sam merlotte (bordercollie) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-03-28 23:39:00 |
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June would mark one whole year since he’d been away from Bon Temps, and Sam felt like one of the locals here in New York. Sure, it felt like a deep betrayal of his Southern roots to consider himself a local, and he knew a lot of New Yorkers wouldn’t agree, but he couldn’t deny the facts: he ran a successful business right in the heart of the city, and he was one of a handful who could claim they were among the first refugees to grace New York with their presence. That had to count for something, right? After so long, and with so many comings and goings, Sam thought he felt numb to it now. The reality was that he wasn’t, of course, but there was something familiar about it that made it easier to handle. Or so he thought. Although he’d stopped expecting to see a familiar face show up, he knew he’d be a wreck if Red was ever taken away. They hadn’t known each other long, but he knew that much already. One of the good things about owning a busy bar was that it left Sam with little time to sit around dwelling on things that were going on around him. New people could show up and he’d miss half of it simply because he didn’t have the time to sit around reading the network all day. He almost missed Sookie. Almost, but not quite. It was a funny thing: seeing Sookie’s name pop up on the network after so much time was only a surprise in that he hadn’t really thought he’d see her again. That she might not be the one he knew... well, he’d been there already, and he didn’t have the time to sit around thinking hard about what that meant, to go through it again. It was what it was, and Sookie would show her face in the bar before long. Until then, he had tables to clear and dishes to wash. Sookie had seen some weird things. Some really weird things. This was definitely a first, though. Not only had she somehow ended up in another world that was still earth, but not her earth, but there were copies of her brother and her best friend running around. Not copies, exactly, because they didn’t seem to look like the Sam and Jason she knew, but what were the odds of people having the same exact names? Curiosity led her to Sam’s. She’d heard he offered a free drink to those who came through the Tesseract, but Sookie had never been a big drinker, so that was only her excuse for showing of. The truth was that she wanted to see this Sam face to face. Maybe she could get some answers out of his head, if nothing else. A long nap had come first, because she hadn’t slept in [...] Sookie actually couldn’t remember how long. She’d come from what had felt like the longest, most stressful day of her life and she desperately needed a rest. After her nap, she’d gotten a shower and slipped back into her clothes. Then, she made her way downstairs. Sam’s, the sign said. Well, at least he hadn’t called it Merlotte’s. It was different from the bar she knew at home. Determined to get some answers, she slipped inside and made her way towards the bar, looking for the man who matched the little photo she’d seen on the Network. When the door chimed, announcing someone's entrance, Sam almost didn't bother looking up. That was what he had employees for, and hostesses. He kept his back turned and he finished wiping down the table in front of him, unable to shake the nagging feeling that he should stop. The moment only lasted a couple seconds, but the feeling was strong. His instincts were trying to tell him something important. Slowly, Sam turned around, fully prepared to be faced with something unpleasant. Instead, he saw a familiar face. Well, familiar only in the sense that he'd seen it on the network before. That didn't mean it was her, of course. It could be someone else with a similar face. He'd seen that happen. "Welcome." He greeted her with a smile. "Take a seat wherever you want." Sookie’s usual smile slipped onto her face automatically as the man who shared her best friend’s name. She was used to covering her inner feelings with that smile. On the inside, she might still be confused and a little freaked out, but it didn’t show in her expression. “Hello, Sam, right?” she said unnecessarily. She recognized him, but it would have been rude not to greet him by his name. Sookie had never been able to quite shake the good manners her Gran had brought her up with. She might not always live up to her upbringing, but she always felt guilty when she didn’t. After looking around a little, Sookie finally selected a seat near the bar. The smile remained on her face as she reached out with her mind. She wasn’t quite sure what questions to ask, but she hoped her ability would give her some answers. "That's me," he answered, his smile widening a little with amusement. Sam knew Sookie better than most people did -- maybe not this Sookie, but the similarities had to be close even across the universes. He knew that even as she took her seat, she was trying to figure him out, and he knew exactly what that entailed. His amusement (along with confusion and slight wariness as well) would have been evident in his mind as he headed back behind the bar to wash his hands, and as he tried to figure out what to say to her. For as well as he knew Sookie, it wasn't easy to figure out how to handle running into her this way. "It's good to have you here, Sookie," he told her, an earnest and