The Road Home

[abrightboy]

Raylan's loose ends had been tied in Kentucky and Malcolm's were as tantalizingly close as they'd ever been. He and Raylan made the trip to New York with the intent of discovering the fate of the girl in the box, so they could head down to Miami without... baggage.

They would have to start with the revelation Jessica and Ainsley had made to Malcolm right before Raylan was shot, sending Malcolm back to Kentucky: that Eve had infiltrated the Whitly family to learn more about the Surgeon's victims.

Malcolm let them into the New York loft - a space he considered theirs now, more than his, since they decided they might weather the hurricane season there after moving to Miami - smiling as Sunshine tweeted greetings. Once the door was shut behind Raylan, he opened the door of her cage. Ainsley would have fed her diligently, but nobody would have let her out to fly. Sunshine took off across the loft and Malcolm grinned, watching her go.

He looked at Raylan. "We can still bring her with us when we leave, right?"

Comments

[tinstar]

Malcolm was quicker on the uptake than Raylan was but by the time the smaller man had blurted it out, the Marshal had put it together and he couldn't help but smile, eyes narrowed almost proudly. Had to appreciate a good scam.

"And you're worried that if we turn him over, you might be out of your cushy little box here with your notes and your personal butler, huh." Raylan's everything said 'Interesting.'

After a long second, Raylan shrugged with his face and one shoulder. "No reason the unravelin' of Endicott's reach needs to come here. If you behave. It can stay faar away from ya."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm had more background than Raylan, was all.

Martin sneered at him. “He said he would ruin my family. Maybe you can protect my boy. Maybe. Who’s going to protect my wife and my little girl, hm?”

[tinstar]

"Malcolm's protection will also extend to them, insomuch as it can. When I marry him-" Yes Martin, your boy was going to be a Givens, "-That's gonna make your wife and daughter extended family. They start gettin' threats, havin' accusations leveled against them.. They got a speed dial port into one of the more successful and powerful Government services."

Raylan shifted on his feet, bringing him a fraction closer to Martin.

"We are on the same side of this argument but I know men like Endicott. Men who think they're gods or untouchable. Uncatchable. They're not," he assured with a lift of his eyebrows and a shake of his head. "And lettin' them lord over you leaves you weak to their whims. Better to cut that cancer out and deal with it head on than livin' life lookin' over your shoulder."

This was something Raylan knew from experience several times over, intimately. He was still going through it; what was one more name on the list of people looking to ruin or kill Raylan Givens.

[abrightboy]

Martin held his gaze, Malcolm behind his shoulder watching intently.

“The only thing over my shoulder is a wall. But if something happens to my family because you poked this hornet’s nest, I will find my way through it to visit on you the worst day of your miserable backwoods life,” he snarled.

“Dr Whitly, if you know anything else, it seems like protecting your family would be a good reason to give it up.”

“I don’t have anything else,” he snapped. “You’re going to ruin all of us. You’re going to ruin your mother and your sister and for what? The fate of a woman that left my custody unharmed? She’s not your responsibility, Malcolm.”

Malcolm swallows. “You made her my responsibility the day you put her in a trunk in our basement. You’re the one that brought all of this down on us, not me and not Raylan.”

[tinstar]

For now. But Raylan didn't say that. Instead he smiled a sickeningly sweet smile and stayed quiet as Malcolm spoke up. Malcolm was right, of course, and Raylan signed up to co-sign on this mystery when he decided to ask Malcolm to marry him. Getting an answer didn't mean tearing everything down but he understood Martin was prone to ~dramatics~.

"We appreciate your help, Dr. Whitly." A small concession, but an important one as Raylan turned, one hand hovering protectively and guiding Malcolm towards the door.

They were done here.

[abrightboy]

Raylan’s hand at his back was like a tether to the Earth and he left the cell feeling a lot less unsettled than he usually did.

