If you've got visions of the past
Let them follow you down
And they'll come back to you someday
And I've found myself attached
To this railroad track
But I'll come back to you someday
-Ghost Town, First Aid Kit

Chapter One

1924

Rose Shaw grabbed the envelope from the passenger's seat and held it close to her chest, the bright smile spread across her lips refusing to leave. She practically threw the car door open and jumped out, slamming the door shut behind her. She practically ran up the steps of Blackwater Station. She was someone who always looked put together, but no one would know with how she looked now. She was wearing the peach and white striped dress that she had been wearing the day before. Her long brown hair, which she often styled in a faux bob to mimic the popular style, was falling down her shoulders in soft curls, looking like it had barely been brushed it, and she wasn't wearing the red lipstick that she never left the house without. Her left stocking was sagging slightly as one side hadn't been strapped in Rose's hurry.

Rose ran into Blackwater Station, looking around for Forrest. She didn't see him, but she did see his older brother Howard sitting at the bar. Rose immediately ran over to him, almost crashing into the bar as she did so. She clearly startled him as he started coughing, choking on his drink. Rose could only assume that it was moonshine. She was well aware of the Bondurant's making and selling alcohol despite the prohibition. It made them good money and the law in Franklin County turned a blind eye to it. Rose didn't judge them for it. When you deny people something, they only want it more. And while she didn't like it when things got violent, Rose herself turned a blind eye. She did it out of love for Forrest.

"Christ, girl!" Howard exclaimed. "Where's the damn fire?"

"Sorry, Howard," said Rose, trying to laugh as she caught her breath. "Where's Forrest?

"In his office," said Howard. "What are—"

"Thanks!" Rose said, running towards Forrest's office, not giving Howard the chance to finish.

Normally, when Rose went to Forrest's office, she would knock on the door and wait for his usual grunt before entering. Not today, though. Today, she was too excited. She simply barged right in, not really even thinking about it, and she had clearly took him off guard. He practically jumped up from his desk. Rose practically ran to him, throwing her arms around him and greeting him with a kiss on the cheek. This was clearly unexpected to Forrest, and Rose could tell. Forrest wasn't the most affectionate person, or the most open when it came to expressing emotions. Rose was far more open with her emotions, but she tried not to make Forrest uncomfortable, being far more reserved about it when they were around others. She was a bit more open in private, as was Forrest, though their versions of 'open' were very different. But even when the two of them were in private, Rose was never this enthusiastic and open. In her hand, she was still holding the envelope, clutching it tightly, like it would disappear if she let go of it.

"What the hell happened?" Forrest asked.

He was looking over her disheveled appearance. He had been the only person to see her in such a state, and she had made it clear to him. There had been plenty of times when she rushed to put her clothes on in the early hours of the morning, and run home from the station, so she could get home before her mother woke up and realized that her daughter had been spending the night with a man whom she was not yet married to. If it weren't for the beaming smile she wore, he would have thought that she had been attacked. Rose took a deep breath and stepped back, the smile never leaving her face.

"Look," said Rose opening the envelope and pulling out the letter, showing it to him. "That article I sent in? They're gonna publish it. And they were so impressed, they want me to write more!"

Ever since she was a little girl, Rose had wanted to be a journalist, and that was something that had never been a secret. The best present she ever received was the typewriter her parents got her for her birthday when she was ten. Since she got that, she was constantly typing away, writing articles on anything she could. Two years ago, when she turned eighteen, she began sending in her articles to various publications, but she had yet to actually get anything published. That was, until today. Her mother had woke her up with the letter, sitting on the bed beside her as Rose read the letter. Emily Shaw had been thrilled for her daughter, but the two barely had time to celebrate before Rose just barely threw herself together to get to Blackwater Station to tell her fiancee the good news.

