Sookie gasped when she opened the door and saw her cousin.

An honest to God, sharp intake of air, like she had been underwater for too long and now could finally breathe. She had been tired the entire day with Tara and Sam hovering over her. She understood their concern and loved them for it, but she was feeling suffocated. She just wanted to be alone.

But then the sun started to set. And she started to feel restless. It was like the weariness of the day seeped out of her and she was full of energy. Her body was alight and even the thought of her grandma's death, the memory of her body lying in a pool of blood, wasn't enough to get her mind off of Bill Compton. Her clothes felt too tight, too constrictive, her body felt too hot and there was a tightness in her belly that wouldn't let up. She had finally had too much and had rushed down her stairs towards the door, intending to cross the cemetery and see Bill.

She was met with the face of her missing cousin instead.

"Hello, Sook. Going somewhere?" Katherine Hale's voice was low-pitched and so familiar that Sookie's knees almost gave out. Instead, she flew into her cousin's arm, crying her eyes out, the despair she had been feeling the entire day now back at full force. And Kat, her loving and protecting Kat, pulled her closer and gave her the familial support Jason had denied her.

Sookie didn't care that she had disappeared almost two years ago, never leaving a word behind. That wasn't her cousin. Hadley, yes, she believed that 100% but Kat? Who took a job at fourteen after her father left them to help with finances and still managed to maintain her grades impeccable? Who took on her mother's cancer and her care with a sigh and determination? And then Hadley's increasingly unstable behaviour and still managed to call every week and never complain? No, Sookie and Adele had been worried her mother's death had been too much and that she had finally broken but it never sat right with them.

She had been talking about moving in when Aunt Linda's inevitable death occurred, and Kat had even applied and was waiting to hear back from some colleges in Shreveport. She'd need a scholarship but if anyone could manage, she knew it was Kat. Sookie had been excited about it. It would help them financially and she'd have someone else there for her. They were around the same age, but Kat had always been so strong, so mature that Sookie couldn't help but look up to her.

"What happened to you? How are you here?" Sookie managed to sob out, still hanging on to Kat for dear life.

"I heard about Gran. I couldn't make it to the funeral, but I thought to pay my respects and see if you need something," she answered in her low, soothing voice, brushing Sookie's hair. Sookie just burst out crying again and Kat sighed and pulls her back into a hug. "How about we go inside, dear?" Sookie nodded, spending some more minutes in her cousin's arms before turning around and heading inside.

"I'm sorry I cried all over you. Let me just wash my face real quick." She climbed the stairs in a hurry, not wanting to lose a minute with Kat, as if she could just disappear again. As she was drying her face and the thought gripped her heart with a cold hand and she opens her mind to locate where in the house Kat is and doesn't hear her. "Kat?" She rushes downstairs, her heart racing, only to find her cousin at the front door with a sheepish smile on her face.

"You're going to have to invite me in, darling."

"Oh..." It made sense now. Why she disappeared so completely there were no clues, no leads, no nothing. She was just gone. "Will you come in?" Kat smiled and did so. "So... How did this happen?" Sookie asked, sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest.

"It's a long story and it's better you don't know most of it. Let's just say a vampire took a liking to me and I didn't have much say in anything else after he forced me his blood." She looked around, unsure and carefully sat opposite Sookie on the couch. She was very stiff and uncomfortable, Sookie realized, and those weren't emotions she normally associated with Kat. Her cousin could charm the honey from bees and now she looked so unsure of herself it made Sookie's heart tight.

"How did you get involved with him?"

"I didn't. He fed me his blood, said I was his and stole me away."

Oh. I'm sorry that happened to you."

"It's fine. It happened and there's nothing I can do about it." Her tone signalled the end of the conversation and Sookie accepted it. There was nothing more she could do. With anyone else, she'd press for more information but with Kat, her word was final. "What happened with Gran? I smell her blood in the house."

"She was killed. Someone is going around here killing people who sympathize with vampires."

"And how did she get targeted? As open as Gran was, I don't see her on edgy gear looking for a vampire for a tumble..."

"Katherine! Have some respect!" Despite her words, Sookie had to fight off a laugh, knowing that if she was alive, Adele Stackhouse would've blushed scarlet at the comment but cackle in delight at the idea.

"What? She was our Gran; she wasn't a saint. And she would tan your hide for trying to put her on a pedestal." Sookie laughed knowing Kat was right. Her Gran would never stand for it. "So..."

"Across the cemetery, at the old Compton's house. A vampire moved there. Bill."

"Bill?"

"I laughed too. It's a bit silly, right?" She sighed, rubbing her face with her hands. "She invited him to talk with the Descended of the Glorious Dead. A bunch of people in town were pissed off but everyone showed up too."

"Hum... And is that the vampire I smell on you or...?"

"No, it's him. We're seeing each other," Sookie smiled. The smile wanes when she sees Kat's inquiring gaze. "What? It's not like that!"

