She looks at him, chagrined and amused and reassured all at once. He's got the same dad-senses already, apparently.
Another moment of hesitation, and she shifts over on the sand, trying to tuck herself against his side. Still fractionally nervous that he won't want to get that close.
"Reminds me of this little beach near your house, no one but the locals know it's there or how to get to it really. You can't drive in easy so it's pretty safe from tourists and stuff. You never said but I'm pretty sure it's why you even got that house."
It was as natural as breathing to lift his arm and let her tuck in. Raylan really liked hugs, contact. That physical reassurance, it just wasn't something he got and it was something he never felt right in asking for. If it came, it came, and he'd take it. He squeezes her shoulder a little before relaxing again.
"A house, huh. Good. I like havin' houses. Means no one can take it away from you.. I've always wanted to live on a beach. Somethin' unspeakable when you're lookin' out onto an endless horizon. Nothin' to get in the way of it. And tourists will ruin a place, quicker than not." He nods, pleased.
She relaxes against him, reassured. They share that habit--the wanting closeness and contact and never asking for it, always accepting it when it comes. Her dad has always been good about that. Her mom, Willa learned young, was not much for hugging or extreme emotionality in public, unless it was to make a point.
Willa closes her eyes, snuggling in now that they've established it at acceptable.
She wants to tell him what's bothering her. She also doesn't have it in her to hear any version of I told you this place was dangerous, are you going to go home now?
"Who's your deal for, anyway? It's totally not for you."
This was nice. Peaceful. He's glad she decided to stay with him until she got more comfortable. If she hadn't been out on the beach, he would have gone to check on her and if she wasn't here, he would have just worried. It was nice to not worry for a few minutes. He'd worry more tomorrow. For now, they were fine.
He can't help but smile crookedly at her question.
"There's only one person I'd go through all this for, Willa. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out." He looks down at her. "Who do you think?"
He meets her eyes unflinchingly, same soft smile staying on his face.
"There's a lot I can't control about life. I can't keep you safe from heartbreak or disappointment or stupid decisions. I can't wrap you in cotton and then expect you to survive in the world. But I can keep you safe from my job. From the trouble it can cause. The danger of it. Here, I can earn the actual promise of that security. Not 'I tried my best'."
It's worth the effort and the heartbreak and the whiplash. It was worth the wearing and tearing of Raylan because there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to secure that promise for her in a real, solid, unimpeachable manner.
"Oh." It's all she can say at first. Her throat is too tight for bigger sentiments. He's here to protect her. Protect her from his job, from the risks of his job, and suddenly after some of yesterday's conversations she has a much clearer picture of what that entails.
Willa shifts so she can hug him around the waist with both arms while she watches the fake moon glow off the fake water. It feels for a second like this is all a really vivid dream.
"If I tell you something will you promise not to say it's why I should leave."
As much as he doesn't want her here for her own safety, selfishly he relished in the squeeze of her hug and slips his other hand onto her elbow, squeezing slightly. He was going to be doing a lot of that, like he could made up for lost time with each one.
"I promise, darlin'." He wouldn't ask for what it was, instead giving her the time and space to come around to it on her own.
She does try to find the words, first. Tries to figure out how to frame things in a way that makes sense.
Willa finally uses one hand to dig her phone out of her pocket, opening up the warden app that showed up on it when she got here. She offers it to him wordlessly once she finds her conversation with Root.
"I knew people were going to think I should go home, I was ready for that, because that's how adults are about everything. But." She stares hard at the phone without reading the messages again. "I didn't know what to say to her."
He takes the phone and reads the conversation, brow furrowing slightly more and more the further along he gets, glancing over to her as he hits the end of it and hands it back.
"My suggestion is nothin' at all. It's not just the magic and wild abilities you're gonna hit here. It's other humans too. Sometimes the worst of us. There's no avoidin' them, so you gotta play things right. Be careful. They're here for their second chances, no matter how we might feel about them deservin' it or how unlikely we think change might be for them... We still gotta live with them. I know you got a lotta offers to take up some self defense. I want you to take up which ever ones you want.. Except guns."
Let him have guns, at least. Guns and strategy.
"And choose who you trust carefully. I got a few that I can tell you off the top are safe to trust. Maggie, Red, Malcolm..."
"Why except guns?" She's confused, but not opposed. She doesn't like guns, for a lot of reasons, even though she knows they have practical uses in the right hands. Her mother was so insistent that Raylan teach her the absolute bare minimum about weapons that it doesn't occur to her that he wants to be the one to teach her.
Maggie, Red, Malcolm-- "I met all of them. Maggie I met in person."
A sidelong, smirking glance. "You sure you're not dating her?"
"They gotta leave somethin' for your father to teach you." There was a fraction of petulance behind there, but he didn't let it linger.
