026 》sweet troubled man are you giving or taking?

[thering]

characters: Malcolm, Neal, Negan, Raylan, Doc
location: 1306 Phillips Dr
date/time: day 26 morning
content: the reset Playstation button was pressed
warnings: tbd

After the strangeness of the past two nights they were likely fully expecting to awaken in the same strange, different, not-so-new anymore places they found themselves in in the past two days.

Instead everything seems to have reset, again. The three permanent residents and two guests are back in 1306, exactly where they had been two nights ago. Malcolm was in his own room, Neal was in Doc's and Negan in Raylan's master bedroom. The two displaced cowboys are downstairs sharing one too-small couch, a night of drinking culminating in fighting over couch space and who gets to be the bigger spoon.

The fire in the fireplace had gone out and their Winter 2020 Collection of bespoke lanterns have vanished, but nothing else seems to be awry.

Comments

[conning]

A smile breaks across Neal’s face, and he ducks his head like that will somehow hide it. He’s not even sure why he’s smiling. After a moment, he says, “No one knows. That I grew up in WITSEC. No one. Not even Peter. I ran when I turned eighteen. Peter’s never been able to find anything about my family, because anything that there was to find is behind the Marshals’ lock and key.”

[tinstar]

"That mean only a Marhsal can unlock it?" he asked with a sidelong look over. He didn't ask outright because Neal liked to dance. Dancing tended to ratchet up tension and that was not his goal here. "I've got the clearance.. If you don't wanna tell me, that's okay too. But the door's open, if you do."

He wasn't going to push or insist or try to wile it out of Neal. Even the curiosity was just that and not worth making him uncomfortable. Raylan got nothing from pushing except more being alone or being avoided. That was fine when he had a bottle to happily crawl into, but moonshine just wasn't as comforting.

"Nothin' wrong with growin' up safe."

[conning]

“Maybe another time.”

Never, Neal thought. Never. But somehow it didn’t have the ring of truth. His smile faded to something small and wounded.

“Yeah, I grew up safe.” He lifted his shoulders in a tiny shrug. “I also grew up a liar.”

[tinstar]

"Not by your choice," Raylan pointed out. "You were a kid." His face pinched with the emphasis.

"Trust me. It's better to grow up safe and lying then the alternative.. You mentioned Mom - Where was Dad? Was he in the picture?"

Or was Dad why they were in WITSEC to begin with?

"You can tell me to fuck off too, if you want. I can.. go find some other place to put myself."

[conning]

Maybe another time was apparently right then. Neal set his cup down on the coffee table. Studied his palms. Malcolm knew already. And what had he thought when he told Malcolm? That Peter knew already? How many people would he just tell?

But Malcolm and Raylan had talked about their own fathers with no reservations. Emotion, clearly, but reservations, no.

Neal cleared his throat. "Not in the picture."

He wrestled a moment more with what to say. "Dirty cop. I don't really know much. No one would tell me."

[tinstar]

Raylan let several beats pass before he said anything, eyes kept down in his lap for it. Having a criminal for an old man felt like it was on a similar level, but at least Arlo never had legal authority to push that control.

"Probably for the best. If you and your mother were put in WITSEC, it was likely to keep you from him." Raylan looked over sidelong, a bit of concern in the faint pinch of his features. "Daddies are shit anyway. Can't seem to find a lotta stories where they're not."

He lifted his eyebrows a little, eyes closing as he redirected them into his cup again. "Makes me worry about what kinda I'll be, with one on the way."

[conning]

Neal laughed faintly at the declaration that daddies were shit. "Peter's seems like he was a good man. But Peter's a good man, too."

He wasn't sure if Raylan appreciated touch as much as Malcolm did, but he reached out anyway, squeezing the man's shoulder. "For what it's worth, you seem like you'd be a good one to me."

[tinstar]

"Always an acception to the rule," he allowed with a nonchalant, conversationally airy kind of tone. There were always exceptions. His would sadly, never be one of them.

The weight of Neal's hand was a surprise and Raylan looked over, face relenting into a small grateful smile to go with the faint bob of his head. When he'd first gotten here, after the first week or so, he'd started counting the number of physical touches he'd been able to enjoy, even passingly. It was silly and he'd stopped count but it still ticked up in the back of his head.

"Thanks. Shame her mother doesn't agree right now but.." He inhaled deeply again, the sure sign of him trying to reset himself as he lifted his cup up to help cover the end of his statement. "Somethin' to work out when I get back."

Swallowing heavily, Raylan glanced over again. "If it wasn't your father that got you into pool, how'd you get to hustlin'?"

[conning]

"You've got a girl?" Neal grinned. "You're in trouble. She's going to wrap you around her pinkie as soon as she has the dexterity to do it."

