Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
“Damnit! Why does this keep happening!” Alcide growled softly, as he hurried to get dressed. Tara beat him by one second. Sookie had been about to open the door when Jason pulled up and called out to her.
“You mean why do we keep fucking?” Tara asked glibly.
“Naw! I meant why does our fucking keep getting interrupted!” Alcide huffed, zipping his jeans. Despite the vulgarity of that statement, Tara found it oddly sweet.
Meanwhile, Sookie left the door ajar as she faced Jason.
“Jason, what’s up?”
“Sookie, I thought Tara was your friend?”
“What the hell are you talking about? Of course she’s my friend! She’s yours too.”
“Then how could you let her get involved with that wolf? I know somethin’s going on because he was down at the station with her, actin’ as if they were a couple or somethin’! They haven’t fucked in the house, have they?”
“No, Jason! I would know THAT! Alcide is just helping Tara through a rough time. We all are.”
“Are they in there now?”
“I guess. Both of their cars are here.”
Jason moved past Sookie to open the door all the way. Alcide and Tara were sitting in front of the TV, side by side watching a cartoon. Jason shrugged. He guessed nothing was going on.
But Sookie frowned. What the hell were they doing watching a cartoon?! Well, maybe Alcide liked them or something.
“Hey, Tara!” Jason said. “I came by hopin’ we could get some lunch.”
Tara turned away from the cartoon that she was pretending to watch and looked up at him.
“Uh, I don’t know, Jason.”
“Oh come on, Tara! We haven’t spent anytime together in like forever. I was thinkin’ a picnic lunch. Sookie could make it for us.”
“What?!” Sookie cried out. Alcide turned to look at Tara and slightly shook his head at her, something Jason noticed.
“You stay out of this!” Jason snapped. “You know what? I think I’m running you in!”
“Jason!” Tara cried, jumping up. Alcide stood up as well and glared at Jason.
“For what?” Alcide hissed.
“For fuckin’ up my lunch, that’s what!” Jason hissed back and began to take out a pair of handcuffs. Tara got in between the two men.
“Stop it! Stop this! Jason, I have to go to work. So I can’t have lunch with you.”
“You were sittin’ here watchin’ cartoons! You don’t look like you’re in any hurry!”
Alcide smirked.
“Run me in! I’ll have a story to tell too. One that involves your ass trying to feel Tara up here, while she was unconscious!”
Tara and Sookie gasped! Jason pointed at Alcide.
“I told you I was swattin’ a fly!”
“Yeah well you just tell your Chief that shit!” Alcide barked in response. Tara licked her lips and pointed at Jason.
“Jason, we need to talk. Then I’m going to work.” she said, walking out towards the porch. Jason looked from Alcide and Sookie, then followed Tara outside. Sookie looked at Alcide.
“You two weren’t watching cartoons all of this time, were you?” she asked. Alcide was about to speak, but Sookie put her hand up in a halting motion.
“Alcide, you know what she’s been through in such a short amount of time. First Eggs, then Franklin and now you. I think the best thing you can do is leave Tara be.”
“When TARA tells me to leave her be, then I’ll leave her be. For now, I have to get back to the repair shop. With Eggs gone we’re short staffed.”
“How are you just going to blow me off like that? I told you that Tara is confused. She doesn’t know what’s doing or saying! She barely knows you. Now is not the time to jump into anything.”
“And I told you, Sookie,” Alcide said in a tone that was oddly gentle sounding, “Tara is going to have to decide that for herself. I have to get goin’.”
Sookie said no more and watched as Alcide walked out of the house, giving Tara a nod as he hurried down the steps and to his car. Tara watched him as he drove off, then returned her attention back to Jason.
“Jason, I have been in love with you for years. And I always will love you. But I now know it could never work between us.”
“Uh, this can’t be about my shooting Eggs. I mean he turned up alive.”
“No...”
“And it can’t be about that weirdo vamp you were seein’! The one that attacked you. It’s that fuckin’ wolf, isn’t it? What does he have that I don’t? Tara, I see clearly now. It was you I wanted the whole time! I just didn’t know it!”
“And you still don’t.” Tara said pointedly, just as Jason’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered.
“Detective Stackhouse?”
“Jason, get your ass down here! Franklin Mott is here. And he’s got one hell of a story to tell about who really attacked Tara.” Andy told him.
Jason glanced at Tara.
