A/N: No excuses. I am a bad girl with poor impulse control and an overbearing muse. But all things will all be finished! I promise! And I don't have any more ideas socked back now, anyway (other than a couple of YnB outtakes, but they're short). :p
Oh, and I have the next chapters of everything started, and will definitely have at least one chapter of something to post next week. :)
Chapter 1
Sookie had tears in her eyes as she drove home from Merlotte's. She was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. It was late, and the bar had been packed for New Year's Eve, and she'd nearly been run off her feet. She was glad, though. Lord knew she needed the tips, and it had taken her mind off of everything that had happened and what came next. But it had also taken a toll. She was bone tired, and too beat to keep her defenses up and her emotions in check.
It had been a really hard year for Sookie. Gran had died back in June of a massive heart attack. Sookie secretly blamed Jason for causing their grandmother so much stress, even though she knew it wasn't fair.
And then Sam had sold the bar. He was leaving the very next day to go back to Texas. Sookie still had a job, but working for Andy Bellefleur didn't sound very appealing. She knew very well just how little Andy cared for her, and he was going to use any excuse to get rid of her, no matter how hard it was to find decent waitresses in Bon Temps. And no matter what deals he had worked out with Sam to keep everyone on, at least for a few months. She knew her days were numbered. She creeped Andy out, and he was still mad that she wouldn't help him solve any more cases after she'd cleared Jason's name when that serial killer had been on the loose. Unfortunately for Gran, it had been too little, too late.
She and Sam had already said their goodbyes, and she had even let him kiss her one last time. She wondered if he would have sold the bar if things had gone differently between them. They had gone out on a few dates last Spring, but things had sort of fizzled out after Gran had died. Sam had been her first real… whatever they had been to each other, and it had been sort of nice while it lasted. But she'd still been able to hear his thoughts, no matter how red and snarly they were. She'd tried to be intimate with him a few times, but it had just been too difficult to block him out, and she'd had to stop before they had really gotten started. Their kiss at midnight in the storeroom had confirmed it. She really liked Sam — loved him, even, at least as a friend — but unless she developed some better shields, it was hopeless. She was, unfortunately, a twenty-six year old virgin. And it looked like she was going to be a seventy-six year old virgin, too.
It was shortly after she'd ended things that he'd put the bar up for sale. It had taken a while to find a buyer, but Andy had decided to make a change before he'd gotten completely washed up at work. Finding Lafayette dead in his car had really messed him up. Sookie didn't know that being that close to that much booze was really in Andy's best interest, but that wasn't any of her business.
She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. Her head was pounding from the stress and from trying to block out so many thoughts, and she planned on just going straight to bed and then staying there until the following afternoon. She had taken some Tylenol earlier when she'd managed to get away long enough to root through her purse in Sam's office, but it had hardly touched the pain.
She supposed it was Andy's office now.
She saw something snow white up ahead on the side of the road through her tears. She thought at first that someone had lost something off of their clothesline and it had gotten hung up in a tree or a bush. When she got a little closer, she saw that it was a man running down the road. He was shirtless, even though it was freezing cold and in the middle of the night, and Sookie shivered in sympathy. He was so pale that in the flood of her headlights, he almost seemed to glow.
She slowed down and rolled down the passenger side window and pulled around so that she was driving right beside him.
"Can I help you?"
He turned his head to glance at her, and he looked absolutely terrified. He sped up, just a little. She gave him a wider berth, but kept pace.
"Hey. Are you ok? Are you lost?"
He glanced at her again, and he looked even more scared than before.
She muttered under her breath, "Come on, Sookie, don't be an idiot. Go home and call the sheriff. Let Bud handle this." No matter how good looking this guy was with his long blond hair and strong features and perfect body, she would be an absolute fool to get out of her car. Hell, she shouldn't do it because of all of those reasons, not in spite of them.
She sighed and stopped in the middle of the road a little ahead of him, put her car in park, and got out. He passed her and she followed behind him on foot.
"Do you need help? I won't hur-"
He turned around and hissed, his fangs even whiter than the rest of him in the stark glow of her high beams.
Sookie gasped and jumped back, suddenly terrified herself. She knew about vampires, of course — everyone did, unless they'd been living under a rock for the past few years — but she had never seen one up close before. She had switched shifts with her friend Arlene the only time that one had come into Merlotte's, and he'd never come back. She'd gotten a flash or two from Mack Rattray that made her think that he and his scummy wife Denise had made sure of that, but it wasn't something she could prove.
