Blood Wild

"I just wanted to tell you that they'll be moving your mother in a few minutes. We're just getting a wheel chair for her now. Um... this gentleman here would like to speak to your mom, if that's okay with both of you..." The candy striper told Trina.

Hearing the nurse talking to her daughter, Vivian opened her eyes and looked up to see who it was that had come to talk to her. She Frowned and then sighed as she recognized Sheriff Gerald Potter. Helton was not a big place, most everyone knew everyone there. Viv knew Gerald, just as she knew his friends and cohorts from as far back as elementary school. He might be the Sheriff now, but as far as she was concerned, he was just a plain old opinionated, puffed up full of himself, bull headed good old boy. Not far removed from her own husband and his card playing asshole friends.

The candy striper stood still, a little uncertain as to what she should say or do, waiting on a response from Vivian. She looked from her to the Sheriff and to Trina and back to Vivian as if hoping someone would say something.

"Mrs. Wainwright?" She began, only to be interrupted by Vivian nodding and waving her hand dismissively to signify it was alright. At that, the young girl turned and almost bolted from the room.

"Viv." Gerald began by way of greeting, nodding to Vivian and Trina.

"Gerald." Vivian responded back at him, still with a grimacing frown on her darkened face.

"I... um... I've already spoken with Hank Lipscomb earlier today... I won't go into... what happened last night." He stated haltingly, fidgeting with his hat in his hands as he glanced from Vivian to Trina and back. He was uncertain as to how much the younger girl knew of the situation that landed Viv here in the hospital, but he didn't want to add to the misery.

"Then what are you doing here Gerald?" Viv barked with a bit of a sarcastic laugh in her voice.

Trina looked alarmed, looking back and forth between the Sheriff and her mother.

"Mom?" She began as she stood up next to her mother's bed.

"Trina, baby, could you go find that nice little nurse and ask for a glass of water for me?" Vivian gave her daughter a faint smile with her request. Trina nodded and reluctantly left the room, glancing questioningly at the Sheriff again as she walked past him to the door.

After Trina had left the room, Gerald looked back to Vivian who was staring a hole through him. Her face still clouded and pained, but also tired. She half nodded her head towards the chair beside the bed in a silent offering for him to sit. Taking the hint, Gerald smiled tiredly and stepped over and settled into the chair slowly with a groan.

"Long day?" Vivian queried sarcastically.

"And night... what day is this anyway?" Gerald retorted bringing one hand to his forehead to drag slowly down his face as he inhaled deeply.

"You going to be okay Viv?" Gerald asked her seriously, true concern in his soft voice.

"This time... Gerald... it was... it was my fault." Vivian struggled to get out while maintaining her composure. Her eyes still filled with tears and her face darkened a shade redder with the anger that simmered just under the surface.

"He shot you Viv, how was this your fault?" Gerald spat out in frustration.

"I'm sure Hank told you what led up to that moment, didn't he?" Vivian fired back, this time with a trace of venom in her voice.

"I heard Hank's story. I want to hear yours Viv. I gotta know..." Gerald told her sternly as he leaned back in the chair and stared up at the room's ceiling.

Vivian sighed resignedly and laid her head back on her pillow and began to tell Gerald her story of the night before. For the most part it was just as Hank had told it, if only from her perspective. Hank couldn't have known just how frustrated she was with her husband at the time though. Times had been harder of late. Money was tight but Walt kept throwing it away on booze and cards. He never could play poker very well to start with but he kept throwing money at it, and getting drunker each time he lost. It was like an obsession for him.

Gerald listened as Vivian told of the bitterness and frustration in their marriage as of result of the gambling and drinking. It had all seemed to come to a head last night and when Duke started in on her like he does, she snapped. The anger, the frustration, the loneliness and need for affection and excitement just got the better of her. She made a mistake in entertaining Duke's advances. One thing led to another and then Walt saw it and he snapped.

"I honestly don't think Walt was trying to kill me, Gerald." Vivian ended with a sigh and sniffed back fresh tears of shame.

"I suspect not, Viv. But I need to determine if he meant to kill Duke instead. Men can do crazy and stupid things in the heat of the moment, especially when there is alcohol and...jealousy involved." Gerald said as he sat forward, both elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him.

