Summary: What if Bill had been forced to make a Vampire a little earlier for fear of their dwindling numbers since the unveiling, what if it was a run-away fledgling Jessica that Sookie encountered that night not Bill?
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Jessica was not have a good week, first off she'd snuck out of the house to escape the more violent tendencies of her abusive father, then she'd gotten caught by a grumpy looking vampire. The vampire had dragged her to a trailer park clearing where she'd assumed he'd drain her and kill her, but instead the clearing was packed full of the undead monstrosities. The young teen had been scared out of her mind and too scared even to beg for mercy, though she doubted she'd have gotten it.
A creepy looking bald guy, sitting on a deck chair in the centre had addressed the others and started going on about their dwindling numbers and everyone doing their bit. Then he'd named my grumpy looking captor and ordered him to turn her. Realising she was about to become a vampire hadn't really improved her mood and waking up buried underground later had really fucked up her week well and truly. Jessica had thought the high point of her bad week was over as her undead life, free from rules and constraints of human society was about to begin.
No such luck.
It turned out that although her sire had kidnapped her he had done so randomly and under protest as he was one of the few who adhered to the idea of 'mainstreaming' or 'living the human life' and preferred to live by the book. Omitting her unlawful kidnapping his acts as a sire had proceeded to get worse and worse, he wouldn't let her drink human blood – even from a blood packet – he was completely ruled by archaic socialism laws and believed that a girl should not show even her shoulders in public – not that she was allowed to leave the dusty old dump of a house he'd forced them to move to – but to top it all he hadn't even heard of television.
So to summarize, Jessica had escaped her abusive father, been killed, brought back as a vampire, imprisoned and taught barely anything about her new status among the undead and she'd run away from her sire. Oh had she forgotten to mention that? The petite red-head had given up playing good little sireling after her makers last temper tantrum for not putting the cardboard in the correct recycling bin, she had then yelled at him blaming him for turning her if he didn't want her, while hopping against hope she been turned for a good reason.
Well there'd been a reason alright, and maybe it was a good one for him, but not for her. Her maker, Bill Compton, 173 years of undeath had never turned another, and with the vampire races great unveiling to the public some of the elders were fearing persecution, and had decreed that any vampire over a century and a half was to make a childe if they had not done so already. She had just been unlucky to be picked at random.
The first chance she got Jessica had fled into the night, but now tired, thirsty and in a bar with just enough money for a single bottle of Tru Blood, the substitute for human blood her sire had been so demanding to force down her throat. She was entering the first year of her unlife, and she hadn't even made it to 18 alive. Jessica was lonely beyond belief before she became a vampire, she had little to no understanding of social practises and now she was a bloodthirsty beast that no one would want to go near – god this was the worst week of her life ever.
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Sookie Stackhouse was a suffering a headache from the multitude of thoughts dancing across her spectrum, she's also just been shouted at by her part-time friend Arlene for reading a stray projected thought, it wasn't like she could help it. Though so far compared to the thoughts of the many men in the bar being called a mind raping whore was probably the lightest assault on her mental defences she had yet to suffer this night.
She had then been called by Tara, her best friend – who knew not to call her at work, unless in an emergency. Tara had managed to get fired, again. The dark, haired torrent of emotional power had claimed she'd quit from having to deal with the racist attitudes of those present but Tara like so many other coloured, had been enjoying using the 21st century as a benchmark for claiming abuse to every slight. Hundreds of years of documented slavery gave one the right to be a little testy when said attitudes hadn't changed much, no matter what the laws of equality and freedom said.
She then got into a group discussion while waiting for an order on the nature of sexuality, it was not a conversation she had been enjoying, watching her other friend – Tara's brother, hitting on anything male and moving. The pelvic thrusts had been a little funny though, Tara had driven straight over to the bar luckily arriving after Lafayette's near strip tease, Sookie doubted her friend needed that kind of emotional trauma on top of everything else.
