Better together

Chapter 3

"I thought you was reading him his last rites." Arthur's voice jolted Lana awake. She had been sat next to John's bed, falling in and out of sleep. She hadn't even heard Swanson entering. Lana had been sat with John for a while now, keeping him company, and also trying to get a moments peace. She hadn't had a very good sleep last night, not being able to fall asleep as she was scared of getting nightmares and waking Arthur up, though she was sure not even a gun shot would wake that man up when he was asleep. 

"...Now I see you're introducing him to your other passion." Arthur finished, placing his hand on the Reverends shoulder.

"I'll mind you show me some respect, Mr Morgan." The Reverend said, sounding offended. 

"Mind away, Reverend." Arthur mumbled. At this, Lana laughed quietly, still being half asleep. Arthur looked over to her and smiled, wondering why she was so tired.

"You're still here then?" Arthur asked John sitting in the chair that the Reverend had previously occupied. 

"I owe you." John croaked out. 

Lana spoke up, "Yeah and you would owe me too if Dutch would actually let me do anything around here." 

Arthur sighed, "Lana we've been over this, he loves you like a daughter. He just wants you safe."

Lana tried to ignore the way her stomach fluttered when she heard Arthur say her name and she kept the annoyed look on her face. "It doesn't make sense Arthur, he's not been like this with me before I mean he let me go on the boat robbery in Blackwater for Gods sake!" Lana said, getting more and more frustrated the more she talked about it. 

Arthur just shook his head looking back at John about to say something before Dutch walked in. "Arthur!" He barged in, shouting. 

"I think it's time for the train." Arthur's eyes immediately darted over to Lana who was sitting in the corner. Dutch noticed this and looked over, only just noticing Lana sat in the room. His shoulders dropped as he got prepared for the shouting he was about to receive. 

"What train?" Lana asked, standing up now and coming closer to the men in the room. 

"Just some train the O'Driscolls was gonna rob." Dutch said, trying not to make it sound like a big deal.

"Well, when are we going?" Lana asked, going to pick up her hat from the floor and placing it on her head.

"You aren't." Dutch said.

"God Damn it. Why the Hell not?" Lana shouted.

"Look Lana, I'm not having this argument with you now. We'll talk later." Dutch said, placing his hand on Lana's arm to try and calm her down. She jerked her arm away and gave him one last angry look before storming out of the cabin. 

On her way out she nearly barged into Abigail and Jack, she instantly got rid of the scowl on her face and smiled at them both. "Hey guys, what you doing?" Lana asked.

"Jack wants to see John." Abigail said, an unreadable look on her face. Lana nodded. 

"Okay, well I'll see you guys later." Jack smiled and waved at Lana as she retreated to her and Arthur's cabin that they shared, not feeling like talking to anyone. 

.......................................................

Lana had been sat at the fire, trying to warm her hands for the last ten minutes, when Arthur walked in. He could hear her muttering under her breath, probably things she wanted to say to Dutch but respected him too much to do. 

"Hey, you okay?" Arthur asked, grabbing an extra set of gloves he had in a chest at the bottom of the bed and passing them to Lana. 

She smiled at him for the gloves and placed them on her hands. They were considerably larger than her hands but she didn't mind. Her face then dropped back into a scowl. "How do you think I'm doing?" She snapped. She then let her face drop from the scowl and looked over at Arthur with wide eyes. "I'm sorry I know it's not your fault Dutch won't let me come." 

Arthur sighed, closing his eyes for a second to gain some form of straight face. He didn't want to lie to her, but he was also a stubborn fool and even he knew that. 

"Look Lana, it's not even that big of a deal, it'll be short and quick and we'll be back before you know it. Then we'll be out of here, somewhere warmer where you can actually get a decent nights sleep." Arthur said, walking closer to her.

Lana turned to make eye contact with him. She didn't think he'd noticed how tired she was today, but she didn't comment on it further, trying to avoid any questioning. 

"Yeah well the sooner we get out of here and find a more decent camp, the quicker I can give Dutch a piece of my mind." She mumbled under her breath, although it made no difference as Arthur heard her and gave a low chuckle at the woman's grumbles.

"I'll speak to you later Lana, fill you in." Arthur said walking out of the door.

"You better cowboy." Lana said tipping her hat in a joking way, to show she wasn't mad at Arthur.  

Lana waited until she could no longer hear the crunch of the snow under Arthur's boots and slowly made her way outside the door and behind the old cabin that homed their beds. She laid herself flat against the wall and kept her ear open, because if no one was going to tell her anything then she was going to have to find out herself. 

"Why are we doing this? Weather's breaking, we could leave. I thought we was lying low." She heard Hosea say, in an almost pleading tone. 

"What do you want from me Hosea?" Replied Dutch. 

"I just don't want any more folks to die, Dutch." Hosea said, trying to keep his voice down in fear of upsetting anyone. 

"And that's why we keep the women and the children here and we take our best men, I've even forbade Lana from joining for christ's sake. We're living, Hosea. We're living. Look at me, we're living. Even you. But we need money, everything we have is in Blackwater. You fancy heading back there?" Dutch pleaded back to the man, trying to get him to understand that he was doing this for everyones sake, not just out of pure greed. 

"No. Listen, Dutch, I ain't trying to undermine you, I just want to stick to the plan, which was to lie low, then head back out West. Now suddenly , we're about to rob a train?" Lana agreed with Hosea. 

"what choice have we got?" Dutch replied to the man, and Lana had heard enough. Dutch wasn't a man who could be easily swayed. Not even by one of his closest confidantes that Hosea had been to him for so many years. 

Lana decided she would go and see how Abigail and Jack were doing whilst she was waiting for the men to come back. She had to take her mind of off the anger she had towards Dutch for excluding her, and she had to take her mind off of the worry that she had for Arthur. Lana had underestimated the anxiety she would get by not being able to go with the men and be able to watch Arthur's back at the same time. 

Like Lana said to Arthur earlier, Dutch would be getting an earful from her, just not yet. She trusted him, but she just couldn't understand his sudden aversion to her joining the gang on 'easy' takes.