So, Season 4. Wow. I cannot put in words how disappointed I was with the first episode - it was all too much, exaggerated, unrealistic bullshit, with Raylan portrayed as really being larger than life, like nothing can touch him, not even having a criminal in his trunk... I just didn't buy it, any of it, even for a second. Even the parts with Boyd didn't excite me as much as they usually do, and I hate this new fella in his crew. Anyway, it got better with ep 2, but still it seems to me like the writers are in a hurry to get somewhere, trying to fit a story in 13 episodes that would need more time developing. I already saw that problem with season 3, but now it's getting obvious.

I still love this show, though, so enough whining for now. Just, until I find my way into the new season and start to like it better, I can't write a story that plays during season 4, and hence this story, as my other Justified fics except for "The Fade Out Line" (which there will be a reference to in this chapter here, but only once and only a short one), plays out post-season 3, since it was mentioned that between the end of season 3 and the beginning of season 4 several months have passed. I'm using this in-between-time until I know what to do with season 4.

Now, with the story. It's Boyd/Ava, obviously, with a little Boyd whump, since I can't seem to go without, and has lots of Raylan and, this time, Tim in it, too.

English is not my native language, I still try my best.

I rated it T, but there's a short lemony scene right at the beginning that I'm nervous about cause it's the first time I've tried writing anything like it, so I hope I haven't made a complete ass outta myself, and it's not the most explicit thing you'll ever read and really just a few lines, so I didn't see the point in rating the whole story M. If you blush easily, skip the first six paragraphs and you'll be just fine.

The title is inspired by the great song "Wolf" by First Aid Kit.

Disclaimer: I do not own Justified, nor any of its characters, and I am not making any money with this.

Enjoy!


The Wolf Mother


Chapter 1


It was a silent night in Harlan County, so quiet in fact that Ava was afraid her and Boyd would wake someone up with what they were doing. But she couldn't have been bothered by it right at this moment, she was enjoying herself way too much.

Boyd was writhing beneath her, breathing heavily. Ava's hands had the head board of her bed in a death grip as she repeatedly lowered herself on Boyd's cock with a fervor that had the bed frame slam against the wall, creating a rhythmic thump-thump noise, and although she really liked Danny, she was secretly glad he'd finally found his own place so that when her and Boyd got to having sex they didn't have the need to be quiet anymore.

Boyd thrust up to meet her, and Ava threw her head back at the beginning of the familiar sweet tingling in her lower regions. Like this, with her eyes closed, the bed frame slamming against the wall almost sounded like a heart beat…

"Boyd" she panted. "Oh… just… a little… more… don't stop…"

Neither one of them had any intention of stopping now, she knew, and it made her smile that she still wanted to say it out loud. Then her eyes rolled back as she rode out one of the strongest orgasms she'd had in the last month, and words escaped her.

Boyd flipped them over then, and she gave him a dazed smile. Her man grinned back with all of his teeth as he always did. She lifted a hand, hurting slightly from the white-knuckled grip she'd had on the head board, and touched his face tenderly, running it through his hair. Boyd closed his eyes against her touch and kissed her passionately as he delved deep into her again. A few more thrusts and he was done for, murmuring her name against her lips as he came.

Boyd rested his forehead against hers. "Dear Lord" he huffed.

"That was so good" Ava said and meant it. Not even Raylan had ever managed to make her come like that. Maybe it was the love that made everything better. That thought made her smile big at Boyd and draw him in for another kiss, before he pulled out of her and lay down at her side.

"It was, wasn't it" he whispered and grinned like a fool. "I think I've never loved you more than right now."

That had her laughing out loud. "You're an idiot."

Boyd chuckled and ran his hand through her hair, fanning it out on the pillow.

"I think I know what you mean, though" Ava admitted. She felt the post-coital contentment settle over her, making her eye-lids heavy with much needed sleep.

"Do you now."

"Maybe. I do love you, Boyd."

"And I love to hear it."

"Good" she said and kissed him one last time before settling next to him, her arm slung over his chest, her legs tangled with his. Boyd was not big on the cuddling, but he let her indulge in it until she fell asleep before he gently untangled them and fell asleep himself. It was another thing she loved him for.

