Partner (Micah Bell)

5. Lost

"Shut up...shut up...shut up. Just shut up!" Ashley shouted before quickly trying to pull herself together and calm down. "It's your fault that we got lost, so just shut up about it" she complained.

The job hadn't exactly gone as planned and it had taken them far from Horseshoe Overlook. They had been trying to find their way back and Micah assured Ashley that he knew where he was going and now they were lost and it was getting dark.

"If you hadn't taken so fucking long we would've got out of there when it was still light!" Micah shouted back as they rode along the dark path.

"Sure! Blame me. If you had helped instead of harassing that poor woman, it would've went smoother" she scoffed in disbelief.

"I was distracting the whore!" he argued, and she wondered how he actually thought that he was right in this situation.

"You should've been distracting the barkeep!" Ashley groaned, she couldn't believe that she was actually having this argument.

Micah had heard that a saloon had a large stash of cash in the back room. Ashley somehow ended up being left with the responsibility of sneaking into the back room and grabbing the cash, Micah was supposed to distract the bartender but decided to just try his luck with a woman instead.

The bartender went into the back room and found Ashley, dragging her out by the arm while shouting about her being a thief and that she wasn't allowed back at the saloon. Micah began to get frustrated by the whole thing and started shouting at Ashley for messing up and insulting the bartender in the process. Micah, being Micah, managed to start a fight and ended up getting slashed across the cheek with a blade. Ashley tried to drag him out of the saloon, but they both ended up getting manhandled out of the door and thrown to the ground. Once again Ashley found herself trying to defend a man that she knew deserved a beating.

"Whatever Micah, I'm too tired to be bothered arguing with you. Let's just set up camp somewhere and try to find a way back in the morning" Ashley sighed, just needing Micah to shut up for a little while.

"Fine" Micah muttered as they both turned off of the path and found a spot that was surrounded by trees. It was hidden and provided good enough shelter for a quick camp to be set up.

There as a tense silence as they set up the camp together, only taking second long breaks to glare at each other or mutter insults under their breath. Once the small camp was set up, which was pretty much a fire and two makeshift beds that were really just blankets on the ground, the two outlaws sat down on the floor around the fire.

They watched the flames dancing in the cool air, the tension had faded away and was replaced with a tired silence. By this point they were just tired and wanted to get back to camp, they couldn't even be bothered with arguing. Ashley looked over at the blonde man and saw that the slash on his cheek was bleeding. "Your cheek is bleeding again" she sighed as she prodded the fire with a thin branch.

"Damn it" Micah muttered as he attempted to wipe the blood away the sleeve of his red shirt.

"You're fucking useless" Ashley rolled her eyes before pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket. "Come 'ere" she sighed as she stood up, only to kneel down in front of him.

"What are you doin'?" he asked as he watched the woman dampening the handkerchief with some water from her flask.

"Just shut up would ya?" she sighed again as she placed the flask down and brought the handkerchief up to his cheek, wiping the blood away. Micah just watched her with a furrowed brow and a confused expression but he didn't say anything or push her away. "It isn't that bad, should be fine by morning" Ashley assured him as she finished cleaning the wound. She pulled the bloody handkerchief away from his face and grimaced at the bloody cloth before just throwing it into the fire and returning to her seat.

"I can look after myself" Micah grumbled as he opened a bottle of beer.

"Yeah. I'll believe that when I see it" Ashley scoffed before shaking her head and moving over to her makeshift bed. "I'm gonna get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning" she mumbled, trying to just be polite and not start another argument before she went to sleep. She lay down on the blanket and faced away from Micah and the fire.

"G'night" he muttered a response. Micah stayed up for a few more minutes, he finished his beer before going to sleep himself.

Micah groaned as he woke up, the sun shining in his eyes and the smell of some sort of cooked meat. He rolled over onto his back and picked up his hat, placing it over his face before closing his eyes again. Ashley sat at the fire, a piece of meat on the end of her knife as she held it over the fire. She glanced over at Micah as he placed the hat over his face and shook her head at him, she had been awake for at least an hour now.

"Here" Ashley called as she took the meat off of the end of her knife and threw it at Micah, causing it to land on his stomach.

"What is it?" Micah asked as he removed the hat from his face, placing it beside him, and sitting up as he picked the meat up.

"Rabbit, got it while you were sleeping" she hummed as she began cooking another piece of rabbit.

He just hummed before beginning to eat the meat. Micah glanced over at the woman and hummed again. He had never seen Ashley so early in the morning, before she had gotten ready for the day. Her dark hair was cascading over her shoulders instead of pulled back into the usual braid. He nodded, almost approvingly, and smirked to himself before returning his attention to what he was eating.

"You know, you're not that bad. Handled yourself well in the saloon last night" Micah shrugged as he finished eating and stood up.

"Thanks, but I don't need or want your validation" Ashley rolled her eyes as she finished eating as well. Micah was the last person that Ashley wanted to impress.

"Just take the compliment, sweetheart" he smirked, causing her to look up at him with a look of disgust on her face.

"Never call me that again. Grab your shit and let's go" Ashley warned as she stood up and began packing her things.

They both packed up their things before mounting their horses and heading back to the camp, it was much easier to navigate in the light of the morning. As soon as they got back to the camp at Horseshoe Overlook they went their separate ways. Ashley was glad to get away from him, a whole night was far too long to spend with Micah Bell.