"Jimmy, come here baby, there's something mommy has got to tell you." Celina called James over to her from where she sat on her bed.

James looked at her in question, dropping the stick that he had literally spent all day playing with, "What is it mommy?" He walked over to her slowly as if he were afraid that he was going to get in trouble.

Celina reached her arms out to the small boy and with her hands on either side of his torso, she held him about an arms distance away, looking him in the eyes, "How would you like to go on a trip with uncle Bill and I?"

James looked away from her and at the ground, his attention span threatening to falter. Surprisingly though, he stayed on topic, asking the question that hurt her the most, "Will daddy come?"

Tears pricked at her eyes at the mention of Dutch and she sniffled, shaking her head slowly, "No baby, daddy is going to stay here and take care of some things. He needs to stay her for the gang. They need him."

"Why?"

"Because," She did her best to think of a good way to put it. She didn't want to villainize Dutch in James' mind, "Because the gang can't go with us and your daddy is the leader of the gang. They need him to stay here and make sure nothing bad happens to any of them... You can still see him sometimes, we'll visit him, and he will still be your daddy... we're just going to be living away from him for a little while. Don't you think it would be fun to go off with uncle Bill like a vacation for a while?"

James fidgeted with his hands as he thought, and Celina felt bad for pretty, much lying to him even though he was just a child and she was his parent. He would see Dutch, periodically but there was no way that once they left it would be just a vacation. She stared at him for a moment, before trying to get a response from him, "You ok, buddy?"

"Yeah," His voice came out in a small squeak, "I don't think I want to go on a vacation though. Can't we wait for daddy?"

Celina chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, this was going to be harder than she thought. James of course didn't want to leave Dutch and Celina didn't want to leave Dutch either, not really, no matter what a pain in the butt he was. She took a deep breath and nodded, standing up from the bed, it wasn't exactly about what they wanted to do but what she had to do to ensure Jimmy's safety. Sometimes, that meant a hard decision had to be made, "I'm going to talk to your daddy tonight and we're going to try to work this out. But..." She frowned slightly at her son, "Odds are this vacation is going to happen buddy. Ok?"

She thought on it for a moment before an idea came to her, "Actually, why don't you go and tell daddy that you and I are going on a vacation, ok? But don't say anything about uncle Bill."

Jimmy looked at her with big eyes, "Do you think he'll come with us if he don't know uncle Bill's going?"

Celina tucked her lips in and nodded hopefully, "I think he will." She hoped that she was right in thinking that maybe if Dutch knew that Celina had mentioned leaving to James he would realize how serious she was and change his mind about the life he wanted to live. Hopefully it would work, if not, she was at a loss. Getting James to talk to Dutch was the last option she felt she had. She offered a small smile to the unknowing little boy and spun him around with a laugh, "Now go and talk to your daddy."

James took off excitedly out of the room and on a mission to go find Dutch and convince him to go on the 'vacation' she laid back on the bed, exhaling deeply and closing her eyes. Suddenly, she heard a gunshot, followed by a series of shouts and she sat upright on the bed immediately, her eyes flying open. So much for a moment of peace. The woman sprung from the bed, her heart racing so quickly that she was half-expecting to drop over of a heart attack. Quickly, she withdrew her two revolvers from their holsters and ran out of the room, ready to fight, "Jimmy? James! Where are you?" She looked around frantically for the small boy, shouting over the sound of gunfire. The situation was not good, it was really, truly not good. Hearing no response from James, fear gripped her heart even tighter, "James? Buddy! Answer me!"

Still with no response, Celina took cover against the wall, watching as a bullet planted itself into said wall just a few feet away. She took a deep breath, "Jimmy, please buddy, let me know if you're in here." Surely the boy had to still be in the house, he wouldn't have had time to make it outside before the shooting started, would he?

Finally, she heard his small voice coming from close by although she wasn't exactly sure where from, "I'm here, mommy."

She released the breath that she had been holding, "Ok, ok. Good buddy. Good. You're not hurt, are you?"

"No. What's happening?" He sounded scared, and with reason of course. Saying that he sounded scared was putting it lightly, he sounded terrified.

Celina fired when she caught sight of a Pinkerton through the window, shooting him directly in the head, "We're under attack buddy."

