Thanks again to murgatroid for all her work, this chapter was particularly challenging for her.

Is it my imagination or do I look more pregnant every day? Maybe it's just me feeling pregnant. It's only been three days since the twins were born and nobody noticed at the hospital, but spotting whether I looked fat around the waist wouldn't have been their top priority at all... The ultimate question is; would people at work notice?

I went to a doctor in Monroe to make sure the test was right, and of course there was a little bean attached to me. The doctor was a judgmental piece of shit that had categorized and labeled me before he even set eyes on me, his mind was made up as soon as he saw the words waitress, Bon Temps and pregnancy test. Being a God fearing man he already had a self righteous speech ready for harlots like me as soon as I gave him a hint that I didn't want take responsibility for my loose behavior. I just kept my mouth shut; fake smile plastered on and was so glad I didn't give him the satisfaction.

I got the name of the clinic from his head anyway.

Not that I didn't want the baby... But Eric just told me he ate babies! Babies! Not exactly the kind of father you want for a child. Not exactly the kind of person you would want for anything really.

We haven't said a word to each-other in days. He was royally pissed that I left him at the hospital like that. He had to hitch a ride home with JB and when he arrived home we had a volcanic argument about all the things we kept to ourselves about each other and can't really remember what started the whole argument to begin with. I just couldn't tell him I was pregnant, it seemed an even less appropriate time to let him know while we were shouting at each other how stubborn we thought the other was.

I opened the door to my car and stepped into the Merlottes parking lot. My shorts already felt a little tight and the apron makes my protruding belly more pronounced, so I opted to change into my uniform when I got to work. God I hope they just think I'm letting go because I'm Mrs. Matthews now.

"Hey Sookie, whacha doing sitting in the parking lot like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?"

Who knew me better than Sam Merlotte.

"Nah, I just saw a documentary on string theory and I'm still trying to make sense of it. What are you doing here? It's your day off. I thought you were going on a date or something?"

"Whitney got called in. You hear about the six car pile-up on the I20? They were short handed at the ER, so she got called in."

Whitney is the girl Sam met at the video store; she's a doctor at Willis-Knighton. The consensus around town was a girl like that was too good for Sam. One thing that the townsfolk didn't know was that Whitney was also a shifter, not a were, but a shifter just like Sam. With a bond like that, it would be hard to imagine something as trivial as what their jobs were would get in the way.

"Sook. I made these reservations for lunch at The Cove today, but since I never got the chance to congratulate you properly since your wedding will you accept casual lunch?"

"What about my shift?"

"I think Holly can handle a Monday lunch crowd. What do you say cher?"

The Cove was a lovely seafood restaurant in Shreveport, it wasn't very posh but was set in the hills and overlooks the city, the combination of lack of pretentiousness and good food made it one of the hardest restaurants to get a booking for in Louisiana.

"If this is some sort of wedding present, shouldn't Oberon come along?"

"Sure thing. Call him to see if he'd join us."

I pretended to call Eric, truth is it would be nice to have a day out and get away for a little while.

"He's already got lunch plans. Let's get going."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

It was one of those summer days that were the tail-end of spring - threatening steaming hot days to come with one last pleasant morning to keep you going.

Sam and I gossiped about our chef Charlie and wondered whether he would last the year. We've had rotten luck with our cooks. Our reservation was outside under the shade of a tree at the terrace and today was the perfect weather for it.

"How long did it take for you to get this table?" I asked out of genuine curiosity. I hope Sam wasn't too disappointed that he was eating here with me instead of Whitney.

"Nah, I just pulled some strings. We use the same suppliers."

It took me a while to figure out that The Cove serves beer as well.

As I was chowing down on the bread basket, the waitress came to take our order.

"I'll start with a Caesar salad, your French onion soup and then the sea bass for the main. Sam you want split a pasta?"

"Why not? I love a woman with a healthy appetite." Sam smiled.

I think I blushed a shade deeper than purple. "Oh I didn't mean to... I mean - everything looks so good. We can go Dutch-"

"I'll have exactly what the lady ordered, and we'll share... A lobster ravioli?"

