A/N: To the anonymous poster who was offended that Sookie would be offended with the fertility advice of her well-meaning friends ... it's true, it happens. No one is saying her friends are bad people for wanting to give her advice, or that she is rude in how she receives their comments, but that doesn't mean she doesn't resent it. Because trust me, no one is doing more to try to get pregnant than she is ... and while "relax" is a common, sound piece of advice, just telling someone to do it doesn't make it easy, especially when the one thing that would make her relaxed (getting pregnant) is the one thing she is unable to achieve. It's a vicious circle.

Much love to tabularasa88, who rocks my stories!

Ch. 4

5 Years Earlier

"Thank you for your time today Senator, and thank you for all you're doing for the Were community," Sam concluded, rising up from his chair with his hand outstretched towards the Senator. Senator Barkley took Sam's hand and shook it firmly.

I probably didn't need to come to this meeting today. Senator Barkley was a Senator from our home state of Louisiana, and he was also a were, were-coyote if the images I had pulled from his brain earlier were correct. However, he was in the "closet" so to speak. After the Were-reveal, there had been a lot of negative backlash against Weres and many anti-Were laws were passed, so the few Were politicians that there were, were afraid to come out to the public. At worse, they were afraid their constituencies would vote them out of office. At best, it would only serve to undermine any favorable legislation they attempted to pass for the Were community … or as more often the case, undermine their arguments against the anti-Were laws that were being passed, notwithstanding their presence in office. For that reason, the truth of their identities were closely guarded secrets.

"Thank you Mr. Merlotte, for your good work for the cause. Mrs. Merlotte," the Senator reached out to shake my hand.

"Mrs. Stackhouse-Merlotte," I corrected with a smile. "And thank you Senator." Of course, I saw Sam narrow his eyes at me. He hated that I had hyphenated my name.

As soon as we were out the door, I heard it. "Did you really have to correct the man Sookie?! It's bad enough that you reluctantly took my name, but you had to go and correct him, potentially undermining our work!"

"Don't you lecture me Sam!" I kept my voice lowered, as we were now in the Capitol's common area and there were people all around going here and there, conducting their business. I didn't want to make a scene. "The man didn't use my correct name, so I let him know. That is not rude. What's rude is him not remembering it the first time I told him. Besides, it isn't the end of the world." And after a moment of consideration, I continued, "and what do you mean 'undermine our work?' He's a were, of course he's going to support the cause. I don't even know why you made me come today. You don't need me to read his mind to know he will support the Contingency."

"Goddamnit Sookie! Keep your voice down; no one else knows that around here. Are you seriously trying to sabotage the cause?!"

"Sam, my voice is low. You're the only one screaming and making a scene," I said as I kept walking briskly towards Alcide. The sooner we made it to Alcide, the sooner this conversation would be over. Sam liked to keep a unified front when it came to Alcide.

The years hadn't been too kind to Alcide. Being packmaster had made him a bit soft, at least around the middle. His once-taut abs now sagged below his beltline. Sure, he was still strong for a man in his 50s … strong enough to fend off four challenges since he'd been packmaster, but he'd succeeded on two of those occasions because I'd "heard" his competitors' plans to cheat. He hadn't made the same mistake his father made by being too proud to accept the win by default, or by showing his opponents any mercy. He had declared their challenges forfeit and retained his status, but not before making sure they wouldn't challenge him again. Both men were permanently disabled as a result of Alcide's brand of justice. I didn't like it, but then again, I didn't have a say in Supe justice.

I didn't know what Alcide's long-term plans were, as he wouldn't be able to keep his packmaster status forever. I think he was just hoping to hold out long enough until one of his Were-kids, from one of their many mothers, was old enough and strong enough to succeed him. To the victor go the spoils… or at least, the young female Weres of child-bearing age. I was glad Alcide and I were never serious. I don't know how his wife, a sweet Were named Alice, ever coped with Alcide's children, or their mothers.

Alcide was standing with a young woman, maybe in her mid-20s. She was a pretty slim brunette with her hair in a low bun. She was wearing a nice, conservative navy pantsuit, and was holding a binder in her arms. She could have been a Washington staffer for all I knew … the attire was pretty much the standard uniform around here. Their presence brought my argument with Sam to an abrupt end, although I was sure he'd have more to say about it later.

