All or Nothing
A Dance of Dragons is one long arse book. :D I still haven't finished it and haven't had time to retrieve my Sookie audiobooks. And since I have no True Blood recaps to put up, I've been lazy as hell about things on here. Plus, the end of my ring finger is disturbingly flat and weird. One of my sons laughed at me getting creeped out at it, so at least I know all is still normal, and I get no sympathy. It's numb, though, which is also weird to feel and type with - and it looks nicely browned. Like a lovely bit of chicken one would put into a smoking hot wok...and now I'm even more creeped out typing with my literal chicken finger. So to stop concentrating on its possible deliciousness and stop my descent into cannibalism, onwards we go.
There's this seeming obsession with fanfic - one that's driving me a little crazy actually - is that all the post-Deadlocked fics of any length always have the same sort of storyline. Eric leaves for some period of time to marry Freyda, or Sookie puts up with being the third wheel in Eric's marriage. As well as that, there's also this theme that if Eric does leave Sookie, she'll just spend the rest of her life alone. It's the way fanfic rolls - whatever will make the most out of Eric's angst, while degrading Sookie completely - that's what gets the popular vote. Nothing like a good, old fashioned Sookie beatdown.
I thought it would be interesting to look through Sookie's past and see if this is a reasonable predictor. I actually would hate the books if either of those scenarios end up being the way the books go. I don't think that they will go that way, so I'm looking forward to the next book. I think it's really just fanfic's way of punishing Sookie for having her own personality and agenda. But then, I would never put up with this, so I kind of think my own agenda is kind of leaking into my perspective. After all, I'm the type of woman who would dump a man and because of my pride, never ever stop that from living my life and looking for love again. I say that, because the boyfriend I had before Mr. Minty, that's exactly what I did. I'm pretty sure I loved him, but he was a shit, and I have pride, so I dumped him - love or not, he was still a shit. Looks like it was a good decision, right? Mr. Minty has all of his good points and more, and none of the serious failings.
I also think that one of the driving factors for this kind of fic is the old romantic trope that there is one true love, and you'll only ever find one person who is your true match, and that's it. If you lose that person, you'll never have it again. I think this is a lie as well, actually. I don't believe that Mr. Minty is the only man in the world I would ever find myself getting along with. After all, the great love I have with him is built through our shared experiences. I think this kind of bull comes from the unique, special snowflake thing - which would work if unique, special snowflakes come in pairs. But I can assure you, I am not mesmerised by Bear Grylls and I don't like Death Race 2000. Mr. Minty for his part couldn't give a shit about embroidery and beading, and is not mesmerised by Jo Seagar - my favourite Kiwi cook. We both happen to be a bit different in things without having to be completely incompatible.
So while I've made a substantial case that Sookie and Eric mirror each other's traits, I do not for one moment believe that Sookie's only shot at love is with Eric. I actually think that if Eric didn't lock her down so tight, she might have more options. Looking at how he shut Quinn out of the entire state, I don't think Eric Northman is averse to a bit of argy-bargy to keep the top spot. Quinn just pressed all of Eric's buttons, with his flagrant disregard for Eric declaring that he owned Sookie. I think that if Eric left the state, Sookie would find herself with a whole lot more options, not alone and lonely as fic likes to do. Because how else can a writer justify putting her through years of shit, making sure that Eric's happy all the while? But perhaps I'm letting my own gumption and self respect colour what I think would happen. So let's analyse this puppy.
Firstly, I want to look at Sookie having a possibility of other suitors. Because that's the predominant Sookie-torture plan - that she'll be alone and lonely if Eric leaves. I don't actually think that's true. Up until this time, Sookie has stayed out of supernatural stuff because she's had Eric's protection. Eric has put a bar on what she can do in the vampire world:
"Understand that he can't touch you now, that no one can unless
they petition me first. This is under penalty of final death."
