Arthur Morgan X Female Reader
Summary: You catch Tuberculosis instead of Arthur.
Word Count: 1750
You hadn't been well for some time now, you didn't know what it was was but you knew it wasn't good. You had been coughing more and more recently, you've lost weight, you've got no appetite, and you've been getting tired very easily.
You sat on the edge of your cot, you had just been hit by another wave of fatigue and needed to rest. You started violently coughing, so much that it hurt, you grabbed a handkerchief to cough into. Once you stopped coughing you slowly pulled the handkerchief away from your face and reluctantly looked down at it. You sighed when to saw the specks of blood you had coughed up. You knew that you should go and see a doctor but you didn't want to worry any one, you would be fine, you've been through worse than this.
"Hey! Y/N! Where are ya, we need ya help!" you heard somebody calling you. You groaned before standing up, taking it slowly, you walked out of your tent and looked around for who was calling you.
You walked out into the camp but something wasn't right. Your hearing was distorted and your vision was going blurry.
"Hey, darlin'...you alright?" Arthur asked as he walked up to you, his smile quickly falling from his face.
"I...I'm fine" you nodded but as soon as you took another step forward your legs gave out beneath you. Then, everything went black.
Arthur's eyes widened as he lunged forward and caught you in his arms. He knelt down, slowly lowering you to the ground. "Y/N? Y/N...Y/N?..." Arthur kept calling your name, shaking his head, he couldn't lose you.
"Arthur? What happened?" Hosea asked as he hurried over to you and Arthur.
"I...I don't know. She just collapsed" Arthur told the older man.
"Alright, hold on" Hosea nodded as he reached over to you, checking your pulse. "Her pulse is fine but you have to take her to see a doctor" he told Arthur.
"Okay...okay...I've got to go" Arthur nodded as he picked you up, carrying you bridal style towards his horse.
-----
The next thing you knew was that you were waking up in a doctor's office, not sure how you got there or what had happened before you got there. You groaned as you glanced around, seeing who you assumed to be the doctor and a worried looking Arthur. They were talking about something but you were still a little out of it, you couldn't focus on them.
You tried to sit up and that seemed to get their attention. Arthur hurried over to you and gently pushed on your shoulders to get you to lie down again. "Don't move, just relax. This is the doctor...he,uh...he did some tests and...well, he'll explain it" Arthur sighed, gesturing over to the doctor, knowing that he would explain everything much more calmly than the outlaw would.
"I have some bad news for you, Miss...you've got tuberculosis. I'm really sorry, Miss, it's a hell of a thing" The doctor told you professionally but sympathetically.
"Well...what...can you do something?" You asked, almost blankly. That was a lot of information to take in, especially after you just woke up not knowing where you were.
"It's a progressive disease. You'll be...well, the best thing is rest and getting somewhere warm and dry, and taking it easy. Now, is that possible?" The doctor asked but he already knew the answer just from looking at you both.
"Sure, she can just take her winters in our country club in California" Arthur answered sarcastically, with a scoff and a roll of the eyes.
"Arthur..." you sighed. You knew that Arthur wasn't going to take this well but right now you just needed you talk to the doctor right now.
"No, it's not possible" Arthur shook his head with a defeated sigh.
"Right...well, I'm real sorry" the doctor apologised with a nod.
"Yeah...me too" you nodded and an awkward silence fell over the three of you. What are you meant to say when one of you just found out that they were dying.
You went to stand up but the doctor gently pushed you back down into the seat. "Wait, let me get you a little bit more energy today" the doctor offered before he injected something into your arm. He smiled at you before moving away from you.
You stood from the chair on shaky legs and Arthur wrapped his arm around your waist to help support you. He assisted you out of the doctor's office and walked you out on to the street, he guided you over to his horse and helped you mount it. You had told him that you could manage by yourself but he insisted on helping you. He mounted the horse behind you, wrapping his arm around your waist and letting you lean back against his chest as you both rode out of town.
"How the hell did ya get tuberculosis?" Arthur asked, you could hear that he was angry. He wasn't angry at you, he was angry at the doctor for diagnosing you, but mostly he was angry at the world for giving you the sickness.
