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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"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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