Celina remained on John's couch but laying down now wither arms folded behind her head on the armrest and her feet tucked up to leave John with his personal space. She stared at the ceiling, "So you and Charles really built this place yourself?"
John nodded back at her, "Yep, he and I built the whole thing and Uncle likes to say that he supervised it all which... you know how that went... knowing Uncle."
Celina laughed and nodded again herself, with a knowing smile plastered on her face, "I definitely know how that went, no questions asked there." She glanced over in the direction of the door, her brow furrowing with slight concern as she could see the sky outside had darkened completely, "The three of them should have been back by now, shouldn't have they?"
John looked over to the door himself then, concern etching itself upon his own face and he stood up, walking to said door, looking out it in a nervous manner, "Well, yeah... what time is it? They should have been back a little bit ago. I had no idea it had gotten so dark out."
Celina pulled out her pocket watch, really it was Dutch's, the old one that she had managed to drag with her from 2018 and studied the hands on it, "It's seven thirty right now."
"No," John sounded devastated, "They should have been back, they really... they should have been back by now." He looked over at her with a fearful look that about broke her heart, "You don't think that they were already found, do you? I mean, you really don't know when all of this took place the first time around?"
Celina sat up and walked over to the door as well, standing beside her friend as they peered out into the darkness for any sign of his family. She took a deep, heavy breath, "No, I don't know, John... I- I'm sorry. I got down her a soon as I could to try to warn you. If RDR1 ever included the dates that things were taking place, I must not have paid attention enough to remember it. I'm pretty sure all the time specifications it gave us were only the year. It... It could be happening now, I suppose..."
They both jumped when a figure staggered up onto the porch and called John's name in a breathy manner but calmed down immediately after realizing that person standing out there was Uncle. John swung the door open, his eyes still wide in fear, "Uncle, Uncle, what happened out there? Where is Abbigail and Jack?"
Uncle looked devastated and he looked over at Celina, surprise written over his face at the sight of her, "You're alive dear."
Celina nodded, "Good to see you, Uncle."
He did not desire to waste time with greeting, turning his attention back to John as well, "Abbigail and Jack... we were in Blackwater, as usual you know..." He took a dee breath and staggered further into the house, collapsing into the nearest chair to catch his breath, "We were in Blackwater just minding our business and the whole time we had a feeling that we were being watched. We were careful we were- trying to stay aware of our surroundings." He raised his hand towards the ceiling in defeat, "We thought we were just paranoid-"
"Ok, ok," John interrupted him, having enough of his retelling of the events that had transpired, "Cut to the chase, what happened to my wife and son?"
Uncle swallowed and just looked at him for a moment as if he would be able to read his mind through some type of intense eye contact, "John..." He started as if what had happened was the hardest thing in the word to tell him, "I am so sorry, but Abbigail and Jack were taken."
Celina had not wasted much time before riding out after that. Her initial plan was to stay at John's place overnight, but she couldn't risk being caught up in everything when the law came to inform John as to what he had to do. As much as she hated the idea of leaving her fried in the distraught state he was in, she had to leave because she couldn't chance letting anything keep her from reaching Dutch, Bill and Javier. Fear gripped her heart at the fact that she wasn't quite sure how she was going to help John, not with his family already having been taken. She wouldn't let him know where she was going, only that she had to warn the rest of them and that they would all try to figure something out. They had to because if they didn't... she was going to have to pick sides and Celina Knoll most certainly wouldn't ever side with the law.
She pushed Bullet onwards through the night, she wasn't tired, not yet. She had way too much going on to possibly think of sleep at the moment. She needed to get to Dutch and then the others fast. It was going to be hard, if they couldn't figure a way to keep John from being forced to work as a law man because that would mean that she would be forced to turn against him. The whole gang would be forced to turn against him, and Celina wasn't one to let her side lose. There had to be a way to keep John from becoming the enemy. She began to feel sick, if she would have just ridden out the night before, if she hadn't slept on the news that Bill was alive then she could have gotten down to John's place in time to save him- save all of them from the awful mess that they were now faced with. Sure, the law may have been able to find him eventually... maybe- but that wasn't the point. The point was now that things were going to be a lot more difficult. Things just never could be easy, could they?
