Once Upon A Screen Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – EPOV

I woke up the next morning to Maggie yelling for someone to come back and get dressed followed by a squeal of laughter from Heidi as she was caught by a laughing Mitch and carried back upstairs.

I wondered if it made me weird that I enjoyed the noise. Our house was always so quiet when I was growing up. Pam and I were so scared of doing something wrong and starting a screaming match between our parents that we tried to do everything perfectly. Once they had split up our childhood became a lot more relaxed, one memorable evening Dad let us have a food fight, we were cleaning spaghetti sauce off the roof the next day, but it was so much fun we didn’t care.

The Dawson family was loud and active and so much fun. I was becoming more and more grateful that I had become friends with Trey and that he had invited me home for the holiday.

I shot off two quick texts to Mom and Pam, wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving and luck for the sales the next day. I knew there was no way I was going to get in touch with them tomorrow.

Mom rang straight back

“So how did the meeting go!” she asked before I had time to say hello.

I laughed and filled her in on the day, after she had said ‘aww’ about a million times I told her the plan for the whole Dawson family to take a drive to Bon Temps so I could see her again before I left.

“Well make sure you have some photos taken of the two of you together!” she squeaked “I can’t wait to see what you look like as a couple”

“I didn’t even think of it!” I laughed, first Sookie with the Skype idea, now Mom with the photo… maybe all this love stuff was softening my brain. I grinned at the idea and found it didn’t matter one bit.

“Well, you know Pam and I will be shopping madly tomorrow, but you email me as soon as you get home and tell me all about it.” She said in her ‘listen to me or I’ll punish you’ voice.

“Sure thing” I laughed “have a great day Mamma.”

“You too sweetheart, love you” she said

“Love you too” I replied and we hung up.

I had a quick shower and dressed myself in jeans and a tee, and set about helping Maggie get everything ready for the day.

“Oh Eric, I’m so sorry, did we wake you?” Maggie asked as I walked into the kitchen.

“No…” I laughed “well… yes, but I’m normally up at this time anyway so don’t even think on it”

“Oh, well then…all’s well that ends well I guess.” She chuckled “Breakfast is on the table, try and get something before the boys come down or you’ll miss out” she added with a smile.

I loaded my plate with bacon, eggs, toast and some pan fried tomato and onion that smelt awesome. I sat down and dug in just in time as Trey, John, Patrick and Jax trooped in and piled their plates high with pancakes, finished and were onto a second helping before I had finished my first plate. Those guys could eat! Max, Luke and Lucy came in, soon followed by Mitch carrying a now dressed Heidi over his shoulder.

Breakfast was just as loud as dinner had been the night before. It made me smile again to be surrounded by such happy chaos. I wondered how big a family Sookie would want. I don’t know if I could manage with eight kids, but that was something to think about another day. Heidi was staring at me again, but this time it was with a smile and ketchup smeared all over her cheeks. I poked my tongue out at her and she giggled and went back to eating.

I had cleaned my plate and since I wasn’t much of a breakfast person I got up, picked up a few of the empty dishes and rinsed them off before putting them in the dishwasher. Maggie gave me a brilliant smile to say thank you and gave the evil eye to the younger boys, who I assumed she was still training in kitchen duty.

Before long everyone had eaten their fill and we all went into the living room. The younger kids started up the Wii and were soon laughing their heads off playing tennis, and the older kids pulled out scrabble and the biggest dictionary I had ever seen. Trey, Maggie and Mitch invited me to play some poker, so Texas Hold ‘em was what kept us entertained for a while.

Maggie would get up periodically to check on the turkeys so either Trey or Mitch would add to her pile of chips. She was hilariously bad at poker, but she was so much fun to watch we couldn’t help making sure she stayed in the game. I would periodically lose on purpose just to keep the game a little more even.

Mitch would get up occasionally to referee the game of scrabble when the arguments about words got a little too heated. Heidi was happy running around and taking part in everything that was going on, she was such a little cherub that no-one seemed to mind when she interrupted.

Lunch finally came around and the four of us playing poker went in to lay it all out, there was so much food I thought that the table was at risk of collapsing, as it was it only creaked a little then settled with breath of relief from me.

