Look Before You Leap [True Blood]

43: Good Times Ahead

LPOV

The small apartment I'd rented out while Eric and I were broken up was mostly empty. I'd spent a lot of time in Shreveport with Rachel, helping her with wedding preparations. When I wasn't there, I was either at Sookie's or Bill's. Half my clothes had never made it out of the boxes I'd brought them back to Bon Temps in. The only thing in the kitchen was a half case of off brand TruBlood. It was more watery and tasted bloodier than TruBlood, but it wasn't infected with Hep-V.

I had barely been boxing things up for an hour, when my phone rang. It was Sookie. "Hi," I answered.

"Are you still in Bon Temps?" She asked.

"Yeah, I am," I told her. "Just getting my stuff together at the apartment."

She was quiet for a minute. "Do you wanna stay here? Rachel went home with Lafayette and James, and I don't really want to be alone."

"Sure," I said. "Pick me up?"

OoOoO

Sookie came to get me in her PJs. When we got back to her house she went right to the kitchen and made us each a large mug of hot chocolate.

She sat down on the couch next to me and pulled her knees up to her chest. "So you're moving back to Shreveport?"

"I think so, yeah. Now that Eric is better, and we're back on good terms again, it just seems like the right thing to do." I took a sip of my cocoa.

"What about Rachel?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure she's decided what she wants to do," I said. "Bill wants her to move into his house."

"Once he's gone," Sookie finished.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "I think it's a nice idea, but I'm not sure she'd want to move in right away, you know?"

"Too fresh."

"Maybe she'll go back to Colorado for a little bit. The schools up there are nice, it's a great place to raise kids." She nodded, but didn't say anything. "How are you holding up?"

"Bill told me why he's doing it, I guess you heard." I nodded. "It's hard to take in, that he's doing this to set me free."

"Can you imagine what our lives would have been like if vampires didn't exist?" I asked. "Or if they'd never come out of the coffin?"

"A lot more boring," she said, trying to smile.

"A lot less dangerous." I shook my head. "Then again, Rachel never would have met Alcide. Jessica would be trapped with a horrible, toxic family." I shrugged. "You and I would probably be crazy cat ladies."

"There's good and there's bad."

"Exactly." I nodded. "It's like poker, we're all dealt a hand, sometimes it's a good one, and sometimes it's a bad one. But we have to make the best of it, bluff our way through the tough times, and revel in the good ones."

"Maybe we haven't been dealt a full house, but we can't fold this round, we can't give up."

There was a loud noise outside, followed by shouting. "What the hell?" Sookie and I both jumped up and ran to the window. I couldn't see anything. Then my phone rang. "Eric?"

"You can come back to Fangtasia now," he said. "I'm outside." He hung up and I looked at Sookie confused.

"Um, will you be okay here, if I head out?" I asked.

She nodded. "See you soon."

I walked outside and found Eric leaning on the hood of a black sports car. "Need a ride?" As I got closer I could tell he was covered in blood spatter.