"What the fuck do you mean, you don't want it?" " Jessica" " Why, Bill?" "You don't even know, do you?" "I don't know how to explain myself other than to say that I have accepted my fate." "And that would be all well and good if you had to, but you don't, right?" "All you've gotta do is drink this cunt's blood and this could all be over." "As much as I appreciate a compelling character drama the yakuza are upstairs so need I remind you to keep it the fuck down volume-wise?" "Whatever this is, whatever you're doing you don't get to hide behind the word "fate."" "The cure is right fucking there." "Look at her." "She's your fate." "She is your destiny." "If you don't drink her blood you're making a choice, Bill." "A choice you won't have to live with but we will, Jessica and me." "You're right." "Thank God." "I am making a choice." "I'm choosing the true death." " Fuck you, Bill." " Jessica." "Don't you look at me like that." "I'm with her." "I want to know why." "I can't." "Try!" "There are no words." "You should leave." "And not a word about Sarah to anyone." "I understand." "Bill?" "I want you to release me." " Jessica" " Do it." "Jessica Hamby as I know you know I never wanted to make you a vampire." "Turning you was punishment for taking the life of one of our kind." "I am so proud of the vampire that you've become and I know you will stand out there on your own two feet just beautifully when I am gone." "I renounce the ties of our blood and my dominion over you as my progeny." "As your maker, Jessica I release you." "Cry on my jacket, you're paying for it, sweetheart." "I'm sorry, Sookie." "It's safe." " You can come on out." " Thanks." " Where'd you go, Sam?" " Sookie?" "Do you want me to wait outside?" "Actually, I don't wanna be alone." ""Dearest Sookie, if you're reading this letter then you've probably already figured out that I'm gone." "I take that you haven't forgotten Nicole's little outburst the other night..."" "Truthfully, Sook, I ain't sure whether she's right or wrong about our town." " Thanks, sweetie." " Ah." "No problem." " This little girl's doing backflips in here." " Yeah?" "And she says we're all crazy." "I think we might just be resilient." "Either way, there are two things I am sure of." "The first is that I love Nicole very much." " Hey, hey, hey, no fucking way, baby." " I got it." " You don't got it." " I almost had it." " Yeah, you did almost have it." "Jeez." " I'm still strong, you know?" "I know you're strong, but you gotta relax." "Come on, why don't you sit down?" "The second is there ain't no way I'm gonna miss out on seeing my baby grow up." "The way I see it, we live two lives here on Earth, Sookie." "The first is for us." "The second's for our kids." "And we gotta teach them what we know what we've learned." "Now, don't get me wrong, Sookie." "This is a goodbye." "Older I get, more I realize the world ain't as big a place as I used to think it was." "And I'm just gonna be in Chicago." "And that's just a stone's throw." "Nicole and I would love to have you come out after the baby's born." "Think about it, all right?" "Thank you for doing this, baby." " I know what you're giving up." " I am getting way more than I'm losing." "Okay." "I want you to know after everything we've been through, Sookie..." ""Know that I love you." "...know that I love you." "Sam."" " Arlene?" "Knock-knock." " Sookie, is that you?" "Yeah, I didn't wanna sneak up on you." " I brought Jessica with." " Yay." "Well, this shouldn't be weird at all." " Hey, Redbone." " Hey." "What's going on here?" " Did you see Field of Dreams?" " No." "Say it, Big John." ""If you build it, they will come."" " Yes, they will." " I don't get it." "Well, the way I see it, business sucks right now but it ain't ever gonna pick up unless we open up." "So I decided that starting tonight, we're just gonna show up for work anyhow then just wait it out till the customers start coming back." "But in the meantime party's gonna have to be just for us, y'all." "So can I get you something to drink?" "No, thanks." "Not right now." "Is you all right, Sook?" "Sam's gone." " What?" " He's gone." "Can I talk to you for a sec?" "What's going on?" "He left us each a letter." "I found them in his trailer." "Okay." "Mine was pretty heavy, so I figured you might not wanna read it in front of a whole bunch of people." "Yeah, yeah, this is probably more appropriate considering the circumstances." "Thank you." " Do you want to be alone?" " No, sweetheart." "You can stay." "Andy?" ""Dear Sheriff Bellefleur, I resign." "Sincerely, Sam Merlotte."" " That's it?" " That's it." "So the whole closed-door thing?" "Completely unnecessary." "Sure, Arlene." "Is it stainless steel?" "Hey, Jess." "Look, I'm sorry about the way everything went down." "I don't know very much about you." "What are you talking about?" "The other night at Sookie's after you left Lafayette said something to me that made a lot of sense." "He said that he knew things about you that I didn't." "He said I didn't know them because I never cared enough to ask." "I'm sorry that I never asked." "It's okay." "Are you two happy together?