Description- Sookie goes with Sam to his brother's wedding, but as usual, trouble seems to have followed.
Disclaimer- All characters and previously developed plot lines belong to Charlene Harris.
A/N- I got this idea in my head when a friend and I were discussing who we thought Sookie might end up with in the books and this is one theory that I came up with.
Chapter 1
A/N- So I should probably point out that I don't know what Sam's mother's name is. I don't know if it was mentioned, but if it was I forgot it and couldn't find it in the books. So I just named her myself. I also named Mindy's husband and kids.
I stared out the window of the pickup truck.
It was nice to be going somewhere without having a job to do, a job that usually ended me beat up or worse. No, this was going to be a fun trip. When I'd agreed to go with Sam to his brother Craig's wedding a few months before, I hadn't really been one hundred percent sure I would get to go. As it were, I had been almost ninety percent sure Eric, my vampire husband, wouldn't have allowed it. Whether it be because he wanted to keep me safe, had a job for me to do or simply because he was jealous, though he would never admit that, I'd thought for sure the sheriff of Area Five would tie me down and lock me up before he let me take off across state lines with my boss. He'd surprised me; however, when he'd actually encouraged me to go.
"It will be good for you to get away," he'd said in his deep, slightly accented voice.
I knew my vampire lover well enough to know there was a hidden meaning in his words. Something was happening in Louisiana that he didn't want me to know about or something he wanted to get me away from. A part of me, truthfully a large part, wanted to stay right there in Bon Temps and confront whatever it was head on. But my guilt had inevitably won over. I'd promised Sam after all, and giving the excuse that I had to find out what Eric was hiding would never go over well with him. Sam is a nice guy, the nicest guy I know, and he would say he understood, but I knew that he would be disappointed and maybe even a little hurt if I didn't go. And since Eric had given the okay, I had no choice but to follow through on my word.
And it wasn't like I didn't want to go to the wedding. It had to be better than the last few I'd been to. I inwardly shuddered at the thought of Crystal, my brother Jason's recently deceased wife. She been strung up and beaten to death not long after they were wed. The worst part about all of it was that she had been pregnant. Jason was healing fine enough, but I still couldn't get the picture of the girl hanging there out of my mind. I had been against that wedding in the biggest of ways, especially when I'd had to promise to be responsible for Jason. That was a job that no person wanted. And the fact that he'd been marrying a girl from Hot Shot, a town full of inbred were-panthers, had been a little too much.
Yes, this wedding would be better. It had to be.
I found myself wondering what Sam's family would be like. His mother was a shifter like him, and since the great reveal, they'd experienced some problems of their own. Sam's step father had tried to kill his mother when she'd shown him what she could do. He was now in prison and their divorce was final, but that didn't make what he did any less painful for Sam's mother. Her own husband had tried to kill her. Sam's siblings had taken the news a little better. He'd since revealed to them that he too was a shifter. At first his future sister-in-law and her family weren't sure that they could handle this news and the wedding had been put on hold, but now they seemed to be adjusting along with the others and were seemingly ready to be kin to the supernatural, once they found out there was absolutely no way the "condition" could be passed on to their grandchildren.
I knew that this bothered Sam and his mother. I'd told him before that they shouldn't worry about what other people thought of them and that they weren't any less human than I was. Maybe everyone had a bit of supernatural in them somewhere. I was an eight fairy, something that made me irresistible to vampires. I often wondered if that was what Eric and Bill had found so intriguing about me. At least I knew that wasn't why Sam liked me; fairies had no such allure to shifters. Sure, full blooded fairies were attractive to everyone, but their blood was what called to the vampires.
I glanced at the sign that read Hale County as we passed it. Population 38,408. Wright, Texas was no small town. We passed gas stations, grocery stores and even a mall on our way to Sam's mother's house. That was where we would be staying for the weekend. I'd insisted that I didn't want to be a bother by taking up room in her home, but Sam said she wouldn't have us staying in a hotel. Her son was coming to visit her and she wanted to see him as much as she could. But that was understandable, what with him living over nine hours away.
It had taken us longer than nine hours to get to Wright. We'd stopped for breakfast and lunch, since we'd left Bon Temps around seven that morning, and we'd made several stops for bathroom breaks. It was almost seven p.m. when we pulled into the gravel driveway. After so many hours sitting in Sam's truck, I was more than ready to get out and stretch my legs. My injuries, including the ones on my thighs, had all but healed now, only leaving behind a few scars. I shuddered as I thought about how I'd gotten them.
Sam made it out of the truck before I did and pulled our bags from the tool box in the back. I offered to carry my own, but his manly pride wouldn't allow such a thing. Men were supposed to carry the bags. I just rolled my eyes and followed him to the front door.
"I warn you," he said. "My mother is a hugger."
"That's okay," I replied with a smile. "So am I."
He gave me an endearing look and then knocked on the door.