Dead and Gone, p. 97
Eric is gone, and Sookie is back to working for whatever a royal will do. That means probably Las Vegas, or at least some vampire centre of activity. It depends on what Felipe wants her to do exactly. But it's in contact with vampires that she'll meet other vampires, shifters and weres. Gatherings of vampires usually have a few supes hanging around.
Not only that, but for all the qualities that attract Eric and Bill - well, I can't see why other vampires would fail to be affected by that. Being treated like a real being, and not a cardboard cut-out monster/sex machine is a powerful draw. On top of that, the extra bonus of that delicious fairy smell? Heh. You just know Eric has put dibs on Sookie in his own Area. Lots of other vampires would be interested in Sookie, not just for feeding, but for all the other things she's brought to vampires she knows, and treats well.
I know that it's often passed off, and lots of random sometimes readers have a go at Sookie - and co-opt the whole magical vagina thing from the stupid show. I offer Charles Twining as proof that that is not the draw of Sookie:
Charles Twining was a peaceful sort of guy to be around, especially for a vampire.
He didn't letch after me, and he didn't seem to want anything from me.
Dead as a Doornail, p. 102
So he's not into the whole magical vagina thing and still says this:
"Sookie," Charles said, behind me. "I truly regret this."
He was moving closer, though not very quickly. Maybe he was reluctant to do the deed.
"I have to do this," he said. "I'm sworn. I'm sorry."
Dead as a Doornail, pp. 288-289
It's about the way she treats them that has nothing to do with sex or magical vaginas. It's not because they're in love with her the moment they set eyes on her - and I think you should think people who glean this from the text are extremely poor readers. It's the way that she doesn't treat them differently and doesn't discriminate. Charles didn't fall in love with Sookie, but he did regret having to kill her, and kept waiting. Hell, he was even on alert for Mickey at the bar.
If Sookie enters the vampire world again - without Eric as a buffer - you can be sure that the next vampire she treats like a human being - and the one after that - will pursue her like mad. They all fall under the thrall of being treated like a human being. They remember that, see, from when they were a human. It's like a long forgotten drug to vampires - being treated normally. Otherwise they wouldn't bother to mainstream and get a close to normal life. Sookie is like sugar to them. Not all of them will fall for her - and she won't fall for all of them - but you can bet your arse she'd still have vampire suitors. Eric is living proof that having Sookie on your side will mean you don't get killed a bunch of times. And she's famous in the supe community:
"You're kind of famous in the supe community, Sookie."
"What?" This made no sense at all.
"You're unique. Weres like something different as much as anyone else.
You're a friend of the Shreveport pack. You've done a lot for twoeys."
Small Town Wedding, The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, p. 36
Yeah - you think twoeys are going to pass that up? No way. In fact, they're probably Eric's biggest threats as it stands. Eric has some dominion over the Shreveport weres at times - and of course, Alcide would make it clear to other werewolves that Sookie was off limits, and thanks to Felipe, Eric has control over which Shifters are allowed into the state - because he shut one out who wanted to have a relationship chat with Sookie. You think Eric hasn't put feelers out to all the supes at large with big warning signs? Of course he has. And as soon as he leaves, then door is open for shifters and Weres.
The idea that Sookie has limited options is only because Eric has made sure to tamp that shit down. Even though Quinn is vital to supernatural ceremonies, Eric has banned him from the Area. That just goes to show that Eric isn't above using underhanded tactics to keep Sookie all to himself. If Felipe leaves Sookie in Bon Temps, you can be assured that there'll be other visitors. And if she goes to Vegas, well, there are plenty of shifters who live there, and probably don't work for Felipe, so new rules are for bupkiss.
I find the idea of alone and lonely Sookie to be ludicrous. Sookie likes having sex, and as I've pointed out before, the foreveralone ending is just not in her nature. She's never going to end up that way. Even if she did, the idea of Sookie being burned so badly by Eric she swore off love - well then why would she rescind that just to get burned by Eric again? Don't make no sense other than to punish her character. In the grand scheme of things, I doubt Sookie would end up being single for long - she's had 3 affairs in the space of two years. It's not happening that way. At all.
