*Author's Note*

Thanks for reading this.

Novella's younger brother Moses Quincey gets introduced in this chapter. I imagine him as Ben Robson (Craig Cody from TNT's Animal Kingdom). Yea I cast all my dark and long-haired country boy OCs as him since Ben Robson is also used for my OC Mark Bennett in my Sons of Anarchy story lol.

Outlaw Country

Novella POV:

"Novella, Perry wanted me t'wake you." Roseanna's sweet as sugar voice woke me up from my light dreamless sleep.

"Thanks." I mumbled, sitting up and rubbing any trace of sleep from my eyes. I noticed that Roseanna had a small half-asleep girl, no older then 3, with wild fiery curls resting against her chest while being held in one of her arms. "Is that-" I began to ask only for Roseanna to cut me off with a smile while telling me, "Tolbert's daughter? Yea, she's staying with us while he's…away."

The way the tender-hearted blonde referred to Tolbert being imprisoned was sad. Okay, it was more then sad, it was heartbreaking. Roseanna couldn't even make the words locked up, in jail, or imprisoned come out of her mouth.

"She's the spitting image of him." Tumbled out of my mouth. I knew he had a daughter, but I never knew that the little girl took after him so much. I guess I just assumed she would be a mix of Tolbert and Mary, not all Tolbert.

"I'm bringin' her downstairs for breakfast. You just come on down once you're ready." Roseanna softly smiled before making her way out of my room.

My room that still looks the same way it did when I lived her all those years ago. Nearly a decade ago if I'm being honest. The walls were still covered in pale pink paint with picture collage boards randomly hung up. My bedspread was still the same rose floral one I had in my teen years. Nothing had been changed, my room was in so many words a damn time capsule.

After showering and getting dressed into a simple pencil skirt and blouse I made my way downstairs and into the eat in kitchen. As my heels clicked against the hardwood floor my brother, Moses, looked at me while clucking, "Finally you're back. Only takes Tolbert facin' gettin' fried by Ole Sparky tho."

"Moses, Kentucky stopped the electric chair over 20 years ago. Don't be so dramatic." Uncle Perry chastised my brother, who was pulling his long dark hair into a low pony bun at the kitchen table.

"Still as classy as ever." I scoffed, insulting him as I walked over to the counter to grab some coffee from corner machine.

"Hey, don't knock my country boy charm. Just cause you forgot where ya came from while off in Louie-Ville don't me I gotta." Moses shot back at me as I grabbed a mug from the mug tree and filled it up.

I opened the sugar cannister and tossed some into my coffee cup while snorting, "I didn't forget where I came from. I just chose not to come back is all."

"Yea, cause runnin' way solved everythin'." My brother told me with malice and sarcasm laced in his words as I grabbed a plate and some silver ware from the stack on the counter.

"Ya'll stop fightin' in front of the lil ones." Roseanna chastised us while using her eyes to motion to the little girls eating bacon, scrambled eggs, and biscuits.

"We ain't fightin'." Was the denial that quickly emerged out of my brother's mouth before he grabbed a piece of bacon off of his plate and quickly tore into it with his teeth.

Silently I took a seat at the table. I did cut my baby brother a nasty look though. Who does he think he is? Little shithead.

"Listen to Roseanna." Uncle Perry told us, looking up from the new paper to look at us glaringly. "Eat your breakfast and be civil. You're brother and sister, not opposing sides of a courtroom." He chastised us in his slick voice as he shook his head and slightly rolled his eyes before returning his attention to the Appalachian News-Express. "We'll have enough of a fight at the arraignment today."

"Since I'm stayin' her to watch the chil'ren somebody should ride with Mama to the jail to drop off dress clothes for my brothers." Roseanna voiced before taking a bite out of her biscuit.

"Novella, dear, you won't mind taking Miss Sally would you? You'd be a better fit to keep her calm and I promised to meet with Ole Rand'l in my office." My uncle told me in his slick voice as he gabbed his coffee from the table and took a sip of it.

I don't know why Jim, his wife, Calvin, or Alifiar couldn't drive her, but I knew that I was getting stuck with taking Sally whether I wanted to or not.