“Meaning not him?”
“Yeah, not him. Like I said, you’d better get down here. And if you can find Tara, I’d do so.” Andy suggested.
“She’s right here. I’ll bring her down.” Jason said, then hung up. Sookie came out of the house while Tara peered at Jason.
“What’s going on?” she asked him.
“That was Andy. He said that Franklin is at the station.”
“What?!” Tara and Sookie said in unison. Tara glanced at Sookie, then at Jason.
“Is he turning himself in?” she asked. Jason shook his head.
“Andy didn’t say much, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be good. He said you should come down with me, Tara.”
Sookie heard Jason’s thoughts: he’s sayin’ that someone else attacked Tara.
“I’m coming down with you two. Let me get my purse.” she said.
“Grab mine too, Sookie.” Tara said, trying to keep the unease out of her voice. She found herself wishing Alcide was still here.
****
Franklin leaned back in his chair, trying to repress his smile. He was in an interrogation room and had just glamoured Andy Bellfleur into believing that not only had Alcide Herveaux attacked Tara, but that he had also helped rob and kill Bethune Tuttleton, along with Eggs Talley.
Andy told Tara, Jason and Sookie that.
“This is BULLSHIT!” Sookie snapped. Tara nodded fervently.
“Andy, this man is a goddamned liar! You can’t believe a word out of his mouth.” Tara seconded.
Franklin sighed.
“Tara, I am sooooo disappointed in you. I left Merlotte’s looking for you, after my wife...”
Tara and Sookie looked at hone another! Jason lifted a brow.
“You’re married?” Jason asked in disbelief. Sookie eyed Andy, who looked more perplexed than usual.
“You vampire piece of shit! You were married this whole time? Married but bothering me about becoming a ‘vampire bride’?! Tara asked, disgust tingeing her tone.
“No, I was not married this WHOLE time. I got married recently...while I was out looking for you. And damned if I didn’t fall in love with a werewolf. My wife, Debbie...”
“Oh hell to the naw!” Tara snapped. “So you’re going to lie and act as if you didn’t find me with Debbie, bring me back to your place and try to turn me?”
Franklin gave her an innocent look.
“I met Debbie when I went looking for you. You see, CHIEF, I found my poor wife alone on the side of the road. Her car had broken down.”
“You married skanky Debbie?” Sookie asked. “I didn’t think vampires and wolves liked one another?”
“It was love at first sight.” Franklin purred. “I am just astounded at how quickly I got over you Tara. Tara...Tara, Tara, Tara....lying arse Tara...trampy Tara...”
“Hey!” Jason snapped. “Look, let’s hear the rest of it. How do you know that it was Herveaux that attacked Tara?”
“It had to be. Because as Debbie and I were driving back to Bon Temps, we passed Alcide. He had just stopped to give Tara a ride. By the way, Trampy Tara, how did you end up in the middle of nowhere? Did you just walk away from your employer and get lost or something?” Franklin asked slyly. Andy pulled Jason aside.
“It makes sense.” Andy said. Jason’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything. He had tried to break up that fight between Franklin and Alcide the night of Tara’s attack. He had seen Franklin leave first, then Alcide.
Then Tara was attacked. Alcide said he had stopped Franklin from killing her outside of his office/apartment. But really, there was no proof of that. Alcide just showed up on Sookie’s doorstep, looking for Bill. And yet, Herveaux’s first stop should have been the hospital. Was the reason he didn’t take her there, was because he COULDN’T? He couldn’t because he was lying about Franklin being the culprit?
Tara looked at Sookie.
“What’s wrong with Jason and Andy? I think they believe this shit!” she said. Sookie peered at Franklin.
“You’ve glamoured Andy, haven’t you? That’s why he believes your crap about Alcide.” Sookie huffed. Franklin didn’t even bother to waste a glance on Sookie. He stared directly at Tara.
“Leave with me right now, Tara. Leave with me and I can glamour Andy into thinking something else...anything else. If you don’t, Alcide will go down for the Tuttleton murder along with Eggs.”
Tara blinked.
“And Debbie?”
“I’ll divorce her.”
“I could give a fuck about that! What is her part in all of this? Alcide will never love her.”
“My, aren’t we the arrogant one. Who’s to say that he won’t?” Franklin asked sarcastically. Tara moved up so that she was in his face.
“What does that were-heifer get out of this? She’s just going to be satisfied with seeing Alcide locked up?”
