Finally finished with all the proofreading so I am posting the final chapters.

As always I don't own the world or the characters, I just take them out on playdates.

Chapter 19 - Avalon

The chemistry company wasn't what Sookie expected. She was looking for a big, old building maybe with smokestacks. What she found was a sprawling complex of fairly new white buildings. She parked in an unmarked space, assuming the numbered spaces were assigned to employees. Checking her wig in the rearview mirror, she gathered up her stuff and headed to the easily identified front entrance. Inside was a small lobby, that consisted of a reception desk and a small seating area with only two chairs. Apparently they didn't get a lot of visitors, maybe just vendors.

Walking up to the desk, the older, handsome woman sitting there looked somewhat startled by her presence. "Welcome to Avalon Chemicals. May I help you?"

"Hi." Sookie fought to keep her smile reasonable, she held up her ID badge briefly. "I'm Christie Hampton, I teach science at Caddo Middle School. I was wondering if it would be possible to arrange a field trip for my advanced class."

"Um, I don't know if we do field trips. Can you sign our guest book and I'll check?" She stood and pushed the sign-in book toward her, offering a pen.

"Sure, then should I have a seat?" Sookie took the pen, she hadn't even thought about maybe having to sign the name.

"Yes, that would be fine." The receptionist replied.

Sookie took a deep breath and took a stab at signing, it was harder than she thought. Signatures look very different from a normal written word. She made the capital "C" fairly large and followed it with a squiggled line that started high and had another highpoint near the end, dotting and crossing with a flourish. The last name was a little easier now that she had determined to make the signature illegible. Of course it would have to do, but she wasn't completely unsatisfied with it. She sat down and opened the notebook. She jotted down the fact that she came in and signed in. She really didn't have anything to write yet, but she wanted to look busy.

The receptionist came back out and Sookie started to stand, the older woman stopped her with a motion. "Our Director, Dr. Carbonne, will see you soon."

"Thank you." She settled back down into the chair.

She wrote down that name, trying not to look too anxious and repeating to herself, for about the hundredth time to keep the crazy smile off her face.

After about 5 minutes, which seemed much longer, a man in his mid-forties came out. He was dressed in a dark blue polo shirt and khaki pants, with a labcoat over top. His hair was dark brown with just a touch of grey at the temples. He was clean-shaven and had wire frame glasses, overall he wasn't unattractive. She stood as he came in, offering her hand.

He greeted her with a smile, that pushed him into the attractive bracket, and shook her hand. "Hello, I'm Dr. Carbonne, but call me Jerry."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Jerry. Christie Hampton, call me Christie." She smiled back, he was thinking he wished he had had such a pretty science teacher, but not in a lecherous way. He seemed genuinely happy to meet her and was surprised he hadn't thought of the idea of hosting school field trips. She actually felt guilty deceiving him in this way, but pressed on. "Thank you for seeing me without an appointment. I wasn't sure when I would be able to get out here, but since I had a training day that ended early I decided to take my chances."

"Not a problem, please come to my office." He indicated the doorway he had come through. "Can I offer you anything to drink?"

"Just some water would be fine. Thank you." She started toward the doorway.

He looked at the receptionist. "Rita, can you bring Miss Hampton some water?"

"Yes, Dr. Carbonne."

Jerry Carbonne's office was probably very nicely furnished, but it was hard to tell as every horizontal surface was covered in books, lab books, and papers. He looked embarrassed as he had to pick up some very large books from the guest chair before she could sit down. "Sorry, I'm working on filing a patent and it takes a lot of background research. Please, have a seat."

"Thank you." She looked around at the clutter, nothing jumped out and said 'formula to drive vampires crazy'. "Can I ask what the patent is about?"

"It's for a protective skin film for people with severe contact allergies. It isn't a huge market, but we received a research grant to develop it and we get to keep the intellectual property rights." He shrugged, "You can't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Sounds interesting." It really did. "Is that what you do here mostly? Sponsored research?"

Jerry moved behind his desk and sat down. "We do have several R&D labs. We also do small batch manufacturing for proof of concept and clinical trial runs." He leaned back in his chair. "You know, I had never thought of offering field trips, but it is a great idea. We need to encourage kids to go into science. What kind of tour were you thinking of?"

"Well, I have 25 kids in my advanced class, kids who are really good at science but most don't see what they can do in it. They think if they go into chemistry or biology that the only thing for them is working at a university, so I want to show them some possibilities in the private sector." She paused for breath. "But I will need to take the whole class at once, so I am not sure if there are any areas that so many people can tour at once, safely of course."

He seemed to consider that. "The main production floors are viewable from behind a large observation window, so those are safe. We can always arrange for a lab tour, where nothing dangerous is happening, in fact, for the most part, the majority of the work here is fairly safe. We aren't working with any pathogens and we don't make explosives. All of the labs are properly ventilated and we adhere to all the OSHA workplace safety rules." He stood up, "Would you like a quick tour?"

"That would be wonderful, but I would hate to take you away from your work." She was really hoping he would ask, but she had to mind her manners.

"Nonsense, I could use a break from all of this." His hand indicated the cluttered desk and the computer screen.

