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]

For the first time since she'd stepped out the back door of Merlotte's, her shy smile flickers back over her lips.

"It's kinda relaxin'."

[gavemea_45]

Sam laughs a little. "So that's good, right?"

[feel_human]

Her smile grows, despite everything. "Uh-huh."

It is, and she'd thought so, herself, hadn't she? But she sobers up quickly enough. "But I just can't see how it wouldn't be related. My disability, I mean. With Bill showin' up, and all. It's the only thing that's different about me."

[gavemea_45]

"Why do you call it a disability?"

Sam frowns, thinking. She's probably right, and he doesn't like it. "He came right in," he says, slowly. "They don't usually do that, unless they're looking for trouble. Sat down at one of your tables. If he knew about you... it might be important to find out how."

He looks like he's bitten into a lemon at the very thought.

[feel_human]

"Why wouldn't I?"

It's sure as hell kept her from having a normal life. But she brushes past that, watching him with troubled eyes. "I guess that means talkin' to him again, huh?"

[gavemea_45]

"I have to say, it wasn't what I was planning," Sam says, a little grimly. "I don't like it. But I like the idea of another of his nest showing up and catching you unawares a hell of a lot less."

[feel_human]

"Nest?"

She certainly doesn't like the sound of that. "You think there might be more?"

[gavemea_45]

"Sometimes they hunt in groups," he admits, reluctantly. "Sometimes alone, but not always. Not that we've - that I've seen, anyway."

[feel_human]

She absorbs this, lifting her glass to finally take a sip of the sweet tea, letting its familiar taste soothe her.

"How would we be able to find that out?"

[gavemea_45]

Sam breathes in and out, and gives her a steady look. "Come daylight, I was figuring on checking out this Compton place to see if he really was there. And if he was... dealing with him."

[feel_human]

She has the sinking suspicion she knows what he's going to say, even without hearing his thoughts. "Dealin' with him how, exactly?"

[gavemea_45]

"Making sure he wasn't going to hurt anyone. Ever again," Sam says, steadily. "But now, it's more complicated."

[feel_human]

She blows a breath through her lips. "I can't say I feel all that great about murderin' my new neighbor," she says, wry, "even if he is a vampire. And I guess he's probably done a lot of bad things, but... he didn't hurt me tonight. He didn't even try. And..."

Sookie leans forward, studying him. "Not to put too fine a point on it, Sam, but with the way he moved, I think he probably could've, even with you there."

[gavemea_45]

"They're fast," Sam has to admit. "I figured he'd go for my throat, not my gun."

He'd also figured on getting hurt, maybe bad, to get the shot he'd have needed.

"Strong, too. Not invulnerable. But they're hard to deal with. But, Sookie..." He meets her eyes. "I don't want him coming after you."

[feel_human]

"I appreciate that." She says it gently, her eyes steady on his.

"But I can't stay in this house forever. I've gotta be back out tomorrow night, either way."

[gavemea_45]

Sam blows out a breath. "Which is why I was figuring on dealing with him before then," he points out. "But now - at the very least, I'll stick with you, watch your back. I've got some stuff to use in a fight, and I can get more. Fire hurts them; silver too, bad. Sunlight. Decapitation."

[feel_human]

She winces, but nods, clinging to practicality. Whatever she might think of the idea, there's no doubting Sam's right about the danger of the situation. She saw those fangs, clear as day.

Her mouth tucks in a rueful half-smile, and her glance drops. "I have to admit, this isn't exactly what I was hopin' you'd be sticking around a bit for."

[gavemea_45]

Sam blinks in surprise, then ducks his head with a bashful smile of his own.

"It doesn't have to be the only reason."

[feel_human]

She can feel her cheeks warming again, and takes a swallow of her tea to cool them back down. "Well."

The tea helps, a little. "I'd hate for it to be the only reason. I feel bad enough you were just passin' through and got roped into all this weirdness that follows me around."

[gavemea_45]

“Sookie, no.” Sam leans forward, earnest, trying to get her to believe him by sheer will.

“Don’t think that. You could say it’s the other way around just as easy. I’m the one who’s usually caught up in things like this. But I’m glad. Glad I’m here; glad I met you.”

[feel_human]

"I'm glad I met you, too," she says, soft, and looks up to meet his gaze.

When he's looking at her this intent, and his thoughts are bent on her like they are just now, she gets just enough to know he's not telling her lies, and it makes her smile curve a little further before it turns a little teasing. "Not just 'cause I'm not sure that lil' dog coulda kept a vampire off me, even if he tried."

[gavemea_45]

Sam grins. “He might have been a little outmatched, yeah. I bet he’d try, though. He seems like a good dog.”

He’s still looking at her. He can’t seem to make himself look away. “You must be tired,” he says, after a second.

[feel_human]

"Well, I wouldn't want him to get hurt tryin'. Or anyone else, either."

Which reminds her of the way the cords had stood out in his neck when Bill wrenched the gun from his hand. "I guess. But it always takes me a while to unwind after closin' anyhow. Sam, is your wrist okay?"

She tries to see if there's any visible sign of hurt. "I am so sorry, I clean forgot. Did Bill hurt you when he grabbed that gun?"

[gavemea_45]

“It’s okay,” he reassures her. “A little sore maybe, but that’s all. He didn’t break it.”

Which may have been pure luck more than anything, but there it is. He turns his hand palm-up on the table so she can see he’s not hiding anything…other than the knife in its sleeve sheath.

[feel_human]

It might not be broken, but it looks a little red and swollen, and when she reaches forward to set light fingers at the strangely delicate bones of his wrist, his skin feels warmer than it should. "Don't you move a muscle," she tells him, and pushes her chair back to get up.

"I'll be right back."