So let's look at the idea of Eric leaving and coming back for some stupid reason. Key to this is analysing all of Sookie's past breakups. Granted, there's only been two, but they've sure been doozies. One only need to look at Bill taking off with Lorena. In fact, there's a similar "hole" in both of the points when Sookie finds out that both guys are leaving her:
It was not a night to count my blessings. It was a night when
every loss I'd ever had pressed hard on me.
The sweetest part of being a couple was sharing your life with someone else.
But my life, evidently, had not been good enough to share.
Club Dead, p. 30
That's similar to the hole that Sookie says will be left when Eric leaves:
But I couldn't imagine how I would fill the hole in my life left by his absence.
Deadlocked, p. 313
If anyone were to hang their hopes on a breakup working out between them, one only has to look at just how well it's going with Bill to think that this scenario is a probable one. Because it's only been about a year since they broke up, right, and Sookie and Bill are well on their way to marriage...wait...
It seems once you dump Sookie - once and for all - some other guy will slip into your place before you have a chance to make it up to her, and she forgives you. All three of the men Sookie has dated have followed this pattern. Bill was the first to fuck up, and it wasn't long before Eric slipped into his place. Then Eric went back to his life, and Quinn came into Sookie's life. Then Eric again when he finally remembered things and made it clear to Sookie that it wasn't casual for him. There was no point where Sookie meekly gave in because a guy really, really liked her. Alcide wanted her to move in, and Sam's been into her since the start of the books, and she didn't acquiesce to them because she was really lonely - nor to the guys that dumped her. She stood up for herself, and someone else filled the guy's shoes. Not only that, but Bill and Quinn still tried to make it work - even up to the latest book - and it has gotten them zippo.
The only guy she's given a second chance to was Eric - and that was because their first breakup had nothing to do with his will. It had to do with the spell being broken. Eric didn't finish his relationship with Sookie by his own decision the first time around, and she doesn't treat him like he does. However, Bill did choose to leave, and Sookie treated it exactly like that. Sookie has a tipping point - when you leave of your own free will and make it clear it's for another woman - maker, mother, Debbie Pelt - then Sookie is having none of that again. It's one of her best qualities, I think.
Whenever I read a story wherein Sookie supposedly went after her man, I can't help but wonder where all her pride is gone. I like that Sookie has more of an idea of self worth than to chase after men who've shown her that they reject her of their own accord. It makes her someone I can sympathise with - and it's strength of character too. And apparently, fanfic Eric never notices that he gets together with a mousy, shitty version of Sookie. Man, does he get totally taken - because the Sookie he chose to marry has more fucking pride than that:
This was making as much of the moment as I could, short of getting on my
knees and crawling over to him, which would do when hell froze over.
Dead and Gone, p. 38
See? Eric doesn't want a Sookie who'll beg to him. He didn't pick up the knife and refuse it, or act as if he treated their marriage with disdain. It was the same when Bill left too - Sookie didn't go searching for Bill until Eric came along. Even though she knew originally he was planning to be gone about eight weeks and he was lying to her, Sookie just took that. She let Bill leave, just as I think she would just let Eric leave. And she wouldn't go looking for them. I think she'd find it difficult to go and press her suit, or go back and try to search desperately like a girl with no self esteem:
"Don't look for Quinn. He knows where I am, and he's got my number."
In more ways than one, I thought sourly.
From Dead to Worse, p. 67
This is just a Sookie who worries she might have been ditched, let alone a Sookie that is actually ditched. Sookie was loyal to Quinn for a long while, but she didn't exactly throw herself out into finding him and tracking him down. What I see when I look at this situation - and at the Bill situation, when he left for Lorena - Sookie didn't immediately go on a quest to find and retrieve her lost boyfriend. She took it as par for the course.
