Rating: T
Warning(s): Cursing, some violence and a little gore (not too graphic).
Character(s)/Parings: Axton/Sheriff of Lynchwood all in Axton's perceptive with a hint of Maya/Axton on the side. Gaige, Salvador, Zer0 and Deputy Winger make a small appearance as well.
Setting: The first part takes place before the game begins when Axton was just a gun for hire, bounty hunting on Pandora. The second part takes place in New New Haven (later named Lynchwood) in some random bar. The third takes place in some mysterious location where Axton's getting beaten by bandits, a scene from one of his ECHO's you can find in Lynchwood. The fourth and fifth take place during the mission Showdown, if you haven't done that yet, you're going to be spoiled.
Notes: This took way longer than it should have and the only excuse I have for not updating in so long is a bit of writers block, new video games, and life. I'm sorry, but it happens and I get distracted easily. I know I said this chapter would be Gaige/Axton or Axton/Captain Scarlett but after tying different things, it wasn't going anywhere so I decided to pair him with the Sheriff instead. Anyway, since it's never stated exactly where Axton went after he went AWOL (just the "border planets" in fact), I decided to go ahead and make it Pandora. The timing is vague and I'm not even sure if it can fit or not, but meh. It's a one-shot I probably won't expand on anyway. Call it AU if you like. Love it, flame it – I don't mind. Enjoy!

"You are one ugly son of a gun," Axton says when he toes the bandit at his feet onto his back. He's checked the ropes more than enough and thinks they'll stay secure. Axton crouches down and reaches into his pocket to pull out a creased bounty poster and holds it up to the bandit's face. "'Ed Nasty'," he reads with a chuckle."'Wanted alive for murder, arson, banditry, and poor hygiene.' Quite a list you got here Ed."

Ed apparently didn't seem to appreciate being called out on this and spits at Axton's face. "Go fuck yourself!"

Axton wipes the spittle off with a grimace and reminds himself that killing this guy isn't an option. He's wanted alive – no exceptions –and he'll have spent the better part of the week tracking him for nothing if he dies. He needs this first bounty hunt to go well and Ed's lucky he's broke or else he would've buried a bullet in his skull for the trouble. Instead, he drops an elbow onto the bandit's face with a satisfying crunch and a cry of pain.

"Up you get,"Axton grunts as he pulls his captive up by the sweat stained collar. "Let's get going. I wanna cash you in before happy hour."

The bandit nearly trips over the rope Axton used to bind around his ankles in a modified hog-tie, but he's able to walk and that's what counts. This is the first live capture he's ever done and so far, it's going smoothly. Tracking him wasn't easy, but he hopes the trip back won't be too much of a hassle. He's got a runner outside and enough rope to tie him up in the gunner seat. If it get's too complicated or if he tries to run, he'll knock him out.

Axton takes hold of the bandit's tied wrists and tries to navigate though the mess of fallen bodies that littler the room. The only light illuminating the place came from a small fire burning in a garbage can in the far corner and what little washed in from under a threadbare blanket nailed over the doorway. The place stank worse than the bandit and Axton was anxious to get out of there. With a solid yank, Axton leads the cursing bandit towards the exit and his reward.

The heat rises in lazy shimmers in the Dust and hits him like a wave as soon as he steps outside. Axton squints away the brightness and hardly has a moment to adjust before a single gunshot shatters what confidence he had in making it to happy hour in time. Blinking away the sunlight, his vision clears to find a solitary figure of a woman sitting astride an armored skag dressed in a cowboy hat and duster despite the heat, gun still pointed at the skies, and Axton marvels at how complicated his life can turn so quickly.

"Friend of yours, Ed?" Axton grins, not taking his eyes off the woman and he thinks she'd be pretty if she wasn't waving that gun around. "You sly dog..."

"I see you've made my job easier," the woman says as she levels her gun in his direction. "I'll be taking in that bandit and I'll be on my way."

"Is that so?" Axton grins and casually inches his hand towards his holster. "And who are you supposed to be, the sheriff?"

"Yeah, let's go with that," her lips curl into a thin smile. "Now hand him over and I might not blow that grin off your face."

