Other than the Hopkins case and prison inspection and an incident involving a girl named Loretta McCready and the bomb threat/sniper threat on the court house, Maxine had been the proud owner of a fairly dull week. She had been incredibly grateful for the slight reprieve, but, of course, fate just so had it that on her night shift that week, something happened. She was at her desk, reading Marley & Me when the phone rang. She recognized it as Raylan's number, so she picked it up and said:
"What sort of trouble did you get yourself into this time?"
Raylan, however, was not amused. "Two guys just tried to kill Winona and I on our way back to my place. I need you to get Art."
Maxine blinked, quickly realizing that her statement was now rude and horrible. She just told him she'd comply and started making phone calls.
The office was soon bustling with activity: State troopers, FBI, and, according to Garcia, Army CID were all involved. The marshals had basically become the errand boys for the two acronyms that had waltzed in and taken over the office. Maxine wasn't happy about it, but she didn't really have a say. Shit really started to come down after Raylan positively ID'd the two men he killed as two former soldiers. They needed names, they needed service records, they needed criminal records, they needed personal information, they needed lists of acquaintances. Anything that indicated who they might be working for was to be handed over ASAP.
Maxine was in the middle of sending one of the men's service records to the printer when the doors slammed open. In stormed a rather angry looking man Maxine thought she recognized from a billboard. Winona, who was seated at Raylan's desk, looked like she recognized him a little more personally. It dawned on Maxine that this was her ex-husband or soon-to-be-ex-husband or something. He was screaming, red-faced, and demanding to see his wife.
Gary stormed up to Winona and Raylan came out of the conference room shortly thereafter, obviously nervous to leave Winona alone around Gary. Maxine and Rachel had joined in beside Winona and Gary in case the situation got out of hand.
"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour!" Gary hollered. Maxine had a flashback to her mom attempting to be a decent human being and dragging her to church. Gary reminded her of the preacher, who shouted and walked up and down the pews, waving his arms as he yelled like he was trying to fight off an invisible swarm of bees.
"Gary," Raylan replied, swaggering over to the shorter man. The reply, though short, was brimming with the promise of consequences - a warning without the words.
"What's the matter, Raylan? You think it might make you feel better to beat me into the floor?"
"I think it might be worth a shot," Raylan replied, slamming his mug on the table and approaching Gary. Tim and Maxine both stepped in a little closer, ready to stop a fight in case any punches were thrown. Tim gave her a worried look, but Maxine just raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to say something. She dealt with more volatile situations than this one almost daily, and he chose now to worry about it?
"All right, why don't you two just cut the shit right now?" Winona ordered, a hand poised in front of each of their chests.
"Oh, yeah, another county heard from!" Gary exclaimed. Maxine felt her eyebrows furrow closer together. What the hell did that even mean? "I thought this would be, like, your dream come true; seeing the two of us square off to fight for your honor."
"All due respect, Gary, but I don't think it would be much of a square-off," Maxine muttered lowly. Tim apparently heard it because he nodded a little, agreeing. Gary stepped closer to Raylan and Tim didn't hesitate to get in between them. He was kind of unimpressive next to Raylan, and he was definitely scrawnier than Gary, but he was giving them both looks like he was just daring them to try something.
"I'd just like to talk to him," Raylan insisted.
Tim backed up after seeing the look in Raylan's eyes, but when Gary blew up, Maxine's hand shot back to her handcuffs on her belt. She would not hesitate to arrest him for assaulting a federal officer.
"SHE IS STILL MY WIFE, I CAN PROTECT HER, ALRIGHT?!" Gary looked like a man possessed. "The first step is to keep her the hell away from you!"
"Will you stop talking about me like I'm not in the room?!" Winona demanded. Maxine had, honestly, in all the excitement, forgotten about the woman.
"Seriously, how much is enough?" Gary demanded, turning his frustration to his ex-wife.
Maxine, deciding that there wouldn't be a fist fight any time soon, leaned back against Raylan's desk, and waited. From what she could tell, his train wreck was more shocking than it was deadly. Winona was doing good at defusing the situation until Raylan made the first shove. Maxine shot to her feet, realizing her train-wreck assessment was wrong.
