Summary: In a world where Uncle Bartlett went too far, Sookie Stackhouse decides to embrace herself rather than bend to the townfolk's perception of normal. Years later, she saves a dense vampire from two drainers. Slowburn Sookie/Eric.
I have been doing some research about the casting of Sookie Stackhouse, and no matter how much I love Anna Paquin (in X-Men), I have to wonder - who would you have chosen to play Sookie Stackhouse in TB?
Or rather, who would you have chosen to play Sookie Stackhouse in Circular Reasoning?
Jason followed in her footsteps as Sookie strode down the hospital corridor with bravado. Her feet tried to drag but she pushed onwards regardless at such a speed that Jason needed to jog to keep up with her. Anxiety writhed through her insides. Though Sam wasn't the liveliest of people, he had a certain air of kindness that drew people in.
The shifter had ignored all of the rumours about her and hired her anyway. He put up with her snarky retorts, and her tendancy to go overboard while defending herself from a grabby customers. When Arlene or Dawn were grabbed, Sam always kicked the creep to the curve or let Sookie do it. He wasn't the type of sleeze to expect more from the waitresses than in the job description. He was a tolerant boss and a good friend when he wasn't rocking the whole mysterious and broody deal.
Sam genuinely cared about her, and Sookie returned the feeling, despite certain Fangtasia related mishaps.
The last time she had seen him, he had been riddled with stab wounds and bleeding out on her kitchen floor while Bill opened a vein to save his life. Despite the healing qualities in vampire blood, Sam hadn't woke up since, and his brain waves were said to be low.
As a telepath, Sookie was willing to test that theory. Interestingly enough, she could hear the thoughts of those in a coma, though not if they were squishy in the brain department. They were unresponsive to sounds, she had found, but she could catch hazy, dizzy snippets of thoughts.
She felt a faintly choking fear rising up from the pit of her stomach, unprepared for what she might - or worse, might not - find while skimming Sam's brain.
And then there was Jason, who twisted her insides up with rage and wild panic.
There were a fuckton of stupid genes in the Stackhouse family, and the two of them shared a fierce stubbornness. It was never pretty when they clashed with each other, but more often then not? It was damn vital. Like now. Especially now.
After Gran and Sam, Sookie couldn't lose somebody else. She would do anything to avoid that.
A reckless freedom flooded through her veins, twining effortlessly with fury and worry and anxiety - wasn't she just Miss Emotional today? Still. She deserved some emotional hiccups right now. She was about to find out if her boss was ever coming back, and try to talk her brother out of a goddamn drug addiction.
If he was determined enough, Jason would be able to handle the withdrawl without slipping back up, but even Sookie, who had known him her whole life, was unable to predict if he would block her out, like he sometimes did, or listen to her, like he usually did after she snarked him into submission.
Sookie felt low on snark right now - anger and terror hollowing her out into a simple unyielding resolve.
"I thought you were avoidin' me," said Jason, his usually subdued voice breaking through her thoughts.
"Was plannin' on it," Sookie replied, blonde hair swinging and brushing the back of her ribcage as she walked. "Then I remembered I didn't want you dead, so I figured I better stage an intervention instead."
"Intervention?" Jason repeated, thick accent making the words sound rough and coarse. His voice heated up - defensive. "I don't need no intervention."
"No," Sookie agreed pleasantly enough, twisting around to grab her brother by the collar and haul him into Sam's hospital room. She closed the door behind them, and kept him pinned to the door with a hand twisted in his shirt, her back to Sam. "You need a goddamn brain. You think I want to play the Ghost Of Stupidity Past with you?"
"The - " Jason glanced around, like he expected a nurse to be in the room with them, before looking back at her, brown eyes narrowed furiously, face flushing red. "It ain't none of your goddamn business, Sookie."
Sookie let go of his shirt, hands hitting her curvy hips and arched a brow at him sardonically. "You're my brother - since when has anything you do not been my business?" Jason looked like he was about to deflect with a heap of blatant bullshit, but her sarcastic expression darkened with anger. "Since Gran was murdered by a vampire-hating psycho?"