Forrest had been supportive in her journalistic endeavors. She would always ask his opinion on articles she wrote, and he would always give it, though being a man of few words, and minimal knowledge of journalism, he would usually mutter something along the lines of 'It's good,' and leave it at that. But when it came to having a wife who would be writing all the time, it didn't seem to bother him. Rose had made it clear from a very young age, from the age of seven, before any sort of relationship had even formed, when the two of them were just children, and no romantic feelings were there, she had made it clear that she would never marry any man who wanted to make her just a housewife. She would happily marry a man, be supportive of him, give him a warm meal every night, keep a clean house, bear his children, just as would be expected of her. But she wouldn't do just that. She would be a journalist, and she wanted her husband to be just as supportive of her as she would be of him.

"And look at the pay!" Rose continued. "A penny a word. I made two dollars off this!"

Rose looked to Forrest expectantly. She wanted him to say something. Anything. Even if it was just the 'good' he gave her whenever he read one of her articles. She hadn't expected him to jump for joy like she was. That just wasn't in his nature. But she hoped for some form of congratulations. She was supportive of him when it came to moonshining, and she hoped for the same when it came to her writing. Her disapproval of that wasn't out of respect for the law, but rather fear for Forrest. Forrest wasn't an easy man to read, but Rose had practice, and she could tell he didn't look pleased.

"You read this thing through?" Forrest asked.

"'Course I did," said Rose, walking towards Forrest. "D'ya think I missed something?"

Rose went to stand next to Forrest and looked over the letter. She couldn't have missed anything. She hadn't actually believed it at first. She had read the letter over and over and over to make sure that she hadn't been dreaming. She even pinched herself, not thinking that any of it was real. Rose read over the letter again, and once more for good measure. She had probably already read it over ten times by this point. It was impossible for her not to have thoroughly read it over. At this point, she could probably recite the whole letter from memory. Reading it over one last time, the letter was the same as it had been every time she had already read it, nothing was different. The thank you for writing the article, the congratulations on being accepted, the message that the two dollars she had earned had been enclosed, the want for more of her writing. Then there was the part of her going up to Alexandria for a few months and… it hit her. She would have to leave. But it was only a few months, and then she'd be back. Rose couldn't see what the big deal was. A few months was nothing, and it was for her to expand on something that had been her dream since she was six. She thought, that of all people, Forrest would be the first one to accept it. It's not like it would interrupt the wedding. They hadn't even picked a day yet. It had been a mutual agreement between the two of them that they were in no rush. They had just agreed that the end game between the two of them was that they were married, they had both agreed that they would have preferred to not have a large wedding. They had agreed that the only people that they wanted there were Forrest's brothers and Rose's mother. Rose honestly didn't have any intention of buying a new dress. She was just going to wear the nicest one she owned. In all honestly, the wedding was already planned out, and all that needed to be done was to pick a date. They had decided they would go to the church, get married, come back to the station, and have dinner. Nothing flashy, nothing special, just a quite, subtle affair.

"Is it about Alexandria?" Rose asked, her voice soft.

"You gonna go?" Forrest asked.

Rose didn't have to think about it. When she first read the letter, she had been thrilled at the offer. She was still thrilled at the offer. It was a once in a lifetime sort of thing and she doubted she would get one again. The paper would put her up in an apartment and the pay was good, and it was only three months. She would be back in no time.

But now that she was looking at Forrest, she wasn't so sure. She would have thought that he would be happy for her. Even if he wasn't the best when it came to expressing his emotions and using words to describe them, she was expecting something other than asking her if she was going to take them up on the offer.

"'Course I'm gonna go," said Rose, almost getting defensive. "Why wouldn't I?"

This had been her dream ever since she was a little girl, and she was finally getting the chance to do something about it. She had been sending articles to the local papers since she was eighteen, two years of nothing but rejection, and now she was finally going to have that dream become a reality. She wasn't going to give that up for anything, not even Forrest, or at least that was what she was telling herself.