Everyone crowded around and joined hands, Mitch said a quick prayer and we dug in to the amazing meal Maggie had been working on all day. Mumbled thanks came from everyone around the table and Maggie was beaming with joy, it was plain to see how much she loved her family and how much they loved her. Again I was drawn into a daydream of a day like this in the future when I would be sitting at the table with my family and looking at Sookie the way Mitch was looking at Maggie.

Everyone ate until their stomachs hurt and we moved into the living room again to watch the game. When the game had finished and we were feeling a lot less full I followed everyone outside where a family game of football was organized. Maggie was referee with a video camera trained on us to catch the action. Even little Heidi was playing, although she seemed to be more interested in the bugs that were flying past than the plays that were being made.

After a few serious plays, it was clear that Trey’s side were definitely winning, Mitch got hold of the ball and game quickly turned into a game of keep away. Sam the dog was running around barking like a maniac and everyone was laughing so hard they could barely run.

Heidi fell to the ground with a yell, holding her knee like she had fallen, everyone raced over to see what had happened, Mitch dropped the ball, it was quickly scooped up by Heidi and she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her to the appointed goal line where she spiked the ball into the ground, jumped around, clapped her hands and giggled with joy at fooling us all. The little monkey had been faking!

None of us had chased after her as she had run away, shocked at the quick turn around in her mood and the fact she had pulled such a devious trick. So when she finally started laughing we all looked at each other and burst into laughter ourselves. She ran back and jumped into the pile only to start squealing with laughter again as she was tickled mercilessly by her big brothers and Daddy.

I looked at Maggie who had caught the whole thing on tape, she was smiling so hard and had a tear in her eye. I walked over and hugged her tight and was soon joined by everyone else. I’d never seen anything like the Dawson family and I thanked my lucky stars that I’d made friends with Trey. From the look on his face he was aware of just how lucky he was too.

As I helped Maggie get everything ready for the trip to Bon Temps tomorrow, she peppered me with questions about how Sookie and I had met, what interests we shared, what she was like, what her favorite food was… I think at the end of it I had completely exhausted every possible topic when she sprung the big one on me…

“So when are you going to propose?” she asked with a chuckle at the look of shock on my face.

“Is it that obvious?” I asked, slightly embarrassed that I was so easily read.

“Not to everyone, just people in love themselves. The day Mitch asked me was one of the happiest days of my life.” She said with a smile “He had planned this beautiful, romantic picnic dinner, a carriage ride, had a little poem written out for me and everything. Unfortunately he forgot to ask if I was allergic to anything and the dinner he had planned had sesame seeds in it…”

“Oh no!” I winced and shook my head… note to self, check if Sookie has allergies.

“Yup, I started to feel sick about halfway through dinner, threw up everywhere, broke out in hives and burst into tears. Mitch was so freaked out he was almost ready to cry himself…”

“And then the yelling started” Mitch said with a laugh “I was so flustered and worried about her that I couldn’t think straight, so Maggie was yelling ‘get me to the hospital’ and ‘I thought you loved me! Are you trying to kill me?’ she kept it up for the entire drive to the hospital.”

“I was so mad at him, I thought we knew each other inside and out” Maggie chimed in again, wrapping her arms around her husband “So when he finally cracked and yelled back at me it was a surprise.”

“I knew she was upset, but it was hard hearing that she thought I wanted to kill her” Mitch said with a smirk “so I just yelled ‘I want to marry you Maggie will you just shut up already!’ and she was so shocked she did”

They both laughed at that point and hugged again before Maggie moved back to her preparations. “So after I had been settled into a room for observation and Mitch was allowed to come in to check on me, I hugged him tight and he explained what his plan had been, he asked me again and of course I said yes. My family walked in a few minutes later to find us making out and Mitch had to do some fast talking so my big brother didn’t end up giving him a broken nose” she laughed.

“I still think he’s holding a grudge about that” Mitch confessed “The story comes up every time we see him…” he laughed again, kissed the top of her curly head and went back into the living room to check on the latest outburst of noise… something about ichor not being a word.

