Pre-Edit Count – 2,378 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Marchin On (feat Timbaland) by OneRepublic

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He shakes his head slowly and then moves to be in front of her. He cups her face softly, and then he kisses her as the room just stares at them, shocked. 

After he allows her to breathe, he looks down to her, “I apologize, if I had known, I would have never left.  I gave up the hope of you long ago.  Will you forgive me, mein gefahrte?”

Now: 

The whole room is frozen as they hear what he said and it vibrates through their head.  Then Eric slowly chuckles as he thinks through everything that those words mean now.  There is never a chance of Godric being gone.  Surely not after meeting his daughter and mate. Looking down at his little mate, still out of it in his arms, Eric wonders if she had known…

Brandon is just blinking as the pieces start falling into place in his head, then starts to laugh.  When his family turns to look at him, he shakes his head.  “I didn’t know of all of it, and like usual when a part of whatever it is comes true, it comes clear.  This is one of the reasons he needed to come back.  Aisling needed him.” Also, Sookie, but he didn’t bother saying it.  Having a father around that cares can do a lot of good.  Her father did, but he also did some unrepairable damage at the end.

Godric is looking down at his little mate taking in all that Eric has said, and he finally asks, “So you are my Dotter’s assistant?” He wants to know everything about his little mate.  But one thing had stuck out in his mind.  Seems he will be close to his Dotter no matter what.  Either as part of Eric or part of his mate’s job.

She is staring at him and slowly nods.  It is blowing her mind that this man, this vampire is her mate.  She had never guessed that she would be lucky enough to find hers.  Look how long her Farfar had waited for his!

Frey chuckles, “I didn’t think she would ever be that silent!” He is glad to have proof that Godric is not going to leave them unless something happens to Aisling.  He wishes more than ever that there was a way that vampires could feast and drink alcohol.  This calls for a feast of his human years!

Griffon, Gainor, and Carter all grin at each other.  However, before they could say anything, Eric shakes his head at them.  There is no telling what jokes or pranks they would come up with for Godric.  Who had only encouraged them, telling Eric it was good to have those that reminded them of the younger years.  Godric himself had been one of the worst pranksters, which Eric will admit to himself, allowed him to keep his sense of humor much longer than most at his age.

However, Eric has a huge grin on his face and relaxes even more.  Unless something happens to Aisling, his Master will be here for a long time.  And nothing could make Eric any happier than he is with his mate here, bonded and pledged with her father, and his, here to stay.

And Eric and Frey would only laugh if they knew how similar their thoughts are to each other.

Walking into their suite, Eric makes his way to their room to gently lay his little one down in their bed, and he pauses to just watch her for a minute.  Committing every part of her to his memory, as he does each and every time he has a moment to do so, making sure there are no changes he is not aware of.

Especially after completing the bond and how she fainted afterward.  When everything is as he remembers it previously, he takes a finger and trails it down her face, loving the fact he can do this anytime he wishes to. She is his.

Finally.

And in turn, he is hers.  In every way, but then, she has owned him since she walked into his bar that night.  He just refused to acknowledge it.  He fought the war against allowing her in; not knowing it was way too late for it.  He had hurt both of them when he did so, remembering the time she came down to find him fucking Yvette.

No.  That time is over. Now is the time for their beginnings to happen, their happily ever after.  Or it would be if there weren’t all the mistakes that have happened.  All or at least most of them have been caused by Eric’s own hand.  If that is not karma, he is not sure what it is.

His mind going over those mistakes, telling himself that he needs to be more on the ball.  For what can kill him from making a mistake would also take Sookie with him.  And she deserves to live on this earth. The most evident of these mistakes right now was him not killing Russell. Mistake number one.  And he is sure that there are more, as well as not killing Bill Compton, that will be one of those things to come back and haunt him later on.

Sighing, Eric quickly undresses then he moves to Sookie, and looking down at her, he gets a mischievous look on his face.  Within moments, there are only pieces of what had been her clothing floating in the air as he looks gleefully on his handiwork.  It is time for him to remember the positive things.

A naked Sookie.

A naked Sookie on their bed.

A naked Sookie on their bed waiting for him lying on her side.

Wait…

“You think you were going to get away with that?” She lifts an eyebrow at him, as she waits for him to come to bed.

He slides in behind his love, kissing her shoulder. “Me?” He has his innocent face on, hoping it will convince her. He continues to kiss down her shoulder to her back of the neck.