Ava was already close to falling asleep, she knew it would happen any minute now. Her mind had already been pulled under a few times, her awareness was slipping, and she tried to remember the last dream she'd had, when suddenly she felt all of Boyd's muscles go taut. It pulled her out of her half-asleep state.

"Boyd?" she murmured, confused.

"Shhh. I might've heard somethin'" he whispered.

Ava frowned. She hadn't heard a thing.

When Boyd had pulled out of her minutes earlier to lie down next to her, he'd positioned himself on what Ava usually saw as his side of the bed, with a night stand next to it that had a small drawer in which Boyd stowed his reading glasses and a Beretta. On Ava's side of the bed the night stand had no drawer, but she kept her sawed-off behind it, leaning against the wall. Also Ava was lying rather close to the edge of the mattress. It turned out to be a blessing when the bedroom door burst open and shots were suddenly being fired at them, and Ava thought she was in a nightmare that was repeating itself, only the guy that grabbed her and rolled her off of the bed and onto the floor was Boyd instead of Raylan.

Ava was petrified; she would have been an easy target had it not been for Boyd. She heard him stifle a scream when he rolled them off of the mattress and she knew he was hit. They were lying on the wooden floor of her bedroom, naked, and the shots had not ceased yet, and finally Ava was able to shake the shock. She made a grab for her shotgun and started firing back until she didn't have any rounds left. That had to have done the trick because she heard hasty footsteps on the stairs as her and Boyd got up off the floor.

Boyd was muttering colourful curses as he pulled on his pants and rushed around the bed to get his Beretta. Ava shrugged into her robe, not even bothering to tie it properly, but when Boyd bolted out of the room to follow whoever it had been that had shot at them down the stairs, she remembered that her sawed-off was running on empty, and with shaking fingers she loaded a new round into the chambers before running after her man.

Ava arrived at the wide open front door to see Boyd standing in her front yard, shirtless and barefoot, firing at a retreating truck. He only managed to take out one out their headlights before the car was too far away to do any real damage. When Boyd realized it he lowered his gun and let his shoulders sag.

"Fuck!" he shouted into the night, panting. He leaned forward slightly as if trying to catch his breath.

Ava swallowed as she felt the adrenaline curse through her body. Any and all traces of sleepy contentment were gone. Shakily she leaned her shotgun against the doorframe and did up her robe; the ice-cold wind tried to blow it open.

"Baby, come on inside. They're gone" she called to Boyd.

Slowly he followed her lead as she got back inside the warm house and turned on the light in the kitchen to sit at the table and try to calm her nerves. This was one of those times where she severely regretted giving up smoking. A cigarette would have done wonders now. But then again, everything was temporary.

Ava's eyes widened in shock when she saw Boyd step into the kitchen and she got a good look at the state he was in: He was bleeding heavily from a gash in his left side, and there was a smaller one on his right upper arm. He was pale and his right hand was covered in blood. It was starting to soak through the leg of his pants already.

"Jesus Christ!" Ava shouted. "Boyd! What the hell!"

She'd known he had to have been hit, but he'd been up and around immediately after… it was the adrenaline, then, had to be.

"Ain't that bad" Boyd said, looking at his side. "Just a graze."

"Shut up, Boyd, that ain't just a goddamn graze!" Ava grabbed his left hand, the un-bloodied one, and pulled at it until he followed her to one of the chairs. After she sat him down she grabbed the first aid kit she was keeping under the sink. Boyd reached for a dish towel and pressed it against his side, grimacing.

"Goddamnit, what the hell is this" Ava muttered as she dug into the kit to find what she was looking for. "The hell. The HELL, Boyd?!"

"I don't know, baby." Boyd was speaking in a soothing voice to her. "But it's gonna be fine. It's all gonna be just fine, alright. You gotta calm down now, baby. They're gone, like you said."

"Yeah, but…" Ava felt tears sting at her eyes. The shock of what had just happened to her – again – was starting to get to her; what happened to THEM. This was THEM, in it together, and there was no mistaking that they were both the intended target this time. "They fucking SHOT at us!" she shouted, like it hadn't been obvious.

"I know, baby, I know. It sucks. But I've had way worse than this." Boyd was still trying to calm her down, and she needed that, desperately. But he was starting to piss her off, just a little.

"I know that, too, Boyd, I was there, remember?" Ava bit out. Both of their gazes wandered to the dining room.