Gary lunged at Raylan and Tim grabbed him by a shirt sleeve, shoving him back with a warning "HEY!" while Maxine held Raylan back.
She let him go when Gary and Rachel finally made their exit to the elevator. She had to pause to admire Tim's authority as he warned Gary multiple times to "Walk. Walk."
She didn't know how he and Raylan managed to pack such a threat into a single word. Raylan's "Gary" and Tim's "Walk" had been so simple, but so powerful. She was going to have to sign up for a seminar or something on how to be threateningly laconic. She dismissed the idea when she realized she wouldn't do so well after all; she liked to talk too much.
"You sure you don't want my sleeping bag?"
Maxine snorted. "Tim, it's fine." She grabbed one of Raylan's pillows off the bed and dropped it onto the floor at the foot. Tim was on Raylan's other side, or he would be, so Raylan had risk waking the both of them up if he wanted to sneak out.
"I can call the desk and get you a cot," Raylan offered.
"Guys, really. I'm not going to break because I slept on the floor."
That was true, but that didn't mean she slept well. She woke almost every 30 minutes, unsettled by the silence. The highway noises would lull her to sleep, then they'd stop for a few minutes and she'd be wide awake on the uncomfortable floor, staring at the ceiling and, in her head, pretending to navigate a ship. Frame numbers and deck numbers and compartment letters flew through her head in the silence, and she eventually wound up asleep again... Until the next time the highway decided to have a lazy moment and no traffic.
At 5 AM, when the blue-ish gray light of dawn started to filter in Raylan's window, Maxine had decided that she had enough. She snagged Tim's keys off the table and left the room, barefoot and in pajamas. She was sure she scared the shit out of the girl at the McDonald's window with her appearance, but she couldn't really bring herself to give a shit until she finished her coffee.
She pulled back into the motel and walked into Raylan's room. Raylan was still asleep, and Tim's sleeping bag was rolled up. She glanced over at the bathroom, where the door was closed. Maxine really considered just joining Tim, but she knew Raylan would take advantage of the situation if both of his guards were busy fucking each other in the shower.
The door opened and a wave of steam rolled out as Tim exited, barefoot and with his shirt lifted high up on his chest as he used some deodorant.
"Mornin'," he greeted, yanking his shirt back down and tossing the stick into his own bag.
"Morning," she replied, smiling. "Coffee?"
Tim sighed, his eyes rolling back in his head as he took the coffee from her. "You're an angel," he told her, before he surprised the both of them and tilted his head to kiss her. Maxine hummed in pleasant surprise and kissed him back, but Tim pulled away all too suddenly.
"Correction," he said, taking a drink of his coffee. "You're an angel that desperately needs to brush her teeth."
"Well, excuse me," Maxine replied, offended and embarrassed. She needed to think of something witty, and fast. "I'm sorry I didn't intrude on your shower to brush my teeth, but I think we both know how that would've wound up."
Tim pretended to think about it. "You trying to seduce me and failing because I'm the one with superior control over my more basic urges?"
"Apparently the only urge you ever give into is being a dick."
Tim shrugged, as if to agree with her, and Maxine grabbed her bag and headed into the bathroom to get a shower and manage her dragon breath. She showered quickly, though not by choice. The hot water pussed out about five minutes in and she had to rush to finish shampooing her hair before she got hypothermia. She was shaking and covered in goosebumps when she got out, and maximized her time by drying off and using the friction from the towel to warm her up.
She slipped on some jeans and a grey henley and came out of the bathroom, shaking out her still-wet hair on one of the towels. Tim had put on his shoes and socks and was seated beside the table, a copy of Outdoor Life on his lap. Maxine plopped down in the seat beside him and he glanced over at her before turning back to the article he was reading.
"I didn't know you liked to hunt," Maxine commented. Tim snorted a little.
"I don't."
"Oh."
Tim snorted. "I'll track, but I don't shoot. I mean, I never had much taste for deer meat to begin with. And then after my time in the sandbox... Fishing is more my speed now."
