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True Blood S4-S5

Chapter 149 A Rift Between Dimensions

At sundown that evening there wasn't a corner, nook or cranny in Bon Temps where someone wasn't getting an earful of breaking news or answering a call to action: Ruby Jean Reynolds and Lettie Mae Daniels rushed right over to comfort Maxine Fortenberry over the sad news of her son, Hoyt, who wasn't being allowed any visitors in his cell for another forty-eight hours; earlier that afternoon the Grand Jury quickly came to the decision to charge Tyrese Gill with first degree murder, and the debate over whether that charge was a fair one was a hot topic around pool tables, bar counters and just about every other venue where folks in town gathered to socialize, human and vampire-owned establishments alike. At the Authority, in the meeting between the U.S. and European vampire teams, Milena Bittencourt Almeida was relating the story of her brother, Eugenio Diniz; the latest troubling transmission she'd received...and the hope that her brother could not only be found, but saved from the True Death before it was too late.

Jessica Hamby, back home that night from Dallas, had just heard, upon waking, of poor Hoyt's situation and his grim prospects from Lafayette, who had called to chat with her that evening, as had been his habit ever since she'd begun working with Blackburn, splitting her time between Dallas and Bon Temps.

"Nobody can see him?"

"Nobody, baby girl, not for another two days. You alright otherwise?"

"Yeah...Bill and Tara are going to call me after the meeting..."

"Cool. Tell that hookah hello for me."

Jessica smiled into the phone. "I will."

"Alrighty, then—later, sweetness."

"Bye, Lafayette."

"Hey, baby...good evening..." It was Blackburn that had walked up behind her, and threaded his arms through hers to take her into his embrace.

"Hey..." she looked over her shoulder at him to receive his kiss as she snapped her cell phone shut.

"What's wrong?"

"What?" she replied, as a guilty look replaced the worried frown on her face.

"Was that Lafayette?"

"Yes," Jessica bit her bottom lip.

"Well, what is it?"

"It's Hoyt—he's in jail and things aren't looking good. At all."

"Well, that's no surprise..."

"C'mon, he's my friend..."

"I doubt, very much, Jessica, that he still considers you his friend, anymore..."

"That may be, baby, but I am...and he's in trouble—he's in trouble because of me."

"He's in trouble because he had no spine—you didn't make him ride with those assholes—"

"No, but I'm the reason he got involved with them in the first place..." she cut him off as she broke angrily out of his embrace.

"You know, Jessica," Blackburn began, his voice dripping with contempt and a complete lack of empathy, "there are a million different ways to deal with a broken heart—not one of those ways includes falling in with a bunch of crazed supe-haters, jumping in a truck with machine guns in hand and shooting innocent souls sitting on their front porches, minding their own business, and killing them just because they're different and you don't like it." Blackburn's anger, then, matched Jessica's.

"He didn't kill anyone, Blackburn!" she snapped back at him.

"The Grand Jury came to that decision?"

"Yes!"

"But he's still in jail, right?"

Jessica's answer was a stony glare.

"For being an accessory or something like that, right?"

"Something like that—principal to first degree murder, Lafayette said..."

"And?"

"And? And the man is on suicide watch, Blackburn, he's facing life in prison, possibly the death sentence!"

"That's too good for him," Blackburn snarked.

Jessica gasped and gave him a non-plussed look. "Tell me that you don't mean that..."

"I most certainly do."

"Well...whatever—I'm going to see him..." Jessica turned to leave.

"Suicide watch, huh?"

Jessica was expecting Blackburn's angry call to come back, but his casual question, dripping with so much condescension, stopped her in her tracks and provoked her to turn back and face him, as she crossed her arms obstinately across her chest. "Yeah?"

"What little I do know about that is the person is kept under some type of surveillance—how long's he been on it?"

Jessica contemplated for a second lying to Blackburn; but she was a bad liar and she didn't really want start going down that road in the relationship—even though she was really mad at him at that moment he deserved better than that.

