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A Place to Hang your Hat [AnnaBeth and Sigr]

Alba's hand on top her hers felt so right, and Beth was beginning to think about linking their fingers together when Alba's twitched, that little spasm that meant she had fallen asleep. Smiling to realize what had happened, what she'd just experienced for the first time ever with someone else, Beth gave Alba's hair another kiss and then burrowed her head down, letting herself sink into the normal deep sleep she was accustomed to. Grandaddy said she slept like a log but at the same time could come right awake if need be, like when they had saddles for pillows and heard something bothering the herd.

Well before dawn, not long after that hour when babies stirred and old people died, Beth woke up. Alba was still asleep, or so she thought, and to her surprise Beth found that their fingers were locked together now, one or the other of them having done it in their sleep. Their hands were also between Alba's breasts, Beth's cradling the bottom swell of one, and she suddenly had the worst cotton mouth ever. For once in her life Beth just wanted to lay in bed and be lazy, didn't want the contact to end or the dream of having a slumber party, but duty and habit drove her out all the same. Trying not to wake Alba she fished under the covers to find a sock she'd shed during the night then stood on one leg, leaning against the bed frame to put it on. The room was still dark, lit by stars only, as it was well before dawn. Beth hesitated, then gently pulled the covers up a little bit more over Alba's shoulders before slipping out of the room.

Stoking the fire in the iron stove, she soon had it going and put on two pots of coffee to perk, since it would be Grandaddy and Alba drinking it. Bacon was frying and sausages too and she had just flipped the first flapjacks when she heard Alba come in. Looking over her shoulder she smiled. "Good morning, Miss Alba," she said cheerfully then waited another few seconds to plate them up and cover them with a clean dish towel to keep them warm. "Did you sleep okay? You seemed pretty tired."

Beth paused to pour a cup of coffee and pressed it into Alba's hands then hugged her from the side, just for a second. "We've got some bread that's almost past due. Do you know how to make French Toast and we can use it up there?"

"That'd be a nice treat," a male voice added. Granddaddy McCurdy stood at the entrance to the kitchen and pulled a mug from the rack, holding it out for Beth to fill. He took it black and smiled at her as she left. "Morning," he told Alba, looking at her calmly. "See there's at least one city slicker who knows how to get a start on the day. You 'n Beth will head into town directly I reckon." He took a seat at the head of the table and watched his granddaughter in the kitchen. "Reminds me of her grandmother," he told Alba, with a nod towards Beth. "Cooks better though, at least at her age. Linda burned a lot of breakfasts, lunches, and suppers before she figured it out. Ended up doing fine though, but Beth is better at it. Had a hand up here who used to run the chuck wagon on drives to the rail head and he taught her a lot of it. Beth's smart, learns quick, she keeps things around her and does the work of a man during the day. Right proud of her."

"Thank you, Granddaddy," she said from over by the pantry, taking out the things to make French Toast with. "Hmm, need more eggs. You want to watch this while I go get them, Miss Alba?"

"Take her with you," the old man said and stood up, wincing just a little bit as his knees popped. "I'll mind the food. Reckon it'll be a once in a lifetime chance for Alba here to see where they come from anyway."

"Do you want to?" Beth asked, her eyes and body language pleading with Alba to say yes. "Coop's not far and the broodies will still be sleepy."
 
Alba slept better than expected, exhaustion trumping all the changes, nerves and questions. No doubt Beth's comforting hug helped, since beyond her foggy awareness she barely noticed that her body had assumed its usual posture taking her hands into her chest. A soft and slow motion made Alba aware of two things: she had not only took Beth's hand with her to her breasts, but the girl was also waking up and getting ready. Far from the exposed feelings of the night before, Alba was now painfully aware of her sharing a bed with an underage girl, something that seemed highly odd for her, even if there was nothing ill intended there.

Faking herself still asleep, Alba wanted time to process what had happened, and perhaps how wrong it was for her to not feel wrong at all. After all she was just being nice, she was just sharing her stories with the girl and listening to her, after all they had done nothing. Yet. Wait, not yet, not ever, it wasn't like she liked girls, no matter if they were a cute tall redhead with blue eyes. Luckily for her, Beth only spent a few moments more in the room after carefully and gently covering her. Once Beth left, Alba sat on the bed, the starry lights her only witness. That weak, that alone she was feeling that she had confused her feelings for the nice Beth?

"Come on Alba, you are better than that, stronger" she mumbled, trying to sort things out. She was going through a hard moment, and Beth had another one ahead with a discussion with her grandfather, they had meet each other and shared different but complementary mother issues, that was all. As Alba started to slowly wake, her rational mind pushed odd thoughts into the unvisited corners, allowing her to function and set her priorities straight. She had to make the phone call to clear things out, get Beth's help into town and get her car fixed. That was all. Haunted by the want of talking with Beth, of inviting her to ice cream, Alba reached the kitchen focused.

The smell of bacon and coffee, the sight of Beth's cheerful smile, the sound of her name sung by her voice sent every well made plan into the gutter. "Morning! Like a log" Alba confessed, stretching out her still sore body. She was mostly fine, but the excess of the day before in a task she wasn't accustomed to still weighted adding a stiffness to her lower back and making her bottoms a bit numb. Gladly accepting both coffee and hug, Alba's worries were pushed further away, as she focused on the breakfast at hand. "I can cook, french toast is no trouble" Alba puffed her chest and approached the kitchen, hearing Mr. McCurdy's voice behind her.

"Good morning Mr. McCurdy, and thanks again for your hospitality, I wasn't raised to slack on bed" Alba greeted the man, oddly glad that she had earned his approval for the time being. "As soon as we are ready and I make a call we'll be on our way" Alba answered, there was something about his tough but fair attitude that made people want to be on his good side, that was for sure. "She's a keeper" Alba just added to Beth's grandfather's praises, as the girl truly was a hardworking marvel, despite the sacrifices that attitude required. Before she could answer that she would take care of the kitchen, Mr. McCurdy pushed her cosmopolitan woman self into the marvels of the country life.

"Yes please, take me to your egg tree" Alba couldn't help but joke, following on the granfather's attitude of her being a silly city girl. It wasn't as she had took offense, it was just a well humored rib. In truth she had never been in a place like that nor had she been in a coop. Hell, she didn't even know it was seemingly called a coop until Beth called it like that. "I hope I wasn't much of a nuisance on the bed" Alba said once they were alone. "Lunch is on me once we are in town. Unless you have to return before that" she offered as they walked in the quest for the freshest eggs Alba was going to have.
 
Getting eggs turned out to be a giggly experience. After explaining things to Alba, how to reach into the nesting box and just take the egg, ignoring the chicken or grabbing it by its feet and turning it upside down if it got fussy, the two women spent a good quarter of an hour in the coop, ending up with eight eggs intact and two broken ones they agreed not to talk about. Beth hitched up her nightgown with both hands to make a basket out of it and Alba put the eggs in, one by one, before they walked back to the house, the dew slick grass tickling at their bare legs. "You did right good," she praised Alba. "Another day or two and we'd make a proper chicken farmer out of you." The eggs were smaller than store bought and were a brown color but the yolks were a vivid yellow when they were cracked.

Alba's French Toast was amazing. Beth ate two pieces of it and the half that Granddaddy didn't, licking the powdered sugar off her fingertips at the end in obvious relish. While she cleaned up and Granddaddy went out to the bunkhouse to line out the hands with their chores for the day, Alba had free time to make her phone call.

Granddaddy came back in, followed by two hands who had some of Alba's suitcases and boxes in their hands. "Set 'em over there," he said and they complied, then he watched them as they left the house, frowning at one when he looked Beth's way. "Got some of your things out of the car and trailer," he told Alba, "so you can change into something clean. Be honored if you decide to stay with us while your car gets fixed, or we can loan you one of the trucks and Beth can drive your car to wherever you end up and swap it out with you once it's fixed. Parts sometimes take a few days to show up."

Behind him Beth turned around at the invitation, looked at Alba, and smiled as broad as the pasture was wide, hoping it would come true.



Less than an hour later, both of them having washed up in the bathroom and dressed for the day - Beth in another plaid shirt but wearing overalls instead of jeans this time, they were headed into town in a pickup that was older than both of them combined. It ran well but was purely practical, having only an AM radio and no air conditioning. Beth drove with the window open, one arm leaning out of it, and didn't wear her seatbelt. For half an hour they ranged across ranch roads, bouncing over bumps and occasionally splashing through small streams that didn't come up but a few inches before turning onto the main road. Shifting with the lever on the column, Beth took them up to all of forty-five miles per hour. There was no other traffic going their way and only once traffic the other way, a large truck hauling logs down from the mountains nearby towards a sawmill. Its horn blared loudly at Beth and she waved as they passed. An hour later they reached the town.

