Thanks for continuing to hang in there with me! Some of you may realize it's the end of the semester so my already limited time has been even more so. There will be more to the story, just not sure when. I appreciate all the readers and reviews!

Vic was walking more quickly than she usually did. While she knew it was futile to try to outrun the man following behind her she couldn't seem to stop herself from trying. His long legs kept up with her easily, preventing her from gaining the distance from him she so desperately needed. She could hear his steady footsteps. The soles of those damn boots sounded solid, yet soft on the floor, in spite of the pace she had set. He had an assertive walk, calm, not rushed. It matched his behavior in the Chief's office just a few minutes before. Vic shook her head. That had been a total cluster fuck. How had she let herself get caught checking him out? She should have known better. She can be observant, yet subtle. In fact, she counted on that ability every day at her job. But there was something about him that disarmed her. She hadn't expected it. Then, instead of taking the high road and pretending not to notice, he had the audacity to draw attention to her behavior, in front of her boss no less. What a prick! And to top it all off he smirked at her. He actually smirked. What the hell was that about? She could only assume it stemmed from a deep seeded belief he held that he's God's gift to women or something. Well, contrary to what others may have told him, he's not all that. He's only minimally attractive and that cocky attitude certainly didn't help him. Who did he think he was anyway? He came into her house, not the other way around. You don't come in like that and just assume someone's going to fall at your feet. Women in Wyoming might be like that, but not here in Philly. Not her. She wasn't some girl who was only around to fawn over some man and boost his ego. Well, she'd show him a thing or two. She didn't put up with that sexist crap from her ex and she sure as hell wasn't going to put up with it from some yahoo from the middle of nowhere.

She held tighter to the keys she had grabbed from the top drawer of her desk. The feeling of their rough edges digging into her palm was a welcomed distraction, grounding her and taking her mind off the strange sensation she had been feeling in the pit of her stomach since she had left the chief's office. She continued down the hall and out the door, stopping short when she reached the parking garage. She tried to clear her head and remember where she had parked. As she scanned the area to look for her truck she caught an unexpected site, "What the fuck?"

Walt followed her eyes with his own. She was staring at Ferg's blue 1979 Trans Am.

"How the hell did that get here?" She was sure Ferg had told her that his father was going to take him to the airport for his flight to Cheyenne. So, his car should be at home, not at the station. Before she had a chance to formulate an explanation on her own she heard a slight jingling sound to her right and glanced toward it. The cowboy was holding out a set of keys.

"He's letting me use it while I'm here. Says she doesn't like it when she's not started regularly and there was really no point in my renting a car when he had a perfectly good one sitting around not being used. It's kind of fun to drive actually. You want me to"

She interrupted him before he could finish his question, "No, I don't want you to fucking drive. I realize this may not be how you do things out west but here in the big city, we don't drive the Pontiac or any other personal vehicle for work. Besides, you don't know where the hell you're going. "

"Well I'm, uh, pretty good at taking direction. You could do the navigating."

"You think? Of course, I'll do the navigating, and the driving too for that matter. You need to reel it in a little, Wyatt."

He paused to contemplate the nickname before deciding to ignore it for the time being, "Okay. I just want to pull my own weight while I'm here."

"You're going to have to do a hell of a lot more than just drive a damn car in order to pull your own weight around here."

"Fair enough, so where to?"

"I already told you, I'm driving."

"Yes, you did, but", he glanced around the garage, "I don't know which vehicle we're taking."

Letting out a huff, Vic stormed over to a black Ford Explorer she had finally located at the end of the row. He smiled and shook his head before following after her.

Walt may not have tried to investigate Detective Moretti on the internet the way she had him, but he had spent some time talking to her partner. He'd volunteered to pick Ferguson up at the airport, wanting to have time to give him a head's up about Lucian's...eccentricities. Getting some intel on Moretti had been an unexpected bonus. After showing him around Durant they'd ended up at the Red Pony for burgers and drinks. The amount of beer Ferg ingested seemed to have a positive correlation with how loose lipped he became about "Vic", his partner back in Philadelphia. Ferg told him about her father and older brothers and that she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder as a result. She'd not wanted to rely on the family reputation but instead used her own intelligence and skill to move up the ranks rather quickly. She was a ballistics expert and a top notch detective, not to mention an excellent shot. That wasn't all Ferg had shared with him, "She's sexy as hell, Walt, but watch out! I swear, she eats men alive. Way more woman than I could ever handle." He'd finished up the topic by letting it be known that she had just ended a serious relationship and had been a little more cranky than usual.

Walt had never partnered with a woman before and Vic sounded different from most women he currently knew. His mother had been a strong person but she was somewhat of an exception in his personal life. Most of the really independent women his own age had left Durant right after high school. The others had marryied their high school sweethearts and settled down in the area. He considered his last girlfriend, Lizzie. She was somewhat of a damsel in distress type. It wasn't that he had been particularly attracted to that part of her personality as that she was beautiful, held him in very high esteem and was available. She'd been married once to an older fellow who left her with a significant amount of land and a large chunk of change when he died in a work accident four years ago. She'd almost literally thrown herself at Walt when she fainted into his arms during an murder investigation after two dead bodies had been found on her property. With some not so subtle prodding from his boss, Walt had eventually asked her out. They'd broken up about 6 months ago: his idea, not hers. Still, she'd readily moved on and was already hot and heavy with his boss's younger brother Barlow. When you live in the least populated county in the least populated state and it happens to be the same small town you grew up in, there isn't a large pool of acceptable dating applicants. His best friend Henry had always told him he should find a woman from outside the area with which to settle down. The problem with that was finding someone from the outside who would make a move to Durant. He had dated a few people in college, but none of them would have been willing to live in Absaroka County and after his experiences living in LA and his military travels in the middle east, Walt had little desire to live anywhere else.

He turned his attention to the brunette currently driving at breakneck speed through the streets of Philadelphia. Ferg was right. She was gorgeous, even with a frown on her face. And she was definitely frowning right now. He didn't like the idea that he was the cause of her angst. He had been a bit of an ass though. He shouldn't have drawn attention to her like he did back at the station. He'd just been surprised to catch her in such a blatant appraisal, especially after what Ferg had said about her. Well, for better or worse, they were going to be partnered for the next two months. He thought he'd prefer it to be for better so decided to try to make amends so they didn't turn out to be the worst two months of his life.

"So, uh, you seem a little on edge this morning...Is everything okay?"

She kept her eyes straight ahead, "Yes."

"There's not a problem, or, uh, something you need to talk about?... I'm a pretty good listener."

"No."

Walt ran his tongue over the front of his teeth and sighed. He thought about cutting to the chase and straight up apologizing but figured it was not the time to bring up the very thing that had likely pissed her off in the first place. If he had learned anything in his 36 years on the earth it was when to stop talking. For now it was probably best to just sit back and go along for the ride.