Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these characters. The original story and the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I am only borrowing them for a little while.

Chapter 12

Sookie's POV

I woke up with my heart beating fast as if a sledge hammer was pounding on it, "I got it!"

I realized I woke up shouting those words and immediately checked the house. The lack of brain activity told me I was alone in the house. The sun was bright and shiny and I wondered if I was late for work. A quick glance at the clock told me that I had to rush or else I wouldn't make it on time. Sam wouldn't fuss at me, but I knew he needed me because he was two waitresses short without the possibility of replacement any time soon.

I jumped in the shower and got dressed as fast as I could while elaborating my plan in my head.

"Pam will be impressed", I talked to myself out loud. Heck, I was impressed with the idea!

I went to work and took orders and refilled the drinks absent minded. My brain was too busy to bother listening to people's thoughts, but of course Sam noticed it, "Sookie, is everything ok?" he asked.

I tried to give him a convincing smile accompanied with a "yes," but Sam knew better.

"Is Eric still too busy for you?" Sam asked. He wanted to stir my anger against Eric. I nodded, letting him believe that he had hit the nail on the head.

"Sookie," Sam started.

"I don't want to talk about it," I quickly stopped him. I needed my mind back to planning mood; that was more important.

Instead, I continued working my shift quietly. Sam didn't comment any further, and I didn't offer any information.

I was dead tired by the time my shift was over; physically and mentally. I went home, took a long hot shower, and sat down in my kitchen table with pen and paper.

After a little while, I felt a presence in my back yard followed by a quick knock on my back door. It was Pam again. She came in and sat next to me. I was about to offer her a bottle of True Blood, but she started talking right away, "Eric came back from New Orleans vivid. He won't say much, but the little he told me is concerning. He made me sign some legal paperwork where he put Fangtasia and all his assets under my name. He also assigned me the task to protect you from any vampire until you die of old age. Since the king is losing your telepathic services, then Eric must pay for the loss by paying a higher percentage from our revenues; I must continue paying off his debt if Eric meets his final death until the king sees it fit," Pam explained.

"Eric doesn't trust the king which is why he trusts you to protect me," I said. "And he's saying good bye," I continued with a knot in my throat.

"He knows the king won't keep his word," Pam added.

"He's expecting to die!" I repeated myself with panic in my voice.

"No. That's not Eric. He's planning something and he's protecting me in case something happens to him. But he won't share his plans. He got his Viking sword out. Whatever he's planning will be bloody," Pam explained.

"The king suspects of our involvement in Victor's death. Maybe Eric wants to protect us by not involving us," I stated.

"Which is foolish and suicidal," Pam expressed my own thoughts.

"I have a plan," I informed her.

"I have to get back to Eric fast. The king and the queen are in Fangtasia again. Everybody is tense, and Eric put us all on high alert," Pam said as she walked towards the back door to leave.

"We can talk tomorrow night then. Check your phone at first wake."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Tomorrow the king dies and so will she if she's still around."

Pam's wide smile showed her extended fangs, "tomorrow will be a great day then."

"Yes it will be."

Pam nodded and left immediately. Maybe Eric was calling her through their bond. Or maybe he was timing her. Whatever it was it didn't matter. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.

I went back to my to-do list, and soon after, I went to sleep. I needed my energy to wake up early in the morning to follow up with my plan.

I realized that five hours of sleep was not enough when my alarm clock went off. I didn't sleep well because my mind refused to stop thinking about Eric, King Felipe de Castro, Pam's words, Jason, and my future.

Today was the first day for new beginnings and the first thing I needed to do was to change everything about me. I liked my life the way it was, but I had to finally embrace the paranormal world around me with its ups and downs because it wasn't going to go away. The vampires and their complicated political agenda; the weres and their constant struggle for union and power between packs; the shifters and their disorganized way of approaching life hoping it will be all good; the witches and the wiccans not accepting each other's powers; the humans, some of them more open minded than others; the fairies who were my family and who knows what was going on with them since my great grandfather closed most portals. Life was complicated.

The first step was to accept that while I grew up as human, I knew from the very beginning that I wasn't one of them. I was different. I have refused to accept my telepathic abilities and my fairy bloodline; now, it was time to face it.

"I am a fairy," I said those words out loud, and for the first time, my undivided attention was on that sentence.

"I am a fairy and Jason is a werepanther." What puzzled me the most was that I was ok with Jason's new membership in the werepanther community and for him to change every full moon, but why I couldn't visualize myself as a fairy? There was a piece of me that clung to the idea of being a simple human and that wasn't going to change overnight, but I was committed to work on it from now on.

My position with the vampires was complicated because they didn't regard humans as their equals. As a matter of fact, to many vampires, humans were walking lunch bags ready to be eaten. I had to change that, and the only way to do it was by speaking their language: the language of power.

I had a plan to follow and it started with me calling Jason and apologizing to him. "Don't worry about me, I like myself. The question is: do you like yourself? Do you accept yourself?" Jason asked me during our long conversation.