“So it all turned out in the end” Maggie laughed “I married the man of my dreams and we have a beautiful family… keep that in mind when you go planning your proposal, we’re just happy for you to ask, you don’t need to make elaborate plans. From what you tell me of Sookie, I’m pretty sure simple is better anyway…”

“I don’t know when I’ll ask her, but I do have the ring already” I said softly “I don’t think I’ll be able to plan it much in advance though, she knows me too well for me to be able to keep anything from her for a long time.”

“That’s good” Maggie smiled “Partners shouldn’t keep secrets from each other, the more open you are with each other the easier things will be in your relationship and the easier things will be to handle when times are tough”

“I know we’re definitely waiting on getting married until after university has finished” I added “She is very set on becoming a psychologist, her education is very important to her so I don’t want her to give that up…I don’t know” I shrugged “I just know that I can’t imagine my life without her in it, luckily she feels the same” I chuckled; it was so easy to tell Maggie anything.

“Well you know you’re welcome here any time if you want to see her… I expect an invite to the wedding though or else!” Maggie laughed at her non existent threat.

“I’m sure we’d be honored to have you there Maggie” I said giving her a one armed hug “Sookie is going to love you just as much as I do.”

“Oh hush” she said blushing “you save saying those nice things for your girl, don’t waste them on an old married woman like me”

I laughed and kissed her on the cheek “You may be married, but you’ll never be old Maggie, I think you and my Mom would love each other too… I’ll have to invite you all out to Cali some time so you can get together.”

“You hustlin’ my Momma Northman” said Trey in a mock threatening tone, wrapping his mother up in his arms and kissing her cheek.

“Oh stop it you big caveman” she laughed slapping at his arm “Eric was just inviting us out to California to meet his Momma”

“Awesome” Trey said with a smile and stole a handful of cookies “Cali? I’m in!”

All the prep for the next day was finished and the day was coming to a close. Trey and I had been wrangled into playing tea-party with Heidi, Sam the dog, her invisible friend Flick and her teddy bear. Thankfully the tea and food were imaginary and Trey had no ammo to use against me because he was in the same position.

“So I overheard you talking about proposing to Sookie…” Trey said after a sip of imaginary tea. “Big stuff.”

“Yep” I sighed as Heidi offered me some imaginary cake “Thank you Heidi” I said “this cake is delicious”

“You welcome.” she said with a giggle “You need more tea, my Tray” she added with a ‘tsk’ and a little frown, tipping the pot upside down over his cup.

“I just know she’s it for me though” I said to Trey “so why try to pretend like it’s not going to happen?”

“I guess so” he said with a smile “I really like Amelia, she’s funny”

“Who’s Amee-ya?” Heidi asked “Is she you friend my Trey?”

“Yup she sure is Peanut” he said hugging her tight “she’s going to be my really good friend…”

“Ok, just make sure you share” Heidi said seriously.

Trey and I tried to hide our chuckles as she talked to Flick for a while, offering cake and more tea.

“She no hungry” Heidi explained as she offered me another imaginary cake.

“I’m very full now” I said rubbing my belly “Thank you for the lovely tea Heidi”

“No wowwies” she smiled at me and turned to Trey “You have to eat it my Trey” she demanded “Or dis will be all all roo-end”

“Thank you Peanut” he chuckled and pretended to eat the cake

She turned away and started talking again like she was having a conversation with someone, I didn’t twig until she said ‘he drinkin’ tea silly’ that she was actually speaking to a person, not Flick, and she had my phone.

Trey scooped her up and tickled her while I rescued my phone from her sticky little fingers, I got a tickle in as I mouthed to Trey that the call was from Sookie and moved out of the room. Heidi’s giggles following me as Trey threw her over his shoulder to take her upstairs for bath and bed.

I wandered outside as I begged her not to tell Pam about the tea-party and yelled “Sookie Stackhouse, I love you!” to the night sky when she told me her ransom. I was rewarded with her laughter and felt the familiar warmth of love curl in my chest at the sound.

She told me about her day and how Jason got the wishbone stuck in his nose, I laughed at the idea of Gran doing a happy dance and feigned ignorance when she asked my opinion on why Gran would be hiding information about her visitors tomorrow.

