Chapter 02: Falling

Last time:

“Please don’t leave me.”

“I have to go little one but I will be back as soon as I can.”

“WAIT!”

---

I turned around to face my angel.

I tried to be as sincere as possible because of her fragile state; however, I think I came over a little gruff by how I said “What do you need?”

I think she took it as ‘what do you want NOW’; by the way she flinched at my words so I quickly moved back to the couch she was lying on.

I cupped her face with my large hands as she pressed her cheeks against them, like a cat would do when you pet them. I would have chuckled if she had purred but a least she didn’t.

She turned her eyes up to me and said, “Can I at least know your name?”

My name, I thought all along she knew it, like I knew hers, how stupid of me to have thought she knew who I was. What had I been thinking, that she was watching me as I had been watching her?

NO, never this woman, she was far too good for that.

“Most call me Mr. Northman, but you little one can call me Eric. My name is Eric Northman and I own this building.”

“Thank you, umm…Eric, thank you for everything. My name is Sookie…Sookie Stackhouse and I work for Talbot Designs.”

She looked embarrassed, I think she was trying to say more … So I did what I needed to do to make her feel more comfortable and sat down beside her. I sat down because I felt like I was intimidating her by standing and looming above her with my height; I needed to correct this right away. I never wanted her to feel intimidated or unsafe with me ever again.

“Say anything you need to say, do not be fearful of me. Never be afraid. I will always protect you.”

She granted me with a small smile as I ran my fingertips under her eyes to the side of her face, however, when I touched upon her healing scar she whimpered.

“I am so sorry little one, I never wanted to hurt you. I do however want to hurt the one who did this to you.”

She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and smiled a genuine thankful smile at me as she leaned her cheek into the palm of my hand. I continued to run the fingertips of my other hand over her scar; she gently grabbed onto my wrist and held on to it as I moved my fingertips along the length.

The gentleness of her touch and the slow movements of her fingertips on my wrist was more erotic to me then actually having sex with any of my past lovers. There was no doubt I wanted all of her, in every way, but her gentleness was a glorious feeling compared to the gold digging whores whom chased after me and vied for my attention.

I was falling for her; I had closed my eyes and took in the sensations of the moment. I was falling hard and quickly but I needed to open my eyes and let her talk so that I could get this day over with and start my life with her in it.

As she started to speak, – she jostled me out of my musings-, but I soon realized she was just rambling to herself, more than she was talking to me. It was adorable.

“Why do I feel safe with you? I have only ever seen you in passing but I feel content and safe with you, like I could conquer the world. Why is that I wonder? The only other people I ever felt safe with are my gran, who passed away some time ago, and my roommate and best friend Lala. Why do I feel like if you were to leave me now, I would fall to pieces? Why does your touch make my skin vibrate? Why do I want to wrap myself around you and never let you go? The only other time I felt like this was when our bodies were touching in the elevator but I felt safe that time too; even more so when I started to lean into you more, that is when I felt an electric charge, it was literally connecting our bodies together, but I ran from you as fast as I could. I didn’t know what was happening to me and I was scared. I have been scared a lot lately but I don’t think I have to be scared any more. I feel like you would protect me from the world. Why do I feel this way, I don’t even know you? We just met. Why do I long to be with you since I have only just met you? Why do I want to cry and rejoice at the same time? Why do I want to tell you I love you, but again I don’t even know you? How are you making me feel this way? Why am I afraid that if you walk away from me now you are not coming back? I can’t lose you now! Please don’t leave me, I need you, please don’t walk away.”

I could hear her labored breathing as she was finishing her musings but I could feel her tears rolling down her cheeks as they were falling onto my hands. God this woman, if she only knew I was in the same boat as her. I felt the same way but I didn’t want to scare her, I needed her as much as she needed me. But I knew I had some unfinished business to attend to, namely the jumper at my front door.

I needed to talk to her as gently as possible, let her know I would return and that I wanted her to stay here, that I would be taking her home tonight with no arguments or negotiations. But how do I say all this to her without sounding like an asshole or stalker.

I guess honesty is the best policy and I wanted a relationship with her, even if it started out during a horrific event.

Here I go, honest and forthright.

“Little one, I feel the same way about you. I had thought you bewitched me from the start when I saw you months ago.” She looked at me and smiled from ear to ear, it was beautiful, and I was lost in her eyes. But I needed to continue on before I lost my nerve. “The electric charge as you called it from when we were pressed up against each other in the elevator was awe inspiring and like you it scared me too. I lost you in the crowd that day as the elevator doors opened up and everyone exited, you are very quick when you want to be. But after that day, I continued to watch for you. I wanted to meet you. I wanted you by my side, forever.”

“Why? I am a nobody. You can have any woman or man you want, you are gorgeous. Lala calls you sex on a stick.”

