" 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐚 "
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"It's gonna work out John, it's gonna work out. Listen to Dutch." Hosea tells the stressed out father who was seated beside Arthur, Dutch, and Abby.
"Now, I don't expect you to understand this but I've never been more proud of you, then I am right now. You are doing the right thing." Dutch informs John, who only sighs out in defeat at the thought of Jack.
"If I don't get that boy back safe...I'm.. s-she'll kill us all..." John stutters out, clearly scared out of his mind of that becoming a reality.
"I know, but looking at this logically? Well that boy is fine. They took him to scare us, nobody takes a boy to harm him." Dutch tells the man, causing Abby to nod along with the men around the table.
"He's right John." She tells the man, hoping he'd calm down a bit. Everyone had to stay positive or things would be sure to turn to shit.
"What do you think Arthur?" Dutch asks the other Morgan sibling, in hopes Arthur will calm the father down a bit.
"That boy will be alright. But of course Marson's scared rotten, we killed all those people, and we stirred all that trouble? For nothin'." Arthur says, causing John to nod to himself.
"No... No, not for nothing. For livin'—Now we get that boy back, and we go. Trust me..." Dutch reassures Arthur and John once again.
"Hey Dutch! We gotta problem." Lenny exclaims causing the group huddled around the table to turn around to see the Pinkerton's making an appearance.
In one swift motion, Abby felt herself stand up from the table and place her hand near her garter. She always had her hand gun tucked underneath her dress, just in case.
"Not a problem...visitors... a solution—Good day fine people, Mr. Van der Linde, Mr. Matthews I presume." The leader of the Pinkerton group names off everyone around the table, before meeting eyes with John.
"And who are you?" He asks John, causing him to only tense up at the question.
"Rip Van Winkle."John sarcastically comments, which would've made Abby laugh, if it weren't for their current situation.
"Huh... Good day, sir." He says to the man, actually believing the name John gave himself, making Abby roll her eyes.
"Agent Milton, Pinkerton detective agency... Agent Ross." He introduces him and his comrade standing beside him.
"We know who you two are." Abby spats towards the men, clearly not taking a liking to them barging into their home unannounced.
"Ah... Well, who are you?" Detective Milton asks in a tone of interest, while his eyes wandered towards her cleavage. It didn't take long for Javier to find his way beside his lover, while Arthur protectively stood in between the detective and his sister.
"None of your god damn business." Arthur mutters, while eyeing down the old man in anger.
"Mr. Morgan! Nice to see you, again..." Milton sarcastically says while meeting eyes with her bearded brother.
"And what did we owe the pleasure, Agent Moron?" Dutch asks, clearly not impressed or frightened by his appearance.
"I don't know if your aware but this is a civilized land, now. We didn't kill all those savages to let the likes of you to act like human dignity, and basic decency was out outmoded or yet invented. This thing... it's done."
"This place... ain't no such thing as civilized. It's man so in loved with greed... he had forgotten himself and found only appetites." Dutch tells the agent with venom spitting from his mouth, removing himself from the table, and walking towards the man in confidence.
"And as a consequence that lets you take what you please, kill whom you please, and hang the rest of us? Whom made you the messiah to these lost souls that you led so horribly astray?"
"I'm nothin' but a seeker, Mr. Milton." Dutch answers.
"You ain't much of anything more than a killer, Mr. Van der Linde. But I came to make a deal. It's time. You come with me... and I give the rest of ya' three days to run off...disappear and go and live like human beings someplace else." The man announces throughout the camp, clearly wanting to trade their lives for Dutch. Which even made Abby scoff to herself. As much as she had her doubts about Dutch, she could never. They were family, they stuck by each other no matter what. Especially Dutch, because he was like a father figure to her.
"You came for me? Risked life and limb in this den of lowlifes and murders... so they might live and love? Well... ain't that fine?" Dutch asks the men, causing some of the gang to chuckle or hum to themselves in amusement.
"I don't want to kill all these folks, Dutch—Just you." He exclaims, clearly trying to show no harm to anyone but Dutch.
"In that case... it be my honor to join you—Excuse me, friends. I have an appointment to keep with..." Dutch starts off sating with his hands in the air, walking in the direction of the agents. But before they could even handcuff him, everyone around grabbed their loaded guns, and pointed it in the direction of the men.
"I think your new friend should leave now, Dutch." Ms. Grimshaw threatens, causing Milton jaw to clench in annoyance.
"Your making a big mistake... all of you." He shouts throughout the camp, but obviously no one seems to care for his words. This causes Dutch to go into fits of laughter, and sigh out in some type of relief.
"Yeah... dreadful—We have got something, something to live and die for. How awful of us? Mr. Milton, stop following us... We'll be gone soon." Dutch informs the men, clearly showing signs of irritability.
"I'm afraid I can't and when I return, I'll be with my fifty men. All of you will die. Runaway from this place, you fools. Run!" Mr. Milton shouts angrily at the whole gang huddled around, causing Lenny to quickly intervene.
"Come on." Lenny mutters to the man, grabbing ahold of his arm to manually remove these men from their grounds.
