Authors Note: As I intend this story to take place over several years, and I don't intend to write any boring filler stuff that I don't have to, I anticipate there will be several time jumps, like the little one there is here. Also, thank you all so much for the kind reviews and the follows/faves. You guys are the best.

Chapter 2

*Six months later*

The whole way home from the lawyer's office felt like an out of body experience. To say I was on auto-pilot driving home was an understatement. It was done. Finally over. Ten years of my life spent with Sam, ended in a conversation neither one of us was planning to have, and then really over with little more than a signature in front of a lawyer in a cheap suit, in an office suite at the end of a strip mall.

I was startled when I realized I made it home. I found myself winding up my long driveway, unaware that I had already closed the hour-long distance between the law office Sam picked out in Shreveport and home.

The divorce went smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it could. Sam bought out my half of the bar. Neither of us tried to go after anything. I kept the house, since we had moved into my Gran's old house, and he still owned plenty of rental properties. At the end of the day, it was a lot of paperwork, and a giant headache, but we both walked in amicably, and walked out the same way. It wasn't that we hated each other, we just knew we had made a mistake, and had stubbornly taken way too many years to admit it.

I settled into my usual chair in the kitchen, with a huge cup of coffee in one hand, and my tablet in the other. I didn't really need a job. I still had plenty of money in the bank, but if I wasn't going to be working at Merlotte's anymore I needed to do something. Being unemployed just wasn't something I knew how to do.

I scrolled through several online want ads, applying at a few places and making notes for myself to call certain other places to inquire about open positions. I was just setting the tablet down to get up and refill my coffee cup when I heard a familiar pop in the living room.

Mr. Cataliades ambled into my kitchen, "Really, Sookie? I know it's been awhile, but you know you could have contacted me for your legal needs, right?"

I smiled, for the first time in a very long time, a smile that reached all the way up to my eyes. "Mr. Cataliades! What a surprise! Sam chose the lawyer, and I had no reason to argue the point, since we didn't really disagree on any of the terms. Come, won't you have a seat? Can I get you something to eat? Some tea?"

He smiled back at me, "Please, Sookie, call me Desmond," and with that he sat down at the kitchen table while I busied myself preparing him a sandwich, a small plate of cookies, and a giant glass of sweet tea.

"Well, Desmond," I said, placing the nearly full platter in front of him, "what brings you here today? Not that I mind! I'm thrilled to see you, but it's been over a decade since we've spoken."

He wasted no time diving right into the food placed in front of him. A happy demon is a hungry demon, after all. It gave me a little peace of mind, seeing him eat like this. I knew if he was here on somber business he would only nibble at the food, or not touch it at all.

"It's come to my attention that as of this morning you are no longer employed." He swallowed almost his entire glass of tea, and clunked it back onto the table.

"So… you've come to offer me a job?" This was a shock. I hadn't seen Mr. Cataliades since before I married Sam, and the day I get divorced, here he is, popping into my house talking about work, as if I saw him yesterday. Color me confused.

"It depends," he smiled at me. "Does your separation from your 'normal' life with the shifter mean you're ready to re-enter our world?"

There it was. He had been avoiding me all these years because I was married to Sam, because I had turned my back on the entire rest of the supernatural world. Yet here he was, offering me a way back into it, just like that.

I just stared at him. I had no idea how to respond. I missed that world, the excitement, adventure, my friends... Eric… but there was the other side too. How many times had I come within an inch of death? How many people I loved had I watched die? How many people had I killed? Besides, even if I got myself involved in all that mess again, there was no real guarantee that I would ever cross paths with Eric again, and even if I did, there was even less guarantee that he would want anything to do with me after the disastrous mess I made of everything.

"Perhaps I should give you some time to think things over, but we both know what you're going to say." Mr. Cataliades winked at me, pulled a business card out of an inner pocket from his suit jacket and placed it on the table, then with another pop I was alone again in my kitchen.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The line only rang once before he picked up the phone. "Ms. Stackhouse! I've been expecting your call. Though, to be honest, I'm surprised you waited an entire week to get back to me." I could hear the smile in his voice as Mr. Cataliades spoke.

"I had some things I needed to take care of first," I lied. I really didn't know why I waited so long. I had spent the last week making pro and con lists in my head, but in the end, the answer had been obvious. It was the only answer there was.

"And your decision is…?"

"Of course, Mr. Cataliades, but as you stated when you were here, we both already knew that." It was my turn to pour my smile into my voice. I hadn't realized until this moment how excited I was about the prospect of doing something, anything in the Supe world again.

"Splendid! We'll get started at once then!" click, pop Just like that he had popped into my house, for the second time in a handful of days.

I moved my phone from my ear, and looked at it, still shocked that he was suddenly here and no longer on the phone. "Some warning would've been nice!" I fussed, to which he responded with a hearty laugh.

"I said we'd start at once, and, really Sookie, where is the fun in giving warning?"

I realized at that moment that I had just agreed to start working, but I had no idea what Mr. Cataliades had in mind.

We walked into the kitchen without a word to one another. He set to work getting his laptop set up on the kitchen table, while I busied myself setting up a tray of food, two glasses, and a pitcher of sweet tea. As I finished setting everything on the table he sat down, and started clicking and typing away at his computer, barely even looking as he helped himself to some food.

"So, um, I…" I couldn't even form a sentence. I felt so stupid for not clarifying what he had in mind before agreeing.

"Don't worry, Sookie, I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. You're still protected under the contract. Besides any new work you agree to will have a new contract written up defining terms and conditions before you even start. I won't have you running blindly into anything," Mr. Cataliades clarified. It had been so long since I'd had someone read my mind, I had forgotten how disarming and simultaneously comforting it could be.

"As far as prospective work at the moment, there are quite a few Packmasters and vampire monarchs that have expressed interest in your abilities, but I have not confirmed with anyone that your services are for hire yet, so you will have the ability to pick and choose as you see fit." He started with his computer again, then turned the screen slightly to show me a long list of potential work he had lined up.

"Well that sounds wonderful, Desmond, thank you," and I really, down to the bottom of my heart, meant it. I could re-enter the Supe world, on my own terms. The only question now was how to re-enter the world of a particular vampire.