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'll keep quiet about it," Sam assures her. "Thanks for trusting me."

[feel_human]

"I guess we kinda need to trust each other," Sookie tells him, and rolls her glass between her palms.

She thinks about the wry shade to his expression, the way his tone changes when he talks about his family and what they do. "Sounds like none of this is something you exactly want to do. The hunting, I mean."

[gavemea_45]

He looks down at the tabletop, absently brushing a fingertip over the faded, homey cloth there as though it were a delicate treasure.

"It was that obvious, huh." It's not really a question. Sam takes a long, slow breath and makes himself look back up at her. "It's all I've ever known. I've been hunting since I was eight. I meant it about going to college, the scholarship - I wanted to see if there was something else out there."

A 'normal life?' John's furious shout rings in his memory. He can still smell the tequila on his breath as he screamed in his face. This is normal! This is all people like us get! You walk away from this, you're walking away from us, Sam. If you do, don't you ever come back.

"A normal life," he whispers. "That's all."

[feel_human]

She can't help herself. The way he touches the clean, faded tablecloth, the way he sounds, all of it arrows straight into her chest, and Sookie reaches to curl light fingers over the hand she'd wrapped earlier.

"'Course there is," she tells him, sincere. "There's so much out there, Sam. Even I know that, and I've only ever known this. And if someone like me can have a normal life, then I don't see why not you, too."

[gavemea_45]

He brushes his thumb gently back and forth over her fingers as he looks up at her, startled and wondering at how easily she understands and accepts.

"It's not that I don't want to help people," he says, soft and earnest. "I just thought there might be other ways to do it."

[feel_human]

His thumb runs over her fingers and sends a scattering shiver up her arm, and then he looks at her with his eyes so serious and sincere and what looks like his whole heart, laid open on his face, and for a moment she's too distracted to focus. "Look who you're talkin' to," she says, not even realizing she's responding to the things he hasn't said. "People can be a little short on understandin' in this town, especially for anyone who's... who's different."

She takes a breath and meets that look with her own eyes full of wry sympathy. "And I guess you do want to help people. You're helpin' me, aren't you? Even though you'd rather be doin' somethin' else. I don't see how you couldn't do all the good you want in this world, Sam, if you put your mind to it. Why not?"

[gavemea_45]

"Well, I think you're amazing," he murmurs. His glance flicks to her mouth for a long moment before he makes himself look up again. "Just so you know."

He draws a quick breath. "Anyway, that's - that's why I went after the scholarship. Stanford. I want to be a lawyer. My dad didn't take it too well. So here I am."

He smiles, a little. "But I'm glad I'm here, especially now. I do want to help you, Sookie. I really do."

[feel_human]

His glance flicks down to her lips, and she flushes warmly again, but doesn't look away. "You don't know me very well yet," she protests, but softly. "I'm nothin' special. Just Sookie."

She squeezes his hand, but lightly, in case it still hurts. "Well, maybe your dad will come around, in time. For what it's worth, I think bein' a lawyer is a real nice plan."

Her smile is stronger than his, but sweet as honey. "But I'm glad you're here now, too."

[gavemea_45]

"Maybe not, but I'd like to. Is that okay?" He keeps running his thumb lightly over her fingers, but keeps his hold gentle in case she wants to pull back.

His expression turns rueful as she tries to reassure him, and he shakes his head. "No, he won't. He was crystal clear about it. Told me if I left, not to come back. Dean, though... I'll see, I guess."

[feel_human]

"Of course." She's just never going to stop blushing ever again, apparently, but he's so kind about it she can't mind much. "I'd like to get to know you better, too."

He can't stay, of course; it's clear his ambitions will take him well past Bon Temps. But, right now, in the quiet of the deep night, it's hard to think that far ahead.

"I hope Dean does," she says, soft. "Jason and I squabble all the time, but I'd hate to lose him. We were all the other one had, after our parents... well. And Gran, of course. SO I hope your brother feels the same way."

[gavemea_45]

His smile is sweet and shy and warm as she confesses she's interested, too - and then sudden and complete understanding lights his eyes as she tells him about her brother.

"I get that," he says, quietly. "It was like that for us, too. I'm sorry about your parents."

[feel_human]

"Thanks," she murmurs. "It was a long time ago, now."

She takes a breath, like someone waking up, and looks around the kitchen before meeting his eyes again. "I've lived here ever since. Jason lives in my parents' old house, now. It's half mine, according to the will, but he can have it, far as I'm concerned. I love this place too much to leave it."

[gavemea_45]

"It's beautiful here," Sam says, with complete sincerity. "I can see why you love it. We never lived anywhere like this."

[feel_human]

"Well, Gran'll take it real personal if you don't stay here while you're in town," Sookie tells him, with a flash of her usual practicality.

There's just a hint of mischief in her eyes, though she makes them as mild as possible. "Good thing, too, considering there's a vampire lurkin' about."

[gavemea_45]

"I can't take advantage of you like that," Sam protests. "I'll be fine at the motel, honest. I can rig things up for safety - we always had to on a hunt if there was a chance we'd be tracked."

[feel_human]

"I'd like to see you try," Sookie says, with spirit. "Are any of those things as good as bein' in a home with a threshold a vampire can't cross, Sam Winchester?"

[gavemea_45]

"... no," he has to admit. "But--"

[feel_human]

"Then you'd do better not wastin' your breath arguin' with me," she concludes, decisively.

"And besides, you can't tell me this place isn't a sight nicer than that old motel." She gives him a canny glance. "We've got better breakfasts, too."

[gavemea_45]

He ducks his head, a little sheepish. She's not wrong, about any of it.

"As long as you're sure. I don't - I don't want you to feel like you have to, or anything."

[feel_human]

There's no hiding her satisfaction at her victory, but it softens a little as she looks at him. "I'm sure," she promises, and smiles, a little.

"Maybe you can get a little taste of that normal life for a little bit, anyhow. Even with a vampire around. See how you like it."

[gavemea_45]

"Maybe." Sam smiles back at her. "Thanks."

The fact is that there is a vampire around, though, and he sobers a bit. "Do me a favor? Don't go outside before sunrise. As soon as it's light I'll take a look around, and see if there's any signs that he - or they - that anyone's been watching the place."

[feel_human]

"I promise," she agrees, without hesitation. Not that it's likely she'll be awake before sunrise as it is; it was already late when she closed down at Merlotte's, and now it could almost rightfully be called early.

She gives his hand a last squeeze and lifts hers away to lift her tea for a sip.

[gavemea_45]

"Thanks," he murmurs, and reaches for his own glass. Sam swirls it around to loosen the ice, then takes a swallow.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask about tonight? I know it's been a lot to take in."

[feel_human]

Sookie shakes her head. "I'm sure you've told me all the important bits," she points out. "And I don't want to pry too much, only knowin' you one night so far."

She smiles a little as she says it, sitting straight-backed and proper in her chair. "But if there's anythin' you want to know, well... I can understand that. Is there?"

[gavemea_45]

He very, very carefully doesn't let his mind wander to wondering about anything that might be inappropriate, and shakes his head, smiling back at her.

"Nothing that can't wait for morning," he promises. "But same goes. You can ask me anything you want, Sookie. About anything."