"If vampires stayed the fuck away from Bon Temps, Gran would still be here!" Jason said hotly, temper flaring high.
"Dawn and Maudette were killed just for sleeping with a vampire," Sookie reminded him in a hard though even voice. "How long do you think it would have been before the killer started killin' anyone who ain't normal? Like - oh, I don't know - a telepath? And if Gran got caught in the crossfire? Would you have blamed me?" A thought struck her brutally in the chest, knocking the breath out of her and her voice softened automatically, "Do you blame me?"
"You ain't even fuckin' that vampire!" Jason gritted out, fury and distress twisting his flushed face, and harshening his voice. "Either of 'em. It ain't your fault."
Try telling that to everyone else, Sookie thought grimly.
Why else would a vampire-hating killer go after Gran? It had to be one of the locals - someone who had heard one of Arlene's damn rumours about her -
"Then why did you try to hit me?" Sookie asked frankly - not plaintively.
Her blunt question drained the reddened fury from Jason's face. His mouth parted, words swimming in the dark eyes they shared. "Sookie...I didn't...you know I didn't mean to...I was..."
"Lashing out at whoever was closest," Sookie finished quietly for him. "And Eric stopped you. Who," she began to added, falling back to her snarky expression, "is - FYI - a vampire, just in case you missed him chilling out on a massive throne at Fangtasia."
Jason swallowed, eyes widening in faint shock. A memory passed through his head, so sharp and intense that she was incapable of ignoring it - the twisted expression on her face and the half-wild light in her dark eyes - the tight sarcasm in her voice - rapist turning up to a funeral -
Sookie stilled, mind adapting to this new knowledge. Jason had gone to Fangtasia - to find another hit - because of her. Like Gran was dead because of her - and Gran would have killed her for thinking that - but -
Blood on the kitchen floor - darkening Sam's jeans until they were almost purple in some places - and Gran's iron-white hair matted from it - and Jason, charging towards her with rage in his form -
So many expressions flitted through her mind; her Mama's horrified eyes whenever she knew more than she should, her father's strained expression as his marriage hit another rough patch, JB's heartbroken eyes when she pushed him away, the wild horror on Gran's face when (Sookie took a desperate risk and told the truth) she died, and Jason turning on her after so many years of defending her.
Why did she keep doing that to the people she loved?
The life-support machine beeped behind her in a steady pulse, filling the silence before Jason's defensive voice cut clean through her, "Okay, I went to Fangtasia - so what? Vampires are still murderers - no matter what you said, it don't change nothing - it's their fault Gran's gone!"
"You blame vampires for what happened to Gran, so your reaction is to start drinking vampire blood, not unlike how vampires drink human blood?" Sookie shot back sarcastically. His hardened voice slammed her tough shell back into place, like it had never wavered. "Am I the only person who sees the irony in this? But then, I suppose y'all are too baked to recognize your own reflection, let alone the beautiful concept of irony."
Jason stumbled for a moment, more mentally than physically, before catching himself, and tossing back an irrelevant truth like a deciding fact, "They ain't even alive!"
"Neither," said Sookie quietly, "Are our parents."
Jason flinched like she had, anger floundering in his face. "Our parents never killed anybody."
Their parents weren't the issue here, except for how they were, how they would always be for Sookie and Jason, for Hadley and Gran: the people who were gone, and the people who weren't. The ruins of a family, collapsing in on itself, and leaving only the worst behind.
Sookie wished it was hard to know this, to know a world where Jason, who had pulled her up again as many times as he had seen her fall, was losing himself in the high.
"Kinda funny," she said, and it felt anything but. "How I never see this coming with us."
A silence fell over the hospital room.
Jason stopped at the name. It was a moment before he spoke in a very low, wired voice. "I ain't nothing like fuckin' Hadley."
Subconsciously, Sookie adjusted her footing to brace herself, straining against the desire to avert her eyes, to let honesty blacken her smile with exhaustion.
"Except for the drugs."
"I ain't a goddamn addict," Jason hissed, words packed tight with anger, clearly struggling to keep his voice down.
