*Author's Note*

Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing.

Who's ready for the return of Shaw Eldridge aka the Shady Bastard? Muhahaha…. *Drums fingers wickedly while grinning like the Cheshire cat*

Peggy's Diner

Nova POV:

After Tolbert and my Uncle Perry returned to Roseanna room, my uncle asked me if I'd work at the office in the morning (and for the entire day tomorrow) so that he'd be able to spend every moment with Roseanna. Of course, I said I would, which then prompted Tolbert to take me and Sally Elle home. Once home, we all went to bed. In the morning, I made breakfast and we ate as a family before I took Sally Elle to school and then went into the law office while Tolbert went to work manning his still.

Aunt Betty was already at the office when I got there. She opened it, using the excuse that she needed to work to keep her mind off of Roseanna's poor health whenever the old woman saw me walked thru the door. I just nodded at her and told her that I understood; that I'd be in my office if she needed anything and to just sent clients in once they arrived.

Well, that currently leaves me in the position I'm in sitting at my desk staring at Sally McCoy's number on my phone's phone book. God, I knew I needed to call her and talk about Mary being knocked up by Billy, but that didn't mean that I wasn't nervous about it. I knew that the call could go either way, especially since she had one of her creepy seer episodes yesterday on the stand. I took a deep breath, let out a shaky sigh, and pressed her name; then the green call button.

Quickly, I put the phone up to my ear. Ring, Ring, Ring. Ring, Ring-"Hello?"

"Sally, it's me, Nova."

"Oh, g'mornin' dear. I take it you're callin' cause you've heard 'bout Rosie?"

"No. Actually, I'm callin' cause when I visited Rosie last night, she told me about Mary Eldridge being pregnant with Billy's baby; your grandbaby."

"Oh, and ya think you're gonna talk me into acceptin' the bastard in her belly as my Billy's baby? Hmm, that's why you're a callin'?" She bitterly asked even tho it came across more as a statement then an actual question.

"Sally, don't be so harsh. The baby's a piece of Billy; perhaps being in it's life'll help you thru the pain of losin' him. Actually, it'll do both you and Randall some good to have a grandbaby to spoil considering all the heartache that's fallen upon your family."

"I'm not goin' to coddle some bastard an' call it my gran'baby. No, not when Billy was heartbroken by Mariah Wolford an' focused on gettin' her back." Sally snipped at me, takin' me aback since she was usually a kind woman, before hanging up the phone.

I couldn't help, but to think that there was more to the Mary-Billy-Mariah-Robert E. love square then I knew, then anyone really knew. Yes, Billy was hurt by Mariah and seemed a bit hell bent on making her life with Robert E. hell, but was he really trying to get her back or was he trying to get back at her? Was Billy secretly dating Mary and if so why did they hide it? Were they afraid of the late Peter Eldridge, who Shaw (Mary's older Navy Seal bro) revealed was an abusive drunk?

God, so many questions and so few answers. The story of my life, right. Well, reckon I better open up my work emails and see what needs to be done in the few hours between now and lunch.

I decided to stretch my legs and get some exercise by walking to the local diner on Main Street since it wasn't that far from my uncle's law office. It was lunch time and I needed to eat anyways. Actually, since I was pregnant, I was craving chicken tenders so that's also a reason why I decided to walk over to the diner. When I entered the building it was busy, but not packed. Guess the lunch rush hasn't come yet.

Instead of waiting to be seated, I went over to the counter and took a seat at the barstool. I was patiently waiting for a waitress to approach me, ask about my order, whenever I voice I hadn't heard since I did a will reading rung out into the air with, "He, Nova, babe, here for lunch?"

I looked up to the window the cooks placed the orders on and took tickets from only to see Shaw Eldridge's head popping out of it. What? Wasn't he a Navy Seal station in San Deigo? "Yea." I nodded; a bit dumbfounded at seeing him.

"Come 'round the back and I'll let'cha in."

"Can you do that? I mean won't your boss get mad at you for that?"

"The boss is my mom. Peggy's is her place, has been ever since I was a kid, so I won't get in trouble."

