CH/AB own all this stuff. Except for Sookie's awesome new 'do.

Sookie took a deep breath and a good look around. She was pretty sure she had everything. She thought through the checklist in her mind. Toothbrush, shampoo, underwear. Deodorant, contact solution. Passport. Adapters from her trip to India. She was gripped with the familiar vague worry she often suffered from as she wondered whether or not the adapters would work in Germany. I guess I'll find out, she thought ruefully before she suddenly remembered a castle being blown up by just such negligence in a rom-com she'd seen a few years back. She shook her head to clear it of the thought and decided she'd cross (or burn, whatever the case may be) that bridge when she came to it.

As she maneuvered her car down the driveway toward the main road, she couldn't believe she was actually doing this. Going to England, across the freaking ocean, to meet up with a woman (sweet Shepherd of Judaea, please let it actually be a woman) that she'd never met in real life to attend a convention. A sci-fi convention. About vampires, no less. She wasn't sure when her life had taken this sad little turn, but she was securely swept up in the wave and it was too late to analyze it now. The trip was already paid for and she was thrifty, if nothing else. No way was she going to waste all that money now.

Not to mention the fact that she was stupid excited about the damn convention. The thought of anything going wrong to prevent her from getting there was enough to start back on that ulcer in her stomach. Not that she'd been actually diagnosed with one, but she had a feeling it was there. Her favorite, like favorite favorite, actors were going to be there and even if she didn't have the nerve to approach them for a handshake or a signature, she was pretty sure just knowing she was under the same roof, breathing the same air, would be enough to knock her out cold in a fangirl stupor.

She'd climbed aboard the vampire boat a little over a year ago. Well, in truth she had been utterly obsessed with the whole sparkly vamp craze and that outlandishly popular series of books, but felt she was a little too old for them, so she was reluctant to make her obsession known. That's why when she'd found the cable television show based on a series of books that was nothing if not 'adult viewing material', she'd really gone nuts with it.

She read all the books, bought all the dvd box sets that had been for sale and anxiously awaited each new episode. Hell, she'd even joined Twitter so she could follow the actors from the damn show. The only downside was that the time between the end of a season and the sale of it's boxed set was agony. Not to mention that the books were rolling out at a sloth's pace and steadily decreasing in amazing-ness, at least in her opinion.

Enter fan fiction.

One afternoon, she'd been Googling something about one of the characters, trying to iron out a discussion that she was having with one of the girls at work, when she saw an interesting link. Clicked it. Found fan fiction. Almost peed her pants. Sure, some of it was total crap that was a grammatical nightmare and achingly without plot. But some of it was amaaaaazing. As is the way with such things, it wasn't long before she'd started writing her own story. And she found fans. One, in particular, that she'd struck a friendship of sorts up with and was flying halfway around the world to meet. They read the same kind of stories, liked the same characters, even partnered up and wrote a fic together. One day in the chatroom they frequented, someone had mentioned the convention and the next thing she knew, she was confirming payments on the trip. Yes, it was a little crazy but after her last failed relationship, a little crazy was exactly what she'd needed.

She wasn't upset that things hadn't worked out for her own sake, because she really didn't feel like she needed a relationship in the first place. She valued her 'alone' time, hated making plans and was horrible at keeping them. She liked to have her options open and not be held responsible for someone else's happiness. Not to mention that marriage and children were not in her plans. After her parents had died, she'd lost what little interest she'd had in making a life like theirs. She'd decided it'd be much better to go it alone and that's exactly what she planned to do. Though she didn't mind a little company now and again, which is how she ended up in relationships. She was always open with guys, telling them she didn't want a commitment, or an engagement ring, or any of that. Usually on the first date. She had a funny feeling that most of them thought that was just a line she used to reel them in though, because it always ended up with them wanting more than she did.

So she'd vowed to make a change and had ended up making quite a few. She'd given up her apartment in Shreveport and bought a house, for one. A lovely old house on the outskirts of Bon Temps, from the sweetest old lady she'd ever met. The woman's name was Adele but she'd insisted on being called Gran. None of Sookie's own grandparents had been alive by the time she was born, so it was an unexpected surprise when she'd formed such a close bond with the woman. She'd said she was too old for the upkeep and planned to move into a neat little apartment with her cat, Tina. Since the closing four months back, they'd fallen into a routine.

Sookie would pick her up every Saturday afternoon to do her 'running about' in Shreveport, which consisted of the market, the pharmacy, the library and the cemetery. She'd stroll the grounds with her and stop by Gran's husbands grave. The first time had been a little spooky for her, when the woman had sat down on a bench nearby and started talking out loud to her late husband, Earl. She'd even introduced Sookie to him, telling him that she was the spitting image of their own dearly departed grandbaby, Hadley. After that, though, she'd gotten used to it and used the time to mentally arrange her plans for the following week.

