AN: This story….if it stays on its charted course…..will contain everything you could want and more. Just not as quickly as some of you might like. I happen to like a good build up. It makes it more worthwhile. *slithers away*

The next days I spent cleaning the house and trying to hash it out with Jason whether we would keep it or sell it. He had valid points. I knew he did, but I just couldn't part with it. I knew our work, and hell, our whole lives were in Magnolia, but something about this old house just felt like home. I had lost almost everyone I ever held dear, and yet while I sunbathed in the yard, it all felt like it would be okay. I didn't want to leave, or at least not yet.

Our attorney had arranged for everything as Gran had asked. Jason was pretty pissed that the farmhouse was left to me only. There were some really strange things in her will though. For one, she had left a plan for Mom and Dad's place in case she inherited it while we were still minors. Who plans on outliving their children? That wasn't fair. I guess after the death of Aunt Linda, she felt the need to plan for anything and everything. Anyhow, she gave their house entirely to Jason and you didn't hear me crying about it. They were renting in a retirement community in Boca and didn't have much worth shipping back. Everything precious the Stackhouses had ever had were under this roof, and if I had any say in the matter would stay here.

Jason was just pitching fits in general. His leg was healing up in record time but he seemed to be running a terrible fever. I made him promise that we could take him to the doctor if he wasn't better by today. He isn't and damn it all to hell, we're going. Even if the dumbass insisted on driving the truck himself.

"Might as well put the nails in his coffin, when you start driving a man around in his own truck."

I gave him a look. Somehow the use of "coffin" so liberally today just didn't seem right, but I wasn't going to say anything. At least we hadn't brought my car or I'd have to listen to him bitch about it while he was driving too.

We had waited about an hour before we could get in to the pro-med clinic in Shreveport. While Jason went inside I wandered around just a little bit in the mall. There was some real pretty stuff, but nothing I had to have. I was looking for something to wear to the funeral, but nothing seemed to fit. Not literally. A size 12 is a size 12, but I couldn't convince myself that black was what Gran would have wanted. I turned the corner at Dillards and almost ran into the salesgirl.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in my own little world today." I was giving my best fake smile but I knew it didn't reach to my eyes. She was almost a good foot taller than me and should have been a supermodel instead of wearing those unflattering black polyester robes they made all their staff wear. She was giving me a smile that did reach to her eyes and seemed to make them sparkle a little more because of it.

"No worries! You look like you're having a rough time of it. What can I help you with?"

"Oh, nothing really. I had been looking for something to wear, but I didn't find anything. No need to bother with me."

"You're no bother. I'm here to serve you. So what kind of party are you attending?" She had taken me by the hand and started leading me back to the more casual dresses. I normally didn't like pushy salespeople but she made me feel so at ease that all I wanted to do was stand near her so maybe I could absorb some of her over the top energy.

"It's not really a party. It's a funeral." That almost took the wind out of her sails….or maybe sales in this case. I started to chuckle and she looked at me quizzically.

"I would ask what's funny about a funeral, but the way I figure it, if you can still laugh like that, they must have been someone truly inspirational. I don't think somber will do. Will this be day or night?"

Nope she was the unsinkable Molly Brown. Maybe some of that would rub off on me too. "Day. But most of it'll be in the air conditioning." She took me by the hand and led me to another area full of floral printed sun dresses.

"So who were they to you?" Then she stopped and almost chastised herself visually before continuing, " I'm sorry, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

She had been too sweet to not tell her, and it wasn't like it was a secret. " Adele Stackhouse, my grandmother on my father's side."

"From Bon Temps?"

Well color me puzzled. "Yes. Did you know her?" I couldn't imagine my Gran kicking it with Miss Dilliards of Renard Parish.

"No, not personally. She was a good friend to my Uncle in a time of need. He would always talk about her up until he passed." She seemed to dim just slightly and then perked back up as if a switch had been flipped. Gran had visited people at the local hospital for years and started doing it following the war. She thought it wasn't fair to keep them all cooped up by themselves. Maybe I'd start doing the same. She would like that.

"You know, I think we might be going about this the wrong way."

"Huh?"

"She can't see you anyway, and I don't think she'd want you to look all blah. From what I hear she was quite a firecracker and a hell of a lady. What do all ladies have in common?"

