No One's Born Broken

[abrightboy]

For tinstar.



Gil came and went. Dani came and went. Ainsley came and then left with their mother, who refused to even hear him out about telling the truth. He stared through the window at the motionless man in the bed for some indeterminate amount of time, his hand clutching his phone in his pocket.

Finally he let his eyes leave the figure through the window and he took his phone out of his pocket. He stared at that for a long moment, then scrolled through his contacts until one name rolled onto the screen: Raylan Givens.

He looked through the window, then looked at the name. Then he pressed it.

Comments

[abrightboy]

"Well, dispatch thought it might be a crank call. Some kid telling them that his dad kills people and has a girl in a box in the basement? So I show up at the house in this posh as hell upscale neighbourhood and this nice doctor answers the door and he doesn't know who could have made the call, but invites me in for tea."

Gil pulled open the door of the deli, holding it for Raylan.

"So I'm standing there in the entrance hall while this pleasant man is making tea in fancy china cups and a little boy comes up to me. He says 'You should take out your gun. My father is going to kill you.'"

He stepped up to the counter and ordered, moving to the side so Raylan could do the same.

[tinstar]

Raylan 'ah'd with a quiet little sound before order a pastrami on rye.

"He told me about Martin's proclivity for poisons in tea. It's sadly not the first time I've seen somethin' like that." He wasn't going to praise it, but it was the cleverest way he'd seen so far to get innocent people to willing pour anything down their throat.

"Very brave for a kid that age to call, sharper for him to know. Guess neither of those things he ever grew out of." Which was, inarguably, a good thing.

[abrightboy]

"He saved my life," Gil said plainly as they moved to a booth to sit down. "From his own father, because it was the right thing to do. There are a lot of things he's never grown out of."

And might explain why Gil took on a consultant that, on paper, looked like a problematic FBI reject.

"Well. You've worked with him. You've seen him when his brain gets going. Some people can't deal with it, but he gets the job done."

[tinstar]

"Kids have a way of being brutally honest," Raylan said as he sat down across from Gil, taking off his hat to habitually run his fingers lightly pinched across the brim before setting it beside him. Having it off meant more of his age showed, but it didn't bother him as much with Gil who sported his own dapper accents.

"That first case he came down on, it was like a bloodhound on the scent. Of course, he's proven himself over and over again as undeteriable. He's a real asset for your office." Raylan straightened his tie as his off hand found a place on the table. "What's going on with Jessica Whitly?"

Why wait?

[abrightboy]

Gil looked at him, his gaze assessing.

"Do you mean legally or is she giving you a hard time about Malcolm?" he asked with a look that suggested it really could be either.

[tinstar]

"Legally," Raylan assured with a look to back it up, as though there was no hard time to be given about Malcolm. He knew Gil knew, it was stupid to think otherwise, but he couldn't help it. "Malcolm is worried about her and I assume you're not tellin' her everything, as you're technically in the middle of an investigations. With the duress they were under and the killer in - You guys have him in custody, right?"

[abrightboy]

"We have him in custody," Gil allowed. "And he's not talking. We caught him at the hospital. We all heard him tell Malcolm he did him a favour because his dad was dead. It's circumstantial. But as it stands... if she has a good lawyer, I'm sure they can get her off the charges. But she has to take it seriously."

Gil raised an eyebrow at him.

"She's not giving you a hard time about Malcolm? She called me checking up on you."

No point pretending otherwise.

"Or are we still pretending you're just a friend from out of town? That flies here in the middle of the night when he's in trouble?"

[tinstar]

Raylan looked down, jaw flexing slightly. Damnit. He was hoping that Gil was Jessica's flavor of not asking questions, but the cop in him clearly overroad that. It was a good thing, over all, but not the most comfortable thing for Raylan Givens.

Hazel eyes came back up to meet Gil's, unwilling to take such a cowardly, unbelievable lie as his excuse. No, they weren't pretending that.

"You've got his manipulation on record and a body in the morgue already; what more do you need to establish an M.O?" Raylan lifted his fingers, index and thumb finding each other as his palm turned half to the side. He was demanding nothing, commanding nothing, just an easy guy having a conversation.