I don't think that Eric wants a Sookie that would chase him around like a puppy dog. I daresay if she turned into a milquetoast version of all those fangbangers - the ones that call him Master, that'd take the shine off it for him. If Sookie really wanted to get rid of Eric, she could try being spineless - and I don't think he'd stick around long. If Eric put up a sign in his club, I'm sure he'd get willing women all wanting to crawl to him. After all, some of them are even prepared to die for him:
"Tell Master Eric we tried to hold them off."
Dead to the World, p. 90
This is Belinda - taking one for the vampire team. In the same incident wherein Ginger died - showing how she's willing to go that extra mile even if she's been in pain for hours, she's not swearing her head off and cursing Eric's name - all this for a bar. So, tell me, how difficult do you think it would be to find a woman who acquiesced to him all the time - playing the role of dutiful vampire acolyte? I'm thinking women like that are a dime a dozen in Eric's life. I'm thinking Sookie is the unusual one, and why he loves her. She's really there, not just phoning in her presence as a salve to his ego.
I fail to see why Sookie would change her nature in this way, just because it's Eric. After all, if Eric knowingly ditched her for Freyda, why the hell would she want him back? It's not about love for Eric - it's about love for yourself. It's about having time to get over the sheer betrayal of being left, overlooked, unloved like always:
I remembered how happy I'd been when I'd had what I thought was his
love. I'd never felt more secure in my life. How false a feeling that had
been: He'd become so absorbed in his work for the Queen of
Louisiana that I'd begun to come in a distant second.
"I don't know if we can ever have the same relationship again," I said.
"It might be possible, when I'm a little less raw from the pain of it."
Dead as a Doornail, p. 193
Sookie feels being left by Bill very keenly. It's not something that she just gets over, and then she can go back to being in love with him, and all is forgiven. I also think that Sookie's character has learnt from this. Bill was her first love, and she wrapped herself around that as a first comfort, and it all came to nothing. She says here that she felt secure - and it wasn't secure. As it turned out, it was only six months until Bill ankled her.
It was more for Sookie than just the business with Lorena, it was about the distance he created before he left. You know - that same fucking distance Eric is creating now. It was slowly but surely being winkled out of Bill's life - being disregarded and ignored - and then the leaving that did it. Bill was the first, but Eric is on the same road to doing the exact same thing. I think that with Bill, Sookie took that slight harder and became more cautious with all her future boyfriends because she was burned so badly with Bill.
Bill burned her so badly because he really drilled that insecurity down deep. It used to be that it was her reputation for weirdness and all the associated telepathy that made her undesirable. But Bill struck at the very heart of her - she was unworthy as a person. It wasn't about being intolerant, or finding logistic issues with telepathy - it was about her not being up to par. This is a first for Sookie - being rejected for who she is, rather than what she is. Bill made her unsure for the first time that who she was wasn't good enough. Beneath the disability, it is Sookie who sucks as far as Bill is concerned.
So if Eric were to leave - if he were to go for all the trappings of Freyda, I don't think Sookie would take it well at all. Because at the heart of it, Eric would be showing that Sookie isn't good enough for him:
"All I got is me. And I guess that's not enough." I waited, praying to hear a rebuttal.
Deadlocked, p. 289
I really think - and I think parts of the fandom is feeling it as well - that Eric is on a knife edge here. Hence why some of his fangirls have abandoned him. This is the bit where the supposed saintly and romantic Eric should have said "Sookie, I love you most of all - this is just business - you are so enough for me". This was not a fucking moment to keep silent and wait for the truth to dawn on Sookie, when she expressed her feelings so clearly. This should have been the moment that if Eric didn't feel this way, he should have spoken up, not let his actions - the ones where he's in engagement talks with another woman and spending time with said woman - speak for themselves.
But he didn't. Because Eric can be a dick, and he's arse backwards here. He should be thinking about how his valued wife thinks she's being discarded because she's not good enough, but he's too wrapped up in his selfishness to get that he doesn't have infinite measure of stupidity with Sookie. As we can see from the end of Deadlocked, Sookie is starting to lose patience with Eric. She's one of the only people who still believes he loves her, and she loves him, but she's failing at that.