If it was possible for me to blush magenta I think I did it right there and then.

"That's it for now," Sam said as he courteously handed back the menus.

Conversation flowed easily between Sam and me, as it always had. We had work, the town and the fact that we're not quite normal in common. We even talked about our significant others because they are part of our everyday lives now. I pretended that I hadn't been arguing with Eric over the past few days and everything was just normal and it was just pleasant.

We were having coffee (I had decaf) over dessert when a blue flame caught my eye. Two tables to our left somebody was having quail flambé. The little quail sitting in the middle of that big white plate looked so small, the little wings were so brittle and fragile. I know vampires don't cook their food, but my mind went straight to eating babies.

"What's wrong Sookie? Jesus, you just turned green."

"I think-" I had to swallow that hint of bile about to tickle my tonsil. "I think I over-ate." I wasn't lying. I really couldn't eat anymore.

I don't know what possessed me to ask Sam the next question, but it was no doubt what led to the most disturbing sense of relief in my life.

"Sam? Have you ever heard of vampires eating... babies?"

Sam put down his fork. Man, I got his attention with that question over dessert. "Why do you ask? I thought you were done with any of the vampires after Eric died? Are you tangled in their business again? You're married to a human now!"

"Don't get your tail in a knot Sam! I just overheard some customers talking about it the other day. It just makes me wonder..." If my husband was a child killer.

Sam pulled a wad of cash out of his wallet. "Let's get out of here."

We went for a walk and sat ourselves down at a nearby park before he could broach the subject of vampires again.

"So why are you so interested in the dietary habits of our undead community all of the sudden?"

I couldn't shake the feeling that Sam was trying to sniff something out from me, but there was no way I could or would get him entangled in the shit storm that was my life at the moment. So I just lied.

"Wouldn't you be curious? If they were capable of something like that?"

"Sookie, it's not like something that they still do. From what my grandfather used to tell me it's really ancient history. Literally. My gramps used to tell us these scary stories of big bad vampires who eat kids to keep us in line. When I asked him about it when I was older, he told me that it was folklore that's been passed down for generations but he said there's actually ancient texts kept by some of the packs that verify it."

There was never a time that I'd wished I smoked. I really wanted a cigarette, anything to distract me from what I'd just heard. Jesus.

"Sookie, you okay? I think you just turned green!"

Wow, he was right. I thought I could hurl all the lunch I just ate and I went and did just that.

Sam had the usual man panic when someone throws up or when a lady cries. He flittered around and finally decided the only thing he could do was hold my hair up. Good for him. A lot of men never even get that.

I washed up at a nearby water fountain as Sam stood there giving me the oddest look.

"Sookie, what I'm about to tell you-I never told anyone in my life." He paused to take a deep breath, he was so nervous it rattled a little. "Here goes." He gave me another nervous smile. "In my first few moons, I didn't have a lot of control of what I turned into or my actions when I did. I know you're used to seeing me as a dog but it wasn't always like that. I usually turn into whatever I try to imprint in my mind visually, but before I had settled on the collie, it could've been any animal I've seen either in a magazine or TV. I was careless too; I sometimes forgot which day was the full moon. Once I watched some show about the bayou and the gators there. Didn't think anything of it… until I woke up the next morning in the swamp next to- next to a… a body. A human one."

All I could do was gasp. "Jesus Sam! You like holding my hair up?"

"Let me finish. I knew what I'd done. I could taste it in my mouth. If you think you feel sick now, I felt a thousand times worse. I ran home and locked myself in my room for days. I couldn't eat or sleep. Until I figured, someone's dead because of me, they'd have a pretty hard time trying to figure out it was me, even if I turned myself in to the police, they would just think I was off my meds or something. I'd just have to report it and see what I could do for whoever it was that I'd- killed. So I made an anonymous call."

"Then what happened?"

"When it finally hit the news, I found out his name was Merle Jackson. Age thirty. Father of two. Reported missing for two weeks. Autopsy confirmed time of death was about twelve to fourteen days. No foul play suspected. I read and reread that little piece of newspaper over and over again before I could let myself believe it was true. I must've been so scared that morning that I didn't realize that body wasn't fresh."

