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

[feel_human]

"Only now can I reclaim my property without evicting a living descendant," Bill answers, smoothly.

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh. And where have you been all this time?"

He's still careful not to look the vampire in the eyes, but that doesn't stop him from confronting him as directly as he can.

[feel_human]

Bill looks faintly amused. "A great many places. As might be expected, when one suddenly has almost infinite time on one's hands.

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh," Sam says again. "Have you been waiting to reclaim your property all this time?

[feel_human]

"No," Bill says, easily. "But I am not one to pass up on an opportunity when it presents itself."

He looks back at Sookie, who meets his gaze unflinchingly. "If you're so old," she says, challenging, "I guess you've killed a lot of people."

He doesn't glance away, or prevaricate. "I killed a few by accident at first," he admits. He sounds apologetic, but how much of that is real? "I was never sure when I was gonna get my next feed. But it's all different now. I can get donor blood from a clinic. Or I can glamour someone into letting me feed on them for love...and then they'll forget all about it."

[gavemea_45]

"Answer me this." Everything about his cool, level tone screams of careful control.

"Why were you stalking Sookie?"

[feel_human]

She folds her arms a little more tightly and watches Bill carefully. He glances to Sam and back to her again. "I was doing no such thing," he says, and his own tone is carefully even.

"I am... interested in her."

[gavemea_45]

"You waited outside Merlotte's until she got off work and you could get her alone," Sam counters. "You cornered against her car. That's stalking. But whatever."

He lets that sink in for half a second, then says, "I asked you this before and you said it wasn't my business. Well, it sure as hell is hers. So I'll ask you again: what is the nature of your interest in her?"

[feel_human]

"I could ask you the same thing."

He studies Sam, unblinking, through the screen door. "I was not the only one waiting outside her place of work that night. I may not even have been the most dangerous thing doin' precisely that."

His gaze tracks, insolent, down to Sam's forearm, where the knife had been stashed that night. "I wonder, Sookie, if you've asked your beau here how many lives he's taken?"

[gavemea_45]

"You're right," he admits, without hesitation. "I was. I figured there was a chance you'd come after her, and I wanted to make sure she was safe."

Sam shrugs. "Sookie can ask me anything she wants to, and I'll tell her."

[feel_human]

"I think we might be gettin' a little off track," Sookie cuts in, a little hastily. "Bill, just... tell me, please. Is there a reason why you're... interested?"

He looks at her for a long, long moment. "I think you know why," he says, and it's honestly gentle. "There are things you can do which you cannot explain. Am I right?"

She watches him, wide-eyed and wary, as he goes on. "I knew you were different from that first moment you came to take my order."

For a second, he looks almost pained, his face full of a bone-deep longing she can't explain. "I can... smell the sunlight on your skin."

[gavemea_45]

As he takes in that expression, he wonders for the first time how Bill became a vampire in the first place.

"Do you know why she can?" he asks, not exactly gentle, but with less animosity than before. "What does that mean to you?"

[feel_human]

Bill shakes his head, still keeping his eyes on Sookie. "I've never seen anythin' quite like you," he says, low. "And I am not yet certain what it means."

[gavemea_45]

"She's not a thing," Sam snaps, glaring flatly at Bill.

[feel_human]

"Sam," she says, soft, her arms tight around herself.

She doesn't continue, only breathes evenly until she can control her voice. "But my parents were human. My brother's human."

Bill shakes his head, very slightly. "I cannot explain that for you, Sookie. I'm sorry."

[gavemea_45]

He subsides, letting Sookie take the lead in this, at least for now, and brushes his hand over her back again.

"When you say you're not yet certain," he starts, carefully. "What do you mean by that?"

[feel_human]

For the first time, Bill looks a little exasperated. "I am only one vampire," he points out. "I may be over a hundred years old, but I am still very young in comparison to some, who are far more likely to know somethin' of use."

He gives Sam a level glance. "Although, if you're interested in what makes Sookie so special, perhaps you could ask some connections of your own, Mister Winchester."

There's a beat as he regards Sam, coolly. "Did you think perhaps I wouldn't check for information about you, too? You're quite the prodigy, so I hear."

[gavemea_45]

Fuck. His hand tenses against Sookie's back. Sam holds himself unnaturally still.

He's going to have to send a message to Dean. He can't leave them unaware, just in case.

"No, I kind of figured you'd do something like that," he returns, coldly. "Sorry to disappoint you, though. I'm no prodigy, just a normal guy."

[feel_human]

"Oh, I doubt that," Bill says, softly. "I doubt that very much."

"Please, stop," Sookie bursts out, impatient. "Y'all don't like each other, fine. But, Sam, Bill did save my life last night, and Bill, Sam's been protectin' me. And you can't argue he's not right to worry about me when a vampire's hangin' around! So knock it off!"

Bill looks slightly – very slightly – abashed, and inclines his head. "My apologies."

[gavemea_45]

Sam doesn't apologize, but he changes his approach. "Okay, Sookie." He looks back at Bill, focusing on his mouth. "How'd you know she was in trouble, anyway?"

[feel_human]

"I was still recovering from their attack," Bill replies, smoothly. "I was not yet so far away that I could not hear what happened."

[gavemea_45]

His eyes narrow.

"Then how come it took so long to get to her?"

[feel_human]

"I was recovering," Bill repeats, with an air of patience, as Sookie glances up at Sam, her brows furrowing at the suspicion in the brush of his thoughts. "And not moving at my usual speed. Which is why I was close enough to respond at all, as I just said."

[gavemea_45]

He makes a slightly dissatisfied sound, but leaves it at that for the present.

"So now what?"

[feel_human]

Bill shrugs, lightly. "Now, I hope this unpleasantness is behind us. Who knows?"

He looks at Sookie, and though he doesn't precisely smile, something in his expression softens. "We may come to enjoy bein' neighbors."