( continues...) Givens and the Crowders crossed the road when they saw Fiona coming, which left her feeling like she needed to wash her sins away with Benjamin McClay, who was so much older and more sanctified.

“I’m sorry,” he said at last, “that I didn’t write when your mother passed. Aunt Helen said y’all came out to California, but you know, small towns and their rumors.”

Good stuff, erika. I really liked Faith heading to Kentucky, and Raylan knowing Tara's people.

Oh, thanks. Ava is sort of the Faith of Kentucky so I thought they'd get on famously.And I always kind of thought that Tara's people came off Southern, which might have initially been a diss on Southern people since they are so ignorant and mean, but everybody comes from someplace.

"I could give you a reading, Raylan, if you want." Tara offered.

Raylan wasn’t sure he believed in such things, but he certainly owed something to this girl and her family, so he said “Thank you so much,” and let her hold his hands.

Willow, in a welter of jealousy so strong she hardly knew who she was jealous of, mumbled “You never give me a reading,” so loudly that gentle Tara glared. Willow hardly knew what to expect since the pair met and spent half of every Scooby meeting talking of places and people the rest of them had never heard of.

Of course, Giles did that, too, but at least most of those people had been safely dead for hundreds of years so it wasn’t that important to keep track of their feuds or whatever. Not like the Givens and the Bennetts. Really? Prohibition? Even Anya let things go faster than that!(well, proportionally)He was definitely rubbing off on her, too. Willow was happy that she stammered less, but not so pleased about the “y’all” she heard last week. Not for herself so much as her mother. Sheila Rosenberg might champion the whole gay thing, but not so much if she thought the girl in question was…culturally disadvantaged.
And Willow didn’t dare say anything. Not with Buffy and Raylan joined at the hip…there wasn’t a good time to say “Stop giving my girlfriend yokel lessons!” Not that Raylan actually *was* a yokel…he just knew a lot of them. He looked over at her, questioning, one eyebrow raised, which was, like, so annoying. Not only did he seem like he could read her mind, but sometimes? When he looked over at her that way, she…felt stuff. Definite non-gay, non-proud, bad-friend flutters in her belly. Sometimes she was just as glad when Buffy didn’t come back to the dorm at night. Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Willow focused on her baby’s amazing aura-reading talent.

“You have recently made a major life decision.” Tara said, softly.

Raylan thought Yeah, sure, so’s everybody.

“Life and death.” Tara added. “Don’t explain…just tell me if that makes sense.”

“Yes, ma’am, it truly does.” But he wasn’t really thinking anything but how soft the witch’s hands were and how they smelled like that lotion that smelled like cherries. Maybe Buffy told her some Arlo stories.

“I’m seeing a woman in authority. And I’m seeing that it isn’t the first and it won’t be the last.No matter how much you wish…death is your gift.”

“A woman? There must be some mistake. And, death a gift? I thought getting clothes I had to grow into was bad.” He managed a weak smile, and heard Xander laugh, but somehow this reading was no longer fun.

He’d been fit to be tied when he’d gone to see Professor Walsh after Buffy got that broken Initiative tazer and he’d made no secret of it. “What the hell are you doing, you psychotic harpy?”

She’d been scared, no doubt about it. Most people were when they saw the things Raylan generally held back come into full flower, but being a cold fish by nature,she tried to hide by backing up behind her desk and looking superior.
“Well, if this is that much-vaunted Southern chivalry, I’d say it’s highly overrated.”

“And I’d say that killin’ people ought to cut into your dudgeon a speck, but here we are.”

“Raylan, I told you I’m sorry about Buffy’s botched training exercise, but you can see yourself that she was resourceful and escaped.”

“No thanks to you. And don’t lie to me, neither, cause if you lie, I might do something I regret. And not just about Buffy. What did you do to Riley Finn? The autopsy report said his heart was practically liquified when he expired. Poor bastard.”

“Go ahead….tell someone what you *think* you know…it’s your military career, not mine.”

“Here’s the thing… I know for a fact that my military career has…what-do-you-call-it, plateaued a bit. Not because I can’t fight, as you can confirm from your intense desire to either vomit or piss yourself right this very minute,or because I’m not loyal to folks that deserve it…in which case, you, Maggie (continued...)

( continues...) Walsh, ain’t half the military man I am, for the record.”

It pleased him how quickly her face drained of color as he aimed the taser at it. “You finished?”

He smiled pretty, just because he knew it pissed her off. “Not even close…where was I? Oh, yeah. I didn’t get further in the military cause I insisted on taking all that stuff about honor and duty and so forth more personally than my COs generally required.Even my staff sargeant noticed. He said “Boy, you are the best friend anyone ever had. Or the worst enemy.Of course, he also told us we could kill people twenty-seven different ways with our bare hands…who knows what’s true.”

And, now, he was prepared to go and swear on a stack of Bibles that it was pure happenstance(or possibly her own mismanagement) that led Maggie Walsh to perform an in-person site inspection on a hostile containment pod with three times the recommended HSTs inside and a faulty security latch. Which might have been made faulty with the application of Mountain Dew belonging to one Raylan Givens. But, really, he didn’t feel comfortable speculating…how the hell did the witch know?

Buffy thought it was a harmless debriefing. He wondered if Buffy would visit him in jail. “It will work out fine,” Tara said. And gave his hand a squeeze before she dropped it.

Ok, now I really want to start watching Justified.

Thanks...I hoped that would happen, or, at least, a person doesn't post thinking "Man, they'll hate that!"

I like the changes in centers of balance between more than one character than Raylan makes simply because he is such a badass good guy. He is much more Buffy's equal than Angel or Riley ever could dream of being. That's what it looks like, anyway.

ETA: It could get mighty interesting - Raylan facing off against his rival for Tara's mother's affection, together with the rest of the Scoobies, when her dad shows up. Muddy up the issues, and maybe cut to the chase a lot sooner. I dunno. Were you planning on writing a bit of that?

Maybe eventually...that was more of an accident. Just cause I could picture witches gathering up herbs and stuff in the hollers. But I could see that, because Raylan does so want to be a Hero with a H that he does stuff that's, from a bureaucratic perspective, at least, insane. Like going up to known mobster Tommy Bucks in Miami and telling him he has two days to get out of town. Or else. In front of people. Then waiting exactly two days(because, what? A deal's a deal?) and using his mad sharpshooter skills to end the man to protect some low-level bookie.That's how he ended up back in Harlan in the first place. The whole first season people are like "Who *does* that?" And they have a point.(But that kind of insanity saved Loretta McCready and I love that story, so...) He'd like Buffy's world too. Less paperwork. Paperwork is not Raylan's friend, much like court testimony.

Ok, this is embarrassing, but I'm doing the Merry Month of Masturbation challenge. It's a little Justified fic, and once again, can't stay away from the maim story. But I also think it's funny so I want you guys to read this one. [link] (I won't post all 31. Just, you know, the cream of the crop.)