A silvery sound of laughter sounds out from the blonde.  Sookie is not even going to mention the pure mischief that is radiating through their bond.  She perpetuates it, living the feeling of it.

Sookie looks over her shoulder at her other half, “The innocent look doesn’t work so much for a 6’4” Viking vampire.  Just letting you know, since…” She trails off to tease him.  She turns away from him, acting as if she is going to ignore him.  Like that is possible.

Enjoying the feeling of her enjoyment in him like those bubbles he sees in champagne glasses popping inside his blood, he slides his finger down her body, grinning as she shivers and then turns to face him. “Finish your sentence.” Or at least he starts to before only iterating the first word before trailing off.

He takes her hands in his, to kiss them as he holds them, but freezes when he feels her shock vibrating through their bonds. “Sookie?” It has chased away the amusing feelings he had felt just seconds prior.  He is worried she has heard something or that he has done something.

She blinks, looking at the cream silk sheets around them, how his hair is flopping on his face and she says so softly, that Eric could barely hear her. “I dreamed this.” Sookie then looks at the end of the bed where Lorena had been, only reminding herself that she had killed her in Mississippi.

Trying to solve this, Eric cocks his head to the side, “From what I remember, often humans have a sense of déjà vu.” Eric is trying to think of ways to make her calm down back to the happiness.  This is not as enjoyable nor is it something that he wants her to worry about.

Settling back down and lying down again, Sookie looks at him and asks, “What were you going to say?”  Her curiosity has long been a bane of her life.  It had been one of the things that her fairy family had told her to be careful of.  She thought it would be safe to ask Eric though.

Watching her, he quietly answers her, “I was going to ask you to continue your sentence.”  What else could he say?

She starts shaking as she confesses to him, “The first dream of you. This is it.” But it doesn’t make sense! Nothing else from that dream would fit!  Eric has no reason to ask about her being a vampire, nor does the Lorena part fit at all!

Feeling her confusion and fear ratchet up, Eric reaches out and pulls her into him, kissing her hair, wrapping his body around hers. Using his body to shield her from whatever she might be thinking or fearing.  This is not quite what he had planned for now, but it is more important to calm his little one.

However, when he feels a surge from Godric, he grins, “Your Papa is worried little one, you need to calm down.” This might be enough to make her take her mind off whatever is scaring her.  Because if he remembers correctly, she has no idea that she has a father and a guardian in one of the fiercest vampires in the world.

Sookie looks up at him, and he can sense her curiosity.  Her fear is still there, but she is trying to understand the Papa reference. His smile gets wider as he uses one of the things he has enjoyed about his little one to distract her.

Reaching down and pulling their blankets around them, he kisses her forehead, then informs her, “Seems that I am not the only vampire around with living relatives.” He cannot help the grin when she gives him a confused look with her head cocked to the side, and before she can say anything, he tells her, “Godric.  Once we finished bonding and pledged, and he came through he realized that you are his daughter.” He watches her, wanting to see her reaction to the information.

She stares at him; her mouth opened in shock.  And the shock is all through her, even erasing the fear Sookie had before.  After him soothing her for a few minutes, she finally gathers her wits enough to clarify, “Godric?  ME?” How can this be?  Why didn’t either of them know before?

He smiles down at his mate.  He can guess the other questions she has, so he decides to answer them all at once. “Yes.  He would have never known otherwise unless he had tasted your blood.  Unless you are like me and spend a lot of time and expenses, most have no idea if they even have any descendants alive after all this time.  Especially one of Godric’s great age.”  He cannot explain any better for her.  Unfortunately, she had not been awake when she would have felt Godric’s emotions about her.  Hopefully, she will feel them later.  If not, he will remind Godric that she is not used to the bonds yet.

She just blinks at him as she repeats, “Godric… is my ancestor?” The sheer knowledge of this is blowing her mind in ways that nothing else has until this time.  It blew away the fact that Sookie had dreamed them in this room at that particular moment in time.

He chuckles.  “Yes, lover.  And your brother’s as well.  Though I don’t really know if that is a plus when you think about it.” He muses the last thinking about her brother in more detail.  There had to be something different about Sookie, there is no way she was related to Jason.  She is way more intelligent than he was.