"Jess?"

"Two days."

"There's got to be cops and cameras on him—you can't go see him."

"Sure I can."

They stared each other down then, both realizing the full weight of her declaration.

"Jess...don't do it..." Blackburn's angry tone had turned to a sincere and honest pleading one.

Jessica softened at Blackburn's change in demeanor. "See, I knew you understood...I can make him feel better, Blackburn, that's all—he deserves that much..."

"You know, I don't normally give a fuck about such things as this, Jessica, but this has disaster written all over it..."

Jessica went to him and took gentle and hopeful hold of his hands in hers. "I can bring him a sense of peace, baby...he was resigned to his fate before he went to trial, that's what Lafayette told me..."

"And now he wants to die. Yeah, he sounds like a bastion of mental stability to me..." Blackburn snorted.

"Stop it," Jessica was disappointed by the return of his sarcasm and lack of sympathy.

"Really? So you're—what—going to go marching in there to stop him from committing suicide so that he'll go skipping away to his much-deserved lethal injection with a smile on his face? In a moment of Zen?"

Jessica threw his hands away from her angrily. "He doesn't deserve it, Blackburn. And you don't have to agree with me. But you can't stop me from going to see my friend."

"Jess...Jessica!" he called out in vain after she disappeared from him.

"Hey, what are you doing—"

Hoyt looked up and out of his stupor long enough to see that Jessica was standing outside of his holding cell, dispensing nicely with the officer assigned to watch him just beyond the bars.

"You don't see me, Officer," Jessica said simply to the man as he looked up at her from the small desk that had been brought in for him to hold sentry at. "As a matter of fact," she took hold of the collar of his uniform shirt and brought his face closer to hers, "you need a bathroom break..."

The officer craned his neck around to address Hoyt. "I don't know why I feel the need to tell you, Fortenberry, but I gotta go take a whiz..."

Hoyt's anger and irritation was immediate and evidenced further by the scowl upon his face at Jessica. "I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, Jessica, but they're just gonna send another officer in here as soon as he steps out..."

"Yeah...well..." Jessica took the jailer's ring from the officer's belt before she looked at the captive man in her grip again; she gave him his next directive, "You don't see me or anybody in this jail cell...head on out of here, nice and slow...and you won't remember a damn thing about ever seeing me or what happened to your prisoner—do you understand?"

"I really gotta go to the bathroom...I don't even know why I'm on this detail—nobody's even in here..." the officer muttered disgustedly to himself as he walked out.

"Jessica!"

"Shut up, Hoyt—I need to talk to you—" Jessica said as she quietly unlocked the cell door, then yanked it open and held it for him.

"If I wanted to go with you—and I don't—how the hell do you think you're gonna get me past a whole station full of cops?"

"Believe me, Hoyt—I cleared a path." With that Jessica grabbed him and took off with him beyond the station and into the night.

The meeting was only just over and the Minsk team was still brainstorming in the waning moments before the sun would send the youngest of them to ground.

"We must be able to act upon the next transmission, Milena, no matter how weak it seems to be..." Sabeen said as she drummed her fingers upon the conference table, and in deep thought as she tried to figure out the logistics.

"If I even receive that..." Milena's hope for such a thing was visibly wavering even as she tried to present otherwise.

"We just need a fix...it's coming from him when he's conscious—during his waking hours, but our sleeping ones—"

"So we need to be in the same zone he is... so Lady Almeida can get to him..." from Trey, smiling his understanding at everyone around the table.

"But Time works against us—not only that, as he awakens and truly comes back to himself, he shall need to be shielded, mentally, from the bond with his Maker..." from Sabeen, still in deep and distant thought.

"A witch's spell would break that link, wouldn't it Sabeen? When King Eric Northman was under Antonia Gavilán de Logroño's spell, he didn't even know who he was! And he didn't even recognize his own progeny, Pam—would such a thing buy us time and secrecy while he comes back to health?"

