Disclaimer

All rights go to Charline Harris and Allan Ball. I only own my original plotlines and characters.

❝ I need a drink. ❞

- The Famous Last Words

Of Juliette Stackhouse

NEXT MORNING JULIETTE drove back to Gran's house in a good mood, thanks to the call she received letting her know they released Jason. Upon walking in Juliette's mouth watered at the smell of coffee and bacon hitting her nose.

"Well don't that smell good" Juliette smiles, her good mood had her southern accent unknowingly becoming more pronounced at her words as she made her way towards where Adele was cooking.

A quick kiss to her Gran's cheek, she flits her way to the coffee pot smiling when she saw that her favorite mug was right next to the machine and that there was just enough left for her.

"Breakfast will be ready in a bit," Adele informs over her shoulder and Juliette lets out a hum in acknowledgment sipping on her coffee as she joins Sookie at the table who was watching the news with rapt attention.

"Demons, literally." The reverend exclaimed, "They literally have no soul!"

Juliette rolls her eyes, "Because being a crazy cult leader is so much better" Juliette mocks.

Juliette sips on her coffee as she watches Reverend Newlin and Nan Flanagan in amusement as they continue verbally sparring on live television. Juliette had to admit watching the Reverends face turn redder than a tomato as he grew increasingly annoyed at Nan was better than reality TV.

"I will not speak to her directly, Sharon" The Reverend states.

"Why is that, Reverend Newlin?" Sharon, the news lady asks.

"My commitment to Christ Jesus, praise His name, compels next not to recognize her kind" He replies and this time Juliette nearly spits out her coffee as she starts cackling.

"Oh Christ, this is just gold" Juliette laughs, wishing she had some popcorn.

"You know these are serious matters" Sookie glares.

Juliette's response was a soft snort, "I'll take them seriously when I don't have to listen to a childish lunatic." Juliette shrugs.

Before Sookie could respond, Adele walks back into the kitchen and Sookie turns off the TV making Juliette pout but that was soon turned to a smile when Adele placed some sausages in front of before walking away to grab the eggs.

"I don't think Jesus would mind if somebody was a vampire," Sookie comments.

"I don't either, honey" Adele responds, placing some eggs onto Sookie's plate before turning and placing double of she gave Sookie onto Juliette's, who just dig right in with a happy moan.

"Mhm, is this sausage different from what you usually make?" Sookie asks.

"No." Adele shakes her head.

"Huh, it tastes so much more complex than it usually does," Sookie says taking another bite.

"Oh, dear, you think it's gone bad," Adele frowns.

Juliette's head snaps up, "Nuh-uh, it's good" Juliette protests, her mouth still filled with food, and Sookie wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"Gross" She comments and Juliette just grins opening her mouth to gross her sister out even more before going back to shoveling more heaping's of eggs into her mouth.

"Juliette's right grams, it's delicious" Sookie assures turning back to Adele, "It's like I can close my eyes and I can see the farm the pig lived on, and feel the sun and the rain on my face, and even taste the earth that the herbs grew out of."

During Sookie's little explanation she didn't realize Juliette had stopped eating and was now giving her a weirded out glance.

"What?" Sookie asks when she finally sees the look on her sister's face.

Juliette swallows the eggs in her mouth before replying, "You have issues," she deadpans.

"Oh like you can talk" Sookie scoffs.

"Hey, I never denied mine but seriously 'the earth that the herbs grew out of'?" Juliette smirks, "What are you a fairy?"

"Oh, shut up."

The sound of the door opening halts the girls banter and they turn to see Tara walking in.

"Hey, Miss Stackhouse" Tara smiles, making her way over to the coffee machine and grabs a mug.

Adele knowing Juliette had drunk the rest of the coffee, walks over, "Now you go sit down and I'll make a new pot," Adele states kissing Tara's forehead.

Tara lets out a giggle as she does what she's told but as soon as she sits down her happy demeanor melts away into her usual grumpy one.

There's the Tara we all know and love.

"You look like shit," Juliette states bluntly.

"I hate to admit it but she's right you look awful," Sookie agrees and Juliette snaps her head towards Sookie, looking at her with wide eyes.

"What?" Sookie asks.

"Can you repeat what you said?" Juliette asks.

"I said you were right," Sookie shrugs as if it was no big deal.

A big smile blooms on the older girls face, "Damn, right I am and make sure y'all remember it," She smirks before standing up to grab more sausages, leaving Sookie and Tara to shake their head at her antics.

Juliette tunes out the girl's conversation as she happily munches on her food and drinks her coffee, only looking up when the door once again opens.