Lafayette Reynolds played by Nelsan Ellis

I chuckled at that one, but I guess by my interpretation of her words, she just said she watched me too.

“Yes I could have any one if I chose to, but I am choosing to be with you if you will have me. So I take it you do know me if your Lala talks about me.”

She blushed a deep red color, – from embarrassment since she had been caught-, which traveled from her forehead down below her shirt, I am sure as the day is young it traveled all the way down her body. It was a glorious color on her. She then let out a sigh of contentment and relaxed into my body.

I was positive I made her feel this way. It was a positive note for me to have tucked away for later to think on.

“I have seen you before, but with my accident I was trying to go unnoticed because my scar and bruising tended to freak people out. I overheard a few of them say I deserved what ever happened to me, I was too uppity when I first got here because I never talked to them in the ladies or downstairs…I really didn’t care because I don’t trust easily, it has given me too much heartache when I do, so I keep to myself and I only have a few friends and my brother. But I think what I was most scared about is now over.”

Jason Stackhouse played by Ryan Kwanten

“I understand what you are saying and you should hold your head high, my angel, you are beautiful, the cut and the subsequent scar from it were not your doing…. YOU DID NOT DESERVE THAT… no- one does. If I knew where he was I would make sure he paid for the harm he caused you.”

“Ummmm, you do know where he is at!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the man that hit the pavement with his face. He is my ex and stalker, William Compton, from Bon Temps Louisiana. So no need to track him down he is already here and I believe he is finally dead as a doornail and out of my life forever, never to hurt me again.”

Well that took me by surprise.

“Sookie, I need to go take care of some things with the police. I want you to stay here and rest. Russell and Talbot know you are here and in capable hands.

Russell played by Denis O’Hare

Talbot played by Theo Alexander

Please don’t leave…- me-… okay. I will be back as quick as I can but I need to let my security chief and the police know who we have downstairs so it can be taken care of quickly.”

“Okay, I will stay here but you have to promise me you will come back, please. I will try to rest but I don’t think I can ever close my eyes again and not see his face hit the pavement. ”

“I would not leave you now if I could get around talking to everyone who needs to speak with me. Keep in mind they may need a statement from you too. Is that okay?”

She just nodded in affirmation but the look on her face told me she was scared. Scared to relive it, scared to sleep, I didn’t blame her. What the hell was he thinking?

Fucking dickhead…

I leaned over and kissed her forehead and just lingered there for a minute, staring into her eyes.

I smiled at the closeness we had right in the here and now but it was broken by the tugging of my arm.

“Eric, don’t be mad at me for what I am about to do, okay.”

I nodded unsure of what she meant and in the next moment I knew, she leaned over and kissed me for all it was worth.

My Sookie…..

---

BPOV

I loved my life, I was rich and I could have anything I wanted. If it meant taking it then so be it, but it would be MINE if I was so inclined, I had no boundaries and I didn’t care how I got what I wanted, no matter the cost.

I lived my life without a care in the world until I met the woman who would be my wife.

I had obsessed over her, stalked her and made her MINE, I had her hook, line and sinker for over a year until she arrived home early and found me with my mistress in our bed. I had to go elsewhere you see Sookie was just vanilla in her ways of sex she was so inexperienced and it showed when we had sex. She had thought she satisfied me but far from it. You see she was going to be the lady of our house, there was no way I would allow her to demean herself in the debauchery of oral sex or anything other than missionary. However, I needed more fulfillment and I would be damned if I would do without it, I was a man after all.

However, she wouldn’t listen to me after she found me in that comprising position and told me we were done.

Not likely I thought, over my dead body I thought.

Maybe I should have seen that as a premonition. No, I was going to live forever. I was a Compton after all I had a long bloodline and great genes.

Within the month Sookie packed up her stuff and left Bon Temps. She thought she could run but I had guessed where she had run off to, plus her brother confirmed my suspicions; he would talk about anything if you got enough liquor into him.

She had apparently followed her best friend to Florida, to work with a bunch of gay men; how does a woman have a best friend who is a man without there being sex, it was preposterous.

Plus what was she thinking? Associating herself with the likes of Talbot Designs?

She would learn that lesson well; she would be punished for going against my values and wishes. She would regret her decision and once she moved back home she would always remember to check with me first before she made any more important decisions, her judgment was skewed but we would fix that with a little bit of training. As for her friends, they would no longer exist; they would be a deterrent to her status of the elite.

So I followed her and watched. I could never find where she lived; it is like she didn’t exist in the State of Florida. Sookie always went out at night with that best friend of hers and more times than not they went into a gated community that I was not allowed into since I didn’t have access to an address. But I never saw her leave the community, I suspected she lived in it, but how was she living there it was too costly for her to afford.

