tinstar | Slingin' from the hip, never the heart.

She shook her head.

"No fucking clue," she whispers. "None of this shit makes any sense."

Athena looks his way, her gaze somewhere between haunted and affronted. "First off it's total bullshit that you got all healed up and my ankle's still fucked. But Mathias is a bitch."

He sucked his teeth softly and nodded, turning them down another street and towards the Hospital that now loomed in front of them.

"She was gonna screw us all in one way or another on the way out. At least you remember me. That godforsaken town." His jaw worked softly as he pulled them into a spot and threw it into park. It chewed at him in the dark, all that he had lost.

"But we're gonna get you fixed up, buy you the biggest lunch your stomach can handle, and you're comin' out to Harlan with me, least until we can confirm if any of your people are here too. It's quieter out there and no one's within a mile 'a Arlo's house."

She shivers at the thought of ending up here and not knowing him or remembering. Just being lost, and having a stranger who looks like Jeff telling her she landed in another world.

Lunch. "Oh my god, fast food exists again."

She climbs out of the car along with him, resisting the urge to take his hand again, barely. "Arlo's house? Isn't he... like... there?"

All things considered, she would prefer not to meet... that guy.

It was hell. Lonely, Jim Beam soaked hell.

"We'll get whatever you want," he promised as he guided her in with a hand set to hover over her shoulder, his eyes ever sweeping on the horizon for someone he might need to fend off. "But the restaurants here are better than that crap food."

It would only take a protest for him to cave and get her whatever fast food struck her fancy. She deserved days of it after all that surviving. Once Raylan's appetite had come back in full force, he was sure he'd cleared out a few restaurants over a few days.

"No," Raylan assured with no emotion as they came up to the Nurse's station. "He's in Tramble Penitentiary." Lifting his chin at the nurse there, he started to explain what they were looking for. His niece got a little too rambunctious at a barbeque, fell into fire pit and got herself a little banged up. Collecting the paperwork, Raylan then led Athena over to sit down.

"Yer gonna havte help me with some of this," he said under his breath and out the side of his mouth.

Athena breathes out a slightly hysterical laugh, trying to focus on Raylan and the paperwork in spite of the thunder of people around them.

It doesn't take long to get a bed, once one of the nurses sees the bandage she improvised. The woman glares at Raylan for a moment until Athena snaps, "Hey, I didn't fucking tell him about it, okay?"

Even odds as to whether its the aggressiveness or the swearing that startles her more.

Behind the privacy curtain, perched on the edge of the exam bed, Athena grips the sheets and fixes wide eyes on Raylan again. "What about your work? Are they going to be okay with you just. Fucking off to Harlan for a week?"

She's not protesting the plan or the location, really. A little quiet, a little time to sort through her own head--its all she could ask for at the moment.

Simple easy things to help bring her focus back down and Raylan adjusted dates where necessary so it made more sense with a sweet of the eyes. He was glad they didn't have to wait long and was touched when Athena let him come back, regardless of if she was asked.

Raylan was happy to take the Nurse's blame, shoulders already lifting up in an uneven shrug with a lift of his hand, but Athena's snap has his eyes darting over to her with a proud curl of his smile. People didn't tend to stick up for him so boldly, not civvies, not people he didn't work with. So she was just as vicious with other people as she had been before, good. Meant her spirit wasn't broken. Meant she still loved him as he loved her. Even if those words in particular never got room to breathe again.

But the nurse accepted and left and Raylan curled his eyebrows back over to Athena.

"Art has been watchin' me like I'm about to shoot a puppy in the parking lot or somethin'. I've only been back a short time. I tell him I need the time-" Raylan nodded. "He'll give it to me. Makin' sure that you've got a few secure days is more important and frankly, I been doin' this for twenty years and I'm forced to take vacation. Trust me," he said, face curling around his smile. "Art'll be happy to get some of that reserved off time off my ticket."

She nods slowly. It made sense. It made sense that anyone who knew him would be worried. She can't imagine it's been anything like easy, being back. Just... back. Without even Tim seeming to know anything.

Athena holds back, briefly, still the embarrassed teenager, but finally holds out her hand, clearly wanting him to take it.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "That you've got all this... shit to deal with now on top of handling like. The world."

