Escapism (Arthur Morgan x Reader)

Chapter 9

Warning: A brief dream is about assault...and talk of it later

I continued to man the post for a while. I saw John approach me,

"Yn...it's been a days worth...you want to get out on another score?I have a good one planned for outside emerald ranch." He asked.

"I'm okay." I say wearily. The bags under my eyes growing.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Well let me know if you change your mind." He says with a sigh.

Afew hours later Mrs. Grimshaw comes up,

"Missy, you need to do you're part around here. We've got food to cook, laundry, wood, cleaning." She listed.

"I will Mrs. Grimshaw, just after my shift." I say.

"That won't do...you must come right now, you've been sitting there for over 24 hours." She grabbed my arm and dragged me back to camp.

Moments later I find myself sewing holes in men's clothes. Eventually I see Hosea come up to me to the table, he held a stew from pearson to me,

"C'mon Yn, you haven't eaten since you've gotten back." He frowned with a concerned look in his eye.

"Not hungry." Was all I uttered, soon I heard a whale noise that emanated from my stomach. He gave me a knowing smirk,

"Fine." I give a faint chuckle. I dig into the food with a solemn face and continue to chew on what feels like the toughest meat among the land. Maybe it's tough...or maybe it's sat in your mouth too long because you know it'll just hit the pit of your empty stomach.

"The food starts to work when you swallow it." Hosea smirked. I swallowed,

"Wise ass." I muttered.

"The one and only. Now, are you gonna come back to our camp and be yourself? Or are you gonna keep staying like a hermit?" He asked.

"What's it to you old man?" I frowned.

"Woah! Fiesty! I like it...Listen. I know you are worried about Arthur, but you have to still take care of yourself. What if you find him and need your strength up?" He reasoned. If you found him on the back of someone else's horse, you would indeed have no strength to catch up. He had a fair point.

"You're right Hosea. I've been nothing but a useless sack of shit." I admit.

"You're not...maybe a little..heh heh."

"I walked into it."

"Well, you can keep gaurd after at least doing some chores okay? Just lend a hand, everyone would also appreciate it." He patted me on the back.

"Hosea?" I ask

"What?"

"Thank you."

He gave me a smile,

"Don't worry about it darlin." He waved and strided off to Dutch's tent.

I made myself a little busier. I had sat off to the shore and washed the laundry. I swept people's tents out. I even chopped a few logs. I diced some vegetables to put in Pearson's stew. After all that I grabbed my old Springfield rifle and sat at the stump.

I had kept guarding as the sun crept down the horizon and eventually my eyes began fluttering shut. I however was fiddling with a stick in the ground, drawing stuff in the dirt, when I heard soft pattering and I looked up to see a wounded Arthur in his bare pj's half alive riding the horse.