Then it occurred to him as they left the cell that the guard went in and, for the length of their stroll down the hall, he hadn’t come out.

And it wasn’t Mr David.

Malcolm frowns and turns around, giving Raylan’s arm a squeeze as he headed back towards the cell, but once he glimpsed through the glass, he broke into a run, trying the door (locked) before banging on the glass. The guard had a garrotte around Martin’s neck.

“DR WHITLY!!” Malcolm shouted through the glass. Martin’s eyes fluttered shut. “DAD, NO!” Malcolm cried out despite himself. Martin’s eyes snapped open and he quickly had the killer on his back.

Digging his thumbs into the man’s eye sockets, Martin looked up at the window he knew Malcolm was at giddily.

Malcolm looked sick.

[tinstar]

Raylan frowned at Malcolm's frown, staying where he was until Malcolm broke into a run. There was no question about him sprinting along behind the profiler to glance into the cell.

"Shit," he swore, turning to pull the emergency alarm that set the hall to blinking long with the strobes of red of the alert lights to match. When he stepped back, everything had changed and Martin was grinning at them like the psychopath he was.

It didn't take but 30 seconds for the hall burst with life as guards rushed in and pushed them to the side to start getting into the cell themselves.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm stepped into the cell behind them as they rushed Martin, who put his bloodied hands up as soon as they drew near him, easily acquiescing to being steered to sit on his cot while one of the guards checked the one on the ground. Malcolm paced tightly in the corner by the bookshelves, careful not to cross the red line.

Martin had done this damage tethered and cuffed.

“Thank god you were still around,” Martin tells Malcolm and Raylan, looking up at Raylan bright-eyed. “I was viciously attacked.”

[tinstar]

As Raylan followed in, his hand pushed his jacket aside and rested on the butt of his gun, ready to use it if needed. Any civility that Raylan had previously in his face and eyes were gone, replaced with a cold hardness that wasn't here to fuck around.

"That's well beyond self defense," Raylan said with no hint of kindness or understanding in his reply. He shifted only to move out of the guards way, eyes locked on Martin.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm watched warily from his corner.

Martin shrugged a shoulder. “Put it on my tab,” he said breezily. He canted his head slightly. “As much as I’m sure you’d love an excuse to shoot me,” he added, holding up his bloody but cuffed hands and wiggling his fingers. “You wouldn’t shoot a man who’s restrained.” He levels his gaze past Raylan’s shoulder to Malcolm. “In front of his son.”

Malcolm took an unsteady breath, his eyes on Martin, then he walked swiftly out of the cell, leaving the guards cleaning up, one of them standing by with his taser at the ready while they worked.

“REMEMBER WHAT I TOLD YOU, MY BOY!” Martin shouted after him.

[tinstar]

Raylan's eyes didn't move. He waited until all the guards but the two that were waiting to take Martin cleaned up were left.

"Ya know, I don't think he'd have a problem with it." Still, Martin was, on the books, correct. Raylan couldn't shoot a man in cuffs. But got he wanted to.

Instead of saying anything else, Raylan lifted his eyebrows slightly and turned to leave out of the room, hand falling back to his side as he left the dog in its pen. He could walk out of here. Martin couldn't.

Raylan caught up to Malcolm on the way out to the car, jogging a little to catch up and hook him gently by his arm. "Hey, hey, slow down."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was clenching and unclenching his fist, stopping as Raylan bid him to, but looking around wildly before his gaze actually settled on Raylan’s face.

“What the hell is happening?” he whispered urgently, his expression distraught. “Who can just walk into a cell in Claremont to kill a high profile prisoner?”

[tinstar]

"Someone who'd really like to see Martin dead, is who. Considerin' who we were talkin' about, that makes me think Endicott, but how would he have known?"

The skill of getting into the building wasn't something Raylan was too concerned about. A good hitman, a little slight of hand - you could get in most anywhere if you did it right. But hitmen didn't send themselves.

