*Author's Note*

Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing. I have an Instagram for my SOA story so I'm debating on whether or not I should make one for Novella/my Hatfield & McCoy stories. I was supposed to be fleshing out the rough dialog for my SOA story, but I ended up writing this chapter instead lol.

My OC Novella Landon's face claim is Rose Leslie, just like in my other story.

Novella and Tolbert's first meeting in nearly a decade is in this chapter. Novella's also going to find out the truth about William 'Cap' Hatfield too. Oh boy…

Orange Defense & Capped Over Offense

Novella POV:

As soon as we walked into the lobby of the Pike County Jail Sally found herself a seat in one of the waiting chair. I on the other hand walked up to the pane glass windowed counter with the sign reading Administration above it. "I'm here to bring the McCoy boys some court clothes." I informed the uniformed man sitting behind the counter. "I'm their attorney." I added, causing the man to stop doing whatever he was on his side of the glass window.

"You're their lawyer?" The man asked me, eying me suspiciously.

Didn't I just say that? Dear lord this grunt's stupid."Yea."

"Do I know you? You look familiar?" The man asked as he slid me a clipboard and pen through the hole at the bottom of the glass.

"I'm Perry Cline's niece, Novella Landon." I answered, taking the pen and clipboard.

One of his brows rose up as I quickly filled the clipboard form out. As I passed it back under the window slot to him he looked leerily at me. "Didn't you date one of the guys accused?" The admissions man asked me as he reviewed the form I had just filled out.

"This is a small county, I'm sure you already know the answer to that." I scoffed with my arms crossed over my chest.

The man looked taken back by my blunt response as he grabbed a visitor's pass and filled it out. "Here's your visitor badge. Just go to the door and you'll get processed." He told me, sliding the pass under the window, as he avoided eye contact with me

"Thanks." I smiled tightly and grabbed the pass. I quickly peeled the back off the bdge and stuck it on my chest. I walked off to the nearby waste basket and tossed the plastic backing in it. I looked over my shoulder to check on Sally before walking through the door that was buzzed open for me.

This is it, I'm going to face down a man I've been avoiding like the plague for years. Hopefully I can harden my heart enough to get through this unscathed.

I had already seen both Bud and Pharmer, separately of course, and had given them their dress clothes for court. Currently I was seated at the metal table in the visitation room awaiting the arrival of Tolbert. The room was cold and lit up with bright artificial lights, giving me chills. Not the physical kind, but the kind that wiggles in one's soul and precedes something bad. I drummed my French manicured nails on the table, not far from the bag I set on there.

Suddenly the door opened accompanied by a stout guard ushering in an orange clad Tolbert. I took in his appearance and quickly noted that he looked like trampled on horse shit. He had a bruised cheekbone, a cut under his eye, a black eye, and a few faint blotches from hits randomly spotted on his face. His lip was split too.

When I saw his brothers, I noticed that Pharmer had a broken arm in a sling and Bud had a busted lip. Tolbert though held the brunt of the injuries handed out by the 'murdered' Ellison Hatfield. It was clear to me that the fight he got into, the reason he's in this mess, was really bad. Clearly, he didn't 'kill' somebody for the hell of it…

The guard roughly drug him over to the chair opposite mine by his upper arm. Tolbert just looked at me with hard, cold, stormy eyes as his guard shoved him into the chair opposite mine. "Knock on the door and I'll take ya back to yer cellblock." Tolbert was told by the guard before the stout half bald man left the room.

"Sally wanted to bring you something clean to wear today for your arraignment." I explained my presence, sliding the bag of clothes over to him. Tolbert just nodded his head slightly while never taking his cold gaze off me. His stare was intense and it unnerved me. I got the feeling that he didn't want me in the room with him. "Well, Uncle Perry-" I started to say before I was interrupted gruffly by Tolbert's velvet snap of, "What the fuck're ya here for? Yer a lawyer in Mar'land, not Kentucky."

