It was dark when Arlene dropped her off at her front door. She dragged her suitcase up the two concrete front steps and dug her keys out of her jacket pocket. The little apartment door swung open with its usual squeak and greeted Sookie with a breath of stale air. She knew she was going to have to prop a window open a little that night to air the place out after a week away. She'd taken care to make sure she hadn't left anything perishable in the fridge or on the counter, and she'd emptied the garbage so at least she didn't have to deal with that, considering that it had obviously been hot while she'd been away. Turning on the light she walked over to the little window air conditioner in the living room and toggled the switch to the 'on' position, turning the thermostat to the right just until the little fan whirred to life. It was a small luxury that Sookie allowed herself; even though the electricity was included in her rent.

Sam was a good landlord: in fact, he was a great landlord. There was no way that Sookie could have afforded the rent on a waitress' salary and tips, but Sam gave her a deal in exchange for cutting the small patches of grass in front of the other units, looking after the flower beds for the residents who couldn't or didn't, and sweeping up the walks. Sookie didn't want to cost Sam any more than she absolutely had to. She knew she was lucky. Her Gran had insisted that she move into town about six months back; not that they weren't getting along, Gran just wanted Sookie to be closer to work; since her car wasn't very reliable, and Gran hated Sookie coming home alone, late at night in the dark. Sookie was pretty sure that Gran had some ulterior motives for encouraging her to move; mostly that she wanted Sookie to meet some other people her age, and maybe start dating. Sookie spent a great deal of time alone when she wasn't working and though her Gran wouldn't nag her about it, Sookie knew that she didn't like it. Gran had also been part of persuading Sookie to take the holiday she had just returned from.

Sam had decided to close Merlotte's, his bar, for a week. Not because he had an infestation (as some of the idiots on her brother's road crew were saying), but because he wanted to sand down the floors, and the bar, and repaint everything. Sookie had offered to stay and help but Sam was having it done by professionals. It all seemed very convenient when Arlene then announced that she had found a great deal on a cruise vacation if she could get someone to go with her last minute. It was a steal as far as Sookie could tell. And she'd never been on a real vacation, and definitely never on a cruise ship. The biggest boat she'd ever been on had been a Paddlewheeler in the Red River, on a gambling and booze cruise that Arlene had dragged her on. Sookie was starting to see a theme as she thought about it. Gran had offered her the extra few hundred dollars that she'd needed for the ticket, and off she and Arlene had driven, suitcases in the back of Arlene's old pickup. Sookie had hardly had time to even consider what a cruise would be like before she was on the boat. Perhaps that had been for the best, or she would have talked herself out of it.

Sookie was used to attention, sort of. She was a pretty girl with long blonde hair (that she generally wore in a pony tail), blue eyes and a well-endowed chest with enough curves to look great in a bathing suit. When she'd lived with her Gran she'd often sit out in the yard in a bikini from the first day of spring until the leaves started to turn. She felt she looked better with a tan. Since she'd moved though, she'd been pretty self-conscious about exposing herself quite that much in the little complex where she lived. On her days off she'd always go out to see her Gran and take advantage of the privacy to get some sun; the cruise however, seemed to expect that level of exposure from most everyone. For the first day she'd kept a wrap around herself, tucked away under the awning of an umbrella but Arlene, always comfortable with her body, had laid herself out by the poolside, taking the offered drinks and the attention. Sookie began to feel more self-conscious being covered up and different than everyone else and had finally found the courage to unwrap. The uncomfortable attention started then and Sookie fought against her own anxiety of the eyes on her. At least (she reasoned) no one here knew her, or knew any of the rumors about her. And not that Sookie wanted to doubt Arlene's assurances to the contrary, but it seemed like everyone on that cruise was looking to hook up.

Needless to say, Sookie was happy to be home.

It was too late to call her Gran; she'd have been in bed hours before. That knowledge made Sookie feel a little sad. Gran had always been her lifeline; when her parents had died, when things had happened with Uncle Bartlett, when school marks had begun to sink, and when dreams had begun to fail in favor of panic attacks. The little bottle of white pills had made its way back from her purse to her beside table. Before she slept, Sookie unpacked all her clothing and sorted everything for the laundry, and replaced her toiletries in the small bathroom. The suitcase even found its way back into the hall closet. Her mail (mostly advertisements) was opened or recycled, bills set in the order they were due on the kitchen table to be taken care of in the morning. Only when everything was in its place did Sookie feel calm enough to crawl into bed and sleep, knowing she'd call her Gran in the morning.