She'd been at the bar, talking to Sam, the proprietor of Merlotte's bar when she suddenly heard silence. Not the silence when she tried with all her power to block out the turmoil of thoughts crashing against her mental shields - the X-men movies and comics had been a great help in training herself to block the whirlwind of thoughts she constantly received – but a proper peaceful silence ebbing at the back of her mind. It felt cool and peaceful against her head and more than that was that all the other thoughts she'd been struggling to contain were leaving her, fading like a dream to somewhere far away.
Turing from the bar she saw a young girl sitting herself down at a counter; she was dressed in a pretty yellow sundress with flowers, light sandals tracked in mud and her face… Sookie paused if the earlier conversation on the nature of sexuality hadn't just occurred Sookie would have been having some pretty confusing thought right then. The girl was beautiful, thin locks of red hair fell down the side of her face obscuring most of it from view, but when she looked up a sulky, nervous pout greeted her and Sookie was drawn into the darling blue eyes of the newcomer.
"..mpire." Sam whispered, Sookie startled and looked back round to face the bar's owner.
"What really? How do you know that?" Before she could even start on a tirade of Sam's rudeness of stereotyping he turned pale as if the question had been terrifying to him and starting absent mindedly polishing a glass. Looking back she realised that the noisy thoughts over others were still fading, concentrating on the girl Sookie wondered again why Sam had thought the girl a vampire. The girl looked the picture of sweet, church going innocent girl, who now Sookie thought of it probably shouldn't be at a bar at her age. Then again sneaking in for a drink was pretty common and yet, there was something about the girl that just attracted the telepath to find out more.
"Maybe you're right," finally acknowledging the earlier remarks of her friend she grasped her order-pad and headed on over to the table, ignoring the startled and exasperated groans of "Sookie!" The blonde made her way over to the table booth and waited for the girl or vampire? to look up again. Sookie couldn't help but smile encouragingly when the nervous eyes glided over her form before settling on the table once more.
"What'll you be' having?" Biting her lip the red-head spoke uncertainly as if fearing reprisal, "I'll have a bot..bottle of Tru Blood please?" the red head was looking firmly at the table and had even grasped the sides shivering as if afraid she was to be thrown out any minute. Smiling and trying to make the now confirmed vampire as comfortable as possible Sookie turned and headed back to collect the order, "Commin' right up."
If the telepath had been still facing her she'd have seen the surprised gaze of the vampire look up at her in puzzlement for her happy attitude, it was if the red-head just hadn't understood the answer.
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She wasn't afraid of me, those were the first delightful thoughts rampaging through the fledglings mind, She wasn't afraid of Me! The blonde girl had been a little intimidating but she'd seemed happy to process Jessica's order and the girls attitude hadn't changed one bit on the realisation of the young girls newly undead nature. There was a 'thunk' in front of her and Jessica couldn't help but jump in her seat slightly, she'd been so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed the girls return.
"Will there be anything else?" Jessica looked up and the waitress tilted her head and smiled sadly at the vampire, blushing the red-head looked down, she couldn't belive she'd been caught staring, but the waitresses breasts looked so big in the tight white shirt. It was so embarrassing but Jessica had been denied anything electronic, even the radio growing up, she'd even been home tutored like the rest of her family, so being turned had opened up a lot of new opportunities', Jessica just didn't know what they were yet.
She returned her gaze to the helpful amber eyes of the waitress and blushed again before she felt a pop and a click as her fangs came out, with a mumbled noise like "Meeurmomrup" she covered her mouth in embarrassment and turned away, "I'm so sorry…" Jessica couldn't help stammering trying to get out an apology but before she knew it a hand had reached down for her own and the waitress had sat down opposite her, "Its' okay, are you all right?" The newly turned vampire tried not to sob, years of solitude and beating from her father had conditioned Jessica not to ask questions and not to bother others, a week of being a vampire with a sire like Bill Compton had further enforced the view until in a moment of rebelliousness she'd fled like the fledgling she was.
Now this waitress, a human, probably older than her was trying to help her. For Jessica it was too much and she broke down crying.
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"Now look what you done Sookie, forgive er' miss but my name's Matthew Racktree and this here's my wife Denise, and Sookie there she's crazy as a bed bug don't let er' bother you, though its saying a lot if just by talking she can make a vampire cry." Sookie glared at the pair as they took to insulting and patronising all in a single breath. "If you're looking for help maybe we can accommodate you're needs?"