"As I was saying before you rudely cut me off," I countered with an edge in my flowing voice before stating my expiation of, "Uncle Perry called me last night and asked for my help. He says its going to be a tough case."

"Ah…" Tolbert sighed, his face a stony with no emotions on it. "Ya stayin' with Perry and Roseanna, right?" He asked, the stone posture of his face showing a slight crack in it as his stormy eyes locked onto my cornflower one's curiously.

"Yea, why?" Where else would I be? My family lived in town, no reason for me to hole up in the Pikeville Hotel. Where's he getting at?

"Would you do me a solid? Watch ov'r my little girl, Sally Elle." Tolbert asked me, his gruff voice cracking a bit as he looked at me with his slate-blue imploring eyes.

His request had taken me aback since it was the last thing I expected him to ask of me. "Yea, I'll do that." I replied, trying not to tremble with the shock that I felt.

"She likes anythin' pink, her favorite movie's Frozen, she has a stuffed un'corn she can't fall 'sleep wit'out, and-" Tolbert quickly rattled off before I stopped him with the interruption of, "Tolbert you're getting your official charges and bond today, not your sentence. I don't need to know all of this, besides I'm sure that Roseanna already knows and can just tell me."

"I'm not gettin' out on bond! I'm bein' charged with fuckin' murder, Ella!" Tolbert shouted at me, making a fist with one of his hands and banging it on the table. I see he still has his bad fly off the rails in a nanosecond temper.

"Don't call me Ella." I demanded in a flowing hiss, my eyes narrowing into blue slits. "That name's long been dead and gone. It's buried down so deep with all the memories tied to it." I explained my reason for rejecting the name he always called me, the name that only he had ever called me.

Tolbert's eye twitched, his jaw clenched, and his nose scrunched up while his face turned red hot with anger and offense. He shot up so fast that his chair fell over. "Yer nothin' now but a bitch tryin' t'act like a big city shit instead of a orphan from these hills. Ya go on an' git back to Mar'land, don't need yer meanin'less pity." His velvety and gruff voice thundered as he cut his eyes at me before snatching up his bag. Quickly he pivoted on his heel and stormed over to the door. "I want outta here!" Tolbert demanded in a shout as he pounded on the door.

Oh yea, I knew my meeting with him would go over like a led balloon.

Tolbert POV:

After leaving the visitation room my guard roughly walked me down the halls to my cell block, holding my bag in his hand. I hated this guard, he treated me and my brothers like shit. Before long I was tossed back into the cell I shared with my brothers. The guard threw my bag of clothes at my head but missed, making it land on the floor by me, before he locked up the door and left. Bastard. I picked up my bag while Pharmer hopefully announced, "Novella's gonna help Perry get us otta here."

"Yea, she's here for us." Bud added as he sat on his bed, his bag next to him.

"She shouldn't be. Not after what I did t'ensure her a good life with her law shit." I sadly told my brothers as I went over to the top bunk I used. I tossed my bag on the plastic mattress and hoped up on it while feeling like my sacrifice was for nothin'. She wasn't s'posed to be stuck in these hills, her life took her outta them for a reason.

"What you did was dump her, nothin' special 'bout that." Pharmer remarked from his place on the bottom bunk of the bed we shared.

"Shut up or I'll break yer other arm." I warned Pharmer as I felt the tension risin' up in me.

Nobody understands that me dumpin' Ella that day I went to surprise her with a visit and a-well I ain't bringin' up what else I was gonna surprise her with-was t'ensure that she'd be able to fulfill her dream. After seein' her all dolled up with her rich fancy college friends when I was walkin' up to that huge sor'ity house, big 'nough t'be a plantation mansion, I knew I'd only hold her back. She'd never become a lawyer with my poor 'shiner ass. She would've given everythin' up t'be with me. Hell, she almost didn't go to Louie-Ville and almost settled for Pike College 'til I assured her that 3 ½ hours wasn't that far 'way.