"Then I would be honored." She stood and smiled.

Dr. Carbonne seemed to know what was going on in every room and building he took her in, which was quite a few, but not everywhere. There were a couple of rooms they by-passed without comment, almost pointedly so. And she noticed that there were at least 2 buildings they avoided. Of course, none of the labs they visited had a fairy chained up in the corner with a needle in their arm. Nor did anything say supernatural R&D.

He also took the time to introduce her to many of the scientists they passed. She knew she wouldn't remember their names and often didn't understand their titles. She took a quick read on each person whose hand she shook. No one seemed suspicious of her presence and many were very enthusiastic about the possibility of hosting students. She thought she was onto something when she met a young researcher whose mind told her it was trying to hide something, but pushing a little deeper she found that his research wasn't working out and he was trying to keep that fact from Dr. Carbonne.

Sookie had a growing sense of disappointment that she was not going to be able to meet Dr. Taggert and that this whole ruse had been a bust when she passed an office with a name plate that said A. Taggert, PhD.. She paused and asked Jerry, "That isn't Austin Taggert is it?"

He stopped and looked at the office door. "No Arthur, why?"

"At LSU I had a chemistry professor named Austin Taggert, he made chemistry so interesting I almost switched from being an education major. It was because of him that I decided to become a science teacher though."

"I don''t think Arthur ever taught, except maybe as a grad student. We got him straight out of college. He's been with us for about 12 years now." Sookie was getting a wave of disappointment, apparently Taggert had been a good researcher and generally nice person until about 3 years prior. Since that time he has been angry a lot, and his work had fallen off. Jerry was sad about this because he was afraid that he would have to let him go.

"That's quite a while."

"Yes, he's done some good work for us." he said out loud, but finished in his head with 'just not lately'.

She hadn't found out anything except Taggert's first name, she had really hoped to find out more, what exactly she wasn't sure and she could tell from the direction they were heading that the tour was probably almost done.

They were passing a large lab when she spotted him. He was running some sort of machine and recording readings she recognized him from the visual she had pulled from Alex. She was pretty sure he was in earshot. She paused in the hall outside the door turning to the director. "I just remembered, I wanted to ask to see if you made any cosmetics?"

"No, not currently." No red flags were going off in his head, but they were in Taggert's. His head jerked in her direction and the machine ran on without him taking his readings. He was obviously trying to listen to what she was saying. "Several years ago we did some small batch manufacturing for a customer, but they went out of business. Why?"

"I thought it might get the girls interested. You know, at this age, make-up and boys are all they think about." she laughed. Taggert was sweating bullets, he wanted to get away to call someone.

Dr. Carbonne chuckled, "My daughter is just reaching that age, so I know what you mean." She really liked him and again felt a pang at this deception. But since he had a fox in his henhouse and didn't know it, in the long run she might be doing him a favor.

They were back near his office, when a melodic voice came out of a nearby office. "There you are Jerry, I wanted to talk to you about the last batch of samples." the woman coming out of the office was tall and lovely, with flowing red hair that didn't come out of a bottle. She had a dazzling smile, but stopped short when she saw he had company. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were with someone." She smiled and extended her hand to Sookie. "I'm Aine Summers." It was pronounced Awn+ye with the last syllable almost not there. She had a slight accent that Sookie thought might be a touch of Irish.

Sookie reached out with her hand and her mind towards her. And was startled when she got nothing. It wasn't the void that a vampire mind left, she could tell a mind was there it was just closed to her. "Very nice to meet you." she replied automatically, "I'm Christie Hampton." She could feel the woman's smile seeping into her, trying to spread it's cheer. This woman was fae, she was almost sure of it.

"Miss Hampton is a science teacher," Dr. Carbonne supplied, "we're arranging for her class to have a field trip here."'

"What a wonderful idea. It's so important for the young to learn from their elders." The fae woman supplied. She was eying Sookie oddly.

"What do you do here Dr. Summers?" Sookie supplied the honorific since just about everyone who she had met here had the degree.

"It's Ms Summers, but you can call me Aine. I am the liaison for one of the groups sponsoring research here." She shifted her gaze from Sookie to her associate. "Jerry, it wasn't important. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Miss Hampton, it was a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Sookie replied as the woman turned to go.

"She seems nice." Sookie said simply. When no reply came she glanced at Jerry and saw that he seemed pleasantly daydreaming, a smile on his lips, his eyes vacant. "Jerry?"

He seemed to snap out of it, "Sorry, lost in thought. Let's sit down and see if we can find a date that will work for your field trip."

Approaching Rita's desk, Sookie saw that Taggert was talking to the receptionist. He was standing at the counter, leaning on it. Absentmindedly flipping the pages of the guestbook, as if it was just something to do with his hands. When he saw her and Dr. Carbonne he bid the woman good night and headed out the door.

Jerry and Sookie returned to his office, and there was Sookie's glass of water, Rita must have brought it soon after they left the office, which glancing at her watch, she discovered it was almost two hours ago. It was after five o'clock, Eric would be up within an hour. "I didn't realize it was so late. I'm not keeping you from anything, am I?" looking very apologetic.