"Am I too late for breakfast?" Jason smiles striding in and any lingering worry Juliette had for Jason vanished as she saw him standing there, "Hey, Tara" Jason greets absentmindedly as he makes a beeline for his twin.

As soon as she was in arms reach he was wrapping his arms around her, giving her a reassuring hug. Kissing her cheek he lets Juliette go but he keeps one arm around her shoulder to which she leans into, giving it a gentle squeeze, no words having to be said by the pair.

"Hey. Hey, Jason" Tara replies lovestruck, "I'm so glad they didn't lock you up"

Juliette softly snorts at Tara's words and had to hold back a laugh when Jason gives Tara a weird look.

"Uh, yeah," he nods, "Me too"

Seeing an opportunity Jason stealthily grabs Juliette's coffee and before she can stop him he chugs down the last remain drops. Juliette growls and punches him in the arm, the pairs previous heartfelt moment disappearing as they returned back to normal.

Jason taking advantage of Juliette's attention on her empty coffee mug grabs her second plate of breakfast before dancing out of arms reach. If looks could kill the glare she sent him would've had him six feet under but otherwise she doesn't try to get it back instead she crosses her arms and pouts.

"I don't even know why they suspected me," Jason comments taking a bite out of the sausage, "I think somebody heard I'd been with Maudette."

"Had you?" Sookie asks slyly.

Jason takes a breath before responding, "No."

Liar

Juliette smirks but keeps her thought to herself not wanting to out her brother in front of everyone especially not in front of Tara.

"Are you sure?" Sookie teases thankfully being too distracted to hear Juliette's thoughts, "She was a woman."

"Very funny" Jason sighs, "At least she was human," He adds nonchalantly.

Jason's retort earned a bark of laughter from Juliette and a glare from Sookie that was aimed at both of the twins.

"You will never believe what happened—oh hey Jason," Gran cuts herself off from whatever she was saying to greet at Jason.

"Hey, Gran" He smiles.

Immediately Gran shoves Jason into a chair, "Sit down, I'll fix you breakfast," She says not giving any room for protest not that there would be any.

"What happened?" Juliette asks raising an eyebrow as she saunters into a seat beside her brother so she could munch on some of her stolen sausages.

"Well, apparently, a tornado touched down over at Four Tracks Corners, it turned over that rent trailer in the clearing, you know the one?" Adele said and Juliette froze for a second as she heard her Gran's thoughts.

Well, shit Juliette thought happily, Mack and Denise were dead, it must be Christmas.

Juliette wasn't sure how it happened but somehow Jason had roped her into attending the small dinner Gran had organized for Bill, under the context of protecting their little sister but if she was being honest she only came for the booze.

Was she a borderline alcoholic? Yes. Did she care? Nope.

Juliette had already gone through her bottle of beer and being too lazy to get back up she swipes Jason's beer out of his hand taking a long sip before he steals it back. With a groan Juliette forces herself to get up and grab her own bottle from the fridge, glaring when she caught Jason's smirk.

"Now, now Juliette watch how many of those you drink," Gran says giving her a warning look that had absolutely no effect on the blonde.

Instead, Juliette just shoots her grandmother a charming smile, "Oh Gran you and I both know, I'm more tolerable when I'm drunk—"

"—If you still get drunk" Tara mutters.

"—And you do want me to be polite to Bill don't you?" Juliette widens her eyes innocently but Adele knew exactly what she was doing and just raised an eyebrow.

The innocent expression dropped from Juliettes face and she let out a sigh as she nods, relenting to Adele's wishes.

Not wanting to see Tara attempt to flirt with her twin, Juliette opts to make her way into the living room and read a book to pass the time till Bill arrived, which hopefully wouldn't be too long as she could already feel her mouth salivating for her Gran's sandwiches.

Thankfully it didn't take long for him to arrive, both Juliette and Bill greeted each other with a silent nod, and before Juliette knew it, she was happily grabbing the sandwiches Adele refused to let her eat until Bill arrived.

Like Jason, Juliette grabbed two sandwiches and Bill couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he studied the twins, they were so much alike yet so different, it was a paradox.

However, he didn't have time to dwell on the fact as Adele turned to him offering him some sandwiches.

"Oh, uh—" Bill planned to politely refuse but it seemed Adele quickly realized what she was doing.

"Oh, my stars, of...of course, y-you do..." The poor woman stuttered.

Juliette, Jason, and Tara all paused from their snacking as they watched with rapt attention at what would happen next but Adele and Bill just broke out into awkward chuckles.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Adele apologizes, moving to set the tray down on the table.