Nobody understands that I broke my heart for her dreams, her happiness. She was young an' deserved a chance at livin' them dreams, which she did. I'm proud that she became the lawyer she always wanted to be. Heard her job, old job now, in Mar'land was for a big office that worked in business defense. She was on her way to bein' a high-end lawyer 'til she got dragged back t'Pike like a snake the pig caught cause of the mess I got in with my brothers.

"We should get dressed. Be time t'go 'fore we know it." Bud suggested, attemtpin' to cool down the simmerin' situation in our small cell.

Today's gonna be shit, I can feel it in my gut.

Novella POV:

A couple of hours had passed and I now found myself sitting in Wall Hatfield's courtroom sandwiched between Uncle Perry and Tolbert as we all waited on the ADA to show up. The hot shot was late. Well, so was my brother. Moses was still on the hunt to find out the sealed-up identity of the new ADA.

The courtroom was split in half with McCoy family and friends on one side and Hatfields with theirs on the other. Damn, this was only the arraignment so I hated to see how the actual trial would be like. I noticed that Nancy McCoy-Phillips was sitting between her husband Bad Frank Phillips and her brother Jefferson. I also noticed that 'Squirrel Shooting' Sam McCoy and his brother Parris was sitting by Jefferson. The biggest shocker of all was seeing Selkirk McCoy on the Hatfield's side. Holy shit, he was a kin traitor and that was a big no-no in the hills.

I heard the running thumps of boots coming down the aisle, causing me and everyone seated at my legal table to turn our heads towards the noise. Turns out the sound was my brother running over, a grim expression on his dark bearded face. "We're fucked sideways and up the ass. Found out the ADA's Cap Hatfield, Devil Anse's second son." Moses blurted out to us as he took his seat next to Uncle Perry.

"What?" Pharmer asked in a quick shudder while his brother Bud looked whiter then a sheet with fear shining in his eyes.

Tolbert's jaw clenched and he closed his eyes for only a moment, shaking his head with disbelief and frustration.

"We're getting railroaded." I blurted out, suddenly realizing that this entire court process in this god forsaken county was being rigged and set up for a Hatfield triumph.

"Oh my, this certainly makes things far worse." Uncle Perry remarked dreadfully as he leaned back in his chair. His face was stoic, but his eyes held a small glimpse of dread in them.

"It's about time you got here, Cap." I heard Judge Wall's deep voice tell his nephew as the hinges of the courtroom's door squeaked open.

"Sorry, Uncle Wall, but you know I had to drive all the way from Mary Lou's in Logan to this Kentucky shithole." Was the deep rumbling quip the judge's nephew let out for the entire courtroom to hear.

My blood boiled as I instantly recognized the owner of the voice. Will, my new ex, was Cap Hatfield. That lying sack of shit! I was tapping my high heeled foot, trying to keep myself from flipping out. Well, he sure did know how to find a whore fast. And he had enough nerve to tell me that he liked me, I was sweet, and he couldn't ask me to come here with him, blah blah blah.

I watched Cap make his way to his table in his crisp black power suit. As soon as he took his seat he turned his head around to take in the defensive team, suddenly his mix-matched eyes locked onto me. In a quick second he rose from his chair and marched over to my table. "Why're you here, Novella?"

"Shouldn't I asked you the same thing William, or should I call you Cap?" I sneered, tilting my head to the side. No doubt everyone at my table was confused by our knowledge of one another.

"If you wanted to come to this shithole to work I-" The rugged blonde began until I bluntly cut him off with, "I came to this shithole to help my uncle and brother defend the boys I grew up with."

"You two shut up and sit on your sides so we can get this show goin' in my courtroom. Save the drama for the outside halls." Judge Wall Hatfield ordered in a loud bark, causing his nephew to concede and quickly march over to his table.

Tolbert leaned his head close to mine and hissed in my ear, "How'd ya know Cap Hatfield?"

"You don't want to know." I sighed as I waited for the judge to officially start this arraignment.

"Ella, tell me ya di-didn't sleep with him in Mar'land." Tolbert's velvet timbre was filled with dismay as he stared at the side of my face.