I readied myself for what I knew was coming. Everyone would assume that I was Sam's girlfriend but I'd already prepared what I would say. 'We're just good friends. Sam's like my best friend.' It was cliché and lame but it would have to do. They would want to know where his real girlfriend was but I figured I'd let Sam handle that one. The truth of the matter was that his real girlfriend, Jannalynn, was a werewolf and he hadn't wanted to bring her because two supernaturals were probably enough for his future relatives to handle. Jannalynn is also, at least in my opinion, more than a little rough around the edges. And I'm not just saying that because I don't particularly like her. Sam had also mentioned once that he didn't think his mother would like her either. I thought this was a sign that she wasn't right for him, but had kept my mouth shut on the matter. His love life was none of my business.
I also prepared myself mentally. I had learned to wall out other people's thoughts pretty well, unless they were just big time projectors, like Amelia. I had my wall put firmly in place now. The last thing I wanted or needed was to know what Sam's family really thought of me, and of each other.
The door opened to reveal a woman who couldn't have been far off from my own age. She was pretty, having reddish-blonde hair just like Sam. 'This must be Mindy,' I thought. Mindy was Sam's younger sister. She was a year older than me, I thought I had recalled Sam telling me, and was married with two children. When Sam and his mother had revealed to the family that they were shifters, Mindy had taken it better than anyone. She was smiling brightly at us and I could tell already that I liked her.
"Sam, it's so good to see you." She reached out and gave her brother a hug.
"It's good to see you, too," he replied, returning the hug with a smile.
"And you must be…" Mindy broke off with a look at me.
"Hi, I'm Sookie Stackhouse," I said, reaching out my hand.
She took it and kept smiling at me. "It's nice to meet you, Sookie Stackhouse. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Mindy, Sam's sister."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," I told her, meaning it.
She kept her smile in place as she ushered us into the house. "Everybody's out back."
I wondered briefly about her 'I've heard a lot about you' comment, but stored it in the back of my mind for later. Right now it was time to meet the rest of the family. We walked through the house, stopping so Sam could lay our bags by the stairs, before heading into the back yard.
There were several people scattered about the small enclosed area. As we stepped through the sliding glass doors, I saw a man off to the side by the grill. He turned to greet us as we stepped out and I knew just by looking at him, much like I had known by seeing Mindy, that this was Craig. There was no denying the three were siblings.
Another man was standing ten feet away holding a football in his hands. There were two small children standing in front of him. He was trying to teach them the rules of the game, it looked like. Mindy identified him as her husband, David. Her two kids, Peter and Ava, were not taking too well to what their father was telling them. They were simply trying to play keep away from him with the ball. Lastly, I spotted two more women seated in lawn chairs off to the side. One of them looked younger than Mindy and I. She had dark brown hair and carefully tanned skin. I took her to be Deidra, Craig's fiancée. And then of course, there was Sam's mom. She looked to be in her early 50's, though I thought she was probably older than that. Her light hair was streaked with grey but her eyes still held a sense of youth in them. She stood up when she saw us coming.
"Sam," she greeted her son with a hug, much as his sister had.
"Hey mom."
He looked genuinely happy to see his family and I was glad for him. And more than that, I was glad to be here, too.
When Sam stepped back from his mother, she turned her gaze to me. "You must be Sookie. It's wonderful to meet you, dear."
"It's very nice to meet you, ma'am."
She reached out to hug me, as I expected. "Don't call me ma'am," she said jokingly. "It makes me sound old. You can call me Rose."
I smiled at her, deciding she reminded me of my Gran in way. I couldn't imagine how anyone would want to hurt this woman, even if she did turn into an animal on the full moon. There was something wrong with people in this world.
"The burgers are almost ready," Craig announced from his position in front of the grill.
Sam's mother led me to a seat beside her and shooed him away, informing him that it was time for the ladies to talk. It made me a little nervous to be alone with three women I didn't even know, especially when it was possible that they thought I was dating the man who'd just given me a sympathetic look and walked towards his brother. Mindy had taken a seat on the other side of me and Deidra was next to Rose.
"So, Sookie," Mindy began. "Tell us about yourself."
I started to say that I thought she'd already heard all about me, but then realized that maybe that wasn't true. Maybe Sam had told them about his girlfriend and since he'd brought me with him, they assumed that person was I instead of Jannalynn. "There's not much to tell." I told them how I worked at Merlotte's and how I had one brother, who drove me crazy at times. I told them some details about what had happened to the rest of my family, being sure to leave out all of the supernatural elements, mostly for Deidra's benefit. It was clear that she wasn't completely comfortable with it all yet.
"I'm sorry about your parents and your grandmother," Rose said. "It sounds like you were close to them."
I nodded. "Yes. Especially my gran. She practically raised me and Jason."
"Well, she sounds like an amazing woman."
"She was."
Rose patted me on the leg. "She did a wonderful job. You are just as great as my son said you were."
I felt my cheeks redden, even though a part of me still didn't think he'd actually told them about me. Rose seemed pleased that she'd embarrassed me.
"Don't worry," Mindy told me. "She dotes on everyone she likes. And you'd know if she didn't like you, too."
"Well, there's no point in withholding the truth from people," Rose said. Her face took on a look of regret. "That's one thing I've learned."