"Sure, I'll do it." I answered even though I didn't want to do it. Whatever, I'm just going to eat and try to make the best out of this stressful day.

Roseanna smiled gratefully. "Oh, thank you. Mama just loves you." Glad she does cause her son sure in hell don't.

Uncle Perry looked pointedly at Moses before clearing his throat and saying, "Mo, I want you to do some snooping and figure out who the ADA is. I'd rather knowing the identity before stepping into the courtroom, that way I'll know what we're up against."

"Uncle Perry, we already know that he's a hot shot from out east. What more is there to know?" Moses said around a mouthful of biscuit.

"Everything and with how you're better at gossiping then a bunch of old church bitties I expect you to find out who is he and how hard his gunning for the McCoy boys before we walk into that damned Hatfield court." Damn, my uncle had a point there.

"Papa, can I come to court? I wanna help my uncles get outta jail." Sarah Elizabeth, the petite 9-year-old with a corn silk colored braid, innocently told my uncle with a hopeful look on her face. Poor girl was too young to be listening to this at the breakfast table.

At least the little girl with the fiery bed head sitting a bit droopily by Roseanna was too young to understand what was happening. I bet all the little girl knew was that her daddy had to go away for a bit. I mean telling a toddler her dad's locked up and has a murder charge pending isn't done. I felt bad for Tolbert's daughter, who's name I still had to learn by the way, since he was her sole caretaker and now he was being ripped away from her.

Perry shook his head while keeping a stern look on his face. "No, Sarah Elizabeth. You have to stay home to help Mama take care of Sally Elle."

Sally Elle, so that was the little ginger girl's name? Hmm, wonder why Tolbert named her that. Not the Sally part, I mean the Elle part.

"Papa's right, I can't play with Sally Elle all by myself. She's got too energy." Roseanna pipped up, tagging in to help get Sarah Elizabeth to drop the subject about court.

"Okay." Sarah Elizabeth told her mom, not wanting to miss out of playing with her cousin.

Southern outlaw country music filled up my vintage pink and black charger as I drove down the back-country road that would bring me to Blackberry Creek, to the farmhouse of Mr. & Mrs. McCoy. The small road, barely big enough for one lane yet alone two, hadn't changed one bit in the near decade I'd been gone. Trees lined it, no barriers of steel and metal to keep cars safe from hitting trees and running off the road had ever been put up. The road was in need of new blacktop, it was nothing more then bits of gravel and patches now.

The song on the radio faded out slowly as I spotted the sign reading Blackberry Creek up head. I heard a bango, guitar, and steel guitar strum up in a tune befitting an outlaw western flow out of the speakers as I drove by the simple green town sign. Hmm, I was starting to get used to the music of the hills again. Nearly every radio station was was dedicated to a type of country genre such as outlaw, bluegrass, 80-90's, gospel, folk, truck-driving, honkey- was tonk, and a few more I'm not even going to bother naming.

I've been away from the country music scene for a long time. These days I'm listening to the Top 100 on the radio, but in Pike that's not happening. For some reason I remembered the station number of the outlaw station, a station that Tolbert always had blasting in his pick-up truck.

Memories from long ago fluttered in my mind, one sticking out in particular as I recognized the song playing on the radio…

BEGINNING OF FLASHBACK/MEMORY

The glow of the harvest moon shone brightly in the darken night sky, illuminatin' the cab of the Dodge Ram. The only other light being the glow from the dashboard and from the radio, which was tuned to the outlaw country station. Tolbert's attention was on the desolate back hills road we were travelin' on, his high beams the only thing lightin' our way. We were on our way back to my uncle's after havin' spent the evenin' at a bonfire in one of the hollers out near Varney.

"What time's yer curfew?" Tolbert asked, quickly dartin' his eyes between me and the road.

"Midnght." I swore he knew this.

"What time's it now?"

"11:35. Why?"

"No reason, just thought we'd might've had some time to mess 'round." He answered as he drove us steadily down the dark county road.

"You mean roll 'round." I stated quickly, tiltin' my head at him. I was 16, but I wasn't stupid.

