Durant Days

Chapter 1

A/N: Fear not, Leaving Durant, Survival & Missing Scenes are all progressing apace. I just figured out what to do with Leaving Durant this morning. Survival has several chapters written, but need to be re-ordered into the plotline (don't ask) and Missing Scenes are percolating. The new book leaves many possibilities. This just came to me anticipating Longmire Days and also the post S3-into S4 unknowns. This will likely be a 2-4 chapter thing, not so long. As Bob Barnes says, "Anyhoo…" here goes:

It had already been a sloggin' long morning of wading through a foot-high stack of phone records in search of the calls made to and by the guys who presumably were the killers of Frank Wharton's cattle. It was only 10 am according to the case clock on the mantle. Her phone, which she had looked at umpteen times so far, said 10:01 am

When Ruby got off the phone, she called over to the deputy desks, "That was Lila over at the Chamber of Commerce. She says Durant Days have been scheduled, so put it on your calendars, July 21-24, folks!"

Vic doodled on the stack of phone records. Sean hadn't wanted to attend in past years, and if in town, made sure she didn't attend or even provide security for the festival. This year Sean was in Australia and she was free to attend or work, but uncertain how she should proceed. If she wasn't scheduled for work or providing security, maybe she should apply for that. She really didn't want to attend as though announcing her immediate social availability to the thin bench that was Durant. All those months ago, Walt had asked her to stay, but had said nothing further on the matter since then. It wasn't like there wasn't enough work to keep her busy, or that the cases weren't sufficiently interesting to warrant staying. With Branch down in Cheyenne in a residential treatment center, they had more work than three bodies could handle. Lucian pinch hit for Ruby, and she and Ferg had been pulling 12 hour shifts for way too long.

"Okay, Ruby," Ferg said, sounding kind of down, fingering his own stack of records. Vic tilted her head at him with a little concern.

"What's up, Ferg?" She didn't want to uber-pry, just touch base. If it was heartache, she'd been there, done that, could empathize.

He shook his head. "Nuthin'. I just kinda miss Cady."

Cady! She had been gone all week, down in Cheyenne visiting Branch. Treatment Center was a nice term for a voluntary looney bin, but Branch was still struggling with some of the demons Ridges had apparently instilled in him. Cady had seemed to be gravitating more back to Branch since the accident, to Ferg's obvious consternation.

"Sorry, Ferg." She stepped up and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She'd known he'd worshipped Cady from afar, but he'd never admitted anything to her about Cady as a fellow deputy, before.

"It's okay, Vic. I know we all have our problems. So, are you and Sean finally dissolved?"

She merely gave a tight nod, but six years dissolved, like Alka-Seltzer in water, yeah, that pretty much described their relationship. House was sold, slim proceeds left divided, she had been spending most of her nights at the jail when it was empty, and some in her truck, but so far had not told anyone. She showered in the basement either at night or in the mornings before people got there. It let her put most of her paycheck toward something decent she might be able to tolerate. The apartments in her deputy price range in Durant were not very appealing.

"So, are you and Walt going to go?" asked Ruby in her gentle voice.

She knew that Walt and she spent more time together than most married couples, and she had been seen in uniform with Walt almost everywhere about town, well, pretty much everywhere in the county and some places outside the county, but there was a huge difference in what Ruby had just asked than just being on duty with him.

Were Walt and she going to attend a social function together? She suspected the correct reply was—Hell, no! —but she didn't want to snap at Ruby. Instead, she could feel her deer-in-the-headlights look coming on. Why in the world would Ruby ask that?

When she had control of her voice she replied, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Ruby. You of all people know you keep Walt's calendar."

Ruby shrugged. "Not so much, anymore. He still depends on me for appointments, but not much else. He's really been coming along, recently."

"Oh." Vic still didn't understand why Ruby had asked the question of her, and not in a million years would she ever ask Walt, so she passed the buck. "You should probably ask Walt about it," she said, trying to sound casual, but not sure she succeeded. "Besides, I was thinking of working it."