I knew she was referring to her shifter secret. I glanced at Mindy and then at Deidra. Mindy was just smiling thoughtfully. Deidra tried to smile, too. Hey, at least she was trying.
"It's okay, mom," Mindy said. "We all understand why you didn't tell us about that."
"Yes," Deidra piped in. "We do." It was the first time I'd heard her speak, but she sounded sincere. "I'm really sorry for the problems my family and I caused because of it. We were wrong."
Rose looked stunned and also delighted. I realized I had just witnessed an important moment for these two women. It had taken months, but Deidra was finally okay with marrying into a family that wasn't, by general standards, normal. She smiled at Rose and Rose smiled back, taking her hand.
"I knew I always liked you," she said.
"And I like you," Deidra said.
I found myself smiling right along with them. It was good to see these people happy. Even though I barely knew them, I'd felt the most at home sitting here with them, then I'd felt in a long time.
I thought briefly that it was good Jannalynn wasn't here. She wouldn't have appreciated what had just happened. She may have even scoffed and rolled her eyes. No, Rose wouldn't like her. In fact, none of them would. I felt a hint of vindictive satisfaction that startled me. I was taking this not liking Jannalynn thing to a whole new level.
No one asked me if I knew about shifters. They must have assumed Sam told me because the conversation shifted to an entirely new subject. The wedding of course. Deidra admitted to being nervous to stand in front of a whole church full of people, she'd always had stage fright. After wedding talk, we discussed Mindy's kids. Her oldest, Peter, was starting pre-k soon and she wasn't sure how well he was going to handle it. He was a bit of an independent who didn't take well to being told what to do.
While we were talking about kids, I thought of Hunter. I wondered how he was doing. He would be starting school soon and it would be even harder for him to adjust than most kids. He had telepathic abilities like mine. Being able to read the minds of your classmates would surely make way for disaster. I'd been helping him as much as I could, but I couldn't always be around for him.
"I want at least three," Deidra was saying.
"Oh, you'll change your mind after two. Trust me," Mindy said with a laugh.
"I handled three just fine," Rose told them. "Though there were times I thought of sending Craig to Aunt Jean's to live."
That earned a chuckle from everyone. My gaze had drifted to the Peter and his little sister Ava. They were still playing with the football, only now it was Sam they were playing keep away with. David had taken up position lounging in a chair on the concrete slab near the house doors, drinking a beer. Sam chased the kids in a circle and when he finally managed to catch Ava, he swung her around in a circle before putting her down and going for Peter, whom she had thrown the ball to.
Mindy, having followed my gaze, tapped me on the arm. "What about you, Sookie? How many kids do you want?"
I snapped out of my reverie and shrugged. "I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."
"Oh, come on. We've all thought about it. Even if the number is zero."
Truthfully, I had thought about it. I'd had my life planned out when I was just a little girl, but as things stood now, I wasn't sure I'd ever have any children. After all, vampires couldn't procreate.
They were all looking at me, awaiting my answer. I glanced around at all of them and then back at Sam and the kids running around in the yard. "Two," I said finally.
Rose and Mindy both looked pleased. "Sam would make a great dad," Rose said.
"Yes, he would," I agreed.
After dinner, Deidra and Craig headed out. Tonight was their last night together before they would be husband and wife. The wedding was scheduled for late Saturday afternoon but tomorrow night was the rehearsal dinner after which Deidra intended to spend the night with her bridesmaids. Sam had decided he would take Craig out for a few drinks after the rehearsal as well, since he'd missed the official bachelor party.
Mindy, David and the kids left around nine, which left Sam, Rose and I. We were sitting in the living room, Sam talking about the bar and how things were going. He was sugar coating his situation to her. I knew the bar had been having problems lately, and Sam was having some financial troubles himself. After a while, I felt myself yawning. It must have been the long car ride.
"Sookie, dear, you look so tired. Why don't you go on upstairs and get some rest?"
I wanted to protest, but instead I covered my mouth as I yawned again.
"Sam, you get that girl to bed," she instructed him. "And don't worry, I have thick walls," she said to me.
I coughed and felt my cheeks get hot for the tenth time since I'd arrived. My reaction didn't seem to bother Sam's mother in the least. She simply stood up from the couch and headed towards the stairs.
"I've got some extra blankets if you all need some. Let me just get them for you."
When she was out of earshot, Sam turned to me. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay. I like your mom." And I really meant that. I did like her. A lot. Even if she did find amusement in embarrassing me.
"I should have told her you weren't my girlfriend but I…" He tried to smile at me. "I'll tell her tomorrow."
I should have argued. I should have demanded that he tell her right then, but there was something stopping me. A nagging feeling. One that was urging me to keep up the charade. I told myself it would be better for Sam because if his family knew who his real girlfriend was, they might disown him, but there was another reason.
This might be your only chance, a voice in the back of mind said. This is the closest you will ever come to being a part of a relatively normal family. And I wanted to hold onto it, as long as I could.
A/N: Review and let me know what you think!
