1000_cranes | (no subject)

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sam merlotte

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The quiet days are difficult because they're both easy and hard. They're easy because she doesn't have to put a face on - she can cry a little, if she needs to but she can also realise that she's been happy for hours, without guilt.

And that's the part that's hard.

It's too early, really, for anyone to be hanging out in the bar, but Charlie's in there, with Cadi playing on the floor. She's got a book open, her hair scraped back and and up and her reading glasses on the end of her nose. She's got a t-shirt on that she's pretty sure is one of Ianto's.

Reaching for her tea cup, she flips the page.

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Sam isn't the idle sort. He's managed to arrive in this tropical shithole (well, maybe that's a little harsh) and find Sookie and Jason but that's about it. It's the longest he's been without some kind of job in years and he's looking to change it.

There's a place called the Hub that looks promising, especially since there's a sign in the window asking for help, and Sam ducks inside to find a lady reading at the bar.

"See, we don't do bars like that where I'm from. I'm learning all sorts of new things."

Of course. Of course she's sitting there looking like hell when the cute guy with the almost familiar accent walks in. Charlie's at a point where she's pretty sure that she's never going to want anyone but Ianto ever again (and, Lord knows, that's okay) but that doesn't mean she's dead.

Hell.

"...Well, my husband was Welsh and he built it...so...maybe they have bars like this there?"

"I was referring more to the book reading than the decor, but that dinosaur's pretty nice," Sam says, teasing a little. He doesn't know the woman but she's definitely not Welsh. She kind of sounds like she's from down South too. Maybe Texas, maybe Arkansas. It's familiar in a lot of ways the island just isn't.

"I'm Sam. Sam Merlotte? I saw you had a help wanted sign up and I wanted to offer. Bartending's about all I do back home and it fits to jump into it here too."

"Dinosaur?" She glances up. "Oh. You mean Mfanwy. You know, I forget she's there all the damn time."

She leans across the bar, offering him her hand. At least her fingernails are clean.

"Charlie Jones. And this is the Hub. I meant to take that sign down an age of man ago, but no harm done. Rich and Jon do what they can but I could always use another pair of hands around here."

Sam shakes her hand and gives her a smile. If she's looking rough, he doesn't care, because he looks just as rough after being here less than a week.

"Well, I'm happy to offer. I've never really done well being idle and if you can use me, I'd like to come to work for you."

"I'm sure we can find somethin' for you to do, sugar," she says, grinning. "Why don't you sit down and we'll talk about it? Can I get you somethin' - we can manage just about anything, these days."

"Well, I guess it's probably against the law not to have a drink in a bar. Do you got anything that's gonna pass for beer? I'm not too picky on that front."

Beer is usually a safer choice if he wants to keep his head and, well, on an interview is probably the best time to do that. Whiskey can make him mean and while this island doesn't have any of the crap that's going on back in Bon Temps, he doesn't want to risk it.

"We got beer," she says, slipping off the stool altogether and moving around behind the bar. She figures it's about time that she could have a beer too and not feel guilty about it, so she grabs two glasses.

"So you haven't been here long, huh?"

"No ma'am. Just showed up within the week," Sam confirms. It's probably pretty obvious, the way he doesn't know where things are all the time or still gets surprised by weird island quirks that everyone else seems to know about but it's not so bad. He'll learn it, soon, and be able to blend.

"What about you? Long time?"

"Long time," confirms Charlie. "I arrived here six years ago. Been getting on ever since." Sometimes, Charlie still thought about borrowed time. "My husband bilt the bar and the kidlet was born here." She pauses and then colour floods into her face when she realises what she's sad. "On the island, I mean. Not in the bar."

"Well, can't say I've ever had a baby born in my bar but it's Bon Temps. Any damn thing can happen when you least expect it."

There's been a good start to an orgy in his bar before, for example, and there's been plenty of snarling between the Hotshot folks and the law lately. Sam kind of wishes Jason had never brought that business up to Merlotte's but, really, it's not all Jason's fault. It never usually is all his fault.

"I guess your husband's gone, then?" Awkward question, but Sam's voice is warm with sympathy and his eyes are sad. It's hard, losing people, and he can't imagine losing a spouse.

For a moment, her face hardens. The last thing she wants to do is talk about Ianto with him. Most days, she doesn't want to talk about Ianto with anyone; he's like a secret which she guards - doesn't matter what anyone else knew about him. Still, her face melts again. It's not Sam Merlotte's fault that he's handsome and she has the worst luck in the world.