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I think we're gonna be." "Then I'm happy for you." "Thank you." "Do me a favor, will you?" "Yeah, anything." "Just make sure that Sookie gets home safe." "Of course." "Where are you going?" "Jess?" "Look, I'm really proud of you for being a hero and all, Hoyt but I think that we need to talk." " What about?" " What about?" "About last night, Hoyt." "About you not wanting to have children." "You owe me an explanation." "Don't you think that I deserve that?" "I love you, Brigette." "If I wanted to have kids I would want to have kids with you." "I just" "I don't know if that's where I'm at." "That's all." "That's all it is." "Who was that redhead last night?" "What redhead?" "The vampire." "The one who got all googly-eyed after you saved her life?" "All Southern with her eyelashes that go on for days." "Brigette, I've never seen her before last night." "I've never laid eyes on a redheaded vampire before." " But you know who she is now, don't you?" " Oh, fuck." " What?" " Could we just talk without you hounding on me?" "Where were you today while I was here packing up this house so you wouldn't have to deal with the emotional burden of it?" "Where were you?" "I was with Officer Stackhouse." "You were with Jason?" "All day?" "You didn't go anywhere else?" "You didn't do anything else?" "Okay." "Okay, I saw her." " Goddamn it, Hoyt." " No, goddamn nothing." "Listen, I've never seen her before and I don't have any idea who she is, and that's the truth." "I'm sitting up with Jason at Merlotte's or Bellefleur's" "Whatever the hell it is they call it now, and he tells me her maker's dying." "Okay, so you don't know her, but you do know her maker?" "Yes." "Yeah, he's the first vampire that I ever met." "He's always been good to me and had a super interesting life." "The man is dying." "I wanted to help out." "So I went to the clinic, gave blood, took it over there so he'd have something to eat, that's the truth." "You swear you're not lying to me, Hoyt?" "I swear I'm not lying to you." " I'm sorry." " It's okay." "No, it's not." "I know you better than that." "I guess I just don't know you here or something." " Honey, it's okay." " Mm-hm." "I'll make us some dinner, we'll forget all about it." "Hoyt?" "Hoyt, can you open the door, please?" "I really" " I need to talk to you." " Who is that?" " I don't know, baby." "I don't know." "What do you want?" "I'm sorry, Hoyt." "I'm really sorry." " This is so" " Jesus, Jess." "What's the matter?" "Huh." "Oh, so you do know her, then?" "Look, I know that I should not be here but please, can I come in?" "No, you may not." "Hoyt, you are a fucking liar." "He's not lying." "He's not." "I know him, but he doesn't know me." " That's not even possible." " Yes, it is." "Trust me." "That's what I came here for." "I came here to tell him" " To tell you..." " Tell me what?" " About us." "Hoyt, you and me, we used to be together." " What?" " We lived together and we were so, so happy." "And then I went..." "...and I fucked it up." " You need to leave." " Hang on a second." " No, I'm not gonna hang on a second." "Look, I am so confused right now and I don't know what the fuck is going on but I do know that I don't want to listen to it." "I can't." "If you want to listen to it, then you can feel free to, but do it outside." "And go out there knowing if you walk out on me now you and me are through." "Do you understand?" "I'm sorry, Brigette." "Jessica?" "You wanna tell me what's going on?" "Bill released me tonight." "Jesus, I'm sorry." "Why?" "There's a cure but he wouldn't drink it." " I'm confused." " Yeah, so am I." "Because it was right there." "Salvation was right there and he wouldn't take it." " How come?" " I don't know." "And I don't think that he even knows, but I" " I could understand." "I could understand someone accepting their fate if they had to, but if they don't?" "That I don't understand." "But you thought I would understand." "I