Justified rec: "you never know the kind of person you'll be"

[dorinda]

This Justified story just dropped onto the AO3 the other day:

you never know the kind of person you'll be (1668 words) by scioscribe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Justified
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Tim Gutterson, Boyd Crowder, Raylan Givens
Summary:

“I called Raylan,” Boyd Crowder said, looking at him with unblinking eyes, like one of those fish that trawled along the ocean floor where there was no light at all. “Well,” Tim said back, “Raylan ain’t here.”

I gave it a whirl just for kicks, and ended up really, really enjoying it. It's short but unified and layered; it's gen but has deep (if subtle) emotions, and an interesting refracted observation of the link between Raylan and Boyd.

It's set early in season two, when, as the author puts it, "Boyd's still trying to see if there's anything left of his redemption." Tim is the POV character, with the competence and dry humor I love in him. He doesn't understand Boyd the way Raylan does, so his observations of Boyd are both spot-on and mystified. And gradually, he comes to recognize something in Boyd. Boyd, in his turn, is as eloquent and intense and suffering as he's ever been.

One of my favorite lines:

Boyd said, “I apologize for any implication of unsuitability,” all soft, either crazy or the dry husk where craziness had been.

And there's a later line from Boyd that breaks my heart.