Sookie 13.5 After Dead (13 page)

ERIN
and
REMY SAVOY
had one more child, a girl, Hope, after they married. When the economic climate improved, the family moved to Shreveport, where Erin worked for Home Depot and Remy as a carpenter for a home builder. As Remy reached fifty, he developed rheumatoid arthritis and gradually became unable to work. Erin was a little bitter at having to support the family, but their church was a big help, and she gradually became reconciled to his condition. Walking became difficult for Remy, and he was in a lot of pain. It was almost a relief when he caught pneumonia and passed away two days later. Erin remarried within eighteen months and had a happy second marriage.

HUNTER SAVOY
was delighted when his dad married Erin, who didn’t always understand him but always loved him. Hunter had a very hard time during his teen years, but he was lucky enough to have his “aunt” Sookie to visit with, and his cousins to play with, two of whom absolutely understood him. Hunter went into the military, and when his talents were discovered (despite his best efforts), he was added to an intelligence unit as an interrogator. His tremendous accuracy without any brutality made him one of the army’s best-kept secrets, and he was loaned to the UK for some special questioning sessions. When he retired from the military after he’d served ten years, he had all kinds of medals and commendations, none of which he ever showed anyone. He had many adventures after that.

MICHELE SCHUBERT
was happy with Jason because she knew his limitations and demanded just enough of him. She was as loyal to him as he was to her, and she was a firm mother and an indulgent grandmother.

TV host and vampire
TODD SEABROOK
was totally freaked out after his throat was torn out on national television. He never recovered from that episode, sure he looked weak in the eyes of American vampires after the incident. He stuck with
The Best Dressed Vamp
for the rest of the season, but then he retired to live by himself in a mountain valley in Colorado, where he feeds on sheep and whatever other game he can hunt.

DELIA SHURTLIFF
continued to run contractor
RANDALL SHURTLIFF
’s life until they both went into an assisted-living center. The only person who seemed to mind was his first wife, Mary Helen, who continued to plague them until her three children put her into a different nursing home, miles away.

EVERETT O’DELL SMITH
graduated from Tulane, and with a high recommendation from Mr. Cataliades, he was hired at a prestigious investment firm in New Orleans. Everett worked his way up through the ranks, slowly but steadily, finally achieving a partnership. He married late and wisely and had one daughter who could afford to work for a nonprofit charity to aid high-achieving kids from low-income families.

DR. SONNTAG
married her diving instructor after a scuba vacation in Florida.

JASON STACKHOUSE
had a surprisingly good marriage. To everyone’s amazement except Michele’s, he never cheated on her. Michele stayed on at her ex-father-in-law’s car dealership until she retired, though the dealership had long since passed into other hands. Jason kept his job with the parish. After miscarrying once, Michele bore two children, Marie and Corbett. Marie was sweet natured and telepathic (that damn essential spark), but not too bright, and the combination led to Marie’s having many problems in school, though she inherited the Stackhouse good looks. Corbett, a year younger, spent a lot of his school years defending his sister. When she graduated from high school and started working at a dog food factory, it was a big relief for Corbett, who got a football scholarship to go to college. Sadly, bitten werepanther Jason suddenly collapsed and died while he was in his parish truck supervising a work crew, at age fifty-five. Michele said being married twice was enough for her, and she never tried it again. Marie had a baby out of wedlock who was two years old when Marie married Jason Fortenberry, who was no rocket scientist himself. Corbett hit the marriage jackpot with the daughter of a very rich lawyer. Corbett became a private investigator working almost exclusively for his father-in-law’s firm, though he did some divorce work to pay the bills.

SOOKIE STACKHOUSE
married Sam in December, but a year later than Sookie had imagined. They really did take their time, and by their wedding day they were as sure as any two people could be that they were suited to each other. The entire Merlotte family attended the wedding, and of course so did Jason and Michele, Remy and Erin and Hunter, Alcide Herveaux, Mustapha Khan and Warren, Hoyt and Holly, and many other friends from Bon Temps and Wright. Though Sam had attended the fundamentalist church in Clarice for a few months, they opted for Sookie’s Methodist church for the wedding and attended it thereafter, though not every Sunday. They discussed having the wedding at night so their vampire acquaintances could attend, but instead chose to have it in the day. (Pam threw them a party at Fangtasia on a night soon afterward. Weirdly, it was Thalia’s idea.)

Sookie wore white because it was traditional and she looked good in white, what with her tan and all. Sam wore a suit. Sam’s brother, Craig, was his best man, and Tara was Sookie’s matron of honor.