Don't worry there are no spoilers ahead in this one! Enjoy!

Waking up in the house she had grown up in was more refreshing for Sookie than she thought it would be. Last night she'd slept in her old room, the one that had belonged to her grandmother before her, while Adele slept in the small bedroom across the hall. The same room that had been hers as a little girl.

Of course the first thing her daughter had said as soon as she saw the room was "I'm going to have to paint it." Typical, Sookie thought, but she had decided to humor her daughter. After all, the room could use a fresh coat of paint, and she knew it would make Addie feel more at home. Sookie had automatically felt at home here but Adele's entire life had been in their tiny two bedroom, one bath home back in Florida.

When they got out later to go grocery shopping and pick up a few other small essentials they would have to stop by a hardware store to pick up some paint. She already guessed that Addie would want her room to be sky blue. That was the color of her old room. She might even want to add sea shell details or something to remind her of the beach. Even though they had both agreed that they needed to leave, to start over somewhere else, Adele had still cried because she was going to miss her friends and the ocean. There was nothing her daughter loved more than the ocean.

"'Morning." Adele said dully as she came stumbling into the kitchen, kicking an empty box out of her path.

"Morning star shine." Sookie greeted cheerfully as she watched her girl walk to the fridge and open it out of habit. Unfortunately it was still empty.

"Ugh, I need caffeine." Addie whined as she sank down into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Oh you can go without for one day. Besides, we've got a lot to do. It won't take you long to wake up."

"All the more reason for me to have caffeine." Addie muttered. She'd put her head down on the table. This was all part of her morning ritual.

Her mother just laughed. "How did you sleep?"

"Horribly." she replied emphatically as she looked up from the table. "Its too quiet here. I had to put my iPod on shuffle to finally go to sleep."

Sookie frowned a little. "I'm sorry hun. While we are out today we'll look and see if we can find a noise maker for you. I'm sure we can find one with ocean noises on it."

"I hope so." Adele sighed as she sat up. "I'm going to go get a shower. The shampoo is in your room isn't it?"

"Yes. You can use my bathroom if you want. I've set out a few towels too."

"Alrighty." Addie called as she disappeared down the hallway.

Sookie went back to drinking her coffee as she heard the shower come on. This was something else to add to her mental list of things they needed. They definitely weren't going to be able to get all of this in Bon Temps. They were going to have to drive to Monroe. They had been building up the area around the Pecandland Mall when she moved and she was sure the stores were still open. That way they wouldn't have run around all over the place.

Before they got out of the city they would need to get gas. And food.

"I guess this means we're going to see Sam." Sookie couldn't help but smile into her coffee. She had really been looking forward to seeing Sam. Although if last night was any indication, it might not end so well.

She sighed a little. It was now or never.

Two hours later (It took Adele almost that long to find her makeup and what she considered a suitable outfit.) Sookie pulled into the Merlottes parking lot. She almost started to pull around to the staff parking section but she caught herself in time. It was around lunch time and it didn't look too crowded. She hoped that Sam still tended his own bar.

As soon as they walked through the door it was like coming home all over again. Everything was just as she remembered it. All the tables and chairs. The uniforms on the waitresses (who were the only thing she didn't recognize) and the man standing behind the bar with graying hair and familiar warm eyes.

"Sam?" Sookie called before the young waitress could get them a seat.

He looked up when he heard his name called. Their eyes connected for a minute and Sookie just smiled at him brilliantly. He stared at her and she could see his mind working through his eyes as he placed her face. Then his eyes widened in recognition and he beamed.

"Sookie!" he shouted happily as he rounded the edge of the bar. In a matter of seconds his arms were around her, lifting her in in the air as they spun around, laughing happily. This, of course, drew the attention of everyone in the bar and soon whispers began to spread about Crazy Sookie Stackhouse being back. But, for right now, she could ignore it.

"Oh Sam its so good to see you again!" she said as he set her down again. This was the best reaction she'd gotten so far. She hoped more were like this.