"C'mon. Let's get you home and we can work through it." That steady hand guided Malcolm back towards the car.

[abrightboy]

“Eve,” Malcolm suddenly says from the passenger seat as Raylan’s car glides through traffic, Malcolm’s eyes watching the buildings pass blankly. “We don’t know what she actually knows or who she’s talked to about it.”

[tinstar]

"Invite her to your apartment. Tell her that Martin told you something as the hook, that the girl escaped, but keep that till she's actually inside. She loves her sister as much as she says she does, she'll hustle on over," Raylan bet aloud as he weaved them in and out of the traffic, checking his mirrors to the point of paranoia.

Spoiler, he was paranoid.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm fishes his phone out of his pocket and dials, but it rings and rings and then goes to voicemail.

He looks at Raylan. “She’s not picking up.”

[tinstar]

"What do you wanna do," he asked with a glance over. He wasn't here to get in Malcolm's way, he was here to help. This was Malcolm's turf.

"We can drop back by her office?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was anxious. It made him fidgety. He fidgeted his phone from hand to hand, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go see what she knows.”

He flexed his hand on his leg the whole ride, practically jumping out of the car before it came to a complete stop, pounding on the elevator call button in her lobby.

[tinstar]

That was the better choice, in Raylan's opinion. If someone was coming to tie up loose ends, Eve could be next, even if she didn't know anything.

Raylan hurriedly shut off the car and followed Malcolm inside, staring up at the Elevator floor indicator. Why did he have a feeling they were going to end up running up stairs?

"Remember to breathe," he reminded softly.

[abrightboy]

Remember to breathe. It was such a small thing. And it was everything. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment as he drew a deep breath, then released it, then opened his eyes to look up at the floor indicator. When the elevator door opened, he stepped in, waiting for Raylan to join him before pressing the door close and floor buttons repeatedly until the elevator got moving.

At Eve’s floor, he swept down the hall and past the receptionist to open her office door, but she wasn’t there. He turned and looked at the receptionist, who was looking at him with shock and annoyance.

“Where is she?”

“She left right after you did,” she answered testily.

[tinstar]

There were going to be aggressive cuddles and a bath for them in the future, after the day was done. The comfort he could offer was bare right now, only him standing stoically next to his fiancé through whatever came next.

"Where'd she go," Raylan asked the receptionist calmly, eyebrows lifting. "Martin Whitly just had an attempt on his life and I've got good reason to believe that she is being targeted. We need to know where she went."

One finger gestured out towards the planner on the Reception's desk, his tone gentle and plying, urging her to help them.

[abrightboy]

She looked at Raylan with trepidation. “It’s personal time,” she stammered. “She didn’t say where she was going.”

Malcolm, shifting his weight back and forth anxiously, leaned forward. “Did she say anything at all?”

She blinked at him. “She said she wouldn’t be back until Friday.”

Malcolm wrung his hands and looked at Raylan. “Is there any way he can put out a BOLO on her car?”

[tinstar]

Raylan was already on the phone by the time Malcolm finished his question, walking away with a few strides as he started setting up the Bolo Malcolm was just asking him for. Raylan nodded at the question and stepped back towards the secretary.

"What kinda car did she drive? Year, Make, model, color?" Any information that he got from her or Malcolm was relayed shortly before his phone was tucked away and he was gesturing at the receptionist again.

"I suggest you close up shop, forward her calls to her answering service, go home and lock your doors." He looked at Malcolm. "C'mon."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm followed without hesitation, jogging a little to keep up with the Marshal’s purposeful strides, fidgeting restlessly in the elevator.

“Are they going to call you if they find it?”

[tinstar]

"That's kinda how BOLO's work," he replied, impatiently, however stoic, watching the elevator number tick down.

"For now, I'm takin' you home." Secure entrances and exits. A goddamned drink while his mind wheels spun. "Someone's tyin' up loose ends."