Town was...small. A main street, which included the fire station and police station and two bed hospital all in one building, a hardware store, a general store, and a few smaller shops that sold clothing and this and that. Most of the houses lay on streets just off the main one, not more than five or six deep, and there wasn't a single stoplight in town, just a few four way stop signs. Beth pulled up outside a mechanic's shop that had windows yellowed with years of not being washed and ads for old, no longer sold brands of oil up in the windows.

"Hi, Mr. Masterson," she said as she walked inside, a bell attached to the door jangling. The man behind the counter wore coveralls, a fair amount of grease, and a scowl.

"Miss Beth, how's that old coot grandfather of yours?" he asked while she turned to the coffee set up and poured herself a cup, silently asking Alba if she wanted one too.

"He's doing fine, sir," she answered and reached into the bib pocket of her overalls and took out a folded over envelope. "Here's the settling of the account," she added and waited while he opened the envelope and flicked through the money inside.

"Looks alright," he said and laid it on the counter, not bothering to put it in the register. His face a little kinder he looked at Alba, then at the badge and gun on her belt. "Law?"

"She's a marshal," Beth answered, voice a little proud. "Miz Bertorelli, and she's staying with us while we get her car patched up. Threw a belt," Beth said then told him the year and make of car. "You got one?"

"Have to check," he replied. "Come back in an hour like."

"Yes, sir," Beth said, not seeming upset at all by the man's demeanor or the time it would take. "Thanks for the coffee. Guess we'll go over and let her meet the Sheriff. Unless you wanted to wait in the truck?" she asked, looking at Alba.
 
Despite her jokes, managing to retrieve eggs from under a live chicken proved to be a more delicate affair than Alba expected. It wasn't exactly hard, but as when cooking them, any blunder usually resulted in a broken egg and in this specific case, stifled laughs and looks of complicit silence between the girls. It was amusing seeing Beth carry the eggs in such a way, as she seemed to pay no mind to her legs showing as they went back to the house. Alba didn't remark the fact, or she risked Beth flushing and the product of the hard work would be rendered useless. "I have a steady hand, but even then I broke a couple" Alba admitted, making a face.

The breakfast was an event as charming and delightful as last nights dinner, but this time she had managed to help a bit with it. The food was amazing, making Alba wonder if it was true the saying about everything tasting better in the country, so they had a nice time and got fed to face a day that promised itself hectic. The easygoing magic of the breakfast faded with the disappearing food, and soon Alba had no escape but to make the call and manage to know where the hell was she supposed to go.

"O'Brien, Bertorelli here" she greeted, sounding serious. Alba wasn't particularly loud, but she wasn't whispering either, so it didn't require much effort to listen to her part of the conversation. "No, I don't want to talk to the captain" she groaned, then silence. "I'm calling from a landline, my phone broke and now I'm lost in the northeast of Montana" Alba said, then snorted. "No, I didn't throw it against a wall. I know I rushed out of Boston, but nobody there covered my ass so I wasn't too hot on staying and seeing if you would throw me a goodbye party" her tone was starting to raise, growing angry, impatient, frustrated. "I know that you couldn't do anything, but the whole office threw me under the bus. I just did what we all wanted to" Alba sighed. "Look, I didn't call to argue, but without the phone I have no information whatsoever about my destination but to call and you are the only one who wouldn't be too much of an asshole" she laughed, dry and sad. "Yeah, I miss you too, don't make me wait too much, I'll be on the phone" she said, hanging.

"It will be just a moment" Alba peeked into the kitchen, although it was more than likely that Beth had heard every word. "He should be calling back in a moment" she said, taking another half cup of coffee. Her voice was still steady, but it was clear that something about her conversation bothered her even if she wanted to downplay it. As the phone rang again, Alba darted to it, picking up. "Yeah, what do you have?" she asked, a hint of unease in her voice. Silence governed the room, a time that felt forever but lasted only a couple of minutes as Alba listened to the other side. "That fucking tool" Alba hissed out of nowhere. "So what I'm supposed to do?" she asked, clearly angry but there was a note of something more in her voice, perhaps fear. "Motherfucker!" she yelled, punching the wall to no other effect than hurting herself. "I'll keep in touch" she choked, hanging the phone.

Returning to the kitchen Alba looked defeated and smaller than ever, sitting on a chair of the kitchen table like a sleepwalker. "The fuckers quarantined me" she muttered, disbelief in her voice even if every word was true. "I did something I shouldn't, and as firing me would bring it to light, they just sent me away" Alba lamented. "I'm supposed to be around the county, in case a marshal is needed in these parts" she said, her arms resting on the table, head sinking in them, trying to avoid to show Beth how she cried. She kept her job and pay, she would keep them as long as she wanted to, but they basically sent her where she could make the less trouble and noise. Alba had betrayed everything she was supposed to uphold and now her peers had turned their backs on her.

Steeling herself with Beth's help, Alba was presentable just before Mr. McCurdy walked in with a few of her things, and if he had noticed anything he had the decency to not ask, at least not yet. "Yeah, we'll do that" she voiced, as it wasn't just convenient and easy, nor because she didn't have the strength to refuse, but because her guardian angel was there, smiling at her.



If anyone asked Alba how had she showered and dressed on that morning, she wouldn't be able to answer even if her life depended on it. More habit and automated movements than aware thoughts, Alba washed her tears away in the shower and managed to get some clothes on her. She couldn't answer that either, but if she remembered correctly, Beth dressed while Alba showered and was turned around while she dressed once more. Plain white underwear, simple jeans and a white tank top was all she needed to get to town and stepped outside with another pair of her favorite shoes, this time the Converse had a pattern of ink blots over white. Getting her badge and gun with a sigh that sounded as her soul tried to escape her body, she covered her red eyes with some aviator sunglasses and followed Beth to the truck.

The girl respected her silence, seemingly knowing that Alba had already talked quite a lot on the kitchen and she would say more when needed. Not that Alba would chastise asking, not Beth, but she was just lounging on the passenger seat like she had the worst of hangovers. With the silver star on her belt, Alba would feel like she was the sheriff of that place as soon as she passed the main crossing of that little town, providing she was with humor to consider the idea. A few minutes inside the quaint town, Beth parked in front of a mechanic, well, the mechanic considering the size of that place. Knowing that Alba's mood was beyond sour, Beth had the consideration to do most of the talking, her own inputs resumed into grunts, nods and monosyllabic answers.

"Fuck the truck, lets meet the sheriff" Alba grunted, heading out of the garage, waiting for Beth to guide her. She felt immediately bad about it, so she turned to Beth as soon as she was out of the mechanic. "Sorry, not your fault, at all. I shouldn't be paying with you what it's just the result of my acts" Alba apologized, reaching one of Beth's hands looking for a mix of forgiveness and support. "Lets meet the sheriff, make him know that he can count with me being around for the time being and lets talk our sorrows over some ice cream" she proposed, trying to paint a smile and failing to do so.
 
Some people had black clouds hanging over them. Going by the amount of profanity, anger, and then withdrawn into her self silences that could be mistaken for a pity party, Alba had an entire gust front blowing up her skirt with towering thunderheads just behind it. The only way to deal with them was to just hunker down and know you were in for a wet, tumultuous time until they passed which was why Beth hadn't bothered her all the way to town. Whatever was going on, and Beth had given up trying to make sense from the portion of the one-sided conversation she'd been able to hear, Alba was fed right up to the top with it and it kept spilling over into cussin' and fussin'.

"Ain't no hurry to do either, Miss Alba," Beth said, voice slow and guarded. "And maybe not the best idea. You're het up about something, your job I'm guessing, and it's not going to do no good nohow for you to let the Sheriff see you this way. He's old-fashioned enough that the idea of a girl with a badge doesn't hardly seem right, so you don't want to be giving him any reason to keep thinking it and tell other folk about how you are right now." She let go of Alba's hand and looked up and down the main street before looking back at the dark haired, lovely woman.

"Small town. Everyone's in your business and I reckon some of them will be drifting into Mr. Masterson's in a bit to see what you needed and who you are. Hope he didn't hear you and tell them you got a mouth.," Beth's mouth quirked to the side at the end of the sentence. "This ain't Boston, Miss Alba. Folk here are different. Maybe I'm in your kitchen telling you how to bake, but you need to be told. That temper and that mouth aren't going to win you any friends."

"I'm going to go down the church," she pointed towards where a snowy white steeple lay just above the tops of the stores, "and pay my respects while we wait. Keys are in the truck if you need to go somewhere. See you back in about an hour." Beth's hand sketched a tip at the brim of her hat before she turned and began to walk towards the church, long legs seemingly unhurried but making good time all the same.
 