"What?"

"You know what! Perfume! And good hair, but you've already got that." and she pushed my floppy bangs back behind my ear. It would have normally been a creep out moment for a stranger to do that, but she felt like family. I thought for a second that she seemed disappointed as she stepped over to behind the mazelike perfume counter. She brought up a couple. Some were rose based, tulip, gardenia, hibiscus, amber, vanilla, but none of them were just right.

"Do they make anything with Wisteria in it?"

It was almost like I had stunned her for a second, and she bent down to below one of the counters and then returned with a small almost lilac colored bottle of frosted glass with a small silver charm dangling from the top. She spritzed a bit on a paper wand and wafted it through the air like she was going to bless me with some sort of magic charm. I was going to smile before I inhaled. It was the best smell I had ever smelled. It didn't smell like perfume. It smelled like the plant itself. It was heavenly.

"I'll take it. I mean, how much is it?"

"Dinner."

"What?"

"Dinner. With me and my brother."

I didn't like where this was going. "Um, I'm sure your brother is a real catch, but I'm not interested right now."

"Oh, silly, he is quite the catch, but I'm not setting you up. I just thought you might want to cook and we like to eat."

"Sure. How about tonight? But really, I don't want you to get in trouble with your work. I want to pay for it."

"It's not theirs to sell. That one was out of my purse. It reminds me of my family too. I can always go get more. I want you to have that…from me." She took my phone from out of my hand and called hers. Then did the same back. It showed up as Claudine Crane.

Before we could make any further arrangements Jason walked up. He was obviously feeling worse because he didn't even notice the supermodel standing next to me. "Hey, Sis. Ready to go?"

"Yeah, but don't you need to swing by a pharmacy first?"

"Nah, they did some labtests but couldn't find anything. They said to take some aspirin and if it didn't get better to go to the ER, but they kept my 85 dollars. Oh, and they asked me if I'd been sexually active with any strangers lately."

I laughed the whole way back to the car. They were probably right. He might have mono or some such kissing virus. Whatever it was wasn't too serious since it didn't show up on a blood test…

Six hours later I had finished making a feast complete with peach cobbler for dessert. Like clockwork, the doorbell rang and hopped up to answer it. Jason was busy upstairs shaving since I had pointed out to him that Claudine was hot. How he missed that I'll never know. Not that shaving really helped him much. He still looked like he'd been on a three day bender.

I was instantly embarrassed when I went to introduce them to Jason, but I had never learned her brother's name. He stuck his hand out to Jason anyway and finished the introduction for me. "Claude. Claude Crane. Our parents were a pair of jokesters."

"At least it's not Sue, right!" Jason and Claude seemed to bond instantly. We sat down to dinner and all talked about what we did and what had been going on recently. Jason was bragging about his hunting skills and he surprised me when he wasn't scared off by Claude being a male stripper. He said, and I quote, "That must be awesome. No dry spells for you!" I didn't know of Jason going a week between girls so it made me snort, which got Claude and Claudine rolling until I decided to serve up the dessert. They both must have had a serious sweet tooth because they almost finished the cobbler between the two of them. As I was walking them out to the porch, Claude hugged me to him and asked if anyone…unusual had left me their number….about Jason lately. I nodded, but was confused by the whole conversation.

"Call him. I'd be quick about it." He looked past me to steal another look at Jason but only caught his backside. He shook his head like it was a shame. I didn't think Jason would like Claude so much if he knew he was gay so I thought I'd keep a lid on that tidbit for a while longer.

The next day was boring at best. Jason was still grumbling about spending all his vacation days sick. Leave it to him to think of this as "vacation." I had went in to town to see about some ice cream and a video to watch for tonight, and was really considering calling Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome to see if he wanted to watch it with me, but thought better of it. Staying in for a first date wasn't proper, and though I might not take offense to where that could lead, Gran would have. She hadn't been gone but a couple of days and I didn't want to disrespect her like that. Not with some guy I just met. The upside to that is he doesn't know I'm crazy yet….or a virgin. It would be nice to not be judged first.

