Hello guys, so this is my first story for Justified. It's just an idea I had so I'm running with it. Let me know if you love it or hate.

Disclaimer: I do not own Justified or any of the characters. I only own my characters.

Chapter 1

Anna Randolph knew she was more than where she came from. She had the brains to make something of herself and she did. She spent every day of her life making sure it wasn't defined by her past and most of the time it worked.

But everybody has their days.

"Stop. Anna, I need to stop."

"I know it hurts, but I'm gonna need you to keep going." Anna rested her hand on the small of Jasmine's back and urged her forward. "It'll all pay off later when you're wiping the floor with Eastern." Anna smiled at the girl who broke her ankle playing point guard for her high school's basketball team.

"I think I might throw up." Jasmine pouted and widened her puppy dog eyes at Anna.

"Nice try, kid, but you're on your last stretch. Finish it out strong."

"I know." Jasmine sighed and white knuckled the support bars. Anna smirked when she started hobbling down the line. When the girl had first come to Anna she'd been a terror. She was her daddy's favorite superstar and was used to getting everything she wanted.

It was hell getting her to do anything, but eventually she met Anna halfway. Now the two's tolerance of one another was slipping into a mutual friendship.

"Ya know, in all our time together, you've never told me where you're from or anything about you." Jasmine winced when she came down hard on her ankle.

"You never asked." Anna replied and encouraged Jasmine forward with a gentle nudge to her back.

"Well I'm asking now." Jasmine briefly rolled her eyes over Anna's appearance. "You definitely aren't from Indiana with that accent."

"Observant." Anna mocked and accepted her eye roll graciously. She let a beat of silence pass between them as she helped Jasmine to the finish line. "See! You did it!" Anna beamed and retrieved Jasmine's wheelchair. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Easy for you to say." Jasmine grimaced as she plopped into the cushioned seat. "You didn't have to do it."

"No, but I've been where you are now and I know it'll only make you stronger." Anna defended and eased Jasmine's wounded ankle into the holster.

"What'd you need physical therapy for?" Jasmine asked and relaxed further into her seat when Anna began massaging her ankle.

"Where I grew up we didn't have a physical therapist so I had to deal with my broken bones the old fashioned way." Anna chuckled at Jasmine's persistent nod for her to go on. "With a sling and prayer."

"Prayer?" Jasmine scoffed incredulously. "Where'd you grow up? In a church?"

"Only on Sundays." Anna smirked and patted Jasmine's ankle. "You're all finished, kid."

"Wait! Aren't you going to tell me where you're from?" Jasmine wheels were nipping at Anna's heels as she led her out of the therapy center.

"Kentucky."

"Kentucky? How'd you end up here?" Anna just shook her head and smiled as she propped the front door open.

"Prayer." She quipped and made a shooing motion with her hand. "Now get out of here before I roll you down a hill."

"The hospitality here is one of a kind." Jasmine replied sarcastically with a hint of a smile on her lips.

"So they tell me. I'll see you next week." Anna waved good-bye before she returned to her office.

She'd been all over the continental U.S. since she'd left home at the age of eighteen. It had shaped her into a fine young woman and filed away some of the hard edges left over from her hometown.

Anna liked to think that she had reinvented herself, but even she begrudgingly accepted that you could take the girl out of the holler, but you couldn't take the holler out of the girl.

"Hey Anna." Anna looked up when Brad, her assistant, walked into the room. He was a handsome young man in his mid-twenties with an affinity for helping people and staring at her ass. "Your sister's been calling all morning for you. I think it's an emergency."

"Then why the hell didn't she call my cell?" Anna muttered and rummaged through her desk for her Samsung.

"She said she's been trying to, but you haven't been picking up. Want me to get her on the desk phone?"

"No that's okay. Thanks, Brad."

"No problem, Anna." A boyish grin lit up Brad's face that made him look ten years younger as he backed out of the room. She waited until he had shut the door behind him before she called her sister back.

Anna could only imagine what Ava wanted now. The pair hadn't been close since Ava married Bowmen Crowder and Anna had moved away. Growing up they were thick as thieves and didn't go anywhere without each other.

Now, however, they barely knew each other.

"Hello?" Anna hadn't realized how much she missed her sister's voice until she heard her thick southern drawl that, no doubt, still matched her own.

"Hey Ava, it's Anna."

"Anna, thank god, I thought you had changed your number." Anna's eyebrows rose in surprise at the relief in Ava's voice.

"I was busy with a patient." Anna leaned forward and rested her elbow on the desk. "Everything okay?"

"It is now." Ava replied happily and took a deep breath. "I shot Bowmen. He's dead."

"You have got to be shittin' me, Ava." Anna wiped an incredulous hand down her face and stared at the wall through her fingers. She hated that she wasn't more shocked by this. "What in the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinkin' bout how I wasn't goin' to let his drunken ass lay one more finger on me. I was thinkin' bout how I was goin' to finally call my baby sister." Anna listened to Ava's deep sigh. "I need you, Anna. I need you to come home. To Harlan."

Thank you to those who made it through the first chapter! I'm looking to post the next chapter soon!