An Arrangement of Sorts

**The ending to this little tale. I might look in on them later, I dunno. For now, this is it. I tried but I don't have enough time to really research the ins and outs of peerage. I think this might work. I do think it's a long way from an unhappy pair of people in a diner to here, so I like it. O_o

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The woman wandered along the bank of the small river that passed through the park in the town. It was a pleasant enough day, not hot or too breezy. She had a few things on her mind and had gone for the walk to maybe make a first attempt at settling a few things in her head. It was working, kinda-sorta.

It just felt pretty different today. Sometimes things just come to an end, she told herself, and that was where she was now. It was what she wanted and had decided to do, and she was on her way home - more or less - from leaving her lover of four years with a soft kiss after he'd fallen asleep maybe an hour earlier. She'd gotten up carefully, dressed quietly just like all of the other times and walked out of his life carrying his seed for the last time.

Jim didn't know it was over yet, other than perhaps a vague notion or feeling of it, and she figured that he wouldn't be all that upset anyway. It might be different if he stopped floating along through his life and looking as though he cared about nothing beyond a drink in a bar with his buddies and the expectation of a half-hearted screw when she came home with him afterwards. She didn't think there was anything wrong with that, necessarily, but she could see how the road ahead was looking for her if she stayed in their relationship and had decided to just make a right at the next intersection, so that's what she'd done after a lot of thought about it.

Jim probably wouldn't even notice until Friday night, and she figured that he'd find a replacement for her in his life before too long - maybe an hour, she smirked to herself. Jim didn't need much more than a bed, a dark room and a warm wet hole.

She left the park and walked up the slightly sloping walk in the general direction of where she'd left her car. It was late-morning and she had a notion of finalizing a few of her thoughts over a bite to eat and a cup of something.

Once she'd reached the main street, she drew a deep breath and let it out with a small smile to herself as she walked to a little cafe that she knew. They had an outside patio that was fenced and they kept large umbrellas there over the tables for the perverse folks who liked to be outside and have the service of a waitress just because they had the time for it.

She almost stopped when she looked up from the sidewalk a few minutes later. There were only a few patrons outside at this time of day, and there was one woman there at a table all to herself, away from anyone else, probably because of her companion.

She'd know that dog anywhere.

Shannon smiled to herself at the changes that she could see in the woman who had been huddled on a doorstep a block and a week and a half away from where she now sat writing thoughtfully.

"Hey," Shannon said as she ambled over to the table. Honey got up, but remained seated with a quiet word from Joss. She was obviously happy, though.

Joss smiled up in a cautiously friendly way, "Hi. I know that I've seen you before, but I don't know if I ought to know you somehow. Please forgive me."

"Shannon Peters," the brunette grinned, holding out her hand once Honey got the idea that she could be pet with only one, "I was the trooper in the street the other night when Chris came to pick you up. Whitfield, right?"

She looked carefully at the blonde's face and was a little relieved to see her expression brighten.

"Joss," the blonde grinned, taking Peters' hand for a moment, "Care to join me? Chris was right," she said indicating the dog with a nod, "I have only one-sided conversations with her."

"I'd like that," Shannon grinned, "unless it'll stop you from your writing there. A letter home?"

"Shopping list," Joss smiled, "I didn't recognize you away from the big white car. Please, sit down and we'll see if that cute waiter can handle three of us. Honey's gonna need another six bottles of water any minute now, anyway."

It seemed that the young man could indeed and he was on his way back inside with their orders a minute later.

"What brings you out here today out of uniform?" Joss asked, "And by the way, I like seeing you like this a lot better, just sayin'."

Shannon shrugged as she marveled a little at Joss and how much she liked her instantly like this. "I dunno, it looked like a good morning to go for a walk and clear my head." She pushed Honey and her inquisitive nose away a little and turned her chair to face the table directly. "Yes, I know where I've been, Honey. Thanks."

Joss realized that she hadn't been paying attention to Honey for a moment and she apologized, but Shannon only smiled, "It's ok, Joss. I'm used to dogs. She's just figured out what I was doing earlier that's all. I'm on my way home from saying goodbye to a man. He just doesn't know it yet."

