Midnight Whispers
QAF Brian and Justin Fanfiction
Author's Chapter Notes:

Sam Merlotte is introduced. 

 

I was parked outside, in the front of Merlotte’s bar. I had brought one of my deputies with me, Kenya Marcus. I found her to be straight-forward, steady, and sturdy. She was related to several employees of Sam Merlotte and knew most people in town. She was turning out to be a good resource on many levels.

 

I took a quiet, deep breath and let it out slowly. I reviewed my notes and agenda quickly and gave myself a quick mental pep talk. I was going to meet my first case study from Roman’s list, Mr. Sam Merlotte. Merlotte was a shape shifter, which is someone who can turn into an animal. Roman was under the assumption that Merlotte did not know that we knew of his special talent. If true, then that was to our advantage.  I had no idea of what to expect in meeting Sam Merlotte.

 

“It’s show time, Jo,” I whispered to myself. I plastered on my best 'Andy Taylor' persona – the kind, patience, charming, country sheriff from the 1960’s who protected and served the little town of Mayberry in North Carolina.  Andy was the icon that all country police officers imitated, and I liked using his style, too.  Truth be told, good ol’ southern style charm really did work…most of the time. 

 

Kenya and I walked into the bar.  It was just after prime lunch time and the clientele had thinned out.  I took off my hat and adjusted my eyes to the dimmed lighting.  Even in the middle of the day, the joint was still dark. 

 

I nodded to Kenya to take the lead and she lead me over to a petit, brightly dyed red haired woman named Arlene Fowler, Merlotte’s head waitress. We exchanged pleasantries. She was friendly and chatty and I could see the amazement pop in her eyes when she realized that I, a woman, was Bon Temps's new sheriff. She couldn’t hide her shock and actually let rip, “Get out!

 

Arlene introduced us to Molly, another waitress, a young, medium built, blonde, shy thing that blushed easily. Arlene said she would get Merlotte for us, so that I could ‘make his acquaintance.’ She walked over to the pass-through kitchen window and yelled, “Hey, Sam and Terry? Come on out and meet the new sheriff!” She then turned to me, put her fingers to her lips, and made a ‘shush’ sound.  She winked at us. She was looking forward to seeing the shocked faces of the men when they discovered that I was a woman. 

In the deep, backwoods, swamp lands of Louisiana, women weren’t encouraged to achieve anything more than marriage, cleaning, cooking, and having babies.  A question fluttered quickly through my mind, I wondered what Kenya had gone through, as a woman, and a black woman at that, to become a deputy in Bon Temps.

 

Sam came out first, all his concentration was on wiping his hands dry with the cloth he was carrying.  My immediate impression was that he was gentle in manner and bearing.  He was good looking in a scruffy sort of way, with several days of beard growth, and shoulder-length, shaggy hair; his whole look reminded me of country western singers. He was probably a couple of inches shorter than me.

 

Sam stopped at the bar and looked over at Kenya and then up at me. I could see the confusion in his eyes. He looked beyond us and around us as nonchalantly as possible. He was looking for the new male Mr. Sheriff; you could see his brain working, ‘where did he go?’ 

 

I smiled to myself and watched as he tried to solve the mystery of the missing sheriff. He scratched his head, turned to me with a nod and a smile, and said, "Hi, I’m Sam Merlotte." He then turned to Arlene, "Hey, where did he go? “

 

I decided to take pity on him and walked over to him with Kenya following me. I stuck out my hand and put on one of my finest, friendliest smiles. “Mr. Merlotte, hello, I’m Josephina Lautner, I’m replacing Sheriff Dearborn. I think you know Deputy Kenya Marcus.”

 

Dead silence…

 

Sam slowly looked down at my hand, then at my lower body, then my boobs, and finally, he tilted his head back to look me in the face.  I stood steady, allowing him time to process my appearance.  As we exchanged stares, I was able to discern that he had soft, brown eyes that were actually pretty. Nice eyes and they sparkle. I saw genuine warmth and kindness...but I also saw fear.

 

He looked away and seemed to zone out. He was looking in the distance, eyes glazed over. The silence was now going on ten seconds...and he still hadn’t shook my hand.

 

Kenya was shifting uncomfortably next to me and Arlene was looking at him with a scrunched up face, reacting as if he had emitted a vile odor.

 

It must have dawned on him that the polite thing to do was to shake my hand, because he actually did a little jump, came out of his trance and grabbed my hand. He started pumping it like he was drawing water from a well.

 

“I’m Sam, oh yeah, I already said that…sorry…I didn’t mean to not shake your hand (he let out a good fake laugh)…I didn’t know that they had found a replacement for Dearborn. Wow, oh hey, this is Terry, my day cook, and,” he then pointed to Arlene who had walked up to join us, “I guess you met Arlene.”