"I dunno, Arthur...shit...Downes" you sighed as you thought back to how this could've happened.
"Downes?" He asked, not sure what you were talking about.
"You remember that feller we went to collect a debt from? Uh, Thomas Downes. We roughed him up a bit, his wife said that he was sick...he coughed on me...do ya think...?" You recalled the event but you didn't even get to finish your question before Arthur interrupted you.
"I'm gonna kill him" Arthur practically growled. Normally you would try to calm him down but right now he needed somebody to blame, and to be honest so did you.
"He's dead Arthur...his...his illness killed him, remember. His wife came to the camp to pay of the debt" you reminded him. You both went silent for a moment, the tuberculosis killed Downes and it was probably going to kill you if nothing else did first.
"...I'm gonna kill Strauss" Arthur muttered, figuring that you were collecting his debt, this wouldn't have happened if Strauss never sent you both.
"Arthur..." you sighed, as hard as this was, you knew that you couldn't blame anyone for this.
"No, this is his fault" Arthur insisted and you knew that there was no point in arguing with him, you weren't going to change his mind. You both just fell silent again as you headed back to camp.
-----
When you got back to the camp, Arthur headed straight up to Strauss, all guns blazing if you will. It took some effort but you managed to convince Arthur to not kill Strauss but he did end up kicking the loanshark out of the camp.
Everyone was confused and concerned about your condition, and why Arthur had wanted to kill Strauss when you both returned. So you explained to everyone what was happening and why you had been diagnosed with, and Arthur insisted that you don't do any jobs anymore. Even Dutch didn't want to argue with Arthur, he just nodded and agreed that you shouldn't strain yourself and should remain in camp as much as possible.
-----
You sat at the campfire, drinking your coffee quietly. You glanced up and sighed when you saw the large bruise around Micah's eye, you couldn't say that he didn't deserve it.
You had gotten into an argument with Micah and the bastard decided to call you by the new nickname he had given you. Micah called you 'Blacklung' and the next thing you knew Arthur's fist was colliding with his face. You were pretty sure that Arthur was taking this worse than you were, and that broke your heart.
-----
You lay on your cot with Arthur. He lay on his back while you lay beside him, curled up against his side comfortably and safely. Arthur's arm was wrapped around you, holding you as closely and securely as he could. Arthur frowned as you sat up, confused until you started coughing. You quickly sat up and grabbed a handkerchief, once you finished coughing you lowered the handkerchief to see it stained with blood. You always tried to hide stuff like this from Arthur, but he knew what was happening. He wasn't stupid.
"It should've been me" you heard Arthur quiet voice come from behind you, making you turn to face him as you dropped the handkerchief.
"No...no, don't say that. None of this is your fault. Do not blame yourself" you shook your head as he sat up and you turned your bodies to face each other.
"No...I don't blame myself...but I'm the one who should have gotten sick. I'm the one who deserves it" Arthur shook his head, staring down at his lap.
"Arthur, you are a good man, you don't deserve this, neither of us do" you assured him as you cupped his face in your hands and made him look at you.
"...I can't lose you" his voice came out barely above a whisper and it broke your heart.
"You aren't going too...not even tuberculosis can get rid of me" you joked, attempting and failing to make either of you smile.
"It's going to kill you..." Arthur reminded you as if you could have forgotten that.
"...I know...I know..." you nodded, pulling your hands away from his face and looking down at your lap.
"I'm sorry...I don't want you to think about it but...I can't stop thinking about it" Arthur admitted as he took your hands in his, making you look at him again.
"I'm sorry. I love you" you apologised. Neither of you knew what you were apologising for, you had nothing to apologise about, but neither of you commented on it.
"I love you too" Arthur smiled sadly before pulling you towards him.
You moved to lay together again, this time Arthur lay facing you. His arms were wrapped around your body, holding you close as you buried your face in his chest. He wanted to cherish these moments with you but all he could think about was how much he would miss you when you were gone.
Arthur knew that if he could take your tuberculosis and carry the sickness himself, instead of you, that he would without a moment hesitation because he needed you by his side more than anything.
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