Note: It's been around a week again, sorry for that. Another big, fat THANK YOU for the great reviews you wrote after my last update. It always makes me so happy to read them and you are all so very kind. This is supposed to be the last chapter, unless something hits me and I feel like doing a sequel (maybe with Anna returning, how knows?). I very much hope you enjoyed the story and will like the ending (though kinda kitchy…). Thanks again for all the great support!

Chapter Ten: The Living

The days passed away in a strange blur of happy feelings, tears of joy and warmth. I couldn't remember anything particular we had done, but I was so happy the whole time I still wasn't sure I believed what was going on. After Bills first sunrise, we had strolled over the graveyard to his home in the golden morning light slowly, not talking much just enjoying the moment. Bill had pointed out to me how strangely quiet he thought everything was, now that his hearing was back to human sensitivity and I had hardly been able to take my eyes from the unfamiliarly awed expression his face had shown at the sight of the delicate, moving and glimmering shadows the rustling leaves of the old trees on the graveyard had cast on the sunlit, grassy ground. On this first day, the slow walk over to his house had made him very tired. His body had not yet been used to working without whatever magic fueled the existence of a vampire, and so we had returned to my house soon.

I hadn't been able to hold back a laugh at the absolutely flabbergasted expression on Bills handsome features, flushed by the exercise and the clear, warm morning air, when his stomach had given the first, violent rumble. Hand on belly he had stared at me in shock.

"I think I'm hungry."

Only then had I remembered that he hadn't eaten in days and worst of all, he hadn't had anything to drink. He must have been nearly parched. As soon as I had planted a large glass of water in front of him he had put it away within seconds and then, after the first careful tasting, had devoured a pile of pancakes I had made for him with joy. It had given him a belly ache after so many decades of feeding on nothing but blood.

"It was well worth it." He had smiled afterwards, despite the pain and the moment was to surreally good to be true. Bill, the beautiful, mysterious, dangerous vampire, lounging on my couch in the broad sunlight of a Tuesday morning, smiling at me strangely changed. And his smile had changed, that was clear to see. It was so much more open and happy than I had ever seen before I just couldn't get enough of it. But despite the obvious changes, I had noticed several reminders of his past as a vampire over the few days we had lived together now. The first and most important thing to me was the mind reading. Like the day he had woken from his Babylonian Rebirth, as I liked to call it in my head (though I never called it thus aloud because I thought it might sound kind of cheesy), I could definitely pick up something from him, but it came in no way near hearing or knowing what he thought. Mostly it was some kind of vague notion of how he was feeling, or rather if he was thinking something positive, sad or angering, or anything of the kind. It was like where before his mind had been a blank spot, now there was a package of thoughts wrapped into dark that only the most general mood of his thoughts could penetrate while all the particulars remained rolled up in a blanket of warm darkness. After All, Anna as well as then En had warned us that Bill had been a vampire for so long that it was absolutely impossible to remove the darkness from his soul altogether, that a small piece of him, however tiny it might be, would always hold the dark creature he had been.

I had always assumed that the unreadable, stony silence Bill tended to hold most of the time had something to do with the eternal inner struggle of being a monster as well as a man, but three days after his Babylonian Rebirth, I found he hadn't changed a bit when it came to respects of chattiness. I often found him standing on the porch, face turned towards the sun just enjoying its warmth, without saying anything for long minutes. He did however smile more often, much more often. His body however, seemed to have maintained some of its vampire-characteristics. After a short while of getting used again to the limits and restrictions of the human body, Bill found that he was in better physical shape than most men as soon as he had decided to take up running in order to keep his supernaturally gorgeous waistline despite all my yummy favorite dishes I made him try. He seemed to have the average condition of a professional athlete and found it easy to lift heavy objects without much effort and to my utmost delight I soon found out that a spark of the old vampire-fire was left in other areas of physical performances as well.

It was sheer bliss to fall asleep next to Bill in the evening, feeling the warmth of his body against mine, and waking up in the same tangled, snuggly position again in the morning. Over the past few days we had made a habit of rising early enough to watch the sun set together and we had done so again this morning, the first day I would be expected back at work and therefore the first day my daily routine would sneak back into my life and end these magical days of peacefulness.

I had the late shift, so Bill and I sat down for an early dinner together before I would have to leave around five in the afternoon.

"This is delicious." The sight of my gorgeous ex-vampire sitting at my kitchen table with knife and fork in his hand, chewing contently on a piece of steak still bemused me in the best possible sense. So did his very gentlemanly manners. "Thank you for this wonderful meal."

I chewed on my own steak rather half-heartedly.

"Don't you think it's a little too raw?" I said after forcing myself to gulp down a half-cooked piece of meat that left a salty aftertaste of blood in my mouth.

"I think it's just right."