As for the question, well. "There was a pool hall on the way home from school. I got curious." It wasn't like his mom really noticed if he didn't come home right away. "Hung out, saw what people did there. I learned to shark before I ever touched a cue."

[tinstar]

The lift in Neal's voice, the obviously kind feeling towards babies and their power, was more than enough to make Raylan's face break back into a smile. One that could have almost looked happy. "I don't doubt it at all. I got another young lady that I'm keepin' an eye out over in Harlan.. She ain't even mine and she knows to call me for something."

Of course, Raylan knew that Loretta was going to end up taking over the county, if she could manage to survive her teenage years and the hell of what the Bennetts had put her through. She'd be unstoppable if she made it to adulthood.

The curl of his smile stayed as Neal answered his question. "I don't think learnin' to shark or playing pool for money is illegal yet, even if I suppose, it is bettin'. You always been in New York? Never gotten the time to check out any of their pool halls, myself but I'm sure they've got 'em."

[conning]

“St. Louis.” This was so strange. Just talking about his history. The only person who knew this much about him was June, and June was June. He could tell her anything.

“I was born in D.C., but I don’t remember it. We went into WITSEC when I was three.”

[tinstar]

"Missouri? Three explains why I don't hear the accent on ya." Not that it would have suited him but maybe Raylan had just gotten used to the New York rounded that came with Neal's vowled curves.

He chuckled a little under his breath. "The fact that you can't remember bein' born is probably a good thing. I hear it's a little traumatic for everyone involved. Since we're doin' this.." His lips curled, a finger gesturing between them both in suggestion. "Might as well come clean."

He leaned over, emboldened in his telling only by Neal's only hesitant admission. "My mother and her side of the family are hill folk. Only come down the mountain with her." He straightened. "I wasn't raised by them or anythin'. Didn't even know til I was a teenager, but.."

It was something to offer in return.

[conning]

Neal laughed at the remark about not remembering being born, but when Raylan leaned in, so did he. Neal loved a good secret almost as much as a good story.

How did he end up in a house with people who had so many threads of their lives run parallel to his own?

"I didn't know about my dad until I was eighteen. My mom told me he was dead, that he went out a hero." He made a noise that wasn't quite amused. "Funny the things that family forgets to mention."

[tinstar]

A laugh. That was a good sign and it fit Neal's face a lot better.

"Makes sense that she'd want to keep you safe. Give you an ideal to look up to that was worth somethin'. Frances tried but.. Arlo didn't give anyone much of any choice, when he was involved. He didn't like her roots. Made her and I both.. dirty somehow." Which they both suffered plenty for. Raylan kept his easy smile anyway, always finding that easier than admitting to how much Arlo had left in and on him.

"Sharkin' had to lead you to somethin' else, right? What's next on your .. resume," he said, huffing a little breath of a chuckle to lighten the word choice. Anything to maybe turn them off the parent conversational path.

[conning]

"Uh. Well. More like other things led to sharking. Sort of."

He shrugged helplessly. "I forged city bus passes when I was seven so I could go where I wanted, which is what led to the pool hall in the first place."

[tinstar]

That made Raylan chuckle, head tilting back a little with it. He glanced over, one eyebrows lifting with the motion.

"That's called workin' the system and really, as a lawman, I think it makes the system healthier. Not that I'm advocating it but.. I tend to only care about federal level crimes. Plenty of people gotta live, shit - we woulda called that ingenuity in Harlan.. If we'd had buses... We didn't. If you think that the fact that I got a badge means that I play by every rule in the book, I will clue you in on the fact that I lost a suspect once because I put him in my trunk and my car got stolen, taken to the crushers."

He was no untainted Angel. He wasn't a crooked cop either, just.. wildly unorthodox in his own Kentucky way.

[conning]

Neal laughed again, more delighted by the story than he probably should have been. "Please tell me he didn't actually get crushed, or I'm going to feel really bad for laughing at that."

[tinstar]

"Nah," Raylan assured. "Got let out by the two dumbass copper thieves that stole it. Poor kids didn't know what they were lettin' out. Saved the car before it loaded in too, which is better. I like that car."

Yes, the car was more important than the almost accidental manslaughter.

"It all worked out, in the end. No one was crushed but one unlucky lady got shot in her foot by the constable with me. We can't blame Bob though, he kinda gets the crap kicked outta him due to his mouth every once and a while."

[conning]

"I'm not sure what it says about my day-to-day life that you're making me homesick. Though fortunately there's less getting shot involved with white collar crimes." He shrugs one shoulder. "I've never really been a fan of guns. No offense."