So I continued to watch and one afternoon she left work by herself, I confronted her next to her car but she was able to slip into her car and lock the door. Even though she got away from me and took off in her car I was able to follow her. I had thought she was leading me on a wild goose chase but she was going to a nearby restaurant, no doubt to meet up with a date.

I was enraged by that time and when she parked her car close to the building I yanked her out of it.

I was yelling at her and she was trying to flee from me but she had become obstructed and contained because her back was now up against her car; she could go nowhere.

I don’t know what came over me but the rage I felt was overwhelming and I snapped. By the time I had realized it, I had punched her in the gut and chest, I slapped her face a few times before I realized I was being dragged off of her by that black faggot she calls her best friend. I thought I could retaliate, he is a fag after all, but what I didn’t realize until it was too late, he was a lot stronger than me and he proceeded to beat the shit out of me.

Their friends pulled him off as I lay there on the asphalt bleeding and awaited my fate. I knew the police had been called and I could also see there was blood flowing down Sookie’s face, so I had assumed the sirens I heard in the distance were coming to take care of us both, but actually I didn’t care.

I could buy my way out of this. I was William T. Compton and I was filthy rich… I was a blue blood and BB’s never get thrown into jail nor were they ever arrested.

Well that is until you are away from your home state and there are plenty of witnesses to attest to what had occurred between you and your victim, how he had attacked her without cause. How the black man had come running up to save her from the assault.

My ass was hauled off to jail instantly, without even asking me why I had attacked her, they- the police or her friends- didn’t care what I had to say.

Once at the jail I called my lawyer and he was to meet me Monday morning for my arraignment. I would be spending the weekend in jail, of course I was not happy about that fact of spending time in a cell with sweaty smelly drunken men ….If I wanted him to be present with me of course I would have to wait; that meant I would have to give up the opportunity for arraignment tonight or Saturday morning.

I was screwed, so as I sat in the hovel of a jail cell I devised a new plan to win her back.

I was released after the arraignment and made my bail. But at the same time I was slapped with a restraining order which said I was not allowed to be near Sookie or at her place of employment. It did not list her home, so if I could only find out where she lived I would be good and demand her return to me. My only dilemma was if she truly lived behind the gated community I still couldn’t get in.

So I lurked and followed and more times than not that damn security crew would ask me to leave the premises if I was not there on business.

I stayed away from the buildings parking lots but they couldn’t keep me out of the nearby strip mall so I watched from there.

There was a lot of activity going on around the building and from what I could demise there was a new air conditioner being installed on the roof. So I donned a ball cap while wearing some ratty jeans and a t-shirt and followed the crew to see how far it would get me.

I rode the elevator up to the 6th floor and found her office as we departed the elevator, but I dared not to go in there, so I followed the team to the stairs which led me up to the roof. I found out that the stairs were never locked; even the door to the roof,  security was lax with them. All I needed to do was wait for the all clear to happen on another day and make my way up the stairs to the roof.

My plan was simple. Act as if I was going to jump and Sookie’s kind heart would take over and she would beg me not to do it. I would negotiate that she returns to my side and leave this god awful place. And due to the kindness of her heart she would due just as I asked.

It was simple and straight forward but that is not what happened.

As I was waiting for Sookie to come out the front doors, – she always ate her lunch at the same time-, I leaned over the edge to make sure there was no one down there to ruin my plans and I lost my footing and slipped over the edge.

As I was falling I knew I had fucked up because I would never live through this. I had lost and she had won. Maybe I should have listened to my thoughts months ago.

….. ‘Not likely I thought, over my dead body I thought.

Maybe I should have seen that as a premonition. No, I was going to live forever. I was a Compton after all I had a long bloodline and great genes’…

As I was almost to the ground I saw her, stepping out of the automatic doors and she looked horrified to see me in front of her like this but as the vision left from my eyes I saw her turn into a man behind her, her arms wrapping around his waist and his holding her tight in return. My last thoughts as I was dying were that she would never let him go.

I had lost her to a tall blond man…

---

Author’s Note: I do not know how many chapter’s this story will be and I know it will not be a lot, maybe 4 or 5, 6 at the most. I will do some time jumping to not dilly dally with these two everyday lives. I want their HEA as much as you do. As for Bill I knew y’all were hoping it was he who jumped, so I needed to include what happened and that it was not intentional on his part, but it was a good place for him to leave in this story. I did not want to give him a voice in the story but I felt you all needed to know that he is a manipulative warped individual and all he was given was 1500 words. Maybe too many words in some thoughts but it needed to be said and you needed to know he KNEW at the end he lost to the nameless blond man. And no, I will not be giving him a picture in my story near his words, he doesn’t deserve it…