The Outlaw (Outlander Fanfiction With A Twist)

Charming Smile

We arrived at the river and I dipped my hands into it , checking how strong the current was . Laying on the mucky ground beside it was Claire's handkerchief making me wonder what the hell happened . Maybe she accidentally fell in and got carried away with the waters but then after further inspection it was clear that the current wasn't strong enough to do that .

" They said Claire was here . " Will squinted his eyes looking over to the other side . His dirty boots sunk into the ground and he unintentionally kicked dirt onto my dress when moving his feet .

" I found her handkerchief , this doesn't look good . " I mumbled running my hands over the small , blue 'C' stitched onto the filthy corner of pale material .

" Aye , I don't ken where Dougal is and there's no sight of him either . " He opened the little leather satchel attached to the saddle and took a quick peak inside before pulling out a small flask . Whiskey no doubt .

" I ken we should return to camp . Dougal knows how to take care of himself  and a woman like Claire . " Will chuckled a little  at the disapproving look I gave him . I wasn't ready to give up just yet . Claire and Dougal disappeared all of a sudden and I was afraid she was in some serious trouble . As always the worst scenarios ran through my head and one of my theories was that Dougal snatched Claire and traveled further away from camp to kill her. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he was the culprit .

" I'm not sure anybody can take care of Claire , she's either getting into trouble or staying miles away from it . Let's hope she chooses the latter if they came across any . " I said more to myself but loudly enough for Will to hear . His smirk deflated when he realise I wasn't in a good mood to mess about . If he knew he'd understand why I was so worried and so hell-bent on finding them .

I remaind silent sitting down on the grass no longer caring about how dirty my clothes would get . My eyes stayed glued to where Will was previously looking , to the other side . There weren't many trees on both sides of the river save a couple of aged ones pathetically reaching out to the sky . The land was covered in long wispy grass , mostly dark green with a greyish hue . There was only a limited amount of yellows and browns . I lifted my head and sighed ,  it looked like it was going to rain again with the sun being gradually covered by a thick blanket of ashy clouds .

The clogs in my head turned , I needed a plan but for some reason I couldn't come up with anything . There was no prints in the ground that could serve as an indicator to which route they took or were dragged down .

I could hear the silent thump Will made making his way over to me and felt the warmth of his body when he settled down beside me , his shoulders brushing against mine .

" Drink up lass and don't worry . We'd better return to camp or they'll send out another search party , too much trouble . " He shook his head making the dark strands framing his face heave up with help from the subtle wind . He set the closed flask on my lap and the sides of his lips twitched upwards forming a charming smile . My heart almost leaped out of my chest  . He tried to cheer me up and here I was thinking he absolutely despised my very existence  .

" Okay . " I returned a smile and got up taking a large gulp , enjoying the burning sensation traveling down my throat .

The journey back didn't last long as we weren't too far away from camp in the first place  . We cantered through the fields , into  a more vegetated strip of land , passing by two farmers and a flock of birds tweeting at everything surrounding them . After around  ten minutes we made it back . I hoped that once I arrived I'd see Claire sitting by Jamie all safe and sound , chatting to him with that warm smile of hers . Unfortunately I was met with a bunch of brooding men . Surprisingly only a small amount  of them dragged their already drunken bodies over to some shrub to take care of their business .

" Bad news ? " Jamie asked when I reached him .

" I wish I could say no but I found this by the river bank . " I chose my words carefully taking out the handkerchief and handing it over to him . He took it into his large hands  and for a moment I saw sadness in his eyes but  it was fast to disappear .

" Here , have it . If Dougals with her she should be fine . " He bunched it up and turned his head . He didn't want to look at it anymore .

" I really hope so . " Was all I could say unsatisfied with the reaction I got from him . I thought he'd be more worried . I thought he'd go and search for her with me since Will didn't want to but he just sat there paying me little to no attention and then moved away from me into a circle of his gaelic speaking friends .

I didn't try and make him give a shit . It was up to him entirely . If I could I'd go search for her but then I'd have to wait till nightfall so nobody would catch me sneaking away into the darkness of the night.  There was no guarantee I'd make it far either because there's always someone awake making sure the group remained safe , ready to alert everybody if any threat was near .

*

The moon already took it's place up in the darkening sky when a shout reached my ears , bringing me out of a deep slumber .

" Dougal where were ya ?" I could hear someone say and opened my eyes . If Dougal was back , Claire must have come with him . I was up on my wobbly feet in a matter of seconds and  raced towards the greeting committee that formed around what I guessed was Dougal .

"Claire !" I shouted , my eyes wide and voice hoarse .

" Claire ! " I pushed through and almost cried on the spot . She was standing tall and healthy with Jamie close by .

" Couldn't you have kept your pie hole shut Rupert ? , you woke the lass up  " Will gave out after hearing me .

" It's okay , really . " Claire seemed to have finally heard me and brought me into a big and comforting hug .

" I've got so much to tell you . " She whispered into my ear , her tone of voice distraught . Already my my heart was breaking into pieces expecting the worst .