*Author's Note*

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Back To School, Back To Reality

Nancy POV:

I was sitting on the sofa watching a movie on Lifetime with my Frank whenever he got a call and went into the other room to take it. Since it was the first day of school tomorrow all of my kids were in bed asleep. My brother Jefferson, who lives with us, was at his girlfriend Sarah's tonight. Thank the lord I was getting peace and quiet tonight.

After a few minutes my Frank came back into the room, a long look on his face. "What is it?" I asked him, grabbing the remote and turning down the tv volume as I did so.

"Got a call from one of the men tailin' Novella." He informed me as he rested his walkin' stick by the armrest of the couch and sat down next to me.

"And?" I probed, wantin' to know what his man found out.

My Frank let out a long sigh before revelin', "And turns out she's been at Cap Hatfield's since Friday night."

"What the hell?!" I shrieked, my black eyes bulgin' outta my long oval face.

"Worse is she was at the devil's house tonight havin' dinner with all the demon Hatfields."

"How can she be doin' this? Are ya sure he followed her there?" I couldn't believe what I was hearin' come outta my husband's mouth. It didn't make no sense.

"Yea and he's got pictures too. Said he sent them to my inbox."

"Oh hell…" I sighed, shaking my head. "How can she be doin' this to our family and to Tolbert?" I asked, more so to myself then to my Frank.

"Dunno, ma'am." Frank sighed as he opened up his mail app on his phone. "Look it, here's the pictures of Novella and Cap from this weekend." My husband told me as he held the phone to where we could both see it between us.

As my husband scrolled thru the pictures I felt sick. She looked like she was havin' a fling wit' the skinny one-eyed gorilla demon Hatfield that wanted to kill my kin. How could Novella be doin' this? "I want her watched and followed some more. She's goin' to a weddin' in Florida this upcomin' weekend."

One of his brow's rose up as a quizzical expression crossed his face. "You think she'll take him wit' her?"

"She might, I dunno." I told my husband with a clenched jaw before addin', "I want as much pictures of them together. When the time's right we'll blackmail her, expose her, or take care of her ourselves."

"Yes, ma'am." My husband told me before gettin' up off the sofa. "We won't let her get 'way with this. I'll call up the boys right now." He walked off into the other room, callin' his contact as he did.

Good. Novella LaVerne Landon's going down. I won't let her trick everyone, make everyone think she's one of us McCoys when she's secretly wit' those demon murderin' Hatfields. Novella's nothin' but a wolf in sheep's skin and I'm gonna skin her, expose her true nature and lies to everyone. And boy do I mean EVERYONE! She's goin' to wish that she never messed with the McCoys. Poor Tolbert, I'm not gonna let that Hatfield hoochie break his heart and send him to death row.

I just need to make her believe that we're still close friends and I don't suspect her of spyin' an' traitorin'.

Novella POV:

I sipped on my coffee, that was in a travel mug thanks to Cap, as I crossed the Tug Fork Bridge. I saw out of my review mirror that Cap's car was right behind me, and he too was drinking from his travel mug. It was cute, made us seem like a normal couple commuting to work instead of a sneaky couple crossing into enemy territory. Even though I was raised in Pikeville didn't mean it was very safe for me, not when I was consorting with a man from Mate Creek. Not just any man, but Cap Hatfield.

I had to make a turn while Cap had to go straight, so our little game of follow the leader on the road was broken. After a few minutes I pulled into the parking lot of the elementary school. I parked in the first open spot I could find and then made my way over to the front entryway/awning of the school.

I was standing for a few minutes whenever I heard a loud excited shrilling shriek of, "Ella!" Sally Ella had a large toothy grin plastered on her cute face as she bounded towards me. Her Elsa backpack bounced against her back, dwarfing her, as her curly ginger pigtails dangled like slinkies.

"Hey, cutie, you excited?" I asked her in an overly high pitched tone, smiling at her once she stood in front of me.

She nodded her heard quickly as she beamed, "Yea, cause yer takin' me t'class."

"Ella, ya lookin' purty this mornin'. Dress up for me or the yung'in?" Tolbert remarked, a smirk on his face, as he looked me up and down as he stopped to stand right behind his daughter.

"I'm a lawyer, Tolbert. I'm not dressed up, this is office attire." I told the ginger, defending my choice of a slim black dress with a bone blazer that matched my heels. Shit, just cause I look nice and professional don't mean I'm dressing up for an occasion.