Her hand got a glance before he unashamedly slipped his left into her hand. She wasn't his daughter but Raylan couldn't help but feel like this was a crash course, a semi dry run for the first time Willa broke something or stepped on a nail. He wasn't going to tell her to do this alone, not with what he knew of her history.

"The world," he started with a lift of his eyebrows, "Is somethin' I can handle. Bein' the only one rememberin' that.." His jaw worked as he found the right word for it- "Hell is worse. Least I ain't gotta worry about if you're in one piece or not; you're already taking stuff off my plate."

But the Doctor was pulling the curtain aside, Nurse in tow to give Raylan a generally disapproving look. It read as 'I see you're uneducated, no sense, hillbilly trash.' Raylan was utterly unbothered and lifted his eyebrows at the Doctor as he started to look at Athena.

Athena squeezes his hand a little tighter as the doctor peels back the bandage, teeth gritted, trying not to show that it hurts. Her ankle isn't pretty. It's rough, angry pink all around, with a couple places that look almost red. Blisters--large ones, several broken--mark her here and there. It's where the fluids soaking her bandage came from.

The doctor makes a small noise that's somewhere between sympathy and aggravation. "You're very lucky your uncle caught you hiding this. You're well on your way to an ugly infection."

Raylan stands up as the doc peels the bandage away, keen to get his own eye on it so he can track it as she heals up. He didn't let how bad it look transfer onto his face; he could tell she was in pain and scared.

He couldn't help himself. "The whole lotta us were havin' a lotta fun and she's a bit stubborn. This might impress how important it is to not," he said, glancing over to Athena with a warm smile and a wink before looking back. "How bad is it? Think she'll need anythin' more than antibiotics and some cream under bandages or somethin'?"

I.E. What supplies was he going to be stocking up on?

She smiles a little, when Raylan winks at her, but she doesn't let go of his hand.

"We'll get her a tetanus shot, a prescription for some antibiotics and an antibiotic cream. Normal lotions will increase the likelihood of infection, now that those blisters are broken. You'll want gauze bandages and medical tape to hold them in place, and the bandages should be changed twice a day, the burn cleaned and the antibacterial re-applied. The bandages need to be loose, but keep things covered. The nurse will show you how it should be done."

The doctor rattles it all off so quickly that Athena is left staring a little bit. "How do you just know all that shit?"

He raises an eyebrow, disapproving in the face of the curse. "That is what medical school is for."

Nodding at the instruction, Raylan was confident they could handle that. He glanced over at Athena's question, smiling a little himself at the Doctor's answer. Well, it was a fair one.

"That'll be fine, thank you," he said graciously. "How long of that before you think she'll heal, assumin' nothin' goes wrong?"

"Two to three weeks is typical for this kind of burn, as long as it's treated as directed."

Athena grimaces. "That's forever."

The doctor raises his eyebrows. "Trust me, it's not."

"Better than gettin' an infection. You don't wanna go on that ride, it ain't fun," Raylan said kindly to Athena, skipping the faraway threat of gangrene, before nodding at the Doctor again.

"We'll keep it clean and dressed." If the Doc was a good one, he'd give them a prescription of antibiotics that would cover that time. Raylan hoped, otherwise, they were gonna havta get creative.

The doctor straightens up, nodding to Raylan, who seems to have risen maybe a micron in the nurse's opinion.

"What pharmacy do you use?" The question is directed at both the patient and the presumed guardian.

"We use the one in Harlan but you'll be lucky to get them on the phone," he said with something of a self deprecating laugh about the state of Harlan to begin with. "We can take it to one here in Lexington, on paper, our way home and they can call in to verify. Least you'll be guaranteed a voice on the phone either way," he promised sincerely.

Why yes he was throwing some of that easy charm and good natured 'go with the flow' vibe on it, but he needed this to go smoothly.

That micron of approval from the nurse vanishes into another scowl. The doctor makes an impatient noise.

"God, I don't even know if we have paper prescriptions. Hang on, I'll check the desk--can you dress the wound?"

The last it directed to the nurse, who nods. She eyes Athena for a moment. "You don't sound like you're from Harlan."