Sookie simply cocked her head, challenge unfurling in her dark eyes. "Let me guess," her grin was bitter and cold, so cynical, "You can stop any time you want to? Prove it."
"I don't need to, I'm not a fucking addict," Jason repeated defensively.
"You're supposed to be the good grandchild, Jason," Sookie said pitilessly, bringing the words down on him ruthlessly. Jason swallowed, expression contorting, almost like he was torn between screaming in rage or screaming in agony. "What do you think Gran would say about this?"
Gran would have been much gentler and kinder. She would have been patient and caring about her words, instead of throwing words at him like daggers, ruthlessly stabbing all of his sore spots until he felt dizzy and sick from it all. Gran would have made him feel better while saving his life, instead of making him feel like shit to save his life.
Sookie was torn between feeling justified and ashamed of what she was saying to her own damn brother. But there was no time to beat around the bush. The desperate fear of losing him pressed down on her torturously, and she couldn't risk Eric reconsidering if Jason ignored her like the bullheaded moron he was.
If Jason knew about Eric's threat, he would rifle himself up into a macho arrogance and inevitably do something stupid - especially while dosed with vampire blood.
"That ain't fair," Jason said quietly, seriously, a solemn softening to his defensive anger.
A rough smile twisted Sookie's mouth. "You expected it to be?"
Jason's jaw clenched, a third flush of fury rising to his face, but it was impotent and dulled. Gran was their shared weakness, turning harsh and unreasonable fits of rage into something painful yet mellow. Even now, the older woman could make them temper their emotions with rationality which was saying a lot considering the two of them.
"It ain't right, throwing her in my face like that," Jason said in a hard voice with an edge of vulnerablity, deep pain twisting through his voice.
Sookie nodded slightly because he was right - using Gran like this was wrong and one of the shittiest things she had ever done, but she told herself the older woman would have understood. Though Gran would have chewed her to a million pieces for deliberately aiming to wound Jason.
"But Gran would've killed me for this, so maybe what I'm doin' ain't exactly right either," Jason finished in a subdued voice, looking like he was itching for an escape, eyes avoiding her at all costs.
Sookie felt a shift inside of her, a softening in her gut. Sure, Jason had always acted differently from his selfish, vaguely egoistical self around Gran - and her, to a lesser degree - but admitting he might be doing wrong because he couldn't delude himself into believing Gran would have approved?
It would have been tough for a regular person - man or women, the ego was strong in either gender - but Jason had survived the stigmatism of a crazy sister, a hippie mama and a overly mellow dad by being so hard-headed and stubborn.
It was nearly enough for her to thank him, but Sookie handled shit by being emotionally awkward. It was lucky she could (currently) keep a lid on the snark, and just be glad she hadn't needed to threaten Jason with Eric.
Pragmatically, Sookie was tempted to skim through her brother's mind - just to make sure - but if she searched in Jason's head, there was the risk of hearing Sam. Or, a small hesitant voice began in the back of her head, not hearing Sam.
If that was the case, she didn't want Jason to see her reaction to that.
"As awesome and hug worthy this intervention has turned out to be, could you give me a minute before we drive home in awkward silence?"
Instead of looking offended or angry by her awkward brush off, Jason seemed faintly relieved - either by her return to snark or because he needed a break to recover from her multiple guilt trips - then he glanced behind her, at Sam, and she could see his feelings softening towards her.
Holding grudges truly wasn't a Stackhouse trait.
Jason rubbed his face with one hand, clumsy and weary. "It's too damn early, I'll go grab a cup of coffee, you want one?"
"Please."
By now, Jason knew how she took her coffee, so she said nothing else as he walked out of the room, rubbing at the back of his neck, head down.
Sookie stood very still, facing the door, hearing the steady beeps of Sam's heart monitor. The silence settled down on her heavy enough to break her. She couldn't quite make herself turn around, to look at Sam like he was and have the burned into her memory whenever she looked at him after he got better.
It was easier - in a strange way - to think of blood and defensive wounds than this aftermath.
But it was easier to remain in ignorance, to not know what he looked like or if he was still in there, then to have a definite answer. Hope was cruel but reality was so much worse.