thought you would understand me." "You were the first man that I ever really loved." "I'm really sorry that I fucked everything up with your girlfriend." "I mean, she seems really nice and everything." "It's just that I knew that you were here and I couldn't think of anyone else I would want to be with on a night like tonight." "And that is the most selfish thing I have ever heard." "Well, maybe it is." "But for whatever reason does it really fucking matter right now?" "I want you to see if you can try to catch your breath." "And once you've caught it, I want you to tell me the story of us." "Okay." "You're okay." "You're okay." "It's okay." "Stackhouse." "Hey, I" "I'm really sorry to bother you but you're the only person I know in this town..." "...so do you think you could come and get me?" " Sure, but who is this?" "It's me, Brigette." "Hoyt's Brigette?" "Not anymore." "Oh, shit." "What happened?" "Well, that redheaded vampire from last night showed up and" "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Jessica?" "Yeah, and she started talking about how she and Hoyt used to go together." "And, I don't know, the whole thing just became a big mess." "Well, saddle up, Brigette because thins are about to get a lot messier when I get there." "I'm on my way." "Well, what are y'all having?" "Etouffee and dirty rice." " I don't like dirty rice." " Shut up, honey." "Yeah, you do." "Big John, why don't you sit down?" "Lafayette's got the kitchen." " I'd love to, boss lady." " All right, then." " You're a sweet boss lady." " Ha-ha-ha." "I try." "You know Big John knows what he's doing back there with this." "Aren't you gonna join us, Sookie?" "I don't think so, sweetie." "Darling?" "Is she all right?" "I'll be right back." "Let's see what we got here." "Sookie." "Aint you hungry?" "Keith ain't eating." "You want me to ask him if he'll take you home?" "You and Keith, huh?" "Yeah, I guess so." "I mean, we're taking it real slow because we can't have sex because it would kill him if we did, but yeah." "I kind of like him." "Who would've thunk it?" "Arlene Fowler and a vampire." "You don't have to tell me how strange it sounds." "You got any advice for me?" "You don't want my advice." "Not when it comes to dating vampires, you don't." "Bill's dying." " What?" " I gave it to him." "Hep-V." "Honey." "I didn't even know you were positive." "Neither did I so I fed him before we headed over to Fangtasia the other night." "And he's already sick?" "Because of what I am." "Because of my blood." "He's going fast." "Fuck." "How do you do it?" "What's that?" "Keep moving on?" "You've started over so many times." "How do you do it?" "Well, it helps when your ex-husband..." "But without that first thing you gotta do is make up your mind you want to." "I held myself back from Alcide because I never really let go of Bill, didn't I?" "I think you might have, honey." "That wasn't fair to him." "I don't want to do that to anyone ever again." "Well, then, something tells me you won't." "I love you." "I love you too." "Now, come on." "Let's get you something to eat." " I don't like dirty rice either." " Then just put some on your plate." "Pick around it." "Okay, y'all, time to dig in." "Thanks for waiting." "Lafayette, it's time to eat." " Get over here." " Get your ass out here." "Be right there, hooker." " This is so beautiful." " Oh, I know." "Eric." "Come in." "When Pam found me in France, I felt the same way you do." "Nihilistic." "Prepared to die." "Wanting to die." "This disease, it doesn't just destroy the body" " It's not the disease, Eric." " Nobody's talking about it, but it attacks" "It attacks the spirit." "Why are you here?" "I came for Sookie." "What you're doing to her is unconscionable." "I'm doing this for Sookie." "Everything I'm doing, I'm doing for her." "Try listening to her, then." " Because this is not what she wants." " But it's what she needs." "She loves you." "She'll learn to love someone else." "But not while I'm on the planet." "Get over yourself, Bill." "If she weren't fae she wouldn't be drawn to us." "We wouldn't be drawn to her." "In the end, you have to admit it." "It is her light that pulls us in just as she is pulled to our darkness." "Were you progressed to the point that you were experiencing fever dreams?" "I had a few." "Before I came out to Fangtasia tonight I dreamt that Sookie was rocking a baby to sleep." "It was our baby, I suppose." "She was singing a lullaby and putting the baby down for the night." "And I was coming up from behind her not to be part of it