I quickly changed the subject and asked her to look at the stars with me… knowing she was closer than usual and looking up at the same night sky was comforting and I found myself babbling about the magellanic clouds visible in the southern hemisphere and the amazing colors that are visible in the galaxies and planets I’d seen through my telescope up in Ithaca. I pointed out constellations to her in the night sky above and told her some of the mythical stories behind them.

After a while she mentioned she was getting cold and I realized we had been laying out in the cold night for over an hour. I kicked myself at getting lost in the universe and forgetting her comfort

“Sorry love” I laughed ruefully “I get wrapped up in possibility and forget things sometimes, I should have been more attentive”

“It’s ok honey… I just wish you were here to warm me up again” she teased

“You and me both…are you trying to seduce me Miss Stackhouse” I asked with a smirk

“I would… but I’m kinda tired tonight… wanna snuggle?” she replied with a giggle

“Anytime Sookie” I laughed softly. If only it were physically possible to do so.

We swapped multiple ‘I love you’ and ‘I wishes’ and talked a little longer until she started yawning and I convinced her to go to sleep. I pulled a pillow tight to my own chest and tried to sleep. I was a little too wound up with the thought of tomorrow to be able to sleep properly, but I got at least a few hours in.

I woke up to little fingers playing with my hair and trying to open my eyes.

“Wakin’ up time Eric!” Heidi said with a giggle, patting her little hand on my cheek “Time for ‘sploring!”

“Exploring?” I asked as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes “What are we exploring?”

“Momma say we going on a road trip to see you princess!” she said excitedly bouncing on her knees.

“Oh!” I laughed “Yes, we’re going to see my Sookie”

“Sookie?” she said happily “She my new friend! We talked on you phone yesterday”

“Yup!” I said scooping her up and carrying her out to the kitchen “She can’t wait to meet you, she told me so!”

“Yay!” she laughed, clapping her hands.

Maggie smiled apologetically and gave me some pancakes; apparently I had slept through everyone running around getting ready to go.

I ate as fast as I could, ran through the shower and pulled on a clean pair of jeans and another tee, adding a jacket incase it got cold later.

We packed the van and all piled in, I have no idea how we all fit, but at least Sam stayed off my lap and out of my face. Heidi kept herself entertained by pointing out things through the window; birds… cows… people picking their nose… the last one got a laugh from everyone in the car when we turned to look and startled the driver of the car next to us who was indeed picking his nose.

The trip seemed to take forever, although Trey assured me it was only just over an hour as we slowed down to go through Bon Temps proper. Mitch had checked everything out last night and smoothly navigated us onto Hummingbird Road and into a driveway.

The doors of the van burst open and everyone exploded out onto the grass, Sam barking and running crazily with joy at being free from the car, John, Patrick and Luke running off their energy chasing him around. Lucy and Heidi were hanging on to Maggie for dear life as she tried to round the boys back up. Jax and Max were laughing at the younger kids secretly wishing they were young enough to do the same. Mitch and Trey were unloading everything and I was so overwhelmed I had to be reminded to get out of the van before they closed all the doors.

An older lady opened the door wide and pulled everyone into a hug as they entered the house, treating them like they were long lost family. She ushered all the Dawson’s inside and told them to make themselves comfortable, then she turned to me.

“Nice to finally meet you Eric” she said with a smile, pulling me into a tight hug and kissing both my cheeks “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for my Sookie.”

“I didn’t do anything Adele!” I said in surprise

“You loved her sweetheart,” she said with a sad smile “That’s all she ever wanted…”

I hugged Adele and kissed the top of her head, automatically feeling comfortable with her, knowing that she was the reason Sookie was the wonderful person she was.

“Thank you for letting me.” I said softly “Shall we go in and surprise her?” I asked and opened the door for her.

She passed me with a twinkle in her eye and rubbed her hands together in mischievous glee as she prepared to play hostess. I helped ferry drinks in for everyone as Adele bought in some snacks and yelled up the stairs for Sookie and Amelia to come down.

“Hi I’m Sookie’s brother Jason.” a blonde man with Sookie’s eyes said with a smile, offering his hand to everyone but me.