Sookie liked Sam.
He was nice and steady and abnormal in his kindness. He had been at her house that night - probably because she hadn't been able to resist showing him how intelligent and capable she thought she was. Sam had looked so happy when she'd acknowledged what he was and accepted it - like a little boy - and then she had stomped on him.
Not intentionally, but regardless.
Regret twisted inside of her, but if anything, she wished she'd hurt him more. He wouldn't be in a hospital room if she had.
Slowly, feeling a tremble in her arm, Sookie reached back, over the end of the bed, and touched Sam's ankle. She kept staring ahead, so scared and so regretful.
"I'm sorry."
And then she slipped - as easy and gracefully as smoke - into his head.
Arlene's thick drawl sounded, words inaudible - and Dawn's blue eyes flared with vivacious life and laughter - Lafayette cackled over the gleaming counters in Merlotte's - Terry's odd expression pulled up into an awkward smile - her hair blazed like gold in the sun, wicked dark eyes sparking with humor and acceptance -
"I can hardly throw stones, now, can I?"
There was no fear, no blood, no death, no killer - just a regular day at Merlotte's.
When Sookie tumbled out of Sam's head, her eyes were burning and small, sobbing sounds jerked out of her mouth. Dizzy with relief and burning with agony, she tried to catch her breath.
Sam had no family, a shady history, but - her hand gripped his foot tighter- he loved his friends just the same.
As Sookie turned into the road to Bon Temps, the warning cry of fire trucks reached her ears.
"What the hell?" Jason said abruptly, surprise in his voice.
Sookie peered over the dash and out of the window shield. In the distance, a mushroom cloud of thick black smoke reached the sky. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she remembered the redneck group gathered in the bar last night, circled around each other like the least subtle drunken suicide pact in the world.
A sickly feeling tangled in her stomach and knotted tightly. Eric was far too clever to spend the night with the nest of vampires, so he must be back in Shreveport. If he hadn't snapped up the other three vampires, Royce and his minions were screwed.
Her stomach churned at the thought but she was never one for pretty delusions. Tray Dawson had killed people - members of his own pack, if needed be - and over a thousand years, Eric's body count had to be huge. It was an abstract concept that was quickly becoming factual.
Welcome to the mindfuck, Sookie thought sourly, recalling how long it had taken her to adjust to the knowledge that Dawson had killed others.
"Holy shit. Do you think a bonfire got outta hand?" Jason asked beside her. "I heard that Maryann chick was having a party last night..."
Maryann. Another supernatural shit storm just waiting to happen.
"I doubt it," Sookie predicted warily, pressing her foot down on the gas and heading towards the huge cloud of smoke. "These things usually come in threes."
By now, it was closer to ten tragedies - though calling the nesting vampires' demise tragic was a pretty long stretch.
Sookie swerved around the vultures gathering around the smoke cloud, extremely relieved not to see Maxine Fortenberry lurking around, though it did disprove her theory that the older woman had a supernatural talent for gossip.
After cheerfully threatening to mow down her neighbours to get through the crowd, the blonde telepath shoved the car door open and climbed out. Jason exited the other door. Together, they stood a few feet from the line of yellow tape, staring at the flame ravaged house, the quiet rumble of her engine and the whispers of gossip filling the silence.
The flames were out, though only just, and the hungry black smoke stretched high above them. The air was filled with the scent of burning, thick and dry, clinging to the back of her throat like ashes. The whispers and murmurs grew louder at the sight of them - Sookie and Jason Stackhouse, staring at the smoke curling up towards the heavens.
"Holy shit," Jason cursed in shock.
Sookie dropped her gaze from the sky and scanned over the yellow tape line. Andy Bellefluer and Sheriff Dearborn were several feet away, both wearing sun glasses and serious expression, talking. Orange flames flared from the wreckage, and water roared forward from the firemen's hose, dousing them instantly. Mike was closer to the house, shaking his head at something a paramedic was saying. There was a single black coffin.