The vampire girls sobbing slowed slightly and Sookie tried not to gasp, tears of blood were streaked from the red-heads eyes. "Ah hey now don't be like that." Matthew, commonly known as Mack to his friends took out a tissue and began to carefully wipe the blood from the girls face, "Sookie why don't you go serve up someone else now then?" Not wanting to distress the vampire girl further, though cautious about leaving her in the hands of the Racktree's Sookie got up and returned hesitantly to the bar, where her friends were waiting for her.
Looking back from the bar Sookie looked at how the Racktree's had invited themselves to the red-head's table and were laughing and chatting to the nervous looking vampire. The red-heads fangs had retracted though occasionally the vampire would glance hesitantly towards her and Sookie would be the cause of a relapse, followed by a harsh glare from the Racktree's for her subliminal efforts. Tara wasn't making Sookie feel any better as the strong headed woman went on about vampires and their sex lives, "Do you think he'll let her bite him?" this was the final straw for the telepath, "NO! she's not like that."
"Oh and you can just tell that, it ain't all an act, honestly crocodile tears, its like bating the water with blood for the sharks. Look Sook' you spoke to her for like a minute before she burst into tears now that's not natural!" Tara was apparently fully behind the all Vampires near my friends must be evil, considering how they'd all partitioned equal rights for vampires the change in attitudes was astounding for the telepath.
"But look she'd so not scary, just sweet and innocent like; imagine all those years and still she's as innocent as the day she was turned." Tara's snort of disbelief was coupled by Sam's coughing fit. "Please girl, you're just romanticizing her to be some pretty little girl who's never changed in hundreds of years of innocence, girl that is just not possible. No one dead or alive is that innocent." Turning to her boss Sookie tried to establish a support base, "Sam you support Vampire rights, you tell her how unfair she'd being!"
The sheepish look from Sam was not encouraging, "Sookie I'm in favour of them being allowed rights as long as they stay away from us now they've got their bottled blood but honestly, if you'd been feeding on the tastiest drinking delight ever for hundreds of years and suddenly you were handed a stale bottle of water which would you want to drink?" With a huff Sookie stood and walked back to the vampire's table, "Can I get you anything else?"
As she looked at each Racktree in turn Sookie heard the jumble of thoughts assaulting her mind once more, even with close proximity to the red-head vampire, the most starting caused her to freeze and ignore the spoken command to leave by Mack. She stumbled back to the bar the thoughts still blazing through her mind. 'When we get her outside we're gonna hit the bitch down and then drain her all the way down, god this ones fresh I can just taste her already' Sookie couldn't believe it, not only were the Racktree's 'V' users but they were 'Drainers' too!
Heading straight for Tara Sookie quickly revealed her horror struck thoughts; the lack of caring reaction from Tara was horrible, the protest to let the Racktree's do their worst from Sam was worse. With a long hard glare at the pair Sookie rushed back to the table only to find it empty. Heading straight for the door and ignoring the cry of "Sookie!" from her friends the telepath plunged into the night searching for the trouble she was sure to find.
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Jessica had been embarrassed and shocked when the waitress, Sookie tried to help her, Jessica had wanted to tell her that she was alright, that she was lonely, that she just wanted some company but all she had managed to get out were sobs. The kind couple had seemed a little odd but had tried to calm her down and had wiped off the blood and even kept the tissues rather than force them on her, like Jessica had pockets in the sun-dress.
The Fledgling had been reminded of her daddy from the few times he'd been nice to her by the man Matthew, who offered himself and his wife to help her out, no young woman, dead or alive should be without family. She had foolishly listened and gone with them, Daddy had always told her not to talk to strangers or open the door to them. The red-head had assumed this was his propaganda to keep her docile and in control but now it looked as though he'd been right.
The silver chains cutting into her flesh had tears of blood falling fast down her pale-white cheeks; a multitude of needles sucked the blood from her at an ever increasingly painful rate. As Jessica began to black out she saw the form of the waitress, Sookie who had been nice to her approaching was she in on this too? Why did the world hate her so much?
