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]

"Um..." Malcolm looked over almost sheepishly as he pulled the lid off the beans and rice. "If you want more options, check the cupboard beside the fridge," he advised. "With the caveat that I may have gotten carried away, but I don't know her well enough to guess what she likes at this point," he explained, opening the mess of chicken and cheese with a skeptical look at it. "Though I might join her in a pureed vegetable of some sort..."

[tinstar]

Raylan's brow pinched a little as he caught up, looking over at the kitchen and ambling over there to start pulling open cabinets. There was no mistaking Willa's area in them and Raylan couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Wow. Looks like you cleared the store out. Different levels and everything." But the numbers on the jars matched some of these and he picked through them with interest. "I might join you both," he continued as he came back with two jars he thought more suitable. Turkey with gravy and a jar of peas. "Always wondered what this stuff tastes like.."

He looked over at Malcolm as he sat down and fished out Willa's spoon and bib. "Did you have fun today? I won't ask how much anything cost but." He would ask that.

[abrightboy]

"I didn't know what the numbers meant. Do you think they'll keep long enough for her to eat them?" he asked, scooping a small portion of beans and rice onto his plate. "I can't say I have a ton of experience with solid food, but I can't see it tasting much different for being mushed up."

He looked over at the last question and smiled.

"I did. It was totally different than furnishing my own place, thinking about you and what would work for the way we live together." He huffed a laugh at himself. "Not that we've spent a lot of time living together, but we've talked about it!"

[tinstar]

"Somethin' having to do with chunks, I'd bet," he theorized, turning over the food jar and looking around. "I thought these things kept forever like canned goods. It's got an expiration date of two years from now though so-" Raylan looked up. "I think we're okay. Anythin' she doesn't eat, you might," he said with a gentle tease as he velro'd the bib around Willa and popped the cap on the peas.

"We'll get to the living part. Sooner rather than later, I hope. I suppose I oughta thank you for not goin' overboard on leather." It was only a tease, Malcolm only had the one leather couch.

[abrightboy]

"I didn't even consider leather, I'll have you know. Since you don't like the way it sticks to your bum, which is an item I hope to see there," he teased back.

He scooped up a small forkful of beans and rice. "There was no backside I expected to see on my couch in New York when I bought it. You've changed my whole outlook on couches," he informed Raylan before taking a careful, experimental bite from his fork.

[tinstar]

Raylan grinned and bounced his eyebrows at that as he picked up Willa's spoon and dipped into the peas. "Here to help," he declared before taking a bite himself and pulling a face.

"You'd love it. Tastes like nothing. Well, not nothing." Just not anything he deemed good. Another bite was scooped out and Raylan started trying to feed his daughter, eyes mostly busy with her though he glanced over at Malcolm's experimental bite.

"And what about your outlook on red beans and rice?"

[abrightboy]

"I don't eat food for the love of it. Except maybe lemon jello." Of which there was none in the cupboards because, in his quest to stock the apartment with Normal Groceries, he did not take his own preferences into account. "But this," he noted, poking his fork at the red beans and rice on his plate, "is actually very palatable." A beat as he scooped another small forkful up. He looked at Raylan. "That's my version of raving about it."

[tinstar]

"Hey, I'll take it," he said with a laugh. He already knew Malcolm ate only because it was a physical demand and took no pleasure in it, but that didn't stop Raylan's sarcastic streak. "Any bite past the first is a victory. Much like you, little girl," he said, airplaning the spoon towards her as she opened her mouth and just leaned forwards.

"I'll eat for the love of it enough for all of us."

[abrightboy]

"There's no way she won't grow up to love food, between eating her father's fried chicken and her father's barbeque," Malcolm pointed out, eating the next bite of red beans. "And I might let her in on the glory of lemon jello."

[tinstar]

"I hope not. Put her roots to shame," he said, with the same cooing voice as he let her take hold of the spoon so he could drag his tin of food over to him. The sacrifices, oh the sacrifices. Popping the plastic fork out of it's wrapper and pulling the lid off, Raylan tried to stab himself a bite and promptly broke his fork.

"Did you happen to buy silverware to go with the plates and cups?"

[abrightboy]

"Of course I got silverware. And linen napkins. And napkin rings. And I prewrapped it all," he said as he got up and headed over to the kitchen, pulling a bundle out of a drawer and bringing it over to Raylan. "I needed something to do while they built the bedroom. They told me to get out from under their feet."

[tinstar]

"Of course," Raylan echoed fondly, already too late to have stopped Malcolm from getting up in the first place. "Jesus, prewrapped and ringed and everything?" He couldn't help but chuckle as he tugged it free and unrolled it, picking the plastic out of his meal to place it on the side as Willa took to learning what happens when you bring a spoon bearing fist down onto a highchair top.

"Well no one can say you weren't productive. I take it you asked some questions?" He loved it. "How long did getting all this in take anyway? You looked.. very comfortable when we got in." In the best possible way though, of course.