Joss got it and they just seemed to fall into a comfortable feeling between them very quickly. Within a few minutes, they knew enough of the generalities of each other's lives to laugh a little.

"I can't believe the changes in you from the last time I saw you, "the brunette grinned, "So did you get a job through Chris or what?"

"Yes, no, and I don't know, "Joss laughed. "After we left you, he took me for a romantic dinner at the only place still open at that time of night. We went to his place and talked. His life hasn't had much more than empty spaces and wind in it, and, well, you'll know enough about mine if I just say that my husband left me, I tried to drive home to my folks and got stranded here about a year ago. I just felt really strange that night, Shannon. I suddenly had an idea, and a minute later, I almost knew that I could tell him about it, so I did."

The waiter was back with their orders. When he left, Shannon leaned forward, "What was your idea?"

Joss shrugged, "I told him that I wanted the job. He offered me a job as his housekeeper and God, he was so serious and careful about telling me. I just made a different offer to him, that's all. I told him that I'd do more than he wanted, and that I'd take what he was offering as my pay as operating funds for the job instead and keep whatever I saved from that, unless there was some reason that we needed that, though I knew that we likely wouldn't ever."

"Well can I ask what you offered, or, ..."

Joss looked just a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then smiled. "I don't know if you can understand it, but besides knowing that he wanted to help me, I just saw something in him and when I put that together with how I felt and knowing myself and how I am, I just saw something there just as plain as day, so I just told him that I didn't want to be his housekeeper. I told him that I wanted to be his woman."

Shannon put down her cup slowly and stared. "His woman?"

"Uh-huh," Joss said, feeling just a little self-conscious. But a moment later, she'd already reminded herself about what she'd decided about feeling this way and her little sense of pride was back. "I just knew what I wanted, so I asked him to please just treat me as though I was his wife, and we'd be fine. We're learning about each other, but so far, it's working out really well. We're both mindful that it's about trying to fit each other's lives, that's all."

Shannon sat back, more than a little dumbfounded for a moment. She looked at Joss and she could see it. She now wore much more fashionable clothes and had some confidence coming from someplace in her. She'd gotten her hair done a little shorter with just a little hint of 'spikey' to it that really suited her now.

Shannon knew that when they'd seen each other last, Joss couldn't have pulled the look off to save her life. She'd have looked more like a discarded hamburger wrapper from a fast-food drive-through, pure trash. Now? She saw that Joss looked comfortable and confident, at perfect ease with her life. Honey looked content and regal next to her and Joss herself looked like a million bucks.

"Ok wait, "Joss laughed, "It wasn't as blatant as that, and I have to tell you that I didn't plan on it. There was a storm that night, and I'm just scared to death of lightning. We'd already worked out that we both really wanted to sleep in the same bed. I sure wouldn't have turned him down if he'd have wanted to fool around, but that really wasn't the intent. We were both just so lonely and really, we just wanted to be near somebody that night, so we agreed to sleep together. If that's all that had happened, it would have been ok with us both, but the storm scared the heck out of me and after we'd been in bed together with him holding me to stop my shaking, I just knew that it could work somehow.

I'm not all that bold by nature, Shannon, but I thought that the worst that could happen was that he'd sleep on the couch and I'd take the job as his housekeeper. We're not kids, and we just fell into something very comfortable together and admitted it – as stupid as it sounds. I fell in love with Chris and made my offer. He listened and argued a little, but he admitted that he felt some love for me too. We've just gone from there, and I've never been so happy."

She looked at Honey, who had gone back to lying down at her feet. "You want to hear the strangest thing? Look at her. She loves and adores him, but we have a slightly different relationship. She's absolutely obedient to me. I don't need to use much more than a word or two and she'll do what I want, after maybe a second of trying to figure out what I mean. She's just as shit-scared of storms as I am. We actually had Chris in bed between us that first night for a while."

She smiled, "Now we both know what we are. We both just belong to him. I make jokes about it to Chris, but I think there's something to it. We're Moreth's girls, and that's it. We've just accepted it plain and simple."