But no, the blond was approaching at a distance, keeping to the shadows of the trees, reaching down she picked up a discarded chain and hefted it carefully as she moved towards the fledglings attackers. The first chain strike brought down the man, dropping the knife he'd been holding she dove for it and flicked it forward at the woman. After a brief discussion that Jessica failed to make out from the loss of her blood the woman grabbed the man and pulled him to their truck which then sped off down the path, in the opposite direction.
Quickly the blonde waitress, still in uniform ran over and began to gently peel the silver off, Jessica's prone form, tears of blood continued to fall but eventually the blonde had liberated all silver from the red-head's body. The sound of a truck heading towards them caused the blonde to rush round and drag the fledgling further into the woods as the Drainers fled in anger speeding off out of site. Propped against a tree Jessica continued to sob but suddenly stopped in startled shock, she was being hugged.
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Sookie hugged the poor vampire as the red-heads crying intensified, but with the hug it stuttered off instantly, "I'm so sorry, bless your heart, that I couldn't get here faster." Moving back Sookie found her self facing to brightly blue glowing eyes and a face that looked like it just wanted comfort, shaking arms jerked trying not to touch the reddened wounds that had already started to heal and though the outer marks were gone, the telepath had to wonder if the pain was really gone to.
"Bless my heart?" Sookie paused hopping that Vampires didn't have something against Christianity and she hadn't just insulted the red-head. "You care… but.. why?" The tumultuous wail was startling and made the poor vampire look lonelier than ever. "No one deserves that, no one and besides, you haven't done anything wrong, right?" Fangs retracted suddenly and a whimper came from the fledglings throat, shaking her head cautiously the vampire looked hesitantly at the blonde before dashing her head to the ground gazing once more.
Trying to make the recently rescued vampire more comfortable Sookie tried a different approach, "My name's Sookie, what's yours?" This brought the vampires head up sharply, the wavering gaze and shocked features made the telepath wonder if anyone had ever even asked her before or just shouted 'monster' as soon as they saw her. After waiting for a response she thought she might not be getting, a faint whisper exited the red-head's mouth. "…ssicsa."
"Sorry can you speak a little louder?" Sookie reaffirmed, "JESSICA!" the vampire shouted at the telepath, fangs irrupting from her mouth. A second later, hands clasped over her fangs and sobbing resumed as the girl looked to the ground mortified. Sookie couldn't help but smiling gently, the vampire seemed to be nervous to the point of cowardice and brave to the point of tactlessness all within the same minute, she was also rather cute, but that was neither here nor there.
Trying to distract the vampire from her predicament Sookie tried a different tack, "So silver huh? I thought that only affected werewolves?" Apparently reminding the vampire of her near double-death experience was not conductive to calming her and Sookie winced before placing a calming hand on the vampire, Jessica's shoulder. "Do you want to come home with me tonight?" The sobbing stopped and the blood-tear stained face gazed bewildered up at her.
"You need somewhere to stay for the night to recuperate right, and I don't think your in a fit state to go home on your own, so how about it?" Sookie waited as the vampire blinked innocently at her and the telepath had to resist hugging the fang adorned wonder for the level of cuteness she was unconsciously projecting. A pouting nod was her reply as the red-head's lip wobbled nervously.
Smiling gently at Jessica, Sookie gave the red-head another quick hug, thought the vampire seemed reluctant to pull away, before standing up. "I just need to pick up my things at the bar, and then we can go, okay?" The vampire reached out and was pulled to her feet; together they made their way back into the bar. Upon entering a lot of eyes turned to see the vampire, almost shyly hiding, behind the telepath.
"Sam I'm ending earlier tonight, I'm gonna take Jessica home." Her boss didn't look that much happier than when Sookie proposed they all go try save the vampire-girl, "You don't want to be taking a vampire to its home, you don't know if it's a trap." Ignoring Sam, Sookie picked up her keys and pay for the evening, before heading back to Jessica who was hovering by the door. "Well I'm taking her to ma home so I suppose I'll be safe then." Enjoying the flabbergasted expression on Sam's face, Sookie linked arms with the vampire and headed out of the bar to her car, Jessica in tow.