Retribution

Ride With Me

   That next morning, I woke up and Sadie was passed out naked, next to me. She slept really good that night. I smiled thinking about how good I made her feel. I loved that I was able to give her that. She deserved to feel good and I loved that I got to make her feel that way.

   I woke her up with a kiss. She just moaned and turned a little, smile on her face forming. I laughed at her being all sleepy. She squinted, opening one eye at me. She closed it and a bigger smile came across her face. "Mornin" she said in her raspy voice.

   "Mornin" I said kissing her neck, causing her to laugh because it tickled. She pulled me into the bed and kissed me some more. We ended up tangled in the covers and lost in each other, making out. I finally got up first.

   "Nooo!" She wined, trying to pull me into the bed. "Sadieeee!" I wined back. "We have to get up!" I laughed. "No we don't" she said, borderline pouting. "I've never seen you like this" I laughed. "What? I can't help that I want to stay in bed with the woman I love" She said.

   "Believe me, I do too... but there's work to be done" I said, smirking. "Fuck the work, I wanna make you orgasm again" she said pulling me into the bed with force. "Sadieeee" I yelled as she attacked my face with kisses. We were both wrestling and laughing at this point.

   Then finally we heard a voice by the tent. "What?" Sadie asked the voice. "Miss Adler, can you and Y/N help me with something?" Arthur asked. "I know it's an inconvenient time but I really could use it" he said. We both looked at each other, her face was beet red.

   "Sure Arthur, we'll be right out" she said, voice still raspy and deep. "Guess it'll wait" she smirked at me. "Told you there was work" I teased. She smacked my arm. "Shut up" she laughed. We both got dressed and got outside.

   Everyone in camp looked at us. Some were smiling knowingly, some were glares, and some wouldn't look us in the eye. Sadie walked up to Arthur. "So... everyone heard?" She asked awkwardly. "Fraid so..." Arthur said, fidgeting with a stick. "Well shit" She said, amusement in her voice. We both just laughed.

   That's when Abigail came out of their tent. Sadie looked at her. Abigail shook her head, smiling at her. "You know your tent is right next to ours right?" She asked, amused by all of this. Sadie wasn't wearing any blush but her cheeks were redder than ever.

   "Jack kept asking what all that noise was. John said it was an injured animal" Abigail said laughing and shaking her head. Sadie and Y/N just busted out laughing. Abigail laughed too. "It's not funny!! Jack wanted to go out and help the thing" Abigail said.

   "Oh shit..." Sadie was trying to catch her breath. "Y'all really do sound like animals" Abigail said. They laughed so hard they were crying. "That's so embarrassing" Y/N said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Jesus..." Abigail shook her head, smiling at them.

   "Then John got mad at me because I don't sound like that when we... you know" Abigail laughed. "Oh my god" Sadie just kept saying. "Yeah... so thanks for that" Abigail shook her head. Of course that sent Arthur into a coughing fit and he had to walk away. Sadie looked over, concerned, then back at Abigail.

   "Jesus..." Sadie shook her head. "I mean... I don't know. It sounds like y'all are doing something a lot differently. Maybe you can give John some pointers" Abigail said. Y/N and Sadie just laughed. "I'd be happy to, send him my way" Sadie teased. "You joke but..." Abigail laughed.

   "Anyways... it'll blow over" Abigail said. "Just do it in the cave or somethin next time" Abigail said. "Ewww" Sadie said. "Yeah, ain't very romantic" Abigail said. "John and I... it ain't very romantic" she rolled her eyes. Sadie just laughed.

   "Anyways, back to it" she walked away, laughing. Sadie just waved, shaking her head. Arthur gave it a minute, got his coughing under control, then he explained what happened and what they had to do. It was had to do with the Native Americans and the army. It wasn't anything serious, he just needed extra people to come with him, in case it turned serious. Never know.

   So, we went with him. Everything fell apart, we took care of it and that was that. A typical trip anymore with the boys. It had been a real shit show around there in that time, so it was as expected. We rolled back into camp around 10 that night.

Sadie, Arthur and I had stopped at a Saloon around dinner time, so we were off to bed. "Goodnight, ladies" Arthur tipped his hat at them. "Goodnight!" They both Said, Sadie repeating the gesture. "It was nice, getting out with Arthur" I said.

"I mean, I know everything went south... it always does but... it was nice" I said. Sadie just smiled, a hint of sadness lingering. "What's that?" I asked. "What?" She said, as if nothing happened. "That look..." I said. She just shook her head and smiled. "Come on..." I said.

She sat down and sighed. "He keeps telling me there will be time for grief later but I can't help but be sad every now and then. Arthur... he's my best friend" she said. "He's... dying. I don't know if you... know that" she said.

"I... well, if it's Tuberculosis like you say... I kind of figured he wouldn't have long" I said, sadly. "Yeah... it's just... damn it... he was so close. I saw him struggle a lot. He had a woman he loved... Mary. She... loved him a lot also but couldn't live this kind of a life and..." Sadie scoffed.

"Who could blame her?" She said. "... and well, he couldn't leave this" she explained. "So they... never got to give it a fair try.... And now it's all falling to shit and he'll finally have that chance... right? But... he's dying. He doesn't have the time anymore" she said, shaking her head.

"I know he doesn't think this pessimistically, so he isn't sittin there cussing the situation but... I am!!" She said shaking her head. I smiled at her and rubbed her shoulder. "It's just... not fair" She said. "Nothing in this goddamn life is fair" she said.

"Tell you what else isn't fair..." Y/N said. "We both got a habit of killing and shooting people... and we got each other. You have Arthur. You were able to be best friends with him while you could..." Y/N said. "That's not fair..." Y/N trailed off.

"Arthur always says that you can't do bad things and have good things happen to you... yet... here we are" Y/N said. "I know you think pessimistically and you got the right but Sadie... we got a lot of good in our lives... and a lot more good to come" Y/N said.

Sadie just smiled at her. That's exactly what she needed. Before Y/N all she could think about was offing herself. She cursed herself for not being able to do it and then she'd go on suicide missions, hoping it'd do it for her because she was "too much of a coward". Then Y/N came along.

She made her see life was worth living. All of a sudden, Sadie felt a little differently. She was more careful, still wild and herself but... she was more cognizant of what she was doing now. She had someone to live for, a purpose.

She wasn't sure when it happened but she stopped wanting to die a long time ago. Now that she knew she wanted to live though, she was so unaware of how to do it. Before, the future was certain, it was black and white. She lives her life fighting and dies fighting.

Now... she had decided she wanted to live. She hadn't thought about how she wanted to do that, only the dying part... so now she had a decision to make. How did she want to see all of this? What kind of woman did she want to be?