Shannon sat back and chuckled. Then she just laughed. "That's amazing, Joss. I was going to give him a call, since I have his number," she shrugged with a laugh, "but I can see that there's no point now."

She leaned forward and touched Joss' hand, "I'm really glad," she said sincerely. "The last time I saw you, my heart went out to you. If Chris hadn't come along in about another minute, I would have just walked over and told you to move along, after giving you one of the little cards that we carry with all the help-line numbers on it. You would have walked away, but I don't think it would have gotten you anywhere. You looked so desperate that I could feel it. In my job, it gets a little hard to care too much, because we see such shit and awful things sometimes, but you didn't fit any of it and I didn't want to see the start when you really slid down the chute. God, I like this Joss Whitfield a whole lot better. You look like you're right where you want to be. I hope this goes on working for you.

I am a little jealous though," she grinned. "It looks to me like you've got a horseshoe up your ass from where I'm sitting." She laughed a little, "I hope it never falls out, but now I want to know where I can get one. They must be awful to stuff up there."

Joss laughed, "I sure don't know where it came from. I don't think it'll fall out any time soon, though. Not the way that Chris keeps trying to push it further in every so often."

The statement got her a look from Shannon and they laughed about it for a moment. "Really?" she asked, "you guys do that?"

Joss shrugged, smiling. "We kind of like that sometimes. In some ways, we're a little different there too. He's mine and I know it, Shannon. I plan to keep that nailed down tight by being his. I think a big part of that is, ... well, he's pretty much a straight arrow, and I'm his girl most of the time. He'd never have had the thought of it, but I also offered to be just a bit of a slave to him. It went right against the way that I've always been, but I could just see that it might work for us and it has. We don't do anything really freaky, since that's not what it's about to us. Sometimes, I'm just subservient to him."

She watched the brunette's eyes widen a little and shook her head, "Not like what you're thinking. It's all pretty gentle. Chris has no need to humiliate or hurt me. We just use that for when we want it more passionate, that's all. What I always get from him is that I'm loved very much and I get that more from him every day as we settle into each other. I don't know if this will explain it, but,..."

She reached into her purse and Shannon stared at what she was looking at. She looked down at Honey and saw that she was wearing the collar that she'd thought she'd seen. She looked at what was on the table between them. They were identical, other than size and the one before her had a small pendant hanging from it rather than a dog tag.

"If you understand the concept, then you know that I'm really the one who's in charge of that part of our relationship. Until I met him, I wouldn't have put up with something like this from anyone. I 'm not that kind of girl by a long shot. But it works for us in other ways too. Like, he was on the couch watching the news one evening. I noticed, and I went to the bedroom for a minute. When I walked back out, I was wearing just a tiny bit more makeup, a lot of glossy red lipstick, and this. That's all. He was at the end of the couch, and I just sat on the floor there on my hip, trying to look the way that Honey does it. I didn't say anything. I just watched the TV.

After a minute, Chris told me to sit next to him, so I curled up there beside him. The news went to commercials and he kissed my cheek, so I laid down with my head on his thigh and he just pet me until the news was over. He shut off the TV and then he told me how much he loved me. Like a lot of guys, that was s a little hard for him to do, but it isn't anymore.

I was feeling a little blue one time - no real reason, I just felt that way, and Chris noticed it right away. He walked over and did something that nobody ever did for me. He just hugged me and held me for about a half an hour. When I told him that I felt better, he smiled and kissed me and then he went back to what he was doing. There was nothing else there from his side, only that I felt badly about something and he wanted to make me feel better with nothing else to it. Bobby might have done that, if he was sober, but there would have been an expectation underneath it."

She looked over at Shannon and smiled, "When we started that first night, I told him that I wanted to be cherished for once in my life, and he does that for me every single day now. It doesn't matter if we're in bed, or swimming in the pond out at his place or if he's in the middle of making our dinner late on a Sunday afternoon – since he cooks on the weekends if he's home, he always shows me and I show him what he means to me all the time. He knows it when he sees me wearing this for him. It means that I'm devoted to him and he's the kind of man who'd never have the thought of ever pissing on something like that.