Maxine let out a little noise of recognition, like she understood. She did. She imagined that killing for a living would leave a bad taste in your mouth if it came to killing for sport.
She stood to go put the towel back in Raylan's bathroom and that's when said man woke up. She snickered at his "perimeter" suggestion, but she had no intention of leaving so he could get himself into deeper shit. What was it with this man and sticking his nose where it didn't belong? Did he always act like a spoiled brat? She remembered Raylan bending the rules back in Houston, but never anything like corrupting an investigation or jeopardizing his own safety.
Okay, that was a lie. He jeopardized his own safety a lot: Going off to apprehend fugitives alone when he knew damn good and well he was supposed to go with backup, getting in the back seat of a car with two hostile fugitives in the front seat, not wearing his vest when he should. Just stupid shit that he could easily restrain himself from doing.
So, as Raylan took his "shower", and Tim read up on some of the best crappie fishing spots in the country, Maxine did her makeup. She never did anything too heavy, because what was the point? But she did like to look pretty enough to get someone to talk. It made flirting for information a whole lot easier.
"What I don't get," Maxine said as she put her things in her bag. "Is why there are two of us with one of him, but Rachel is watching Gary and Winona."
Tim looked over at her. "Think about it: How likely is it that Gary and Winona will run off?" The second part of the question was tacit: Now, how likely is it that Raylan runs off?
She sighed. "Alright, I see your point."
The next part of the conversation started in Tim's SUV. Maxine was at the wheel, as she still had Tim's keys when Raylan decided he wanted ice cream for breakfast instead of the Egg McMuffin Maxine had so graciously supplied him. Tim had eaten Raylan's McMuffin without a second thought, and Maxine had just rolled her eyes. But, thanks to Tim's comment about The Bodyguard, she had Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" stuck in her head.
"I'm just waiting," Tim commented.
"On what?"
"He's gonna do something stupid to try and shake us. I know it."
"Well, duh. He told us he would. And if I remember correctly, you said 'that shit makes you hard.' "
Tim snickered. "Well, it does for a while. But then I start over thinking and that just kills the mood."
"Tell me about it... Does that happen often, though? Like, getting boners on the job, I mean."
Tim shook his head. "Not usually. But sometimes when I've got a really good hunch, my nipples get stiff."
Maxine burst into giggles, which built up into cackling, and that escalated until she was wheezing and Tim had to take the wheel because she was swerving. She got her breath back long enough to pull into the parking lot behind Raylan and find a spot near the door. The glass door was covered with Lotto stickers. So, she didn't really get a good view as Tim and Raylan entered the store.
She stayed in the car, humming "I Will Always Love You" before she moved on to "Proud Mary." Fucking Tim and being adorable and referencing movies and getting songs stuck in her head.
She figured she'd have to make the next move, what with how distant Tim had been lately - but he had kissed her this morning, so there was that. He obviously still held an interest in her, something was just holding him back.
She saw a familiar hat come out of the alleyway and swore, firing up the car and slamming it into reverse. Tim sprinted out of the store, pint of ice cream in his hand, and flung himself into the passenger seat. Maxine didn't even give him time to shut the door before she was accelerating and following Raylan onto the street.
He was driving recklessly, swerving in and out of traffic, turning on his left signal before he turned right, things like that. Maxine noticed the pattern: He was heading for the Interstate. She sighed and stopped tailing him.
"What the fuck? We'll lose him!"
"He'll kill himself if he keeps driving like that! And he's only driving like that because we're tailing them. And the last thing we need is CID on our ass, thinking that we're hitmen too, out to kill Raylan for some guy with a vendetta against him."
Tim sighed and rubbed at his forehead. "Yeah, with my background, wouldn't be that hard to pin on me."
"And he's definitely headed for I-75 South."
Maxine could practically see the route the highway took run through Tim's head. "Harlan," Tim realized.
"Most likely."
As they got within 30 miles of the Harlan county line, she called Garcia and asked - no, begged - him not to tell Art that she was asking him to track Raylan's low jack. Garcia laughed.