genuine tone to his voice. All he had to go on was that she was being truthful about who she was. He hoped she was who she said she was. Jason needed her around. "It's been a long damn time. You want a drink?" Well, at least he wasn’t accusing her of not really being Sookie the way the guy calling himself Jason had. That has really pissed her off, which had led to her being defensive. She felt a little guilty, but not much since he had been just as rude right back. Which, in itself, was very like the Jason she knew, too, but that was something she couldn’t quite get her head around. Her look in his mind didn’t tell her much, except that it felt so similar to her Sam’s. There were differences, but she could tell he was a shifter of some kind. She could also tell that he was a little confused, himself. That was a disappointment. She’d been hoping he’d be able to offer some kind of explanation about how there could be a copy of Sam Merlotte she’d never met. She nodded as he offered her a drink. “A coke’ll be fine,” she drawled back as her smile relaxed into a more genuine one. She still had a lot of questions, but she couldn’t doubt this man was who he claimed to be, even if that seemed impossible. "One coke, coming right up." Sam had to step away to get her drink, but he didn't have to go too far. "I imagine you have a lot of questions, huh?" he asked as he filled a glass with ice and grabbed the soda nozzle. "Anything you want to know, I'll try to answer. I can't promise I know everything, but as one of the first folks to show up here like this, I've got a better handle on it than most." He paused, dropping a napkin on the counter before he placed the soda on it and slid it across the bar. "Same goes for anything about Bon Temps. Might have a few questions for you in return." Sookie nodded. That was an understatement. She definitely had some questions, but she wasn’t quite sure where to start. The SHIELD agents had explained that there were people from different worlds here, but if they’d mentioned that there were two completely separate worlds that included Bon Temps, Louisiana or that there were other versions of people she knew running around this place, she hadn’t been paying enough attention to hear it. “How is any of this possible?” she asked him. Vampires, weres, witches: those were things she could handle. Once the vampires had come out of the coffin, she hadn’t been too surprised that other supernatural beings existed. This, though? This was like something out of a science fiction story. Sookie thought they could be fun to read from time to time, but she never thought the things in those stories could really happen! Sam chuckled. “Now that’s one question I don’t know if I can answer.” There were few things he wished for more than that (to see Tara again was one, and to see the Sookie he’d come to call one of his best friends), but it seemed no one was any closer to having any answers. If they were, they sure as hell weren’t sharing them with everyone else. He couldn’t blame them for that completely; if they found out something bad, he wasn’t sure he trusted everyone in the tower to react well. He stepped out from behind the bar and hopped up on a stool beside her. It was time for a break. “Seems the more I think about it, the more questions I have. I thought I’d seen everything, and then I crash landed on Asgard of all places. You know, the realm of the gods. Thor’s a good friend here, even after I embarrassed the hell out of myself drinking their mead.” Which had happened after he’d shifted, tried to fly away and ended up naked on a cold stone floor. “I know it’s all crazy, but something’s pulling all of us from our worlds and dropping us here. Some sort of... magic energy. Been doing it since the end of May.” Sookie knew it was a long shot expecting an answer to that question, but it was the biggest one plaguing her thoughts at the moment. Sam’s explanation made sense, but it still didn’t exactly answer the question of how or why this had all been happening. Sam’s comments about having more questions as time went buy drew a quiet laugh from her. It made her feel better to know that someone, at least, understood how she felt, especially when that someone reminded her so much of her Sam. He wasn’t him, she knew, but there were so many similarities to them. It made all of this easier, somehow, that sense of familiarity. Sookie sipped slowly at her coke as she tried to think of what to ask next. She had so many questions, but it was all a jumble in her head. She had more and more questions and she wasn’t sure what to say first. “They said I was here before,” she settled on. She couldn’t help wondering about that. How could she have been here before and not remember? Slowly, Sam nodded. "Yeah… you were." It was bizarre how people could come and go without even knowing they'd been there at all. That part Sam didn't understand either, and he felt uncomfortable thinking about the repercussions of their choices here whenever he was reminded that he wouldn't remember anything if he left. On one hand, all bets were off. They could do what they wanted here, be who they wanted to be, without worrying about those choices carrying over back home. He wouldn't be able to miss Red back in Bon Temps. He wouldn't even remember her. On the other hand, it seemed like a bigger risk than anything he'd been through before at home when it came to a relationship, even bigger than confessing