Disclaimer: I don't own True Blood. It owns me.

Burgundy Tears

"Sookie! Sookie! It's me, Jessica! Sookie!" The strawberry blonde drummed on the door, hopping up and down as she chanted hushedly against it. "Sookie, please!" For the next few minutes, the only noise other than the chatty chirping of the crickets were the sounds of Jessica's hammering at the front door and her urgent calls.

Finally, a light flipped on in the house, throwing a pale yellow glow against the kitchen curtains, and the sound of footsteps and grumbled curse words greeted the desperate vampire bayed at the door.

"Jessica!"

But the call didn't come from inside the house. It came from behind her, from the road. This only affected the pleading girl in that she became more frantic, her calls promptly picking up from whispers to proper shouting. "Sookie! Sookie! Oh God, Sookie!"

"Hold yer God dang horses," a muffled voice grunted from inside, and finally, one sleepy Stackhouse emerged from behind the door, squinting through the light at Jessica. But the blonde that answered the door was not the Stackhouse Jessica had meant to see.

"Jason Stackhouse?" Jessica asked, eyeing him widely. "Sookie's brother?"

"Yeah?" Jason replied in his usual sheepish manner, his voice as bewildered as his face. "Do I… Do I know you?" he asked confusedly.

"Wont you invite me in? Please, God! I am beggin' you!"

"Uh. Sure. I guess?" Jason murmured, lowering his acquired wooden bat hesitantly and stepping aside to let her in. He rubbed at his eyes, stupidly. "Man. I knew this was gonna happen one day. Listen, if I done gone an' gotcha pregnant way back when, I guess I -" he trailed off when he finally got a good look of the sobbing girl pacing in his living room. "What happened?" he whispered, taking in her glistening pink eyes, her bloodied dress and face.

"Somethin' bad. Somethin' real bad," Jessica whimpered into her hands, blood trickling between her fingers onto the floor. Immediately, Jason shut the door and jogged over to Jessica, where he hovered around her in all the manner of a child that had stumbled upon a grounded baby bird.

"My God, yer bleedin' everywhere!" he breathed. "You gotta go to the doctor! Come on, I'll take you," Jason said softly, reaching for her.

"No, I'm fine," Jessica replied, waving him off and wiping her blood-wet cheeks into her forearm. "Is Sookie here?"

"No, she ain't. She, um, left with Tara earlier. They gone somewhere an' wont be back for a while... Hey, listen, are you sure you're o - "

"Jessica! Jessica! I know you are in there!" a voice bellowed through the door, cutting off Jason as well as making him jump. Poor Jason was absolutely thrown. Jessica, on the other hand, immediately stifled a squeal into her palms and shut her eyes tight, making Jason alternate alarmed glances between the girl crumpling to the floor in tears and the front door that was very nearly being knocked off its hinges.

"What the? Who in the world…?" Jason murmured, his face contorted with a grimace of disbelief.

"Don't open the door," Jessica begged, "Please do not open the door."

Jason watched her for a few moments, held by her desperate, glazed eyes, before he pursed his lips and settled a glare at the doorway.

"You will come out of this house this instant, Jessica!" the thunderous man demanded.

"No, I will not!" she screamed back.

Picking up his bat, Jason marched over to the door, even despite Jessica's further pleads not to. Swinging open the door, the blonde fiercely stared into the eyes of a man he'd long ago decided he didn't like. "It's you," Jason grumbled, his hand gripping the handle of his bat like a reflex. "You did that to that poor girl?" he demanded, nodding back at a glowering Jessica bundled in the corner. "And yer datin' my sister?"

"This does not concern you, son. Now, if you will invite me in, I will be most obliged," Bill answered levelly, something incredibly venomous in his words.

"You didn't answer my question! Did you or did you not do that to that there girl?"

"Don't you interfere with which you don't understand, boy," Bill growled. "Now, Jason, let me in."

"First off, I aint no boy, and I sure as hell ain't yer son. And second, you ain't ever comin' into my house. I done already made the mistake of lettin' yer dead ass in here before, an' I swear on God's green earth, you ain't ever takin' another step inside this house again!" Jason shouted, punctuating each of his points with a violent gesture of his wooden bat. "I told Sookie that messin' around with you was a bad, bad idea! An' now my gran is dead because of it - because of you. I don't wanna see you around my sis no more, you got that?"

Bill's dark eyes studied Jason for a long moment and continued to bear into him even with his next words. "Jessica, I know you can hear me. And as your maker, I command you to come with me."

"Wut, no. She ain't goin' with you!" the blonde brother Stackhouse growled, shaking his head. The pissed as fuck face he'd been formerly entertaining sagged into something more confused when he watch Jessica stand up, as if manipulated by invisible strings, and walk to the door. "Hey, wait. Jessica, innit? What are you doin'? You don't actually gotta go with him!"