"Oh…well…okay…Guess I'll meet you 'round back." I said a bit tentatively before standing up. He just winked at me and left the window, causing me to shake my head and walk out the door.

Honestly, I only agreed to meet him 'round back and have lunch with him cause I wanted to talk to him about his sister. I wanted to know if he knew; wanted to know how he felt about it too.

After a minute or so I came up to the backdoor of the diner, which was propped open by Shaw. He was leaning 'gainst it, wearing a white shirt and giving off some James Dean type vibes as he dragged on his cigarette. "How's it goin', babe?" He asked as I stopped across from him.

"It's goin'." I answered, deciding not to add in good since things were far from good right now.

"Heard from my mom this mornin' 'bout Roseanna. I'm sorry 'bout that." Shaw told me, soundin' a bit sincere with his deep timbre, before takin' another drawl off of his cigarette.

"Thank you." I politely told him, earning me a nod as he flicked some ashes onto the concrete ground. "Roseanna told me about your sister Mary."

"Yep." He popped his tongue. "Billy knocked her up and Sally McCoy's actin' like it ain't so." He remarked, his voice full of bitterness and disgust, as he flicked his cigarette away. "Come on, let's get inside and get something to eat." He told me, tipping his head towards the threshold of the back door. "I'm just goin' on break and made a large basket of chicken tenders and fries. We can share or I can whip ya up whatever you want real fast." He told me in a friendly tone as I walked by him and into the diner's backdoor.

"Oh, we're sharing the chicken tenders. I swear, that's what I came in here for anyways." I told him, standing against the wall and smiling at him as he walked into the place; closing the door behind him.

"Well, good to hear then." Shaw smiled before saying, "My mom's office is this way." As he led me in the direction Peggy's office was in he explained, "She rarely uses it, so I do when I'm on break."

"Oh, so I'm not actually going to see the kitchen then?" I asked, in a slight teasing tone, as I followed him down the hallway to a door marked Office.

"Sorry, honey, but no, you're not." Shaw told me, opening up the office door. "Maybe later on when we know eachother better." He added in, walking inside and flipping the light on.

"Oh, aren't you so full of yourself." I dryly deadpanned as I followed him inside of his mother's office.

The office looked more like a home office verses a professional one, but given that it was in the back of a dinner I shouldn't be surprised.

"I'm not full of myself, just confident that we'll become good friends." Shaw told me, his tone holding a tint of honesty in it. "Well, just take a seat and I'll be right back with the food and drinks." He told me before walking out of the door. I didn't even make it over to one of the chairs at the desk before he popped his head into the room and asked, "Tea good for do you want water or some non-caffeinated soda?"

"Tea's fine. Just make sure it's sweet with lemon." I told him, going over to one of the chairs at the desk that had a computer on it along with landline phone and a few order sheets scattered on top of it.

"We're in the south, is there any other way to drink tea." He stated, not asked, as I sat down at the desk. It only had two chairs, one behind it and one in front of it. Guess Peggy only used the office to do orders and payroll since it wasn't very furnished. Well, other then the desk, chairs, and file cabinets that it. There was also a large bookshelf with an old recipe book on it along with tons of family photos.

"Yes, unsweeted without lemon." I reminded him, causing his face to twist up in a sour look.

"Ooo, don't ya dare let my mom hear you say that. Those are unholy words ya just said there." Shaw warned me in a playful tone. God, this Navy Seal was too much.

"Go on and get our lunch before I change my mind and leave." I told him since I was hungry. I meant it, if I didn't get those chicken tenders soon, I'd have to go back to my uncle's office to get my truck and go to KFC.

Biting back a smirk, Shaw just shook his head. Without a word, he shut the door and took off to get our stuff.

"Guess we're more alike then I thought. We both dropped everything to come back to Pikeville and help our families." I told Shaw, after learning that he talked to his CO and is using the rest of his personal leave time before getting his resignation/retirement papers put in for his honorable discharge in order to help his mom out, as I grabbed one of the chicken tenders that tasted like a lil piece of fried heaven. (OMG, could this guy cook…)

"Reckon so." He nodded, dipping his chicken tender into his cup of honey bar-b-que sauce and taking a bite of it. After swallowing his food, he dipped his chicken finger into the sauce cup again while telling me, "You know I nearly had a stroke when my mom told me that Billy knocked up Mary." He took another bite of food before scoffing, "Hell, last I knew my sister wasn't allowed to date and signed that abstinence pledge they had out at the teen group in church."