"Get your damn hands off of me, boy." Milton growls at Lenny, shaking his grip off, and then storming out of our camp grounds.
"What now?" Arthur asks to no one in particular.
"We get out of here... and quick—Any ideas?" Dutch asks, clearly just as confused as everyone else.
"I know a big ol' house, hidden in the swamps outside Saint Denis. I'm sure they'll find us eventually, but it'll buy us a few days." Arthur informs Dutch, who just nods.
"A few days is all we need."
"There's a spot out by Sadie Belle. Lenny and I got into that dispute with the previous occupiers. Place is well hidden." Arthur tells their gang leader, who continues to nod his head in agreement.
"You and Arthur ride out... and make sure no one else has moved in. Lenny... you go follow those fools outta here, and make sure they leave." Dutch orders John, Arthur, and Lenny.
"The rest of you get packing!" Dutch shouts.
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Once John & Arthur cleared out the others at the new camp site, they were all able to get situated. It was an old abandoned mansion near an swampy lake, which was actually pretty nice in Abby's opinion. If someone rich we're to clean this place up, it would be an fine place to live.
Abigail was still an mess without her baby boy, and so was John. They hated the idea of waiting another day to find Jack. So when the next day had finally arrived, Abby managed to convince Dutch to bring her along with. She had promised Abigail that she'd do everything and anything in her power to bring back their boy.
While walking closer towards her horse, someone suddenly grabs ahold of her wrist, preventing her from jumping on. As she turns her head to look at the person, she is consumed with an kiss. Knowing it was Javier, she immediately kissed him back. She definitely felt bad they weren't able to interact with one another lately, but duty calls.
"Stay safe." He tells her once they separate from their loving kiss.
"Always."
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After searching all over Saint Denis, they had found out where Mr. Bronte was located. Currently they were entering his home after an altercation outside of his home. As soon as they were led into the living room, they meet an small man seated on an expensive looking sofa. Hell— everything looked expensive. It was almost hard for the girl to not look around and gawk at the interior. Once they were noticed by the man himself, they immediately began speaking in Italian amongst themselves.
"Why do you take his son?" Dutch asks, clearly not caring if he had intervened in their conversation.
"Excuse me?" The man asks clearly offended and taken a back from Dutch's question.
"I said, why did you take his son?" Dutch repeats, only gaining awkward silence to fill throughout the room.
"We ain't got no problems with you, sir... nor you with us... but if you want to start one. There will be a lot of folks dead in this room before it's done." Dutch informs the men, who only aimed their weapons in response.
"So you walk into my city, stinking of shit, and looking like this... and you come into my house, before you have a bath... and you tell me how to act. You tell me to show compassion. Have I not shown you almost in fine compassion already by simply allowing you to breathe in my presence?"
"Indeed you have." Abby she intervenes, catching the attention of the short man. "Now, we are simple country folk. All we have is each other... and you have gone, and you have took his son... over some dispute with some inbred ex-slavers. It ain't got nothing to do with anyone of us." She explains in a soft tone, hoping it'd somehow sway the man.
"You had nothing to do with destroying my liquor business?!" He exclaims loudly, causing her hands to sweat.
"We was innocent bystanders... and that which we weren't innocent of, well we... we most certainly were ignorant of." Dutch states, causing the small man to furrow his brows at him.
"You... you... twist words... you lie shamelessly. you think you are better than everyone else..." he mutters before saying something in Italian to his men. Just when she began to get anxious, he smiled widely and began laughing.
"Angelo Bronte." He introduces himself suddenly while shaking hands with Dutch, catching everyone off guard.
"Dutch Van Der Linde... Arthur Morgan... Abby Morgan... John Marston..."
"The pleasure is mine... all mine, please." Angelo laughs and smiles to everyone, before they all cautiously took an seat.
"So, can my friend have his son?" Dutch asks while turning to John sitting beside him. She'd never seen the man look this tense in his life. Nor did care about Jack as much as he did now.
"Of course, of course—But... should I be out of pocket over a misunderstanding? Of course, I know you would not want that." Bronte informs the strangers sitting in front of him; still suspicious.
"No?" Dutch says in a tone of confusion, clearly not really understanding what the man meant exactly, but went along with it.
"See! Now, you preform a simple job for me... and you get your son back." Bronte says before taking a sip of his whiskey.
"What is it?" Arthur sighs out, clearly not shocked that this woman wanted something.
"Some people have taken to grave robbing in the cemetery."
"Well, that is a fine place for it, the best." Dutch states, causing Bronte to laugh loudly. "I love this guy, I love you." He laughs, as if he thought Dutch was joking—which he wasn't.
"See they've taken, not only to desecrating the dead... but they've done so without paying a tribute to the living. Thing is, they see my men, they run a mile. So maybe you two head off... while Mr. Van Der Linde & Ms. Morgan keep me company and tell me more about my manners. Yeah?" Bronte explains before turning towards Arthur and John. Even though the two didn't feel up to it, they knew they had to.