When Gran didn't pick up in the morning Sookie rationalized her absence away by saying to herself that she was likely out in the garden. Adele Stackhouse loved to garden. Sookie kept that picture in her head as she took a load of laundry to the complex laundry room, along with her book, wanting to get one load done before she went into work to see how Merlotte's looked for her lunch shift. She tried her Gran again before she left for work. There was still no answer, and Gran had never invested in an answering machine. It sat in the back of her mind as she drove over to the bar, and while she served the patrons. It was too busy to sneak away to make a phone call for a few hours; and Sookie didn't want to bother Sam for a break. Truth was, she needed the hours and the tips to rebuild her meager savings after the indulgence of the cruise.

Besides being her landlord, Sam was her boss. She'd met him when he'd moved to Bon Temps about three years earlier. Bon Temps was an insular sort of place; most families having been there for generations back to the civil war. And most families were pretty proud of that. Strangers weren't always embraced, neither were damaged girls who had panic attacks. Nobody spoke about the situations that caused the anxiety; at least not in public. So Sam made his inroads with alcohol and by buying an old apartment complex, fixing it up, and offering affordable homes, and Sookie kept her head down and got her orders right and smiled even when she felt like running and hiding. It hadn't taken long for Sam to become a valuable member of the community, Sookie, well she was on the fringes, and that was generally okay by her. Somehow, some way, Sam had taken a chance on her; gratitude didn't even begin to express how Sookie felt.

Lunch service never seemed to end, and sort of rolled into dinner service with hardly any time to rest and Sam had asked her if she might want to stay a little longer. She couldn't ever say no to Sam, but she did try her Gran's number one more time in between, and still didn't get an answer. One of the little white pills came out of the bag she left in Sam's office when she touched up her face. She left a message on her brother's phone and tucked her cell phone into the pocket of her green apron, just in case and checked her smile in the mirror.

Jason came in with some of his friends at about 8:30 pm. It looked as though he'd been home between when his shift with the parish had ended and his arrival at Merlotte's. Sookie felt a spike of anger that he hadn't bothered to return her phone call since he'd obviously had time to shower, shave and douse himself in body spray.

"Hey Jason." She was using her happy waitress voice.

"Hi Sook. How was the trip?"

"It was nice, hey, have you talked to Gran recently?"

"Yeah, I talked to her the other day."

"I just haven't been able to get ahold of her."

"She's fine Sook. I was just out there. Garden looks great, I'm sure she just turned the phone down and forgot to turn it up again."

While that wasn't a bad explanation Sookie didn't think it was the reason Gran hadn't been answering her phone.

"She knew I was coming back yesterday, I expected to hear from her."

"She's fine Sook. You'll see her tomorrow."

"Can you go by tonight Jason?"

"I kinda got some plans Sook."

Of course he did, dressed up, out at the bar; he was looking for company. Why not? He was a good-looking man, never at a loss for female company.

"I can go by tomorrow if you like Sookie?" Jason's best friend Hoyt offered. He'd always been kind to Sookie; kind of like he had an idea of what was going on in her head some days, like he understood where she'd come from. He was a sweet man, one of the few, Sookie thought, who never had an unkind word to say about anyone, in their presence or not.

"It's okay Hoyt, I'll go by in the morning myself. But thanks for the offer. Let me get you guys your beer." The waitress smile was back with the flip of her ponytail as she spun on her heel.

Sookie would have driven out after her shift, but she was so tired, and her feet hurt and her Gran wouldn't have been very happy to have been woken up by the noisy car and the floodlights off the back porch. But for the exhaustion Sookie probably wouldn't have slept at all, but as it was she was able to, and only woke in the morning when her neighbour hustled her kids out the door to get to school, slamming the screen door. So, with a cup of coffee and a piece of toast with jam (and after washing up the dishes and putting them in the drying rack), Sookie dressed and headed off to her Gran's house on Hummingbird Lane.

Gran's car wasn't in the carved out car park at the front of the house, it was empty, but it was mostly for guests, and Sookie when she came over so it wasn't unusual. Sookie parked, but even before she got out of her car she could hear the sound of a gas lawnmower around the back. Gran shouldn't have been pushing one of those around, and she doubted Jason was up early to do it. (Even though he rightly should have been) So Sookie stalked around to the back of the house, not to yell at her Gran, but to take up the task herself. But it wasn't Gran pushing the old mower around, greyish smoke belching from the fuel/oil mixture in the engine.

