Sookie had kind of expected a mixed reaction from the townspeople after her revelation at Terry's funeral that she was a telepath but it seemed that was not the reason she was getting the cold shoulder from the human population of Bon Temps she supposed, after she had spent time reflecting on Lettie May's conversation. She was more than miffed that she was being judged for her personal business. What right did anyone have to judge her by who she had a relationship with? But on further reflection she realised that it wasn't who she was with now, it seemed more like who she wasn't with, and that was Bill. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that Bill had been a pariah within the community, or that was how they saw him when she first started going out with him. But then things had changed. It all began with the night of the meeting of The Descendants of The Glorious Dead.
It seemed like a life time ago now, she reflected as she thought back to the night Bill had stood in front of the townsfolk gathered to hear him talk. That night had marked a change in attitude, an acceptance and even a commiseration with and for him for what he had been through during the war and for what he had lost, meaning his family and for those with enough insight, his humanity. She remembered how proud she had been of him that night and how touched she and all the others present had been by his reminisces.
What she hadn't quite expected was that the vamps that she knew would turn as cold as she thought that they were towards her now though. That had never crossed her mind. Not that it mattered she told herself, isn't that what she wanted, a normal life without any excitement or danger, without fear or angst and hell, no one had tried to kill her for months and months now. All was peaceful in her life and at first she revelled in it, but as time wore on and she got into a routine with Alcide, the first bloom of their affair settling down into the next phase of their relationship, she began to get a little bored with her lot. Well not bored, but she told herself she was restless, she had been living with danger that much and for so long now that she didn't remember what it was like to be normal, that was until the night of the attack then things did seem to change in a most dramatic way.
When she had seen Bill standing there in the darkness of the car park she had the first really good close up look at him that she had gotten in the flesh since he had become what he had termed in his book as "normal" after he had drunk Lilith's blood. Hah! That was a laugh she had thought when she had covertly read the book, keeping it hidden upstairs in the secret recess under her bed where she and Jason had found the faery scroll. For some reason she really didn't want Alcide to know that she was reading it. It was silly but that was how she felt. She read it bit by bit whenever he was out working and she had some spare time, careful not to say anything or give any hint that she even had a copy in the house.
Even though she had read it, she still didn't quite understand exactly what had happened to Bill. His account had really been a bit beyond her. There was no mention of Warlow and definitely no mention of her, something that she had to admit to herself she was disappointed about when all was said and done. It seemed to be more of a philosophical journey into the pros and cons of a metaphysical existence on a higher plane and really half of what he was saying was way beyond her. She even had to resort to looking up words he had used in her online thesaurus just so she could try to understand half of what he was on about. When he had begun to discuss the possibility of cosmic - glue holding parallel universes together, in the bigger scheme of things, she was totally at a loss and failed to comprehend any point that he was making. She wasn't really able to grasp just what he was getting at and how any of that had to do with drinking Lilith's blood.
She also didn't quite see his point about the correlation between despair and the lengths one would go to when pushed to the brink and beyond to find solace in the very thing that went against one's fundamental beliefs. His discussion regarding fundamental darkness and light did not strike a chord with her and all in all, she didn't quite get how it had become such a best seller. As hard as she tried she just didn't buy the whole thing and when she had seen some of the interviews and he had said, when asked, that it was all about coming clean and gaining trust, she had snorted.
Then that night in car park, right before the attack had happened, he had said the same thing. He had talked of trust and what had she done? She threw it back in his face. What was it that she had said to him, almost spitting the words out in an effort to what, hurt him yet again the way he had hurt her? "That's the thing though, even at your best I could never really trust you." How ironical was it that right at that moment they had been attacked and true to his words he proved that he did mean what he said when he offered his protection. Sure Alcide had done what he could but it was Bill that had fought off all those that were lured to her, building a pile of goo around her as he fought off vamp after vamp to keep her safe.
Things could have gotten bad too for those at the BB and G if Bill had not summoned Jess and she in turn had alerted the others. James and Tara had fought valiantly too, Jason and Violet had been amongst the fray, and Andy had arrived with the rest of the Bon Temps sheriff's department, despite his reluctance to become involved in Bill and Sam's scheme. He knew he had an obligation as a civil servant to protect and did so valiantly.
When it was all over and everyone had been accounted for and were confirmed as being safe, and after Bill and Sam had called for a general town meeting on the following night to address the situation, he and the vamps had left with the thanks of all those bar two present ringing in their ears. Only Sookie and Alcide stood a little aside from the rest of the folks gathered, only they were silent when it came to praising their protectors. They stood there without a word as they watched those that had been at the gathering and had previously held back from choosing a partner now going about making their special thanks to uninfected vamps and asking for their protection. It wasn't long before they were the only ones there that had not arranged or accepted a vampire's protection at all. Neither of them won any friends that night, vampire or human. They had made a statement without saying a word and would have to live with it, for better or for worse but it was something that one day both of them would look back at with regret.
'But I thought that the threat was kind of under control?' she was asking at the mention of building an evacuation basement. 'Honey it is under control here in Bon Temps but that is only thanks to,' he hesitated, hating to admit that from what he had heard, Bill had done an outstanding job creating an almost a feudal barrier of safety around the small hamlet. He didn't know how he had done it but even the woods were safe from unwanted attacks of the hep vee virus infected vamps around the whole town. 'That is thanks to Bill,' he stated flatly, waiting to see her reaction.
Other areas such as Munroe were following suit with the same kind of defences that Bill had built up around the place but they did not have the organisational skills that Bill seemed to have or the same kind of vampire leadership. He had heard that Bill was doing his best to organise new sheriffs for areas throughout the state, even though technically the vampire hierarchy that had previously existed was now in tatters, and without the Authority to control things it looked like the only kind of leadership anywhere was coming from Bill, Alcide grudgingly acknowledged.
When she didn't respond he went on. 'Just promise me to be careful while I am away Sookie. Make sure you don't answer the door unless you know who it is and keep the stakes and the guns with the wooden bullets encased in silver, the special order ones that I got, keep them loaded and ready by both the front and back doors. Don't take any chances and ring me if there is any sign of trouble. I know that everything seems to be quiet at the moment but that doesn't mean that things can't change. Don't get complacent ok?' She nodded.
'I'll ring you tonight at seven on the dot.'