When she glares at him, he kisses her nose. “Calm down, Sookie.  Godric is still shocked.  He got rocked on a few things all at once.  First, he finds out he has a daughter. Then after that, he finds his mate.” Thinking about it, he is no longer shocked that he took his mate already.  But then Aisling already knows about the vampire world.  She would understand immediately what it would mean.  And who knows, with as much vampire blood as her family has had, maybe she felt the bond taking hold?

Her eyes widen, and Sookie sits up, narrowly missing Eric as he moves backward to not hurt her.  The Bond and the blood she had taken for it has greatly improved her speed. “Godric found his mate? Who is it?  Is it someone I know?” Her excitement for Godric is racing through him.  Eric adores it, loves that she is this excited for Godric.

“Yes, your assistant.  And no, not Brandon.  Though that might have been interesting.” He snickers.  Though he would be one of the last to say anything, especially with how often Godric and he had been lovers. But Brandon is nothing like Godric so it would have been interesting on a whole new level.  It would have been entertaining, to say the least.

Her mouth open, as she takes in that piece of information, Sookie finally inquires, “Do we need to find another to be my assistant?  Because I don’t mind, I still don’t think I need any more assistants than Brandon.” She hates the idea of taking up personal for what she sees as a needless job.  Though she admits that having Brandon helps her out more than she thought he would.

Shaking his head, Eric just answers her, “First off, you do need much more than the two you already have.  You are the Queen of here.  Brandon can do a lot of it, but you will need Aisling for the more personal things or vice versa. Then there are all the duties that you would take on as the Queen.  No one will believe we are one in all our decisions, so they will try to play us off each other. As it is no one Assistant will be able to do both sides for what you are now.”  Then he taps her nose playfully, “Plus even Godric will want his mate guarding you.  That way he knows the two of you are in the same place.  You don’t quite understand the pull for family when you reach our age.  It’s more mental, but to know that we still have family on this earth of our own human blood, it means so much.  Especially the older the vampire, the more it was drilled into them as a human to have children.” He knows it is a reason so many vampires are slightly envious of him.  He has something that the rest of them wish to have.  Blood family.

Sighing, Sookie acquiesces with a comment, “I am not going to win this one am I?” She is tired, and there is much to do it seems.  To spend the time fighting on something that Eric is insisting that she will need sounds like one of those battles her family had pointed out that she seems to fight for the sake of fighting.

He chuckles as he moves to cover her body with his own, as she leans back to a lying position on the bed. “No more than I will win any battles with you that have nothing to do with your safety.”  Leaning down, Eric kisses her mouth, then moves to her chin as he murmurs, “Now are we done talking?  We have fully bonded, and I want nothing more than to consummate our marriage.” He grins as he feels the shock going through her body as well as the desire and lust.

“ERIC!”

There is nothing but laughter, then soft murmurs of their love coming through the door as Brandon sighs as he works steadily on his tablet on what Sookie will need.  He had heard it all and was glad that Eric distracted her as well as made her understand the need for more guards aka assistants.  This would be a lot for one person to handle, even if he were not wholly human.

But there is a small smile that he just couldn’t drop as he realizes their family is finally all together in the same place.

Arathorn is straightening his cuffs, making sure that the sheaths he had put on for the revival of Godric are easily able to deploy in case he needs them.  He enters his part of the castle telling the people there, “Ok, Godric is back, we have our King and Queen fully bonded, Godric has a mate, and things are looking positive for us right now.”  He rolls his shoulders to settle the shirt as well as other items he has hidden on his frame as he stops at his desk that overlooks the floor.  “What is out there that is trying to fuck with our bloody peace?” He is waiting for the updates for when he was out of communication.   This is what makes him the best spymaster in the world.

Soon the floor is moving as the people on it go back to work as Arathorn receiving his tablet from his assistant as well as the heads of his departments coming forward to tell him what is going on. Nodding his head as he appreciates the precision of the team he turns to see who entered so soon after he did.

He only lifts an eyebrow when Frey and Carter walk in, as Arathorn is being informed on what he has missed since he had left to call Godric back.  Nothing much, as he looks through his tablet as they tell him more on the information, he is finding on there.  For the most part, the kingdom is safe as it can be.

Carter is also listening, then interjects, “Father had left Haldor to call the American Authority on how Russell had gotten free.  What has become of that call?” He is the one who often hangs around and catches things.  It is his insightful way of thinking that has helped most of them, which earns him the respect of his brothers.

