hardly working (LEEANN)

[sookiestackhouse]

Finally, Sookie had been cleared for working, which was great because she needed the money and she wasn’t about to ask Eric for a loan. Her roof was going to need replaced again, and soon. She had a little cushion money from the little favor she’d done Eric Northman in Dallas with Godric and the Fellowship and all that jazz and he’d overpaid her, on purpose (cringe), probably just because he could and to make her mind clouded with odd questions, which admittedly had happened first but then everything had been lost in the search for Bill, which, as it turned out, made her sick just thinking about. So she wasn’t in a particularly happy mood as she dressed for work and pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail. She looked in the mirror, makeup already done, white Merlotte’s shirt and black shorts with the standard tennis shoes, and tried to smile. She needed to change her mood, and quick or she wasn’t going to be able to get through the night.

Sook moved her arm and took a deep, experimental breath, and found that it didn’t hurt to breath; she decided to find pleasure in this small blessing. It hadn’t actually taken that long to heal, probably because of the doctor who had seen her. The broken rib was only taped up when she had to move around a lot and her wrist was no longer even wrapped up in the ace bandage. It had been Sam’s big idea for her to take a few days extra off. Not something Sookie had wanted to do because, again, she kind of needed the money.

So her mood was considerably better as she drove from her house, down to the post office to grab her mail, and then to Merlotte’s Bar and Grill where she would be able to spend the evening with her co-workers slash friends. Sookie had grown to view the people she worked with (and for) as friends, even if some of them did think she was crazy, or psychic, or whatever. Some people had a difficult time separating psychic from telepathic. But she wasn’t going to let that get her down. She walked into the bar, a few minutes early, and stashed her purse in her little cubby in Sam’s office and took a B12 vitamin before heading out to the public portion of the bar. She found a newspaper on the counter and started reading, waiting for everyone else on her shift to get here. She thought she worked with Terry and either Tina or LeeAnn tonight, but to be completely honest, Sookie’s schedule was so messed up she couldn’t even really remember.

The paper read something about Thelma-Rae, but Sookie wasn’t really absorbing anything at the moment. She was busy attempting to block everyone’s thoughts from her own mind. She could practically feel the eyes on her already. Don’t let them get to you, she reminded herself. She took a couple of deep breaths and decided that she’d start work a little early, even if it was really slow; Arlene would be glad to get to her kids anyway. Sookie told the redhead that she’d take over the tables and Arlene practically darted out the door. So much for filling her in. The familiar stretch of Sookie’s smile formed on the blonde’s face as she went to the first table to make sure everything was fine.

[LeeAnn Butler]

“Two Bud Lights and a sweet tea, comin' right up!” LeeAnn's voice was cheerful and friendly as she jotted down some shorthand and stuffed her pad into her apron. As she turned and passed by another table she interrupted long enough to say, “I'll be right back with your extra sauce, sugar,” and then kept on walking. Her pace was quick, but not harried, the kind of hurry that just comes natural to some people and other people have to struggle at. When she got to the kitchen she looked at the orders ready for pickup and started to build a tray.

Breaks? What were those?

“Hey,” she greeted as she passed by her fellow waitress, her tray balanced precariously on her hand, just above her shoulder. The other carried an X stand to set the tray on when she got to the table. She was working the one right next to Sookie's, and she turned her attention to her customers. “Hope y'all are thirsty,” she told them, passing out pints to each of them and then filling up the table with the bar food they had ordered – fried pickles, green tomatoes, the usual. Then she folded up the tray and glanced around the table. “Can I get y'all anything else?” she asked helpfully.

“Your number,” one of the guys tossed out there hopefully.

She smiled back demurely and lifted her left hand to show off a ring she wore just so she didn't have to field those kinds of offers. “Ohhh, sorry hon.” She wiggled her fingers. “That's off limits.” She winked and then said over her shoulder as she started to turn around. “When y'all are ready for your refills, you let me know, now.” And with that, the table was done, and she turned her eyes to the waitress she had greeted earlier.