"No, my wife will tell you, I never leave at five." He sat down at his computer and tapped a few keys, gesturing that she should take the chair. "Let's see when we can do this."

She opened her notebook and wished she had thought to bring a calendar page. "It will have to be next month at the earliest, I have to file paperwork with the district and then I will need to get the permission slips out." She hoped that sounded reasonable.

"Any day of the week you prefer?" He asked as he reviewed his calendar for the following month.

"Thursday works best generally." She grabbed a day at random and hoped he wouldn't ask why.

"Well a month from now we have an FDA inspection, how about the Thursday after?" he tilted his screen so she could see his calendar.

"That looks great." She jotted the date down in her notebook. "Thank you so much." She stood, "I won't take anymore of your time today." She offered him her hand.

He stood and picked up a business card. "Here, call me if we have to change dates." He handed it to her. "And how can I reach you?"

"Oh yeah." She opened the notebook. "That would help wouldn't it?" She quickly wrote Christie Hampton on the top of the page and her cellphone number beneath it. Ripping out the page, she handed it to him. "Sorry, we don't get business cards, budget cuts."

He looked at it, "Do you have an email?"

"Sure," she took back the paper and wrote 'champton ' before handing it back. "There you go."

He placed the paper on his keyboard. "Let me walk you out." He indicated she should proceed him through the door.

"Thank you." She said as she left the office. Rita was no longer at her desk, she must leave at five. He held the outside door for her. Sookie blinked at the sun, a handspan from the horizon. The parking lot was largely empty now. She turned to face her host. "I am so glad I took my chances and stopped by. I think this will be a great field trip for my kids."

"I'm glad you came in too. I'll let you know what plan I come up with for your visit."

"I'll look forward to it. Bye now."

"Bye." he waved at her and then went back inside.

She fished her phone out of her purse and sent a text to Eric: Heading back now.

Getting into her car she looked at the directions she had printed out. Since she was unfamiliar with this part of Shreveport she was going to follow the directions in reverse to get back to the apartment. It was her preoccupation with checking the route that kept her from noticing that the same vehicle was behind her until she was back in a familiar part of town. She only happened to notice it then when she decided to pull into a fastfood drive-thru. It was a last minute decision, so she turned pretty quickly, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure she wasn't about to be hit. A big, red, Ford pick-up was behind her. The driver and his companion looked angry at her, but drove on. But once she pulled out after getting her food, the truck pulled out of the next parking lot, right behind her. She was immediately on alert. After making a few random turns to see if they stayed with her, which they did, she determined two things, one, they were definitely following her, and two, they weren't very good at it, which made her hope she would be able to lose them.

The first thing she wanted to do was lead them away from the apartment. Since she was fairly close already she turned east which was roughly perpendicular to the building. She tried to think of how to shake them. She would have to try to fake them out into a turn, or run a red light. Both of which she worried might cause an accident that would hurt innocent people. She moved to the middle lane, from which she could possibly cut across a lane and turn either way. Then she saw a sign indicating a police station was up ahead. She quickly moved back into the right lane, and turned into the station parking lot. The pick-up slowed and pulled into one of the parallel parking spaces along the street. She got out of her car and looked around. The men, she could now see them clearly, they were two white men in their early twenties, were watching her but didn't get out of their vehicle.

She saw two police officers talking to each other by the front doors. She waved at them, "Excuse me officers?" she called out, trying to put a little concern in her voice. "Can you help me?" She was calling loud enough that she knew the guys in the pick-up could hear. She reached out for their minds. They were near-panicked. Their orders were to follow her and see where she was going, but they didn't expect any police involvement.

The police were walking over to her. "What's the problem miss?" the younger one asked,

She put on her best damsel-in-distress face and dropped her voice so her pursuers could no longer eavesdrop. "I'm sorry, I don't come into town often and I've gotten all turned around. Is LSU that way?" That gave her the opportunity to point in the direction of the pick-up truck, making the officers turn in that direction. As soon as they did, the pick-up pulled out of its spot, almost hitting a car in their hurry to get out of police view.

"No, I'm sorry miss, you are turned around. You need to go back that-a-way …" he proceeded to give her directions, which she repeated back and nodded to.

"Thank you so much. You are a lifesaver, no telling how long I would have been driving." She got back in her car and pulled out in the direction the police had indicated. She seemed to have shaken her tail, but drove around for a little while to make sure she wasn't mistaken. She jumped about 2 feet when her phone rang. Catching a look at the display she saw that it was Eric.

"Hi, honey." she said as she answered it.

"Are you alright? I just woke up and I can feel that you are worried. You should be back by now."

"I'm fine, I was being followed but I lost them. I'm just a couple of minutes away. Look, the traffic is pretty heavy so I am going to hang up. See you in a couple of minutes." She hung up without waiting for a response. She hated when people talked on their phones while driving, and she hated when she did it herself. The sun was just barely above the horizon so he still wouldn't be able to come to her rescue.

After one last turn to be positive that no one was following her, she headed to the apartment. Despite that, she still hurried from her car to the door, her now cold food in hand, only relaxing as the elevator doors closed and the key was turned.