"And its good to see you again! Lord, I didn't know what had happened to you, cher. Come on, sit down and lets talk. Who's that?" he asked, looking back at Adele, who was watching them with a partially amused and partially confused look.

Sookie turned around and smiled, waving her daughter forward. "Sam this is my daughter, Adele. Addie, this is my old boss Sam Merlotte."

"Nice to meet you." Adele said with a small, polite smile.

Sam was stunned.

"Its good to meet you too." he laughed slightly as he shook Adele's hand. "Wow. A daughter. Gosh Sook she looks just like you."

Mother and daughter rolled their eyes slightly. People were always saying that.

"Well come on, sit down, lets catch up. Where have you been all this time? Leaving without a word like that to anyone. You know you really had us scared." Sam said as he directed them over to a booth, sitting down across from them.

Sookie looked down in shame, "I know Sam, I'm really sorry about that. I wasn't really thinking clearly at the time. But I moved down to Florida, to this really quiet little ocean-side town." she began to recount her tale from Bon Temps to Florida in more detail than she had told anyone thus far.

She was glad that she had already told Adele the story about her birth and the place that she had come from. Adele really never seemed to ask questions about her father. Of course there had been the times when she was younger when she'd asked if she actually had a daddy and where he was. The first time she'd asked it had torn at Sookie's heart, but she just explained that their family was special. She told her darling daughter that her mommy loved her so much it was more than a mommy and a daddy combined. That had been enough for the four year old who had continued on her merry way.

But it hadn't been until they started the sixteen hour drive back that she had filled her daughter in on the entire story. It had been a great relief to fill her daughter in on everything. And Adele admitted being glad to know about her mother's past. So things had worked out well between them.

"So Florida huh. That must have been a pretty fun place to grow up." Sam said, turning his line of questioning to Adele, who had been doing everything possible to not listen in on their conversation.

"Yea, it was nice. I spent most of my time on the beach."

"Do you know how to surf?" Sam asked, intrigued.

Adele shrugged. "A little. I was more interested in scuba diving though. A friend of mine's family did tours and stuff like that so they would take us out on the weekends and during the summer and we got to go all over the place. It was great. I'm going to miss it." she frowned a little at the end, reaching to her neck to play with the sea glass charm that she'd had since she was young.

Sam seemed to realize that the conversation was taking a wrong turn and he desperately tried to turn it elsewhere.

"So, what brings you back to Bon Temps?"

Mother and daughter looked at each other from the corner of their eyes. They had a silent conversation and Sookie could read the apprehension in her daughter's mind. She didn't want them to know.

"I just got homesick." she lied easily. "Adele is out of high school now and she's waiting a few years to go to college so I thought it was about time to pack up and come home."

Sam looked between the two of them for a moment, trying to decide if he believed her or not. But after a second he smiled and laid his hand on top of Sookie's. "Well I'm glad you're back." he said with a smile. A minute later their order came up and Sam began to stand.

"I'll leave you two alone to eat. Someone's gotta tend bar anyway. Adele, it was nice to meet you. Sookie, it was great to see you. Come back soon. Words gonna get out soon that you're back and you're going to have an entire town to explain to." he smiled before he walked back to the bar.

"Well at least one person isn't mad at you." Adele commented after Sam's retreat as she dug into her burger.

"Sam was never one to ever really get mad, just concerned. He was a great boss."

"He must have really liked you."

"Yes. He did."

"I bet he still does."

Sookie couldn't help but laugh a little. "Possibly."

"Gosh Mom, you were a player in the day weren't you?" Adele laughed before taking a sip of Coke.

Sookie blanched. "Excuse me?"

This just made Addie laugh harder. "Oh come on Mom. Aunt Claudine has already told me about all the guys here who liked you. And neither Bill or Eric were bad looking. I'd imagine Sam was pretty handsome back in the day too. And then you dated all those guys back home." she teased. "Don't deny it Mom, you were a total player."

"I did not play any of those men." Sookie replied, "Yes, I had several relationships in my time but that's normal." she was trying to sweep all of this under the rug but her daughter was having none of that.

"I'm not saying that like its a bad thing! That's really awesome and impressive. I hope I inherited that from you too."

