𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 ♦ 𝐑𝐃𝐑

🇨​🇭​🇦​🇵​🇹​🇪​🇷​ 5

I come up to the male fully now before I hold my hand out to him and we give each other a really firm hand shake before he hisses in some pain. "Real nice to see you again, Asher. Been years!" He muses for a moment before I nod my head, placing the hat back upon my head. "Still got Arthur's hat too, swear you both never age."
"Wish I could say the same about you, John." I joke before I gently pat his shoulder. Bonnie chooses to show us around the ranch, though, I was assuming Selina and I weren't going to be planning on staying here. John needed to recover and work off whatever debt he did owe to the MacFarlane's. Wasn't a bad little ranch though, beautiful sights and even nicer people. Though, we did wanna sit and talk with John before departing the ranch. When all is said and done, we choose to head off near the fences by the coral, Selina sitting upon one, which made me have my eye on her to make sure she wasn't about to fall over and hurt herself, knowing damn well the last thing we'd need is her losing that baby.

"So, you two. Seriously, it's been years since we all last met up. God, why are you two even out here in the first place?"
"They got our kids, John. Ross, Archer, yeah, they came for us as they came for you. Demanding we help go after Bill, Javier, and Dutch." I reply and the male of course does look a bit shocked that our reason was the same as his.
"Is that so? Damn them to hell. Can't believe that. They took Abigail and Jack from me for that reason too. All for three of the people who betrayed us in the end."
"Ain't nothing in life fair John, we both know it."
He nods before he directs his attention over to Selina. "You aren't lookin' too good, Selina. Assumin' you're homesick?"
"No John, I ain't homesick. Do I wish I was home right now? Yes, I really do. But more or less, I'm sick to my stomach right now 'cause I'm pregnant so..." The girl trails off and John looks a bit confused before he looks back at me.
"Again huh? For real the last?"
"Only if it can happen, John. Really, we wasn't thinkin' it was ever gonna happen. Talked on us having a fourth for years and now, well, just as usual our kids have impeccable timing. The truth really is, we don't even know if Selina will be able to have this baby. Might lose it before anything else, the stress. It could really do some damage to her."
"I get it. Sorry you two. Wish I had known too. Would've warned you guys, but ain't nobody say anything to me when they came to get me either."
"Well, we're here now. But we know you owe a debt to the MacFarlane's and all. Tell you this though, you come find us in Armadillo when you see to it, bud. That's where we'll be."
"I really am happy you two are gonna be joining me on this journey. Just wish it didn't have to be now."
Selina is looking miserable again and I'm sure it's just mood swings, but John is right. She is looking a little sick too.
"You sure you're okay, Sel, love? We can go back to Armadillo?"
"I'm fine, Asher. You know how this goes. I'm tired for one and two, this whole situation is just nothing but a big misfortune. Just still trying to process it all. I'm a mother, I miss my children, it's just a lot all at once and it hasn't even been a real full week of this."
I nod my head to her but I am concerned, I really am. She's going to have so many episodes of just being all out depressed and done with life every so often. I'm the father of those kids too and I understand that this must be challenging. She was strong, I knew she was, but right now, at what cost?

"So... I see that they came for you and Selina, but what about Nathan Miller? Where is he?"
"He's dead, John. The little government agents saw to it that his life would be ended because he wasn't willing to give us up. They told me that he ran and shot at them. But Nate wasn't like that. He wouldn't have shot them, best he would've done was just not give us up. Bet they questioned him, he refused, and then of course--- They shot him. Only reason I know Nate is gone---" I'm quick to pull out the bloodied up photo of myself and him from within the pocket of my jacket which makes John cringe a bit while looking at it with the blood still upon it. "They even told me he was gone too. I just can't seem to get a grip on the fact that my best friend is dead." I mutter ever so slightly, the entire thing still fresh to me which did make it challenging for me to deal with. I missed him. We'd known one another since we were children and losing him was like losing an actual brother. "I'm sorry, Asher. I know he meant a lot to you. Both of you were the best duo in the gang alongside Hosea and Dutch." I guess in a sense I couldn't agree more. Nathan and I were pretty much inseparable besides when he was with Lauren. The two of them had been coparenting for a bit with their kids. Their son was eleven and their daughter was eight currently. Sad knowing that their father had passed. Only hoped they would handle it right. Wasn't sure about a funeral or anything but either way, I wouldn't be able to make it to Saint Denis anytime soon. The man gives me back my photo before I put it back within my pocket. "Well, you two. I'd say go and get some rest. I'll be in Armadillo soon hopefully. Whenever I can finish up here.  Not sure what Miss. MacFarlane will want me to do."
"Like I said John, whenever you're down there. We're staying at the saloon. See how it all goes."
"I'll be sure to, take care Asher, Selina... Hope all of this can go by smoothly for us."

I wouldn't say that it all was going to be easy. Tracking down all these outlaws and trying our best to keep them alive and not want to kill them for the things they had done back in the day. Dutch was the person I was the most nervous to see. Last time I saw him was up on Mount Hagen, he shot Micah and that was that. We hadn't had a damn clue where he was now, but we were well aware he was somewhere in West Elizabeth. Maybe it would be better off that we had John so we didn't go at it alone.
We decide to let John go, apparently he was going to be doing some night watch with Bonnie and he wanted to be prepared. No telling when we'd see him again, hopefully it wasn't a month from now. But, we did wanna get the ball rolling on getting Bill.