Dark eyes captured every detail and -
From the masses: " - Bill Compton - "
Sookie stiffened, thoughts turning to Bill. Was he involved in this? Even if he had ignored her warning and confronted the other vampires, after Eric presumably showed up, why would he stick around? Would Eric have hauled Bill in with the three?
Her eyes returned to the dark coffin, a frown shaping her face. She wasn't particularly fond of Bill, unable to control her instincts and disturbed by the glimpses of his view on women. There wasn't a woman worth her salt that couldn't do what needed to be done, Gran had often told her, and Bill needed to be groin-punched with that memo.
Yet, she didn't want Bill to be dead. He hadn't done anything to harm her, if anything he had tried to befriend her. Despite her smell personal feelings towards the vampire, it was another tragedy, a loss, though small, that she didn't want.
Sookie focused on Mike, and listened to his thoughts - what the hell am I gonna do with a box of ashes and teeth - dentist appointment today - looks like human teeth, human ashes - fucking vampires -
Her mind jammed briefly before switching to another scenrio - the killer. She didn't know if this house actually belonged to the three vampires. The killer could have killed another 'fang-banger' and set the place on fire. Or he could have planted the body after dawn. Or he could have nothing to do with this.
Either way, somebody was dead.
Bill wasn't, but somebody was.
"Sookie," Jason said softly, and she turned her head to see him watching her over the hood of the car. He looked briefly surprised at her realitively calm expression. "Come on now. Let's get away from here."
With a mind filled with blood and killers, Sookie reluctantly did the responsible thing. "Can you take care of Tina for a few days?"
After moving Tina and all of her things to Jason's house where she was much less likely to get caught in the crossfire, Sookie sat down at the table with her head in her hands. The clock ticked quietly from the wall, breaking the thick silence. For the first time she could remember, the house was entirely empty aside from her.
Gran wasn't in the garden, planting new roses, or reading a book and listening to the radio in the kitchen. Jason wasn't filling the house with his large, thudding footsteps. Tina wasn't sprawling all over the floor, fur ruffled adorably, or scratching at her bedroom door in the middle of the night.
Sookie inhaled deeply, locking her somber thoughts away, and - struck by an idea - grinned mischievously to herself.
She lifted her head, rose from the chair to grab the phone, located an all-day/night florist in Shreveport, and dialled.
"I'd like twelve roses," Sookie said after the nicities were out of the way, a wicked smirk curving her lips, " - White roses - to be delivered to - " she rattled off the address to Fangtasia and said Eric's name, " - at 6 o'clock tonight."
After confirming the order and giving her credit card details, Sookie hung up, and briefly wondered how horrified the delivery boy would be when he saw where he was delivering the roses.
Wear white, Eric had ordered her.
Well, hopefully the flowers would make up for the common sense of not wearing a colour that stained easily with the way her luck was rolling.
Also? The sheer irony of sending Eric Northman a bunch of roses that held the meaning of innocence and purity? Beautiful.
Amusement bubbled up inside of Sookie like a shaken can of soda, and she didn't even try to stiffle her laughter as she pictured Eric's reaction. It was doubtful he would recognize the irony, considering how anti-flowers he had seemed last night, but her amusement was untouched by that.
The back door swung open, and Tara stalked, uninvited, into her kitchen, "You will not fucking believe what happened to me last night." Suddenly seeming to realise her best friend was laughing in a fairly deranged manner, Tara stared at her. "Jesus, Christ, what happened to you?"
Sookie clenched her jaw together, trapping her laughter inside her chest, dark eyes sparkling with mirth. A few stray giggles slipped from her mouth, and her lips kept pulling up into a silly, happy grin. Her gloom and discontent was overpowered by her sunny sense of humor.
"I'm pretty sure I was born," Sookie answered gleefully. "Coffee?"
"No thanks," Tara said slowly, eyeing her worriedly. Sookie flashed her a beaming grin, and her friend sighed, probably chalking up behaviour up to her usual bizzare state of mind. Tara shook her head, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"So, last night." Sookie ran a hand through her hair, still smiling as she sank down into a kitchen chair. "What happened with the, uh, exorcism? Did your mama's head spin round and start spewing out every drop of alcohol she'd ever drunk?"