but to observe it, I guess." "I looked over her shoulder, and I finally saw our child." "And it was a void." "A black void." "Sookie had given birth to death." "Fuck." "That's what we are, Eric." "That's all we can give her." "I have lied to her, threatened her almost raped her." "And yet, like a moth to a flame, she always returns to me." "She can't let go." "I want to set her free." "Will you talk to her for me?" "What?" "Ask her if I can call on her tonight." "She needs to understand this decision." "She deserves to know but I can't explain it to her if she doesn't give me the chance." "Please." "I'm over a thousand years old, Bill." "If I had an aptitude for marriage counseling don't you think I would've figured that out by now?" "This will be the last favor I ask of you, Northman." "And that's a promise." "Yeah, I'll talk to her." "I'll see you to the door." "No." "Save your strength." " I had to tell you." " What?" "Oh, fuck." " Jason, what are you doing?" " Fuck him." "Brigette called me." "Listen, Bubba." "I don't know how much Jessica told you" " Uhn!" " Hoyt." "Jason?" "Hey, there." "Hey, Jason, wake up." "You there?" " Huh?" " Oh." " Sorry." " Hey, I ain't" "Oh, fuck." "I ain't supposed to let nobody drive my squad car." "Where are we going?" "We have to get you to the hospital." "There's no way you don't have a concussion after hitting the ground that hard." "I've had a lot of concussions." "How long was I out for?" "About five minutes." "Five minutes ain't shit." "Besides, ain't nobody working nights at the hospital these days." "Let's just go to my place." "Are you sure I wouldn't be putting you out?" "Of course not." "Listen, Brigette." "There's something" "Before we get there, there's something I gotta tell you." " Okay." " Ahem." "We ain't gonna have sex tonight." "All right?" "Hope you understand." "Jason, I just broke up with Hoyt." "I'm heartbroken." "What makes you think that there's any world in which I would want to have sex with you tonight?" "Just trust me, Brigette, it needed to be said." "What's going on?" "What's going on?" "I'm taking you back to blond." "Huh?" "No, nobody died but somebody is going to if I have to spend one more night in Louisiana." "No." "No, I'm sorry." "Plea" "Please don't go get your supervisor." "I wasn't threatening you." "All I'm saying is that it is imperative that I get back to Anchorage tomorrow." "They won't do it?" "Hold on a second." "No, it's gonna cost me $1200 unless I qualify for a bereavement fare, which I don't." "Is it a man or a woman?" "Um, a woman." "I got this." "My friend wants to talk to you real quick." "Hello, this is Jason W. Stackhouse deputy at the Renard Parish Sheriff's Department." "Who am I speaking with?" "Marlis, huh?" "Well, you have yourself a beautiful name there, Marlis." "I could just say it all day." "Marlis, Marlis." "Ha-ha." "Anyway, Marlis I don't know if you're aware or not, but our little town here Bon Temps we've been under attack this past week." "Yeah." "Yeah, it hasn't been pretty." "And my friend here, Brigette she's suffering from" "From post-traumatic stress disorder." "Now, as an officer of the law it is my job to get her back to where it's safe for her." "Can you help me do my job?" "Well, sure you can." "You're sitting in front of your computer, ain't you?" "Then all you gotta do, Marlis is push a button." "Are you pushing it?" "Oh, come on, now, push it." "It'll feel so good, I promise." "Attagirl, Marlis." "I'll tell her." "Heh." "Yeah, you too, honey." "Bye, now." "She said she's e-mailing you the confirmation and she thanks you for choosing Delta." "Thank you, Jason." "Yeah, you got it." "No big deal." "It actually is a really big deal to me." "So thank you." "Yeah." "Good night." "Good night." "Not gonna go in there." "Just gonna go to sleep." "So the fuck are you." "Oh..." "You should really let me heal you." " Could I ask you a question?" " Of course." "So when we were outside earlier, you said that the reason we broke up was that you weren't ready." "I wasn't." "So if you weren't ready then...?" "Um..." "I was young." "And immature." "I mean, I was" "I was like this home-schooled 17-year-old girl who suddenly became a vampire." "And before I had had a chance to explore that dark side or figure out who I was or what I wanted I met you." "And you say I knew what I wanted." " Yeah." " And did you?" "Explore your dark side?" "I did." "And?" "And when you shot Violet you actually saved my life twice because sitting here with you right now this is the first time I've been able to