Bill was not going to be at the meeting and neither was Pam. Jessica was bringing the Viking to the meeting. We were excited because now that Bill knew we knew he was hiding at Sookie's we could try and help Eric a little. He had fallen into a general malaise and while we could not really do anything to help him get his memory, maybe we could reassure him about something else. The something else was that he was not a bad Vampire and while we could not vouch for what he did before we knew him, we knew he was not a bad person, not really.
So we hurried and ate and cleaned up. Fairy of course was nervous and Westexan and Butter brought the tea cups. They did this on the principle that if Eric saw the boys didn't think he was bad, he would understand we were not just blowing smoke up his hole, that he was really a nice guy.
Linzy and Lina and Fairy were especially excited. Minnie had made brownies and Renee had made her bakeapple tarts, which Eric loved though he could eat them. He loved the smell of them. Violet had come in early to help me spritz the parlor and Michael and Body Guard and Alcide were all there to help us if he got upset and we needed someone a little stronger to sort of help us. Not that we thought he would be violent, but maybe just to reassure him. Sometimes it helps an emotional male to be around other males who can sort of stand their ground with him.
Aolani was doing a peace spell over the parlor and burning some lavender incense in the room for calm. We needed Eric to be calm. Aolani, Renee and Fairy and I explained that we should not just rush up to him, but just welcome him in and have him sit down and try to relax. Minnie brought her photo album. She had taken pictures of all our adventures and she wanted to share them with him to see if he could see how he was with us because often he was smiling and laughing and being embraced and cuddled and treated like an ordinary person...Okay, well he wasn't an ordinary person, he was 1000 years old and a Viking Vampire god (spelled with a little "g" so he would not get a big head), but to us he was Eric Northman, our friend and lover and leader of all our adventures.
Finally, Jessica arrived. She poked her beautiful red head in the door. "Hey, are you guys ready?"
"Come on in," said Fairy.
Eric was finally decently clad. He had on blue jeans and tennis shoes and a Fangtasia tee shirt. He came in carefully and looked around. He recognized me and Aolani and Fairy and Renee from our visit and he looked expectantly at the others.
"Come on in Eric," I said. "Would you like a Tru:Blood?"
"Yes, thank you," he said. He came into the room and stood by the fireplace. "This is a nice place."
"It should be," said Michael. "You built it. It's the headquarters of the True Blood Council."
"I built this?" he asked. "For you guys?"
"You sure did," said Westexan. "Go have a seat, make yourself comfy." The Big Viking went and sat down at one of the chairs. Kaiser was toddling around and he came right to Eric and lifted his hands to the Viking.
"Is this your baby?" he asked me, as I brought him the blood.
"No, this is Westexan's baby," I said. "He is our first teacup human."
"First?" he asked.
"Yeah, the first baby born to the Council," said Westexan."You can pick him up if you want."
"He would be afraid," said Eric.
"No he wouldn't," she said.
"You might not really want me to," he said.
"I know you don't remember but when I was pregnant, you squatted down in front me and put your head on my belly to listen to him in the womb," said Westexan.
"I did?" he said.
"Sure," said West. She picked up the baby and put him in Eric's lap. The Kaiser looked at Eric and he smiled. Eric smiled back. "Bare your fangs at him."
"No," he said, his smile disappearing, trying to hand him back.
"No, hold him, but show him your fangs," said Westexan. "I want you to see something." He looked at Westexan and Fairy and me. I nodded. Eric looked at Kaiser and snicked out his fangs. Kaiser squealed with delight and put his fingers on the long deadly fangs and was not at all concerned. Eric was surprised.
"He isn't afraid of me," he said.
"Of course not," said Aolani. "It's because you aren't a bad Vampire Eric. If you were a bad person before, do you think we would put a baby in your lap and do you think he would reach out and put his fingers on your mouth like that?"
"You don't know me," he said. West could tell Eric was getting uncomfortable, he lifted the baby to her and she took him.
"True, we don't know how you were when you were traveling with Pam, but we have knows you for a very long time, and we have trusted you with our lives and the lives of those we love," said Michael. "I'm Michael, by the way, Aslinn's human spouse."
"You have a human spouse?" he asked me.
"Yes, I do," I said.
"And you belong to King Bill?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"And you defied him and didn't tell him where I was?" he asked.
"None of us did," I said. "You are our friend too, and we love all of you and you guys have a truce with us."
He thought about it for a while. Finally, he sipped the blood and looked at us. "What do you know about me?" he asked.
"Well, your dad's name is Ulfrick and your mom's name is Astrid and you had a sister. You were married and you had six living children and your wife was named Aude and she was your older brother's widow," said Fairy.
"I had children? What were their names?" he asked.
"We don't know that," said Violet.
"What became of them?" he asked.
"We don't know that either," said Fairy.
"How did I meet Godric, my maker?" he asked.
"Godric found you dying, lying on your funeral pyre and he made you a Vampire," I said. "You were with him for a very long time, and he loved you a lot."
"Did you meet Godric?" he asked, looking at all of us.
"A couple of times," said Minnie. "He was wonderful."
"Remember when he visited and I made bakeapple tarts and Godric and Eric both were overjoyed to smell them?" asked Renee to the room.
"Yeah, they ran for them and sniffed them, I thought they were going to sniff them up their noses," said Butter. Renee got up and came back with a napkin and a tart in her hand. Eric picked it up and sniffed it.
"It's lovely, but I don't remember why," he said.
"It's okay, though, because you will remember," I said.
"I don't want to," he said. "Pam said I was terrible, that she and I did terrible things and I hurt people."
"Eric, we have known you for close to three years now," said Linzy. "If something happened and you never got your memories back, well, we would just do the best we could do with that and help you remember what we could but if you get your memories back, that is fine too, because whatever you were before we met you, it made you the person we love."
He looked uncomfortable. He looked around and a reddish tear traveled down his pale skin. Violet, keeper of all things kleenex, gave him a handful and he wiped the blood away. "Sorry," he said.
"It's okay," said Renee.
We sort of relaxed a while, some of us going to make coffee and grab some of Minnie's special brownies. Eric moved over to the couch and Fairy got Minnie's photo album and showed him the pictures. There were pictures of us at the Halloween party, pictures of us at Fangtasia, pictures of us in England and Ireland and Sweden, pictures of our trip to the Myrtles and how he was happy and surrounded by friends and lovers and children. There was a picture of him with Hunter and a picture of Eric lying on his back with the Bun on his chest.
I didn't know what would happen next. As we know, the second world is a world where we had no control but at this moment, I think we could all agree, Eric felt a little more calm now with us, than he had in a long while because we had evidence of something. We had evidence of Eric's humanity, even before he lost his memory and somehow, it gave him hope.
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