Two weeks.

That felt like a year.

Eventually, she and Jack had gotten Howard to come back home and sometime later he sobered up. Maggie was still flitting around and slowly but surely, the County Line felt less and less like home. Howard would barely speak to her and Forrest was rarely around.

And Charley Rakes was still in town- attempting to put a lid on the moonshine business.

She took some pleasure in her time with Jack but he was courting a little miss Bertha and she felt guilty for taking his time away from her. Jack deserved a nice girl.

Emmy was at a point where the baby would babble nonsensically and Lucy's joy for her daughter's growth was cut short by Maggie attempting to compensate for whatever short-comings she saw in herself by acting thrilled for the child.

Lucy enjoyed doing the laundry. She got to disappear into the back shed with her own thoughts, Emmy playing on a blanket beside her. The scalding water would warm her. She found a sliver of peace.

With these thoughts in her head, she collected the dirty clothes from the bedrooms and headed down the stairs; Emmy on one hip, the bag of clothes in the other hand. Forrest approached her before she could reach the door.

"If you want your sweater, it ain't done. That thing has to be cleaned," Lucy stated. It would have been said in jest to the approaching Bondurant but the humor was flat.

Forrest nodded. He was quieter than usual. When Lucy looked at him, she knew he wasn't there for a sweater, "What is it?" she asked strongly. Being close to him was hard.

"Uhm…Howard and I have decided…" he started. Lucy didn't like where he was headed but she listened.

"That uhm… it's best you & Emmy move into my father's house…" he told her.

Lucy would rather have been slapped across the face. "What? Jack and your uncle keep that property just fine… I can't put them out…" she shook her head, setting the bag of clothes down to readjust her squirming daughter.

"Howard will be going with you…" he told her, "The County Line….uhm… it ain't been …uhm…good for you…" he had avoided looking directly at her until this statement.

"It ain't the place…" she snapped.

"Well….with Rakes still…" Forrest mumbled but she rounded on him, "Don't." her hand landed squarely on his cheek, a sharp SMACK echoed in hall.

Forrest looked at her, every muscle still.

"Don't you dare talk to me about Charley Rakes," she hissed. "I will never forget him…" she showed the marks on her arm from the cigarettes. "The monster… So don't you dare tell me that you're shipping me off to that house for my own protection when you and Howard didn't do a damn thing after what happened to me…."

It was out. She hadn't wanted either of them to get hurt and go off half-cocked to get some backwoods revenge on the man from Chicago- but it hurt that nothing had been done. They were the Bondurant boys… and they didn't even lift a finger. Lucy was shaking.

"….Jack will help you with your things…" he drawled before he turned around, placed his hat back on his head and walked back for his office.

"Forrest Bondurant…" she started. He turned his head back just enough to look at her. But his eyes changed everything she felt inside. Tears welled in her eyes and looking at him suddenly hurt. "You're a liar…"

Forrest questioned with his eyes but remained stoic. Lucy continued, her voice no more than a whisper, her eyes glistening, "This is goodbye," she picked the bag up and hurried from the County Line towards the back shed before she cried in front of him.

She dropped the bag quickly to the ground and it spilled out onto the dirt floor. She placed own a warm, clean blanket for Emmy and set the child down as her insides began to eat her through.

Leaning down as she sniffled through her tears she began to throw clothing into the basin of scalding water. But she came across something unexpected.

One of Forrest's infamous sweaters was covered with blood, same with a pair of trousers. A crumbled up slip of paper fell from the pocket. She flattened the paper out to make it legible. There were three names scrawled across the paper.

Lucy recognized two names as Rakes' officers. There was a thin line through both of them.

The last name on the list was Charley Rakes.