She nods.

"Bet somebody's told you that that happens all the time around here," she says. "I got a couple of years and plenty of stories to tell Cadi. I got luckier than most." She set a glass on the bar in front of him and slid back onto her stool. "So where in the world in Bon Temps?"

"Louisiana," Sam says, tactfully staying away from the subject of the husband. She's a widow, even if it's by island disappearance instead of death, and there's just some things you don't poke at if you can help it.

"Been there just about all my life. Where were you from before this place? Down South too, I guess?"

"Midland, Texas," she says, with a little tug in the corner of her mouth. "Born there, went to school there, didn't ever get any further than just down the road until I ended up here. I was a waitress in a diner.". She lifts her glass and takes a swallow of her beer.

"Here, I own the damn bar and I'm on of the Principles at the school. Not bad for little ole Charlene Andrews."

She smiles, self depreciating, and shakes her head. "What about you, Sam? Tell me a little 'bout you."

"Well. Grew up in Arkansas and made my way down the road a bit to Bon Temps, Louisiana."

It's not the whole truth, really, but there's no sense in talking about how both sets of his folks screwed him. Sam never had good luck when it came to parents.

"Opened a bar there, worked it for a few years and wound up here."

"That"s the best thing about here, I reckon," says Charlie, tugging her glasses off her face and turning them over in her hands. "Gives a body a chance to start over clean, if that"s what they need. You got any people here already? That can help a lot."

"Yeah, two. Jason and Sookie Stackhouse?" Sam ventures, hoping maybe she'll recognize them. They've both been here for a while so maybe there's a chance.

"It's good to have that piece of home. I think I'd be a little worried if I'd showed up all alone."

"Oh!" Charlie brightens, her first genuine, warm smile since Sam walked into the bar at all. It softens her dark eyes. "I love Sookie like a sister," she says, still smiling. "That girl's one of the reasons I'm still here at all."

"Sookie's a good woman," Sam says, beaming just a little. He and Sookie have always been close and even though they've drifted a little bit, maybe they can get close again here on the island. He hopes so.

"Known her and her family for a real long time. They're good people, the Stackhouses."

"Yeah, she is," says Charlie, nodding, reaching for her beer again. "And, you know, she waitresses in a place called 'The Winchester' so if you decide you don't want to work for me, here, you got options, Sam Merlotte."

"Well, I was Sookie's boss for a long time," Sam says, shrugging a little. "Might be nice to try something new. I've never been to a place where there was any competition, really. My place is about the only bar in Bon Temps."

He smiles a little. "Besides, you needed the help. I can't really go and deny you that."

"There's three on the island," she says, figuring that she might as well fill him in while she's got a chance. "The Hub, which Ianto and his friend opened; the Winchester, which is built around a bar that just sorta...showed up here one day; and the Cat-Scratch Club, which is linked to a strip club. There's plenty of people to go around, though."

She arches an eyebrow.

"Not much strippin' here."

"Not looking to be a stripper," Sam confirms. "I don't know that you'd get any business if I did and I'm not really looking to mess up a good thing. Then again, there's no money here, so I guess getting business isn't really that big a deal, is it?"

It's a foreign concept to Sam, a world that works without money.

"I think you'd do okay," she says, and then realises what she's said, clapping her hand over her mouth. "Okay. I did not just say that. So. Money." Her cheeks are burning and she takes a sip of her beer to hide it. "Not really, no," she says, shaking her head and catching a loose strand of hair that's driving her mad, twisting it back. "It's not really about commerce. We barter a lot."

"That's what I gathered," Sam says, ignoring the rest for the time being. No sense in making anything worse than it already is and he probably deserves it for making the comment about her husband.

"I guess that'll be nice, once I get used to it? Right now it seems a little like some commune or something."

"I guess it does look a lot like that from the outside," admits Charlie, leaning her chin into her hand. "Still - live here a while, raise a baby here, you start forgettin' what the world was like before." She shrugs. "Mostly, Sam, we're just all of us findin' ways to get by."

"Well, if I can have a job, that's going to help me settle," Sam says, giving her a little smile. It's hard to comfort someone you don't know all that well but he tries.

"So thank you for that."

"Least I can do," she says, echoing the smile and ignoring the little flicker of something nameless that she can't name.

"I'm always grateful for more hands, anyway. I'm learnin' this business as I go."

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