*Author's Note*

This is an idea that popped into my head and I just had to write it down. It's a Modern AU spin/twist on the Hatfields&McCoys. I'm using my OC from my other story Thrown Into McCoy's Feud (which follows the tv miniseries/movie)

Back To Where I'm From

Novella POV:

I was running late for dinner with the guy I've been casually seeing for the past few months. My work at the firm had gone over, I had to finish some depositions for the defense attorney that I work under. Now I was stuck in Baltimore traffic as I tried to get downtown to meet up with William, the rugged blonde attorney that I met by accident whenever I had to drop off something to the courthouse for my boss. He was there trying to butter up a judge for his boss, one of the state's attorneys.

When I first met Will I was a bit put off by the fact that he had only one good blue eye and a milky white one that was blinded. He complimented me and then said that he'd find out who I was and make up freaking me out with his bad eye. I thought he was full of shit, but he managed to track me down and send me chocolate covered strawberries. After that I agreed to talk to him and then to casually see him.

We still haven't told each other our last names. It's still just Will or William and Novella or Nova, a nickname I acquired in college from my DZ sisters. He did try to call me Ella once, but that ended with me storming off. Ella was a painful nickname for me, the memories that name earthed up were long dead and buried and needed to remain that way.

Anyways enough about that.

After what felt like forever I pulled into the parking lot of The Corner Bistro & Wine Bar. I didn't have time to go home and change after work so after parking my car and getting out of it I took off my blazer and toss it onto the seat before grabbing my purse and walking towards the restaurant. As soon as I walked inside of I spotted Will sitting in a corner table across from the bar, nursing a glass of bourbon.

"Sorry I'm late, got hung up at work." I apologized as soon as I reached the table, taking a seat across from the rugged one-eyed blonde.

He nodded his head at me and placed his glass on the table. "Nova, we can't see each other anymore."

I was taken aback by the sudden break up. I know we were a casual couple, which had sex when the mood hit, but I wasn't expecting it to end so abruptly I guess. "Why not? I know we're not serious, but I do deserve a reason."

"I'm moving back to where I'm from and got a job there. I start in two weeks."

"Oh, so then this is just another one of your two-week's notices?" I asked sarcastically, shaking my head in disbelief. I didn't even know that he was looking to move or for a new job.

"No, it's not." William told me, shaking his head. He let out a long sigh before his eyes, one ice blue and the other cue-ball white, locked onto mine. "Look, Novella, you're a sweet girl and I like you, but I can't ask you to uproot yourself to go where I'm going. Hell, I didn't even think I'd go back once my daddy shipped me off for college out of state." William told me, his deep voice rumbling like a wave, before going on to say, "But my family needs me, a lot of bullshit's been going on, so I'm going back."

"Okay, but where are you going?" I asked, curious on where this place that he hated so much was at.

"Nowhere you need to concern yourself with. It's better that you don't know where I'm going." Will told me, his voice hardening with every word he said, as he looked like a cold piece of ice sitting in his chair staring at me.

Fucking prick! "Fine, go back to wherever you came from. Hope things work out for you in your mystery-fucking-town." I sneered before getting up from the table and quickly rushing away and out of the restaurant.

It's been two weeks since William dropped his breakup and moving bomb on me and I still felt down in the dumps. But I wasn't depressed or felt like the world had ended, like I felt whenever the man I thought was the love of my life just cut me out of his once I went off to Louie-Ville for college and pledged Delta Zeta. That breakup with the ginger hot-head broke me. If it wasn't for my sorority sister's I would've been a mess that would've flunked out of college and never been able to get into law school. To fulfill my dream of working in law like my Uncle Perry.

But I can't help it, sometimes I wonder if my dream killed my expectation of becoming Mrs. Tolbert McCoy. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Sweethearts never work out these days. It's not the 1880's anymore where your first is your last and forever, all that bullshit.

I was sitting on my couch eating some Chinese takeout for dinner whenever my phone started to ring. I reached over the arm of the couch and grabbed my phone from the end table. Uncle Perry flashed across my screen. Oh no, I hope Roseanna or Sarah Elizabeth's not sick again.