Axton considers his options. His turret is cooling down, the gunfight just minutes ago with the rest of the bandit's gang burned a hole through his ammo supply and he's not sure how many shots he has left in the pistol at his hip. His back is against the wall with no cover nearby and she has the upper-hand with mobility. Things don't look good. So he does what he always does in a tight spot.

Keep talking.

"I got another idea," he says and his fingers brush the handle of his gun. If he could land one shot, even if it just distracts her, he can make a quick dive behind his runner and use it for cover while he reloads. "How about we both turn him in and split the bounty? We'll grab a drink and laugh about this later."

"Oh, this isn't about the bounty, Commando," she says as her skag impatiently paws at the ground. "I just like to see them dance at the end of my rope. That's all the payment I need."

"Do I get a say in this?" The bandit behind him volunteers, and Axton tries hard not to elbow him in the ribs.

"That's too bad..." Axton says slowly and grips his gun. It's now or never. Just one shot is all he needs. "I was looking forward to those drinks."

In a span of two seconds, four things happened: Axton draws out his gun. Three shots ring out in quick succession and Axon barely has any time to register who's they belong to. His gun is shot out of his hand. And a blinding hot flash of pain rings against his left ear.

"Sonovabitch!" He clamps his hand against his ear and finds it sticky with blood. It's still there, but the cartilage is torn where the bullets pierced through. "Is that all you got? You missed!"

"I never miss," she calls out as she tugs at the reins about-face and spurs her skag into a trot. "I'll let this slide this time, Commando. Don't get between me and what's mine again."

Axton turns to look behind him just in time to watch his paycheck slump down to his knees, two bleeding holes right below his eye. Axton kicks the corpse pointlessly before stooping to pick up his gun, blood dripping off his neck and all over the sand. He slams more bullets into the revolver but she's too far gone to even make the shot even if he wanted to; riding off and cresting over a sand dune like some cowboy of legend.

Four days. Four days he's spent tracking that bandit and it's all undone in the span if three minutes. Maybe less. Axton's had one hell of a week. Fuck it, he might as well head back and maybe talk his way into a bar tab. There's always some other wasteland asshole he can track down and from now on, he'll make sure bringing them in alive is optional.

"Shit," he mumbles as he wipes the blood off his neck and makes his way to the runner. Axton barely takes three steps before he notices how low the runner is sitting; the tires slashed sometime after he parked it there. That bitch. "Just ain't my day."

Axton throws back his glass and swallows the bitter liquid the locals pass for booze and wonders how much longer he's going to stay on this planet. He's been here for little more than two weeks now and he expected a bit more action around here for being one of the border planets. He's fallen into a routine since he's been here, he thinks. And for a man like Axton, that wasn't a good thing.

He drinks, he sleeps, he hunts down some dipshit bandit, and does it all over again until the money runs out. If things don't change, he might wake up someday a raging alcoholic curled up next to a skag with no memory of what happened the night before. In short: he needs more excitement. Axton sets down his glass and decides he'll turn in early for the night since he's got little else to do at the moment to pass the time. He counts out the rumpled, slag slobbered and blood splattered bills and before he has the chance to pay, a cowboy hat slaps down on the counter at his side.

"Gonna buy me that drink?" A half-familiar voice says and Axton looks up to find the woman who nearly shot his ear off sit down next to him at the bar.

Axton spares her a good long stare at the sheer amount of balls this woman has. "Didn't catch that," he cocks his notched ear pointedly. "You expect me to pay for your drink?"

"Well, aren't you bitter," she says, as if they're old pals. "I thought we'd laugh about all that."

Briefly, he thinks he should just leave and track her down some other day to get her back... but when his eyes catch the lovely amber of her eyes and travel down the slope of her neck... well shit. It's been far too long since he had some good looking company and it'd be just a shame if he cut it short. Fuck it, he's bored and it sure beats sleeping.

And so, he laughs and hails the bartender instead. "Two more over here."

"So, I take it you're divorced," she says, her eyes picking out the diamond ring around his neck. "You look the type."

"Roguishly handsome?" Axton supplies and nods his thanks as the bartender wordlessly slides over two more glasses.

"Desperate," she corrects and he has to smile a little at that. "There's a lot of desperate men here in Pandora all running from something. What are you running from?"