“Eric” he said taking my arm firmly “I don’t know how to thank you enough for what you and your sister did for Sookie. I wanted to kill that… well, little pitchers have big ears so I’m sure you know who I mean” he said quickly looking over at Lucy and Heidi who were engrossed in a box of My Little Ponies. I nodded.

“Anyway,” he continued “as poor as it is to only have words, thank you for bringing him to justice.” he said and pulled me into a manly hug, slapping me on the back and clearing his throat as he moved away, pretending he wasn’t choked up about what had happened to his little sister.

“Now… you have to tell me” he said after a minute “How does that corvette of yours handle?” I chuckled gently at the common question and offered to let him drive it when he came to visit in Cali.

We chatted amongst ourselves for a minute as we waited on the girls to finish primping, the boys ran in from outside to say hello to Adele and Jason, on their best behavior as visitors and had Adele charmed in two seconds flat. Jason offered to show them the collection of things he had bought over and followed them back outside, cookies in hand and smiles on faces.

Amelia bounced down the stairs a minute later and let out a dirty laugh as she was finally let in on the joke. Her eyes darted to Trey and she blushed faintly as she looked away again, greeting everyone politely, shaking hands and laughing happily at the joke Gran had pulled on Sookie.

I heard footsteps coming from downstairs and my heart jumped into my throat, all of a sudden I was a bundle of nerves and shot to my feet. I heard everyone chuckle gently but I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the vision that was finally coming down the stairs.

“So sorry to keep y’all waiting I was just…” she stopped mid sentence and her mouth hung open.

“Hello dear one, nice of you to join us” I with a smirk, opening my arms and moving forward slowly for a hug.

I almost died when she burst into tears. I wrapped her in my arms and sat on the step, pulling her into my lap, ignoring everyone else

“Hush dear one” I said soothingly, rubbing circles on her back and rocking her gently in my arms “We only wanted to surprise you, not make you cry!”

“Oh Eric…I’m just so happy to see you I can’t help myself! I’m sorry!” she sobbed, wrapping her arms around my neck and starting on a fresh batch of tears.

Adele motioned to take her back upstairs so with an apologetic smile to everyone I picked her up and carried her back up to her room, recognizing it from the pictures she had sent and the smell of her perfume.

I pushed the door almost closed; knowing instinctively that it should be open for Adele’s peace of mind. I settled her gently onto the bed, spooned in behind her and held her close to my chest. I shushed and soothed and murmured that I loved her until she settled into soft hiccoughs, trying to catch her breath.

She spun in my arms and kissed me hard “I’m so happy you’re here, but for future reference, I hate surprises” she laughed and hugged me tightly.

“I’ll keep that in mind love…” I chuckled “Now… as much as I would like to stay here with you in my arms for the rest of forever, I know your Gran will be upset if we don’t go back down and honestly, if we don’t move soon I won’t be able to stop myself from starting something I shouldn’t.” I confessed… my jeans were getting uncomfortably tight, maybe having Sookie in my arms, in a bed was not such a good idea after all.

“Oh!” she gasped and shot out of my arms “I’m sorry! I didn’t think…”

“Never mind, angel” I laughed gently wiping her cheeks with my thumbs. “just give me a minute to control myself and we can go back down” I thought of anything I could to will away the not so little problem I had. Sookie grabbed some tissues and wiped her eyes, blew her nose and smiled at me. We kissed once more before we went back down to the living room holding hands.

“Sorry y’all” Sookie said with a blush when we got to the bottom of the stairs “I don’t take too well to surprises.”

Everyone laughed gently and Sookie started making the rounds to say hello, being wrapped in a hug by an overjoyed Maggie who gave me an approving wink over Sookie’s shoulder as I proudly watched the woman I loved most behave exactly like the beautiful southern belle she was.

I settled into the seat next to Adele taking note that Trey had already claimed Amelia’s attention and smiled at the happy look on Maggie’s face as she caught the smitten look on her eldest son’s. I guess mine wasn’t the only love story today.

I smiled gently at Adele as she took my hand into her lap and patted it with the other. “You’re a good man, Eric.” she said softly “Welcome to the family.”

 

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