"I-- perhaps am not the right person to ask," Doc offers quietly, somewhat uncertain. He's not deliberately trying to be unhelpful, he just-- he's never tried connecting with Raylan on that level. He isn't sure if he has anything to offer. Sure, of everyone in town, he talks to Raylan the most, and it's likely that Raylan talks to him the most too. That doesn't mean anything considering they hardly share anything of themselves to anyone else.

"You could tell me a thousand times that I am a good man. It does not make me one." Maybe in the process of becoming Scheherazade and telling him a thousand stories about his goodness, he would eventually wear the Marshal down and win his love. It does not absolve the Marshal of his sins, or the sins of his father.

"We so rarely get what we deserve, Malcolm. And when we get something we do not deserve, all too often we simply squander it. Loving a man who does not love himself..." Doc's jaw shifts and he breathes out a shaky breath. "I don't much like- talking about the woman you know as 'Kate'. I never did raise a hand against her, but. On those unbearable days, when I drank and we fought..." The tip of his tongue runs over his teeth and he breathes out a sigh. They had been quite the spectacular fireworks. "I put her through hell and made her walk on embers and eggshells for making that mistake. He don't- he don't want that for you. Treating him well, treating him poorly - nothing will change that."