"That is a brilliant suggestion, young one—and who—"

"Holly and Tara—They'll know how to help us..." Sarah beamed at her.

"And when his Maker feels nothing of him anymore? Will that not be an alarm to him?" Milena fretted at Sabeen.

"He'll think that Eugenio has sunken further and finally into torpor, Milena; he won't be alarmed, at all," Sabeen gave a comforting pat to the woman's hand. "Put the call in, Sarah, and tell them that, if we're lucky, we'll be needing them—soon."

"Jessica, what the fuck?" Hoyt gasped as he tried to catch his breath; they were somewhere in the woods beyond Bon Temps PD, how far, he couldn't quite tell.

"Yeah, you're welcomed, Hoyt," she snapped back at him.

"For what? Making me a fugitive?"

"No—I can get you back in as easily as I got you out, if that's what you really want," she shot back at him.

"What did you come for, Jessica? You came to glamour me, didn't you?" he accused her. "To what, make me feel better about going to Death Row?"

Jessica's face crumbled slightly at his accusation that mirrored Blackburn's own. "No, Hoyt, I would never—will never—glamour you again."

"So? What?"

"I...I came to offer you an option, Hoyt. You never would have done any of this if it hadn't been for me...you wouldn't be—"

"Jessica, I've been stupid all of my natural life—and now I gotta pay for it."

"Really, Hoyt? From what I hear you're not trying to pay for shit! You're trying to escape!"

"I wanted to die, Jessica! I still do—but on my own terms!"

"Death by Cop, Hoyt? Really?"

"Better than the fucking alternative," he rolled his eyes at her as he flung himself disgustedly against a tree, leaned his back upon it and crossed his arms at his chest. "Call me a fucking coward if you want to, I don't give a fuck what you or anybody else thinks about it. Not anymore."

"Hoyt, there's nobody else in the world I'd ever do something like this for, ever—but you didn't kill anybody, and I know that, deep in your heart, you didn't really agree with what the others were doing and that's why you stopped—you just couldn't stop them—"

"But I should have tried, Jessica..."

"And you could have gotten yourself killed! From what I heard about Bud and Sweetie, Hoyt, if you'd turned traitor on them...ratted them out and they'd found out about it? You would have been a dead man!"

Hoyt catapulted himself away from the tree , marched angrily over to Jessica and faced off with her. "Yeah? Well it would have been a damn sight more honorable death than what I'm looking at now, Jessica!"

"You really want to die Hoyt? Huh? DO YOU?" she yelled at him.

Hoyt stood transfixed before her, in shock and afraid of her meaning.

"You gettin' it now?"

"Wh-what are you...what?"

"Let me turn you, Hoyt...I owe you your life back..."

"What?" The look of horror on Hoyt's face was unmistakable.

"I won't do it against your will, Hoyt; and I won't ever offer this chance to you again, so, you can take it—or leave it, and I'll put you back in that cell...which you're going to trade in, soon, for a worse one... for the rest of your life—if you're lucky. So, what's it gonna be?"

"You can't just spring this shit on me, Jess, and think that it's okay...or act like you're doing me some kind of favor—and you? As my Maker? Do you even begin to comprehend what kind of fuckedupness that is? Huh? Do you?"

"I'd release you, Hoyt; tell you—show you—everything you need to know about yourself, and send you on your own way; you'd never be bound to me or have to have anything to do with me again."

"Yeah...right—because that's all it can ever be with you and me, right? Nothing between us. Not even if I was a vampire. Yeah, that's really the eternity I've waited all of my life to look forward to."

Jessica was speechless.

"You have to know, that through everything...all of our problems because of your...because you..."

"What?"

"Because of what the blood means to you!" Hoyt got out with difficulty. "All the shit that happened in behind you and Jason! The fact that I wasn't enough for you! I mean, I get it, now, but even if you turn me, Jess..." Hoyt's anger melted and gave way to his complete heartbreak as his face crumbled and tears came to his eyes. "I loved you, Jessica, like no woman I have before or ever will again...I love you still; now you offer me eternity? Eternity without you?"