Unseen by the Sherriff or Vivian, Trina stood to the side of the doorway outside the room. One hand covering her mouth to keep herself from crying out, the other still holding the glass of ice water for her mother. She had heard the whole conversation, and now knew more of what happened last night and how her mother had been shot. She was no stranger to the pain and sadness her mother was going through. Afterall, she lived in the same house with her parents, it was hard to miss. Still though, she did not know her mother was so frustrated.

Seeing a nurse pushing a wheel chair down the hall towards her mother's room, Trina pulled herself together, straightened up and turned to enter the room. She cleared her throat discreetly as a way of warning.

"I think they're here with your wheel chair mom." Trina said as she offered her mother the glass of water.

Gerald stood up from the bedside chair and fidgeted with his hat for a moment longer, still needing more information before he left.

"Viv? Any idea where Walt might have run off to? I really need to find him and, have a word with him." He said carefully still trying to be discreet around Trina.

"I don't know Gerald..." Vivian replied tiredly.

"Check the boathouse down at the fishing camp." Trina offered up, drawing looks from both her mother and the Sheriff.

Gerald looked back to Vivian, she looked him in his eyes and simply shrugged as if to say, it's as good a place as any to look. Gerald looked back at Trina again, but she wouldn't meet his eye. He wondered at how or where she might have come up with that information. Shaking his head, he decided that that was something for another time, not today.

"You going to be alright getting home?" Gerald asked Vivian.

Vivian nodded and looked to her daughter and smiled sadly.

"Yes, Trina can drive me home." Vivian sad quietly just as a nurse came into the room pushing a wheel chair in front of her.

The Sheriff, put his hat back on his head and wished them goodbye before leaving the room so that the nurse could get Vivian up and dressed and into the wheel chair. Noting the time on the clock as he passed the nurses' station, Gerald sighed again thinking that it's been a long, long day. He would put in a call to Cam to roust him out of bed. Gerald would send Cam to the fishing camp to see if he could find Walt. Gerald knew that if he went looking himself, he was so tired right now he might just shoot Walt, rather than detain him for questioning. Gerald needed to go to bed and sleep, for a week maybe.

***___***___

"Who was it this time?" Caroline asked her husband. She was leaning against the door jamb of his woodshop with her arms crossed over her chest as if she were hugging herself.

Duke paused from pushing the hand plane down the length of the door secured to the bench vise, sweat staining his work shirt and dripping from his salt and pepper hair. He turned to look at his wife of twenty-four years, seeing the hurt and anguish in her eyes. Caroline's mouth was set in a firm straight line, indicating that she was also still angry as hell. Her beautiful grey eyes were reddened and still a little puffy from crying. She was a strong-willed woman though, and fierce as any man could ever be especially if she were riled up.

"Caroline... honey..." Duke began with a weary pleading voice, only to be cut off by his wife's vitriolic question again.

"Whose wife Duke? Who did you sweet talk into fucking you last night?" Caroline spat, her bottom lip trembling with rage... and hurt.

Duke looked into her eyes, almost pleading with his own gaze, until he lowered it to the floor at her feet. He knew that there would be no explaining or softening the result of what he did. Taking his free hand, he wiped the sweat from his face and set the box plane down on the work bench. He glanced up and saw a quart mason jar on the shelf behind the bench, half full of moonshine, but he dared not reach for it right now. Instead, Duke walked over to the wall a few feet from the door and dipped a tin cup into an open pale of water and drank it. He turned back to Caroline and sat down on a small stool beside the pale.

"I try... I know you don't believe me, but I do try... to behave." Duke chanced a glance up at Caroline's face, his own haggard and remorseful.

"It's the same old story, Duke. You always try to be a gentleman, to "behave" ... then you start drinking. Why does that make it alright? You're cheating on me! Don't I love you enough? Do you even love me?" Caroline all but screamed, half bent over as if the words coming from her were causing physical pain in her gut. The tears once more streaming from her reddened eyes.

