A/N: Well, howdy. I hope you're all swell. I didn't wait a year for a new update this time around. :p Hope you like it! 😀
Chapter 10
Sookie slept in until past ten. It had been something like four-thirty when she'd finally gotten to sleep the night before and it had taken a third cup of coffee to really wake up and get ready to get on with her day. She had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and Jason was coming over for supper.
She ate some toast and got a shower and watched a little bit of daytime TV while she waited until it was time to leave. She kept losing track of what she was watching; her mind kept wandering back to the night before. Both the very hot make-out session and the look on his face when she'd told him no. She didn't think it was something he heard very often.
She had nothing to compare it to, but he really was a fantastic kisser. She'd felt those kisses all the way down to her toes, although most of those feelings had gotten held up between her legs. A big part of her had wanted to invite him in, but there was a bigger part that would have been disappointed in herself, especially with her upcoming date with Sam. Plus, she really did want to get to know him better before having sex with him. Before having sex with anybody. And she was more than a little bit nervous about losing her virginity. And she was still self-conscious about the scars.
But she could almost feel his soft lips on hers. His tongue in her mouth. His hands fisting her hair and the back of her dress and cupping her face.
Finally, it was time to leave. She was anxious about the appointment. It was weird, but she felt almost ashamed of how quickly she was healing. She knew it wasn't normal and she didn't know how she was going to explain it away. The scars were barely noticable and the pain was almost non-existent, except at the end of a long shift at work. And even the aches in her bicep and thigh were getting better every day. She was sure it'd had something to do with the dog attack — no, the werewolf attack — behind the Grabbit Kwik. She figured she might as well go on and say it, at least to herself.
The waiting room was half full when she arrived. She picked up a magazine and tried to shut out the thoughts of all the people nearby. Their pain and worry and impatience. Her telepathy was enhanced as much as her other senses were, but at least she was able to control it a little better now. All the mental noise reminded her again of how quiet Eric's mind was.
Her hearing was so acute, she could hear the receptionist on the phone behind her desk. Hell, she could even hear the person on the other end. She tried not to pay attention to that, either. Listening would be a really big invasion of privacy, but her whole life had been an invasion of privacy. A near-constant stream of too much information. She knew so much more about other people's private thoughts than she wanted to.
"Sookie? Come on back."
She set the magazine down and followed the nurse back to an examination room. The woman handed her a gown and a sheet and left the room to let Sookie undress. She did and sat on the little bed with the sheet spread over her bottom half. A few minutes later, the doctor knocked and came inside.
After a few pleasantries, Sookie lay on the examination table and the doctor took a close look at the bites. It had only been a week and a half since he'd given her the all clear to go back to work and Sookie could tell he was shocked. He shook his head and had her sit up.
"Everything looks good. Incredibly so. The scarring should be minimal. Do you see the plastic surgeon again?"
Sookie nodded.
"Next week."
"How's the pain?"
She shrugged.
"My leg aches if I've been on my feet for too long."
"On a scale of one to ten?"
She shrugged again.
"I don't know. Maybe a three?"
He shook his head again.
"It was touch and go just a few weeks back. The bites were the worst I've seen. I can hardly believe how fast you've improved. I'm going to go ahead and give you a clean bill of health. But if the pain increases, be sure to reach out."
How in the hell has she healed so quickly? It almost seems like a miracle. Or maybe… Could it have been vampire blood? No. It was too gradual for that. And she just isn't the type.
Sookie swallowed and tried not to react to the doctor's thoughts. Vampires? She tucked that thought back for later. Well, at least she tried to. She wasn't very successful.
She picked up a few things at the store and stopped at the Sonic for a milkshake. She sipped it on the way home. It was a warm day, but she shivered. She didn't know if it was from the memories of the night before or her drink.
When she got back, she made a lasagna and popped it in the oven. She threw together a salad and took care of the dishes. Jason showed up a few minutes after the road crew punched out at five.
"That smells great, Sis."
He kissed her cheek and sat down at the table. She smiled at him.
"Thanks. It'll be ready in ten."
She pulled the lasagna out of the oven to rest and threw in a loaf of garlic bread. She sat down across from Jason.
"How was work?"
He shrugged.
"It's alright. I'm tired of being on roadkill duty, that's for sure."
Sookie wrinkled her nose.
"Yuck."