"Under attack? By who?"

She took a deep breath, "The law, bud." It was a tricky thing, explaining to him that the law was the one attacking them. By society of course, the law were the good guys. The Van Der Linde gang weren't bad people, but they did bad things. That was undeniable. So, in speaking to the boy, was she supposed to make out the law to be the bad guys? Or was she supposed to own up to their reputation in the eyes of the law in the case that she, Dutch and Bill wouldn't live through their current fight to raise him? She licked her lips slowly in thought and chose her words to the best of her ability knowing that what she said then and there could quite possibly shape the rest of the boy's life if the worst were to happen, "To us, buddy, the law is our enemy... to the law, we are the bad guys. Because they think that we're the bad guys, they're coming after us, ok? That's why I wanted to go on a vacation, keep you safe from the law. Because... because the law thinks your daddy is really, really bad."

"Is daddy bad?"

She swallowed, "No buddy. Daddy isn't bad. He just disagrees with the law." Dang it, and now Jimmy was going to grow up to be an outlaw himself. If the situation had been different and she had the time to stop and explain everything to him better then she would have but it just didn't seem like that was in the cards at the moment. She fired at another law man as he ran past the window and hit him in the shoulder, "When you get older you can decide yourself if you agree with the law or not."

"Do you agree, mommy? With the law?"

Celina took a deep breath, sure, Jimmy was just a young boy but man did he decide to interrogate her at the worst of times sometimes, she shook her head, "No buddy, I do not agree with the law." She wanted to laugh at that, if she did agree with the law then that would be an issue all together, "Do you remember what I told you to do if we had a bad situation?"

"Get in the chest."

"Yes," She nodded, tears began to run down her face, "Go and get in the chest buddy and stay there until someone tells you to come out, ok? And I want you to crawl there."

"Ok." Once James agreed to do what he was told, it was a matter of a minute or so before he came crawling past her in the most adorable manner and down the hall towards the bedroom. She couldn't help but to smile at her little buddy as he did exactly as he was told without further question. It was hard to believe that he was nearly five years old.

She bit down on her lip, they had to get through this and hopefully Dutch would finally open his eyes because of the events of the day and decide to stop living the outlaw life. It was too dangerous with how the world had gotten, it just wasn't worth it anymore. It was because of Dutch and his inability to listen to her that had gotten their beautiful home riddled with bullet holes. It was Dutch and his inability to not rob places that had once again gotten them in the eye of the law and tore apart the life they had all worked so hard to build. It was Dutch's fault that they may all finally be paying for their sins with their lives and it was his fault that James may grow up without a family and the baby she was currently pregnant with may not live to see the world. Celina ducked down behind the couch as she made her way towards the window and took cover beside said window, elbowing the glass out and taking position to fire into the chest of the closest Pinkerton.

Dutch was in sight, hiding behind the nearest outhouse and she took a deep breath, praying for his safety as well as everyone else's in the gang. None of their own could die in this. They had to be ok, they had to all be ok and they would go off and settle down somewhere else after they got out of this mess. They would... that's how it had to be, she wouldn't accept life any other way. She fired at and killed a law man who was closing in on Dutch unbeknownst to him. Not being able to get a good view of the land around her and where any enemies might be from where she was at, she hopped out of the broken window and took cover behind one of the posts out on their porch. "Better," She breathed under her breath, "Much better."

She scanned the area not only for their enemies but also the gang members, she had already spotted Dutch and was comfortable with the fact that he was easily within her sight. She then spotted Lenny, ducked behind some wooden crates off to the left and Arthur and Sadie who had taken cover behind some trees to the right. Those were the only ones who she could see and despite being relieved that the four of them were currently safe, fear gripped her heart for the rest of the gang.

Sure, they owned a big lot of land and they could be fighting from anywhere on it, but... where were they? She set her jaw and tried to push back her fear for the others as she focused on the fight at hand. She hated not knowing whether everyone was still alive or not. Bill. What if Bill had been shot, possibly killed? A tear rolled down her cheek which she couldn't manage to hold in. Javier, was he ok? Sean? The others?... How about John, Abbigail and Jack? Had the law found where they were holed up too?

