No Time To Die- ARTHURMORGAN x O/C

part 23- Manea

The sun rises over camp, casting a warm glow over the dusty terrain. Claudia, still reeling from the argument with Arthur, she lies in her bedroll, her eye's fixating on the sky. As the day goes on, Claudia finally rouses herself from her bed, her movements stiff and slow. She shuffles over to the nearby water source, her eyes avoiding the spot Arthur had stood the night before. She washes her face, careful of the purple bruising from Arthur's punch, rinsing away the remnants of last night's tears and whiskey. With a sense of purpose, Claudia scans camp for something to do. She spots the cooking fire and walks over to stir the embers, reviving the flames with a few gentle pokes. The smell of roasting coffee wafts through the air as her stomach growls in response.
"Good morning, Claudia," Charles says, his voice low and soothing. "I see you're up and about. That's good news."
Claudia looks up at him as she sits next to the fire, "what's good news?"
Charles smiles, "you're not hiding away from us anymore. That's progress."
Claudia snorts, her gaze returning to the cooking fire. "You don't know anything about me."
Charles chuckles taking out his knife and starts sharpening it with a rock, "Oh, but I think I do. I think I know that you're hurting right now, and that's okay. We all hurt sometimes but we can't let it consume us."
Charles gets up to leave, "I never said thank you to you before. For saving me twice," Claudia says her gaze meeting Charles', "thank you."
Charles nods his head and leaves her to it. Claudia never really spoken to him before but she is grateful for him as he saved her twice from nearly dying. She fiddles with the stick in her hand, picking the bark of it. Leaves rustle behind her, making her head spin around. She sighs realising it's Hosea, "you are up early" Hosea acknowledges sitting himself next to her.
"I couldn't get to sleep" She murmurs quietly, her eyes fixating on the stick in her hands. Last night, Claudia couldn't even shut her eyes. The image of Jesse dying in her hands on replay like someone is pressing the replay button on a remote.
"That bruising looks bad but it should clear in a week" He says looking at her face, Claudia turns her head so he can't see her face anymore. Silence takes over as the two just sit next to each other, Hosea looks over her seeing her hands shaking.
"I told Arthur that it was wrong, the way he reacted but you shouldn't have said about his past..." Hosea takes a sip of his coffee, "I just want you two to get along."
"Tell him to stop protecting me like I'm a fragile vase, I can handle myself.." Claudia snaps back breaking the stick in her hands, "Hosea I don't know what to do." She mumbles as her voice breaks, her eyes tearing up.
"You will find out, I'm going to..." before Hosea could finish, a blood-curdling scream rings out through camp.
"It's Kieran!" Mary-Beth cries, Claudia spins her head around to see Kieran dead sitting on a horse holding his decapitated head in his hands.
"Everybody take cover!" Dutch yells as he stands with Arthur up on the balcony, seeing O Driscoll's hiding in the tree line. Hosea wraps his arm around Claudia quickly rushing into the house. Arthur burst through the doors.
"Get inside, fast. Come on, quick!" Arthur orders pushing the women into the house.  He hides behind the sand bags firing at any O'driscoll, a wagon full of them  arrives.
"We're getting overwhelmed! Fall back to the house!" John yells over the shooting, they all run back to the manor. Arthur pushes a bookshelf over the door making sure no one can come in or out. Dutch orders each one of them to cover a window, Arthur hears someone yelling from outside.
"That's Claudia, cover me" He orders John, he leaps through the window following her screams. Arthur turns around the corner of the old shack next to the manor. There she is, with 3 O'Driscolls around her.
"Claudia.. Claudia!" Arthur yells at her has she stabs the last one in the neck, blood splattering all over here, "why didn't you get inside?"
She turns to him, smiling, blood covering her white shirt, "and miss all this fun? I don't think so."
Arthur's eyes fixate her, her mood changing as if he didn't punched her yesterday or loose the love of her life a couple of days ago. 
"Let's just get you back inside before they kill us all" He hisses grabbing her hand, he holds it tight not letting go as they take cover. She takes out her revolver and shoots the remaining O'Driscolls dotted around camp.
"Arthur duck!" Claudia yells, Arthur ducks down making it able for Claudia to kill off the O'Driscoll that was charging at Arthur.
"Thank you" He whispers, out of breath.
"Cowards!" Dutch yells as the rest of the enemies run off in fear.
"We okay?" Hosea asks, looking around as he leaves the manor from hiding.
Dutch looks around as well making sure no one is hurt, he slowly walks over to the body left on the floor, "I think so, except from Kieran here. Poor kid, Mr Swanson can you take this boy and bury him someplace near but not too near."
"We need to get this place cleaned up, Mr Pearson, Miss Grimshaw" Hosea says as he picks up Kieran's head from the floor.
"Already taking care of it, come on now work!" Grimshaw shouts as she starts to pick up the debris from the shootout.
"Colm O'Driscoll.." Dutch stares into the ground scuffing his boot into the dry mud and blood.
"That man can really hate" Claudia mutters her accent cutting through her teeth.
"So can I, Claud" Dutch responds, his eyes drifting towards the woman standing there. Her clothes stained with the blood of O'Driscolls, "we need to get moving, away from here."
"So we should start looking for another camp?" Arthur mentions to Dutch.
"You ain't thinking big enough, Arthur. You ain't seeing the vastness of our problems and opportunities" Dutch snaps back but in a soft way.
Arthur frowns, furrowing his eyebrows, "I'm not sure I get you."
"You will son" Dutch sighs patting Arthur on the shoulder, "you will."

               As the darkness takes over camp, usually Javier would have his guitar out by now or Uncle and Pearson would be playing poker. After recent events, no one was out, it's like someone turned down the volume of the camp. Claudia sits by the fire after changing into new clothes, swinging the bottle of bear in her hand back and forth. She takes a sip of it, tilting her head back to get the last drop. She notices how her clothes were getting bigger on her, she hasn't eaten anything in a while. She gets up, looking over to the pot sitting over the fire by Pearons' wagon. Her eyes look down into the pot noticing no food left, she sighs placing the bowl back down on the floor. She stumbles walking over to her bedroll as the alcohol gets to her.
"Here, take it" She looks up to see Arthur standing over her, with a bowl full of stew in his hand.
"No you have it" She snaps back pushing it away.
Arthur places himself on the ground, sitting next to her. He holds the bowl up to her not taking no as an answer, the smell of the cooked vegetables fills her nostrils. She takes the bowl off him, slowly chewing the meat in her mouth.
"Thank you" she smiles, Arthur smiles back as the pair of them sit in silence. Claudia takes in his warmth as he sits crossing his legs next to her, "I'm sorry for what I said."
"I'm sorry for punching you, I didn't think" He responds fiddling with the bottom of his ripped jacket.
"I just miss Jesse so much, even though I only known him for a bit of my life" She says, slurping on the juices of the stew.
"I know that feeling, I only really knew Eliza before she died. When I first met her I just saw her as a girl but once I got her pregnant, I knew that I had to step up and try. It's correct what you said, when they died I was a mess, drinking all night then sleeping through the day. Hosea and Dutch were worried about me but after a while I finally got out of it" Arthur explains, he looks down after feeling pressure on his shoulder. Claudia's head rests against his shoulder as she snores. Arthur laughs realising that he had been talking to himself most of that time. He places his hand on her back and lays her down taking the empty bowl out of her hand. Pulling the blanket over her, he makes sure that she doesn't get cold during the night. 
"Goodnight, Claud."