"Jessica and I came to an understandin' this morning after I drew down on her." Just in case Gil wanted to go and check up on that himself, later. "I'm here to help protect him. From himself and the things around him, best I can."

[abrightboy]

"I haven't told Malcolm or Jessica this, but the DA is suggesting that Jessica may have used the very public spectacle of the blackmailer to carry out a grudge against her ex without consequences. Nobody witnessed his last set of instructions. Not even Malcolm." Gil leaned back and paused as the waitress set their food in front of them. "Of course, there's another theory floating that maybe Jessica couldn't do it and maybe it was Malcolm that put the ice pick in Martin's heart," Gil said, his eyes on Raylan's face. "But I'm not willing to entertain that sort of speculation with a confession on the table."

[tinstar]

"You shouldn't, they'd both lie for each other and fight over it," Raylan said, face betraying nothing aside from a soft gratefulness as he thanked the waitress for their food. "But you know them both better than I do."

He wasn't going to get pinned down in some emotional corner. "But considering what you do know, it means what they say isn't reliable. They're both compromised, like any other suspect. Hell, if you didn't tell me that someone saw it, who's to say Martin Whitly didn't stab himself to spare his family from having to? He's certainly capable of it.

[abrightboy]

"He loves himself too much," Gil said, picking up his sandwich. "And Jessica would lie to protect Malcolm, but not Martin. So either Jessica really did do it, or Malcolm did. So far nobody is disputing that it was Jessica, but Malcolm did call for backup in the middle of the night," he pointed out, taking a bite.

[tinstar]

"Knowing that someone might die because of it at the time? Changing statements makes her less reliable to a jury and Malcolm is emotional fragile - him reaching out to a trusted LEO came only be in his favor. Who stabs their father and then calls the Marshal Services?"

Raylan picked up half of his sandwich and took a bite, as carefree as ever. He knew that was what sold things and he'd stick with it.

"I've already told him that Jessica and her money will have good lawyers. I don't think he believes me."

[abrightboy]

"I don't doubt for a second that he believes you," Gil told him. "You have to understand something about Malcolm: he doesn't let people in. That he even called you tells me a lot and, frankly, I don't want to know what he told you. Of course he wants to take the blame; he'll never let anyone suffer a burden he can take from them. He feels like he failed all the people his father killed before he called the police, instead of recognizing that he saved all the people he would have killed after. He wants to save everyone. He'll never feel like he's protected enough lives to be free of the Surgeon's sins and the only person that can free Malcolm Bright's conscience is Malcolm Bright. But he literally cannot stop. Jessica will be fine if she stops pretending this is nothing and gets a highpowered rich person lawyer. Malcolm, on the other hand, needs to just stay out of the way. A case is the best place for him right now."

[tinstar]

Raylan eyed Gil. Some of this he knew, some of it he didn't. But Gil himself was basking in a clearer definition - he was one of the good ones you didn't clue into what the hell was going on because then he'd have to report it, whereas Raylan was willing to overlook his oaths if he had to. The world needed cops like Gil. They also needed assholes like Raylan and he knew it.

"And no one here is arguing that." Just to underline it with a reassuring lift of his eyebrows. Everyone here really did move a mile a minute. "What are you lookin' for here Gil? Is this a.. briefing on him?" Because if Gil was offering pointers, Raylan would take every single one.

"I'm concerned about both of them too." So he understood the impulse to protect them both as best Gil could.

[abrightboy]

"It's just a conversation between two people with concerns," Gil said. "Malcolm doesn't come with a manual, though, so maybe a briefing wouldn't hurt." He washed down another bite of his sandwich with his coffee. "Like you said, I've been looking out for that kid a long time." He considered Raylan a moment. "He's not as fragile as he seems. He has a mile of resolve underneath the brittle exterior."

[tinstar]

Busying himself with another bite, Raylan leaned back and let Gil go on while he chewed. The last statement got something of a soft huff and knowing nod of his head. Malcolm wasn't as fragile as Jessica made him out to be.