I hadn't made up my mind still on the way home. I had to push up my sunglasses as a headband so I could see to drive. I didn't know it was going to start getting dark so early tonight. The sun was still up but not by much. I pulled in and went up the back stairs and knew there was something wrong. There was a half eaten sandwich laying on the counter and a beer spilt across the floor. I yelled for Jason, but didn't get an answer. I grabbed the shotgun and started searching the house. That boy never left food lying around. Something was very wrong. He wasn't anywhere inside so I started to search the property.

I found Jason laying in the fetal position shaking and covered in sweat…and something else. He smelled terrible. There was no way I was going to be able to get him in the house by myself. I was freaking out. We were too far out in the county land to have ambulance access. I did the only thing I knew to do. I ran inside and grabbed the business card off the fridge. The phone rang for a while and then I got voicemail. I didn't know what to say, but I wanted someone else to be in charge of this shit for a change.

It was about fifteen minutes later and I had given up hope of any kind of help and had brought some sheets out and had started dragging Jason towards the truck on them when I spun around to see another truck heading up the drive.

"Alcide! God am I happy to see you!"

He looked to be a little highstrung too.

"Yeah, I got your message." He looked over to Jason on the sheets. "Damn, I was hoping you had just called me over for pot roast and a beer. I was hoping he was going to be okay on his own."

Was everyone speaking Swahili? "Whatt?"

"Sookie. Come sit down for a second. Did anyone else come by to talk to Jason? Other than me?"

"Shit."

"Why shit? What's shit? What does that have anything to do with anything?"

"It's getting dark fast. I don't want to scare you. I didn't want you to find out this way, but hey, maybe that's for the best. Doesn't work out finding out later on either, that's for sure."

"Alcide! Why aren't we on our way to the hospital! Jason's dying!"

"No. No he's not. He feels like his is though. You know about vampires right?"

I nodded.

"So didn't you ever wonder if anything else was real?"

"Fuck Me! Jason's turning into a demon!"

Alcide started laughing so hard that it sounded like thunder. He reached over and wrapped his arms around me. "Poor thing. You have either spent too much time in the bible belt, or you've had one hell of a week."

"Both. It's not funny."

"Your right it's not. So I'm just going to spit it out, but remember, if you run, I can always catch you. This isn't just my secret this is your family's now too."

I nodded…..again.

"I'm a werewolf."

"Get out!"

"That only works on vampires and we're outside anyway." He was laughing again. It somehow lightened the mood again. Whatever was wrong was going to be okay. My brother wasn't going to die.

"He's going to be a werewolf?"

"Um…no….maybe…I'm not sure." He was scratching the back of his neck and I had a flash of him doing it with his leg that made me smile.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I know he's going to shift. Sookie, this is magic not science. Not everyone scratched or bitten changes. Really it's extremely rare to change like that. Has no one else came by, maybe just to meet him?"

"No. Just Claudine and her brother. Actually….he told me to call you. That's why I did."

"Claude Crane?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Yeah, he's not the one."

"Huh?"

"Who bit him."

"Who bit who?"

"Sookie, I could smell shifter on Jason that night at the club. I couldn't make out what kind though.. Has Jason been bitten by anything lately?"

"Like what?"

"A wolf, a dog, a cat, a bat, a rat.. Sookie…anything?"

"A panther."

"Oh, that's good!" He breathed a sigh of relief.

"So you can stop it?"

"No, I'm sorry darling, there's no stopping the change, but I know someone that can help, and he's close." He started dialing his phone and talking to someone named Calvin on the other end. " Yeah, I'm over at the old Stackhouse land, and one of Adele's grandchildren was bit by a panther. No, I don't think it was one of yours. He's changing. How fast can you get over here? Sounds good. We'll try to keep him here."

That was a conversation of ups and down if I had ever heard one. "Keep him here?"

"The first change is the worst. If you had called me yesterday, I could have prepared him better. He's going to be scared. Most were's run on the full moon. It's our first instinct when we change."

"But he's going to be okay?"

"Yeah, there's a pack of panthers in Hot Shot. If he's a good guy, they'll probably want him to join the pack."

"What?" Then it hit me. " How many kinds of …um….weres are there?"

"That all depends on where you're at I guess. Now when Calvin gets here, don't be scared. He only wants to help. It might seem mean, but there's a pecking order that has to be established. I'm going to need to change tonight too."