Seeing Caroline like this cut Duke to his core. He did know he was weak, especially when drinking. But he loved this woman with all his heart. He loved her and their two girls more than anything in the world. His own eyes started to well with tears as he hung his head again. He wanted more than anything to stand and cross the room to take Caroline into his arms and hold her tight. To reassure her that he would try... try harder... to be a good man. The man that she deserved.

Caroline saw Duke slump over on the stool hanging his head, and it made her even more angry. In her mind he should stand up like a man and renounce his ways and promise to make things right. So many times, she had confronted him over his wandering ways and love of liquor.

Duke just sat there, his mind a whirl, competing with his emotions. Last night's card game hadn't been good or bad as far as winnings go. He had pretty much broken even by the end of the game. He had, of course, drank too much and he had indeed flirted too much with Walt's wife Vivian. He really hadn't expected anything to come from it, it was all just fun really. But it went from a little fun to something else, fast.

Over the years, Duke had wooed many women, just as Caroline had pointed out. It always started out as innocent fun and games really. He enjoyed the give and take with pretty girls, or women. He was not a bad looking man, so many of the women were enticed to take it further than just flirting. It didn't always lead to trouble, he was fairly discreet even when he was drinking. Sometimes though, trouble still found him. Like last night.

The memory of seeing the gun in Walter's hand flashed through his mind. He realized that he could very well have been killed by a jealous husband in a fit of rage. Oh, there had been fights through the years, over indiscretions, jealous boyfriends or husbands of the many women. There had been hard feelings, and there had been consequences. Common knowledge or not, Duke had fathered more than just the two girls with Caroline. He couldn't be sure just who or how many, but more than a few he suspected.

***___***___

Sylvia clutched her books in her arms strategically placed under her breasts, forcing them a little higher under her soft fuzzy pink angora sweater. She leaned with her back against the wall next to the bulletin board in the hallway leading to the doors of the school. Her sweater topping a navy-blue skirt that ended just above her knees, the white knee-high socks covered her fair skinned legs down to her black and white saddle shoes. One foot supporting her on the floor, the other flat against the wall behind her. Flanked to either side of her were her cohorts Delores and Rita. They watched as the other students exited the building on their way home. Sylvia was waiting...

The crowd of students rushing to go home was thinning now and Sylvia was second guessing herself, had she missed him already? Then she spotted him at the other end of the hall, coming around the corner... with that little blonde haired bitch Lee!

"Uh oh..." Delores muttered under her breath, having seen the same thing, she knew that Sylvia was likely to explode.

"What?" Rita asked from the other side of Sylvia, closer to the doors, as she leaned out to look down the hallway.

"Oh..." She said when she saw what Sylvia and Delores had seen already.

"Girls? A little interference, please?" Sylvia barely whispered to her cohorts, never letting her eyes stray from Tom as the two approached them.

Delores and Rita stepped away from the wall and both approached Lee smiling and took her by the arms in a social way as if they desperately had to speak with her alone for a moment. They both shared classes with Lee and they were wanting to know what she thought of some assignment or another, pulling her away from Tom and back down the hall a little way to discuss it.

Sylvia approached Tom slowly with a smile on her face, swaying her hips slightly from side to side, her long red hair flickering like a flame. She was clutching her books under her chest trying to wrest his attention from Lee and her girls. Tom had stopped walking and looked to Lee and the other two girls in confusion, but Sylvia smiled brighter when he noticed her and was looking at her almost warily.

"Hi Tom." Sylvia purred in her sweetest voice, batting her eyes almost bashfully in his direction.

"Huh... uh... Hi Sylvia." Tom stuttered a bit unsure of this brazen red head.

Sure, she was nice looking and all, but Sylvia did have a bit of a reputation around school, at least in the gym locker room and amongst the other guys in the school. Sylvia had been an object of fascination and fantasy of many of the guys for as long as they had known her, even more so in high school as they were all learning to appreciate the female form. She was certainly a good-looking gal, but that's probably where the good ended, her proclivities and personality left a lot to be desired. To say that she played the field would be an immense understatement. Sylvia got around, and she was not kind when it came to moving on. She'd broken many a heart in her time at high school.

