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]

“I’m so sorry,” Sam says, even as everything deep inside goes cold and still.

“She was strangled?” A great way to hide other marks, if someone wanted to.

Or some thing.

[feel_human]

"Can you believe it?" Gran marvels. "A murder, right here in Bon Temps."

"Well, I don't know why you're surprised." Jason gets up and brings his plate to the sink. It's not quite cleaned all the way, and Sookie frowns at him. "There's things worse 'n that happens even here. Stuff you'd never have guessed at, not in a million years."

Sookie's frown deepens. "How do you know that?"

"I don't know, Sookie!" He turns, a flash of anger and something else in his eyes as he lashes out at her. "The way you just know things, sometimes!"

[gavemea_45]

“Hey,” Sam says, sharply. “Low blow, man.”

Not that the guy’s likely wrong about the town, but that’s not the point.

[feel_human]

She swallows her hurt as Jason turns to wash his hands, but something in his eyes when he turns up has her frowning once more.

He drops his gaze, quickly – guiltily? – and she's up out of her chair in the next second, her hands cradling his face as she looks into his eyes. "Jason," she murmurs. "What did you do?"

There's a second where he stares at her, hunted, before he angrily pushes her off and looks away. "Don't you try that with me, goddammit," he spits. "I am your brother."

[gavemea_45]

“She’s just worried about you.” Sam doubts that’s going to go over too well, but it’s all right if Jason turns his aggression on him.

Stuff you’d never have guessed at. Has he seen something? Something he thinks no one would believe? Cautiously, Sam tries, “You’re right, you know. There’s weird stuff out there.”

[feel_human]

Jason glances around at them, then at Sam, and for a second Sookie thinks he's going to say something.

But then he just tenses up and shakes his head. "I gotta get back to work," he mutters, and slams his way out the back door, work boots heavy on the gravel outside before they hear the slam of the truck door and the roar of the engine.

[gavemea_45]

Sam blows out a breath and looks back and forth between the two women.

“Well.”

[feel_human]

There's a moment of hung silence, and then Gran puts on a smile, pretending with all her might that none of that just happened. "Well, you two eat up, now. I always make more than we need, so there's plenty.

Sookie slides back into her chair and gives Sam an apologetic glance.

[gavemea_45]

Sam blinks, caught off guard. “Yes, ma’am,” he says, and gives Sookie an uncertain look. “It’s very good.”

[feel_human]

She gives him a rueful look back, and turns to her food, though she just toys with it until Adele bustles out the back door to take down the laundry.

"Sorry," she says, when she and Sam are alone. "Jason can be kind of a handful."

[gavemea_45]

“Don’t worry about it. I know what that’s like,” he assures her. “Are you okay?”

[feel_human]

"I'm okay," she promises, soft, then sighs and pushes away her plate.

"Poor Maudette."

[gavemea_45]

“Were you close?” He makes it as gentle as he can.

[feel_human]

She thinks back to high school, to making herself as small as she could by her locker while the cheerleaders walked by. Thinks of one of them, dark-haired and haughty.

- don’t stare at me you creepy little bitch of a freak can you hear me you suck Sookie Stackhouse you suck like a goddamn Hoover can you hear me -

"Not even a little. She hated me." She leans on the table and looks over at him. "But she didn't deserve this."

[gavemea_45]

“No,” Sam agrees. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess things like this don’t usually happen around here?”

[feel_human]

"Never, that I've heard of."

Her appetite's gone completely. She gets up and clears her plate, then leans back against the counter. "This has always been a real safe place. Sam, you don't think..."

She glances at the back door and lowers her voice. "A vampire wouldn't strangle somebody, would they?"

[gavemea_45]

“If they were trying to hide fang marks, they might.” He keeps his voice just as low, and as gentle as he can. Following her lead, he clears his own plate, then turns his chair around to face her and resumes his seat so that she doesn’t have to look up at him.

[feel_human]

"Yeah, but... you'd think the cops mighta noticed if she didn't have any blood, right?"

She blows out a breath and folds her arms over her stomach. "We better talk to Gran," she decides, quiet but firm. "Right away. I don't want to leave her alone tonight without her knowin' about Bill."

[gavemea_45]

“Not if he didn’t take all of it.”

He can’t see the way she holds herself and not try to do something. He’s on his feet before he realizes he’s moving, and holds out both hands to her. “Come here?”

[feel_human]

She comes off the counter and uncrosses her arms, then sets her small hands in his big ones. Her fingers look so delicate, next to his, as she takes a step closer to look up into his face, her eyes big and dark and solemn.

[gavemea_45]

He pulls her a little closer and wraps both arms around her in a warm embrace, trying to comfort.

“It’ll be okay,” he promises. “If it’s him, I’ll stop him.”

[feel_human]

He's so tall that she can't even put her head on his shoulder, just his chest, and it makes her feel more petite than ever. But she likes it, she decides, after the first thrill of surprise and uncertainty has run through her and gone. She can hear his heart beating, steady and reassuring. "I know," she whispers, and allows herself a moment to close her eyes, feeling his warmth and arms around her and the quiet murmur of his thoughts, before she looks up at him.

"I believe you."

[gavemea_45]

Sam searches her face, trying to put all the sincerity he feels in his own. “Good,” he whispers. “Because I mean it.”

[feel_human]

Her smile flickers and her eyes turn warm. "I know you do," she reminds him, low. "I can tell, remember?"

[gavemea_45]

“I know, but I felt like I should say it, too,” Sam tells her. “Instead of assuming.”