"Yer brother don't dress up an' he works for Perry too." Tolbert pointed out as we began to walk down the path that would bring us to the hall the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes were at.

"Moses doesn't wear a suit, but he does wear a button up and slacks." I explained before quickly adding in, "He's just a clerk anyways."

"Ella, y'know gran'ma came ov'r an' helped poppy pack me a lunch." Sally Elle informed me as she snagged my hand into her tiny one.

"Oh, well, that was very nice of her to help like that."

"I's wished ya'd been able t'help tho."

"Why?" I asked, curious to what the girl's answer would be.

Sally Elle looked up at me with a wide smile. "Cause I really likes ya. Yer the bestest."

"Told ya that ya needed t'come ov'r so we could've rode t'getha." Tolbert muttered under his breath loud enough so that only I would hear.

I just ignored Tolbert's muttered remark. Smiling down at Sally Elle, who was tightly holding my hand and dragging me down toward's her assigned hallway, I told her, "Maybe next time I'll be able to help you pack a lunch. And, you know I really like you and you're the bestest too."

"Ya hear dat, poppy?! Ella likes me too, says I's the bestest."

"Yea, I heard." Tolbert told Sally Elle, noddin' his head. He pointed to the door marked Mrs. Bray while announcing to his daughter, "Look it, yer classroom."

"Come on, Ella. We gotta go." The little girl told me with a big as she quickly dragged me a few feet over to her classroom.

Tolbert was right behind us so when we made it to the door he opened it up for us. "Sally Elle, 'member yer manners an' be nice." Tolbert told his little girl right before she ran into her new class, dragging me right along with her by the way.

"Let's find your cubby so you can put your backpack up." I suggested to Sally Elle, who still hadn't let my hand go.

"Okay." The cute little girl smiled and nodded her head, making her pigtails bounce up and down like little slinkies.

Tolbert pointed to a wall near the doorway where parents and little kids were at. "Cubbies 're ov'r there."

Excitedly Sally Ella ran over to the cubby wall with me in tow since she was still holding onto my hand with an iron clad grip. "Ella, where mines?" She asked as we stood in front of the rows and rows of open white wooden storage shelves.

I spotted one cubby with a taped on nametage with bright red print reading Sally Elle M. in one of the cubbies to the left. Pointing to it I nicely told her, "That one over there's yours."

The little girl finally let my hand go as she ran over to her cubby to hang up her backpack. As I stood watch over her I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. I tilted my head up only to see Tolbert by my side, a proud smirk on his face. "Ya made her happy bein' here. Its good she's got both us t'do this wit' her."

"Yea." I simply nodded my head.

Before anything else could be said Sally Elle ran over to us. "This bye-bye time?" She asked her father, lookin' up at him with curious slate eyes and a pouty lip.

Tolbert crouched down and gave his little girl a hug while telling her, "Yea, sugar, it's bye-bye time." Breaking the hug and looking at her he sternly said, "Be good for Mrs. Bray."

"Okay, poppy." Sally Elle nodded her head, causing Tolbert to nod and stand up. Bouncing over to me Sally Ella wrapped her arms around me while telling me, "Bye Ella."

I smiled and patted the girl on the back while telling her, "Bye, honey. Have a good day."

Sally Elle nodded before unwrapping her arms from me and running off to sit at a table full of kids, coloring sheets, and a large basket of crayons. Hmm, guess she's ready to make new friends. Tolbert didn't say a word, just walked towards the door. I followed him, giving a quick friendly wave to Mrs. Bray as we passed her.

As soon as we exited the class and walked out into the hallway we were met with the site of Nancy McCoy walking out of the kindergarten class across the way from us. Great, just who I don't need to see right now. After the warning Selkirk gave me, Nancy's the last person I want to shit chat with.

"Howdy. It's nice runnin' into ya'll here." Nancy smiled, her voice sickeningly sweet as a tilted her head at my and Tolbert. Stopping us in our tracks.

"Yea, guess it is." I nodded, smiling at her and making sure my flowing voice had a friendly vibe to it.

"Ya dropped off Jesse?" Tolbert asked, oblivious to Nancy's hidden nature. Her overly sweet way was indeed a mask, she was underneath it all giving me some kind of warning or nasty message.