“Sure glad you're here. We're busier than long-tailed cats in a room full of rockin' chairs.” She grinned in a friendly way, as she meandered towards the bar next to Sookie. “I'm LeeAnn, by the way. You're Sookie, right? I think Sam hired me on while you were on vacation.” And because this is the South, and it was a little bitty town, and that meant secrets were practically news, a concerned expression took root on her face. “You feelin' alright?” She didn't know the whole circumstances of Sookie's 'vacation' – gossip never is very complete information – but the rumor was she'd taken ill, or been hurt in some way, and that was enough for her to extend a polite inquiry – and to get her mind running, if truth be told.

[sookiestackhouse]

“Yes, sir, that comes with fries but you can have ‘em with onion rings instead if ya like,” Sookie’s southern accented voice was high pitched with the force of friendliness drawn on her face. Outwardly, the two men at the table were perfect gentlemen, just like all the other southern men who passed through here on a day to day, night to night, basis. Their thoughts told her they were from out of town, which would explain the question about onion rings that the older man had had about the menu, but also in their thoughts was the usual mental undressing of just about every female in the bar. Currently, the younger man was mentally undressing Sookie; part of her was royally pissed, but the other part was amused with wonder at what any one of the vampires she knew would think about these particular thoughts. It was almost enough to make her laugh. Almost. That was when she realized that the friendliness wasn’t actually forced, but that since coming into the bar, she’d actually improved her mood. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she could be useful now; it felt like she was riding that I’m healthy enough to work high.

Another genuine smile crossed her face as she wrote down the order and stuffed the pen in her little apron. “I’ll be right back with your drinks,” she promised, practically hopping away from the table. She smiled at Terry when she got to the window and put the order in and then got the beer for the younger male and the Coke for the older one. It was a relief that at least one of them was planning on staying sober tonight.

Back at the bar she was looking over the paper again when the other waitress came up. LeeAnn. Sookie knew her only from the descriptions and pictures in everyone else’s head and the fact that she’d been the waitress hired by Sam while Sookie had been healing. She also made a mental note that she’d seen the woman at least in passing (though that night was blurry for reasons Sookie didn’t care to get into and involved more alcohol than the blonde woman was used to taking into her system) at the Fangtasia party. Sookie hadn’t remembered about the last third of that night at least due to the uncharacteristic amount of alcohol she’d had to drink - partially trying to fit in, partially out of the desire to have fun, and partially out of wanting to feel numb for several reasons that she didn’t want to remember because they wouldn’t make her any happier.

“Uh, yeah. Sookie Stackhouse. Nice to meet you.” She smiled, trying to pick apart the woman’s brain. That was normal - Sookie usually tried to stay out of the heads of people, and she’d been getting better at it since she’d had vampire blood and been hanging around with the supernatural, but she also generally didn’t hold back when a new person started working. She thought of it sort of like protecting herself and Sam. Waitressing wasn’t exactly a job that required amazing skills or even a completely moral mind, but with things that wanted Sookie dead, the fae wasn’t taking any chances.

She nodded and smiled an easy smile, not letting anything get her down tonight. “Yeah, I was in Shreveport for a while healing my fractured wrist and broken rib, but I’m fine now.” She didn’t even pretend that she couldn’t hear the thought, the string of rumors that had appeared in the woman’s mind. Of course everyone knew she hadn’t actually been on a vacation, but Sam would be kind enough to at least try to spare her dignity. “So glad you started working here. We’ve kinda had a bad luck as far as waitresses go. I’m sure you’ve heard all about it by now though.” She smiled again and pushed the newspaper to the side.

[LeeAnn Butler]

Broken rib and fractured wrist? LeeAnn's mind whirred. She wondered what the woman had been through to cause such extensive damage – a car accident? A fall? But because of the history with her sister, her mind also considered that it might have been more sinister, and she found her eyes sweeping the woman's face on reflex, the way she used to do to her sister to spot the remains of any bruises or heavier than usual makeup. She didn't see any, but that didn't mean they didn't exist, but she caught herself before she let the idea get too out of hand. She didn't know what had happened to Sookie, and it was none of her business anyway.

