The Lengths That I Would Go To

[abrightboy]

The killer was moving around the country. Malcolm Bright could see the pattern, but he wasn't working for the FBI these days and they weren't exactly taking his calls. Short sighted of them, but they did fire him on suspicion of being crazy. The NYPD's jurisdiction was New York. With the killer beyond its borders, they handed it upwards and left it at that.

Let it go, Bright, had been Gil's sage advice. You can't catch every killer in America single-handedly.

Challenge accepted, some part of him retorted, though he'd only nodded mutely and forced a smile. Gil knew he hadn't simply let it go, but he wasn't going to have him followed to stop him doing anything stupid, either. He didn't have the will or the resources to keep tabs on Malcolm Bright 24/7 and Malcolm Bright knew it.

His mother, on the other hand, had extensive resources, so he simply didn't tell her he was leaving town. He did arrange for Ainsley to feed his bird, so the truth would come out eventually, but he'd be several states away by then.

He rode the bus. There was something oddly comforting about the anonymity of being in a crowd of strangers who had no interest in him whatsoever. He stared out the window and watched the country go by. When he stepped off the Greyhound in Lexington, Kentucky, he walked to a nearby hotel and checked in, then headed straight to the US Marshals office. There was no point in trying to talk to the FBI. If he was going to stop a killer from killing again, he needed someone in law enforcement to listen to him. The pattern suggested the next murder would happen in one of the rural communities around Lexington and it would be precipitated by a young woman's disappearance. He needed law enforcement with local knowledge, specifically.

He wandered into the Marshals' offices in a tidy three piece suit, charcoal grey with a burgundy tie perfectly knotted at his collar. He got a few suspicious sidelong glances but nobody asked if they could help him. He cleared his throat.

"Um, hello? I'm wondering if there's anyone here I can talk to about murder." He held up his hands. "Stopping murder, specifically, not... like... smalltalk."

Comments

[abrightboy]

He laughed, but then paused. Raylan was joking right? ...Was he?

"...You want to bring a gun to dinner?" he clarified.

[tinstar]

Raylan smirked at the drop of Malcolm's light levity. "I am a US Marshal. You know any cops that leave their guns at home when they're out? I've seen movies, there's always some dramatic break in or murder at fancy parties. It's not like I'm going to wear it on my hip... Just my back."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm considered that quite seriously.

"I don't actually know," he admitted, picking up his phone from the counter and pressing a button.

"Hi Gil! It's me." Pause. "No, nothing like that. I just have a question." Another pause. "No, nothing like that." Pause. "Oh. I'm just wondering, do you bring your gun to, like, weddings and things like that? Or dinner with friends or dates or anything, you know, decidedly not police-related." Pause. "No reason. It just came up." Pause. "Okay, thanks."

He hung up and looked at Raylan. "You might be right."

[tinstar]

He was slowly gathering that Malcolm was definitely not one of the FBI agents who kept their firearm on them. The call to Gil only make his smirk break into a grin as his hands loosely found his hips and he forgot about the still hidden suit to ear hustle on Malcolm's side of the conversation.

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. He'd only been doing this for 20 or so years but he didn't blame Malcolm for checking with his cops. "I'm sure my badge will suffice as my gun's invite to the party."

He sighed at the suit again before bending over and unzipping it to pull the tux out. "I hope this thing came with shoes."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled. "I hope my mother guessed your size correctly," he said, walking over to grab a shoe box from the floor around the end of the bed and setting it on the bed. He opened the lid with a flourish to reveal very shiny black shoes. "If they're too big or too small, please don't read anything into it."

[tinstar]

"I suppose I ought to try it on before the thing instead of finding out something's desperately wrong after gettin' out of a shower." He glanced at Malcolm. "No laughin' if it's too short," he warned with a cautionary finger before pulling the suit free from the garment bag and headed towards the bathroom.

[abrightboy]

"If it's too short, check to see if you put on mine," Malcolm joked, going back to a stool in the kitchen to turn his attention back to Ainsley's report while Raylan changed. And only partly to distract himself from the fact that Raylan was in the other room changing.

[tinstar]

It only took about ten minutes, two to undress and another six to put on the suit, afraid he'd damage it or something by putting it on too swiftly. The last two minutes were spent tucking and buttoning and shifting as he tested out the movement and range of the suit, and it was only when he caught himself in the mirror that he paused.

He felt.. strange in these clothes that felt too high quality for someone like him to be standing in. More than a several seconds were lost to imagining what tonight was going to entail before he undressed again, after a second thought as to if the man outside would want to see it..

But Raylan thought the full impact would be better accepted and pushed the rest of his foolish thoughts out of his head as he started the process all over again.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm texted Ainsley when her report was over, assuring her that he was, in fact, attending the gala.

She asked him about 'that man mom mentioned'.

He texted back 'don't'.

[tinstar]

He got mostly done before he realised that he hadn't brought in his sleep pants, despite the earlier hour and resigned himself to slipping back into his jeans and carefully putting the suit back onto its hanger. With his shirt unbuttoned and his boots in hand, Raylan came back out, bouncing his eyebrows slightly in confirmation to the expectant gaze he expected to get.