"Of course, I did. Why else would I be in this wing for?" Nancy answered in a bit of a scoff, rolling her eyes a little bit at Tolbert too. "It's good that ya'll dropped off Sally Elle together. Gives that little girl a sense of family." Nancy smiled, shooting me a slightly pointed look. Giving me a pearly white smile, as friendly as a shark's, she told me, "Family's very important to us McCoys. As you know, Novella. I hope you understand that now you're back in Pikeville." Flipping her dark slightly curled hair over her shoulder she announced, "Well, nice seein' ya'll. I better get goin'.", before walking away from us.

Oh my…either Nancy suspects something or she knows. Maybe Tolbert's obvlivious to Nancy's sweet-worded threats, but I'm not. She just busted out a warning that I need to stay true to the McCoys. Shit, I already fucked that up didn't it?...

After helping Tolbert drop off Sally Elle to her first day of Pre-K and running into Nancy, I ended up in the diner eating breakfast with him, his treat per his request. I didn't really want to eat with him but agreed to since I still felt bad about how shitty I was to him last Friday and I guess over the weekend. Tolbert was moody and had a bad temper, but he was a good guy underneath it all and a good father too.

"So, how was yer weekend 'way?" Tolbert asked between sipping on his mug of coffee.

While cutting a piece of my pancake I replied, "It was good."

"What'd ya do wit' yer friend?" He pressed, placing his mug down on the table.

"Hung out and went shopping." I lied, obviously since I spent the weekend in Mate Creek with my boyfriend Will er Cap. I took another bite of my pancake before adding, "She's on the verge of divorce so…"

A solemn look passed over Tolbert's fine face as he ate one of his sausage links. "Oh, I'm sorry t'hear that. D'vorce's hard, like a death, but ain't nothin' died 'cept for yer marriage."

"Yea. My friend's been seeing a therapist with her husband, but it's not really working." I truthfully told Tolbert before grabbing my coffee mug and drinking the badly brewed diner crap. Damn, I really wanted to get back to the coffee in my travel mug that was locked in my car. It should still be hot since it was in a Yeti…it was Keurig brewed and French vanilla. Yummy, better than this shit I was stuck drinking at the moment.

"He cheatin' or she cheatin'?" Tolbert asked around a mouth full of eggs.

"He's having the affair, or at least that's what she thinks." I wasn't surprised though. I had warned Meredith that her man was a pig. He hit on me right after he proprosed to her, so yep he was no good in my books. She brushed me off, said I was making it up cause I was jealous that she had somebody and I didn't. Hmm, guess she should've listened to me. Eh, whatever, guess when you're 23-24 you think you know it all bout the jackass frat boy you've been dating all throughout college.

"When I d'vorced Mary Sally Ella was only few months old. Her walkin' out on me for 'notha man blindsided me. Never saw it comin'." Tolbert revealed, his eyes glassed over due to the bitter and sad memories he was delving up.

"Oh, so nothing seemed wrong or off to you?" I asked, watching the waitress walk around the small room topping up people's coffee cups.

"Nope." He popped his tongue, shaking his head quickly, as he cut a piece of his pancake with his fork and knife.

"Oh…" I trailed off before going on to eat some eggs.

Tolbert's fork hovered over his plate as he looked between it and me. With sorrow filled stormy eyes he exhaled, "I'm sorry 'bout how I ended us. I blindsided ya, hurt ya."

"Tolbert, I don't want to talk about our breakup. We're friends now, leave the past in the past."

"Nothin' was wrong wit' us, ya know. I just wanted ya to have a good life's all."

"What?" My breath hitched. No, he couldn't mean what I think he did. No, just no."

"Reason why I walked 'way from ya. I didn't wanna hold ya back from yer dreams." Tolbert confessed as he watched me shove a forkful of ketchup smothered scrambled eggs in my mouth. Ironically smothering my eggs in ketchup was something I picked up from Cap.

"Oh…" I shakily sighed out, feeling my throat close up and refuse to let me swallow down my scrambled eggs. I felt like I was going to choke to death or something. Why was he telling me this now? Now, when I finally became official with Cap. When I finally let myself admit my deep feelings for my Cap, Tolbert gives me the reason he left, a reason that turns out to be selfless and sacrificial. I forced myself to swallow my eggs down before grabbing my purse and telling Tolbert, "I need to get going, I got a lot of work to do." Sliding out of the booth and standing up I weakly smiled, "Thanks for breakfast."