Beth's cold tone and her formal treatment caught Alba by surprise. She had already said she was sorry for treating her like that, what more did she want from her? Beth talked about how old fashioned the sheriff was, how chatty people were. Before she could add anything else, she let her hand go, rejecting her touch, looking around for the townsfolk. "But I don't care-" Alba tried to add, but Beth was far from done. There was the 'Miss' once more, the all too familiar chastising, the advice to tone her own self down so she was more friendly. It was an speech old as time itself, advice that Alba had heard a thousand times, most of them in the lips of her mother.

But she didn't expect it from Beth.

"I don't care what they think" Alba protested, childishly, earning no sympathy from Beth, that commented how she was headed to the church and left her with the truck if she wanted to go anywhere. Was she so prudish that the swearing offended her? Was it something she said? Alba thought about excuses to explain Beth's attitude instead of examining her own, so surprised about Beth's cold treatment that she had trouble to react. She wasn't going to the church, that far she knew. Right? She never did anymore. Not again. Alba felt hit with the reality of the situation. She was trapped in a place with customs she didn't know, her job as she knew it was gone, and the only light of it all was for reasons she couldn't understand giving her the cold shoulder.

Maybe going to the church wouldn't be so bad.

Alba sighed, her head hanging low, but Beth sure was too far to hear, too far to notice. Too far to care. She couldn't go to the church, there was no way. Alba contemplated the possibility of hitting a bar, a poor choice even for her current self, but it was too early and it was worrisome that her actions reflected badly on Beth. Unable to decide for anything that wasn't just plain stupid or too painful to face, Alba just leaned into the truck and waited, chewing on the things that happened and how she could have dealt with them differently.
 
"How's your grandfather?"

"He's ornery as ever and doing just fine, thank you Mrs. Rendon and I'll tell him you asked after him." Beth sat on a pew near the back of the church, a simple open rectangle with big airy windows that let lots of light inside to reflect off the white walls and light yellow pine pews. As soon as she'd entered the church she'd taken off her hat and it sat on the uncushioned pew beside her. The preacher's wife sat on the other side of it, a woman in her late sixties with hair as white as the walls and a weathered but gentle face, pleasantly plump.

"I have a pie I want you to take back to him. Sweet potato and Mr. Rendon doesn't need it, though he'll howl when he finds out," she said and laughed then patted Beth on the shoulder, letting her hand linger to cup the side of Beth's face, bringing a smile to the girl's lips. "You okay, honey bunch? Powerful lot of worry in your eyes and you don't usually come her alone unless something's wrong. Is it girl stuff?"

"No ma'am," Beth replied with a gentle laugh. "Got that all figured out thanks to the talk we had and the book. It's as regular as the moon and a hot water bottle and some aspirin take care of the cramps. Thank you for that."

"Well it wasn't like your granddaddy could do it, even though he's been through three wives," she said and snorted. "You think he'd at least know about it from the stock."

"Sometimes you pretend not to know something you don't want to have to deal with," Beth answered, her return laugh cut short by the perceptive look from the old woman.

"Beth McCurdy-"

"No. No ma'am, I don't want to talk about it. Yet. It's rattling around like a bee in a pickle jar and it's either going to sting me to death or find a way out and be okay. Just don't know which one yet." Stubborn look in her eyes matched the set of her chin and the preacher's wife sighed.

"You McCurdy's are all the same. Stubborn as a mule and just as hard working." Patting Beth's cheek she withdrew her hand. "Promise me you'll come to me when you need to? You know I set the world by you and your family. Your mother, I wish she was here but she's with Jesus and they both want me to keep you in His grace and happy."

"I'm happy," Beth interjected. "Real happy, just... I don't know. Just a little worried is all, ma'am, but nothing bad. Good in fact."

"Okay then, honey bunch. Now let's go get that pie."



"Got a pie. It's sweet potato," Beth said at the open window on Alba's side of the truck. She held it up with one hand and pulled back the foil covering it, showing an old aluminum pie pan that held the pie that almost looked like pumpkin. "Reverend Rendon's wife made it and she's a three time blue ribbon winner at the county fair. We can have it with dinner. I'll cut you the best piece," she promised, "so perfect not even her flakiest crust will make a crumb until you touch it with your fork." Beth smiled and leaned in the window, across Alba's body, her forearms extended so they brushed between Ala's breasts and her belly as she put it on the middle of the seat. Beth pulled her body out but left her head inside the truck, hands on the windowsill, looking at Alba so close that the brim of her hat almost touched Alba's forehead.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked and went on without waiting. "It might have been a sin on account of being selfish, but when I was in church just now I prayed to Jesus that the belt for your car wasn't in stock and you'd spend another night with me 'n Granddaddy."

"You reckon that might be okay?" she asked and smiled, lips spreading to show her white teeth and her eyes sparkling.
 
Alba simmered down on the truck, trying to think of what to do, where could she establish herself and find a modicum of usefulness. Remembering the maps that Mr. McCurdy showed her last night, the answer was pretty obvious. If she was going to be confined, contained in that county and the surroundings, that town was a place as good as any. It couldn't be that bad, or so she hoped, but every time she tried to make a plan for the next days, her mind always wandered back to Beth. Would she understand what Alba had done? What she had to do? How much could she tell her? And above all that... why the hell was Beth mad at her?

"Damned girl, making me behave like a teen boy, mulling over what she thinks..." Alba groaned, truly wondering how to break through that wall that had seemingly risen between them after breakfast. She had already said sorry for behaving like that, but Beth still admonished her. What had she done so wrong? Why was Beth so worried about what people thought of her? Alba sighed, closing her eyes for a moment.

"I'm a fucking idiot, she lives here. She knows better and I'm just an intruder, someone that in her eyes may as well be gone tomorrow" Alba voiced, realizing it. Of course she cares, how couldn't she when these people are in her life everyday. She has it hard enough caring of the spread, talking to her grandfather about going to Billings and the sexist people that would think that she isn't good enough to carry the weight, not without a man by her side. With all of that, the last thing she needed was to take care of a foul mouthed city woman that carried around like she owned the place. Perhaps Alba was being too hard on herself, but now she felt terribly stupid and selfish for scaring Beth away. It was true that they could have talked it instead of making a scene, but that was also the fault of her mood.

Alba spent a while mulling things over more than it was healthy to, so Beth's return caught her by surprise. She tried to say something, even if she still didn't know what, when Beth, of all things, was bringing a pie with her. Alba marveled at the girl's enthusiasm with the pie, how close and open she seemed, and how she was perched on the windowsill. "Yeah, fire away" Alba muttered when asked for permission, still looking at the pie, trying to both process what happened between the Beth that left her alone and the one that returned with pie and a sunny disposition. Once she asked if such an innocent wish would be okay, Alba turned around, facing her straight in the eye for the first time since they had their... fight, so to speak.

"Ah..." Alba was wordless. She had been mulling things over, torturing herself, and now there was Beth, positively beaming like with just a small thing, all could be right in the world. Her positive worldview, those gleaming sapphires that looked at her, those smiling lips that asked for-

"It's okay... I guess..." Alba answered, feeble, disoriented. "Is there somewhere... I'm sorry but..." she stuttered like a boy asking a girl to prom, and even if in her darker skin it didn't show as easily, the heat on her face made Alba sure that she was blushing something fierce. "I need to talk or I feel like I'm going to explode" she finally said, her adult and experienced self managing to take the reigns. "And you deserve an explanation" Alba admitted, lowering her head in shame.
 
"Well at least you're not as mad as a hornet in a Coke can any more," Beth said after a moment, still resting her forearms on the side windowsill. Just past her, close enough to touch her shoulder if she put her fingertips out, Alba sat in a dejected slump like an entire month's worth of blue days. Beth pushed back her hat a bit and waited, then waited some more as she thought about things. Wasn't rightly any hurry since Alba seemed determined to keep her head hunkered down the rest of the day if she didn't get something off her chest.

With a nod and a tap of her palms against the windowsill, Beth left the passenger side and got back behind the wheel of the truck. "Keep a hand on the pie so it don't slide about," she suggested as she put her arm along the back of the bench seat and looked over her shoulder to back the pickup out. "Pie like that deserves its own seatbelt," she joked but didn't laugh and didn't think Alba would either. Outside of the cab of the pickup the town rolled past, disappearing in just a minute, and they were back on the road with it becoming smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. Just a few miles out of town Beth swung the wheel to the side and went down a two track dirt road, gradually descending into a valley that was covered with low trees and shrubs, their placement suggesting a creek or river lay below. Sure enough in a few more minutes she stopped just before a wash that cut across a wide but relatively shallow river with a rocky bottom. The road resumed on the other side suggesting it was used often as a ford.

The engine cut off and the burbling waters replaced its mechanical chattering.