That's because the wound that Bill left her with is being completely ignored by Eric. If he's not careful, she could abandon him here - but if he left, I don't think there would be any part of Sookie that took her lack onboard and then would be okay with Eric ever again. I truly believe that if Eric leaves the state, even if he argues it's business, he's fucked it completely because he didn't speak up when it mattered. When she expressed doubt he would stay because she isn't good enough, that's the moment Sookie would hold onto. She wouldn't come to realise - just as she didn't come to realise with Bill - that it was all part of some meta-plan that was all about doing your duty and protecting your woman. She wouldn't come to realise he really loved her, because like Bill, if Eric left, he'd be showing he didn't. It's not as if by the time Sookie heard about the Queen's plan, she and Bill were a hair's breadth away from being back together - the more time went by, the more distance there was.
Neither Bill, Quinn or Alcide had a chance after the abandoned Sookie. In fact, Alcide lost a lot of his cache when he decided not to come around:
If Alcide had known Bill and I had parted, would he have come by?
Would one thing have led to another?
Well, sure it would have. And there I'd be, stuck with a
guy who'd take the word of Debbie Pelt.
Dead to the World, p. 107
It's after this that Sookie thinking about Alcide started to diminish - and she turns down his offers. She doesn't kiss him again. It is the thought that he would value another woman over her - even if that woman is shitty - than be with Sookie. Someone who wants her so little that he's willing to just go with the flow and not bother. Someone who can't even pull their finger out and make a phone call before they just decide not to pursue the situation.
This is what Bill first made Sookie aware of - that he just didn't want to make the effort any more. That he no longer really cared all that much about what was going on in her life, and had become disinterested:
"Well, if you're so absorbed in your project,
I'll just stay away until it's over," I said slowly.
"That might be best," Bill said, after a perceptible pause,
and I felt like he'd socked me in the stomach.
Club Dead, p. 7
Lots of focus is on the later betrayal with Lorena, but their break up - the hurt Bill dished out - started earlier than Lorena. It started before Bill ever left home. It was the moment when he didn't want to be around Sookie any more - didn't want to spend time with her. He was just trying to find a way for Sookie to suggest it, and then he jumped on the opportunity.
This is another example of Sookie's pride - one of her invaluable traits. In fact all of the characters who aren't prideful tend mostly to be weak characters, like Arlene. Bill, Eric, Sookie, Pam, Sam - all of them have pride. I'd say that CH considers it to be an essential character trait. CH hasn't humiliated any of the characters either, and taken away their pride. Eric even manages to apologise without losing his pride - which is a tall order. So does Bill. Sookie's pride comes out all the time - and one of the ways that it does is that if you hurt her, if you leave her, she's going to take it on the chin. If like Alcide you never stepped up, she's just going to back away slowly and stay out of reach - much as she has done with Sam. Pride is all about wanting to be wanted, rather than being the default position.
Call me crazy, but I don't think any woman likes to be a default position you just fall into . Of course, I have been reading fanfic a while, and that makes me think that lots of women are the default women. I just don't think anyone would write a book about a woman whose great love story was "Yeah, there's no one around right now I want, so I'll have at you, darling". Just as I don't think Sookie will just settle for Sam because he's there, I doubt Sookie's story will be about Eric settling for her. I think that the bond made Sookie Eric's default position, and now he's got choice and he's not sure if he should choose her.
I think though that this choice was put at the end of the books because it's a final one, and the distance of time is untenable for too long. Every day that Eric waits, he is eroding what he has with Sookie already. She's forgiving, but even the most forgiving person has their limits. The moment Eric fails to make any effort with Sookie will be the moment when the ideas Sookie already has about herself and her worth to vampires will be pressed hard on her:
Winning me! The very phrase made me hurt worse. He'd never thought of me as a prize.
