Okay, for some reason I feel nervous about people reading this chapter but I think it is necessary to the story. We can't just keep wondering why Barlow hates Walt so much. So, here goes...

Barlow couldn't believe his attorney had the nerve to be out of town on a family vacation. The only thing that kept him from firing him outright over the phone tonight was that he pulled some legal magic and got Barlow into his own cell. He wouldn't have tolerated being locked up with the riff raff. It will be hard enough to be locked up with himself. One of the benefits of working 70 plus hours a week is having little time to think. When he isn't working he finds other distractions. Unfortunately thinking is all he can do in here. He'd prefer his mind be filled with thoughts of that pretty young thing he was with in his office two days ago, but no, all he can think about is Sheriff Walter Longmire.

Barlow's family accumulated significant wealth and influence settling and working the land that became Absaroka County. They liked the authority it afforded them and demanded respect. This was a trait that was passed down all the way to Branch. Walt's father was a farrier. It provided steady work and a solid living for the family, but left little room for extras and it certainly held no prestige like the Connally family had. Farriers were a necessity but not highly valued. He knew it was a contradiction, but that was how it was. Barlow remembers Walt coming to the Connally Ranch when they were children to help his father shoe the horses. Mr. Connally's horses were part of his livelihood and he took excellent care of them so Walt and his father were there every four weeks like clockwork. Walt was younger than Barlow: a quiet, diligent, hard working boy. At least that's what Barlow's father always told him, followed soon thereafter with, "Why can't you be more like Walter Longmire you spoiled piece of shit?"

Those words or something similar usually came right before Mr Connally let his right hand fly across whatever part of Barlow's body he could reach. Oh, it only happened when he was drinking but as Barlow got older the drinking became more frequent until eventually it was whenever he wasn't working. His father was what you would call a functional alcoholic. The booze never interfered with his business responsibilities, his civic duties or his income. His family responsibilities were another story altogether. The drinking interfered plenty with those, but his work contacts didn't have a clue how he was after hours. Barlow's mother had overdosed on sleeping pills when he was 5 years old. Lucian was 16 at the time. They said it was an accident. He was too young to really remember it, but his father never let him forget it. It was heavy in the rotation when he was drinking, second only to the comparisons to Walt. Barlow thinks his mother must have gotten tired of being knocked around and decided to take the easy way out. The harder thing for him to admit was that he and his brother apparently weren't important enough for her to stick around for. It was after she was gone that his father turned his anger on the boys. Lucian wouldn't have it so he took off on his own. That left Barlow to bear the brunt of it and Mr. Connally regularly blamed Barlow for his mother's death as well as his brother's departure. Many years later Lucian had reached out and tried to apologize for leaving Barlow behind but by then it was too late. The damage to their relationship had already been done and nowadays, neither had a kind word to say about the other.

Walt had always acted like he didn't know what was going on with Barlow and his father, like he didn't notice the extra attention he got when he was at the Connally Ranch or the silver dollar Mr. Connally would slip to him every time he was there. Barlow would try to engage him while he and his father worked on the horses but Walt wouldn't speak much. Barlow figured it was because Walt considered himself too good to talk to him. Imagine that, a kid with nothing refusing to be friends with a Connally.

Barlow fared a little better at school. It got him away from his father for at least 8 hours a day, but Mr. Connally still expected him to be the best at everything. Sometimes he was and sometimes he wasn't. One of the bright spots of Barlow's day was after school when he would walk to the county library. Mrs. Gilbreath, the librarian, always greeted him with a smile and asked about his day. She would notice if he wore a new shirt and would listen intently to him. "You're a good boy Barlow," she would say. When her daughter started kindergarten she asked Barlow if he would be willing to help her make the short walk from the school to the library since he was coming there anyway. He would have done just about anything for her so he jumped at the chance to show how responsible he could be. That's how he started walking with Martha after school everyday. She was a chatty little girl and often made him laugh on their walks with her stories and though she was younger, you could say that they became friends. By the time Barlow headed off to jr. high, Martha was old enough to walk to her mother at the library on her own. He got so busy with sports and student government that his afternoons became filled with other things and he lost touch with Martha, at least until her freshman year of high school.