his secret. If Red left, where did that leave him? What if he did? What if one of them came back, and only one had memories of being together? Was it fair to put either of them through that? Sam couldn't say. "Guess you don't remember, huh?" he asked, his eyebrows lifting slightly as he looked at her, hopeful and curious. "You weren't here that long. There were two of you for a bit. The one I knew, and you." Maybe she should have ordered something stronger than a Coke. Sookie’s head was starting to hurt from this conversation, from trying to figure it all out. She always had been a little too curious for her own good and that need to understand was going to drive her crazy here where there really were no complete answers. She shook her head. “No, I don’t remember any of it. There were two of me?” That had to have been weird and there was a part of her that was glad she couldn’t remember it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to remember meeting her other self from another world. “I suppose there’s no chance this is just the weirdest dream I’ve ever had and I’ll be waking up from it soon?” she drawled before taking another sip of the Coke. The drink was good, at least. Too good for any of this to not be real. She doubted she’d be able to taste it so clearly in an actual dream. "If this is a dream, this is the longest and most vivid damn dream I've ever had," Sam commented. "And no offense, but you're not usually in mine either." He hoped the smile on his face was enough to show her that he was joking around. Since they didn't know each other that well, technically, he wasn't sure how well she'd be able to read his expressions. His mind was one thing, and if she was at all like the Sookie he knew, she wouldn't invade him too much on purpose. If she'd asked him the same question within his first few weeks, he would have still thought he was going crazy. Now this was his new norm, and Sam couldn't say he hated it. No -- he liked it. "There's a television show about… you, in a way. And a series of books. I'm on the show. You're not. That Sookie, the one I know, she doesn't look like you. I can't tell you how close the stories are. I don't watch, and I don't read. I'm thinkin' I should, because I know there's something about me having a brother in there, but…" Sam's voice trailed off. He was worried about what he'd discover. Sookie could understand feeling like you were going crazy. She’d felt like that for most of her life and despite everything she’d gone through, this whole situation made her feel that way all over again. At least she wasn’t alone in this, though. There weren’t any people from her world here, but it helped to have someone explain things. Someone who wasn’t in a uniform and holding a gun. “So, then, I’m from the books?” That explanation made sense, no matter how impossible it sounded. The SHIELD guys had told her she was a fictional character in this world, but that was still something that was pretty hard to wrap her brain around. Sighing, she shook her head. “Seems like that’d be weird, though, watching yourself on tv, right?” A part of her was curious about both, but she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to watch or read in order to find out. "The books, yeah." As strange as it all was, Sam envied Sookie a bit for that. Her life, while it was a written first person account, still left a lot up to the imagination of the readers. It was probably invasive in some other ways, but as far as he was concerned, having books written about his life wouldn't be nearly as difficult as having a television show like True Blood. The nudity wasn't an issue for him, but it would be for Sookie. And the sex was deeply invasive too. Sam inclined his head towards her slightly as he nodded. "Yeah, it's weird. I saw some of it when I first got here, but I haven't looked into it since then. It's -- it's mostly about you, and I figure, if there's something you wanted me to know, you would've told me. Otherwise I'm not supposed to know. Especially when it comes to Bill, or someone else you're interested in. That's private for a reason." The mention of Bill brought a kind of wry chuckle from Sookie. “Oh, are Bill and I still together on the show?” She shook her head, somehow amused by that. Her and Bill felt like a lifetime ago. She still cared about him and always would, but they were friends now. There was so much between them. She didn’t know if they’d ever be more. Then again, she didn’t even know where she stood with Erik, now, not after using the cluviel dor to save another man’s life. She wasn’t stupid. She knew he was pissed about that. Between that and him being betrothed to another vampire - well, Sookie seemed to specialize in complicated when it came to her relationships. “I’m not sure I’d even want to watch it. Or read the books. It sounds kind of creepy, don’t it?” She might be curious enough to compare notes with Sam, just to see how different or similar their versions of Bon Temps really were. She might even check out the books eventually, but she didn’t think she could bring herself to watch any version of her life on tv. "Ah…" Sam hesitated for a moment, wrinkling his nose and lifting a hand to scratch the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how much his (because there was no other way to split the two in his head aside from thinking of them as "his" and "not his") Sookie would feel about him spilling the beans