"Your mother has a frighteningly good eye," he conceded as he stepped out to drop his boots and drape the garment bag over the back of Malcolm's couch. "It fit like a glove."

[abrightboy]

"If you think that's frightening, you should see her drink," Malcolm said glibly. "She's apparently mentioned you to my sister, by the way."

[tinstar]

With his hands free, he could return to leaning on the counter, collecting his scotch glass for a sip.

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Was it just to let her know that there would be a new face at your table tonight? Speakin' of, are you sure all this is okay?"

After all, he was just some guy that Malcolm worked with a couple of times. It felt like.. He wasn't sure, but it felt like something.

[abrightboy]

"If you mean whether it's okay with me? It definitely is. I mean, I'm surprised you agreed but it'll be nice to have someone to talk to about... anything not fake," Malcolm confessed.

[tinstar]

Raylan shrugged. "I can spare one night for New York before I go back. Might be the only time I get to see the inside of one of these parties and we're not collectively due to leave til tomorrow. It's go with you or stay here and drink all of your scotch and that would be terribly rude of me."

That wasn't the only reason, but it was the easiest to admit, even to himself.

"And I hate pointless small talk."

[abrightboy]

"I know; that's one of the things I like about you."

It just kind of burbled out. Was that okay to say?

He gestured to the TV. "Anyway, Ainsley's report is done if you want to watch anything. Adolpho is picking us up at seven."

[tinstar]

Raylan couldn't help the stupid, adolescent grin that brought before he glanced at the TV and shrugged with a bobble of his head as he took up the remote and his glass to amble over towards the couch.

"Sure, why not. It'll only take me 30 minutes to get ready, which gives us what, an hour maybe?"

They'd make it. And it was definitely okay to say.

[abrightboy]

"Yeah, about that. Do you want anything to eat? I've got..." He paused, considered that. "Licorice. And leftover soup. ...And possibly one or two meal replacement shakes, but that's a bit heavy before a gala dinner."

[tinstar]

"No, I'm fine, but thank you. I got lunch while I was out too. Figured it wouldn't do either of us good if I came back hungry and irritated." Raylan shifted on the couch to look over at Malcolm. "Is TV what you do in your spare time or do you just watch your sister report on the going on's of the world?"

[abrightboy]

"I don't watch much TV. It actually retracts into the ceiling," he said, gesturing up. "But I try to catch Ainsley's reports when I'm home."

He took a licorice from the jar on the counter and absently took a bite.

"Sometimes I watch documentaries."

[tinstar]

"That's nice of ya. Supportive," he said, scrolling through the channels and clicking onto a few before scrolling again.

"I don't watch any TV. No drive or incline to." Why was he sitting on Malcolm's couch anyway, testing it out? Science. He sighed and clicked the TV off, pushing back up into his feet. "Never anything on.." He gestured towards Sunshine. "Since that's the case, wanna tell me about your bird?"

They passed the time amazingly well, and Raylan couldn't quite recall which one of them noted the time, sending them both into a stepping pace. Raylan had to shower but got dressed in the bathroom and stepped out dressed but untied, hair slicked back as he went to hunt for socks.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was ready by the time Raylan emerged, just straightening his bowtie in the mirror by the door. He turned, paused, then, looking for a reason to have done that, gestured towards the marshal's tie. "Do you need help with that?"

[tinstar]

He nodded. "Only experience I have with ties is regular ones. So yes." It wasn't a hard admission- he needed the help. Once he slid the shoes on and tied them, he stood up, chin lifting a little as Malcolm stepped close to attend his tie.

Raylan felt.. fidgety. "This the kind of party that has 3 forks? I don't know the layout," he admitted, glancing at the ceiling before glancing down at Malcolm's strikingly close face. All the urges that he'd suppressed since that first night he'd had to straddle Malcolm to prevent him from tumbling down the stairs was raised to the surface, leaving Raylan to swallow tightly and find another place for his eyes to be.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was so focused on carefully tying the tie, he didn't notice Raylan looking at him, but when he finished, he looked up and found Raylan's face right there as well. He stepped back and cleared his throat, not realizing his gaze lingered on the marshal's lips for just a second.

"Um, don't worry about the forks. You just start at the outside and work your way in. I'd say just watch which fork I use, but I skip a lot of the courses. The level of insecurity my mother is feeling in the group will determine how much of a hard time she gives me about it," he rambled before clasping his hands in front of himself.

[tinstar]

"I'll try to be extra secure, in that case." Fiddling with the horseshoe ring on his right hand, Raylan fished his gun and badge from his jean's belt, tucking the gun and it's holster into the back of his pants (trousers?) and storing the badge in his inside jacket pocket before walking over to the door side mirror to look himself over.

"Think I'll pass?" Despite him feeling like his redneck was crawling out from under his collar, even he had to admit he looked half decent. If he could keep his hands out of his hair that was.

[abrightboy]

"You look great," Malcolm assured him. "Nobody will know you're secretly dangerous," he teased.

A car horn sounded. Malcolm gestured to the door.

"That's Adolpho. Are you ready?"