Vexed

The alley scene. Vic's perspective.

Language warning

Her face was burning.

Vic couldn't remember a time when she was so equally angry and frustrated at the same time. Walt had a reputation for silence. But, this was fucking ridiculous. Added to the mix of anger swelling up inside of her, she was hurt.

Genuinely hurt.

In a way that she never expected from Walt. He had been different since he returned from his leave. He was closed off and seemed to want to distance himself from her. The close bond they shared before all of this bullshit started was stretched to the absolute limit. His stony expression and the finality in his voice in the alley when he spoke to her seemed to have snapped the last ties that held them together.

What the fuck?

That was what she wanted to say to him.

They had been so damn close. To what, she couldn't say for sure. But, it was something. Her marriage was over, nothing now but a formality that needed to be signed off on. There would be no reconciliation. It wasn't what either of them wanted. They were done. Sean made sure she understood that by having Walt hand her the papers himself.

Fitting final move. His way of saying "here you go, she's all yours."

He seemed so earnest when he asked her to stay that night.

It felt like more than a professional request.

He wanted her to stay.

Signing her divorce papers was a relief. The closing of a chapter that was over long before she was fully willing to admit it. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she had something to look forward to.

Like exploring what existed between her and Walt.

No matter what he tried to say, there were feelings there. She wasn't stupid.

But, something shifted in him since then. Something changed. It started with finding Branch dead in the river and culminated with the revelation that he was killed by his own father, the same man who was ultimately responsible for the death of Martha Longmire.

It should have freed him. It should have loosened the tethers that held him to the past.

The man that emerged, however, seemed angry and bitter. This was a Walt that she didn't know. He had his faults. Everyone did, including her. But, this was a version of him she hadn't seen before. He was jealous and short. Firing Eamonn for a perceived threat that didn't even actually exist.

She liked Eamonn. He was nice and he was cute. She could see the attraction. They admittedly flirted, but nothing else had happened. Because Walt was always in the back of her mind. The interaction with Eamonn was nothing more than being friendly and having some light hearted moments.

Beyond that, there were moments where he was simply mean.

As much as she had seen his temper erupt in the past, it was never really directed at her. It seemed like he was mad at her and she didn't have any idea why. She hadn't done anything. She didn't the chance.

Not like this.

He acted like he didn't want to be around her.

There were glimmers of the old Walt occasion, a moment where she would see something in him that she recognized. Then, it would be swallowed up and she was left feeling isolated and confused.

Why did life have to be so fucking complicated.

Why couldn't he just see?

She cared about him. There was a good chance she actually loved him and just hadn't given it enough thought.

Enter Doctor fucking Donna.

Vic didn't like her from the beginning. There was something in the woman that immediately rubbed her the wrong way. She was condescending. Smart and she wanted people to know it. She was rude, dismissive, and hostile.

What attracted Walt to the woman she would never be able to figure out.

Funny thing was, if there was truly something happening between them, shouldn't he be happy. Instead, he walked around like he was fucking constipated all the time. That was telling.

Telling as hell.

She hadn't meant to throw herself out in the open like that. But, he didn't seem to be leaving her any choice. This hellish purgatory she was stuck in wondering what his problem was ate at her slowly. It was dismembering her piece by piece, making her as sullen and bitter as he was.

It was a last ditch effort to elicit some sort of reaction from him.

It hadn't worked.

For a split second, when he stared at her, she thought she might be able to break through to him. But, all he did was stare with what she swore was an absolute lack of anything real.

To her own horror, she thought for a second that she might cry.

How in the hell had everything gone so incredibly wrong?

How had they wound up standing in an alley facing off as though they hadn't ever been friends?

She didn't have any answers.

She set her jaw and walked off, leaving him to stand there and wallow in whatever misery he seemed so intent on creating of himself. When the radio crackled with a message about Donna needed him, it was icing on the fucking cake.

Had her foot not been messed up, she might have gotten out and walked.

Instead she was stuck in the Bronco with him as they headed for Donna and her most recent crisis. He was tense beside her. Quiet in a way that felt angry and shut down. It was the worst kind of silence from Walt.

She honestly didn't know where to go from here.

Of all the scenarios that played out in her mind back when she thought they might finally be on their way to something, this was one that hadn't occurred other.

Maybe the joke was on her.

Vic looked out the window through the dark lenses of her sunglasses and watched the landscape move by them as they drove on towards a destination that felt dark now.

If there was any real destination.

She didn't know what to do.

She didn't know what to say.

For the first time in quite a while, she didn't say anything at all.