This is my first attempt at a fanfiction. I've read alot of the wonderful writers on this site and was inspired to try to write something people might like. I originally thought this would make a great One Shot.. but then, I decided that Sookie's story of what happened while Eric is gone needs to be told as well. If you like this, let me know, and I'll continue.. If you think its crap, let me know and I won't bother.. LOL

Disclaimer : These characters belong to Charlaine Harris.. I own no rights to them or the sookieverse they live in..

MEET THE SUN

"I've had enough, Eric. I want my life back the way it was. I'm tired of all your vampire shit. I would be better if I had never gotten involved with vampires. I wish I had never met Bill. I wish I had never met YOU.. I wish you'd just go meet the sun and be out of my life for good. I wish all of your kind would go meet the sun and let me live a normal life".

The anger and hate in her words cut me just the same as if she had slid a silver dagger into my chest and twisted it. Maybe she was right. Maybe her life would be better without our "vampire shit" as she so eloquently put it. Maybe she would have been happy being "Crazy Sookie" the lowly barmaid in Bon Temps, serving beer and chicken baskets day in and day out to drunk rednecks at Merlotte's Bar. But she was wrong about one thing, she would have never had a normal life.

Maybe I would have been better had she not come into my life as well. After 1000 years of immortality, I had learned to evolve along with this world as it changed and evolved around everything else. I had lived most of my existence hiding in the shadows, trying to hide what I was. Until the Great Reveal that is. Now my kind could do as they pleased - the hunter among the hunted like a coyote living in the coop with the chickens. In my 1000 years, I had earned my fortune after having lifetimes to learn to play the game and perfect it. I had earned a ranking among my kind, rising me to the title of Sheriff of Area 5. I had earned the respect of my people and they loyally served me, knowing me to be both ruthless when necessary but also knowing on the opposite side of that coin that I was fair. But in all of those 1000 years I was missing something, something significant enough to leave a hole of blackness in a heart that ceased to beat on the night my blood turned cold.

Many women had come and gone into my life since I was turned. None of them filled the void that crept over me, twisting its dark tendrils into me and grasping deeper and deeper into my existence. They were a temporary fix to an unfixable situation, a bandage only covering a scab that refused to heal. They served their purpose - a meal here, a release of sexual tension there but they lacked anything to cleave the void. All those years, the only one who may have came close was Pam. She was exciting and she supplied a companionship that I greatly needed but I could not love her beyond that. Luckily, she understood and accepted this. She was neither jealous or hostile about that fact and that made Pam that much more endearing to me. She knew she supplied much of what I craved and willingly accepted that she would not ever have that one part of me that I had reserved for whomever it was reserved for. In 1000 years, I had yet to find that "special someone".

Even before I had been turned, my life existed pretty much the same as it did now. Back then, I sailed to foreign land to plunder and pillage, the thrill of the kill overshadowing the need for what I lacked. Now my fortunes are made with commodities and investments rather than a sword. A few gemstones, pieces of gold and food are now replaced by the tune of several million dollars but gains were gains. But even back then I never had love. Sure, I had been married but it was a marriage of convenience to my deceased brother's wife. Much like Pam, I loved her in my own way. I provided for her, I respected her, and I fulfilled my duty to her as I was required to do. But given my own choice, she would not have been the one warming my bed night after night. I did not share with her my dreams or my thoughts. I did not crave her body or her companionship. She was in essence a piece of property willed to be upon my brother's death – a cherished heirloom that he wished to keep safe and protected at all costs and he knew I would be the one to do it. She died shortly after giving birth, the child with her, and I grieved the son but not the mother. Her death was a chance at freedom, the burden had been rolled away and I was in high spirits to find the spoils of war that I had lacked, the love and companionship of a woman who truly loved me and whom I felt the same.

My searching was in vain, however. While making arrangements for another marriage, again out of need, this time because of young children in need of a mother, I crossed paths with a nightstalker who overtook me and changed me. My life as I knew it was over - who I was no longer existed and I spent centuries figuring out what exactly that meant. I became as cold as my heart, ruthless and conniving, and I struggled to reinvent myself. But still love eluded me until one day I gave up. If the Christians were right, maybe there was a God after all. A God who found it fit that I did not deserve what I craved. I had money, I had my title, I had my people and I had the love of my Queen but I did not have love. It was then that I decided that it was a lost cause - love was not written in the stars for me.

Much time had passed from when I had made that acceptance to myself when by chance, she was in front of me at Fangtasia of all places. Her blonde hair sparkled in the colored lights of the bar, the white and red cotton dress she wore showing off her curves in all the right places. And her smell was intoxicating. She was with Bill Compton of all vampires and I knew instantly that eventually she would be mine. I knew that from that day forward that my existence had once again changed. I swore that I would protect her, respect her, provide for her and love her. We would be bonded and eventually I would turn her, making her believe it was her choice when ultimately I knew it was my own selfish need to never have to be alone again. Once she was my bonded, she could never leave me on her own.. Once she was made vampire, human death would never take her from me and I would spend another 1000 years making sure a second death would never do the same.

