Tess (A Dark!SteveRogers AU)

Chapter 8

Tess lay in bed that night, alone.

Steve had gone to the saloon earlier that evening and still hadn't yet returned, but outside in the distance she could hear the drunks in the town yelling and doing god knows what.

That much felt like home in some respects. Then again if she'd have been back home then she'd have been at the saloon herself, either riding one lucky man to death or being so intoxicated that she couldn't even remember her own name.

Now it appeared as though she wasn't allowed to do that anymore. Certainly not the first. That would make the people talk even more.

Eventually the door opened and Steve's silhouette appeared, closing it behind him and then pulling his shirt off before slipping in beside her.

"You'd best not try and force yourself on me Rogers, or I'll gut you". She now threatened through the darkness.

Steve groaned at the fact that she was wide awake. "Jesus woman don't you ever sleep?"

Typical. Now he couldn't come home and relax without her starting arguments, especially in the early hours.

"I do but considering I'm still getting used to sleeping in a different house, in a different bed and with you, my mind is elsewhere".

"Can't you be elsewhere?" Steve muttered and then grunted as he felt her fist connect with his chest. "Fuck! What was that for?"

"My fist slipped". She replied with sarcastic agitation.

He huffed. "Can you shut up so I can sleep now?" If he didn't have a headache from the drink come morning, then he certainly would from her.

She smirked. "Nope, your momma wanted us to talk and get along so let's do so".

"She didn't mean in the middle of the fucking night Tess!"

As far as he was concerned, this wasn't a good time for a conversation, especially when all he wanted to do was get some rest. Any other time his wife could've chose for them to discuss matters but no. It had to be now - and it was just to spite him.

"Just go to sleep before I make you". He grumbled and turned over, so his back was to her.

"Oh, and how would you do that? You think you can control me but..." she was then cut off by the swift movement of being pinned under him. "Get off me!"

"Not until you shut your mouth and give me some damn peace".  He snarled, "now go to sleep before I do what I did to you yesterday and fuck you into unconsciousness!"

Tess struggled against him, but in the end stopped. "I'll scream! I'll scream so fucking loudly the whole town will know!"

"You do that, and you'll get a beating so hard you won't know what year it is".

He was serious, Tess was driving him to the edge (and most likely to start drinking more), and he wouldn't hesitate to temporarily silence her in any shape or form that he saw fit.

"The sooner you learn, the sooner we'll get along, but until then it looks as though you need to be taught". One hand went over her mouth as other arm and rest of his body pinned her down. "Go. To. Sleep".

On sensing that she wouldn't threaten to scream the town down, he removed his hand from her mouth.

Tess glared up at him. "Bite me, Rogers", and then managing to push him off, rolled over and tried to get some sleep.

He was a brute. Worse than she had imagined, and Tess hated Steve Rogers right down to her core. But unfortunately, she was stuck with him.

Till death do they part.

**

Slipping out before dawn, Tess hadn't managed to sleep well, finally choosing to get up and start her day before the sunrise.

Coalstone was peaceful between these few hours, with the resident drunks long since passed out (or even in the jail), and the town itself slumbering before another of hard labour.

Tess slipped out and walked the grasslands that surrounded it.

Red Skull Creek had never been like this. That side of the river was dry and dusty. Their town left to wallow in the desert part of the area while Coalstone thrived.

She'd received her fair share of stares yesterday when walking through town. The people all whispering about the "Rumlow girl that Rogers has married".

"She'll only being him down". One spoke

"I heard he married her to keep the peace, you know how their families have feuded". Said another.

"He's a better man than I could be. I wouldn't have wanted to marry a girl like that".

"I've heard she sleeps with anyone..."

"Well I heard she once put a bullet in a man's skull because he looked at her..."

The rumours were all around town about her, but she didn't care. Of course she had a reputation. She'd be boring without one otherwise. Plus, she was feared, and if she was feared then no one would bother her. They'd be too scared to even look at her.

Everyone apart from Steve of course.

Tess had certainly met her match when it came to him. 

"And what's a lady like you doing out here this early in the morning?" Came a voice from behind her as the sound of a horse thumped along with its rider now staring down at her with some interest. 

"I ain't no lady". She fired back, seeing that the man was the very same one who had ridden by the blacksmith workshop the day before. "Sheriff..." 

John Walker smirked. "Tess Rumlow...no Rogers, my apologies". 

"For what? The name slip up or the fact that I'm here in your town". 

"Probably that you're married to him, however I heard on good authority that it was to end the feud between your families...didn't he kill your daddy?" 

"Why would you care?" 

Walker shrugged. "I'm just looking out for my people, my town". 

"You always ride by people's homes like a creeper?" 

He chuckled. "Sorry...sometimes my deputy and I simply ride around just to inspect the town, see whether anything needs improving". 

"Like the Sheriff's department?" She now smirked. 

"Ouch. You're a sharp one Mrs Rogers". 

"Like a knife Sheriff". 

Walker rode alongside her. "For a Rumlow, you seem like the reasonable one. I've heard things for sure, but now I talk to you? You ain't how I imagined". 

"And I suppose you imagined a whore? A woman with a sharp tongue who could drink a man twice her weight under the table?  Getting any guy into bed and riding him ragged.  A fowl mouthed straight shooter in more ways than one?" 

John looked surprised but nodded all the same. "Exactly that". 

Tess stopped as they came back into town and looked at him with a devilish grin before walking away towards her home and calling back to him. 

"Well then, you'd be wrong...I'm a hell of a lot worse than that".