[abrightboy]

"Did I? I was extremely nervous by then. Though I have severe anxiety," he conceded, "so maybe I always look like that."

He picked up his own (plastic) fork and scooped up another little bite's worth of the beans and rice.

"It took them about four hours to install everything. They wanted to do it tomorrow, but I persuaded them."

[tinstar]

"In the space, I mean. Sitting there on the barstool like you're ready to sell it or something." Something Business-y, though suits like Malcolm's always brought that to mind. He was trying not to talk about Winona, even if they wouldn't really be able to help it.

"Mmhmm," he hummed behind a full mouth. Persuaded. Once it was clear, he continued. "I look forward to testing it out with you." It came with a devilish look from under his eyebrows before he turned his attention back to Willa who had somehow kept a spit pocket of peas and decided that the spoon and then her face in general, needed to have some of.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked over at the stool then took a bite of his beans and rice trying to suppress a smile.

"So I succeeded at pretending to be casual," he teased as he swallowed. He looked at Willa. "Does that mean she likes it or no?"

[tinstar]

"I doubt she even noticed you were anxious about it. You did a good job," he said with a little lift of his eyebrows before looking down at Willa with a pinch of his face.

"I have no idea," he admitted honestly. "I haven't seen her reject somethin' yet." Making a little face at the peas that were now on his finger, Raylan spooned up another bite for her. "I figure so long as we get like, half the spoon in there, she'll be fine, right?"

[abrightboy]

"I don't even eat as much as half at a time, and I'm still alive," Malcolm pointed out cheerfully.

[tinstar]

"Yeah but I'm sure you had a decent start. I'd ask, but I'm afraid your mother would go on about it for a year and a half, with full insult in magazine." No thank you.

"I might have read a parenting book or two," he admitted with a look over. There was no might; Raylan had scoured too many baby sites looking for information over stupid worries he had. "Oh," he sounded, as he remembered. "Just so it's not a surprise later when she goes to the doctor for it - Willa's got a heart murmur. The doc says she might grow out of it, but it's something we-" The collective we, "- are keepin' an eye on."

[abrightboy]

"Heart murmurs are common in infants," Malcolm remarked, taking another bite of beans and rice. He gestured towards Willa with his fork. "They occur in sixty-six percent of children and seventy-five percent of newborns. So the probability that she'll grow out of it is actually extremely high. More likely than not." He looked up at Raylan suddenly. "I'm not suggesting that means you shouldn't keep an eye on it," he clarified, holding up a hand. "But it's... it's very common." He poked his fork into his rice and looked a little uncomfortable. "My father was a heart surgeon when he wasn't being a murderer." If anyone was wondering why he knew tidbits like that.

[tinstar]

Raylan looked over at that, immediately interested. Sometimes it was easy to forget how close to the medical field Malcolm himself was. Sure, he wasn't med trained, but he was who he was. He looked back at Willa thoughtfully.

"Huh. Okay. That's something. Shame he's a psychopath, I know he was a brilliant doctor." Too bad it wouldn't do anything for Winona's worry, but Raylan wasn't stupid enough to let on that he was involving Malcolm so deeply.

"I got the notice second hand and she was short on details beyond 'We're gonna watch it.'"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded solemnly. "He was very renowned. He invented a procedure. They named it after him." A beat. "They've since renamed it," he added. Another beat. "He really thinks that, because he saved more lives as a doctor than he took as a murderer that he's a good person," Malcolm scoffed. He frowned as he processed what Raylan said. "You didn't get to go to the appointment? Did she invite you?"

[tinstar]

Raylan lifted his eyebrows and scoffed a nod at the mention of them renaming the procedure as he spooned another bite into Willa's mouth and picked up his fork for a bite of his own with another little shake of his head.

"Might make him feel better, but there's still bodies in the ground because of him." Just like there was for Raylan; didn't matter why. His good person card was revoked. "Nah. I barely made it to her prenatal appointments, or if I did, I was late. She learned early I'm bad at that."

He was busier out there stopping bad guys. It was a fair trade off, in his head.

[abrightboy]

"....So she doesn't even tell you about them?" Malcolm hazarded. "It should still be your choice."

He wouldn't put Raylan anywhere near the same category as his father. His father killed innocent people for fun. Raylan killed bad people to protect innocent people. Raylan was definitely a good person.

[tinstar]

"Maybe in passing," he admitted. But it was always too late for him to have gone, even if he wanted to. "But it's workin' out, so far," he continued, as though to excuse the situation in whole. "I don't feel bad for bein' late, and she isn't mad at me for it."

[abrightboy]

"...No. She's mad at you for sleeping with a man and having a job you've always had," Malcolm pointed out. "I'm not sure there's room for her to be mad about things that might actually be a bit warranted, but I don't know her that well."