Miss Morgan

Thirty-Five

June 1899
-Ivy-

"Let's have some fun... tonight. Let's enjoy ourselves." Dutch beams at me and Arthur with a cigar in his hand. Then he pulls me to my feet and loops my hand through his elbow and walks with me over to the crate of whiskey. He cracks open a bottle for me. "To your return, welcome back, kid."

Those words make me question if I'm really here or not, but I decide to just ride the wave of insanity for tonight.

I've spent most of the day resting and now that the sun begins to set, the camp feels brighter than it has in a long time. Brighter than it should since we just lost Davey and Jenny, and we still don't know where Mac is.

But maybe that is just what everyone needs right now. A party.

There's lights and music, Dutch and Molly dance together to the phonograph, Javier strums away at his guitar, and Sean comes running with his own bottle of whiskey to drag me over to the clearing in the middle of camp. "C'mon, Ivy. The crowd needs a speech."

"I'm pretty sure they don't." I protest.

He jumps up onto a wooden crate and helps me up next to him. "You're ridiculous." I laugh as he takes a drink.

"Everyone listen up. I know you all missed us. Ivy and Uncle Sean are back! So don't you worry, Ms. Grimshaw, you old crone. I'll keep them girls in line, if I have to whip' em I will!" Sean slurs.

"I'd like to see you try!" Tilly laughs.

"Sit down, ya fool!" Karen yells to Sean with a fit of giggles.

"And don't you worry, Mr. Pearson, ya drunk ol' shit bag. It'll be nothin' but the uh... finest game in the pot. Now Dead Eye Macguire's back! And don't worry 'bout nothin' Miss. Grimshaw, we'll have this camp runnin' like clockwork. And Ivy Morgan, you goddamn maniac... comin' back from the dead just for us. I love you bastards... have fun. Have lots of fun!" He hops off the crate and chugs the rest of his whiskey, then turns to Arthur. "Even you, ya grumpy old bastard, Arthur."

Sean helps me down of the crates and walks with me over to the table where Karen, Uncle, and Javier sit. "Uh oh... here comes trouble." Karen teases.

"Mind if we join you fine folks?" Sean asks the group.

"Ivy can... And I suppose you can too." Karen giggles.

"I owe ya one Arthur Morgan. The drinks are on me." Sean plops into a chair.

"I'm actually gonna go sit by the campfire." I tell Sean. I've been unconscious most of the last week. Standing up this long is making me lightheaded.

"Suit yerself, Miss Morgan." Sean smiles as he sits next to Karen.

"You good?" Karen mouths to me.

I nod and give her a wink, nodding at Sean and she laughs, shaking her head.

"You're lookin' as lovely as ever, if I may say so." Sean grins at Karen.

I see Arthur and Mary-Beth dancing to the music with Dutch and Molly. Those two would be a cute couple. I'll have to talk to Mary-Beth about that later.

I sit by the fire by John, Hosea, Bill and Pearson. "... They've discovered a wire you can talk down to speak to people you wanted to avoid so much you moved to a different town to escape them." Hosea laughs.

"Can I sit here?" I ask John. I guess I'm not feeling very social tonight. I know John is the only one sitting here that won't start gushing about how happy they are that I'm back. I don't like all the attention I'm getting right now.

"Sure." John nods, eyeing me for a moment and looking back at Hosea.

I hear Uncle, Karen, Javier, Sean, and Arthur all happily singing the Louisville Maid. I'm not drunk enough for this party. I take another swig of my drink.