The weight of his words hit her like a freight train. "Oh...Hoyt..."

"My understanding is that you have a man now—a vampire—you ain't been crying and pining for me, Jessica, you left me; you moved on and kept moving. And that's fine, you don't owe me shit. But if you really want to do me a favor? Kill me. Don't turn me, kill me. I really don't have shit to live for; I don't care what people would say about my dead ass, I'll be out of my pain. You wanna give me something, Jess? Give me that."

"Hoyt..." Jessica's blood tears were streaming unchecked down her cold, soft, pale cheeks, "you don't mean that..."

"I do mean it."

"Think about your mother, Hoyt; all of the people that love you—Jason..."

"You in that category, Jessica?"

"Hoyt..."

"Kill me. Kill me!" he raged at her as he began to pace an angry circle about her. "Kill me, Jess!"

"Hoyt, stop it..."

Hoyt stopped before her and gave a hard shove to her shoulder. "Kill me, Jessica!"

"Now, you just watch yourself, Hoyt, and calm the fuck down..."

Hoyt shoved her again, harder. "Kill me, Jessica!"

"HOYT!" she screamed at him as her own slow fury began to ignite; Hoyt saw the murderous gleam in her eyes that he was looking for and leveled a chilling grin at her.

"Kill me Jessica," he hissed at her through his tight-lipped challenge, with muscles in his jaw that clenched tighter and tighter, "I'm a cryin', whiny bitch of a man...a mama's boy...a "nice" guy...a wimp! A fuckin' pussy-whipped loser! It wasn't just the sex with me that wasn't enough—I was never man enough for you...was I?"

Jessica was not intimidated one bit by the man towering over her, so much the physical antithesis to his angry verbal self-criticisms assaulting her at that moment; she was not afraid of him, for his own strength was no match against her own, and at that moment she was only seconds away from tossing his ass against a tree to knock some sense into his head. "That's enough, Hoyt!" Then it dawned on her what he had actually said. "Wait—what?"

"You heard me."

A blank look from her made his smile turn to a smirk.

"Yeah. Of all people—Jason explained it to me."

"Jason?"

Jessica's thoughts went to Jason, then, and she had to stifle her smile; Jason would always have a place in her dead heart that made it feel alive again. She loved Blackburn, but if she had to be honest, not as much as he loved her—she had really loved Jason, with a maturity that she hadn't yet possessed while she was with Hoyt. She realized early on that Hoyt was everything in a first love that a girl could ever want...he had been an ideal love; an innocent love; a love that one was destined to outgrow.

But she and Jason had been kindred spirits; the connection she had shared with him had been more intimate, more fulfilling than the blood and the sex combined, and that fact had never hit home more for her than the night she showed up at his door looking for a hot roll in the sheets but ended up with him allowing her to share something else with him that he needed more: her truest insight into him, a loving shoulder to lean on, and a real opportunity for him to be heard.

"...couldn't you just have explained it to me, Jess? Hey, are you even listening to me?"

Jessica was snatched out of her memory and looked at Hoyt with sad eyes. "I...I didn't know how, Hoyt; I didn't understand it all, myself, back then...by the time I did—it was just too late," she said with true regret.

"And it's still too late, Jessica; it's too late for me."

"No...no, Hoyt, it isn't..."

Hoyt stood taller before her then and stared down into her crystalline blue eyes. "Either kill me now, Jessica Hamby," he began quietly, "and give me as honorable death as I'm ever gonna get...or take me back to jail. I don't want...I don't want it, Jessica; I don't want to be what you are; there's no escape for me—cuz I'm always gonna end up right back at myself."

Hoyt's words hurt Jessica to her dead core; but instead of the guilt she thought that she should have been feeling over her responsibility for the sad predicament he had wound up in, she found that she was angry, instead. Hoyt saw the empathetic look in her eyes disappear.

