Disclaimer: everything belongs to Charlaine Harris

I woke up the next afternoon to go take an early shift at Merlotte's because Holly couldn't make it in. First, I squeezed in a quick trip to the post office to to drop the two gifts I'd purchased yesterday in the overnight mail with a brief note to their recipients, then I returned a couple of library books. When I stopped for gas, I had a quick catch up with Terry Bellefleur and learned that he had just been married. I was real happy for Terry; that man deserved some love and comfort. I needed to be at Merlotte's soon, so I hugged Terry and headed on to work. My hurry reminded me that I still needed to talk with Sam about this partnership deal and what it meant for my schedule and other work I hoped to do, but I figured he needed some time before we got to that.

At Merlotte's, I dropped the bar's PO box mail on Sam's desk, then had a quick chat with our new waitress An Norr (pronounced "Ahhhhn" like you were at the doctor, rather than the more conventional "Ann"). She was a real go-getter and made my work easier, although I was certain she wouldn't be around here for long. I tried to stay out of her mind, and just tried to appreciate her help while it lasted.

When my shift was almost over, one of my least favorite - and most unexpected - people came walking through the front door. Arlene seated herself in my section, and fiddled nervously with the menu while I took my time getting to her. She was working herself up to something, and I finally strode toward her to find out what it was.

"Sookie, hey..." she started in a bright but strained voice. Whatever she was up to, I did not have time for it. I needed to do my side work, ditch my apron, check on Sam, then get home to bed.

"Arlene, what are you doing here? Why aren't you in jail?" I didn't need to say it loudly; the whole bar seemed to already be watching us. They all knew about Arlene's role in the attempt to literally crucify me, and though it was early evening, it was late enough that the crowd had started drinking and didn't feel that impulse to politely look away. If Sam had been there, I knew he would have turned Arlene away at the door, just to avoid the potential for a fight.

"Well, Sookie, I got me a good lawyer and the good Reverend who got me out of jail, and I just thought I'd come by and have a burger, is all."

Reverend...Steve? Arlene could be a pretty strong projector, when she was stressed. "Cut the crap, Arlene." I reached for her wrist but barely touched her before she yanked up and away in the booth, shrieking wildly.

"Don't you dare touch me, you freak! I will not have you poking around in my brain!" She was actually standing in the booth, crouched with her back pressed against the wall.

"That's it, Arlene, out you go." There was no way I was going to let her do this now that I owned part of the bar. I glanced behind me to see that Hoyt and a couple of the other men had stood up, ready in case they were needed. My hope to keep this calm wasn't helped by their attention, and it went out the window when Arlene took advantage of my momentary inattention - by grabbing a metal napkin dispenser and swinging it across my jaw.

The bar exploded with noise as I lunged toward Arlene, pulling her down by the legs and climbing across her to grab her throat. I'd never felt so blindly compelled by rage, but I became vaguely aware of strong hands pulling me back.

I never took my eyes off Arlene, but I was being held by An, who was stronger than she looked. Hoyt steered a shaking Arlene toward the exit, telling her not to come back here. I concentrated on slowly breathing in and out, and tried not to think about anything.

An walked me firmly into the office and waited while I calmed down. I stripped off my apron, closed out without finishing up my work, and collected my purse, insisting that I needed to go speak with Sam. I thought I'd blow off some energy by getting a difficult conversation over with. I let An think I needed to make him aware of what happened in the bar; I'd do that, too.

I stalked out the back door toward Sam's trailer. I sensed a human around nearby, but decided to let it pass - it wasn't unusual for a drunk to hold up the wall for a bit. I had something more interesting to focus on - the dog who was surely not a dog up on Sam's porch.

I stopped at the bottom stair and asked the Lab - who I was pretty sure was Bernie - if she'd let me pass.

When Sam's mom relented, and followed me in to retake her human form, we all had a rather tense conversation about what happened the night I saved him. I wasn't surprised that he didn't remember much about his injury or my bringing him back to my house. The big shock came was that he didn't recall anything about Janalynn's role in his death, or even that she herself had died.

As Sam absorbed the news, I caught a stray thought from his mom, wondering if I could have stopped Warren from killing Jannalynn. "I wouldn't have if I could. That was pack justice, and furthermore, I think she was trying to kill me, or harm me in some way." I related how Jannalynn had tried to get me out to the woods under what I knew were false pretenses. That information seemed to deflate Sam just a little more.

Things only got more uncomfortable as I explained what the effect on Eric had been, and our misunderstanding about the meaning of the cluviel dor. Sam pressed me on my testing him the previous morning, and there is no nice way to tell one of your best friends that you were checking him for whether he'd make a good fall-back position.

Bernie had had enough at that point, and pulled me outside to make it clear that she would be the one taking care of her son. I knew she'd hoped to be able to leave him in my care and head back to Texas, but her inspection had found the truth - that I was plain not up to the job at the moment. Nonetheless, I'd saved her son's life. She reluctantly swore she owed me a life; I had to tell her I might take her up on that sooner than either of us would like.

She tensed visibly as I turned back toward the trailer's front door. I had one more thing I needed to accomplish, and even if Sam was mad, I wasn't leaving until he gave it to me. "Sam, I need access to the discussion boards you told me about." I explained to him that I hoped to better understand threats to my safety by keeping a closer eye on what rumors went around about me, and about the other supes I was connected to in some way.

"I can't do it, Sookie. It's private."

"Sam, I don't care how you justify giving it to me. You can say I pulled it out of your head. You can say the part-fae telepath got it by magic. I won't make posts, I won't do anything but read, and no one will know. If they find out, you'll tell them you were using my computer, or the magic thing..." I took a breath and went for it. "They'll have heard how I saved your life, after all."

Sam slumped a bit with defeat. He wrote down an address and stared as he thought his username and password at me, now that we were on the same page. His mom looked bewildered as I grinned, thanked Sam, and turned to leave. I heard a quiet "Goodbye, Sookie" as the door swung shut.