And she'd had no desire at all to go to the vampire bar in Shreveport after what had happened to Dawn and Maudette and Danielle and those two girls from Clarice.
Her feet got tangled up and she fell flat on her ass, biting her tongue hard enough that she cried out in pain.
The vampire stopped hissing and cocked his head. He took a tentative step forward. "Are you alright?"
She laughed a little, despite the fear and the pain and the exhaustion and the ridiculous circumstances and the fact that she might die in the next few seconds. It quickly turned into a wince. Her tongue was killing her and her mouth tasted like it was filled with pennies. She shuddered and spat off to the side. It was bright red.
He lifted his nose a bit and seemed to scent the air. The corner of his mouth turned up and he took another small step forward. "Please. Let me help you."
She got up slowly and winced again at the pain. She brushed the dirt off of her bottom and then dusted off her hands on the front of her black work pants. She spat again.
"Ugh. What a way to start the year."
She sounded like she was talking through a mouthful of marbles, and he smiled a little more. No matter how much her mouth hurt, at least she'd broken the ice. Even if it meant that she had to keep spitting in front of the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen every minute or so. At least neither of them seemed terrified of the other any longer. But he still looked unsure behind the smile.
She took stock of herself. "My mouth hurts like crazy, but I'm ok. I think so, anyhow. What about you? Are you alright? You must be freezing."
"I am fine."
She smiled in relief, at least as much as she was able. She almost looked like all of her worries had just gone away. His smile disappeared and he shrugged, suddenly more unsure. "At least I've not been greatly injured."
She hesitated. "Well, if you're alright, I guess I need to get home. It's really late and I'm beat. Do you want me to call someone for you when I get there…?"
He looked so lost and cold and her heart melted a little. She noticed his bare feet and she shivered. She remembered how scared he'd been a few minutes before and her shoulders slumped. Vampire or not, she couldn't just leave him half naked and freezing out in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning. She walked back to her car and got the old afghan out of the backseat. At least he could sort of be warm.
She handed him the blanket and he wrapped it around his shoulders. She had goosebumps just looking at him. She looked down at his feet again and her shoulders fell even more. Her resolve was gone. She really hoped that this wasn't some kind of trick.
"Is there somewhere you can go?"
He shrugged again. Sookie closed her eyes for a moment in frustration.
"I need to know that you won't hurt me."
"I promise. I won't hurt you."
It was the best she was going to get. She sighed. "Come on, then. Get in the car before you freeze. I guess I'll take you back to my place, at least to start with." She continued the thought as she walked around the car, muttering under her breath. "Because apparently I'm a damn idiot."
She got in and he slid in beside her. The corner of his mouth turned up a little. "Thank you for being a damn idiot."
She snorted and turned the heat on high and started again for home. They drove in awkward silence for a minute or two, and she was glad that they didn't have far to go. He looked around.
"This is a crappy car."
She snorted again. "Yup. Unfortunately, it's all I can afford."
She rolled down the window and spat out a mouthful of blood. She grimaced and rolled it back up. "Sorry."
"It is fine. It just seems like such a waste."
She glanced at him, amused despite herself. And she couldn't really deny the thrill of the implication. She had read that feeding was closely linked to sex, and this vampire looked like sex on legs. Very long legs.
There was another awkward silence. Even though it hurt to talk, she couldn't help but break it. "So, how come you were running down Hummingbird Road at three in the morning?"
"I… I am not sure.
"Oh."
She didn't really know how to respond to that. She tried again.
"I'm Sookie, by the way. What's your name?"
He didn't answer at first. "I am not sure about that, either."
She glanced over at him, confused. "You don't know your name?"
"No. I do not remember. It was like I was born the moment I was running down this road shortly before you arrived."
He looked so forlorn. Most of the rest of her fear melted away. He could have killed her at any point up until then, and he hadn't.
Her heart melted, too. She glanced over at him again and smiled. She hoped that she looked reassuring. "That's ok. We'll figure it out. It's too late tonight, but I'll call Fangtasia after they open tomorrow. That's a vampire bar in Shreveport. Maybe someone there will know who you are and where you come from."
When she glanced over at him, he looked afraid again. She reached out and touched his arm. "Hey. It'll be ok. We'll find you someplace to stay tonight, and then we'll just go from there."
He visibly relaxed, and so did she. The silence during the rest of the ride wasn't quite so awkward.
When she was pulling into her driveway, she finally realized that she couldn't hear his thoughts at all. Not even when she'd touched his bare arm.