"I have fought tiredly over the idea of being the same as everybody else and I know it's time for me to accept my reality. It's going to take time to rewire my brain about myself, but I wanted you to know that I love you no matter what. Please forgive me because without knowing it, I hurt you."

"Sookie, I'm glad you're coming to your senses. It's crazy out here and you're part of that craziness."

"I know. And it's going to get crazier. I have a plan to kill King Felipe de Castro and I need your help."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Yes."

A long silence followed that made me doubt myself, but just then Jason added, "As the man of this family, it is my duty to keep you safe. What's the plan?"

I knew that Jason was going to support my crazy, unstable, unrealistic, and totally suicidal idea. We hung up in the best terms and soon we'll be partners for the upcoming murder of King Felipe de Castro.

I was almost done with my second cup of coffee when my cell phone rang, "hello."

"Sookie? How are you?"

"Quinn?" I couldn't believe it. "I'm so glad to hear from you."

"Happy birthday," he said.

I could feel my lips curve up in an involuntary smile. I have forgotten that today was my birthday. "You remembered!" I said. "Thanks!" I was absurdly pleased. I hadn't exactly thought Tara would be thinking about my birthday, since she'd just brought twins home from the hospital, and everybody else was very busy with their own problems.

"Hey, a birthday is an important day," the weretiger said. I hadn't seen him since Sam's brother's wedding. It was good to hear his deep voice.

"How are you?" I hesitated for a moment before adding, "How's Tijgering?" The last time I'd seen Quinn, he'd just met the beautiful and single one-of-the-last-of-her-kind weretigress. I don't think I have to draw you a picture.

"I'm… ah… going to be a father."

Wow. "Way to go!" I said. "So you guy have moved in together? Where are you living?"

"That's not exactly the way we do it, Sookie."

"Um. Okay. What's the tiger procedure?"

"Tiger men don't bring up their young. Only the tiger mom."

"Gosh, that seems kind of old-fashioned." And kind of wrong.

"To me, too. But Tij's real traditional. She says that when she has the baby, she'll go into hiding until he's weaned. Her mom told her that if it's a boy I might see him as a threat." I couldn't read Quinn's mind over the phone, but he sounded plenty exasperated and not a little resentful.

As far as I knew- and I'd done a little reading on tigers when I was Quinn's girlfriend- only males who were nto the actual dads were apt to kill tiger cubs. But since this was totally none of my business, I chocked back the indignation I felt on Quinn's behalf. At least, I tried to.

So she'd used him to get pregnant with a weretiger baby and now she didn't want to see him anymore?

I told myself sternly, Not my battle. (Werewolves were much more modern in their thinking. Even werepantheres!)

Since my silence had lasted too long, I leaped in with both feet.

"Well, I'm so happy that you'll have a cub, since there aren't many of you-all left. I guess your mama and your sister are excited?"

"Uh… well, my mom is pretty sick. She brightened up a lot when I told her, but it was just temporary. She's back in that nursing home. Frannie found a guy, and she took off with him last month. I'm not really sure where she is."

"Quinn, that's so tough. I'm really sorry."

"But I'm raining on your birthday, and I didn't mean to. I really did call to tell you to have a great day, Sookie. No one deserves it more." He hesitated, and I could tell there were more words that he wanted to say. "Maybe you could call me sometime?" he asked. "Tell me what you ended up doing to celebrate?"

I tried to do some concentrated thinking in a very short time, but I wasn't up to figuring out all the cracks and crevices in this tentative overture. "Maybe," I said. "I hope I do something worth talking about and live to tell the story."

There was a long moment of silence. "You're kidding," he said.

"You know I'm not."

There was a serious silence.

"You need me to come?"

"Oh, gosh, no," I said. "I don't want to get you into more trouble with the king. Are you in good terms with him since you helped him with the takeover?"

"That bastard. He used my family to force me to help him. I had to fight in the pits again to pay him for sending Fannie to your house. And he wants to keep me fighting whenever he feels like it in exchange for leaving my mother in the nursing home."

"So you aren't on his side then?"

"Hell no, but my hands are tied for now."

"Then, in that case yes I need you to come. I'm going to kill the king and I'll need your help."

There was another serious silence.

"When are you planning on doing this?"

"Tonight."

"I'm coming."

"Be careful. Nobody can see you entering the state."

"I know."

That was all it took to get Quinn to head back to Louisiana to help me. This was an unexpected but a great addition to my plan.

I had barely hung up with Quinn when the phone rang again. Sam. "Sook," he said, "can you come by the bar? We're short a case of Heineken and two of Michelob, and I need to know what happened." He sounded pretty snappish. Damn.

"It's my day off."

"Hey, you pretty much bought into the business. You gotta pull your share of the weight."

I mouthed a very bad word at the phone. "Okay," I said, sounding just as irritated as I felt. "I'm coming. But I'm not staying."