Adele sits down and turns her attention back to Bill, "Your people, Mr. Compton, they were from this area I believe."

Bill nods, "Yeah, my father's people were Comptons, and my mother's people were Loudermilks."

"Oh, there are a lot of Loudermilks left" Adele informs, "But I'm afraid old Mr. Jesse Compton died last year."

"Yes, ma'am," Bill affirms softly, "and that's why I came back to Bon Temp," He informs, Adele, tilts her head curiously so he elaborate's, "There were no living Comptons, so I've decided to set up home in the old Compton place and as I expect the, Uh, VRA to pass —"

"—I wouldn't be too sure about that if I were you," Jason interrupts.

Juliette's hand tightens on her beer bottle the slightest as she turns to look at her brother.

"A lot of Americans don't think you people deserve special rights," Jason states.

Juliette refrains from rolling her eyes at her brother's words. She didn't hate vampires per se, nor was she advocating for them but she did believe in giving them equal rights. She judged an individual not the whole damn race, so her brother's blind hate for an entire race had her slightly vexed at his prejudice.

"They have the same rights you have," Bill points out tensely.

"No, I'm just saying there is a reason things are the way they are," Jason shrugs

"Yeah, it's called injustice," Bill retorts grimly.

Sookie's eyes met Juliette's and Sookie shot her a pleading look.

Do something!

Juliette flinched at the sudden invasion in her mind and glared at her sister but Sookie just gave her the puppy dog eyes.

"Listen, it's called 'This is how we do it!'" Jason snaps.

Seeing how riled up Jason was getting, Juliette decides to listen to Sookie and step in, with a swift smack upside the head. Jason let out a yelp, his hand reaching back to his head but Juliette only rolls her eyes as she turns to Bill and shoots him a charming smile.

"Forgive my brother, he seems to be lacking the proper manners on how to treat a guest," She says, "I for one, completely agree, you can't judge an entire race based off the actions of a few bad apples, god knows we humans have done our fair share of sins."

Juliette's words seemed to relax Bill and Adele shot her a knowing smile, despite Juliette's usual brazen demeanor, when she wanted too Juliette could have a way with words. Lafayette would joke she could talk her way out of murder if she really wanted.

Jason however wasn't so happy with Juliette's statement and shot her a glare that she met head-on. The pair glared at each other, willing for the other to break first, finally, with a low growl Jason looked away, sinking back into his seat while Juliette smirked turning back to the conversation.

"...isn't this the house he built? At least in part?" Bill asks.

"Yes, it was" Adele smiles happily.

"Did you own slaves?" The question was so blunt Juliette nearly choked on her drink.

Meanwhile, Sookie shot her best friend an appalled glare, "Tara!"

Juliette took another sip of her beer trying to hide the smirk crawling onto her lips but it seemed Bill wasn't offended as he easily shook his head to Tara's question.

"I did not but my father did," He replies.

Tara hums, crossing her arms in displeasure.

"A house slave, a middle-aged woman..."

Juliette partially tuned out, not interested in listening to Bill's description of the slaves his father owned.

"Oh, this is just the sort of thing my club will be so interested in hearing about" Adele gushes.

"About slaves?" Tara demands.

This time Juliette had to bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as she watched her grandmother stutter trying to get out of the hole she dug.

"I look forward to speaking with your club Miss Stackhouse," Bill smiles before standing up. "Now, if it's alright with you I thought that Sookie and I might take a walk," Bills smile melts into a charming smirk, "It's such a lovely night"

"Well, it's alright with me if it's alright with Sookie," Adele states.

Jason however wasn't too happy with the offer and he slams his bottle onto the table and stands up.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," He says.

"I don't think it's any of your business" Sookie retorts.

"She's right Jason" Adele nods.

"Look, Gran, I am the man of this family—"

"—you are a man in this family, but I am the oldest person here and this is my house, you better respect me, boy" Adele cuts off as she stands up.

"Actually, I'm the oldest person here," Bill jokes.

Adele and Bill chuckle, even Juliette lets out a soft snort but Jason just makes a face.

"Shall we?" Bill asks looking at Sookie.

"We shall," Sookie nods getting up and grabbing his hand.

Bill smiles and nods at Adele but his eyes narrow as he looks at Jason. Bill steps forward and in a flash Juliette was up on her feet, in front of her brother, glaring at the vampire, challenging him to try and do something to her brother.

Bill clears his throat stepping back and a sickly sweet smile slides onto her lips.

"Have fun!" She says sweetly but her eyes held the promise of danger if anything happened to her sister.