"Just cause of older then ya, darlin', don't mean I'm gonna try to get some on the first date." Tolbert told me in a hard and offended tone. I heard him sigh, lettin' our his frustrations, before softly explain', "Shit, kissin' and neckin's just fine. I'm not gonna push ya farther then yer ready for."

I smiled and nodded in understandin'. "Oh, how gentlemanly of ya." I told him with a fake and playful Scarlett O'Hara type accent.

"Yep." Tolbert popped his tongue. "You like this song? Heard it the other day, it's good." Tolbert remarked in his velvety timbre as he reached a calloused hand over to turn the knob on his radio, cranking the volume up.

"I like it now that I've heard it. It's catchy."

"Yea…guess it could be our song or somethin'."

"What? Tolbert, most couples have a love song for a song not an outlaw country song." I couldn't believe he was suggestin' this song, this very unromantic song, to be our song. I would agree to date him, boy's got no romantic bones in his body.

"But, Ella, we ain't most couples. We're a couple, but a 'shiner and a lawyer's niece, in the back hills of Kentucky." Tolbert glanced at me with a smirk on his face as his gratin' smooth voice holdin' reason rose over the lyrics on the radio.

"Fine, this'll be our song." I gave in with a smile.

"Good." Was the simple velvet word that fell from Tolbert's lips as he thrummed his fingers 'gainst the steerin' wheel to the beat of the music playin' in the truck.

END OF FLASHBACK/MEMORY

I shook my head, forcing myself out of the stroll down memory lane, right before making the turn that would bring me to the isolated country street the McCoys lived on. It was more so a dirt road then a street and it was scattered with old wooden farm houses and trailers, both single and double-wides. After a few minutes I pulled onto the dirt path cut into the grass that was considered the long driveway of the McCoy's farmhouse.

As I pulled up to the front of the house I spotted Sally, her hair up in it's always present bun, sitting on a rocker on the front porch. As I put the car in park Sally got up, some bags in her hand, and made her was down the porch stairs towards my pink and black vintage challenger.

Once she got to the passenger's side door she opened it and got in with smile. "It's so good to see you, sweetheart."

"Good to see you too, Sally." I smiled in return before shifting mt car's gear into reverse.

"Oh, we need to go to Tolbert's house to fetch his clothes." Of course, she wouldn't have anything for him at the house. "Unlike the other boys he moved out years ago." Guess so, he used to be married and does have a kid.

"Is his place far?" I asked, secretly hoping that it would be nearby and not on the other side of the county.

"No. Maybe just 10 minutes up the road." She answered, using her hand to make a motion in the direction we needed to go. "You know he bought the land his house's on right after you left. Got it from your step-poppy."

"What?" I choked out as I turned onto the main road. "Fred sold him that parcel of land he got when my mama died?" I asked, still in disbelief. I hadn't seen Fred in years so of course he never told me that he sold my mother's land, that he acquired by will and spousal rights, to my bad-tempered ex instead of saving it for me or Moses.

"Yes, he did." She affirmed with a nod of her head. "Tolbert worked hard to finance a double-wide right after he signed for the land."

"Oh…" I know what he was hard working at, selling his moonshine. Tolbert was-well-is a 'shiner, which of course is illegal. Only moonshine that's legal in Kentucky's the crap sold at Wal-Mart made by commercial liquor makers and the big alcohol companies. Backwoods stills and shine operations are very illegal and of course that's what Tolbert's messed up in for his income.

"It's a real nice place. Could use a woman's touch." Sally smiled softly, warmly hinting that I perhaps could help decorate Tolbert's trailer since I was in town.

Oh boy, help me sweet baby Jesus…

"Didn't his ex-wife, Mary Butcher, decorate it?" I asked in a tone that was both hard and sarcastic as I drove down the road, eyes set straight ahead.

"Not much." Sally told me, her lips in a form line. Hmm, from her reaction it seemed that she wasn't fond of her ex-daughter-in-law. "Sweetheart, that was a marriage of convenience. He was lonely." Bet he was, stupid fucking hot-head. "The only good thing that came out of that was his daughter, Sally Elle."

"Yea…so how much farther do I go?" I asked, looking quickly between her and the dirt road.

"Not far, we're almost there." I heard her tell me as I focused on the road and the dark crooning of the man singing over the radio accompanied by the thumping melody of drums, banjos, and guitars.

