I get a late start to the office today. I was actually able to sleep pretty good last night and I didn't wake up as early as I normally do. It's almost 9 o'clock before I head to the office.

I'm sitting at the only stoplight in Durant, when Martin Clark pulls up next to me and indicates for me to roll my window down.

"What's up, Martin?"

"Hey Walt, I just came from my house. You might want to head out to Marcy and John Hopper's."

"Uh oh."

"Yeah, they're in another argument, have been for a while now this morning. You better hurry."

My light turns green. "Okay, thanks Martin."

"You bet," he says as he drives off.

I hurry to the station and go upstairs to get Vic. If I remember correctly, Ferg is off today.

"Vic, I need you," I say as soon as I get through the door.

She looks up from her desk where she's reading something, her eyes are a little wide. "What?"

"I ran into a problem on my way in this morning. We need to head out to the Hopper house. They're having another fight."

She pauses for a brief moment, before grabbing her jacket. "Let's go."

On the way there I tell her what Martin told me, and the only thing she says is, "This outta be interesting."

We pull up to the house, and just like last time, you can hear Marcy screaming at her husband. She's not throwing anything this time, though.

When we get closer to the house, we can see that Marcy is standing in the middle of the living room, pointing a gun at the corner of the room, in the same spot that John was hiding the last time.

I hear Vic gasp slightly behind me, and we immediately draw our weapons.

I reach the door before Vic. "Marcy. It's the sheriff. Is everything okay in there?"

"IS EVERYTHING OKAY?!" She bellows. "Are you out of your damn mind?! Everything is not okay!"

"Marcy, I'm coming in. Do not shoot." I glance back at Vic, she nods at me indicating that she has my back. I holster my gun and gently push the door open.

Marcy glances at both of us as we enter, but she keeps the gun pointed at John.

"Sheriff, you have to do something. She's gonna kill me!" John cries from the corner of the room.

I put my hands in the air, showing Marcy that my gun isn't out. Nobody has to get hurt today. I ease my way into the middle of the room, putting myself in-between her and John.

"Marcy, what happened? When I checked back on you last week everything had been sorted out."

"What happened is that I decided to give this piece of shit another chance." She waves the gun at me, well, rather at John. "He wouldn't move out so I was going to, and he begged me to stay and work things out. So instead of throwing 22 years of marriage out the window, I decided to stay and try to forgive him." I can see tears starting to well in her eyes.

"And what changed?" I ask softly.

"Nothing changed! He's still screwing that damn stripper! Why ask me to stay if you're going to keep your girlfriend on the side?!" She's sobbing now.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I'm trying!" I'd really like to clock John right about now.

"Marcy. I want you to put the gun down."

She shakes her head, but doesn't say anything.

"Marcy, I'm not going to let you hurt John. If you aim your gun, my partner over here is going to shoot you before you can pull the trigger." I point over at Vic, whose gun is pointed at Marcy. "I don't want you to get hurt either, Marcy."

"I want him to hurt, he doesn't care at all!"

I nod. I feel so bad for her; her husband is a sorry excuse for a man. "I know. But if you put the gun down, I promise I will make sure John moves out for good and leaves you alone."

She looks up at me and narrows her bloodshot eyes. "How can you do that?"

"I will tell the judge that I'm concerned for the safety of both of you if you continue to live in the same house. I can put you in touch with a good divorce lawyer and you can have a clean separation." I take a step towards her, my hands still raised. "Nobody needs to get injured today, Marcy."

Marcy doesn't say anything for a minute, she just stands there and sniffles as she looks at the gun in her hand. Eventually she nods and lowers it.

I let out the breath that I've been holding, and step forward to take the gun from her. She looks up at me, her face distraught, and I instinctively pull her into a hug. She sobs louder at my touch, but she clings to me. We stand there for a few minutes, and by the time I get her to calm down, Vic has already ushered John outside with a few of his things.

I promise Marcy that I will make an appointment with a lawyer as soon as I get back to the station. She seems relieved, but she's still pretty sad. I assure her that things will get better.

Vic and I drive in silence as we drop John off at the motel. She speaks as I'm pulling out of the model parking lot. "Poor Marcy. I hope she never has to see John again."

I don't respond. I'm too busy thinking about what just happened. It felt so good back there to comfort Marcy, and I did it without even thinking about it. I'm sure it's not very professional for a sheriff to hug an armed suspect, but she needed one. She needed a hug, and I wanted to comfort her.

It really is that simple. I'm tired of over-thinking everything.

"Where are we going?" Vic's looking around outside.

When I left the motel, I started driving in the opposite direction of the station.

"Walt?"

"I need to do something at my cabin before we head back to the station."

"Ohhkaaaay." She stares at me like I'm about the most difficult person she knows.

I pull up to my cabin a few minutes later and get out of the truck. She doesn't budge and I go around to her side and open her door.

She stares up at me in confusion. "What?"

"I need you to come inside." I grab her by the hand as she clumsily unbuckles her seat belt.

"Walt, what's going on?" I don't let go of her hand until we're inside.

I shut the door and begin pacing as she stares at me, I'm sure wondering what the hell is wrong with me.

I need to do this before I lose my nerve. I march over to her and pull her face to mine before kissing her like I've wanted to for months. I can tell she's a bit taken back at first, but then reacts quickly. She's kissing me back just as urgently, and grabbing at my waist pulling me closer.

A minute later, she tries to pull away and say something, but I'm not ready for that yet. She only gets out part of my name before I crush my lips to hers again.

A few moments later she reaches up and grabs my face, slowly pushing me back. She stares back at me with a bit of amusement. "As much as I would love for this to continue, I need you to use your words. What's happening?"

"I realized I was John."

She cocks her head at me. "Are you sleeping with a stripper?"

Of course she would make a joke right now.

"I asked you to stay. And then I screwed everything up." I'm tired of causing people pain, especially her. I bring a hand up to her face and stroke her cheek gently.

"You didn't ask me to stay," she replies. "You told me you wanted me to stay and I stayed because I wanted to."

"Yeah, just like Marcy. I asked you to stay but gave you nothing in return after you decided to stay."

She's silent for a few moments before she responds. "Don't you get it? The fact that you wanted me to stay was the exact thing that made staying here actually worth something."

I shake my head. No, that's not enough. I have no right to want her to stay if I'm not going to do make her happy about staying. "I don't want to end up like Marcy and John."

"We're nothing like them, I promise. I'm not going anywhere. I chose to stay and I chose to wait." She stares back at me, and I believe her. Her eyes don't look sad like they have lately.

I'm not going anywhere either, so what am I waiting for exactly? I lift my hand up to her face and run my thumb across her bottom lip.

"I don't want to make you wait anymore."

Her eyes grow wide, and she stares back at me for a minute before her mouth curls into a smile. I lean down and pull her into another kiss, but this one's slow and gentle. Moving my hands to her waist, I push her back a few feet up against the door. She has just moved her hand up to the side of my face when her cell phone rings.

She lets out a soft moan as she pulls on my neck, not wanting to let me go. "Let it ring," she mutters in between kisses.

With my lips still on hers, I reach around to the back pocket of her jeans and grab her phone. "It could be important."

It's the number to the station, so I bring the phone up to my ear. "Longmire."

"Oh, good it's you! There's a lawyer here waiting to talk to you, are you expecting him? I told him you should be back shortly."

"Yeah… okay. We're on our way, Ruby. We'll be back soon."

I hang up the phone and place it back in Vic's pocket. I let out a sigh of contentment and rest my forehead on hers. I feel lighter, the giant weight that I've been carrying around is gone.