O.K., this would probably be another remnant of his days as a blood sucking, fierce creature of the night. I found it somehow endearing and slightly icky at the same time. His tries of behaving like a real modern, progressive man in a relationship of two equals were nothing short of adorable, however. If I was really honest with myself we hadn't been anywhere near that before, because although Bill had never been oppressive or overly magisterial, there had simply been things in our life together that I hadn't been able to deal with without him and he had reacted to those things with an exaggerated sense of protectiveness. Also there had been his vampire temper. Other things, things of everyday life, had never come up before. I thought about our delightfully altered, even improved, relationship while I watched him clear away the dishes in a comfortable silence. Sookie and Bill 2.0., I thought and had to grin.

"So, now that you are working at Merlottes again, I thought I might go out looking for some work as well." Bill said quietly, as he stood by the sink, washing the dishes in his neat and tidy fashion. That surprised me, but before I could say anything he continued.

"As you know I've …well, made some arrangements as soon as Anna had made it clear that there was a chance for me and when I still had the… opportunity. But you going to work while I stay at home just doesn't feel right."

Now that I thought of it I should probably have expected that. We had talked about financials already before the trip to Iraq and Bill had made it clear that money would never be a problem again for the rest of my life, that I could even quit my job if I wanted to. Where his money came from I didn't know, I was pretty sure I never wanted to and I had decided I would never ask. Nevertheless I should have known that Bill wouldn't be the type to stay home while I went off to work every day, maybe I had thought that he would take up some employment he could do from home.

"What kind of work?" I asked, hiding my surprise well.

"I don't know yet. I had quite some time to pick up one or the other skill over the decades. I'll just have a look in the paper. Maybe you could ask some friends in town." Was I imagining it or did it sound like he felt a little self-conscious about the matter.

"Sure." I smiled at him broadly. After Sam had seen Bill lying living and breathing on my living room floor the other day, the word of his unusual transformation had spread around town pretty quickly. On the first day I had received a regular flood of calls from nosy neighbors and snoopy acquaintances, most of whom I had fobbed with a lame story about a cure for Bills disease. The public had made people believe that vampires were only humans infected with a certain disease that made the show symptoms like an allergy to light or an un healthy liking for human blood but that there was nothing supernatural about them. I had told them that Bill had volunteered to test a vaccine that hadn't been tested before and that the scientist, who had developed it, wanted to keep the whole thing quiet, until they had watched Bill a little and made sure that the effects would last. So far, everybody had bought my story. Nobody would have felt comfortable with the creepy truth about an ancient vampire in the middle of the desert and a secret ritual in a dead language anyway. Besides Sam, only very few people knew the truth.

"Look at us," Bill suddenly said into the silence, more to the sink than to me. "How very domestic, me doing the dishes and talking about getting a job." He sounded somewhat embarrassed, which puzzled me and so I reached out mentally to feel the prevailing mood in his thoughts. It felt … restrained. As though he was not saying something he would like to.

"A very, very good thing, don't you think?" I said, leaning back in my chair and smiling at him reassuringly.

"You think?" he still hadn't turned away from the sink so I could only see his backside with the lean, muscular neck standing out from his white shirt, now that it had a nice and newly gained tan to it. "You don't miss anything from …before?" his voice was low and quiet.

"You mean being in mortal danger every five minutes? Oh boy, those were the days. With all the blood loss, and crazy people coming after me. I had new bruises to show off every week and another serial killer on my heels whenever we had gotten rid of the last." I sighed in exaggerated nostalgia. When Bill turned around he had his usual blank expression.

"You can't deny that the danger was a part of what drew you to me in the first place."

This was enough. I had expected to have a talk like this with him, but not this soon. A few paces and I was around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"Exactly. Part of what drew me to you in the first place. But I didn't fall in love with your fangs, or your freakish strength, or your super speed and certainly not with your strange habit of killing people who you thought might have hurt me or might want to hurt me. I fell in love with you. With the person Bill Compton. All the supernatural danger stuff was just something that I was willing to overlook to be with you. I cannot count all the times that I wished I could be with you the way I am now."

I kissed him, hoping my little speech was convincing enough. A wave of pure love and happiness radiating of his mind hit me and told me I must have done well.

"I love every minute of it. I love you."

"I love you too." He smiled one of his now not so rare smiles, just before slapping my butt with the dish towel he had picked up.

"Now off to work with you, woman. Someone has to bring the money in!"

I still grinned like an idiot a few minutes later, when I hurried down the stairs in my waitress outfit, grabbing the car keys and hurrying for the door. Bill was standing outside, face turned upwards to the sun, eyes closed and breathing deeply.

"See you later. Pick me up after work?"

"Of course."

As I pulled out of the driveway and stole on last glance on the tall, handsome man standing on my porch enjoying the sun, one of the few moments of realizations hit me. This was real. This was happening. Surely we were in a blissful state of infatuation, almost like two people that had just fallen in love or were newly wedded and surely there would be times ahead when not everything would be as smooth and shiny golden and easy and beautiful as it was now. But somehow I was sure, deep down in my heart that after all we had been through there would be nothing that we wouldn't be able to face. Hell, if Bill Compton wasn't the one for me, then no one was.

END