"But I'm not datin' anyone, not like that. If you must know. But Maggie is.. I mean, she's sunshine and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I think you'll really like her once you get to know her. Neal too, if you meet him."
That one made him a littler nervous, not because of anything Neal might do or Willa might say and every thing to do with all that he couldn't control. The soft looks and ease that he couldn't hide from.. And what Willa will have to say about that.
He clucks softly. "Well we're just gonna have to fix that in the time we have, ain't we."
He could understand why Winona would say no, but it seemed wrong that his daughter didn't have even basic gun skills. But he smiles at her, glad to see a brighter expression.
"He's another friend of mine. Comes by every couple of days. Believe it or not, your dad's actually got somethin' akin to a social life here. It's crazy, I know, hold back your gasps of amazement.." The grin spread a little before simmer. "But they're good people, I promise."
"We're going to have plenty of time," she says, quiet but firm. She raises her eyebrows at the idea of him having a social life outside of work. "A social life like where you leave the house and do things, though? Yeah there's only the barge outside but there's still stuff to do."
He wonders if anyone had told her yet how people disappear. How this place was worse than her issues with his job. How impossibly heart breaking it could all be. It wasn't going to be him, to pop that bubble. He couldn't handle breaking her heart like that.
".. Sometimes. Mostly it's just hangin' out. Talkin'. Though recently, I agreed to start learning the fiddle and how to cast magic. So talking, but with a point." And drinking, but she didn't need to know about that. Or the pot, or the sex, in some cases.
"You're gonna love the Enclosure. It can make anythin' you want seem real."
Maggie had mentioned it, but it hadn't really registered with Willa on more than a peripheral level a the time. Peripheral to the horror of it happening to inmates, who would just vanish into nothing. She hadn't thought about it for wardens at all.
"Really?" She grins at the thought of her father playing a fiddle. "Can I learn magic with you? I was thinking about that one, it would be useful."
"I'm not optimistic that we can even learn how to do it all... ya know, like the movies and books and everythin' but there's definitely some magic we can do from a base jump. But yeah," he says, smiling at her again.
For all there was to fear, there was so much possibility to Willa being here.
"I'd love to learn somethin' with you darlin'. I'd also love to learn what's gotten you outta bed and out here on the sand at like-" He stops to check his watch. "Nearly 3 AM. You okay?"
Willa chews on a loose bit of skin along her lower lip. "I guess."
She isn't physically hurt or being threatened or anything else.
"I think I'm just... starting to get it, maybe. Why you sent me home." She traces her fingertips through the sand. "Which doesn't mean I'm leaving here, not a chance."
"Don't worry. The Admiral told me no." Of course he asked. He had said he would and there was no time or space where Raylan wouldn't keep his word. There was a reason he was so careful with what he said. Whatever came out, he had to follow up on.
"You're not going anywhere unless you want to.. For the most part. And you can change your mind, anytime you want..." He looks down at her, all big and all tucked into his arm like this was the most natural thing in the world and just marvels at her for a second, a stupid, proud little smile on his face.
"I'm gonna worry about you all the time, but that don't change the fact that I'm glad I'm gonna get some time with you. Speakin' of worry; Admiral wouldn't let me get your location services either, unless you okay'd it. Maybe help me not freak out so much when somethin' happens?"
"Oh, right, I asked him if the beach could connect our cabins and he wouldn't do that but he did say yes to you being able to find me whenever you need to. And he told me to ask if you were okay with giving me the same thing before he'd do it."
Raylan nods. "I think it'd be unfair in this situation to say no when I'm askin' the same thing. You're gonna hav'ta tell him directly that you're okayin' it. But we can handle that in the mornin'."
"I already told him." She stretches her arms out in front of her. "I asked if you could have something like that and he said you'd already asked but he needed my approval."
"Yeah, I guess." She sighs and rubs at the corner of her eye. It's stupid, and childish, and downright embarrassing, but she wants to ask him if she can stay in his bed for what's left of the night.
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Another moment of hesitation, and she shifts over on the sand, trying to tuck herself against his side. Still fractionally nervous that he won't want to get that close.
"Reminds me of this little beach near your house, no one but the locals know it's there or how to get to it really. You can't drive in easy so it's pretty safe from tourists and stuff. You never said but I'm pretty sure it's why you even got that house."
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"A house, huh. Good. I like havin' houses. Means no one can take it away from you.. I've always wanted to live on a beach. Somethin' unspeakable when you're lookin' out onto an endless horizon. Nothin' to get in the way of it. And tourists will ruin a place, quicker than not." He nods, pleased.
"Good," he echoes, softly.
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Willa closes her eyes, snuggling in now that they've established it at acceptable.
She wants to tell him what's bothering her. She also doesn't have it in her to hear any version of I told you this place was dangerous, are you going to go home now?