Definitely Dead, p. 187
Sookie has never felt like a prize to anyone. This false belief that suddenly she'll realise she should have been fighting all along to keep Eric? Wrong. She'll swear off vampires forever - because why would you bother? After the business with the Queen, Sookie didn't trust new vampires that came along - we don't see her making friends with new vampires and inviting more of them into her life as she used to when she was first with Bill, giving vampires a chance. This will be the moment when she decides that all of this is just how it goes with vampires - that they really do think of her as vermin...except when she's a useful tool to them.
Sookie had her first falter at the hands of Bill - discarding her to go back to Lorena. Whatever it was - and Bill's story has changed and seems fishy to me as just a forced thing - Eric will echo the exact same sentiment if he leaves with Freyda. The line between forced and wanting is all blurred up already, because Eric isn't leaping to his own defence. Sookie says she's not enough, Eric is silent. His lack of response condemns him. That can be rectified if he stays, because he ultimately chooses her - and it's obviously a choice. But that will all be for naught if he sets foot outside the state. I can't see any way he could convince her based on what he's failed to say - that it's all just business and she's enough for him - that he will be able to pull off what Bill couldn't.
This is also in light of the things that Eric himself has said about another suitor who abandoned Sookie - and he hasn't quite gotten it yet that he's doing the exact same thing:
"It's Quinn who's cruel, promising you he'd be here and then not keeping his word."
There was a dark element in Eric's voice, an undertone of anger.
From Dead to Worse, p. 52
Eric certainly didn't think kindly of Quinn doing this to Sookie - abandoning her to waiting on him coming around. And yet, in all but name, he's done that so far. If Eric left Sookie, even if he returned for good, then every single good thing he had to say about what a wonderful choice he is is thereby undermined. Going because you got your memory back and didn't recall the relationship is one slight you can live through. Wilfully leaving - after all the rhetoric when Bill and Quinn were gone about how Sookie deserved better? Hollow as fuck.
There are two common scenarios that spring up in fanfic - one that Sookie is fine with Eric continuing to be married to Freyda, but in name only. Yeah...that's not going to work. Sookie already wants to be married, and considering the pitiful excuse of a marriage she has right now, she's not going to give that up for less. Sookie wants to be married ultimately:
Vampires can't marry, not yet, not legally; not that a vampire had
asked me, I reminded myself, tossing a washcloth into the
hamper a little forcefully. Perhaps I could stand a long
association with a Were or a shifter, since their thoughts
weren't clear. But there again, where was the willing Were?
Dead to the World, p. 128
No vampire has asked her yet - but I don't think she'd stand for not only a divorce, but long term shacking up together while he's nominally married to someone else. That idea doesn't quite fly for Sookie. Look at how much trouble she had with Gran going outside the bounds of her marriage - and I doubt if Sookie wants to be a real kept woman and mistress. Sookie takes vows seriously, and I doubt that she'd just throw that all aside for love and so that she could be the vampire's moll for Eric.
Sookie probably would be able to settle for someone who doesn't ask her but wants to be married to her, but I don't believe she'll ever settle for being the bit on the side, rather than the wife. I doubt very much she'd go from "wife for political reasons" and get downgraded to "bit on the side" with happiness and love. There's that pesky pride for one thing. Not to mention that "bit on the side" is usually low priority. They come at the bottom rung of stuff to do. Sookie makes a very astute observation about that:
"She won't win," Eric said. He sounded confident, passionate -
everything I might have hoped would be reassuring.
"You're sure?" I asked.
"Yes, my lover. I'm sure."
"But you're not here," I observed, and I hung up very gently.
Deadlocked, p. 179
Eric's going on about how Freyda won't win - but as long as they are apart, Freyda wins. Even if Eric is off doing political stuff to fend Freyda off, that's time away from Sookie. Sookie isn't gaining lifetime while he's spending time with Freyda - no matter what he's doing with her. Eric can say what he likes - but as long as he's away from her, it's all just words.