I couldn't help but look upset. I didn't want to be by myself seeing were spiders on the ceiling all night.

"Don't worry, Chere. I'll change and then change back. I might be a little uncomfortable for the night, but I'm not going to leave you alone. Not until we know Jason's doing good."

"You have to change?"

"Yeah, at the full moons. But I don't have to stay in wolf form. Some do. I don't. I'll sleep on the couch. It's fine by me. I'm real sorry this went down the way it did. I can't believe the shifter ran off and abandoned him."

"It didn't. Jason shot it."

"Oh." He looked a little sad for a moment and then it dawned on me why.

"That's a big problem for y'all huh?"

"Yeah. Comes with the territory."

Calvin's truck was coming up the drive at ridiculous speeds and out hopped a lanky middle aged man that looked like he had never heard of air conditioning let alone seen it. Looking at him was like looking at the ghost of hillbilly past.

"Ma'am." He reached his hand out to Alcide.

"Yep. He's not looking to good. I asked around on the way and nobody remembered biting anyone."

I decided to go ahead and ask, "Um…have any of your people….went missing?"

Calvin looked grave and Alcide just nodded his head as if giving the go ahead and ran his hands through his hair again.

"No Ma'am, but thanks for asking. I take it the Panther was killed in the attack?"

Alcide spoke up for me. Calvin sniffed around a bit and then asked if it was okay if he took Jason back with him. I didn't see any reason not to, so I said okay and they loaded him up in the truck bed. I told Jason that I loved him and we'd get through this. I hoped I was right.

When I turned back I saw Alcide unbuttoning his shirt.

"Do you mind?"

I stood there transfixed for a moment not understanding what was going on.

"I need to shift. I'd prefer to do it outside so I can run around for a couple minutes, but I've got to get undressed first."

Now I had a whole nother book of etiquette to learn. He had been so nice to me so far, that I didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

"Sookie, what's the matter. If you want to go in the house while I shift, I'll understand."

I shook my head quickly. "ummm…no…I mean…um…I was wondering…if you would mind if I watched. I want to know what happens… you know to Jason. I want to be able to understand."

I thought Alcide's smirk was going to split his face open. " and to think I was thinking you just wanted an excuse to see me naked."

I was standing there with my mouth agape for pretty much the whole rest of the show. He took his sweet easy time and I got to peruse every golden inch of skin he wanted to show me, and there was a lot of him to see. Then everything got a little shimmery as he bent down and it seemed almost like a wolf popped out of nowhere rather than he became it. The only clue that he was the wolf was his beautiful green eyes, and then he winked at me and nuzzled my hand. I patted him on the hand and then he took of racing around the yard and sniffing everything in sight growling and stalking about for a couple of minutes before returning to the porch steps and shifting back.

He reached for the screen door and I cleared my throat.

"What? Are you going to make me sleep on the porch? No wolves in the house?"

I pointed at his clothes that I had folded and set on the stair next to me.

He laughed and winked again. "I thought you liked me better this way. Oh, well, there's always next time."

"Don't be so sure about that" and I walked inside the house, but not without turning to check out the back view first then I went and started some steaks for dinner and pulled out a couple more beers. It was a good thing I grabbed some more at the store earlier.

When came inside he sat down at the kitchen table and watched me cook.

"Um…Sookie. Why were you at Fangtasia?"

"I was looking for my cousin? Why were you there?"

"Whoa, girl. No need to get defensive. I'm working off some of my family's debt by running there security on the weekends. Is your cousin..is she a vampire?"

My blood ran cold, not vampire cold, but you know…figuratively.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because after I shifted, I could smell her all over your yard."

"That's weird. I don't know why she wouldn't have just rang the doorbell. I guess they got word to her. Well…good…I guess."

And with that we sat down to what both of us called a damn fine spread. It was good to be around a guy that didn't mind that I ate like an adult.

We did spend the rest of the evening watching that video I had rented and Alcide turned out to be a really good guy. We talked all about Weres and his life growing up. It helped put my mind at ease that there were obviously some good Weres out there because I was sitting next to one.

AN: Okay one more chapter on the dead and then we'll move to our favorite undead.