It seemed not. At the sound of the howling of wolves, her heartrate quickened, and she could sense Bullet starting to spook, "Woah, woah, boy. It's alright. We're going to get though here and be on our way, but I need you to stay calm, alright?" She spurred him forwards and the horse picked up his speed, racing ahead as quickly as he could, just as eager as she to get away from their current surroundings. He reared at that point though, nearly knocking her to the ground and making her instinctively grip onto her saddle horn with one hand and his mane with the other. Something was wrong, something was very wrong, "Woah boy, you don't want to throw me, do you?"
The howling of the wolves picked up again and up ahead she could see the glow of several sets of amber eyes. The woman took a deep breath and drew her revolvers, "This would be a really good time for dead eye to be an actual thing." She braced herself and fired at the closest wolf as it lunged at her, shooting it right between the eyes and ten turning as another one lunged from the other side and shot it in the chest. The thing was, she really liked wolves, thought they were beautiful creatures- but when they tried to kill you first... She rode Bullet away somewhat, hoping to escape the pack that seemed to claim that area as their home, but the horse once again stopped running. He was too scared, like a deep froze in headlights, terrified. She took a dep breath, "Not the way I thought this night would go, horse."
There were more wolves to circle in on them and Celina started firing at the creatures, letting out a cry of pain when one managed to get the upper hand on er and bite into her leg. She shot it In the face, "Good lord, son of a-" She shot another one and then another one, her leg throbbing something terrible. "Holy cow," She wiped at the sweat on ger forehead once it seemed that all wolves stupid enough to attack her had been killed and climbed down from Bullet, crying out in pain and nearly falling over when she attempted to put weight on her right leg.
"What am I going to do?" She looked to her horse who obviously couldn't give her an answer, "Bullet, what am I going to do?" Relying on the survival tactics she had learned from movies when movies were truly a thing, she stumbled we way over to a group of the wolves which she had killed and crouched down next to them, taking out her knife and skinning the first one. If she could keep making progress at the rate she had been, then she should arrive at Tall Trees before the sun rose so for now, she just needed to get herself to hang tight until she arrived there. After skinning the wolf, she took out a small bottle of alcohol and pored some onto her injury, again crying out in pain. Of course, she couldn't see the damage that had been done but she sure could feel it and it felt bad, really bad."
She took her belt off, bot the gun belt but the regular belt she wore and folded a section she had cut of the wolf's pelt over her wound begore wrapping the belt around it to secure it in place and keep pressure on the area. She took a deep, shaky breath and eyed the other dead wolves in the darkness, she was already there, she figured, surely, she would be greeted more warmly into the Tall Trees settlement if she arrived bearing gifts. The natives would appreciate some nice new pelts, she was sure and hoped that it would possibly make them more willing to give her the medical attention she needed. So quickly, she skinned five other wolves and stashed their skins on Bullet before painfully pulling herself back into her saddle.
She patted the horse's neck once she found a position that kept the pain in her leg to the minimum it could be, "Ok boy... lets get out of here."
...
She had ridden on for hours after that, getting more and more light headed as she rode, desperately hoping that she could hang on just a little longer despite the amount of blood she was probably losing. She looked down at her leg to see that her pants were stained red, her blood seeping out from under the wolf pelt. Celina bit down on her lip to try to distract herself from the pain her leg was causing her, she was almost there. She could see the teepees up ahead in a clearing amongst the trees she rode through.
The sun wasn't quite up yet, she having arrived to the camp quicker than she predicted. Her vision swam with dark spots which were getting bigger and bigger by the second. She had to yell, she didn't have a choice as she was just barely managing to keep herself upright on Bullet, "Dutch! D- Dutch..." She rode a bit further until she was just outside the camp and face to face with the man who had been tasked with keeping watch of the place through the nigh. She just barely registered him saying something to her but with her current state, she was not all that coherent, "Please, get D-Dutch."