I strode through the employee entrance as if I were on my way into a bullfight ring. I had too many things to do today and coming to work was not in my list. "Sam," I called, "you in your office?"

"Yeah, come here," he called. "I think I found the problem."

I flung open his office door and everybody in the world shrieked in my face. "Oh my God!" I said, shocked to the core.

After a throbbing moment, I understood that I was having a surprise birthday party.

JB was there, and Terry and his girlfriend, Jimmie. Sam, Hoyt and Holly, Jason and Michelle, Halleigh Bellefleur, Danny and Kennedy. Even Jane Bodehouse.

"Tara had to stay with the babies," JB said, handing me a little package.

Terry said, "We thought about giving you a puppy, but Jimmie said we better check with you first." Jimmie winked at me over his shoulder.

Sam held me so tight I thought I'd quit breathing, and I thumped him on his shoulder. "You creep," I said in his ear. "Missing cases of beer! I like that!"

"You should have heard your voice," he said, laughing. "Jannalynn said to tell you she was sorry she couldn't make it. She had to open at Hair of the Dog."

Sure, I believed she was really unhappy at not being here. I wonder if Sam knew about Warren and the pack hunting her down. I turned away so Sam wouldn't see my face.

Halleigh apologized for Andy's absence, too; he was on duty. Danny and Kennedy gave me a kind of group hug, and Jane Bodehouse gave me a highly alcoholic kiss on the cheek. Michel held my hand for a moment and said, "I hope you have a wonderful year this year. Will you be my bridesmaid?" I grinned wide enough to split my face and told her I'd be proud to stand up with her. Jason wrapped one arm around me and handed me a beribboned box.

"I didn't expect presents. I'm too old for a present party," I protested.

"Never too old for presents," Sam said.

My eyes were so full of tears I had a hard time unwrapping Jason's gift. He'd given me a bracelet my grandmother used to wear, a little gold chain with pearls set at intervals. I was shocked to see it. "Where was this?" I asked.

"I was cleaning the pie-crust table I got out of the attic, it was pushed way in the back of that shallow drawer, caught on a splinter," he said. "All I could think was Gran, and I knew you'd wear it."

I let the tears run out, then. "That's the sweetest thing," I said. "The nicest thing you've ever done, apart from forgiving me this morning."

"Here," said Jane, as eagerly as a child. She put a little gift bag in my hand. I smiled and dug my hand in. Jane had given me five "get a free car wash" coupons from the place her son worked. I was able to thank her sincerely. "I'll use every one," I promised her.

Hoyt and Holly had gotten me a bottle of wine, Danny and Kennedy had gotten me an electric knife sharpener, and JB and Tara had regifted me with one of the five slow cookers they'd gotten when they got married. I was glad to get it.

Sam handed me a heavy envelope. "You open that later," he said gruffly. I gave him a narrow-eyed look. "All right," I said. "If that's what you want."

"Yeah," he said. "It's what I want."

The celebration was a nice, unexpected surprise which I enjoyed very much. After a little party which included cake and ice cream, everybody returned to their daily activities and I was left alone with Sam.

"Sam, I really want to thank you for this. It was very sweet of you to plan the whole thing," I told him while I hugged him.

He lingered a little too long and I started to feel uncomfortable, so I pushed back as I continued talking, "Now that we are alone, I would like to talk to you about my plan to kill King Felipe de Castro."

His shocked expression was priceless. He sat down behind his small desk and stared at me for a whole minute. He tried to say something twice, but decided not to. "Say something," I said because the silence was killing me.

"Why would you go to such extents for Eric when he clearly don't value you or your efforts," Sam asked me.

"You don't know the whole story. Besides, the king has the upper hand over Eric at the moment. I need to step up and defend what's mine." My possessive tone left Sam without the opportunity to question my decision any further.

"He doesn't deserve it, but it's your choice cher. What's your plan?" Sam asked. We spend the following two hours discussing it. He gave me good pointers and now I needed to add a few details to it.

It was late afternoon by the time I was out of Merlottes and I decided to go home. I unlocked the screen door, crossed the porch, unlocked the kitchen door, and went inside with my armful of presents.

I checked my to-do list while drinking a cup of coffee. Then, I texted Pam "Get ready for tonight," along with a list of instructions.

My plan had proven to be a little bit more complicated than I thought, but it was going to work. No matter what, I was going to remove the king and queen out of my way.

I wondered where Quinn was coming from. Was he in Texas? Or maybe New Orleans? I decided to not worry about him. He was going to be here soon enough. "I don't need to worry about it," I repeated to myself while I sipped coffee.

"What are you worried about? Claude asked.

I screamed, and my coffee mug went flying.

Note: I hope you're enjoying the story. I think that CH didn't treat Quinn properly in the books. Having a complicated family doesn't make him a bad person. Besides, his story is nowhere near done yet. Continue reading to find out what I have in store for him! Reviews are more than welcome. Let me know your thoughts!