"Who's your deal for, anyway? It's totally not for you."
She knows her dad, okay.
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He can't help but smile crookedly at her question.
"There's only one person I'd go through all this for, Willa. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out." He looks down at her. "Who do you think?"
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Then:
A shift of her weight, a quick wide-eyed look. "Wait, me?"
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"There's a lot I can't control about life. I can't keep you safe from heartbreak or disappointment or stupid decisions. I can't wrap you in cotton and then expect you to survive in the world. But I can keep you safe from my job. From the trouble it can cause. The danger of it. Here, I can earn the actual promise of that security. Not 'I tried my best'."
It's worth the effort and the heartbreak and the whiplash. It was worth the wearing and tearing of Raylan because there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to secure that promise for her in a real, solid, unimpeachable manner.
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Willa shifts so she can hug him around the waist with both arms while she watches the fake moon glow off the fake water. It feels for a second like this is all a really vivid dream.
"If I tell you something will you promise not to say it's why I should leave."
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"I promise, darlin'." He wouldn't ask for what it was, instead giving her the time and space to come around to it on her own.
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Willa finally uses one hand to dig her phone out of her pocket, opening up the warden app that showed up on it when she got here. She offers it to him wordlessly once she finds her conversation with Root.
"I knew people were going to think I should go home, I was ready for that, because that's how adults are about everything. But." She stares hard at the phone without reading the messages again. "I didn't know what to say to her."
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"My suggestion is nothin' at all. It's not just the magic and wild abilities you're gonna hit here. It's other humans too. Sometimes the worst of us. There's no avoidin' them, so you gotta play things right. Be careful. They're here for their second chances, no matter how we might feel about them deservin' it or how unlikely we think change might be for them... We still gotta live with them. I know you got a lotta offers to take up some self defense. I want you to take up which ever ones you want.. Except guns."
Let him have guns, at least. Guns and strategy.
"And choose who you trust carefully. I got a few that I can tell you off the top are safe to trust. Maggie, Red, Malcolm..."
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Maggie, Red, Malcolm-- "I met all of them. Maggie I met in person."
A sidelong, smirking glance. "You sure you're not dating her?"
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"But I'm not datin' anyone, not like that. If you must know. But Maggie is.. I mean, she's sunshine and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I think you'll really like her once you get to know her. Neal too, if you meet him."
That one made him a littler nervous, not because of anything Neal might do or Willa might say and every thing to do with all that he couldn't control. The soft looks and ease that he couldn't hide from.. And what Willa will have to say about that.
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Willa can't help noting the not like that, but she doesn't point it out, content to suspect and be smug for the time being.
"Who's Neal?"
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He could understand why Winona would say no, but it seemed wrong that his daughter didn't have even basic gun skills. But he smiles at her, glad to see a brighter expression.
"He's another friend of mine. Comes by every couple of days. Believe it or not, your dad's actually got somethin' akin to a social life here. It's crazy, I know, hold back your gasps of amazement.." The grin spread a little before simmer. "But they're good people, I promise."
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".. Sometimes. Mostly it's just hangin' out. Talkin'. Though recently, I agreed to start learning the fiddle and how to cast magic. So talking, but with a point." And drinking, but she didn't need to know about that. Or the pot, or the sex, in some cases.
"You're gonna love the Enclosure. It can make anythin' you want seem real."
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"Really?" She grins at the thought of her father playing a fiddle. "Can I learn magic with you? I was thinking about that one, it would be useful."
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For all there was to fear, there was so much possibility to Willa being here.
"I'd love to learn somethin' with you darlin'. I'd also love to learn what's gotten you outta bed and out here on the sand at like-" He stops to check his watch. "Nearly 3 AM. You okay?"
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She isn't physically hurt or being threatened or anything else.
"I think I'm just... starting to get it, maybe. Why you sent me home." She traces her fingertips through the sand. "Which doesn't mean I'm leaving here, not a chance."
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"Don't worry. The Admiral told me no." Of course he asked. He had said he would and there was no time or space where Raylan wouldn't keep his word. There was a reason he was so careful with what he said. Whatever came out, he had to follow up on.
"You're not going anywhere unless you want to.. For the most part. And you can change your mind, anytime you want..." He looks down at her, all big and all tucked into his arm like this was the most natural thing in the world and just marvels at her for a second, a stupid, proud little smile on his face.
"I'm gonna worry about you all the time, but that don't change the fact that I'm glad I'm gonna get some time with you. Speakin' of worry; Admiral wouldn't let me get your location services either, unless you okay'd it. Maybe help me not freak out so much when somethin' happens?"
Please?
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"Thank you. I feel a little better already. Think you're ready to go back to bed? We got that meetin' with the horned guy in the mornin'."
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i love them ur honor
s a m e
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