Three months, that was it. Just three months. They had no plans on getting married withing the next year, let alone the next three months. Three months was nothing. She was sure that the two of them could manage just fine. She would go and come back and perhaps then they might pick a date for the wedding. It wasn't like there was a whole lot of planning that went into it. Short and simple and quiet, that's all they wanted. No details about the wedding mattered, so long as at the end of the day, they were married. It's not like anything would change in their relationship. Rose spent plenty of nights at the station with Forrest. The only thing that would change was Rose would be able to stay there, fall asleep and wake up in Forrest's arms, and it wouldn't have to be rushed with a quick goodbye, like it was now.

Forrest didn't respond to her question and Rose sighed. She loved Forrest, of course she did. She would never agree to marry a man that she didn't love. But she also wanted to work. She wanted to be a journalist. Those two things would never change.

"It's only three months," said Rose. "Three months is nothing. I'll be back before you can even miss me. You won't even know that I'm gone."

Rose couldn't think of anything that he could say that would make her stay. If she was going to be gone longer, than there were plenty of things that he could say. But three months was nothing. It would be hard, of course. There was rarely a day that went by that they didn't see each other. But they could manage three months. Couldn't they?

A few more moments passed and Forrest still hadn't answered her question. To Rose, it looked like he was trying to think of what exactly to say. Rose had always been a little too headstrong. When she was told not to do something, she would do the exact opposite, out of sheer hatred for being told what and what not to do. And if Forrest told her to stay, she would almost certainly go.

"Come on, Forrest," said Rose. "Say something."

Rose almost sounded desperate for him to say something. For as headstrong as she was, and if he told her to stay, she would, she didn't want anyone to get hurt. She loved Forrest and the last thing that she wanted was to hurt him. And a part of her was tempted to stay if he told her to. She had never had to make a decision like this, and she thought it would be so easy for her to do, but now, she wasn't so sure. She had been so eager to tell Forrest about this and, as he had always been so supportive of her in the past, she thought that it would be the same now. But it looked like it wasn't. He didn't seem to thrilled for her to be going, even if it was just a short amount of time. Rose had never spent much time away from her mother either, and her mother thought the offer was a wonderful one, and she had been very encouraging of her only child going to Alexandria in attempt to live out her childhood dreams.

"Ain't nothing I can say to change your mind, is there?" Forrest asked.

Rose hated the way Forrest was speaking, making it sound like she was going states away. She wasn't going that far in the grand scheme of things. And for such a short time to. She had been expecting nothing less than support from Forrest, the same way he had done throughout since their relationship formed. This was the last reaction she was expecting from him.

"No," said Rose, softly. "There ain't. C'mon, Forrest. It's only three months. I'll be back, then maybe we can pick a date."

Forrest was silent again, not responding to her words and Rose was getting frustrated. She wanted to make him see what a big opportunity it was for her. It was an opportunity that wouldn't come again, and if she didn't snatch it up while she could, who knows how long it'll take for her to get another article published. She couldn't pass up an offer such as this.

"Please," Rose continued. "I'll write and I'll call. I won't be disappearing entirely. And I'll be back before you even have time to notice I'm gone. This is an amazing opportunity."

Rose heard Forrest grunt, and Rose sighed. She knew that it work out just fine between the two of them. She'd go, learn some more about journalism and writing, and she'd come back, they'd marry and everything would be just fine. Three months was no time. She would write to him everyday, and she would call him often. Maybe she would have some time off she could come visit him.

"You'll come back in three months?" Forrest asked.

"'Course I will, silly," said Rose smiling.

If, in that moment, Rose knew that she wouldn't be seeing him for another seven years, she doubted that she would take the offer, no matter how good it was.

…

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and if you did (or didn't) please leave a review. Chapter two will be up soon. This will be a dual time story of sorts. Odd number chapters will be flashes of Forrest and Rose in the past in a non-linear fashion, even number chapters will be set in 1931, and follow the events of the movie.

Also, please know that I have not read The Wettest County In The World. I have every intention to, but I have not been able to yet, so this is solely based on the movie.

And my faceclaim for Rose is Lily James.