A/N Yes I know, another one, but I'm really on this what made the boys split up thing and the best way to explore it is with someone new able to step in and see it from both sides. Just a note on the title. The story is not based on the song, but it will be important later, and there will be a 'Whiskey Lullaby' that will be a pivot point for the characters.

Whiskey Lullaby

Chapter 1.

Herschel looked down at the tiny clawed fingers and toes. Her jet black eyes looked up at him and she cooed softly. She already knew her Daddy, and he picked her up, holding her against his shoulder as he adjusted the blanket.

"Anelle, you remember Victor, that came to the wedding?" He asked.

"Yes." She said as he handed her the baby. She'd come through the labor like a trooper, but the milk fever had her down in bed. She cuddled the tiny face against her breast, as she was finally able to try to feed their daughter the way God intended.

"He has the same type of hands." Herschel said softly.

"Wasn't he your commander in Desert Storm, in Kuwait?" She asked.

"Yes. He saved my life."

"I thought so." She winced a little as the milk started to flow, and the baby suckled strongly.

"I've always considered him a friend, until today." Herschel said softly, trying not to show the fear that was growing inside him. It wasn't like he had the money or strength to fight Victor, if he found out about the girl.

"Why would today be different?" Anelle asked.

"I realized that someday, our baby girl is gonna be a young woman, one with a mutation very much like his, and he's not the kinda man ta take no for an answer, especially if he thinks somethin' is his."

"He wouldn't try ta take her, would he?"

"Not now, right now she ain't even a person ta him. Cubs are jes' wasted space till they prove themselves. It's when she gets older. We've got time. I jes' don't ever want her ta know about him."

"Alright. We don't have ta tell her, it ain't like she's gonna go lookin' for him."

Herschel nodded, and stroked the strawberry curls on top of the baby's head. They had years to worry about what she'd be like as an adult, what her prospects would be like, especially in the small mountain town they lived in.

XXXXXXXXX Sixteen Years Later

"Mary Catherine Moody, you're a freak, and a lyin' little bitch." Katie Simpson shouted across the lunchroom. Cat just ignored her. It wasn't like the bitch didn't have it coming to her. "I ain't never had tha clap. You take that shit back."

"I ain't tha one given it ta the football team." Cat said smoothly. She hated Katie Simpson with a purple passion. Hell she hated anyone who had a boyfriend, or even friends, which was most of her classmates. No one ever wanted Mary Catherine around. No one ever wanted her at their parties, or in their little groups of gaggling geese.

"You little bitch." Katie shouted again.

"At least I have a reason ta be one. If it wasn't for Tony, you'd be as lonely as I am, Katie. Everyone knows he just pities you, because you're too much of a bitch for anyone else ta take ya."

Katie just stood there like a fish. The bell rang and Cat picked up her books. Thank God Katie wasn't in her afternoon classes.

XXXXXXXXXXX One Year Later

"Cat, I'm sorry for bein such a bitch last year." Katie said, holding out her hand. Cat glared at her suspiciously, but shook it. It would be better this year if people would at least tolerate her.

"Me too."

"I don't know why, but I think we're gonna be good friends." Katie said, as she linked arms with Cat.

It took three months for Cat to realize Katie was right, and that the other girls liked her too. She had friends for the first time since grade school, hell mostly the same friends from grade school, and it felt good to not be as lonely.

School was boring, and her Momma managed to get her enrolled in some college classes at UNWV online, when the computer was working. She had a laptop her Daddy picked up in a pawn shop in Summersville a few years back and she used it at school three hours a day to work on her college work. The teachers encouraged her and she felt like maybe she could get something real going in her life.

She was leaning on Tony's car, waiting on them to stop playing kissy face so she could get her ride home. Sometimes that burning lance of hate and anger and jealousy would catch her and she'd have to fight it down. Tony was a nice guy and really cared about Katie, so it wasn't just some teenage crush, they'd been together since grade school and everyone knew they were getting married as soon as they graduated.

"Guys, I'm gonna be late for supper if ya don't quit." She grumbled.

They laughed and climbed in the car.

"Sorry Cat, someday you'll have a boyfriend and you'll do the same thing." Katie said with a smile. It was at moments like this she remembered why Katie was her friend. It wasn't malicious, it wasn't condescending, she really believed it, and encouraged Cat to believe it too.

She climbed out of the car and watched them drive off. She shook her head. Katie tried, but Cat already knew she'd end up alone. She felt the hitch in her throat, everything she knew, everything she loved would leave her. She understood more than her parents realized, she'd even found out information about other mutants like her, nothing specific, yet but she was looking.

