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True Blood S4

Chapter 25 Closure

Tara and Jessica stood at the booth where Ginger sat, as she looked up at both of them with urgent anticipation, a question on her face.

"Tara, did Bill tell you about the refrigerant?" she asked as soon as Tara slid her phone shut.

"Yes, but I don't understand..." she began, truly confused but more worried that Bill had felt her emotions behind what had transpired with Sam and what he might have been thinking.

"Chow and I met with Blackburn this evening, before I came here with you—he found something in New Orleans..."

"Blackburn is back?" Jessica asked, trying to restrain her excitement but fooling neither of the other two vampires.

"Sit down, ladies, I must be quick."

Tara and Jessica sat down.

"Blackburn found a single drum of some type of industrial liquid at Six Flags New Orleans. We called Dr. Ludwig to examine it and she concluded that it was refrigerant. She's still trying to identify all of the compounds in it; she said she would know more in forty-eight hours. When Bill talked to me he told me that they found what appears to be the same stuff, dozens of drums of it, in a warehouse there. He told me that you and I are to put every Sheriff on the task of finding Sarah Newlin." Just then Ginger's cell phone rang and she answered it immediately upon seeing the ID. "Yes, Chow? Yes...I'm coming." She looked at the two across from her, a strange look on her face.

"Chow just got calls from Eric and Nan Flanagan—she's called an emergency meeting via teleconference tomorrow night...7 pm at Fangtasia. Tara, I'll contact Duprez and Blackburn, you contact Kirsch and Isabel. Cromwell should be there, as well. AVL and World Vampire Federation representatives will also be in attendance—I've got to go. I'll see you ladies tomorrow night..." and Ginger disappeared like a shot in the dark.

"Tara, this is crazy," Jessica began, shaking her head, total shock written all over her face.

Just then Lafayette walked over to their booth.

"Okay, that shit, right there?" he said pointing to the door where Ginger had just disappeared through, "looked serious as a motherfucker."

"It was. It is...Lafayette, I'm begging you to come stay at our house tonight."

Lafayette could see from the looks on both of their faces that declining her request was out of the question.

"Alright, hookah, shit..," he complained bitchily, but gave them both a look of complete and unconditional love as well as a nod of appreciation. "I know you'll fill me in later, even though I do have a mighty feelin' that I really don't fuckin' wanna know."

"Thank you, Lafayette, for not fightin' me on this."

Lafayette answered her with a kiss to her cheek and then planted one on Jessica, as well.

"Lafayette, did Sookie ever come in?" Jessica asked, just remembering why they had come there in the first place.

"Naw, and her ass didn't call in, either. Alcide's been hanging around a lot lately...girlfriend is probably just at home gettin' her groove on or some such shit—I gots to get back to mah crawfish. I'll be at the house as soon as I'm done here." He gave them a wink and headed back to the kitchen.

"Well, if she's with Alcide she'll be okay," said Jessica, turning back to Tara with a worried look on her face.

"Yeah, but we don't really know that she is with Alcide," Tara pointed out. "She needs to be with us, too."

"We'll stop by her place on the way home, abduct her if we have to, okay?"

Tara smiled her agreement at Jessica.

"But we have something else we need to do, Tara..."

"What?"

"You need some training. Bill told me that you two didn't, uh, get around to it before he left. We really need to do that tonight."

"Okay, you're right. But before we leave I really need to see Sam again."

"Look, I'm not trying to get in your business, but do you really think that's wise?" asked Jessica, who was becoming less and less of a baby vampire with the rise of each moon.

"Look, I hear you, loud and clear, but I owe him some closure, Jessica. I owe it myself. Just wait for me here—it won't take long, I promise. And then we'll go get Sookie, get things in order for the meeting tomorrow and get our training in. Just give me a minute?"

"Okay, I understand."

Tara smiled a thanks at her and headed back to Sam's Trailer. Jessica whipped out her phone and dialed Blackburn's number, a happy sly smile forming on her face.

There was a knock on his door.

Sam lay sprawled on his couch wide awake and not as drunk as he wanted to be. He knew who it was but found himself powerless to move even one muscle in his body.

"It's open...come in, damn you," he managed to say at last.

Tara walked in upon his invitation, treading lightly.

"I deserve that, Sam. I know I do."

"Yeah, you do," he agreed, angrily.

"I don't know how you could love me, Sam. I've never been anything but terrible to you. I mean, the night you claim that you fell in love with me—that was a beautiful night. But the next morning I rejected you, everything about you—how could you love someone who could do that to you?"

Sam sat up then, sighed heavily and then rose to his feet. He looked at her for a long while before he finally tried to form words to say, but found his lips and vocal cords at odds with his uncooperative brain. He just shook his head at her. Tara didn't know if it was because he couldn't answer the question himself or because he couldn't believe that she had asked it.

"Please say something, Sam."

He wanted to tell her that even though her reaction had hurt him he'd understood it completely; he'd known how she felt about supernaturals and her reaction had been honest and true. But he had also known that their connection with each other and the feelings that they had shared—the love that they had made—would have eventually helped her to overcome her initial reaction. And he had been right. Had he not had that conviction in his heart he would never have been able to trust her with his revelation in the first place. He wanted to tell her this, but he just couldn't fix his mouth to say it. There was only one thing he wanted to do with his mouth...

"Sam? Please, you're breaking my heart," she said, her face losing its composure, her lips beginning to tremble. "I'm sorry that I hurt you," she said, trying desperately to hold back the blood tears.

Sam advanced upon her then, his arms outstretched, rushing to take her face into his hands as Tara found her feet moving towards him with a will of their own; he held her beautiful face in his strong hands and looked deeply into her eyes, accepting her apology with his own, the heat between them palpable and all consuming. He shook his head again at her, with disbelief, great sadness and the knowledge that his incredible love and desire for her would never fade. Finally he kissed her waiting lips and she returned it, her kiss as full of love as his own. With great difficulty they broke away from each other.

They were both crying, then, silent tortured tears streaming down both of their faces.

"Sam," Tara sobbed, her chest heaving, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably as she was caught in the throes of a violent crying jag, "Sam..." she looked down at the ground in shame and understanding, knowing what was coming.

"Tara Thornton, I will love you forever. It should have been you and me."

"Oh, Sam..." Tara dropped to her knees, as if someone had just knocked the wind out of her with a powerful punch to her gut.

"You must never come to me again. I rescind..." he could barely get the words out of his mouth and through his anguished tears. "I rescind my invitation to you to ever enter my home again..." and he turned away from her, his heart broken beyond all repair, unable to witness the effect of his rescission.

The same force that had manifested itself in Lettie Mae's house the night Tara went to her rose up in the trailer, but this time the words worked and Tara hurtled ungraciously through Sam's door and out into the night as his door slammed shut behind her.

She lay sobbing on the ground, knowing in her heart that it had been necessary for him to do and harbored him no ill will. She willed herself to get up and pull herself together, then raced to the employee washroom in back of the restaurant to clean herself up before facing Jessica.