Disclaimer

All rights go to Charline Harris and Allan Ball. I only own my original plotlines and characters.


But why is the rum gone?

- Jack Sparrow


JULIETTE LET OUT an annoyed groan as the sun shining on her face forced her to wake up.

After she and Sookie had rescued the vampire, whom they learned was named Bill, she was forced to watch an agonizingly awkward conversation between her sister and Bill, of course, she made sure to let out a few idle threats anytime she thought he was getting too comfortable with her sister but overall their interaction was almost painful to watch.

It was after that Juliette had made good on her thought about needing a drink and practically chugged down two bottles of bourbon, the voices in her head becoming too much for her to deal with. Despite her not even being too drunk, she was dragged home by Sookie. This led her to the present moment of having a massive headache and a grouchy mood.

Sluggishly, she made her way downstairs and straight to the kitchen, where a fresh pot of coffee was made specifically for her along with two aspirin tablets.

"Thank you, Gran," She mumbles, taking the tablets and a long sip of her drink before putting the mug to the side.

She lets out a tiny sigh and leans back against the counter, her eyes fluttering shut as the pain in her head slowly became a dull throb.

She didn't know how much time passed before she was snapped out of her daze by a loud voice.

"Oh good! Your awake!" Her grandmother exclaims walking in with her twin, Jason, in tow.

Juliette groans, the throbbing in her head returning and increasing by a tenfold from Gran's loud voice.

"Gran, I love you but my head is killing me."

Adele tuts, "Than maybe you shouldn't have drank so much," She scolds.

Juliette cracks an eye open, a lazy smirk appearing on her lips, "We both know you're asking impossible."

Adele sighs and shakes her head, mumbling under her breath, as she gets started on the tea. Meanwhile, Juliette leans into her brother who moved to stand beside her and he wraps an arm around her.

"Gran's right, Jules." Jason says quietly, "You shouldn't drink so much."

"And you shouldn't sleep around so much," She retorts, "But I guess we all have our addictions."

A soft sound of frustration escapes Jason's lips, "Look I'm only sayin' it cause I care," he huffs.

Juliette looks up at him and gives him a soft smile, "And I love you for that but it ain't gonna happen, Jay" She states, placing a soft kiss on his cheek before grabbing her mug and twirling around him to take the empty seat at the kitchen table.

Jason sighs before he too sits at the table, soon enough their conversation was long forgotten as they engage in playful banter that Sookie eventually joins in on when she emerges from outside.

Juliette glares as Jason steals a piece of her bacon, "Mhm if you're gonna wear those clothes, you might want to start watching what you eat," He jokes, his mouth filled with her bacon.

Sookie chokes out a laugh while Juliette lets out a mock gasp of outrage, "Are you callin' me fat?"

Before Jason could respond Adele walks back into the kitchen with a look of distress on her face, holding the phone in her hand.

"That was Evalee Mason, guess who was found strangled to death in her apartment? Maudette Pickens."

"Oh, my lord!" Sookie gasps but Juliette ignored her instead her attention was caught by the look on Jason's face.

"She didn't show up for work, wasn't answering her phone. And so her boss called Bud Dearborn, he rode over, got the manager to let him in, and they found her." Her grandmother proceeded to explain as she took a seat at the table.

Sookie shook her head in disbelief, "I went to high school with Maudette."

"Can you believe it?" Adele asked, "A murder in Bon Temps."

"Well, why are you surprised?" Jason states, "Now that we got ourselves a vampire."

Juliette sighs pinching the bridge of her nose as she sensed an oncoming argument about to breakout.

Her prediction was right when Sookie immediately jumped to vampire Bill's defense, "Just because he's a vampire doesn't mean he's a murderer!"

And everyone wonders why I drink so much, Juliette thinks.

"Oh, come on." Jason scoffs, "Fang-Bangers go missing all the time in Shreveport, New Orleans. They never find the but everybody knows the vampires are killing them and disposing of the bodies."

"What's a Fang-banger?" Adele asks.

"A vampire groupie," Sookie offers but her grandmother's confused look she elaborates, "Men and woman who like to get bitten."

Juliette snorts, "and get off on them."

