The Dusty Shamrock ~ OC RDR2 fanfiction

Chapter 23

"Arthur?"
"Bronagh? Charles?" He whispered back. I shook my head in disbelief, thinking that I'd never set eyes on the man again. I was just about to exclaim a welcome to Arthur when I was abruptly shushed by Charles. I remebered to keep quiet and stepped out of the building with Charles, and Arthur who happened to be accomponied by John - who was now a young man.
"What're you doing here?" I asked the gunslinger.
"Robbin' the place, what are you doing here?"
"We're robbin' it too" I replied.
"Well, we've already robbed it" Charles corrected.
"How're you? And the others?" I asked, the pair looked at eachother and let out a breathy laugh.
"Well, Javier's here - he's covering the-" John was cut off by a loud Mexican voice exclaiming:
"Ah- Mierda!" At the sound of Javier's distress, I sprang into action. We rushed over to the barn, Sean had probably tried to attack him from behind or something stupid like that. We burst through the barn doors and we found Javier with Sean pinned to the ground and a fist raised above him. My mothering instincts kicked in as I ripped Javier from on top of Sean and threw him to ground, before helping Sean up and placing my arms around him. "The little shit tried to shoot me!" Javier told me. I whipped the back of my hand against Seans cheek.
"Don't attack on first sight. Charm is key." I scolded. I looked around the area, to find Victoria no where to be seen. "Where's Victoria?"
"Victoria's here?!" Javier chirped.
"Hol' on a fucken' second, pal - I've gotta fuckin' find her first" I replied with quiver of worry in my voice. "Where's Victoria? Sean?" My younger brother stared at me in thought, trying to scrape his memory for any trace of her whereabouts.
"She was taken"
"Which way did she go?" javier asked.
"To the-the left, some fellers took her on horseback" Javier, Charles and I took to our horses and charged off, left of the homestead. We left Sean with Arthur, Arthur would be able to have a chat with the young lad and perhaps talk some sense into him.

It was difficult to follow the trail because of the forest debris and mixed prints of the dirt track. My mind raced with all the possible outcomes, hopefully no one dangerous had gotten to Victoria - despite how viscious she could be, she could've easily been overpowered by a group of men. If we did get to her in time, she'd be elated to her have her Javier back. I spotted a low orange glow in the treeline. We dismounted and left our horses behind a bush before we approached what looked like a campfire. I spotted Victoria hung upside down from a tree, she was snarling at the men who had captuared her and muttering threats to them like she usually did.
"What do you think?" Charles asked.
"Look like bounty hunters to me" Javier replied, I nodded in agreement. There were about five of them, they wouldn't kill Victoria - her bounty posters clearly stated that she was wanted alive.
"They look pretty drunk t'me" I stated, the bounty hunters were slurring and spilling their whiskey all over themselves. Javier and I were hushed by none other than Charles Smith. "Why're you always shushing these days?" I asked jokingly. As were jokng about with eachother, I noticed that two of the hunters had passed out - leaving only three still sitting.
"Should we take one each?" Javier asked. I looked to Charles and then back at Javier before I nodded in agreement. Javier took out his throwing knife, I took out a throwing knife and Charles took out his bow. We aimed and struck the bounty hunters. They fell limp on the floor beside their passed out associates, we crept up to Victoria. Javier kept his arms below her so that when I cut her down she would disturb the sleeping hunters. We quickly hurried back to the horses and helped Vix mount up onto her hungarian halfbred.
"Thanks" she breathed, a sigh of relief following. As we trotted back to the homestead, I noticed that Javier was incredibly quiet - as was Victoria. I had expected their reunion to be more celebrated, but it was far from just that. Looks like I'd be sitting down with Victoria later on and having a talk with her.

We picked up Sean and Arthur from the homestead and set off back to camp, seeing as the sun was beginning to rise. Javier and Arthur were going to be coming back to camp with us, Arthur wanted to have a talk with me too.

We arrived back at camp, Javier and Arthur left Boaz and Boudicea with the other horses to graze. I took a seat at one of the tables, before striking a match against the sole of my boot and held it to the butt of my cigarette. I took a draw and exhaled, watching the smoke pour from my lips. Arthur took a seat opposite me and struugled to find a comfortable position, I could see.
"Wha'did y'want t'talk about?" I asked, cutting straight to the subject lingering in the air like tobacco smoke. He took a deep breath before answering and clasped his hands together.
"I... am a Father" My eyes widened, my cigarette fell from my fingers and my jaw went slack.
"W-wh- what? I?" I stuttered, struggling for true words "So, are you... married?" I asked, nervously, unsure of the situation Arthur was presenting to me. I soon realised that I had dropped a lit cigarette and hurriedly stubed it out with my toe before turning my attention to the man opposite me.
"No,no." I raised my eyebrows in shock, to have a child before marriage was a foreign subject to me, all the knowledge I had surrounding the subject came from, either, grisly warnings from my Father, or lewd campfire songs that were only ever sung in low light. "She was a waitress that I met, I just don't know how to deal with it - she knows me, she knows what my life is" He confessed. I leant forward and thought for a moment before giving Arthur my two cents on his predicament.
"Well, Arthur, I grew up without a mother - left me when I was four years old, left me with my gangster, alcoholic of a father. So, my advice to you, Arthur, is you do right by them. Jus' 'cause she knows you won't be able to father the child properly, doesn't mean you shouldn't father the child at all. Every once in a while, go out to them - support them and spend time wit' your child." I advised, he took a moment to think and nodded.