Better together

Chapter 2

The gang had been in Colter for a couple of days now. They were waiting for the snow to settle down, for a gap in the weather where their horses and wagons could move easily through the snow. And at the moment it didn't look like that was coming any time soon. Lana didn't like to be negative. She was an optimist, something that often clashed with Arthur's pessimism. He would be constantly swearing at himself for his mistakes and saying that he was ugly. He had learned not to say stuff like that around Lana after the time he got an earful from her for around half an hour about how he was a beautiful man and that if she heard him talk bad about himself one more time she was going to shoot him in the foot. And he listened, because he wasn't sure if she was bluffing.

Arthur and Javier had gone to find John in the mountains and they were successful. Lana had spent a lot of her free time tending to John. Abigail was busy trying to look after Jack and John was being a stubborn son of a bitch. He still didn't believe that Jack was his and Lana had been trying to kick some sense into him.

"Look John, does it really matter if he's yours? Can't you just do the right thing and stop being a wimp?" Lana had said, sat on the chair next to his bed.

"I ain't cut out to be a father, Lana. This life isn't suited for a child, I mean how am I meant to raise a child and keep them alive if I don't know when I'm gonna be dead myself." John said, raising his hands whilst talking.

"Shut up whining. That boy needs a father and right now you are the closest thing to one, even if you aren't his biological father." At that Lana left, bidding John goodbye.

She made her way to another run down shack, preferably one that had a fire going. She opened the door and was met with almost all of the men in the gang. They were all sat around, talking about nonsense she guessed.

Arthur walked in around five minutes later.

"You lot have turned yella." Micah said, insinuating the gang had turned into a bunch of wussies.

"Shut the fuck up, Micah. You cannot say anything about being a wimp. You might not know it but I saw you being chased by a rat in the camp in Blackwater and you were squealing like a pig." Lana said, putting her leg up on a stool in front of her.

At this the men laughed, it made Lana feel  good to make them laugh at a time like this. Micah scowled at her.

"I ain't never seen so many long faces." Micah continues despite Lana's comment.

"I guess folks miss them...that fell." Bill said, smoking a cigar.

"Well when I fall, I don't want no fuss." Micah said.

Lenny pulled his cigarette out of his mouth, "When you fall, there'll be a party."

Lana laughed at this, her delicate laugh sounding so different mixed in with the gruff laughs of her friends.

Bill muttered some comment under his breath, causing Micah to stand up and get in his face. Lana stood up at this as well, her stance looking like nothing compared to Micahs threatening one. Suddenly Micah punched Bill, sending his hat flying.

Everybody moved to get up and stop Bill, but not before Lana could throw a couple of punches Micahs way. She landed one of them right on his nose, causing it to look crooked. She would have hit him again if it weren't for Arthur's strong arms grabbing her and stopping her. She fought against him but eventually stopped knowing there was no point.

"Stop it! Now! You fools punching each other when Colm O'Driscolls needing punching, hard. You wanna sit around waiting for him to come find us? All of you we got work to do. Come on." Dutch said, bursting into the shack.