I'm bad at naming chapters. Also, please excuse my lack of medical knowledge.

Chapter 2: The Aftermath

"Bring him in here," Hosea said, calm and in control. But Arthur knew better. He knew that underneath the collected tone, Hosea was in just as much of a panic as Arthur himself. But he couldn't stop, couldn't break down now. Not with Dutch's blood still soaking into his shirt, the man himself still unresponsive in Arthur's arms.

Miss Grimshaw was trying in vain to keep the entire gang from crowding around Arthur as he followed Hosea up to Dutch's room, their questions and demands filling his ears. Arthur just kept moving. Lenny was swallowed up behind him, left to explain just what exactly had gone wrong during the robbery. And there was plenty of that.

Molly shrieked when they entered the room, leaping up from hers and Dutch's bed and running over to him. Swanson caught her around the middle, keeping her back as Arthur laid Dutch flat on the bed. He kept applying pressure to the wound until he felt Hosea and Swanson push him aside, leaving him to linger awkwardly in the corner. He kept his eyes locked onto Dutch's face, watching every shallow breath to make sure it wasn't the last.

"Shit, we have to get the bullet out," Hosea muttered after examining the wound. "Someone needs to help hold him down."

Arthur swallowed heavily. "I'll get Charles." Of course, stepping out of the room meant he was immediately bombarded with questions. He ignored the rest of the gang. Instead, he called for Charles and motioned for the man to follow.

"Need you to hold Dutch's legs while Hosea gets the bullet out," he said once they were out of the earshot of the others. Charles, for his part, remained stoic and silent. He immediately took his place at the end of the bed, and Arthur moved up to grab Dutch's shoulders. Hosea placed a hand on Dutch's face, a small gesture of comfort before picking up a pair of forceps and pushing into the wound.

The reaction was immediate. Dutch's whole body tensed, and with a tiny pained gasp he tried weakly to throw Arthur and Charles off. Arthur simply gritted his teeth and tightened his hold. "It's alright, Dutch, it will be over soon," Arthur tried to reassure him, but he had no way of knowing if Dutch could even hear him. His head rolled back and forth, eyes darting under closed lids.

"Got it!" Hosea said, and Swanson moved forward with bandages to keep pressure over the hole still leaking blood. Dutch stopped fighting, but he didn't relax either. But with the immediate danger of the chase past and Miss Grimshaw getting ready to stitch and bandage, Arthur's worries turned to whether or not the gang was safe. There was no way they could pull any more jobs in town, even if they had seemingly killed the entire police force on their way out. The Pinkertons would be swarming the city, sweeping the area for their camp. Hosea would know what to do, once he was no longer needed at Dutch's side, but for now the immediate safety concerns fell to Arthur.

"Will you ride out with me and check the area? I don't think we were followed, but I can't be sure," he asked Charles.

"Of course," he said. "But are you alright? You aren't hurt, are you?"

Arthur followed Charles' eyes to the still sticky blood covering his shirt. "I'm fine, it's not mine."

"Still, perhaps you should stay. I'll take John with me."

He wanted to argue. More than that, he just wanted to keep moving. To keep doing all he could to ensure no one else was hurt. But Charles was right, he should stay to plan with Hosea. Defend the camp if need be. So he just nodded and sent Charles on his way. Slipping into his own room, Arthur slowly stripped the ruined clothes off and grabbed new ones from his trunk. He would have to burn them later, there was no way anyone would get the stains out. He didn't immediately return to Dutch, instead he went downstairs to check on everyone else.

Molly sat between Mary-Beth, Tilly, and Abigail, crying her eyes out. Even Karen kept close, though she had a bottle in her hand. Lenny jumped up when he saw Arthur, the poor kid still shaken up by the experience.

"How is he?" Lenny asked. There was a hitch in Molly's sobbing when she realized Arthur was there, and all chattering stopped.

"He's still alive," Arthur said, and a collective sigh of relief swept through the crowd. "Everyone is here, right? No one's gone into Saint Denis?"

"Everyone except Charles and John," Javier confirmed. "Bill and Sadie are on watch."

"Good, that's good. Everyone stay here for now. It won't take long for them to figure out who's responsible for the mess in town."

"And when are we going after Bronte, cowpoke?" Micah demanded.

"We're not doing anything right now, Micah."

"You expect me to just sit here?"

"If you got a problem with it, go on watch! But no one leaves this camp!"

Micah got up, grumbling, "Didn't realize you would seize control as soon as the boss got hurt."

"I'm trying to keep us alive, you idiot!" Arthur called after him. Whatever Micah was saying got lost as he slipped out the door. Arthur turned to Lenny. "You OK?"

"Me? Fine, I'm fine," Lenny stammered. "Wish I could have done something different."

"Don't think like that, Lenny. It was a shit situation. Stay strong, we'll be OK."

Arthur stayed with the others until Charles and John returned, answering whatever questions he could. Once Charles reported that they were safe, for the moment at least, Arthur slipped back up the stairs and into Dutch's room.

Hosea sat on the edge of Dutch's bed, carefully tucking the blanket around the unconscious man. Miss Grimshaw wasn't even trying to hide her tears, and Reverend sat off to the side, staring blankly out the window. Arthur froze. He stayed awkwardly in the doorway until Hosea noticed him.

"Come in, Arthur," he sighed.

"How is he?"

"Still with us."

Dutch's face was pale and slack, finally having lost the pained creases. Arthur guessed that was thanks to Reverend Swanson. It was hard to tear his eyes away from the pile of bloody rags on the floor, or ignore Hosea's red, watery eyes. "What happened, Arthur?" Hosea whispered.

"Bronte set us up. There wasn't any money at the trolley station. We weren't in there two minutes before the law was on us."

"You and Lenny alright?"

"Yeah, yeah we're fine. Lenny is pretty shook up. I think he blames himself a little."

They sat in silence, watching the shallow rise and fall of Dutch's chest. Hosea placed his hand on Dutch's, thumb rubbing slow circles into the skin.

"What's our next move, Hosea?" Arthur asked. "We can't stay here."

"We have quite a bit of money saved up, but not enough to get on a boat like Dutch wants. That was what the bank job would have been for, but we can't do that now. We should be able to move the camp and keep us alive for a while, though."

"We should go back north, maybe up near Annesburg. And try to keep quiet, real quiet this time. No jobs near camp."

Hosea nodded. "Let me know what you find out. But do it quickly, I imagine we only have a few more days here before they find us."

"Can I send Molly up here? Lenny, too? I think they both need to see him."

"Of course."

Arthur went back downstairs to let Lenny and Molly know the news, then went looking for Charles. They needed to get away from Shady Belle.