see any kind of future for myself in a really long time." "You can heal me now." "If you want to." "Goddamn it." "I need to remove this gag." "Is that okay?" "El gag-o, I need to remove-o." "Ugh." "Fuck it." "Listen up, twat lips." "I'm gonna remove your gag." "I can't get the foils where I need to get them with it on." "But please don't mistake this for an act of kindness or an invitation to scream out, because if you do these men will more than likely kill me." "And if I'm dead heh, there's no telling what they're gonna do with you." "Do you understand me?" "Good girl." "Ahh..." " Thank you." " Chin down." " May I please have a glass of--?" " I said chin down." " What's gonna happen to me?" " You remind me of Mary." "Mary of Bethany?" "Of the whorehouse I used to run." "Yeah, "whorehouse" they understand." "Of course." "Mary came to me when she was younger than you." "I don't know, maybe 16 or 17." "She was much prettier than I'm sure you ever were but here's where you're the same." "She thought she was too good to be a whore." "She couldn't see that she was born a hooker and a hooker was all she was ever going to be." "Now, doesn't that sound like you?" "You're gonna sell me?" "You bet your ass we're gonna sell you." "But there will be New Blood." " Why?" " New Blood's not a permanent fix, Sarah." "But you're the real deal." "One drink from you, and a vampire's good as new." "You know, you play your cards right you might just become the highest-paid trollop in history." "Hey." "Hey." "Get any shut-eye?" "No, my head is spinning." " Plus, I'm starving." " Oh." "Um..." "All's I got is beer and these peas." "Beer sounds good." "You mind grabbing me one?" "Yeah, sure." "What are you watching?" "It's an infomercial." "World's coming to an end, but Cindy Crawford and her French doctors still wanna sell us skin care products." "It's fucking weird." " Cheers." " Cheers." "What if it had been a man?" "What?" "On the phone earlier." "With the airline." "What if--?" "What if it had been a man?" "Well, I" " I'd still have tried." "But, yeah, I doubt I could've helped you." "So, what is it, then?" "You just have a way with women?" "Um..." "Well, everybody's different, you know?" "Some things come hard, some things come easy." "For me, math was hard." "Girls weren't." "It's because you're sweet." "And kind." "It's got nothing to do with what you look like." "And if you're telling yourself that, you're selling yourself short." "Brigette, if I was sweet and kind, none of this would be happening." "None of what?" "What have I walked into here?" "You sure you wanna hear this?" "Yeah." "Hoyt and me were best friends." "We grew up together." "We played football together." "Peewee, junior high, JV." "We did everything together." "Only thing that was different about us was girls." "See, when we'd go out, at the end of the night I'd always wind up going home with some girl I was seeing or just met but Hoyt, he would always go home to his mama." "Until one night Jessica walked into Merlotte's." "And the way Hoyt said it it was love at first sight." "Shit." "Um..." "I'm sorry." "I'm gonna stop now." "No, no, please don't." "Please." "They were amazing together." "The way they worked together." "The way they fit." "And I fucked it all up." "Mm-hm." "Worse yet I tried to justify it like it wasn't my fault because I drank her blood before, but-- I mean, I could've not had sex with her." "I mean, people do that all the time." "Not have sex with people they shouldn't have it with." "Just not me." "I couldn't live with myself." "So I went to Hoyt's work and I told him." "He kicked my ass and I let it happen because goddamn it, Brigette, he deserved to win after what I did to him." "And after he good and beat me down he stood over me and he said something I'll never forget." "He said what him and Jessica had was real and that I was never gonna have it." "Not with her, not with anybody because there was something inside me that was just missing." " That wasn't fair of him." " Sure, it was." "Anything he said, I deserved it." "Man, I deserved worse." "Anyways, before Hoyt moved to Alaska, he asked Jessica to erase his memory." "He said he didn't want to remember her or me." "That's how she remembered him but he don't remember her." "Nobody lied to you and you didn't pick the wrong guy." "You just happened to pick a guy who'd already met the girl he was supposed to be with." "He just don't remember her." "But they do, Brigette." "Hoyt and Jessica belong together." "Come on, let's go." "Where are we going?" "To