Sookie folded her arms. God, how she wished she could read vampire minds!
“Of course.” was all Franklin said. But Tara knew it was bullshit. Somehow framing Alcide was part of some kind of plan. Tara turned to Jason and Andy.
“Andy?”
“Yeah, Tara?” he asked, trying to clear his head.
“I want you to arrest me for the murder of Bethune Tuttleton!”
“No!!” Jason and Sookie cried out. Franklin felt the beginnings of smoldering rage! Tara was trying to protect that werewolf fuck! Well, she couldn’t do it if he was dead!
“Tara, you’re confessin’ to the murder of Bethune Tuttleton?” Andy asked. Tara nodded.
“I helped Eggs...remember I used to live there too. I don’t know what came over me. Kind of like when I went off on the rednecks. Lock me up.” Tara said. Andy sighed, then put a pair of cuffs on her. He soon lead her back to the cellblock--for the third time in a month.
Franklin used his vampire speed to leave the police station. The plan to frame Alcide for assaulting Tara and killing Tuttleton, was ruined--no thanks to Tara. Franklin decided to cut Debbie out of the plan. He was going to finish Alcide off himself.
****
Alcide half looked up when the bell went off above the door of his car repair shop. He had been in the garage, working on a car when he heard the sound.
He was not prepared for the sight of a naked Debbie, sitting in a chair, her legs spread.
“What’s this all about?” Alcide asked coolly.
“I got married. To that pasty vampire that black bitch you’ve been fuckin’, was with. Probably still is with. You know he wants to kill you.”
“You married Franklin Mott?” Alcide asked, perplexed. “Why in the living hell would you marry a vamp?”
Debbie stood up suddenly.
“Make love to me, Alcide! Make love to me and I’ll be able to back Franklin off of you. I can stop him.”
Alcide reached out and grabbed Debbie’s shoulders!
“What’s he plannin’?”
“Fuck me now, Alcide!” Debbie demanded. Before another word could be spoken, Franklin entered the establishment. He raised a brow at Debbie’s state of undress, before leaping at Alcide with bared fangs!
But this time Alcide was able to fend him off...just barely. Debbie morphed into a werewolf and joined Franklin in trying to murder Alcide. And they may have succeeded, if Sookie and Jason had not arrived.
Sookie slapped at Debbie’s werewolf form and white, stinging light, threw her off of Alcide and through a plate glass window! Franklin, who’s fangs were now in Alcide’s chest, looked up quickly, before he too was thrown backwards by the light!
Sookie bent down to tend to Alcide. She bit into her wrist(it hurt like a BITCH) and forced him to drink her blood. Fairy blood, that is.
****
Tara’s ‘confession’ didn’t stand up.
Probably because the night that Bethune Tuttleton had been murdered, she was already in jail. For the assault of the now dead rednecks, Buck Johnson and Cletus Buzzard.
Franklin Mott left town. And not because he wanted to. It was discovered that he was wanted in the U.K. for some ‘Jack the Ripper’ like killings. In fact, a group of foreigners from a place called ‘Torchwood’, had asked all around Bon Temps about him...
Debbie was another story. The bitch actually got a job at Merlotte’s! Sam was showing interest in her and Tara thought she would puke! She really needed a vacation...
Which brings us to her planned Vegas trip with Sookie. Tara was putting the finishing touches on her packing, when someone knocked at the door. It was late and Tara peered out of a window first.
It was Alcide. She had not seen him since that terrible day that Franklin and Debbie tried to kill him. She opened the door.
“Hey!” she said. Alcide smiled, handed her a letter, then turned and walked back down the porch. Tara watched him drive away then closed the door. There would be no more packing until she read this letter. She sat down on a couch and opened it....
Dear Tara,
‘I’m not so good with words, so bare with me here. We could have something really special here. And don’t bother to deny that you care for me. You were ready to go to jail just to keep me from being framed. So I know you care.
When Franklin and Debbie were attacking me, I could feel myself dying. Then I heard your voice. Somehow, someway I heard you. It was like you summoned me back from the dead.
We’re connected, whether you want to be or not. We’re connected, so you’re no longer alone, Tara Thornton. And when you return from your trip with Sookie, I’ll be waiting for you’.
Tara folded the letter up and put it back in the envelope. She then put it in her suitcase. She would read it on her trip---over and over and over again.
THE END