"So, they were sneaking around behind everyone's backs." I concluded, dipping my own chicken tender into my cup of honey bar-b-que dip.

"Yep." He popped his tongue, grabbing a fry and dipping it into a cup of ketchup.

"Well, I tried talking to Sally about being open minded to the baby and she just denied it was her grandbaby; then she hung up on me."

"I'm not surprised that crazy bitch did that." Shaw shrugged, popping another ketchup covered fry into his mouth.

"Shaw, don't call her crazy." I chastised him around a mouthful of food.

"But she is crazy. Bat shit crazy and the ginger you're defendin's crazy too."

"Shaw…they're not crazy…" I sighed, my chest falling as I grabbed another chicken tender from the large basket we were sharing.

"Babe, my ex-mother-in-law was a raging bi-polar and maniac depressant. When she went off her meds…well…she acted a lot like how both Sally and Tolbert McCoy acts." Shaw told me matter-of-factly as I ate my chicken tender.

"Oh…" I trailed off in a long sigh as I watched him grab another piece if chicken.

"So, Tolbert's a bi-polar ain't he?" Shaw asked, dipping his tender into his sauce cup and taking a large bite of it.

"He doesn't want anybody to know." I told Shaw, only cause he figured it out on his own tho.

"Yea. That's how my ex's family was. They kept it hush hush 'bout her mom."

"Is that why you two got a divorce? I mean, was she like her mother?"

"No, that's not why I divorced Jessa." Shaw shook his head as he grabbed his Styrofoam cup of coke. Taking a sip from it, he explained, "Jessa used to nag me 'bout stupid shit. Then when I was out on my last deployment, she ended up hookin' up with some guy she met when she was visiting her best friend up in Ohio."

His words made me feel a bit guilty. I mean I was two-timing on Cap with my client. I was just as bad as Shaw's ex, wasn't I? Dear lord, now I felt bad. To cover up my own feelings, I gave Shaw a sad half-smile and told him, "Oh. I'm sorry you got cheated on.", as I reached over for my cup of sweet tea.

"Eh…it is what it is, but I only found out cause she got knocked up by the guy." Shaw told me with a shrug.

"Oh geez…" I sighed, shaking my head. Well, that's definitely a way to find out that she was cheating.

"Yep." He popped his tongue. In between eating his lunch he told me, "I mean, I'm not saying I'm a saint, but I married her when I knocked her up. Yea, I strayed durin' fleet week and that resulted in Lydia, but that was years ago."

"You never thought she'd find somebody else." I stated, since that's the impression I got from him, as I placed my tea back onto the desk.

"No. Especially since I was the breadwinner. I mean she never went to college; was a stay at home mom and military wife so…" Shaw told me as I grabbed another tender while he grabbed another fry.

"So, is she still in San Diego or did she move in with her baby's daddy?" I curiously asked, dipping my tender into some honey bar-b-que sauce before taking a big bite out of it.

After eating his fry, Shaw answered me flatly with, "Worse, she moved in with her bitch friend. Who, by the way, hated me with a passion."

"Oh, well, I don't see why she hated you. I mean you seem fine to me."

"Thanks, glad that you think so since we're friends."

"Oh, so we're friends now?" I quirked my thin auburn brow at him.

"Hey, you feel sympathy for my sister and want to help her. In my book that's a start to our friendship." He told me around a mouthful of food.

"Can't your mom help her with baby stuff?" I wondered since I didn't really think it was my place to help a girl, I barely knew even tho her baby would be Sally Elle's cousin; lord knows I'm most likely going to be raising her soon.

"Sadly, no. Since Sally's rejectin' the idea of a bastard grandbaby my mom thinks that Mary needs to go to the free woman's clinic."

"But why?"

"Cause my mom's good friend's with Sally, that's why. She doesn't want to cause any waves." He sneered, sounding a bit aggravated that his mom was worried about upsetting Sally rather then helping her pregnant daughter.