"Tom, I know we haven't really talked much, but I want to change that. Maybe we can get together for a while next weekend at the Wilding. You ARE going, aren't you?" Sylvia asked still holding the sweet smile and batting her eyelashes.

"The... the Wilding?" Tom asked, confused a little by the question.

"Yeah, silly. Everyone goes to the Wilding, the big barn dance and bonfire. You have to come too." Sylvia almost pleaded as she rocked slightly from side to side twisting her torso.

"I don't know, it depends on if my pa will let me go or not. I've never been before..." He trailed off apologetically, embarrassed actually.

"Please try. I'd love to... see you... there." Sylvia said, gushing with girlish charm, but fire in her eyes the belied the seeming innocence she was projecting for Tom.

Tom nodded, dumbly as Sylvia backed away still smiling as she was joined by the other two girls. They turned as one and headed out the exit doors. Tom was still watching them warily with a bit of a frown on his face as Lee returned to his side, also watching the three other girls leave the building.

"What was that all about?" Lee wondered out loud, not really asking Tom.

Tom turned to her and seeing her pretty face also reflecting a hint of suspicion, simply shrugged. They both resumed walking towards the exit. As they pushed through the doors, finally, Tom held it open for Lee to walk through. She smiled demurely, nodding her head in thanks and blushing slightly.

Deeny saw her sister exit the building. That she was with that boy Tom Branson, made her frown for some reason. Perhaps it was the memory of his father and nearly getting raped by him that had soured her towards the boy, she didn't think about it though. She shook her head and leaned her head back on the seat and looked up at the headliner of the car's roof and blew out in frustration. With her left hand she blew the old Chevy's horn to speed her sister along.

At the sound of the horn blaring not twenty feet away, Lee looked up startled at first then grimaced with irritation when she spotted the old blue Chevy and her sister beckoning her to hurry up. Tom had looked up at the sound as well, then back to Lee and for a moment she could have sworn he was blushing a little too.

"Well, I'd better get going." He said smiling meekly at Lee before heading down the walk towards his bus.

He was still walking when he noticed that his bus had already began pulling away and be began running. It was too late though, slowing to a walk, he hung his head and slung his books over his shoulder and began trudging towards the parking lot exit onto the main road. It was going to be a long walk home. And it meant he'd have to endure an angry tirade from his old man when he finally got home.

Lee climbed into the passenger seat of the old blue Chevy as Deeny turned the key to start the engine. With a rumble and a cloud of blue smoke, the old car came to life and Deeny put it into gear and began to pull away from the curb. Lee glanced over at Deeny who was looking at her at the same time with one eyebrow raised and a knowing smirk on her lips. Lee blushed and turned back to the front just in time to see Tom trudging along as Deeny pulled out onto the road. Lee yelled for her sister to stop.

"What? What's wrong?" Deeny asked as she tried to figure out what the panic was about.

"It's Tom! He's walking! He must have missed his bus." Lee said, her look pleading with her older sister without even trying to ask.

Deeny gave her that look again, that one eyebrow raised in question and a pessimistic frown on her face saying silently that this was a bad idea.

"Oh, please? Come on Deeny it's miles and miles to his house. How would you like to have to walk that far?" Lee pleaded, giving her older sister that little pout that would melt the heart of anyone, especially Deeny's.

"Fuck!" Deeny swore under her breath, but then relented and lowered her head till her chin was almost touching her breast before looking back up and half smiling and shrugged at her little sister.

Lee beamed happily at her older sister and then turned and rolled down her window and hung halfway out it looking back at Tom as he trudged along dejectedly.

"Need a ride?" She asked with a subdued smile, trying not to look so happy about it.

Tom looked up only just then realizing that the Chevy had stopped not far from the parking lot entrance on the main road. He finally registered Lee's question and the implied invitation and picked up his pace while smiling sheepishly. He opened the rear passenger side door and climbed in. After the door was pulled closed behind him Deeny put the old car in gear again and headed off down the road.

"Th... Thanks for stopping. I missed my bus, again." He said sheepishly from the back seat.

"It was Sylvia's fault, Tom. I think she did it on purpose." Lee said over the back of the seat frowning at the thought of Sylvia Redmond and her bitchy little sidekicks.