Bill returns quickly and confirms that the vampires attacked the Fellowship and freed Farrell, but tells them that Godfrey managed to escape. Bill gently bathes Sookie and puts her to bed.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. Sookie wakes just before dawn with the feeling that there is something that she needs to do. She dresses and takes a taxi to the now-deserted Fellowship grounds, where she waits for Godfrey. The vampire emerges from the shadow, and her tears begin to fall as she looks at his young face. He is touched that someone is there to cry for him as he meets the sun, hoping to see the face of God. Sookie returns to the hotel and falls deeply asleep until Bill rises.
She and Bill go to Stan’s mansion to tell him about Godfrey and discover what punishment Isabel and Hugo have earned. Sookie is relieved to find Hugo alive and forces herself to accept the punishment the vampires have devised for him. Invited to stay and celebrate Farrell’s return, Leif/ Eric and Sookie are talking when she “hears” the Fellowship followers preparing to attack the house. Sookie yells a warning and is protected from a bullet by Eric. Bill leaves to hunt the attackers without even checking to see if she survived the attack. Hurt, she walks out and takes the next plane back to Bon Temps.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27–WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20. Sookie keeps her distance from Bill.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21. Jason stops by the house for lunch and tells Sookie that Bill has been seen over in Monroe with Portia Bellefleur, and Sookie later sees them drive by in Bill’s car.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22. Sookie decides to attend a high school football game and meets up with her friend Tara Thornton, Tara’s date Benedict “Eggs” Tallie, and JB du Rone. Sookie encourages JB to pursue a woman he had been seeing, believing that the woman will be good for him. He kisses her cheek in thanks, and just as she gives him a quick peck on the lips in return, she spots Bill staring back at her from where he is sitting with Portia. When she gets home, Bill is waiting, and they engage in passionate make-up sex. Afterward, she questions him about Portia, and he tells Sookie that he thinks Portia is seeing him in hopes of being invited to the sex club to get information that will help Andy.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23. Bill and Sookie decide to keep their reunion quiet, and Sookie receives an invitation from parish coroner and funeral director Mike Spencer to Jan Fowler’s lake house to “get a little wild,” since he thinks she is a single woman now. Hoping to discover who killed Lafayette, Sookie accepts. She leaves a guarded message for Bill, who has been called back to Dallas, and she’s forced to ask Eric to go along to provide protection.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24. Eric arrives to take Sookie to the orgy up at Mimosa Lake, and she asks him to make certain nothing happens to her. Eric is surprised that she trusts him but tells her that she will be safe. They enter the cabin to find several Bon Temps residents in various states of undress. Jan Fowler, Mike Spencer, Tom and Cleo Hardaway, and Tara and Eggs are all in attendance, apparently regulars. Eggs is attempting to undo Sookie’s shorts, all the while thinking lewdly about Eric, when Eric comes up behind her, and Sookie turns into his kiss, letting her mind roam while he keeps her safe. She finds the memory of Lafayette’s murder in Mike’s mind and sees that Tom was also directly involved. Sickened, she whispers to Eric to get her out, and he slings her over his shoulder, telling the others that he is taking her outside to get her warmed up. He lays her on the hood of his Corvette, intent on his own desires, and tries to seduce her, but she reminds him that Bill is her boyfriend. Bill emerges from the woods, followed by a drunken Andy, who holds them all at gunpoint, demanding to know who was responsible for Lafayette’s murder. Sam, in collie form, joins the group, with the maenad not far behind. She introduces herself as Callisto, telling them she was called to the cabin by the lust and drunkenness of the orgy participants. She reminds them of her first visit. She claims that Lafayette was a fitting offering to her and thanks them for leaving his body at Merlotte’s. She names Mike and Tom as the killers, indicating Cleo as well. Tara hides under a table on the deck, and Eggs stands entranced in the yard. Sookie feels the madness of the maenad overwhelm the group on the deck, and she is almost caught up in it herself, but Bill and Eric hold her between them. When Sookie is able to look at Callisto again, the maenad is smiling and covered in blood. She bids a fond farewell to Sam and drifts off into the woods.
Sam shifts back to his human form as Eric and Bill examine the carnage on the deck. They find Tara alive, and after Eric erases her memory of the evening, Sam drives her and a still almost-catatonic Eggs home. The vampires then set fire to the cabin to burn the evidence of the slaughter. Portia Bellefleur pulls up, frantic about her brother, and Bill wakes him from his trance. Sookie tells him that Mike and the Hardaways killed Lafayette, but Andy bemoans the lack of proof. Eric searches the cars and finds blood, Lafayette’s wallet, and his clothing in the trunk of Mike Spencer’s Lincoln. Andy tells them to leave everything as it is so that the police can find it and clear his name.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25. Sookie sleeps through the day, and Bill wakes her when he rises. He finds a foil-wrapped chocolate cake on her front porch, a gift from Andy and Portia’s grandmother, who has left a message thanking Sookie for helping Andy. When Bill hears that she is named Caroline Holliday Bellefleur, he asks Sookie to get his family Bible from his house, and they look over his family tree together, realizing that Caroline is Bill’s great-granddaughter. After more than a century of hating the Bellefleurs for their ancestor’s responsibility for the death of one of his friends during the Civil War, Bill decides to secretly assist his struggling descendants financially and shares a warm moment with Sookie.
The Secret Dialogues of Bill and Eric
TO: WILLIAM COMPTON,
AREA FIVE INVESTIGATOR
INVESTIGATOR COMPTON,
YOU ARE SUMMONED TO A MEETING WITH ME AT FANGTASIA TOMORROW NIGHT.
ERIC NORTHMAN
SHERIFF OF AREA FIVE
In person at the meeting:
BILL: “Why am I here, Eric?”