Growing up in Harlan County gave her a shared history with Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. A history that made the two Kentucky natives cynical to the outside world.
However, after meeting former Army Ranger, Tim Gutterson, Jolene 'Jo' Taylor's p...
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After their first night together, things between Tim Gutterson and Jo Taylor fell into a simple pattern. When one of them had steam to blow off or stress to relieve, they'd call, and the other would answer. It was a no strings attached type of situation, which worked for both parties. No expectations meant no feelings, and, most importantly, no disappointment.
It was an idyllic scenario for both the Marshal and the attorney, one that proceeded successfully in the ensuing months. That is, until a wrench in the form of Raylan Givens was thrown into the mix.
The morning after their newest colleague had shot Boyd in Ava Crowder's dining room, was a seemingly quiet one. Everyone was at their respective desks, working on paperwork documenting the previous night's events.
Seemingly quiet, until the double doors of the Marshal's office were violently thrown open. A brunette woman barging in and immediately began causing a scene.
"Raylan Givens!" She hollered while stomping up to the Marshal's desk. "You never call! You never write! How can a man just abandon his family like that?" And then, she had seemingly begun to sob, right there in the middle of the bullpen. Her dark hair falling like a curtain over her face as she audibly wept into her hands.
Raylan immediately leapt out of his chair as if it were on fire. "Jo?" He asked incredulously, "what're you doing here?"
The woman's false tears turned into rumbles of laughter then, and the two embraced each other.
"I work in this building half the time, dummy," she answered into his shoulder as the two held their firm hug.
Once the duo had drawn away from each other, he clarified, "I mean, what're you doing back in Kentucky?"
Jo bobbed her head around for a moment, contemplating how best to address his inquiry, before settling on, "I moved back after university. It was just easier."
While the two reconnected, they had momentarily forgotten about the crowd that'd formed during Jo's earlier outburst. The onlookers' confusion and curiosity could be delayed no longer, despite the reunion happening before them.
"What the hell is going on out here?" Art Mullen questioned, having left his office to investigate the disturbance.
Jo turned toward the older man, a look of chagrin overtaking her features. "Oh yeah, sorry about that, Chief. Was just trying to give Raylan here a bit of a hard time."
That statement only raised more questions than it provided answers.
"You two know each other?" Raylan and Art asked in unison before sharing a bemused look.
"I think it's about time someone gets to explaining," Art stated, more like ordered.
The responsibility of recounting seemed to fall on Jo, who appeared to be the common denominator between all parties.
"Raylan is my brother," she confessed with a shrug, as though it were justification enough.
Shocked looks were exchanged all around. Tim had to chime in for his over dose of clarification, not believing what he was hearing. "You never said you had a sister," he noted, accusatorially.
"Adopted sister, actually," Raylan explained to his coworker.
"Technically, I'm your cousin too. Harlan is such a fucked up place," Jo added.
No one was allowing her to leave the explanation at that, so she broke into an abridged history for the sake of the confounded Marshals.
After both of Jo's parents had passed when she was thirteen, Aunt Helen had adopted the wayward girl, making her Raylan's cousin. However, when Helen had married his father, Arlo, a few years later, the two became siblings. The seventeen year age difference between them meant they weren't particularly close, Raylan had long since left the house before she'd entered it, but he looked out for the younger girl when he could.
As for her relationship with the other Marshals, those were attributed to shared court hearings over the last several months she'd been working in Lexington.
Her biblical relations with a particular male Marshal weren't mentioned.
Speaking of Tim, he'd been silently shitting himself behind his desk during this whole reveal. Not only had he just learned that he'd been unknowingly fucking his partner's sister in secret for the last several months, but said Marshal also had a penchant for shooting people who's wronged him.
Tim was totally screwed, and he knew it.
Once her testimony had reached its conclusion, Jo took leave from her brother and company. Commenting that she would be seeing them again soon, and headed for the door.
And while everyone else returned to their daily tasks, Tim made up an excuse about needing to go down to evidence lockup and followed suit.
Once the two were alone in the confines of the elevator, he hit the stop button, ceasing the chambers movement with a resounding bing.
"You didn't mention your brother was a Marshall," he accused with crossed arms. Jo found his unease exceptionally adorable, and took a step closer towards him.
"You never asked. Plus, it's not like we talk much when we're together." She was definitely teasing him now, her fingers tracing patterns over his taut chest.
Tim collected her hands in his own, ceasing their traitorous movements before they allowed him to become distracted. "Raylan is going to kill me."
"Only if he finds out. You can keep a secret, can't you, Deputy Gutterson?"
He never got the chance to confirm nor deny her assumption because she'd slip from his hold, knuckles woven into the hair at the base of his neck, working to bring their faces together in a searing kiss.
