Axel jolts up as the scream of his sister resonates throughout his head, any sleep haze gone in an instant as he stumbles out of the covers he got tangled in in his haste to get up. Haphazardly grabbing himself some clothes, he rushes to get dressed, his mind desperately screaming at Sookie.

"Sookie!'

"Sookie!'

'God damnit, sookie, answer me, or so help me go-'

'A-Axel,' the shaky but alive reply slows his rush as he stops before the door.

'Sookie? What happened? Are you okay? Why-' she interrupts him, her thoughts jumbling as she pushes her memories into his head, the force of such an inexperienced transfer causing him to wince and lean against the entrance as the memory of sookie walking into Dawn's home only to see her dead form, with bites on her neck.

With his hand cradling his temple he takes a deep breath ignoring his grandmother's worried gaze as he stares at the ground. He had just seen Dawn last night, he had planned to catch up with her.

'Axe!' The shout of Sookie makes him realize he hasn't responded to her and accidentally filtered her out in his shock.

Shaking his head he sends sookie a reassuring impression "Grandma, call the police for miss dawn's residence, you remember-"

"...I do sweetheart," his grandmother speak, with sad knowing eyes.

"go help sookie" she says, he nods forcing himself up and ignoring his grief, his sister shouldn't have to deal with this.

No one should have too.

"Thank you" he tells Adele, kissing her in the temple as he steps out, only to realize he doesn't have a car, the sound of a jingle makes him turn to his grandmother who holds her set of keys out, stretches the landline's line to its limits.

He catches them sheepishly, walking to her vehicle he steps into it, only to realize it's been forever since he has driven.

Thankfully, he's in a small town.

'Sookie, listen to me, I need you to step outside and make sure you don't touch anything.' He finally speaks to her as he shifts the car into reverse

'Then what?' Sookie's voice is a lot more steady; he is thankful, as he can't drive and try to calm her down.

'Just wait for the sheriff, i'm on my way' he says pulling onto the road.

——

Pulling the car to a stop beside the deputy cruiser he switches it to park, while stepping out the blessing humidity clinging to his skin the second he steps out. Taking a deep breath he scowls, not missing how hard it was to breathe in the Deep South.

The first thing he registers is his sister being comforted by the familiar face of Andy Bellefluer, someone he hasn't seen in a long time, though he guesses there's quite a few of those people.

Ducking under the crime scene tape he makes his way towards Sookie, who seems to have not noticed his presence.

"Whoah, you can't cross the line, this is a-" Andy starts before he's cut off.

"Andy, do you not recognize me?" He teases despite the situation,

"-crime scene…is that you Axel" Andy asks in disbelief, finally recognizing the little tight who would follow the deputies around when he was younger, eager to learn the ways of the force.

Despite the situation he can't help but flush at the fondness coming off the man, who tries to do his job justly, if he's still the same as when he was just a new recruit.

"Seems you've moved up in the ranks, deputy" he teases earning a bashful look, before Bellefluer seems to come to his senses.

"Well, as much as it's good to see you, we have a crime scene to investigate so if you would-"

"Sookie?" Axel interrupts softly, his gaze settling on his sister who seems to be dissociating in shock, but knows from experience that only you can bring yourself out of that state.

At his voice her eyes un gaze before jumping to him, her body slumps as she breathes out his name.

"Axe, she was so silent" her voice is weak and scratchy from over-extending.

Axel crouches before his innocent sister, hating the world for shattering her beautiful view. He knows she'll be fine, but also knows this is hard for her.

"Dawn wouldn't want you to cry for her, come on" he speaks with compassion as he pulls her off the grass.

When she is on her feet he turns to Bellefluer who was strangely quiet as he spoke to Sookie, allowing her to collect herself.

"Andy," here he reaches into his pocket pulling out his badge that has been made personally for him, giving him jurisdiction over human vampire crimes in all of the US.

It's a simple thing, just a gold little thing that has the inscription, Private detective with the authority's stamp pressed on the bottom, though most would assume it's just the government's jurisdiction.

Which aren't they one in the same? As he knows if the ancients so much as chose to they could upturn the state of affairs, but most are content with what they have, as is with his experience.

Though he can admit that he was just a 'normal' human to them with a strange sense of knowing just how to solve a vampire murder.

If they couldn't figure out that he would just scan a mind until he found the right trail for a certain case well who's to blame him, he really wishes his sister would stop holding back on their ability.

All the things that are offered to them once you allow yourself to accept and refine their strange gift is amazing.

And that's just on everything he's self taught.

He wonders what type of creature blood they have in their family tree to have awoken this ability, he wonders why only him and his sister seem to activate the latent ability.

"-gone an' became the detective you always boasted about," the thinly veiled jealousy breaks his thoughts as he realizes that Andy had been talking.

"Yeah..." he says absently watching as Sookie seems to come to herself.

"Andy! I don't care what you think! This wasn't Jason." She growls suddenly, Axel furrows his brows, before he lets his passive shield fall and gets what she was getting upset with.

"I don't think it's him, here" he shoves the badge into Axel's chest, "I know it was." He finishes as he walks away to speak to the sheriff.

"It wasn't Jason," Sookie speaks with conviction beside him as he just nods knowing she won't stop seething until she lets it out.

"Come on, if you're so good at being a detective then tell me what happened to dawn, so I can catch the mother fucker who killed one of my girls." That there is the sookie he knows and loves.

He knew after she processed the situation she would bounce back, that's what stackhouse's do best.

Now all he has to do is look for the fucker that thought he could kill one of His and get away with it.