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[Location: The Nest & Visual]

He had wanted to check up on her. The last time Godric had seen Cassie, she'd been glitched, and they had shown her back to her house once they were sure she would be alright. He had expected that Cassie would call, for one reason or another, or show up at the door one day soon, back to her usual self and embarrassed about her behavior. She hadn't done either. Finally, Godric had given in and picked up his tablet, sure that Cassie was just too mortified to call him herself.

She wasn't on the map.

Godric stared at the screen for what seemed like an age, looking over every individual dot, as if willing Cassie's name to appear on one of them. It didn't. He realized, as he looked, that there were other names that were no longer present. Jessica was one of them. Finally, he allowed the full implications to sink in, and he was suddenly angry at himself for not checking in sooner with Cassie or keeping a closer eye on Jessica, angry at their captors, even angry at Cassie for being so damn tempting and making him entertain possibilities he never gave into...and this had been one of the reasons. He didn't know now if he was relieved or regretful, and that made him angry most of all.

He hurled the tablet across the bedroom, half-hoping it would break apart on impact with the wall, but knowing it wouldn't. He didn't realize that the impact instead activated the visual function as he slumped forward, head in his hands.

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From the kitchen, up to her elbows in soapy water from washing up dishes from her last meal, Sookie heard the crack of the tablet hitting the wall. She paused, frowning, unsure of what the noise was...

And then her own tablet activated and revealed Godric's display of despair.

"What is it, sweetie?" she breathed.

Godric started, and his head snapped up with the wary and dangerous look of a predator that had been disturbed. The expression faded almost immediately when he realized that it was only Sookie, and the goddamn tablet, which had inconveniently turned itself on.

"...Cassie and Jessica are gone." His voice was toneless. He was trying very hard not to get too worked up.

The look on his face in that first instant sent a thrill of fear down Sookie's spine; her breath caught in surprise. Perhaps she'd taken Godric's genuine kindness too much for granted, forgotten that he, too, was a dangerous vampire.

Her heart sank at his words. Jessica was quite dear to Sookie, and Cassie had been becoming a friend to her -- plus she'd seemed close to Eric and Godric. She dried her hands off on the towel and flicked off her tablet, before making her way to the door of Godric's room. There, she rapped soundly.

"It's me. Let me in."

Godric hesitated, unsure if he was in any shape for company, but he rose and walked over to the door. Sookie was a friend, and he'd had enough of people going away at the moment. He wasn't about to tell her to do so. Opening the door silently, he stepped aside to let her in.

Eric hadn't noticed the lack of activity from Cassie's end of the bond - as a matter of fact, he was relaxing in the relative lack of emotional input. One never knew how quiet one's mind was until one had various humans metaphorically yelling in one's "ear". True, he'd always had Godric, but there was no comparison, really. A constant, low hum as opposed to frenetic spikes of chatter.

Though there were exceptions, such as now. He noted the anger from his maker barely a second before he heard the crash of the tablet. A minute and he was out of his room and kneeling next to Godric, worry written on his face.

Edited 2009-12-10 21:52 (UTC)

Godric glanced down at his child, quiet for a moment as he gathered himself. "Cassie and Jessica are gone." Godric knew that if Eric reached out along his bond with Cassie, he would find it severed. He didn't ask Eric to do so, knowing that the result would only be further confirmation of a fact he would rather deny.

Eric blinked in surprise, and immediately checked the bond only to find... Nothing. A small frown wrinkled his forehead at the lack. "Damn," he replied quietly. Cassie had sometimes been a pain in the ass, but she was rather good company, and a willing donor on top of that. More to the point, Eric knew Godric had a definite soft spot for the little breather, and he wasn't taking it well.

"...I'm sorry." It didn't do anything, and it sure as hell wasn't Eric's fault, but. At least he was trying to be comforting.

Godric nodded, grateful for Eric's presence. He was about to speak when he was interrupted by a knock on the door and Sookie's voice. He gave Eric an absent gesture to indicate that he was going to answer it before rising and opening the door to let Sookie in.

Once through the door, Sookie wrestled with the urge to just hug Godric tightly. On one hand, vampires didn't really touch casually, on the other, he was sad.

With a mental shrug, she clasped him briefly to her chest, not noticing Eric yet. "I'm so sorry," Sookie breathed.

Eric arched an eyebrow as he rose to his feet. Sure, he'd known Godric and Sookie liked each other, but Godric wasn't really the hugging type. Another time, he might have made a snide comment, with a side of flirt for Sookie. But he knew when to contain his bastardy, so he stayed quiet.

For Godric's sake, of course, because he couldn't be less caring about Cassie not being in the city anymore. Nope.

Godric stiffened, still unused to being hugged, despite the propensity of the women in his life to do so. Cassie would never do so again. Any other time, he would have been able to appreciate a warm human girl cleaving herself to him, might have smirked teasingly at Eric as if to say 'if you don't do something, she'll like me better,' but he wasn't feeling any of that right now. He could appreciate her sentiment, though.

"Thank you." Awkwardly, he briefly returned the embrace before gently stepping away.

The last time Godric and Sookie had been alone together, he'd educated her on the very real prospect of people disappearing in taxon. She was startled to see his point made so promptly and vividly (and callously) by their new reality.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asks gently.

"Doubtful," Eric answered curtly. He stopped himself from getting unnecessarily snarky. After all, it wasn't Sookie's fault Cassie was gone, and it wasn't going to help anything to bitch out anyone. No matter how tempting it might have been.

...Oh, and Jessica. It was doubtful anyone would be surprised that Eric was slightly less concerned about her disappearance than Cassie's.

If there's nothing concrete she can do, Sookie settles in to offering silent support and her company, mostly avoiding Eric's gaze. She's there for Godric's sake, empathizing with the pain she'd witnessed.

Godric shook his head, but gave Sookie a small, grateful smile. "Unless you have some insight into the workings of this place that I do not...no. But I appreciate it nonetheless."

More than anything else, Godric wanted some assurance that Cassie and Jessica were well. The most comforting presumption was that they had been sent back to their respective homes. If that were true, Godric couldn't help but wonder what that meant for him. If he disappeared from Taxon, would he return miraculously to life in Dallas? Would he die?

And here's that deeply Southern streak again. Hopefully after spending all the time he had in Texas, Godric could appreciate it a little, at least.

"Are you hungry? Did you want something?"

"No," Eric answered, and after a moment's thought, added a quieter, "thank you."

He cast an eye at Godric, slightly worried that this would put his maker off his feed again. Eric was rather against reliving that particular experience, especially the part where people tried to kill him with fire.

Edited 2009-12-14 01:31 (UTC)

Half lost in thought, Sookie's question threw his mind in a bizarre direction, and for the briefest of moments he thought, with some shock, that Sookie was offering something she wasn't. He quickly recognized it as nothing more than Southern hospitality, but it was still strange to hear a human offer a vampire a drink at all, much less when they didn't mean...well.

He was about to decline, but he felt the subtle shift of concern in Eric and thought again. While he wasn't particularly hungry, it would do no harm to indulge Sookie's gesture of care and ease Eric's worries simultaneously. "A small glass of A negative would be nice, if it's no trouble."

A half-smile to Eric in acknowledgment; there's a quiet mutual understanding here, that, again, they're both there for Godric's sake, but alas, no, Godric, you and Sookie aren't quite there yet. But you are good enough friends, at least to Sookie, that she doesn't think twice about offering you blood. Just not hers. Yet, at least.

"No trouble at all, sweetie."

She pats his shoulder and slips from the room to the nearest hatch, fetching him the A neg he'd requested.

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