But as far as what happened to make Merlotte's need waitresses so badly, she had to admit, she hadn't heard about it at all. “Well,” she replied, tilting her head slightly, as if Sookie was half right and half wrong. “I think people are too polite to talk about all that too much in front of me,” she admitted. “I figured that meant one or two came to a bad end, but I don't know much more than that.” She shrugged, and then tilted her head slightly. Her expression and tone were ones of amusement.

“You know, before I moved to Bon Temps when I talked about a waitress coming to a bad end, I was talking about stealing money from the till or something.” She laughed and moved to start folding silverware into napkins, a task that needed almost constant doing. “I'm starting to learn that around these parts y'all have bigger problems.” She shook her head lightly, still more joking than serious. “Sure wasn't nothing like this back in Greene County.”

[sookiestackhouse]

Normally, Sookie was fairly good at responding to spoken conversation rather than thoughts, but sometimes she slipped up. Like now. “More like pushed, actually.” She hadn’t been actually looking at LeeAnn when she heard the thoughts, instead Sookie was busy wiping menus. “I didn’t fall on my face; all the bruises were on my stomach and wrist, but they’re gone now.” She stretched her arm out almost reflexively to show the woman. “Eric found me in time, I guess. It probably would have been worse. I was unconscious when I got to Fangtasia.” Maybe it was because Sookie could hear human thoughts, or maybe it was her good mood, but whatever the reason, Sookie wasn’t in a holding back kind of mood. She probably should have been, there were enough people that wanted to use her for their own reasons - or dead even. Luckily, for her, Eric had taken care of at least two of those ‘people’ already.

The blonde was actually surprised (not common in a telepath and very uncommon in a telepath who lives in a predictable small town) when the newer waitress said that she hadn’t really heard about the rumors about Merlotte’s. Almost immediately, Sookie let her mind wander into the minds of the customers in the bar. The thoughts about the dead waitresses weren’t nearly as prominent now as they had been when the deaths were very recent. She supposed that was sort of typical; they probably wouldn’t have even lasted this long if Bon Temps had been a big city up north, or even in Dallas, Texas. Thinking about Dallas had her mentally cringing and she was glad she probably wouldn’t have to go back any time soon, unless for some reason she was suddenly required there again. She supposed that was just about as likely now as it had been before.

“Nothin’ like what? The dead waitresses?” She smiled but kept wiping the menus, looking up now and then to see if anyone at her tables needed anything. Sookie nodded and sighed. “Some people have worse problems I guess. Since Russell went off his rocker, I’m thinkin’ the vamps got more problems than the rest of us. I can’t really imagine havin’ worse problems than them right now.” Sookie’s thoughts went to the vampires she knew. She didn’t think Eric or Pam was really having any trouble, but they weren’t technically mainstreaming and Eric’s business probably actually profited from the danger that Russell had showed everyone. Bill and Jessica were going to have a more difficult time. Jessica worked at Merlotte’s nights and… well she didn’t know exactly what her ex did, but he was definitely mainstreaming… usually…

[LeeAnn Butler]

She was caught off guard a little by Sookie's honest admission of what had happened to her, particularly since she hadn't asked. But she just started talking about it like she was having a conversation that LeeAnn could only hear half of. Was she... was she crazy or something? Well far be it from her to judge somebody for a few oddities. She wasn't even that grateful to have her curiosity satisfied when she heard that the woman really had been attacked, and this Eric person had stepped in somehow. She didn't know why anyone would take her to Fangtasia of all places, but, maybe she had been nearby. Whatever happened, she was glad she was alright. She just didn't approve of people getting physical with women; it just wasn't right for people to throw around their weight just because they could.

And then her eyes blinked wide open when Sookie mentioned dead waitresses. So the waitresses had died?? Multiple waitresses? Well, good grief! She hoped the good Lord was looking out for her, because she sure did need the money; starvation didn't exactly sound fun, either. Her brows furrowed when Sookie went on to explain that the 'vamps' – vampires, she figured out – were having some kind of trouble as well with someone named Russel. She had no idea what the girl was talking about, since she hadn't been paying the first bit of attention to what happened to the vampires and didn't even know how one would go about getting news about them. She smiled a little sheepishly.