"Salute." Dutch says towards the small rich man with a smile, not bothering to bid his goodbyes to the two of his men. "Salute." Bronte says, as they clink their glasses, before drinking the their beverage, leaving Abby sitting aside as the third wheel.
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After a few drinks, Abby was beginning to get restless. Sure, everything seemed going fine. But she needed to make sure this wasn't a trap, and that the little boy was still well & alive.
"Excuse me." Abby tries to intervene the twins conversation, but it went unnoticed.
"Excuse me." She says louder, finally catching the two men's attention.
"Am I able to see Jack, now?" She asks with a tone of slight irritation, which the small men noticed.
"Of course, of course—Fetch the boy" He says to the woman, before ordering one of his men.
"Are you the boys mother?" Bronte then asks the young woman with an smirk, which she found to be unsettling.
"No—I'm his Aunt." She informs, clearly not trying to make full on conversation with the strange man.
"Well... might I say that you are an beautiful woman! Very thin, tall. An true model! You know what? I'd like to invite you to a party of mine." He playfully mentions, before inviting her. Catching her off guard, she turns to Dutch, almost in permission. Once noticing his smirk, she mentally groaned out in frustration.
"I'd—Uh. love that. But only if my friends can join along." She says, clearly still shocked.
"Of course, Of course." He says smiling, making her force an smile back his way.
"Aunt Abby!" A familiar voice exclaims, immediately catching her attention. As she turns to see the boy, she stands up, and runs over. Once meeting half way, she scoops him up from the ground, and kisses his pale chubby cheeks multiple times.
"You're squishing me." He says, causing her to pull away with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I just... I missed you kiddo." She says while pushing back her emotions, not wanting to show him any sort of distress on her end.
"I missed you too. Abby, I had so much fun!" He exclaims, causing her eyebrows to furrow.
"You did?" She asks in bewilderment.
"Yeah—I played with a lot of toys and had a lot of good food." He says with an bright smile, causing her to grab his small face with her hands.
"Well I can't wait for you to tell me all about it on the ride back home." She says, causing him to look around.
"Is pa' here?" He asks, causing her heart to swell.
"Yes, he is running a quick errand with Uncle Arthur for Mr. Bronte—They'll be back soon." She informs the young boy.
"You still have my lucky bracelet." He says with an smile once taking notice of her bracelet.
"Of course, I do...I'd never leave without it." She whispers to the boy, before playfully tickling his stomach, making him giggle.
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Once the two returned back, they wasted no time to head back home. The whole ride Jack was telling his father many stories, which he actually listened to for once. She had hoped this opened up John eyes, and not take anything for granted. Dutch even informed them about the event coming up, which rubbed Arthur the wrong way. Abby was sure her brother didn't trust the small Italian, either.
As they rode closer to camp, Bill immediately shouted their appearance, bringing everyone out of their tents. "Abigail! Abigail! Abigail! We got you your son! Everything will be okay!" Dutch shouts throughout the camp.
"We got him!" John shouts, causing Abigail to bolt over towards them.
"I'm fine! Mama! I'm fine! They fed me good. Italian food." Jack says while watching his mother race over, as his dad removed him from his horse.
"Come here, you will boy." She while engulfing him into a hug, causing the boy to laugh. It almost brought tears to Abby's eyes seeing them reunited.
"You got him. You brought him back—Dutch, Arthur, Abby... thank you... thank you..." Abigail says with tears rubbing down her face, causing Abby to smile her friends way.
Javier then made his way over to her horse, helping her down instantly. As soon as he pulls her off the horse safety, she then traps Javier in an right bear hug. He couldn't help but chuckle in amusement at her actions.
"Would you like to be my date to a Gala?" She asks playfully while pulling her head from the crook of his neck. "What?" He says smiling, pulling away, clearly confused.
"We're gonna rob some some rich folk, at this party." She says, causing him to slightly chuckle,
"It'd be my pleasure." He flirts causing her to pull him in for an quick kiss, and pulling him towards the crowd huddled around the fire.
Javier is quick to pick up his guitar before sitting down beside Abby in front of the warm fire. As soon as he strums, he begins to sing, and they all soon followed. Some were drunk, while some were just beaming in happiness. Despite the tragedies, the loses, the mistakes, they all still found a way to celebrate life.
After singing many songs by the bonfire, Abigail took Jack in the abandoned mansion to get some rest, while the others got drunk, and continued to celebrate Jacks safe return. And as much as Abby was happy at first, her emotions quickly took over her...
Sean was gone, he wasn't coming back. She wasn't going to hear his jokes, his teasing, his laughter, nor would she see him be past out drunk randomly around camp. The little things she took for granted, the memories they both shared. All of that was gone, and it hurt her.
"I wish Sean was here..." Abby drunkly stammers to her lover seated beside her, who was lightly strumming his instrument.
"He is... mi amour." He tells her, only causing her lip to quiver in result. Quickly she lays her her head on his shoulder for support, while taking in everyone around camp enjoying themselves. Well everyone except Molly, but that wasn't new. Hell, even Kieran looked to be having an grand old time talking with Mary-Beth. Abby always thought about escaping this life, the crime, these people. But now, she couldn't even bare the thought...