Athena fixes her with a baleful look. "I'm here because my New York based parents are dead, but thanks for poking your fingers into my personal business."

Raylan's eyebrows rolled in the equation of a shrug; not all of Kentucky was as fancy as Lexington fancied themselves to be. Hoity toity assholes. The feeling was gifted to Athena with a pass of his eyes and somehow, they said it all before he was looking sweetly back at the Nurse.

"One of my sister's couldn't wait to get outta the holler but we talked her back with the promise of a good party. Maybe a little too good, considering," he granted pleasantly. "We're lookin' into talkin' them into moving back but there's somethin' about this place that must be keepin' them away."

Gee, wonder what that might be.

The nurse looks back and forth between Raylan and Athena, then clearly decides Raylan's story is the more credible. She cleans the burn with gentle soap and water, then shows them both how to wrap it. Athena squints through the whole process, trying--not particularly well--to act like it doesn't hurt.

The nurse very happily excuses herself. The doctor returns with the prescription as she's leaving.

"You're in luck." He holds up the little paper. "We had a prescription pad with exactly four slips left."

He was a good note taker in school and that hadn't gone anywhere; Raylan watched attentively, nodding again once she was done. Yes, defiantly doable.

The prescription was taken with a grateful bob of his head as he folded it and tucked it into his inner jacket pocket. It meant he had to let Athena's hand go, but once the note was tucked away, he set it back within her reach. "You might wanna consider orderin' more. Not everyone in the state is as lucky enough to live within reach of this particular hospital and your specialists. Do you have her discharge papers, or is she clear to walk out?"

There wasn't much of any room for argument with his tone or expression. He was about done with the attitude and general vibe of unhelpfulness they had gotten.

The amiable hostility in Raylan's tone sent the nurse hurrying for the discharge paperwork, and the doctor excusing himself for his next patient. Athena raised her eyebrows.

"You need to teach me that one."

Raylan sucked his teeth softly at the drawn curtain before turning his half annoyed expression down at her.

"What're they gonna do, take the information back? Hold you hostage?" He scoffed and sat back down. "We'll stop at a CVS for supplies before we leave town, but we'll get the prescription filled tomorrow in Harlan. In the mean time. What kinda fast food are you wantin'?"

By the time they'd figured that out, the nurse was back with the discharge papers and the wheelchair.

"Go ahead and take a seat," the nurse said, letting Raylan help Athena off the bed and into the chair. They were wheeled out to the sidewalk, where Athena was off loaded onto a bench so that Raylan could pull the car around.

"Alright, come on. We got a hellva drive ahead of us."

Athena feels intensely silly, being wheeled out when she can walk fine, but if it gets them out of there so be it. She plops onto the passenger seat, wincing slightly. Now that it's cleaned and properly tended to, her ankle is starting to sting again.

She sits there for several seconds, staring into space, and then looks over at him.

"Waffles. Bigass, chocolate chip waffles absofuckinglutely soaked in syrup."

Having been in and out of hospitals more times than he would like to admit, Raylan knew and understood the whys of the wheelchair and it wasn't worth arguing against. Not when that argument might bring them more scrutiny. While they had to come, he was glad to be back in the car.

"I know just the place."

With a quick stop at a CVS as promised and those bags tucked safely into his trunk, Raylan pulled them up to a clean but small mom and pop looking restaurant with tall windows and a tilting roof that gave it a cute look, attached to a motel that offered 'Low low rates!'

"Onn'a the best places in Lexington for big ass waffles," he said with a smile as he got out of the car. If Athena wanted all that, it was better to get it in her before they hit the road and frankly, Raylan preferred real food to fast food. There wasn't any of the latter in Harlan and Raylan didn't have the goods for big ass waffles at Arlo's. "If you don't eat it all, we can take it with us."

Athena stares at the building for a moment after getting out of the car, taking in the sight of people moving around inside. Not shadows. Not ghostly women in the woods or shapes in the water. No one familiar. Just people.

She can’t help some embarrassment when she takes Raylan’s hand again, eyes still on that front window and the careless life inside.

“This is so fucking weird,” she whispers.

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