A Long Road Home

Chapter 1

'I am so sorry Alcide.' He looked at her with something like contempt on his face. 'Oh come on Sookie, you can't be serious. You just can't be.' His chest heaved and his voice held a growl. 'Don't you be coming all wolf on me now, you see that is one of the things that I just can't handle, one of the things that is coming between us.' 'What? You really can't be seriously expecting me to believe that can you, when we both know that is not the reason, the real reason Sookie? The real reason is Bill Compton and we both know it.'

She looked at him trying to keep her face a blank. She swallowed hard and attempted to steady her voice. 'That's simply not so Alcide and you know it. You know that I can't bear to be anywhere near Bill.' 'Well honey, if that is the case then what are we doing living here right next door to that son of a bitch then? I have a perfectly good home that we could move into, it is almost brand new and it sure beats living here.' He was a fine one to talk. His home? A home that he had shared with Debbie Pelt! Her ghost would haunt her until she died she was thinking to herself.

It was her turn to huff at this last remark and clutching at anything that would steer the conversation away for the "Bill" word. 'And just what is wrong with living here?' She turned on him. 'This is my family home, we Stackhouse's have lived here for generations and this is where my family and friends live. Bon Temps is my home, my roots run deep here and I don't want to be anywhere else.' He snorted as he growled, 'I bet that you would move quicker than lightening if Bill moved out of town now wouldn't you? Wouldn't you Sookie? He flung the words at her stinging her with their venom. She hung her head for just a moment. 'I knew it, I knew it,' he was yelling at her. 'I thought that you were done with danger, I thought that you wanted a simple life, a normal life Sookie? I guess that I was wrong.'

She couldn't even look him in the eyes now. Her emotions were in turmoil. Just the mention of Bill's name made her heart pound ridiculously and it annoyed the suit case out of her. She had told herself time and time again that she hated Bill, that the wounds he had inflicted weren't ever going to heal and no matter what, it was over. But at the same time she had been doing a lot of thinking over the last year since things had changed in the world and she kept coming back to the fact that had she been in the same position as Bill then wouldn't she have moved heaven and hell to save those that she loved, wouldn't she have sacrificed the one thing that was most precious for the greater good of all. She was bought up Christian just as Bill was and she truly believed that yes, she would have done exactly the same things that he did in his desperation. Or at least she would like to think so.

She had a lot to apologise to him for but that ain't never going to be happening she had thought to herself, not with the way things are and have been. And besides, there was no way that she ever got to see him on her own now, Alcide kept her pretty much close to home if he wasn't around. She frowned at that thought as a flash of Warlow came to her mind. Wasn't that something like what he had intended, to keep her as a pet. Not that Alcide was anywhere near as bad but there were times that she missed her independence. She sighed at the thought of it all.

'I saw the way you were looking at him tonight,' Alcide went on, breaking her thoughts. He was just not going to let it go, he sure was like a dog with a bone. His words shot her thoughts back to earlier that evening when they had gone to Bellefleurs Bar and Grill, that was the cause of the conversation they were having right at that moment.

When Sam became Mayor of the town, he just didn't have enough time to look after the business and as Arlene had been nagging and nagging him to sell his share in the place to her, he had finally given in and gone through with it. Sookie, knowing how much Arlene needed something in her life to replace the life she had lost when Terry died, she had agreed to sell her share too but on the condition that Arlene let her come in and help her with the running of the place for wage. It worked out perfectly all round and seemed fitting that it all stayed in the Merlotte family so to speak and as Alcide wasn't too keen on her working nights anymore, her day shifts meant that they had more time to have a proper social life and that meant that quite often they would call in for a drink or quick bite on their way home from the movies or bowling over at Shreveport.

Tonight they had been out for dinner. Lala had been trying some new recipes on the patrons lately and he had been cooking up a batch of Cajun Chicken with an avocado, lime and chilli salsa that had her mouth-watering all day, so as soon as Alcide had come home from the job he was working on up in Munroe, he showered and changed and they headed on over. They were just finishing off their meal when Bill had come in and that was when things started getting a bit uncomfortable.

It wasn't really the fact that he was there, she had seen him around town and on TV of course, quite a lot in fact since he had written his book about his time as a 'God' – she always sniffed a little at the thought of that, wondering really what had happened and not believing what he claimed to be the truth in the book, but tonight it was the fact that he had come in and he wasn't alone. He was so not alone. There was not a single head that did not turn to stare as he gallantly escorted the tall blonde woman he was with over to a booth and sat her down. Hmm, not just any booth either she noticed, it was the booth that he had sat at when he had first come in, the one that she always marked in her mind as being 'their booth'. Silly she thought, after all this time. She reminded herself – must stop clinging to the past, time to move on. From now on it was just another booth, same as all the rest she kidded herself.

From where she was sitting she had to crank her neck a little to see past Alcide to where Bill was sitting. In fact she had done so much gawking that her neck was feeling kind of stiff now but she just couldn't help herself. Bill was sitting there with Katie Watson, yep it was her alright, none other than one of the most up and coming reporters on TV and she was even more stunning in person than she was on the screen. To make it worse, it looked like they were having just a wonderful time together.

Katie was one of those blondes that had a natural honey colouring and a sun kissed healthy look to her. She had a figure to die for and legs that just seemed to go on and on. She was well educated, came from a stable and loving middle class background and had a laugh that was infectious. Well it seemed to be pretty infectious to Bill cause he was sure doing a lot of laughing of his own. In fact Sookie had never seen him look so … happy. She could tell just by the way that he was looking at her that he was just as charmed by her as she was with him, and as perverse as it may seem, it rankled her.

Sookie was just hating it.