"Well, why are you mad at me? This was a stupid idea, anyway, and you know it."

"You know what, Hoyt Fortenberry?" She didn't wait for his answer. "You're right. I don't know what I was thinking..." Jessica angrily agreed with him.

"You were gonna glamour me...you bitch!" Hoyt lunged at her, knowing that his strength was no match for hers, but unwilling to go out without a fight.

"HOYT FORTENBERRY!"

Hoyt stopped in his tracks as Jessica slowly approached him, not feeling bad at all for what she was about to do.

"You're going to go on, Hoyt, either to life in prison or death row—or hopefully on to your own life again, someday; you're going to forget that I ever existed and if you ever see me again, you won't remember me; you won't have any memories of me in connection with Jason Stackhouse. From now on you're going to concentrate on your own protection, wherever you are, and never think about committing suicide again; this night never happened; this night is a dream that's going to fade and die in the rays of the rising sun; forgotten; and when you wake up you'll be back in your cell, ready to face whatever is coming your way...lay down on the ground, now, and have yourself a little nap..."

"I think I'll lay down and take me a little nap...don't know why the hell I'm out here all by myself, but it sure is a beautiful night...a beautiful dream..." Hoyt said, his voice full of enchantment as he lay down upon a thick carpet of leaves and drifted off to sleep.

"She's not there?"

"No, sorry Bill."

"I'm sorry to be so late in calling after the teleconference, but Tara and I had some other urgent matters to attend to here including an emergency briefing with the President..."

"I certainly understand, Bill..."

"I have left several messages for her on her cell and she has not called back—is everything alright?"

Blackburn didn't dare to tell Bill where Jessica had gone off to, and he was actually wondering the same thing, himself. "Everything is fine—"

It was near midnight; Blackburn had been resisting the urge for hours to go and find Jessica to see what in hell was going on; he wanted to have more trust in her than that, but her mission was too humanly heartfelt to place any real confidence in. Every supernatural in Bon Temps knew about the big meeting going down at the Authority that night and was waiting for the latest news—Jessica should have been there to take that call or have answered her damn phone; putting him in the difficult situation of knowing what he knew and having to keep it from Bill without being an outright liar was only serving to make him angry about it.

"Well, will you have her call me when she gets in, Blackburn? I would really like to tell you both what happened while you are together."

"Of course—as soon as she gets in."

"Until then."

"Thanks, Bill, bye."

Damn it, Jessica, where are you and what the fuck are you doing?

"You did what?"

"It's been forever since I've seen you, please don't be angry at me...can I come in?"

Bill waited for Tara to finish the conversation she was having on her own cell phone.

"Okay, I will...yep...bye, Holly."

Bill looked a question as he came up to Tara and encircled his arms about her waist.

"Sabeen just called Holly—Sarah came up with a plan, it seems, and Sabeen wants to make it happen as soon as possible; they can't waste anymore time during the day.."

"Wait—what?"

"Me and Holly are going to meet up in Rio with them...and I gotta call mama and Miss Ruby Jean..."

"Tara—what—"

Tara gave her confused, worried man a deep, passionate kiss. "I'm taking a little trip, baby..." she said before she broke away from him to call her mother. "Just give me another minute and I'll explain everything..."

"Tara? Tara, baby! What?"

Ruby Jean, Maxine and Lettie Mae had been up late, at Lettie Mae's house, where Lettie Mae had invited them after Jason got home and relieved Maxine from watching the kids; it had pleased him, greatly, that the other two ladies had taken it upon themselves to take Maxine over into their care and not leave her alone to face another horrible night worrying about Hoyt.

"When, baby? Okay, but you can imagine how Miss Maxine has been over Hoyt, do you really need us both? I'd hate to leave her all alone right now...uh-huh...yes, I do...I'll check with her...okay...okay...you think that will work?" A long moment while Lettie Mae listened. "Okay...uh-huh...okay, we'll play that by ear, baby...okay—I love you, too. Bye, baby girl."