Dutch stirred from his sleep at the sound of someone running into his tent and calling his name in an urgent manner, "Dutch, there's a girl here and she's wanting to see you. She's hurt."
He opened his eyes slowly and stared at the young Native American boy as he processed what was being said to him, "There's a girl here? Well help her I guess. What's her name?" He tried in his tired state to think of all of the girls his visitor- apparently injured visitor could possibly be. Was it a trap? He figured that there had to be a good amount of young women out there who were less than fond of him at the point things were at. Was it that one girl who had fancied him a few months back? He knew that he had blown that when he had called her Celina.. she was much too young for him anyway. Was it one of the women that he had sook comfort with another time? What girl in their right mind would possibly be out there foolish enough to get herself hurt and then try to come and track him down? He groaned, "How old is this girl?"
"Well," The boy shifted from one foot to the other, "Not a girl exactly, but a woman, in her thirties maybe.. dark hair... blue eyes, she's just barely conscious..
Dutch sat straight up at that knowing very well who was there, instantly being wide awake. Celina was there but why was Celina there? Gad something happened with one of the boys while he was away? And she was hurt, was she ok? He stood to his feet, his heart racing, "Take me to her," He immediately shooed the by out of his tent wanting to waste no time in getting over to Celina. She had traveled all that way to come and see him, but why? Couldn't she have just written him a letter for one of his boys to pick up?
Celina thanked the kind Native woman who handed her a canteen of water and drank from it carefully. It seemed that having the wolf pelts in tow and asking for Dutch by name really came in handy in getting the Natives to quickly rush to her aid. They were good people she hadn't yet come across a bad one. It was a shame how they were all treated by the government, it was a real shame. She just hoped that Dutch was over there truly attempting to help them out of their difficult situation, "D-dutch," She spoke to the older woman, "He's here, isn't he?"
She nodded at her with a warm, sincere smile, "Yes dear he's here and Standing Bear has gone to get him. You're Celina you say?"
Celina nodded, feeling a bit better and a bit more coherent due to the fact that her wound had been dressed and she had been able to law down and take pressure off of her leg. The water that she was given felt good to drink and the medicine she figured should be kicking in soon, "Yes," She still did feel a little light headed, "I'm Celina."
The lady cast her a knowing smile of sorts, "Oh Dutch will be glad to see you here... other than the fact you've been injured of course."
Celina managed to smile back at her, "Oh I don't know about that."
"He will though, dear, he will. He talks about you all the time."
Celina felt a tug at her heart and she looked over to see Dutch walking towards them upon hearing the demanding boom of his voice asking where she was. The old lady spoke up for her knowing that she didn't have much strength to do so herself, "She's over here, Dutch, we've just dressed her wounds. It was a wolf attack but she should be fine. Lost a good amount of blood."
Dutch rushed over to her, stopping in his tracks when he saw her laying there by the light of the lantern, her blue eyes dragging him in just as they had the day that he had met her, "Miss Knoll, how I wish you had come here on better circumstances." She could tell that he was nervous, after having known the man for eleven years, she could read him like the back of her hand more often than not.
Celina stared up at him, feeling rather nervous herself, "I had to come and see you." She felt stupid for saying that out loud, as that was obviously the case since she had trekked so far to reach him.
He seemed to think that was funny as she could see him smile slightly by the light of the lantern, "Horses Run, could you please give Celina and I a moment to speak?"
The old lady nodded with a mischievous smile plastered across her face as she stood to her feet and walked past Dutch, placing a wrinkled hand on his shoulder lightly and giving it a gentle squeeze, "Take as much time as you need. She should be fine now and heaven knows you have a lot of talking to do..." She shook her head and removed her hand from his shoulder as she continued on by, "The woman really came all the way from Saint Denis to see you."