"And how 'bout you, Sookie? I almost never see you in Merlotte's, with you working days and all. Is the job going okay?"
"Yup. It's definitely miles better than the Grabbit Kwik."
Jason smiled.
"I'll bet. And how about your boss? Has he asked you out yet?"
She blushed and shrugged with one shoulder.
"Maybe…"
Jason raised an eyebrow. Sookie laughed.
"Yeah, we're going out tomorrow night."
"He seems awfully interested. And what about that big guy from night before last? Who in the hell is he?"
Sookie blushed a little bit redder.
"I told you. His name is Eric. He works with Sam sometimes."
The eyebrow stayed up.
"And what was he doing holding hands with you?"
"The lasagna's ready."
Changing the subject worked, at least in the short term. Jason spent the next few minutes eating two and a half portions. When he finished, she got up to make a pot of coffee to go with the pie for dessert. He took the opportunity to press her on the Eric situation a little bit harder.
"So what did you do with this Eric the other night?"
Jason was sometimes more than a little overbearing and protective. And nosy.
"We just went out back and sat on the chairs outside Sam's place and talked. He's a really nice guy."
"Nice lookin', you mean."
Sookie laughed again.
"Yeah. That too."
"What are you gonna do if he asks you out, too?"
Sookie was downright pink.
"He already did. We went out last night."
Jason leaned back in his chair.
"Damn, Sookie. Seeing two guys at once? You're almost as bad as I am."
She was drying the dishes and putting them away while the coffee perked. She laughed and threw the dish towel at his head.
"Hey! I'm not sleeping with either one of them. It was just a date."
Sookie gave Jason his coffee and pie and then got some for herself.
"Thanks, Sook. Hey, did I tell you about the deer I found on the property a couple a weeks back?"
Sookie's stomach fell a little. She hoped she sounded normal.
"Nope. What about it?"
"It had its throat torn out and it was partially eaten. It musta been a panther that got to it. No dog could take down a deer like that. Not even old man Fortenberry's mutt. Best he could manage was to take down a twenty-one year old girl."
She vividly remembered tearing into the deer's flesh just past the tree line in the woods behind Jason's house and grimaced. He thought she was reacting to his joke and winced.
"Too soon?"
"Maybe a little."
Jason winced again.
"Sorry."
He left for Merlotte's shortly after. Sookie cleaned up the kitchen and spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Between the anxiety about her date the following night and remembering her date the night before, it took her a long time to go to sleep.
…
Eric and Alcide sat side by side in Sam's office, waiting for Sam to join them.
"What do you look so smug about?"
The door opened and Sam walked in and around his desk. He was scowling at Eric.
"How was your date?"
Eric grinned.
"We had an excellent time. I held her in my arms all night. We danced for hours. I will see her again on Friday."
Sam seethed inside but he eventually managed a smile. He sat down.
"Oh yeah? Well, I have a date with her tomorrow."
It was Eric's turn to scowl. He hadn't known she was dating the mutt as well. Maybe Sam was going to be more competition than he'd expected. Eric was angry he'd let his feelings show on his face. He could almost feel the smugness radiating from Merlotte.
Alcide looked back and forth between them.
"What is it about this girl? I mean, I get that she smells great, but is that it? Who is she?"
Sam said, "Her name is Sookie Stackhouse."
Alcide's brow wrinkled.
"Stackhouse… Is she the one who was attacked by that dog? I heard she was really torn up. Just a mess of bites. That dog really did a number on her."
Eric hadn't even had to bring the subject up. He could fish for information and ask some of the questions he wanted the answers to. And he would be keeping the fact that she couldn't be glamoured to himself. He steepled his fingers.
"She heals very quickly. Incredibly so. Her scars are already quite faint. There is definitely something special about her."
He'd already gone over this part of the conversation with Sam. This was all for Alcide.
Alcide said, "Well she sure isn't a Were, or any other kind of shifter, either. One of the paramedics was a weresnake and there are two-natureds in every department in the hospital. She was given everything from a piss test to an MRI. There was no sign of a shifter on her body after the attack. She just seemed to be a really healthy human with a temperature. She's that different?"
Sam and Eric replied, "Yes,"
"Huh. Well, I guess I'd better introduce myself sooner than later."
Both Eric and Sam gave him a dirty look.
Sam said, "Come on. We need to get serious here. That shifter from Clarice was killed the other night. We need to plan our next move."