“I actually meant the vampires themselves. We don't have any where I'm from. The town where I grew up makes Bon Temps look like a metropolis, and I guess if there were any vampires they kept to themselves. We're a pretty... protective bunch down in Greene County.” She thought of a bunch of old rednecks with their shotguns raised in protest if anyone tried to open anything like 'Fangtasia' there. She wouldn't want to be harsh on her home, but there were a lot of good ol' boys around there and she wouldn't put it past them to get violent. That's just how things were there.

“Seems they're pretty common 'round these parts, though,” she went on, genuinely curious. She had never given two figs what vampires did or didn't do until she had seen Fangtasia, but she admitted she was starting to get pretty interested. Not interested in the way the fangbangers were, really. She didn't really care how they... felt or ate or anything. The idea of the fangbangers really turned her stomach, but she tried not to let it get to her too bad. She'd just serve them their synthetic blood, and let the Good Lord do what he would with them.

[sookiestackhouse]

Crap! Focus, Sook. The blonde scolded herself for the little slip that had happened. Sure, she didn’t hide what she was, but she didn’t like to broadcast it either. Just what she needed, someone else thinking she was crazy. Well, at least she knew that the woman didn’t hang out much with vampires, which had Sookie relieved actually since she was sure she’d seen the girl at Fangtasia talking to Eric. What the hell, Sook? You’re not allowed to get jealous about that. Of course, thinking that and actually not getting jealous were two very different things and Sookie’s emotions were about as wild as a… well, a wolf on a full moon. Things were changing a lot really fast and it wasn’t making her friendships with the vampires any easier… Except maybe the one she shared with Pam. While Sookie thought Eric’s creation was odd at times (and mostly just to get on the fae’s nerves at that), she had to admit that it wasn’t really any harder to talk to Pam than it had been before everything between Sookie and Bill had begun, and ended as it were.

“Oh, well, I guess it has to do with being in the same state as New Orleans.” Sookie shrugged and she hoped it looked casual. She wasn’t about to tell the woman that the two vampires who actually mainstreamed in Bon Temps were here because a vampire queen had wanted to use Sookie as her personal sunscreen. “And since Eric opened the bar, I guess it’s just sort of natural for vamps to migrate where the most TruBlood is. At least, that’s what I’d do if I lived off blood.”

Thank God she didn’t have to live off blood, though she’d had more than her fair share of vampire blood, something she wasn’t going to tell anyone if she could help it. Not that it really mattered with almost everyone thinking she was crazy anyway, but Sookie didn’t want to push people’s buttons harder than she had to.

Sookie blinked a few times with the thought about fangbangers. Would Sookie look like a fangbanger to LeeAnn if the woman knew the kind of people the blonde dated? What if she realized that Sookie could read thoughts of humans (and shifters and weres though they weren’t really out yet so she doubted the waitress even knew of them) but not those of vampires? Would that make a difference? It wasn’t like she hadn’t been pushed away by some of her friends because of who she hung out with. Both Tara and Arlene had scolded her more than once for hanging around vampires and both of them knew about her little disability and also knew she couldn’t hear vampire thoughts. Tara was a little more on the forgiving side it felt like though.

She tried to look natural, but that wasn’t coming so easily to her at the moment. She really didn’t need someone else she worked with to hate her because of something she found so trivial. But she was also caught off guard a bit. She had assumed that Eric would naturally have all but bragged about how he owned Fangtasia and how well business was going. Now that she had caught this little information about vampires and fangbangers, she wondered if she should have just kept her mouth shut about Fangtasia and Eric in the first place. “We have our fair share, I suppose.” She hoped the whole Eric thing had been forgotten. Maybe LeeAnn would assume it was a different Eric, or a different bar. There certainly were more than a few of those around and Eric was a fairly common name. “But they have their problems. Bill and Jessica’s house got vandalized not too long back. There was a cross burnin’ in their yard and everything.” She hoped this information would get the woman’s interest more than anything else she’d said tonight.