"So, what's your sister gonna do?"

"Keep it, but live with me and my kids in the apartment above the diner."

"Oh, so you're in the process of moving in then?" I asked since that's what I gathered from his remark. Hell, I wasn't even aware that there was an apartment above the diner. Yea, that's how much I paid attention to the place.

"No, I'm in the process of renovating the place. The moving truck should be here in a few days tho." Shaw explained, picking up his cup and taking a sip from it. "Hell, haven't lived it in since I was 12 since that's when my father bought the house." He mused, placing his cup back onto the table.

"I take it since you're living here now you won't be selling the car?" I asked, figuring that he's keep the classic Dodge muscle car since he'd need a way 'round town.

Shaking his head, he told me, "No, I'm still selling it. Got no use for it since I got a truck."

"Oh, but it's such an amazing classic car. Vintage Challengers are-" I was saying til Shaw abruptly cut me off with, "Okay, okay, fine, I'll keep the car."

"You don't have to; I was just saying…"

"No, it's a'ight. I'll keep the car."

Shaw POV:

Damn, lunch with the hot piece of ass lawyer (Nova Hatfield aka Perry Cline's niece) went great. Hell, I was so charming that she bought my offer of friendship hook, line, and sinker. After finishing up cookin' for the lunch shift, I bid my mom a goodbye and kissed her cheek before going upstairs to the apartment I was renovating.

God, it was a pigsty. I needed to patch up the holes in the walls (from when my dad went off on one of his drunken benders) and repaint them. Hell, I was also going to have to make and install new cabinets too, oh and buy some doors since most of them were broken from being kicked down. Hell, I also needed to spring for new sinks (both kitchen and bathroom) and some new major appliances.

Yea, I had a project ahead of me. Eh, I knew I could do it, but it would've been nice if the place was move in ready not some ghetto slum lord ready shit. Hell, I'd die 'fore letting my kids or my pregnant sister live in squalor.

So, for hours I was patchin' up holes wit drywall. I didn't worry 'bout my kids getting home from school, my mom's house was only a short walk from their school. Silas and Lydia were smart, they were perfectly capable of walking home from school on their own. Christ, he was in 6th grad and she was in 5th so they were fine on their own. Perfectly fine.

I was getting ready to plaster another wall whenever my phone started ringing. I wiped my hands on the workshirt I was wearing, took my phone from the back pocket of my Wranglers, and answered the number I hadn't seen since I took off for the Navy with a simple, "Hey, Frank."

"Heard that you've moved back to town." He told me instead of greeting me with a hello like most people would.

"Damn, good news traves fast don't it?" I chuckled at my old boss. Yea, when I was in high school, I used to do some shady shit for Mr. Phillips. It was mostly shaking down people, but one time I blew up a car for him with a cherry bomb. Basically, I lit the cherry bomb, tossed it into the car's gas tank, and ran like fuckin' hell. He it paid good so I always had money in my pocket.

"Heard tell that you were a Navy Seal." Oh, he wants me to get back into the game.

"Yea, I was and I learned a particular set of skills that I think'll be useful to you for the right price." I told Bad Frank in a dead serious tone. "Meet me at The Barn tonight and we'll talk about my price and what you need done."

"What time?"

"Time don't matter, I'll be there as soon as it gets dark for a drink so just come in and you'll find me in the back-left booth."

"I'll be seein' ya then." Frank told me in his drawn-out tone that had a slight Midwest accent to it. Rumor was he spent his youth bouncin' 'round from state to state out west 'fore coming to Kentucky. I didn't give a shit tho.

"Bye." I curtly told him, hanging up and stuffing my phone back into my pocket.

Well, looks like I'll be getting a job that actually pays good instead of the shit minimum wage my mom's handing out as if she's doin' me a goddamn favor.

AN:

Well, Sally's rejecting her unborn grandchild and Shaw's charming Nova into a friendship while setting up a business meeting with Bad Frank. Talk about a lot going on. What do you guys think Bad Frank and Shaw's gonna talk about? And how do you think Tolbert's gonna react when he finds out that Nova had a friendly lunch with Shaw?