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she watched their beautiful homestead be ripped apart by bullets. It was like a nightmare come true. It was like seeing her dream be destroyed right before her very eyes and the wort part about it all was that it wasn't a dream. It wasn't something that she could wake up from and it wasn't something she had the power to do anything about.

She glanced over at the pigpen upon hearing them carrying on in fear of what was going on around them. Everything was ruined... everything was destroyed. The only chance they had to recover was if they could all get out together. Together and alive. She fired off a few more shots at the law, flinching again when a bullet whizzed past her head and embedded itself into the house. It had been close, it had been way too close for her liking.

She watched in confusion as Dutch ran out of cover and back into the house, motioning for her to follow him after shouting as loudly as he could that they were all going to have to flee. Of course, Celina followed him quickly taking cover behind the thick walls of the house which would protect them for the time being. She immediately turned to him in question, "Why are we leaving when we can stay and defend this place?"

Dutch shook his head and held up his hand as he caught his breath, "There's more coming. They've brought an army. If you go out there," He gestured out to the road, "You would be able to see them. We got to leave, and now or we're going to all be killed."

Celina nodded quickly, her heart hammering away in her chest, "I'll go get Jimmy. He's in the chest."

Dutch nodded again, "Ok," He walked quickly with her towards the bedroom and kicked the door open, "Jimmy, you come out now son."

Jimmy slowly opened the chest at the sound of the man he knew as his father's voice and climbed out of the chest with a nervous expression on his face, "Did we win? Is the law dead?"

"No buddy, we need to leave, and we need to leave now." Celina was the one to answer him, immediately making her way over to him and lifting him into her arms so that they wouldn't have to worry about him lagging behind. She turned her attention back to the door at the sound of footsteps, relaxing when she saw that it was only Arthur, Sadie and Lenny.

Arthur looked at Dutch and Celina, "We've got to leave, now. They're coming in and fast."

Celina felt her heart sink even lower at that and she peered out of the room and down the hall, looking for any others of the gang, "Where's everyone else? Bill... Javier... Charles... Sean... where are they all?"

There a heavy moment of silence before Sadie gave her an answer she didn't want to hear even in the slightest, "We... we don't know. They may be hiding in different areas fighting as well but we don't know. We were the only ones out front."

Celina shook her head and looked back at Dutch who looked just as worried as the rest of them, "Dutch, you can't tell me that we're just going to leave them behind. We can't... Leave without knowing where they are or if they are alive or-"Her voice broke off, "Or... or dead."

He took in a deep breath, "I'm afraid that we do not have a choice."

"No." She felt tears prick at her eyes once again, she could hardly believe how drastically the day had changed. She shook her head. It was bad enough leaving the rest of the gang behind, she loved them they were her family and it killed her on the inside to think of leaving them behind. It was wrong to leave them, it was so wrong that she could hardly wrap her mind around it. As sick as she was over the thought of leaving the others behind to fend for themselves, it made her even more sick to think of leaving Bill. She didn't want to leave Bill not at all. She sniffled, "No," She shook her head again, "No. I'm not leaving them, I'm not... I'm not leaving Bill."

The look on Dutch's face was one of someone who was truly shocked, "What do you mean you're not leaving Bill?"

Celina opened her mouth to respond but Arthur cut her off, "Ok, we need to go and now. Celina, you're coming with us, we aren't leaving you behind. The best we can do is to hope that the others make it out alive and we will try to meet up with them later. Lets. Go."

Lenny stood there silently, looking torn on what to do himself but Dutch had made his final decision, "If you don't come with us now, you are taking yourself away from our son. I know it's a lot but you need to come with us, now."

Celina swallowed, feeling as if her heart had been torn in two and completely trampled over but she nodded anyway not seeing any choice at hand. She couldn't stay behind, she knew she couldn't because of James but that didn't mean that leaving with Dutch, Arthur, Sadie and Lenny was any easier not knowing the fate of the rest of the gang. She could hardly believe what was happening was happening when she and Bill had only been discussing possibly leaving together with James earlier within that same day. It was a mess, it was all a mess and Celina couldn't help but blame Dutch for everything that was currently happening. If he had just left that bank alone like she had told him to then everything would have been ok and they would still be living the life that they all loved on the homestead they had built with their own hands.

