saturday night and the moon is out

[feel_human]

Tucked away off the road in Bon Temps, there's a road house. Warm light spills from its windows, and the sound of a jukebox playing drifts out into the muggy Louisiana night. The regular assortment of trucks and Hail-Mary-please-keep-this-lemon-goin'-just-a-little-longer cars sit in the dirt parking lot; what amounts to about half the town's small population... or, at least, of those of the 'drinking age and above' persuasion.

Inside, it's a bar of the type scattered all across the American South: homey, no-nonsense. Booths and tables. A man in a plaid flannel shirt wiping the bar; a crossdresser in the kitchen singing Gospel hymns and rolling his hips in time with the words just to scandalize the prep cook. A handful of waitresses, bustling about.

Sookie makes her way briskly through it all, a tray balanced on her palm and her eyes kept stubbornly front, as voices swarm around her. Aloud, and... less so.

...I’m just going to have one beer tonight Jesus one beer that’s all...

...better not gripe about me eating fries not after what I did for him last night...

...I cannot wait to get the hell out of this podunk town...

 

 "Well, make sure you do, and before it’s too late," she responds, thoughtless, to the young man. "Because every year you wait? You just get more and more stuck here. Believe me, I know."

He stares at her. So do his parents.

So does the other table. And she realizes, too little too late, that he hadn't said that out loud, not at all. She laughs, uncomfortable. "I’ll get y'all some ketchup," she says, brightly, and flees, ponytail swinging against the nape of her neck as she goes.

Stupid, Sookie, she chides herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Comments

[gavemea_45]

He takes the hint and butters the fragrant, flaky biscuit, but nearly has to close his eyes in bliss at the taste of it.

Sam looks at Adele Stackhouse in pure admiration.

[feel_human]

"Land sake's, child," Adele chuckles, flattered. "It's only a biscuit."

"It's one of your biscuits, Gran," Sookie says, smiling, but she puts another on Sam's plate, then takes one for herself and pulls it apart to eat the soft, steaming layers.

[gavemea_45]

"Sookie's right," Sam insists. "I've never had a biscuit like this before."

Dean would love this. For an instant, Sam misses his brother all the way to the depths of his soul before he reminds himself that Dean has his phone number, Dean could call him if he wants, or even find him. He turns his attention back to the present and gives Sookie a grin.

[feel_human]

She doesn't even know his brother, but already she wishes she could give him the scolding he so obviously deserves, just from the flashes she gets every now and then from Sam's thoughts.

"Well, you enjoy them," Adele's telling Sam, pleased as punch with how much he likes her cooking. "We'll just have to feed you proper while you're here."

[gavemea_45]

Sam turns a quick grin on Adele and sneaks another biscuit off the tray. "Yes ma'am," he teases.

[feel_human]

Adele smiles beneficently back at him and sips at her coffee, while Sookie laughs and takes another biscuit, herself. "When you're done, I'll show you where the mower is," she tells Sam.

"I figure I oughta be done with everythin' else by the time you finish. That cuts my chore time in half."

[gavemea_45]

"You got it," Sam promises. He makes his way through the last biscuit at a slower pace, appreciating it wholly, then reaches for the coffee again to finish that off as well. He plans to time it so that he's done about the same time Sookie finishes her own breakfast.

"Mrs. Stackhouse, is there anything else around that needs doing? Things on high shelves, like you said before, maybe?"

[feel_human]

"I'll write you up a list," Gran says, though Sookie sees the teasing light in her eyes. She flicks her fingers at them over her coffee as Sookie finishes her own and sets her mug in the sink. "Go on, then. It's gonna be another hot day, best to finish before the temperature rises."

[gavemea_45]

He takes his plate and cup over to the sink and adds them to Sookie's, then looks at her.

"Ready when you are."

[feel_human]

"Come on, then."

She's all ready to do her chores, in her light tank and cut-offs and old sneakers, and she leads him out to the unscreened front porch, shaded from the early Louisiana sunshine, then jogs down the porch steps. "You sure you don't mind us puttin' you to work?" she asks, glancing at him over her shoulder. "We were just teasin' you, really."