Dutch smiled back at her, "I am well aware." He approached Celina slowly and sat down in the chair which Horses Run had previously been seated, "What were you doing coming to see me in the middle of the night like this?" Concern was evident of his face and he slowly dared to reach out to her, taking her hand in his, "You could have been killed. You were nearly killed. Are the boys ok?" His eyes searched hers for an answer, "You could have sent me a letter or something."
She nodded weakly, "The boys are ok, they're with Arthur and Sadie." She took another drink from the canteen, propping herself up on her elbow and looking at him, not exactly knowing where to start with what she wanted to say. Finally, she just blurted the first thing out, "You're in trouble, Dutch. You are in a lot of trouble.. things are beginning to right themselves as to how they were the first time 1911 came and went..." She then with all the strength she could muster, told him what she had told John and Lenny, Dutch sitting there and listening to her silently, not daring to interrupt her as she told him what the future could very well hold. She stopped to take a drink a few times, coughing here and there but never pausing in what she was saying for more than a moment. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze back, "You need to get out of here, Dutch. They already got John and they're going to force him to work for them. We got to do something. You need to leave, go north, as far into Canada as you can and get yourself good and lost."
Dutch just stared at her for a moment, "You came all this way to save me, after all of this time?"
"Well," Celina nodded, "Yes." She held eye contact with him for a moment, "You will always be the father to my boys, Dutch.. no matter what. And... regardless..." She looked at their hands which were still holding onto one another's, "I could never sit by knowing that you were being hunted down, kids or not. I can't live with myself if I didn't try to get you out of this mess. I don't want you to die, Dutch... not now... not ever."
They held silent eye contact for a moment more and Dutch took a dep breath, looking at their hands himself, "As glad as I am the gang is alright, you need to make sure that leg recovers before you take off down to Fort Mercer. Do you think Bill is as bad as he would have ended up had you not ever come into the picture?"
She shook her head and lied to him, she couldn't tell him the truth about how dangerous it was going to be going down there or he would never let her go, "No, I don't see how he could be." She thanked the lucky stars that he hadn't seemed to have caught wind of what Bill had been up to or even that he was alive prior to her telling him.
Dutch nodded, "Your leg needs to get better before you go running off anywhere else. Ok? I really don't like the idea of you going out there but if anyone can help them... I suppose it would be you. And if I am really being hunted how you say I am, I won't stand a chance if I try to come along with you. Hell, it would make it worse... You know, I could send a few of my men so that you have backup if you need it. More power and protection."
Celina shook her head, "No, no... Ok? I will do this myself... if I am running around with a group of Native Americans I am going to without doubt attract attention to myself. I'll wait here until my leg heals a little." She shrugged, "I wanted to be gone as quickly as I got here and on my way but that clearly isn't going to happen." She looked down at her leg. The medicine the natives had given her was starting to kick in and her wound was stating to hurt a little less.
Dutch followed her gaze, "I was fixing on coming back to Saint Denis and seeing you guys again soon. We're bust here though and I can't always drop everything to make that trip."
Celina swallowed, she had definitely convinced herself over the last few years that her feelings for Dutch had disappeared because right then, right in that moment, she could feel all of them rising to the surface as strong as ever. She couldn't help herself, maybe it was the medicine that she had been given that gave her the courage to say it or maybe it was the fact that she still wasn't convinced that she would live through her current task to make it back to him again once she left his camp. She licked her lips slowly and said something that she wished she would have said to him years sooner, "I am so sorry, Dutch, for cutting you out the way I did. I'm sorry for refusing to acknowledge any feelings I had for you.. for keeping us from being together for those years after our homestead life went to hell."
Dutch pulled his hand away from hers at that, staring at her as if that was the last thing he ever expected to come from her mouth and he suddenly sounded nervous, "What are you trying to say?"