Beth stepped out of the truck and went to the front of it, bracing her hands on the hood with her back to it and then hopping up to sit on the hood, feet resting almost touching the bumper. She spoke without turning around. "You can tell it to me or you can tell it to the river or you can tell it to Jesus but I reckon you need to tell it to someone 'fore it eats you up." Beth scooted back on the hood, legs stretched out in front of her and the tips of her boots pointing at the sky, and leaned back against the windshield like it was a sofa. Strands of her red hair, blown by the wind, skittered across the glass in front of Alba's eyes.

Whatever was bugging Alba was something serious. Beth knew, she just didn't know what was considered serious for a marshal and a grown woman from a big city like Alba. It had something to do with why she was out here where the biggest crime was bringing potato salad to a church picnic when you were supposed to bring chicken. Beth knew there was no reason they needed a marshal, unless there was something serious like going on that she didn't know about, but she didn't think that was the case based on the woman's anger this morning. Heck, her anger before Beth even met her, as evidenced by the shattered phone by her broken down car. Alba had a real temper and Beth didn't want to be on the receiving end of it, but maybe that was how she got it out of her system. Blow up, blow out, be done with it. Well she was done with it but something was still left and she needed to talk so Beth needed to listen.

Wasn't like they had anything particular to do.
 
Alba didn't react much to Beth's teasing, if that is what it was. Even if colorful, it was just an observation about her mood, and Beth wasn't chastising her for it, but seemingly okay with the fact as the angrier side of it had ended. Beth circled around the truck and sat at the wheel, hopefully directing them to somewhere Alba could talk, even if she wasn't sure of what she was going to say or how she was going to say it. At the girl's call, her eyes moved to the pie, seeing it bridge the space between them in the bench seat. Picking it up carefully, Alba decided to rest it on her lap like a pet, making sure that nothing happened to the oh so wonderful pie that had served to talk about anything else that wasn't her. "I haven't tried it yet, and I'm already thankful that it exists" Alba muttered, her voice a fine thread. "It does look nice though" she admitted, focusing on keeping the pie safe during the trip, her mind away from anything else.

It wasn't long, although it felt forever, before they reached a green hideout, a refuge with clear shallow waters where the light could shine, and the shadows were feint. Alba reverently let the pie rest on the seat, no hurries about getting outside, milking every second, every small delay she could get her hands on. When the sky was painted red with Beth's hair, Alba was pushed to move, she had to be honest with her, she just had to. Stepping outside the truck she could imagine herself barefoot on the river, just having a nice time with Beth, or perhaps joining her atop the sturdy truck, sharing a bedding once more. Instead of that, Alba slumped and sat on the front of the truck, her back resting against the bumper in the spot where Beth's legs dangled moments ago.

"We can... we can spend another night together if you still want" Alba said, picking up a stone off the ground, throwing it to the river, making a shallow splash. "I'm not going anywhere soon, I could as well pick a place in town" she whined, noticing that she was starting from the end, no way of explaining Beth anything. Another sigh, another stone plunging in the river.

"I did something horrible on my last assignment, the complete opposite of everything I'm supposed to uphold as a marshal" Alba started, yet holding back the details. "I left the law, and perhaps even justice, to seek out retribution, revenge" she admitted, not only to Beth, but to herself. Voicing the core of what she had done out loud was a good start, a first step, but far from last. "That's why the marshals exiled me to be destined at Valley County and the general surroundings of Montana's north east by myself" she said. "Firing me would have made my blunder public, so they keep me in the payroll and send me where I'm supposed to cause no more harm" Alba snorted. "Judging by how I messed up our happy morning, they were clearly wrong on the harm part" she added.

"So now I'm supposed to do my job where I'm rarely needed and keep getting paid like it was a bribe" Alba summarized, throwing a third stone against the waters. "I'm sorry for acting like a tool, I lashed against everything when I was just angry with myself, confused" she apologized. If Beth asked Alba was ready, or so she thought, to admit the details of what she had done, but she didn't want to scare away the girl. Alba just rested there against the truck, her words made easier by the fact that she didn't have to tell Beth face to face. "Ahh, I'm tempted to get into the river, see if that clears this awful feeling that seems to creep on my skin" she joked, desperate to hear something from Beth, anything, not hoping for absolution, but at least understanding.
 
"I reckon even Jesus lost His temper now and then with people who wasn't doing right. Seem to recall Him flipping some tables over and horse whipping people out of the temple, and that wasn't quite the law abiding thing to do. But it was the right thing to do and He did it and knew that if it meant He'd pay a price, well, then He was willing to pay it because no one else would do what needed to be done." Beth went silent for a minute to let the words sink in, wondering how much of her Bible the city woman knew. Seemed like it wasn't so popular the bigger a place got, and anyway she was probably a Catholic and the Reverend said they didn't much read the Bible so much as get told what their priests and the Pope wanted them to hear instead of encouraging them to read the Gospel for themselves.

"Remember though, He also prayed to His Father to let the cup pass from him. Jesus didn't want to do what had to be done, knew it would mean suffering and an end to one part of His story, but it sure was the right thing to do for everyone else, weren't it?"

Sitting up from the windshield, Beth scooted forward so her legs hung over the hood, calves just touching Alba's shoulders where the woman sat on the bumper. Again she fell quiet for a bit, letting the wind just blow her hair, listening to the river, feeling the warm, comforting touch of her body against Alba's and hoping the woman was feeling a little bit better for getting it off her chest. "Protecting the innocent, even if you have to do something kind of wrong, that ain't nohow much of a sin anyway. There's lots worse," Beth said, voice a little emotional. Alba didn't - couldn't know if - but Beth was thinking of a far worse sin than maybe being a little rough with a criminal. The kind of sin that maybe didn't get forgiven. Pushing it aside, she nudged Alba with her leg and turned her face down to give a wide lipped smile.

"You know, or maybe you don't. You're Catholic, right?" she guessed, pronouncing the word in an odd, long drawn out way. "So maybe y'all don't do it, but baptism is supposed to wash away sin, and that there's a river like the one where John first did it and," she looked up at the sky, squinting a bit when the sun got under the brim of her hat and fell across her eyes, "it's getting to be powerful warm." Two cowboy boots hit the ground and Beth pulled her socks off, leaving them on the hood of the truck before starting to roll up the cuffs of her overalls to her knees. "Well come on, city mouse, let's see if that rivers as cold as I think it is," she said. "Help me down?" she asked and held out a hand for Alba.
 
"That bit with the merchants?" Alba wondered as sweet Beth started to talk about Jesus, how even he did some stuff that wasn't specially lawful. "I'm not so sure that I did it because it was the right thing to do or it just felt right to me" she admitted, sighing but glad that Beth wasn't giving up on her. She didn't know what kind of sin was Beth imagining she had committed, what fault the girl thought that had sent her there. Maybe she had to tell her, even if it was painful she kept talking about Jesus so she couldn't keep it for herself for long or it would be worse.

"I... I see, thank you" she ended up saying, taking in Beth's words about Jesus, how she was understanding and forgiving, even is she didn't know the whole truth. As Beth shifted her posture, letting her legs dangle and touch her, Alba tilted her head to the side, letting in rest in Beth's leg. It wasn't a hug, it wasn't holding hands, but slowly and with effort it seemed that last night's understanding wasn't so far, that the gap between them wasn't so wide. "Yes, there are worse things" Alba echoed as a matter of fact, after she had been witness to acts more sinful than what she had done in retaliation, but that still didn't excuse what she had done, nor explained the strange tone that Beth used.

Looking up to check if the girl was fine, it turned out that she was looking down at her, shining bright at Alba with a beaming smile, once more those lips framing that lovely smirk. The question it followed made Alba blink, the spell of Beth's smile interrupted with her talking. "I'm Catholic, yeah..." Alba admitted weakly, even if she wasn't as much as a believer like Beth seemed to be and for sure she didn't visit a church since she had been booted from Boston. "Only shortly after being born" she commented, sharing when she was last baptized.

Alba was liking the more lighthearted tone on Beth's voice, how musical she sounded in those moments of joy, and hearing her cowboy boots hit the ground with a thud felt like a signal to leave, at least for a while, her pains behind. "City mouse?" Alba said with a grin. "I bet that it can't be as cold as the ocean by Nantrashket" she said puffing a bit, helping Beth down, glad to touch her again in a friendly manner, feeling closer once more. Leaning her back into the truck, Alba got rid of her Converse, leaving the socks inside.

