Chapter 11 : Bar

"Because your bouncer would not let me in until you told him that it was okay. I just assumed that it's yours." She looked around the bar. Her eyes latched onto Pam's.

My child and my wife stared at each other for a long minute. It was as if she saw something familiar but she wasn't sure. "Does it belong to the pretty blond lady?"

"Pam and I are business partners. Though, I have a larger stake in the bar, she is an owner."

This time she laughed. "Stake?" she asks. "That's an interesting word choice for a vampire."

Her laughter and joy is all that I need to hear and see. There is so much life in her eyes; more than before. The memories of her are flooding my mind.

Flashes of everything Sookie are flowing through me. When we were together, this was what I loved the most. Her verve was contagious. I have never felt what I feel when I'm with her.

"You are a breath of sunshine, Miss. Stackhouse."

Her eyes met mine for a split second, before she dropped them to her hands. She closed her eyes and obviously came to some resolve.

She looked at me with a faint pink blush coloring her cheeks. She shook her head as she looked into my eyes. "What is about you Mr. Northman? Why do I feel that I know you?"

I leaned onto the table and gave Sookie one of my most devastating smiles and asked, "Whatever do you mean?" I winked at her and took a sip of my blood.

She stared at me as if there was something that she wanted to say but something stopped her.

Sookie's attentions were focused on a redhead that was sitting at the table across from us. It was the redhead that approached me earlier tonight. She was staring daggers at Sookie.

Sookie looked at the girl and shook her head. I heard her mumble the word 'pitiful'. Sookie ignored the redhead and decided to watch the others as they walked by our table.

There was no disguising the look on her face; disgust and shock. I wanted to ask her what she heard, but I held my tongue. She looked at the fangbangers and sighed.

Turning to me she said, "Back to my original question Mr. Northman. How long have you two owned this bar?"

That wasn't the question that I was looking for but it had to do. I'd talk about anything just to keep her with me a little longer.

I went on to tell Sookie that I opened the bar quite awhile ago and how Pam came to help me.

"Pam dropped everything to come here to help me run the bar. She left her life in Minnesota to come here with me. Our goal was to 'mingle' with the human. We studied and learned."

With a sweep of my hand, I added, "We've conquered. Our hard work has paid off. We have succeeded in what we set out to do and we did it by working together.

I wouldn't have been able to do this without her." I looked around the bar that I had earlier contemplated leaving and silently thanked myself for not doing so.

"You seem to have very strong feelings for her; a lot of love and respect, I mean. Have you two been together long?" She seemed to be holding her breath.

"We're not together in that way. We haven't been that way for quite some time. She is my child. That means that I am the one that made her vampire."

When Sookie first learned how I made Pam a vampire, she was disgusted and it angered her that I'd 'killed' Pam. How she reacts tonight tells me just how much she has changed.

She exhaled and smiled, "Oh," she said. "That's good to know. I mean it's good that you two can still be friends after being … you know." She took a quick sip of her drink and quickly asked, "Why a bar?"

"Well, when we made our existence known to the humans, the bar was an easy way for us to mainstream. Bars are a vessel that many humans use to interact with one another. It was the most obvious choice. They could see us interacting in a 'normal' human manner and this will allow them all to see that we are no different than they are. We just prefer different beverages."

I pointed to the bottle of True Blood that I was drinking.

She let me ramble on and on about how important mainstreaming was for my kind.

She listened to me as I told her of the different types of businesses that vampires own and operate so that we could be seen as productive members of society.

She seemed to be interested in everything that I had to say. Just like before.

"May I ask you a question Miss. Stackhouse?"

"Yes."

"Why are you so comfortable around my kind? We have interacted with many humans and none of them are as comfortable as you appear to be."

She looked surprised that I would even ask her such a question.

She looked almost offended. "Why wouldn't I be comfortable with you? You're no different than anyone else. We have different lifestyles.

Yes, we do drink different drinks," she said as she pointed at her Sprite. "But there is really nothing for me to be afraid of. You should know that," she said as she looked away.

She does remember!

"Why should I know?" I asked a little too eagerly.

As she turned to look at me, she said, "If I wasn't comfortable, I wouldn't be sitting here with such a ... handsome man that just so happens to be a vampire."

She hastily dropped her eyes and looked at her hands. She immediately looked up at me; determined not to be shy or embarrassed of what she has just said to me.

"So, you think I'm handsome?"

She laughed. "You're cute." When I laughed, she relaxed a little more.