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

[abrightboy]

Malcolm clenched his hand on the counter, but nodded with determination.

“I have to finish this. She haunts me. I don’t want to bring her to Miami; I want to leave this here, with the rest of those memories,” he explained, holding Raylan’s gaze.

[tinstar]

He nodded softly, one hand reaching out to rub at Malcolm's back, pulling him in a little.

"I want that for you too." He'd dealt with and left Boyd behind, he wanted the same for Malcolm. For them both, for their future. "Just remember you're not alone in this. No matter what we find." Or don't find.

"Cup of coffee and five minutes to get dressed and I'll be ready to go. Let's see if we can put this to rest."

[abrightboy]

Not alone. Not alone in this. Not alone in anything ever again.

He nods, pouring the coffee for Raylan before heading into the bathroom to take care of his own business. He joins him again for a cup before plucking a dark grey suit from the closet and putting himself together. It’s more than five minutes for him, but he steps into the livingroom when he’s done, straightening his deep purple tie.

“Are we going to the precinct or the Marshals’ office?”

[tinstar]

More time for Raylan to enjoy his coffee after he finished dressing, happy enough to watch Malcom get dressed as he lingered. He liked watching Malcolm systematically tuck himself into his armor for the day, ready for another day of battle against bad guys and too many questions.

"Precinct. Gil wants to help keep an eye out-" Raylan knew Gil wanted to keep an eye on Malcolm more than the case, but he'd let Malcolm assume what he meant. "-And he's donated a spare office, if we need it. At least a place to keep what leads we already have. Once we've got our directions, we'll head out that way. See what we can't shake out."

[abrightboy]

Something in Malcolm’s frame relaxed fractionally at the idea of going somewhere familiar and safe instead of somewhere with new strangers to stare at him while he was on edge.

He nodded.

“That’s good. We’ll have backup if we need it.”

He flexed his hands and stuck them both in his pockets, trying to clamp down on the urge to fidget and pace.

[tinstar]

"Exactly." Moving towards the door, Raylan opened it and let Malcolm lead the way out.

"One day at a time darlin', one hour at a time. We'll get through it."

Once they were in the car and on the way, Raylan asked the big question. "Do you think you'd recognize her now, after all these years?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm pressed his lips together, then looked over at Raylan.

“I’ve seen her face every night of my life since that day. I’ll know her.”

He was sure he would. He was sure, if he saw her, everything would rush in. Every memory.

[tinstar]

Raylan nodded and kept driving on. If Malcolm said that it was so, he believed him. The nightmares that plagued his fiancée too often included bringing the girl in the box into their bed.

Pulling in, Raylan let Malcolm lead him up to the bull pen, eyes sweeping for Gil and the details he would have. He trusted that Malcolm was eager enough to dive in to let him lead the way on that too. Raylan was here to drive and be gun toting support.

[abrightboy]

As soon as Malcolm spotted Gil, he headed over.

"Any news on the BOLO that Raylan put out?" he asked.

"Nothing yet, kid. You'll be the first to know," Gil told him, clasping his shoulder. "But if she was involved in looking for a girl that escaped the Surgeon only to disappear... she might not be in New York or even the country anymore," he warned.

[tinstar]

"There's gotta be somethin'. We still have that picture that Eve gave us? Ain't there like... aging programs that we can use to add a few years, run the possibilities through the DMV databases? Because if the NYPD can't do it, I'm happy to see if there's a way we can't up this into a federal case, alls its gotta do is cross state lines."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks at Raylan hopefully, then looks at Gil with wide expectant eyes. Gil gives Raylan a slightly exasperated look, then holds his hand out to Malcolm.

“Give me the picture,” he says.

Malcolm puts it in his hand.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he tells them, then heads to another part of the precinct to get the comparison started.

Malcolm looks at Raylan. “Is there anything else we can…”

Dani comes into the precinct. “Unis report a body being pulled out of the Hudson. Matches the description of Eve Blanchard.”

Malcolm stills. “No… no we… we just talked to her.”

[tinstar]

Raylan was nonplussed by Gil's look. If there was more they could be doing, then they should be doing it. There was a reason that criminals hated Raylan Givens; he rode asses like that specifically was his job. Gil was one of the few that made Raylan not look down on local cops. He'd hate for that to be tainted by a lack of trying.

Whatever question Malcolm was going to ask was stopped by Dani, and Raylan turns his attention only to have her drop a whole new bomb on the situation. Hazel eyes glanced at Malcolm before landing pointedly back on Gil.

"Someone is trying to clean up loose ends. There is no way this is a coincidence." Who was to say that Malcolm, that Jessica, that Ainsley weren't loose threads. "We have to find her, before she's next."

He turns again to look back at Dani. "How long until your ME gets the body?" How long until they could be sure?

[abrightboy]

"They're bringing it down there right now."

Malcolm looks at Raylan, then pushes past Dani and JT to head for the elevator. He's going. He hopes Raylan will come.

They both have their own kind of relentless persistence; it's probably one of the reasons they're compatible.

Malcolm bursts into the morgue, eyes falling on the body on the table. There's no damage to her face; there's no mistaking who it is.

"Oh, Bright!" She notices Raylan. "Hi," she adds with an almost shy smile. She looks at Malcolm. "I had an amazing black bean wrap for lunch. Couldn't eat it all if you want the other half..."

She realizes he's staring at the corpse.

"Nothing for you here, really," she tells him. "Just a floater from the river."

"Her name's Eve Blanchard," he informs her evenly.

Her eyes widen slightly and she glances at Raylan and then back at Malcolm. "Oh. Oh, you knew her. I'm sorry."