"It's true that it's getting wicked hot" Alba was feeling better, perhaps she was trying too hard, but she made a conscious effort to have some fun and move forward. "And I'm guessing that there should be no one around here, right?" she asked, wondering how popular that spot could be. Alba knew, or at least suspected that Beth wasn't super comfortable being underdressed before anyone else, but they were just girls by the river, and it wasn't like she pretended to remove her underwear. "We could think of it as being in a bikini if you want" she added. Alba wasn't going to make Beth uncomfortable by removing any clothes if the shy girl wasn't up to it, but she saw no harm in it. "I thought that country girls were bolder" she smirked, wanting to lighten the situation. Hell, it wasn't a big deal after all, even if a low buzzing in the back of her head told her otherwise.
 
"I don't know about all that," Beth said, face suddenly flush and a splotch of it starting to crawl up her neck from below where the plaid shirt was almost buttoned to the top, her overalls making a square frame for the canvas of her embarrassment. "Let's just go wading then-" Looking away from Alba so she wouldn't see her nervousness, Beth lifted a hand to the brim of her cowboy hat and pretended to scan the horizon. They'd be able to see another vehicle coming from a goodly distance even if the river would hide the sound of it from their ears. Maybe it would be okay, in that regard, but in the regard of seeing Alba in her underwear, and being in her own, almost skinny dipping - God, her face was getting even hotter. "Then we'll see," she finished up.

"Race you down there," Beth challenged, using the excuse to cover her face and without hardly waiting for Alba to get ready she was off, hair flying behind her like flames chasing her head. The dirt track was smooth, hardly a stone in it and it pounded beneath her feet as she ran, denim of her overalls swishing against itself as her lean, young legs took her down to the river, easily leaving Alba behind. It wasn't far, not even far enough of a run to breathe hard, and she soon reached the bank where it sloped down into the crossing, the bottom a mix of silted in gravel the size of hen's eggs and larger but just as rounded rocks. Beth turned to watch Alba approach, a wide grin on her face.

"You going to leave your gun on the bank or what?" she asked and took off her cowboy hat to set it upside down, then pulled out another envelope, obviously more cash, from inside her pockets and added a tube of Burt's Bees lip balm and a pocket knife that all went into the bowl the hat now made. "Guess getting your cell phone wet ain't a worry," she laughed then turned away from Alba and took her first step into the water.

"Oh my gosh!" she hollered, "It's so cold!" Icy cold, fed by snow melt that had warmed in the time it flowed down from the north but still quite chilly on this summer day. Crystal clear it was easy to see her feet through it and the water lapped just at the top of them, occasionally spilling over. Arms out to her side, she waded a few more steps, head down to watch where her feet were going and stopped when the water just touched the back of her calves. It was shockingly cold by comparison to the warm day, and not something Beth often indulged in. Streams were just things to get through, Ace splashing a bit of cooling water onto her with his hooves as they forded or something she pulled her legs back in the stirrups for, resting them on his flank as he drank his fill after riding fence for a few hours. Just playing in it, just to play, was something she hadn't done in a long time.

"Is the ocean really cold like this? I always imagined it warm."
 
As expected, Beth wasn't up for it, although Alba's answer was just to start folding the legs of her jeans as much as she could, not an easy task with such a garment, even if they weren't specially skinny ones. At least once folded, the fabric tended to stay in place, although she wasn't specially mindful about getting them wet. The process came to a small halt when Beth didn't say that she wasn't up to it, but she just wanted to get to the river first and then it would be the time to decide. Well, it was fine for Beth to be shy, as long as she wasn't afraid, after all she had an agent of the law by her side. Thinking of her job clouded her expression for a moment, but it was just a brief shadow as Beth's racing to the river made her laugh.

"Not fair!" she protested with a smile, chasing after the girl, feeling young and free. Luckily the waters weren't far off, so she soon caught up with the redhead, following her mane like the tail of a blazing comet. "I think that not even with an equal start I could outrun you" Alba admitted, as the girl wasn't just taller, but also in good form, probably better than hers. "I'm on it..." Alba nodded, leaving gun and badge, wallet and keys, all bunched next to Beth's stuff. She didn't usually carry much more, but that particular morning after the awful news she had just got out of Beth's house like a zombie. At least she didn't have her clothes backwards.

"Ha! I'll have to get a new one, perhaps sturdier than the last" Alba followed Beth's joke about her poor phone, grinning. Her dark eyes attentively watched Beth step into the running waters, unable to stifle a laugh as she whined about how cold it was. "It can't be that cold, it's just a river" Alba frowned, walking in a few steps, trying to hide a shiver as she did so. "I have to admit that it's colder than I expected, maybe we are close to where the river is born?" she wondered, looking at Beth. "Ocean is indeed cold, at least around Boston. I guess that in the southern coasts it should be warmer" she explained, not knowing much about beaches beyond her city surroundings.

Alba liked the feel of the riverbed on her bare feet, the cleansing feel of the cold water creeping up her legs, but most of all enjoyed being there with Beth, playing around without a worry in the world. "It feels rea-" Alba was too busy looking at the young girl to mind her step, and tripped into a moving rock. Her dark hair flew around, her arms waving in the air for balance or support, her posterior about to cushion the fall into the cold waters.
 
A hand that was strong for how slender it was wrapped around Alba's forearm in a tight grip. Beth had spun around on instinct, reaching out, and found herself pulled towards Alba as woman and girl struggled for balance. Alba slipped closer, feet sliding across the pebbled bottom, and Beth set her own feet a bit wider, lowering herself so she wouldn't be pulled over. They ended up, hearts beating wildly, face to face and chest to chest, their clasped arms between them. Beth's mouth was open in startled surprise and hair had fallen across her left eye, hiding it from view. Its twin sparkled bright blue in the sunlight and in its glimmering, shifting flashes off the water. The sudden exertion, the adrenaline spike, made Beth's chest rise and fall rapidly as she tried to get her heartbeat back under control. Surely that's what it was, just the surprise, that was making her heart beat so fast and her head not able to think quite straight. That's why she kept hold of Alba's forearm, the woman's skin so soft and smooth under her fingertips.

"Whoa there," she said finally, the gave a startled laugh. "Don't need to go in like it's a sheep dip," Beth joked and after making sure Alba had her footing, she let go and took a step back herself. "Bottom gets slippery," her foot emphasized the point by sliding back and forth over the smooth pebbles. "Easy to lose your balance." The words were lighthearted but her tone was tight, shaky. It should have been an innocent moment, just a helping hand, but Beth wanted it to be more, wanted it so much that it hurt and the realization of it made her sick to her stomach. It wasn't right, not in the eyes of God and not in the eyes of her grandfather and her community. It wasn't even right to Beth herself, because wanting something and something being the right thing to want weren't the same in this case.

Wading away a few steps, Beth gave herself some space and time then bent over at the waist to scoop up a double handful of water to rub on her suddenly hot face. The ends of her hair dangled into the river, getting wet and making them stick to her clothes when she stood up. "Ain't never seen the ocean, but I'd like to some day." She still kept her back to Alba as she continued. "You ever think about something you ain't never done but want to?" she asked, tone carefully cheerful.
 
Alba's yelp was cut short as Beth reached for the flailing woman, holding her in place and preventing a not too painful but embarrassing fall. She feared that would drag the thin girl down, but Beth handled her with expertise, pulling her upwards. Ending up face to face, Alba could feel her agitated breath almost merge with Beth's, understanding now how she could get so many rodeo prizes, those reflexes, that strength... even if she was looking at her bright uncovered eye with her dark brown ones. "I can dance, I didn't expect to end up doing it on a river" Alba joked, smiling to the girl that rescued her from herself once more, adding a whispered thank you.

Beth joked as well, stepping back once she made sure Alba was firmly planted. "I was careless" she confessed, not paying the proper attention to the riverbed as she had been distracted herself with Beth and enjoying the contrast of the cold water. "Sorry if I startled you" Alba added, noticing Beth's voice wavering, flaky. The girl worried about her more than she should have, after all she was the grown up there, but she felt like a goof since that morning. It was as she felt like trying to return to her old self when she was Beth's age, but that wasn't just ridiculous, but the Alba of the past wasn't anywhere near as responsible and dependable as that girl.

As Beth was refreshing her face on the river, Alba carefully squat and played with the water, cooling down her hands and wrists, unable to hide a small shiver. She could still feel Beth's lingering presence on her arm, where her slender fingers had made sure she stood safe, so she took advantage of wearing a tank top and washed her arms in that chilled and crystalline water. "You will" was all that Alba could feel it was an honest answer, even if something inside her wanted to add that she would go with her. After all, if her eyes were so bright when playing around a small river, how would they shone when facing the ocean? Who wouldn't want to see that?