"Yes," Jessica whispered back as she stepped out of the house, "I do."

"Jessica…?" Jason whispered softly, extending his arm to grab her hand, only to have Bill catch him by the wrist in a startlingly fast motion. At this, Jason leveled a toxic look on his sister's prized vamp lover and ripped his hand out of the characteristically icy grip he never got used to. "Get your fuckin' hand off me."

"Get in the car, Jessica. Now."

"Hey! You don't gotta, Jessica!" Jason called after her, before he turned his narrowed eyes on Bill. "You glamored that sweet girl, din'ya, fuckin' fanger? I'm not havin' that shit! I am callin' the pol -" he stopped, mid-sentence, like the words had not only fallen out of his mouth, but clean from his skull as well. In a matter of seconds, his feverish eyes, so bright with anger, had withered into a blank stare.

"Jason Stackhouse," Bill said slowly, holding the honey-blonde's eyes with his severe ones. "You will not call the police." Jason, like a dumbstruck fool, shook his head slowly, his face the picture of dazed. "Why would you call the police when nothing even happened?" Bill asked him, his tone comparable to that of a parent's to their young child.

"I 'onno," Jason answered slowly, looking genuinely perplexed by the question. "I guess that'd be real dumb."

"Yes, it would. After all, son, you've been in bed this whole time, tired after a long day at work. There would be no reason to phone the police. In fact, it was only now that you came down for a drink of water. Remember?"

Jason nodded fervidly, as though he had just recalled it. He scratched the back of his head as he considered what Bill told him, mentally forcing puzzle pieces together that were reluctant to fit. "Oh yeah! I guess I do remember. An' then I heard the noise at the front door…"

"It was a rat. A huge rat - the biggest rat you've ever seen in your life. And it was in your kitchen. You chased it for a whole half hour before you finally smashed it with the butt of your bat. That's why there's blood in your living room," Bill recapped, gesturing to the floor behind Jason.

"Uh-huh! I smashed that freakish fucker to bits!" Jason hooted, giving a quasi-swing of his bat.

"You sure did!" Bill urged in mock enthusiasm. "And if you'll recall, right after, you dropped that freakish fucker off in the dump so there is no mess."

"Yeah, I didn't want it to stink up the house," Jason agreed, nodding.

"That's right. And now that it's through, you're awfully tired after all that rat chasing. You're tired and want to go back to bed," Bill reminded him, patting him on the shoulder.

"I sure am," he said, giving a yawn, and letting his bat slip to the floor, where it thunked and rolled. "Night." With no further convincing, Jason Stackhouse promptly stepped back and shut the door. No sooner than had the door clicked was Bill sweeping across the yard into the car and ripping out of the driveway.

As they barreled down the road, Jessica stared out of the window deliberately, huddled so much in her backseat, she almost seemed to be trying to shrink into it. "I… didn't mean it," she croaked.

"Oh, spare me, Jessica. I am sick of - no, I am sickened - by all your excuses," Bill snarled beneath his breath. "I tell you and I tell you again and for all the breath I have wasted, you disregard everything and you… you - "

"I didn't mean it!" Jessica repeated, breaking into a fresh well of burgundy tears. "Bill, it was an accident!"

"I don't want to hear it, Jessica! You have made your bed and now you will lay in it. I don't know why I never listened to you before. Eric lets me do this! Eric lets me do that! Well, Eric can deal with your immaturity now, Jessica. I fold."

"God, I wish Sookie was here," Jessica whimpered, hugging her knees to her blood spattered chest. Beyond that, not another word was said from neither her nor Bill during the car trip, short as it was, and instead, the near tangible, smothering silence between them was only interrupted with an occasional sniffle.

Ere long, Bill was pulling into the familiar, forever packed Fangtasia parking lot, where he quickly seated the car near the sidewalk, not even bothering to pinpoint a proper spot to park in. Swiftly exiting the vehicle, Bill began a fast pace for the entrance of the club, leaving Jessica to drag her feet after. Almost as soon as Bill stepped inside, he was met with a very peeved looking Barbie blonde, her back positioned against the side of the door she seemed to be monitoring.

The moment Bill meant to regard her, she exhaled a huff. "It's about time you decided to show up," Pam muttered sourly. "It's not like I've been told to wait here for you or anything."

"I apologize. This one" Bill glanced pointedly at the lachrymose copper-haired girl trailing behind him, "thought she'd send me on a wild goose chase." With one slender brow winging up in disapproval, Pam hummed her understanding, however unforgiving.

"First-time makers never can handle their charge," she observed before settling her attention on Jessica, where she made no effort to cover up her up-and-down scrutiny of the girl. "Just as blood-babies tend to be greedy and disobedient. Mm. Welcome back, Jessica, darling. How we missed you."