[LeeAnn Butler]

Sookie was still talking a mile over her head, but she nodded as if she understood everything. She didn't know that New Orleans held any significance for vampires – made her wonder twice who she had been getting those beads from the year she went to Mardi Gras! - or what bar she meant either, though she supposed it could be Fangtasia. For all she knew, there were a dozen other bars nearby just like it, and she didn't realize it was an uncommon thing out in the 'real world' instead of backwoods country where she was from. She just didn't know enough, but she supposed a few more conversations with this girl and she would be all caught up! She seemed to know it all.

“Oh no,” she replied when Sookie talked about the cross burning in someone called Bill and Jessica's yard. “That's awful,” she said. Though she couldn't say it was altogether unexpected. Bon Temps wasn't so far off from home after all, it seemed. She didn't agree with people like that, but she had certainly got used to it. Whenever people from different backgrounds came around, there was bound to be some tension with people who were used to things being a certain way. Vampires were just the newest minority group, she supposed, and since different races and sexual oriented people were still getting their fair share of hate crimes, she supposed vampires weren't out of the woods yet. So to speak.

“I sure hope they're alright?” she asked. Though she had no love for vampires, she didn't hate them. She didn't know anything about them, just that the idea of them... well, it kinda grossed her out. Drinking blood, and everything. She would never wish any harm to anyone else, though, even if they deserved it. Even her sister's ex husband. Scaring people like that just wasn't necessary, and she sure hoped that had been the extent of it – though she knew that if the people responsible had gone that far, who knew how much further they were willing to go.

[sookiestackhouse]

The blonde just couldn’t seem to reel herself in tonight, which was a major problem, but as far as she could tell, the new waitress hadn’t picked up on her little slip about Eric, at least, not enough to question her about it, which was fine by her. Things were going fairly well with Eric for the time being, or as well as was possible with an egotistical vampire, and she didn’t need to have things slip already. Or maybe she was off the hook and Eric had told the woman everything. That would be a bit of a relief, either way, Sookie was determined to not bring up the King of Louisiana or his vampire bar again if at all possible. Moreover, the blonde woman didn’t really want to even think of them for the remainder of the time she spent working. That would be difficult, it felt like the Viking was starring in her thoughts lately, which obviously wasn’t a good thing since it seemed to make her slip up a little more than usual.

Then again, LeeAnn would find out sooner or later what Sookie could do, just like everyone else that worked there and pretended that she was normal. Wasn’t it better to get it all out in the open right now? Sookie decided she’d let the woman find out on her own, but she wasn’t going to deny anything either. At the same time, she didn’t have to mention Eric or Fangtasia for her little talent to be found out. But she also couldn’t come right out and say hey, I’m telepathic so watch your thoughts, which was kind of frustrating. It just seemed rude to do it that way.

“Jess is fine. You probably met her while I was gone. She’s our hostess most nights and she’s a really sweet girl. I haven’t talked to Bill a whole lot lately though. We just went through a sort of break up.” In all honesty, she was surprised this news hadn’t hit the woman yet either. Sookie had been sort of the town gossip as far as human vampire relationships go and with the break up being so recent she’d figured that people would attribute her lack of work hours not to injury but to the emotional stress of getting out of a vampire romance. In a way, it was relaxing to know that not everyone was gossiping about her behind her back though, or at least, not to newcomers. “But as far as I know, he’s fine from the whole cross burnin’ thing.” She didn’t add that he looked like hell for other reasons that made her feel incredibly guilty.

She shrugged as if the part about minority groups had been said out loud. “We get our extremists sometimes. Sorta expected when our cook is black and attracted to men, but don’t let Tara hear ya talkin’ bout it. She’s kinda touchy when it comes ta race an’ all that. Actually, she’s kinda touchy ‘bout a lotta stuff.” Sookie smiled and laughed a little. “You’ll get used to it though.”