"I normally try to look forward, to move forward, even if I have been... sulky these couple of days" Alba said, thinking about Beth's question. "There are many things that I'd have wanted to be different, to be better, but many of them didn't depend on me" Alba got up from her crouching position, a couple of water drops falling from her fingertips. "The ones that did, I tried to grasp them, even if they were scary, even if they meant risking my relationship with my family" she added, sighing. After all, a decade separated both women, and Alba's experience with the decisions she had made carried their consequences not to be taken lightly. "But I think I wouldn't have done it any other way, or I'd have been trapped being someone I didn't like" Alba continued, reflecting on her career choices and how her family reacted to them.

"I've never... I guess settled with someone else, the job kept me busy, but maybe is something I'd like, something I want" Alba admitted, finding one more time how easy was to be honest with Beth. "But all the men in my life were just fleeting moments, and maybe it was my fault, hell... knowing me, it had to be" she acknowledged. "Never fell in love, I guess" finished, looking to the riverbed, her right foot playing with a pebble.
 
"Time enough for everything under the sun is what Grandaddy says," Beth responded, rubbing the cold water on her face then taking a palmful of it and dribbling it on the back of her neck, sighing at the cool feel of it. Cold runnels cut down inside her shirt making her shake for a second before she turned around to look back at Alba. "You should ask him to tell you the story about the old bull and the young bull sometime," a laugh accompanied her suggestion, clearly it was a funny story and Beth herself didn't want to relate it, but rather be there when it happened. "He likes you enough that he'd tell you, even though it ain't proper for a lady really."

Pebbles rolled and squeaked under her bare feet as she walked to stand hip to hip with Alba, just enjoying the day and glad that the older woman was somewhat letting go of things. This close she could feel the heat through the other woman's jeans against her overalls and on impulse Beth put her arm across Alba's back, palm cupped on her shoulder, and hugged the two of them together. "Thank you for wanting to stay with us for a little bit. It really was fun last night, and I know it ain't permanent or going to be like that all the time, but it was really nice. Something I have never had before and one of those things you don't realize you needed until you have it."

With her free hand Beth shaded her eyes, looking at the river, then back towards the truck just to check on things. No one was around and likely wouldn't be. It was just the two of them all alone and it was why Beth had picked the location since Alba needed privacy, a privacy Beth hoped she was beginning to know was essential in Beth's small community. Everyone was always in everyone else's pasture trying to milk their neighbor's cow. Busy bodies. Well it was up to Beth to help her adjust to things since it seemed she would be staying a while. The thought of being able to help her made Beth feel all warm inside and she hoped there would be a lot of chances to do so.

"Why do you say it was you and not them?" Beth didn't let go, didn't let Alba sidle away from her if she tried. "I mean you're pretty as a handful of daisies, you've got a career and are smart and really nice. You can even cook because let me tell you that French Toast was mighty fine," she laughed then turned her head a little more to see Alba better. "Are you like one of those ladies in the movies, always busy with your work and never enough time for them, or what? Around here you'd already be a wife and a mom three, four times over with a yardful of kids and pretty curtains in the windows. Heck, stay much longer than a week and I'll bet every single fellow between twenty and eighty will be calling on you to go a' courting. This might be where you meet Mr. Right."
 
"Yeah, I know that it's still soon but..." Alba agreed with Beth, but faltered when it come to protest the notion, not wanting to sour the moment. Beth also had the knack to make her feel younger, and she couldn't help but smile as Beth shivered with the cold water running down her back, but it had been quite the awful week so staying positive was a bit of an uphill struggle. Not much of a conscious effort though, as it felt like something that happened naturally with Beth around, as the girl was there, Alba did want to be better, inspired by her. "The old bull and the young bull... I love unladylike tales so I'll ask for sure" Alba smirked, wondering about it.

Alba was getting accustomed to move on the river, even if she sometimes looked like she was waddling around like a duck, when Beth approached her, talking advantage of her size to naturally hug her shoulder height. With an arm trapped between them, Alba moved it to do a similar thing and hug Beth closer, although her arm was waist high due to the height difference. "Thank you for rescuing me from... well, myself" Alba admitted, looking up to Beth while she looked on the distance. "I won't say that it was a home away from home, since mine never felt like that, but it felt welcoming and warm" she added, her head slightly tilting towards Beth, leaning on her.

After a moment of reflection, it was clear that Beth had more questions about all matters boyfriends, since she asked about those things several times the night before and that very same day. When Beth turned to look at Alba, she was already staring at her, a bit flushed. "I should let you write my online dating profile, I'd be swatting suitors away with a stick" she said, a bit bashful after Beth's avalanche of compliments. "I'd like to blame the job" she sighed, shaking her head to discard the image of her being a mother of not one but several children. "And it's true that when I had a serious assignment I could be missing for days on a witness protection escort or similar task" admitted, making a brief pause, "but I could find the time if I wanted to" she soon added. Alba had to come to terms with that part of her as well, even if it was something she didn't like to think about.

"The thing is that I didn't want to" Alba acknowledged. "Some were fun, others supposedly handsome, a few interesting, and most gentle" she dismissed with a hand wave of her free arm. "But none of them were... I don't know, what I wanted I guess. None of them felt special to be honest" Alba confessed, looking down, wondering how much would she be comfortably telling and how much would Beth be hearing without being shy. Hell, she was almost eighteen now, right? There were things she could hear after all. "And not only in a romantic way, I may be a bit cold when... you know. In bed" Alba admitted, burying her face against Beth's midsection. "It was fine I guess? They had their fun but... it didn't do much for me" she added, her voice coming out muffled.
 
Well that was what she got for asking too many questions, Beth supposed, a little unsettled by the sharing of her bedroom life. Unsettled and curious at the same time because it wasn't anything Beth had experience with, beyond the occasional movie or book or overhearing the hands talking when they didn't think she was around. Technically she knew what happened and what Alba was talking about, an orgasm, and she'd, well, sort of thought she had one herself from some very guilty late at night explorations of her own under her panties, but it wasn't something she was comfortable just putting out there like Alba had done.

But why not? It was just the two of them, both girls, and it had been a very rough time for Alba lately. It made Beth feel good, a little proud of herself even, that she'd been able to help Alba get it out of her system. What the woman needed, Beth thought, was a darn good cry. The kind of cry you rode away from the ranch to get done, sitting at the base of a tree with your head on your knees and just bawling your eyes out until you felt empty and hot and exhausted and Ace started nudging at you with his nose because he was worried. No reason they couldn't do it here.

Arm still around Alba, Beth walked the two of them over to the bank, just under the deceptively thin but dense branches of a willow and sat down with her back to the trunk, urging Alba to sit down with her. Beth drew Alba's head into her lap and just gently stroked her fingers through the other woman's dark hair, no purpose to it other than comfort. "Powerful rough week for you. I can't say that I rightly know exactly how you feel, but I know sort of what it's like. I mean," she laughed but not meanly, "what I consider a big problem probably don't amount to a hill of beans compared to yours, Alba, but I guess it's as close as I know. What I do know," she said and leaned over Alba for a minute to catch her eye, "is that whatever you say or do here under this tree stays here I reckon. Ain't no one around but me to hear it or see it, and I can keep my mouth shut like a preacher's pocketbook."

"You don't get no chances to be a woman I bet," Beth added and sat back, fingers still playing through Alba's hair. "Put on a pretty dress and let your hair down and just be a girl. Always having to be one of the hands. Well I do know what that's like, I reckon, and so maybe it's not as rough on me as it is on you, but I think it's okay for you - for us - to be that way with each other, don't you?"

Beth blew out a breath. "Guess what i'm taking so long to say is, if'n you need to cry and get it all out, it'd be a right proper time and place to get 'er done, Alba."
 
Alba was hiding herself on that awkward half embrace, hiding her face like she could just bury herself away from her troubles. She felt that perhaps she had gone too far, dumped too much on the shoulders of that gentle girl. Beth's silence, only punctuated by the murmur of the river, felt colder than the water flowing on their feet. She had no business talking about those issues to a girl that couldn't even change clothes in front of her nor even look while she did so, Beth was shy to that point and there she was, sharing her bedtime horror stories with her like one of those women from the TV.

"Ah..." Alba let a soft sigh out, as what broke the silence wasn't Beth talking, but carefully dragging her out of the water. Following Beth without a word, leaning on her as she kept her arm around, Alba wondered where they were going, where was Beth taking her. The grass felt nice on her bare feet, tickling them a bit as they walked, only to see Beth sit against a tree trunk, patting the ground beside her. More curious than obedient, feeling that it was important for Beth since she had been silent after Alba went too far, the woman sat besides the girl, soon getting guided to rest her head on her lap.

Beth may be slender and tall, but resting in her lap below the shadow that the branches made was nice, the light playing tricks through the leaves. Alba felt at ease, welcomed, specially when she felt Beth's fingers gently caress her hair. In that position, Alba could see the river glitter under the sun, but she couldn't quite relax with Beth staying silent. When the girl finally talked again, thankfully it wasn't to keep prying on Alba's love life, but to offer a safe space for her to unwind. Alba was glad, but it was a bit odd, after all it was precisely what she has been doing, unfairly so, dumping all her troubles on Beth, making her have to maneuver around her sour mood.