Despite the thoughts and feelings rushing through her mind, she switched James from one arm to the other and quickly followed Dutch and the others out through the back door of the house, whistling sharply for the horses they all held dear. Celina lifted James up to Dutch once he mounted The Count so that Dutch could hold his oldest child in front of him as she rode and Celina then went on to quickly mount Bullet, Arthur Sadie and Lenny all getting on their own horses before they spurred them forwards and out of the homestead through the side as more and more law poured in, firing at them in desperate attempt to keep them from getting away.

It was a good thing that James was riding with Dutch, she thought as the six of them fled the area as quickly as they could. Seeing how many law men there were swarming into their home, it was clear to her that none of them would have ever been able to find the rest of the gang and tell them that they needed to get out of there or even take cover and fight alongside them. Without a doubt, they would have been shot down before they had the chance to even say anything to the others.

That fact broke her heart and she knew that she wasn't in any condition to ride with her son. She kept her haze fixed ahead and did her best to keep her mouth shut, not really wanting to make the situation at hand any worse than it already was by starting in on Dutch in front of everyone else especially considering the fact that some law were still in pursuit of them, bullets continually whizzing past them and luckily not striking them or their horses. It was clear to Celina that lawmen seemed to generally be bad shots. Of course, that was a fortunate fact.

She fired back at the law as did Arthur, Sadie and Lenny as they rode, trying desperately to shake them from their trail. Celina could just barely make out James' voice over the continuous commotion although she hadn't the slightest idea what was being said in the conversation held between him and Dutch. Everything was too loud to make out their words clearly. It wasn't as if she would have been able to concentrate to hear them through the gunfire anyway, not with thoughts of the rest of the gang still running through her mind and making her feel worse than she had ever felt in her life.

She wished that she could go back although she knew that that wish was pointless. She knew that Bill wouldn't take it well, her being gone. She knew that if Bill was given the chance after all of the law left that he would make his way back to the homestead and look over the dead bodies hoping not to find her. She knew that if he was able to look over the dead bodies and realized that she wasn't there, he would be hurt. He would realize that she had left him without a word. She let the tears run down her face without bothering to wipe them away. Maybe if he lived through this- IF he lived through this she would meet him back there again. She would try, that was for sure and she would just hope that she would get lucky and arrive back when he was there... If either of them were able to return which was definitely a big if. Heck, it was still up in the air whether Bill was even alive and if he was still presently alive, if he would make it out of the homestead alive. She hoped he would, she prayed he would. Maybe it would be herself going back to the farm if given the chance and looking over the bodies hoping not to find him nor any others of the gang. How heartbreaking it would be to find them there lifeless. She continued to fire at the law, nothing but bitterness and hatred in her heart for those who claimed to uphold the law. ...

It was a while before they finally managed to shake the law and they continued to ride north even once they were free of their pursuers for a good while. Upon eventually stopping, Dutch observed the broken looks on each of their faces and the corner of his mouth twitched downwards, "I am so very sorry." He said it with undeniable sincerity although it really didn't make Celina feel any better since she had been telling him that he needed to change his way of life and stop all the robbing well before the present time. He didn't want to listen then and he wasn't realizing that he should have listened until now. He made eye contact with her, great sorrow reflected in his dark eyes although it presently had no effect on her. Maybe she would be able to empathize with him later, much, much later but there was no way that that was going to come close to happening now, "I pushed and pushed out luck and look at all we've lost."

"I know," Celina nodded, her tone final and bitter towards him, "I told you, Dutch. I had been telling you that you needed to stop, we needed to stop any lay low but you wouldn't listen and people followed you." She shook her head in disbelief, "You brought this on us, all of us out of your own greed, out of your own desire and need to obtain just one more score." She spat the words at him hatefully, "So congratulations." She laughed humorlessly and raised her hands pointedly, "This, this six of us that are here? That is all that remains of your kingdom, your majesty. Are you happy now?" She challenged him not caring who heard, "Are you? More than half of the gang may either be captured or dead because of you and your stupid choices and your inability to actually have a plan." She went on, not caring to stop her rant even as they all stared at her in shock, what she was saying was the truth and was what Dutch apparently needed to hear. It was what he deserved to hear and she wasn't done telling it how it was, "We had a good thing, Dutch and you burned it to the ground. Done. It's ruined," She shrugged carelessly, "Gone and we're never getting it back. You were never the true leader of this gang, were you? It was Hosea. It was always Hosea, bless his soul and now that he's been gone for nearly two years now the truth is coming out... you were just the face of the gang, you always were and that's all you will ever be." She looked over at Arthur, Sadie and Lenny who didn't look like they had the first idea of what to say, "You broke us, Dutch. This gang, it's done and it isn't recovering from this."