"So, you didn't drink his blood?"

"I did..."

"So, it is like that."

"No! We-" She paused, frowning to herself. "He did it to save me."

"Right. And then you are together..." Sookie felt the weariness creeping up again.

"Listen, I already have the town judging me because of it. My grandma just died because someone thought themselves jury, judge and executioner and even Jason blamed me for it, so I don't want to hear it! I'm a grown woman and I can make my own decisions!"

She didn't mean to explode at her cousin. She hadn't. But she was starting to grasp at straws here. Everyone was blaming her, she had freaked out at the wake, then at the funeral, eating her gran's last pie ever and she was just done. It wasn't her fault that someone decided to kill people who got involved with vampires. It wasn't Bill's fault either!

"Did you get it off your chest? Are you quite done?" Kat deadpanned, looking less than impressed. "If you have a problem with someone, take it up with them. I didn't come here to be your punching bag. I've had plenty of that in the last couple of years. If you're just going to dump your emotional garbage on me, I will take my leave." She started to raise, and fear gripped Sookie again.

"No!" Sookie grabs at her and hugs her again with all her strength. "No! Please! I'm sorry... Please... I'm sorry!" She felt desperate, her nails digging into Kat's skin. "Please, please, don't go!" Kat sighed, disengaged Sookie's arms from her and sped away. Sookie felt her breath shorten like her body couldn't take in any air.

"You're such a drama queen, Sookie." She can feel the eye roll in the gentle reminder, and she grabs at her cousin's arm when she approaches. "Here." She offers her a glass of water and before she can reach for it, the front door flies open, and Bill is yelling out her name.

Before Sookie can say anything, her vampire boyfriend is breaking a chair and coming at his cousin with the makeshift stake, wielding it like a spear, aiming for her chest. The blonde telepath cries out for him to stop when her mind process what's happening before her eyes. He's much older than her cousin and there is no doubt that he could kill her in a second.

But that's not what happens. Because somehow, Kat is stronger than him and with a swift motion, and more anger than Sookie has ever seen in her cousin's face, she backhanded him, sending Bill flying away, into a wall.

Kat stalked him the moment he made a move to get up, the offending piece of wood now pointed at his chest. He growled and tried to force her hand away, but she was unmovable.

"What the fuck, Bill?" Sookie screeches, looking at the mess that her living room had become. She just wanted to be able to grieve in peace! But no, of course not, because of even more vampire drama. "You just enter my house and go around breaking things trying to hurt my cousin!"

"I felt your distress! And when I walked in there was a vampire over you! What was I supposed to think?"

"You didn't walk into my house, you busted in! And now I'm going to have to fix the door on top of everything else!" Sookie walked over to the entrance hall to look at the damage, all of her previous thoughts and need for Bill nothing but a distant memory in face of his dramatics. He always did this, this little show of his. First with Eric and Pam, then with Kat. It was getting really old quick.

"You can let me up now," Bill growled from his place on the ground, nervous about the vampire in front of him. She was way too young to be as strong as she was, and he wasn't sure if she remembered him. If she did, everything he was working for would be moot. If she did, she was likely to stake him on a whim.

"Can I? You don't seem particularly controlled, Mr Compton. I don't know whether I can trust you with my cousin's safety." Her eyes were dead and cold, and her smile was more like she was baring her teeth to him. Still, Bill couldn't figure out if she remembered.

"Sookie's safety is paramount to me! She is mine!" He growled, trying to press his advantage and move forward, but the vampiress in front of him didn't move an inch, causing the wood to dig into the skin of his chest.

"Oh, come off it, Bill. I've barely known you for two weeks and she's my cousin!" Sookie fumed as she reentered the room, stopping with her hands on her hips. "If anything, I'm more hers than yours!"

"No!"

It was too late though and as soon as the words left Sookie's mouth, everyone in the room felt a pressure build and let up, not unlike the feeling of ears popping on a plane. There was a second of silence before Kat dropped her stance and started laughing. A deep, belly laugh that Sookie always thought sounded like a cackle and made her call her cousin Wicked Witch of the West.

"You didn't explain to her how claiming works? You idiot!" She was still laughing when Bill made to move towards Sookie, and she placed herself between them. "No, no, Bill. You have no further claim on my cousin. And I think you've overstayed your welcome, haven't you?"

"I-"

"Kat, what's going on?" The telepath was feeling queasy and lethargic like she felt the morning after taking a strong pill.

"Sookie, darling... Would you be so kind as to withdraw Mr Compton's invitation to your house?" There was a tone in her cousin's voice, like when Bill tried to compel her but instead of hearing, recognizing, and feeling no need to oblige, Sookie did, watching Bill's face contort into fury as he fought against it. But just as he had told her before, he was forcefully removed from the house and Kat close the door with a soft thud. "Well... I think it's time we have a little chat about vampire culture and how it affects you. Wouldn't you agree?"