A few key facts to keep in mind while reading.

One: This assumes every book through 8 (including the short stories, especially "Gift Wrap"). While I have taken the first chapter of Dead & Gone into account I have greatly altered what happens through that first chapter. So I guess you could consider this AU. Sorta.

Two: Most of the story takes place in the year 2024.

Three: This will contain spoilers for the short story "Gift Wrap".

See you at the end! Happy reading!

This was something that should have taken months of meticulous planning to figure out. Every detail should have been hammered out, have blood and sweat poured into, to insure that everything would work out just fine. This was something that needed to go over smoothly. This was not something that should have been done on a whim.

But that is exactly what Sookie Stackhouse did.

At that moment she didn't have weeks or months to spend making preparations. She only had a few days to accomplish what she needed to get done and by george that was exactly what she did. Her flight mechanism had kicked in and she had followed it as far as it would carry her. She didn't know where she was going or how long it would take to get there but she knew one thing for sure:

She had to get the hell out of Bon Temps, Louisiana.

And that was exactly what she did; tears streaming down her face the entire way.

The Next Life
Chapter One: Homecoming

For twenty years the Stackhouse homestead had stood in silence, abandoned by the bloodline that had built it over one hundred years before. The last owner, Sookie Stackhouse, had disappeared almost two decades ago, leaving no details about where she was going or why, she simply vanished without a trace.

Ever since it was used as a memorial to her by all of those who cared for her. This was their shrine, the last solid piece of evidence that she had ever been there at all. The few who had been inside said there were still traces of her scent lingering in the wood of her old bedroom. But the house was hardly ever ventured into, less the smell be destroyed and its memory forgotten.

The grounds were kept neat and organized and vandals chased away, insuring that it would be livable for when Sookie returned. Because everyone who cared to wonder about her knew that someday she would come back to the place that had been her home for so long. And when she did come back they would be ready to greet her again.

That opportunity came one spring night almost twenty years later.

For the first time signs of life were everywhere. The golden lights of the house came pouring through the old windows that had recently been cleaned. In the backyard, on the antique clothes line, hung the white sheets that had covered the furniture so that they wouldn't collect dust. Two cars were parked in the front, a U-Haul attached to the back of one of them. Boxes were strewn all over the front and back porch.

And none of this went unnoticed to the diligent watch of the vampire up the hill.

"Addie, can you go look in the U-Haul and see if there is another box with kitchen stuff in it? We're missing a few pots and pans."

"Yes ma'am!"

A young woman, no older than nineteen, sprinted out of the front door moments later. Her blond hair was pulled out of her face by a head band and she wore nothing more than a pair of shirts and an old t-shirt whose sleeves had been rolled up. The skin on her arms and legs were dark with a tan and covered in the sweat of a long day's work. She was humming to herself as she walked the short distance from the porch to the trailer, her dark blue eyes twinkling.

He was on her before she could make it inside the trailer. Her scream broke the peace of the night as his pale arms wrapped around her and began to squeeze the life out of her.

"What are you doing here?" he growled into her ear, demanding to know who was moving into the house that had only ever belonged to one person and one person alone. Only she was allowed to live there.

"Bill Compton you let go of my daughter this instant!"

He froze, his dark eyes turning to the woman who was now standing on the front porch looking furious. She was older than the last time he saw her with a few wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, but she was still just as beautiful. Her hair was a dull shade of blond, even darker in comparison to the young woman he was holding hostage.

And those eyes...he knew those eyes.

Slowly his vice like grip ebbed away and the girl ran from him, leaping onto the steps in terror as she ran and hid behind her mother.

"Sookie?" Bill asked with some hesitation, not quite believing his eyes. He had run after blonds so many times before, mistaking them for her. It was so hard to believe that she was back now, after so long.

She didn't hear him, she was too busy comforting the other woman, her daughter. Her daughter.

He looked closer now. The hair, the eyes, the shape of her body. Yes, every single aspect of that young woman reflected the Sookie he had come to love. Some of her facial features differed but everything else was he same. She truly was Sookie's daughter.

Suddenly it all made sense.

"I am sorry." he said roughly, his mind still processing all of the information he was taking in. Sookie was back and she had a daughter. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"No, you just meant to kill her!" Sookie snapped back.

"Mom, its okay. I'm alright." the girl, Addie, spoke quietly but she was still eyeing Bill with fright.

"No, I just wanted to know what she was doing here. Teenagers sometimes come out here to use the house for their own devices and I was just trying to run her off."

Sookie glared back down at the vampire that was standing innocently in her yard. Even after all these years it was still hard to know what vampires were thinking, but she had a good guess about what was running through Bill's mind right now. At least he looked sorry.

"Don't apologize to me, I'm not the one you tried to squeeze to death." she sighed, stepping back a little to reveal her daughter. "Addie, this is an old friend of mine, Bill. Bill this is my daughter, Adele."

Adele. He wasn't surprised.

"I am sorry for scaring you, Adele."

"Its okay, no harm done." she answered hesitantly. "And please, call me Addie."

