Longmire: Second Chances

Chapter 2: Transition

II

Two Weeks Later.

Walt had begun therapy to straighten out his mental and emotional demons that had been haunting him since Martha's death. He had informed the Mayor, and asked to continue as Sheriff for the time being. The Mayor had agreed, and Walt tried to do his job as best he could.

Yet now, after only four sessions with the therapist, and beginning to realize the depth of his confusion and anger at the world, he knew he had to step down. That Tuesday, he went unannounced to the Mayor's office, and handed in a letter requesting an extended medical leave while trying to straighten his mind and soul out. He and the Mayor didn't like each other, but the Mayor certainly hadn't wanted this to happen to Walt. He immediately called the County Commissioners and they had approved the leave on the spot. Under state law, if he was given a clean bill of health, he could petition for his job back. Yet deep inside, Walt felt that his Sherffing days were over.

The next call the Mayor made was to Tucker Baggett, who was prosecuting the case against Walt on behalf of Barlow Connolly's Estate. Upon hearing the news, Baggett agreed, at least for now, to ask the case be dropped. Even he wasn't inhuman enough to keep the pursuit of a man who had stepped down from his position and had agreed to get psychological counseling.

It had been the only victory for Walt Longmire in a very long time.

This was getting serious.

That was the thought that kept circulating through Cady Longmire's mind. It was thought not with concern, but with excitement and a quickening pulse, every single time. She didn't know how it had happened, but it has.

She was in love with Jacob Nighthorse.

And yet while it excited her to no end, she also fretted about her father. Walt was still going through counseling for the emotional problems that had driven Vic away and had driven him to resign as Sheriff. She knew it hadn't just been Vic who had caused this-far from it. It's just than when Vic left, it pushed her father over the edge.

She was worried that if he found out about she and Jacob that it would stunt the recovery that he was genuinely making. Even Jacob had told her that he wanted to avoid that scenario.

She didn't want her burgeoning love for Jacob to be tied to what her father would think about it, either. She and Jacob had come to the same conclusion about two months earlier, that they had a thing for each other, and it was undeniable. They still lived in their own homes, but most evenings were spent together at one dwelling or another, and usually in one particular room.

Cady had no doubt that her strained relationship with her father was what had fueled her relationship with Nighthorse. The ongoing obsession her father had for the man; his anger that Cady had accepted money from him to open the Legal Aid Office on the Rez; the fact he had never even asked how she was doing after she had shot and killed a man that was threatening she and Aisha in her office. Jacob had supported her though all of this, especially after the shooting. He made it clear he didn't want to see Cady and her father estranged from each other. He was glad Walt was getting counseling, and he hoped that it would lead to a truce between the two.

She was over at his compound, and had brought up the subject of what the possibility would be for a long-term relationship.

"I'm as comfortable with you, Jacob more than any man I've ever been with. I didn't expect this, but there it is."

"That makes two of us, Cady", he said with a smile that she felt he didn't share enough with the world, "And yes, I'd like for us to look to a future together, but right now, the most important thing for you is to make sure Walt gets better."