"What's in it for me?" he asked. The question would've been sexual if Garcia didn't sound so playful saying it.
"What's in it for you?" Maxine repeated, shooting Tim a glance as if to ask him for some insight. What would Garcia want? Tim shrugged, unsure himself. "Um... I'll take all your morning prisoner transports for the next three months."
"Deal. I'll find him for you, just give me about ten minutes."
"Call me back when you get a location."
"Will do." And Garcia hung up. Maxine put her phone in the cup holder and huffed.
"Great. Raylan is slowly etching his name onto my shit list."
"You mean he wasn't already there?"
Maxine snickered. "Please, you love Raylan. Why else would you give him so much shit?" Tim went to protest but she shook her head. "Nope, you can't argue it. I know how you military guys are, Tim. Hell, I am a military guy."
"Okay, look. I won't argue that I like Raylan. I have a lot of respect for the guy because he's been doing this for so long. But it's when he pulls shit like this that I wish I was still in the Army: a CO would court martial him. But here, he just gets suspended and a slap on the wrist because of his seniority and things."
Maxine snorted. "Seniority is the law of the land... Well, office hierarchy. Why do you think Rachel and Nelson barely have to work nights?"
"That's why? I thought it was a random lottery type deal."
"Nope. I got the shit detail in Mobile all the time: I was always the late night shift, and then I was always on the morning prisoner transports."
"I thought you worked fugitives down in Mobile."
She sighed. "It was my first time working with the fugitive task force when I blew my cover. My chief didn't even give me a second chance, just ordered my transfer."
"That's shitty."
They pulled up to the Bennett Store in Harlan, which had been severely defaced. Maxine kept her hand on her gun as she stared up the hill, where two armed thugs stood behind Raylan and the elderly lady near the ladder. She wasn't quite sure what was going on here. She'd never really been privy to the goings-on down in Harlan county, and frankly, she tried to steer clear of it. She had too much shit to deal with at work without paying attention at Raylan's debriefings.
Raylan headed down the hill to Tim. "Did you bring me my change?"
"Nope. Ice cream's melted, too," Tim said dryly. It had melted in the car. Tim had cursed rather loudly when he accidentally kicked it over and covered the mud mat on the floor in the stuff.
"Well, you found me, I'm impressed."
"Yeah, give me a little credit. I'm a professional."
Maxine scoffed and Raylan looked over at her, seemingly understanding that it was her that led him to the conclusion.
"Okay," Raylan said, in a way that silently implied, 'yeah, okay, I'll buy it.' "
"Is she behind it?" Tim asked, nodding up to the Bennett matriarch. Maxine, for the life of her, couldn't remember the woman's name. She'd really have to start paying attention in those debriefings if she was going to be coming down to Harlan to save Raylan's ass any more.
"She says no."
"That means its true then," Maxine drawled, suspiciously eyeing the elderly lady and her hired thugs.
"So what's with the Oak Ridge Boys out front of her place?" Tim asked.
"That's all about that Black Pike deal."
Maxine searched her brain. Black Pike was a mountain-top removal company wasn't it? She imagined a deal that allowed a company to do that wouldn't go so well in a town where slurry could ruin watering holes for game, and that town often relied on game for genuine sustenance. Wait. Shit. She remembered that from Raylan's last drunken ramble when they'd been sitting in the bar together. Mags Bennett - that was the old lady's name! - had signed over her land to Black Pike.
"So, are we done here?" Tim prodded. He had complained the entire ride to Harlan. Poor little Oklahoma boy hated the winding, high grade roads into and around the town. It made him kind of nauseous, though Maxine knew he'd never admit it. He wanted nothing more than to go back to Lexington.
"Yeah. Oh, and just so you're not confused, I'm now gonna go to Winona's and check in on her, unless, of course, that's against the rules."
"The only rule is that you don't ditch me in the middle of a damn convenience store!" Maxine smirked at that a little. It had been Tim that got ditched, hadn't it? He was obviously pissy about that.
But then she thought to tack on. "Oh, and don't make me chase you around downtown Lexington in a government vehicle. That's a no-no too."
