feel_human | saturday night and the moon is out

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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.”

From:

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."

From:

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.

From:

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?"

From:

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.

From:

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."

From:

gavemea_45

“I — what? Okay,” he manages, looking up at her in surprise.

“Sookie, I’m okay, really.”

From:

feel_human

"You think I haven't seen Jason and all his macho-male buddies make a whole bunch of not-bad injuries worse 'cause they wanted to look tough?" she says, over her shoulder, before she disappears with a brisk step down the hall to the bathroom.

In the next moment, she's back and setting a couple of ibuprofen on the table for him, an ACE bandage in the other hand. "You will be okay in the mornin' if you let me tie up that wrist of yours tonight so you don't go makin' it worse."

From:

gavemea_45

He looks up at her, standing there practically on fire with determination, and back down again with an abashed smile. “Okay,” he says again. “Just let me—“

Carefully, Sam rolls up his sleeve and secures the spring blade, then removes the sheath and sets the weapon to the side so there won’t be any accidents before he glances back up at her.

From:

feel_human

"Probably a good idea," she says, amused and practical. "Or you'll be bandaging me up."

Once he's ready, she tugs her chair from its spot and brings it around the table so she can sit, back straight and ankles crossed, around the corner from him. "You take those pills," she orders, and lifts his hand with a gentle touch to start winding the bandage around his wrist.

From:

gavemea_45

He could swear he feels sparks zip up his nerves from her fingers. Sam gulps down the pills with a swallow of tea and makes himself hold very, very still.

“You’re good at this,” he murmurs. “And you’re taking all of - well, everything - really well.”

From:

feel_human

"Well, it wouldn't do much good to go into hysterics about it, would it?"

Her tone and words are as practical as her touch, which she tries not to let linger, even though she hasn't been this close to a boy in longer than she'd like to admit. But she likes his rangy shoulders and his big, gentle hands; she likes the blunt, squared-off angle of his thumb. And she likes the dimples in his cheeks, the shy, serious look in his eyes.

She chances a glance up, sees him watching her, and looks back down again with her cheeks turning pink. "As for bein' good at it... thank my brother for getting into all his scrapes and needin' someone to patch him up, I guess."

From:

gavemea_45

"I know a little bit about what that's like." Low and a little wry. He can't help but wonder how Dean's doing; if Dean'll ever forgive him for leaving the way he did.

"But you really are handling it well, Sookie. You're really brave."

From:

feel_human

"I don't know about that."

She winds the wrap carefully around his palm and the joint of his thumb, securing his wrist without making it too tight, then secures the bandage with a gentle touch. Finished with her task, she can feel her hands beginning to tremble once more, even though she's still touching his wrist to smooth out the bandage. "I guess I'm the last person who could say somethin' sounds crazy or impossible. And I don't believe in cowerin' away. But..."

She lifts her eyes, large and dark and solemn, to meet his, and her voice drops to a bare whisper. "But I am scared, Sam. Honestly, I'm scared to death."

From:

gavemea_45

Her fingers shiver against his hand, and between that and her admission he realizes that she's a lot more scared than she's been showing. Sam shifts, taking both her hands between his, curving his fingers protectively around hers.

"It's going to be okay," he promises, holding on.

From:

feel_human

His hands dwarf hers in size and swamp her in sensation: warm skin and textured bandage and gentleness. He holds her hands like a man cradling a fragile egg, and when was the last time someone was protective over her?

Between his touch and his proximity and his eyes on her, she can hear the sincerity behind his words. A tiny smile flutters at the corner of her mouth. "Okay," she whispers. "I believe you."

From:

gavemea_45

"Good. Because I mean it." He gives her hands a light squeeze, but doesn't let go.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? Answer questions, talk about something else, um... anything at all?"

He knows exactly what Dean would suggest and wills himself not to flush at the thought.

From:

feel_human

He's still looking at her and still touching and her defenses are so shattered right now they might not as well exist, and if she could hear him like she can other people, she's pretty sure she'd be getting a crystal-clear look into his mind right now.

As it is, she gets just enough to make her blush, hotly. She's caught so much more than she's ever wanted to know from the men in the bar, but there's nothing nasty in his thoughts.

It's sweet. And kinda... nice. She drops her gaze to try and cut off hearing any more, unwilling to invade his privacy. She wets her lips, bashful. "Um... sorry."

No chance he didn't notice that. She casts about for something to move past the awkwardness. "I guess... I do have a lot of questions."

From:

gavemea_45

She blushes bright, and he realizes she's picked up on what he was thinking. Sam flushes as well and clears his throat awkwardly. "You don't need to be. Sorry, I mean. Um."

He squeezes her hands again and lets go, not wanting to crowd her. God, he's the next thing to a complete stranger to her, and here he is in her house, making her feel uncomfortable-- he's a complete and total ass, no two ways about it.

Sam reaches for his tea and takes a swallow, then meets her eyes again. "Go ahead. What do you want to know?"

From:

feel_human

She guesses Dean must be the brother he has such complicated feelings about. Her curiosity on that front is running wild, but she stifles it as best she can and reaches for her own tea rather than move her chair back to where it had been.

"You said you grew up learnin' about this stuff?" He's meeting her gaze without hesitation, and she ought to be able to do the same, at the very least, without going all to pieces. "Have you ever... come across anyone like me before? Who can do what I do, I mean?"