"My ex – isn't it obvious?" He jokes carefully, and that much was true. He's not sure how far Dahl's reach goes nowadays, especially since Pandora is mostly under Hyperion control, but he hasn't seen a wanted poster with his name on it yet. "So what's your name, or should I keep callin' ya 'sheriff'?"

"It won't be long until I am sheriff, might as well get a feel for it," she says with a small tilt of her lips.

"You must be new here," he grins. "Sheriff Youngblood runs New New Haven and I don't think it's a big enough town for two sheriffs."

He's shared a drink with the old sheriff and his deputy, a man called Winger, quite a few times since he's come to this place and they're on friendly enough terms. Youngblood might not always like it when Axton cashes in his bounties dead than alive, but he gets paid nonetheless. They're fair and decent folk, or as far as anyone can be here on this planet.

She laughs lightly at that. "I won't handle bandits with kid gloves like Youngblood does. They break the law, they hang. Simple as that. He's gone soft and I'm the sheriff people need around here. New New Haven …" her eyes scan the room with a disgusted curl of her lips "... needs a new name. A new start. And I'm the woman to make it happen."

"A lynching every day, huh?" Axton sips his drink slowly. "Sounds like you need more hobbies."

"Looks like you need more too," she downs the rest of her glass with a flick of her wrist. "You've been moving in on my territory. Seems like you've gotten the hang of my trade and you're crossing off every wanted man before I can hang them."

Axton considers her over the edge of his glass and briefly, he wonders if she's going to make this a problem that needs to be solved with a bar fight. Her hands are resting on the counter top, legs crossed, her shoulders set nice and relaxed... nothing hints at anything especially threatening and he assumes she's simply making conversation. Good. He'd hate to ruin his night this early by beating a woman.

"Guess I am," he says finally and finishes his drink as well, just in case.

"I suggest we correct that," she continues and he's not liking where this is heading. He's not going to stop since it's going good so far for him and being a gun for hire is all he knows.

"How so?"

"Partner up," she says simply and slips on her hat. "I've got a few leads and I haven't killed a man in two days." She leans slightly closer and he can smell the soft scent of liquor fresh on her lips. "You take the cash, I'll take their lives. Deal?"

He's gotten himself in some pretty tight situations wandering the wastelands of Pandora alone and he could sure use the company. He'll have another gun on his side and she's a mean shot since he knows from experience. It's not a bad offer and besides... she's good-looking enough to look past her murderous streak.

"Alright, but I'm not riding a skag," Axton says flatly and offers his hand.

"We'll see," she clasps his hand firmly as she stands. "Thanks for the drink, I'll meet you outside. We're burning daylight and it has been two days."

"Just one last thing... we're totally gonna fool around after this, right?" He's pushing his luck and he knows it, but there's nothing wrong in hoping. She is pretty hot after all.

She pauses mid-stride and her head tilts in such a way that he can barely make out a smile curving her lips. "I have a boyfriend."

That wasn't a no, and that's a good thing. "Question still stands."

"You're cute, Commando," she says. "I like that."

They worked well together.

He'd shrug off her sass, she'd tolerate his annoyances and they had a working partnership where they both got what they wanted from each other. He got paid, she'd hang the bastards, and if they sometimes wanted to fool around on the side with no strings attached, they'd do that too. They didn't talk about the boyfriend she visited for days on end where he'd get bored out of his mind waiting for her to come riding back into town. She didn't bring up his wife again and in time, he grew to stop thinking of Sarah too. And if he sometimes did, he'd make sure to dull the memory of the woman he used to love by learning every inch of his new partner's body.

Everybody wins.

At least, that's what he thought until he woke up out of his daze and found himself tied up to a chair with a pair of nasty bandits they'd been tracking. Two lowlife thieves by the name of J-Dog and Barrowman with a nice price on their heads each. It was supposed to be an easy job. They'd shoot their way through the ramshackle encampment and identify who their targets were by the bodies. No spectacle lynching, no one gets tied to the back of her skag and dragged for miles as she occasionally likes to do. The Sheriff had different plans, and the dull ache at the base of his skull told him she had knocked him out and fucked him over, leaving him here to die. And for what, he's not sure.

A solid blow to the gut winds him and he groans, everything momentarily going dark until the room swims back into focus again. Something – a hand – gropes at his neck and turns Sarah's ring in the light and Axton pulls back, yanking it out of the bandit's grasp.