 

I slowly tried to pull my hand away but wasn’t able to break his hold on my hand.  We actually had a little tug-o-war until he released my hand.  I knew he didn’t realize that he was holding on and he confirmed my assumption with a nervous little laughter that sounded almost demented. He flicked some hair out of his eyes with a finger and then said, “Sorry, I…”

 

I cut him off. “It’s alright; I guess not knowing that Sheriff Dearborn’s replacement was… coming…and then I show up unannounced in your bar…I realize it can be a little…unsettling.”

 

He shook his head ‘yes,’ then quickly ‘no,’ but his confusion was too much for him and he started to have a melt-down.  He bobbed his head like one of those bird toys that rock back and forth, dipping into a bowl of water.  “Yes. Noooooo! I mean no! Well, uh…what I ...yes, you are right, I guess it’s just all so…so different than what I was expecting.” He then stopped bobbing and took a deep breath, let it out, but still looked tense.  He treated me to a sweet but very nervous smile.

 

I slightly leaned towards him, capturing his gaze and gave him back a smile. I said softly for just him to hear, “Its okay, I half expected that my appearance here may be a little much for folks. I’ve been informed that Sheriff Dearborn was very well respected; I have some big boots to fill.”  I pulled back and smiled at him.  I hoped that my dismissal of our awkward initial greeting would relax him.

 

It didn’t work; Sam started to bob his head again, and then began wiping his hands on the towel that he was holding.  He was rubbing his fingers harshly, as if he was trying to rub off some kind of substance.

 

Sam abruptly stopped wiping his hands and jerked his head around to look at Terry. “Terry!  Come here!” He then reached around and grabbed the man by the shoulder and pulled him forward. With a slight introductory wave of his hand, he motioned to Terry. “Sheriff, this is Terry Bellefleur, he’s my day cook. Terry,” he then slapped Terry on his shoulder with a reassuring smile, “was over in Iraq at the very start of the war and he’s a very special man, he’s our resident war hero.”

 

Terry shyly looked down at the ground, but not before I caught the flash of embarrassment that crossed over his face. With his head bowed, he muttered out, “I ain’t no war hero. I went and come back, that's all.” I knew instantly that Terry was still a wounded warrior; his soul was still repairing itself from the tribulations of his service time.  I could relate to that.  My impression of the sad, shaggy-haired, bearded man was, as my grandfather used to say, ‘good people.’  He was a kind, decent man, but in a lot of emotional pain.

 

I made a slight dipping motion to catch his eye and when I had his attention, I said softly, “I completely understand. I came back eleven months ago.” Terry’s head jerked up and his eyes bored into mine. “You were there?” He looked incredulous.

 

I nodded my head and gave him a reassuring half smile. We then spent the next several minutes exchanging information on our units, locations, rank, and so on. As we talked, I noticed that Sam was slowing backing away from our huddle.

 

Sam saw me look up and instantly picked up speed and made it to the kitchen door before anyone could try to stop him.  He briefly stopped to say, “Hey sheriff, I forgot - I’ve got to get to a distributor, so I’ll have to cut out now.” He turned and raced into the kitchen, calling out to Arlene, “Hey Arlene? Would you get me that shopping list that Lafayette pulled together; I’ll stop over at the store, too.” I then heard a door slam somewhere in the back of the building.

 

Arlene cocked her head to the side and had a slightly bewildered look on her face. She started to call out to Sam but stopped; she turned to Kenya, Terry, and I and said with a hesitant smile, “Weeeellll, I guess I need to get that for him. Hey Molly?” she called back while walking to the kitchen door, “Get the sheriff and deputy some coffee.” She walked to the kitchen door, momentarily stopped to flash us a smile, and then turned and went into the kitchen.

 

I shook my head ‘no’ at Kenya; she took my cue and shouted out to Arlene, “No thanks, Arlene, we need to get going!”

 

I joined Kenya in shouting goodbye, “Arlene, tell Sam that it was a pleasure meeting him and that I look forward to talking with him in the future.” I heard Arlene shout back from the distance, “Will do!”

 

Kenya and I nodded ‘goodbye’ to Molly and left. As I was getting situated in the patrol car, my thoughts went back to my introduction to Sam Merlotte. I sarcastically said aloud to Kenya, “That went well.”

 

Kenya shook her head, “He’s been real high strung lately. He’s normally not rude like that.” She and I made eye contact; she did a shoulder shrug and I responded with a lift of my eye brows.  Mr. Merlotte, I’m sure you have a good reason for being so nervous and I very much want to find out why.

 

Chapter End Notes:

Thanks for reading, I hope you'll take a moment to read a comment.  It would be very appreciated.

 

Many thanks to bajan-martini for betaing this chapter and making a better experience for the readers. BM - you're the best!

 

 

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