I'm thinkin' that I must be doing something right. Chris called up this company that he knows. They'll find anybody to serve them with divorce papers. That was about the first thing that Chris did for me. We'd only been together a couple of days, but he said that I'd feel a whole lot better for it and he was so right. They served Bobby only a day later, and from what the lawyer said to Chris, I'll be divorced soon. Bobby won't contest a thing, seeing as how Chris is a U.S. Marshal. Bobby always did like to fly under the radar. He never told me why, but I guess he had a reason to." she shrugged.

They spent the next hour chatting about how this worked for Joss and anything to do with men in general. By the time that they parted, Shannon Peters and Joss Whitfield each had a new friend, the kind that you could say anything to. While Shannon had a lot of fun with the idea, she knew that it likely wouldn't work for her, given her personality and what she knew of herself.

Shannon was happy for Joss however, and enjoyed her friendship. Knowing the two of them did have an effect on Shannon. It caused her to raise her expectations quite a bit. She now wanted more for herself than a drink in a bar with the usual crowd every single weekend evening and then a hope for sex as unimaginative as she seemed to have been settling for earlier. She wasn't interested in what had worked for her friends, she just wanted better than she'd had. She didn't think it was all that likely to happen though. She didn't seem to ever meet men like Chris.

The odd thing was that she did meet one though, and that had happened because of the sort of afternoon that a bunch of law enforcement people might dream up between them, given the chance of it. Joss thought Chris was nuts when she found him musing over the idea, but she got on-side from what she saw as the hostess side of things. That was no trouble for her. The rest of it just made her laugh.

He'd been invited to a paintball match. He wasn't all that enthusiastic about it, but he went. That was where the idea came from. His fields had corn in them that year in a kind of informal agreement with a farmer down the road and the harvest was in. The only thing left was to cut it down and that was planned in the next month or so.

So he and Joss hosted a barbecue and paintball party. Shannon was there to help Joss out, but she did bring old clothes for it and played in a match or two. That was how she met Lucas.

That was also the day that Julie had chosen to try to make an appearance. It had taken her some time, but she'd managed to track Chris down. She found a lot of people stuffing their faces and having a good time, about half of them proudly wearing splatters of paint.

Julie asked a woman where Chris Moreth was. The woman held a large dog by the collar that quite obviously had no friendliness toward Julie, but settled down to staring pointedly at her with a low background growl.

"He's around here someplace," the woman said, noting the dog's dislike and remembering Julie from the video. "What do you need him for? Maybe I can help you. I'm his woman."

Julie smirked, "I rather doubt that, I'm his wife."

"No you're not," Joss smiled a little, and she decided to keep her thoughts to herself as Chris walked up.

"Please leave, Julie." It was all that he said.

"I want to talk to you," she replied, "What's all this?"

"I don't want to talk to you," Chris replied, "If I see you here again, I'll have an injunction sworn out against you, just like the one that's in place in Virginia. What this is here is none of your business, but you're intruding and you're not welcome. You want to make a big deal out of something nonexistent outside of your mind, well then you go on ahead. Almost everyone here is a law officer and most of us have federal jurisdiction. There's someone from the state police as well," he smiled coldly, "another detail about my life that you never bothered to be interested in. We were married once, now we're done. Please leave."

By that time, several others had begun to wander over, just out of interest and not knowing the relationship involved. Julie would have been a lot more interested, but knowing who these people were changed her level of interest significantly and she walked off without a word. When she started her car, she looked and saw that Chris was walking away with the blonde woman, but that a tall brunette wearing a paint-spattered T-shirt the word 'POLICE' on it was holding the dog now as well closing the gate.

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It had gone pretty much as Joss had envisioned it between them. There hadn't been much fuss and they'd just settled in with each other. Joss did it all and it amazed Chris to no end since, besides handling all of his non-critical or secure correspondence and the social side of his job, she ran the old farmstead like a ship, the only concession being that after a while, she'd had to farm out the cleaning to a local maid service. Even so, she could out-shop him six ways from Sunday and she was never pleased unless she could tell herself that she'd gotten the best deal that she could in anything.