[tinstar]

Raylan wasn't about to let Malcolm go and see Eve on his own and he follows with a short but genuine thank you to Dani for letting them know before climbing into the elevator. There was no words of comfort, no soft lies of assurance - If they said it was Eve, there was too much of a chance that it was.

In stride with Malcolm, he pauses once they enter the doors, letting Malcolm thrust himself forwards.

Raylan liked Edrisa. He could see her lovesickness all over her but it didn't bother him. He knew Malcolm didn't realize it at all and even if he did.. Raylan was a secure kind of man, right now and he didn't need Edrisa to include him in her babble but the way that Edrisa talks about the body makes his face tighten and brow furrow a little. He expected a little more respect for the dead.

"We saw her yesterday afternoon.. Do you have a cause of death or is that not something the NYPD ME does for people they find in the river."

[abrightboy]

“Oh, well they just brought her in,” Edrisa told Raylan. “She’ll get a full work up, though, I can let you know what we…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed Malcolm picking up Eve’s hand, examining it. She looked like she might stop him, but couldn’t find it in her heart. Her attention returned to Raylan and she finished the sentence like she was never distracted from it. “Find.”

“No defensive wounds,” Malcolm declares. “No sign of a struggle.”

He peers at her throat and then her eyes. “No sign of strangulation.”

“I’ll check for water in the lungs,” Edrisa promises him.

[tinstar]

He nods. "Please do."

Ambling forwards a few steps to stand on the other side of Eve, Raylan studies Malcolm's features for a long moment, trying to figure out where he'll land.

"Tell me why I shouldn't get the Marshal's Service into this, Malcolm. Because I'm runnin' out of reasons to keep them out of it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm cast around like the answer was somewhere there, if he could just spot it. He gestured to Eve helplessly.

“A professional job. Like the guy that attacked my father. Maybe even the same guy, if he grabbed her when she left her office, then came directly to Claremont. Maybe he would have gone straight to the next target if the Surgeon hadn’t…”

Taken his eyes.

“We need to talk to him. The killer.”

It wasn’t an answer to Raylan’s question.

[tinstar]

The gesture said a lot. How could Malcolm answer any other question when this one was so loudly neon lit in front of him?

Raylan let his breath out of his nose, lips tightening briefly before relaxing in quiet supplication.

"That's kinda hard when we don't know who he is or who his next target is. You got any brilliant ideas darlin', because I am all ears." He knew Malcolm was brilliant, there was no sarcasm at all to be found here. Raylan just didn't know how to reach for anything other than the tools he was used to.

[abrightboy]

"They've got him under police guard in the hospital. Maybe he'll talk to us, now that his career is over and he's facing prison with no eyes." He gave Edrisa's arm a squeeze as he passed her, not striding past Raylan this time, but walking with him towards the elevators. "And even if he doesn't want to talk, I might be able to talk him into it."

When they got to the hospital room, Malcolm signed them in, then lingered just inside the doorway, staring at the man in the bed with the bandages over his eyes.

Martin Whitly did that. In a moment, Martin Whitly turned on a trained assassin that had the upper hand and, instead of killing him, he did that. And he liked it. Malcolm could still see the delighted, manic grin on the Surgeon's face.

[tinstar]

Raylan nods respectfully at Edrisa, unbothered by the big doe eyes that she locked onto Malcolm's retreating shoulders as he turned and joined him in stride towards the elevators.

"Then that's where we're goin'," he confirms with a little nod, hitting the button for the elevator.

He let Malcolm lead them along in the hospital, he was clearly more experienced at checking in than Raylan was, out here in the wilds of New York. But there was no hesitation in pulling up behind Malcolm, leaving a barely respectable inch between them as they looked at the man laid out.

"He's probably on meds," Raylan mutters softly, one hand gently pushing Malcolm in the half step it would take for him to close the door behind him. "Nurses make rounds every hour, no tellin' when the last was." He watches what he could see of Malcolm's profile.

"Hey. Eyes on the prize." Bad taste? Maybe. But it was gently said.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods and takes a breath, then steps over.

"Excuse me?"

There's no response. But Raylan is right; he's probably on meds. Malcolm frowns and gently nudges the man's shoulder. Something about the way he's nonresponsive bothers Malcolm. He reaches over and puts his fingers against the man's neck, but it's cold and there's no pulse. He looks at Raylan, his eyes a little wide.

"He's dead."

[tinstar]

"Shit." Raylan turns on his heel and busts out the room, looking right and then left before heading back to the Nurse's desk to have them raise an alarm, and also who was the last person in that room?

The woman didn't know, stammering and stuttering enough for Raylan to come striding back down to meet Malcolm.

"How long do you think he's been dead?"

[abrightboy]

“He’s cool to touch,” Malcolm tells him. “So it was maybe six to twelve hours? It could have been during the night.” He points with his pinky finger. “There’s unusual bruising on his neck.”

[tinstar]

"Strangled?" Hellva an oldschool way to put someone down.

"Someone was cleaning up loose ends.." Raylan frowns, steely gaze pinning Malcolm down like the man had answer that he was looking for.

"There's only one name we've been talkin' about, Malcolm."

Nicolas Endicott.

[abrightboy]

“This isn’t the normal sort of a bruise you’d expect to see from strangulation,” Malcolm muses, but his expression turns grim at Raylan’s comment.

“The killer that doesn’t kill.”

He steps back as hospital personnel and police converge on the body, moving to Raylan’s side to be ushered out the door.

“But how will we follow the chain back to him when the chain is dead?”