"We'd still be in that fucking trailer if that had happened," Tara said cynically, pulling out a chair and sitting across from Sookie. "I'd almost prefer it that way. The whole damn day has been real fucking weird."
"Go on," Sookie said as she leaned back in her chair, a single leg crossing over the other. "Lay it on me."
Tara huffed out a sigh, rolling her eyes - before promptly caving and ranting out a brief description of last night's events. She told Sookie about walking five miles and getting bit to pieces by bugs only to find an old woman who spoke in tongues and lived in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. ("We live in Bon Temps," Sookie had pointed out. "We have cable," Tara snarked back.) And then about the weird stones and the weird chanting -
"Wait," Sookie gasped out through bouts of laughter, leaning heavily on the table top to keep herself in the chair. "Wait - so, this hippie chick basically repeated her little pet name for the - " she started giggling again, " - for the rock over and over again - "
"Then she drowned a ferret," Tara finished, slumping back in her chair with a roll of her widened eyes.
Sookie's inconsolable laughter turned into nervous, disbelieving giggles. "Crazy Hippie did what?"
"Drowned a goddamn ferret," Tara repeated, to her horror.
"What?" Sookie exclaimed, voice pitched high in outrage. "But - why?"
"I got no fucking idea," said Tara. "Do you want to know the really fucked up thing?"
Sookie flinched, dark eyes widening in morbid horror. "It gets worse? Jesus Christ, Tara - not a puppy, too? Why didn't you floor the crazy bitch?"
Tara ignored her puppy-related worries. "It actually worked. My mama cooked me breakfast - she threw all them bottles away - "
Sookie looked at her friend, biting down another comment about the poor ferret. Ever since Tara had been little, she'd wanted her mama to quit drinking. Darkly, the blonde wondered how long it would be before Lettie Mae was tossing back booze again. She knew witches existed but life didn't work like that. There were no easy fixes for major traumas or addictions - and she knew that from experience.
But as Sookie looked across the table at Tara, she could see the hope her friend was trying to crush, and the tentative happiness at maybe having a real parent for once - instead of being the parent to her drunk and violent mama.
Sookie was far from fond of Lettie Mae - she loved Tara too much for that - but she stopped herself from expressing her opinion to Tara.
Like with Jason, she knew what was most likely to happen - relapse - but she wanted to believe the best - recovery. Besides Tara was far from naive, and even further from optimistic.
"Huh," Sookie remarked. "Wonder if this would've worked on my mama."
"She and your mama would've got on like a house on fire - " Tara predicted amusingly.
"Though if anything, my mama would be the thing getting expelled from someone."
Tara snorted, shaking her head. She hadn't known Miranda Stackhouse for long, but she knew enough to laugh without feeling too guilty. "So how was the bar last night?"
Glancing back at the clock, Sookie shrugged. "I had a staring contest with a group of crazy vampires and won." Catching sight of her friend's uncertain expression, she flashed a grin. "I need to open the bar. I'll explain while you pretend to be a good friend and help me."
After horrifying Tara by explaining about last night, Sookie ducked into Sam's office for a quick review of his books. Math wasn't her favourite subject in the world but she was passable in it, and the steady stream of fact was strangely relaxing after the emotional hellhole over the last few days.
Another person was not dead, Gran was alive, Tara was happy, Jason wasn't a drug addict, Tina was safe at home, Dawson wasn't mad at her, and there was no serial killer in here. Sam was asking for her help with the books because he was even worse at Math than her.
She had powered through all of yesterday's intake when there was a quiet knock that gave the feeling of hesitance. Not Tara nor Lafayette. Arlene wasn't in yet. Terry?
"Come in," she called.
There was a brief silence, but before she repeated her invitation, the door was pushed open, and Terry moved into the office, something nervous to his posture as he shut the door behind him.
Sookie dropped the pen and leaned slightly away from the desk with a smile, "Hey Terry." She manipulated her features into a grave look. "Speak now or forever hold your peace."