He was beautiful walking there in the rising sun, tall, blond hair mussed up with the sweat of pushing around the weight, jeans slung low around his hips, shirtless, skin glowing, exposing a taper to his waist that reminded Sookie of the descriptions in the romance novels she borrowed from the library. The vision stopped her in her tracks for a moment; until she realized that the only vehicle she could see around the back was an unfamiliar pickup truck, not her Gran's sedan.

"Hey!" She yelled, trying to get his attention over the noise. He didn't seem to notice her.

"Hey!" She yelled a little louder.

As he made the turn at the end of his pass of the lawn he became aware of her, whether by sight or her hollering she couldn't be certain. But he let the motor shut off and held up a hand in greeting.

"Hi!" He called back. "You must be Miss Stackhouse. Adele told me all about you." He took a few steps towards her, first holding his hand out to offer to shake hers, then, realizing it was fairly grimy from the yard work, he pulled a rag from his back pocket and rubbed off the dirt and grass fragments first.

"Who are you? Where's my Gran?" Usually Sookie tried her very hardest to be polite, but the stress of worry overrode that normalcy. He stopped in his tracks before he got close enough to shake her hand.

"I'm Eric, I'm sorry, your Grandmother isn't here."

"Where is she?"

"I'm not sure. She didn't say where she was going."

"What do you mean she didn't say? When did she leave?" Sookie was still hoping that she had only just missed her, that maybe she'd gone out to meet a friend, or to the library. Sadly though, she was starting to feel a little frantic.

"She's been gone since the Sunday before last."

"Last Sunday!" It was the day after Sookie had left with Arlene, so her Gran had been gone just over a week, as it was now Tuesday. "What did you do to her?" She could feel the shaking of a panic attack starting to overwhelm her.

"I didn't do anything to her." Eric's voice stayed even as he spoke.

"Tell me where my Gran is right now or I'm going to call the Sheriff." Sookie took a few steps backwards from the man and dug her cell phone out of her purse. She had the Sheriff's office on speed dial, Gran had insisted when she started driving alone late at night. She thumbed the number and pressed the phone to her ear.

Eric put both hands up in front of himself and stepped away from Sookie, she noted the horrified expression on his face as he did so. The office assistant at the Sheriff's office answered the phone.

"Reynard County Sheriff's Office."

"I need help, something's happened to my Grandmother." Sookie stuttered out, not realizing just how confusing her plea was.

"Who is this?" The voice at the other end asked.

"Sookie Stackhouse." She gasped, trying to catch a breath as she felt her heart fluttering. "There's a man at my Gran's house, I don't know who he is. Oh God." She left the phone sag a little away from her ear, her other hand clutching at her chest.

"Are you okay Miss?" Eric's voice sounded as if it was coming from the end of a tunnel.

"I'm, I'm" The phone dropped to the ground.

"You're hyperventilating Miss. Please, you need to sit down, or calm down. I'll get a paper bag." And he rushed off into the house as Sookie sank to the freshly mowed grass beside her phone. She didn't have time just then to think about why he seemingly had a key to her Gran's house and how he knew his way around the kitchen.

Once the panic attacks took hold of Sookie it was hard for her to think rationally. She'd forgotten about the phone completely, and an inflated paper bag was pushed into her hands before she heard the sounds of the sirens off in the distance. Focus, she told herself, focus on something. She began breathing back and forth into the paper bag, rapidly at first, but gradually slowing.

"That's it, just breathe Miss, just concentrate on your breathing." She felt a solid, but gentle hand light on her back as she braced herself to avoid pitching forward. Her ears began to clear, sounds became more readily discernable, and the faintness in her head began to clear. Just in time to hear the screeching of tires on the gravel drive, and car doors slamming.

"Get your hands off her!" The voice was familiar, Andy Bellefleur, the Sheriff of the parish. The hand she had felt was suddenly gone.

"I'm not trying to hurt her sir! I was just trying to help."

When Sookie was able to look up, paper bag still pressed to her face she saw Eric, well away from her, hands in the air and Andy, gun drawn on him. She struggled to stand, finding herself between the two men.

"Sookie? You okay?"

"Yeah Andy, thanks, I am now." Her voice sounded terribly weak in to her own ears.