Bill swallows, nodding before he and Sookie leave.

As soon as the door shut Jason turned to Adele and Juliette, "Well, thanks for making me look like a fool in front of him."

Before Juliette could say anything, Adele beats her to it and steps forward placing her hands on his cheeks, "Jason, you don't need any help looking like a fool."

At those words, Juliette bursts into laughter.

The next couple of days breezed by for Juliette. Today seemed to be particularly nice so she took advantage of the opportunity to head out into the woods, with her sketchbook in hand.

It wasn't often where she got to be away from the voices of everyone's thoughts between working at the bar and spending time with her friends and family, days like these were surprisingly rare.

She found she missed the peace that came with being on her own, with nothing but her own thoughts. A small smile appeared on her face as she thought back to the time she had decided to leave home. She had just turned twenty and was going through a rebellious—more so than her usual— faze and decided to more or less run away from home and travel the world.

The whole trip wasn't as glamorous as most thought it was—staying in cheap motels, going on cheap flights, eating airplane food, etc—but it was something she wouldn't trade for anything.

The knowledge she learned, the culture and not to mention the fact she met the one person she had come to think of as her closest friend, even more so than Lafayette and even Hoyt, when she wasn't mad at him.

Claudius Crane.

He came out of nowhere. They met during her time in New York at a dingey bar on the corner of the street. The pair had flirted and even ended up spending the night together, the next morning they went out for breakfast and found out they had more in common than they realized. Claudius ended up becoming Juliette's travel buddy and the two did end up sharing more nights together but kept the terms casual.

He was the only person other than Jason to understand Juliette wholeheartedly and she loved him for it as much as she loved her brother, her twin, her other half.

Unfortunately, Claudius was a restless soul, always on the hunt for a new adventure or a reckless situation, so the two had reluctantly parted ways when Juliette was called back to Bon Temp. The two kept in contact but it wasn't the same,

The nostalgia of her past had Juliette picking up her phone and calling the number she memorized by heart.

"How's my favorite alcoholic?" A smooth voice laughed from the other end of the phone.

Tears pricked Juliette's eyes at the sound of his voice, wishing that he was here with her.

Juliette forced her self to let out a chuckle, "In need of a drink," she jokes.

But nothing got past Claudius and he immediately picked up on her sadness, his tone changed from joyful to worried, "What's wrong sweetheart?" He asks.

"Nothing, it's nothing" Juliette sighs biting her lip, "It's just...It's just, it's really good to hear your voice," She admits.

"Aw, Sweetheart...do you need me to visit?" He asks, "I'll fly in for a few days even if it means enduring the judgy eyes of the townsfolk."

This elicited a genuine laugh from Juliette and she shook her head, despite him not being able to see it, "No, it's okay, I just really needed to hear your voice that's all"

"Well, I'm only a call away sweetheart" He states softly, "Is there anything I can do?"

"Just talk to me, tell me about your travels, and what you've been up too" She replies.

"Oh, sweetheart you'll never believe it..."

For the rest of the morning Juliette laid content in the crook of a branch as she listened to her best friend recite his adventures, she completely forgot about her original plan to draw away the day.

She didn't know how long she spent on the phone with Adrian and it was only when the shrill sound of her phone ringing indicating she had another call did she reluctantly say goodbye and answer the call.

"Hello?" She asks.

"J-Jules, you better come quick," Her sister shakily says.

Rushing over to Dawn's house she was greeted by the sight of police cars and a crowd of locals. The number of thoughts that ambushed her forced her to stop and take a few deep breaths before pushing her way past them and rushing towards her siblings, pulling them into a tight hug.

"What happened?" She questioned looking at the pair worriedly, while she could garner some information from the people around her the sheer amount of thoughts that invaded her head were all jumbled together that she could barely even think.

Sookie explained what happened but Juliette only understood half of what Sookie said as she tried to block out the voices. Juliette's fingers itched towards her flask but she refrains knowing it would be inappropriate.

Juliette, however, did get the drift of what Sookie was telling her and the look on Jason's face was enough for her to pull her brother close. His arms wrap around her, accepting her comfort as she gently stroked his hair, it was a gesture of tenderness she only reserved for her family.

Eventually, she had to let Jason go so he and Sookie could talk to the cops, she wanted to come in but they didn't let her instead she was forced to wait outside with everyone else.

Not in the mood with interacting with anyone she waited by the porch, after what felt like hours her brother finally came out of the house but what she saw had her jumping to her feet.

"What the hell do you think your doing, Andy Bellefleur?" Juliette growls as she stomps over.