Lettie Mae hung up her phone and turned to the two women at her kitchen table, both of them holding on to their stiff glasses of double-scotch; her sister had a serene, knowing look upon her face; poor Maxine couldn't imagine what horrible news she was in store for next.

"It's not about Hoyt, Miss Maxine," Ruby Jean told her in a soothing voice as she put a strong, reassuring arm about the woman's shoulder, "and I'm not leaving you—Lettie Mae?"

"Yes, sister?"

"You got this one—you and Lafayette."

"Holly? Holly? What's going on?"

Holly came back from the meeting and gave Nicholas a kiss before she went to the bedroom and began packing her overnight bag.

"Holly—that felt like a kiss goodbye—Holly—" Nicholas went to her and stopped her at her task. "Talk to me, Holly."

Holly faced him with a sad, resigned look on her face. "You're gonna hate this, but I have to do it."

"Do what? What happened at the meeting?"

"So much...and I don't have time to go into all...I've got to go see about the boys...I've got to look for my passport..."

"Pass...your passport? Holly, please tell me what's going on?"

"For me to do that I'll have to tell my story walkin', baby."

"I'm with you, love—but if you think you're leaving the country without me by your side, you have another think coming—here...let me help you pack..."

"But—"

"No buts—" Nicholas gave her a sweet little buss to her lips before he went to the few things she'd dumped out upon the bed to go into her bag. "I've got this—start talking..."

"Miss Ruby Jean? What is yo sweet self doing up at this hour? Uh-huh...uh-huh...say what? How you know all this? Okay, stupid question...go on...uh-huh...the more the merrier, on this bitch—Jesus—hell yeah—oh, hell yes, I got mine...damn...I hope the fuck he is, poor woman...okay. Thanks, mama; I will."

"Lafayette?"

"Listen up, sweetness—this some shit, right here..." Lafayette said after he snapped his phone shut and turned back to his bewildered lover beside him in bed.

"I'm sorry, hell yeah, get the fuck on in here 'fore somebody sees you..."

Jason ushered Jessica into his house with an impatient sweep of his arm.

"Nobody is following me, Jason..."

"Hey, don't get all huffy with me, girl—how could you do something like that, Jessica?"

Jessica had delivered Hoyt back to his cell with relative ease and then headed straight to Jason to explain why his prisoner and friend would be much more docile come sunrise, and her explanation had come in a rush at him as soon as he had opened his front door to her.

"Sit yourself down and start from the beginning...and be kinda quiet, huh? The kids are sleeping..."

"He needed help, Jason..."

"You promised him you'd never do that to him again—he told me—"

"He needed help, Jason," she repeated exasperatedly.

"You God, now, Jessica?"

"I thought you, of all people, would understand." Considering how Jason was taking the news of her glamouring Hoyt there was no way that she was going to tell him the rest of it.

"You broke him out of jail to glamour him? After everybody you hit at the station, hell, you coulda done that in his cell..."

Jason's suspicion came at her through the squint of his eyes and Jessica could see the wheels working in his brain; if he figured it out...Please don't figure it out, I'm a bad liar...

"You were gonna turn him..." Jason accused her.

Fuck!

"You were! You were gonna fuckin' turn him!" Jason rose up from his couch and kicked the foot of it, completely outdone by her intentions.

"Shh, Jason, your kids..."

"Oh...you just cut it out," he warned her.

"He refused me, Jason..."

"And if he hadn't? That's obstruction of justice. Jessica!"

"But it's not! He's still going to face whatever happens next—that's what he said that he wanted—for me to kill him outright or take him back to jail...and that's where he is, Jason, back in his cell, ready to fight for his life instead of trying to take it."

"Something about this still ain't right...you promised him..."

"I know I did. But Hoyt is your friend. And he's mine, too, dammit. And I still care about him, just as much as you do." But I still love you.

"Yeah, your boyfriend's gonna be real thrilled about that," he huffed at her.