"Oh you have, otherwise we wouldn't have had to move."

Addie gave her mother a look. "That wasn't my fault, Mom."

Sookie sighed. That hadn't come out right. "I know dear and I didn't mean to say that it was. You know I don't blame you for any of this, right?"

Adele nodded, looking down into her half empty plate.

Reaching over Sookie wrapped her arms around her little girl's shoulders and hugged her tight before blowing a raspberry onto her cheek. "I lava you, my volcano." she said in a silly voice.

Addie couldn't help but laugh and leaned into her mother's embrace. "I lava you too."

Sookie smiled, glad to see that her daughter was now in better spirits. "Now lets finish eating and then get on the road. We've got a lot to get today."

"We're still going to get paint for my room, right?" Addie asked, a glimmer of hope in her eye.

"I was planning on it. While you're at it I guess you're going to want to paint the upstairs room as well, if that's what you're going to use as your studio. Do you know what colors you want yet?"

Now Adele's eyes were twinkling like stars. "Yup! I want to my bedroom to be lavender and I guess I'll paint the attic room Robin's Egg Blue. Oh its going to be so pretty! I can't wait. I still can't believe you're letting me paint it already."

"Well we might as well do it now while everything is still boxed up. That way we don't have to worry about moving it all around later. You're just going to have to sleep on the couch for a night or two."

"That's fine with me! That couch is comfy anyway and I don't have the TV hooked up in my room yet."

Sookie shook her head, she'd never had a TV in her room, not even in Florida. "I don't understand how you can sleep with that on."

"I don't always sleep with it on. I just like watching TV before I go to bed."

"Yea yea. Well are you ready to hit the road? We've got a few places to go today and the drive to Monroe is about an hour."

"I'm ready when you are."

"Then lets go."

The two women stood up to leave and said good bye to Sam before walking out the door.

Three hours later they were pulling back into the driveway and were surprised to see another car already parked waiting for them. The kitchen light was on and they could see someone moving around.

"That has to be Amelia." Sookie said, unable to keep the smile from her face.

"Who's Amelia?" Addie asked as she unbuckled.

"She was my roommate until I moved. She has always been a great friend and we even kept in touch afterwards. She's the one I called when we decided to come back. Honestly, I'm surprised she wasn't here yesterday." she laughed as she got out of the car.

As soon as she heard the car doors shutting the witch came running outside with the biggest smile cut across her face. "Sookie!" she cried as she came flying off the porch and almost tackled the telepath to the ground. The two friend's wrapped themselves in each other's embrace and squeezed for all it was worth.

"Its so good to see you again!" Amelia cried as she patted Sookie on the back before holding her at arms length. "You look great! You barely have any wrinkles."

Sookie could hear her old friend's thoughts clearly: Amelia was so happy to see her again. She thought she looked great, and she couldn't believe how much Adele had grown. And above everything else, she was so glad to have her back.

"I missed you too, Amelia." Sookie said and she could feel her eyes beginning to tear up.

"Aww, don't cry! Come on, this is a happy occasion. You're home!" Amelia said happily, trying to keep her friend from crying. Then she turned her attention to Adele.

"Oh my gosh, is that Addie?" she asked in shock. "Girl you've gotten so big since the last time your momma sent me a picture of you! Its so good to finally be able to meet you!" Immediately, and to Adele's surprise, Amelia pulled her into a tight hug. Adele returned it but was giving her mom a look, silently asking if this woman was crazy.

Sookie just laughed. "I see you kept that extra key to the house. I hope you made some coffee."

"Of course! We've got a lot to catch up on!" she said as she let go of Adele and started walking back into the house with Sookie.

"I told Adele that I was surprised you weren't here waiting on us when we got here yesterday." Sookie said as they walked into the kitchen. She could already smell the coffee percolating on the counter, it was wonderful.

"I figured you'd want some time to settle in and just get reacquainted with the place." Amelia said as she started looking around for some coffee mugs.