"Y'all just come on over here then Sookie." He motioned with his left hand, only briefly taken off the gun.

"I swear. I'm just here to look after the house." Eric called out.

"Then where is Adele Stackhouse?"

"She didn't tell me where she was going, she just asked me to house sit for her. I've been looking after the yard work for her for almost six months now."

"Six months?" Sookie whispered to herself, confused.

"She said her granddaughter had just moved out and she wanted a little help to keep the place up."

Andy looked over at Sookie, and Sookie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Just sit down on the ground okay mister?"

Eric let his arms relax and sat down cross-legged on the grass. He kept his eyes on Sookie and Andy, the latter of who was just starting to lower his weapon. With that free left hand he clicked on the walkie on his shoulder.

"Kevin, get out here to the Stackhouse place!" He hollered into the mic.

He received a crackled response.

"Just coming around the bend on Hummingbird Sheriff." And Sookie heard the second cruiser pull up. Kevin ran over, puffing a little bit in the Louisiana heat.

"Kevin, go check the house."

"What am I looking for Sheriff?"

"Adele Stackhouse."

"Yes sir!"

It was likely the most interesting thing that Kevin Ellis had gotten to do all week, perhaps all month. Bon Temps was not a hub of crime; unless you counted high school students + baseball bats + mailboxes, and the occasional bar fight (which generally sorted itself out before Andy got there). Sookie's gaze yo-yo'd back and forth between Eric on the ground, and the back porch door where Kevin had headed towards the house. When the porch had door opened Sookie noticed that it hadn't squeaked and protested as it usually did. She wondered briefly if Jason had finally oiled it, but with another look back at Eric, she thought that perhaps that might have been his doing; if he'd been telling the truth. The minutes that it took to search the small house were the longest in Sookie's life; at least they felt like it just then. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears; but at least she was confident that she wasn't going to faint.

Kevin poked his head out and waved.

"All clear Andy!"

"Sookie, do you want to go inside, make sure everything is the way it should be?"

She nodded, eyes on Eric, looking for some kind of hint of nervousness, or bravado. She found nothing but a small expectant smile. She couldn't help but smile back a little. He didn't look like a criminal or a murderer, and sitting there still without his shirt made her insides flip flop just a little; for the moment she wasn't worried about her Gran.

The house was pristine, as it always was. Things in the kitchen were put away; except for a coffee stained mug, a plate and a knife in the sink, someone's breakfast leftovers that hadn't been washed yet. The counters were wiped down, and the fridge had a pitcher of Gran's lemonade, a peach pie (if Sookie was any judge of what was under the plastic wrap) and the regular condiments, leftovers and fruits and vegetables. The only disarray was the torn open pack of brown paper bags left on the kitchen table, obviously where Eric had tossed them after retrieving one for her. There was a list of chores on the counter, in her Gran's handwriting, and nothing out of the ordinary.

The main room was dusted, the throw folded over the right side back of the couch, the remote control (Jason had given Gran his old TV with the remote when he'd bought his new 40 inch flat screen) in place on the side table. All of Gran's knick-knacks were where they should be. Her sewing box was beside her chair, packed away neatly. All the photos were still on the mantle, Jason, her, their parents, Gran and Grandpa. Nothing was out of place.

Sookie was a little more nervous about looking in the bedrooms.

The first room she checked was her old one. While a lot of her personal touches had moved with her into Bon Temps proper the old quilt was still on the bed, Sookie remembered when Gran had put it together, patches from all sorts of leftover sewing projects combined to make a warm blanket for the fall and winter nights. The white rails of the bed still shone in certain areas where the paint had been polished by hands holding and spinning over them. The trunk at the foot still held what Gran had called Sookie's hope chest. It was carefully packed with linens, and lace, all wrapped in white tissue, ready for her to set up her own house. Sookie had used to think that it was a silly gesture on her Gran's part, but as she had grown up it had become obvious that it wasn't sentimentality that had put it together, but sentiment. The closet still held some of Sookie's little used clothing; winter coats that wouldn't be needed for a few months yet, some fancy dresses for church, and some more memories, clothes that Gran had sewed for her when she'd been a child. Her Mom's wedding dress was in there as well. Sookie ran a hand over the tissue that it was hanging in, holding back a little sob. Kevin was only just out in the hall, and Sookie didn't want him to hear her fall apart.