"What's that ring ya carryin', pretty boy?" The one called J-Dog sneers.

Axton takes a moment to catch his breath and think. His arms are tied behind the chair and he shifts slightly as if in pain to check if he can reach his tomahawk on his left side and he feels the sharp edge catch on the rope. It's doable. Might take some time, but he'll do what he always does and find a way out: keep talking.

Later, when all this is over, he'll want some answers from the woman who calls herself Sheriff.

A spray of bullets tear into a charging psycho and Axton reloads before the body hits the ground.

"That's the last of 'em," he says and steps over the corpse.

The Main Street of Lynchwood is silent except for the low rumble of an incoming train that's long stopped pulling into the station. Nothing but the wind whispering though the alleys and he wonders what became of the place before it turned into a breeding ground for bandits. It used to be an alright town despite the Eridium mining operations going on for Hyperion. Wasn't as safe as Sanctuary, it still being mostly lawless and all, but it wasn't this bad. He remembers stepping off that very same train after going AWOL and thought it was a good place as any to start over.

The Sheriff's voice rings throughout the empty streets and solves that mystery. A lot's changed since that day the heard the Hyperion Truth commercial and left town. He never did find her like he hoped he would so hearing her voice now brings back all the resentment of her betrayal. He never would've thought she'd come back, but she did, and hell followed after.

"Are you alright?" Maya asks at his side. "You've been… off today. Like you're somewhere else."

"Nothin'," he says evasively and tires to fish around for an excuse and comes up dry. "Just wanna get this done."

"Alright," she nods and leaves it like that. "Ready to take on the Sheriff?"

"Thinking about doing it on my own," he says. He's been giving it some thought since the first time he heard her voice over the speakers and he wants to handle it himself. It's fitting that way. She left him to die, and now he can return the favor.

"Sure about that?" Maya asks quietly as they make their way through the tunnel towards Gunslinger's Corner. "It seems risky going out there on your own."

"More like stupid," Gaige falls into step at his side, delicately flicking some gore off her arm and sure, that may be true, but stupid ideas that's never stopped Axton before. No point in stopping now. "You did hear the whole puppy killing story, right? She's friggin' crazy."

"I just wanna talk to her first," he says without thinking and realizes that it's true. He wants to know why she screwed him over and it's been eating at him all day. Maya's brow rises in question and he decides to lay his cards on the table with a sigh. If he's going to go though with this, they're going to find out anyway. "Me and the Sheriff? You could say... we have a little bit of a history." A still silence falls between the five of them, and even Zer0 looks over at him as if waiting for further explanation. "It's kinda complicated and –"

"So you two fucked?" Salvador says with a growing smile.

"Alright, not that complicated at all," Axton admits, faintly irritated despite the fact that Salvador wasn't that far from the truth. "Look, long story short – she left me for dead and I've got a few words for her is all. I'm going in there alone, feel free to back me up if things get hairy. End of discussion."

Gaige tisks. "You screwed a puppy killer. I expected better from you. Wait... wait, no. I expected just that."

"In my defense, I had no idea she killed any puppies." And he didn't. Axton always knew she had a sadistic streak in her, sure, but he's always had the reckless tendency to not care in the slightest. Who she was, what she did before, even her real name didn't matter. He didn't even know she was dating Handsome Jack of all people. They did other things to pass the time than talking about themselves.

Maya rolls her eyes. "And would that have stopped you?"

Axton gives it some thought, and apparently thought for too long because Maya makes an exasperated sound and brushes past him. "Oh c'mon! She's hot as hell, can't blame a guy for banging that! I had needs, Maya."

"Yes, you needed to sleep with a puppy killer," Maya shoots back and he doesn't get what the big deal is. It's not like he killed it.

"You –" Axton bites his tongue and instead says what always helped smooth over things with his ex. Having been a married man for a while, he's learned that sometimes, arguing with women never gets him anywhere. "You...look pretty today."

"Uh-huh, sure," Maya says indifferently, but he can tell she was pleased about it nonetheless with that small curl of her lips he's grown to like.

"Hey, I'm pretty," Gaige whines teasingly with a twirl of her hair.

"Tell me I'm pretty too," Salvador grunts.

If Handsome Jack could hear them now...