I felt as relieved as he must have. "I knew you couldn't kill a man like that Sam."

"That doesn't hide the fact that I ate him, and with the lack of control I had of myself after I had turned, I could've just as easily killed him. Point I want to make Sookie, is that as much as I don't like vampires and their feeding habits, you can't deny that we're all something wild underneath. When I was a gator, that man, Merle, was just supper. If it helps you wrap your head around it, if we listen to those TV ads that it's more environmental to eat vegetables than meat. Hundreds of years from now, people are going to be pretty disgusted that you would grind all different parts of a cow and stick between two pieces of bread. I guess vampires aren't exactly like that and I'm not trying to justify it, but I just hope you'd cut us supes some slack."

I guess Sam had a point. If I could turn into a cat, would I be able to stop myself from chasing mice? Could I hold someone's nature against them like that? It's not like Eric would or even could drink blood anymore, much less a baby's.

I was deep in thought when out of the blue – Sam hugged me.

"You don't have to worry about Vampire Bill Sook, he's not from that time. No-one's going to harm you or your baby."

Shit.

"Fuck Sam! How the hell did you know?"

"I knew the moment you opened your car door at the parking lot. Don't try to lie to a shifter when it comes to things like that. I can smell you're not in estrous anymore."

"Smell? Does that mean that vampires can smell that I'm pregnant too?"

What if Pam or Bill already knows? Why are they keeping the secret for me?

"Vampires are predators. They're only wired for the hunt and kill. What's it to them whether a female is in heat or not?"

Thanks for making me sound like a stray bitch Sam.

Sam placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and asked, "You sure you're not mixed up in any of their business anymore? Because I would really hate for you to catch whatever it is that's going 'round at the moment."

"Catch what? You're making it sound like vampires get sick or something."

"If you don't know that, then at least I know that you haven't been hanging around them."

"Not that I don't appreciate you patronizing me, but would you mind getting to the fucking point?" I haven't had to deal with this kind of cryptic conversation for a long time and boy, I don't miss it.

"Okay Sookie, don't bite my head off, but what I'm about to tell you hadn't made to the mainstream media, or how severe the situation is hadn't been noticed yet. But it's all over the community that there's something going round that's making the vampires sick."

"Is it Sino AIDS?" It wasn't the first time that some vigilante with an agenda tried to take revenge on the vampires by feeding them the disease. I saw that first-hand even before I started dating Bill.

"That's the thing, it's not a blood thing. It starts off as some kind of rash on their left arm and the rash hardens, it finally moves up the arm and when it reaches their heart, they turn to ash. Like their arm slowly turns to wood and they are staked by themselves. No-one's ever seen anything like it."

"How bizarre! Have you seen any vamp with it? Can humans get it?"

"There aren't a lot of cases in Louisiana at the moment, only a few from vamps coming in from the big cities. No human cases as of yet, but it's a contagious disease, so we should all be careful."

"Has anyone asked Dr. Ludwig?"

"She's already in Europe trying to figure out what it is. I meant it when I told you no-one's seen anything like this before. Even the Ancients don't know what's going on."

"The Ancients?"

"You know, the really really really old vamps. The ones that have been around since forever."

The overbearing presence of the Oracle flashed in my mind. I wouldn't mind never seeing that one again. The Eric I met when I was with Bill is a fluffy bunny next to that one, but boy, if she's stumped about this vampire disease, then they're dead. For a second time.

"I just hopes whatever, this- disease is just give them a reality check. Take them down a notch, you know." Sam paused and ruffled the back of his head. I wonder if he knew he's got a small grey patch there. "So, does Oberon know the good news yet? When you gonna tell him? You know I think pregnancy suits you, I've never seen you so relaxed."

Fuck you Sam Merlotte. Just when I was contentedly distracted. Then the world stopped and I could hear my own heart beating. Sam was right that I was relaxed. For the first time in my life, the world was quiet. I hadn't heard a peep of anyone's thoughts all day.

A/N. So, a war on the horizon, Oberon's mrky past, Sookie's preggers, vampires are getting sick and now her telepathy's on the blink. When the hell will she get around to telling him?