I turned around to look at the ginger hot-head and sighed, "Tolbert it doesn't matter if I did or didn't. Fact is he never told me his true identity."

"You did." Tolbert's velvet voice shook, his eyes wide with a mix of disgust and hurt. Suddenly his face turned red and his lip trembled before he roared, "Damnit!"

Judge Wall's head snapped in Tolbert's direction as he waved his gavel at him while deeply bellowing the order of, "Shut up, McCoy, 'fore I toss you back in jail without a hearin'!"

Tolbert huffed, reminding me of a bull, and stared at Wall with a look that could kill-sorry bad pun not intended.

"Uncle Wall, these McCoys murdered Uncle Ellison in cold blood at a harvest festival. Set a court date and with hold bail so I can go salvage my day." Cap said in a flat rumble as he scowled at the three McCoys I was helping my Uncle Perry defend.

My uncle rose from his seat and cleared his throat before saying in his slick voice he reserved for the court of law, "My clients are pleading not guilty due to self-defense and they deserve a bond. They are rooted in the Pike County community and have no reason to run."

"They don't deserve a bond. They're guilty as sin." Cap protested, smacking his hand on his table in anger.

Before I realized what I was doing I shot up from my seat and countered Cap's remark with a concerned plea of, "Tolbert's a single father, he deserves to have a chance to spend time with his toddler before his trial date. He's her sole provider and caretaker. You can't take him away from her."

"He didn't think about Cotton whenever he murdered Uncle Ellison."

"Jesus, this is an arraignment not a trial." I rolled my eyes, disgusted at how crazy this court session was going. I pointed to my ex while yellng, "Innocent until proven guilty, you asshole!"

"That's it Lil Missy you're bein' held in contempt."

"Contempt, but I didn't do anythin'!" This court's bulshit. My brother laughed, clearly finding the situation funny. Tolbert nudged my ankle with the toe of his booted foot, either motioning his thanks or signaling for me to sit down and shut up.

My uncle placed a tentative, but gentle, hand on my shoulder while looking at the judge. With his slick voice he requested, "Please, honorable Judge Hatfield, can you just excuse my niece's outburst? This is taxing for her, considering her sweetheart is sitting right next to her."

Oh no. Fuck my life. Cap silently narrowed his eyes at me, looking like he wanted to strangle me or Tolbert or even both of us.

"I'll let your actions slide Miss…" The judge trailed off, causing me to quickly pipe up with, "Landon." The judge nodded his head before continuing on, "Miss Landon only because anyone who's been with Tolbert can't have much better emotional judgement then him."

"Thank you for being a sensible man." Uncle Perry slyly nodded at the Hatfield judge, earning him an eye roll from the salt and peppered haired man.

"I'll entered a plea of not guilty due to self-defense cause that's what the McCoys are claimin'. Bond's set at $1,000,000 for each of the McCoys. Now everybody outta my courtroom." Judge Wall slammed his gavel, signaling the end of the barely legal and highly unethical arraignment.

$3,000,000 to get them out on bond, money that their parents don't have. Tolbert had a defeted look in his eye as the bailiffs came to get him and his brothers to cuff them and transfer them back to jail. "Ella, promise me you'll look after my lil girl." His voice shook desperately as he looked at me, his stony face faltering with anxiety.

"I promise, Tolbert." I said calmly to him before watching him get taken away, along with his two younger brothers.

Whenever I went to leave I noticed that my uncle and brother were already gone. Sadly, Cap wasn't. He was sitting at his table watching me. Shaking my head, I walked up the aisle towards the door while ignoring Cap Hatfield's deep wavering pleas of, "Nova, stop.", mixed with the clanking of loafers hitting the hardwood floor as he tried to catch up with me.

AN:

Interesting court room scene huh lol. So, what do ya'll think about Tolbert's reasoning behind his breakup with Ella when she went to college? Basically, the Central Appalachian stats came into play.