Chapter Text
Sookie had been shopping all day with Nicole, Sam's wife and mother of his two children. They hadn't gotten up as early as some of the crazy, fanatic Black Friday shoppers, but it was early enough that now it was just a little after five in the evening. Sookie was dead tired from the activities of the day, and being almost eight months pregnant.
After dropping off Nicole at the hotel where she and Sam were staying at in Shreveport, Sookie left with a tired smile and a wave heading back to Bon Temps.
Although Sookie was happy to get away from the house with a friend for the day, she was ready to go back to her normal life and put up her feet. Maybe, just maybe, she could convince Dirk to rub her feet. After all, she'd been shopping for deals to finish buying the last items they needed for the baby, and to hopefully buy him a Christmas present he'd like since they hadn't been getting along too well lately. She was sure all that would change when the baby was born.
At least she hoped it changed.
As she listened to the radio, Sookie thought about how they had met and their relationship over the last few years. It had been about five months after Bill and Alcide had died that Arlene and Jessica convinced Sookie that she needed a night out. They went dancing at a club in Monroe where she met Dirk. He had asked her for her phone number and called her the next day. Sookie explained to him that she wasn’t ready to be in a relationship of any kind at the moment, but they could be friends. Dirk was agreeable to being friends and waited patiently until Sooie was ready to date. By that time, Dirk had already fallen in love with Sookie and was set to make her love him too.
Although she loved her husband, she wasn't in love with him and she never was, a fact of which her husband was well aware. It had caused a great deal of tension throughout their relationship. He knew how she felt when he proposed and they had had a long talk about how she might never be able to give him her heart. Dirk was okay with it then, but as the years passed he became more resentful that she couldn't let go of a certain tall, blond vampire whom she hadn't seen in years.
The only vampires in their lives were Jessica, James, and Willa. Both Sookie and Dirk knew why Willa had decided to become friends with Sookie. They had never really been friends and out of nowhere, Willa started showing up around once a week. The first time that Willa had come by Dirk had been out with his friends, and since they’d never been close, Sookie decided to ask as nicely as she could why Willa had shown up on her doorstep almost eight months after the last time she saw her at Bill’s house; the night Eric had arrived infected with Hep V and called her to him. Willa had liked the fact that Sookie had come right out and asked her what she was thinking. She decided that she’d be honest with the human who had captured her Maker’s heart and let her know that she had been sent to look out for her and to let Eric know if Sookie needed anything. They had both appreciated each other’s honesty and a genuine friendship had started that night.
Once Dirk figured out that Willa was there to keep an eye out on his wife and that it had given her even the tiniest bit of hope that Eric fucking Northman might still care, his resentment started to build every time the young vampire paid a visit.
The longer Sookie and Dirk were together, the easier it became for her to start capturing his thoughts. She knew that her husband got angrier and more resentful with each of Willa's visits, but she just couldn't bring herself to ask Willa to stop visiting or looking in on her. Whichever way you wanted to see it, she'd never had many friends, so it was nice having her in her life.
So yes, she probably wasn't going to be getting a foot rub or any type of pleasant greeting from her husband when she got home. He didn't care that Nicole wanted to shop in Shreveport so that she could stick close to her family. They had a new baby and it was the first time she had left him since he was born. Sam was a great dad to their children, but she was a mom and she still worried. Nor did Dirk care that the best deals, meaning spending less money, something they didn't have a great deal of these days now that she had quit working once her belly had started to knock customers drinks into their laps and food onto the floor, were in Shreveport. It didn't matter that it was daylight and there was no possible way for Sookie to run into any vampires, let alone the one she had been missing over the years. Sookie was pretty sure that she would be met with a bad attitude and a husband wanting his dinner on the table as soon as possible. Maybe I should pick up a pizza or three for dinner, she mused. It still amazed her how much men could eat and not gain a pound, especially Weres.
It wasn't long after picking up a few pizzas that Sookie was pulling up to her house. Yes, she still lived in her family's homestead. The sun had fully set now and with a new moon, it was pitch dark outside. Sookie thought it was strange that he hadn't turned on the security lights for her or a single light in the house. Slowly getting out of the car with her burgeoning belly and the pizzas she had picked up, Sookie was startled when Willa flashed in front of her.
"Oh my God, Willa, are you trying to give me a heart attack or get me to go into labor?"
"I'm so sorry, Sookie. I didn't mean to scare you. It’s just…”
"What are you doing here? You were only here last night," Sookie whispered, hoping to not alert her husband to Willa's presence.
"I stayed with Jessica and Hoyt last night, and came over to see how you're doing before I headed back to Shreveport," Willa said as she looked around wildly.
"As you can see, I'm fine, but extremely tired and need to get into the house before our dinner has gone cold. So if you'll excuse me, I'll probably see you next week," Sookie said in half statement and half question.
Willa looked around nervously, unsure of how she was going to break the news to Sookie.
"What's gotten into you? You're acting strangely. Did Dirk say something mean to you? If he did, I'm really sorry,” Sookie said sadly as she shook her head.
"I don't know how to say this to you. Sookie, I'm so sorry," Willa said as blood tears filled her eyes. She was sad for her friend and worried how she might react.
"I'm sure whatever it is everything will be fine," Sookie said as she made her way to the front door.
"Sookie, Dirk's dead. You don't want to go in there. It's... bad. I've never seen anything like it and that's saying a lot.”
Being turned and then almost immediately being thrown in vamp camp, and then the two years where Hep V vampires had turned everyone's lives into a nightmare, Willa had thought she'd seen just about everything until she walked into Sookie's house tonight after smelling blood.