Celina took a deep breath and coughed gently, the cool air getting to her, "I'm saying that I messed up, Dutch... " She looked away from him, feeling stupid for even saying what she was. What did she expect, to pour out her heart to him and just hope that he could forgive her as she had forgiven him? After four years of not being together in a romantic sense, who did she think she was to suddenly show up at his camp, telling him how she felt? Still, she didn't feel stupid enough about the situation to keep her feelings bottled up inside. She could be dead in a week, trying to save the gang and she needed to get how she felt off her chest, "I was wrong to push you away after all of that happened and to blame everything solely on you... to blame the loss of our family on you, out home... our lifestyle. That bitterness that I felt towards you because of all that blame, that kept me from realizing... for four years... but once I found out that Bill was still alive and that the rest of the gang might be alive... I realized that... Once I found out the odds were good of everyone having a good chance of getting out of the homestead after all, I knew that..." She was afraid to finish her sentence but Dutch wasn't about to let her just stop talking like that.
He raised a brow at her expectantly, "You realized what?" He asked, "You knew what?"
She took another deep breath, "Realizing that our family had likely made it out alive suddenly took away any bitterness that I felt towards you. I stopped blaming you for their deaths, Dutch because I realized that I couldn't blame you, since they could be alive after all. Some of them... maybe we'll never know but still, I can't blame you for the deaths of anyone who didn't make it out alive.. that wouldn't make sense or be fair considering how many of us did make it out alive. I just... coming to that realization I couldn't be mad at you anymore... I couldn't feel bitter towards you or even upset with you. Heck... the absence of that bitterness made me realize how much I still want you in my life... how much... how much I still love you."
Dutch's mouth gaped open and then he closed it and then he stood up from his chair and stared down at her, trying to say something again but shaking his head instead, closing his mouth once more. Celina closed her eyes tightly for a moment, "I'm sorry, I- I shouldn't have said anything." She laughed without humor, "Coming here like I did to tell you to leave was necessary, but throwing that on you too." She shook her own head and opened her eyes, "I never should have said that. I don't expect you to feel the same way. I- I'm sorry."
He still stood there silently for a moment, looking as shocked as ever, completely at a loss as to what to say for a moment, "Four years..." His words came out quietly, barely above a whisper. The second time he said it, they could be heard more clearly, "Four years." He made a sound of pain and took a step back from her staring at her as if she were a stranger, "I..." his mind flashed back to what his life had been like for those last four years without her to hold in his arms at night and to his own surprise, he felt tears building in his eyes, "I was going to ask you to marry me." He thought back to how he had dealt with her absence as the woman in his life for those years, the one night stands that he had how desperately he had tried to find someone to replace her in his life only to fail at every turn, "I was going to ask you to marry me."
It was Celina who then felt the tears building up in her eyes, "We can get married, Dutch.. it isn't too late." She felt as if her heart were being pulled apart as she tried to convince him that it wasn't too late for them to have their life together, "We can both make it out of this mess." She sniffled, "I..." She wanted to tell him in hopes that it would go to show him how much he meant to her, "I haven't slept with anyone since we ended things." She stared at him hopefully, "I never again wanted to be like that with anyone else Dutch... even before I realized that I was still in love with you." She stared up at him with wide, pained eyes, "That has to say something, right?"
Dutch continued to stare at her with an unreadable expression before he waved her off and hung his head before leaving the tent. She could just barely hear him mutter under his breath as he walked away, "I- I can't."
********
A/N: Celina is officially trying to get back with Dutch you guys, she really wants the two of them to be back on track before she sets off to save the others. She really is scared that she may not make it back alive but we'll see what happens. I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and this one will count as tomorrows chapter. Hope you don't mind me posing it early but I just couldn't bring myself to wait to do so.
Anyways, what are your thoughts on the current state of the relationship between Celina and Dutch and what do you think will happen between the two of them? Will they be able to make things right again and finally have a future together or what do you think will happen? Any thoughts on what will happen once she leaves Tall Trees either? Looking forward to the comments you guys, keep them coming and I will most certainly keep writing!
Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 or anything associated with it.