Never Truly Dead: A sequel to Dead Man's Shoes
Not neccessary to read, but the short story, Road Trip, fits in well between the time line of DMS and NTD.

"I've always found this to be a disgusting human thing," Pam drawled. "Kudos to being dead."

I thought it was pretty bad too. Hunter was sitting on the sofa in the living room of the old Stackhouse Homestead, also known as our home. The television was on and I had put on a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD to keep him busy. He was dressed in his flashy Superman summer pyjamas which was a light cotton t-shirt with the superman logo with matching shorts. Pam was perched on top of the back of the same couch, her legs on either side of Hunter, dressed in a summer trench coat style dress that was pastel mint green. It was relatively short, ending just above the mid thigh mark but even in this position she wasn't flashing. That took some skill which had to have been practised over decades, but she was one hundred and sixty years old, give or take a decade, so she'd had had the time. This was teamed with some flat, soft beige leather boots. Her feet were flat on the couch, shoes on, but I didn't care because she was doing me a huge favour. And she wasn't wearing heels- which was not a common occurrence- so I wasn't too bothered. It wouldn't hurt.

Hunter had been at school for two weeks now. He was enrolled at Bon Temps' only elementary school and was in Halleigh Bellefleur- Andy's missus- class. I liked Halleigh well enough, I'd even filled in at her wedding when a bridesmaid couldn't make it, so I knew she would be a great teacher for Hunter's first year at the new school. She'd also been great with me because I was new to school as well. I'd attended school- in fact, I had gone to the same school- but I'd never gone as a parental figure. It was all very new to experience, and I was a bit nervous.

School can be daunting all by itself. Now try multiplying that because you're telepathic with no control and therefore hear every thought of every person around you. It was no fun- I'd done it. And now it was Hunter's turn. Maybe it was cruel to put him through the school system when I knew firsthand what it was like, but I doubted my abilities to home school him and he needed to make connections with other children his age. If I sheltered him it too much could lead to later rebellion or worse. You never knew. But I hoped to mentor him with his telepathy. I wish I had had someone to help guide me when I was his age but I had to struggle on my own, no one understanding me. Andy Bellefleur was a believer in my curse and I hoped his wife would be the same if I had to tell her to assist in Hunter's education. Halleigh was a few years younger than me and always had been pleasant. No one liked to know that their thoughts aren't private but I thought that out of any teacher, she'd be the most resilient and understanding. She valued the education of children and she believed every child- the poor, the rich, the healthy, the disabled- should have equal opportunity to succeed in the future. It was one of the reason's she liked teaching the younger kids because she was all about making a good first impression to school, like a platform to work from through the rest of the schooling years. Her theory was teaching them to like and appreciate learning in the early years will pay off down the track. I'd picked all this up in her head.

Although, one thing she had warned me about on our first day was that there was a bout of head lice going around the younger kids in school. I'd had my hair tied up around Hunter ever since.

Last night just before I put Hunter to bed I caught him scratching his head. I'd asked Pam to come over tonight to check his head. I could have done it, but you didn't get much better than vampire sight. Besides, lice didn't like vampires but they wouldn't object to someone like me. I was confident that her verdict would be accurate. So from her perch, she was gently running her cool fingers through his hair, examining the strands and scalp.

I'd been curled up in the armchair, alternating between watching a talking blue train and a talking blonde vampire when the phone rang, interrupting my spectacular views. I didn't run, but I didn't walk slowly to grab the portable phone in the kitchen.

"Hey," I said casually, thinking it would either be Eric, Jason or Brian, Eric's newly appointed day guy.

"Hi Sookie," said a guarded voice. I knew that voice and I was silent for a moment trying to place it. I was telepathic, but it didn't work through the telephone.

Was it? No... "Quinn?"

"How you doing babe?"

Yup, definitely him. You never really forget the voice of an ex-lover. "Can you just wait a second while I change rooms?" I asked. After hearing his okay, I walked back out to Hunter and Pam in the living room, put my hand over the receiver and said, "I'm just going to be in my room on the phone, so Hunter, be good for Aunt Pam. And Pam, behave."

I was already on my way to my room when Pam said, "I always behave, Sookie." I would have snorted had I not been in a hurry to get in my room and shut the door. If Pam wanted to listen she could probably hear my side of the conversation from where she was sitting but the illusion of privacy was nice.

"Alright I'm here, thanks for waiting just then. I wasn't expecting to hear from you anytime soon," I said. Maybe the understatement of the year. We dated for a little while but he came with a lot of baggage in the form of his mother and sister. I understand the importance of family, I really do, but they were adults and I felt like I was competing his family for his love. It just wasn't comfortable. He sealed the deal though when he sided with Felipe de Castro during the takeover. I had liked Sophie Ann, the former Queen of Louisiana. Can't say the same for de Castro. Another thing I didn't like was betrayal, which was exactly what I counted Quinn's actions as.

"Babe, I don't mean to pry, but did I hear you just call someone Aunt Pam? As in vampire Pam? The Norseman's progeny Pam?"

Covering the phone with my hand hadn't muffled the sound then. Quinn turned into a tiger at the full moon but when he wasn't furry, his hearing was still better than the average human. It was the same for all shifter kinds.

"Yup, we are one big happy family here," I said. I didn't want to bring up Hunter since I didn't really know where Quinn's allegiances laid. Sugar-coating it I added, "Pam was calling me mommy last week." She only said it once and I had told her to go to her room. It was very funny at the time.

There was a brief paused while he recovered, "Actually, that's why I rang. It's a bit belated but I have been busy the last month or so and haven't got to pick up the phone." He was either stalling, rambling or I was feeling impatient tonight because I was ready to tell him to spit it out all ready when I heard him sigh loudly and then say, "I wanted to congratulate you on your formal engagement to the Northman."

You're going to hate me, since I'm going to be a tease. Chapter 2 will be out next week. Go on, hate me.

BUT, after that, I'm hoping for daily updates like in DMS.

I can't believe I'm writing Quinn. I really can't. I mentioned in one of the author's notes in DMS that I didn't like him and didn't want to write him but here I am, doing it. But I had a last minute idea when I was writing this chapter and I'm hoping it will pay off later down the track. I promise that after the next few chapters, Quinn will go quiet for awhile. Stupid pansy-ass tiger.

I've been a bit later posting this than I originally planned (I was hoping January or February.. but April is just as good). I've been writing well and truly ahead since I've had things on. The plan was to start getting chapters out once I reached chapter 20 but I got stuck on chapter 13 and couldn't work out which direction it was heading. I set myself up all wrong. So I had to go back and slot more chapters between the ones I already had so I could go further. Ideas just haven't been playing out properly. So to not write myself into an impossible corner, I'm currently writing chapter 28 so I've got plenty of time to write if I get another writers block since this story is proving harder to write that DMS and I want to do daily updates again. It's also good being that far ahead because haven't been able to write every day. So I can skip a day or two of writing and still have something to post, Yay. Beginning of the year is always busy. I've finally managed to get back into the swing of things after just over 2 months of holidays. This chapter I wrote in December, so 5 months almost to get to chapter 28 when before that would have taken me a month. I hope that by finally getting this chapter out, I'll be more motivated to write since I know I hate waiting for chapters, so I want to provide a story with very regular updates.

Anyway, there's chapter one and too much rambling. Not sure how much of that made sense. My rambles can get confusing.

Read, Enjoy and Review's very much appreciated :)