"I said I still care about him, Jason. And I told my boyfriend that I was going to see him."

"Did he know what you were going to do?"

"Jason...just...sit down, huh? I've missed you; missed what we had together, and you know I don't just mean the sex. I'm your friend, remember?"

Jason sat down and turned to face her.

"I remember," Jason smiled at her. "Jess, it's just been so much going on..."

"I know, Jason, you know that I know..."

"You know, me and Hoyt just finally, really made up in behind you—he even thought I might have been seeing you again...he's been in a bad way for a long time now..."

"And wouldn't you have done the same thing to save him if you could have?"

"Nobody can save Hoyt now, Jess—nobody but himself, and that's only if he ever gets a chance to even remotely have a life again..."

Jessica sniffed the air. "I don't mean to cut you off, but do you smell...are your kids up? Did I wake them?"

"Oh...I uh...there's been a new development in my life since you've been working in Dallas, and all."

"What?"

"I'm a...I'm a were-panther, Jess."

"What? When? How come I haven't smelled you before now?"

"Well, you been gone away from here for a while; maybe, whenever we have seen each other we've been around so many other supes, you know?"

"Yeah, that's true, I guess...when? When did this happen? Are you okay?"

"Not long before the Mayberry incident; and yeah, I'm okay."

"Since Mayberry? Are you shittin' me?"

"I am not. We got some catchin' up to do, huh?"

"Understatement of the year..."

"Look, it ain't common knowledge about me, and I been bending over backwards on this case, making sure nobody can accuse me of conflict of interest, you know? Because of what I am now, and all, and in spite of it, I managed to make up with Hoyt—and still follow the law, Jessica..."

"Okay, I so get it—and I'm sorry."

"Hoyt turning you down shows me that he really means to deal with the consequences of his actions. Now, the suicide attempt threw me, you can damn sure believe that, but girl? If he had have let you turn him? Damn, Jessica, I don't even wanna think about the heap of trouble you would have been in with the Authority—with Bill; what the hell were you thinking? There's so much more goin' on—you know we just had a meeting tonight, right?"

"I know. What was I thinking? Honestly?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanted him to stop blaming himself—and me—for what he did."

"He never blamed you, Jess..."

"Who's lying now?"

"Jess..."

"I didn't want to be his reason anymore, Jason! To give up on his life and everything in it!"

"So...you weren't trying to help Hoyt—you really were trying to help yourself." Jason's cautious insight was a kind call for Jessica to face the truth.

"No! Not at first, no—but he made me so mad, Jason! Standing there, just sounding so pathetic; laying his guilt trip on me—we should all be free of that, now."

"So...you offered to make him a vampire, to escape his sad, pathetic life?"

"Yes!"

"Are you sure about that? You don't think that, maybe, it was all about ending your guilt?"

"I shouldn't have to feel guilty, Jason."

"And you're right, if that's what he was tryin' to do. Was he? Tryin' to make you feel guilty?"

Jessica hated to admit her truth to him.

"Okay, now that's been established, huh?"

Jessica gave an apologetic little nod of her head.

"Alright. You offered to turn him and he refused."

"Yes."

"Because life with you went to hell; without you life has still been hell—were you trying to get back with him?"

"No! And we were both clear on that, Jason."

"So...you offered him eternal life—without you."

"I offered him a chance to escape this unfair sentence that's about to be passed, Jason."

"No, honey, you offered him Eternal Hell. I woulda asked you to kill me, too, if I was in his shoes and you had done that shit to me."

Jessica looked her complete hurt at Jason.

"C'mon, Jessica, you're not stupid. You're not God. You're not the Law. And you're the last person on Earth that can give Hoyt what he really wants—or needs—if it ain't you, don't you get it?"

"I damn sure do, now."

"C'mon, honey, leave stupid to the experts, huh?" Jason pointed at himself.

"Jason, you're not stupid and you know it."