"Yeah. Sorry, Ava." Boyd was taking shallow breaths, and the towel was in need to be replaced. Blood from the shallower graze on his shoulder was running down his arm. It made Ava want to kick and scream.

"What do we do now?" she asked while taking the dish towel away from the gash in Boyd's side and replacing it with medical pads, a whole bunch of them, to stem the blood still flowing. Boyd winced when she increased the pressure. "Who the hell did this?"

"Well" he said. "There ain't all that much that we can do right now, baby. Only thing we can do is hope they don' get back until it's light outside, and then we'll start hearin' around for who's been wantin' to kill us so bad they couldn't wait till past 3 am."

Ava taped the pads in place the best she could, but it wouldn't hold very long. "You need a doctor. And don't you dare tell me you don't" she continued when Boyd started to say something.

"Fine, Ava, we'll get one here in the mornin', huh?"

"I don't know, Boyd. This just ain't right."

"Well, what do you wanna do now? Call the polies?"

"No." Ava looked at him. "I'mma call Raylan."

"You what?" Boyd gazed at her with wide eyes.

"Raylan. He's gonna know what to do, right?"

"Baby, he, uh, he might, but" Boyd gave a little, incredulous laugh, pretty similar to when she'd told him about what had happened to Delroy, "it's three in the mornin', an' I'm guessin' he'll be asleep, so…"

"So what. We were supposed to be asleep now, as well, and the only reason we ain't dead is cause you can't fall asleep when I'm cuddlin' you. You're hurt, you're bleedin', and we need help. Do you trust Johnny to keep you safe right now? Or Limehouse, for God's sake? If there's one person in this world that you trust to keep you safe right now, who would it be, huh? Who would it be?"

Boyd lowered his head and sighed, resigned. "I guess that would be Raylan, then."

"Of course it would." Ava nodded resolutely and got up to get her cell phone. "Now, I'mma call him, and you'll sit here and drink a glass of water. Don't move, this bandage is more'n shady."

"Yes, ma'am" Boyd said and she thought she heard a touch of amusement in his voice. You could never know with that man.


Raylan Givens groaned when his cell phone rang. It was still dark outside; he couldn't have overslept so bad… was it even time to get up? Was it even his cell phone? It might have been Lindsey's. But the bar tender slept on as if the quiet of the night had never been broken, so Raylan sighed and took it on himself to begin the cell phone search.

His body felt like it weighed a ton when he forced himself to sit up and turn on the light. Who the hell was it that called anyone at 3 am?

Oh, Raylan thought. He remembered a time, it felt like an eternity ago, when he himself had called Boyd at exactly the same time that now someone else was calling him; he'd woken Boyd up, then, too. Raylan remembered the dream he'd had, and shuddered, trying to forget it. He hadn't thought of that night for a long time. This felt like another life now. But as far as he knew, Boyd Crowder was still alive. The last time he'd seen him Boyd had been sitting in the back of an ambulance, pale as a sheet, with a poor terrified paramedic removing the IV from his arm. But, he'd been alive.

Raylan breathed and took his cell phone – it HAD been his cell phone ringing – and checked the caller ID. His eye brows rose to his hairline.

"Ava? That you?"

"Yes, Raylan, hey. I'm sorry, but-"

"You damn well should be, it's in the middle of the night! Why the hell you callin' me right in the middle of the goddamned night?"

Scratch that, Raylan thought, why the hell is she calling me at all?

"Raylan, listen. There was someone in my house, they shot at us, and Boyd is hurt, and I – I don't know what to do, okay? So, I need your help!"

"They what? Slowly, Ava, alright?" Raylan sat up straighter. "Who was at your house, and when?"

"I don't know, it was dark, they – they were here just now, Boyd an' I were in bed, we were just fallin' asleep… and then the door…"

"The door burst open and someone opened fire on the bed, yeah. Sounds kinda familiar." Raylan dragged a hand through his hair. "Okay. But they're gone now?"

"Yeah, they're gone."

"And you're a hundred percent sure?"

"Yeah, we – we followed them outside, Boyd shot at their car, he managed to take out one of their head lights… but they could come back, Raylan, it's dark, we can't see, we're alone-"

"Alright, alright, Ava, I get it. You said something about Boyd being hurt."

"Yeah, he, uhm, he got hit, twice."