"My stars! Juliette Stackhouse!" Adele gasps.

Juliette holds her hands up giving Adele her best innocent look, which wasn't hard to pull off with her baby blue eyes, "You asked!" Juliette then turns to Jason raising an eyebrow, "Maudette was a fang-banger? How do you know that?"

Jason's eyes widen in panic, before he turns defensive, banging his hand on the table, "I don't know, Jules! The way you and Sookie know things sometimes!"

Jason then immediately gets up and grabs his plate and makes his way to the sink, both Sookie and Adele give each other awkward looks while Juliette leans back raising an eyebrow at her brother's behavior.

Finally, he turns around leaning his back against the counters, "There are also hookers who specialize in vampires. they drink Tru blood to keep their supply up and they keep a bodyguard there in case the vamp gets a little too frisky."

At Sookie and Adele's blank stares and Juliette's amused one, Jason shrugs, "I read that in a magazine."

"Wonder how much one would charge for something like that?" Adele muses, Juliette who had taken a sip of her drink, chokes on her iced tea when she hears the wonderment in her Gran's voice, while Jason shrugs pulling on his hat.

"A thousand bucks."

Adele gives Juliette who was coughing a concerned look but the blonde just waved her off as Sookie spoke.

"See, now that just makes me sick." Sookie states. Adele turns and nods, "I know. What kind of cheap woman could ever do something like that?"

"The desperate type" Juliette mumbles, having recovered from her mini coughing fit.

"No, it makes me sick that they're getting a thousand bucks to lay there and do nothing, while I bust my ass for 10 bucks an hour plus tips." Sookie huffs and Juliette snorts.

"I don't think they just lay there, Sooks," she says, wagging her eyebrows suggestively, dropping her voice down to a mock whisper, "I think they're expected to you know...have the sex."

Sookie's eyes widen and Juliette grins childishly, enjoying the look of disgust on her baby sister's face.

"Ew!" Sookie glares smacking Juliette's arm, "Why must you always be so...crude!"

Juliette shrugs, "It's a gift."

"Yeah..." Jason chuckles before trailing off awkwardly and this time it's not just Juliette who notices Jason's weird behavior.

Jason glances nervously between Juliette and Sookie before standing up and clearing his throat, "Well, um, thanks for lunch, Gran."

Jason tips his hat at Adele before walking off and Sookie immediately gets up and runs after him, Juliette following close behind.

Sookie grabs Jason and spins him around, he gives her a questioning look, "What?"

Sookie doesn't respond, so he asks again. Once again she doesn't respond instead she places her hands on the side of his head. Juliette takes the opportunity to focus on Jason's thoughts as well, determined to figure out what was wrong with him.

This can't be happening to me

How could I lose control like that? How come she-?

His thoughts raced through her head but his abrupt movement of swatting Sookie's hands away breaks her concentration, making her huff in frustration.

"Don't try that with me, goddammit!" He yells, glancing at Juliette as well who was frowning with her arms crossed, "Either of you! I'm your brother."

Juliette scoffs stepping forward, "Who is hiding something. Come on, Jay, you know we're gonna find out what your hiding eventually," She cooed mockingly and he glares shaking his head and turning away.

"Back to work." He mumbles walking off, choosing to ignore Juliette's comment.

Once he left, the tension in Juliette's body fade, and her shoulders slumped as she left out a soft sigh, her hand coming up to rub her temple.

"I know you care Jules, but that may have been a little too harsh" Sookie said.

Juliette stops her movements and lifts her head to give her sister a deadpanned stare, after a few seconds of making her sister uncomfortable squirm, she walks off.

"It's too early for this shit"

Later on that evening, Juliette made her way to Merlotte's, despite it being her day off, it was the only place where she could get free drinks.

Making her way to the bar she overheard Tara tormenting Bob, one of Merlotte's regulars.

"Are you harassing poor Bobby boy over here?" Juliette purrs, winking at Bob as she slinks her way behind the bar.

Bob immediately blushes at the seductive blonde meanwhile Tara scoffs crossing her arms. Juliette places a kiss on Lafayette's cheek and he smirks.

"Looking good baby girl," He whistles.

