Raylan looks at himself in the mirror and winces. Mentally. Physical wincing not recommended. The pain is mostly a dull ache all down his left side from head to knee that makes him feel sluggish and snappish. His left arm is in a weird kind of brace which runs from his knuckles to his shoulder, bent at the elbow and supported by a sling which keeps it pinned to his body.

It sucks. But since the doctor was so reluctant to release him and Raylan knows that he would have gone crazy if he had had to stay a minute longer, so he's made a few concessions along the way. The sling, for one, the staying off his feet, the only doing paperwork (getting the doctor to agree to that… well maybe Raylan stretched the truth a little there), but it's the collar that's really giving him the hard time.

Raylan hates the collar. He knows he's only got to get through another day of the collar, but even so, shaving in difficult, the thing looks ridiculous, and Raylan feels like he's beginning to get the hang-dog look of the professional stooge. The jokes have been unrelenting for the last two days.

He eases his tee shirt over his head, one armed, Rachel has already kindly pulled the left sleeve to his heavy padded shirt through so it's on the inside, less awkward and stupid to have it flapping around, that goes on next, and he tries to pull his top coat on. This is a lot less easy.

Car horn sounds.

Dammit. He puts his hat on his head, tries not to remember how cute Rachel looks in it, even if it doesn't fit her, grabs his wallet and keys, and tries once again to get his coat over his injured shoulder.

[][][][][][][][]

Rachel fixes Tim with a glare. "Just don't give him a hard time, okay."

Tim smirks, but his smirk dies a little when her glare doesn't lighten up. "He's hurting." She raises her eyebrows, and Tim is absolutely not proof against Rachel's glare of doom.

"So are you." He points out, not unfairly.

Rachel turns away to stare out of the windscreen. "Raylan was driving, so he was on the side the truck hit."

Tim nods once, as though that was enough, and Rachel leaves it. She's not absolutely sure why she feels this need to protect Raylan. He's more than capable of looking after himself. But she was there when they got themselves discharged from the hospital, and Tim and Art didn't see the obvious pain that Raylan was in simply putting a shirt on over his bandages. They haven't seen his shoulder, which took the brunt of the inward force, or any of the bruising covered by his clothing, and she's damn sure Art would send him home if he knew.

Tim leans on the horn again, "where is he?" Rachel glances across and sees Raylan coming towards them, he's trying to get his coat over his injured shoulder and she turns back to Tim with a raised eyebrow.

Tim rolls his eyes a little, but he gets out of the truck to help Raylan with his coat.

[][][][][][][][]

Raylan's a little surprised when Tim gets out to help him, and then feels guilty, because even though Tim has been mocking him for the last two days, the guy is a friend and has come through for Raylan several times, most recently this latest disaster.

And he's not to know how much Raylan is actually hurting, mostly because Raylan isn't admitting that to himself.

Basically, Raylan is one big bruise. And it hurts.

He allows himself a moment to feel absolutely pathetic, as he slides awkwardly into the back seat of the Yukon.

"Morning." He keeps it short, not wanting either of them to hear the hitch in his breathing as he fumbles the seat belt across his body.

Rachel isn't fooled for a moment. She pulls down the sunvisor, pretends to check her hair and makeup, angles it carefully so that she can see Raylan's face. He's managed to get the seat belt sorted out, he looks up and their eyes meet.

Her breath catches, that's the second time he's dropped his defenses. She's not sure if it's because he's injured and his defense lines are weaker now, or… the possibility of something deeper makes her heart jump.

Doesn't matter how many times she tells herself no, tells herself that he is trouble, how impossible it would ever be to fix his problems, how Harlan will eventually take him… or one of his bad decisions will come back to destroy him, she cares about him.

Seeing him vulnerable makes her realize that under that shell, he's as human and mortal and fallible as the next man, that he's fought a battle his whole life not to be his father, and will continue fighting that battle every day, to prove it to himself.

She gets a tiny glimpse of what his father's death might have really meant, deep down inside, and how maybe she and Art and Tim may have made his pain worse.

And dammit this might just be fanciful and she's making up scenarios in her head…

"…Rachel?"

She pulls herself out of her speculative funk with a start, realizing that Tim has been speaking to her. Her eyes catch Raylan's in the backseat, and he's grinning, but his eyes are gentle and kind… Heavenly hazel…

"Coffee? Muffins?" Tim waves a hand, "any of this ringing any bells with you?"

"Coffee, and one of the bran muffins." Rachel pulls herself together sufficiently to recognize the car park of one of their chosen coffee shops.

Tim pulls his wallet out of the centre console, "you two wait here, talk amongst yourselves or something…" he grins at them, but the speculative look he shoots as he turns towards the front door is purely for Rachel. She draws breath, about to call him back, he waves a hand again. "I got this."

They're alone. "So..." Says Rachel.

Raylan looks at her. "So?"

"How bad is it?"

It says quite a lot for their relationship, and the maybe changing circumstances that he doesn't even try to lie. Or maybe that's just because he's feeling bad and feeling out-numbered and wants her to be on his side.

"Bad." He admits quietly.

"Scale of one to ten?"

"Eight." He pauses, looks up sheepishly, "maybe nine" he admits.

"Raylan!"

"Rachel."

"You should be at home in bed."

"Nah." He brushes it off, but his defenses slip again and she can see this look in his eyes that says he's touched by her concern, but doesn't really know how to express it.

She wonders how many women it took to put that look in his eyes. How many people in the life of Raylan Givens have ever really and truly been on his side no matter what?

She figures it might be best to let it drop for now. The very last thing she wants to do is push him into admitting something emotional and have him shut down this… whatever this is.

He recognizes the moment, and understands what it truly is… this thing, it's tentative, and tiny baby steps, so he lets it lie. But he cops to it, honestly, and she reads it in both his face and body language.

The driver's door opens and they both jump, "hey…" Tim hands over a tray with coffees, and two bags of muffins to Rachel. "Can you hold these…"

"…next stop the office."

Tim jumps in and Rachel goes back to her thoughts.