"Yer welcome, Ella." Tolbert replied before adding in, "Sally Elle may wanna call ya later t'tell ya how her day went. 'Kay?"

"Okay, that's fine. Bye." I nodded before walking away from the table and making a beeline towards the door.

The reason for the breakup I had wanted to know so bad did nothing to bring me closure. Instead it did the opposite, it made me feel compassion for Tolbert and made my heart soar. He had loved me enough to let me go, to break us both to give me my best chance. Oh, and how was I repaying him, by seeing the man that was his arch enemy and wanted his head on a silver platter.

Hell, I felt like such a shitty person. Poor Tolbert.

I walked into my office only to be shocked by the sight of my brother sitting at the chair across from my desk. He had his feet propped up on my desk, his ankles crossed, as his long hair flowed over the headrest of the chair he was leaning back on. Moses was sleeping, the little shit. I shut my door and walked over to my desk. After placing my bag down, I grabbed my brother's boot covered feet and flung them over the edge of my desk. Moses woke up, looking disoriented, as soon as his feet thumped on the ground.

"Enjoy your nap in my office?" I sarcastically asked as I went behind my desk and sat down in my leather office chair

"Yea." Moses stretched his arms and cracked his back by arching it. "Enjoy your weekend bangin' Cap?" My brother asked me with a serious look on his brown beard covered face.

"Shut up! What if somebody heard you?" I hissed, glaring nastily at my baby brother, while powering on my desktop.

"Nobody heard me or would." Moses sat up right in his chair. "Betty's old and decrypted like the gate keeper and Perry never leaves his office down the hall unless it's to go see Rand'l."

"Mo…" I sighed, shaking my head at him. "So, why're you in my office for anyways?" I asked, grabbing my travel mug off my desk from it's spot by my purse.

"Hidin' from Uncle Perry cause I don't wanna work." Moses answered, making me let out a tiny giggle. "So, you didn't answer my question. How was your weekend?"

"Weekend was good." I simply said, sipping on the delicious coffee in my, well actually Cap's, Yeti mug.

"How're you and he who shall not be named?"

"We're good." I told him while opening up my work email. "We decided to make it official." I announced, needing to get the weight of my relationship off my chest.

"Dang…" Moses sighed before going on to quickly add, "That's some heavy shit." Cracking his knuckles, he asked, "So since ya'll are boyfriend and girlfriend does that mean you're gonna be relocatin' to West Virginie soon or what?"

I shook my head while seeing I had quite a few emails from Mr. McCoy in my inbox. "No, I'm not movin' 'cross the tug."

"Why not? Ain't that serious yet or somethin'?"

"We're serious and I got a key along with his assurance I can pop by and stay whenever I want. I'm not movin' in with him yet cause it's too complicated."

"Ah, cause of the trial." I just nodded my head at my brother as I skimmed over numerous hateful and ranting emails from Randall McCoy. Yep, guy was going nuts over his sons being tried for murder. Also, his grammar was atrocious. "Even tho my best friend's Billy McCoy, and he wants to beat your man's little brother's ass for gettin' the girl he liked, I'll give he who shall not be named a chance." Well since Robert E. didn't bring his girl to dinner last night either she's a hussy or he just got with her. I'm hoping it's the latter since the almost 20-year-old young man seemed nice.

My eyes widened and I tore my gaze from my computer screen and placed it onto my bother. "What? Give him a chance? Oh no…don't tell me you wanna meet him."

Moses nodded his head, his thick brown hair smacking against his shoulders, while chuckling out, "I wanna meet the guy that stole you right out from underneath Tolbert's nose."

"I'll talk to him 'bout it." I gave in, a slight smile on my lips.

"Hey, if I approve of the cold prick then go on and move in with him. I'll keep Perry and Roseanna from findin' out." Dear God, my baby brother was giving me his blessing to move to Logan. Wow, never would've thought he would be so approving.

"Roseanna knows, she confronted me last Friday. She promised not to tell." I revealed, leaning back in my chair.

"Okay, then we'll make sure Perry don't find out." Moses concluded before he started to bite his thumbnail.

"I think Nancy suspects something." I admitted to my brother, worry no doubt shining in my cornflower blues.