on her love life, but he hoped there wouldn't be too much of a difference. "Yeah, you were still with him when I got here. Dunno how much longer. "But yeah -- yeah, it's too personal. I try to avoid it when I can, but it sure ain't easy." Luckily, he hadn't gotten too many tourist fans in yet, so that helped. If his show had been in its most popular years, it might have been different. "There's one good thing that's come from it, though, and that's me being open about… me." Sam smiled faintly. "No sense in hiding it when it's all out there, right?" Sookie nodded. “Yeah, those SHIELD guys all knew what I could do, too. Didn’t make them think any more quietly, though!” She supposed with the show and the books, everyone would know about her ability. That felt weird. She was so used to hiding what she could do, especially from the government or anyone else who would just want to use it. “It’s weird thinking about everyone knowing. I’m so used to hiding it from the people who don’t already know, but I guess here our lives are an open book - literally in my case.” She didn’t know how she felt about that, honestly. Bon Temps was a small town and she was used to her neighbors knowing her business, but that was different from complete strangers knowing everything about her. “That’s definitely going to take some getting used to,” she mused aloud, shaking her head as she finished off her Coke. Sam was fairly sure he understood how she felt. For as long as he'd resisted being honest with her, she understood his situation better than anyone else back in Bon Temps could have. Looking back, he wasn't sure why he'd held back for so long. Now that he was essentially forced into being open about what he really was, it was a huge relief off his shoulders. No one cared here. No one was afraid. "It's taken some for me too, but it's not all bad. The people here in the tower are real understanding, and most folks have somethin' that's special about them. They can relate to folks like us in ways that most people couldn't do back in Bon Temps." That was what had drawn him to Red, after all. "We've got superheroes, weres, vampires… It's a wild ride, but I got my bar, I've got friends. It could be worse." Sookie could still remember what it had been like when the shifters had come out back home. Sam had shifted right there at the bar and things had been pretty touchy for awhile. Folks in Bon Temps seemed to accept him easier than people had the shifters in other places, but it still hadn’t been an easy transition. It seemed surreal to think of it being so much easier here. That was a relief in a way, though. She didn’t have to be afraid of people finding out about her. She didn’t have to worry about someone wanting to kill her just because she’d gone out with a vampire. “I’m glad for the bar,” she admitted, looking around. “It’s not quite the same as the Merlotte’s I know back in Bon Temps, but it’s like a little piece of home in the middle of a strange city.” It didn’t matter too much that this wasn’t her Sam. It felt good to have something a little familiar here. "Me too." Sam was happier for it than he could explain. He'd been desperate for something to do with his life in New York, desperate for some familiarity. When he'd approached Pepper about using the space for a bar, she'd been agreeable. The people in the tower needed a place to call their own. Even if Sam allowed anyone in, the bar was still distinctly theirs. "I didn't want it to be exactly like Merlotte's. This is…" He turned slightly, just enough so he could take in the rest of the space. "This is a new start. For me and for everyone else here.” He shifted his gaze back to Sookie. “Could be for you too, as long as we’re here." She was as close to family as he’d gotten in years, so the sentiment behind his offer was genuine. “Even if we don’t know each other real well, you’re still Sookie. That’s good enough for me.” Sookie nodded. She could understand that. It might have felt wrong if it was exactly like Merlotte’s - although who could say his Merlotte’s and hers were exactly the same, anyway. Still, it would have been weird being in an exact copy without the people she always saw there. But it was natural to see Sam behind a bar and it brought a little piece of familiarity to this place, to know this was here. She was touched by his offer and it showed in the smile that spread quickly across her face. “I can’t imagine making a fresh start anywhere else,” she agreed. Maybe it should feel weird, being offered a job by someone you’d just met, but it didn’t feel like that with Sam. She tried real hard to stay out of his head, but she could still feel the similarities between him and the Sam she knew and that put her at ease. Sam's smile widened as Sookie's did, and he could feel his body start to relax more now that they'd gotten some of the initial awkwardness out of the way. It wasn't only strange for him; it was strange for her, and he knew that it wouldn't sit right with him if he didn't try to help. She was, for all intents and purposes, one of "his" people. "I was hopin' you'd say that," Sam answered, "but don't feel like you're in a rush here. Take your time, get used to being here. My door's always open." He wanted to reach out to touch her on the shoulder like he might have with "his" Sookie, but he held back, unsure of how much contact was comfortable for her. "And don't you worry about Jason, I'll get him to come around." |