Gran also came over to Sookie's every Sunday to make her dinner. It had started out with just the two of them. Then as Sookie told her friends about it, they'd gradually started stopping by until eventually it'd turned into a big old weekly event. Sookie's oldest friends, Lafayette, Tara and Jessica, were there every week come hell or high water. Depending on the severity of their hangovers, Hoyt and Jason usually showed up too. Hoyt was a high school sweetheart of Sookie's, but they'd always been better friends than anything. Jason was Hoyt's best friend and also one of Sookie's friends from school. The thing about growing up in a small town was that you never really got away from the people you did the growing up with. Sookie was okay with that, though.

They were all good people and really, they were the only family she had. After her parents passed when she was 15, she stayed with her Aunt Linda until she was legal. Then she'd rented a tiny apartment from Sam Merlotte, working every chance she got at his restaurant to boot, while she put herself through online courses. She'd been so lucky to land a job at her company, working in healthcare. Her degree didn't have much to do with the work they did, but she was bright and worked hard. She'd been there for just about six years and had been promoted every single one of them. She was training folks now, which meant she got to travel some and see new things. She also made damn good money and was able to tuck a bit back, as well as buy the house and live comfortably from pay to pay.

After deciding to buy the house, she'd also let Lafayette give her a makeover. He was the go-to hairdresser in Bon Temps, with clients driving down from Shreveport to have him fix their hair. When he'd made her pinky promise to give him free reign, she got a slight case of the bubble guts. After he finished, she passed out. Just slumped over right in her chair, with the cape on and the whole nine yards. When she came to, she didn't know whether to cry or jump for joy. He'd cut her hair off. All of it. Off. She'd had long blonde locks, reaching past her shoulders, which he had cut off into what he told her was a pixie cut.

She'd told him there was only one fairy between them and it sure wasn't her, but damn if it didn't look good. And she had to admit that nary a day went by that she didn't have it all tied up in a ponytail or bun anyway. She had stared at herself in every reflective surface for about two weeks solid after that, amazed by how much she loved it short. She'd been to see him once a month for trims ever since. She was also pleased to note that quite a few celebrities were trying the look out as of late, just as Laff had predicted. She really shouldn't doubt the man. Wouldn't be surprised if he was some kind of psychic, with all the trend prediction he did.

The last change she'd made was no dating. Poor Quinn had been so heartbroken when she told him it wasn't working that she decided she needed to cool off for a while. This left her with a good bit of free time. In addition to her fan fiction fascination, she'd picked up running to fill some of it. She'd started out walking with her iPod, just to get out of the house. Then she started jogging. Then she started looking for tips online and now she ran every day after work. She loved it, loved the feeling of the road pounding away beneath her feet, the good honest sweat she worked up while she did it, and the feeling of accomplishment after she made it home.

So far, everything seemed to be working out with her single life and she was hoping the trip would be a resounding success. And that she wouldn't be cut up into little pieced and mixed into plaster to fill holes in some crackhouse in England. Provided England had crackhouses. She obviously had a few qualms about not being totally up front with her friends about the trip. She'd wanted to tell somebody what she was actually doing, you know, just in case. But she'd learned quickly that not a lot of folks she knew were really on board with fan fiction.

She didn't understand why people freaked out so much. It wasn't like she'd joined a cult that skinned puppies for fun or kidnapped people for torture. So she was writing things that would never get published, put her face on magazines or make her any kind of money. Big deal! She still liked it. Same as Hoyt and Jason's obsession with football. Neither of them were ever going to make it to the major league, or whatever the hell it was called, but that didn't stop them from playing every chance they got.

Sookie had been pretty vague with the details when she'd relayed the information regarding this trip. With her job, she did travel from time to time, so it wasn't a shock to anyone that she'd be out of town. Gran was housesitting for her, and Laff had volunteered to come check in every couple days. She knew he'd cut the grass for her and make sure Gran got to town to do her shopping while Sookie was gone. Nobody had thought to ask why she was going, or who she was going with. They'd only asked where. So she hadn't volunteered anything (especially not after all her friends started referring to her as Your Majesty and adopting fake English accents). It was probably a stupid thing to do, but she'd left a copy of her itinerary on top of the fridge. Hopefully that would help if anything happened.

As she slid her sunglasses on, she decided not to sweat it. With the click of a button, both windows of her car rolled down. She felt the wind through her short hair and smiled as she made her way down the road. The sun was shining and she was off to share some air with the hottest Swede she'd ever seen.

Life was good.

This happened by accident. Our regional systems were down at work today and since I forgot my friggin' Nook at home, I couldn't read. I really didn't mean to do this but it came out so I figured I'd post it. And VGTTG is definitely still going, but I get so involved in writing that, I didn't want to start at the office. New update for that this weekend. Let me know what you think of this one, Idk if it's worth continuing but I have a few ideas. Thanks for reading!