"I'm not telling Art, by the way," Tim announced, hands on his hips. He looked like every bit of a mother hen and an enraged teenager at the same time. "'Cause that'd be my ass, too! So, yeah. Let's go see your ex-wife, girlfriend, whatever it is we're calling her."
That was when a bunch of police cars pulled up to the store from both ways up the road. Maxine sighed when a cop motioned her over with Raylan and Tim, herding them together. She figured she might as well just comply, lessen her risk of getting shot. She also wished she'd had the good sense to put on her jacket before she got out of Tim's SUV. She was freezing in her thin shirt.
Tim and Maxine glanced around as the police chief and Raylan spoke threateningly at one another, making sure no one pulled their sidearm. Maxine had her hand poised on hers, ready to cross-pull. She ran the numbers pretty quickly. Five police officers, along with the chief of police. She could take out two, at most, she figured. If someone started shooting, she'd go for the police chief first, and then his right hand man, because that would leave a hole in the chain of command. And nature abhors a vacuum, which would put a less experienced man in charge.
" - I guess they hired the wrong pros, huh?" the police chief demanded. Maxine glanced over at him when Raylan mentioned it could've been him that sent the hitmen. Shit, how much trouble did Raylan stir up down here to get a chief of police after him? Wait, did his name tag say Bennett? Was he the old lady's son? Oh, he was after Raylan because of that thing where Raylan killed Coover Bennett, wasn't he?
"Police chief wants to kill someone, he ain't gotta send anyone. He waits for the guy to show up on his turf, and he rolls up on him with a bunch of his police officers. You know, that way, he can make it look like the guy died resisting arrest."
Maxine snorted. Sounded like he had done that one too many times, or at least thought about it too much.
"Or, if that don't fly, well, hell, he could just, uh, disappear the body down an old, boarded-up mine shaft."
That she understood: It was how Coover had disposed of Loretta McCready's dad, and how Raylan had killed Coover.
"- he and his friends are gonna head back home. Everything I said holds," Mags Bennett called down the driveway. She spoke like she had a stuffy nose, but she had all the authority of an empress, that much was clear to see.
"Alright," Doyle, she figured the chief's name was, resigned. "But if you think I sent those hitters, you gotta figure, when you get down here, there's a chance I might wanna O.K. Corral it. You bring only one man to back you up?"
Maxine went to lunge forward and give that asshole a piece of her mind, 'cause he was smirking at her when he said it, like he thought she was inconsequential. Tim's hand grabbed firmly onto her elbow and held her back.
"Yeah, well," Raylan drawled smoothly, opening his car door. "I thought you'd bring more guys."
Rachel and Maxine were sharing the bed in the guest room, Tim was taking a couch in the same guest room. But, as of that moment, Maxine was between Tim and Winona, a piece of supreme pizza in her hand as she sat on Gary and Winona's couch. She noticed the disgusted look Tim was giving her slice of pizza as Raylan and Winona spoke over True Grit. She wondered what it was that was grossing him out, and she followed his gaze to the slices of pepper.
She took off a piece of pepper and dangled it in front of his face, much to his chagrin. He grimaced and shoved her hand away and she smiled, sticking the piece in her mouth. That was about when Rachel muted the TV, to be polite to Raylan and Winona, who were speaking.
"What about the FBI?" Gary prodded, butting into the conversation Maxine had ignored up to that point. "Do they have any suspects?"
"Not that we know of," Rachel told him, shifting in her seat a little and sending Tim a little closer to Maxine, not that either of them really minded.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open."
"Yeah, it's been a helluva couple days," Winona agreed.
"Uh, Raylan, I owe you an apology," Gary said, standing in the middle of the floor. Tim huffed and trained his eyes on the TV, which wasn't making any noise. Maxine agreed with Tim's huff: It was a little late for apologies. "Last night, I shouldn't have come at you like that."
"You didn't say anything I wasn't saying to myself." They shook hands and Gary retreated to his study while Raylan sat on the couch, looking somewhat confused. As Raylan and Winona began talking again, Rachel grabbed the remote and turned on the volume once more.