"I've noticed. You can tell a lot about a man when he's got a knife to his neck." Raylan wasn't sure if Gil knew about that, but he'd no doubt heard about Quarles untimely demise. "First case he came down to Kentucky on, he went through half the building, the FBI before us, and drove the case like a madman, despite being painfully unfamiliar with the area and people. He's good at his job and making his points clear, on either side of it. Tough to argue with." In a good way, in the end.

[abrightboy]

Gil huffed a laugh. "Did you know that if you actually win the argument, you'll turn around ten minutes later and he'll be doing whatever it is he was going to do anyway?" he asked.

[tinstar]

"Doesn't that mean you didn't really win anything?" Raylan countered, face full of amusement as he pulled his own coffee closer for a drink. "I try to avoid tellin' him what to do.. Unless we're in Kentucky. He found a way to wait in the car with no argument, eventually. I wouldn't suggest the same up here."

[abrightboy]

"It exactly means you didn't win anything. Arguing with him is a lot of work and it doesn't even achieve anything. You have to pick your battles real carefully."

He paused when Raylan said he found a way to get Bright to wait in the car and just looked at him a moment.

"How did you do it?" he pressed.

[tinstar]

Raylan chuckled at Gil's enthused confirmation. It made him think of the argument they'd had the night before, that Raylan had soundly lost, bruises and all.

At the question, Raylan lifted his eyebrows a little before he shook his head and glanced down to pick up his sandwich again. "I didn't - He did. You ever been down South? Even if you haven't, I'm sure you can imagine how open minded and welcoming my people are to.. well dressed, probing Northerners." Also known as Not at all. "So when one comes in and starts telling the local outlaw that I've known since I was a teenager, exactly about himself in not so subtle words, in the middle of gun country... What still gets me about it is that I was helpin' out the local constable in getting the business to sign some bullshit papers."

It was supposed to have been easy. It very much was not.

"That many guns comin' out at once and the way Boyd was lookin' at him was enough to convince him to maybe Not do that down there anymore. Well. As much as he can help it."

[abrightboy]

"Staying in the car is possibly the only way he can help it," Gil conceded. "He could never go with you and not speak. Things come into his great big brain and fly straight out his great big mouth, god love him."

[tinstar]

"God, ain't that the truth," he commiserated before taking another bite of his sandwich. When it cleared enough for him to continue, one finger holding time before he did, Raylan added, "But at least there's no doubting what he thinks about somethin'. Not having to dig is a refreshing change of pace."

[abrightboy]

"No, that's true," Gil said. "I've never once had a meeting where I had to say 'Bright, speak up. We haven't heard from you yet!'," he joked. He sobered slightly, wiping off his fingers on his napkin to pick up his coffee. "It's a bit of a relief, honestly. As long as he's talking, you know he's okay." He wrapped both hands around his mug. "After his dad's trial, he stopped talking for about... two months. It wasn't until his mother found the therapist that he.... still actually sees, that we got him back."

[tinstar]

That made Raylan frown a little, an expression just as subtle as the rest of them. "Makes sense that he would shut down but two months isn't exactly a small chunk of change.." This one he also didn't know. It was something to look out for if shit really hit the fan. Context helped.

"Let's hope he's not given another reason to shut down." It certainly wouldn't be because of Raylan, that was for sure. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to him when he's out with me, on a case or otherwise. Just to be clear. He's already been through enough shit and even when his head drops him into a case, well.. Protecting him from shit he starts kinda comes with hanging out and workin' with him, I suppose."

[abrightboy]

"He's not afraid to tell anyone that they're a piece of shit when they're a piece of shit, that's for sure. And your bar full of criminals wouldn't be the first that didn't like it. But he never starts anything out of malice. He's usually set off by someone bring treated badly. Especially if it's someone vulnerable. But.... with Bright.... he has a lot more ways to deal with things than he did when he was eleven. I just hope they keep working, because he will not stay away from things that set off his trauma just to protect himself from them. Protecting himself is almost always his last priority. That's why the rest of us have to quietly do it."