"Sookie," Alcide greeted with an appreciative smile. He better be appreciative I thought. I had some nasty scars from last month, which was the last time I acted as shaman for him. He had me questioning his Weres about some local crimes that the community was blaming on Weres. Turns out the claims were right. Two of his pack members were sexually assaulting young women in and around Shreveport. They weren't too happy that I was there to find them out – knowing my reputation as a telepath – and when I was in my drug induced shaman state, one of them lunged at me with a knife, which Alcide was thankfully able to deflect. The blade didn't reach my heart, which was its original target, just my arm – it pierced it clean through. I now had two nice four-inch scars on my left bicep – one going in and one going out. "Sam, I want you to meet, Mandy Monroe."

By her hazy thoughts and Sam's sniffing the air, I could tell she was a Were of some sort. I shook her hand and I caught the image of a chocolate lab. When Sam shook her hand, his face lit up.

"You're a shifter!" Sam exclaimed. Well, that explained his euphoria.

Mandy blushed, which just made her more fetching (pun intended) and she lowered her eyes demurely. "Yes I am. It's a great honor to meet you Mr. Merlotte. Why, I've heard so much about you," she gushed.

"Please call me Sam," he fumbled. I hadn't seen him this happy in a long time. I guess I didn't realize how much he missed being around another true shifter, at least not since his mom died about ten years ago. "And what could you have possibly heard about me?" Sam asked, still beaming.

"Well, how you were instrumental in getting Were-equality ordinances passed, first in Bon Temps and then statewide in Louisiana. The fact that after twenty-five years of being public, and Louisiana is only the third state in the nation with a state-wide Were-equality ordinance and the first in the south, well, that is pretty amazing."

"Why, thanks," Sam said, still shaking Mandy's hand. He seemed to realize this at that moment, and they both laughed as they let each other's hands go.

"Mandy here has been appointed to the National Were Contingency. She is acting as a coordinator for state matters," Alcide explained. "Y'all will be working together as she coordinates national efforts."

"Great!" Sam beamed.

"Great…." I said.

"Of course, I've heard a lot about you too Mrs. Merlotte," Mandy said shifting to me.

"Mrs. Stackhouse-Merlotte actually," I said with a smile, while Sam just frowned.

"We're very fortunate to have you on our side. I don't know what we'd do if the vamps still had you. Well, I don't really guess they ever needed you though, not with their public relations at least. They seem to do just fine on their own."

And I gave her a small, sad smile, and replied, "Yes, they seem to do just fine on their own without me…."

"I'm so looking forward to working with you both! Are you guys staying here over the course of the full moon?" she asked. The full moon was tomorrow night.

"Actually, we're here through next week. We have additional meetings lined up with the Congressional representatives from our neighboring states, and then we have to get back to Louisiana to our business. Also, our state legislature will start its session in a couple of weeks and we need to be there for that," Sam answered.

"Wonderful! I've arranged for the national parks department to allow some of us to run in the national parks over the full moon coming up. I do hope you'll join us."

"Of course! I'd love too!" Sam enthused.

"Sookie, we've arranged for some of the non-were partners to have a special night showing at the Smithsonian. I do hope you'll be able to attend that," she smiled with her perfect, white teeth.

I really just wanted to curl up with a good book and I guess Sam could see I was going to say no, because he jumped in and answered for me.

"Of course, Sookie would be happy to go, wouldn't you honey? You should make the most of your time here in our Nation's Capital."

"Oh, Sam, I don't know, I should probably plan out the talking points for the rest of the meetings we have this week," I hedged.

"Nonsense, the basic outlines are done and I've been doing this now long enough to know what to say. Besides, you just need to read folks while you're there. You don't actually have to say anything. Go, it'll be fun," Sam encouraged.

I hated how he belittled my role in what we were doing. If me reading people wasn't so important, then I'd just as soon go back to Bon Temps; however, I didn't want to fight in front of Alcide and Mandy, so I just said, "I suppose a couple hours would be fine…."