Ruby only shrugged again, and went back to her police blotter for the Durant Courant.

XXX

She finally gave up on the phone logs when her stomach began complaining. She looked up at the Ferg. Walt had not come in all morning.

"Wanna get some lunch?" she asked him.

Ferg made a face. "I'm really close to finishing this, and then I've got to go on patrol, but thanks."

"You've gotta eat," she said, not wanting to answer Dorothy's well-meaning questions if she went solo.

"I'll eat if I get hungry. Besides, um, I'm kind of cutting back a little."

Astonishment. She backed off. "Oh!"

"Yeah, it'll make it easier for the fitness tests coming up." And maybe to get a date…?

"Okay. You found out my secret, Ferg."

"What's your secret?"

"Why I go running. It's not for fun. It's because I can't eat at Dorothy's and Henry's every day and not pack it on."

"Oh." He filed it as though it was literal food for thought, and went back to his logs. Before resuming concentration, he looked up as if weighing his options, but said, "Maybe you should cut back on that, Vic. You've been looking a little skinny, lately, and like you aren't sleeping."

Holy shit. Could the world, or at least all of Durant, identify her post-divorce issues? She exhaled. "I'm off to the Bee, Ruby."

She had made it to the Bee's front window graced by the large honeybee, when she saw Walt sitting at a booth inside, talking to a willowy woman about his age. She had an ageless beauty, and despite some touching up was likely a more natural blonde than she would ever be, and a pang crossed through her, thinking of how cute Lizzie had been. They had been a cute couple, if they had ever been a couple. He gave a huge smile that reached his eyes and laughed with his companion. Surprise stilling her motion and making her mouth an 'O', she lingered a couple of seconds watching what appeared to be friendly banter, then turned on her heel. It was not her business.

Right. Her choices were narrowed to Henry's, Dash Inn, or Kum and Go.

She opted a brief stop at Dash Inn, taking her truck out to an open meadow on the outskirts of town, so she could eat the unappealing deep-fry and have a bit of a cry. She did not want to cry at the office or in front of him. She was not crying for any particular reason, just the culmination of a lousy year, beatings, divorce, maybe investigating too many deaths. He could have lunch with anyone he wanted.

She returned to the office, tense and jaw set. Ferg had gone on patrol, and she waded through more of the stack. Ferg, the junior deputy, had a swing-shift. She was on duty until 8. He was 8-2 and then 6-12. Lucian forwarded the phones to himself during the night, and Walt overlapped them all. They could not go on indefinitely this way. Walt showed up about 2 pm and headed directly into his office with only a cursory, 'Afternoon."

She worked straight through until 8. Ruby forwarded the phones at five and left. Vic was getting ready to bound down to the showers when Walt came out of his office with a half-smile as though the rest of the day had not happened.

"Can I give you a lift home?" he asked suddenly, after not talking to her all day.

"No, thanks." She did not elaborate, and his smile faded.

She cleared her throat, as though he deserved an explanation. "I'm, ah, not good company tonight."

"Sean?" he asked, but she could sense his discomfort at digging into her personal life. It mirrored her own discomfort.

"No. Just a lot of things. Thanks anyway."

"Okay…" he said, lingering on the word. "I thought maybe it was time we could talk a little."

Shock. She was thrown by those words. They had been so long coming, she had thought never thought to hear them, but she was feeling exceptionally vulnerable at that moment. She hated forming the words, but she said them. "Walt, not tonight."

He pressed his lips together, lowered his head, and nodded. Evidently two rejections counted for something.

"See you in the morning," he said, but he stood there, as though waiting for her to leave.

She, of course, had not planned on leaving, but to take a shower downstairs, and while business was slow, sleep in one of the vacant cells.

However, she had set this in motion, so she gathered up her things, took her Go Bag she had intended to take down to the shower with her, and headed out of the building.

Looked like another night in her truck.

She drove out of town, and saw only one other driver, headlights behind her. She was glad she was headed the opposite direction of Walt's ranch. She gravitated toward the same meadow she had eaten in earlier, and laid out her bedroll along the backseat of her truck. It wasn't big enough, but beat lying in the truck bed. One night she had been bitten by mosquitoes the size of field mice and gotten rained on doing that, and didn't plan on repeating the experience.

