"Anytime, Cowgirl." : Arthur Morgan X OC

Chapter 20

Trigger Warning: An angry father (I know this might not seem bad but I can understand how this can be extremely triggering for certain people)

Arthur woke up suddenly, his breathing fast. He searched for the feeling of Jane's familiar figure next to him.

Oh, yeah.

He sighed a deep sigh. Any thing to fill his hollow chest.

He had had a dream of a shootout, where Jane was being held hostage by a bear. A bear! It seemed so real, but he was sure it would seem ridiculous later.

Rubbing his tired face, he sat up. A cough worked it's way from his lungs, and out his mouth, reminding him his time was limited.

It felt as if he had aged a decade in a week. His limbs were sore, and he found himself working harder to breath.

Nonetheless, life had its demands. He grabbed his journal off his desk and opened it, flipping through a few older pages. As he looked through some of them, he was hit with waves of nostalgia.

Wait, were those... tear marks?

Small spots of wrinkly dried paper were littered around the page where he had first met Jane. Then another on the page when he first told her he loved her.

Who else would have been reading this? I surely haven't been crying over my journal.

He flipped through another page when he found a long, brown hair.

Jane.

His heart dropped and felt fiery at the same time. When would she have been reading this? Why was she reading this? Damn woman's gonna be the death of me.

He shook his head, flipping to the newest clean page.

"We got Jack back after talking to this strange feller, Angelo Bronte. Seems slippery and like he's going to play us, but we shall see, I guess. Jane has been given back to her aunt, and is engaged to marry Bronte's son. I guess I'm still in shock a bit. Nonetheless, I'm going to get her back, one way or another. Just the natural order of things. I'm hoping I can get her back before the TB gets too bad. Like I've said, we shall see."

Next to it, he drew a picture of Jack and John riding together after they got him back. It was something he found quite touching. He wasn't quite sure why, but he was a bit envious of John.

There was a knock on Arthur's door.

"Yeah?" He called.

Hosea came through the door as Arthur put his journal back. "Good morning, son. How you doing?"

"Okay, I guess. As good as I can be."

Hosea nodded, sipping his coffee. "I heard what happened. Such a shame."

"I know," Arthur said, scratching his jaw. He was overdue for a shave. "And Dutch don't seem in too big of a rush to get her back."

Hosea looked off thoughtfully. "Hmm. Well, I'm here if you need help with that. If she's kinder than that Braithwaite woman, then we're in luck."