"In fact, you guys don't need to be here either," Raylan accused. Rachel looked up, Tim stayed staring at the screen, and Maxine arched her head up to give Raylan a look.
"Excuse me?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, I'm going to go to bed before I turn into a pumpkin," Winona announced, trying to escape the awkward tension in the room. "Would you care to join me?" she asked Raylan. Oh, shit, Raylan was going to get laid. Good for him.
Maybe that'll be enough motivation to keep him from running off tonight, Maxine mused, though, really, she doubted it.
"Yeah, I-I'll be there in a minute," Raylan agreed, and Maxine smirked, watching the great Raylan Givens loose his control.
"I feel like I'm in The Big Chill," Tim commented dryly, staring at the TV still. Maxine had never seen the film, but she remembered the tagline being How much love, sex, fun, and friendship can a person take? She was seeing the friendship and sex, but she had yet to see the love and fun.
"Yeah, except no one's dead," Raylan retorted.
"Yet," Tim replied. Ah, Tim, ever the optimist.
"And the music sucks," Rachel said, walking to the living room. Maxine wondered when she moved, because she sure as hell didn't remember it. She excused her lack of attentiveness because of her lack of sleep and the fact that this pizza was so damn good.
"Well, then, go home! Get some sleep!" Raylan suggested, following her down the hallway.
"Art wants somebody here."
"I'm here! Me and my shadows!"
"Yeah, we're here till you leave," Tim replied, following closely behind. Maxine had decided to let them all hash this out and grab herself a beer before bed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Raylan demanded, and Tim gave Raylan an incredulous look as Maxine walked into the sitting room, standing close to the door so she could have a quick escape if they tried to drag her into this.
"Do you not remember this morning?" Tim asked.
"What happened this morning?" Rachel inquired.
"I told you I was gonna do that," Raylan continued, ignoring Rachel's extremely valid question. Maxine gave her a look that said, 'I'll tell you later' though she didn't think Rachel caught it in her sleep deprived state.
"And now you're telling me you won't." Tim seemed unconvinced.
"Exactly."
"Do what?" Rachel prodded once more. Raylan looked at Rachel and then looked at Tim as if to say, 'you wanna tell her?' Tim pretended not to notice and took a big swig of his beer.
"Whatever," Rachel finally conceded, throwing up her arms like she had given up. "Listen, I take my orders from Art, which means I'm gonna be here unless he says otherwise. I will, however, take you up on that sleep. I'm assuming you three can handle the night watch."
"Make that you two," Maxine replied, yawning. "I got three hours of sleep last night and if I don't get my beauty rest, I look like I trash can."
"Too late," Tim commented from behind her. She wheeled around and glared and Tim held up his hands in surrender as she made for the stairs.
"I'm gonna go to sleep, too," she heard Tim say. "I'll relieve you in four hours."
Maxine jolted awake in the middle of the night, when she heard a door downstairs jostle. Rachel was still passed out on the bed beside her, and Tim was curled up in his sleeping bag on the floor, snoring because he was on his back. She glanced around, staying as silent as she could as she listened for some sort of hint as to what caused the noise. She glanced over at the clock. They had only been asleep for an hour, but what the hell could've - And then she heard the front door close. Shit.
She woke Tim, and they silently examined the house (well, silently after Tim jumped a damn mile in his sleeping bag from being disturbed). Rachel was still asleep, as was Winona, but Gary and Raylan were missing. Raylan's car was still outside, which was just great. They couldn't low-jack him now. Maxine was kind of relieved at that. She didn't have to call Garcia or Reynolds and pay up another few months of mornings to get Raylan's location. They just had to wait and see if Raylan came back.
"I'll stay up," Tim insisted, raking a hand down his face. He was less sleep deprived that Maxine, but he still looked tired. "You go back to bed." Maxine hesitated, but he gave her a look that said 'go, or I'll drag you up those stairs.' She sighed, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and headed for the stairs again.
In the morning, Raylan was back and Tim had called Art and determined that there was no longer a threat to Winona and Raylan's safety. There was no sign of Gary.