Particularly since Freyda wants Eric to be her second, he'd have to ask her for a night off, and go see his "bit on the side". There would be no weeks he has off - like Pam, Eric will be required to be there all the time for Freyda. She'll have to be able to call on him, and be there for her. Apart from the fact that the amount of time he has in a night is severely shortened already, this would be an epic pain in the arse. Sookie could look forward to seeing Eric once a month, and he has to sleep with Freyda once a year. Sounds like a wonderful marriage...wait...fuckbuddy relationship - since they can't marry.
If Eric married Freyda in name only, I just can't see her giving Eric the time to build a good relationship with Sookie. She doesn't really believe love is a real thing Eric feels. She's not going to have any compassion for some little human woman - or she wouldn't be pressing her suit like she is. If she was nice she wouldn't be a Queen, and she wouldn't be trying to strong arm Eric out of a marriage. So she wouldn't actually help them keep their relationship going - she needs Eric as a second, so I'm not thinking she'd only keep him on retainer for big fights. Otherwise she could just hire occasional vampire muscle.
If Eric hasn't already noticed - and if he's pulled his head out long enough to notice - then he'd realise his marriage is in serious trouble, and any misstep will just make it worse. Of course, that's what Eric seems to specialise in:
"For weeks, it seems like we haven't really been a couple, though you
still tell everyone I'm your wife. Lately, that's just meant we have sex."
Deadlocked, p. 288
Under this scenario where Eric mouths the words about being a wife, seemingly comes round just to have sex and then takes off to have discussions with another woman. This isn't different to what he could offer Sookie if he really was at Freyda's beck and call all the time. Contrary to what fanfic portrays, there is more to being in a relationship than sex. For Sookie it's all about the little constant things - the stuff you can't do when your fuckbuddy is always on the phone to his wife:
For what seemed like forever, my spare time had been
taken up by Eric. We were making plans to meet, or
we were together, or we were talking on the telephone.
Deadlocked, p. 312
Apart from the fact he'd be in Oklahoma, and she'd be the Second's human weakness (oh yeah - that always ends well *coughCharlesTwiningVictorcough*) so that would mean moving house and being the target of all the vampires who want to distract Eric so they can kill Freyda - but she wouldn't have any time with him. Sookie is hardly going to want to spend time with Freyda, and I doubt Freyda would let such a vulnerable human in on her plans. I mean geez, even Eric doesn't do that:
"You don't tell me everything about your business, am I right?"
"Most important is that some of it you could only worry
about, and the rest of it might put you in danger."
Dead Reckoning, p. 68
So as long as Eric is with Freyda, discussing the business of the state, he's in Oklahoma and not with Sookie. Even if she moved to Oklahoma, then she still wouldn't be welcome at meetings. Of course, she'd have to be particularly careful too - because Bill wouldn't be just a holler away - so she'd have to rely on unknown vampires keeping her safe. Don't even bother to volunteer Pam for guard duty, that would bore the living shit out of Pam. On top of that, Freyda doesn't buy into love at all, so she's not going to be sending Eric home early. It would mean one or two hours of Eric time a night - Sookie couldn't sit in Freyda's living room and read while they worked, and I'm quite sure she wouldn't want to.
So I think any fanfic half-arse attempt at getting Sookie together with Eric while he's with Freyda, or after he left for Freyda is not supported by the text. It would make nonsensical nonsense out of Sookie's character as well. She'd be almost indistinct from Belinda, Ginger and Lisbet, and thus it would be hard to grasp why exactly their relationship would still work.I don't think Sookie wants to be alone, and I don't think she'd be happy that way. I don't think she'd stay that way for long - she has too much get up and go to just lay down and give up - not to mention the considerable draw she already has and has had for supe men. Nor do I think she would be content with the scraps from Freyda's table. In my final looking back, I think my own thinking is right. It won't end this way. If Eric doesn't want to give all of himself, some other man will step up to the plate - Sookie is an all or nothing type of woman.