Hey, I'm back! I've come back from the dead and written an update (only 6 months too late). Also now that season 4 is out and Tommy is alive I realise this is probably a bit AU, but I haven't seen season 4 yet (I'm waiting for it to come on channel 4, which'll probably be this autumn – when you guys in the US will have season 5… jealous ¬¬).

Saturday

Lafayette didn't sleep much, even with a couple Vicodin in him. He kept on seeing Sam's empty look after Eric had done with him. That was almost worse than dreaming about getting shot. Lafayette groaned when he realised that he had to go in to Merlotte's today. He winced as he got out of bed, feeling a tugging pain in his chest. Maybe he could call off sick… but he needed the money too bad.

Just a couple hours with Sam, that was all. He could cope.

Something wasn't right as he arrived at Merlotte's. He got out the car feeling uneasy. The door opened and Terry Bellefleur came out, singing. He stopped when he saw Lafayette. "Hey, buddy!" he said and pulled Lafayette into a bearhug.

Lafayette was a little slow on the uptake. "Hey, Terry." he muttered. He went inside.

"Lafayette!" Arlene called. "Wait till you hear the good news! Sam-"

"Hey, Lafayette!" Sam interrupted. Jesus, what was wrong with everybody? "Come over here." He motioned towards his office.

Lafayette felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he remembered what had happened in Sam's office only yesterday. This was wrong – Terry, Arlene, Sam. Why were they all so happy? They had been goddamn miserable before. He didn't want to go back in that room. He hung buy the door as Sam entered and leaned against the desk.

"You're getting a raise." He said. Lafayette's eyes widened.

"Is everybody getting' a raise?" Sam nodded. That would explain why they were so happy. "Why?"

"With Sookie and Tara and Tommy gone, y'all are having to work longer. So you get better pay."

"Okay…"

"Normally I would have hired some new people, but Arlene keeps on telling me this is the busiest we've been in days."

"You mean you can't remember?" Lafayette asked.

"Nope," he shook his head. "This week's just gone." He clapped his hands. He seemed very nonchalant about it. Lafayette didn't know what to say. Sam looked at him expectantly. He muttered something about getting the grill on and left.

The guy had just shot him last night, and now he was offering him a raise?

Eric. This was his doing.

Lafayette avoided Sam all day. He was the first to leave.

It was getting dark as Lafayette arrived at home. All he wanted to do now was just get inside, take a couple more Vicodin and sleep. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he was going to get to do that.

The man from the bar was standing outside the house.

"You know, I'm seriously considerin' takin' out a mothafuckin' restrainin' order on you." Lafayette said. "What the fuck do you want now?"

The man looked at him and said, "Was I right about the shifter?"

"The what?"

"Your boss. Did he kill the guy?"

"Wait… are you tryin' to tell me you gave me a photo of a dead body to blackmail my boss and you wasn't even sure he killed him?"

"Well, I thought there was a pretty good chance it was him. The body smelled of shifter, and when I came to the bar I smelled shifter. Simple."

Lafayette didn't know what shifter meant, but at this point he didn't really care. "So you see a dead body and your first thought is to take a fuckin' photo?"

"Dead bodies are interesting." The man said. "Anyway, I've come for my favour. After that I'll be gone."

"I didn't agree to no favour!"

"All I want is some V."

"No." Lafayette said flatly.

"You know, I could just take it if I wanted." So, he wanted a fight? Fine.

"You think so, mothafucka?"

The man moved forward. Lafayette did the same. Then, quicker than he could see, the man leapt forwards and punched him, winding him. Lafayette staggered back to his feet. The man grinned. He wasn't expecting that; the guy was stronger than he looked.

"Come on Lala! Is that all you-" Lafayette rushed him mid-sentence, knocking him to the floor. The man's head banged against the decking. Lafayette threw a punch but before his fist connected with the man's nose he rolled away; his fist continued and hit the wooden deck. The man kicked him, knocking him onto his side. He kicked him, and kicked him again.

"Are you ready to give me some V?" the man asked, leaning over Lafayette with a grin on his face. Lafayette got up slowly, wincing at the pain in his stomach. He briefly wondered when whether he had broken a knuckle or two, but he didn't have any pain in his hand. It had really not been his week.

"That's better," the man said. "I want two vials." Lafayette went inside to fetch the blood. He'd never seriously considered having a gun before, but the past few days had made him rethink the idea.

He returned a while later. He stood in the doorway with the V in his hand. The man reached for it. "Wait a goddamn minute, mothafucka. You get the V when you tell me what Eric Northman has to do with all this."

The man withdrew his hand. "Me and him got some unfinished business. I thought you'd know him 'cause you've drunk his blood before."

"How the fuck do you know that?"

"I can sense the blood bond between you. It's stronger now - you've had some more recently."

"Why did you come to me in the first place?"

"What, at Merlotte's? I was just there to get a drink, then I saw you and knew you had a faint blood bond. You weren't the only one in there either, but I knew the vamp whose blood you'd had was an old one, and the guy I'm after's pretty old. I needed some V, so I came round to see you. I didn't know you were the guy I was lookin' for till I saw you, so I asked you 'bout Eric as well. You were a lot more helpful than that deader at the vamp bar – come to think of it, that bitch lied to me! She must know Eric. Anyway, I realised the whole Tommy thing put you off, so I left. And then I came back here tonight because I told ya, I need the V."

Lafayette frowned. "How did you even know about Tommy?"

The man shrugged. "I was out in the woods. Saw a body, smelled it was a shifter. Smelled another shifter on him too, so I took a photo. I thought I could solve a murder." The man laughed. His smile was lopsided. Lafayette grimaced.

"Look, take the V and get the fuck out of here. You fuckin' come near me again and I'll bust your fuckin' ass."

Lafayette watched the man go. It was time to get some answers. He rang Eric.

"Can you tell me why I'm gettin' beat up because of people who got a problem with you?"

"Lafayette. I don't have time to deal with you right now. Kinda busy."

"Hold the fuck up! I got shot last night!"

"I'm trying to find Sookie."

"OK, but there's this guy who says he's got some deal with you; he's been askin' round for you." He's also got some V off me.

Eric sighed. "He is becoming quite an annoyance." He started speaking Swedish or Viking or some other fuckin' dead language to someone else. "Listen, Lafayette, I've got Pam on it. Don't worry about it."

"Tell that ho to hurry the fuck up, he's a mothafuckin' psycho. What's his deal with you anyway?"

"I killed his mother."

Lafayette was stunned. "Any particular reason why?"

"She drained a vampire who owed fealty to me; she had to be punished."

"When?"

"Sometime in the Thirties. I think she was a kind of demon, an imp maybe. She certainly had to be strong to take down Pádraig."

"This guy is a fuckin' imp? I don't even know what a fuckin' imp is!" For once, Eric laughed.

"It's being dealt with, Lafayette." He hung up.

Lafayette shook his head. He could lie to himself and say he wanted an ordinary life (as ordinary as you can get for a gay drug-dealing internet-stripping hustler short-order cook-cum-road worker), but in truth a part of him knew he wouldn't get one. Bon Temps seemed attract all kinds of supernatural shit, himself apparently included.

He went inside.