"He is the prime suspect of this case, Juliette, now I suggest you stand aside and let me do my job" Andy states tugging Jason towards the cars.

"My ass!" She snaps blocking Andy's way, "You and I both know Jason would never do something like this."

Andy rolls his eyes, "Juliette move aside or I will put you there with him" he threatens.

"Jules, it's fine" Jason gives her a weak reassuring smile, knowing that she would've joined him in cuffs in a heartbeat if that meant staying with him, "I'll be out before you know it"

"Jay..."

"I'll be fine, Jules" Jason nods.

Reluctantly, Juliette steps away allowing Andy to drag Jason to the car, when opening the door Andy pushes Jason against the car and Juliette immediately steps forward.

"Watch it, Bellefleur!" She growls.

Andy ignores her and roughly shoves Jason into the back of the car if it weren't for Sookie grabbing her arm at that moment Juliette was sure she would've attacked Andy.

"Not here and not now," Sookie murmurs.

Roughly Juliette tugs arm away from her sister before glancing at the crowd gathered, then at the car they stuck her twin inside, not wanting to be there when they take Jason away, she storms off, muttering about getting a drink.

The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking until she felt numb before deciding to take a nap.

When she woke up it was nightfall and not in the mood to be alone, she gets up, gets dressed, and makes her way to Merlotte's, where she got to work on fixing drinks.

"You know you didn't have to show up, I called in Tara to cover for you," Sam said when he saw Juliette.

"Yeah well, if I don't keep busy I'm gonna go crazy worrying for my brother, at least here I won't be as tempted to go and murder Andy Bellefleur for manhandling my brother" Juliette shrugs casually and Sam slowly nods.

"Well alright then..."

Thankfully her half added plan worked and she was so busy at the bar she barely thought about Jason, other than the occasional thought she accidentally picked out from the jumbled chaos in her mind.

A quarter way through the shift, Juliette caught the sight of her brother, and immediately she dropped her rag and rushed around the bar to her brother.

"Jesus Jay," Juliette sighed enveloping him into a tight hug, "I was so worried."

In an un-Jason like manner, he pats her back before gently pushing her away a few steps.

"Oh don't worry about Lil'ol me" He waves off.

"Lil'ol—Jason, what the hell?! Of course, I would be worried," Juliette snaps, "What has gotten into—"

"—Jason!" Sookie exclaims, cutting off whatever Juliette was going to say, "You look me in the eye and tell me the truth, did you kill Dawn?"

"What fuck Sookie?!" Juliette glares.

She knew from the bottom of her heart her brother didn't do it. He was an idiot that's for sure, not to mention a huge manwhore but a murder, no way, her brother was too soft for that.

"What? No, Jesus, Sook" Jason sighs, "Look, when Maudette died, I thought I might've done it and it turned out I didn't, with Dawn, I don't even think I might've done it, so I didn't."

"You swear?" Sookie asks.

"Sookie!" Juliette shook her head at her siblings, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"But with the way you're acting it seems like you want it to be" Jason glares.

"Sorry, Gran asked me to listen in on folks, see if I can't clear your name and sometimes it's hard—"

"—Y-y-yeah," Jason interrupts, it was only then did Juliette really take a look at her twin and take in his sickly appearance.

"Jason, are you sick?" Juliette asks placing a hand on his sweaty forehead.

Jason swats her hand away, "I'm fine, look I really need to see Lafayette, so I'll talk to you two later," with a pat on her arm and no time to say anything else Jason walked away.

"Unbelievable," Juliette scoffs.

"I know" Sookie agrees.

Unfortunately, Juliette couldn't march into the kitchen and demand Jason to tell her what was wrong as Sam called her back to the bar.

Bill walked in a while later and the only reason Juliette even noticed was thanks to the Bar quieting down but Juliette ignored it and continued working.

Her eyes however did narrow when she saw Sookie taking Bill outside but after the day she had she couldn't care less, she knew Bill wouldn't hurt her especially somewhere so crowded so she let them have their lover's moment or whatever Sookie dragged him out for.

Not even ten minutes later, Sookie came marching towards her and grabbed Juliette's hand before dragging her away from the bar.

"You're coming with me," Sookie demands leaving no room for argument.

"Okay..." Juliette follows along confused, "...And where am I going?"

"To clear Jason's name and to do that we have to go to Fangtasia, a vampire bar in Shreveport."

Hearing that gave Juliette mixed feelings, happy she could do something to clear her brother's name, curiosity on what a vampire bar looks like but there was one thing she really wanted to know.

Why the fuck would someone decide to name their bar Fangtasia?