My breath was taken away whenever I pulled up to Tolbert's double-wide. It wasn't what I was expecting, not at all. On his 500 acres sat a modern manufactured home, one that was most likely either bought from Oakwood Homes or Clayton Homes. It even had a front porch versus steps, like most double-wides had. The beauty of his home amazed me, left me speechless. Never in any of my years would I dream that he had a white paneled home with green shutters, a white-washed full-length porch, and a door with a full length oval cutout in it. The house seemed too put together, to beautiful for Tolbert. For some reason I felt like he put a lot into this model home.

"Isn't my Tolbert's home nice?" Sally asked as we both got out of my car.

"Yea, very nice." I honestly replied as I followed her up the white rock-gravel path to the front porch. "So, you have a key I presume?"

"Yes, I do." She told me while procuring a seet of keys from her purse. As she unlocked the door she explained, "I bring Tolbert and Sally Elle some home cooked meals over some nights." She walked in with my following right behind while going on to say, "My boy never learnt how to cook. He tries, real hard too, but nothin' never really turns out like it should."

"Yea…" I trailed off as my head spun around, taking in the rustic simplicity of the living room. Cream walls, brown couch, brown easy chair, fireplace, tv-stand, tv, dvd player, wooden handcrafted chest, window blinds with brown patterned valances, and hardwood floors with a beige area rug is what the room consisted of. As Sally said no sign of a woman's touch and it looked as if whatever Mary had placed in the house she took whenever she left Tolbert since they place screamed rustic man.

"I'll be quick. Just grab me a bag from the kitchen, he keeps 'em in a holder I made him on the pantry door." Sally told me before walking off to the door to the left of the main room I was standing in.

I swiftly walked into the kitchen, which was simple and only had the bare necessities in it, and grabbed a bag from the cloth holder that was sewn into a pig pattern. Pigs, what was with McCoys and pigs? Eve since I've known these people they've raised pigs or had pig notions in their house.

I couldn't help but notice that the only thing on the kitchen counters were a coffee maker, bread box, and a few latch-lidded cannisters for dry goods. A wooden booster set was on one of the kitchen chairs, no doubt in my mind that Tolbert made it for his daughter. A box of generic brand cheerios sat on top of the fridge with a large can of generic oats sandwiched between it and a box of Jim Dandy grits.

Clutching the grey plastic Wal-Mart bag in my hand I walked back into the living room. I decided to just stand and wait for Sally. I didn't want to give her the bag in his room. I felt that would be weird, like an invasion of his privacy.

I noticed that a couple of framed pictures of Sally Elle were placed on the wooden mantle of the stone fireplace. He had no other pictures though. Actually, his walls were bare other then his grandpappy's antique fiddle hanging above the fireplace.

"I got Tolbert's clothes." Sally's vioice brought me back to reality, making me snap out of the trance I was in as I stared at the fiddle on the wall.

I turned around and noticed that Sally was almost towards me. "Just put them in here so we can go." I told her, holding the bag open, as I rushed to her.

"He'll appreciate this. He's been in those dirty festival clothes for 2 days." Sally smiled sadly, weakly, as she placed the clean clothes into the Wal-Mart bag.

I figured he hadn't been in lock-up for long. Usually arraignment and bond are done after 48 hours.

As we walked out of the house and locked up I found myself asking, "Have you been able to see them yet?"

"No, right now only legal counsel can since it's a capital crime." Sally answered as we made our way towards my car.

"Oh…" I trailed off, knowing now that I was the one that was stuck seeing the boys and giving them their clean change of clothes. No wonder Perry assigned this job to me.

AN:

Being back in the Kentucky hills is hard right now for Novella. It's going to get worse before it gets better for her, poor thing.

Anyways…Statically the poverty rate in Central Appalachia (Kentucky/West Virginia) is higher than the total for the entire the US. In Central Appalachia only 1% will go to college and earn a degree. Only 3% make $40,000 or more a year. Coal mining and logging are the legal ways to make good money to take care of a family while moonshining and pill dealing are the illegal ways. Average jobs are minimum wage such as fast food, box stores, etc.