He remembers it vividly. Martha looked very grown up compared to the last time he had seen her but she had the same kind look in her eyes. She hesitantly walked into the gym clutching a notebook in her hand. Her chestnut hair was swept back into a ponytail and tied with a pale pink ribbon that matched her shirt. She looked around and her face lit up when she saw someone she recognized. She quickly walked over to her friend and sat next to her on the bleachers and they talked and laughed until the bell rang signaling that it was time to head to class. She was perfect! He went up to her the next morning and struck up a conversation. She remembered their walks to the library years before and they quickly became friends. Though he had never taken her on a "date" or ever officially asked her to be his girlfriend it felt like she was. They talked often and she was the only one he opened up to about his family and life at home. She was a good listener and encouraged Barlow to ignore all the horrible things his father would say to him because they just weren't true. They had a great time together and he never heard of her going out with anyone else. She came to all the varsity football games to cheer him on. It never got physical, but he was shy in that department and was okay with taking things slowly. Besides, he was in it for the long haul. They didn't really see each other during summer break because Barlow was working so much on the ranch and it was when they started back to school the next fall that he noticed things were different with Martha. She wasn't always home when he called her anymore. She was still friendly, but would often break off their conversations more quickly in the hallways at school. He wasn't sure what had brought about the change until the first home football game of the season. It was tradition back then for each player's girlfriend to wear their boyfriend's jersey to school the day of the game for good luck. He had never asked Martha to wear his jersey, but again, they were never what you'd call "official". That day Martha came to school wearing #44, Longmire's number. Barlow was so angry he left school and actually didn't get to play in the game that night because of it. Not only was Barlow not good enough for his father, he apparently wasn't good enough for the girl he had hoped to marry one day either. Like his asshole of a father, Martha had also chosen Walt over him. When he finally got up the nerve to talk to her about it she acted like she had never known how he felt about her. How could she have not know? It was the first time he had allowed himself to really feel the anger that had been building up inside him all these years. He ended their conversation that day by punching a hole in the wall at school and storming out. After that Martha avoided him altogether. She had abandoned him just like his mother and his older brother had. She was no better than they were. He would get back at her eventually, he just wasn't sure how at the time.

Barlow had managed to avoid Walt more and more as they had gotten older which wasn't too difficult since they were two grades apart in school. The only exception was when Walt had started high school, the same year as Martha had. He was a natural on the football field and made the varsity team his freshman year. Barlow had to admit Walt was a born lineman and his jersey still hangs in the trophy case at the school. Walt was so quiet that it wasn't hard to keep his intense dislike of the boy in check and manage playing on the same team. Coach always said that any difficulties you had with a teammate should be parked at the door to the locker room and he was able to do that. Now that Walt and Martha were dating however, it became a lot harder. On one occasion toward the end of the season, Barlow had had enough. He had left his high morals behind when he lost Martha and started chasing skirts all over school and town, a hobby he has kept up to the present. That night after the game he was spending time with one of the cheerleaders out in the parking lot when she decided she wasn't interested in the kind of fun Barlow was after. He was so frustrated thinking about how Walt and Martha might be celebrating the win that he wasn't so eager to stop what she had willingly started. She started struggling with him in the car and Walt and Martha happened to be walking by. Walt opened the car door and pulled him off of her. It was the last straw for Barlow who swung at him. Walt defended himself and Barlow couldn't let it go. He channeled all the years of pain and abuse toward the other boy and the two of them got into an all out fight. Barlow would have liked to say he held his own, but Walt kicked his ass, right in front of both girls and various other onlookers who had been lingering after the game. It was humiliating. He was too embarrassed to tell his old man what had happened so he just didn't go home the rest of that weekend. Mr. Connally was so drunk he never even noticed Barlow was gone. That made it even worse. After that Barlow threw himself into learning the business so he could prove his father was wrong about him and to gather enough money and power to make Walt Longmire suffer like he had. Walt and Martha continued to lead a charmed life. They didn't have a lot of things, but they did have a beautiful, intelligent daughter and and with the help of Barlow's own brother, Walt was able to acquire an elected position of power in the county. In contrast Barlow had every material thing he could possible want. He also had a failed marriage and his son, his only child, had been working as a deputy for Walt Longmire instead of being a part of the family business. Instead of supporting him, Branch questioned his decisions and had planned to hold him accountable for Martha's death. Branch chose Walt over him, just like everyone else Barlow had every cared about.

Barlow was able to build up his resources and connections until the time was right to make both Walt and Martha pay for the sins he thought they committed against him. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised that his part would be found out eventually, but that's why lawyers are paid the big bucks. He was confident that he would come out of this whole thing all right. He didn't actually kill anybody after all...

WARNING: Rambling disclaimer ahead. It is not necessary to read the next bit for this chapter but I wanted to share my reasoning behind how I handled some things in it.

I took some liberties with the ages of Barlow and Walt.(But isn't taking liberties part of what fanfic is all about? We get to put our own spin on things, right?) The series put Barlow at 65. In the novels, there is no Barlow but Walt is in his mid 60s based on his service in Vietnam and Lucian is around 90 based on his service record. Both are obviously younger in the series. According to Craig Johnson in his e-book teaser Longmire: From Book to Screen, they made Walt younger because they hoped the series would have a long run and they didn't want him getting too old by the end of it. (I know that's what we all want too!) The series alludes to Walt's age as 50 or 51. I base that on Walt meeting Henry at 12 and being friends with him for 38 years. There seems to be so much between Walt and Barlow that for me, they had to be closer in age and have a history that went back before their adult years. This is my attempt to explore some of that. Something had to have made Barlow such a hard, calloused man that he would kill an innocent woman and attempt to kill his own son. (Transference anyone? How about adult child of an alcoholic, attachment disorder, major depression, antisocial personality disorder and various other mental diagnoses for which Barlow may be a candidate?) I cannot wait to find out how the series resolves the conflict between Walt and Barlow and hope they reveal the source of Barlow's animosity. Until then, I will continue to let my imagination run with it. Thanks for reading! #LongLiveLongmire