Beth was far from done, as she kept talking while Alba listened. Time to be a woman. The talk reminded her of her mother, always telling her what a woman was supposed to be, how Alba was supposed to behave. Being a cop was something for the boys of the family, she had no business in there. Alba knew that Beth's talk didn't carry the shackles that her mother's did, in fact it wasn't only an invitation to shed any disguises she may have to endure, but Beth was also saying that she needed herself someone to be a girl with. Alba remembered the night before that, how not only her was able to share stuff with Beth, but also Beth finally allowed herself to be a bit selfish and ask for something. Both of them had to be so strong day after day, be tough so no one ever doubted their aptitude for the task, that they were pushing back part of who they were.

Beth's last sentence after that heavy breath got Alba by surprise though. Alba turned around so she was on her back, head still on Beth's lap, but looking upwards to Beth instead of towards the river. In the tree's shadow her red hair looked muted but rich, and for a moment Alba lacked words to say. "Thank you but I've already been talking a lot" Alba admitted, feeling a bit weird. "I've confessed things I never told anyone and-" her voice broke for a split second, making Alba clear her throat. "I don't think I..." Alba swallowed, what was going on with her? She was stronger than that, she had already talked about her horrible week, she...

She couldn't cry.

But there was no one there but herself that would say what she could or couldn't do. "I'm fine now... I don't need... ah..." Alba mumbled embarrassed, taking a hand to her face, feeling it wet. Turning around once more, Alba buried her face against Beth's abdomen. "It's nothing, I'm just..." tried to excuse herself, but she was too far open, she had shown herself too much as to be able to easily back off from that. Alba's arms clumsily circled Beth's midsection, bringing herself closer, tighter against the girl as she broke into sobs. It was soft at the beginning, but the more Alba cried the more she thought about what was making her cry, and soon turned into a breathy wail, only interrupted by a few scattered words.

"It was all- all I had!" Alba wept on Beth's lap. "And I ruined it!" her yelling was more and more muffled as she drove herself against Beth's embrace, her teary face wetting her top. "Now my hands are dirty..." Alba was shaking like a leaf, "I sacrificed so much and now... now I have nothing left, no one left..." she let it all out, losing herself in gasps and sobs, crying for what it seemed forever, hiding in that refuge Beth made in her lap.

"Ah..." after a long while, Alba dared to turn around, facing upwards again. Her face was as red as her eyes, the dark brown shining under the tears. Her long hair was a mess, like a torn curtain that had revealed what was hiding behind it, hanging around in disarray. There was a strange calm to her face, like after a storm you could see the mayhem it created, but also the sun shining between the parting clouds. "I must..." Alba sounded frail, her lower lip trembled as she spoke. "I must look ridiculous..." she protested, looking up to the girl that cradled her sorrows.
 
Fingers calloused from rope and reins were rough but gentle as they brushed across Alba's forehead, gathering strands of hair and working with some little success to put them in order. Beth's smile was gentle, not at all judgmental, and she didn't speak for quite some time, just kept smoothing the hair out of Alba's face.

"You look pretty after you've cried," she finally said, lips curving back into a smile when she stopped talking. The sheen in Alba's eyes made them more liquid, more expressive and their depths seemed to go on forever. Oh, her face was splotchy, the whites of her eyes red and uneven, and tears had washed clean rivers across the dirt smudged there from Beth's overalls but she looked alive and relaxed, like a burden had been lifted from her soul and the ease in her face made Beth's heart go out to her. "Sit up, honey bunch," she said and helped Alba to lean against the tree. "Be back in a jiffy," she said, standing and walking barefoot towards the river, a blue and white checked bandanna coming out of her pockets.

When Beth returned the bandanna was still dripping with cold river water and she folded it before crouching and putting her left hand on Alba's shoulder. "Close your eyes," she suggested and dabbed the cold cloth across the woman's face, cleaning it of tears and worry and leaving cool skin in its wake. "Almost done, " she said then made another few passes. "Okay, open your eyes," Beth said and her hand left Alba's shoulder. Beth sat back, squatting on her feet and balancing easily while she refolded the bandanna into a longer, thinner shape that brought a clean surface to the top. "If'n you put this across your eyes for a bit, reckon it'll take the red out," she said and handed it over.

"I'll go get our shoes 'n such and be right back," she promised and got up again, leaving Alba to herself for a few minutes. Beth put her own socks and boots back on, then got Alba's and her gun and badge. Thinking, trying to decide, she eventually put the badge and gun on the middle of the bench seat of the truck, leaning in the window. Alba would want it and she couldn't quite leave it laying around but Beth didn't want to remind her of being a law officer just right now.

"Got them," she said when she returned, Alba's shoes and socks in her hand. Beth knelt down and pushed away Alba's hands when she tried to help, putting on the other woman's socks and then her shoes like she would have a child. If asked she couldn't have said why she did it, but Beth just wanted to and so she did. When she was done she reached out a hand and pulled Alba to her feet, then letting go and turning to look out towards the truck.

"Folks came out here for the land, for the adventure, you know? Some came for a fresh start and a new life too. May not be the city, gets kind of boring at times, but I guess it's what you make of it, right?" She looked over her shoulder at Alba. "Could be as a fresh start might be what you need. I don't know," she shrugged. "Take me off my family's land and I'd be lost so maybe that's how it is for you. Hope not because you're good people, Alba."

Without a further word Beth went to the truck and got in, waiting for the pretty dark haired woman to join her.
 
"That's totally not true..." Alba protested weakly, enjoying how Beth tried to arrange her hair once more, her attentions managing to bring out a small smile on her. "But you can keep calling me pretty" she joked, feeling that she must sound even weirder to the girl with her nose half stuck after crying. Beth was being the motherly one, reversing the roles that they had last night before bed, adapting to the needs of each other, getting to know the person behind each woman's tough front better. Sitting up as asked, Alba took advantage of Beth's short trip to the river to clean her nose, slowly going back to her normal self.

"Ah, I feel like I've just run through a marathon" Alba confessed, her eyes closed while Beth cleaned her face. That strange feeling of exhaustion was starting to fade off, as it wasn't her body the one tired, but it was still weird feeling partly upset and partly calm, as if that wet cloth Beth was cleaning her face with was a bucket of cold water. "Ah, feels nice" Alba cooed, pleased with the gentle treatment. Opening her eyes she felt a bit embarrassed of letting Beth take control, treat her like a little girl, but she didn't find the strength to protest. Being honest, there wasn't a real reason either, beyond looking a bit goofy, but there wasn't anyone else there, so who cared?

Alba did as recommended, the cold fabric feeling wonderful on her slightly swollen eyes. Feeling the calm breeze, hearing the rustle of the leaves, maybe that place wasn't so bad. Sure, she knew that unless she had something to find occupied herself with, Alba could be bored and mad, but she had plenty to take care of with just the idea of getting settled there. Maybe Beth was right and she could meet Mr. Right there, but the idea made her smile and just think of Beth's musical laugh before she said it. She sure found the manners charming, how Beth addressed people, how she touched her hat, that tough love that she had showed with her earlier being stern... maybe it wasn't that far fetched the idea of finding someone there.

Before she knew, Beth was back, so Alba removed the cloth from her eyes, already feeling better, and returned it to her. "Thank you" she just said, no need to explain why, and before she could react, Beth was putting on her own socks, fitting her Converse sneakers in like she was a little girl. "You are just too much" Alba just said with a smile, making the most of the girl's distraction with her long shoelaces to take a good look at her. It was no wonder that she had pretenders, even leaving the lands aside, she was a ray of sunshine made flesh, all bright and warm. Noticing that she had been staring, Alba sighed, but with Beth taking her hand and pulling her up and close, it was hard not to look.

Beth took a couple of steps away, looked at the truck then back at her. Alba could feel her face flush, drowning in Beth's attention and care, or that was what she thought of it at the time. "I was lost" she admitted, looking down. "I still am, or would be if you hadn't found me on that road" added, taking a deep breath. "But even if there is still work to do, I'm strong" Alba rose her head to look at Beth, her deep dark eyes chasing the sun reflected on the river of Beth's. "So are you. Stronger than you think, you would also recover from such a thing, providing you had the help I'm having" she added. It was true that both women were tough, but everybody needed support to give their best.