"Well I thank you for going ahead and having everything turned on for us. I'm pretty sure Addie would have gone a little crazy if we didn't have the phone or cable coming to the house." Sookie said as she fished a few mugs out of another box. They still had a lot to unpack.

Amelia just laughed. "So, is she liking it here?"

"So far, I think so. She kind of got a scare last night. Both Bill and Eric showed up and Bill tried to squeeze her to death."

Amelia gasped. "He did not! I can't believe it! I didn't realize he was still watching the house."

"Yea, but he let her go before too much damage was done."

"So you talked to him?"

Sookie nodded. "For a little while. But then Eric showed up and Bill left. He wasn't too happy." she sighed.

Amelia took a breath. "No, none of them were after you left. They kept coming around, trying to track your scent and they kept asking me if I knew where you were or if you said anything. I lied to them as long as I could, saying I had no idea, but when they started talking about invading other states to find if they had taken you I had to speak up. I swear I thought Eric was going to kill me. I'm glad you rescinded their invitations before you left otherwise he might have. Pam told me it took her weeks to calm him down."

Sookie stared across the table with wide eyes. "He was that upset?"

"It changed him, Sookie. He'll never admit it, but I kept in touch with Pam. She said he got even colder, even to her. He stopped caring about everything, about the bar, about his duties as sheriff. I didn't think it was possible but he went into a full blown vampire depression. Pam told me that there were a few nights that he didn't get out of his coffin and he stopped feeding for almost a month."

Sookie's jaw dropped and she could feel the color draining from her face. Eric in a full blown depression? It was hard to believe but it wasn't like Pam to make up something like that. It tore at her heart.

"I had no idea..."

"Don't blame yourself Sookie. You had other, more important things to worry about at the time. You did what you thought was best and that's all that matters. Speaking of, where did Adele go?" she asked, looking around.

"Probably into her room. We got her some paint for her room and the upstairs room that you stayed in. She's going to use that as her art studio. I don't like her painting anywhere else in the house."

"Oh fun! What colors did you get?" Amelia asked, excitement in her voice. She seemed to be excited about everything.

"Blue and purple. Her room back home was blue so I think it will help her with the transition, maybe she won't feel too homesick."

"How is she doing?" the witched asked softly. "I mean, with the entire stalker thing?"

"Its hard to tell." Sookie replied, her voice dropping too. "She doesn't talk about it and I have a hard time knowing what she's thinking. Right now she's just focusing on moving and unpacking and getting everything set up. But she did ask me if I was sure he wouldn't find us here. I know she's afraid, that much is obvious. And last night, when Eric and Bill were here, she was so nervous. She stayed hidden in her room most of the time they were here."

"Did you tell them?"

"No. All I said is that I was getting homesick and decided to move us back here now that Adele was grown up and out of school."

"Sookie!" Amelia scolded in a hushed tone. "You should have told them! They at least need to know to be on the lookout!"

"Amelia, as soon as I talked to them they both turned on me! I know why they are upset, I know I should have done things differently when I left, but I never realized they would still hold a grudge after all this time. It wouldn't be right to say 'Hey, I'm back after ditching you twenty years ago! And guess what, now a psychopath vampire is after my daughter, so would you mind watching our backs for us?' They don't owe me anything!" Sookie hissed.

"And when they find your mangled and drained bodies they're going to be cursing you for not telling them any sooner! You look me in the eye Sookie Stackhouse and tell me you didn't move back here because you knew you'd be safe."

Sookie looked Amelia in the eye for a moment before averting her gaze.

"I'll tell them after I've talked to Adele. She's the one he's after and she deserves to know that I'm going to tell them."

Amelia sighed. "Okay, but don't wait long. He's a vampire Sookie, it won't take him long to track you down."

Dun dun dun!!!
Adele's turning out to be more like her mother in more than just looks. She's got her own problems with vampires as well.

A massive thank you to everyone who has reviewed and added this story to their watch! I lava all of you! And a big thanks to my awesome beta SEOrwin for finding all of my crazy typos and giving me encouragement about the chapters.

Reviews make Eric want to come out and play!

Also, if you would like to know what Adele's pendant looks like there is a link in my profile.