Terry shifted his feet awkwardly, and didn't smile. He seemed more anxious and awkward than usual. Sookie softened her features. Terry tended to handle simpler things better - her sense of humor was a bit beyond him more often than not, and after last night, he seemed worse than usual.
Sometimes he needed gentle treatment rather than her usual behaviour.
"I wanted to apologize," he said stiffly, eyes moving around like he was searching for a threat.
Sookie furrowed her brow, and asked softly, "Uh, for what?"
"Not doin' anything yesterday," he answered in a low uncomfortable voice.
Her heart melted in her chest. Sookie rose slowly from the desk, keeping her posture relaxed and unthreatening as she very clearly approached him. "Terry, there was nothin' you could've done yesterday. I'm not doubting whatever training you had, but those vampires were inhumanly strong. Don't feel guilty about it."
"Guilt is a useless emotion," Terry said abruptly, like it was hard-wired into his brain. He gave an awkward shrug, glancing at her briefly before hurriedly looking away, mumbling, "So I've heard."
Her mind flashed to Gran, a knot forming in her stomach, eyes growing distant. "But a tricky one to dodge."
Jerkily, Terry nodded. "Yes, ma'm."
Ma'm. Sookie arched her eyebrows at him, before flashing him a grin. "Ma'm? Huh." She wiggled her eyebrows flirtatiously. "Well, I've been called worse."
Terry looked extremely uncomfortable, cheeks flushed red. "Sorry, Sookie."
In bold contrast to Terry's quiet entrance, the door flew open, and Tara stalked in.
"Knocking," Sookie said, a bit sharply, feeling Terry start nervously beside her. There was something doe-like about his uncertainty. "Tis a thing of beauty, Tara."
Tara snorted, crossing her arms over her chest harshly. "So is your goddamn luck. Andy Bellefluer and Sheriff Dearborn are here to see you. What the fuck did you do this time?"
"I believe the words I'm looking for are, fuck you," Sookie sniped back before turning a kind smile on Terry as she turned and started backing up to the door, "If you want to hide in here from your cousin, I would totally understand."
Finishing her joking offer with a wink, Sookie twirled around and brushed by Tara, blonde hair flowing behind her. Tara followed after her, catching up easily with longer legs.
More seriously this time, Tara asked, "So why do they want to talk to you?
"Because she is gorgeous," Lafayette shouted as they passed the kitchen, wolf-whistling.
Sookie let out a short but sincere laugh. "You heard the man, Tara," she said, quirking her eyebrows up salaciously. "I am simply arrestable."
"You're fucking nuts," Tara said bluntly, but with amusement flaring in her dark eyes. "Try not to piss either of them off - I don't have enough cash to bail you out after that damn exorcism."
As the two of them came out of the back and out onto the main floor, Sookie pecked her friend's cheek before they parted ways. The bar had yet to be opened, though it was nearing opening time, so she spotted the two cops easily. Andy and Bud were sitting in an empty booth on the same side. They stood up when she approached them.
"Do you mind if we talk out here?" said Sookie, brushing a stray strand of hair out from her face. Since Lafayette had been around last night, it would be easier to grab him afterwards to get a broader view of everything. Though she was fairly sure Royce and his rednecks were responsible for the house burning down, she had been pretty swamped by all the orders.
"Er," Andy said, sharing a look with Bud. "Sure." He cleared his throat. "After the vampires left last night, did anyone seem unusually aggressive or violent?"
" . . . everyone in Bon Temps."
"Was there anybody in particular?" Bud pressed. "Did anybody express any plans to do this?"
"I was at the bar," Sookie told them. "Weirdly enough, everybody was pretty intent on gettin' drunk after they left. I did see Royce Williams and his cackling hyenas - Dumber and Dumbest - talking, but I'm not sure if that wasn't just talk."
"Anyone else?" Andy asked. His voice was like the grinding of clogs.
"If there was, they slipped under my radar."
At 5 in the evening, Sookie dropped down on her couch and fell sideways, head hitting the plump cushions. Her eyes closed, a sigh slipping through her lips. Her mind ticked sedatedly away. Her brain ached faintly, twisted out of shape from all off the pressure dropping down on her. Home was safe enough for her real feelings to seep through.