Roseanna was an old friend of mine, Tolbert's sister, and my uncle's fiancée. Sarah Elizabeth was her daughter that she had with an asshole ex from across the Tug. The girl was sickly, but so was Roseanna since she was diagnosed with lupus a couple years back around the time her and my uncle started to get close.

"Uncle Perry, is it Roseanna or Sarah Elizabeth?" I frantically asked as soon as I answered my phone.

"Now, dear, if only it was that simple. I need your help."

"With Roseanna and Sarah Elizabeth?" I asked, clearly confused on what was going on.

"No, I need you to work with me in Pikeville. I need you to help me with a murder case." My uncle told me over the phone, causing me to sigh.

"A murder case? Uncle Perry I might work for a defense firm but I've never been a part of a mur-" I began to protest before my uncle cut me off by bluntly saying, "It's against Tolbert and his brothers, Pharmer and Bud."

I swear the world stopped as soon as Tolbert's name came out of my uncle's mouth. I couldn't believe it. Not just Tolbert, but Pharmer and Bud were accused of killing somebody.

"It gets worse, which is why I need you. The man they stand accused of murdering is Ellison Hatfield."

"Ellison Hatfield! But his older brother's a judge!" I shouted, not believing what I was hearing. No, this couldn't be happening.

"Yes, and the other brother's a lying land thief and the father of a deadbeat." Uncle Perry spat, referring to Devil Anse Hatfield, the man that sweet talked a court to get my uncles 1500 acres in a land dispute when I was a little girl. Anse was also Sarah Elizabeth's paternal grandfather since his dumbass son Johnse was the one to get Roseanna pregnant and then left her when she was nearly 3 months along.

"I'll be there soon. I'll call the firm and tell them I need to move for an unseen amount of time."

"Thank you, the McCoys shall be grateful to you as well." Uncle Perry told me in his slick and smooth voice. "Oh, Novella, since you'll be back home you don't have to work so hard to hide the Appalachian accent." Was the advice my uncle gave me before ending the call and hanging up on me.

Oh shit. There goes my quiet and professional life here in Baltimore. Guess I'm moving back to the hills of Kentucky. Back to Appalachia, a place I had no reason to go back to until now.

After calling the firm and quitting, something that got me a snippy lecture about how unprofessional it was to leave suddenly without a 2 weeks' notice, I quickly my suitcase and travel bag full with clothes. Within half an hour of Uncle Perry's call I had my luggage, briefcase, laptop case, and anything else I needed loaded up into the trunk of my Dodge Challenger. I sent my uncle a text letting him know I was leaving and then I pulled out of my apartment complex's parking lot and started my 9-hour drive home to Pikeville, Kentucky.

When I entered Washington I felt nervous, but whenever I drove by the sign reading Welcome To West Virginia I felt sick to my stomach. I hated West Virginia, it was a shithole full of crazies. I only drive through the state on my own once, whenever I moved to Baltimore.

Growing up Uncle Perry never let me or my little half-brother Moses step foot across state lines into West Virginia. He always told us that the people in Mingo and Logan hated the people from Pike. Right when I first moved in with my uncle, after my mom died and my step-father couldn't take care of me or my baby brother due to his job as a cross country trucker, was when Uncle Perry had the legal run in with the head of the Hatfield family that lost him his land and timber rights.

God damn, the sooner I get out of West Virginia the better. Growing up I was always told by my Uncle Perry and his friend Randall, Tolbert's poppy, that crossing state lines is a death wish. We stay on our side of the tug and they stay on theirs, nobody gets hurt. Roseanna didn't listen to her poppy though when she went to a party with some friends and ended up staying the night at Johnse Hatfield's after he professed some love at first sight bullshit to her.

Her stunt got Tolbert a belt to the face by Randall. Being the oldest boy in the house, the eldest Jim being married and living on his own, it was his responsibility to keep an eye on Roseanna. Her lying about a party, sneaking off, and never coming home didn't win him any brownie points with his poppy.

Shit, driving thru West Virginia's bringing up so many memories about my childhood. Many that I try to suppress because they involve Tolbert in some way or another. I was raised around him since Randall and Uncle Perry were best friends. He was 13 while I was almost 8 whenever we first met, while my brother was a wailing newborn that Uncle Perry was asking Randall's wife Sally for advice with. We didn't start flirting and going out until I was 16 and he was nearly 22. Fast forward a couple of years and he turned his back on me and never looked back while I drowned myself into my studies at my uncle's Alma Mater, the University of Louisville.