Her mother was working on the sewing machine when she walked in the door. Daddy must be out at the still or in the shed. The whole town knew Daddy made shine, but never enough to get the revenue men down on him, and always safe stuff, nothing that would blind you. Momma only worked on the sewing machine when Daddy was doing something she didn't like.

"I'm making you some new shirts." Momma said as Cat dropped her books and gently set her laptop case down on the table.

"Thank you, Momma." She said. Her mother turned to look at her. Cat knew she couldn't hide much.

"Have you been cryin'?"

"A little...jes' tha usual. I don't want ta be alone." She whispered.

"You're not alone. You've got friends, and your Daddy and me, how are you alone?"

"I ain't now, but someday...you and Daddy are gonna die, my friends will either get married and get busy raisin' kids, or leave this place for some kinda life away from here, and no one is gonna want ta marry the freak." She said it softly, but she sniffled halfway through, and the tears dropped from her eyes.

"Mary Catherine, you are not a freak, and no one in this town sees you that way. Your Daddy and I love you and you have years til you have ta worry about us leavin' ya."

"It ain't the same, Momma." She sobbed, collapsing on the floor. It had been pushing on her all day, the overwhelming loneliness her mutation made her feel sometimes.

Her mother rocked her gently. She heard her Daddy's footsteps as he came in the kitchen, but even that comforting sound didn't make the tears stop.

"MaryKat...what's wrong?" He knelt beside her.

"She's lonely." Momma said. "Herschel, I don't think..."

She felt something, maybe scented it, but her parents had a secret, and it had to do with her.

"What is it?"

"We didn't want ta tell ya..." Daddy started.

"It's not like we actually kept anythin' from ya, just didn't tell ya all we knew." Momma said over him.

"What is it?"

"You're not alone." Daddy said.

"Not alone?"

"There's someone who has a mutation just like yours, the fangs the claws, the senses, the strength, the agility, even the healing." He said.

"Who? Do you know them?"

She sat up and her mother stood and pulled an old picture from the wall. It was a picture from her parents wedding.

"We've had a picture of him for years, guess the best hidin' place really is in plain sight." Momma said. She pointed to where her parents were standing in the picture, actually two people to the right of her Daddy in the picture. "That's Victor."

"Victor?" She looked at both of them.

"You have heard stories about him, I jes' never told ya about his mutation. My Cap, back in Desert Storm, the one that saved my life," Daddy was sitting next to her on the floor. "he's a lot like you, or you're a lot like him. We didn't want him comin' in here and takin ya away from us."

"What?"

"Victor ain't a man that takes No lyin down...he's tough as nails, old as the hills, and frankly, ain't exactly the kinda lady killer I'd want anywhere around my girl." Daddy said, solemnly.

"Daddy, you ain't scarin' me." She said. "Sides, he's old, you served with him in Desert Storm and you're ancient, over fifty."

"I should." He was looking at her with sadness in his eyes. "He's older'n me by over one hundred years, and I'm afraid he might not kill your body, but he could easily kill your soul."

"Momma?" She felt a surge of fear. Her father admired the Cap, idolized him almost, every year they'd get together in Summersville for drinks, and Daddy would come home drunk and happy.

"It ain't like we'd tell ya no, jes' we want ya ta know everythin'." Daddy said.

"I ain't scared." She started.

"You should be." Daddy said, again with a sadness in his eyes.

"Why?"

"He's a killer, it don't matter, man, woman or child, he'll kill 'em dead as soon as look at 'em. He's calculating, does the most damage with the least amount of effort, unless he wants to spend the effort, then he's really dangerous." Daddy was holding her chin, making her look him in the face. He wanted her to see, and smell, the pain he was in, telling her this. "He's a rapist, and don't care nothin about what he leaves behind, hell usually they're dead."

"He's also my friend, the man that saved my life, and the man I wanted standin' at my side when I married your momma. I care about the Cap like a brother, but I ain't gonna let him hurt my girl."

"Daddy, you have Momma, all my friends are findin' someone ta love, there's no one for me." She said.

"He's not the lovin' kind. He might be able ta give you a child of your own, but he ain't the stickin around type." Momma said. "I like Victor, hell I respect him, and he's done good by us, but we've never told him about you, he thinks you're normal. He won't even come ta dinner because he thinks he'd put you in danger."

"Then he cain't be all that bad." She said.

"No, he's worse." Daddy said. "I ain't tellin' ya not ta seek him out, when you're older, but right now, stay the hell away from him."

"Yes Daddy." She said, but she had a name, a full name, of someone who was like her. Someone who would understand what it felt like to be so alone. Captain Victor Creed, US Army.