The next room she investigated was her Gran's room. She remembered crawling into the old brass bed when she was a girl, wakened by nightmares, or just unable to sleep at all. As in her room, the quilt was the one she remembered always being there, an antique lace, ivory in color, threadbare in a few spots, spread out without a wrinkle every morning when Gran got up for the day. The curtains were drawn, which was a little unusual, Gran always opened them when she got up, to let the day in she always said. Her hairbrush and mirror were on her little vanity, and the small photos, in silver frames, were still by the bed. Herself and Jason, school pictures from their early grades. Sookie couldn't remember which ones exactly. Everything else was neat as a pin. Sookie couldn't tell if anything was missing from the closet. Her Gran had never had an abundance of clothing, but she bought herself new things now and again, and cleared out things that hadn't been worn in a long while. It all looked completely benign, there were certainly no signs of a struggle, and Kevin would have noticed something like that. It was starting to look as if her Gran had just up and vanished. But there was one more room to check, Jason's old room, just up the stairs, his was the only occupied room up there, or rather had been. And there was a second bathroom up there as well, which meant Jason hadn't needed to share space with ladies' shampoos and makeup and lotions and those other feminine things that made most men a little squeamish. Once he had moved out they'd closed up the windows and sort of left the place alone, the two of them not really needing the space, so it had been a while since Sookie had even gone up the stairs, at least six months, because the suitcases were stored up in the attic, and she'd had to collect one when she'd moved to town.

Forcing herself to go forward she took the steps very slowly, hand clutching the railing a little more tightly than she probably needed to. Something about the progression felt ominous, even though it had no reason to. The door was closed, and Sookie put her hand on the worn knob and turned it slowly, pushing forward as she did. Instead of the closed up air that she sort of expected she smelled, soap? Pushing on the door it swung open. The curtains were pulled back, and the windows were opened a bit, held in place with an old piece of wood, keeping them from slamming closed. There was a laptop computer on Jason's old school desk, and a basket of fresh laundry, folded (something Jason would never have done), ready to be put away. The room was neat, but quite obviously lived in, recently, currently, lived in. Sookie backed away.

"Anything wrong Miss Sookie?" She'd forgotten about Kevin.

"He's living here." She said out loud, as much to reassure herself of the fact as to inform Kevin.

"We should go talk to Andy then."

"Yeah, we should. I still don't know where my Gran is."

Outside Eric was still sitting cross-legged on the ground with Andy staring down at him. His hands were folded in his lap and he was looking at the house, watching as Sookie and Deputy Ellis emerged. Sookie thought that he seemed to have a sad smile on his face watching them.

"Anything?" Andy asked them both. But Sookie didn't answer him; she was looking at Eric and directed her words to him.

"You've been living here?" She asked.

"For about a week. Your Grandmother asked me to stay here while she was gone, I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb anything."

"You didn't. Everything is just the way it always was. Well, Jason's room is cleaner and smells better than I recall." She tried to smile. "And you really don't know where she went, my Gran?"

"Miss Stackhouse, I am so sorry, I just don't know. I just thought she was maybe going to visit family, or a friend, I never thought to ask, she'd gone away overnight before, I never thought anything of it."

"She had?"

"Once or twice. She didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't. And she didn't mention you either."

"She spoke about you all the time Miss Stackhouse. I can't imagine why she didn't tell you about this trip, or about me."

"Can we talk about her for awhile? About my Gran?"

"If the Sheriff here will give me leave to get up."

Andy sort of snorted and screwed up his mouth in a bit of a sneer but nodded so Eric stood. Sookie got a better idea of just how tall he was, half a foot or more over Andy, and a foot at least over her. Up close, now that she could focus on him, Sookie could see just how very enchanting his face was. His lips were soft looking; not at all sunburnt or chapped as such things normally got working outdoors all the time. His smile curved over perfect teeth. And his eyes, they were a bright blue, gleaming like a pure azure sky, so alive, and so unlike the men who usually spent their days outdoors doing handyman jobs. And those eyes were staring right at her.

"Sookie, we'll call all the hospitals in the area, we'll put a BOLO out on her car. We will find her."

"Thank you Sheriff."

"Do you want a ride back into town Sookie?"

"No, I think I want to stay and talk to Eric for a little while first. See if I can figure out anything."

"Are you sure Sookie?"

She hadn't taken her eyes off of Eric, and she tried to make her voice sound as brave as she could.

"Yes, thank you, I am."