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]

"That's close enough." His voice cracks like a whip. "Any closer to her and I shoot. And just so you're clear, I'm loaded with silver ammo."

[feel_human]

Bill stops, then sits back again, keeping his gaze carefully on Sam. "I will not harm her. You have my word."

[gavemea_45]

He's not exactly sure why the vampire thinks he should trust his word, but whatever.

"What about anybody else? Were you the one who killed Maudette, for instance?"

[feel_human]

Bill scowls at him. "No."

A moment; he seems to be attempting to regain his composure. "I did not come here to hunt. Nor have I killed any human, in quite some time."

[gavemea_45]

"Then why are you here?" Sam demands.

[feel_human]

"Even vampires must have a place they call home, Mister Winchester."

He stares at Sam, apparently not caring that Sam won't meet his eyes. "Jesse Compton had no living heirs. I have come to claim the house and the land which were once mine."

[gavemea_45]

He can't believe what he's hearing. A vampire making a home across the field from Sookie and her grandmother? Or worse, not just one, but--

"For you and your nest?"

[feel_human]

"No." He says it so sharply Sookie almost jumps. For a second, she can't parse the expression on his face, but then his glance flickers down, almost ashamed. "No," he repeats, more calmly.

"When vampires live in nests they become more cruel, more vicious. They become laws unto themselves. If we live alone, we are much more likely to hang onto some semblance of our former humanity."

[gavemea_45]

"I'm aware of what vampires in nests are like." Sam's tone is absolutely expressionless. His hand tightens on the Taurus's grip as he sees once again in his mind's eye the horrors they'd found in that cabin in Kentucky, both there and in the cave nearby.

Nothing had remained but ash when they left. Ash, and memory.

"Very well aware."

[feel_human]

"I see."

Bill watches Sam, while Sookie blinks back a vision of flames and the scent and sound of gunfire, a horror of limp, drained bodies. "Your kind has a code, do they not?"

His tone is almost conversational. "You hunt those which harm humans. But you have no evidence I've done anything of the kind. All I wish is to be left in peace."

[gavemea_45]

"Believe me, if I didn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Not everyone does, he knows, no matter what Bill seems to think. For that matter, he knows perfectly well what Dean would say if his brother were here right now.

He doesn't let himself think about D-- John.

[feel_human]

"Sam," Sookie says, soft. "I gotta get back to work. Could we have this conversation later?"

She turns to look at him, the look in her eyes serious. "If we're in the house, he couldn't come in. He could stay on the porch and talk to us."

[gavemea_45]

He sighs, and nods acquiescence to Sookie. "Okay. We can do that."

[feel_human]

She nods back to him, then looks levelly at Bill. "Meet us after work," she tells him. "Come to the front yard. No closer 'til I say so. Understand."

He studies her a moment, then nods, and she nods back. "Can you get back on your own?"

Again, there's the faint shade at his lips, almost like a smile. "Yes."

"Good." She gets up, dusting herself off. "Then see you later, Bill."

[gavemea_45]

Sam waits for Sookie to start back before he comes with her, but he keeps his gun aimed in Bill's direction all the way across the parking lot. He doesn't holster it until the last possible minute, but holds the door before Sookie can open it.

"Better put that chain in your pocket before we get back inside," he murmurs. "Or rig it up to look more like a necklace at least."

[feel_human]

She unwinds the chain from around her throat and slips it into her pocket with a look of distaste. "Thanks," she says, quiet.

"I know that wasn't your first choice of what we oughta do. So thanks for listenin' to me."

[gavemea_45]

He lets out another small sigh. "I just want you to be safe. Everyone to be safe. But I know you didn't want to -- well." His jaw tightens. "And I sure as hell don't agree with stripping him down for a market like that."

Sam meets her eyes. "We'll see how it goes. But if he turns out to be like the others, Sookie, you know I'll have to take care of it, right?"

[feel_human]

"I know."

She knows, and she's grateful he's giving her even this much leeway. "Come on. There's a little while left yet before we close. Go have a drink, and I'll come see you when I can, okay?"

[gavemea_45]

"Okay," Sam agrees, holding the door open for her now. "I'll be at the bar when you're ready to go."

[feel_human]

She heads in and avoids both Sam Merlotte and Tara's anxious glances as she picks back up with her tables and tries to settle her thoughts. It's maybe twenty minutes later when she finally makes her way back toward the service alley, only to be waylaid by Sam Merlotte as she passes the bar. He grabs her by the arm and hauls her, protesting, back toward his office, then shoves her inside and slams the door, pointing a finger at her. "Sookie, you are being a very stupid girl!"

"Who asked you?" she flashes back. "I can take care of myself."

[gavemea_45]

As promised, he's pretty well settled in at the end of the bar - the opposite end, this time, from where Merlotte had been working, which means instead he's facing down Sookie's friend Tara again as she glowers at him.

"Can I get another Bud?" he asks, raising his empty glass.

"You can wait for it. I'm busy," she snaps, taking a seat on a barstool and putting her feet up. "In fact, I just went on break."

[feel_human]

Sam hasn't yelled at her in... Sam hasn't ever yelled at her, but he lays into her now and she lays right back into him until he seems to snap. "Well, I won’t let you put yourself and the bar in danger. I won’t do it!"

She stares at him, her throat burning. "Am I fired?"

"What?" He stares back at her. "No! But next time you think someone is being harmed in our parking lot, pick up a phone and call the police. Do not go out there alone, like a goddamn vigilante!"

His voice is raised so high at the end that she's sure they can hear it in the dining room, and he gets in her face, and it's all just too much for her to take. She bursts into tears, and doesn't even see the way his face crumples.

[gavemea_45]

"Oh, I see how it is," Sam drawls. "Okay, I can wait. No problem."

Tara glares at him. "Be glad I don't throw this pitcher at your head rather than just making you wait for it. What the hell you think you were doing chasing Sookie outside like that?"

That catches him off guard, and he stares at her in complete surprise. "I wasn't chasing her!"

[feel_human]

"Aw, cher." Sam looks at her, helpless, then reaches to pull her into a hug. "Don't you know I couldn't stand to lose you?"

His thoughts come running into hers like a stream of warm water, all sounds and emotions that she can't keep out no matter how hard she tries.

– so warm – want you – smell so good – love you Sookie always have –

Sookie shoves back away from him, her eyes still smarting. "Oh, stop it! And stop bossing me around! Unless it pertains to work, you do not get to tell me what to do, Sam Merlotte."

She slams back out of the office in a high temper and through the back door into the night air, desperate for a little peace and quiet.

[gavemea_45]

Tara glares harder. "Sure looked like you were," she snaps. "Hard to miss you following her across the room like that."

"For the love of -- I wasn't chasing her," Sam insists. "There was something she wanted to check on, and she asked me to come with her so she didn't have to go alone. That's all."

She snorts. "Why the hell would she ask you, and not, say, me?"

Sam shrugs. "You're working. I wasn't. Simple as that."