Ghosts of the Past [ RDR2 - Arthur Morgan ]

Chapter 25 - Sean

WORD COUNT - 2559

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Little extra chapter for you all this week, as I'm like 3 ahead of schedule. 

   I have been recuperating after an interesting encounter with Colm O'Driscoll.
   Dutch got it into his mind to meet the bastard, to somehow end all this lunacy.
   Only Colm did not share Dutch's sense of honour amongst thieves. Whole thing was a set up to kidnap me, then lure all of the rest of us into a trap so we could get arrested and Colm could disappear away, us somehow carrying off his sin - along with our own to the gallows.
   Seems like Colm is enjoying this modern world even less than we are.
   More by luck than judgement I escaped and somehow got back here, more dead than alive, and collapsed into bed for a few feverish days – after much nursing from Miss Rosemary and the Reverend, and much guilt ridden apologies from Dutch over his stupidity, I survived okay. My shoulder where I was shot ain't come down with gangrene and I will live, if even uglier than before.
   Though perhaps not all those near me feel such a way about me.

A week and a half passed by tormentingly slowly. For a man so used to his time not being his own, the ability to relax was lost on Arthur Morgan. His time, so normally spent with the weight of a gun, and lives, in his hand, had now been spent re-learning Dominos, and often losing.

Watching the others come and go from camp, returning in various states of dishevelment while Arthur remained in the comfort of the camp made him feel oddly useless. A state he disliked vividly. Yet golden rays of sun shone through the dark forced rest of his current lifestyle. There was beauty in serenity, now matter how forced it may be. And a beauty she was.

Rosemary had long since declared Arthur as fit for light jobs, so her requirement to check on him, and his shoulder, had reduced somewhat. Although she still found excuses to do so. As a matter of fact, Arthur and Rosemary's time together had become somewhat domestic. He often found them both simply near each other, reading books in quiet companionship.

The almost-kiss weighed heavy on his mind. Though the thought of capturing her lips was tempting, he wanted that moment to be private, just theirs. So, he refrained. And it seemed, so did she.

"So, what chu say, Miss Rose?" Arthur asked her at the end of what should be his final check up "Am I healed? No longer a drain of resources?"

Gently touching the red scar left by his healed wound, Rosemary nodded "All looks good. And no pain when you lift you are neither?"

As though to show her instead of tell her, Arthur listed his arm, and gently rolled the shoulder "All good."

Nodding with an appreciative smile she agreed "Good. Then I guess it's time to set you loose on society again," she said with a mock sigh. "Poor society."

A huff of laughter that sounded more like a low breath of air, came from Arthur as he fixed the collar of his shirt and buttoned it back up. "Society always managed to survive me. I'm sure it won't mind."

As Rose turned to store her items back into the apothecary drawers she paused, and looked back at Arthur "So, what will you do with all this new fangled freedom?"

"Oh I'm sure Dutch will have something to occupy me." Arthur said, rocking himself to his feet and pushing his hat back onto his head "He always seems to."

Rosemary nodded, turning back around to Arthur "Yeah. Always something for you to get your hands dirty with." She agreed in this oddly quiet tone. A ting of reminiscence in her tone, but before Arthur could ask her what she meant by that, she broke back into a teasing smile "Well, you've had yourself a two weeks off, laid up like some high-falutin' city gent on holiday. Bet it don't feel as fancy as they make it sound, though, does it?"