Few days later Rachel walked in to their office kitchenette and smirked hearing Raylan and Tim bickering. Gutterson grinned at her and walked out taking his coffee with him, Givens chuckled to himself.
"He seems better" the woman commented.
"Then when?" Givens asked offhandedly and sipped his beverage. Brooks threw him a look.
"Raylan"
"Hm?"
"He wasn't ok after shooting Colt."
"Really?"
"Do you care about anything other than your own ass?" after that she stormed out of the kitchenette and plopped angrily on her chair. Tim looked at her a little surprised and then raised his eyebrows with a grimace in Raylan's direction when the cowboy walked by. The other man just shrugged.
Tim's hand needed to stay in the brace on for about three weeks. In that time he had to suffer constant worried looks sent his way by Rachel and Art. Raylan acted like he didn't give a damn, but he did pop up at the younger man's house every other day to get some beers. Neither mentioned it but Tim found it was kind of… nice. He never would have thought that the cowboy was capable of being nice to someone for no reason, but it seemed that this time there was no catch.
After his doctor decided the brace could be removed Raylan's visits had basically stopped. Everything seemed to be back to normal. They ware bickering and getting annoyed with each other like before. So nothing was different, right? Well, not entirely, but none of them have realized that until another bigger chase.
The escapee has been a member of a gang from Louisville and he with some gang buddies were hiding in the woods near Shepherdsville.
Mark Wallace was being transported to prison when he and two other prisoners have escaped. The other two have been caught within an hour. Wallace though, whose gang friends have organized the escape, has disappeared. Someone has noticed him in a small store by highway 44W, that's how they had figured out that Wallace and his buddies went to hide in the woods. The case have been assigned to Deputy Gutterson. Tim managed to figure out more or less where the guy could be hiding, although he didn't know who was with him.
"Raylan" the older man looked up at him from whatever he was doing on his computer "I think I might need some back up."
"Mhm" the cowboy hummed "You want me to come with?"
"If you have nothing else to do" said the younger Marshall with a little smirk.
So here they ware, creeping their way to a small cottage in the woods, hoping there was only three men in there – Wallace and the two who helped him escape.
"Maybe we should split up" said Raylan quietly
"Mhm" Tim nodded "you take left, I take right."
After Givens caught sight of the little house he wandered to himself if they still have time to call for back up – there was three trucks in front of the cottage and he counted at least four men and their ecsapee. He sighed heavily and started to move back quietly. He stopped abruptly when he heard a distinct pop pop some distance away – in the direction that Tim has took.
"Shit" he swore under his breath and started moving in the direction of the shots.
The sounds have stopped five minutes later. He caught himself preying that his younger colleague was ok, his heart was beating faster than ever and he speeded up his pace. He really was scared what he will find. Few minutes later he was met with a barrel of a standard issue US Marshals Glock 17. Raylan let out a deep sight and lowered his own weapon.
"You all right?" he asked. Tim hasn't answered right away and he has noted then that the hand holding a gun was slightly shaking and his colleague was sitting on the ground "Tim?"
"Mhm" the younger man hummed and lowered his gun.
"I'm fine" Raylan eyed him – Gutterson was paler than usual, the cowboy moved his gaze down, trying to find the source of the problem.
"You're shot" he commented.
Tim nodded with a sigh. He had a hole in his right thigh that was bleeding pretty profusely
"But it's fine, really" he grinned but there was an underlining grimace that told Raylan he was in pain. "Raylan, we gotta get out of here" Gutterson gave him an odd look.
"I know" Givens looked around and pulled his phone out, and tried to call, then looked at it "Shit"
"No signal" Tim didn't even make it sound as a question, just a statement. He waved a hand at the Cowboy, clearly indicating he needed help getting up
"Tim?" Raylan put his hand on his partner's shoulder to stop him, which got him an annoyed sigh from the younger man "We have to take care of that"
"Later" the tone left no argument, they stared at each other for a bit, but Raylan eventually pulled Tim up and they started moving. Raylan picked direction seemingly at random, but he trusted his instinct and a sense of direction. Few minutes later he felt Tim sag a little more by his side and he threw him a look – the kid was sweaty and pale.
"Tim?"
"Stop" Gutterson whispered, so Givens complied. He lowered Tim by the tree and looked him over.
"We gotta take care of that leg" he stated
"Mhm" younger man hummed and nodded.
"Ok" Raylan looked around for a bit and then took off his jacket, removed his shirt and put the jacket back on. Tim was watching him with a curious expression
"What're you doing?"
"What does it look like?" Raylan sounded a little tense. He ripped Tim's jeans, tore his shirt in two and pushed one piece as hard against the younger man's wounded leg. Tim sharply sucked in a breath and stiffened.
"Sorry" Givens mumbled while tying the other piece of shirt around the wound. "Done. Tim?"
"Mhm" Gutterson was working on calming his breathing "I'm fine." He looked at Raylan with a quirked eyebrow "Are you worried?"
"Yeah, you wish" Cowboy chuckled "C'mon" he pulled Tim up again. Just in time too – they heard voices closing in on them. Raylan pulled his friend to move faster.