"I've spent a large chunk of my life being pretty thick, Jess, and that's puttin' it mildly; I've come a piece of a way, but I had to—it's embarrassing to be old and still stupid..."

"Jason, stop it..."

"And I got kids now; the pressure is on to set a good example—and pray that they didn't inherit the stupid gene from me."

"Well that gene is in everybody, right? Look at what I did tonight..."

They both let out a little chuckle at each other.

"Look, I know your heart was in the right place, Jess...but don't ever do anything like this again, huh? I couldn't take it if anything bad ever happened to you, and you've been through enough already."

A little blood tear formed in the corner of Jessica's eye. "Do you really mean that, Jason?"

"I'm still your friend, too, Jess," he said softly as he reached out to delicately wipe away her tear. "I know I ain't really acted like it, but you seemed pretty happy about where things had gone in your life, and I was still here with Hoyt, trying to make things right between us—other stuff, too, not just the stuff about you and me."

They settled in beside each other on the couch and Jason put protective arm about her shoulder.

"So how have you been, Jason? There's not a day that's gone by that I haven't thought about you..."

"For real? That's awful sweet..."

"For real."

"Well, let's just say that, if I wasn't a panther now, I woulda dropped dead from exhaustion a long time ago...it's been work and the kids—and that's about it. But I ain't complainin'—especially about the kids."

"You like being a daddy—I can tell that you're good one, too."

"I hope I am. God..." he gave a long, deep sigh, "I don't even know where to start..."

Jessica nuzzled into him more, happy at the chance to be able to do so.

"This is nice. I can't tell you the last time I even got close to a woman."

"Really?"

"Ain't been no time—or inclination, if you want to know the truth. I hadn't even really thought about it—until just this moment, here with you. Thank you, Jess. Thank you for not turning Hoyt—can you fuckin' imagine what kind of angry-as-hell vampire he woulda been?" Jason gave a visible shiver at the thought. "Thank you for coming to tell me truth about it."

"Well, we're just gonna have to see each other more often, that's all. I miss this, too, Jason."

"Hey..."

"Yeah?"

"What about your boyfriend? Are you two okay?"

"Oh...yeah...we're fine..."

"Ain't he gonna be kind of...I don't know—how secure is he about you?"

"You know, I don't really want to talk about him right now."

"Okay, sounds like there's a whole lot of story behind that comment, Jess..."

"There is; but I want to enjoy being here with you...what can you tell me about what happened at the meeting?"

"Was Hadley alright after?"

"She was, my Queen; but she was relieved when I told her that I would take over for her."

"Of course."

"She feels like she's failed us in her duty."

"Reassure, her, Claudette, that she definitely has not."

"I will."

"And so they hope that his progeny may still be saved?"

"Yes, but only if they act right away; a plan is being put into motion as we speak—they will call on the witches to assist them."

"Then the end is near—or so, we hope."

"Yes, my Queen."

"Then I shall close the portal now, Claudette—are you ready?"

"It is as it must be, my Queen."

"I love you, child; you have been most-dutiful to this Realm; to your sisters and brothers here and upon Earth—and to me. We all thank you for your loving service—and your sacrifice shall never be forgotten. I am always here even though we shall never see each other again—stay strong, child, as I pray, always, for the perseverance of all upon Earth."

"Thank you, my Queen. Then it is goodbye. For now."

"For now, child."

She thought she felt the earth move from where she was sitting upon the ground.

"Warlow? Do they have earthquakes here?"

Sookie and Warlow were camped between the road and a shelter three towns away from the last one they had stayed at; dawn had broken and they were up and having a light breakfast of coffee, apples, day old bread and a small wheel of creamy, delicious Arzúa-Ulloa cheese, a specialty from the region, before they would pack up their tents and move on for the day.

"They most-certainly do, my Sookie; but that was no earthquake..."

"What?"

"The shudder you felt is the rift between dimensions that so many here on this planet know nothing of: Queen Mab has closed the portal, Sookie."