My plan worked much as I expected. We were blood bonded and she came to respect and to need me. But I guess in never knowing exactly what love was prior, I mistook respect and need as her loving me as well. I convinced myself she felt the same way as I did but maybe it was just my desire for so long to be loved that fooled me into believing that she loved me.

Fast forward to now. I sit on of all things a rusty swing looking over the river the runs between Shreveport and Bossier City. The lights of the Horseshoe casino sparkle not too far in the distance and the sounds of the cars flying down I-20 travel sooth me. It is three hours before dawn. Four days have passed since those words parted from my sweet Sookie's lips. And I wait for the dawn..For the first time in my long undead existence, I will see the sun shine upon my face, if only for an instant. This is what she wants, she said so herself, and I am too tired to fight anymore. I had waited 1000 years to find love and have lost. I do not wish to spend another 1000 years trying to replace her. Life has become boring again, only this time that void chasms even further, knowing what I had within my reach only to have it slip away like grains of sand. I told her many times that I would give her anything she wanted and she has named her price. Her request is that she wants me gone, to meet the sun, and I am honored to oblige.

I have spent the last few nights preparing for this, my final sacrifice for my lost lover. I have arranged for all my investments and commercial properties, such as Fangtasia, to go to Pam. She has stood beside me as my child for many years and it is the least I can do to reward her loyalty. My other assets such as balances of my numerous bank accounts, my personal effects, and my houses I have arranged for Sookie. If she does not want them, I have left a letter for Bobby Burnham to sell the tangible goods and for the money to go to Sookie. It is the last thing I can do - if I am not here to personally look after her then I will provide for her financially. She will be able to live beyond comfortably for the remainder of her natural life.

I brace my elbows on my knees, lowing my face into my hands and I cry. I mourn the loss of what I had found and lost and I cry for both Sookie and myself. The red tears stain my face and my hands as a millennium of anguish and frustration overtakes me. My body trembles with each sob. I am tired, I am defeated and I am alone.

Lost in my thoughts, I failed to see that I am being watched. My bonded has found me, although how I do not know. This park is not one of my frequent hangouts, only an area of solitude noticed from the sky by chance. But I know it is her though she stands in the shadows a safe distance.

"Come to see me off, as you did Godfrey" I ask, remembering the tender hearted Sookie who waited to watch the vampire meet the sun so he would not be alone. She is no longer that Sookie, she has seen too much and has turned cold.. I know if she's here to watch, it is not to give solace to a vampire at the end of his life but instead to make sure that I actual go thru with the deed.

"Eric, come get into the car. Dawn will be here within the hour. Let me drive you home"

Had that much time passed? I had imagined each moment would tick by slowly, giving me a change to rethink this craziness but instead it has passed and faded into the past like a shooting star streams across the sky, burning into nothingness.

"How did you find me?"

"Through our bond" she states plainly but that doesn't make sense.. She should not be able to track me.

"It doesn't matter the how and why.. I am tired Sookie and I have no desire to argue with you now. I have spent the last two years arguing with you and its no longer in me to do. My existence in your life has had it's price, it has cost you much and if this is the price I pay to make amends for it then I shall. Only give a dying vampire his last wish. Know that I did indeed love you, Sookie Stackhouse. A millennium of love only recently discovered. I wish you to be happy, live a life you can enjoy. If you will promise me that, then Sookie, my passing will not be in vain. I have one life to give, I gave it to you and you were free to do with it as you wished."

She steps out of the shadows, closer to me and I notice something different. It's her smell. She smells like earth, like decay and I wonder which Were shared her bed tonight. But she doesn't smell like Were.. She smells like.. like...

My eyes grow wide as she smiles, knowing I am finally catching on.. Her fangs peak out from behind her perfect lips.

"Sookie, WHAT have you DONE?"

"Eric, if you die, I die. Either you get in the car or we're both gonna sit here and end up like a couple of pork cracklins. If that's what you want, then that's what I want. BUT, if you think you can forgive me the moment of frustration that I had four days back and know that I wish I could take those words back, if you can find it in yourself to walk back to the car, get in and bring us back to your house for the day, then this evening, I will explain it all. You have sacrificed so much for me Eric Northman, but up until now, it has always been you making the sacrifices. Well, as you can see (and she turns around like a fashion model to give me the full effect) it is my turn to make a sacrifice for you. Either we live to see another night, or we die together. But either way, we do it together and we do it because we love each other".

I meet her eyes following her last statement. And I see she does indeed mean it.. I rise from the rubber of the rusty swing and walk to her. And together, hand in hand, we walk to the parking lot of the park where only my corvette is waiting. How did I not hear her drive up in that? She laughs, tosses me the keys and says she'll explain it all tonight..

I guess the sun will have to wait til another day.