Juliette laughs before she turns to the selection of drinks,"What to drink?" She wonders out loud placing a finger on her lips.

"I'd like a beer," Bob states and Juliette turns around raising an eyebrow at him.

"Do I look like I'm working?" She sasses, tilting her head and glaring making Bob shrink back in his seat.

"B-but you asked," he stammers.

"For me," she states before swiping a bottle of god knows what and taking a swing to prove her point.

Juliette then turns to Lafayette with a smirk and he chuckles.

"You are just as bad as that hoe," He states referring to Tara.

"Oh, shut up!" Tara snaps over her shoulder.

"It has been a day," Was all Juliette said as she took another swing of what she learned was Rum, Lafayette hums knowingly.

"Jason's arrest?" He asks, thinking she was aware of her twin's arrest but when her eyes widen so do his as he realizes she wasn't aware, "You mean, you haven't heard?"

Juliette shakes her head, the grip on her bottle tightening as she tried to control her emotions "Jason got arrested? For what?"

"Look Babydoll, I'm sure it's nothing, as for the details, I ain't sure, but Maudette Pickens did get found murdered." He replies giving her shoulder a small squeeze before he works on pouring more liquor in his mug.

"Who else knows?" Juliette asks, trying to force herself to calm down.

"Well, I was there and so was Hoyt and Rene, when he got carted off," Lafayette answers and Juliette's eyes harden.

"Hoyt knew?" Juliette asked slowly, anger rising in her.

Aside from Lafayette, Hoyt was one of the few people outside of her family she was closest too, he was her brothers best friend and like a brother to her and he couldn't even have picked up the damn phone to tell her what happened to Jason.

Lafayette's eyes widened as he watched Juliette's face darken as she turns to where Hoyt was laughing with Rene and Arlene.

"Aw shit," Lafayette sighs as he watches Juliette storm over there and his eyes catch Sookie making her way there too, her face also twisted up in anger.

"Hoyt Fortenberry! You better have a damn good reason why you didn't tell me that Jason was arrested!" Juliette growls.

Hoyt's eyes widen and he hastily puts his beer on the table and opens his mouth to explain but before he could he was cut off by Sookie arriving.

"What happened to my brother, Rene?" She asks angrily.

Rene sighs, "Aww, hell. I promised him I wasn't gonna tell either of ya-you."

Juliette glared, tightening her grip once again on the bottle as she tried to reign in her anger.

"What happened?" Juliette asked, her voice eerily calm.

"Oh, well, Uh, Bud Dearborn and Andy Bellefleur, uh they asked him some questions, and then they threw him in the back of the squad car." Hoyt stammered out nervously, a yelling Juliette was scary but a calm Juliette was downright terrifying.

"So you don't even know for a fact they arrested him?" Sookie questions.

Rene shakes his head answering, "Well, they didn't cuff him or nothing."

Arlene gives the girls a sympathetic look, "Sookie, Juliette, I am so sorry."

And Hoyt nods, "Yeah, I'm so sorry for not telling you sooner."

Juliette gives Hoyt a cold smile making the boy gulp when that smile drops into a bone-chilling glare, "Well you can take your apology and shove it up your ass Fortenberry, I can't believe you didn't tell me about my brother."

Hoyt sighs, "Jules-"

Juliette doesn't even wait to hear his apologies instead she spins on her heel and storms out of the bar.

Instead of going to her Gran's house, she drives to Jason's apartment, where he had a room for her there.

As soon as she was inside she chugged the bottle trying to dull the emotions she felt, a scream of frustration escaped her lips as she chucked the bottle at the wall, the glass shattering into hundreds of pieces.

"Shit," She swore, the anger she felt simmered down and she immediately went to grab a broom and dustpan to clean up the glass.

After the glass was clean she groaned as she realized she wasted a quarter of the bottle, "Now where the fuck does Jason keep his Rum?"

Juliette searched through the cabinets for nearly twenty minutes before she throws her hands up in exasperation realizing it wasn't in any of the cabinets, "Why the fuck is the rum gone?!"

Letting out a few more obscene choice of words under her breath she marches back over to the cabinets and grabs the bottle of whiskey instead and takes a swing.

One thing was for sure, she was a goddamned mess.