Raylan closed his eyes briefly. So much for Boyd being alive, then.

"How bad?"

"Well, the one is just a graze, but there's one on his side that seems deeper than that and it's bleedin' quite heavily… course he says it ain't that bad, but…"

"So he's conscious?"

"Yeah, he is, wants me to give him the phone."

"Go ahead then."

Raylan heard a rustle, some quiet words being exchanged, and then Boyd's familiar drawl came through the speaker.

"Hey there, Raylan."

"Boyd. So, the kinda night you had, huh."

"It was quite adventurous, I'll say. But we don' need to make it any more adventurous than it's already been, see, Ava was just scared-" Ava said something in the background, and it sounded pissed off. "Or is still scared, sorry." Ava continued talking, and Raylan could hear Boyd sigh heavily. "Baby, what could Raylan do right now anyway? Don't look at me, it was your idea."

"Boyd, if you're on the phone with me, I'd like you to tell me what the hell is going on right now."

"Well, see – GOD… damnit."

There was another rustle, and Ava was back. "Sorry, Raylan."

"The hell?"

"Boyd's in pain. He moved, and that makeshift bandage of mine ain't holdin' out much longer. Raylan, what are we gonna do?"

"It obviously sounded like Boyd didn't think it was necessary to call me, so-"

"Yeah, well, Boyd ain't in charge right now. He's got two bullet holes in him, he ain't thinkin' clearly."

"Holes? I think the one was just a graze."

"Raylan…"

"Alright. Assuming you want to take Boyd's approach and do nothin' you're gonna have to stay in the cellar, call your back-up and hope for the best, but I get the feelin' that ain't how you wanna deal with this."

"No, I do not. This is serious, Raylan."

"I know, I know, it is. Getting shot at in your bedroom in the middle of the night? Been there, done that. I guess you should call Harlan PD, give a statement, they'll be forced to do somethin' bout it-"

"No, no, no, Raylan, I don't want Harlan PD to snoop around my house, I want you!"

Raylan frowned. "Why?"

"Cause…" Ava seemed to hesitate. "I was thinkin' who I should call, an'… there was only one person Boyd an' I could think of that we would feel safe with, an' well, that person is you."

"Ava, I'm honored, but I'm a Marshal, this is not my department. As long as the guy who did this ain't a federal fugitive there's nothing I can do. Listen, call Harlan PD, call the Sherriff, and then come to Lexington, to the Marshal's Office, if you feel safer with that. Maybe we can get your statements there, take care of Boyd, while forensics are snoopin' round your house, tryin' to find out if this asshole left traces that make him easier to be found. How's that sound?"

"Alright, I guess."

"Okay. Give me another call as soon as you're crossing the line to Lexington. We'll be waitin' for you at the office. It's gonna be fine, alright?"

"Alright, Raylan. See you then."

Ava hung up, and Raylan put his cell phone back on the night stand and leaned his head back until it thumped against the wall. Well, shit. That would shorten his night considerably.

"Everythin' okay?" Lindsey murmured into her pillow.

"Yep. I just got another hour of maybe-sleep before I have to get up to call my boss and let him know how short his night's gonna be. That'll be so much fun."

"Uhuh." Lindsey sounded like she was half-way back to sleep and hadn't even really listened in the first place; Raylan envied her. This time the nightly phone conversation with Boyd had not calmed him down. He was certain that he would not be falling asleep again any time soon.


I really wasn't sure whether to actually post this, so I just wrote and wrote and wrote for like a week or so, until I was sure it's good enough to be unleashed on the readers of this fandom, and not just a big pile of shit. That insecurity of mine lead to the fact that I have now already another two finished chapters at the ready, but as opposed to my last fic that I posted in a matter of days (because, it was a Christmas story so I wanted to post it all on Christmas, that's logical, right?) I'm planning to post this one at a more leisured pace. I'm thinking one chapter a week.

This chapter was parts from Ava's POV, just because I'd never tried that before, but I think the rest of the story will be Raylan's POV. Back to my comfort zone. And the fic is ABOUT Boyd, but strangely enough, I noticed that he has way less "screen time" than Raylan does... how is that even possible? Don't you just love it when you start a story with a specific progression in mind, and then the story turns around on you and develops a life of its own? Ah. Wonderful.

As always, those who think they might be inclined to review, I ain't inclined to disagree.