In reality, she didn't feel ready to haul herself up and snark carefully at Eric - but she had a feeling that would change soon enough.
Who needed coffee when there was amusement to send her crashing back into awareness?
But for now, Sookie let herself reflect.
The house was empty and hollow without Gran, especially with Tina with Jason. Pain swell through her body and stabbed sharply at her heart, stealing her breath. Her eyes stung and itched with tears.
Some feelings were too big and grand and scary to deal with. If she felt all the pain that resulted from Gran's death, it would shatter her into a million pieces. Sookie had already worked so goddamn hard to rebuild herself, and Gran had been so proud of that, but she knew there was no coming back from a second time.
The pain lapped at her hotly, like hungry flames, but she tried to breath through it, to make Gran proud. She felt a hard bite of fear, terrified of the pain increasing, and sat up sharply. Her dark eyes locked automatically onto the patch of floor where she had found Gran. The sharp twist of agony forced her to advert her gaze.
She didn't want this. She hated herself for not grieving, but she would give anything to avoid it.
It would make things irreversible.
Sookie swung her legs off the couch, blonde hair tumbling down her shoulders. Gran had a grave. She hadn't been. She visited Sam, and tried to help Jason, but she hadn't seen Gran.
She wanted to see Gran.
Sookie stood up and padded out of sitting room into the hall. She pulled on her black sneakers clumsily, straightening up to shove her hair back. She snagged her keys, nervously wrapping them around her fingers, and walked out of the house. The warm air hit her face, stirring her loose hair faintly as she briskly locked the door behind her, and started walking.
It was close to dark, dozens of bugs sounded in the air, but it was warm. She kept her telepathy on a low level, enough for her to pick up on anybody approaching her - like, a certain killer. Sookie roughly shoved a hand through her hair, and quickened her pace. The stupidity in what she was doing jarred against her desire to see Gran.
More than anything, Sookie wanted to come home to Gran waiting up for her, knitting with Tina in her lap, like always. She needed - she wanted -
She wanted her eyes to stop burning, tears threatening to spill over.
Gran deserved to be mourned and missed but Sookie couldn't do that. She was selfish and it was too much, and surely, Gran wouldn't have wanted her to break.
Bend, break or don't, she recited, trying to calm herself.
The graveyard wasn't very far from her home. Some of the headstones were cracked and worn with age. The moon hung low and faint in the sky, a half-moon. The gate creaked when she shoved it open. She remembered telling Eric about her telepathy in this graveyard, and kissing him goodnight. Her heart had been racing with adrenaline and half-fear as she'd stretched up, pressing her lips to his stubbled cheek.
It was a far more pleasant thought than the last time she had been here.
A twinge in the back of her head froze Sookie in place for a split second, heart stopping, before she acted instinctively. There was an old, rusty shovel propped up against the side of the fence. The blonde telepath's hand shot out and grabbed it. There was a sound - air moving around an object very fast - a gray blur raced towards her at a worrying speed - vampire speed -
Her panic spiked higher, and she swung the shovel out furiously at the blur - and the blow collided with a sickening crack of bone - then a slam as a body hit the floor -
Swinging the shovel back in, golden hair in her face, standing just out of reaching distance, Sookie looked down at the body, half expecting to see one of the nesting vampires - probably Liam - and ready to bring the shovel down again when she recognized the figure.
"Bill?" Sookie cried incredulously, lowering the shovel slightly. A dozen questions were ready to spill out of her mouth when she finally saw him properly.
Bill Compton was sprawled on his back, choked pained noises leaving his mouth that suggested a broken rib and made her feel incredibly guilty. He was completely naked, corpse-grey skin caked in dirt.
"Argh!" Sookie cried, arm raising to cover her eyes before they, presumably, burst into flames and blazed right out of her skull. "Lord, Bill - why are you naked? And zombie-like! Are you gonna be okay?"
I was gone for almost two weeks, and I come back without Eric. But I swear I will make up for it - especially if you review nicely and tell me who you picture as CR!Sookie.
Someone might find out Sookie's secret before S1 is over and done with. Thoughts?