bed." " Brigette, I just told you" " Jason, come on." "I'm gonna teach you how not to have sex with someone." "Good night, everybody." "Just go straight home." " Night, y'all." " Night." " That was a good night, right?" " Yeah, yeah, it was." "Sookie." "Eric?" "Can we talk?" "It's okay." "You guys can go." " You sure?" " Yeah." "I went to Bill's tonight." "You did?" " You seem surprised." " I just didn't know you cared, is all." "Well, I care about very few people in this world." "A small handful of vampires and you." "What did he say?" "Did he give you a reason why?" "Did he say anything other than "because"?" "Because I swear to God, talking to him tonight was like talking to a suicidal toddler." "Yeah, not anymore." "He knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it." "You should talk to him." "No." "No?" "Fuck him if he wants to die." "Well, who's being a toddler now?" "I'm scared." "Death is scary." "I've been avoiding it for a thousand years." "How much time do you think he has left?" "I don't know." "But he would like to call on you tonight." "What's he gonna say?" "That he's doing this for you." "That's absurd." "No." "Not when you hear it from him." "Can I give you a lift home?" "You don't have a car." "I'm aware." "How's it feel?" "Strange." " But good?" " Heh." "It's" " It's pretty fucking weird, but, yeah." " Yeah." " What did I tell you?" "Mm." "What do we do now?" "Tell me something about yourself that you've never told anyone before." " Anything?" " Just whatever comes to mind." "Uh..." "Would it help if I went first?" "Oh, yeah." "It might." "Okay." "Oh." "I got one." "I cheated on a test once." "Oh, no, you are a stone-cold criminal." "Technically, I let somebody cheat off of me, but that's still cheating." "You let someone cheat off you." "I used to cheat all the time." "Hey, no teasing." "Hey, look, I said I wouldn't cross this line, but I said nothing about no teasing." "Well, it was a big deal to me and I never told anyone about it." "So now it's your turn." "Oh, yeah." "Okay." "I like pink." "Pink?" "Yeah." "Good." "That was good." "But anything else?" "Maybe something a little deeper?" "Remember how you and Hoyt were fighting yesterday about him not wanting kids?" "Yeah, I don't think I'll be forgetting that anytime soon." "Well, I want kids, Brigette." "I mean, I really, really want them." "But what if I have a girl?" "What if you do?" "Yeah, well, what if she meets a guy like me?" "A guy like you?" "Hoyt was wrong about you, Jason." "What about?" "There's nothing inside of you that's missing." "Everything that a man is supposed to be it's already in there, I promise." "And your daughter would be lucky to meet a guy like you." "Thanks for the lift." "I've never seen Bon Temps from above like that." "Your phone's ringing." "It'll be Bill." "You can come inside if you want." "Good night, Ms. Stackhouse." " Hello?" " Did you speak to Eric?" "He just dropped me off, actually." "May I call on you?" "Would it be better if I came to you?" "No, no." "I'm on my way." "Were you ever gonna tell me you weren't dying?" " Or do I just not matter to you at all?" " Ginger!" "What?" "I've spent my entire night flying around dealing with other people's relationship problems." "Now, does that sound like me to you?" "No." "No, it doesn't." "No, so if you're feeling a little jilted that you weren't the first person I came running to when I got cured, I apologize." "And I would like to make it up to you by fucking you." "Did you not hear me, Ginger?" "You and I are finally gonna fuck." "Really?" "We are really gonna fuck?" "Let's do this, sweetheart." "Where did you imagine it?" " Huh?" " Where did you imagine us doing it?" " On the throne." " Hmm." "Well, on the throne it is." "Oh." "What happens next?" "I straddle you." "Then do it, Ginger." "Oh..." "What about my Hep-V?" "I'm immune." "Ginger?" "That was fucking fantastic." "Thank you." "Are you gonna be okay?" "Good night, Ginger." "Pamela?" "Pam?" "Eric?" "Where were you tonight?" "I saw some friends." "Your fangbanger from last night, Sookie Stackhouse?" "No." "Shame on you, Mr. Northman." "I offer you the world and every time all you offer me is lies." "Ah!" "Does Sookie Stackhouse know about Sarah?" "Does she?" "If you hurt her, I am out." "And you need me." "The leverage you think you have is directly proportional to the patience I have left for you." "And I'm running out of fucking patience, Mr. Northman!" "One last rope." "Good night." "Stop." "She knows." "Finally." "Some honesty." "Where does Ms. Stackhouse live?"