I heard from both Uncle Perry and Roseanna that he married Mary Butcher during my first year of law school at Louie-Ville. I was also told that it didn't last long, just long enough for him to end up a divorced single father. Mary was friends with Jim's wife Lissa, so it was my understanding that they set her up with Tolbert. According to Roseanna they dated for a while before the engagement and the marriage.

Not like I gave a flying fuck, cause I didn't. I dated people here and there too, just that my legal studies took up most of my time. My last boyfriend, the casual William with unkown last name, was somebody that I think I could've gotten serious with, but life and a big new job in a city he refused to name got in the way.

My headlights shined on the large sign reading Welcome To Kentucky and I felt a bit of relief wash over me. Finally, out of West Virginia and into Pike County. Only another 30 miles to go til I get to Pikeville.

Half an hour later I pulled into the driveway of Uncle Perry and Roseanna's large house. Their porch light was on, no doubt so that I wouldn't trip and fall while carrying my stuff to the front door. I parked my car right behind my brother Mo's large supped up Chevy pickup. I guess he was sticking around too instead of heading back to UL for his sophomore year. I tiredly got out of my car and went to my trunk. Quickly I popped it open and took out the rolling luggage bag with the attachable carry on along with my electronic bag, and my brief case. I left a few other bags in the truck, deciding that they weren't important enough to unload at nearly 5 o'clock in the morning.

I trudged up the driveway and rolled my suitcase up the porch steps. Since I still had my house key I didn't have to knock. I let myself in, locking the door behind me, and went to make my way upstairs to drop off my bags. As I walked by the parlor room I was shocked to see my uncle up and reading a book with a soft glowing light on.

"Uncle Perry, I hope you actually got some sleep last night and didn't wait up for me." I told my uncle as I stood in the doorway, a tired smile crossing my lips.

"I managed to get some sleep, but my mind's too busy to shut down." Uncle Perry told me as he closed his book and gestured for me to come in. "The arraignment hearing's today." He said as I left my stuff at the doorway and walked inside of the parlor.

"Jesus…" I sighed, feeling like a ton of bricks had just fallen on me.

As I sat down on the chair next to him he told me informatively, "Your brother's staying in town to help out as our assistant. He wants to be apart of the team that gets the McCoy boys freed."

"I figured as much when I saw his truck in the driveway."

"Nancy's husband Frank's been home on an injury leave as a detective, but from what he heard from some people he knows is that Hatfields are demanding the death penalty. With Wall as the judge overseeing this he'll push for the DA's office to do it."

"Of course, Wall's the judge ruling over this." I scoffed while rolling my eyes. It was unethical, but in the back hills of nowhere mountain justice prevailed and ethics were only considered guidelines. "Who did the DA assign the case?" I asked with dread lacing my voice.

"Some young new ADA from out east. Frank heard the young man went to law school in DC and is a sharp shooter when it comes to cases. Other then that his identities been kept hush hush." Was my uncle's slick voiced answer, casuing my heart to bottom out.

"Great…so Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud don't stand a snowball's chance in hell." I sighed defeatedly, realizing that no matter what the odds were against us as their defense team and against them with all the Hatfields being involved with the court handling the case.

"No, they stand a chance cause you're on their defense team. You'll do everything in your power to get them off on self-defense. I know for a fact you'll fight tooth and nail to save the love of your life." My uncle told me with such conviction, his words and thoughts as solid as stone.

"Tolbert's not the love of my life, Uncle Perry. He's just some hot-head I grew up with and was my first boyfriend." I flatly remarked, quickly shutting down the notion implied by my uncle. "And since I grew up with the McCoy boys of course I'm going to try my best to keep them alive and free."

My uncle just shook his head at me, his lips moving ever so slyly into a thins line. He patted my hand before telling me, "Go rest in your old room for a bit, I'll make sure you're up in plenty of time to get ready for court."

Silently I just nodded my head and got up to do as I was told. Napping wouldn't change the dire situation I'd be facing later on, nothing but God could do that.

AN:

So yea too much Law & Order for me…now I'm doing legal dramas lol