She said, "Sorry Sookie your heart had to break" I never thought it would be that bad. After she looked at me with tears streaming down my face and my chest heaving from sobbing so hard, she turned to ask me.

"Sookie, should I should call Pam, to make sure Eric is alright. He might be having other effects?"

All I could do was nod to her.

"Pam it's Amelia, have you talked to Eric?"

"Pam it's not like that…. no honestly… she tried to talk to him…. calm down….. Fine I'll tell her"

She looked over at me with a sigh. "Ok, so that didn't go so well. I don't really think right now is a good time for you to hear what she thought. Maybe later, let me make you a cup of tea. Sit down in the living room I will right in with it."

Two boxes of tissues and hours of later I was able to calm down enough to talk with Amelia. I knew I had messed up big.

"Sookie I'm so sorry, I should have tried to talk you out of it. Pam said for you never to contact him again and wanted to know if you ever loved Eric at all."

It was eight months later when I finally I had no choice to talk to Eric or attempt to. I was getting married and according to Eric we were married. He managed to handle our business/ marriage dealings using Bill as a go between. In that time I realized that he was still continuing to protect me from his word. Guilt was becoming my best friend. Bill and I knew we had to keep my marriage a hidden as best we could from the vampire world. I was still under the protection from many supe groups and Eric had told the vampire community that I was on a sabbatical from the fairy war for a few years. Bill said his efforts to keep me out of their world had gone above and beyond what he had ever seen Eric do in the past. I had broken Eric's heart, betrayed him by breaking the bond and was now marrying another man and he was doing everything he could to let me have a normal life.

My marriage was a sham, I was marrying one of my best friends and I knew I wasn't in love with him. I just didn't have the heart to say no. Sam had really been there for me when I was at my lowest point when Eric and I split. I knew I had to keep my distance from Bill when I really needed someone to lean on during this time. There was no way I could let him think he had a chance of us getting back together. Amelia had to return home because her father had a serious health problem and despite their differences in the past, she felt she needed to be there for him. She left for New Orleans just three days after I had her break the bond.

Sam and I had started spending the evenings together whenever we could because he knew those were the toughest times for me. Every night at sunset my heart would break again. Sam had suggested that we get married in hopes that if the vampire community would start calling on me again that he could use his shifter influence in keeping me in Bon Tomp. After a few months of Sam and I discussing different tactics on how to keep me safe, we decided to book a quick flight to Canada, where there was some kind of food and beverage convention, and got married. We researched the convention so that we could arrange a trip that looked as if it was nothing but a business trip. We knew if we got married in the U.S. that it could become an all too easily accessible public record. Our little brainstorm of marrying in Canada snuck by the vampire community so we thought.

Bill came over to my house two nights later and was not looking very happy.

"Sookie! You married the shifter?"

"Bill? When did you start talking like Eric?" I replied with my hand on hip and Eric's classic one eye brow raised to my hairline. Bill usually referred to Sam as Sam not shifter.

"When did you start making faces like Eric?" He coldly replied.

"Bill, I thought we agreed that you were going to let me keep my personal life 'my personal life'? We both know that Eric doesn't need to know what is going on with me. For all I know he could have people watching me day and night. I really don't want to add any fuel to the fire. My life is calm now, no one is trying to kill me, and there are no kings or queens commanding me to appear to read the human around them. I really enjoy this peace and quiet." I know that by this time I am being quite the whiney little brat but I'm upset. If Bill knows than Eric knows that I have married Sam.

"By the way Bill, how did you find out?"

Bill rolled his eyes and said one word. "Eric"