Partner (Micah Bell)

34. So Many Problems

It was dark by the time Ashley was arriving back at the camp with Sean and Arthur. Arthur had gone to give the score to Dutch while Sean and Ashley walked towards the campfire. Sean took a seat at the campfire but Ashley stopped to grab a bottle of beer. Ashley then wandered over to the campfire, approaching from behind Micah who was sitting at the fire with Bill, Sean, Hosea and Lenny.

"You know, Micah, you got a might big mouth but you never told us where Dutch met you" Bill hummed, and Ashley decided to stay still a listen for a while before Micah saw her and realised that she was back.

"Micah? Heh. He crawled out of the outhouse on day and Dutch was so amazed, he asked him to stay" Sean joked, laughing to himself and earning a small laugh from Lenny and Bill while Micah just rolled his eyes.

"Well...where was it?" Bill asked, encouraging Micah to tell the story.

"I heard all of you fools drone on...I mean, you ain't fools, but...you sound foolish. I like Dutch, but he didn't save my life, I saved his. Maybe he never told you, but fact is, I stopped him getting killed in a bar fight in Crenshaw Hills. He was trying to sell some gold you boys had stolen...annoyed some locals. So...I saved his life" Micah explained with ease, so either to story was true or he was a really good liar. Ashley didn't know if it was true because, just like the others, she didn't actually know that much about Micah.

"No...no, no. That ain't true!" Bill stood up, pointing at the blonde man accusingly.

"I believe you" Ashley hummed, shrugging slightly as she stepped towards the fire, joining the others there. Part of her statement was to assure Micah that somebody believed him but another part was to interrupt them before an argument broke out.

The five men turned to look at her, but Micah was the only one with a smug look on his face. He could get used to having someone fighting his corner like this. "That's m'girl" Micah smirked, looking pretty damn proud of himself.

Lenny and Sean instantly cringed at the pet-name, disgusted by Micah calling Ashley "m'girl" but they were more confused by the fact that she didn't recoil in disgust or straight up punch him in the face for it. Bill huffed as he turned and walked away, he wasn't going to argue with Ashley, he didn't see any need for it.

Ashley just chuckled to herself as she took a sip of her beer, letting out a disgruntled gasp as she nearly choked on the beer, being pulled down against her will. She composed herself when she realised what had happened. Ashley had been standing close enough to Micah for him to casually reach up and grab her waist, pulling her down onto his lap.

She tried not to laugh out loud at Micah's behaviour, talk about laying it on thick. She just realised how dedicated Micah was to revealing this whole thing to the rest of the camp, he wasn't at all subtle.

Micah had one arm wrapped around her waist to prevent her loosing balance and falling off of his lap, and his other hand was resting casually on her thigh. Sean, Lenny, and Hosea looked at them with confused expressions. Sean looked like his head was going to explode from processing the scene. Ashley just chuckled to herself as she took a sip of her beer, shaking her head at Micah's behaviour.

Hosea chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he stood up and walked away from the fire. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't had his suspicious about the pair, this was pretty much just confirming it.

"Hell, Ash, how drunk are you?" Sean asked, raising an eyebrow at them. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or throw up.

"This is my first drink of the day, Sean" Ashley shook her head, holding the bottle up in the air as if it was proving something to the red-head.