[tinstar]

Raylan shook his head. "None taken. It ain't for everyone. All the more reason for people like me to be around."

Guns and what they could do, what they did, what they inspired others to do was overall terrible and shitty and ended with a lot of people in early graves. Raylan understood not liking them. He couldn't agree, but he could understand it.

"And I think that says your day to day is interestin' if that's the case. There a particular reason you don't like guns or is it the whole kit of what comes with 'em? If you don't mind my askin'."

[conning]

Neal shrugged and shook his head, looking down again. "I'm good with them. Know the practicalities of how to handle one."

His throat felt tight. "I just. I've been saved by them before. More than once. Peter's shot people to protect me. But I've never been able to pull the trigger myself when it's something alive on the other side of the barrel."

It was more complicated than that, but these things always were.

[tinstar]

The Marshal watched Neal try and swallow around the truth of the words and he didn't doubt them at all.

"That's not somethin' to be ashamed of." The reassurance was quiet, meant for them and this conversation. Not any of the ears that might be catching the edges of it upstairs. "The world would be a better place if pullin' the trigger was harder for more people. I wish I could say that it'd hard for me, but it's.." He shook his head a little, eyes falling back into his cup as his jaw worked. Chewing his own liver as it were. "Never done it without reason, but I've never had a hard time puttin' someone down. Don't know what that says about me as a person," he huffed, trying to put a spin of dark levity on top as he took another sip of his coffee and avoided meeting Neal's eye for the moment.

[conning]

Neal watched Raylan in silence, trying to sort out his thoughts.

"...There was a man named Vincent Adler. I met him a few years after I came to New York. I was--" Neal huffed a soft laugh. "Long story short, I was supposed to be conning him. Me and my partner were. I was the inside man."

He tapped the fingers of one hand against the side of his mug. "But it didn't exactly work out that way. He took me under his wing. Taught me..." He laughs again, though it's a little sad. "Everything. Everything I know about wine, and good food, and how far above the shoe the hem of a suit pant should fall. It was the first time I thought maybe I understood what having a father was like. And the thing was, he knew. He knew the whole time I was trying to con him, and he never said a word. Then one day... he disappeared. Took every penny from his investment company with him, including mine."

Neal shook his head. "But I couldn't hate him for it. After everything he'd shown me? After he left me that note that said he knew what I was, and cared the whole time anyway?"

He leaned forward, setting his cup down on the table. "The next time I saw him he told me I was the closest thing to a son he ever had. Then he pulled a gun on me."

Neal cleared his throat. He still hadn't sorted out all his feelings from that day. Seeing Adler again. Knowing he was responsible for so much of Neal's own pain. "Peter knew what he was to me. Maybe not everything he was, but enough. Adler pulled a gun, and Peter put him down, and if Peter had hesitated even for a second I'd be dead."

The thief leaned forward again, a little, trying to get a look at Raylan's face. Trying to get Raylan to look at him. "I would never, not for a moment, think less of Peter for being someone who could act without hesitation when the situation required it. That's the path you both picked. You're the people who make it possible for the rest of us to avoid violence. You've got a soldier's heart. That's not something to be ashamed of either."

[tinstar]

A story wasn't what he'd expected in an answer but he didn't interrupt and listened, eyes glancing over to Neal as he kept going. He wasn't sure where it was all leading, but he didn't think it'd be a reprimand. Neal didn't seem the type, though that didn't mean he wasn't capable of it. Weren't they all.

His brow furrowed a little as the final thrust was set up and the little lean forward that Neal did to catch his gaze worked, luring Raylan's head up a few inches for both their comfort. Hazel eyes darted back and forth between Neal's too blue eyes before Raylan dropped them back into his lap with a little nod and a lift of his smile that fell immediately with an equally faint pinch of his brow.

"I should have you talk to my ex-wife," he managed, voice a little tight and strange for the feelings boiling in his chest. Yes, he knew what he did was necessary and good, but knowing it and having people recognize it was.. different. Them recognizing what it laid on him and what it meant for him to carry on. But maybe he was being selfish. That was likely more probable.

"Maybe she wouldn't have left again. Not that I can blame her. Job that brings mob gunmen in that might threaten the house, the baby.. makes sense. Be glad the rest of the wide world ain't here too, otherwise it might be a lot noisier.."

He couldn't say 'thank you'. But he appreciated it nonetheless.

[conning]

Neal frowned, speaking without thinking. "Again? ...Sorry, that's none of my business."

He knew not everyone could be Peter and Elizabeth. Most people couldn't be Peter and Elizabeth. They were something special. Still, he knew how many people in law enforcement struggled with relationships outside of work. But that Raylan's ex would apparently come back, knowing what to expect, then leave again--it strikes Neal wrong.