The service was just as frosty as Raylan remembered, but the food was good, and the drink was plentiful, so he really didn't care all that much about it. After starter and main course they took a breather, and tried to compact twenty-three years into an hour or two.

Thirsty work, so Raylan ordered more drinks, and ice-cream.

"God, Raylan, there are other flavours y'know." Raejeanne grinned.

"I know." Raylan hitched a shoulder defensively. "But I like vanilla."

The waitress appeared with their order and Raylan picked up a spoon.

"So…" Raejeanne looked at her ice-cream and bourbon. "Say, Julie," reading the waitress's name tag "do you have a blender back there?"

"Surely ma'am."

Raejeanne held up her glass of Woodford Reserve and the dish of butter pecan ice-cream. "Do you think you could combine these two thoughts in a blender?"

The waitress smiled sweetly, "of course, ma'am."

Raejeanne turned back and caught sight of her brother's lifted eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing."

She gave him an old-fashioned look. "Not nothing. But… you know pretty much the highlights of my life. What about yours?"

"Helen was killed." The way he said it, flat tones, like all the emotion wrung out of his soul. Raejeanne stiffened. She reached across, put her hand on his, and he let go of the dish to clasp her fingers. She leaned forward then, holding his hand tightly. "I came back for one reason, Ray. For my big brother. As far as I'm concerned I have no father and no aunt/stepmom. I'm sorry she's gone, darlin' cos I know you loved her. But I'm not sorry for me."

For a second Raylan's hand trembled in hers. "Jeannie."

"Darlin' that was the past we shared. And it was what it was, and it made us who we are, but I don't care for that much of the past."

He was sorry about that. The thing that had been chasing him ever since he walked through the airport on his way to the Lexington office was that thing of coming home. He was home. He could run away forever, get a good head start, and it would still be the same. Home.

He was a Harlan boy. And however far you took him out of Harlan, the place would always surface to drag him back.

The waitress reappeared with Jeannie's ice-cream and bourbon concoction in a glass with a strange-looking red cherry on top.

Jeannie took a sip and swiped an appreciative index finger through the alcohol-infused froth and caught her brother eyeing her with a strange look on his face.

"What?"

"I jus' had a flash of you on your tenth birthday."

She got it then, the battle between the reality of her thirty-four year old self, and the baby sister of his memories. "Oh Ray." She scooted around the booth bench, and wrapped her arms around her brother's neck.

Raylan squirmed a little. He should have remembered that Jeannie was always a hugger.

Jeannie took another swallow of her drink. "Now. Are you going to tell me about the flophouse, or should I just draw some conclusions of my own?"

Raylan sighed. She wasn't going to let it go. "It's not a flophouse." He glared a little at his irrepressible sister.

"It's one room and a bathroom above a bar!"

Raylan closed his eyes. He would know that drawl anywhere.

Tim Gutterson wasn't exactly sure what prompted him to go hunting for Raylan and his sister after shift end. He was certain however that Raejeanne Givens would be worth the effort. If only to watch Raylan stiffening like an attack dog at every word that Tim spoke to Raejeanne.

"Gutterson." Raylan's tone was not welcoming, but Raejeanne gave him a welcoming smile and budged up a little on the bench seat.

"Deputy." She had Raylan's eyes and his same surprisingly sweet smile. "Tim, isn't it?"

He took a sip of his beer and smiled at her. "It is." He acknowledged as he slipped into the space on the bench seat that she had left.

Raylan was holding his ground, eating his ice-cream and shooting little glaring glances at Tim, which didn't leave a whole lot of room for Raejeanne and Tim on the seat.

The length of Tim's thigh and hip were pressed up against Raejeanne's and Tim could feel the stirrings of interest that he had felt when he shook her hand earlier coalesce into something sharp.

Well, damn. He might have only just met her, and she might be Raylan's little sister but he wanted her.

"…. Raylan, move up a bit." Raejeanne poked her brother.

Tim dragged his mind back from some pleasurably smutty thoughts and concentrated. Raylan shifted, eyeing Tim suspiciously, and suddenly there was more room.

Raejeanne moved, and Tim tried not to be disappointed when her thigh moved away from his, but he shifted fully on to the seat. Raejeanne took a sip of her strange looking frothy drink, and Tim nearly jumped when her knee pressed against his.

"So." Jeannie was enjoying being the filling in a marshal sandwich, even if one of the marshals was a relative. "Who is going to tell me about Raylan's apartment?"

Tim unfortunately took that moment to take a long swallow of his beer, snorted at that description of Raylan's living arrangements, and choked. Raejeanne put her glass down on the table, and rubbed his back in soothing circles while he coughed and spluttered, and his eyes watered a little and Raylan scowled and shifted in his seat.

"It's not exactly an apartment," Tim wheezed. "More of a motel room."

Raejeanne looked thoughtful. "So where do I sleep."

Tim was never going to get another opportunity gifted to him like that. "I have a spare bed." He said, as Raylan opened his mouth to suggest a motel.

Jeannie grinned, "why thank you kind sir."

"I don't think it's a good idea." Raylan's glare could have withered grass, Tim decided to ignore that, in favour of Raylan's sister's obvious pleasure at his suggestion. It was wonderful what a pair of sparkling brown eyes, with hints of amber, could do for a man's soul.

"Ray. I'm an adult."

"I'm your brother. I don't have to like it."

"Darlin' it's very sweet, but just a little out of place." She patted his hand, Raylan huffed a bit, but didn't offer any more vocal opposition, but the glare he shot at Tim more than made up for it.

Tim did enjoy baiting Raylan some, but decided that enough was enough.

It was getting late, and Raylan felt like he had a lot of figuring to do. His sister, back in his life, somewhere in the last four hours he was no longer alone. It needed thought.