"Yeah, yeah, you're all freakin' pretty," Axton absently points in their general direction. "And before I forget," he turns to Zer0 and briefly wonders if he'd gut him for saying it, but decides to go head anyway before Zer0 feels left out. "You... are the prettiest of them all."

"Are you all done yet? / We've yet to plan our attack. / I am getting bored," Zer0 says flatly after a long stare down and Axton thinks Zer0 could stand to humor him just a little. A bit is all he's asking.

"Right," he clears his throat and scans the street ahead of them, judging the cover and the buildings. "Zer0, find a vantage point. Rooftop on the right would do fine. Maya, join him. Gaige? Sal? Stick to the left alleys, I want her flanked in case I'll be walking into an ambush. Sounds good?"

There's a murmur of agreement between the five of them as they start to break away and Axton briefly checks his weapons. He knows the Sheriff uses a trigger-less hand cannon of a revolver and the last thing he needs is to run out of ammo or get into a jam while she's firing away. Satisfied, he makes his way out into the deserted street and hopes this won't be the last stupid idea he'll ever make.

She spots him coming halfway down the street from her perch high up on the sheriff's station rooftop and he feels her eyes on him every step of the way. His hand sits on his holster, ready just in case and everything in his body feels on edge; aware of every little detail. The crunch of the gravel below his boots. The infectious little melody of the skag chew machine loud in narrow street. The smell of blood and sweat on his clothes. Axton keeps his eyes head, locked on the Sheriff's silhouette on high.

Axton stops in the middle of the street and takes in his surroundings. Several of the Sheriff's Marshals line the street, Deputy Winger among them, and he exchanges a look with the man he once knew. Winger had always been loyal to this town and maybe when the sheriff's badge exchanged hands, he continued to serve as the deputy to help in whatever small way he could. Briefly, he wonders what happened to Youngblood and hopes he didn't suffer much. He was a good man.

"You're either really brave or really stupid showing up here without your bandit friends," the Sheriff calls out from above. "Turn them in and maybe I'll let you go for old time's sake."

"Funny, that's what I wanted to talk about... old times," he says and tries to think of a way to say what he wants to say without coming off whiny or as desperate as she always said he was or... shit he doesn't know. "Why'd you do it?"

She cocks her head slightly, as if confused or simply measuring him up and she slips a hand slowly into a breast pocket. His fingers tense against his gun but all she pulls out is a sheet of paper, folded up and tattered around the edges. Wordlessly, she straightens it out and tosses it down, the wind turning it lazily in the air before coming to rest at his feet.

It was a warrant for his arrest. Not the fresh and cheerful Hyperion yellow he's seen everywhere he goes since he got on Handsome Jack's bad side with an impressive bounty on his head, no. But a military issued Dahl green with every detail about him. His last known whereabouts, several photos, his every crime... everything on that creased piece of paper. Sometime during their partnership, she had found this and he wondered how long she battled with the knowledge that she was working with a wanted man. The very kind of man she hunted down mercilessly at the end of the day.

And she kept the warrant after all this time. "How long did you know?"

"Long enough," she answers. "Y'know... I just couldn't kill you myself. Maybe I should have because we're right back where we started."

"It don't have end like this," he says, although he knows it's the farthest thing from the truth. He might not know her name, but he knows that she's a prideful kind of stubborn woman and saying how pretty she looks isn't going to fix things this time. "Get out of town while you can."

"You're cute, Commando, but you keep getting in my way," she smiles then, it's small and nowhere near as sweet as Maya's, but it's hers and he hasn't seen it in a long while. He's going to miss it. "This is my town and I'm not going anywhere. It's too bad we can't be on the same side."

He wants to keep talking and put off the inevitable, maybe find out where she's been all this time or ask for her real name. Maybe ask her what she sees in that Handsome Jack-off and why she couldn't kill him before... he wants to say a lot of things. But he doesn't. Sometimes there's just nothing else to say.

Instead, he draws his gun and hopes he'll still have what's left of his ear after this.

Notes: So I'm going to try some slash or fem-slash in the next chapter be warned to skip it if that's not your cup of tea. Not sure who I'm going with but I'm leaning towards Maya/Lilith. Don't know when I'll next update, like usual, but I hope y'all come back for the next chapter! Thanks for reading!