Dear all,

I know it's been ages since the last update… Sorry! I hope you're still as excited as I am about my little story. Enjoy the tenth chapter!

Cheers!

When I wake up the next morning, I'm neatly – and moreover suspiciously – covered in blankets. Alcide is already awake, though he's not feeling as guilty as he should about stealing my blanket all night long. He's propped his head up against the headboard and is watching me sleep. I sigh and turn around a little and bury my head in the comfy pillow. Alcide plays with my hair and strokes a few strands off of my forehead. I could get used to this. Well, waking up like this, not the blanket stealing part.

"You want breakfast?" he asks after a while.

"Please."

He chuckles because he thinks that I'm sort of a sweeter, softer version of Sookie right after waking up – which he finds very cute.

"You're a blanket thief", I tell him, just to get him off his high horse.

Alcide shrugs. "Just kick me next time and steal the blanket back."

"What makes you think there'll be a next time?"

"I'm a cheeky bastard, is all." And to prove his cheekiness he kisses me. Yeah, I could get used to this too.

Alcide stands up and pretends to bow. "The bathroom is yours, mylady."

"Why, thank you, mylord." I grin worse than the cat from Alice in Wonderland because I get to watch his gloriously naked body disappear through the door. Seeing his ass makes me wanna glue my hands to his butt cheeks and squeeze them all day long.

The first thing I do when I enter the kitchen is frown. I expected Alcide to be bare ass naked, but instead he's wearing a grey sleeveless basketball shirt and dark blue loose-fitting shorts. His hair is wet and I can smell shampoo mixed in with the bacon that's sizzling in the frying pan.

Alcide points over his right shoulder with a wooden spatula when he gets why I'm confused. "There's a shower in the washkitchen. My dad installed it because he didn't wanna get dirt all over the place after work."

Too bad, I think. I could've also gotten used to a naked cook.

Soon the bacon is ready, as are the scrambled eggs and the toast. It's the super-manly breakfast paradise. Jason would love this.

What we Stackhouses don't especially appreciate is someone who takes away our coffee mug after we downed the first one and substitutes it with orange juice. Though I know that too much caffeine could harm the baby, I still hate Alcide a tiny little bit for that. I so haven't got used to not being allowed to drink unreasonably huge amounts of coffee in the morning. I picture myself towards the end of my pregnancy, working at Merlotte's, screaming at the customers: "No, you can't have more coffee!"

"Erm, Sookie?" Alcide's voice gets me back to the here and now.

Half a second later I'm sure I won't particularly like what he has to say next. The dreaded we-need-to-talk moment has arrived.

"I was thinking… that maybe you'd want to move in with me", Alcide says.

I make a face.

"Can you please let me finish before you say something?" Alcide's face is equally distorted as mine. He's giving off some strange vibes, but I can't tell if he's worried or if my reaction nettled him.

I nod, though I'm a little angry that he's ambushing me with such a huge thing.

"My house is big enough for both of us. I don't feel well with the thought of you living all by yourself outside of town. I'm worried that if something happens to you or the baby, nobody will be there to help you. You need someone who can look after you during daytime, not just after working hours. And when the baby's here I want to do my part of the job. I don't wanna have to drive to Bon Temps every time I have to change a nappie."

Silence. Now he's waiting for my reaction.

Oh for heaven's sake. "I need to think this over, Alcide", I say cautiously. I'm annoyed that what he said was perfectly reasonable.

He nods. His face is neutral, but the way he clenches and un-clenches his fists tell me he's nervous. And then he takes a really cheap shot. "My place is closer to Eric's than yours."

The problem is: that actually makes his house more attractive for me. And it makes me feel so much guiltier to know that Alcide knows. And he knows that I know that he wanted to provoke me into some kind of a reaction.

We're not exactly fighting, but we're drawing battle lines. We both wanna know where the other one stands.

Alcide's voice is very calm when he continues: "You won't leave him, right?"

"I don't think I can," I admit after a while. My eyes burn and I avoid looking at Alcide and I know that I'll soon start to cry if he doesn't stop.

"Because you love him." The way Alcide says it, it's not a question, but a statement. A sad one.

I close my eyes for a brief moment and the first tears run down my cheeks. "Yes."

Alcide gives me a piece of kitchen roll and our hands touch involuntarily. "What does that make us?" he asks. "Just two people who" – occasionally fuck, his underlying thoughts say – "are having a child together?"

"No, Alcide. You're not just some guy for me." I'm hurt because I think: how can he even ask that? "I like you, I like you very much. Can you believe that?" My right hand touches his his and I'm finally able to look him in the eye again.

He nods, and I sense that there is so much he wants to say, so much he wants to ask concerning my feelings for him, but he doesn't know how because he doesn't want to hurt me further. And in a way he's also protecting his own feelings.

"Please don't make me choose between the two of you", I say. If he does, I know I could never be with him. "There's already too much between me and Eric, and between you and me… I don't know where the two of us are going yet, and I don't want to rush things with you just because we're having a baby."

Alcide thinks about that and it almost takes a minute before he answers. It's agony to follow his thoughts until he comes to the conclusion that he must try as hard as he can to live with my situation as it is, or he'll lose me. He says: "I won't make you choose. I promise."

"And I promise that I'll give you more room in my life."

Alcide nods, still frowning.

I realise that this isn't enough for him. I need to step up to him a little more. "I do have feelings for you, Alcide, but I'm not sure yet what these feelings are."

Alcide is already very sure that he knows what his feelings for me are. He considers confessing his feelings, but naming them out loud would make the tension between the two of us even worse. "I'll give you all the time you need", he says in the end.

I'm so glad and relieved that my stupid heart races as if I'd just run the New York Marathon.

#####

Of course I arrive late for my shift. It's a few minutes after eleven and we're opening in a little while. The kitchen is already busy prepping veggies and burger patties.

Sam sits on a bar stool and refills ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shakers. Which would have been my job, had I been here on time.

I apologize and start helping him.

"Did Alcide spend the night?" Sam asks after a while.

"No. Why?" I'm blushing and try to turn away from him.

"You smell a lot like him and you arrived already in your work clothes, so you must've known you would be late."

Busted, Sookie.

"I slept at his house."

"Aha." Sam grins.

"Don't aha me, Sam Merlotte!" I threaten him with a fully loaded ketchup bottle. "I'm not commenting on your sex life either."

Hey, calm down, cowboy!

I put the ketchup bottle away and grab the next, empty one.

Can't a friend care about you?

"You care way too much." Worry is more like it.

Sam sighs. There's no off-switch for caring about you. "Are you and Alcide an item now? Did you break up with Eric?"

"No, I didn't break up with anyone. Alcide and I… it's complicated."

"Aha."

"Sam, I'm not afraid to use the ketchup bottles!"

He holds up his hands in defence. "Okay, okay, I guess I'll just stop worrying about you." His grin and his thoughts clearly state that he'll do the exact opposite. And I catch something else.

"What's that with you and Jannalyn?"

"It's complicated." Sam shrugs, but he hums quietly when I leave his office.

So he thinks he can be in a relationship with a Werewolf and I can't? Well, we'll see about that, Mr Merlotte!