[gavemea_45]

"I'm sure." Sam hurries down the stairs and takes a longer step or two to catch up with her. "I meant what I said, I wouldn't feel right not helping out."

[feel_human]

"Okay, then." She supposes it's a taste of that 'normal life' he'd been wanting, if nothing else, and she has to admit it'll make her morning a little easier.

Sookie leads him around back to where the shed stands, a little rickety and sunfaded, just past the clotheslines. Lifting the latch, she leads him in and gestures to the old mower. "It's not much, but it gets the job done."

[gavemea_45]

"That's what counts, right?" He looks it over, matching it to memories of the couple of times Pastor Jim had let him or Dean mow the churchyard while they were staying with him, and wheels it out of the shed.

"Front, back, and sides, I'm guessing?" Sam gives her a quick smile. "I'm on it."

[feel_human]

His smile's even sweeter in the sunshine, and she smiles back without hesitation. "You're a natural," she teases, and slips her hands into the back pockets of her shorts so she doesn't go doing anything that might make her tardy with her own chores.

"Thanks, Sam."

[gavemea_45]

"No problem." He wheels the mower over to what he thinks is a good starting point, pulls the starter cord a few times until he gets it to work, then grimaces at the roar of the motor.

Sam shakes his head and sets off with a will. It'll be good to help out - and he'll get another close look at the surroundings in the process, he figures.

[feel_human]

The buzz of the mower is a reassuring background noise as she heads into the house for her own chores. She puts in a load of laundry, then washes and wipes the breakfast dishes, and gives the kitchen a wipe-down before going around the first floor with a duster and damp mop.

By the time the load's nearly ready to take out, Sam's been at it long enough to have gotten a good portion done, and the sun's climbing higher in the sky. She stops off in the kitchen and pours a tall glass of iced lemonade, then makes her way out to the porch and down before looking around to see where Sam might be with the mower.

[gavemea_45]

There's something almost soothing about the work. Sam uses the time to mull over next steps for dealing with the vampire problem. By the time he finishes the back and one side of the house and has made major inroads on the front, he's got a couple of ideas. A lot depends on if Bill had been lying about where he's laired up, which Sam has to admit is pretty damn likely.

A flicker of motion at the corner of his eye catches his attention. He pulls the mower to a halt and looks over at Sookie, who's just come down the steps.

[feel_human]

"It's hot as blazes out here," she says, coming down the drive and walking over the grass to hold out the frosty glass of lemonade to him. "Here. You must be dyin' of thirst."

[gavemea_45]

He shuts off the mower and takes the drink with alacrity. "Thanks. You're right, it's pretty hot."

The lemonade is fresh and cool and sweet and tastes like heaven. Sam finishes a third of the glass before he lowers it and smiles at her.

"How's it looking so far?"

[feel_human]

She puts her hands on her hips and turns, surveying his work. "Looks nice and mowed to me," she observes, and looks back at him with a smile.

"You gettin' tired of it yet?"

[gavemea_45]

"It's kind of fun. Probably not if you have to do it all the time, though, I guess."

Sam looks around, checking his own progress, and looks back at Sookie. "I should be done pretty soon, I think. Are you waiting on me?"

[feel_human]

"No," she says, and smiles a winsome smile at him. "I gotta go hang the laundry on the line still. I just figured I'd come make sure you stayed hydrated."

[gavemea_45]

"Thank you." Sam raises the glass to her and downs another third of it. "Let me guess, you or your grandmother probably made this from scratch, from real lemons?"

[feel_human]

"That's the only way to do it," she says, grinning widely at his enjoyment. "And there's a whole pitcher still in the fridge, and plenty of lemons, so you can have as much as you want."

[gavemea_45]

"I'm used to the powdered stuff that you mix with water," Sam informs her. "So I'll take you up on that."

He glances around, just to make sure no one's sneaked up on them - although the chance of that in bright daylight's basically nonexistent. Still.

"I took a look around earlier, like I said I would. Didn't find anything, though."