Moses stopped chewing on his thumb, his cerulean eyes widening a bit. "Shit, now she'll be a problem." No shit, I figured she would be. Mybrother let out a deep sigh before going on to reveal, "Her detective hubby, who's runnin' for sheriff by the way, used to be an outlaw in the James Gang up in Harlan and was a Pinkerton in Louisville for a time 'fore movin' here."

"What? How'd you know that?"

"Easy, I overheard him tell Uncle Perry and Rand'licious one day a few years back when I was trapped here workin' for the summer instead of pickin' up skanks like God intended a hotblooded teenaged boy to do."

"Oh hell…" I trailed off before sipping on my coffee. "That's bad, very bad actually."

"Uh, it's not just vey bad, but could be dangerous for you and he who shall not be named if Bad Frank calls in some markers or somethin'."

"What?" I asked, coffee spurting out of my mouth and spraying onto my computer screen. Placing my mug down and grabbing some tissues from the box near my pen holder I asked, "You don't think he'd really do that, do you?"

"Dunno, he might. The guys he ran with are shady so…" Moses answered while I wipped my coffee splattered screen off.

I placed the dirty tissue in the wastebasket under my desk. "I heard he pulled a gun on Selkirk."

"Yea, he did." Moses confirmed what I already knew with a small nod. "Just be careful when you cross the tug. Oh, and you better tell your boyfriend what I told ya 'bout Bad Frank's connections."

"So, he can worry 'bout me or try to pressure me to quit the case?" I rhetorically asked before following it up with, "No, I don't think so."

"Look, sissy, if you're really serious bout datin' him and bein' with him maybe you should just cut Tolbert loose and abandon ship. This case is like the Titanic, sunk and doomed."

"I can't do that. I promised Uncle Perry-" I began to tell Moses before he abruptly cut me off with, "Novella you can't worry bout what you promised Uncle Perry anymore, not when you're in deep with you know who. You stay on this case you're gonna get Tolbert and his brothers killed just cause your boyfriend's going to get jealous of the chemistry you and your hot-head ex have."

"I don't have chemistry with Tolbert, we're just friends."

"No, you're wrong on that." Moses firmly told me, shaking his head, before going on to say, "Ya'll got chemistry that'd burn down the science lab at Pikeville High. It's there and you play 'round with it every time you're with Tolbert." Before I could utter a word, my brother told me, "You think you're bein' nice, but really it seems like you're flirtin' with him."

"Mo, you're insane." I scoffed, rolling my eyes, before sipping on the remnants of my French vanilla coffee.

"Whatever, just don't cry to me when your life gets all fucked up cause your work collides with your love life."

I arched a brow while skeptically asking, "Why're you so eager to accept my boyfriend?"

My office was filled with silence for a couple minutes as my brother mulled over how to answer me. A very serious look passed over his usually carefree face before he went on to say, "Maybe cause for the first time in ten years I've had my sister back. I don't have to talk to you on skype but can hang out with you in the flesh." I just nodded my head, giving him silent permission to keep speaking if he needed to. I could tell by the look in his blue eyes that he had more to say, plus he was cheweing on his bottom lip. "I know I was like 10 when it happened, but I know your breakup with Tolbert's what kept you away from these mountains." I think most of the people in Pike figured that out too, that I stayed away to try and heal from a broken heart. "If he who shall not be named is the reason for you stickin' 'round and stayin' then I'll learn how to like him. If he can get you to stay then he must be special cause you never came back for me or Uncle Perry." By the end of his last sentence Moses' voice had died down and got heavy with melancholy emotions.

"Oh…" I mumbled, a bit dumbfounded.

"Just, uh, set up a time and place for me to meet him." Moses told me before getting up from his chair and walking out of my office.

Wow, I had a lot to weed out now. So many blows were dealt to me this morning and I got no idea how to deal with them. Both Tolbert and Moses told me very truthful and rattling things. Things that are now swimming in my head and drowning my emotions with all sorts of conflicting feelings.

Conflicting feelings for my boyfriend Will 'Cap' Hatfield and my ex-boyfriend turned client and friend Tolbert McCoy. My feelings run deep for Cap, but a part of me will always love Tolbert.

AN:

Nancy and Bad Frank OMG they're up to no good and they know about Cap and Novella, even know where Cap lives too. AHHH! Oh, gotta love Moses. He's like a tabloid, knows EVERYTHING LOL! Moses is a smart cookie ain't he? And Tolbert FINALLY admitted the reason he dumped Novella. Anyways drama's in the air, yay!