The three of them stood their awkwardly for a moment before Sookie finally broke the silence. "Well, would you like to come in Bill? Just watch your step, there are boxes and breakables everywhere." she said as she began to lead them into the house, her daughter right on her heels. Addie might have said everything was fine but it was obvious she was going to be nervous around him for a long time.

Bill followed them inside slowly, relishing the moments of walking through that door again. Everything was just as he remembered. Some of the furniture had been moved around, a few new additions added, and there were indeed boxes everywhere, but it was still Sookie's house, just like it had always been.

He noticed that Adele turned in a different direction and snuck off down the hall were Sookie's room once was. She was probably sleeping in the spare bedroom, the one with the hidey hole in the closet. He would have to remember that if he ever got trapped over here at day break. If he was given the opportunity to stay that long, at least. It had been twenty years, not long for a vampire, but plenty of time for a human to change.

"I'd offer you a blood, but I haven't had time to stock the fridge. I figured it would be a few days before anyone showed up." Sookie said with a heavy voice. She stood in the doorway of the kitchen, where their most recent unpacking had been underway and stared.

Bill didn't dare question her or press her to speak, instead he moved quickly and quietly behind her and wrapped her in his arms. She didn't tense but it took her a few seconds to wrap her arms around him in return. Her warmth flooded him and he closed his eyes, smiling softly.

They stayed like that for a moment, both taking their own joy from being around something so familiar, something they both had enjoyed so much once upon a time. But after a minute it was over and she stepped away from him and turned back to face the living room, she couldn't meet his eyes.

"I guess you want an explanation, about why I left." she said softly.

His eyes darted to the hallway Adele had disappeared into. "I think I already know why." his eyes turned to look back at Sookie who was looking at him with surprised eyes. "She looks just like you Sookie." he explained. "And she's the right age."

Sookie looked down at her clasped hands. "I couldn't stay here, Bill. I just...there was so much at stake with the new regime in and the Weres coming out. I didn't want her to get caught up in all this shit too. I didn't want them to use my daughter against me."

Silence settled between them as they both decided how to proceed.

"Where did you go?" Bill finally asked. His voice was heavy and low as he struggled to keep in his anger and frustration.

"Florida." she laughed dryly. "I wanted to go somewhere with a lot of sun, a place she would enjoy."

"A place without many vampires." he stated instantly.

"Yes." Sookie answered after a short pause. "I didn't want to go anywhere that I would be recognized. I wanted a fresh start."

Another heavy and awkward silence settled between them. This time it was Sookie who broke the silence.

"How are things here? Any other regime changes that I should know about?" her voice carried the lightest hint of a laugh, as if she were trying to make a joke out of it, to ease the awkwardness out of the room. It didn't work.

"Vampire policies are not as swift to change as humans. Once set it takes a great amount to effort to change them."

"So, Eric is still Sheriff then?" This was the one question that had been plaguing her since they arrived in Louisiana. There had been no one she could ask, no one to confirm if the Viking was still even living in the state or not. She didn't know why, after twenty years, she still cared.

"Yes. He is still running Fangtasia and doing as de Castro bids him."

"How is he?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself? He'll be here shortly."

Sookie's eyes went wide and the color drained from her face. She turned to face Bill with a horrified expression. "What?" she asked. She wasn't ready to face him. Not now. Not yet.

On cue there were three loud knocks on the door. Sookie didn't question who was standing on her porch now. She knew it could only be one man.

"I'll leave you to speak with him, then." Bill said, standing from his place on the couch and heading for the back door.

"Wait Bill! Don't go!" she pleaded.

He turned on her with fierce eyes. "Why should I stay when you yourself left without telling anyone? You didn't give any of us a chance to ask you to wait, to think things through. We would have protected you Sookie! You and your daughter! But you didn't give any of us a chance." he growled.

He stood staring at her a minute longer before he disappeared faster than she could see him. She heard the back door swing shut a second later.

There were three more loud knocks at the door, drawing Sookie's attention away from the vacant air that Bill had once occupied. Despite how nervous she had been only minutes ago she was feeling calm now. It was the calm that Eric always brought with her when he was around.

Hesitantly she took the few steps necessary to approach the front door and laid her hand on the handle. It was now or never. She opened the door and stared up at the man who had haunted her dreams for so long. Time had not changed him as her memory had.

She took a few steps back from the door. "Eric," she said softly, "come in."

What's this? Is Miss B writing something with chapters?!
Why yes, yes I am. This is highly unusual for me, but I found myself thinking more and more about this plot line over the past few days and the short discussion I had with a few folks in the Dead and Gone thread just sparked me to actually start taking it somewhere. Exactly where that is, I'm not too sure yet, but I have a good idea.

I will say this now, no, this isn't a romance between Addie (my OC) and any of the canon characters. I swear. While Addie does play a large role in the story, there is very little romance involved with her.

And I think that's about it for this chapter.
Reviews and constructive criticism make the world go round! Please help my world keep spinning!