Sam awoke the next morning to dull sunlight shining in through the blue curtains in his bedroom. He let out a small laugh as he stretched and thought how weird it was for him to be in his bed the morning after a full moon. Usually he just slept wherever he happened to be that night, too tired to make his way back to the house that night. He laid in bed relaxing for a few moments with his eyes closed. Then he heard her southern accented soft voice.
"Morning, sunshine."
Sam exhaled loudly before saying, "If I open my eyes and see Charlotte Jennings standing in my door, it better be a bad dream or I died in a ditch somewhere and went to hell."
"You say I'm the cranky one in the morning." Charlotte commented as she walked over and sat on the bed next to Sam.
Sam opened his eyes and rolled over onto his side to look at Charlotte. Her hair was not fixed, but naturally curly and left down. She was wearing a fitted light green shirt, khaki shorts and a pair of sneakers. "I think I'm in hell." Sam muttered as he covered his face his hand.
"You couldn't be that lucky, Lottie." She replied smiling and handing him a cup of coffee.
"Did you stay here last night?" Sam asked accusingly as he took the coffee and looked down at it.
"It's not poisoned, Lottie. I didn't stay here because I knew you would kill me if I did that. After I saved your ass, I went back to my place." Charlotte replied as she laid an arm on his hip and placed her chin on her arm.
"How did you 'save my ass?'" Sam asked and then took a drink of coffee.
Charlotte chuckled as she replied, "You Shifters and the full moon. After I left your house I had to do some business over in Shreveport and when I was on my way back to my house, there was the cute little Collie curled up in the bar ditch."
"Well, thanks for picking me up but why did you do it?" Sam said little uneasily as he looked down at Charlotte.
"It was no problem. I knew you would do the same for me and I didn't think that finding the owner of Merlotte's naked in a ditch would be good for business." She replied smiling.
"I would have had a lot of questions to answer, if anyone else had found me." Sam said laughing softly.
"How's the coffee?" She asked as she looked up at him.
"Good, made just the way I like it." Sam said offering a small smile as he shifted causing the covers to fall, revealing his bare chest. Charlotte quickly adverted her eyes and sat up.
"Well, I'm glad you like it." Charlotte replied smiling as she rose up from the bed.
"Where are you going?" Sam asked as he sat his cup on the night stand beside his bed.
"I thought I'd leave you be, after I made sure I picked up the right Collie." She said the last part chuckling.
Sam's eyes seemed to cloud over with emotions and his facial features suggested that he was debating on what to say.
"How about you shower and get dressed and I'll bring you breakfast?" Charlotte suggested as she leaned over and ran her fingertips through his hair, "You have dirt in your hair an inch thick."
"Yeah, sure." Sam replied somewhat absent mindedly.
"Anything special I need to fix?"
"Nah, just whatever I have in the fridge." Sam replied as Charlotte walked out the door.
When Charlotte left the room, Sam uncovered, got out of bed and stretched. Then he walked to the dresser drawer and got out a clean pair of boxers and jeans and headed to the bathroom connected to his room. Charlotte was not joking when she said he needed to shower, the water than ran off his body was dirty for a good five minutes before he washed away the dirt that had covered him. As he was cleaning up he could not stop thinking about Charlotte, how she just showed up out of the blue and tried to make things better, how he was being difficult and downright a pain in the ass. He sighed as he washed the shampoo from his hair and could not help but feel the nagging feeling that she was going to leave him again; there was no way he could go through that again. Or someone finding out what had happened in his past because Charlotte came up and shattering his new life or any chance he had to getting her back.
As he got out of the shower and dried off, these thoughts and flashes of memory began to fill his mind. The first time that he and Charlotte had kissed, the first they made love, when she left him, those many nights that they had laid in the grass talking about everything and the first time he Shifted in front of her- the way her eyes filled with love and awe.
'She's the only one that knows the true me. She knows me inside and out, she knew about my past and what I actually am and she still loved me.' Sam thought as he got dressed.
After he dressed, he opened the bathroom door to let the steam from the shower escape the small bathroom. He walked to the mirror above the sink as he toweled off his hair causing it to protrude in many directions. He sighed as he looked in the mirror and ran a hand through his hair, making it look even worse. He definitely needed it cut, the ends were flaring out more than usual and it was becoming more unruly than normal. Maybe he would get a totally different cut and although he was not the type of man to dye his hair, something had to be done about these grey hairs. After all he was only in his late twenties, but had basically a head full of grey hair. Maybe he would not completely dye it only enough to get most of the grey out. He also needed to shave soon…
Why was he examining himself anyways? He hardly ever spent time fretting over his appearance. He really had no one to try to impress in Bon Temps, sure he had a few that flirted with him at the bar, but none that he was willing to start a relationship with…
His thoughts where interrupted by Charlotte opening his bedroom door and calling out to him.
"Be out in a sec, CJ." He called as he wiped the water trail off his chest caused by his dripping hair.
He toweled off his hair one more time before he left the bathroom and tossed the towel in into the corner as he left. Charlotte had almost dropped the serving tray when Sam walked out of the bathroom half dressed, luckily he did not notice and gave her one of his crooked smiles.
"Thanks." He said as he walked toward her smiling still.
"Oh, it was nothing." Charlotte replied as she sat the tray down on the bed.
Sam looked down at the tray and saw only one glass of orange juice and one plate of eggs and pancakes. He narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Nah, I ate this morning before I left." She replied sitting down on the edge of the bed.
"You sure?" Sam asked raising an eyebrow and he walked in front of Charlotte.
"Yes, Lottie. Now hush up and eat." She replied smiling as he patted a spot on the bed next to her.
Sam sat down and began eating breakfast. Charlotte let him eat in peace as she glanced around the small bedroom, taking in as much of the new Sam as she could. His bedroom walls were a plain off white with nothing hanging on the walls. His dresser was up against one wall and the bed was under the window with a night stand on each side. The black bed sheets and pillow cases where paired with a black comforter with white pin stripes.
"That was really good, CJ. I forgot how good you can cook." Sam complimented as he stood up and took the tray back to the kitchen.
While Sam was gone, Charlotte laid back onto the bed. When her back hit the covers, Sam's woodsy smell overwhelmed her. Just as she remembered it, she smiled and closed her eyes as scrunched the bed sheets in her hands.
She never of guessed how much she would have missed his smell or him in general. She felt horrible for just up ad leaving, but she did not really have a choice. Sam needed to know the reason why, after all he was tore up over it and has not forgiven her for it. She wanted to, but it was not something she was comfortable talking about-
"CJ?" Sam asked timidly as he interrupted her thoughts.
"Yeah?" She answered as she propped herself up onto an elbow.
"Are you okay?" He asked sitting his coffee down on the dresser.
"Mhm." She replied as she ran a hand through her hair.
"What's on your mind?" Sam asked as he sat down next to her and his grey eyes searching her face.
