Thanks to: w84u, Joetheone, YouthAwareness, Candice and blackhatnbeard for the kind and fabulous reviews. This one's ever longer :D

Title: Once Sane
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters and/or places belong to Annie Proulx. No profit is being made.

Enjoy!

Alma knew Sheriff Ponteaux quite well. Monroe had had a hot temper, and with four kids on one income, she couldn't always afford to pay the man's bail. She started just doing regular favors, gardening, cleaning house to earn Monroe his freedom. That wasn't enough though, and they all knew that. Eventually, Ponteaux asked for sexual favors, and Monroe, needing the open space and release from the jail cell, told Alma to do "whatever yeh have ta do" to get him the hell out of there.

Eventually, that was all Ponteaux wanted. He didn't have a wife, and the man was getting old. A beer gut sat happily where a Sheriff should have had rock hard abdominals. His face was covered in a peppered beard and mustache, and the top of his round head was so bald, it shone. But he was a man, just like any other, and he needed what he needed. And if that meant Alma could get her girls out of the house of sin they were in right now, she would give him what he needed.

After Alma fled the county jail, she headed North towards her house. First, she would need a change of clothing and a car before going to see her sinful ex-husband, his boyfriend, and the girls that were probably being tortured right now. She started running, the white, flat, prison sneakers stirring up little clouds of dust in her wake.

She got home half an hour after she left the prison, opened her back door quietly, and snuck in. She heard someone in the kitchen, it was most likely Monroe, but she didn't want him to know she was out of jail. For some reason, she suspected he was happy that she was there. She edged around a beige wall, and watched him chopping carrots. He looked happy enough.

"Monroe," she whispered anxiously, awaiting his reaction to her unexpected arrival. His knife fell loudly on the wooden chopping block, sending brother slices of a carrot to opposite sides of the chopping block.

"Fuck! Alma, yeh scared me!" He spun around to her pale face, slender fingers gripping the wall between them, as though it were a shield against him. "I knew yeh would be home, but not so soon. What'd yeh do ta get out this time?"

She hung her head in shame, blush coloring the otherwise chalky cheeks. "Monroe, where are the girls?"

"They're at Ennis'. They came to visit for a while, but…"

"But what?" She came out from behind her wall, glaring at him. "Monroe, what happened?"

Once, Alma had come home early from work and walked into her bedroom to drop off some new clothes she had picked up. Monroe was on top of her youngest daughter, Francine. Since then, the girls had never been home alone with him.

"Well…"

She walked over to him quickly, wrapped her arms around his sides and grabbed the knife behind him. Straddling him as he leaned against the counter, she poked the tip into his back. "What did you do!"

"Jack caught me, Alma."

She drove the knife deep into his flesh, and he slid down the counter, groaning. A crimson stream of blood trailed where he had been, and she flew out the door, leaving him to fare as nature pleased.

Ennis had never heard of Alma's "talents" when she was married to Monroe, but he figured that was how she got out so early. Her picture was plastered everywhere, stapled onto telephone poles, and her name was said about five times an hour on the radio. He tried to block out any form of media, not letting his young girls see what their once sane mother had done.

They saw anyways, there was nothing he could do to keep the media from his 20th century home. They asked him a few times where their mother must be, seeing as she had escaped from jail. The problem was, he didn't know.

She looked in a clear window, the moonlight made brown hair shine like silk. Her ex-husband was on top of his boyfriend, who sat under him on three limbs. One hand pushed against the headboard, his head thrown back. She gripped the windowsill so tightly, her fingertips turned white, and she lost feeling in them. She had to stand on her toes to see inside, but couldn't get down.

Ennis leaned over and bit lightly on his guy's shoulder, the other man made a yelp loud enough to hear through the window. She saw their motions slow together, their bodies shudder in unison and they collapsed, Ennis still on top of Jack. He gathered his guy in his arms, and kissed the top of his head.

She was envious. She lowered herself off of the windowsill, waited for her feet to un-cramp and tiptoed around to the front of the house. She lightly pushed the door open, and squeezed in, keeping quiet and watching for her girls. She didn't see them, and thank God they didn't see her. She could hear murmurs coming from the room she had just been watching, whispers that were sure to be "I love you," and other sweet nothings she should have been hearing.

She knocked her knee on the kitchen table, cursed quietly and hoped they hadn't heard her. She reached on to the cheap melamine counter top, looking for anything she could kill that fucker with. Her fingers felt a cool blade under them, she noticed blood falling onto the counter but ignored it. She crept silently, or as silently as possible, towards the thin bedroom door. She couldn't believe Ennis would commit a sin like that one with their daughters in the house.

She pushed open the door, saw Ennis draped over Jack who was under the sheets. While Jack didn't move, Ennis' head jerked up immediately, he saw his wife silhouetted in his doorway, his jaw dropped and he scooted off of the other man.

"Alma," his voice was raw, like he had been yelling. Maybe he had.

"Daddy, can we go into town? Brenda's having a party and-"

"No, not this weekend, Darlin'. School starts in a bit, and we gotta drive into town later to pick up your stuff, gas both ways'd be too expensive."

"Oh…" His younger daughter sat forcefully onto a leather sofa, chewing on her nail. "I need to use the phone then, to call her."

Ennis nodded at her and walked out side, Jack accosted him from a dark corner on the porch. There was a light flurry falling outside, and Ennis wasn't dressed to be outside long, he had just stepped out to holler at Jack that dinner was ready. The denim of Jack's jacket was rough against Ennis skin, he turned into the enveloping arms, kissed Jack, twirled his finger in the long hair on the nape of the man's neck. "Yeh need a hair cut," he whispered.

Jack smiled, Ennis could feel his mouth move while they kissed. His hands roved over the other man's back, the returned to their spot on his neck, playing with the baby hairs again. "C'mon," Ennis pushed Jack lightly away from him, tried to ignore the tightening of his pants, "Dinner's ready.'

Jack followed him inside.

"Alma," he said it again, a little louder, "What are yeh doin' here?"

She raised the knife and waved it back and forth, the light from outside glinting off of it. "Holy fuck Alma! What are yeh doin'!"

This was the first time she had seen him scared. She'd seen him angry, sad, and kind of happy, but never scared. And she knew he wasn't scared for himself. He was scared to leave Jack, leave his girls. But he wasn't the one who was going to die. She started moving slowly towards the bed, and Ennis, still naked, shifted slightly, watching her every move.

"Alma, jus' put the damn knife down."

She shook her head mechanically, smiled wildly and crept closer to where Jack slept. "Alma, for God's sake!" Ennis jumped up, and his yell or the loss of his weight woke Jack. He stared at Ennis, who was about to pin his ex-wife against the wall, his hands on both her wrists, then he looked at Alma. She had their French chef's knife held so tightly in her hand, her knuckles were almost bleached white. She stared at him, and he knew she had gone crazy.

He gather the sheets around his waist, moved as closely to the headboard as was possible, and watched Ennis pin her to the wall. The knife clattered to the floor, and she started screaming. "LET ME KILL HIM!"

Ennis continued to hold her, but turned to Jack when she went a little limp, stopped screaming and started to sob. "Get dressed, and the grab me some shorts. I'm gonna need help getting' dressed, 'cus yeh cain't hold her, she'll kill yeh."

Jack nodded, and knowing Ennis had an idea where Jack had none, the man got up and did what he was told.