Slowly nodding his agreement with his younger brother, Arathorn looks at the individual that is in charge of dealing with the American portion of the information.

Clearing his throat, Lukas pushes his way through the others.  Many had resented his placement in the American section at such a young age, but no one can deny how his instincts had helped them many a time to help place either a key figure, ‘donated’ money or even had a Mäninorr visit the States.  The American Section has been looking out for their Farfar for a lengthy period of time, and it is one of the areas that often has its heads get promoted only to better things, or even become one of the family, permanently.  Which is what Lukas has gained and has put off until he is an age that he wishes to be turned.

Pushing something from his tablet to Arathorn’s, Lukas settles in to report to them, “Pretty much things are going to hell in the New World.  I had already sent my recommendation to get Pamela out of there, but she is being stubborn.  We might need Far to order her out of there.”  He growls the last out, unhappy that the youngest of the siblings did not respect his recommendation when even their Far takes his advice to heart.

Having given the most immediate issue out there in hopes that her elder siblings may have an idea before they are forced to include Eric in this issue, Lukas continues. “There are the two humans who are flying in from the States.  Their coven that they had been part of is not pleased with them leaving, and only with the troops we left behind working with them have we gotten them out.  The Witch looks like she has been possessed, with the information Jesus gave us.  She is acting erratic, and with the comments, we have heard through our listening devices, I am keeping a close eye on it.” The main reason is that he doesn’t want anything to happen to the remaining Stackhouse sibling.  Their new Mother would not be happy in that scenario.

Glancing down at the tablet as he highlights another section on Arathorn’s, Lukas starts, “With the idiot King, he is doing what he can to try to find where Far took Sookie.  He is still telling everyone that Eric has pulled the wool over their eyes.  It is as if he cannot fathom the truth.” He rolls his eyes. Lukas had slowly begun to really hate Compton when he first showed up in Eric’s radar when he was a newborn.  Since then he has always been a problem that they had kept an eye on since he seems to impact Eric’s life in some matter.  Especially after Brandon asked that they watch over the man.

Shaking his head, Carter shares with them, “He cannot.  It was quite amusing to listen to him try to order Father around.  But it all came quickly to an end when he tried to do the same with Mother.  Simply put, the man is an idiot, but the type of idiot that can cause issues if he ever quits with his fit throwing.” He growls the end part out, remembering how he tried to treat Mother. Again.

Frowning, Frey shakes his head, “Compton becoming an issue?  Please, brother.  He is only good for being a jester in court.” He is amazed at any attention being given to the idiot.

Shaking his head, Arathorn butts in as he is looking over the information on his tablet, “No, Frey, I trust Carter’s instinct.  This man somehow slides out of trouble as though nothing can stick to him.  He has some sort of fascination with Mother.”  He taps the side of the tablet, his mind whirling before telling Lukas, “I want a team dedicated to him.  I have a feeling his story with us is not over.  And I want to know when he thinks that he can ally with Russell to get Sookie back.” He thinks back to the whole debacle before and thinks it won’t be long before Compton comes up with the idea of using Russell.

“What?!?!?!” Frey exclaims as the rest of the room looks as shocked as he does.  It had, in fact, caused a pause in the bustling that only Eric’s return being announced had stopped before then.  And that had been the first since Arathorn took over this area.

But Lukas is nodding his head in agreement, “I already have a team on each of them, and another sussing out the American Authority.  There is much going on there, and the Governor of the state Far resided in is also up to no good.  Too much is coming to a head there, that I am glad that Far and Mother are now here, safe.” He shudders with the rumors that he has seen reported.  He has ordered the teams to be careful, but see if they can expose the issues to the general public.

The trio of brothers nod.  This is sound reasoning and the reason why he has already been guaranteed a position among them.  Lukas will be a valuable asset to their family.

The meeting continues, most of it not affecting their kingdom directly, but Arathorn rather stay on top of most of it.  He also has some of the information sent to other agencies to garner more goodwill towards them in the intelligence sectors.

Standard practice since Arathorn had taken over the position.

Once the debrief is over, Frey and Carter turn to leave to go to the next section, the two of them discussing a couple of the matters.  Arathorn is quickly sorting through incoming information for the immediate family, sending it to whoever needs to know.

As he does so, he cannot help the small smile still on his lips.  His family is in one place, and he will keep them safe.

All of them.

Final count, 4,023 words.

Fairfarren~