Beth went to the truck after that, and didn't take long for Alba to follow, almost chase. Sitting down on the passenger seat, she noticed her gun and badge, carefully arranged there. For a brief moment she had forgotten those, she had forgotten her situation, and she wasn't officer Bertorelli, but just Alba the one that had been talking by the river. Putting both holstered gun and badge on the glove compartment of the truck, Alba decided that she could be both, but there was no need to hide behind that badge anymore, specially when she wasn't on duty. "You have pampered me so much..." Alba admitted, "now I'm hungry" she whined, making a childish voice. It was true that they had spent more time than she thought on the river, so it was almost time to have lunch. "Allow me to invite you to lunch at least, let me be the grown up for a while" Alba offered.

Alba felt a bit selfish for hoarding the whole morning, since she was sure that Beth still had plenty of things to talk about. Taking the pie on her lap so it didn't get thrown around during the trip, she wondered what had taken Beth there besides the sweet treat. Was it just to give Alba's angry morning some space or was there something else? Maybe having lunch on wherever that town could offer would make for a decent spot to have a conversation, even if it wouldn't be as private as their spot back at the river.
 
"Tell you what," she said as she turned the key and the truck rumbled into life. "Why don't we kill two birds with one stone and you buy me and the Sheriff lunch. Man can't hardly pass by a good feed, not that it shows in his belt. He's like Granddaddy, just naturally wiry." With both hands on the top of the skinny, oversized steering wheel, Beth backed them up and then pointed the pickup towards the town they'd left quite a bit ago.



Sheriff Bartlett was cut from the same cloth as Beth's grandfather, one of those tough old men who didn't seem to get feeble so much as dry up and get hard like jerky. His uniform was a pair of jeans, a gunbelt with a revolver a bit more modern than Beth's, and a khaki colored uniform shirt with a seven pointed star on it. A brick like radio was on the table and crackled from time to time with far away static, clearly not local traffic. His reading glasses sat atop the newspaper he'd been perusing when the women walked in. After standing to shake Alba's hand, and then give Beth a polite hug and receive a kiss on his cheek from her, he motioned the women to sit down.

"Heard you was in town, Agent Bertorelli," he said politely. "And going to be here a spell too. Masterson ordered the part for your car but it's going to be a week before it arrives. Could drive down to the city and pick it up but if you ain't in no hurry then don't be in no hurry. Thanks, Alice," he said when the waitress came by and topped up his coffee, fingertips dingy yellow from smoking.

"Get you folks something?" she asked. "Beth, you probably want-"

"A hot dog, extra relish and sauerkraut and that fancy spicy mustard, and fries the skinny ones and a Pepsi," she said, obviously anticipating the pleasure of her meal. "What?" she said looking up at the Sheriff and Alba.

"It's just a hot dog, Beth," the Sheriff said.

"A hot dog I don't have to cook and anyway you know Grandaddy doesn't like sauerkraut, even the smell of it. And we don't drink a lot of Pop and it's so good from the fountain," she protested.

"Might as well save myself a trip and bring you two Pepsis," Alice said. "You always want a refill."

"Yes'm, that's true," Beth agreed and laughed. "Miss Alice, this is Miss Alba Bertorelli, she's a marshal come up our way to spend a spell with us."

"How do?" Alice said politely, writing on her order pad. "Sheriff, you want chicken or pork chops?"

"Wife says chicken," he sighed then looked at Alba. "Cholesterol or some damned thing. Take enough pills to kill a horse every day, don't know why if I can't have some good gristle to chew on."

After getting Alba's order, Alice went to the kitchen and the Sheriff took a sip of coffee before speaking again. "Truth is, I'm glad you've stopped here, even by accident. Got a tricky problem you might be able to help me out with. You know anything about cooking methamphetamine and how to find where someone might be doing it?" He shot a hard glance at Beth. "Need to tell you that you ain't hearing this, Beth?"

"No, sir," she said solemnly and literally crossed her heart, fingers moving across the front of her overalls. "I can go to the counter if'n you want me to, sir."
 
"Yeah... great idea" Alba nodded honestly, it was a good idea to be on the good side of the local sheriff, and perhaps it would help to make her feel busy. Useful. Even then, Alba's calm voice after the moment on the river couldn't hide a small sound of disappointment, as she'd have preferred for both girls to have lunch alone and continue with was turning out to be a most revealing day. Little did she know what the sheriff had in store for her.



Just the firm handshake showed that similarly to Mr. McCurdy, that man was no pushover despite being in a mostly harmless area. It was no wonder then that, as Beth told her, he had made the banks look foolish with the foreclosure auctions. The sheriff being already aware she was in town wasn't entirely a surprise, but confirmed what Beth had told her about the hearsay in town. "No hurries, I won't be going anywhere for a long while" Alba confessed, slowly coming to terms with the idea. She didn't want to explain herself nor she had the chance to do so, as the waitress came to tend their needs. Needs that in Beth's case seemed to be not only highly anticipated but also an usual order of her, it was cute how eager she was of getting that hot dog.

"My pleasure" Alba got up from her seat to shake Alice's hand, then sitting back again. Alice looked nothing like her mother, and yet she couldn't help but have a soft spot for the service industry, knowing how harsh it could be from her mother, even if their relationship has never been good and now it was nonexistent. "I'm sure that the chicken is also fantastic in here" was all that Alba answered to the Sheriff's sighs, but when it was her time to order, her mind went in a different direction. "Beth's enthusiasm was contagious and I can't help but order the same for me" she confessed. If the hot dog tasted half as good as the girl's smile painted it, Alba was more than fine with that.

The sheriff's question caught Alba by surprise, but not without a background. She had been in lots of drug related asset seizing, the most boring and yet unfortunately usual tasks of the Marshals. Meta may not be as popular on the east as here, but she had made inventory of the gear used to do it. Having an ex in the DEA had also made Alba listen to more tales of workday woe than she would have wanted to, but she guessed that it was kind of normal to find someone on the job, and it wasn't like she didn't share her own horror tales to unwind.

"It's fine" Alba motioned for Beth to stay. Keeping her close was more an automated response than anything else, but once done it was easily justified by her knowledge of the county and people there. Not to mention that if things got more stupid than they had any right to, being a Marshal had it's advantages when it came to enforce the law, but she hoped it wouldn't go that far.

"First, we can take a look at the supplies" Alba instructed. "If anyone and their family are buying lots of cough medicine with an specific component- I really need a new phone" she frowned, not remembering the exact name nor being able to disturb her ex for information. He would bark at her, since she only called when she needed something, but Alba was sure he would still answer. "The local drugstore owner should know what I'm talking about, there are federal limits to the buying of those drugs. There is also the chance of a robbery, has any truck with chemicals gone missing in the last weeks?" Alba asked.

"Lets leave the gear needed aside, those things are harder to track nowadays, is easier to nab the people" Alba mused, thinking of it. The lands being so open wide didn't make the task any easier. "The process makes a foul smell, and although they should be cooking it away from people if they have half a brain, maybe someone complained about that" she added. "Oh, has the town doctor treated any burn wounds recently? That could also be a telltale sign of a lousy operation" Alba continued, it was clear that she was enjoying herself with that bout of activity.
 
"Looks like that broken belt was a blessing in disguise," the Sheriff said and sat back, hands clasped across his middle. A pleased smile tinged with relief showed on his face. "Yeah, it smells like cat piss," he said and laughed when Beth wrinkled her nose. "Well it does, and make sure you remember that and come a running if you come across it while out working the herd," he warned Beth. "Don't you go poking that snub nose in it either. Them folks is dangerous. You hear me?"

"Yes, sir," she answered solemnly, eyes a little wide with worry and excitement. It was clear the young girl was caught up in the sense of adventure and equally clear she had no experience with the sorts of people Alba and the Sheriff did. If she had her eyes would have been more guarded, more worried, instead of bright and interested.

"I mean it, girl," he said sounding like Beth's grandfather. "You're almost a woman grown but so help me I'll ask your granddaddy to whip your butt like you was six again if'n I find out you're not listening to what I'm saying."

"Yes, sir. I won't nohow forget it," she said, voice solemn but nothing able to touch her eyes. She scooted forward so she could hear the conversation better.

The Sheriff shook his head and turned back to Alba. "One thing I could use is a helicopter to check out some of these valleys and cover ground better than by jeep or horse. Budget don't quite extend to a whirlybird and pilot."

"What about Mr. Jimson?" Beth butted in. "He's got one and his boy uses it to run in the herds in the spring."

"Beth, go sit yourself at the counter and let the marhsal and me talk. Go on, now," he said abruptly and waited until a chastened Beth left them alone. "That girl," he said and sighed. "Thing is, it's not a bad idea but it's like a cancer. I don't know how far this thing might have its fingers in the community and Jimson's boy sometimes likes a toke," he mimed smoking a marijuana cigarette. "For all I know he might be involved. Anyway, his little helicopter only carries him and one other. State has a big one, old military bird. Think you might be able to work that out so we could go scout around and see what we can see?"
 
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