Dutch opened his mouth in attempt to say something but then shut it again, staring at her with a look that if she hadn't been so devastated already, it would have broken her heart. Truth was that what she said was the truth, it had been Hosea holding the gang together, it had to have been for things to be how they were in his absence. Dutch looked over at Arthur, Sadie and Lenny, "I... I don't know what to say... I..." He looked over at Celina again who had turned away from the five of them and took another deep breath, the words that she had thrown at him had stung. They had hit him deep and he, well, he felt like they were at least partially the truth, it was his fault, the situation they were in now. He had brought that on all of them by not turning from the outlaw life as he had told her that he wanted to do. It was his fault that the law was on them, once again and it was his fault that the gang was now separated and most of them were quite possibly dead or captured. He didn't like to hear the words said of course but he knew that it was mostly the truth and he knew that Celina had said what she had because of how hard everything had hit her.

She was devastated, completely devastated as was he and in the chaos, he had actually forgotten all about her claim that she didn't want to leave Bill. That was the last thing on his mind, the loyalty of the woman he loved. Right now, all he could think of was what had just befallen the gang, they had been ripped apart, almost completely.

Arthur was the one to speak next, it not going unnoticed by him how badly Celina's words had hurt Dutch, he could tell by the look on his long-term friends face that the words had cut him like a knife, "You know," He was looking art Celina as he spoke but she wouldn't turn around to face him. He took a deep breath and continued anyway, looking at Sadie and Lenny as well, "This, this mess... it ain't all Dutch's fault. We all could see what was happening, that we were reverting to our old ways. We all knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before the law noticed that we were still alive and breathing. This is just as much the fault of everyone who continued going on the bigger heists as it was Dutch's. you can't exactly say that Hosea was the one leading the gang all along, Dutch was too. Hosea's death... Hosea's death was hard... it was terrible and all of us dealt with it differently. We can't say that Dutch's ability to lead was always like this, I'm sure that he is just struggling without Hosea at his side."

Arthur turned his attention to Dutch, "Look..." He raised his hand as he tried to think of exactly what it was he wanted to say, "We are all upset, and we're worried about the rest of the gang and whether we will be able to reunite with them or not... if anyone- or everyone is dead or not... Celina, she's upset... She's hurting. You got to remember, Dutch, this was her family just as much as it was ours and she is entitled to deal with it however she needs to whether we like it or understand it or not. And she... she was close to Bill... if she thinks that he's dead, it's going to hurt, Dutch. Ok? You just need to be patient with her. We all need..." Arthur looked over at Sadie for support and she reached out to him, gently resting her hand on his arm, "We all need tome time to think about what has happened and what's coming next."
...

A/N: Thank you guys for taking the time to read and I appreciate all of you! I just wanted to say that it's been such a pleasure writing for you and I'm so pleased to say that this book still has quite a long way to go before it will be completed. That said, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I know it's a lot and it was probably unexpected to all of you how it went but it had been my plan ever since I brought Aiden into the picture to split the gang up this way.

Celina does think that Bill could very well possibly be dead and we're going to see how she deals with that and thinking the rest of the gang may be dead as well. Any ideas for what may happen?

Hang in there with me as we're officially getting into the events of RDR1! Any thoughts or questions, send them my way either through comments or PM and I'll be more than happy to reply within a timely manner.

Let me know what you think guys, if you get the chance to do so. I know this chapter was a lot to read and it was most certainly a lot to write. I hate that Celina acted so cold towards Dutch at the end of this chapter, but do keep in mind everything that has just happened and the fact that she had been trying to prevent this from happening all along.

Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 or anything associated with it.