She turned on her side, trying to get comfortable, only to hear the scrunch of tires and lights flashing across the inside of her windshield.

Crap. Who would come out here at night? She fingered the Glock lying on the floor beside her. If it were teenagers wanting to tryst, she would send them on their way, but in a minute, there was Walt illuminated by his headlights, knocking at the window in the locked door of her pickup.

"Vic!?" he said, shouting a little to get her attention. "You okay?"

"Walt, what the fuck?" she fumed. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"I saw you head away from your house…I just wanted to be sure you're okay."

"I'm okay," she said, setting her jaw and pursing her lips. At least, I was until you came storming up and gave me an adrenalin overload!" A thought occurred to her. "You didn't think I was depressed or something, did you?" Her voice came out high, like when she was about to go all Terror on someone.

His head went down and to the side, an abashed move she'd seen him make many times. Embarrassment, fear…

"I didn't know. We haven't had a chance to catch up, lately."

Catch up? That implied they'd ever been on the same page. Not since the night she signed divorce papers had she even remotely thought that.

"You've been looking a little…peaked lately, I thought maybe you needed to talk about it."

She debated letting him have it, or just getting back to sleep. Something more in the middle intervened. She was not so mad at him as that, not really. He'd made some catastrophically bad choices, but backed off at the last minute, which just made them questionable ones. Now they were all just muddling along first reeling over, then trying to recuperate from the events of the last few months.

"I'm okay, Walt," she said in a lower voice. "I know you've had a lot on your plate, too. We all have."

Her marriage to Sean had ended, Ferg was mooning over Cady, Branch was in Cheyenne, Ruby seeming always close to tears, and Walt…she was never sure with him. He had not confided in her for a long time, ever since he had admitted wanting to kill Jacob, but the Connally shooting had brought him out of that loop.

"I don't know what you want, Walt."

"Why aren't you at your house?"

"My house sold weeks ago."

"It did? Ruby…"

"Ruby doesn't even know. It's not all your business, Walt. It's my business." She hated putting him in his place, but there it was.

He inhaled, his nostrils widening. His lips that had the compression to them signaling stubborn. "Maybe in Philly it would be, but I've been worried about you. You don't look good. Where are you staying?"

She shrugged. "The jail, out here…I'll figure out something before the cold weather hits."

"That isn't right. Come have coffee with me. Stay on the couch if you want. I won't bother you."

"Gee, thanks for the offer, it was such a great stay the last time," she said, dripping sarcasm she didn't even know was in her. She was afraid Terror simmered just under the surface.

The hurt showed plain on his face. Maybe he hid it better at the office. Maybe she had the capacity to wound him. She felt plenty wounded on her front, but she didn't want to fight.

"Look, I know it's taking you a while to get your arms around what happened…"

"You act as if I'm embracing what happened. I can't do that. I will never be able to do that."

"You have to do something to move forward." And then it just came out. "Is that why you went to lunch with that woman, today?"

He looked as though she had struck him.

"Were you stalking me, Vic?"

She gave a voiceless "Huh." "No, Walt…was just coming over for lunch, like we do almost every day." She looked down and turned her toe in the dirt. "So…just let me go back to sleep, huh?"

"I'm not seeing her, Vic."

That brought her head up, and the Terror just erupted. "I didn't say you fucking were! It doesn't matter if you are! Don't you understand? Just leave me the fuck alone!" He backed from the door at her ferocity, and she slammed it behind him and locked it.

The Terror, like the Kraken, had been released, was amok and had struck.

The legendary badass sheriff of Absaroka County, standing in the illumination of his headlights, looked as though he'd been felled by a poleaxe. He backed away, and in a few seconds had peeled off in an explosion of dirt and grass which she heard but didn't see, blinded as she was by her tears.

Well, she was pretty sure the answer to Ruby's question would now indeed be the resounding, "Hell, no!"